Autumn Saturday with Haunted Happenings

We hadn't heard of Cherry Lane Park until we saw it on a map on the Wilton loop of The Norwalk River Valley Trail (NRVT.) Last week after we walked the NRVT, we drove by Cherry Lane Park.

This past Saturday afternoon, Jeff, Lola, and I headed to the park (here's the trail map on page two.) We started on the orange trail, but got off on the blue-white trail which was too short. Then we found the orange trail again and continued our hike.

I call it a hike because it wasn't a smooth path like the NRVT. We had to navigate tree roots and acorns, and go up and down hills. I'm serious about the acorns: there were so many in places that it was dicey walking downhill.

We hiked for an hour. It was a beautiful autumn day, and Lola loved exploring all the new scents.

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We've gone to the Haunting on Mill Hill for the last three years. This year Jeff told me about Haunted Victorian Ghost Stories at Lockwood-Mathews mansion. I asked which one he wanted to do. In typical Jeff fashion, he said "Why not both?"

Lockwood-Mathews: Haunted Victorian Ghost Stories

This was our first haunting of the evening. We walked around the first floor of the darkened mansion.  Early in the tour, a volunteer was reading a story and the tour guide screamed in my face: I was standing next to her. I'm proud to say I didn't react at all.

The ghost stories were good, but they suffered because the volunteers were reading them--and holding flashlights to see their scripts. That took me out of the moment. I liked that volunteers were hiding in the shadows. I recognized one guy among the mannequins before he started talking. Some were lying on the floors calling out, and there was a good use of piano to punctuate some of the stories.

The stories also suffered by attempts to include descriptions of odd things that happened at the mansion itself. These weren't particularly scary such as there was a sound of footsteps upstairs, but no one was there.

Overall, I thought the event was a bit too hokey.

A Haunting at Mill Hill 

I wouldn't have been as critical of the Lockwood-Mathews event if I hadn't been to A Haunting at Mill Hill. This was our fourth Haunting.

At Mill Hill, actors perform the stories--and they do it with relish. We started inside hearing one story, then we split into two groups and walked through the cemetery to learn about other deaths. This year including a funny story about two socialite sisters who died together. I also learned something: the term lobsterback for British soldiers.