Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Spooks in SFO on a dark rainy night!

Its a dark night, I can hear the wind howling, the owls hooting and squelching of wet sneakers as I walk down the Octavia street. Its the Old Victorian district of San Francisco. Beautiful mansions line up the street on both the sides with the scent of eucalyptus trees and rosemary bushes stimulating the neurons. Me and my labmates are getting ready to get the spooks in the city - we are headed to a Ghost tour! After a long day of science at BPS it seemed like a perfect way to end the day walking in the old neighborhoods of the city.

We enter the Queen Anne hotel where we are designated to meet the ghost hunter. The hotel is deserted with antiques lined up in the lobby, piano music playing and a warm fire crackling up. We start warming up to the place, after all we were just out in the damp weather on a bus. Of course, there are sudden footsteps and a man with a long beard, an overcoat, black boots, a hat and a lantern walks in the room. The ghost hunter has arrived! The tour starts as he animatedly talks about the ghost of the hotel - the friendly ghost Mary Anne! She supposedly wraps you in blankets as you sleep in room #410! We start walking out in the neighborhood and a jolly evening of part architecture, part theatrics and part eerie stories, begins!

There were the romances of Gertrude and clashes of the sisters, ghosts who dont like kids and of course the Voodoo queen of SFO - Marry Ellen who is a historical figure in the times of Gold Rush! While we didnt really see any ghosts, a haunted key turned by 180 degrees on the palm of my hand because I willed it so - as claimed by the ghost hunter! It was an interesting night - just the brisk walk and the fun of the theatrical ghost hunter was worth it. Do visit the district on your BPS spook night.

Until the awesome science tomorrow - good night folks!

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