We parked at the hotel and since we couldn't check in yet, we went for a stroll. The first thing that caught our eye was the Witch Museum. We decided to check it out. It gave a history of the whole witch ordeal. It was a good way to get into the Salem mood.
After it ended we went for a stroll. Salem is absolutely beautiful and rich in tradition. The architecture is amazing.
After passing many shops we ended up at the Witch memorial. Along the walls of a small courtyard there were stone benches, each one engraved with the name of one of the people put to death.
Anyway as we were circling the courtyard my heart stopped as I saw what was next to it. The 2nd oldest in the country.
It was called Old Burying Point. I spent the next hour walking through it in awe. The cemetery is right in the middle of the village. The oldest tombstone was from 1783...9 years before the Witch trials. Buried in the cemetery is one of the judges from the trial. The only judge to never apologize for the trials and stand to his belief that justice was served. There was also someone buried there that came from the mayflower. All in all it was the most amazing cemetery I had ever been in. So much history and beauty. I was in heaven.
After leaving the cemetery we walked around and went to a few museums including Count Orlocks which houses a killer wax museum devoted to horror and a lame haunted house that was...well...lame.
Eventually we ended up at a old time shipping dock. It was beautiful. From there we stumbled upon the house of the seven gables, made famous in the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
From there we headed back to the Hawthorne to check in...and this is where it got weird. The Hawthorne is a haunted hotel, at least that's what they say. Ghosthunters did an episode there. There are 3 haunted areas to the hotel. The library...which is downstairs. Room 325 and the entire sixth floor. We were staying on the sixth floor...and I felt a little nervous. The hotel itself is beautiful and vintage. The detail is amazing. We got our key and got into the elevator. To be honest I was a little nervous. We exited the elevator and it felt like something out of the shining. We stepped out into the hallway. Now at this point, Joe was drawn to the room at the end of the hallway in the corner. In counting doors from where we were our room was going to be two down from that one. We started to head down. We realized about halfway down that one of the doors we counted was actually a maintenance room and not a guest room...so to no surprise...we ended up at the door we noticed right away.
It was a little creepy. We went into the room, which was beautiful. Nothing major happened right away. So we hung out for a bit, trying to decide what to do next.
We decided to go downstairs and visit the library. We went down and looked around. It was creepy and old. But there wasn't much out of the ordinary...except for one picture. As you can clearly see there is an orb in only one shot...the one next to Joe. If you zoom in on it...you can kind of see a face in it. Spooky.... You just never know!
We decided to walk to the other old cemetery in town. Since it was dark we couldn't go in, but we looked around. Very beautiful at night. We went to take some pictures and the camera went dead...which was quite bizarre since it had just had a full battery. Still we got a couple of cool shots.
After that we decided to get some room service back at the hotel. We ordered our food and sat back to relax. The room was still very hot. I ordered the food and Joe went into the bathroom. He came out a few minutes later with a weird look on his face. He held his arms out and they were covered in goosebumps. Something weird had happened but he played it off so that he wouldn't frighten me. The next day he filled me in and I'll fill you in soon. Anyway after eating the food Joe began to get very sleepy...which is bizarre cause, as anyone who knows him can attest, he never sleeps. He feel asleep quickly. I layed there feeling uneasy. I tried to fall asleep...and might have succeed..as the next thing to happen may have been a dream...but maybe not. I was laying with my eyes closed and I could feel Joes hand on my shoulder.. the next minute I felt another hand closer to my hand! No, it wasn't Joes... Not sure if it was a dream or not, but I woke up screaming his name, crazy!!! In the morning we were sharing stories...I told him what happened to me. He shared what happened to him in the bathroom. He felt something touch his back and it caused goosebumps to break out. We both agreed it was very creepy. I went into the bathroom and he followed. I looked at him and noticed something weird. "What happened to your chest?" I asked. He looked confused and looked at himself in the mirror. All the color drained from his face. His chest and neck were bright red. He looked really nervous. He wanted to tell me something but as creeped out as I was I made him wait until we left...and then he did fill me in. He hadn't been truthful. The touch he had felt the night before wasn't on his back, it was on his neck and chest. He didn't want to freak me out so he changed it to his back. Yikes!
So we went back to the cemetery from the night before that we couldn't go into. Like Burying point it is old and beautiful. At the back is the old prison. It's currently being torn down and turned into an apartment complex...how nice. We got some cool shots of the inside of the jail...which housed many inmates over the years...including, for one night, the boston strangler...picked up for a traffic violation.
From here we went to a couple of churches. First was St. Peter's. It's a beautiful church. In front are a couple of fenced in areas with a few headstones. Out back, behind the church is a small seating area and a parking lot. Underneath is the graves. They removed the headstones but kept the bodies there. They put a few headstones out front as a tribute.
From there we wandered down to the oldest Church in Salem, which is beautiful! Right next door is the Which House. It's where one of the judges lived. It was amazing to walk through.
From here we wanted to eat lunch at the LYCEUM. It's an old restaurant built over the land where Bridget Bishop's house was. She was the first convicted witch. It's also haunted and was featured on Ghosthunters. We sat and ate.
The food was good...but we had more pressing matters. Going upstairs to the haunted area. After sweet talking our waitress she let us go up, alone to look around. The moment Joe and I got up there we felt a tightness in our chest and felt very uneasy. The rooms are beautiful...and vintage...but something did feel out of place there.
From there we left Salem...to head to the next part of our trip....NEW YORK.
But before we left Salem we stopped at a couple more cemeteries...and even got an ice cream cone, hehe! Yeah, I'm a sucker for cemeteries!
We headed into New York via the Lincoln Tunnel. I was a little nervous to be there since so much is going on. We parked and went to Times Square. We stopped for a drink at Planet Hollywood to calm my nerves...and it worked. There were a few cool things at Planet Hollywood.
After spending some time in Times Square we headed back to the car...but on the way swung into the Ripley's believe it or not museum. It was full of cool and strange things.
From here we headed to the real reason we were at New York...Amityville.
The Amityville horror series is on of my faves and I've always wanted to see the house where the murders really took place. We pulled into Amityville late and checked into our hotel. The Sayanora motel.. haha, what a crap hole!!!
The next morning we got up and went in search of the house. Since the locals hate the attention they changed the address...but it's pretty easy to find online. We found Ocean Avenue after a few tries...and I realized I was really there. It was surreal. We drove down the block and I saw it. Even though it's been changed a great deal it was easy to spot...the Amityville house.
We took a moment to reflect and headed on our way to the airport... wow, what a great vacation!!!
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