On the road by 9 AM as we had a lot to see today. Our first stop was in Salem ( population 42,800), the location of the famous witch trials of 1692. I had heard about them but knew little of what transpired that fateful year.

Salem turned out to be a much bigger attraction that I imagined and we only experienced a very small part. We watched a 40 minute movie at the US Park Service Center that relayed the events tha occurred that year. In all 14 women and 5 men were hanged and a man was crushed by rocks. Five others died in prison. As it turned out they were all innocent and  later exonerated.  The whole unfortunate event was an example of mass hysteria causing the problem. A more modern day example might be the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s or the Japanese interment during WWII.

We also toured the Salem Witches Museum which does a pretty good inactment of the events using dioramas and recorded dialogue.  There was also a display on witches through history and how the Wizard of Oz story totally changed how witches are viewed.

Although there are other items related to the era available to be seen in Salem we chose to move on as it was near lunch time and we still had a ways to go.

We chose to have lunch in Manchester By the Sea ( population 5136), hoping to see some of the locations used in the filming of the movie of the same name. Unfortunately we learned that most of the filming occurred in Gloucester, not in Manchester By the Sea. Oh well, we had a nice lunch in town before moving on to our final destination for the day, Rockport (population 6952), Massachusetts.

Stan and Cindy had discovered the lovely Emerson Inn which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean on previous trips. They loved the location, the rocking chairs on the expansive porch and the quaintness of this old hotel. Once we saw it we had to agree.

The Emerson Inn was originally called the Pigeon Cove House and dates back to 1855. Henry Thoreau brought Ralph Waldo Emerson to the Cape Ann area and Emerson fell in love with it, returning often both alone and with his family and staying at the hotel. It was later known as the Hotel Edward until 1964 when new owners renamed it in honor of its most celebrated guest. The room Emerson stayed in is still in high demand by his fans or relatives.

It is three stories high and has no elevators. Luckily the man at the desk is young and strong and brought our many suitcases to our rooms for us while we sat in rocking chairs on the porch drinking some libations to celebrate our arrival.

Dinner tonight was in downtown Rockport at another of Stan and Cindy’s favorites from previous visits: Roy Moore’s Fish Shack where you might guess the featured dish is lobster served in variety of ways and combinations. We had to stop at Stan’s favorite candy store,Tucks (here since 1929) for chocolates and taffy before calling it a night.

Oh, by,the way, although the hotel is old and the floors squeak, it is air conditioned (which is good as the next few days are expected to reach 90 degrees) and the plumbing is new and modern! All is well.