When Skid Row is in town, you'd better believe your bestie will be here!
I took the train in from my town and met my college roommate Kristin (but I call her Bay - which is short for her maiden name) at the hotel where we were able to check in, drop our bags off and immediately head out for some lunch at Cheers! Contrary to popular belief, everyone did NOT know our names! But we had a nice lunch and photobombed some other folks pictures because we were sitting right beneath the famous sign.
After lunch, we decided to do a little shopping (or lackthereof) on Newbury Street. We met up with some nice cows. We also stopped and had some drinks and munchies at Serafina but I didn't get any pictures of that!
And we went to try on coats at Nordstrom Rack! I still don't think I'll ever be able to replace my favorite coat ever (that someone stole in Stuttgart back in 2018, and I still can't find one I like as much!) I probably tried on 15 coats and nope. Still nothing.
Then Bay toyed with the idea of buying a super expensive watch at Breitling. She didn't buy the watch, but they did give us some champagne!
And then we needed to eat and drink some more of course, so we went out to a place called the 4th Wall (naturally in the theater district). Here we were waving at our friends Stacie and Melissa who were out in California for the Auburn-Cal football game.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel for a cocktail and sat in these hilarious hand seats!
Stop grabbing my toosh!
After spending a day in the Back Bay area, we decided to go down toward the Seaport and North End areas for our Saturday adventures. We went to The Barking Crab for lobster rolls and fish tacos!
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I just liked that Korea was on this sign!
We walked over to Fan Pier Park after lunch for a great view of the city.
And then we decided to head toward the North End, passing by Quincy Market on the way. Quincy Market was built around 1825 because Faneuil Hall (which was next door) was overflowing with vendors into the streets outside. Today, there was some kind of show going on with acrobatics and music, as there often is in this spot.
Our next stop was the infamous Green Dragon Tavern which was the secret meeting place of the Sons of Liberty and in the words of Daniel Webster, it was "the headquarters of the revolution!"
But we didn't stop there! Oh no! Next, we ran across the street to the Bell in Hand Tavern which is the oldest continuously running tavern in America! Well, it stopped operating during Prohibition, of course, but then again, so did most taverns. We enjoyed a cocktail here before going to see some historic North End sights.
Such as the Boston Stone! No one really knows what this is here for. Some say it's a tool for measuring the distance to the geographical center of Boston, but no one really knows for sure. They believe it's modeled after the famous London Stone which weirdly, Bay and I have NOT seen despite having been to London many times together. They also say this was originally a mill stone for grinding paint pigments.
AND, we went to the Paul Revere House! You can't take pictures inside, but this is the first time I had been here since I was pregnant with Grant, so it was pretty cool. He lived here in the late 1700s with his 16 children (by two wives - his first wife Sarah Orne died and he remarried Rachel Walker, of which he had 8 children by each wife). He sold the house in 1800 but his great grandson purchased it back in 1902, thus sealing it's fate as a renovated and preserved historic Boston landmark.
All that history made us hungry - and we had to wait out a big rainstorm (oh darn) at the Florentine Cafe where we had delicious meatballs alongside prosciutto, bread, arugula and mozzarella. SO GOOD! So good, in fact, that we ordered it twice!
After the rain finally let up, we were able to walk back to our hotel from the North End but NOT before stopping at the Boston Cop slide by City Hall! You can see it here:
https://youtu.be/WTpC6QDom08?feature=shared
Perhaps I wasn't wearing the right polycotton blend because I did NOT go flying down this slide AT ALL. In fact, toward the end, I had to scooch. By the way, there are signs at the top that say this is a kids slide and adults should not go down this slide. But I was already up there when I saw the sign (and I'm not climbing down) and let's face it... I'm practically the size of a kid!
After a very unadventurous ride down the Boston Cop Slide, we continued our walk back to the hotel, past King's Chapel which looks just lovely lit up at night.
And past the Granary Burying Ground, where we saw the grave of Samuel Adams from the street. I'm not going into a graveyard at night!!
The Park Street Church also looked so pretty lit up at night!
And that was about it for our tour of Boston, because in the morning, we got up and took an Uber up to Salem. When the guy was driving us into town, we passed Bunghole Liquors. What? Now THAT is hilarious! This is actually just over the border in Peabody. Story about Bunghole Liquors to follow...
