Saturday night I wandered through dark Austin streets...the old parts, full of history...quite often tragic history. I was on an Austin Ghost Tour, Halloween version. It wasn't a BOO! type of ghost tour, although it did feel a little creepy at times, just standing near spots where murders have occurred (Austin is the proud home of the VERY FIRST SERIAL KILLINGS!) or ghosts have been seen. There's the funeral parlor owner who still hangs around his building, now a photography studio...the little girl who is seen and heard playing ball in the bathroom near the bar in the Driskill Hotel...the package-laden woman who committed suicide in the Driskill just a decade or so ago. Ghosts love the Driskill...our guide told us it ranks nationally! (For more about the stories or how to go on a ghost tour yourself, click on this link for Haunted Texas.)
I had wanted to do this for a long time...but, of course, never got around to it, and probably never would have if those wonderful teenagers hadn't thought of it and TG didn't agree it was okay if I tagged along. I'm going to miss school field trips.
It figures that when I finally make it to Sixth Street on a Saturday night, I'm chaperoning a group of high school seniors.
So here are a few photos from Saturday night, hanging out with the history club (and maybe a few ghosts!)...
At the Driskill Hotel...the history club members, their guide and a portrait of Col. Jesse Driskill keeping an eye on them...The Driskill is absolutely gorgeous and I'd still risk seeing a ghost to stay there sometime...just not Room 429!
Sixth Street on a Saturday night, at last!
The front of the Driskill...according to our guide, Nathan, one of the ghosts likes to sit in a rocker on one of the balconies...
