halloween: forget costumes and visit haunted spots instead.

i'm not really one who celebrates halloween. i'll often think up great costumes throughout the year but when the time draws closer, the caring falls to the wayside. instead, i'll stand back, observe, and oooo and ahhh over the costumes of others, or help my husband's daughter collect pieces for her pirate costume, including my very own tall black boots. i like that. that's pretty fun. but what i really crave during this time of year when the nights are longer and the weather is cool with a brisk chill in the evening breeze is visiting spooky sites and going on haunted tours like those listed in daily candy's coast to coast: the country's best haunted places. my imagination gets deliciously tangled in the spooky lore, tales, and myths.

images courtesy of dailycandy

• sleepy hollow: headless horseman ichabod crane and katrina van tassel are buried in this new york cemetery
• laurel hill cemetery: located in philadelphia, this cemetery boasts ornate monuments and tombstones; scary beautiful
• stow lake: according to legend, a mysterious woman in white appears and is desperate for details on her lost baby, who reportedly rolled into the golden gate park waters more than 100 years ago
• eastern state penitentiary: inmates, like al capone, and officers have long reported paranormal activity at this philadelphia defunct prison
• winchester mystery house: after a medium told her to appease angry spirits, rifle company heiress sarah winchester became obsessed with building them a place to live and ended up with a 160-room victorian mansion in san jose, california; legend states that the blue room is where sarah communed with ghosts nightly
• charleston old city jail: once a house for civil war prisoners, pirates and others ne'er-do-wells, the spirits of these and that of ruthless local hotel owner, lavinia fisher--hanged for mass murders--are said to still be alive
• farnam mansion: now a bed and breakfast inn, the owners encourage guests to investigate the unexplained footsteps, shadowy figures, and moving objects in this baroque, italiante-style house in upstate new york
• sutro baths: for those brave enough to visit the site at night, they can light a candle and place it at the end of the tunnel; it's been said someone will come and throw it into the ocean below; the sutro baths burned down in 1966
• pike place market: known to be the most haunted location in the northwest thanks to its empty stalls and inside lower levels the market; on the seattle market ghost tour, you'll make footprints through the city's first mortuary site, an old graveyard, and a former brother; this spot is loaded with history and storytelling tradition
• corn maze: texas corn maze in the dark--need i say more? 
• 13 nights at jiminy: more than 300 years ago, berkshire farmers in the valley of jericho went near mad from disease and supernatural intrusion
• philadephia tour: this town if full of local lore and edgar allan poe was a philadelphian
• green-wood cemetery: imposing gothic gates welcome you to this sprawling 478+ acre burial ground in brooklyn; grandiose tombstones and common graves, this cemetery is home to boss tweed, louis comfort tiffany, a few of the roosevelt clan, other noteworthy new yorkers, and 103 victims of a brooklyn theatre fire
• graceland cemetery:  the tomb of inez clarke who died at age 6 in 1880, as well as others, are marked by life-size statues of the entombed; spirits are said to linger near their memorials in this chicago cemetery

have you visited any of the sites listed? would you? being a local to san francisco, i'm curious about the stowe lake and sutro baths mystery. maybe the hubs and i will check them out this weekend.