Fort Mifflin Ghost Tour

Last night brought me into back into Philly for an activity that is starting to become familiar – a ghost tour. I swear, this isn’t becoming a habit. This particular ghost tour ended up being entirely different than the other ghost tours that I have gone on and posted about. This particular tour took place at Fort Mifflin, a military fort established in 1772 that was used to prevent the British navy from having free reign of the Delaware river during the Revolutionary War. The fort was only actively utilized for military action during the Revolutionary War, however during the Civil War it was used to contain Confederate soldiers who had been captured, as well as Union soldiers and civilian prisoners. The fort is in remarkable condition considering the age of the structure, and it is still in use by the United States Army Corp of Engineers, making it the oldest active military base in the country. Fort Mifflin has been visited by many ghost hunters over the years and has even been featured on various shows.

Ghosts of Philadelphia – Exploring Eastern State Penitentiary and Old City

After driving through Philly on my way home from the airport, I decided that my next day off would be a wonderful day to actually explore the city on foot. This was my first time actually being able to walk around the city and take in the sights, and it was such a good decision to do so. My travel partner and I decided to start the day off with a tour of Eastern State Penitentiary. Eastern State Penitentiary was a prison that housed some notorious criminals, including Al Capone. While in it’s prime the prison housed and employed many, when it was shut down the structure was left as is and quickly began to decay. Eventually the prison became a U.S. National Historic Landmark, and is currently used as a museum and in the fall, a haunted house attraction. Eastern State Penitentiary is also reportedly haunted, and has been featured on every ghost hunting tv show. Whether the building is really haunted or not is up for debate, although after spending time there during the day, there’s no doubt that it would take a lot of persuasion to get me to stay there overnight.

Jamaica Day 4 – Climbing Dunn’s River Falls

One thing that everyone I met told me to do while in Jamaica was to climb Dunn’s River Falls. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t going to do it. So many people told me that I had to do it and from the pictures that I saw it seemed like a tourist trap. It seemed too commercialized and didn’t feel like it would be part of an authentic experience of Jamaica. I know how hypocritical that is, especially since I was staying at a resort which is as far from an authentic experience of Jamaica as one can get. My point is, I had absolutely zero interest in doing this. The morning that we were booking the “Let’s go Native” tour from Day 3, we were talking to one of the girls at the front desk as we were paying for the tour. Now, this girl is an absolute sweetheart, so much so that when we left we were sad because we didn’t get to say goodbye to her. That morning she asked us about the tour that we were booking and when we told her she said that we absolutely should give climbing the falls a try, because it seemed like something that we might like. We decided to take her word for it and give it a shot, and we were quite glad that we did so.

Jamaica Day 3 – Cliff Jumping and Jerk Chicken

The third day of the Jamaica trip was a Wednesday, on which the resort offered an interesting sounding tour, titled “let’s go native.” It was basically a tour in which you got to go to different parts of the island, learning about the history and culture of Jamaica as you went. The tour started around 10am and ran until 8:30pm, which I thought would be fine since I’ve certainly had longer days. In reality I left the tour feeling exhausted and ready for a good nights sleep, which isn’t a bad thing at all.

Jamaica Day 2 – Swimming with Dolphins

Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to swim with a dolphin. I lived on the cost when I was little, and seeing them in the water and hearing about all the awesome things that dolphins do for people intrigued me. Hearing about how dolphins let people swim holding on to their flippers, that some dance and sing, and some will even surround humans if a shark is nearby so that they don’t appear like easy prey all caused me to one day want to interact with a dolphin face to face. Luckily for me, I got that opportunity on my second day in Jamaica.

Jamaica First Full Day – Finding the White Witch

Before going to bed yesterday I fully intended on figuring out something fun to do today. Unfortunately, by the time I sat down to make decisions, I was thoroughly exhausted and sleep was inevitable. Instead I slept in and caught up on rest so that I’d be ready to take on the day today. Because no trips off the resort were initially planned for today, I spent the greater part of the afternoon taking part of the free activities offered by the resort.

Rainy Day Exploring

It has been a rainy and miserable week here in eastern PA. I miss the sun and being able to go on runs without getting covered in mud. I have been going absolutely stir crazy these past few days, and working and being cooped up instead was doing a number on me. Luckily, today I got done from work just in time for there to be a break in the storms. I decided to make the most out of the rain-free hour I had and explore a relatively local dam that I had never been to before.