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Day 8
August 8th, 2004
Lakewood, WA to Port Townsend, WA
She Says
Nothing odd happened and the rug in the Hall of Mirrors hadn't moved yet. Breakfast was with six other people, all of which hadn't had anything happen, but the teenaged girl in the Gold room also thought the Hall of Mirrors was creepy as well.
We packed the car and went traveling the grounds. We talked with Deanna (the owner) for about an hour.
She believes the ghosts are angels or guardian spirits. I asked about the identical mirrors in the Hall of Mirrors. She said I'm the first person to notice the fact that the mirrors mirror each other in shape and style. Also the mirrors on the bathroom wall at the end of the Hall ofMirrors matches the mirror on the end of the opposite hallway by the rose room.
I told her that I found it a bit creepy to stand between mirrors in the hallway. The endless reflections. She said that she set the mirrors that way with that in mind.
She also says thay she has seen many "unique" experiences. Her husband says he hasn't seen any.
Deanna also says that they has looked at Manresa Castle when they were looking to buy Thornewood, but it was "too dark" and she didn't like the "feel" of the place. She asked us to write to her after we've stayed at Manresa.
Tacoma
We stopped off to explore and ended up by the US Courthouse, University of Washington, and museums.
We went to the Museum of Glass. In "the hot spot" is where they do glassblowing exhibits. Not little animals, but BIG vases such. Huge kilns. The gallery was dissapointing. Some things may be art, but had I known what was in the gallery, I would have saved my $ and just gone to the gift shop!
We did have a salad of mix greens, cranberries, apples, red onions, gorgonzola, and pralines with white wine vinegarette. Had this nasty cow smell in the aftertaste.
We drove back to I5 and hit the road for Port Townsend.
Apparently there are 2 streets called 7th. The first one was a gravel path to farms. After a Uturn, we went down a main street and saw Manresa Castle on the left.
Right next to the check in window the have copies of Haunted Washington. Nice to see that they take pride in their ghosties.
The castle was built in 1892 and after the owners died it was left to a caretaker for 20 years until the Jesuits bought it as a school.
Our room is small compared to Thornwood and it smells of detergent, but the chairs and table are nice. Also we have a nice view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the city below.
I heard a Raven laughing outside.
Dinner was uneventful. We felt obliged to order, since we had already sat down, even though we didn't really see anything we Really wanted to eat. The food was good, but we should have just checked the menu before setting reservations...
We decided to take off and explore. The manager talked to us out in the parking lot. Some stories he told us: A family heard crying late at night coming from the bathroom. No one was there, but there was kleenex on the floor.
In the kitchen, glasses would be lined upside down but omne would be turned right side up or explode.
A telephone man saw a globe of light above a chair that went through a wall. I, on the other hand, got to see 2 cute little bats flying about and catching their dinners.
Bryan and I went into town just after sunset. It looks quaint. Historic downtown with shops. Kinda like Ferndale. We decided it would look better in the daytime.
Back at the Manresa, we took a few film pics and recorded some audio tape and then went back to our room to crash.
We woke up fairly early, so we went down to the dining room (we couldn't get in there last night because that is where the wedding reception was) and looked through the photo albums that chronicle the history and renovation of the estate including the two films that helped to finance the restoration.
Breakfast was nice. Blueberry pancakes were good, except for the blueberries. Two of the people at breakfast were relatives of the couple that got married there the previous day. After breakfast we went with them on a tour of the other rooms of the mansion. Each one was more beautiful then the last.
After we finnished the tour of the rooms, we packed our stuff and went for a tour of the grounds. Nice stone chess set and the garden where the wedding was held was also very nice. We talked to the owner, Deanna, for quite some time between exploring. She was very nice, and had strong opinions about the French.
After we left, we stopped off in Tacoma. It was nice. It was fairly sleepy, even as late as we arrived. As this was a Sunday I guess it
is to be expected. We walked to the Museum of Glass and spent a while in the Hot Shop. That was cool. I could have stayed longer, but Kryis was feeling a little sick. The galleries were really disappointing. I may not know art, but I do know crap when I see it. Too bad.
I was expecting to see art made out of glass, or the history of glass, or something like that. No, it was just really crappy ultra-modern garbage that had very little or nothing to do with glass. The museum is fairly new, so hopefully they are just building a collection or something. The Hot Shop was deffinately cool.
Took a picture of the really cool Tacoma Narrows bridge. And this one does not sway in the wind.
Drove up to Port Townsend. Interesting drive. We had a little trouble finding the place, but after we got there it was nice. We checked in, explored a little bit.
I didn't really like dinner, but it was okay. Afterwards we decided to explore the town a little before sundown.
As we were leaving, the manager came out and talked to us about some of the ghost stories (Kryis had mentioned something about it at check in). We ended up talking to him for a while, and the sun begain to set.
After we departed from the Castle, we made a vain attempt to check out the town in the growing darkness. We were not really able to see much, so we went back to the hotel and to our room.
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