Happy Halloween!
Looking for ghost stories? Check out yesterday's post about Ohio's Everett Road Covered Bridge!
Today, I'm sharing a few cemetery photos from Michigan and Ohio.
You might ask why I have so many cemetery shots. Well, we've spent a lot of time in cemeteries when we've spent time geocaching.
We found that Spirit Quest geocaches are usually among our most interesting finds. The term "Spirit Quest" or SQ cache denotes a cache hidden in, or near, a cemetery. Cache owners often research the stories behind the cemeteries, and a lot of the caches in older, out-of-the-way or abandoned graveyards.
Sleuthing around cemeteries is something I've missed as our geocaching time took a real hit this year between our work and Tim's school schedule.
Here are a few scenes from some of our graveyard geocaching adventures.
Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.
© Dominique King 2009 All rights reserved
Great pre-Halloween post! I think graveyards are really interesting. I especially liked the ones along the Freedom Trail in Boston.
Posted by: Sarah V. | October 30, 2009 at 07:22 AM
What a great idea for a post... graveyards here in Guatemala are very different to those.
Posted by: Marina K Villatoro | October 30, 2009 at 09:04 AM
This brings back memories when my mother would drag me around cemetaries with my sisters. Being catholics she was always looking out for possible relatives and so we had to scan graveheads for the abbreviation RIP as this was the catholic sign.
Your trip sounded so much better and fun.
Posted by: Cate | October 30, 2009 at 11:19 AM
My husband and I have an unnatural love for visiting grave sites when we travel...famous graveyards, graves of famous people, old crypts, relatives that we never knew, graveyards with strange/funny/spooky stories associated to them. I never knew that there was geocaching in graveyards as well.
Posted by: Jen@TwoKidsandaMap | October 30, 2009 at 12:57 PM
The missing letters on the Cemetery Gate just make it a little bit creepy.
In Bradenton on 15th St. E. there is a lone graveyard of a Confederate soldier. It was part of a larger property. There was an argument and a rift between this soldier and his father-in-law. So he was buried on one side of the property and the rest of the family is all buried next to each other on the other side of the property, which is apparently quite a few blocks over in someone else's yard.
Posted by: Lyra Torres | October 30, 2009 at 01:39 PM
Old graveyards in English Country churches are full of centuries old gravetones and some newer ones with fresh flowers
Posted by: Heather on her travels | October 30, 2009 at 03:46 PM
I like cemeteries, but I can't hang out there for too long. So I'm a scaredy cat...
I love that last shot.
Posted by: Carolina | October 30, 2009 at 07:13 PM
Sarah V.-This post actually came out of a conversation with Tim about what we wanted to do for Halloween blog posts. I already had my haunted covered bridge post put together, but when he mentioned some cemetery photos he had from Paris he thought he'd post, I realized I had a lot of graveyard photos from our geocaching adventures in Michigan and Ohio :)
Marina-We love visiting graveyards when we travel. It can give you such a sense of history about a place.
Cate-Can't say that I spent a lot of time in graveyards as a kid, but we've spent a fair amount of time prowling around them looking for caches as adults!
Jen-There are a lot of geocaches in cemeteries that we've found. We got to the point where they were the first ones we sought out when traveling because we enjoyed the stories that went with them.
Posted by: Dominique | November 01, 2009 at 12:08 PM
Lyra-I thought that cemetery gate looked a bit creepy, too...even in the middle of a nice, sunny day!
We visited a cemetery in Arkansas a few years back where they had the Confederate soldiers buried in a separate area, but nothing as extreme as you mention.
Heather-I'd love to visit some of those old English churchyards. There are a few older churches with graveyards like you mention in the eastern U.S., but they're much rarer here in the Midwest. It's tough to find much pre-dating the mid-1800s around here.
Carolina-Yup, I thought that last shot was pretty appropriate for Halloween!
Posted by: Dominique | November 01, 2009 at 12:14 PM
These are interesting shots, graveyards are very different here in Italy. I spent the afternoon at the cemetery today as tomorrow is the day of the dead so people take flowers and candles and make sure their family grave is well looked after. The amount of flowers that pop up at this time of the year is incredible, I prefer to take a potted plant rather than flowers as plants are a symbol of life.
Posted by: maria | November 01, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Love the shots and how unique all the cemeteries are. I still haven't been on a Spirit Quest geocache, I'll have to do that soon.
I was going to finally post my pictures of the cemetery by my old house in England last Friday and I changed my mind.
Posted by: Becks Davis | November 01, 2009 at 07:56 PM
Maria-Folks put flowers, plants, candles, and more on graves here as well. Memorial Day (end of May) is a big day for visiting cemeteries here--honoring war vets, and many people go then to decorate other graves as well.
Some newer cemeteries prohibit a lot of the things folks want to leave and often have the flat plaques in the ground, rather than traditional headstones.
I'm with you on the potted plant, although some cemeteries prohibit that--often saying that having things like that standing around make it difficult to mow the grass and care for the graveyard day-to-day.
Becks-Spirit Quests are the best caches IMHO. There's usually some sort of interesting story to go with the cache, and you learn things about the place you wouldn't otherwise find out about.
Looking forward to seeing your cemetery pix from England!
Posted by: Dominique | November 02, 2009 at 06:05 AM