A Day Spent at the Fisherman's Wharf

                                                             

I love visiting my sister Jane, who lives in Napa California. The weather is always perfect: no humidity and at night we sleep with the windows open and covered in blankets. It gets pretty chilly at night.

Jane usually does the wine tour with us and we usually stop at a winery for lunch and to do some testing. I don't use the little spittoons that the wine connoisseurs use. That grosses me out. I drink every drop down. Love the wine tasting, but after the fifth sample, I usually don't remember what the hell I was drinking.

                                                               

Jane always takes us on the ferry to San Francisco for a day trip. I love the city and would live there if it wasn't so expensive. This year, my daughter and two of my grandsons came out with me. It was a celebration for Joshua's graduation and before he joins the Navy. He had three requests: see Muir Woods, see the Golden Gate Bridge; eat Bubba Shrimp. We did all three and more.

                                                                   

While we were on Pier 39, there was a magic/juggling show about to begin. The boys had their carry out shrimp from Bubba and we decided to sit and watch the show while they ate. I didn't expect the act to be that much fun, but it was. It was a lot of fun because of Daniel Davinci.  This is one talented and funny man. You can check out his site here.

                                                               

Not only is Daniel Davinci an excellent juggler, he is a great stand-up comic that had the audience laughing their heads off. My grandsons loved him. I was even chosen as part of his act, which was a lot of fun. So if you're ever in San Francisco, make sure you catch this act.

A Diploma to the Wine Country

                                                               

 

This June, I had two more of my nine grandchildren graduate from high school: Katrina Janco who is going to the University of Pennsylvania; Joshua Reid who is going into the Navy. This leaves me with two more grandkids to go; Kadin Gilbert and Nathan Reid. I’m getting old.

                                                             

I usually try to visit my sister Jane Lemmons, who lives in the beautiful Napa Valley every year, and since Joshua was graduating high school; I combined the events into one trip. This was the first time that Joshua or Nathan had ever been to California. Their older brother Jimmy had gone several years ago on vacation with me and Grandpop. My daughter ReRe, Josh, Nathan and I stayed at my sister’s house and I have to say that we had an absolute ball.

Jane Lemmons Bed and Breakfast

Staying at my sister Jane’s house is like staying at the Four Seasons five star hotel. I’m not kidding. She has everything ready for her guests. My daughter and I were given our own caddy of beauty supplies to carry into the bathroom each morning for our daily showers. Our clothes were washed each day. The coffee made fresh each morning. Jane even rented a 12 seat van to transport her son, his wife, and her grandson along with my family all over the Napa and Winery area.

                                  Me, daughter ReRe, and sister Jane                              

I wanted Joshua, the middle child in his family, to have a special graduation gift, especially because he will be enlisting into the Navy. Our agenda for the four days there was designed for him. Here are a few photos of our activities.
                                                       

Joshua and Nathan wanted to do some wall climbing at Rockzilla. My nephew Chris and his son, Joshua joined us.
                                                         

 

Here we are at the beautiful Muir Woods

 

 

My nephew, Chris and his wife, Solannge with son

 

 

 

On the ferry to San Francisco

 

 

Josh and Nathan

 

 

Eating Crabs at the Pompeii Grotto on Fisherman's Wharf

 

 

And we can't forget the wines of Napa Valley.

 

 

All in all, it was one of the best vacations I've had and maybe it was because of my grandkids being there and sharing in the adventure. Nathan has reminded me that he will be graduating in a few years and he’s looking to return to Aunt Jane’s Bed and Breakfast.

Friends, Ghosts and, Robots

                                                                 

How’s that for a title? This past week was a whirlwind of activity because a very good friend and the fearless leader of Biff Bam Pop, Andy Burns, came down from Canada to visit his South Jersey Posse. I think the Jersey staff outnumbers the Canadian staff, for now. The South Jersey division of Biff Bam Pop all belong to the South Jersey Writer's Group and includes Glenn Walker (assisting editor of BBP & board member of the SJ writers' group) standing next to the seated Andy, with Loretta Swearington Sisco (BBP) and Steampunk Granny (BBP) on the right. From the left we have Janice Wilson (SJ writers' group) and Jean Ramalho (a fellow ghost investigator & friend). Next to Jean, we have the very talented Robin Renee (BBP & writer & entertainer (www.robinrenee.com) and James Knipp (BBP & registrar for the Philadelphia Writers Conference) 

          

                                                               

                Breakfast at the Pop Shop in Collingswood with our leader                                 

I had asked Andy what he wanted to see while on vacation. He wanted to see the Rocky statue.

                                                                    

 
                                                 And the Liberty Bell
                                            

                        And, he wanted to go on a ghost investigation.
                                                              

Luckily, I was able to set up all three requests, saving the investigation for that night with Medium, Marti Haines. Andy and I will be writing more about this investigation on the Biff Bam Pop site www.biffbampop.com

                                                                  

Patty

In my Roof Oasis Series, there is a character that happens to be a robot and about the size of a small child. In book one of the series, Roof Oasis, the little robot was just a minor character, but as every writer knows; sometimes the characters take over the story. Patty wasn't happy being a minor character and she quickly made this clear to me when I was working on the second book. Patty is not your average robot. She is evolving, but you’ll have to wait until book two, Saving Solanda, is out this summer to find out why we should be worried.

