Ghost hunt in a prison tours: Part history, part chills, even in daylight

by Jamie Rhein on

May is the month that kicks off the full season of the Ohio State Reformatory tours. This prison that played centerpiece to the movie Shawshank Redemption is a Gothic style stone building that looks formidable even in daylight. At night it can really creep a person out. Known for its chilling location as a Halloween haunted house, the reformatory is a ghost hunter’s dream.

As the story goes, the reformatory that once housed wayward boys is haunted by some former inmates who haven’t left. They wander the halls. Although there may be other prisons with ghosts, Alcatraz seems fitting, in my opinion, the Ohio State Reformatory is the only one that offers an overnight tour package.

That’s right. People on the tour get to stay at the prison all night long to look for paranormal activity. Not only are people allowed to stay all night, they can walk around on their own. Tour guides are on hand to answer questions and tell about the prison history, but other than that, feel free to poke around without them. Unfortunately, the tours are sold out for this season, however, there are many other opportunities to tour the prison in daylight. This is something to keep in mind for next year. Put it on your calendar to call for next year’s dates as to not miss out. Planning ahead is warranted. You have to be 21 and over for the ghost hunt experience.

There are days that don’t sell out in advance. May through September, the prison is open for tours on Sundays, and starting on June 2 daily tours are available Tuesday through Friday at 2 p.m.

The Sunday one-hour tours come in three versions–West Tower Tour, the East Cell Block Tour and the Hollywood Tour. The times for these thematic tours vary and are on a first come first serve basis starting at 1:00. The last tour is at 3:45. These tours are family friendly, although not recommended for under age 7 due to hazards like lead-based paint. Pregnant women may not want to go inside either.

For the price of your ticket, you’re helping to keep history alive because proceeds are rolled into restoration projects. Keeping an 1886 building standing is not cheap. You don’t need to be a ghost hunter to appreciate the prison. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places and boasts the world’s largest free-standing steel cell block. Who knew?

By the way, Halloween is sooner than you think. The Halloween tours sell out fast also. Under 13 aren’t admitted.

Birthplace of Memorial Day offers festival and small town charm

by Jamie Rhein on

Back in 1865, Henry C. Wells, a druggist in Waterloo, New York thought that honoring all American soldiers who died in a war was a fitting gesture. The following year, Waterloo threw the first Memorial Day celebration on May 5. The holiday caught on, and in 1966 Lyndon Johnson signed a Presidential Proclamation declaring Waterloo the “Birthplace of Memorial Day,” something the town takes quite seriously.

Instead of focusing only on Monday, the town includes the entire weekend for festivities. Located in between Cayuga and Seneca Lakes in the Finger Lakes region of New York, this would be a place to head to for a mix of the outdoors and history. Unlike Ithaca that wants you to stay away for Memorial Day festivities because of Cornell’s graduation that adds plenty of people to Ithaca’s streets, Waterloo wants you.

As a person who is a festival hound, Waterloo looks like the perfect way to kick-off the summer season of festival hopping. All the trimmings are there and most activities are free, or budget friendly. Events start this weekend and finish up on May 30, the official date of Memorial Day.

Activities are family friendly and include a breakfast buffet, 5-K run, car show, bike rally, a concert stage with multiple concerts and acts, an arts and crafts show, plus a Memorial Day Commemoration by Waterloo veterans. Of course there’s the parade that anyone can join in and fireworks. For the schedule, click here.

There are also special events for the younger crowd. At the Kids’ Korner there are games, crafts, goodie bags, animals, a clown and a juggler, depending upon the time you’re there.

One item in particular caught my eye. Bubblemania, a one-person performance by Casey Carle will be on the Layfette Stage. According to the info on the festival Website, Carle has been performing in India on a 16-day tour. I’m always curious to find out how performers from various countries end up performing where they do, whether they are from the U.S. and end up overseas or groups from other countries that end up here, particularly on a small town stage. If you see him, ask him.

If you head to Waterloo, also check out the National Memorial Day Museum, and the American Civil War Memorial and take a ride on the Finger Lakes Scenic Railway.

Museum Junkie: England’s most unique museum reopens

by Sean McLachlan on

Oxford’s famous Pitt Rivers Museum has reopened this month after more than a year of remodeling.

The famous Victorian displays, a massive collection of diverse anthropological objects in a large gallery and two upper floors, have remained untouched, preserving an almost unique set of displays dating back more than a century.

One of the most popular cases is the one involving death rituals, which has a spooky group of skulls and shrunken heads. A display about smoking contains a Chinese opium pipe with some suspicious-looking resin and a diagram of how to make a pipe by poking a hole through the ground. The museum as an especially good collection of Native American art, such as this woodcut print entitled “Hungry Bear” by Coast Salish artist Jody Wilson, depicting a grizzly bear in the act of catching a salmon.

The collection started with a donation in 1884 of 20,000 objects from Lt.-Gen. Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers. He was interested in the evolution of objects and organized his collection typologically, placing all items of the same use into a single case in order to show the evolution of form within and across cultures. The collection now boasts half a million artifacts from hundreds of cultures. The cases are cluttered with objects, and below them are drawers that can be opened to reveal more artifacts. The staff hand out free flashlights (called torches in England) so visitors and peer into the deeper recesses of the cases where even more treasures are hidden.

