I’m dedicating June to one of my all-time favorite series Teen Wolf. Enjoy this beautiful Scott + Kira video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XoQW7cGTzw
Video created by Kira McCall
<3 Anna
One of the things I wanted to do before we moved away from North Carolina, possibly never to return, is visit as many cool spots as we can. We recently went to the Wilmington Children’s Museum, Onslow Beach, and a couple other favorite hangouts.
My friend recommended going to Ocracoke Island before we leave. Actually, she said, “You have to go. You have to.” But we only had two weekends left, and one of them is my daughter’s big birthday extravaganza weekend, so I planned a trip to Ocracoke last minute.
You’re not going to believe me, but I really did research the island before we left. The only way to reach the island is a 20-mile ferry ride from Cedars Island. There, the only thing I absolutely wanted to see was the Blackbeard museum and store. Their website claimed the exhibit was open daily from 11am to 5pm (except Easter Sunday).
Also, though MapQuest claimed it was a 5 1/2 hour trip to Ocracoke, I didn’t believe it. I assumed it was a GPS glitch.
Sort of at the drop of a hat, I hustled my daughter into the truck early Sunday morning and we headed off to Cedars Island. I fully expected to be back home by 8pm, at the latest.
In a way, the drive up the North Carolina coast was one of the best parts of the whole trip. We saw so many different kinds of animals (a black snake, a black cat, crows–sort of a macabre pattern beginning). When I spotted the house below, though, I immediately pulled over to take pictures. What a sight!
This was my first trip on a ferry, and I thought it was amazing! It took us, what with all the stopping to take pictures and ask for directions once, almost three hours to reach the ferry terminal. The departure schedules said we’d missed the early morning ferry, but there was a 10am ferry and a 1pm ferry. Having no idea what we were doing, we rolled up to the boat at ten minutes till ten.
We were instructed to wait in the overflow line. By a stroke of complete, dumb luck, we were waved on the ferry as the very last vehicle.
Honestly, I didn’t know we were in for a 2 1/2 hour boat ride until we were already at sea. I might have reconsidered the entire trip if I had all the information. I’d assumed a twenty mile trip would take about thirty minutes. How wrong I was!
Luckily, we brought snacks and electronics to help pass the time. Though we didn’t really need the iPad. This was my daughter’s first time on a ferry and she couldn’t control her excitement. We were at the front of the boat, at the back of the boat, upstairs, downstairs, and back again. Which was fine. It helped the time fly by.
The spectacle below blew my mind. I’ve never seen the ocean when you literally couldn’t tell where the water ended and the sky began.
Once I knew how long a trip this really was, and having no plans to stay overnight and miss school the next day, I knew how important it was going to be to procure a ticket for the return trip as soon as possible. I tried to reserve one on my phone on the ferry, but the internet wasn’t cooperating.
So, as soon as we disembarked, I dragged my daughter into the ferry office. According to the schedule, there was a ferry leaving for Cedars Island at 4pm and a final ferry at 9pm. I wanted to be on the 4pm ferry.
The 4pm ferry was already sold out.
With no other option, I secured passage on the 9pm ferry, and then we set out to explore the island and see absolutely everything Ocracoke had to offer! (We had almost 9 hours to spend, after all.)
I’m a huge Once Upon a Time fan, specifically a Captain Hook fan, so imagine my fangirl delight when we ate lunch at the Jolly Roger! Arrg!
Sadly, neither Killian Jones nor Emma Swan made an appearance that day.
With full bellies, we went straight to be beach. It was my daughter’s top priority. And we had a blast! I looked for shark’s teeth while she battled the surf. We both dug in the sand, and she even got me in the water for a few minutes. But at 4pm I told her we had to dry off and move along.
I was afraid Teach’s Hole, the Blackbeard museum and store, would close early on Sundays and I didn’t want to miss it. Visiting Teach’s Hole was literally the only reason I wanted to go to Ocracoke. I’m a fan of pirates, and I wanted to learn the local history. And maybe buy a couple souvenirs.
Despite what their website says, Teach’s Hole is closed on Sundays. Yep. Closed.
The best we could do was get our pictures taken in the Blackbeard cutout.
Not exactly what I was hoping for.
By this time it was around 5pm and we were on the downward slide toward the 9pm ferry.
We took our time at the island’s lighthouse, one of only two still in operation.
The Springer’s Point trail was amazing. For a couple girls bordering on sunburnt, it was nice to stroll along a nature trail almost completely canopied in trees and bushes. Along the way we saw an old well and an even older cemetery.
The bugs, though, were vicious. My daughter made me walk in front so I’d be her bug shield. And when they tried to attach, I told her to just keep moving. Stopping only encourages them.
