I woke up much earlier than my internal alarm clock will usually allow on a Sunday.  Actually, I really lucked out this morning.  If I have to wake up early, I usually sleep lightly, for fear of sleeping in.  I wanted to wake up at 8am to leave by 8:30am, and set my alarm before going to sleep.  I actually woke up at quarter til, and as I woke up, I realized, that I had not changed the day setting on my alarm clock (you can set it for every day of the week, just the week, or just the weekend....I'd kept it on the week setting)  My reason for such a early (by my standards) rising?  A day trip up to Salem with KK and D.  We were taking the ferry up to Salem, and had to be there at 9:30am.

I'd never been up to Salem for the actual October fairs.  The town fully embraces its Halloween tourism, and has food booths set up and vendors galore.  I've heard it can be over run with pointy hats and Hot Topic vampire teens, but even that can be fun to watch.  I'd gone up on Halloween weekend, but just at night to see Die You Zombie Bastards and the Misfits cover band at the Salem movie theater.  We wandered past an especially aggressive zombie walk, and escaped into a boutique to avoid the overly grabby living dead.  But since we were going just for the show, I'd missed the hot cider and fried delights of the fair. 



I'd texted KK the day before to solidify the plans.  She got me a ferry ticket, and I got all of us return tickets for the commuter rail, so that we didn't have to worry about the surcharge for paying on the train.  She told me to be at the docks (by Columbus Park) at 9:30am; which of course meant that I got there at 9.  I had time to grab a seasonal pumpkin spice latte, so that I wasn't a complete grouch.

Turns out the boat departs at 10, and they want people to be there early so the line can form and boarding is prior to 10, so that departure is 10.  I wish I'd known all of this, because I would have gotten there at 9:30 anyways.  Since I thought 9:30 was the departure, I arrived sufficiently early.  It was no real problem though, because it was a lovely day, and I had a book (Something Wicked This Way Comes) to keep me from being bored.

The two of them arrived around 9:30, looking even more exhausted than I felt.  They'd gone out the night before and had gotten in late.  So there we all sat on the docks, really wanting a few more hours of sleep, but putting on a good face for the others to make the day fun.  The ferry was slightly late.  We got on the boat, and were treated to a fairly steady tour of the harbor until we got past the harbor islands.  I learned that the history of the harbor islands is mostly garbage dumps and whore houses. 

By the time we got into Salem, it was do or die....we needed to find food...the reserves we were all running on were about to be depleted.  We found a cafeteria style place along the street that the ferry dock is on.  We all got variations of eggs, toast, and potatoes.  I ordered my second coffee of the day. 

Salem is full of attractions.  These are small spaces either museum-ish or performance-ish.   Most deal with witches or the witch trials, but there are also pirate museums and a scarry movie wax museum.  They also have the house that Nathaniel Hawthorne's Seven Gables is based on.  Most of these attractions are 8-10 dollars, and more than a couple and it quickly eats up a good chunk of money.  Between KK and I, we'd seen a smattering of these attractions on previous trips.  So, we knew which to avoid, the worse being a circular room that you have to look up around the perimeter of the room to watch light shone on still figures as the story of the witch trials is played,  It gives you a real crick in the neck.  I'd enjoyed a "museum" about Lizzy Borden, called the 40 Whacks musuem.  I saw that with MT when she was in town; but it has since closed down.  It was very informational, but mostly involved walking around and reading, not popular with the kids.

Our first stop was the Witch's Cottage.  KK had a groupon for their admission.  We were ushereed into a theater, and told that the first two rows might be touched by the performers.  I took a seat right next to the "fright plank".  The show was about 15-20 long and told the history of witches in New England.  They used some puppetry, which reminded me of the Skeski's from the Dark Crystal.  There was much black light trickery, and a fun use of soap bubbles with the black lights; which lit up around the room like descending magical orbs.  Occassionally a character would stomp down or rush up the fright plank.  Most of the frights were things that were suddenly on stage after a black out.  The best part, was the explanation of how people could be accused of witchcraft in colonial days.  A young girl came out and pretended to retell the tale of seeing glowing eyes in the woods, etc....but I couldn't pay attention as the poor girl had braces and couldn't quite say the words through all of the metal.  She had that odd mouth movement of someone that has just gotten braces and still isn't used to them. 

