The Trip to St. Augustine, Part 4

Here are some pics of the baby bunny my neighbor brought me this morning (don't you just love the color of my elegant old Florida bathroom tile?). It's a wild Florida rabbit and I'll be taking it to a nearby park so it can be free. He's one of the reasons my blog is late being delivered today, and work sometimes gets in the way of play sometimes, too. Yeesh!

Here are some pics of our sightseeing in St. Augustine on Saturday afternoon. (It's taken a while to post today because Blogger is sooooo slow today when it's uploading pics).





The Ghost Tour

We had seen and heard a lot about the ghost tours in the area. Not knowing which one to pick we picked the one that had been around the longest: Ghost Tours of St. Augustine.

Now, SaurKid and I (being born-again Christians) were in an almost comical quandry which some of you might not understand. Is there such a thing as ghosts? My answer to him was that I thought ghosts were certainly in the realm of possibility. Just because some or most souls may go to heaven or hell right away, there may also be some that wander about before they depart.

Or, as SaurKid cheerfully pointed out, they may simply be demons. Oh goody! A Demonic Tour of Old St. Augustine! SaurKid was rather sulky, being a die-hard skeptic when it comes to ghosts. Having seen some weird things in my lifetime, I am less skeptical. However, I pointed out to him that if these things are demonic, he would be in no danger (being a born again Christian)... unless, of course, someone got posessed and came after us with a hatchet. Anyway, we went and had a good time despite our theological conflict.

There are a variety of tours you can choose from: walking, riding in an enclosed and airconditioned bus to different sites to get out and roam around, or a sailing trip. We chose the riding trip, so that we could see more sites. Our tour guide was a very dramatic and friendly spinner of tall ghost tales, and she made them both fun and spooky.

We were very impressed by the story of the woman who had been hacked into little pieces by her next door neighbor on her front lawn in the early evening. Apparently there was a finger in the bushes, and assorted pieces scattered on the lawn. We passed the homes and saw...absolutely nothing.

Our first stop was near this home:

When we got out of the bus in front of this home (above), I had no idea it was part of the tour. Never the less, I felt something watching us from the middle window. Can you see anything? Remember, we had to use flash, so some of the light is attributable to the camera flash. This house is supposedly haunted by a particularly malignant spirit, which has sometimes appeared as a Spanish Conquistador. No one will live there any more.

Now this was the next stop on the tour: The Haunted Lighthouse. This is the house (above) which is separate from the actual Light Tower (which is behind it). Both are supposed to have some malicious ghosts, as well. They include a couple of young girls who have questionable motives, and a man who wandered in and hung himself in the rafters one day.

This picture (above) is of the little house that is part of the actual Light Tower. What's odd about this particular picture we took is that there is a ball of light here that is obviously not attributable to our camera. In fact, it didn't show up (the picture was very dark) until I lightened the entire picture and heightened the contrast. But please note that I didn't retouch the photo in any way. I've added a red arrow to indicate what I'm talking about.

These balls of light are called "orbs" by ghost hunters, who claim that they indicate the presence of a ghost. Sometimes people mistakenly believe a dust particle or a rain drop is an orb. In this case, I can assure you that it isn't either of those, though it may be some odd result of the shadows which were present. However, when you enlarge this portion of the picture, it is obvious that it's on top of the shadows. Try it yourself, and you'll see!

We went to a nearby playground after that, which happens to be an unmarked mass grave. As she told us about the unfortunate ghosts, something kept tapping my toe. Was it simply a muscle twinge? Or was it a playful ghost?

Finally, we went by an old cemetary, where crowds gather to see the very obvious face (of a woman) on this tombstone (this picture doesn't do it justice). Is it merely water damage? Or is it... something else from beyond the grave?

Tomorrow I'll cover our tour of the main fort that Sunday.