One of my favorite things to do is to integrate quality time with friends and family. This past weekend my boyfriend’s sister was able to visit and stay over at our apartment in the city. We had a day planned full of Halloween activities.

On Friday night we opted to stay home, catch up, drink some wine and watch American Horror Story: Murder House (one of the best seasons of the whole series!). It was the perfect show to put us all in a spooky mood.

The next morning we prepared to tackle the day — with coffee and bagels, that is — and we were all so excited to get on the road. We were picked up by my friends, Jake and Cory, around noon to head toward Sleepy Hollow, New York. I loved the spirit of this town; it was clean, peaceful, festive and there were all sorts of activities happening as we drove along the narrow roads to get to the cemetery.

Once there, we settled for a self-guided tour since we had other things planned. We saw Andrew Carnegie’s and Brooke Astor’s headstones and walked the Headless Horseman Bridge (obviously, this is not the original bridge, but it’s the one used on the night tours). Rumor has it you can still hear the horse’s steps at night. We walked, explored, drank wine and put in our steps in the cemetery, and then it was time to head to the Angry Orchard Cidery in Walden. This plan took a turn when we realized my friend Jake left the car keys in his jacket … inside the car. Thank God for AAA!

While we waited for AAA, part of the group decided to take a 15-minute walk to the closest pizza shop — it made time go by faster. We ate, chatted and within an hour were back on the road to Walden. The drive was beautiful! We witnessed an amazing sunset, saw the brightly colored leaves on the trees and enjoyed a crisp breeze that made it feel like a true fall evening.

While at Angry Orchard Cidery, we enjoyed some live music and played extensive rounds of Heads Up and Shoutrageous while trying out new flavors of the hard cider. The food trucks were an added bonus and gave the place almost a music/food festival vibe.

Around 8:30 p.m., we started making our way to Puzzle Parlour Escape Room Adventures in White Plains. We arrived in the town with more than an hour to spare, so we decided to hit a local bar to grab some drinks and play some darts before we had to figure out how to escape a room in less than one hour — because why not, right?

The experience was amazing! We worked well together as a group and managed to save our friend Julie from turning into a grumpy vampire with eight minutes to spare. It was a long, eventful day but totally worth it!

What are your favorite spooky things to do around this holiday? Let us know!

— Yasser Ogando, sales planner