Halloween Up North

              Travelling up north for Halloween can be terrifying for a Southern girl, but I guess terrifying is what you want for Halloween, right? I was expecting it to be so cold I would freeze my toes off. It turned out that during this particular Halloween week, it was warmer up north than down south. As a cold front was going through Georgia and Tennessee, I was wearing a heavy winter coat in New York and almost sweating.

            Travelling with my husband, Nayr, our first stop was the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, NY, the perfect place to visit for Halloween. It's a huge cemetery with over 40,000 interments. It was established in the 1800s and has many famous people buried there, including Washington Irving, the author of Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Famous families were buried there too, such as the Chryslers. The whole cemetery was large enough that we drove through some parts and walked through other parts. We didn't get to take the "scary" night tour, but our daylight walk was immensely gratifying. Seeing the beauty of the autumn trees with their multi-colored leaves was a soulful experience. There were many old style mausoleums with unusually striking architecture.

          Next, we went to the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. We had heard it's all the rage to the locals. "It's a must-see", we were told. Well, we weren't disappointed. It's an annual event they have around Halloween. They had thousands of hand-carved pumpkins that were all lit up from the inside. They were arranged in great shapes like a dragon, a train, a grandfather clock, and many other wondrous things, and with different carvings such as zodiac signs, faces, and animals. We walked along the lit-up path and saw all the displays. Knowing that everything was hand-carved, it's amazing to think how much work must have gone into it all. It took roughly two hours to walk through and see everything, "ooh-ing" and "ahh-ing" and taking pictures.

         After leaving New York, we made it to Salem, MA and had dinner at Flying Saucer Pizza. It's a geek-themed restaurant with all kinds of movie posters on the walls for Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and other sci-fi/fantasy movies. There was even a Locutus of Borg statue. "Vulcan Pizza" was on the menu! Later, while walking through town, we saw a statue commemorating the beloved television series Bewitched, one of my fave shows growing up! 

          We saw some great seasonal shows  at the Salem Witch Museum, Witch Dungeon Museum, and Witch History Museum. All of those places had live shows and displays concerning the Salem witch trials that happened in Salem, MA in the 1600s. It was all very entertaining and educational. We also visited the New England Pirate Museum, which commemorated the pirates who were around New England years ago. The tour guide who took us through the museum told some very amusing stories about pirates. There were many people walking around town in costumes such as Elvira and The Addams Family or general witches and warlocks, and so many other imaginative things.

So there you have it. There were so many things to see and do. If you are a tourist, all you need is a rental car to get from New York to Massachusetts. We did all of this over several days. It was the best time of year to visit, because it wasn't too hot or too cold. Halloween in the Northeast can be so much fun!

-by The Honorable Kavura