From there, we went to the Witch House.  This was a historical attraction.  It was the home of one of the witch trial judges.  They have it furnished with period pieces that aren't actually from the judge's family.  Scattered throughout the house are signs with the history of the judge and his family, as well as general factoids about the time.

We stopped to marvel at these implements of punishment.  I wonder how many of the accused witches used the powerful jazz hands spell?



This wasn't authentic enough, so we were given the direction to "look miserable". 



I made sure that we got everyone in the goofy pose, and forgot to mention to KK that we were now going back to "happy to be punished" poses.



We left the house and walked back into town, then, as might happen, when you have three nerds awandering, we took a detour into the comic book store.  I think we spent more time in the store than we did in any of the other attractions.  A considerable amount of time was spent looking at the giant microbe toys.  You can take the geek out of the lab, but you can't take the lab out of the geek!

We decided to make our last stop at the Nightmare Gallery, which is the horror movie wax museum.  I was most excited about this one.  On the way from the comic store, we heard a loud siren noise.  In front of us, coming down a hill, was a large group of motorcycle police, driving with their sirens blazing.  The cops lead a procession of civilian motorcyclists.  By the time we got to the street, we noticed the people lining either side of the street, with a path left open for the cycles to pass.  We walked along the street, until we were directly in front of the Nightmare gallery, hoping the procession would soon pass.  Little did we know that it was the MDA Halloween Motorcycle Run.  I couldn't find the exact number of participants this year, but apparently in previous years they've had about 3000 riders.  I wouldn't doubt it, as it took 45 minutes for the parade to end.  It was novel at first, but quickly became loud and annoying.  We stood behind a crazy woman, that kept stepping into the street.  There was a group of spectators taking phone videos of the cyclists, for a very long time.  I wondered if they would ever sit and watch all 45 minutes of video...but then in my search for the details, I ended up watching one video on youtube taken by one of the passengers....I spotted myself, briefly, in the crowd....which goes to show, that I shouldn't be so judgemental, I do brainless things too.  (my mother would probably argue that I do brainless things more often than not)



We finally got across the street and bought tickets for the Nightmare Gallery.  I was super psyched to see the wax statues, like the horror-movie-nerd I am.  We were let in, and were greeted by a woman in a gyspy costume.  It seemed a bit odd, but I was game.  I kept trying to turn around to see the statues behind me in the foyer.  She performed some spiel about the spirits not being happy, and had us stand in a circle and hold hands.  Frankly the holding hands of a stranger went a little too long for my tastes.  We were then led into a dark hallway, and then subjected to jump scare after jump scare.  Turns out, after 3pm during Halloween season, it becomes a haunted house.  It was actually a prety effective haunted house, as KK was shrieking and pushing D through the rooms.  I on the other hand, kept trying to linger in each room to see the statues, but the ghouls were persistently in my face threatening me with noises and bloody looking sharp things.  I let myself be pulled along by KK, but whined, "but I want to read the placards" (not sure why my mind immediately latched on to that turn of phrase for the signs, but I am sure it added to my general dorkiness).  At the end of the musuem, I tried to lag again, but it was clear that they had a turnover schedule to keep to push the next set of people through.  But since I was last, the final ghoul asked my name, and then shouted out the door that they were keeping me and they would have to find a way home without me.  Then I said, we're taking the train home, so he shouted that at them; and I trailed off, but I have the tickets!!  Finally as he montioned for me to leave, I caught his attention, and asked if there were times that you could actually look at the museum.  Ever the pest am I, he quickly answered in the affirmative and shut the door in my face.

We were all worn out by that point and I led them up towards the train depot, but alas, before we got the the station, I realized that we were in the weekend commuter rail limbo.  For some reason, they don't have a train during the 4 oclock hour on the weekends, otherwise they have one each hour.  We headed back into town, and grabbed a small bite at the Gulu Gulu cafe.  I downed my third coffee beverage with a ham and cheese crepe.  KK and D had beers with their small entrees.  After finishing, we settled the bill; but realized we still had an hour to kill, so we ordered again!  This time I got a port (yum) and the mexican chocolate cake (double yum).  D was quite gracious in getting the chocolate cheesecake, after they told us there was only one piece of the mexican cake remaining.  In retrospect, I should have given him a chunk of my cake, but my manners were clouded by all the spicy chocolate-y goodness.

We caught the next train, with no problem, and it was a hassle free commute back into the city.