December 27th, Part 3
After the ghost tour, J & C went back to their room to chill and Kira went back to our room to do the same. Rob and I explored the rest of the hotel on our own.
This is inside one of the rooms down that locked corridor. We saw it open the next day but never actually went in.
The main lobby, the elevators and stairs are behind that center seating area. The rear entrance is also seen here, this was, up until somewhat recently, used as the main entrance, I believe, as the main one was covered or blocked or something.
We headed out the back entrance, this is where the parking area was. You can see our room on the second floor, left side behind that furthest palm tree.
Coming back in, we noticed there were stairs going down, so down we went and discovered the Hall of History, as well as the gym and special meeting space to plan weddings.
Back to the room, we saw the Wonder sailing out.
Despite the mediocre breakfast, we wanted to head back to Miller's so we could enjoy that amazing brownie that we had last time. J & C stayed in and ordered pizza.
As we were waiting for our table to be ready, we spotted the Wonder out at sea.
We ended up at the same table as our first visit in 2019.
The food was decent, nothing special.
But that brownie!!!
We actually cut it in half before digging in and got a to-go container, put that half in and delivered it to J & C after we were done. I will say, the ice cream and the chocolate sauce really makes it better but they agreed, it was a very delicious brownie.
Back to the hotel, all the lights were on
We all had pre-booked a Historical Haunted Ghost Tour so we drove over to the Sealy Pavilion to meet up 15 minutes before the tour, as instructed.
We noticed there were a LOT of people gathering around, waiting. We had assumed that this was the spot for several tours to meet up but it turned out that everyone that was waiting was on our tour.
I did a quick count and there were about 50 people in total. I was not super thrilled with this at all. This definitely had a huge impact on the tour. There are several companies that offer these kinds of tours in Galveston, it's a pretty haunted place with a long, unique, sordid past but I chose this tour, in particular because I've seen tons of photos and read tons of reviews and it seems more intimate and it went to one particular house that Kira and I were very interested in seeing.
So we waited and waited for our Ghost Tour Host, which, according to their website, was Johnny Zombie. It was now the time of the start of the tour, 15 minutes after they told us to show up and no one was there. Finally this lady with blue hair, jogs in from the parking lot saying, sorry she was late, she got distracted and lost track of time.
Oh how nice.
So, one person per party had to check in with her and then we all waited until that was done and we were all instructed to stand on the pavilion while she started talking about the history of Galveston.
She kept looking up, way above our heads, as she spoke, clearly trying to remember the script. While she would have been loud enough for a group half the size (which should have been the max cutoff) she could not project loud enough for 50 people to hear.
Once she was done with her history spiel, we all followed her to our first stop, Ashton Villa.
Once we were all crowded in together, she told us about the history of this place, built in 1859 by James M. Brown for his wife, Rebecca Ashton. It was the first mansion to be built on the island and one of the few to survive the 1900 hurricane that devastated Galveston. It is a historical building now that is rented out for private events. Once our guide was done with her speech, we were welcomed and urged to explore the grounds and take photos. She made a big deal at the beginning about how taking photos, especially flash photos, would be the best way to spot ghosts. Kira and I were eager to find some ghosts, Jen & Claire were a little petrified at the thought of it and Rob was just rolling his eyes.
Kira took the following photo (I took several of the same window, and they looked nothing like hers, as did Jen) and you can clearly see
something in the window. Kira is convinced it's a ghost and Rob is convinced it's just a reflection. You be the judge.
I took many photos, several of this side of the building. In all of the photos, you can clearly make out the lace curtains....
But in this one, almost the exact same angle of the previous one, I spotted something in the top right window that has lace curtains.
Can you see it? I see two faces, the first one is that of a woman, about the same age as Rebecca when she died (65 yrs) and then another face, set in behind hers, standing behind her to her left, not as clear, of a man.
I have circled where I see the faces. Rob doesn't agree with me, he says I see it because I want to see it.
Well, I don't see it in my other photos, only this one.
What do you guys think? Do you see it? Is this a bunch of hogwash?