Come to DC next year for Halloween!

The weekend and the Halloween day passed, but I have a lot of materials and photos to share with you. Since it's not a big holiday in Russia, I didn't really know what to expect when I moved to US 6 years ago for Halloween. I remember the first time I got invited to Halloween party (I worked at the restaurant at that time), I was so excited! I got my first costume, make up and we headed to a big house with my husband for a party. There were a lot of people I didn't know and everyone was already very drunk when we got there... I was a little disappointed. I thought that there is going to be some kind of Halloween games, contests, maybe special food, but it was just regular party with Halloween decorations where everyone was getting hammered BUT in cool costumes. So I didn't get the feeling that Halloween was a special day.

With years, I kind of accepted that Halloween is a day when everyone just drinks a lot, and I was ok with that. I really wanted to adapt to the American culture as much as possible, so I did the same thing what everyone else was doing on Halloween - going to house party, get drunk, then going to the club and get drunk even more... I'm not sure if I liked it, but one thing I really enjoyed is looking at house decorations. I was always impressed how people decorated their houses for Halloween in Virginia and DC. People get really serious about the decor.

It's me on the left, from Halloween day 2016. I wasn't dressed up this year.

And couple years ago, we decided to drive around different neighborhoods and take pictures of people's decorated houses. So much fun! This year we did the same thing, but we went to Georgetown, area in Washington DC where houses cost from $2.5 million. I was curious maybe their decorations are going to be different from the houses in a average neighborhood. We walked for about 4 hours, and tried to find perfect compositions for pictures.

Pumpkin is a must have attribute for Halloween and we saw lots of pumpkins on porches and stairs.

And just so you know, Georgetown looks absolutely beautiful at fall. You can walk here for hours. Lots of restaurants, shops, bars, bakeries, antique stores attract tourists from a lot of countries.

Spider web of course.

This family is very creative! They had so many details and decorations, I can't even imagine how much time they spent to do all the work, but it looks beautiful! I probably spent like 20 mins in front of their house just to discern each piece and take pictures.

Here you can see the full picture of that awesome house.

What do you think about this cute couple?! Isn't it awesome?!

I think I still live my old Russian mentality and probably wouldn't buy any Halloween decorations for my place in the future, I just can't imagine to spend so much money for just Halloween. Maybe I need more time to adapt. But don't get me wrong, I love the look and people's effort, but it's just a waste of money for me. Did you decorate your place for Halloween this year? Do you usually spend a lot for decorations? And do you think it's worth it?

This guy was hanging out in front of some antique store.

Huge spiders are at the wall of some Restaurant.

Georgetown is located near Potomac River, so you can see a lot of yachts parked around. And since it's Halloween, people decorate their vessels as well.

There is a lot of things you can do in Washington DC for Halloween. Good activity is going to the National Zoo with your kid for trick-or-treating while visiting spiders, owls and other animals . There are some haunted trails and costumed volunteers who give away candy.

You can also try Halloween sleepover at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History with your kid. You will need solve some mystery puzzles and find stolen objects from the museum. And then you will stay inside one of the country’s coolest museums.

One of the most popular entertainments in VA and DC for Halloween are Haunted Houses and Haunted Forests. Have you ever tried it?

This video isn't mine, but just sharing it so you can get an idea of what that is.

There is also some entertainments in Mount Vernon, Corn Mazes, very popular Ghost Tours in the whole DMV area, Halloween trains in some parks and of course Halloween parties at the bars. So you need couple days to try it all if you are into Halloween. But I will keep taking pictures of house decorations for each Halloween year.

Share you Halloween story if you have one :)

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