The Witch City: Part Two!

Back to Salem! This is The Witch House which is probably the only actual historical museum in the city. It is set up like it would have been in the 1600's. We didn't take the tour because by this time I was REALLY cranky. It was so cold and we were soaked through! And hungry! But I had to get a photo. What a creepy house!

We got lunch at the Flying Saucer Pizza Company. When I was researching our trip I saw their logo was a space pug, so it was a done deal. And it ended up being great!

So so cute.

The whole place was space themed, along with the menu. We started with an order of Space Balls. They are garlic knots with some vegan cheese melted on them. They were amazing! That cheese! It is Teese brand, which we don't have down here. I want some more!

There were pictures of aliens all over the walls, and the were all fake signed with messages about the pizza. I loved that! There was a Spock just a little to the left of this photo. And a full sized Borg statue. Awesome!

For our pizza we got the Silurian. I wanted to build our own, but gave it to Travis and I'm so glad we did! It was on beer crust, with evoo, garlic, sundried tomatoes, kale, and vegan mac and cheese casserole. YUM! If this place was close we'd be regulars. It was amazing.

More Salem exploring after lunch. It isn't all spooky stuff.

We found a huge comic store.

I was very tempted by the Ghibli merchandise.

They had some really cool vintage Godzilla toys. I had a lot of time to browse because Travis was next door at the army navy surplus looking for a liner for his coat.

So many of my interests represented in one photo.

My biggest trip regret was not getting one of these photos. We have one from Gatlinburg a few years ago of us in a saloon, but these witch ones are so much better! Gosh, the more I think about it the more I regret it! Dang!

We stopped in this thrift/antique shop to get out of the rain for a bit. There wasn't much interesting vintage but I did find a ton of pin up photos! This is just a tiny fraction of the photos featuring this sassy lady! Travis and I wondered if maybe she was posing for a photography club (like Betty Page used to do) or if she was a photo enthusiasts sweet heart. The photos were very nice, and matched the quality of a lot of army photos in the same basket. I bought the one on the bottom left.

I wanted this silly taxidermy fox but Travis said no! Isn't he cute? It was in pretty bad shape, the feet were down to the bones! And Travis said it would never make it back to the car in the rain. So I had to do a snap and walk.

There was a Harry Potter store! I would probably have been more excited if we hadn't been to Universal earlier this year, but it was still awesome! They had a wand store right next to it.

Since it was so cold (have I mentioned it was cold?) and I had no warm clothes, I had to buy a hat. Good thing I found this cute one! It really came in handy on the rest of our trip.

Early in the afternoon we gave up and went back to our rental. It was just too miserable to be out. We bought some groceries and made dinner and ate while watching Gilmore Girls. We almost bailed on our scary story tour since there were going to be 40 to 50 mph wind that night but we had already paid so we toughed it out. I'm so glad we did!

As you can imagine there were lots of tours to choose from, and we went with the Scary Stories tour put on by Bewitched After Dark. Only one other couple showed up since the weather was so bad, but it was amazing. It is lead by Kenneth, who is a Quaker mortician. He was wonderful. He sang and told the creepiest stories and had us put our hands on a human skull while he tried to get messages from the beyond. The rain and terrible wind really added to the experience. It was about an hour and a half and I would have loved for it to go longer! I would totally recommend this tour if you're in town. Kenneth even gave us ponchos!

We had to go on a last minute search for a smashed penny machine, and found this great cut out on the way. I'd love to go to Salem again when the weather isn't so bad so we could see more, but it was still a fun stop on our tour of the North East.

Old Burying Point Cemetery

 Old Burying Point is the second oldest cemetery in the United States! It was established in 1637, which is just crazy to think about. One of the things we were looking forward to on our New England trip was seeing some of these old gravestones. Even they couldn't stop me! Old Burying Point is in the same area as the other "witch" attractions in Salem. That whole area was very walkable, which is nice because parking was almost impossible to find! At least, places where you could park for more than 2 hours.

 My favorite thing is these kinds of stones! That skull and wings! It never got old, I took a photo of every single one I saw!So gorgeous! If we had followed through with our plan to get little matching trip tattoos, it would probably be one of these guys. Maybe it still should be.

 Ugh! And the crossbones too!

 Sometimes there is an angel instead of a skull. Something about the angels made them way creepier than the skulls to me.

 Guys, I just couldn't pare these photos down any more! I love them all! Look at those stones!

