Dulcissime

This weekend was Jason's and my 5th anniversary. Considering the expense of moving and the fact that the NC family trip was later in the year than usual, we decided to only do a very brief weekend jaunt up to Gettysburg. Hopefully next year, we're going to do Salem. I absolutely love Gettysburg in the fall. The leaves are amazing, the food is the best kind of comfort food, and the ghost walks are seasonally appropriate.

( The food. )

( The spooks. )

( History. )

( Wine. )

That's all that's fit to print. We had beautiful weather, delicious food, and some of our favorite haunts. I didn't take too many pictures, but what I did is posted to my instagram: http://instagram.com/sihayadesigns

I miss it already.

So, this year, we booked our B&B a little too late. Usually we stay at the Farnsworth, fount of weirdness and haunted dolphin frescoes. This year we stayed at the Battlefield B&B on Emmitsburg Road, which turned out to be absolutely lovely.

Let me sing its praises:

( Praises. )

So, we will be going back. I mean, I like the Farnsworth, but the Battlefield B&B wins when it comes to comforts (unless you're going for the all-out weird, which has its own appeal). Plus, ever since the Farnsworth's walk-in attraction opened, it's just gotten... tackier. I mean, the Mature Tour is a staple of our yearly trip, and we LOVE the Tavern, but... enh. The increasing artificiality does take away some of the charm.

The major theme of the trip was "EAT AND DRINK ALLLLLLL THE THINGS." We hit the Ragged Edge, the Dobbin House Tavern, Sweney's Tavern, the cupcake shop (um, multiple times), and then of course, Jason needed to stop to eat every two hours because he's Jason. We also did some shopping, and picked up some candles and decorations to cozify the house as we get closer to the Holidays. I picked up some bags of Snickerdoodle coffee from Habitat, and bought myself some earrings from Studio 30 because they were put together in a way that I found brilliant. Also spent $50 in their new bead shop. Ooops.

We made friends. Frank & Nikki are an Italian couple from Jersey, and stereotypes in all the best, kindest ways. We hung out a fair bit, did tours together, ate together. I need to email to make sure they weathered Sandy, as they live 1 mile off the ocean, but I wonder if they even have power. They left a day early to get a jump on sandbagging their home.

We also did the audio driving tour on our last day, before the rain came in. I'm fairly familiar with the history of the battle, day by day but I'm glad we did for some of the human interest stories we picked up along the way.

Herein begins the photo dump, a mix of my photos and Jason's. ETA: Flickr is being a pain, so here is the photo album.

As for ghostybusiness, there wasn't a ton this year. The Mature Tour was entertaining, but they have been downplaying Elizabeth's story due to crazy people being threatening to one of the guides. Mike (one of the two guides) did privately tell me that they've been experiencing something else that they haven't decided if they're going to talk about or not, and then took my card. They did ask us to confirm parts of the story they were telling, as we were there for part of it when it happened, and that was neat.

Though there was something really weird on Friday night. The Battlefield B&B does not have staff there at night. We all get a passcode that lets us in and out, but on Friday, there was one staff member still around: the storyteller. At no point did he leave the common room where we were all assembled and go upstairs. One of the stories he told was about Rebecca, a little ghost girl often seen around the property. When we went upstairs afterwards, I heard Nikki chattering excitedly, so Jason & I peeked our heads out. On their window, on the inside pane, on the second floor, was a child's handprint. A seriously tiny handprint.

The next morning, Nikki asked the innkeper when the last time was that a child stayed in their room. It had been several weeks, by the inn ledger. She asked when the last time her windows were cleaned, noting that she hadn't seen the handprint earlier in the week. She was told that they're cleaned after the last guest checks out, and at least every week.

So. Creepy.

Anywho, it was a good trip.

Before I go, check out my cute Halloween hat, from WitchesNStitches!





Hope you had a great Halloween!

I do believe that I am going to try to do Saturday Nov. 7th-- both to see the exhibitors and to do the Bad Faeries Ball. I don't know if Jason is coming-- he has a competing event that day.

I am thinking costuming. The good thing about being a bellydancer is that a lot of the stuff I wear is super sparkly and works well for fantasy events. For the ball, I do need to dress it up a little bit... if this vest doesn't sell, and I can afford it before the event, it would look perfect with costuming I already have. I'm drooling over it a little. Plus that one is discounted and MY SIZE. I am being good. Wedding and bills must be paid first. Le sigh.

I can also wear the Big Ass Bindi that I originally purchased for the wedding, but proved too Big Ass for that event. It would be perfect for FC, though.

Last night's ghostly excursions in Gettysburg... had dinner at the Farnsworth Inn Tavern. I LOVE their food. We had salads, beef veggie soup, and I had the hot turkey, gravy, and mashed potato platter. Polished off with black walnut apple cake. SO DELICIOUS.

( First walk: The College Tour. )

( Second walk: The Mature Tour. Considerably creepier. )

That tour was finished up by an additional hour of storytelling in the Farnsworth's basement by Mike. We didn't get out of Gettysburg until nearly 1am-- I definitely want to stay there overnight sometime. I had a blast.