Sick Ghouls and Fixed Kitties

October 30th, 2010

Our fall day with the family night group happened a week and a day ago.  I cooked grilled cheese while Jason cooked his amazing tomato and basil soup!  He is a really amazing cook.  After eating, Anna asked us about our honeymoon so we were able to tell a few stories about that and show them the finished scrapbook I made Jason.  We then carved pumpkins!  Our pumpkin was going to be Jack Skellington but ended up being a cat... it would have taken too long unfortunately.  Holly and Bella carved their first pumpkin.  By the end of the night we finished baking and decorating our sugar cookies.  They were scrumptiously fantastic.

2010 carving pumpkins

 Bella's first pumpkin carving experience

All pumpkins finished

Ours is the cat :^)

 This is why I love them... they are as weird as us!

 Us with our pumpkins

 Side note:  we always take a nice picture and, without talking about it, we immediately take a messed up one.

 Melanie and Anna's finished pumpkins!

 No one knows....

 My cookie... oddly enough... it's not in jail this time.

Fun fact:  I did not take a bite out of his cookie... although it looks like it.

On Saturday we met Kyle and his friends at Red Lobster to celebrate him becoming an MIS (master's degree).  Really fun!  I was really glad we were able to go.  It was a very nice group of people... all of us pretty quiet, but that made it pretty interesting.

On Sunday we went to church and then met Audrey at Jason's Deli.  She then came back to our home and watched a movie with us and talked for a long time.  I really enjoyed having her over!  We learned that if we keep our cats hostage in the bathroom, Audrey is able to stay without a horrible horrible allergic reaction.  Thank goodness otherwise she wouldn't have been able to help us eat our pumpkin stew!  It was yummy.  I was really glad she came over.  I'm also glad I can get the chance to know her a little more.

On Monday, Jason and I headed back to work.  Life as normal.  We went to Party City and kept trying to come up with costumes for the Halloween party today.  We've been working on it all week.  Jason got stuff for it a couple of days ago... he was to be a zombie.  Sadly, today however, he is sick.  We were both up all night and aren't going to be able to go.  We've been working on the costumes for so long, too.  Hopefully Jason will feel better... he was out of work a lot last week from this.  I'm exhausted as well... every night or morning this week I have been unable to get a full night's rest.  My favorite time my sleep was interrupted:  when our neighbors stood right in front of our bedroom door screaming at each other.... literally screaming at the top of his lungs!  To make it better, it was 2:30 in the morning.  The cops ended up being called on him because he woke so many people up.  We learned a lot about him and how his wife was cheating on him with another woman... that was interested.  Oh man.

Peanut Butter was fixed yesterday!  My mom offered to take him when she took hers.  He is doing great and is sleeping better than we are.  We had a lovely time last night with my family also!  I went to Ash's soap party.  It was fantastic!  She made the coolest stuff and it was all soooo good.  The soaps are amazing!  While I did that, Jason and Chris were at our place in College Park.  They watched zombie movies and drank beer... apparently they had a good time.  I'm really glad my family and Jason love each other!

Other than that, I think that's been about it this week.  We've been busy and tired and sick.  Hopefully this coming week will be restful, sick-free, and a lot less to do.

Back to Reality

October 21, 2010

Happy birthday to our friend Jeff today!  And happy birthday to our friend Nikki a few days earlier!  Both our best man and maid of honor have birthdays during the same week... October is a beautiful month :^)  We love you both dearly.

Well, we have returned to the real world now.  We are enjoying married life in the real world just as much as we did in Salem.  A little less witchcraft and magic, but Jason and I always have fun when we're together.  On Monday Jason returned to work, and I cleaned and did the laundry and other mundane tasks.  Life went back to normal.  It was nice to be home, see our loved ones, and go back to our regular routine.  One of our favorite things to do together is have breakfast before work.  We both get up and cook a good meal (toaster strudel) and talk a little before work.  This week we decided to get Count Chocula for breakfast... apparently this is a tradition for Jason.  He eats it every time it comes out during the year.  I, however, have never eaten it.  Got me why... it's amazing!  This coming week we will be having Boo-berry.  (Almost spelled that boobery... that sounds odd).

After crashing a baby shower at my parent's home, we gave them their gifts.  We got my brother, sister, and brother-in-law certifications that they sign the document, they will be witches/warlocks.  They all seemed excited.  It was good to see all of them. I love my family so much.

