Magical Mystery Hokey Tour

I was reading an article that Marianne had written for Chicago Parent about a tour she took while in London - - the Jack the Ripper Murder Tour!   Right up my alley!   And it reminded me of a tour I took a few years ago in Las Vegas.   My tour wasn't a serial killer murder tour, although murders played a part.   Let me explain. 

Most people go to Las Vegas to gamble or see The Blue Man Group or Celine Dion.  Not me.   No way.   The blue guys kind of creep me out.   So does Celine Dion.   Nope, none of that stuff for me.   For me?   The Haunted Vegas Tour, baby.  That's my kind of Vegas vacation.   So, while my husband, son and brother-in-law went off to the Excalibur to enjoy a show, eat meat with their hands, and wipe their mouths with their sleeves, my daughter, sister and I boarded a bus, dowsing rods in hand, ready to meet and greet the departed celebrity souls of Las Vegas. 

We took our seats on the bus and were already looking out the windows to see if we could "see anything."  We hadn't even left the hotel parking lot yet!   But, we were excited to see what we could see.    As we pulled out, the tour guide told us stories of the haunted places that we would visit, and we got more and more excited.   The bus driver took us by Liberace's house and restaurant, our guide regaling us with stories of its haunted history.   We drove by the murder site of a rapper - - I want to say CPAC, but I know that's wrong (I've been watching too much politic junk).  We went to the Flamingo and toured the garden where Bugsy Siegel's spirit continues to be seen, snapping pictures all the while hoping against hope that we would catch something.   We stopped at a park in Henderson said to be the home of several spirits who had been murdered.   We all got our cameras out, again hoping to catch something.   Personally, I think it was too loud for the spirits because some of the tourists were very irreverent.  Amateurs.   Not surprisingly, no ghostly apparitions made their presence known at the park.   We drove by a few other places - - I don't remember where.  I didn't see any ghosts during the tour, the hair on the back of my neck never stood on end, I didn't feel any cold spots, and I never once was scared.   Honestly, I was hoping for a little more "haunt" in my haunted tour.  But, the tour guides were amusing and the tour was fun, thanks mostly to my sister and daughter.

On The Haunted Vegas Tours website FAQs there is a question:  "Is the Haunted Vegas Tour hokey?"    The answer on the website:  No, of course.   My answer:  Yeah, it was pretty hokey.    It wasn't the Jack the Ripper Murder Tour, but it was fun - - hokey fun.  And I got a really cool set of dowsing rods.  The guys?  Well, they just got heartburn.

A Scary Farm

 

I miss Knotts Scary Farm.

 

Have a scary weekend, everyone.

Haunted Highway My Eye

Okay, so most of you know about my love for all things paranormal.  Whether it's the inexplicable way my dog keeps getting on the dining room table in the middle of the night, or the haunted bathroom in my husband's elementary school, or watching paranoramal shows on TV, or playing with my own EMF detector on my iPhone (yes, I downloaded an app for that), it's all fascinating to me.    So, needless to say I was kind of excited about a new show, "Haunted Highway," on Syfy last night.  I hunkered down on the couch next to my convalescing, appendix-less daughter, and waited with great anticipation for the start of the show.   I hadn't read about it beforehand, but to me the title spoke for itself.   This must be a show about haunted highways.   Right?   Oooh, creepy and spine tingly - yes?    Not exactly.  Not even remotely.

Without going into boring detail, it was NOT a show about haunted highways (which I would have loved, by the way).   It was a show about "investigating" places that are "purported" to be "haunted" - - places that you can get to from . . . you guessed it . . . a highway.   Well, I'm sorry.  I can get to my grocery store from the highway.  I can get to just about any place from the highway.   And most of those places are probably not haunted.    The "investigations" were less than investigatory, and to make matters worse - - one of the "investigators" was Jack Osbourne.   Yes.  THAT Jack Osbourne.  I really have nothing against Jack Osbourne.   But honestly, all I could think about while watching him was wacky Ozzy, America's Got Talent (with their British judge Sharon), and his chubby sister who is now not so chubby.  

I was disappointed.   I was looking forward to being scared and creeped out and feeling the hair on the back of my neck stand up straight.   Instead, all I felt was gypped. 

I shall not watch Haunted Highway again - - - instead, I think I would rather watch Pawn Stars or a rerun of Cupcake Wars.    Sigh.

Starvation Heights

Starvation Heights

I have found my next vacation destination.   Have I mentioned that I believe in spirits and the paranormal?!   Well, I thought it would be so fun to go on a ghost-hunting investigating vacation!    So I googled "haunted places in Washington state" (since I live in Washington).   And I was not disappointed.   I live in a very haunted place!

Just a small sampling of what I found - -

There's a place in Sedro Wooley - Cascade Job Corp.  They weren't always a Job Corp.   In the early 1900s, they were the first mental institution to offer a frontal lobotomy.   ("Offer" a frontal lobotomy - kind of makes it sound like a liposuction procedure.)  Back then it was known as the Northern State Hospital.  Many unmarked graves are supposedly below the gymnasium.  A little girl playing with a ball, an apparition of a man apparently looking for the girl.  Voices in the nurses dorm.  And a body hanging in one of the windows.   AND, a haunted underground tunnel system.   The makings of a great vacation!

In Port Townsend, at the Manresa Castle (now a bed and breakfast), is the ghost of a woman from the 1900s.  Her name is Kate.  After she found out that her fiance had been killed in the war, she jumped out of the third story, killing herself.  Despite the whole fiance/suicide thing, she seems to be a happy spirit.   Her singing can be heard at night coming from the bathroom.   A guest caught who they think is Kate in a photo, staring out the window toward the ocean.   There is also a monk spirit.   He supposedly hung himself in the attic after becoming "disenchanted with society and himself."   He, unlike Kate, is not such a happy little spirit camper.   He can be heard rattling chains and moaning.   Poor monk. 

Okay, now to my vacation destination:  Starvation Heights in Olalla.   It used to be a sanitarium, run by a husband and wife team, Linda and Sam.  Linda believed that fasting cured all diseases.   So, all her patients were starved for weeks, and sometimes months, at a time.   Many died.    In the beginning, she would bury them and plant a tree over each body.   Soon, though, she ran out of room and began throwing the bodies over a ravine.   Nice lady.  She also had a sweet little racket going.   She would forge her patients' wills and put herself in as an heir and collect their money upon their death.  Hmmm.   Sounds like fasting had more than one purpose.    First starve them, then collect all their worldly goods when they died from the fasting/starving "cure."   (There is a special place in H E double hockey sticks for people like her).  And if burying their bodies or throwing them over a ravine were not enough, she also burned bodies in an incinerator, which incinerator is still in the building to this day.  Needless to say, Starvation Heights is haunted by many very unhappy and extremely hungry spirits. 

Now, I just need to convince my husband that Olalla is a wonderful vacation destination.  
And find out where the heck Olalla is!!