Haunted Hotel and other stuff
Last October I went with Frank and some of his friends to the Haunted Trail, a popular and very amusing Halloween attraction. My favorite part was walking through the park at night to go from one "haunted spot" in the trail to another. Oh, and definitely Mark (a John Barrowman look-alike if I ever saw one) and his girly screams. But this year nobody could go with us. Last time we went out for dinner afterwards so the promise of dinner convinced Frank's BF and a girl friend of theirs to come with us, but just like last year they refused to actually go inside the Haunted Hotel and instead waited for Frank and me at the restaurant, the cowards.
I was under the impression that the Hotel had an elevator and you had to make your way down through a couple of floors. Not so. It's only one floor. The first thing you do is go into a fake elevator! Or at least that was the first thing this year (they change it around every year to keep it fresh, I gather). They herd the people inside the hotel in groups of ten or so. After the elevator doors open and people run out of there (because there's a zombie-like character coming out of a hole in the wall), the hotel consists of a series of themed rooms connected by dark corridors. Unfortunately for Frank, who is surprisingly easy to scare, I go into these things to have fun and excitement, not really to have the bejeezus scared out of me, so the two of us were basically leading the group through the rooms (he had to lead reluctantly because he didn't want to lose me in the dark) and so we were the very first to have the actors jump at our faces. These things make me feel like a goddamn action hero. Still, I do run from them. It would be rude not to act at least a little bit scared.
My favorite rooms were as follows: the diner (where a guy wearing a bloody waitress uniform and holding a meat cleaver offered you a baby burger), the office (abandoned, dark and full of corpses in front of glowing computer screens), the subway (the floor actually moved and in the dark you couldn't tell which passengers were actors and which dummies) and the clown house (the clowns were actually not at all scary but the music and the clown clothes did add a lot of atmosphere). There was also a Freddy room, a butcher shop room and a huge, mechanical ram's head with glowing red eyes that came at you. Oh, and a maze of air bags or something. Some guy in a white shirt claimed to have found the way out, but nuh-uh... I'm sorry, guy in white shirt who wanted to impress his GF, it was *I* who found it first.
Frank did not scream but he did bruise my arm. It's been a week and I still can discern the shape of two fingers. Also, he reached for my hand, which was a little weird, I guess. When we came out I was slightly disappointed that there weren't any more rooms because I was having lots of fun (and we paid for the fast pass so it was extra expensive), but he was relieved! I couldn't believe it had been so scary for him. I mean, who really gets scared by people in costumes? Honestly. So I checked his pulse and his heart really was beating a mile a minute. I'm glad he got his money's worth, but still, lulz.
As it was Saturday night the streets were full of people wearing Halloween costumes. I regret not taking the camera with me. Some of them were pretty cool. I saw Wonder Woman and Captain America making out. There was also a Phantom of the Opera, White and Black Swans (a guy was the White Swan, the Black Swan was a girl - 30 Rock fans?) and a "sexy" Mario. Fact: Mario should never be sexy. There were lots more but I can't list them all.
Thai food afterwards accompanied by a lengthy discussion about the origins of rice. Still, fun. And then a few days later Frank and I came as close as we'll ever get to being featured in an art exhibit! It's really cool but also kind of weird seeing people take pictures of themselves with something you made. Looking at it. Talking about it. Reading the little sign next to it, the one with your name on it. Weird. Makes you want to stalk them a little, try to overhear what they're saying, find out where they post the picture. There may or may not have been a picture of me and Frank (along with several other people, mind you) in the newspaper. I didn't look for it. Maybe I should have.
Haunted Hotel pics (by Mike Rollerson because I didn't take any):
The elevator.
Entrance to the diner.
The diner!
This guy jumped at me so close I could feel the heat from the chainsaw motor on my face, I swear.
Freddy room! You had to zig-zag your way through the steel poles in the middle of the corridor with Freddy stalking you.
Next year: The Scream Zone. I hope!