I digress.
The point I am slowly meandering to is that Dr. Laura always tried to teach that where much is given in a marriage, much is received. This means in every factor of marriage: romance, intimacy , date nights, help with the kids, support, conversation, household chores, etc. etc. Stop asking "How much more do I HAVE to give?" Change it to,"How much more CAN I give?" I know every marriage is unique with different relationships and situations. As for me and my house, the second I changed my attitude about how I should treat my husband, the more I did/do for him, the more he did/does for me! It works, folks!
Case in point: After my fancy date night #0, Devin upped the ante and surprised me two months later with his own date and took me to the opera in...
SAN FRANCISCO!
Who does that?! No kids. Just him and me (plus or minus some Ukrainians, a Russian, a Nepalian(?), Uber, and a lot of Chinese people) and the sourdough city for 4 days and 3 nights. How in the heck do I beat that? There was one night where we didn't have big plans so I threw my creative date in there.
The Date: San Francisco Ghost Hunt
Speaks for itself, right? We've developed a new habit of going on ghost tours around old cities that we visit. We had done one in Old Town San Diego and the other in Charleston, SC. So naturally we were pros at this, right? Okay, maybe not, but San Francisco's Ghost Hunt was by far the best one we have done so far.I googled "san francisco ghost tours" and fell upon this fantastically hokey website:
San Fran Ghost Hunt
$20 for 3 hours of ghost fun and a walking tour of Historical San Fran. How could you turn down a tour like that?! After reading the reviews I knew it had to happen.
Tip: If you decide to do something like this, whether you believe in it or not, these tours are way more exciting if you play along and just have fun with it. If you don't, then it will be a waste of your time and money.
The Rundown:
In front of the infamously haunted Queen Anne HotelWe met our guide Jim Fassbinder, who was not unlike "Doc" Emmett Brown.
He was bedecked in period clothes from the 1800's to invite the spirits to be more open to communicate with us. (Seriously, how could this not be anything but awesome!?) :) The second he walked out, Devin and I knew we had chosen wisely. The hotel appreciated the publicity and gave him reign to walk his groups through the most haunted areas of the hotel.
Inside, we started in the dining area where Jim prepared us for possible ghost encounters, and what we needed to do to have said encounters occur. He also gave his supernatural background, stating that he had ghost experiences since he was a child. The hotel's interior was immaculate, gaudy, and totally out of a haunted horror film. [Insert quotes from the Shining] There were about 15 of us.
After his speech, we were quizzed. If we answered his questions appropriately he would throw out points to his students. "10,000 points to you, Sir," he would say. Devin promptly responded, "And 300 points for Gryffindor!" Everyone laughed.
Now, Ghost Guide Jim developed this tour all by his lonesome and spouted off his script five nights a week, year-round. Bless Devin's hilarious heart, he loved to throw out comments to make people laugh, and it threw Ghost Guide Jim off his game. His script derailed a few times and took a few moments to find himself again. Devin decided to bite his tongue or we would never get on with the tour. I think he nearly bit it off a more than a few times.
That might be our only minor complaint about the tour. All of the content and stories were great, but he had given the tour so many times that Ghost Guide Jim went into autopilot and spoke a little too quickly or mumbled a bit so we would miss some important details. :(
Still in the hotel, he took us to a room where Ghost Anne used to keep her office for an all girls school. She was a nice ghost and tucked people in at night sometimes. When taking pictures of children, sometimes balls of light are seen in the photos near the kids. He gave us 15 minutes to roam the entire hotel, take pictures, feel for cold spots, and look for light orbs in our pictures. It was actually a ton of fun! Here are some of our photos. Alas, we didn't see anything. Another family in our group got a big orb next to their kids in a pic though! Here are some of our pics. Do you see anything?
That's a ghost detector that Ghost Guide Jim let us play with.
So no orbs or ghosts for us. :( Cool stories though!
After the hotel, he took us on a one mile walking tour of Historical San Francisco. We stopped in front of a house where a women was brutally stabbed by her butler, under the orders of her angry sister.
He pulled out an old skeleton key that is claimed to belong to the house. It possesses poltergeist qualities where it still reenacts its last act in the house. He held the key on his hand and we watched it turn itself slowly rolling uphill on his hand!! He then asked for a volunteer, my hand shot up immediately. I did the key thingy on my hand too, and it turned all by itself. Magic trick or not, still really fun. You can ask Devin for the video of it on his phone.
He took us to a few more homes. At one home, a husband's dead body arrived in a barrel of rum at the wife's home, chopped into bits. Another ghost haunts the corner where her home once stood. She was a billionaire voodoo lady who was an ex-slave. She built her home with secret corridors so she could spy on the upperclass of San Fran and then blackmail them later. Her accountant ruined her, and she went crazy. She still throws eucalyptus nuts at people if you talk ill of her. :)
Anyways, the tour was great. Ghost tours are a great way to learn a unique history of any city, and to have a little bit more kitschy fun along the way. :)
Thanks Ghost Guide Jim for a great night, it honestly was a highlight of our trip and we plan on doing a more local one soon! If you are ever looking for something to do on a San Francisco night, Jim is your man.
