I made it home safely from the spooky mansion, hopefully without any ghosts in tow. We spent a lot of time just exploring the +10,000 sq ft building. Most of the place was just empty rooms. A lot of them. Row after row of small bedrooms and bathrooms down one of the longest hallways imaginable. Most of them somewhat creepy in their state of disrepair.

But there were still some pretty elements that reminded us of what it must have looked like in its prime over a century year ago.

Last night we congregated around the large table in the tea room to play games, drink wine, and eat our way through the junk food we had brought. My oldest sister, who brought her puppy along and LOVES to play practical jokes, tried to scare us by knocking on the windows when she took her dog outside.

So before she made it back in, the rest of us decided to hide on her. We jumped up, ran upstairs and scattered our way throughout the bedrooms. We heard her yell, “very funny guys!” when she got in, but no one answered. When she came looking for us, there was a lot of screams and her dog barked madly at the girls from The Shining another sister had secretly taped to a hallway door.

We saw no ghosts, but we had a great time scaring ourselves. It was fun just to hang out together again, even if it meant getting a lousy night sleep on air mattresses. I’m thankful for our time together and for the kindness of our host, my niece’s boyfriend who is staying at the mansion as caretaker until its future fate is determined .