But I dig "supernatural" topics. No UFO's... ghosts, ESP, and stuff like that. I have never had an experience that I believed to be from the other side, but I enjoy reading stories and watching shows on the topic from time to time . My sweet husband humored me on our last anniversary with my interest.

We have started a tradition of staying an overnight trip on our anniversary. Ususally, I plan the trip by looking for interesting places within a few hours drive and we plan it from there. I came up with the idea of Chicago and Starved Rock, so he wanted to pick where we went last year. He decided we should stay in a "real" haunted hotel. I couldn't believe he came up with this without me mentioning it. But, we were married in October, so naturally, my interest is this stuff peaks around that time. I guess that's what got him in the spirit.

He started looking on the internet for hotels nearby that claimed to be haunted. He found several and showed them to me. We added them to the list of possibilities.

I am a planner and organizer. I am to a fault. It sometimes drives him nuts, the amount of "gathering information" that I do when I am excited about something. I couldn't resist. I started looking on the internet, too.

I found the place I wanted to stay. The Lemp Mansion is St. Louis. Once I learned it existed, I found quite a bit of haunting info about the old brewery. THIS WAS DEFINITELY IT! We visit St. Louis enough that we have favorite "haunts" (couldn't resist) so this was a great fit for a quick trip.

The Lemp Mansion is a bed and breakfast and restaurant. In one of the dining rooms in the basement, they have a murder mystery dinner. We signed up- I was "Juggles Figures"- an accountant (BTW, I was wearing a new blouse that was showing more cleavage than I was really comfortable with, so to have to wear a nametag and be introduced to the dining room with a name that says, LOOK AT MY BOOBS had me blushing all night) and my husband was Earl E. Withdrawl- a safe cracker. We had a great time, and I DIDN'T DO IT!!!

When dinner was over, we went back to our room and changed. We had plans to wander the house and investigate. So were about 20 other people. As it turns out, there was a lady there from the website legends of america conducting an investigation, and had a guide showing her around. We kind of just tagged along, as I am sure 90% of the other people in the group had done, and listened to the stories the guide told. We mentioned that WE were guests in one of the 4 rooms that night, and we offered to let the group in the room for a moment to take a few pictures.

There is alot of sad history to the Lemp family, ending in suicide for many of the family's men. One had taken place in our suite. When we had arrived in the room that day, Patrick had been being his usual, playful, twisted self, and had laid on the floor in an "I'm dead" pose, and had me take his picture. This was his way of not taking the legends seriously- he is DEFINITELY a skeptic. When the guide came in, he pointed out the same area for where the man's bed had been and where he had been found (the suite has two good size rooms). The investigator took some photos and then we all pressed on, learning more about the history of the family and brewery.

Shortly after, everyone went home and we had the house to ourselves, the other guests, and the "spirits". The staff actually locks the doors and leaves for the night. (not to worry, guests have access to leave). We went through the house again by our selves. It seemed alot more scary with most of the lights off and so quiet. I was getting nervous so I decided to just snap pictures quickly and get back to our room.

Nothing too freaky happened during our stay: Patrick's belt was turned inside out in his pants. It was a shared bathroom- he locked the door, showered, put his pants back on, and the belt was turned inside out. This is difficult to do by accident because the belt fits so tightly in his belt loops, but come on- we can't really claim it had to be ghosts. There was also several times when the guide would tell us to walk in a room and ask us if there was anyplace in particular that we got a vibe. I got it both times- but again, it doesn't prove anything.

For me, the most fascinating phenomenon was the photos both I took and the investigator took. (okay, I still say I AM NOT A FREAK) I had five pictures turn up with "orbs". Now, you may not be familiar with this term, and they are these balls of reflective light, ususally never noticed by the naked eye. I don't believe that orbs are spirits or ghosts, I don't believe in them to be anything one way or another. But this is what I KNOW:

I was well aware of orbs turning up in pictures in supposed haunted places. And upon suggestion before our trip, I went through all three photo boxes I have to see if I had any orbs in my existing photos. My photo collection are like most peoples- old, new, really old, no idea who this is, where this photo came from, etc. Bottom line, I found not one orb. I hadn't really expected to anyway.

So when I got back my pictures from wally world, I was really excited to see these. I had one orb in the corner our our suite in the curtain, one on the door of an armoire in another guest room, one in the bar, several outside on the building, and about seven show up on the grand staircase. Kinda wierd to never find any in ANY previous photos, but to have this many show up on one roll of film when I stayed someplace that was suppose to be haunted. (BTW, it was a disposible camera, nuttin fancy)

It's been a long time since I visited the website, but if you go, try typing in the Lemp Mansion in the search and you will be able to see Her orb pictures and the room we stayed in taken that night. It is listed as the Charles Lemp room (It was actually the William Lemp suite- she got the names wrong).

AM I A FREAK???? My husband is the best. How many complete skeptics would spend their anniversary doing something like that, not to mention suggest it. I am a lucky girl.

Kristen