Paranormal Road Trip: Destination San Diego with Jennifer Harlow

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.  This week's stop is San Diego, California and our special guide is Jennifer Harlow, author of the F.R.E.A.K.S Squad Investigation urban fantasy series.

Death Takes a Holiday is set in San Diego so it seems fitting that our guide for this week's Paranormal Road Trip be author Jennifer Harlow.  Let's see what terrifying places Jennifer has planned for our tour.

San Diego's Top 5 Spooky Places

Though the F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad travels the country investigating and capturing preternatural perps, only one town holds telekinetic Special Agent Beatrice Alexander’s heart: her home town of San Diego.  Let's see what terrifying places Jennifer has planned for our tour.

San Diego. Known for it’s year-round sunshine, sandy beaches with clear blue water, and being the home of Geek Mecca aka Comic Con. But like every town under the glossy veneer lies a past with more than a few skeletons in its closet, ones who just won’t stay dead. Here are the five such closets:

Whaley House: Both Life magazine and The Travel Channel’s America’s Most Haunted have called this house “the most haunted house in America.” Built over a cemetery near a gallows site, several people have died (and seemingly come back) inside its wall, including the owners Thomas, Anna and the suicide of sister Violet. Cold spots, objects, including a cleaver, moving on their own, and sightings of hanged gambler Yankee Jim Robinson and a child’s apparitions moving around the house.

Horton’s Grand Hotel: In 1986, a psychic detected the ghost of Roger Whitaker, a gambler who was gunned down and left to die in an armoire in Room 309 after claims of lights turning on and off, the sounds of a paranormal poker game, cold spots and even playing cards suddenly appearing. You can rent the room. If you dare.

Star of India Sailing Ship: This floating museum was built in 1863 and eventually made its way to the San Diego Harbor where it became a museum in the 1970s. After sailing around the world as a cargo vessel it picked up some permanent inhabitants—an officer who committed suicide, a young boy who fell from the mast, and a Chinese fisherman crushed by the anchor chain.

Hotel Del Coronado: Ask for Room 3502. In 1892, a young woman checked into the Hotel Del Coronado to meet her estranged husband for Thanksgiving. He never arrived, and a few days later, she was found dead on the hotel steps near the ocean. Since then, guests and staff of the Hotel Del Coronado have noticed strange breezes, ghostly noises and the pale figure of a young lady walking in a black lace dress. Within room 3502, more than 37 abnormal readings were taken by parapsychologists in a single day. Say hi to Kate Morgan for me.

Pioneer Park: In 1870, this ten acre plot of land became the final resting place for 1,650 souls. Then in 1968, since it was in such disrepair, the tombstones that were illegible were recycled while others were placed in a corner as a memorial. Trees were planted, playground equipment installed and an elementary school was built next door. The graves themselves were never moved. Ghostly lights are reported here. Didn’t we learn anything from the movie Poltergeist?

Thank you Jennifer for giving us such a haunting tour of San Diego!  

To learn more about Jennifer Harlow and her books, please visit her website, and don't miss our Q+A with Jennifer Harlow here at From the Shadows.  You can add the F.R.E.A.K.S Squad Investigation series here on Goodreads.

Have you visited San Diego?  Ever experience anything of the supernatural kind in and around San Diego?

What did you think of Jennifer's picks for spooky places?

Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited Eden, Kentucky with Sharon Buchbinder.  Next week we'll be traveling to Sydney, Australia with Yolanda Sfetsos, author of the Sierra Fox series.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!