Witch Way to Maine?

Day 3 of our New England trip was when the extended road trip section of the vacation began. We set out north from Boston, stopping for breakfast at a tasty little Brazilian breakfast shop called Bread of Dreams. Then it was on to Salem.

Salem is a recipe made of historical buildings and Renaissance Festival, covered in Hot Topic sauce. There are a few notable locations spread around the town; we started at The Witch House, the last standing structure with direct ties to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. It's where Judge Jonathan Corwin, one of the key forces in the events, lived with his family. Touring the house offers not so much a taste of the Witch Trials specifically, but of what life in the late 17th century was like generally.

The main streets of Salem, though, have been taken over by bespoke black magic shops, all mostly selling their own grab bag of candles, incense, spell books, and dark clothing. This part wasn't exactly our scene (particularly since walking around meant walking in the rain that had stalked us since Boston the day before). But we needed to kill a little time. We had tickets to a performance by a group called Cry Innocent, who several times daily in the fall stages a witch trial reenactment.

A small troupe of four actors played multiple characters in a presentation based on the real trial of Bridget Bishop, staging the pre-trial inquiry into whether an arrested woman would be prosecuted for witchcraft. The audience served as votes whether or not to prosecute, and were invited to ask questions (and take pictures) of the different figures as they presented their evidence. It was an interesting hour of guided-tour-meets-theater, and a nice pairing with our earlier Witch House tour. Our audience voted to acquit by a razor-thin margin of votes, if you're curious. (My husband and I both had voted guilty to play along; we were there to see a witch trial, after all.)

From there, we continued north into the tiny little spur of New Hampshire that divides the Massachusetts coast from the Maine coast. There we stopped at Smuttynose Brewing Company, named for a local island. They had a nice selection of mostly fruited beers that weren't overpoweringly sour. They also had a nice setting overall, including a beer garden adorned with a statue of their mascot (which we might have sat in, were it not for the continuing rain).

Heading further north, we passed into Maine. An emerging theme of the trip emerged, as we noticed just how many old cemeteries we were passing -- and would continue to see everywhere, all throughout New England. I never made a serious effort to count, but would have lost track anyway before we even reached our next stop, Marginal Way. A scenic walk along the Maine coast, we stopped for a bit to take in the view. We'd finally traveled beyond the reach of the rain, which made for a lovely setting.

Finally, we drove onto Portland, where we stopping for the night. We hit up a Maine brewery, Liquid Riot (a cool setting, but rather forgettable beer) before a dinner at Gilbert's Chowder House. You can imagine what we ate there. And their seafood chowder (in a bread bowl) was as tasty as you'd hope from a place that dared to advertise their chowder in their name.

A little footnote on the evening; before going to sleep, I made sure to read a chapter of the book I was reading at the time. It seemed appropriate, while in Maine, to be sure to read a little Stephen King. The fact that I was reading The Long Walk, about being forced to essentially walk yourself to death, may have been a little too close to the mark for all the sightseeing we'd been doing... but I'll circle back to "book review" at some later date.

We'd gotten a little taste of New Hampshire that day, but the next day would be all about that state....