Saturday Street Style: Salem Scavenger Hunt

On August 3^rd my friends and I participated in a Watson Adventure scavenger hunt in the Faneuil Hall/North End area, it was the topic of my Saturday Street Style post. We came in first place and received gift certificates to participate in another hunt. Here is a link to the Watson website: http://www.watsonadventures.com/

We chose to use our certificates to participate in the Watson Adventure Scavenger Hunt in Salem, MA on October 26, 2013.

If you live in Massachusetts or have a long visit scheduled you should plan a trip to Salem. Massachusetts is home to several towns rich in American history, Salem is one of those towns. Most people are familiar with the Salem witch trials but Salem was also the home of Nathanial Hawthorne author of the Scarlet Letter. Read about Salem’s history: http://salem.org/history Other Salem facts: monopoly was made there, Hocus Pocus and Bewitched were filmed there, and Alexander Graham Bell made the first long distance phone call from Salem.

Visit Salem’s homepage to find events and more information: http://www.salem.org/

There are lots of events going on in Salem year around not just around Halloween. Salem has a lot of attractions and museums to visit. http://salem.org/advertisers/find/museums-attractions You can also take a walking or trolley tour. http://salem.org/advertisers/find/tours

I took the MBTA commuter rail into Salem from North Station, the trip took about 30 minutes. I didn’t want to deal with parking in Salem. Halloween week is very busy in Salem because it is famous for witches and ghost stories.

People dressed in costume in line to buy tickets.

The Watson hunt started at 5 PM. We decided to meet in Salem for lunch and then walk around town before the hunt began. We ate lunch at Salem Beer Works, we had to wait over an hour for a table but at least there were drinks to consume during our wait. We started our meal with nachos and I had a delicious bacon cheeseburger. We drank bloody mary’s and pumpkin beer, both were very good.

After lunch we walked around town, There was a street fair set up on Essex Street with vendors. There were many people dressed in costumes but also people who choose to skip dressing up.

Jason, Derek and I dressed up with low key devil and cat accessories.

We met up with the Watson Adventure guide in Amory Park. We were given our materials, an answer sheet, a map, and the clues. There were 20 questions to answer based on some long clues. We did a lot of walking around town and saw some historic sites. The sun went down as we were walking around so we had to use our flashlights, especially as we were looking for clues in the graveyard. We tied for 2^nd place with two other teams. We struggled with a couple of clues and it was difficult to navigate the crowds to find answers but we had a great time.

I would like to visit Salem again on a less crowded day. I want to visit the Peabody Essex museum and have cocktails at the Hawthorne Hotel. I might be up for taking a ghost tour of Salem. During our hunt we mingled with some tours and I overheard some of the tour guides telling ghost stories. We also passed a group with paranormal equipment looking for activity.

Here are some more Salem pictures: