We Met Mark Cline!

In our travels, we've found ghost tours to be a wonderful way to experience local culture and a bit of history while enjoying an entertaining evening. Until recently, we'd missed the relatively-local Haunting Tales: Lexington's Ghost Tour. We were thrilled to pick an awesome night to take the tour--one when Mark Cline was leading himself! We found Cline to be approachable, interesting, and kind; we found the tour to be quite pleasant. Cline presents nuggets of unusual local history embedded with ghost lore, magic tricks, and personal stories. We traversed the core blocks of downtown Lexington thoroughly, including the cemetery. Justin and Kim were thrilled to visit a mausoleum with "air holes" (and with which we'd always been fascinated).

If you go, call in advance for tour details--and don't be put off by the answering machine procedure to which you are directed. We'd recommend tying your ghost tour visit to a walk through Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and Washington and Lee University to get a sense of the town's current culture. Each institution has interesting--and free/cheap--museums to visit. On our September Saturday night, the dinner scene in town was lively with several bistro-type restaurants featuring prix fixe meals that sounded interesting and some al fresco dining. Makes for a nice date night!

Reference Link:
Haunting Tales of Lexington

Haunted Putt Putt

It was time for a Halterman Halloween evening, so we headed out to Roanoke's Putt Putt Golf and Games (Putt Putt Fun Center officially, I believe). They advertise a haunted house acceptable to those under 12, so we grabbed one of Elijah's friends and his mom and went on an outing. The simple haunted house was true to billing--and not crowded, so the staff was willing to customize our tour to a no-scare variety as we toted in the toddlers. Inside, we found a friendly teenage tour guide, blacklights, strobe lights, inflatables, and several moving figures. The tour is guided, and on our no-scare version, the guide taught us where actors would be hiding on the typical tour. Elijah looked at several of the animated decorations and proclaimed, "Again!" Touring the house takes 5-10 minutes.

If you go, look for a coupon--some people in line ahead of us had one. If your tour is not a no-scare, be prepared for some people wearing masks hiding to startle you. On a nice fall night like tonight, you could also opt to play putt putt. The haunted house tour is just $4, and putt putt is $6. Cheap fun! For good nearby dinner, there's Alejandro's, a Mexican place with Roanoke's best salsa bar. This Alejandro's (a satellite of the one downtown) is beside the Goodwill as Peters Creek and Williamson intersect in the Hollins area.

Reference Links:
Putt Putt Golf and Games of Roanoke
Alejandro's of Roanoke