Note:  If you already read the Boston walk-a-thon post (10-12-11), I am happy to announce that my camera is now dried out and I successfully downloaded the few pics I had from the crappy camera – so I added those to the post – take a peek (though they are not great).

Dad was right, as usual, by the time we got on the road to Salem the rain was subsiding and when we arrived it was a mere mist.  We never had to use the umbrellas that I had packed.  So, all in all, the weather was still cooperating and the gloominess actually added to the ambiance of Salem with its graveyards and dark history.  Though a little more commercial than we expected, it still was a very informative and enjoyable day.  We walked the full circuit of sights – stopping to view the movie at the Visitor’s Center and spending extra time in the old burial grounds, the memorial to the Witch Trial Victims and the House of the Seven Gables.  We discovered that the first person hanged for alleged witchcraft in the region was Bridgett Bishop – which intriqued us because that is my paternal family’s name.  We have no idea if she is a distant ancestor of our lineage, but it made for interesting conversation nonetheless.

In homage to Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of House of the Seven Gables, and many more classic novels,we offer as our words of the day an excerpted, truncated line from his famous story which he intended to be the moral of his tale:  “the wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive ones, and . . . becomes a pure and uncontrollable mischief.”  Good observation, good solid advice.

Since we won’t be home in time for Halloween, we stopped in the oldest candy manfacturing/sales site in the United States and bought some sweets for our sweets back home and had it shipped in time for spooky-time – then it was back to camp we go…With the Fall colors muted by the rain and gloom, my eyes turned to another sight on the drive back – many flocks of birds perched on tree branches and telephone lines in large numbers that must be getting ready for their trip southward (maybe we will see them later, as we move south as well…).  Tomorrow will be our last day in this area and we hope the weather will cooperate once more as we head out to Cape Cod and Plymouth Rock.