All Hallow's Eve

Location: Salem, Massachusetts
Date: 10-31-2013
Written by: Joey

TAKE NOTE: This post was written while DJ & Joey were on their RV roadtrip across America. Sadly, their trip ended before it really got started. No worries, Shelly & Lucia are taking the Connextions Out n About Roadtrip to new heights, exploring one RV park at a time!

Things began to move pretty quickly since we left the photo shoot.  One thing for sure, we couldn’t walk 2 feet without someone stopping Gigi and telling her how much they loved her and how beautiful she was.  One in particular was this young lady, I didn’t catch her name but she patiently waited for Gigi to finish her conversation with Mayor Kim Driscoll.  She was so moved by Gigi’s presence that she had a difficult time explaining how much she appreciated Gigi for her hard work and what an inspiration she was.  I didn’t think much about it then but this would end up happening the rest of the night, random people expressing their love and admiration for Gigi.

We spent the afternoon touring the rest of the city and making our way to Pickering Wharf.  Sitting quietly among the shops and restaurants was a reconstruction of the Sailing Vessel Friendship, a 171-foot three-masted ship built in 1797.  We both stood there in awe of the massive ship.  It certainly was at home in Salem making you feel as if you were standing on the shores of Salem during the 1800’s.

One of our stops at Pickering Wharf was a magical shop called Enchanted of Salem. http://www.enchantedofsalem.com/ Gigi was part of a book signing event along with Laurie Cabot, The Official Witch of Salem.  Gigi and Laurie were featured in a book titled Legends of Salem.  There we were standing in a magical shop full of potions and spells with real life witches.  Yep, we were in Salem and it felt amazing.  Meeting all the witches wasn’t scary; what was creepy was seeing a guy dressed up as a Death Eater from the Harry Potter movies.  I took a couple photos of him but it was a little unnerving and I wasn’t sure why.

After the book signing we headed back to Priscilla to relax before the night’s festivities.  Gigi had invited a friend of hers, John (her Unofficial King of Salem) to join us for the evening.  John arrived, introductions were made and we decided to have some hot tea and hot apple cider to warm us up before venturing out.  After watching some of the revelers we were ready to hit the streets ourselves so John changed into his King costume and Gigi freshened up with a new gown.  Later on I found out two covens were casting a circle for the public and we missed it!

We made our way down Essex Street over to the Bewitched Statue, chatted with people, took photos and began our way to Adriatic Restaurant for our dinner reservations.  We spent a few hours chatting, having a lovely dinner and watching people walk by.  The owner of the restaurant stopped by and gave us shots of Limoncello as a way of saying thank you for coming in.  On our way out of the restaurant we stopped at the photo booth to take group photo.

John had to work in the early morning hours so we decided to make our way back to Priscilla which was about 10 minutes away.  We finally made our way back to Priscilla 45 minutes later.  John changed into his commoner clothes, said his goodbyes and left for home.  Gigi was waiting for her husband to come pick her up.  Once DJ And I were alone we were concerned we made a bad decision to stay downtown with all the ruckus.  There were so many people everywhere! Then something magical happened.  At around 11:00 people started disappearing.  Apparently the train in and out of Salem stops running at a certain time and everyone visiting just so happened to be on those trains!  By midnight, the town was deserted and quiet.  It was like a ghost town…in Salem, Massachusetts.

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