2023 - Week 40

I felt a touch rough on Monday. After exchanging some shoes, I needed electrolytes. The heat with the egg thing made me a bit nauseus. I had lots of fluids before having noodles for dinner. That made me feel better.

When Tuesday came about, I was looking forward to what I might be learning at GSL curling in the evening. I was also excited to being on the ice as a break from the unseasonal heat. It's spooky season! It's supposed to be a cool and cuddly time. We should be wearing hoodies (or bunny hugs if you prefer). Instead, I was sweating in jeans as I simply walked from my condo building to my car.

Wednesday's plan was streaming, but I also hoped to fit an exchange at Home Depot in as I got the wrong shelf size for a project. Really, my original plan for something didn't work, so I was choosing to go a different way. I did stream, but I didn't get to Home Depot.

Thursday featured work followed by packing for my spooky weekend away with friends. I got my oil and my engine air filter changed as my car had been sounding a bit sickly.

Friday was more prep for the trip before taking in the 1931 Dracula with Bella Lugosi at Beechwood Cemetary with one of the trip friends. I was much more prepared for the Capital Pop-Up Cinema experience at the mausoleum this year, so I wasn't cold despite the little bits of rain during the show. The wind made the screen billow at times, which gave the whole experience a psychedelic edge.

Spooky Friendsgiving 2023

On Saturday it was off to Kingston for the weekend for Spooky Friendsgiving. We first hit up Home Depot to use the washrooms and check out the spooky decor. I particularly liked the super-sized Jack Skellington:

Then we dropped by Spirit Halloween and I got my costume for the upcoming Lez Go Halloween event. I'm sad for Kingston as their store has almost no animatronic section and they're really missing out on the experience that is Spirit Halloween.

We got groceries before checking into our cute Air B&B. Food was had then we went to Fort Fright at Fort Henry. It was a lot like Saunders, but I think Saunders is better as it has more to do and a nice eating area for after. One actor did manage to startle me though. It was very dark at Fort Fright, so quite a number of pictures came out blurry like this one where it looks like our souls were leaving our bodies. 

Photo taken by Erika Gaal.

Fort Henry's shopping area was lit better than the walkway up to it:

Photo taken by Erika Gaal.

What would a spooky trip be without thematic cocktails? We had Raven's Kiss on the first night:

Photo taken by Erika Gaal.

Sunday was jam-packed with a day-time tour of Kingston Penitentiary. We did take a lot of pictures, but it was quite a heavy tour. This seemingly pleasant looking picture of the central hub, otherwise known as the dome, was once the stage for a riot where sex offenders and child killers were given prison justice before the control station in the middle was installed:

This should be needless to say, but a penitentiary is not a good tour for children. Even young teens probably shouldn't hear the things we heard. Some children were there and they were very upset to hear about people being violently beaten. Hell, I wasn't fond of it either and wanted to cry myself despite understanding all the complexities around that.

Thankfully, we had this lovely tour guide named Connor who injected humour at appropriate moments to lighten the mood:

I spent a lot of time taking pictures from the remnants of Pumpkinferno. Here are a couple:

There was some beautiful Indigenous art on the wall in solitary confinement:

We learned a bit about how they have been taking steps to help Indigenous inmates reconnect with their culture and that it is helping reduce recidivism, but the relative percentage of inmates who are Indigenous vs the Indigenous population in Canada is way too high.

Heavy books, such as the one below, were often used either for smuggling contraband or to block rats from coming out of the toilets. That was lovely to learn about. I'm still scarred from playing A Plague Tale...

We all decided prison was not somewhere we would enjoy or possibly even survive.

After that, we went to some antique stores and a gaming store, where I got a Hitchcock puzzle that turns into a mystery to solve after it's put together. I'm looking forward to doing that in the winter months.

It was off to Swiss Chalet for some Thanksgiving dinner meals we didn't have to prepare or cook. These were very tasty.

We ended the day with a Haunted Walk. A friend took these next two photos. The first is of a local bed and breakfast that is supposedly home to a spirit:

Photo taken by Cat Matchuk.

The second is of a company that reportedly has regular spooky occurances.

Photo taken by Cat Matchuk.

There was also a castle a merchant built with a tower for his wife to have the best view of public hangings. It's now a private home, so there are no pictures of it.

We heard of many other spooky stories, but you'll have to go on the walk yourself to learn about them.

We also learned about Skeleton Park, which has a history of bones regularly coming to the surface and tombstones.

Photo taken by Cat Matchuk.

That may be a rock. It's hard to tell. Also, there were so many leaves that when we went to check it out on Monday before leaving, we couldn't see much. There was a large area of fresh dirt with some mulch...

We also learned that children often used the tombstones as bases and some mounted human skulls to their bicycles like hood ornaments. Was this the old baseball field?

After talking with a new friend who is from there, I learned there are pretty much human bones everywhere you walk in Kingston. The population is so used to finding them in their backyard that they are rather blasé about it all.

With bones being under their sidewalks, buried on their waterfronts, and cadaver related shenanigans, I guess they really don't need the full Spirit Halloween experience. They're always living in Spookyville.

It was so wonderful spending a holiday weekend with friends fully enjoying spooky season. We can't wait to do it again!