What: Lawrenceville Ghost Tours Where: Historic Downtown Lawrenceville, Ga. When: May-September: Fridays and Saturdays, 8:30 p.m.
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Every Night in October: Sunday-Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. and 8:00 and Fridays and Saturdays, 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Website:www.scarystoll.com Cost: Varies Depending on Tour Day and Time, See Website; Free parking downtown
***Special Engagement Times and Prices for Trolley Tour - See Website***
Last year Brooke and I went on the Lawrenceville Ghost Tours. This ghost tour, which was created and is run by the Aurora Theater in partnership with the Lawrenceville Tourism and Trade Association, offers both a walking tour of Historic Downtown Lawrenceville and a trolley tour that takes you around town as well as for a walk though Historic Lawrenceville Cemetery[1][2]. Having missed the last trolley tour slot last year, we ended up doing only the walking tour. (You can read my review of the walking tour here.) But we decided then to make it a point of going on the trolley this year. So last Friday, we decided to make a date night of it.
Where: Historic Downtown Alpharetta, Ga. When: Fridays and Saturdays, 8:00 p.m. March - November Website:www.AlpharettaTours.com Cost: $15 Admission, Free Parking
As you all may—or may not know if you've only recently started following me—one of my favorite traditions is going on ghost tours with the wife. Each Halloween season, we try to check out at least one new tour. It's a fun little obsession we have that allows us to learn about Georgia's quirky local history while sightseeing the state's many historic down-towns. This year, one of those tours was the HOWLpharetta Ghost Tour.
Located in Historic Downtown Alpharetta in northern Fulton County about half an hour north of Atlanta, HOWLpharetta is a guided ghost story tour presented by the nice folks at Alpharetta Tours. Tours meet at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays in front of the historic Dodd Hotel at the corner of Milton Avenue and Roswell Street and follows a two mile stroll around town, making frequent stops to weave history with local legends and tales of ghost sightings. "I have permission from the owners to tell you of their ghostly encounters," Jen Hunt, our guide tells our tour group. She goes on to say that many of the store owners and residences enthusiastically volunteered their stories when she initially approached them about doing a history tour. "I don't even mention ghosts," she says. "'Did you know, this building is haunted?' Would be the first thing they say to me."
Bring a flashlight as this tour not only only takes you in front of several shops in the well-lit Business District, but also down a couple dark alleyways and side streets as well as Resthaven Cemetery where many of Alpharetta's founding families are buried and to which Alpharetta Tours claims an exclusive night-time access. Add the fact that all the rain this year has caused many of the graves to shift, rise, and/or sink, and you have the making for an eerie and enjoyable night out.
Billed as a "community block party," this Historic Downtown Duluth, Ga. event runs every Friday from September 6th through October 25th and features a rotating line-up of Atlanta's best mobile eateries. Check out the event website for that week's food truck lineup as well as the entertainment planned for the day. In fact, Friday September 20th's line up was announced yesterday morning. There will be live music starting at 5:30 p.m. and a screening of Great Gatsby on the lawn planned for 8 o'clock.
I do have one piece of advice for you if you ever decide to check out Duluth Food Truck Fridays this fall: get there early! Let me re-iterate that: GET THERE EARLY!!!
That was probably the only regret the wife and I had when we went this past Friday for our first ever visit. I had geek-related errands and Brooke was working late.So, by the time we finally got there around 7:30 p.m., the lines were long and most of the food trucks had sold out of many of their best dishes. Parking wasn't too bad but the combination of event traffic and the tail end of Friday night rush hour was somewhat frustrating. At least parking was free!
But don't let all that deter you from getting your munch on at this family-friendly shindig. Brooke and I learned about this event earlier that morning when one of the food trucks that Brooke stalks on Facebook, Ibiza Bites, posted that they would be making an appearance. We decided to check it out as a last minute date night idea and we were glad we did. We will definitely go again. It was well worth it. Heck! If we can manage it, we might even go each week that Food Truck Fridays is running.
This year, we got our ghost story fix from the great people at the Lawrenceville Ghost Tour. Developed and presented by the Aurora Theatre in partnership with the Lawrenceville Tourism and Trade Association, the tour is open every weekend from May through September and every night in October until Halloween. This is a 90-minute walking tour that takes guest around historic downtown Lawrenceville, stopping at places like the shops that line Honest Alley, the historic jail, and the spot where Hustler Magazine founder Larry Flint was shot on March 6th, 1978 [1][2].
Although the tour did include stories of ghosts, it focused mostly on the quirky history and founding families of the city of Lawrenceville and was less about the scary and more about the macabre. Our tour guide, Madame Macabre, spun witty campfire-style tales replete of Southern Gothic elements and masterful storytelling that would have made William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor proud. You can watch her do her thing on this video from the ghost tour website.
If you need a little more spirits with your Halloween experience, stop (before or after the tour—or hell! why not both) by McCray's Tavern at the corner of N. Perry Street and E. Crogan/Lawrenceville Hwy, where they serve themed drinks in honor of the ghost tour [3].
The tour also does a separate Ghost Trolley Tour which takes guests outside the downtown square area and into surrounding points of interest like the cemetery and the female seminary. Unfortunately, when we went this past Saturday after I finished early voting, we had missed the last day of the Trolley Tour which was the day before. So, expect a review of that next year as we enjoyed this year's outing so much that we plan to come back.
This was a wonderful date night for the wife and I and we definitely recommend it to everyone. It's a family friendly attraction and a fun alternative (or supplement) to trick-or-treating and to costume parties. A definite addition to your "must do" list, whether or not you have children. Check out their website for prices, times, and other details at www.scarystroll.com. And enjoy!
I need a vacation. It is the tail end of MLK weekend: three days of running errands and college homework and time spent with the spousal unit and I need a vacation. The weather is awful here in Georgia. This time last year we were in the grips of “Snowmageddon.” This year the weather has decided to be more bi-polar than I am, alternating between unseasonably frigid and unseasonably hot. Warm or cold, the weather remains seasonably wet however. On the bright side, Brooke and I accomplished a lot in the way of wedding planning and we actually cooked this weekend—several times. Tomorrow: we go back to work and I need a vacation.
It does not help my mood that Brooke and I looked over our budget. We decided to forgo our annual Tybee trip this year, banking our money and vacation days towards our honeymoon instead. I like to think that we are solidly happy with this decision. Yet, we catch ourselves sneaking glances at the photos of our trip last year.
"Slanted at Tybee" (c) 2011 Nicole Brooke Rosner Used with Permission
Brooke, ever the shutterbug, took hundreds of photos on our old Samsung, utilizing the tips she picked up from her copy of BetterPhoto Basics by Jim Miotke. I’m particularly in love with this photo taken by Spousal Unit on our last morning there. We woke up early to catch the sunrise and spent the morning capturing the memories nature gifted us.
It's become sort of a tradition for Brooke and I to go to a Tybee Island each year as a combined birthday trip, arriving there just before the Memorial Day Holiday and leaving in time to avoid the crowds and the price hikes.
