Ghosts and Battleships

WOW! What a whirlwind weekend in Wilmington! We didn't leave until Saturday morning, so Friday night, we went to Applebee's and saw X-Men: The Last Stand. It was really good! Saturday, we got up early, dropped the dogs off and headed to Wilmington. Our first stop was the Battleship North Carolina. We walked around for about 4.5 hours taking pictures and soaking in the history. Totally amazing to see and experience!! Jeff took no less than 4 pictures of my ass while we were on that boat. Some were deliberate, others were just coincidental..but I now have enough pictures to make a big ass collage..literally.

After that, we checked in to a rather crappy Ho Jo and then had dinner at Sticky Fingers...mmmmmm. We made our way into the historical section of Wilmington and parked so we could enjoy a nice stroll down the River Walk. The gnats were horrible!! I was cursing myself for leaving the bug spray in the room. We got in line to go on one of the Ghost Walks and the very nice pirate gave us some OFF spray before the journey. I'll have to condense a lot of this b/c it'll go on forever otherwise.

The Ghost Walk is where they take you on a walking tour of reportedly haunted houses in historical Wilmington. They give you a brief history of the violent/tragic death that occurred in the house as well as recent spottings of that particular ghost. We had several strange things happen on our 2 hour walk of route 8.

We walked past a massive house that used to be an orphanage where several children were killed. The current family accepts the ghosts as part of the family and all is well b/c they're good spirits. In our group of 13, we began moving on to the next house. Jeff and I were taking pictures hoping to get one of a ghostly being..so the rest of the group was ahead of us. They had already crossed the street and were waiting for us. Jeff was in the road crossing and I was still on the sidewalk..glancing back at the house. At that time, the motion sensor light came on. Twelve people had already walked past it..but it didn't come on until I passed it. Interesting. Doing some research tonight, I read that ghostly "energy" seeks out others with a similar or psychic energy...so maybe that could explain it. Maybe the kids flipped on the light as a way of saying hello. I also read that people who have been reincarnated carry with them energies of who they used to be, so who knows.

The next house was where a woman had died while giving birth. Jeff got a chill up his spine at the same time our pirate guide introduced a nightly visitor..a cat had walked up behind Jeff and was just standing there staring at us all. The guide says she comes out every time a group goes by...she looks at everyone, then just goes about her business.

The tour consisted of about 8 houses, but the last house was that of Mrs. Love. She supposedly can be seen in her bedroom window dressed in black or white lace while smoking a pipe. The house was up for sale and pitch black..not a single light on. I did notice a black and white cat sitting on a car looking at us, but other than that..didn't notice anything. As we were leaving and I glanced back, I swore I saw something in the corner of what used to be Mrs. Love's bedroom window. I thought maybe it was a reflection off a car going by..or just the angle..but I decided I wanted to go back to look again. Our pirate bid us adieu and we went back..about 3 minutes after we'd left it..and at least 3 lights in the house were on. Strange. No new cars were there.

Our pirate also told us about a cemetery on the corner of 4th and Market St. that he said never disappoints to show you something, so we headed that way for some pictures. A few of the pictures showed questionable stuff, but nothing we could prove. There was a bush that looked like a breeze was moving the leaves, but the bushes on either side weren't moving..and I didn't feel a breeze. Then there's the matter of the streetlamp. It came on after we took pictures for awhile and I told Jeff that maybe the ghosts turned it on b/c they knew we needed more light. When he made a rude comment, the light went out. I said that he was kidding and asked if they could turn it on again...and the light came back on. After a few minutes..it went off again, so I asked if they could turn it on again, and it came back on.

It could be a coincidence..but maybe not. It doesn't explain mine and Jeff's cameras. Mine quit working..it wouldn't turn off...so I took the batteries out..and it took a picture without batteries..then shut off. After that, it was normal. After Jeff made a rude comment, his quit working and it wasn't until he apologized that it started working again. Hmmm. So, after that, we went back to HoJo and crashed.

Sunday, Jeff took me on a surprise visit to the NC Aquarium in Fort Fisher. It rocked!! It looked very natural and they had a lot of things you could touch, like sea urchins, starfish, crabs, turtles, etc. There was even an outdoor section. I got the number for someone in husbandtries so I could talk to them about finding a home for my turtles..so we'll see!

When we got home, I crashed...I was so tired..but it was such a fun weekend. I can't wait to go back to go on a different Ghost Walk route...hehe..anyway..that was my weekend!! Yawwwnnnnnn...