A dream come true was finally taking a trip to The Witch City!! otherwise known as Salem, MA. This has been a dream of mine to visit this little town since I was young, all because of the movie Hocus Pocus. If you haven't seen it, go watch it! Even Better that we got to go here on the 25th anniversary of the movie!
THURSDAY OCTOBER 25TH
THE ARRIVAL
The drive down was about 7.5 hours, skipping the boring stuff..... Once we got to New Hampshire we stopped for some supper, ended up going to a little old school dinner. I kid you not the only thing that was misses was roller skates, it had everything from the checkered flooring, old time music, dinner stools, etc. As a plus the food was so good! We were so hungry by this time that we forgot to take a picture unfortunately, but if you ever want to check it out its by the massive new liquor store in the round-about.
We drove through Beverly, MA to get to Salem so we missed all the traffic from the busy little city, this is were we seen the first sign of Halloween. There was a elderly women walking outside the Super Market with her walker and a full face of scary makeup. I think we were a little tired and over driving because all we could think of was how she was walking to the music we were listening to.
WE ARRIVED (Thursday 25th)! Before we even got to our hotel we stopped at the liquor store just before our hotel. We stayed at the Clipper Ship Inn. The Lady and Gentlemen inside were so nice, and were so excited to be experiencing Salem for the first time at the busiest time of the year. She ended up giving us 8 gift cards for Dunkin Donuts and a box of chocolates... Ray was pumped about that. Our hotel room was very spacious and would definitely go back there, it is much cheaper then staying intown and is still in walking distance. Also she gave us a cab companies number, they only charge 6$ for all of Salem, no matter where you go.
Because it was a Thursday evening there was to much going on, perfect night to check out BitBar. This is basically a Bar, Pub and Arcade all into one, but this particular one is in the Old Salem Jail. Such a cool place, great environment and games and even better Beer and Cider!
FRIDAY OCTOBER 26th
A DAY TO EXPLORE AND DANCE
A day for exploring! We didn't do anything crazy this day because we knew it would be a long and eventful night. We walked around town and down there main street *Essex Street. So many cool shops, from costumes stores, souvenir shops, shops with everything odd, of course witch craft shops and so so much more. As you walk down the street you see all the haunted houses, Wax museums, Town Hall, High School, Ropes Mansion, Hawthorne Hotel, you name it. We did go into the Wax Museum, called Count Orloks Nightmare Gallery, which is a wax museum filled with all the horror icons. How cool is that! I'm not one for scary stuff hahha but it was the best! that is until I turned a corner and all by his lonesome was IT! from the original movie, I froze and quickly turned the other way, my GOD did he ever look real. The quality of the figurines in there are astonishing. A MUST GO if you ever go to SALEM!!
We had a dinner reservation for "The Tavern in the Square" food was delish! and once again even better Cider, I was able to try a pumpkin Cider and it was the best cider I've ever had! After this we went back to our hotel to have some drinks and get ready for the nights festivities.
TIME TO DANCE! We were headed to "The Witches Halloween Ball @ the Hawthorne Hotel. This party had a theme which was so hard for us to come up this something good to dress up as. The theme was Elements of Magic: Water, Fire, Earth, Air, or Spirit. Ray ended up going as Earth and I was Fire.
This party is a must GO! top prize is 1000$ and there is also 2nd and 3rd prizes also. I just hop next time we go the theme is a little easier for creativity.
3rd Place - Dryad 2nd Place - Mother Nature
1st Place - Poseidon
During the Evening they had a belly dancer who did a few songs on her own and then had a drummers act in which she joined in on, was so cool! Not to mention the costumes here are out of this world, so much hard work put into theme. So impressive (attached below)! As a plus this party wasn't only in one big room, they had 3 bars: one in main hall, upstairs where they as did a few things evolving the dead and one in the other room across the hall which is where they had Mediums and psychics for a free 5 minute reading.
Ray and I decided to get reading done because they were free anyways. Ray went to one women who told him that new work opportunities would arise for the better. Mine on the other hand told me that I have had a recent hard time (which is very true) and said something else about my future with creativity, She mentioned something to me which made me think she was crazy, She asked if I had a boy friend and I pointed to Ray, She told me an engagement was in my near future, I laughed and said I doubt that...… Hmmmmmm….
SATURDAY OCTOBER 27TH
WHAT A RAINY/STORMY DAY
Did it ever down-pour on this day, but the rain can't stop you when your away! Because it was a stormy day we figured this would be the best day to check out the little mall, haunted houses and pubs. There mall is small but has some neat things. They had some statues that looked like they could have had people inside them to scare you, I check before turning my back for the picture.
We walked a little ways to go to the Salem Wax Museum, Haunted Witch Village and Frankenstein's Haunted Dungeon. The Haunted which village was good and had people jumping out at you. Frankenstein's Haunted Dungeon on the other hand maybe be face a huge fear of mine, if any of you know me well you know that I hate clowns and chainsaws. Well *SPOILER ALERT at the end there was someone dressed up as a clown with a chainsaw, the poor women in front of us making her way up the stairs, pretty sure I ran and pushed her out of my way in terror.
