Kristin, our sister-in-law, and our nieces and nephew were staying with Karen and Chris Nard, Kristin's sister and brother-in-law.  Are you following this? There will be a test.  Just to help you out, you can study the picture below.  Sorta left to right: Nathan, Max, Jordan, Karen/McKenna/Avery, Lauren, Shannon, Chris, Kristin, and Doug, who is grimacing so badly because his sister-in-law Kristin is clearly administering the Vulcan Death Grip to his shoulder.

Karen and Chris just had their third baby, a girl named Avery.  We showed up at Karen's house sometime in the late morning and got a visit in with everyone.  Then, Kristin, Lauren, Shannon, Nathan, McKenna, Jordan, Doug and Jody all left for a walk through "Old Salem".

On our way in to see Old Salem, a disheveled black gentleman approached us and began speaking rapidly almost before we were close enough to hear him.  He first words and gestures were that he was unarmed so don't worry (he opened up his jacket to show us), and he then asked us where the road above us went.  We said we did not know.  He said, "You from out of town?", and we said yes.  He left.  This was odd and sad, but worse yet, after he left us he went over to a single man who clearly worked for Old Salem and asked him something.  After a brief exchange, the black man walked away and the Old Salem worker came over and asked us if the black man had asked us for money.  We said no.  He said that maybe that man would appreciate spending a night in the Salem jail, and he stalked off after the black man, with a zealot's focus.  His racism was apparent; simply because this was a possibly homeless black man, he was to be chased down.  It left a bad taste in our mouths.

Old Salem is an old community founded by a religious sect called the Moravians. They were German immigrants here in this country doing what all the religious immigrants were doing -- hoping to be able to live their lives as they wanted to rather than as their government wanted them to.  Old Salem was a "church town".  Everything was dictated by the church leadership.  The leadership was male and female -- very progressive for the time.  All children were educated from 6 to 14.  Girls then began working for income and supported themselves in the girls' house.  Boys apprenticed as a tradesman until they were able to do the trade and support themselves in the young men's house, called "The Single Men's Choir".   Their use of the word 'choir' simply meant group.  The rules were strict, like the Pilgrims or Shakers or Amish or many others.  The church intentionally kept members away from "strangers" as much as possible.  The style of housing and gardening was German and the craftsmanship was excellent.  Old Salem is a Living History museum (Jody's favorite kind) and was done really well.

Below is a shot of the Single Men's Choir, with a lovely dogwood in the foreground.

McKenna's amazing eyes gaze back at the camera as Nathan helps grind some fresh-roasted coffee beans.  After the fire roasting and grinding, there was of course the brewing.  The coffee was not as strong as we like it, but was still good nonetheless.

In the attic of one of the restored homes the kids discovered a box of authentic reproduction 18th century clothes for them to try on.  This is the result. 

Salem was a highly regimented town, with rules for everything, including those pertaining to 'necessities', a common euphemism for privy, outhouse or chamber pot.

This shot is a lovely example of the architecture and building styles used in the late 1700s.

Jody gave Nathan a piggy back ride towards the end of the day.   Looking at old buildings is as exciting to a 6 year old as watching paint dry is to you or I, so he was dragging a bit.  At this point, I believe we were on the way to the bakery and sandwich shop for a snack.  We bought 4 apple strudels, which were deemed excellent by all (McKenna admitted she really only liked the apples in the strudel).

Chris, Karen, Max, McKenna and Avery generously treated us to dinner that night at the West End Cafe -- that is where Jody took the first picture on this page.  After dinner, Chris and Karen took us on a new culinary adventure: our first Krispy Creme.

Depending on who you ask, Krispy Kreme is either just another doughnut shop, a purveyor of junk food, a brilliant and popular brand, a way of life, a wonderland of sweetness, or a cult religion.  Found mainly in the South and East, although it is spreading, we are now converts, brought to see the light (literally -- see the pic below) by newfound Brother Chris.  He explained that when the red neon light is now, they are making fresh, hot doughnuts.  It was quite a sight.  Krispy Kreme has a machine like something out of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory -- a gigantic, room-sized doughnut making machine that eats dough and spits out perfect doughnuts from the other end -- all in a matter of a few minutes.  I don't know what the production capacity of this device is, but some lady came in and ordered 6 dozen doughnuts, and walked away with them some small number of minutes later -- all cooked fresh.

After being automatically fried on both sides, the doughnuts pass through the glazing machine, as seen below.  It is a vision to behold.

After coming off the glazer, the ready-to-eat beauties are delivered up for boxing -- most folk order them by the dozen.  They even have a drive through window.

Below you can see that Jody is intently studying the exquisite flavor of a just-out-of the glazer Krispy Kreme.  The wonderful folks who worked there gave us free samples after hearing that we were Krisy Kreme virgins.  They were more excited than we were -- they gave us the sample just to watch the beaming radiance coming from the faces of those who are consuming the heavenly host for the first time.  They truly are amazing.  Light as air almost.

The 3 little Krispy Kreme piglets scarfed lots of doughnuts.  Shannon managed to sell her free hat to some guy for two dollars, much to her mother's chagrin.

After Shannon's successful foray into the hat business, McKenna danced around chanting "hat for sale!".  She got no takers, sadly, although she was cute as hell in her hat, as you can see below.

Not to be left out of the monkey business, the boys opted to wear their hats upside down.  I managed to catch this picture of them while they were still groggy from all the sugar they consumed -- normally they would have made silly faces at the camera.

We all left in the exalted state that only comes from lots of sugary fried dough, and headed back to Chris and Karen's.  Jordan managed to wrangle an overnight stay with her cousins and second-cousins-somehow-removed, so Jody and I went back to the trailer alone -- the first time on the trip :)

April 21 - More Old Salem