Happy Halloween!

Ok...I realize it's not Halloween at all. However, since I live in an area of Massachusetts that celebrates Halloween for about 2 months (not even kidding), it is a big deal here. For the other 10 months of the year, we try to get people to notice the rich maritime history and the incredible natural resources here like our seashore and wildlife.

Alas, most people still equate Salem with the very short part of our history that included the witch trials. It was just a flash compared to the rest of the history here...For instance, I bet you didn't know that Salem was the center of commerce for the entire United States for quite a long time. They even modeled Nantucket after Salem when Nantucket became a very important whaling port!

We have some of the most incredible museums, National Historic Landmarks and other sites, and just oodles of historic homes! We live in one of those such homes! It's pretty awesome to find the name of the man who built and lived in your house in history books! We have really cool features in this house, including chimneys built from bricks used as ballast in the trade ships, timber pieces three feet wide by eight feet long that were likely cut from the sides of ships, original pine flooring from 1800, and walls made from the original wood strapping over 200 years old now! It's a great place to live.

Now, back to the original subject at hand - Halloween! Of course, living here, you either HATE Halloween, or you give in and join the celebration! It's much easier to just give in and have a bit of fun with it, so here is what I did for Halloween 2009...I took these photos on Halloween day. Our Chamber of Commerce estimates that we had about 100,000 visitors on that day alone!

This is our skeleton who, obviously, has flair! I love his orange and black boa with pumpkins on it!



This is the side of the house, facing the main drag in Salem...We constantly catch people taking picture of the house on this side! It's particularly festive looking at night, when all the lights are on. The pumpkins and ghosty lights look really cute!

This is the the main street in Salem...It was a mob scene this year even during the day! At night, they close the streets to cars - it's a mob scene of humans all in costume! Crazy! Over on the right, there? Is "Ye Olde Pepper Companie" which is the oldest candy factory in the United States! Pretty cool, no?

I will leave you with best wishes for your weekend...9 days until our vacation! Wooo HOOOO!