Winchester Misery House
Greetings all,
Today I decided to go to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose to take the Behind the Scenes tour. I went last year and took the mansion tour. That was a good tour which showed the excentricties of a very gullible widow woman.
If you do not know he back story, Sarah Pardee Winchester was married to the heir of the Winchester Repeating Rifle. Her husband died of leukemia, when they were living on the East Coast. Sarah was a woman who believed in the here-after and so she sought out spiritual guidance from a Boston medium. This adviser told Sarah to move out west and build a house as a place for the unrested spirits who fell victim to the "gun that won the west."
Sarah took that advice, moved to San Jose and through seances and other visions built what is today known as the Winchester Mystery House.
If you know the way to San Jose, and you have an hour to spare, I would recommend the main mansion tour. Here you will see the results of a woman with money to burn gone mad. There is plenty of information out there about her and it is easy to find.
Today, I opted to take the Behind the Scenes Tour. I plunked down my $23 and hoped I would find out about more of the excentricties of this woman. Little did I know that back in the 1890's to the early 1900's from her secluded corner of the world, Sarah grew fruit and nut trees. She sold her crops locally and abroad. The tour showed the basic working parts of a farm. a tour into the basement of the gigantic Victorian mansion and strange architecture only she could come up with. But, the bulk of the tour was very underwhelming due to several factors. Not only did I feel rushed through a very a very quick tour, but the 20 something tour guides spiel was monotonous and obviously well repeated.
Well, to make a long story short, after the tour I went to the ticket counter and asked for the manager. The operations manager came out and I explained my dissatisfaction with the tour and he gave me a full refund. So, their customer service integrity is well appreciated,
Now, I sit here at starbucks sipping down a cup of coffee recounting my adventures. I scored 3 Winchester tokens from their slot machines. I am satisfied with the day.