On Monday we bought Halloween decorations and had our own, private fall day extravaganza.  It was lovely.  We bought cob webs, spiders, lights, and pumpkins to decorate.  We then made homemade chicken pot pie and decorated cookies in the shape of pumpkins.  We also watched arsenic and old lace... tradition.  Plus it's awesome.  I love our fall day dates.

 Putting up decorations that were awesome!

 Result of amazing decorating skills

Our weird fall day picture

Jason molding cookies

Thriller!!!

 The Cinderella pumpkin from our wedding... so beautiful.

 Jason decorating his cookies...

 "How many leg do a spider have?  How many leg, how many leg?"  We make up weird songs

His one leg spider/ balloon cookie

My normal cookie :^)


Tuesday was rather uneventful.  The end of tuesday.

Wednesday we left work and immediately went to see Ash, Chris, Jordyn, and Jace.  We had an amazing time!  Jason and Chris are soul mates... I stole that from Ashley. It's true though.  We had amazing pork chops... I've never eaten one before, believe it or not.  Delicious!  We played games with the kids and stayed rather late talking to Ash and Chris... we always stay later than expected.  We keep talking and just forget time... I love that!

Today we cleaned and went shopping.  That's about it.  Jason did a lot of cleaning and let me relax... he's amazing like that.  Our cats are farting, fighting, and flat out annoying today.  Peanuts has been eating bean soup... that should go over well....... his farts are sooooooooo bad!!!  The bean soup didn't help.  Fred is fred... sneaking into places and acting weird.  Peanut butter knows he can't go into the office... however, there is a giant Charlie Brown balloon from our wedding that he really loves.  So, peanuts quickly ran into the office, grabbed the string from the balloon in his mouth, and casually walked to the bathroom with it.  It was rather cute, albeit annoying, to see this cat strolling along the hall with that balloon.  Jason said it reminded him of a little kid holding a balloon and happily walking down the street.  Our cats are crazy.  I think it's time for bed.  Until next week.

All Aboard The Hogwarts Express

Today is the day we said goodbye to Salem, MA.  Hello real world.  It was nice to come home but sad at the same time.  We both had such a good vacation and really enjoyed not having to worry about absolutely anything.  Oh well, can't stay on vacation forever.

We set our alarms for 6:45 a.m.  That's right... that early!  We quickly got dressed and called a cab... or taxi, as they say in Salem.  We somehow managed to fit every single piece of dirty clothes into my suitcase and left the clean clothes in Jason's.  I was amazed how giant my suitcase quickly became... it continually toppled over onto our way down to the taxi.  We were running a bit late--being 7 in the morning!  Luckily our taxi driver had to "go to the can." This helped us, since we had to check out of the hotel still.  The same, raspy-voiced man who checked us into the hotel was the one who checked us out.  He was very pleasant and had been working all week... not quite sure he ever leaves that place... he works so much.  To the front desk clerks, we had become known as the "honeymoon couple."  Every time we passed by the front desk they'd ask how the vacation was going and occasionally they would tell random strangers that we were on our honeymoon... they seemed very excited for us :^)

Anyway... we said goodbye and met our taxi driver.  He was a very jolly man with three kids, one now living in GA.  He asked how we liked Salem, and we told him it was awesome.  I also mentioned how it looked like people from Salem, however, did not like it as much as tourists.  He paused, then finally said "yeah, no."  He told us he was going to lie, but then changed his mind and decided to be honest.  Too much traffic, tourists, and trouble.  

After we said goodbye to our taxi drive, we headed for the airport.  Coming from the Atlanta airport into Logan is completely different... Atlanta needs a train because it's so big.  Logan, however, could fit inside a shoe box.  Very different.  We quickly went through security and made it safely onto our seats.  I feel asleep on the way home while Jason did a crossword puzzle.  Our flight attendants were extremely rude.  They basically yelled at a passenger for trying to go to the bathroom.  She looked scared to try again... Jerkfaces.

