It's here! Happy Halloween! Blessed Samhain!!It was quite a whirlwind weekend celebrating Halloween.
First, I had the day off on Friday. This was a very good thing for me because I had much to do. KD had a couple friends over Friday night to celebrate the upcoming holiday. It was a very informal gathering, but I still had to get food, clean the house, decorate, etc. Also, I had a few things I still needed to get for the silent supper.
Friday night, KD had two friends over. We had snacks and they basically just hung out. It was a gorgeous night and would have been a great night for trick or treating!
Saturday morning, Angelle, her two friends, KD and I got up early and headed to Valley Scare in Minnesota. We drove to Shakopee and checked into our hotel. It was a cool, rainy day, but we went to Valley Scare, anyway. Nothing could really prepare me for the fun I was about to have there. If you have never gone to Valley Scare, the actual name of the amusement park is Valley Fair. First, the decor!! Kudo's to Valley Scare for going all out with decorations for the holiday. From the moment we entered the park we were in awe. Skeletons and jack-o-lanterns everywhere. It was really quite beautiful. The girls kept saying how it felt like we had gone to Halloweentown. It really did.
Since the haunts didn't start until 7:00 p.m., we walked around for awhile. We got to preview "The Chateau", the mansion where the vampires live, during the daylight. Again, we were wowed by the decor. It was quite beautiful in there. We rode a roller coaster and some other rides. Then the 17 year olds found the makeup and effects kiosk. They were offering fake scars, bullet wounds, etc. there, and they all took advantage of that. You will see Angelle's lovely head wound in the photos.
KD and I weren't interested in getting makeup done, so we went for a walk and found a couple great rides to go on. There were these adorable antique cars you could drive around a track, so KD got to drive me in one of those. She said it was time I get used to her driving since she will be getting her permit in a couple years. Yikes.
We left the park and got some supper, then headed back. Finally, it was time for the haunting to begin. Valley Scare is full of "scare zones", sections of the park decorated and "haunted" by particular monsters. There was the cemetery full of corpses and ghosts, the "Carnevil" full of, you guessed it, clowns! There was abnormal alley where the humans affected by toxic waste were there to scare. Those alone made it so much fun, but then we got to go into the haunted houses. We were lucky enough to have the Fright Lane pass with the Skeleton Key. That meant we were in the fast lane so didn't have to wait in lines and it also meant we got into special rooms at each haunt.
The first haunt we toured was "Zombie High". Very well done. In the skeleton key room, I had to dig through a bug-infested corpse to find a key to open a vault to open a door with something in it we had to eat. The entire time a hungry zombie was in a glassed in booth waiting to eat us. If we lost, we were going to be eaten, but if we won, we would be spared. I got the key (the bugs were kind of slimy, not sure if they were real or not), got the vault open, then the door slid open and they said we had to "eat it". There was something in a plastic cup, so I said "Angelle this is you", because she will pretty much eat anything. She picks up the cup, screams, and drops it. Then I become the bad parent and start yelling at her saying "You failed at the eating. I would have eaten it!!", etc. etc. It was the adrenaline and the heat of the moment, I think. I picked up the plastic cup, but whatever had been in it was gone. The zombie got out and apparently ate us. Angelle said it was some kind of a small white bug and it was moving. She's not terribly fond of bugs, so she dropped it. In retrospect, I feel really bad for yelling at her. It was really fun, though!
After that it was time to go to the "Divination" room, another skeleton key zone. There were two drag queens reading "tarot cards". The one who read our cards was very funny. It was pretty crude and somewhat inappropriate, but we all had a great time.
I won't go into detail about the other haunts because there were 6 different ones and 6 skeleton key rooms as well. But I'll share a few of the highlights. One was being tried, found guilty and "hung", at the "End of the Line", complete with execution hoods over our heads and nooses around our necks. I have to admit that probably bothered me the most of anything we did that day. The floor even dropped a half inch or so underneath us. Scary.
There was the skeleton key room in "The Chateau", where we were offered drinks of "blood" in a shot glass. If we drank the blood, we got to keep the shot glass. I'm very proud of all of us in our group because we all drank the "blood". What was it? Well, it sure tasted like I would imagine blood would taste. A lot of iron. It really was not a pleasant taste. Luckily I had tic tacs. What a fun experience.
Probably my favorite haunted house was "Humane Habitat", where we were led through 5 different cottages (the last one was the skeleton key room). There were human/animal hybrids there and it was a really good scare. The skeleton key room was finding your way through a pitch black cottage using hearing and touch. There were some great scares along the way. Then at the end, you got to do the scaring for the next group. I backed up and let the girls be at the control board. It was so funny to watch the next group go through and get scared on the monitors.
Valley Scare is a great time and I strongly recommend it to anyone. KD wants to go again next year and so do I. It might become a new tradition for awhile.
Sunday night was the 2nd annual "Cedar Valley Silent Supper". There were 25 living guests in attendance. As before, it was a wonderful time with some improvements made to the whole celebration. "Po", my human skull, took the place of "spirit" at our table. He made a very nice addition to the experience. After the silent supper which was served backwards (with music including a song by David Bowie and one by Prince), Shelby and I read fortunes for everyone who wished. I continue to be very impressed by Shelby's gift of "Lithomancy" divination. Everyone loved her sessions. When I was reading someone's cards, they said "Oh, that's very much like what her reading said.", referring to Shelby. Shelby and I just looked at each other and said "That happens quite a bit". Very affirming when two readings done with different methods turn out to be so similar.
Many thanks for DuRaae Davis and KD for helping with the decor. The decor was even better than last year because of their gift for making a space a beautiful place to be. I could not have done it without them. Many thanks to Shelby for providing readings after the supper. Many thanks to the Waterloo Community Playhouse for the rental of the room and to "Moment in Thyme", my awesome caterer who is so good at accommodating my very unusual supper. Can't wait for next year!!
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