Hotel creeps

Brad had a conference at the Greenbrier resort and my parents were kind enough to watch the girls for a few days so that I could tag along for a mini-getaway with him.  It had previously been used as a hospital during WWII and then became a hotel in the 1940's.  I don't believe they've redecorated since then.  Seriously.  Check out the pictures!  It's a neat experience though... feels like you're thrown back a century or so.  The service is fabulous and all of the food is to die for.  And it was just Brad and me!  Our first getaway in a few years was much needed time to focus on us.

The only problem is that I have trouble sleeping in these type of hotels.  The first one that we ever went to was the Homestead resort in 2007.  We went on a Wednesday and it was fairly empty.  I commented to Brad as we walked down the long, deserted, lush hallway that I felt like I was in "The Shining".  I probably psyched myself out a bit as I taunted "Redrum, redrum". Anyway, we got to our room and saw that there was a door inside, as if there was an adjoining room.  There was only a deadbolt though, no knob to actually get into the room.  We looked out in the hallway where the adjoining room would have been.  There was a door there, but again, only a lock. No knob, no room number.  It did looked like it had been painted over, not used in a long time.  

We had a fabulous dinner that night and basically a relaxing time.  That night, though, I had a dream.  I dreamt that there was a little boy standing in front of the door to the adjoining room.  He was dressed in 1920's period clothing and was definitely a ghostly presence.  When I awoke I was so shaken that I couldn't get back to sleep for a while.  Now, this isn't unusual for me.  I have strange dreams all of the time.  Not necessarily dreams about ghosts but dreams that I cannot tell if they are real or not.  Dreams that leave me feeling as if I have truly experienced them.  It happens so often that by the morning I didn't even mention it to Brad.  He doesn't usually have similar dreams and he doesn't believe in ghosts or spirits.

We checked out and had just gotten into the car.  Brad told me that he had a hard time getting to sleep.  When I asked him why he said that he kept feeling like he heard children laughing on the other side of the adjoining door. C-R-E-E-P-Y.

And that... is why I don't sleep well in old, historic hotels!