We finally landed and Jamie picked us up from the airport.  It was good to see him.  We unloaded our stuff at our apartment and said hi to the kitties... missed our cats so much!!  Jamie took really good care of them and our place.  We both are super thankful for him!  After having a really amazing lunch with Jamie at the Tavern, we headed to Newnan.  We accidentally crashed a baby shower at my mom's house... oops.  Chrissy didn't seem to mind.  I got to see some old friends and say hi to family.  Jason and I gave my mom, dad, and brother gifts.  We gave my parents a cast iron spiral candle holder thing... apparently around the 1600s fathers would have a candle holder like that one on their mantel.  Because it was a spiral the candle could be moved up or down.  Father's would use this candle to indicate if he wanted his daughter's suitor to leave (because he didn't like him) or stay longer.  We thought this an appropriate gift, given that we just got married... they can keep it at the top cause Jason's not going anywhere :^) 

After saying hi to family and telling fun stories of Salem, we finally headed home.  Real life immediately began.  We had no clean clothes and needed to buy food for the week.  Luckily my amazing brother baked us tons of stuff and left us lots of food!  He's amazing.  We then watched the movie "the Raven."  Very boring movie... don't recommend it.  

Now, real life with Jason.  We're both too weird for us to "go back to normal."  Back to our crazy, weird, and very fun life together.  I'm very thankful for such a weird and crazy individual around :^) 

Blogs from here on out will not be this long or every day... I promise. 

End of honeymoon.    

Harry Potter in Salem, MA

Today is our last, full day on our honeymoon. Very sad realization, but a very wonderful day. We both woke up very early to eat breakfast at the hotel. We have tried to do this on a few occasions, but we usually oversleep. Funny because today they had breakfast open later than usual... that is our luck. Although very scrumptious, it was highly overpriced! Never eat at the Marriot for breakfast... hash browns are delicious though.

After breakfast we took a nap to replace the sleep we should have gotten, had we known that breakfast lasted later. We then spend time watch TV. We watched the discovery channel (Jason's fault). It actually was pretty interested. The TV show was called "super swarms." It was basically about insects, fish, and creatures that gather in large groups and form a larger identity as a whole. Very interested... and we discovered what a particularly ugly fly is that we've seen around our apartment. It's super gross, but now we know that all it does is reproduce and die. Anyway...

After a little relaxing, we headed over to the mall to begin shopping and grabbing food at Dunkin donuts. Scrumptious pumpkin donuts! We also visited target a few times today and went to the dollar tree. All in all, a pretty normal day for us at the mall again. On our way out of the mall, we ran into a teenager wearing a zelda hat... I feel we could relate. Also, while crossing the street to go to our hotel, we saw a man in Pajama's riding a bicycle. We've seen him on a few occasions... he seems perfectly happen and content to be riding his bike in the freezing cold in PJs.

When Jason and I are at home, we usually run into people who hang around stores all day. Usually we try to avoid these people because there are so many suspicious individuals where we live. However, during our walk over to Kelley's for dinner, we realized that this entire week... we have been those suspicious individuals hanging around stores. Perhaps all those people in east point are simply on their honeymoon and are too young to rent a car too?? . . . . Somehow I think not.

Kelley's was a very interesting place to eat. It reminded us of a northern Varsity, except way not as good or greasy. Jason and I looked oddly suspicious as we appeared from behind a row of trees to enter the restaurant... again, we had to walk there. The people in the drive through looked a little bewildered as we appeared from nowhere. We then headed back to the hotel room for the night.

Jason and I spend the second half of our day mainly reading the fourth Harry Potter book together. Jason has seen the movies but only read the first three books. This is of course a crime, so we are fixing it :^) We have been reading it to each other for a month or so now and are finally half way into the book. Reading Harry Potter in Salem, Ma around Halloween is probably the best way to read this book.

After finishing reading some of Harry Potter, we realized we should probably check our plane tickets to make sure we had the times correct. Of course, I didn't have the time correct! I forgot that they changed our flight from leaving at 11 a.m. to leaving at 8:30 a.m.!!! Yikes! Jason has already begun packing his things and I am about to as well. Way too early to leave!!! Anyway, it will be sad to go, but also nice to be back home with a drivable car with people we love. This has been a really wonderful honeymoon. I am very lucky to have met someone as weird and amazing as Jason. Don't tell him I said that...

A Raven and a Writing Desk

October 15th, 2010

Today was really really amazing!  I think this was my favorite day here in Salem.  Jason concurs.  Also, before I explain why, I would like to correct one thing from one of our first blog posts... Jason and I did not wondered about the mall.  My sister so lovingly pointed that out.  To quote:  "you 'wonder' about the mall. I can't get rid of the image in my head of you and Jason, side by side, pondering the mall. =)"  Also, Jason and also corrected me because it's apparently "wandering" about the mall.... so, so so sorry.  Please forgive my foolish speech.  


