Day Four - ghost hunting
Jun. 2nd, 2011 02:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessdo I need more to make you click on this
Day Four
Today held some rumblings about the work shops not being stellar. I agree. I wasn't in any that were bad but I was in a few that were well not as advertized and let's leave it at that. One I sort of felt embarrassed for the presenter. It was in using toys and models to help illustrate concepts (i.e. haptics) and my former boss/ first teaching mentor did this. It seemed to work well. Her ideas were neat but she barely had 40 minutes worth of presentation time. That wouldn't be so bad if it was in the hour time slot but it was a 90 minute one. She did admit that she didn't know why she asked for 90 minutes (maybe in other presentations she had more models but she couldn't carry them on the plane). That was a waste. Okay a few of us sat around and talked which was okay. Conversely, the one showing how to use a computer system I DO have and want to use was supposed to be 90 minutes but was only given 60 which means we couldn't log in and try it ourselves (it was in a computer room so I can't blame the other lady for this).I did get in to see POGIL, haptics, virtual cadaver dissection and help with histology.
Back to Old Spaghetti Factory tonight. I wanted to go to a Tibetan place I was told about but I came back, sat down and suddenly it was an hour later, too late to walk and get back for something else I want to do. Tonight's meal was a little less stellar. Good but not great.
I'm officially done with the con and now the actual tourism truly kicks off and I started it with Ghostly Walks which meet right across the street and I found out they have 8 different tours so I may go again. It was, if nothing else, a good walk through town. I can't remember everything but let's start with some of the bigger things. For one, if you're a big believer in the idea of holding energy this island has a basalt bedrock, in the bowl of the mountains surrounded by salt water, three things to hold energy in. According to the guide, the local Indigenous, the Lekwamman, believed their spirits stayed anchored to their bones (I find that oddly discomforting) and they built stone cairns or boxed up the dead and raised them into trees. If you were a chief you went up in a canoe in the trees. Needless to say this freaked out the Europeans who stole the land and they threw the boxes into the harbor.
This is where I lost some of the names and a quick google did NOT turn up any of these events so take from it what you will but across the bay from me, this desecration of the grave sites was obviously met with horror by the Lekwamman who thought for sure their ancestors would do something about it. The family built a mansion and a factory not too far from each other. One day the house and factory both went up in flames and the lady of the house described people dancing in the flames mocking her. She died days later of unknown causes. Some other rich dude bought it and built another big old house and another factory. He took no chances and put in a sprinkler system. A pipe fitting fell down and crushed him. Weeks later, his son was in a carriage riding past the house and in front of his mother, the horse spooked, rocked him out of the carriage and the wheel cut off his head. Both heads are supposedly seen in the Gatsby B&B swirling around in a bed room.
We went over to the Empress and they asked who was staying here. Me, oh you may not be after this haha, Oh no worries, I'll tell you about the ghost in my room later. Two supposedly documentable cases, the first of Lizzie McGraff, an Irish maid living here in 1908 (when the Empress opened) and she liked to go out at night on the fire escape on the 6th floor (the servants apartments) and when they expanded this hotel (I'm in a part from 1929) the construction guys removed the fire escapes without telling anyone and Lizzie stepped out in mid air only to be found dead clutching her rosary the next day. The other is Bill, one of the former porters who seems to be still around helping.
We went over the sunken garden at the Royal BC museum which apparently were the grounds of Sir James Douglas, one of the governors here back in the 1850's (which I was surprised to find he was a mixed race illegitimate child, given what the States attitude would have been to that). Before that the guides were telling people what ghost sensations are like and all that and I'm like, I smell pipe smoke. Sure enough that's part of the haunting. We were in the area where Douglas had his prized cherry tree (which they've kept a heritage stock for) and he's often seen behind the museum smoking his pipe among his trees. Next up was Helmbach Inn where some of us were staying in the suites. Turns out it was an apt at one point. They had several ghosts including a bad smelling smoky room where a woman had fallen asleep while smoking. Then back to Douglas or should I say one of his daughter's heritage houses (I'm assuming this is a historic register sort of thing? Canadians, yes no?) where she died and the place became an apt house. She showed up in the bed with the first tenant.