After dinner, we spent the last couple hours playing at the boat launch. My daughter temporarily adopted two hermit crabs, Bob and Earl. They had a lot of fun together.
The best surprise of all? The park near the ferries is rampant with fuzzy baby ducks. Luckily, their parents weren’t overly protective and we watched them bumble about in the grass until full dark.
We didn’t get home until 1am, but overall the trip was one I’ll always remember. Mostly, because the island was unbelievably beautiful, from top to bottom. We weren’t in any rush, so we took our time enjoying everything.
<3 Anna
<3 Anna
Visit the original article here. Or continue reading below for the full story.
Written in Jan. 2015
As if becoming a freshman isn’t a scary enough prospect for many students, Pocatello High School, located in Idaho, has the added fear factor of being haunted. And recent surveillance footage taken of the empty school over winter break when the hallways were empty, seems to support the idea. What the school’s surveillance footage captured has left even paranormal investigators saying, “Wow,” and referring to it as “incredible.”
The surveillance footage of the school’s empty hallways show lights being turned off and on inexplicably, and a strange, floating figure is seen moving back and forth near a doorway. The ghostly figure is as tall as a person, but doesn’t appear to resemble anyone in particular.
Admittedly, there is a chance that the ghostly sighting is nothing more than something hanging in front of the camera that is slightly out of focus — but that still doesn’t explain the lights being turned off and on mysteriously. The activity with the lights was actually so intense that police were notified, thinking that someone was in the closed building — but, of course, no one was found.
The video footage of what may be a ghostly figure is just one more of many reasons why people believe Pocatello High School is haunted. And if you don’t believe the students, the janitors, teachers, and school officials are more than willing to back the claims up, with Pocatello High School officials saying that the footage shown in the video below is just a slight sampling of the many examples of haunting that have occurred in their school.
There are even a number of teachers and janitors who refuse to be left alone in the school theater — and they refuse to be left alone because of a dark shadow that reportedly looms in the rafters of the room. Other people have reported hearing inexplicable whispering, toilets flushing in empty bathrooms, and sounds of a piano being played on its own.
The numerous reports of paranormal activity at the high school eventually caught the notice of nationally-renowned paranormal experts John and Lisa Brian, who are also the co-founders of the Scientific Paranormal Investigative Research Organization (SPIRO). They actually live in Pocatello, Idaho, and they were sent in to investigate.
As for the footage, the two examined it in detail, saying that the footage is raw and untampered — the fact that it is surveillance footage means that it cannot be edited, not just because of legal regulations but because it has a secure design.
“We have watched it multiple times and even slowed it down and really analyzed it. It’s a really great piece of footage,” Lisa said. “You can just see the lights going on and off, the police were called because of these issues going on in the building — all of that just goes to show that it wasn’t something someone just put on there, but instead it was something that really happened.”
And during their investigation, some of the couple’s equipment went missing. It was found a week later by a janitor — on a window sill in a stairwell, which is so high that no one could have reached it without a ladder.
John and Lisa Brian sifted through the many myths and legends of Pocatello High School, and were able to confirm that at least six deaths occurred on the school grounds, including a boy who drowned in the school’s pool.
“Pocatello High School has an incredible history, and so this really opens that door to be able to talk about Pocatello High School and talk about its history and the history of our town,” Lisa said. “That’s really important to us as well, because we want to be able to share all of that stuff since we all live here, we all love our city, and so this is kind of a cool way to open our door to some history.”
<3 Anna
Last night I had to say good-bye to my Wilmington writing buddies, and it was the first time it hit me that I’m leaving my friends and my home and for the last five years. Today, I’m feeling a little melancholy. Leaving didn’t affect me when I packed boxes or searched houses online, not until I had to say good-bye.
In an effort to feel more productive, I’m spending the morning scheduling blog posts and a newsletter for June during the time I’ll be on the road and living out of hotels.
<3 Anna
Lillian Haswell, brilliant daughter of the local apothecary, yearns for more adventure and experience than life in her father’s shop and their small village provides. She also longs to know the truth behind her mother’s disappearance, which villagers whisper about but her father refuses to discuss. Opportunity comes when a distant aunt offers to educate her as a lady in London. Exposed to fashionable society and romance–as well as clues about her mother–Lilly is torn when she is summoned back to her ailing father’s bedside. Women are forbidden to work as apothecaries, so to save the family legacy, Lilly will have to make it appear as if her father is still making all the diagnoses and decisions. But the suspicious eyes of a scholarly physician and a competing apothecary are upon her. As they vie for village prominence, three men also vie for Lilly’s heart.
