Old Town San Diego, Part One: The Whaley House

My next day in San Diego was a day spent in Old Town. There are several historical sites and some fun museums.

 I started off by visiting the Whaley House.

 Thomas Whaley was a New York businessman who wanted to take advantage of California's Gold Rush. He moved to San Francisco and opened a shop there. It was successful but unfortunately it burned down in 1851. He decided to move south to San Diego. And there he built what is known as the Whaley House.

This house was built on the site of a hanging that had happened some time before. Because of that, his house was believed to be haunted.

There are self-guided tours and you can walk upstairs and throughout the home. There are furniture pieces and props that are original.

 This was a little shop that is just outside the courtroom.

 Here is the courtroom. They have a couple of binders in there that have guest photos that have suspicious orbs in them. And there are also photos and articles about the Whaley family.

 I can be the judge.

 Here is an old fashioned stove in the kitchen.

 You can peek into the bedrooms of the Whaley family members.

 Upstairs they have a small theater with a stage and chairs for the audience. That is quite fancy for a family home.

 This is where the audience sits in the theater.

 This is the archway where the hanging took place, and where most of the ghostly activity happens.

 Some of the tour guides have detected phantom smells and swear they have seen people dressed in 19th century clothes, only to have them disappear at a second glance.

The US Commerce Department has officially claimed that the Whaley House is the Most Haunted House in California. I didn't sense any cold spots or have my Spidey-senses triggered while I was there. Have a visit for yourself. You may just see something fun or scary!

After walking around Old Town a bit, it was time for lunch.

 I went to Miguels. I constantly hear that the best Mexican food in the world can be found in San Diego. This was my second Mexican restaurant of this trip.

 I started with chips and salsa.

 They said they were well known for their ceviche, so I decided to order some to taste. It was okay, nothing extraordinary, but not bad.

 I ordered the shrimp enchilada plate for my lunch. It was quite tasty. I am a fan of enchiladas so I like to order them when I am in a new place.

 Lunch was satisfying, but filling. So I walked around the district more to walk off some of the rice, beans, and cheese.

 These cowboy standees were a fun backdrop.

 I walked around until I found a candy store.

 They had endless barrels of saltwater taffy, one of my favorite candies.

 These lollipops were not as big as my head, but I was still happy to see them.

 Around the perimeter were barrels full of other candies like root beer barrels and strawberry bon bons. YUMMY!

 I found what I am having for dinner!

 I did more walking and found another historical site. As you know from reading my blog, I really enjoy visiting the landmark markers and reading about the significance of the site.

 This is one of the bells that represents El Camino Real which is the long route throughout California that the Spaniards followed to build their missions.

 I found a grave site on the same side of the street as the Whaley House.

 Sadly, some of them were unmarked.

 There were some plots where children are buried. Back in those days before vaccinations and good medical care, some simple things like viruses could really hurt people. Sadly, some people would never recover from things we just live with these days.

Visitors are encouraged to leave toys and candy at the graves of children. I stopped and talked to them, hoping my presence would bring them a bit of cheer. They lived in times before the Teddy Bear became a mainstream toy. Of course, they are living in the Good Place for children and it is not a good place unless they have piles of lovies. So maybe they do have their own teddies now.

There was still a lot of ground to cover, so I moved on.