Salem MA, Thanksgiving trip 2006 (Part 2)

So here we are, part 2 of the Salem Thanksgiving trip 2006. Without further ado, I'm going to jump right in to the rest of the story. Here, to the left of the paragraph is me, being silly after we got back to the Inn on Thanksgiving night. I pulled my hair in to two pony tails, threw my jammies on, and we all watched the tube. In this room, we had 2 twin sized beds, and a roll-away which was way better than the roll away on the 4th floor. We had eben undecided if we were going to go down to Boston on Friday, or stay and see sites in Salem. Since mom had never been to Salem before she asked if we could do the sites there.

Friday morning, we had another delicious breakfast in the dining area, and the lady who works it filled us up with mini muffins and packets of hot chocolate to snack on. From there, we went to an antique store and mom did some shopping, and then decided to go to The House of Seven Gabels museum, which the grounds also hold the birth house of Nathanial Hawthorne. Mom had really wanted to do it, and I was all for it, because Ida and I hadn't done the tour last time we were there. The red house below is the birth home of Nathanial Hawthorne. Our tour guide was very knoweldgeable, and kept infomring us that the curator now has done so much for the estate and grounds within 5 years than was done in the past 50 years.

We were not allowed to take photos in either of the house due to the security system. But in all honesty, I was cool with not taking photos inside. At one point, they make you climb up this hidden staircase, and the tour guide made mom go first. She almost freaked, because it was so narrow...and she is clustophobic. But I am proud of her, because hse made it up, however she did accidentally closed the door on the rest of us, and I thought we were all trapped. Going down they allowed us to use a different staircase which was much bigger. We were all a bit famished after the tour was over, so Ida mom and I went and had a late lunch, early dinner at The Witches Brew Cafe.

After lunch, the three of us headed to one of the coolest museum's, the Pirate Museum. Ida and I wondered if we'd get the same tour guide, but we didn't. This guide was way hotter looking. Also, instead of it being just Ida and I on the tour...we had a nice sized group. Mom had a lot of fun...and after there we did a bit of ghost hunting by foot, followed by coffee and dessert at The (evil) Hawthorne Hotel. Although I do have to give credit when credit is do...and the Hawthorne is a beautiful building, and the dessert was awesome. Ida had strawberry parfiet, mom had lemon torte, and I had bread pudding.

Saturday it was time for us to start heading home, and I could tell that none of us, not even Pooka & Cro`i really wanted to leave. We had met so many nice people who were on vacation, or who live up in the Salem area. Pooka was easy to get back in to the carrier, but it took us about 15 minutes to finally catch Cro`i (practically tackle her) and get her in the case to. After a saddened good-bye to the staff, and a promise that I'd be back in June for my birthday, we decided to hit Pickering Warf for some light shopping. I did a bit of Christmas gift purchasing, and got myself a sweatshirt, pin and coffee mug. I hope you enjoy our tale, and the photos!