Trails & Sails kicks off this weekend!

Trails & Sails: Two Weekends of Walks and Water kicks off this week. These weekends will feature more than a hundred free events throughout the Essex National Heritage Area, which includes Salem, of course!

Organized by the Essex National Heritage Commission, Trails & Sails is an annual celebration of the Area's natural, cultural and historic resources. And what better way to get people engaged and involved than offer events for free?!

The goal, of course, is to spark interest in and stewardship of the resources and the region, so use the weekend to visit and explore the places you keep saying you've never visited, or do a tour with a new perspective. Organizers suspect, and hope, that once you've gotten a taste of the heritage area, you'll want to come back for more.

Events planned in Salem over the next two weekends include...

• Marine Lab Exploration at Cat Cove Marine Laboratory (did you know there is a marine laboratory in Salem?). Observe aquatic life and learn of these organisms are used to understand and manage aquatic resources!
• Eye Spy Nature Walk will look for nature's varied shapes and repeating patterns at the Ropes Mansion Gardens!
• Guided tour of the new exhibit: The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City at the Peabody Essex Museum
• Visit the Derbys - 1770 Style! The ladies of refined taste will be visiting Mr. & Mrs. Derby in the gardens behind the Derby House for an afternoon of genteel entertainment. Join them!
• Sophia Hawthorne's Salem - Join Mrs. Sophia Hawthorne for a tour of hte Salem that she and her husband Nathaniel knew.
• Salem 2010 Garden Tours will celebrate the anniversaries of the Salem Athenaeum, Historic New England's Phillips House, and the House of the Seven Gables.
• Lunch Hour at the Gedney House will give you a lunch-hour peek at one of Salem's architectural and historic gems!
• Hawthorne Hotel Tour - This wildly popular tour will sell out! And the lucky participants will get to see cabin on the roof that is the home to the Salem Marine Society.
• The Witch House Physick Herbs - guided and self-guided tours of this 17th century house will reveal remedy recipes wtih some very shocking ingredients!
• Salt Marsh in the City will be a "walk and talk" led by Salem Sound Coastwatch at Old Creek Marsh.
• Looking South: Salem State University and Lead Mills will feature the history of Salem State University, which began as the Salem Normal School, and a discussion of the Salem Lead Mills and the naturally occurring lead found in the area.

All of the events are free, and some recommend reservations, so visit TrailsandSails.org for the full scoop.

And to learn more about the Essex National Heritage Commission, the Heritage Area, and their Explorers program (it's like Trails & Sails all year long!) visit EssexHeritage.org.