We set our alarm for 7:30 a.m. and it felt so good to sleep. I know we should be going to sleep at a decent time but hey, we're on vacation, we gotta make the most of it! I woke up that morning feeling a little bit off, was I getting sick? Ugh, I don't want to be sick on vacation. I haven't been sick since October 2019. Ughh, lame! Again, people showered, got ready with our costumes and we went downstairs to eat. I had sausage, toast, banana, chunky hashbrown potatoes and orange juice. It hit the spot. I tried not to drink a ton of fluids because I know trying to pee in Salem with everyone else during a busy weekend was not easy, especially how scary the porta potties were the night before.
Amy decided she was going to stay behind and miss our Salem witch adventures because she was still feeling bad. We felt terrible for her because this was the actual part she was looking forward to when she and Mom first planned this trip when we were in Peru back in September 2021. This event is literally why we came over here plus it gave us an opportunity to go see Mindy. We told Amy to relax, to get better and if she needed anything to call one of us. We also added that we would check in throughout the day as well.
We grabbed the rest of our stuff and headed out to Salem; this time dressed as witches. The only thing we worried about again, was the parking situation. Maybe we would get lucky for a second time? We heard there were over 100,000 people over the weekend, since Friday, that had been in Salem for Halloween festivities. There was a little bit of traffic heading into town. Since it was a Monday, we knew there would be people going to work in the morning and going home during normal quitting time hours. We had to be mindful of that when we were done so we didn't get stuck in rush hour traffic.
We came into town a different way than we did the night before and we had to drive around town for about 20 minutes before finding a place to park off of Bridge Street. It was a "free" lot but the people running it wanted a small donation for the organization that they were a part of. We didn't mind so we gave them $20 to park there all day. I made a post on Facebook telling my people Happy Halloween from Salem, Massachusetts!
I was so excited to be here!
We made sure we had everything we needed before leaving the lot. We crossed the street and made our way to town. Our first stop was the Rope's Mansion and Allison's House from Hocus Pocus. They wanted to go see it and I mostly wanted to see it for the virtual cache, Rope's Mansion/Allison's House (GC891D6). We got a group picture in front of the house dressed as witches and then went onto the property to go check out the grounds. I had to go to the back yard in the garden area to find a sundial and get the information off of it for the first piece. The second piece was a selfie with any part of the house in the background of the photo. I also started the five waypoint Adventure Lab, Salem Adventures as we walked around town.
We stopped by the Witch's House and then continued further down Essex to the statue of Samantha from Bewitched, that too, was part of the Adventure Lab. We got a few pictures of us with it and then we went into a couple of stores along the way and purchased a few things. I mostly went in to get some stickers and postcards. Mom and I bought Erika and Grandma Karen a Salem T-shirt.
I broke free from the group for a little bit to grab another waypoint for the Adventure Lab that was a bit off of our normal plan for the day. I didn't want to make them walk over there with me. They continued shopping until I met back up with them in the middle of town. Mindy wanted to go into a haunted house, so we paid some money for our entrance fee, and went through the 15-minute haunted house. It's not Halloween unless you go through a haunted house, right? There were a couple of turns that gave me anxiety because I didn't know what was going to happen or if something was going to touch me. Afterwards, we went into a couple more shops, saw some "Smurf trees", admired the many costumes people wore and took pictures of the whole ambiance of being in downtown Salem on Halloween.
As we sat there, ate donuts and drank coffee, we watched some guy struggle and fail at parallel parking nearby. Then Rhonda spilled Mindy's coffee and had to go buy her a new one. It almost got me, but I moved out of the way just before my butt got wet. We finished up and I talked them into walking down to the lighthouse so I could do the virtual cache, Salem Derby Wharf Light Station (GC9P62M) while experiencing this part of Salem.
We started down the spit and saw the Friendship of Salem that was docked in the harbor. This area of the wharf was part of the Salem Maritime National Historical Site and ran by the National Park Service. It is a 171-foot replica of the Friendship. It was built in 2000 in Albany, New York. The ship usually operates as a stationary museum ship most of the year but is a fully functioning US Coast Guard-certified vessel capable of passengers and crew voyages.
We continued on down the spit, walking past many people going to and from the Derby Wharf Light with children, dogs and other groups of friends or family. Some of them were dressed up for Halloween and looked like they were enjoying their afternoon.
We got to the end of the spit, and it was super windy. I almost lost my witch hat in the harbor. We did what we needed to do to fulfill the virtual cache requirements (hoping that I did them right), took a few pictures, enjoyed the views and then walked back to the shore to use the restroom. There was only a porta potty available, but these ones weren't as bad as the ones from the previous night.
We went to a few more shops and then made our way over to the middle of town to see the witch's memorial and the cemetery in the daytime. We walked around the horseshoe shape memorial for about fifteen minutes and admired the old cemetery from there as well. We did find out that we had to buy tickets in advance to walk through the cemetery because it was considered National Park property and sadly, they were all sold out for the day. We walked around the entire cemetery to see if there was another way in, but it was fenced off the whole way around. Bummer.
We took a bunch of pictures and then Mindy wanted to go into the National Park headquarters in town to get her National Park passport stamped. Rhonda used the restroom because she didn't want to use the porta potties. At that point, we've seen just about everything we wanted to see, and we noticed that the traffic was starting to get semi heavy now that people were starting to get off of work.
We knew it was time to head back to the Jeep and got back to the hotel before it got worse. We walked back to the lot, got situated and plugged in the address to our hotel. We briefly got stuck in a little bit of traffic, but it wasn't super bad. We actually got back to the hotel at a decent time and checked on Amy. She said it was nice to relax and sleep all day, but she was sad she missed all of the festivities in Salem. The topic of dinner came up and we had a discussion of what we wanted to eat. Rhonda, Amy and Mindy wanted Pho and Mom and I were fine with pizza from across the street.
We found out the Pho place was about 8 miles away from the hotel. They placed an order while Mom placed an order to the pizza place. Mom and Rhonda left to go get the Pho and we weren't sure how long they would be gone because at this point the traffic was worse. I was tired so I laid down for about a half an hour and waited until Mom called to let me know when to go get the pizza. They were gone for a long time.
Mom finally did call and told me the pizza was done and I laid back down for a few more minutes. I decided to text her to see when they were on their way back before I went to go get it. She never texted me back, so I had no idea if they were on their way back or not. They finally arrived and Mom asked about the pizza. I told her that I was going to go get it when I knew they had started on their way back, but she never texted me back. She was a little upset that I didn't go get it, so she left to go get it really quick. Obviously, it was cold at that point, but it would have been anyway if I picked it up or not. We asked what took them so long and they said the traffic was awful, they got gas and Rhonda wanted to stop at Dunkin Donuts for some donut holes.
After eating pizza, I got in a shower and then watched Monday Night Football while we hung out the rest of the evening. I got into my computer to make some notes for the blog, and I ate a couple of the donut holes Rhonda bought. Later on, I made popcorn for everyone and finished watching the football game until bedtime. I talked with Ben for a little bit and then went to bed after midnight again. The Browns beat the Bengals.
MA-VT-NH-ME Girl's Trip: Leaving Peabody, NH, VT, Covered Bridges and Woodstock (Day 6)
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