Day 19.236: Anniversary; witch?

This morning we woke (as expected) to rain. It also rained 32 years ago in Oxford on the day of our wedding. Today's rain didn't stop us having breakfast on the (covered) deck of the hotel overlooking the sea.

After that, we drove to Salem where we visited the excellent Peabody Essex Museum. The museum neither focuses on, nor avoids the issue of the witch trials that made the town (and surrounding area) famous. The specific exhibit is excellent in balancing the interest in the events with the real people who were so terribly treated.

The Salem Witch Trials: I guess if you're willing to convict people for having skin blemishes or because of someone's report of their dreams or visions, you can basically target people who are grumpy, foreign, don't attend church or whatever else you don't like. 

We were surprised to find that nearly a quarter of those accused and convicted were men

Not an exhibit as such - just a staircase.

I'll save talk of the other exhibits we visited for another day.

By the time we left there, the rain had stopped, so we explored a small preserve in Marblehead Neck (Mass. Audubon) and a nearby public park with a lighthouse and views out to sea before returning to Rockport for an anniversary dinner.

Marblehead Neck Wildlife Sanctuary - we saw a northern waterthrush here, but it evaded my camera 

Marblehead Light

Double-crested cormorant

I briefly saw an American oystercatcher on this rock along with the gulls and cormorants. Again, no photographic evidence was obtained.