Salem

The thing about living on the East Coast is that all of these incredible cities are just a quick road trip away. So when Courtney and I were discussing our mutual love of Halloween back in September, it only made sense that we road trip it up to Salem, MA the weekend before Halloween.  It was so crazy driving up through New Jersey and seeing the Manhattan skyline.  The drive was stunningly beautiful, in the peak of New England fall. We drove through Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and finally Massachusetts. Naturally, Katherine had to get in on the action so she flew into Boston where we picked her up on our way.

That big one in the middle is the new Freedom Tower

Salem only has about 3 hotels, all of which are small and get booked a year in advance so we found a room on Airbnb (my first time using it) and it was so great. Seriously, staying with Beth really made the trip. She gave us all the great tips on where to eat, where to park, local favorites, and even gave us homemade banana bread and pastries for breakfast every morning.  We stayed in Marblehead, which is about a ten minute drive from Salem, and it was stunningly beautiful. Everything was so charming and picturesque I felt like we were living in a movie set.

Friday night we had booked our Hocus Pocus tour of Salem. It was really great to get a history on the town and orient us to where all of the main attractions are in Salem like the old jail, the witch's gaol, Town Hall, the old burial hill, etc.  There were a lot of people out and about, dressed up in costume; this Gandalf and Frodo couple killed me as you can see I'm laughing in the picture.  Salem takes Halloween pretty seriously and even had a carnival set up.

Saturday was insane. There were people everywhere, dressed up in costumes, selling all kinds of random stuff, and the main square had so many fun little shops focused on magic and witchy-ness, I loved it. I even tried my first butterbeer in a completely HP-themed shop.

Sunday we walked through some gorgeous New England fall foliage woods to the historic part of Marblehead. You guys. The houses  mansions.... I can't. And the views of the ocean! It was all so gorgeous. We walked through another beautiful cemetery (where Max gets his shoes stolen by Ice) and then ate lunch at a local restaurant on the water.  That night we drove around and found Max and Danni's house (finally, it took a while), the old Pioneer village they used for the Sanderson sister's house, and saw such a gorgeous sunset on the cove, with the Boston skyline in the background.

On Monday morning we ate a big breakfast at the cutest little local place, that was an actual authentic diner car. I couldn't get over how cheap it was! Then we dropped Katherine off at the airport in Boston and made our way back to DC. We got so lucky and didn't hit any traffic.  It was such a fun trip and I can cross a few more things off my list!