Have you ever gone looking for ghosts in the night
For no other reason but to have a good fright?
We did it one evening, my wifey and I
What fun it would be to just say "Well, Hi!".
We'd gone on a drive to Long Beach on the Coast
Not really with plans or thoughts of a ghost.
I have always been wanting to see and believe
Or at least feel a chill and to maybe deceive.
They may be a fact, they may be just real!
It's something I've always just wanted to feel.
One day Marily and I found ourselves in Long Beach Washington. We have done several house sits on the coast over the years and have enjoyed driving the area in search of the local interesting items of interest. On this trip, however we had decided to just come down and stay the evening in a nice little cabin and relax.
We found a nice place for the evening and got settled in. We then decided to go look around the town and get a bite to eat and a drink.
We stopped into a beautiful old hotel in town called the Shelburne Inn, as they had a nice bar to relax in. Well after a couple of glasses of "relax" we were, lets say comfortable and feeling adventurous. The lady serving us told us that, if we wanted, we could go upstairs to the inn and have a look at their beautifully decorated rooms. We decided "why not" and so were off to explore the gorgeous old place.
The Shelburne Inn has been a local hotel, whistle stop for the train in the old days, and a destination respite from long days of travel back in the early days. A beautiful old Victorian era building with many, many memories in its bones.We headed upstairs to explore and as we ascended the steps a bit of a feeling of apprehension came over us. Nothing of fear or danger, but just a little feeling that maybe there was something else in the air. Now, mind you, the couple of glasses of "relax" beforehand might have contributed to this feeling. I don't know.
Upstairs the doors to each of the rooms is left open for prospective guests to look in to. Each room is beautifully decorated with antiques. The rooms aren't large by any means, but very comfortable. The door to each room has a velvet "chain" across the doorway basically asking guests not to enter. We could look but not touch.
We proceeded to check out each of the 2nd floor rooms ( the Shelburne has three levels) looking into each room as we went. As we continued down the hallway there were several pieces of antique furniture decorating the halls. As we passed a nice old clothes closet, the door to the closet began to swing open. Hmmm, weird and a bit chilling in this old place. As we traveled down the hallway that was darkended because of the old lighting we approached each room, a little more trepedation in our minds as we continued on.
As we approached each room, in order to see in to it well I had to reach around the corner of the doorway and several inches into the room to find the old light switch. A little feeling of fear kinda crept through me as I did this, but I managed each light switch as we went.
As the last room in the hall approached both Marily and i were feeling the need to hurry back out and down to the lobby. I clicked off the light in the last room and we rushed back down the hallway to the stairs. When we got to the stairs there was a choice of going back down to the lobby or continuing up to the 3rd floor. The stairs were dark and of course by that time we were finished pretty well with our ghost hunting.
We were alone in the upstairs area, no guests or hotel staff, and as we hurried by the first room doorway we looked at the velvet rope across the doorway and it was swinging back and forth. That did it! We were done ghost hunting.
We approached the desk clerk and mentioned our adventure to him. He said "Oh, yes, there have been many reports over the years". Well we added our story to the rest and headed back to our room for the night.
As we relaxed in our room for the evening we discussed what we had experienced at the Shelburne. We decided that we had enjoyed the tour of the inn and the little feeling of otherworldlyness that we had felt. We decided that, if we ever had the chance to go back and spend the night in one of the rooms we would do it.
Well as luck would have it we did, in fact return for a nights stay. Of course we were anticipating something to happen during our evening stay, but no, alas, we didn't find our ghost.
If you are looking and waiting and expecting the thrill
If you are ready with gadgets and cameras to kill,
A ghost is a crafty and cagey old cuss
He knows when you're ready and making a fuss.
You're not on your schedule, but you are only on his
So remember one thing, remember just this
He'll come when he wants, in the day or the night
And will only come to you to give you a fright!
God Bless