PS. if ever there is a scary event real or fake, I will most likely leave you behind and run for the hills
We walked a little ways to go to the Salem Wax Museum, Haunted Witch Village and Frankenstein's Haunted Dungeon. To get out of the rain we went to "The Notch Breweries" for a Beer/Cider then went to get food at "The Brothers Tavern", these places aren't even a minute walk from each other which was great for a day like today. We finished off the day by going to the Salem Witch Museum which is right across from the Hawthorne hotel, the tour in here is about 45 minutes to an hour long but worth it. It tells you all about the witch trials and its really interesting, Bonus a great way to get out of the rain for a bit. After this we got a cab back to our hotel for some hot showers to warm up and some beers.
SUNDAY OCTOBER 28TH
THE ACTUAL BEST DAY EVER!!
Today we woke up and made our way to the best breakfast place intown! This Place is also A MUST!! "Red's Sandwich Shop", this was the best place we have ever eaten for breakfast, There is usually a line outside to get in but wait, I promise you its worth it! Ray got French toast and he said It was the best French toast he's ever had, I got chocolate chip pancakes, It came with 3 but they advised me that it was very big portions and to only get 1, Thank god I listened because it was about an 1-1.5 inches thick and bigger then the already big plate, lets just say I couldn't even eat half of it! On top of that when we got the bill we both looked at each other thinking they must have forgotten something because it was so cheap! It was a "START THE CAR"!!! Moment for sure hhaha
Next we when to some places I wanted to go to take some pictures. My God was it ever busy around town, the line ups for the haunted houses and tours were insane! glad we did them on the rainy day!
Neat wall hanging on our walk to town from our hotel.
There is actually pumpkins EVERYWHERE! I wish Saint John was more festive During the Halloween Season, in Salem Halloween in an Entire Month not just one day, and they have their Halloween parade on October 1st!
First Church in Salem
Witch House! Next time we will go inside
Hocus Pocus Fan Girl was in motion on this day!
Allison's House where Dani said "Max likes your Yaboos" OR otherwise known as the Ropes Mansion, we will go inside next time!
Town Hall, Where they had there Adult Halloween Costume party and Sarah, Marry and Winifred Sang "I Put a Spell on You" which made them all "Dance till you die!"
Now as a Lover of Hocus Pocus you can't go to Salem and not go visit Max and Dani's House, I was way to excited to see this house. I never imagined that it would change my life..
It was quiet a walk to get there but it was a must, oddly enough even Ray wanted to go, mind you I didn't know why until afterwards. Once we were close and turned the final turn before the house being at the end of the road, I told ray that I may pee myself because I was way to excited. The house came into view and my heart started racing, hands were sweaty, the hole bit! - Like I said I was way to excited to see a house hahah but it was something I've always wanted to go see and be there, my childhood. And did my inner child came screaming out! I was even skipping down the road, clearly far to distracted to notice that Ray was nervous and felt like puking once I seen the house and got all excited.
The First Picture I took of the house
I literally was so happy! Ray asked me to take a selfie with him with the house in the back ground. It took him a second to get my full attention, then posed for the picture. What a sneaky Man I have, I'm sure me being distracted helped since I didn't notice that he was actually taking a video, nor did I see what was in the bottom right hand corner of the picture, then he popped THE question (I took pictures of the video he took for this write up, but if you want to know it basically looks like I run away, but if you listen I say "are you joking!?" then you hear the cry)
ps. I figure it would take him at least another 3-4 years, still beyond shocked
The next picture I took of the house.
I'm sure you know what my answer was, even though I couldn't talk for a few hours...
After I calmed down for a few minutes.... sort of.
We walked over closer to the house, they had a guest book outside, poster about the movie, and props for your pictures. The women who lives in this house was outside also meeting some fans, she has lived in this house for 54 years therefore she lived here when they filmed the movie in 1993.
Next we made our way to a place called "Far From The Tree Cider", originally was going there to get Hocus Pocus Donuts, but they ended up selling out really fast, but since we waiting anyways we stopped in so I could try Ectoplasm Cider.
We went back to the hotel for a half hour to have some more celebratory beers. Then made our way to our dinner reservation at the Hawthorne Hotel. On our way there we walked through the park to the other side so that we could walk past the high school where in the movie where the witches chase Max, Danni and Allison into the school, they lured them into basically a big oven which a French tape recording: "I want my Book", "Je Veux mon Livre". I heard people behind us so I turned around and there in front of us was Sarah, Marry and Winifred Sanderson. Three Drag queens looking and sounding the part, it was unreal! As they walked past the high school it looked just like the movie, they went by the doors to take a picture so I ran over and offered to take it for them, then they asked for me to be in one also. I told them my name was Dani, and the one dressed as Winifred said: "Marvelous! thy shall take thy soul to become thy beautiful!", then continued on to saying Winifred's part in the movie: "Boooooookkkkk! Come home or make thy self known" - She literally sounded just like Winifred from the movie. How could one day be so amazingly perfect?!
Next was dinner! I recommend going to eat at the Hawthorne ** Tavern in the Green. So. Good.
My Dinner date was pretty good also ;)
Our night ended with a Sinister night Tour. Our tour guided walked around with a old vintage baby carriage, we walked around Salem and heard all the ghost stories at different locations, was so cool!
This trip was realistically life changing since I will end up changing my last name. But it was such a cool, interesting, and amazing trip and I have no doubt we will be back!
Until next time Salem <3
- xox Danni