A Daily Double: Bewitching Sites

We have now gone to both Salem and Plymouth, Massachusetts. Plymouth was very nice; we preferred it to Salem. Plymouth has the obligatory old buildings from the 1800's and, while there isn't much left from the Pilgrims, what is available to see was really interesting. We went to a Pilgrim museum where there were quite a few artifacts from the early 1600's, including a crib that belonged to Peregrine White, who was the first baby boy born in 1620 on the Mayflower in the Massachusetts harbor and the first English child born to the Pilgrims in America. Sandy's daughter-in-law, Ines, is a direct descendant of Peregrine White so it was especially significant to us to see that cradle since we already knew about him because of Ines.

We also were able to see a piece of Plymouth Rock (it's not the full rock since pieces have been removed and are displayed in museums) where the Pilgrims allegedly first stepped when they touched land. That claim about stepping on this specific rock wasn't made until over 100 years after the Pilgrims arrived so it's difficult to say that the story is accurate, but the rock has been there for a long time and certainly had its fair share of foot traffic over the centuries. We were also finally able to get a decent shot of the Atlantic Ocean. It's not like the Pacific Ocean where you can just drive down the coast. We have been driving right by it several times, but couldn't see it because of trees or buildings. We would still like to be able to drive the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, but that may have to be in the lower states like New Jersey, the Carolinas, or Florida, where there might be more open beach available.

Plymouth is a really nice area with the ocean breeze coming off the coast. There are street signs and maps on corners to let you know where you are and to see where you can go. We can't say the same about Salem. We were excited to see Salem, but it was a little bit disappointing. Salem was confusing and the historical sites were not easy to find. We ended up stopping someone on the street to help us find our way around. We did find the visitors center and the Commons, which has a lot of shopping, but our experience in Salem was that it was catering more to tourists than to actual history. There are a few historical sites and we did find an old graveyard that dated back to the 1600's, but it didn't have the charm that Plymouth offers. And getting to Salem is a traffic nightmare while getting to Plymouth was fairly easy.

However, our trip to Salem was completely worth it because we stopped to eat at the Scratch Kitchen, a corner cafe that we just stumbled on and decided to give it a try. The waitress, Deborah, a woman in her early 60's (we know that because she told us), is a new friend. Yes, we are well aware of how funny it is that the two of us, who don't like socializing, keep making new friends on our road trips. But, truthfully, one of the best parts of traveling is meeting complete strangers and finding out how much we have in common with them.

We began talking to Deborah because she was telling us that the owner of the cafe recently lost 100 pounds and has really worked to come up with recipes that don't include added sugar; the ingredients in the menu items are as farm-to-table as he can get. We told Deborah that eating healthy is a way of life for us. She stated that her sister lives in North Carolina and suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and is overweight. Sandy mentioned that she also has rheumatoid arthritis and that she manages it through her diet and without medication. We also shared with her our weight loss story which took us into a wonderful conversation with Deborah that made us glad we had gone to Salem for the day. When we left Scratch Kitchen we each gave Deborah a big hug and she said she was so glad that she met us. She was going to call her sister and tell her about us. It was such a great experience.

We have also been able to visit the JFK Presidential Library during our time in Boston and we got another stamp for our presidential passport.🙋 The library sits over Dorchester Bay. It is also incredibly windy. We asked if it's always that windy in Boston and the man who welcomed us into the library said that the bay is always windy. It was so windy that it blew us backwards a few times just walking from the parking lot to the library. We thought we were going to topple over.

We've also included pictures from a Target in the area. We love it because it's two story with the store on the second level and a parking garage underneath it. There is an elevator available to take you and your shopping cart to the garage level OR you can put it on the special cart escalator and watch it ride down. 😁

Here's the best part: PICTURES!!!

The first group of pictures are from Plymouth.