Vacations Blog

Apparently, some people are into freaking themselves out.

I’ve never understood that.  I am the world’s biggest baby.  In fact, the one and only thing my husband doesn’t let me do is watch scary movies.  He claims that being sent off into a dark house to look for burglars and axe murderers at 2 in the morning is not cool.  (Actually, he says it is “freaking ridiculous, Britt!  Again?  Seriously?!  Go to sleep!”  And he doesn’t say freaking.)

But my job here at the UpTake vacation blog is to give the people what they want.  And my editor says the people want to know where to go to have the poop scared out of them!

It seems that Florida offers no shortage of scary, haunted places.  I wish someone would have told me that before I moved here.

St. Augustine – the whole damn town, apparently

Spooky St Augustine Lighthouse

Spend your Friday the 13th (and there are two coming up in February and March) on one of St. Augustine’s famed ghost tours.

This city along the northeastern coast of Florida is the oldest city in the United States.  I guess if a place has been around that long it is just inevitable it will be filled with ghosts.  Known to those of us who don’t seek out scary things for its world class golf and beautiful lighthouses, St. Augustine offers several places that are notorious for haunting.  Locations claiming to house spirits and spooks include houses, parks and even an old jail! *shudder*

Picture by Ukine – because like I would ever go near a haunted lighthouse!

Cassadaga – the town of gypsies and mystics!

Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp

Cassadaga is located smack dab between Daytona Beach and Orlando, just off of I-4.  There are no hotels in town, and it’s not even a town really.  But it’s a must see pit stop on your way to and from anywhere – especially if you’re intrigued by the paranormal.

Cassadaga is a gypsie camp (or Spiritual Camp as some of the inhabitants call it).  The streets are lined with signs for fortune tellers, palm readers and spiritual readings.  Legend has it that this is the place to go if you want to convene with a loved one that has passed away.

OK, that’s all I can say about Cassadaga. I live entirely too close to this place to keep going on and on about ghosts and spooks and mystics and some kind of spiritual vortex that could be hovering right over my house.

Picture by Ebyabe, because again – no freaking way.

Cedar Key – where all the hotels are haunted!

Old Fenimore Mill at Cedar Key

If being on land with ghosts and invisible dead things isn’t scary enough for you, venture out to the island of Cedar Key!  I don’t know what says “horror movie waiting to happen” like 360 degrees of water and a nearly abandonned old town rumored to be swarming with spirits.

Of course, you’re not really a tough guy unless you’re willing to sleep with the ghosts.  According to legend, a former owner of the Cedar Key Island Hotel & Restaurant was murdered on the property – and that’s just one of the spirits that hangs around!

Picture of the haunted mill on the haunted island by fuzzcat, also known as someone who is not me

Seven Sisters Inn – Ocala, Florida

oooh - The Seven Sisters Inn!

I mentioned this Inn previously as a potential Orlando Valentine’s Day destination for anyone but me, but I would be remiss not to include it here as well.  Unfortunately, you might find it difficult to get a room (anywhere) for Valentine’s Day.  Not to worry – you can creep you and your loved one out on February 13th or March 13th and have an officially too scary for me Friday the 13th!

Seven Sisters is reportedly “the most haunted inn in Florida”, although a friend of mine recently spent a weekend and insisted he saw nothing out of the ordinary.  Of course, when he said it he sounded disappointed so he is clearly crazy and not to be trusted.  I think the rumors alone would be enough to keep me up all night.

Picture of the scary bathroom in the haunted bed and breakfast taken by the crazy person who went there specifically to ghost hunt.  Or, Avitable.

And there you have it.  Four of the creepiest places in Florida where you can willingly attempt to have someone or something scare the bejeezus out of you.

Now, which one of you wants to explain to my husband why I’m going to be waking him up in the middle of the night tonight?

Poor bastard has no clue what he is in for

(Now that picture I took.)

The Marion Cemetery

Who doesn’t love a good mystery?  “Nobody!” as my 2 year old daughter would exclaim.  Not that she understands the word mystery, but that is her standard response to the question, “who doesn’t love (insert you object of choice.)”  The unexplained intrigues me and though not necessarily given to belief in paranormal happenings, should ghosts, spirits and hauntings be offered at any time as plausible explanation–I’ll get a goose bump or two.  The rotating Merchant Ball in Marion Cemetery is riddled with theories and postulations.

The Merchant Ball is a 5200 pound granite orb resting atop a five foot high pedestal.

The Merchant Ball

It is nearly 48 inches in diameter.  It is big!  It was placed in 1896 at the Merchant family plot in the Marion Cemetery as a distinguishing homage to their final resting place.  The ball was polished in place once set and at the time, one of the most impressive monuments on the eastern portion of the graveyard.  Though dwarfed by many of the grave markers erected since, the Merchant Ball to this day remains one of the most impressive and talked about in the cemetery.  For you see, the ball spins!

The family noticed after a couple of years that the large unpolished spot at the base of the ball had become visible.  The family was concerned that they had been on the receiving end of poor workmanship, had the crew reset the ball at great expense and for a time was satisfied that all was well.

Cue the mystery…

The Spot on the Merchant Ball

Over time the spot re-emerged and has since been in perpetual motion.  The mysterious rotating orb has been the subject of much study and debate and in 1929 was even included in the famous Ripley’s Believe It or Not.  Theories range from air pockets, seismic or acoustic disturbances, mischievous squirrels (that one is from my kids) to it’s just plain haunted.

Either way, it’s pretty cool and my kids had a blast investigating the Merchant Ball and offering their own explanations as to why it spins.  Oh, by the way.  Don’t go expecting to see the ball actually moving.  It has been estimated that the rotation rate is about 2 inches annually.

The Marion Cemetery is located at 620 Delaware Avenue in Marion, Ohio and is open sunrise to sunset.  Admission is of course, free.  That is, unless you plan on staying.

Winchester Mystery House

The story goes that when a grieving Sarah L. Winchester, widow to legendary rifle industrialist, William Winchester, met with a medium in 1884 she was told the following:

• Thousands of people have died as a result of her husband’s creations.
• Their spirits are angry and seeking vengeance
• To appease them she must build a home for herself and the spirits, however there was one catch: she could never stop building the house or she would die.

Hence began what would eventually become a $5.5 million dollar (nearly $70 million by today’s standards) construction project that went on for 38 years, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until Sarah’s death on September 5, 1922 at the age of 82.

But Sarah was not only trying to appease the spirits, she was also bent on confusing them. Under her orders, carpenters built stairways that led nowhere, doors that open into solid walls or in one case a 10-foot drop to the ground below. She slept in a different room every night and spent her time spying on servants from various hidey-holes around the mansion.

Today the Winchester Mystery House offers three different tours as well as The Winchester Firearms Museum. The Mansion Tour offers up 110 of the 160-room architectural behemoth for viewing.  Also available is The Garden Tour; magnificent Victorian gardens restored to the days when Sarah Winchester’s full time staff of eight gardeners tended its beauty.

For those who like to dig a little deeper, The Winchester Mystery House offers a special Behind-the-Scenes, hard hats only tour, which takes guests “into areas which had been unexplored for over 75 years.” For safety reasons these tours are limited to guests ten years of age and older.

Be sure to check out the famous Winchester Firearms Museum, home to one of the largest collections of  Winchester Rifles on the West Coast, the “Gun that Won the West,” as well as many rare antiques manufactured by Winchester Products Company, a subsidiary to the legendary arms manufacturer.

For tour hours, pricing and special packages, visit their website at: http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Photo: Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, CA.