There were others including a long spiel about a house where the wife and husband moved in and she became aggressive and he suicidal. They called in local witches to help (sounded like almost an exorcism). This was on heather street then we went into James Bay area. The James Bay Inn was a hotel then a hospital in WWII before becoming a hotel again. Emily Carr, (remember her from the museum exhibit?) was born one block from this place and she was brought to it when it's a hospital and died there. She supposedly haunts it as an old woman (and as a young woman elsewhere). She died in room 115 but haunts the bar downstairs. She tends to whip things at people (well she was a curmudgeon life)
The last two stops were neat. The Bent Mast restaurant and lounge (too bad I didn't know about this earlier). The Bent Mast is supposedly the first house with indoor plumbing on the island and is haunted by a child and an older lady who owned a boarding house in this place and was robbed and killed a few blocks from it. Lastly was Irving Park where there's a spindly little tree. On a local haunted Victoria tour a woman had the bus stopped because she saw a little girl hanging in the tree but when she got to the tree the girl was gone. Supposedly, there was a death in the park of a little girl who had been playing in a tree who fell out and managed to hang herself with her clothing.
The one thing I didn't like was we were blocks from our starting point and they did not take us back. They just gave us directions. Two other people from my con were on the tour but I stayed behind to ask about the Crystal garden (remember the place with the ghostly groper) and yes it has many stories. They want me to email them with my experiences there are here in the hotel. I don't like going in my closet and the light keeps getting switched on in there. I had to get up three times to turn it back off last night while trying to get to sleep. Today, my curling iron kept getting switched off which is why I went back to the Spaghetti factory and NOT to the Tibetan restaurant since I wouldn't have time afterward to get there and back to the ghost walk.
Not sure what to do tomorrow. Maybe the whale watch since it's supposed to rain and I doubt they care about rain. It's that or Buchart garden as my two big trips.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
masqthephlsphr told me to get nanaimo bars, theones i found locally are chocolate-coconut base bars covered with custard and topped with chocolate. YUM. and thanks to yuukihikari for mentioning the spaghetti factory. That is a good place to know
the Hilda Douglas residence, the one where she appeared in the bed
closer view
Day Four
Today held some rumblings about the work shops not being stellar. I agree. I wasn't in any that were bad but I was in a few that were well not as advertized and let's leave it at that. One I sort of felt embarrassed for the presenter. It was in using toys and models to help illustrate concepts (i.e. haptics) and my former boss/ first teaching mentor did this. It seemed to work well. Her ideas were neat but she barely had 40 minutes worth of presentation time. That wouldn't be so bad if it was in the hour time slot but it was a 90 minute one. She did admit that she didn't know why she asked for 90 minutes (maybe in other presentations she had more models but she couldn't carry them on the plane). That was a waste. Okay a few of us sat around and talked which was okay. Conversely, the one showing how to use a computer system I DO have and want to use was supposed to be 90 minutes but was only given 60 which means we couldn't log in and try it ourselves (it was in a computer room so I can't blame the other lady for this).I did get in to see POGIL, haptics, virtual cadaver dissection and help with histology.
Back to Old Spaghetti Factory tonight. I wanted to go to a Tibetan place I was told about but I came back, sat down and suddenly it was an hour later, too late to walk and get back for something else I want to do. Tonight's meal was a little less stellar. Good but not great.
I'm officially done with the con and now the actual tourism truly kicks off and I started it with Ghostly Walks which meet right across the street and I found out they have 8 different tours so I may go again. It was, if nothing else, a good walk through town. I can't remember everything but let's start with some of the bigger things. For one, if you're a big believer in the idea of holding energy this island has a basalt bedrock, in the bowl of the mountains surrounded by salt water, three things to hold energy in. According to the guide, the local Indigenous, the Lekwamman, believed their spirits stayed anchored to their bones (I find that oddly discomforting) and they built stone cairns or boxed up the dead and raised them into trees. If you were a chief you went up in a canoe in the trees. Needless to say this freaked out the Europeans who stole the land and they threw the boxes into the harbor.
This is where I lost some of the names and a quick google did NOT turn up any of these events so take from it what you will but across the bay from me, this desecration of the grave sites was obviously met with horror by the Lekwamman who thought for sure their ancestors would do something about it. The family built a mansion and a factory not too far from each other. One day the house and factory both went up in flames and the lady of the house described people dancing in the flames mocking her. She died days later of unknown causes. Some other rich dude bought it and built another big old house and another factory. He took no chances and put in a sprinkler system. A pipe fitting fell down and crushed him. Weeks later, his son was in a carriage riding past the house and in front of his mother, the horse spooked, rocked him out of the carriage and the wheel cut off his head. Both heads are supposedly seen in the Gatsby B&B swirling around in a bed room.
