Vacation trip

My Trip to the Eastern State Penitentiary

My Trip to the Eastern State Penitentiary
jun 14th, 2007

As some of you know, I just came back from a trip to Philly and NYC. I did not send a bulletin about this because my specific purpose for going to NYC was to attend a mini reunion with three newly found friends from my sixth grade class. I was there for only a few days and therefore did not have time to do any other type of socializing. I therefore apologize if some of you would have liked to hook up with me while I was there. I will write another blog about the mini reunion soon, so stay tuned.

One of the highlights of my Philly trip was visiting the Eastern State Penitentiary. It is a fascinating and historic place to visit and many people have reported seeing both shadow and full body apparitions while touring the place. Former inmates and guards have also reported having the same paranormal experiences.

One of the most famous former inmates at this prison was Al Capone. While he was a prisoner there, he sworn the Ghost of a man was haunting him in retaliation for ordering the mob to murder him. Capone would be found in his cell many nights screaming at the man to leave him alone. When the prison guards responded to his screams, they would find no one.

One of the most interesting stories about Al Capone is that this prison treated him as a celebrity while he was there. He actually had a real bed to sleep in, a radio, a desk to write on and a lamp. These were luxuries not available to other inmates. If you visit the prison today, his cell is still furnished the way it was then. You will recognize the picture of Al Capone cell because it will have a red bed spread.

While I was there, I noticed that cell rooms 6 and 12 were only open to special groups. I wondered why that was so. Well, when I got home, I did some research into the matter and found out that most of the sighting reports have occurred in cell rooms 6 and 12, the Death Row area, the Infirmary and the Central Guard tower. It is unfortunate that these rooms were not available to the public because I would have loved to visit the cells and take pictures. I did go the Death row area. Unfortunately, I did not visit the infirmary or the Central guard tower.

I did not see anything out of the ordinary while I was there but it sure was an amazing place to visit. Here is a slide show of the pictures I took. Some of the pictures contain sculptures that local artists from Philly have created and put into the cells.

You can see the pictures on my photobucket account here: (Maybe some of you might see something that I missed.)

Photobucket Page 1.

Photobucket Page 2.

The Paranormal part of my trip: Part 1

The Paranormal part of my trip: Part 1
7-27-2006

As most of my Paranormal related friends know, Charleston, SC is one of the most historic and haunted cities in America.

I found out during my trip that one of the reasons why it is so haunted is because for many years the city had little or no building codes. Therefore, new homes and buildings would be constructed over existing graves and cemeteries without the bodies being removed and buried elsewhere.

Another reason is because many neighborhoods have been declared historical sites and therefore existing construction can only also be kept up or restored but never torn down. A lot of people in the Paranormal field feel that spirits tend to hang out at places that were familiar to them during their lifetimes. Therefore that is why spirits stay in the same Charleston area where they once lived.

My first Monday in Charleston, I decided to schedule a ghost tour for my family. We went on the tour described on this site. Ghost Tour

As you can tell from the site, the tour is based on a book written by Julian Buxton, a former local college professor who grew up in a haunted house. The book’s name is, “The Ghosts of Charleston” and the book is described later on at this URL: Ghost Book This tour was a 90 minute tour. However, I will tell you the two best parts of it and then something that happened only to me.

In the first best part of the tour, they took us past the old jailhouse where most prisoners were kept and showed us the gallow area in the back yard. Here is a site with information and pictures of this jail. Jail Info She told us that public hangings were the norm in Charleston during the 18 hundreds and that these events were like public entertainment for the community.

Then she told us the story of Lavina Fisher. She was a very beautiful woman who was probably the first female serial killer. She and her husband operated a boarding house outside Charleston called, ” Six Mile House”.

When a solo boarder showed up at their door, Lavinia would spellbound the guy with her beauty and ask him many personal questions. She wanted to be sure that no one would miss the guy too much if he should turn up missing. If the guy was a good candidate, her and her husband would murder him and then confiscate all his belongings. They would sell the victim’s property in town for a profit and bury his body in the grounds of the boarding home. When they were finally caught, Lavinia went to the gallows dressed in her wedding gown. Just before she was hung, she asked the stunned crowd that if anyone had a message for the devil to let her know because she was about to meet him. Since then, her ghost has been seen in a number of locations, including the Old Jailhouse. Here is a picture I took of the outside of the jail.
In this tour, we were not allowed to enter the jail so I decided to schedule a tour inside this jail during my next night in Charleston. Stay tuned for part 2 of this story which I will write later.

