Salem, Mass!

I took a trip with a great girlfriend to Salem a couple of weeks ago.  We really had a desire to be in Salem in October, the festiveness of town did not disappoint.  I have lots of pictures to share, hope that's alright!
This girl is a super cool living statue, she made this sound at the tourists that was unreal, although we tried to replicate it we just couldn't quite get it ;)  Her site is here, what an interesting lifestyle!  Having lived in Vegas and been to a few cities in Europe I have seen a few of these statues, her 10 foot tall witch has been my favorite, she's a great artist, the costume alone was amazing. 



So here we are, the Salem seeking travelers, in her harbor, enjoying the ocean.  Man do I love the Atlantic.



The Friendship replica in Salem harbor.



The Joseph Story house, which has been LEED renovated!



other fun pictures from around town:









witch crossing =)





love this!



one of my favorite authors is a Salem native, it was so fun to see her books around town everywhere.  We were visiting a week early to attend a reading and book signing.  Maybe we'll catch up with her someday...



We visited The House of the Seven Gables where I picked up the book as my souvenir.



Nathaniel Hawthorne's birth house is now on the same property and we were able to tour that as well, isn't it beautiful?



I enjoyed this snack while we waited for the tour to start sitting on the lawn of the House of the 7 Gables looking out into the harbor.  I packed our local antique apples and nut butter packs that I picked up from Kroger quickly before we left town.  I was so busy leading up to the trip that I didn't have time to prepare food, so apples, bananas, Odwalla and Go Raw bars, kombucha, Justin nut butters, and water it was!



This along with a banana is what I ate for a meal while waiting in line at the Salem Witch Museum.  This is my favorite road snack lately, so good! 



We also visited the Witch House where one of the trial judges lived.





The beautiful front door



I found the New England Soup Factory of Salem on HappyCow.  They had great veg items, I was craving greens of course and ordered the garden salad with balsamic vin.  What a great salad, sometimes it is honestly really hard to find a great fresh green salad, this was not the case in Salem at all, I loved it!



This super delicious salad was dinner one night from Cafe Kushco.  I would go back here in a heartbeat, the food was fresh, the staff was genuinely nice and helpful.  Check out my salad, I ordered the spinach salad sans cheese and capers (I'm not always a fan) and added avocado.  I know many of you will relate to when you add avocado and are disappointed by the two or three little cubes you get, if they only knew I'd really like to eat an entire fruit ;)  haha!  There was no reason to be disappointed here! (my orange calcite is in the top left corner =)



Our other meal was from Coven, yes we checked it out due to the name =)  Here's the inside, it was cute with lots tons of items to look at on the walls.  We had no choice but to reminisce about childhood memories, I mean there was a popple on the bookshelf!  I had to play with it =) 



I found another green salad that was perfect for lunch with a delicious vegan balsamic dressing.



Our last night in town we were in need of food for the 13+ hour car ride home so we headed to Trader Joe's in a neighboring town since the local health food store was closed on Sundays.  I bought bananas, fruit leather, and Larabars for the ride.  For my dinner I picked up brown rice wraps, spinach, and guacamole (this has to be the same guac that Costco sells, anyone else notice this??).  They ended up being a delicious dinner, I ate three ;) 

Other awesome sightings around town involved a solar powered trash compactor for landfill waste (they also have plenty of street recycling). 





lots of shops with occult, wiccan, pagan supplies, and readings



The other part of my souvenir was healing crystals/stones from Pyramid Books.  I chose orange calcite, blue calcite, and a rose quartz.  I love them!  I didn't take a photo...

I've been fortunate to have travelled to New England quite a few times before, the beauty of the homes and quaintness of the towns still amazes me. 



We walked down Chestnut Street and admired the sweet homes where we even happened onto a personal tour of one being renovated where I fell in love with the kitchen.  It had a fireplace, a wall of built-ins, an island and a big window for growing herbs, swoon.







Another highlight for me was visiting the Old Burying Point.  I like to visit places that have a deep connection with the past.  I make sure not to walk on any graves.  It was surprising that the public is able to walk thru this graveyard. 





Being the Brunonia Barry fans we are and well fans of water in general we visited Salem Willows.  The beach was covered in pretty blue shells.



and this will be the last in my photo story, this ocean feels like home to me. 



Hope you enjoyed my little trip to Salem, have you been? 
My friend wrote of the trip here as well and more importantly touched on the topic of the witch trials and their showing of intolerance and fear associated with ignorance.  Reminds me of a Brett Dennen lyric 'Darling do not fear what you don't really know'. 

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween eve!  There was a sheriff here handing out the treats to lots of adorable trick or treators =)