 Can you believe this stone is from 1708! And Miss Mary Higginson was 73! That seems like quite a feat for that time. If you're wondering if any of the victims of the witch trials were buried here, they weren't. They were put in unmarked graves because witches couldn't be buried on consecrated ground. But apparently lots of their families were able to dig up the bodies of loved ones and give them proper burials.

 We couldn't stop laughing at this gravestone. See anything weird? Like they ran out of room before they could get all of the word in. I've been there stone carver, I get it.

 ::sigh:: please make me one like this when i'm gone. so cute.

 Here is Travis freezing in his shorts. In the rain.

 Oooo that's a good one!

 There were also some moody urns on some of the gravestones. They were upstaged by the skulls.

 And one final beautiful carving. Old Burying Point is definitely worth a stop if you're in the area! I wish it had been less wet, I would have liked to spend some more time there.

The Witch City: Part One!

When we were talking about where we wanted to go on our fall trip this year Salem, Massachusetts kept coming up. Travis and I were both interested in exploring the North East since we hadn't been before (other than New York City) and Salem seemed like a good destination! We had originally talked about going with our friends Crystal and Marc, but Travis couldn't get actual Halloween week off so it was just us.

Using Air Bnb again we stayed in this amazing house in Marblehead! About a ten minute drive from downdown Salem, and a one minute walk to the beautiful harbor! Sadly there was an actual Nor'easter happening the two days we were there so it was freezing and raining! I would have loved to spend some time walking around the town. All the streets around us were filled with these beautiful historic homes!

Isn't it perfect? We were in a little apartment on the bottom floor.

The house was from the 1700's and look how cute it is inside! I couldn't get over it. My favorite Air Bnb ever. We put the kitchen to good use and made dinner for ourselves one night instead of going out. It was just so COLD!

My favorite thing was probably this plate they had hanging above the shower. I want it! I'm going to start collecting plates from places we've been and I need one with a muffler man on it!

Our first stop once we got into Salem proper was the Witch History Museum. There are several museums devoted to the witch trials in Salem. We went to two of the four.

These "museums" consist entirely of wax figures in dioramas. There was a big fire in the early 1900's and pretty much all of the artifacts from the actual era of the witch trials were destroyed. Thankfully, I like wax figures.

The wax figures at the Witch History Museum were all pretty crappy and deformed looking. Perfect. I didn't know a whole lot about the witch trials. It is a very sad story actually with lots of innocent people losing their lives and homes because of bored girls and a greedy corrupt police force and local government. Something that was reiterated over and over was there were no witches hanged in Salem, just innocent people.

Terrifying court scene.

After the Witch History museum we walked over to Ole Burying Point, one of the oldest cemeteries in New England. It was so beautiful, I'll have to devote a whole post to it. I could not stop taking photos of every stone I saw with a skull and wings on it. I love them!

Here is how we were feeling about this time. I didn't expect this turn in the weather so only had that thin hoodie (and I was wearing a dress and tights! ah!) Travis had a much better attitude. As usual.

Next up the Salem Witch Museum. This one was a big room with wax dioramas all around it. you turned around as each scene was lit up. My favorite part was the phone pole outside covered with the stickers they give you when you pay. We went through with a huge European cruise tour group.

 One thing I enjoyed about the Witch Museum was an exhibit about how witches were seen through time. It talked about the tradition of wise woman who were very respected in ancient civilizations as midwives and healers. When patriarchal religion came in and these woman became threats to the authority of the church they were demonized and turned against. Women who went against the grain (lived alone, never married, taught healing) were persecuted. I learned a lot about this in some of my college courses (I have a women's studies minor) and it was interesting to revisit this idea again. 

There were tons of stores selling spell supplies and witch hats and witch golf balls (and lots of terrible shirts! it took me forever to find something cute!). Most of the really cool looking ones didn't allow photos.

Need a stained glass portrait of the devil? Salem has it!

To be honest, I felt a little weird once we were there and learning about what really happened during the witch trials. The terrible tragedy turned this town into a place that sells witch hats and cauldrons and shirts with sayings like "I got stoned in Salem." A weird juxtaposition. I love the aesthetic and seeing spooky witchy stuff, don't get me wrong. But it seemed a little weird to be celebrating that in a location where innocent people were killed because of hysteria and greed.

But back to cute Halloween decorations. This was the week before Halloween week, so everyone had their decorations out. One year I'm going to go all out and decorate the front of our house too! I'm always so busy in October!

I'll be back soon to tell you more about what we saw in Salem. Even with the bad weather and conflicted feelings, it was a fun stop on our trip.