Reasons today was awesome:


Reason #1) Slept in late.  This isn't as awesome as it should have been... the man in the room above us decided that last night it was necessary to stomp as loudly as possible, going from one end of the room to the other.  He did this at 5 a.m., by the way.  What a Jerkface... to say it a little more nicely than Jason did... luckily, we were able to sleep in.  Therefore, this is a reason today was awesome, not bad. 


Reason #2) Breakfast was Subway.  The reason it was subway was because we slept in late and missed breakfast.  Still delicious.  I have come to love the food court because we can go to the same place everyday and continually eat different things.  Also, would like to note that the walk to the mall and back was very chilly, as it had rained the night before... we had missed the rain.  Another point for a good day!


Reason #3)  Our taxi driver into Salem was freaking awesome.  I call him the "let's get it on taxi driver."  This sounds a lot worse than it is meant to... the reason he is called this is because that's the type of music he was playing the entire way up there.  He also spoke to us about how crazy Salem gets around Halloween.  Apparently the roads surrounding Salem get blocked off.  They do this to fit in the 75-100 thousand people who come!!  Another point for us for coming weeks ahead.  Very interesting driver... my favorite part was when said that it's best to put your drinks in McDonalds cups so  no one can see you are drinking beer or liquor.  Also... interesting note here from the taxi man... apparently after 11 on Halloween night, if you are seen after the fireworks in Salem they will, to quote, "throw you in the can."  Apparently this helps with crime.  


Reason #4)  We saved walking time by being dropped off at the House of Seven Gables.  This was by far our favorite thing we have seen in Salem.  It was freaking awesome!!!  Our tour guide, named Travis, was hilarious.  He was a darked haired, curly mustached man.  When I mean curly, I mean like the cartoon of the evil man who curls his mustache.  Jason is laughing at me because that apparently isn't specific enough... I can't remember the guys name.  Please feel free to tell us his name.  Jaffar?  Is that right?  Jason is telling me to google it, but I chose not to.  Jason just swore at me... he did it again!  Gr


Reason #5)  The House of the Seven Gables has secret compartments we were able to climb through!!  That's right... actually had a hidden staircase!  The tour guide opened up a door and told us a big lie about the room being a place to store firewood.  At the end he goes "that's amazing, especially since I just made all that up."  Then he told us the real reason the room is there, is the staircase.  We climbed up with numerous older people in front of us.  You had to turn sideways at multiple points to even fit between the stairs and the walls.  The reason it was so tight of a fit was because we were climbing up the inside of a chimney ... how cool is that!  We weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside, so we can't show you... sorry.  It was super lovely and awesome!  A lot of the wood was original to the house, as well as the brick and horse-hair plaster insulation.  That sounds weird, but true.  Also, the ceilings were super low in order to hold in head more efficiently... really worked.  As the house was added onto by newer and richer owners (except for the third man who wasted the entire family inheritance), the ceilings were build higher up.  Kinda neat... the wallpaper also became more ornate and, to be honest, just throw up ugly.  Anyway...It was the coolest place we've been to.  


Reason #6) Jason broke into a cabinet at the Counting House beside the house Hawthorne grew up in.  I'd like to note that they moved the house there from ten blocks away... with a truck, no less!  Jason broke into that cabinet for no reason, for there was nothing in it... hahahaha.  He calls it urban exploring... weird.  Also, we were able to go into Hawthorne's childhood home.  Very cool.  They brought his bed, couches, and writing desks, among other things.  Very neat place. I kept saying we needed to take the writing desk with us... Jason agreed.  Only problem we ran into was that the plane probably wouldn't have let us take it on board.  Jerks.


Reason #7) We bought things.  Jason bought a shot glass and a sealing wax kit.  The kit is awesome.  Picture soon to follow.  I bought two candlestick holders... glass blown, from the House of Seven Gables.  really cool stuff.


Reason #8) We bought a wand!  That's right, a wand from Alivan's... kinda a rip of Olivander's.  It came with a wand bag and a certificate of authenticity.  They were in a case, so we asked to see one of them.  I felt very strange afterward... she handed me a wand and I just held it.  How do you test a wand?  I had a moment where I thought I was suppose to flick it and wait for the harry potter moment of knowing... I chose instead to simply say "how much?"  She seemed satisfied.  Tonight, however, Jason has attempted to do "expelliarmus" with the wand.  To all of our surprise... it didn't work.


