We start with a costume contest in Mary Laveroni Community Park on the East side of town and at 5:00 the kids start heading in to the business section for trick-or-treating.

Here at the Hotel Charlotte, we spend the afternoon placing and lighting candles, finding our biggest pot to put the candy in and dimming the lights.

Victor dons something unusual, this year the garb of a priest. Lynn has a few masks to choose from, mostly Mardi Gras like.

An unlikely costume!

And then we wait for the kids to come and come they do. Princesses and Spiderman men, A s and a Headless horseman. This year we saw a bunny, bear and television, Winnie the Pooh made a stop as did a toilet. We laughed at the Moore Brother's garbage man and teased the parents that also had to take a piece of candy.

This year's bucket for the Hotel Charlotte candy stash was half of a wine barrel, a worthy vessel for sweet distribution. Six kids at once could reach in and get a few pieces, no candy traffic jams here! A few kids needed a lift to reach the candy, one found his own step stool and almost fell into the bucket. Most all were amazed by the freedom of grabbing their own treats. Just a handful had to be reminded to only take only 2 or 3 pieces, only those who took 6 or more were told that Santa probably saw that.

We are the only stop in town that lets the kids grab their own candy. Quantity rules enforced by the Candy Police, which was often Lynn. Not too surprisingly, most of the children were perfectly polite in their candy takes.

Bob wisely hides throughout the evening in his own wine barrel bed. When the festivities get rolling Victor brings out some tasty appetizers for the adults that have joined us. Each year the same folks, plus a few more converts. This year we had a group of 10 reserve our dining room for a Halloween
celebration of their own. They brought pizza and shared it with all of us.

We consider it a successful night if we don't run out of candy, appetizers or wine. This was another successful year.

These gals from Holland stopped here on a lark and couldn't believe their tourist luck! If you are ever traveling in the area over Halloween,
stop here for the night!

Kay has always been a handful

The devil did it!

Charmers! Look out boys.

Awed by the Halloween lights, people and barrel of candy!

No Halloween is complete without Jelly Belly!

Cool effect on the windows, don't know what happened, but I like it

Is a Halloween really complete without a headless horseman.