Happy Birthday Dad & Ghost Tour-St. Augustine Lighthose

April 26th, 2014

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD
Today would have been my dad's 88th birthday.  He was born 5 days after Queen Elizabeth II but unfortunately died when he was 66.  My dad is always with me, I still talk to him and feel he is watching out for me.  He died while I was expecting Ryan and although he knew I was expecting him I  really wish they could have met each other.

We stayed in today to get ready for our trip to St. Augustine tomorrow. Here's what we saw go sailing by today.

Here is a picture of the USS New York that is an amphibious transport dock ship that has a small amount of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center after the September 2011 bombings that i mentioned in an earlier blog.  It was heading out somewhere.

Here you can see the back of the USS New York

We had dolphins swimming again.  I got this short VIDEO of the dolphins. They surface at about 12, 23 & 31 seconds into the video toward the right hand center of the video where the lighter blue meets the darker blue and are moving toward the left.  The last time is at the very end of the video and they are just to the left of the fishing sign.

Unfortunately, my Macbook died today and after doing some research I realized it was probably the hard drive that had crashed.  I only bought it at the end of December and so it is still under warranty but unfortunately I hadn't backed up recently so I will probably have to recreate some files, including what campgrounds we are booked into through July!!!  Bryan found an Apple store in Jacksonville so we will go there on our way to St. Augustine tomorrow.

April 27th, 2014

Bryan was booked to go on a ghost tour of St. Augustine lighthouse tonight so we booked a hotel room  as we wanted to have a look around as well.  We left home about 11am as we had to go to the Apple store and it didn't open until 11am.  When we got there they couldn't get us an appointment until 2:30pm and as we wanted to get to St. Augustine we decided to make an appointment for 4:15pm tomorrow instead.  I had resurrected my old macbook and got it working and so at least I had something to start working on.

We got to St. Augustine, found the hotel but continued on to find the lighthouse so Bryan would have some idea of where it was before tonight.  We stopped and had a look around in the daylight.

This bell in front of the LightKeepers House was in memory of a US Coast Guard crew

These trees were in the grounds

Light Keepers house

We had a look around the gift shop and joined the United States Lighthouse Society.  We got a passport which we will get stamped at each lighthouse we go to.  We anticipate visiting a few on our drive up the East Coast and would like to try and volunteer at some of the West Coast ones.
We got some lunch and then went to the Anastasia Inn where we are staying tonight.  It is a very basic motel type of place and not that impressive but it will work for the night.

We ordered pizza to be delivered and ate before Bryan left for his tour about 7:30pm.  Here is his summary of the tour.

I went on the Dark of the Moon Ghost walk of St Augustine Light House. 

There was so many people that the tour operator’s split us into two groups with one going to the light house and the other going to the Keeper’s house. I was in the group in the light house first. I was a little worried I would not be able to climb all the way up, but I did it, all the 219 steps, of course I had to take a break every so often. I took a few pictures of St Augustine from the top and had a lady take a picture of me at the top.

 
After having a look around the top I went back down, and waited for the tour of the Keepers house.

Going back down

We got a little talk about the keepers house and a little more history. When we finished we were released to spend a little free time. After everyone left the basement, I spent a little quiet time to see if I could pick up on any spirits. I was hearing a few strange noises and seeing shadows that should not have been. I got up from my seat to check to see if I was alone, I was. I was sitting in a chair that was supposedly linked to the spirit of a former Keeper named Pete, he is known to not liking men sitting in his chair. He supposedly knocks hats off and scratches men. Now if a women sits in his chair he strokes her hair and their legs. I had an EMF meter that measures electromagnetic fields that spirits are reported to give off when present. Well any way I had a few flashes but nothing worth speaking of till another couple came in and sat down. That’s when things got interesting, the others started asking questions, we starting getting serious spikes on our EMF meters. 

LightKeepers House

Basement

EMF Meter

We spent a few more minutes asking questions and had quite the session going, I decided to move on.
 I went up stairs to the parlour to spend more alone quiet time. I sat down and just listened, there was all kinds of creaks and noises around me and shadows that should not have been there.

Parlor & stairs to the basement

Hallway to front door of Lightkeepers House

Of course I moved on again figuring I would hit the Light House next. 

Unexplained light that wasn't in any other shots

I went over and sat in the rotunda in the base of the light house. I made sure that I was alone, so I wasn’t going to get any kind of contamination in my investigation. 

No one there but me, again steps and other noises around me. I waited, then another couple came in and sat opposite me. Sitting in the dark we started hearing more noises, then a loud crash that was heard outside. We were asked by others whether we had made the noise. Back a couple of years ago the Paranormal show TAPS did an investigation and they had heard a similar noise that they determined was the same as an oil bucket that was on a higher level being dropped.  Being a Paranormal nut like I am, I believed I actually witnessed paranormal activity. Interesting evening for sure.

Well Bryan survived his ghost tour and it was certainly exciting that he got to experience some of the things that others before had felt.  I think maybe I'll try and do it with him if we come back here again.