[The quintessential Salem photo.  Taken in The Burying Point on the 3rd day, just what one would expect from a ghostly graveyard photo.  I didn’t use it in the previous post because it needed to be a story lead.  Maybe this is where the spooky genre all began?]

[Our last day in Salem it finally snowed.  Not much, but it felt better – it fit the temperatures we had been experiencing all along.  Of course, shortly after we returned home, the East Coast got hit by the Big Dump!]

[Remember that previous “jail becomes a restaurant” set-up?  Well, here’s the supervisor trying to break “into” jail.]

[“The Great Escape” is the name of the restaurant.  😉 ]

[A poster in the restaurant.  We made sure we didn’t walk off without paying the check, something older people are wont to do in our forgetfulness.]

[Yup, the snow day had a negative impact on the lunch time crowd!]

[They put us in Cell Block D, for the hardened customers . . . like the supervisor and Rosie!  😉 ]

[The menu items ranged from gruel to cold porridge to week-old bread.]

[In case you wanted to do something kinky for dessert?]

[Well, unless you get away with it!]

[Fittingly, the bar had . . . bars.]

[Then it was on to the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM).  Although Salem “only” has a population of 42,000, the museum is big time major metropolitan due to its proximity to Boston.  Dick, the supervisor, and Rose lead the way – no doubt making sure we all get the senior rate!]

[A tourist photographing the same clock he uses for an alarm back home.  Always get clearance before taking photographs in a museum or art gallery – most times you can’t, but if you can, no flash!]

[As I recall, this was a contest.  Apparently, the work was never signed – so the museum believes it came down to two artists from that era.  I guessed Andy Warhol?]

[It really was a beautiful facility.]

[I do not know either of these people.]

[Oh, that’s it.  I was trying to capture the ship.  Remember, Salem is a harbor town.]

[Rose and Dick discuss the finer points of harpooning.]

[A masthead . . . maybe the reason ships are always “shes”?]

[Well, that explains “this” one.]

[Stayed tuned for the following explanation.  I took the photo because I liked it.  Seems a good enough reason.]

[The explanation.]

[The supervisor always thought I should take up a hobby like this.  I reminded her these were all done in the days before one could wile away the hours prone in front of a TV.  Well, it would be a good way to pick up a whole new series of swear words (something different from set I currently use in dealing with the computer!).]

[One of the Queen Elizabeths, as I recall.  And pretty darn big!]

[Apparently such vessels catered to the tuxedoed crowd – and I got too zoftig for mine years ago.]

[Another reason why I couldn’t build model ships.  I would find the avian creature on my shoulder distracting.  Oh, and the supervisor wouldn’t let me smoke a pipe.]

[How does one obtain an anonymous loan?]

[The supervisor examines the art work while . . .]

[A close-up reveals it is indeed a Queen Elizabeth.]

[Another masthead, another “don’t mess with me, I have a knife” figure.]

[Miss H.  I know that because that’s what it says below.]

[A movie on the Yin Yu Tang house, that was de-constructed in China and reassembled at the PEM.  Probably a first in museum-dom.]

[The theme at PEM, while we were there, was “Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones.”]

[From the skywalk to “Hats.”]

[You could “try on” the Hats via computer.  Here the supervisor and I stand beside Rosie while she looks for the perfect fit.]

[Ah, perfect for high tea with the Queen.]

[Still searching for the perfect chapeau . . .]

[And when you find one, you can e-mail it to yourself!  😉 ]

[Back to the Chinese house.]

[The museum had a grand (and grande) ballroom.]

[Rosie holds a table for us.  Can you spot her?]

[There she is!  I only brought the snapshot camera for the trip – I didn’t feel like schlepping my photojournalist equipment through train depots, etc.  For the most part, the little camera did great.  I tried a telephoto for this shot, but it wasn’t quite up to snuff.]

[From the lower level.]

[Here is Minnesota’s most famous non-indigenous fish.  A cod.  Can you say, Lutefisk?]

[On the walk home from PEM.]

[That night, our last in Salem, we crossed the Common for a little nosh and a beverage at the Hawthorne Hotel.]

[A lovely winter’s eve . . .]

[New England Currier & Ives winter setting.]

[Goodnight, sweet Salem.]

[The next morning we were at the Boston train depot for the trip to D.C.  I took the camera out of a plastic shopping bag – that also contained my hat, gloves, and slightly used under garments – to shoot this photo.  Then the supervisor and I went for a coffee.  Some 15 minutes later I noticed my shopping bag was gone!  We reported it stolen.  Since there was really nothing of value in it (I kept the camera), we suspected the looter would just throw the bag in the trash.  It wasn’t in the lost & found, so the supervisor went around checking garbage cans.  She found it in a can right next to where I had taken the photo! I had placed the bag on the counter there – a security guard counter! – and they said when they saw the bag, they first had it scanned for explosives (my underwear?) and then just tossed it in the trash.  Well, the supervisor gave them a piece of her mind!  😉 ]

[A few shots just outside the depot . . .]

[The depot]

[Riding the rails between Boston and D.C., one discovers there is WiFi!  So, we were reading the “Cardinal Connection” somewhere along the Connecticut coastline and sent an e-mail to Sheree Oberg (the editor of the “Connection”) accordingly.  Her response was something to the effect of cool! ]

[It unfortunately was not a beautiful weather trip.  The Big Apple gloomily above and below.]

[Then we were in D.C., where pigs fly!]

After we got home, Rose and Dick sent the following 3 photos of the Northeast’s big snow (I think Salem got over 2 feet):

Next:  Another tour of your nation’s capital.