This is my youngest daughter, Mimi and her friend Lil'C and of course Lil Mama.
For Mimi's 27th birthday we took her into the Big City- San Francisco- on a historic Ghost Walk.
We began our walk at the Queen Anne Hotel. It was built as a school for girls in the late 1800's. The ghost that haunts this beautiful old hotel is benevolent. She tucks people in with a blanket in one particular room. Sometimes when you take pictures in this hotel you will get 'orbs' of light or energy. This is Lil C and Lil Mama in the dining room.
Here is our Ghost Guide. This fellow was well informed and quite a showman. He told us fascinating stories of ghosts that inhabit parts of San Francisco as he ushered us through the Pacific Heights neighborhood. In one particular spot he had a old key to one of the Mansions that would rotate when held in the palm of a hand- no matter who held it or which direction they faced. Very odd indeed!
This is the third floor of the Queen Anne Hotel. That piece of furniture to the left is an old pulpit. This property was given by its owner in the early 1900 to the Episcopal church, and this is a remnant of that time. This is the floor that is most inhabited by the friendly woman ghost who ran the school for girls.
As I came up the stairs I hit a cold spot on between the second floor and the third floor. I let the rest of the large group of twenty souls romp on ahead of me and hung back a little. I turned to one of the girls and said, I feel it here. Of course she smiled and moved on. The Ghost Guide had given another person a special meter. Supposedly when an energy source came near it, all the lights would flash orange and green. Just moving it towards another person wouldn't make it go off. As they came up the stairs, the meter began flashing. As they moved away from the spot, toward the forth floor, the meter went dark. It didn't flash anywhere else, and it didn't flash on the way back down.
Lil C sat on the chair on the third floor, with nothing happening.
Lil Mama was alert, but mostly we were just in awe of the beauty of the restoration of the hotel. Furniture in the hall ways was period too, as you will see in another photo. I want to go back and stay in the hotel so I can see the rooms!
This is the second floor, taken as I came down the stairs. Everyone else was still on the forth floor. To the right, on the table is a potted plant, but in front of the plant is a weird 'thing'. It is hard to see in this photo, but if you enlarge it, there is no a reflection of it, just the reflection of the plant. Could be nuthin- or....
Outside was windy and clear and cold.The famous San Francisco fog was holding just off the coast, so the stars were out( a unique thing in SF for sure). This is a sample of the kinds of houses and neighborhoods we were walking through. Of course it is nighttime, and there were no flashes allowed, so some of the pictures look a little blurry. These 'Painted Ladies' were very impressive and expensive. One of these houses just sold for 1.9 million dollars. Now that's hair raising!
This is the lobby of the Queen Anne. Beautiful and cozy. It was a nice and welcoming room. I could have sat in there all night!
The streets of San Francisco~
The Atherton Mansion. Weird and wonderful stories were told about this fantastic Victorian! It has a Baccarat crystal chandelier that you could see through the window from the street. See the cars? No I'm not crooked, the street is steep!
This is a kind of creepy picture. Those glowing things look like eyes, but I don't really remember anyone looking like this. That is Lil C and Mimi in the dark foreground. (((shiver)))!
Mammy Mary Ellen Pleasant was a famous woman in San Francisco. In today's money she would have amassed over a Billion dollars.
Born a slave, she was educated by one of her owners, became free, became a student of Marie Levau in New Orleans and learned about Voodoo. Coming into California as a free woman, she worked hard, bought businesses and helped fund the Civil War. She was an important woman, and the site where her house once stood has an eerie feeling about it. Six huge Eucalyptus trees still stand on the corner where her house had been ( now a Holistic Healing Center- it is California after all!) and if she doesn't like you, the story goes that she will throw the Eucalyptus seed pods at you.
She must have liked us, because as windy as it was, no seed pods fell on us, plus the wind seemed to die a little bit as her story was told.
So that is the extent of our Ghost Walk. I don't feel like we were touched by a ghost today, but we had a great time, had a lot of laughs and were all together.
And if you want to hear a ghost story- I have others to tell- just not about San Francisco.
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