Reason #9) Actually saw a women today, buy a spell (i.e. a bag of incense).  The reason this is awesome was because the sales lady sold it to her for $30... she pulled this off because she told her it was a tried and true spell that has been used for twenty five or thirty years.... good sales lady.


Reason #10)  Jason and I went back to the Old Burying Point to see if we could get a "cold chill" from the ghost of the young girl.  The tour guide said many people get chills near the back, right hand corner of the cemetery.  Jason and I walked there, and in fact... we did get a cold chill!!!!  The wind was blowing... anyone would have.  :^)


Reason 11) When we called a cab to take us back to the hotel... it was the same cab driver that took us to Salem our very first day!  This is the cab driver who has trouble with his dogs.  We found out today, however, it isn't just his dogs... he has animal problems in general.  I say this because the cab ride back he spoke of a snake that has gotten into their basement.  Poor guy.  He also told us about picking a kid up who turned out to be a runaway from  the Plummer House in Winter Island.  Kid was trying to return to his mom.  Sad story.  Nice cab driver.  


Reason 12) Dinner was McDonalds.  Jason got a free McFlurry and I got a free Medium fry... thank you McDonalds monopoly.  Awesome!


All in all... great day!

This is a picture of the House of Seven Gables.  Very cool. 

 The picture on the bottom is from the House of Seven Gables as well... while shotting photos we believe we've got a ghost on film... this explains why the woman from the top photo has disappeared.... oh my!!!  We didn't take any shots in between... they were taken one right after the other... crazy what happens in Salem!

 This is the cabinet Jason broke into for nothing... wahahahahaha.

 random ship wheel outside the home of Hawthorne

View from the house of the seven gables.

 Jason in front of the House of Seven Gables... they like pumpkins here.

 Us in the Garden of the House of Seven Gable

 Random patch of grass that had this sign next to a street we passed.

This is the spot in the cemetery where the tour guide said numerous people felt cold chills... like to point out that the bay is right behind that wall... it's usually windy.  

 Someplace in the mall...

 My new amber, glass blown candlestick holders!

 Jason's shot glass :^)

Our wand from Alivan's

Jason's new sealing wax kit from the House of Seven Gables!


p.s. Something I forgot.... while in the shop where we purchased these items, Jason was made fun of quite a bit.  Reason being:  He and I separated at one point while looking at different things.  He walked up to me and then put his hands on my back to greet me very affectionately... at least, the back he thought was mine :^) I was right next to the blonde woman he did this to and immediately heard "Oh!  I'm so sorry, I thought you were my wife."  I laughed a lot and then he came and hugged me.  She said "At least you have a good guy."  It was hilarious, especially because he did the same thing to my sister when we entered a restaurant at our graduation.     

Catfish in the Massachusetts Bay

October 14th, 2010

Today was our day to recover from walking around Salem so much.  We literally slept about fourteen hours.  After waking up we watched some TV and had our $6.00 chocolate covered cherries, which we had bought the day before.  Later on we walked over to the mall and ate Chinese food.  It was scrumptious.  We then got in a photo booth to take pictures of us.  We made funny faces and whatnot... very fun.  We then walked around in the 5 Below store... we, of course, bought nothing.  Jason and I are super good at browsing but not actually buying... don't know why we do that so much.  We then went to this amazing Halloween store.  We again, browsed, and bought nothing.  Super cool zombie that was on the ground.  It would crawl out and move toward you when you passed by it... very creepy.  We then went to target, bought food and candy and then headed back to the hotel.  We uploaded some pictures, which can now be seen on our old blog posts.  We relaxed until it was time to go see a movie.  While crossing the street to go to the movie, I dropped my phone in the middle of the street . . . with a car coming, no less!  I panicked and didn't move.  Jason began swearing and quickly grabbed the phone before something really bad happened to it.  It took a couple seconds because my phone fell apart into three pieces.  All is well, I have a whole, functional phone now.  Thank you Jason!  We then walked to the mall to watch "Catfish."  All I can say about that movie is "Odd and very strange."  Jamie recommended it to us.  It's about this man's relationship with a family he met via facebook.  He soon discovers things aren't exactly how they seem.  The whole movie is a documentary and apparently a true story.  Although psychologically fascinating, it was too weird for me to watch again.  Interesting, but odd.