I needed a doll as a prop for when I do my book signings. The only doll that would fit the requirements of what I had imagined when I wrote the robot character was the Patti PlayPal doll.

                                                                         

      
My sister Lucy had a Patti PlayPal when she was little. She loved that doll, but my brother Michael had operated on Patti and she didn’t survive. It's a long story, but ou can read about it here.

                                                                      

A good friend of mine, Cinsearae Santiago Reniniger: writer, publisher, artist, and designer, who also makes all kinds of spooky jewelry and cute zombie dolls, was able to find a doll for me. Here she is. I know she doesn’t look like a robot yet, but she will once I get my designer granddaughter, Allie Gilbert, to make a Steampunk, robotic outfit for her.

                                                                   

Steampunk Granny does Tigers, Monkeys and Sharknado 2…Oh My!

                                                                       

I have been doing day trips all week with my granddaughter Kathryn who is visiting from Wyoming and my grandson Nathan who lives in New Jersey. Yesterday we headed out to the Philadelphia Zoo. The big cats and the primates were our favorite sights. We witnessed a Tiger trying to get to an orangutan that mischievously walked above the tiger’s resting spot near  the café where Nathan, Kathryn and I were eating lunch.

                                                                   

                                                                       

Nathan takes Parkour lessons and I've often wondered if the French invented the different movements for this sport by watching these guys.

                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                 

I introduced Nathan and Kathryn to Sharknado 2 “The second one”. Nathan thought Sharknado 2 was stupid until I explained to him that this was the whole point of the show. It was a tongue-in-cheek, MST3K sponge worthy (yes, I'm quoting Elaine from Seinfeld) type of film. It was meant to be downright stupid. Once Nathan understood, he sat back and enjoyed the movie.

                                                                             

How could you not like Sharknado or Sharknado 2? Where else can you find flying sharks and lots of people to snack on. The Syfy channel deserves a pat on the back for bringing us the sequel to Sharknado.

                                                                                       

Our Shark Ninja fighter, Fin Shepard (Ian Ziering), and his trusty sidekick, Skye (Vivica A. Fox), must help the frazzled and clueless citizens of New York survive the flying sharks, and they have to work quickly before two opposing tornadoes meet in the center of New York City.

                                                                                    

The show was made even funnier with Mat Lauer and Al Roker playing straight men to the oncoming shark attack weather alert as does Kelly Ripa on her show.

                                                                             

I can't wait until Sharknado 3 comes out and I can't wait until the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel does the next Mega Bad Movie Night featuring this film

 

A Day In The Life of Steampunk Granny

                                                                                

Get up…jumped out of bed…ran a comb… This past Tuesday, one of the nine grandchildren that I haven’t seen in quite a while flew in from Wyoming to spend some time with her grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins.

                                                                   

                                                                       

Kathryn is a quiet and thoughtful person and I’m guessing life back home is rather calm and organized. She was in for a big surprise with her East Coast family. There isn’t a calm or quiet bone in our bodies. My youngest grandson was also spending the week with us and this worked out pretty well because Kathryn had someone that liked doing the same things she did.

                                                           At the hippo tank                                                       

I speak South Philly, so it took Kathryn a day or two to understand my slang pronunciations, but with Nathan acting like a translator, we did perfectly well. Wednesday Dan, Kathryn, Nathan and I headed to the Aquarium in Camden, N.J.  Kathryn had been to an aquarium before, but nothing as big as the one in New Jersey. Wait until she sees the one in Baltimore.

                                                                               

We loved the hippos and spent more time at that exhibit before moving on to the sharks. I love this picture.
 

                                                                      

                                                                                   

Kathryn, like me loves turtles and she was able to get one to swim up for this photo

                                                                          

                     

That night we went to the mall with my granddaughter, Katrina. All three kids, clicked right away. They liked the same fashions, stores and spent most of their time in Spencer’s and Hot Topic.

                                                                    

            

The next day, I took all three to the Franklin Institute to see the Circus and Brain exhibit. Katrina and Nathan did well both on the tightrope and doing flips on the acrobatic section. Kathryn and I stayed safely on the ground.

                                                                      

                                                                                

Friday we headed to Atlantic City. Kathryn having been born in Montana had never seen the ocean. She loved it. It’s funny what we take for granted because it’s so close by ,and yet, it is a life experience for others.

                                                                     

                                                                            

Saturday was a book signing day for me to promote Roof Oasis and to continue to promote the South Jersey Writers’ Group anthology with Dawn Byrne.

                                                                

                  

 

Kathryn is a writer, too and was very interested in seeing the other side of writing and why marketing is just as important as writing the book. Nathan and Kathryn were a big help for Super D and I. Dragging two suitcases of books around can get hard sometimes, but Nate and Kathryn helped with the load.

                                                    

                                                                               

           

Nathan Does Vegas

                                                                      

My daughter ReRe and her husband, Jim and little Nathan are at a family wedding in Vegas.

