Mom and Daughters' Trip - Salem

Our East Coast Adventure had been spectacular thus far!!! We decided to take a day trip from Boston to Salem - I reserved a car at Hertz several months prior to our arrival and I have to say I was really mad that we had to wait over an hour for a car to arrive - apparently they had accidentally given our car away.... The upside was I got an upgrade with a GPS... the downside - I did not listen carefully enough and missed a turn -ended up in an underground tunnel under the ocean going in the opposite direction of our destination... To top things off - Massachusetts drivers are INSANE... Later someone told me that they call Mass. drivers "mASS Hole" drivers for a reason....

In Salem we had three (3) tours lined up - The first one 'Grave Matters' at 1:00, 'Witch Walk' at 3:00 and later in the evening - We had a paranormal ghost tour... Because our car was late getting to us AND I got lost - we were a few minutes late - thankfully - we were the only ones on the tour and all was good... except for the fact that the only reason we were alone was because Salem's temperatures hit the record for that day... 105 with 60% humidity... We were dying...

Grave Matters - a tour of the 2nd oldest graveyard in the nation - The tour showed us the different etchings and what they mean - We saw an original pilgrim's tombstone - a few of the witch trials judges...

2nd Oldest Graveyard in the Nation

A Mayflower Pilgrim's tombstone - the case around is to protect

Very cool tree in the graveyard

The Witch Walk - this tour showed us many of the locations relating to the Salem witch trials - this horrible injustice that took the lives of 19 innocent people.

The Witch House - Original home of Witch Trial Judge Jonathan Corwin

Nineteen innocent victims were killed - 18 hung - 1 pressed

We had some time to kill after our 2nd tour - It was so very hot outside so we had a very long lunch in a cold restaurant... Then went to a very cheesy wax museum - shopped a little - had some ice cream... The heat was also bad for the small town - several of the shops closed early... very early for a Friday...


Finally the time arrived for our paranormal ghost tour... Ghost tours in Salem is very big business... And it seemed ALL the tour guides hated our guide... Our guide was a self described ghost hunter and Voodoo practitioner ... She had been on several ghost hunting shows and was very arrogant - She was known to bash the other tours as fakes... She cracked me up.... She did take us to some places that even freaked her out - There was this one place The Joshua Ward House - that is supposedly the most haunted building in Salem - She said that she did an investigation there and put a tape recorder in the basement and recorded a voice saying "I want to keep you".. Another story about this building is that there was a real estate party and pictures were taken and one picture of a young woman realtor turned up to show a scary/creepy image in front of the woman - the woman was not seen in the photo... We saw copy of it- if it is a true photo - I would have been creeped out too...

Above is the Joshua Ward House - it is believed to be haunted by the Sheriff from the Witch Trials - he would take accused "witches" to his home and torture them to confess.. People have been pushed downstairs - Also - it is said that Giles Corey the man who was pressed to death haunts this location... The guide refused to get close to the building...

Above is the original Salem Jail - this place is supposedly extremely haunted - it was vacant for many years but was bought by a Boston company and has been converted into a restaurant and condos - if I remember right... Several prisoners were hanged in this building - where the kitchen is today...

Above is Howard Street Cemetery - this is right next to the old jail. This cemetery is reported to be haunted and many ghosts/orbs have been caught at dusk.. Giles Corey is supposed to haunt this cemetery as well as the Joshua Ward house.. Giles was crushed to death in the alley behind the cemetery...

Our drive back to Boston was not so bad - I wasn't in a hurry and the girls were a great help... The next morning we went on our final leg of this wonderful journey - We traveled to my sister's home..

A Personal "Ghost" Story

As far back as I can remember I have always been interested in ghosts... scary movies... the unexplained.... I think it may go back to the stories my dad used to tell me as a child... The neighborhood kids would gather up in our yard and my dad would spin tales that would scare the toughest of kids... We would scream... We would hide.. We would sleep with the lights on (I still do when the husband is not home... - Yes, My name is Kelly and I am a wimp).... Ghost stories were a huge part of my childhood... A very good memory...

Shortly after my dad's dad passed away (my grandpa) - my dad had one of his brothers out to visit us... Now this brother is a devout Catholic man... A man that does not tease about ghosts and such... Well - one night when my dad and my uncle were going through their dad's (grandpa's) belongings that were left at our home - my uncle glanced up into the kitchen and saw my grandpa looking at him and my dad... This vision startled my uncle... my dad did not see the apparitions but he believed my uncle... his brother... There are many tales in my family of relatives seeing those that had passed on... Maybe it's my Scottish/Irish bloodline... Whatever it may be - the Paranormal intrigues me...

One more tale that happened to me and my girls.. this is NOT fiction...

When my oldest was about three years old - She would tell us a tale about a elderly man that was standing in the doorway to her bedroom... She would call him the "mean man" - she thought elderly people looked mean ... She was not afraid of this man.... Every night she would add more information to this "mean man"... She would tell us he was sick... that he needed an operation on his leg and that he needed to go to the hospital.. Every night for months - she would tell my husband and I about this man... We started to get a little freaked... seriously.... So one night I was carrying my youngest up the stairs to her room... In the middle of going up the stairs - she pointed to my oldest daughter's room and asked "Whose that man?" (she was about 18 months old)... Okay - I'm getting a major case of goose bumps going up my arms... I asked her what man.... She points again and says "That man!"... This was enough to convince me something most definitely was going on... So I called a couple of my Christian friends.... What I was advised to do was to go into my daughter's room and tell this (whatever it was) to leave... In the Bible it states something about ghosts, demons, or whatever - has to leave because God is in control and if we believe God is in control the entities will not have a choice... they would have to leave...

So in the middle of the afternoon (no way was I going to do this in the dark)... I went into my daughter's room and spoke out loud and told this whatever to leave... I said out loud that God says you have to leave.. So Go.... Later that night my daughter did not speak of this "mean man"... She never spoke of him again.. Now that she is a teenager - I have told her the tale of her nightly visitor.... and now she is as intrigued as I am..

To add to our interest in the paranormal... This summer on our Mom and Daughters East Coast adventure - I have booked actual Ghost tours... Not the fake actors... But real documented tours... with Real Paranormal investigators... The tours will take place in Williamsburg, VA, Boston, MA, and Salem, MA.... I have done weeks of research into the best companies... Two of the tours are nationally rated... I think this will be fun... I bet the east coast with all that history will be a blast! I'm wondering if we'll sleep with the lights on.....