Salem

 

The air has turned, I can wear my sweaters, I can snuggle up under a blanket and can burn my fall scented candles. I am one happy girl!! I am a fall girl through and through. If the winter wasn't so long, ugly and depressing, with all the bare trees, I might like winter too, solely because I can still be cozy, but it just goes on and on and on. Why oh why is winter so long?! Fall is just much more pleasant, the foliage, the warm sun cool breeze, we can actually be outside without sweating or freezing. Pumpkins, I can't forget pumpkins. The kids love Halloween so that makes it extra fun as a mom. Not to mention, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Ahhhh! Fall you have my heart. 

We decided to kick off "Spooky Season" with a trip up to Salem. I haven't been to Salem since I was a little girl and Mike hasn't been since an elementary school field trip. We knew it would be fun and my kids (and Mike and I) absolutely love Hocus Pocus. We didn't go up with much of a plan other than to just walk around, take in all the sights and hit all the Hocus Pocus filming spots we could. Fun Fact: Hocus Pocus opens up with a fly over of what's supposed to be Thackery and Emily Binx' village, well they filmed that part right here in our hometown of Plymouth at Plimoth Plantation! The kids love announcing that every time we watch the movie, and we watch it A LOT this time of year. But majority of the movie was filmed in Salem so why not go check it out?! 

Since we went and I posted about it on my Instagram and Facebook a lot of people were asking my thoughts and how it was. Busy wise it wasn't terrible, but we did go early in the season, October 1st. I talked to a couple street vendors, and they all told me it will only get busier and crazier. As I mentioned in my last post its rained here a lot so I imagine the sunny days will be extra crowded. As for the kids, they loved it. Nothing was too scary for Kensington and Tenley, but Smith was definitely a little timid about the whole experience. He's the kid who loves The Nightmare Before Christmas, so we assumed when we saw Jack Skellington he would be over the moon, but he was not. We are also talking about the kid who doesn't like Santa or anyone in any type of costume so I shouldn't be too surprised, but I was hoping this would be the year he enjoyed it.

I would definitely recommend it to families and definitely to adults as well. We didn't do any museums this time but decided that is a must for next time! The walking tours looked really cool but I didn't see anyone with kids doing those. I think those are definitely geared towards adults. I may be wrong and if so, please met know int he comments. There is SO MUCH history up there and I really think my kids as they are getting older will really appreciate the history when we go to a museum. Our plan is to go up again probably in 2 years. I don't know if there's enough to do to go every single year. Unless of course, you are super into Halloween. There's a lot of costumes, street performances, really good people watching and tons of shops and restaurants.

Here we are in front of the Town Hall, which is where the Halloween party in Hocus Pocus takes place.

The girls were so cute with Frankenstein. Kensington told us she wanted her picture taken with him. We said that was fine, but she would have to go up and put his tip in his tip jug. She marched right up there so proud! Kensington is absolutely our most sensitive and shy kid, so this was so funny to see! She did great and we got a super cute picture!

Auntie, Nick and Baby Rowen joined us too! Oh, my goodness I could squeeze her!! We love her so much!! Uncle Zacky had to work so Nicole, Parker and he missed this trip. But they will definitely join us next time!

We just bopped around taking everything in, the little girls go their faces painted, as seen above. We had lunch at probably the nicest restaurant we've ever brought the kids to, and they did fabulous! The manager of the restaurant kind of looked at us like we were insane when we rolled in with 6 kids, but they certainly proved her wrong!!  We grabbed some ice cream after lunch and the weather was absolutely gorgeous! With so much rain and having this date on the calendar for nearly a month, we were very very grateful for the weather!

We finished up our day going to Max and Dani's house! If you know Hocus Pocus, you know this house. We went around 6pm and it was just us and 2 other cars. Easy to walk up and take a quick pic and be on our way. God Bless these homeowners. I don't think I could live here. LOL! I'm sure it's an absolute zoo the entire month of October! From what I read online they don't care as long as you aren't like up on their front porch. 

Well, that wraps up our Salem trip. It was so much fun! We'll see you in a few years, Salem! Thanks for the memories! :)