2009-04-18

Boston or Bust - Salem

So after a long flight with a quick, as in 30 minute run to our next gate quick, layover in Washington D.C., we finally made it to Boston. Actually we flew into Manchester and drove about half way down to Boston, Andover to be exact, which is where out hotel is. flying into Manchester and staying outside Boston saved us a whole slew of money. In fact I called out hotel before I booked and asked if they had a managers special and they knocked off another $20 a night. So give that a try if you are going on vacation. I told them the cheapest rate I could get it on priceline (which was the cheapest price on the internet) AND THEN asked if they could beat it and if they had a managers special.

We got in about midnight, discovered that United had ripped off the bottom of my 7 year old's suitcase. Of course they said because it was not "part of" the suitcase they couldn't cover it. Did I also mention that she was giggling up a storm when she told me this because another employer was telling her a funny joke. I would also go into them messing up our bags, but am going to focus on the positive.

Finally got to our hotel about 1 am, checking it, got to bed. We of course all just fell asleep. We are still trying to adjust to our time change of 3 hours so we will be ready for the big race day. The hotel offers a lovely breakfast each morning which includes make your own waffles, eggs and sausgage, hard boiled eggs, danish and doughnuts, oatmeal, cold cereal, hot chocolate and juice. So that saves a lot of time and money. The next day we decided to go down and check out Salem since we knew that wouldn't be a whole day thing.

We went to a place that presents a play depicting the Salem witch trials. They took the information straight from the court transcripts. This is outside the Witch Dungeon Museum.




This is where Mrs. Proctor was accused of being a witch by her servant. I guess over 150 people were accused and 20 were put to death.



After the play they took us down to the "dungeon" (insert erie music here). Sidney was a little freaked out and Courtney became my best friend down there. Here we are entering down into the recreation of what the dungeon looked like. I guess the actual dungeon was a few blocks away but was built over the top of to make way for a phone company about 50 years ago.




This is one of the cells if you were poor. It was just big enough to stand up in and maybe sit down in.


Here is John Proctor who was also accused with his wife. They told him to confess, but he refused. So they put a board on his chest and started adding rocks. They would load another rock and tell him to confess. He would tell them to go ahead and add another rock. It took him 3 days to die this way. Basically he was crushed to death.



A little further on, in another cell, you could peak through the window with bars and there was a figure rocking back and forth. I figured it must be mechanical but the fact Coty stood there watching me expectantly made me suspicious until the figure jumped at the window scaring the crud out of me. Coty thought it was funny but said when the figure did that to him it freaked him out. This was also one of Coty's favorite parts of the exhibits.



We went to another place called the Witch History Museum. It was kind of similar. A fellow told us a little about the Salem witch trials then took us downstairs and showed us through some different scenes that were made up of dummies. Good information but got a little slow as time went on. I guess in October this becomes a crazy town with teenagers and people dressed up and running around town. While we were there, it was interesting but not really a full days worth of excitment. We decided to head back and get to bed early. Plus promised Sid we would go swimming in the hotel pool.

I will post about todays happenings (which includes picking up Coty's bag, number and shirt at the convention center) and running around Boston a little bit. We don't want to tucker the runner out to much.

3 comments:

JaMie said...

What a fun place to visit. Tell Cody good luck! Have tons of fun!

Nicole said...

It looks like you had fun in Salem and made it through the not-so-fun part of traveling there! Good luck to Coty in the race! Is his leg better from the burn?

Dave said...

"UNITED AIRLINES - THEY'RE NOT HAPPY TIL YOU'RE NOT HAPPY." Seriously though, Congratulations to Coty! That is a HUGE accomplishment.