July 3 - We made a northward jaunt to Maine, in part so that Kallie could say that she'd driven in two more states (Maine and New Hampshire). On the way we stopped in Salem, MA, site of the infamous witch trials of 1692. Salem has been a part of Massachusetts maritime industry, but after a so-so Thai lunch in a mall we gravitated to the Salem Witch Museum. There we saw a dramatic presentation based on the witch trial case (voice overs while spotlights illuminated a series of scenes with mannequins), and a second segment about persecution of witches and other scapegoated groups throughout history. The first part was a little corny and familiar since we saw "The Crucible" on Netflix not too long ago. The second part had a good message, but was somewhat undermined by the gift shop's selling of a wide variety of items that reinforce stereotypes about witches. "It pays the bills," was the tour guides explanation of the dichotomy.
From Salem we drove up US 1 through New Hampshire to our destination - Kittery, Maine, the southernmost town in the state. Kittery sits on a cove, so I thought that surely there would be commerce and in particular a restaurant to feed us. Coastal New Hampshire wasn't much to crow about, although it might have looked better from the coastline rather than from a suburban highway. What we saw of Kittery is a small coastal town without much going on to entertain tourists. We drove along the cove for several miles, admiring the nice houses, and despairing whether we would find a restaurant other than Loco Coco's Tacos. Fort McClary looked like a great chance to get a closer look at the coast, so we checked it out, hoping also to find a bathroom, which we did - the rustic kind in any event. From the fort's perspective we saw a collection of cars and buildings down the road a mile or two. With hope restored, we headed that way and found Cap'n Simeon's Galley, an unpretenscious but still nice seafood restaurant. A little burned out from Wednesday's lobster fest, we all ordered fish (Kay's did have a lobster stuffing), which everyone enjoyed. Overlooking the coast, we also had the pleasure of watching a storm blow across the cove and past the restaurant. The storm picked up a canopy in back of the restaurant and tossed it over a fence into a couple of parked cars - no damage done, but fun to watch.
I handled the interstate drive back to Braintree. So far we've managed to avoid the worst of Boston traffic, despite driving through the city a couple of times on the way to and from Maine.
Happy Fourth of July (tomorrow) to all!
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