We went over to the Empress and they asked who was staying here. Me, oh you may not be after this haha, Oh no worries, I'll tell you about the ghost in my room later. Two supposedly documentable cases, the first of Lizzie McGraff, an Irish maid living here in 1908 (when the Empress opened) and she liked to go out at night on the fire escape on the 6th floor (the servants apartments) and when they expanded this hotel (I'm in a part from 1929) the construction guys removed the fire escapes without telling anyone and Lizzie stepped out in mid air only to be found dead clutching her rosary the next day. The other is Bill, one of the former porters who seems to be still around helping.
We went over the sunken garden at the Royal BC museum which apparently were the grounds of Sir James Douglas, one of the governors here back in the 1850's (which I was surprised to find he was a mixed race illegitimate child, given what the States attitude would have been to that). Before that the guides were telling people what ghost sensations are like and all that and I'm like, I smell pipe smoke. Sure enough that's part of the haunting. We were in the area where Douglas had his prized cherry tree (which they've kept a heritage stock for) and he's often seen behind the museum smoking his pipe among his trees. Next up was Helmbach Inn where some of us were staying in the suites. Turns out it was an apt at one point. They had several ghosts including a bad smelling smoky room where a woman had fallen asleep while smoking. Then back to Douglas or should I say one of his daughter's heritage houses (I'm assuming this is a historic register sort of thing? Canadians, yes no?) where she died and the place became an apt house. She showed up in the bed with the first tenant.
There were others including a long spiel about a house where the wife and husband moved in and she became aggressive and he suicidal. They called in local witches to help (sounded like almost an exorcism). This was on heather street then we went into James Bay area. The James Bay Inn was a hotel then a hospital in WWII before becoming a hotel again. Emily Carr, (remember her from the museum exhibit?) was born one block from this place and she was brought to it when it's a hospital and died there. She supposedly haunts it as an old woman (and as a young woman elsewhere). She died in room 115 but haunts the bar downstairs. She tends to whip things at people (well she was a curmudgeon life)
The last two stops were neat. The Bent Mast restaurant and lounge (too bad I didn't know about this earlier). The Bent Mast is supposedly the first house with indoor plumbing on the island and is haunted by a child and an older lady who owned a boarding house in this place and was robbed and killed a few blocks from it. Lastly was Irving Park where there's a spindly little tree. On a local haunted Victoria tour a woman had the bus stopped because she saw a little girl hanging in the tree but when she got to the tree the girl was gone. Supposedly, there was a death in the park of a little girl who had been playing in a tree who fell out and managed to hang herself with her clothing.
The one thing I didn't like was we were blocks from our starting point and they did not take us back. They just gave us directions. Two other people from my con were on the tour but I stayed behind to ask about the Crystal garden (remember the place with the ghostly groper) and yes it has many stories. They want me to email them with my experiences there are here in the hotel. I don't like going in my closet and the light keeps getting switched on in there. I had to get up three times to turn it back off last night while trying to get to sleep. Today, my curling iron kept getting switched off which is why I went back to the Spaghetti factory and NOT to the Tibetan restaurant since I wouldn't have time afterward to get there and back to the ghost walk.
Not sure what to do tomorrow. Maybe the whale watch since it's supposed to rain and I doubt they care about rain. It's that or Buchart garden as my two big trips.
masqthephlsphr told me to get nanaimo bars, theones i found locally are chocolate-coconut base bars covered with custard and topped with chocolate. YUM. and thanks to yuukihikari for mentioning the spaghetti factory. That is a good place to know
the Hilda Douglas residence, the one where she appeared in the bed
closer view
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no subject
Date: 2011-06-02 07:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-03 12:26 am (UTC)it was neat
no subject
Date: 2011-06-02 12:10 pm (UTC)What a great trip, though, except for the not taking you back to the beginning part.
of course there is
Date: 2011-06-03 12:18 am (UTC)it was except for that. I decided to go tomorrow again. I was out from 8-5 today and it's like 50 out there. I'm going back outside to hunt for food in a minute and souviiers
no subject
Date: 2011-06-03 12:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-03 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-04 12:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-03 05:14 am (UTC)Busy afterlife!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-03 05:17 am (UTC)