We finally arrived in Salem, and as we walked through town, we came across the plaque for the (no longer there) building where most of the 19 people who were hung from the gallows (or pressed to death) were tried for witchcraft in 1692. An additional 21 people were tried here in 1693, but they were all either acquitted or set free because at this point, people realized how ridiculous this all was.
Salem has the "Ladies of Salem" figureheads which are perched on the street lights. Figureheads are ornamental carvings on the front of ships that help others to identify which boat is which (see what I did there?) Here, artists pay homage to Salem's rich maritime history.
Halloween is coming! You do NOT want to be anywhere near Salem around Halloween. The place is crazy packed - I'm sure it's super fun, but those crowds are NOT for me!
Bay and I didn't get enough seafood, so we stopped at the Sea Level Oyster Bar for some seafood and good views of Salem Harbor.
On our way back toward the Salem Witch Trials Memorial after lunch, we passed the original Bunghole Liquors! What? There are two!? Well this location has a really interesting history. Directly from the Bunghole Liquors website: "There’s a colorful history to the original Bunghole Liquor store in bewitching Salem, Massachusetts. You see, the Bunghole used to be a funeral home. And during Prohibition the owner and his buddies, like many others at that time, used a slang word to refer to their secret drinking spot in the basement. The slang term they used was “bunghole,” as in “Psst, meet you tonight at the bunghole.”
Liquor flowed freely in the funeral parlor basement, the same place where the bodies were embalmed. One of the drinking buddies is rumored to have told the owner, “If Prohibition is ever lifted, you should turn this place into a liquor store.” So in 1933, when Prohibition was lifted, the owner did just that. One of the original owner’s relatives (interestingly, a Polish priest who was being ordained) suggested The Bunghole as an official name.
The Bunghole received the second liquor license issued in Salem after Prohibition. And if you crept downstairs and tore down a few walls today, you’d notice the embalming tubes (and no doubt a few empty flasks), left behind from the ancestors of The Bunghole, who occasionally haunt their old, secret hangout.
The second Bunghole Liquor store in Peabody, Massachusetts opened its doors in June, 1995 and has enjoyed steady business ever since. People passing through “The Tanner City” often stop traffic to point at, chuckle at and photograph our store sign. They leave with a few t-shirts and a koozie, and the secret to what bunghole really means. From Prohibition slang to today’s definition: A “bunghole” is simply the hole in a cask or barrel. Now you know!" Which is good because that's not the definition of bunghole as I know it! Ha!
We strolled through the Salem Witch Trials Memorial to find our relative (because you know Bay and I are distant cousins!), Susannah Martin. According to history, she was "forthright and argumentative" (hmmm, well at least we get it honest) and the fact that she didn't care what people thought of her is probably what likely got her killed, in the end. She made a lot of enemies! But she's family, so we love her. HA!
We walked around the Old Burying Point, which is adjacent to the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. It was opened in 1637 so while not the oldest cemetery in America (King's Chapel in Boston holds that title since it opened in 1630), it is among the oldest in the nation. Here, Simon Bradstreet (the last governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony) and John Hathorne (the judge that held the Salem Witch Trials) were both buried.
We were trying to figure out what happened here - they definitely set these gravestones too close to this tree, which probably grew much larger than they had anticipated!
I liked the blue trees by Konstantin Dimopoulos at the Peabody Essex Museum, which were painted to bring attention to the deforestation problem in the world. Don't worry! The paint is environmentally safe. I feel like these trees could double as the Blue Man Group!
Hey, I didn't know this! The National Guard was founded in 1637 in the city of Salem - they used to call it the militia, but now we know it as the National Guard.
Salem is also home to the Revere Bell from 1801. This 920 pound bell was sold to the Reverend Bentley here in Salem for a whopping $46. It was purchased for the East Church here in Salem, but when that was torn down in 1846, the Bell moved to the Bentley Primary School on Essex Street where it sat until 1970, when it was moved here.
Our last stop in Salem was the Salem Witch Museum. In the intersection out in front of the Museum sits a statue of Roger Conant, who was the founder of Salem.
The Salem Witch Museum isn't huge but it gives a good overview of the trials (complete with these diorama type scenes that encircle the visitors in this room). Here we have some "hysterical" girls who are acting out to make sure this woman was sent to the gallows. Definitely worth a stop if you're interested in a quick history of the trials!
Until next time, Salem and Boston!
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