The adventure started when we saw an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. The article said that a new business was starting up, providing haunted tours of Santa Cruz. It said the tours would be every Friday and Saturday night, originating on the Santa Cruz Wharf, on the deck behind the Ideal Bar and Grill. The article also had a link to their website, http://www.santacruzhauntedtours.com.
I went to the website and checked it out. It turns out that the tour is a new business venture, started by a 16 year old girl, fascinated by history and stories of the macabre. The more we read about the tour, the more excited we became. We decided that come Friday, the first day of the tour, we should give it a try.
Friday night came around and both Kelly and I were tired. I had just had a series of spinal epidural injections on Wednesday, and an MRI on Thursday. It was cold outside, and neither of us really wanted to go into Santa Cruz. We had both been so excited for this adventure that even though neither of us wanted to go, we both felt like we just needed to go. It turns out that we are really glad we went.
We parked the car and walked towards the Wharf. We saw the little sandwich board sign and followed it to a young girl passing out handbills for the tour. She directed us to the starting point. When we got there, there were not a lot of people. It actually turns out that for the first tour, there was just Kelly and I, the girl who was handing out the handbills, the girl who started the business and her Mom and Dad. We were joined shortly by out Tour Guide.
The Tour Guide was a young guy, maybe 20 years old, and obviously very nervous. In all fairness, it was the first tour, so some nervous-nous was to be expected. I explained that I was a little hard of hearing and asked him to speak loudly on the tour. He welcomed us to the tour, promised to speak loudly, and off we went.
The tour walks down Front Street, then up Pacific Avenue, ending at the old Santa Cruz Mission. Along the way, you hear spooky stories about the area. You learn about murders, suicides, murder/suicides, tar and feathering, lynchings, and even stories from when Santa Cruz had several serial killers operating at the same time. The stories are fun. You don't even realize how far you are walking, as the tour stops for each story.
The only bad thing with the whole experience was at the end of the tour, you have to walk all the way back to wherever you left your car. For us, that meant we had to walk from the Mission, all the way back to the Wharf, passing a lot of panhandlers, junkies and the shady characters that make Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz. I don't worry too much about stuff like that, but I wouldn't want my wife to go by herself or with a couple of girlfriends.
I would still have to give the Tour a big thumbs up! It was fun, interesting, educational and did I say fun? Check out their website, then give the Tour a try. It is definitely a fun date.