In the next best part of the tour, we walked passed by a building called, ” The Wagner Building”, which was used to house offices in the old days but it is now currently a restaurant. You can find out more about this restaurant at this site: Haunted Restaurant . She told us the story of a cotton merchant who was having problems with bill collectors. He rounded up all the cotton he had and shipped it to another location hoping that it would be sold for a profit and he could pay off his debts.

It turns out that on the night the ship was to leave the port with his shipment, it caught fire and he ended up loosing everything he ever owned. This man’s office was on the third floor of this building which is now a restaurant. He decided to hang himself right there. He used wire to hang himself instead of rope and was decapitated.

Today, the decapitated spirit is seen by diners who frequent the third floor. Normally this floor is closed to the public however there are some local diners which request to be served dinner on this floor. The last time the apparition appeared, a new manager which had just graduated from college saw it. He was so frightened, he quit his job on the spot and went back to live in New Jersey with his parents. Here is a picture I took of the restaurant.

Now I will tell you the story about what happened to me while I was standing on the street looking up at this restaurant. Some of you may know that since I was 8 years old, I have had more then one close encounter with a Ghost. I do not know whether this would count as a ghost story, I will let you decide this.

As I just stated, while I was standing on the street, I felt that all of a sudden there was pressure on the back left pocket of my jeans. It was as though someone’s hand was pressing down on the pocket. I knew there were other people in the same crowd where I was so I did not panic. I however thought that it may be paranormal in nature. So, I decided quickly to take my own hand and without turning around, slap the pocket so I would hopefully trap whatever was causing the pressure on the pocket. I thought that if it was someone’s hand, I would slap it and find out who was doing it. Also, if it was an insect, I would also trap it. Well, as you might have guessed by now, there was nothing there to slap or touch. Right after my own hand slapped my jean pocket, the pressure disappeared. As I said, you guys decide whether this was a ghost or not. I invite your comments to this experience or any part of my tour.

My Charleston and Georgia Fitness Related Trip

My Charleston and Georgia Fitness Related Trip
7-26-2006

As most of you know I spent the last 10 days on vacation. I went to Charleston SC and Stone Mountain Ga.

My favorite part of my Charleston trip was going to the V for the first time and getting to meet Jenn Carmen, Tracy Long and Carissa Foster. Also, having my picture taken with these three ladies who have been my fitness idols for a long time. My favorite part of the Georgia trip was hiking up and down Stone Mountain.

I went to the V on the first Monday and Wednesday of my vacation. I was able to get two one day passes for $25.00 each. On Monday, I got there just in time to take a class with Tracy Long herself.

As most of you know, Tracy was in the June issue of Self magazine.If you missed reading the magazine, here is a link with a slideshow which show the pictures of the 12 Speedy Shapers Exercises she demonstrates in the magazine:

Tracy Long Slide Show

I felt so lucky to take a class with her. The class I took was called Functional Strength. Here is a link which explains a little about this type of workout:

Functional Strengh

I then took a picture with Tracy and chatted with her for a while. They will be filming new workouts in either Sept or Oct of this year. Here is the picture of Tracy and I:

Tracy’s class kicked my butt. Even though I used anywhere from 5 pounds to 12 pound weights for the entire workout, it was so hard. As most of you know, I usually use weights as high as 25 pounds. I did not think I would make it through the workout.

I went back to the V on Monday evening to take another class. This one was called, “Core Cardio” and the instructor to my surprise and delight was Carissa Foster herself. As most of you know, her picture is on the cover of the Firm Maximum Cardio and Firm Core Cardio 1 workout video tapes.

Well, I thought this class would be easy because of the Firm Core Cardio workout that I mentioned above. The girl at the counter told me, it was the hardest class they had. At this time, I am thinking to myself, yeah right!! Boy, was I ever wrong. This class is based on the new core cardio type workouts that work your waist area to the max. Here is a link of a review for a similar workout to the one I did:

Core Cardio

I did not think I would last throughout this workout. It worked core muscles I had no idea I had. I was completely toasted by the time the hour long workout was over.

