Where Are We Sleeping Tonight: Best Western, Portland, Maine Dunkin' Donuts were our first stop today to use the unexpected voucher that Nichole gave us yesterday. Fighting the initial urge, we did not have donuts for breakfast - instead we tried their egg and cheese bagels. Clare said she their coffee was the best she has had so far in the country - high praise indeed! We drove into downtown Salem and found a parking spot with over 90 minutes already paid for on the parking meter - mega score! Topping it up with a couple of extra quarters for safety, we ventured into the city to explore. We visited several witch inspired tourist hops (and bought which paraphenalia of course), a wonderful army surplus store where Clare had some dog tags made up for a friend's little girl, and then a great comic shop. I mean WOW! This is what I expected Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash to be like. After spending too much time drooling over everything, we bought a couple of things but I so could have spent 10 times the amount if I could get it home easily.
Walking around the town we stumbled across the book store with a difference. While I am sure that they had every single book ever written, the challenge is finding it! Not only are the books stacked in no order (and I literally mean stacked), the isles are very small - at one stage the only way I could get out was to walk backwards as there wasn't enough room to turn around! How they broke the laws of gravity in that store I will never figure out - no body sneeze!
Time to fully get into the Salem Witch Trial, we headed over to the judge's house - the only witch trial building still standing. Located next to Salem's oldest church, it was something to see. Next up we visited the Dungeon Tour which, while being educational, was sadly a bit lame. Basically they had turned the cellar into a mannequin display of not very good standing. There was however a dramatic recreation of the trial first which was semi interesting - we were told of a man who refused to comment on the charges placed against him so he was placed in a ditch with a board laid on top of him. They then placed rocks on the board and would inly stop if he defended himself. He apparently refused to say anything other than "give me more weight"
On the road once more, we drove through New Hampshire on our way to Maine. Clare spotted a sign for the town of Ogunquit - having featured in a novel by Steven King, we had to visit the town. It is a cute little town with a couple of poorly designed intersections which sadly results in bumper to bumpier gridlock. We pulled off for a stop at an antique store which nicely broke up the hour of being stuck in crawling cars.
Arriving in Portland, we found a free carkpark and walked to the Portland Lobster Company where we feasted on crab cakes, clam chowder, succulent sweet corn, baked potatoes and of course, lobsters - yum yum yum! It was definitely well worth the anticipation :)
After visiting some tourist shops filled with lobster paraphernalia, Clare hugged a bear, we saw interesting street art, I ignored a sign, and we enjoyed some Hershey Icecream - what a great way to finish a wonderful day!
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