This time of year, faux haunted houses and other Halloween-themed attractions are hugely popular. But why pay to tour a fake haunted house when you can tour one that is supposedly real?

If you’re near Louisville, Kentucky – or want to take a trip there – you can tour the infamous Waverly Hills Sanatorium, just outside the city. This building has been the subject of many paranormal investigations, as well as appeared as the focus of several episodes of paranormal reality TV shows, such as “Ghost Hunters.” Most every one has concluded that the building is indeed haunted.

It was first opened in 1926 as a tuberculosis hospital, but it seems that the patients weren’t just being treated. They were being used as subjects in experiments to find a cure for the disease. As you can imagine, many patients died, and it seems some of them are still hanging around.

From strange lights to cold spots to actual apparition sightings, many paranormal hunters have concluded that the Waverly is indeed haunted.

Extended paranormal hunting tours of the building are offered year-round, but this time of year, they are fully booked. However, the owners are operating short haunted house-type of walk-through tours every weekend until Halloween, on a first come, first serve basis.

Every Friday and Saturday, until October 30, twenty dollars (cash only!) will get you in for a tour to see for yourself if it’s really haunted. Tours run from 8pm until 1am (except on the last night when it closes at midnight). For more information, call 503-933-2142.

I get the creeps just watching it on TV, so I don’t know if I’d be brave enough to do it. It would make for a good story, though.

[Photo courtesy of Aaron Vowels via Flickr]

Billy Branch

Chicago claims the the title as  the home of the blues for a very good reason.  You can enjoy live blues every night of the week into the wee hours.  There are all sorts of clubs and bars that provide the Chicago blues experience but one of the best is Buddy Guy’s Legends in the South Loop.  Guitar icon Guy boasts a huge blues legacy and that’s very visible in the two-story, state of the art nightclub. Read More »

Bar Louie by LouieBaur

Dominick told me that he was on his tenth Guinness when I took a seat beside him at the bar. He had ordered and paid for ten beers during happy hour when a pint goes for $3.00. Of course, I had just missed happy hour by about five minutes, so my beer rung in at full price. I wasn’t in the mood for ten Guinness beers, but I did order a Sierra Nevada and the fish and chips platter which cost me about $21.00 total after tax. The fish and chips were not the best I’ve ever had, but tasty none the less for being bar food, served with ample ‘chips’ and yummy tarter sauce. The portion was enormous, and I couldn’t finish it all.

I did however, finish my beer. Dominick had finished half his tenth Guinness and ordered us both glasses of water. ‘How are you able to stand up?’ I asked him, shocked that anyone could drink ten large, heavy beers in an hour and not be on the floor. He said he did this every night, with an expression that said ‘nothing in the world could be more normal than drinking buckets of Guinness nightly’.

Dominick also told me, without slurring his words, that he had had the salad because he was watching what he ate. “With all the beer, it’s best to have a salad,” he admitted, clearly counting calories. I felt somewhat guilty when he said this, my giant platter of fish and chips sitting in front of me, but told myself that I’d work it off the next day.

Honestly, Bar Louie is not the sort of restaurant that you would normally find me in. It’s a sort of sports bar, and looking at their website I know realize it is also a national chain. There are televisions everywhere in the Anaheim Bar Louie, showing the latest in football, baseball and whatever other sport is hot at the moment. This is fine by me, and I appreciate that it’s fun to have a beer when watching the game. However, as I was finishing my fish and chips the waitress put on a reality TV show that a large group of people in Bar Louie had come in to see. I think one of their friends was on the show, so they were into it. Still, I don’t think other innocent diners and drinkers, like Dominick and myself, should be subjected to reality television while eating. Maybe it’s just me.

Would I go back to Bar Louie? Probably not. Still, in the area of Anaheim I was staying in there wasn’t much around, and Bar Louie seemed to be the only chain I had not tried in Anaheim’s Garden Walk commercial area. All in all, Bar Louie is a good spot to try if you want to see the game, get ten beers at happy hour, or watch some ridiculous reality show.

MORE:

Garden Walk web: http://www.anaheimgardenwalk.com/

Bar Louie web: http://www.barlouieamerica.com/home/

Post by Regina Winkle-Bryan. See more of her food and beverage tips at : The Spain Scoop!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/busaboys/

Bates Motel Haunted House, Pennsylvania

I’ll be honest. I don’t like haunted houses or being scared. I’m a self-professed weenie when it comes to horror movies, gore, and monsters. But I know that there are legions of you Halloween fanatics who will go to the ends of the Earth to find the scariest, most haunted houses each year.

Because I’m not a haunted house fanatic or even know much about horror, I’m scouring the web to bring you the best lists of the best haunted houses. You have no idea how scared I am to even go to these websites. This is what I do for you.

Haunt World has a list of the Top 13 Best Haunted Houses of 2011 where their number one pick two years running is Bates Motel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bates Motel isn’t just a haunted house but is also a hay ride and asylum. *ahem* AN ASYLUM. To me, there’s nothing scarier than a real life pretend crazy hospital.

Listed as one of America’s Best Haunts, Night Terrors Haunted House in Jacksonville, Florida, has three distinct attractions at one location. Three times the horror, three times the fun for you terror fans. I’m going to pass on this one, but if you’re in the North Florida/South Georgia area, have fun!

You’d think with a name like The Nest, you might find a happy-go-lucky kid’s entertainment zone with bounce houses and slides. But no. The Nest in Chandler, Arizona, will scare the bejeesus out of you. Voted by GMA as the “spookiest place in America,” and rated by MSN.com as “one of the best in the country,” The Nest is home to Killer Kell. He has black eyeballs. I can’t deal with looking at him on their website this late at night, so I’ll leave you to do your own research on this creepy place.

image credit Paramount