Chris and I spent a wonderful Saturday at the Salem Inn. It was a blustery cold day and that added to the mystery and magic of the old stone house inn, with its winding stairs and creaky floors. We stayed in the honeymoon suite which was surprisingly decent priced. (One may argue that this is because the place is haunted?)
It was lovely, with a double sided fireplace that you could light, and a jacuzzi tub. you could sit in the tub and open the sliding doors from the bathroom so you could watch the fireplace. All the decor was in the old colonial style.
We ate dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant called Passage to India, which was pretty good. Although the witch theme is a bit overused in Salem, there were some cool little magick shops strewn about, and some very interesting and eccentric shop owners. Our particular favorite is the Broom Closet, they had fantastic herbs and incense and some pretty cool-looking wool cloaks.
Much to Chris’ delight we found a huge comic book store with all kinds of graphic novels, comic memorabilia and manga. It was like heaven!
We ourselves didn’t experience anything too paranormal (unless you count people being nice as a paranormal thing nowadays). But several other guests reported strange events. The owners of the inn claim that many people have witnessed strange happenings in rooms 17 and 18. (We stayed in room 76). The guest book was full of reports of strange sounds, sensations and apparitions. Spoooookkyyy…
The wind howled all night long and the floors creaked; the radiator hissed and the fireplace cast an eery glow across the ceiling. Needless to say it wasn’t a very restful night…but it was all in good fun. Around 3 am both Chris and I awoke to a startling loud crash, but fell asleep again not long after. It could’ve been any number of things! But thankfully the ghosts decided to have mercy on us and leave us alone.
We walked around Salem a little more on Sunday and found a pleasant cafe called Gulu-Gulu cafe (not sure where they got the name). They had some yummy vegetarian paninis. Our last stop in Salem was at Ye Old Pepper Companie, which claims to be the oldest candy store in New England. We bought some chocolates, anise candies and peppermint gibraltars (their specialty, I am told).
It was far too cold for walking around Salem for too long, but we were planning on a concert in Boston on our way home. We were pleased to know that there was an Imax theater halfway between Salem and Boston, and we thought what better way to kill a few hours and be away from the cold? We got to see I am Legend, and it was pretty sweet (and scary!) In Imax. Will Smith did an amazing performance.

Next stop…Boston! After we had planned our Salem excursion, Chris discovered that Blonde Redhead was performing in Boston that same weekend. We thought we’d live a little and stop by to see them on our way home. They were playing at the Paradise Rock Club, which turned out to be a decent venue. Opening for them was the School of Seven Bells, which turned out to be a very unique mix of trance, club rock and Indian music. The lead singer held maraccas (sp?), bells and a tambourine in one hand, and shook the night away! Good stuff.

Blonde Redhead played a quick set but a good one. Their performance was not as spellbinding as Osheaga, but then again they were not outside in the fresh air, they were in a stuffy little club. They played “23′, “The Dress”, “Equus” and all the other hits and even came back for a 4-song encore. The band was extremely shy and said only one sentence the entire set. The lead singer appeared quite shy and spoke in very broken English, so that may have been why interactions were so few. But everyone was captivated by their coolness, even if it was for a short time.

Well, getting home at 3 am was painful (thank you to Chris, who drove the whole way home and let his wifey sleep cause she had work the next day and he didn’t!), but I’d do it all over again. It was a great birthday gift to be able to spend some quality time with the hubby in some magical places.