After the movie Jason and I walked across the street to a restaurant called 99.  It was a really nice place that gave you 99 reasons to eat there once you walked in.  One of those reasons being "everyone can have their own personal coat rack at their table."  Very cool place.  Their food was super salty, we think because they use sea salt.  Pretty good though.  After dinner we walked back to the hotel in the freezing cold (not really that bad).  The guy at the front desk asked us where we were from.  When we said Atlanta he began talking about sports with us.  He obviously doesn't know us that well, for neither of us like or get sports.  Needless to say, the conversation lasted for only a short while.  This is the end of our lovely, relaxing day in Danvers.

These were our $6.00 cherries... way overpriced and not that amazing, I might add.  However, they did give us paper towels for Jason to wipe of soap with from the day before.

our pictures from the photo booth... we're weird, I know.

Ghosts and Trolley's

October 13th, 2010

Today was extremely eventful.  We awoke and ate breakfast at dunkin donuts again... amazing pumpkin donuts, by the way.  We then called a taxi to go into Salem.  This taxi driver was very interested in the news.  We talked mostly about people dying and sad things you hear on the news.  Once he dropped off at the Old Town Hall, we headed to a witch shop Jason and had seen to buy trinkets to take home.  We wondered around for quite a while until we realized we would miss our trolley ride if we didn't head back.  We soon found the trolley people on Essex St.  We bought tickets and waited in line for the trolley.  We ended up having to wait for the second trolley, as everyone pushed us out of the way for the first one... jerks.  Once on the trolley, we rode through Salem as he pointed out famous spots and landmarks.  Soon we stopped and traded tour guides.  The knew driver was called "Father Time" as he had a dumbledoorish beard and an old face about him.  The actual tour guide reminded us quite a bit of Dr. Goble.  He was a very nice man and rather funny... and almost certain he had a sweater vest on.  We rode around through Salem, Chestnut St, Derby Sq, the Commons, Winter Island, and other important landmarks.  He showed us the parker brothers factory by the bay... very cool location.  He also showed us the House of the Seven Gables, the giant boat that we think is called the Friendship of Salem Ship or something... At this point we can't remember everything we saw.  But lots of historical places were seen, among other things like the museums.  It was very fun.

After the trolley ride, we got off and ate at Ben & Jerry's.  Believe it or not... I have never eaten Ben & Jerry's ice cream, at least that I can recall.  Jason had Pumpkin cheesecake and I had chocolate peanut butter swirl... very very good.  Afterward we walked back to the cemetery and took more pictures and looked at the house next to it... it's the oldest house in Salem, build in the early 1600s.  We thought we could go inside, but it turns out it belongs to the museum.  It is the archeological department is located.  Jason and I peeked into the windows to see what was in there.  We saw a lot of old books and shelves.  Jason was a little too excited and banged his had against the windows.  At that moment I realized there was a guy sitting at a desk reading... we both quickly moved and acted like it wasn't us.

After this, we then went to the museum near Ben &Jerry's to see a ten minute play and get the crap scared out of me.  After the play about Elizabeth Proctor, the tour guide took us down to the dungeon area to see sculptures of people during that time period.  It was extremely dark and creepy, but was filled with fake scenes from the witch trials and executions.  Right before the scene where the hangings happened... Jason and I looked in a window with a girl sculpture.  To our surprise she started moving... it scared the S*@% out of me and I took off walking quickly, dragging Jason behind me.

We then went looking at other stores around and came upon one that was selling tickets to a ghost tour.  Jason really wanted to go so we bought tickets.  We then went to the Salem Beer Works for dinner.  It was sooooo good.  Jason had a burger and I had a salad... we both were so full and happy after dinner.  Once we left the restaurant, we both realized we had to pee really badly.  Of course... at this point in Salem the whole town closes.  After about 5 or 6 everyone just completely leaves Salem and most of the stores close.  Because of this, finding a bathroom was hard to do.  Finally we found one in the mall... it was gross.  That was the nastiest bathroom I have ever stepped foot in.  Jason said their bathroom didn't have water to rinse off his hands.  He and i wondered around trying to find water or at least a napkin to get the soap off his hands.  Finally we stopped at this chocolate shop in the mall, and bought two things of chocolate covered cherries just in the hopes of getting a napkin.  We didn't get a napkin so I asked for one... score!  No more soapy hands.

