Canyon Trail Cemetery - Halloween Tradition 2016

A few nights ago, we packed the kids into the van and headed west.  To Carol Stream to be precise.

The reason?  To go make our annual visit to the Canyon Trail Cemetery.  Here's my post from 2014 when I think we went for the first time (and I made Richard Christie reference?!?) and here's my post from last fall.

You can get all the details - including the address - about the Canyon Trail Cemetery from their Facebook page here.  

The place is pretty awesome.  Tons of pneumatic animatronics and lots of sounds and lights and movement.  Things jump out at you and make all sorts of racket.  The Babe did some screaming.  The King of the Ball Tossers kept his distance.  You can see him in this photo below.  Well past the fence and even standing in the parkway.  He wasn't too sure of the 'scary skellies' as he calls them.

Here's the big Pumpkin King that they have 'around the corner'.  Always a big hit with us every year.  He rises out of the ground to be like 15 feet tall and snaps his head around to "smile" at you!

While we were there, we chatted up the homeowner and told him that we'd come from Elmhurst to visit his Cemetery every year for the past few and he told us about another house that wasn't too far away in Carol Stream that was set up like a pirate ship.  He said we should check it out and gave us directions.  It is just across Lies Road from the Canyon Trail Cemetery, so if you are going out to Carol Stream to check this out, make sure you hit them both up!

Because the Pirate Ship house (well...it is two houses that are neighbors, actually!) is AWESOME.  Like, seriously awesome.  It doesn't have the movement/animatronics that the Canyon Trail Cemetery does, but it has a pirate ship, what must be a few hundred skeleton pirates, a few mermaids and some pretty neat 'water'.    We spent a few minutes admiring this one from the van.  We made sure to pull around so both sides could get a good look.  This picture shows you the scale of this thing.  And the canons on the ship 'smoke', so you get a neat effect - even on a rainy day.