My love for Salem is no secret. I dreamed of living in the Witch City ever since I was a budding little teenage witchling back in Brazil, and now after 13 years of living here, I still fall in love with Salem every day.
Jacob and I have a routing for podcast recording days: we meet at the shop, record our episode, then go for a walk and have lunch. So here’s a behind the scenes look at our afternoon after recording Episode 14 of From Salem with Love!
Our special hangout spot is the Garden at the Ropes Mansion, which makes for a beautiful walk across town from the waterfront. We strolled down the pedestrian mall and got to peek at this new art installation by the Peabody Essex Museum. Artist Konstantin Dimopoulos installed these as part of Earth Day, along with similar installations around the world to bring attention to trees in our surroundings and foster a conversation on deforestation.
View down the Pedestrian Mall at Essex Street
Along the way is Lappin Park, a small park right in the heart of Salem, home to an adorable Little Free Library and the ever-controversial Bewitched Statue (remember that time the city hired us to dress up Samantha and someone called the cops on us?)
Note all the tourists gathering around the Samantha statue!
We picked up some lunch to go at The Juicery, which opened its Salem location just a couple of years ago. It was actually my first time there! Salem has lots of amazing places to eat, and I admit I haven’t tried all of them yet. I ordered the Dragon Berry Bowl and it’s deceptively large!
With our goodies in hand, we walked on to the Ropes Mansion, passing the much loved Witch House on the way (the official name is the Jonathan Corwin house, but nobody calls it that). I take a picture pretty much every time I pass it. The Ropes Mansion was famously used as the character Allison’s house in the movie Hocus Pocus (which they screen every October in Salem Common, one of my favorite fall activities).
It’s early in the season, so the flowers haven’t grown in yet. Stay tuned for more photos later in the summer!
We enjoyed our lunch on a bench at the garden, and said hello to passing dogs. Afterwards, I walked Jacob home, down the Pedestrian Mall again and passing the Salem Common on the way.
I hope you’ve enjoyed joining us for our afternoon in our beloved Witch City!