We hung around for about an hour looking in the only remaining store left open, waiting on the ghost tour to start.  Since the tour is a ghost tour, it had to happen at night.  After splitting into groups we met our amazing tour guide.  She was a funky woman in a long blue robe and top hat.  With our tour guide was a man with a lantern and a shovel who helped us cross streets and lead the way... he looked super creepy, yet pretty cool. First place we visited was the first Episcopal church in Salem.  It was lovely and located on Brown Street!  We took a picture of our street :^) Apparently this church is haunted... according to our tour guide.  Next to the church was a prison... the earliest and oldest prison built in Salem.  Of course... this place was haunted as well!  A family now lives there and apparently pays $3,000 a month to stay there.  She said they didn't have to state on the lease how it's haunted.  Therefore, these people probably don't even know that people have claimed to have seem ghosts.  Behind the prison is a cemetery... the same one where Giles Corey was pressed to death with stones in the hopes they could get a confession from him.  He was accused of witchcraft.  He died three days after laying in the field with tons of rocks on top of him.  He was 81.  His ghost has apparently been seen roaming around that spot... so they say.

We also went to that cemetery Jason and I kept going to the day before, where John Hathorne was burried.  Apparently that house that Jason and I peeked into is also haunted.  They say a girl caught scarlet fever and died on the third floor, after being quarantined there for days.  The family moved out and apparently a new family  moved in right afterward.  The man who moved in apparently saw the girl on the third floor and spoke with her.  She told him to kill his wife... he must of thought that a good idea cause he did.  He killed her and their kid.  It is now said you can see his ghost also.  The tour lady told us that this building belongs to the museum but she has never ever seen anyone actually in there... she's lived there for 7 years.  I saw that guy earlier that day... I think she's lying to try to spook people out.  She was pretty good, but I doubt the ghost thing.

After seeing a few more spots and hearing about the pirate captain Fly (who killed numerous people) we headed back.  We stopped at one more mansion before returning... they call it "Clue Mansion."  the reason they call it Clue Mansion is because it's the mansion that the game clue was based off of... remember how Parker Brothers factory was here.  Well, there was a real murder that happened at that mansion that actually involved a captain, a candlestick, and a rope.  Mrs. Peacock came from Peabody and a few other names came from other places and real people.  Also, there was a strip of famous, expensive houses in Salem that started the game "Monopoly."  Who knew!  Kinda cool.

After our walking tour we called a taxi and headed to the hotel.  I left my phone in the taxi and had to call them to see if it was there.  It was and the guy was kind enough to bring it back to me.  Oh joy!  It's now time for me to go to sleep.  Goodnight all.

 Nathaniel Hawthorne Statue . . . very cool.  Also found out during our ghost tour that Charles Dickens visited Nathaniel here in Salem.  While he was here, Nathaniel told him about a dream he had about three ghosts coming to him in the night to redeem his past mistakes (like his families wrong doings... such as the judge Hathorne who condemned accused witches).  According to our tour guide, he used Hawthorne's dream in his Christmas Carol.  So neat.

 A bench outside the Old Town Hall we sat at, next to a lady eating a sandwich... or apparently a bagel (Jason corrected me).

 This is the creepy house that is apparently haunted at the Old Burying Point.  This is the one I saw the guy in that was not a ghost.

 This is the sign at the entry of the Old Burying Point, specifying locations of notable people.

 This is Jason about to enjoy one of the best hamburgers ever at the Marriott Hotel.

 This is one of Salem's trolleys.

 This was, I think, the trolley we rode in.

 This is the Friendship ship...

 This was pretty so I took a picture.  Around this location, two members of Latter-day saints stopped us to redeem our souls.  The only non witch people in town... they picked us.  It is at this point I feel the need to recall something Jason said.... "do you ever wonder if someone is going to jump out and hold us up at wand-point?" We laughed a lot. :^)

 First taste of Ben & Jerry's :^)

 Jason.

 This is a living statue that we saw in Derby square... she isn't that tall... so was standing on a box.  Pretty cool though.  I thought about stealing her broom, but couldn't figure a way to get it on the plane.

 Derby Sq.

 Jason swears there is a ghost in the left side of this picture... he's crazy I tell you! (he doesn't really... it was a joke, so he says).

Us.

P.S. during our tour the guide asked us "How many witches were burned in Salem?"  Many shouted out numbers and then Jason said "none."  She got extremely excited and threw him a gift.  She said because he got the question right he has "the dirt on salem."  She really meant dirt.  She gave him a bottle of dirt from the cemetery in Salem.