There are so many great things about The Apothecary’s Daughter. The historical details are amazing. I felt immersed in the world Klassen created. Whether we were in a London sitting room or Haswell’s apothecary shop in Bedsley Priors I felt like I was there. Her characters, too, are each distinct and layered human beings that really shine.
The only part that made me roll my eyes is that by the 50% mark, every eligible young man Lilly had ever met was crazy in love with her. Not one, but two bachelors from her London season, her father’s former apprentice, the village’s new apothecary, even the local lord’s son. Do you mean to tell me there’s not one man Lilly knows who thinks she’s pretentious or boring?
This is where Lilly slipped into Mary Sue territory. Even the people she wronged by abandoning, first her friends and family in Bedsley Priors, and then her aunt and uncle in London, forgive her immediately and completely. No one is ever annoyed with Lilly. Which I find hard to believe.
Even her flaws aren’t really flaws. She has a photographic memory. Her mother ran away when she was a small child. Both situations only make Lilly a more sympathetic character.
I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys richly detailed historical romances, but with a warning that the heroine might get on your nerves with her sparkling perfection.
<3 Anna
On June 11, 2015 I’m packing my pickup truck and taking off across the country. My husband, ten-year-old daughter, our dog Nia, and our tortoise Princess are tagging along. I have no idea how I’m going to manage, but I’m just going to take a deep breath and jump off the cliff.
My husband’s last day as a member of the active-duty military is Halloween 2015. Rather than wait with him in Jacksonville, NC and travel together with a moving van to our new home, I want to be in our new city in the summer so I can interview for a position that starts in early September.
Besides, I don’t want my daughter to start middle school in North Carolina and then yank her out after ten weeks to start a new school in a new time zone. I decided the best idea for my daughter and myself was to drive to Washington as soon as her school year ended and get settled. My husband will follow a couple months later.
I figured the best way to stay sane is share the pain with you. Join me on this wild ride?
<3 Anna
Visit the original article here. Or continue reading below for the full story.
Written by Cheryl Eddy in Jan. 2015
A New York City outpost of clothing store COS has a 200-year-old well tucked into its men’s department. The structure is a remnant of the building’s 18th-century past … and it’s where a woman’s strangled body was discovered in 1799.
Scouting NY (a fascinating, wonderfully detailed blog written by location scout and hidden history enthusiast Nick Carr), weaves the sinister tale:
The well-documented story has it that a young woman named Gulielma Elmore Sands left her Greenwich Street boarding home on the evening of Dec. 22, 1799, to meet Levi Weeks, a fellow boarder. The two had a secret romance and were planning to elope that night. Eleven days later, her body was found in a well in Lispenard’s Meadow (today’s Spring Street). Marks on her neck suggested death by strangulation.
For even more context (the “Manhattan Well Murder” led to a sensational trial and a controversial verdict; defense attorneys included future dueling duo Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and it was also “the first murder trial in American history to be fully documented by a court stenographer”), check out Carr’s 2011 Wall Street Journal article. He penned it when the infamous SoHo building housed a restaurant. Back then, the well was tucked into a basement that was primarily used for storage, and one had to obtain special permission to view it.
Now, though, the well — long believed to be haunted — is just hangin’ out in the men’s department, providing an awesome staging zone for what look to be otherwise rather minimalist pants and jackets. Carr notes, wryly:
While the only spirit-like entities I saw on my recent visit were a few ghostly mannequins decked out in the latest Swedish fashions, it’s still pretty amazing to be able to check out such a unique piece of New York history, an artifact dating to a time when Soho was a meadow and Spring Street actually had a spring running through it.
<3 Anna
Because I haven’t seen enough Katniss & Peeta lately, and I miss them. Enjoy!
Video created by iSPIDERMAN
<3 Anna
Cover Blurb:
Dive into the heart-pounding final chapter of the Dark Caster series!
If the Chaos Gate opens…
Demons will infest the world.
When the charismatic mayor of Auburn hires junior agent Jessa McAvoy to acquire him a very specific property, she hopes this is her big break. She’ll do anything to make her first real estate client happy, but the one favor he asks of her is impossible—convince her former friend Derek Walker to come out of hiding. Doing so will not only bring her into the orbit of dangerous casters, but force her to confront long-buried feelings for her missing friend.
After failing his tasks for the Dark Caster, necromancer Derek Walker is hiding in Alaska from his humiliating defeats as a card-carrying member of an evil dark cabal. But when his old boss begins opening the Chaos Gate, there is nowhere on earth Derek can hide. With no other options, he must return to the last place he wants to go—home.
When Derek Walker joins forces with Jessa and the entire Raleigh coven, the dark cabal’s biggest disappointment may be the only thing standing between earth and total destruction.
<3 Anna