Kate's Bucket List: Visiting Salem, Massachusetts on Halloween

I set weird goals for my life.

I have a notebook jam packed with the things that I want to do before I die. Some of them are admittedly crazy lame, some are tests of will power and strength that I just do not have at age twenty-four, but most of them relate to travel. Most of them, like the subject of this blog are total clichés.

Growing up my family never traveled, when I was in the second grade I went on a ‘vacation’ (with my aunt, grandmother, brother, cousin and a strange pseudo relative  teenage boy I would never see again)  to Prince Edward Island and I thought it was the best place on earth . Mostly because of Rainbow Valley, a place I visited again as a teenager and realized was ghetto Disneyland (in the best possible way) and Anne of Green Gables.

Back to the point, my family never travelled growing up. During all of our non-travel time I took in a whole bunch of TV time with my Grandfather, he is all about watching television judge programs on FOX Rochester. Halloween was my favourite time of year; I got to see all the crazy happenings and poorly produced commercials in an area of the world obsessed with Halloween. Most 90s TV sitcoms referenced Salem and I fell in love with the idea of spending the spookiest night of the year in the Halloween Capital of the world; Salem, Massachusetts.

I am now twenty-four years old and every time Halloween passes I am reminded of my goal to experience Salem, Massachusetts on Halloween. Yeah, I get a little sad that I haven’t made the trip to what I consider the spookiest place in America for Halloween specifically; and that it is even harder now that I live on the west coast. While in university I constantly tried to coax people into a weekend road trip to Salem.  I have been to Salem twice though now and I must admit I absolutely love that town. When I was sixteen I forced my family through a day in Salem, doing all the typical tourist things like the witches museum. The most horrifying thing I could force my boyfriend to do when we visited Salem at the ripe age of twenty-three was eat at Olive Garden (other thing I became minorly obsessed with growing up watching American feeds of TV) and walk around town looking for the iconic witch statue.

Another Halloween has passed and I am feeling a little disappointed in myself for letting this one go off the bucket list for another year. Maybe in 2014?

Sorry, it is a slow blog day and I am really trying to pump out two a day as required for work.

Here are some pre-weight loss photos from my second trip to Salem. If I can find some OG photos from my first trip when I get home I will add them. Also, apparently the sun was super bright that day so my eyes are squinty.