The "Spookiest Town in America"...

...is Salem, Massachusetts...and we ventured there this past weekend to take in the historic sights and to participate in the Halloween festivities with our friends Tanya and Kieran, who were visiting from Chicago, and Mike, Dana, and Caroline, friends of ours from Maine. Although the crowds were numerous, the parking sparse and expensive ($20/car for the day), and the wind quite strong, it was well worth the 2-hour journey to experience a piece of American history. Salem is a great little New England harbor town with lots of shops and restaurants. The majority of homes in town date back to the mid 18th century (some date back further) and it was neat to walk up and down the streets because many of the homes have a plaque out front with the date that it was built, who built the home, and the profession of the first homeowner. Additionally, it was very interesting to make note of the decor outside of the homes because most of the locals have their homes decorated very elaborately for the holiday. According to all the research that we did prior to heading down to Salem, the month of October is full of events that lead up to Halloween weekend.

Salem Harbor

Most people know of Salem as the infamous home of the "Salem Witch Trials of 1692." During these trials 20 people, both male and female, were put to death after being accused of, and found guilty of, practicing witchcraft over the course of 3 months during the summer of 1692. At the time witchcraft was seen as a crime by the court. Of the 20 people put to death, 19 were hung and the other person was crushed to death by stone. It was very interesting to walk around the town because the shops and businesses are largely based on marketing to tourists who are drawn to witches and the stories surrounding the witch trials. One of the things that we wanted to do while in town was to stop at the Salem Witch Trial Memorial built in 1992. The memorial is surrounded by three walls that bear stone benches with each of the names of the persons who were executed and the means by which they were executed. It was very sobering to walk around and look at each bench. Unfortunately we were not able to look at all of the stone benches because people were sitting on them eating food from the nearby food stands.


After walking around town and stopping at the memorial we did enjoy taking in some of the sights and sounds of the Halloween celebrations. One such stop was at the decorated pumpkin contest in which we had a chance to see "Hannah Montana" in person:


Overall the day was a lot of fun and we had chance to squeeze in more fall fun and New England tourism while the days are still warm enough to be outside. The day was topped off with a stop at the Red Hook Brewery in Portsmouth, NH for some good dinner and great beer.