On Friday morning, our friend Amy picked up Arthur and I, while our husbands, the Kevins, went to play golf in Maine and New Hampshire. We drown down to spend the day in Salem, Massachusetts, something that Amy has always wanted to do.  I love learning about history, and so it was perfect, and it turned out to be one of the highlights of our vacation for Arthur.

We started at the historic Customs House, which was super cool. Nathaniel Hawthorne actually worked there (author of the Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables), and it was were all the ships would have to pay their fees on their cargo.  Arthur especially loved the area where they would impound cargo where people couldn’t pay 😉.

There was the original eagle form the customs house inside as well, and it was pretty giant.  Also, if you looked at out at the dock, you see an itty-bitty light house right at the end the wharf. It was also a very windy day, as you can tell by the flags.  There were a few times when we came around a corner and the wind practically blew us away.

We wandered around some more of the historic sights, including the oldest home still standing in Salem.  It was interesting how the National Parks guide showed all the different iterations of it, as people built on to it through the years.  We also walked around the “House of Seven Gables,” but had no desire to pay money to tour it 😉.

Once we finished up that side of town, we down the main streets and checked out pretty much every shop, as they were all so unique and fun.

The bewitched statue was pretty fun – although Arthur had no idea what we were talking about.

After a bit, we decided to take a break for lunch.  Arthur decided to go for a appetizer of soft pretzels and had them change mustard for Nutella.  Amy and I shared the most delicious grilled sandwich.

After lunch we were making our way toward the Salem Witches Museum, and we found a super unique shops. It had a “Seven Realms” experience, and Arthur and Amy loved it so much!  I really didn’t want to pay for another random things, but Amy was so excited for it, she offered to pay us all, so I couldn’t tell Arthur no 😉.  

I enjoyed it, but Arthur and Amy were in heaven. We even did the side quests, which included finding four crabapple spiders, as being able to name off the the wizards they spoke in one of the enchanted rooms.  Because we succeeded, we got our “wizard license” 😊.

Eventually, we made our way to the Salem Witch Museum, which was interesting.

It took us through the history of the Salem witch trials, and it insane.  Man, the girls started everything sure were crazy 😳.  Although, it seemed to come down to them being bored out of their minds, not allowed to do anything, and so they hit upon something that gave them both power and something to do.  (I couldn’t help but think about in our time, it could be like cyber bullying on social media.)

When we finished there, we wandered some more on our way back to the car.

On our way out of town, we totally had to stop by the house from the movie, “Hocus Pocus,” which was very fun.

Once we finished in Salem, Amy drove Arthur and I back to Becky’s house.  Along the way, we stopped at Chick-fil-A for dinner (which found on accident while looking for a gas station), and it turned out it in one only four in the whole state!  Crazy!  All in all, Arthur and I really had the best time with Amy, and I am so glad everything came together 😊.