Friday 17th, Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th July

Sunday 19th July
On Sunday we all went out for the day to Salem. We set out around 10am after a lovely pancake and syrup breakfast - Mike makes good pancakes as well as pizza! The intention was to give Emma some beach time before we did the boring (for her) sightseeing bit so we headed to Plum Island north of Salem and on the Atlantic coast. But it seemed that all of Massachusetts had the same thought and when we saw the queue of traffic we abandoned that idea, much to Emma’s disappointment, and headed for Salem.

Salem was not at all what I expected - I guess I had the Hollywood version of the town in my head - all rustic houses and farms, green fields, and lots of fresh faced girls and dour old men in costume, but it is just another average, but quite nice American town with lovely architecture - quite big and with a scenic coast and harbour.
There were few ‘historic’ houses around but we didn’t go into any. Again sightseeing overload set in and it was very hot. So we paid a visit to the Salem Witch Museum where we were given a dramatic history lesson using stage sets with life-size figures, lighting and a narration - an overview of the Witch Trials of 1692. It was well done.

This picture was taken at the memorial to those people falsely accused of witchcraft and hanged.

On the way home we made a slight detour to follow the Battle Road which is the site of the beginning of the American War of Independence. We visited the Old North Bridge where colonials first fired on British soldiers - ‘the shot heard round the world’

Finally, this is my last blog before departing America for home, and here is a picture of ‘Gogga Blogga’

- a familiar pose over the last 3 months!
I will do a final blog when I get home then, although Terry has done a few of these blogs, she will be taking over for our UK part of the trip on a different site:
http://terry-terrystravels.blogspot.com/

starting after we get back to England on 21st July.

Saturday 18th July
On Saturday, apart from going into Maynard for an iced coffee and a visit to the Farmer‘s Market where Mike was helping on a stall run by a group he belongs to - ‘Maynard Climate Action Network‘ - we spent most of the afternoon preparing for a party that Mike and Nan was giving for us - celebrating 101 days around the world! Mike had spent hours making the most fantastic invitation:

This photo does it no justice at all, and he has kindly printed off a large version of it for us as a souvenir.

It was a good evening but unfortunately a lot of people were out of town for the weekend and could not attend. There were about 16 adults and 6 children in the end and it was good fun. Mike had all of my photo’s running as a slide show on his computer and many people found them interesting to look at. It was a good, fun, evening and enjoyed by all. Mike won a cake in a raffle at the Farmer’s Market during the morning and that took pride of place on the buffet table.
Friday 17th July
We have did very little today. Terry and I had much needed haircuts and in the evening we went to watch Emma in ‘Romeo and Juliet’. She has been attending theatre school for the past two weeks and in that time they rehearsed and perfected a 45 minute version of Shakespeare‘s play. The script had been amended and abridged incorporating modern ‘Americanisms’ with some of the original script. The ages ranged from 15-16 down to about 5, and they all did very well and it was very funny in parts.

We had a lovely ‘take-out’ curry when we got home.