After a truly delicious breakfast at our B&B (savory herb/gorgonzola/cranberry scones, ham/cheese/broccoli mini-quiches, apple-rhubarb crisp, fresh fruit, coffee & OJ), we walked in to Essex Street, much of which is a pedestrian-only area full of interesting shops and restaurants.
My niece was mainly in charge of choosing where we went, so we visited these shops, among others:
Crow Haven Corner, where the willowy sales clerk reminded me a bit of Madame Trelawney, not so much in appearance, but in demeanor.
A gift/souvenir shop that had a squirrel in a cage.
The Goddess' Treasure Chest, which had lots of pretty cards and gifts.
Bewitched in Salem, which had a pretty extensive collection of oddities.
And the main shop my niece wanted to visit: Hex, which seemed to me more authentically witch-y. They had some really astounding hand made witch hats and robes, and a vast collection of herbs and artifacts. The witch who greeted us gave us each some stones for Love, and explained the altar they have their where people can add names of loved ones who've passed, to be remembered. She was also telling us about a news item that day about a zoo in Boston which may have to close and kill the resident animals – she seemed to be planning some "justice" spells on the city government folks…
Then we walked back to our room to relax for the rest of the afternoon, and make arrangements for the evening. We were stilll so full from breakfast, that we decided to skip lunch in favor of an early dinner.
Around 4:30 we walked down to the wharf area, and looked around there a little before our 5:30 dinner reservation.(The fife & drum photo was actually a random shot from earlier.)
Our B&B hostess had recommended Sixty2 on Wharf for dinner, and she was right… it was excellent! Great style, delicious food, attentive and friendly service.
My scallops were perfectly done, and the farro with roasted cauliflower and red pepper sort of sauce thing were oh-so-good. I tried an Italian Trebbiano with my meal, which I don't think I've had before – very light and tasty. By the way, Sixty2's idea of wine by the glass is what they call a quartino, which is 1/3 a bottle in a mini-carafe. My dessert was a grilled carmelized bruschetta made with plums, topped with ice cream, and of course accompanied by espresso. I tried "I"'s entree and dessert – also fantastic! Highly recommend this restaurant. And one of our desserts was free by mentioning the name of our B&B, so that was cool, too.
After dinner, we meandered back toward Museum Mall Place on Essex Street to sign up for the Ghosts & Gore tour my niece had chosen.
We bought our "tickets" from the Life & Death Tours funeral cart in the street, and then went into their shop of macabre items to "kill" time till our tour. This tour company is a little different from many of the others in Salem, in that they concentrate more on various gruesome murders and accidents, than on the witch trials or historic houses. The owners/tour guides, Rhys and Nicole, were lots of fun and really nice people. They're just getting started in their business this year, but they have done a lot of research on their subject matter – they referred a lot to newspaper accounts they'd read, mostly from the 1800's. The walking tour lasted about an hour and a half, through dusk into darkness.
The whole day was beautiful weather-wise, and we really enjoyed ourselves.
