Things that go bump in the night

After a late start we finally arrived in Richmond. I'm still trying to figure out how we got there because the town seems to be made up of nothing but one way streets. We were so frustrated by the time we arrived at our first stop. We made a wrong turn and came upon this.

We stopped and asked a family who were feeding the geese which way to go and found out we were just yards from Maymont House http://www.maymont.org/

We went in and found a lovely mansion on 100 acres. The gardens were beautiful and so was the house. They wouldn't let us take photos inside but you can go to the website for more information if you want it. (more photos will be on the next post)

We stayed there for a couple of hours and thought we better find out where the ghost tour was and a motel. We finally found our way downtown to the Haunts of Richmond

http://www.hauntsofrichmond.com/

We had a couple of hours to kill so we took a walk around that part of town. The first thing we found was a farmers market.

We poked around there for awhile grabbing a hot dog for lunch, then went across the street to do a little shopping. While in the first shop we asked the clerk if he could recommend an area of town for us to sight see. He told us "go to Carytown (Carytown is an urban retail district lining Cary Street at the southern end of the Museum District in Richmond. Begun in the 1930s with the construction of what was then a suburban shopping center at Cary Court, the district now includes over 250 shops, restaurants, and offices. The area has thrived as a center for high-end, independent retail shops and boutiques, and is also home to one of the city's most beloved institutions, the Byrd Theatre, a restored movie palace that has operated continuously since 1928 and shows second-run films for a famous $2 ticket price....From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Now for you women out there you know we were in heaven. We shopped until we dropped. Lots of unique, eclectic stores. Some way over priced, but some with bargins which we jumped on. The first store we went to I spotted this,

Now anyone who knows me, or who has been reading this blog for very long understands. I fell in love. The price was only $29- with an extra 20% off. Still I hesitated. It was after all only the first store and I didn't want to jump to soon on spending money. My daughter who knows me very well of course, says to me. Mom do you want it, and I said yea, but I will wait since we just got here. So what does she do. grabs it up and goes and pays for it. She is so good to her old mom!

We had an enjoyable day finding more bargins along the way.

I'm not sure what I will do with the red elephant, probably use it as a planter, but it called to me.

Anyway after we shopped awhile we went in search of a motel. Finally we spotted a Holiday Inn, and booked a room. By then it was time to head back downtown again.

More wrong turns and one way streets took us back to where we needed to be, and we ate a sub sandwich and headed back to the haunt. This time we went inside to let our guide know we were there.

They said we still had about a half hour so once again we took to the streets. While hanging around outside near the farmers market (where we had been earlier in the day) we looked up in the sky only to see thousands of birds. Now let me tell you this. It scared the shit out of me. I have never seen so many birds at one time. I thought I was in a horror movie. Alfred Hitchcock "The birds" came to mind and my imagination went into over drive. I didn't know if we should run for cover or grab the camera. The camera won and here are several photo's. All the black dots you see are BIRDS.

We asked a couple of locals about them, and no one seemed to concerned. It seems they hang out in the trees around there. Needless to say we didn't hang out long, and went back to take the tour.

Much to our surprise there were 18 other people besides our-self signed up for the tour and we all grouped together to meet our guide. As it turns out she was the same person who had given us the tour of Maymont earlier in the day. Anyway we were all off and running..Seriously, she was walking so fast we had to almost run to keep up. Now my husband walks with a limp and had brought his cane, but we really lagged behind and almost dropped out before we came to our first stop. She did slow down a little but we were disappointed in how she rushed us through the city streets. My daughter who is in excellent shape even agreed it was to fast for her. A lot of it was uphill and it was dark and traffic was bad.We had to cross several busy streets. The stories she told outside the buildings were ok, but I wasn't impressed. I didn't even get a chill. It was boring stuff, like 50 people were killed in a flood here...blah blah blah...Ok so what..the river isn't even in that spot now, a parking lot is, so I just rolled my eyes mostly. For 15 dollars a ticket plus a handling charge I expected a little more. We didn't go inside anywhere, and I would NOT recommend this tour if your in Richmond. The highlight of the tour was we did get to go up to the gate of the governors house and the lights upstairs were on. The guard outside said he was home but we didn't see him. The phone at the gate rang while we were there and we think it was someone inside the house asking what we were doing, but no one came out. I took some photos along the way, and we did get some orbs in them. It could be the lighting or it could be spirits...I will let everyone use there own imagination where that is concerned.

Anyway I will post a few more photos and then I will do a new post to talk about Sunday

Click and enlarge this..You will see the orbs I was talking about...Is it the light? Or the people who drown when the river flooded before this canal was built on this spot?