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This style of organization, so different from most modern museums, makes for a fascinating visit. For example, the case labeled Animal Forms in Art has dozens of animal representations from various cultures, some stylized, some realistic, some for worship, some for play. There’s an ancient Egyptian ram’s head made of wood, a nineteenth-century Danish piggybank, and a wooden owl carved by the Ainu about 1900 A.D., packed in with dozens of other objects.

An example of how objects can change their meaning over time is shown in drawer 29.3, labeled Amulets, Religious Artifacts, and Offerings. Inside are nine ushabti, little glazed figurines that the ancient Egyptians put in their tombs to act as servants in the afterlife. But these particular ones date from only a hundred years ago and were carried by Egyptian peasant men who went from village to village. Women would place them on the ground and jump over them in order to become fertile. One wonders if the wandering ushabti carriers had anything to do with it.

The whole effect of all the world’s objects crammed together in the same room is somewhat dizzying; even the walls and ceilings are decorated with totem poles, kayaks, and outrigger canoes.

The upper floor containing an immense array of weapons from all periods and cultures won’t be open until spring of 2010, but the two floors that are already open to the public will give any museum junkie several days’ worth of exploration.

Tourism Australia TV ad a winner: See it and start packing

by Jamie Rhein on

“Sometimes we have to get lost to find ourselves. Sometimes we have to go on a walkabout.”

If some angelic looking child whispered this in my ear while I slept, I’d hop out of bed and head straight to Australia myself. This alluring bit of dialog is only part of what makes Tourism Australia’s ‘Come Walkabout’ TV ad brilliant. With Baz Luhrmann’s creative juices adding to the mix of the ad’s creators, there is almost a complete movie here in all of a minute and a half. In a way, it’s the poem version of the full length feature film Walkabout, but happier–much happier.

For it’s brilliance, the ad won the silver Clio Award as an entry in this prestige’s international advertising and design competition. It’s like the Oscars for commercials. According to this article in Scoop, the ad’s impact has already been felt, particularly by folks looking for adventure. I wonder how crowded that swimming hole surrounded by gorgeous scenery will get?

Adventures in the Amazon: A Birdwatcher’s Paradise!

by Kraig Becker on

Cruising the Amazon aboard a beautiful, 19th century styled, river boat is a fantastic experience. The passengers aboard La Turmalina, the ship that was my home while I explored the river, spent a lot of time up on deck, watching the world around us drift by. But there was a lot more to our journey than just sitting on deck drinking Pisco Sours and admiring the scenery.

La Turmalina was outfitted with two twenty-foot skiffs, each powered with twin outboard motors. These powerful little flat bottomed boats became our shuttles to the backwaters of the Amazon, and we would make two or three daily excursions out into those remote regions to look for wildlife, visit local villages, and take in the beautiful scenery. The skiffs were maneuverable, making it easy to negotiate the sometimes narrow channels, that were often choked with vegetation, and yet they were still large enough to carry a dozen passengers, along with their gear, quite comfortably.

Riding in the skiffs allowed us to glide through the water and get very close to the wildlife that is so abundant in the Amazon. At various times we drifted silently under trees while over head monkeys played and sloths dozed. But the creatures that were in greatest numbers were clearly the birds, which came in hundreds of species and numbered in the tens of thousands.

%Gallery-63881%I’m personally not much of a “birder”, as bird watching enthusiasts are sometimes called, but even I couldn’t help but be impressed with the bird life that was on display in the Amazon. There were flocks of bright green parakeets zipping across the sky and white egrets spread their broad wings and took flight when ever we ventured too close. Under the dense canopy of the jungle, humming birds flitted about, no bigger than insects, while colorful toucans gave off their distinctive croaks.

All told, there are more than 600 species of birds in the Peruvian Amazon, ranging from the mundane like ducks and swallows to the more colorful and exotic like macaws and cuckoos. There are birds of prey, such as hawks and ospreys, as well as scavengers, like the vulture, which seems to make its home in all corners of the globe.

The Amazon is indeed a paradise for bird watchers, and some of my fellow passengers were very passionate about the pursuit. They would get very excited when we would spot yellow-tufted woodpeckers or masked crimson tanagers, and they were quick to grab their binoculars at the slightest movement at the top of the trees. One of the couples that I traveled with had circled the globe, spotting unique and interesting birds where ever they went. Near the end of our time in the Amazon, they proudly proclaimed that they had spotted 61 new bird species since coming to the rainforest. We added several more to the list that morning, raising their total even further.

For experienced birders, there are few places on Earth that can rival the Amazon for the pure number of birds that can be seen. Fully one third of the world’s avian species can be found in the jungles that surround the river, and there seems to always be a new one to see. It is safe to say that the bird watchers who traveled with me were quite content with what they saw, and were glad the made the journey just for the birds alone.

Next: Piranha Fishing!

Read more Adventures in the Amazon posts HERE.