                                                                       

                                                 Nathan with Aunt Nicole and Mom



They get to miss all this $#*@%& cold weather. Lucky them. They asked me to check on Joshua who was unable to go with them due to work and school. I went over the other day to visit with Joshua and set off all the alarms???
                                                                      

I don't know what happened, but the police were there in seconds. My poor husband was being grilled as to why we were there, etc. etc. while I tried to get my daughter on the phone to find out the code to turn of the alarm.

                                                                        

Only kidding, the police were very nice and understanding of my punching in the wrong code...my husband; not too much.

Now back to Nathan. The little guy is having himself a ball. He got to do several fun things and even got to climb some high rocks in the desert.

                                                                         

                                   He got to meet Siegfried and his wild cats.


                                                                   

 

 

Nathan even got to do some flying in one of those wind tunnels. I'm so jealous.

 

 

I can't wait until they return home, but until they do, I have to check on Joshua after school tomorrow. Now if I could only remember what the code is??????

Ghosts of Charleston

                                                         

In between fighting a sinus infection, ear infection and a broken tooth, my ghost hunting friends and I actually got in some good research. While we were at Wilmington North Carolina, we visited the battleship USS North Carolina.
                                                                             
It wasn’t until we got to the section of the ship that houses the engines, that I experienced that familiar unsettling in my stomach (it’s my “tell” that a spirit is nearby). Whenever this happens, I block out all other noises and concentrate of the spirit, but all I could sense was that the very young sailor in front of me, had died on the ship and the engine room was his scheduled work area. One of my friends, who entered a few minutes behind me, also sensed the young man, but we weren’t able to ask or record our “interview” as a large group had now entered the room. I picked up the sense that although this young man was confused on how he had died, he was proud of being in the Navy and a part of this ship’s crew.

                                                              

                                                                                                                                              

Once we had reached Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, we headed into Charleston and the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, but although there were stories of pirates being held there, we picked up no sensations of spirits in the building that day. Doesn’t mean the place isn’t haunted, but I sensed nothing during that visit. We were told about a woman and her husband who were hanged because of some rather nasty dealings. Her name was Lavinia Fisher,  a serial killer.

The Prison
                                                                  

My friends and I were under the impression that Lavinia and John Fisher were held at the Provost Dungeon, and so, when we went to the prison, we went there not knowing that this is where she was actually hung.
                                                                   

                                                                                                                                   
 While waiting for our guide to take us into the building, Rita who often has an experience where she's either touched by or sees a spirit (experiences that she is not at all comfortable with), commented to the guide that she saw someone climbing up the stairway. The stairway was visible through one of the prison windows; this was not witnessed by anyone else in our group. The guide assured us that no one was in there, but Rita argued that she saw someone in a white dress climbing the stairway. Brushing off her insistence that she saw something, the guide led us into the building. Jean and I, who normally sense if spirits are near us, didn’t feel a thing until we walked up the steps and into a large holding area.

                                                                      

There was something in this room and it wasn’t happy, but I wasn’t able to tell if it was male or female, at first because I was concentrating on the anger of the spirit. Suddenly, a black shape moved beside me, blocking off my line of vision to another person that was standing next to me. The anger I felt, was strong and I began to say the protection prayers while holding on tightly to my rosary beads in my coat pocket. When it moved passed me, I began to edge backwards towards Rita and Jean. “Something evil is in here,” I warned both of them under my breath.

“Someone is a dress just passed by me and headed in your direction,” Jean replied.

“It’s the woman, from the stairway,” Rita added. 
                                                                        

                                                          

Before we could take pictures or get our equipment set up, the spirit was gone. We asked our guide if he knew anything about the female ghost that all three of us had encountered and that is when he told us that Lavinia was hung at this prison. Now, all the clues fell into place. We had encountered Lavinia, herself. The guide then mentioned that there was an investigative team in the prison a while back and since they left, the staff has been experiencing more sightings. This sometimes happens if an investigation is done improperly and the investigative team has taunted or angered the spirits.

                                                                       

My next experience was at a cemetery behind the St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Charleston. We were walking through the cemetery with our cameras at the ready and our equipment on. I had walked away from my friends because I could sense that a spirit was nearby, then I heard someone call my name. Spirits don’t usually call out my name, so I was freaking nervous and curious as to why this was happening, now. I thought I saw something moving and took a picture. Who was it? What did they want? How did they know my name? I don’t know! 
But here is the photo with an orb. It's positioned right in front of the tombstone. This is one of the best orb pictures that I’ve ever taken. It almost looks solid. I called out to my friends, but they were unable to get a good shot.

                                                            

                                                                           

I don’t have to be in a cemetery or actively looking for ghost, but I can sense them when they’re around and recently a friend asked me to check out her house; the house was haunted by the former owner; kind soul who was watching over the little family now living there. The wall between the living and dead is only a heartbeat away. Sometimes, after a soul has passed over, if that person really loved their home, they may come back to visit. Here is a closer shot of that orb.

                                                                  

                                                           

 

Have you’ve ever encountered something from the other side. Would you like to share your story with me? contact me at mariegilb@comcast.net