When you think of Salem Massachusetts, the first thing that comes to mind, is the Witch Trials.
Salem has a very historical past. More than just those terrible Witch Trials. It also has many interesting things to do. I combined my trip with some history and some fun.
This isn’t my first trip to Salem. On the last one, eight years ago, I covered the Trials, the Dungeons and the Ghost Walk. They were all very much enjoyed and educational. I would say to someone who has not done them, it’s a must.
This time around, I did some of the other things Salem has to offer.
Halloween in Salem is the whole month of October. It is also the busiest time of the year there, with 125,000 people coming on the weekends in October and up to 250,000 people on Halloween, if it falls on a Saturday. So yes, it’s busy. And if you are calling in sick to work to go, be careful, it’s almost impossible to get a picture on the weekend without someones car or a person in it.
Let me warn you about weekend parking. If you don’t go before the shops open at 10 Am, you will have a very hard time finding parking.
Sense it’s Halloween, there are two things that you need, one is Candy and the other is Scary, or at least decorations that look scary.
So with candy in mind, I Visited the first Confectionery Shop in America. Peppers, named after the family who opened it.
Peppers Candy Store
Peppers opened in 1806 and has been open and running as a family business since the day it opened. The staff was friendly and the store was busy. It has a great location, right across the street from the House of Seven Gables.
The Sweet Shop or Candy Store as we call it today, is filled with hand-made candies.
The Truffles Counter
They sell truffles by the pound. You can select from many different flavors, and mix and match to your liking.
Wall Displayed with Candy
They carry Salt Water Toffee in many flavors, including pumpkin. There are chocolates, soft candy and hard candy, and they still sell the original style candy they first made.
The store is small, making it quaint and everything is beautiful displayed.
The Center Display
The prices were fair, considering it was good tasting candy. I confess to walking down the street eating a small bag of truffles and I had a few other type of candy in my bag to bring back home to husband. After all, it’s Halloween, and big kids need their candy too.
So we had the sweet, now for the scary.
The window decorations in the stores had a lot of work put into them, but the nicest part was so many of the homes were decorated too. Homes had displays that you could stop and shoot pictures of.
A window display
This is my favorite house that was decorated.
Of course it wouldn’t be Salem if we didn’t do something witch, and sense I had done the Ghost Tour the last time, I decided to do the Witch Tours this time.
On the Witch Tour, you are not looking for witches. It’s a two-hour educational and historical walk through Salem.
They stop you off at the famous Witch House.
The Witch House
The Witch house, is actually not a witches house, instead it is from a member of the Witch Trials, I won’t tell you more than that because it’s a must see on the trip. It is a museum by day.
You stop off at the cemetery where the 20 innocent people(witches) are buried, along with their accusers and the hanging judge.
The Memorial Park is built next to the cemetery.
The Memorial Park has 20 individual benches in memory of the 19 people hanged and the 1 crushed to death. There we never any actually witches burned to death at the stake in Salem, that happened in Europe.
One of the benched in the park. Visitors bring flowers every day to the benches.
The scary part of this two hours was not about anything jumping out on you. The scary part was that one judge, could have saved and stopped all of the panic and the deaths of the people accused of being a witch who were murdered by the legal system.
The Gravestone of the Hanging Judge.
The trip of course, would not be complete without at least one Witch, The most beloved Witch of them all, Samantha Stevens of Bewitched. You can find her statue in the town square.
Have a Happy and Safe Halloween.
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