restoration and published in the St. Petersburg Times.
The most prominent ghost from this era of the hotel
is a nurse. She scared the wits out of the hotel s night
DON CESAR BEACH RESORT AND SPA 137
chef. Frank is about six-foot-two and 250 pounds, so not
much scares him. One night, he received an order for a
hamburger and a salad. As he approached the walk-in
cooler, he saw a woman in a nursing cap looking out the
window from the inside! Scared silly, he called security
and demanded that they check out the kitchen. It took
so long, when the chef was finally able to prepare the
hamburger, the hotel had to give it to the diner free. An-
other time, six employees were working in the kitchen
when they all heard loud noises coming from inside the
cooler. When they opened it, food was smashed up
against the door, as if someone had thrown it. Guests at
the Chef s Table, an exclusive kitchen-side table, have
also witnessed food flying through the air with no ap-
parent cause.
Recently a masseur was working on a client in
Treatment Room 4. He glanced up and saw a woman
standing in the doorway. She had wavy hair and an
old-fashioned nurse s uniform and cap. The nurse s
expression was as startled as his. Suddenly his client
sat up, very upset. Did you see something in the
mirror? she asked. They looked each other in the
eye, and both gasped, A nurse!
Best Rooms/Times
Mr. Rowe wanders throughout the hotel and may
greet you when he passes. He is most often seen in
the lobby and hallways. The kitchen is another hot
spot. The spa is where the World War II nurse is most
frequently sighted.
138 GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS
The Hotel
The legendary flamingo-pink Mediterranean castle,
with its Moorish bell towers and imperial turrets, sits
proudly on the white Florida sands overlooking the
Gulf of Mexico. Listed on the National Register of His-
toric Places, the St. Petes Beach resort features 277
newly renovated guest rooms, including 2 penthouses
and 50 suites.
Surrounded by a tropical paradise of flowers and
palms, guests enjoy a plunge in one of two Gulf-front
pools, with underwater sound systems, or shape up
with aqua aerobics while serenaded by a steel-drum
band. The spa offers soothing sea salt body scrubs
and surfside massages, or yoga on the beach to calm
body and spirit.
Dining
Three outstanding restaurants are all named after
characters from Wallace s famous opera. The Mari-
tana Grille, named after both the opera and the
heroine, is the resort s signature Four Diamond
restaurant and is famous for its award-winning
Floribbean cuisine. The restaurant is surrounded by
1,500 gallons of saltwater aquariums, containing hun-
dreds of brightly colored indigenous Florida fish.
A recent offering at the Maritana is the Chef s
Table. By reserving this table, guests are invited into
the kitchen, where they dine with award-winning ex-
ecutive chef Eric Neri and his gourmet staff. The culi-
nary adventure begins once inside the swinging doors
DON CESAR BEACH RESORT AND SPA 139
leading to the kitchen. As a heavenly aroma foretells
what awaits the taste buds, four to eight patrons are
seated at a triangular table in a corner of the Maritana
Grille kitchen, separated from the grill and prepara-
tion areas by a glass window enabling guests to pre-
view the evening fare.
Sunday brunch is served in the highly acclaimed
King Charles Ballroom, and combines gourmet de-
lights and spectacular Gulf views with more than 180
scrumptious brunch selections. On the boardwalk on
moonlit nights, the gardenlike setting, with wicker
furniture and oversize wooden swings, enhances the
dining experience at the Sea Porch Café. Or guests can
enjoy a tropical Mai Tai or piña colada in the lobby
bar or Sunset Lounge.
Don t Miss
A fun, fact-filled history tour takes guests throughout
the colorful hotel and its entertaining past. Tours begin
Wednesday and Saturday at 2:00 P.M. in the lobby. In Oc-
tober, the hotel adds a spooky nighttime ghost tour.
Don Cesar Beach Resort and Spa
3400 Gulf Boulevard
St. Petes Beach, FL 33706
727-360-1881 or 800-282-1116
e-mail: info@doncesar.com
www.doncesar.com
Eliza Thompson House
Savannah, Georgia
I was sitting at a small table near the back in one of
America s most haunted bars. Hannah s East is the leg-
endary hangout located above the haunted Pirate s House
Restaurant in Savannah. Immortalized in the pages of Mid-
night in the Garden of Good and Evil, a frail but feisty
Emma Kelly was at the piano, taking requests.
Beside me was Greg Profitt, tour operator and well-
known authority on Savannah s hauntings. After a stint in
the merchant marines, Profitt landed in Savannah, taking a
job as a carriage driver. He did not believe in ghosts. I
didn t even consider such things, Profitt admits. The only
ghost I believed in was the Holy Ghost.
That was soon to change. Greg was asked to take a group
of Girl Scouts on a night outing.
I had just hired on with the carriage company. I had
to take a group of nine or ten Girl Scouts on a night
tour. We were just passing the Kehoe House, which
ELIZA THOMPSON HOUSE 141
used to belong to Joe Namath. Years ago it was a fu-
neral parlor. I was supposed to tell these girls about a
supposed ghost, but I hadn t said a word because I was
a new driver. Suddenly all the girls started screaming,
and Clyde, my horse, took off running. I just lost
control. By now, the girls were screaming louder. So
was I, but for a different reason. I hadn t seen what
they saw. Finally I got Clyde under control. The girls
were still looking back toward the Kehoe House,
screaming. Some of them were crying. They said they
saw a woman with no feet in a flowing gown, hov-
ering above the balcony, and that she was glowing.
They were so terrified, I had to turn around and take
them home without even finishing the tour. Some
of the mothers were mad at me. They thought I
overdid the ghost part a bit, but I hadn t even men-
tioned ghosts.
Two weeks later, Profitt had an encounter of his own. As
he drove a carriage packed with tourists past the Colonial
Cemetery, two specters floated out of the cemetery and to-
ward them. The horse reared, and I started screaming.
Everybody started screaming.
So frightened was he by what he had encountered, Profitt
ended the tour then and there. In fact, he took a few weeks
off to recuperate.
It took me a few days to get used to the fact that I had
seen what I had seen. If no one else had seen it, I would have
thought I was having a flashback, but twelve other people
saw it too.
After that, Greg developed a real fascination with the
macabre. He also realized there was an audience of people
142 GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS
out there with the same curiosity. Once he conquered his
fears, he founded Savannah by Foot (no need to spook the
horses anymore) and started the Haunted Pub Crawl. I al-
ways wanted to find a way to make drinking pay, he laughs.
Greg had heard a lot of strange stories whispered late at
night in the bars that he frequented. He checked out these
tales with a number of sources, including personal witnesses
and even the Savannah Historical Society. He will not tell a
story he cannot substantiate. Drink in hand, Greg leads his
group on a tour down the cobblestone streets of Savannah,
from one haunted pub to another. He may stop at a popular
nightspot, and then lead the group up a rickety back stair-
case to an eerie hidden room frequented by the ghost of a
young woman who was locked in the room for many years,
and then down the street to a dimly lit eighteenth-century
tavern where the air somehow feels heavier, and a chilling
electricity immediately makes your hair stand on end and
your senses become alert. Even if you didn t know for sure,
you can feel them there.
Don t let Profitt s Bostonian twang throw you off this
guy knows his stuff. A self-proclaimed born-again south-
erner, Greg has finally become an accepted part of Sa-
vannah s tradition, even by blue-blooded, blue-haired
society ladies. I don t consider myself a Yankee, Profitt
protests. I learned how to say y all and fixin , but I ain t [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]