This Is Halloween...town

Took the “Haunted Hayride”This is in quotes because it was neither haunted, nor had any hay. We paid $3 to be driven by tractor back through the parking lot we had just walked across to get into the main town square to see a cardboard cutout of a UFO and some sad aliens. Then the driver gave us a story about the “crash site”, but he didn’t turn the tractor engine off, so none of us could actually hear him. Also, this was in broad daylight. Luckily, we were able to laugh about the absurdity of it all. I won’t even tell give you the satisfaction of seeing an empty parking lot. 

Took pictures in the main squareYou can see other pictures we took on our last trip, but also on my Instagram. We actually were able to take a photo with Benny’s cab. That’s not Benny in there, but it was still pretty cool. 

Rode past the Walk To the Underworld and passedThis was a very small fenced in area with a recreation of Stonehenge that you could walk through for $1. There wasn’t anything else. No monsters. No people. Just stones in a formation. That you could totally see all of. The “creatures” aren’t added until the 11th (which is a weird date, since it’s a Wednesday), and then admission is $3. I mean, what? I didn’t even take any pictures.

Watched the paradeI guess last weekend was the kick-off weekend for Spirit of Halloweentown, so they hold a parade. I also guess the schedule is a loose interpretation of such, because the parade was set to start at 3pm, and we didn’t see anything until almost 4pm. Granted, we were at the end of the route, but the route was not even that long. It was fun and, blessedly, short since I was starving. We actually waited longer to see the parade than the parade lasted. So, we followed it out a few blocks to get dinner.

Dined at the KlondikeSt Helens is small. There aren’t a ton of options for food, but we’d been here before and liked it, and there wasn’t a line like last time either. This restaurant that used to be a hotel has a long and haunted history. They decorate with the old hotel room doors and have a long list of custom and seasonal cocktails. It’s definitely worth a seat at the bar at the very least.

There are food carts near City Hall, but they are more snacky than anything else: nachos, chili, soup, cotton candy, caramel corn, pie. At 5pm they have “happy hour”. As we were leaving, we saw the few tables they had nearby were now closed off for those that wished to buy beer (in a can) and wine (in those single sealed glasses). It started raining, so we continued to the car.

Visited the Museum of OdditiesFor $2, we figured we couldn’t really go wrong with this, but it turns out they should have charged more for the hilarity of it. The St Helens Historical Society put this together in the room of an old church and I loved it. The room itself was fantastic, but then they made these great exhibits that they added the most bizarre stories to that were super amusing. 

I especially enjoyed the man who lost his sight and hands in a saw mill accident and had to get his hands replaced with claws, so to make him feel better, his soon-to-be wife had her head replaced with that of an alligator. Their likenesses were made into a one-of-a-kind cake topper for their wedding. The other favorite of mine was the first deer to own his own business, which was a sporting goods shop. He was buried in his favorite suit. Ha! This totally made up for the $3 haunted hayride.

Saw some actual movie memorabilia and filming destinations