El Campo Santo Cemetery - Old Town

This excursion was the same day we went to Rancho la Lena and got my newly refurbished wedding ring back. Like the Six Million Dollar Man or like the nose of Jocelyn Wildenstein
(or her eyes, cheeks, chin, boobs, ass, or spleen for that matter), the prongs were melted down or taken apart and rebuilt so it could be better... faster ...and stronger than ever! Since the diamond place was in Old Town, one of San Diego's tourist attractions, street parking was awful. We parked high up on hill on Juan Street, past Acapulco restaurant. As we headed down for lunch, we passed by what is billed as the Most Haunted House in the U.S....
(cue creepy music here)...The Whaley House!

I've never been in it, but read about it online. They say sometimes, you can smell cigar smoke in the back yard even though no one is there. You can buy tickets next door to take a self-guided tour in the house. The rooms are non accesible to tourists, obviously and get this, they do not do any Night Tours during the last week of October!!! I'm sure it's to deter those gorehounds or people who get their thrills from seeing ghosts or whatever! Guests have often remarked that they have the feeling that they are being watched. Sometimes a few have encountered a few "spirits" in the Whaley House. There are docents there sometimes in period dress. Wouldn't it be really wierd if you thought you met one, but they were really an apparition? I just scared myself there! Another bone chilling story I read was that one of the bedrooms looked like it had been slept in, but no one was in there and the bed was fixed a few minutes before....Oooo...

A few blocks away is this place...El Campo Santo Cemetery (The Holy Field):

I figured, WTF, let's all go, me, Bert and TC! It was broad daylight and there were other tourists there (see Asian tourists in picture above)...This was one of San Diego's oldest cemeteries. It used to be a lot larger, but when the area started to become more developed, houses and businesses were built on top of the old burial grounds, which are now reduced to a small plot of land along San Diego Avenue... Here's another blogger's photos here.

I am SO GLAD I read about El Campo Santo AFTER we visited. I got chills reading some of the stuff online there (referenced in my Rancho la Lena post). See the diagram below of the graves? They are under the street. Sometimes people who parked by the cemetery remarked that their car alarms would mysteriously go off even if no one touched their cars. Or sometimes cars engines would fail to start...

This place is a historical landmark as well...

See the blue van? I wonder if the owners had problem starting that car? The cemetery is rather small, with lots of wooden crosses scattered throughout. There were also some graves that were also enclosed by white picket fences.

Here's the grave of a notorious denizen of old San Diego, Yankee Jim Robinson. He was hanged in the backyard of the Whaley House and it took 45 minutes for him to die. He is known to haunt the Whaley House...Read more about his story here and here .

Grave of an "Indian Babe"

Here's another geranium covered marker of an "Indian Maiden"

The placards here are kind of grungy since they're exposed to the elements.

There's a huge tree in the middle of the cemetery. There was also a portion of the site which had that yellow police tape on it. I didn't venture into that area, although it would have been easy to do so.

This was kind of sad. It says "Anita Gillis - A Little Girl". When I read about this online, turns out that this grave is quite popular with guests. As you can see, some people even leave "gifts" for her (small toys, marker pens, coins). TC and I offered a few pennies.

Here are those picket enclosed graves...

There's that yellow tape...

OMG, I'm so glad I didn't encounter any "cold spots" in the cemetery. I'm also relieved that my photos don't show any ghost orbs or any shadowy figures...It was still an interesting excursion seeing this place and it provided an opportunity to discuss death with my daughter, who remarked that people didn't seem to live that long back then (she was looking at the dates of birth and death). Not pictured in this post is the grave of the caretaker, also known to "haunt" the cemetery.

So, if you want to check out one of San Diego's creepy places, this is one of the places to go! Bring the whole family!