After the class, I took a picture with Carissa and to my delight, Jenn Carmen also joined as in this picture. Here is the picture:

I also decided to buy all four of the new TLT workouts. I was so excited because Tracy Long autographed both of the workouts that she leads and Jenn Carmen autographed the workout that she leads. Unfortunately, Susan Harris was on vacation and I did not get to meet her.

On Wednesday I went back to the V for more workouts. I met up with Nancy Williams who is a fellow Firm Ya Ya member and just happened to be in town for a vacation herself. Her user name is jesemy.

I thought I would take easier workouts then Monday since I had major DOMS on Tuesday and found out I had more muscles then I ever thought I did. I took a 90 minute Satsang Yoga class with Jeffrey Cohen. Here is a link with pictures of Jeffrey and information about this class.

Satsang Yoga

To our delight, Tracy Long was a student in this class. I thought it would be easy like the Firm Power Yoga workout. How naive I was, it was nothing like it. The Yoga moves were so tough and it was hot in the exercise room. I thought I would not make it through this class. Jeffrey had to help Nancy and I with a lot of the moves. Our bodies felt like twisted noodles when we were done.

Next Nancy and I decided to take another class which was easier. It was called, ” Back to Basics”. It used a Stability and a Medicine ball. This class would have been challenging for beginners but for Nancy and I, it was just the class we needed after getting beat up in the Yoga class.

Nancy and I then purchased some V baby T-shirts and got to chat with Tracy and Jenn Carmen for a while. We also met Tracy’s husband who also works at the V. He was super nice. Nancy and I also took another picture with Jenn and Tracy. Here is the picture:

After the first week, I left for Stone Mountain in GA. On Sunday, I decided to hike up the mountain with my entire family. This was the first time I had ever hiked on a mountain and it was so challenging. I however thought it was great cardio workout. After we got to the top, I wanted to hike back down. Well, my whole family whimped out on me and I hiked down the mountain by myself. As you can imagine, it was a whole lot easier to hike back down the mountain. Here is a link to the mountain:

Stone Mountain

The next day, no one in my family felt sore. However, my buttocks area felt sore and it might have been because I used different muscles hiking back down then I did hiking up the mountain.

Well, that sums up the Fitness related part of my trip. I will write another blog later to talk about the Paranormal related part of my vacation.

The Paranormal Part of my vacation: Part 2

The Paranormal Part of my vacation: Part 2

7-30-2006

As I stated in the first part of my vacation blog, the second night I was in Charleston, I went on a Haunted Jail tour. This site here describes the tour: Jail Tour Description 1
There is a better description of the tour on this site: Jail Tour Description 2

Many apparitions have been spotted in this jail over the years and many times, ghosts have appeared in pictures taken by tourists at this jail. Other times, cameras have mysteriously malfunctioned while someone was in the jail trying to take pictures. Upon leaving the jail, the camera then starts to work normally again.

The tour guide told us that many tourist have also reported jewelry such as rings that they were wearing when they entered the jail mysteriously disappear from their hands while they were being worn. There have been cases where both earrings disappeared from women ears at once.

Here are three pictures taken by random people who have visited the inside of this jail. These pictures were found at: Jail Picture Site

I uploading them to my Photobucket account giving credit to this site as the source since I could not link the pictures from their site directly here.

Here is the first picture:

Here is the second picture:

Here is the third one:

My husband and I took as many pictures as we could while we were still inside the jail. It was a really scary place to be inside, especially since it was not well lighted. Here are some of our best ones. Ghost sometimes appear in pictures as full apparitions and other-times as orbs.

The following pictures have orbs which may be dust or may be paranormal in nature. I will let you guys decide this. For those of you not familiar with the concept of orbs, here is a good site that describes them:
Orbs

Here is the first picture taken by my husband:

Here is the second picture which I took:

Here is a third picture that I took:

Here is a fourth picture that I took:

Here is the last one that I took

Well, that sums up the Paranormal part of my vacation. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I invite comments on the pictures and tour.