If your idea of fun seasonal travel is touring a spooky castle in October rather than hitting a sandy beach in July, here are three vacation ideas that will take your Halloween fun to spine- tingling new heights this year! WHERE WITCHES WANDER When it comes to Halloween-themed adventures, no other place on the East Coast offers more macabre merriment than Salem, Massachusetts. Known for its infamous witch trials of the late 1690s, the city transforms its dark past into a destination that balances historical facts with tongue-in-cheek kitsch. The weeks leading up to Oct. 31 are filled with more magic shows, tours, special events, and Halloween-themed shopping opportunities than you can shake a broom at. If you decide to partake in the area’s devilish fun this year, visit the Salem Witch Board Museum, which boasts the world’s most extensive Ouija board collection, and the Salem Witch Museum. BOURBON BONE-CHILLERS If you want to add Southern charm to your Halloween chills, a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana, is in order. From above-ground cemeteries and ghost tours to ghoulishly adorned shops in the French Quarter (including the must-visit Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo on Bourbon Street) and an annual Halloween parade, The Big Easy will surely put you in touch with your spooky side. DETOUR TO DRACULA’S DEN From the classic 1922 film “Nosferatu” to the Francis Ford Coppola-directed cinematic masterpiece “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” that premiered 70 years later, our cultural interest in vampires has spanned decades, and, in the case of Transylvania, Romania, centuries. Anyone with a passport and a desire to catch a glimpse at the real-world aesthetic that helped define the image of Dracula and other distinctive undead characters should visit Bran Castle, an amazing monument of Gothic architecture and the long-rumored residence of infamous 15th century-era prince and mass murderer Vlad the Impaler, widely believed to be the real-life inspiration behind the Dracula character. While many of the legends associated with Transylvania may be more fiction than fact, the locale remains the go-to spot for anyone with an affinity for apparitions.
Haunted Horizons A HALLOWEEN TRAVEL TRIO
FROM WORRY TO WELLNESS Anne’s Skin Cancer Solution
“I see a dermatologist every three to six months for issues related to skin cancers. My doctor noticed a bump on my lower left eyelid that had been there for a while. After it didn’t go away with treatment, we suspected it was probably malignant. She sent me over to my ophthalmologist, whose surgeon performed a biopsy and determined it was a squamous cell carcinoma. My ophthalmologist then recommended I consult with Dr. Scott. “I had never met Dr. Scott before and knew nothing about him. I also didn’t know how the surgery was going to go, as the carcinoma was in a risky spot. The uncertainty made me anxious.
things would go, which impressed me. His staff was equally pleasant.
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“Dr. Scott is also funny! When he was checking out my eye at one point, I said to him, ‘I see all these awards hanging around on your walls. You must be very good.’ He laughed and said, “I print those at night in my basement!’ “In March, I had my Mohs surgery, followed by an eyelid reconstruction performed by Dr. Scott. I hardly had any bruising and I had almost no pain. “When I worked as a nurse, the operating room was my favorite place to work. I saw all kinds of things in my nursing career, so it was wonderful
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“Fortunately, Dr. Scott was very pleasant and gave me lots of information regarding exactly how
–Anne DiPalma
2 EyePlasticMD.com
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