Lake Bluff's Ghost Walk- America's Ghostliest Town

 Coastal Living named Lake Bluff the 4th happiest seaside town this year, causing much debate about "exactly which sea we are located on"  by many other happy towns actually located on a sea!

Co-anchors on the Today Show actually interviewed the editors from Coastal Living about this ranking and when Lake Bluff was discussed - the editors loved our " lively history" - especially during Prohibition when our coast line was a great spot to smuggle   alcohol .

 

Using this honor that was bestowed upon us this year, we are embellishing it a bit
on our bi-annual ghost walk!  Were there actually sea monsters sighted
 in Lake Michigan off  Lake Bluff's happy shores?

Was she murdered or did she die dancing the tango in one of the large hotels once standing on  Center Avenue? Find out this weekend!

Remembering all those that have paved the way for us - especially those who fought Prohibition!

Dinner party setting for Mad Men

eye balls float in red food coloring in water with a party light floating to give a  scary glow.

dead kale heads have centipedes crawling around and again  is lit
with battery operated mini party lights.

glow in the dark eye ball lit with a battery operated mini party light. Centipede and dried chili give a sinister feel to the plate.

bloody latex hand around the vase - filled with dyed red water and a celery root!

yuck!

Love the way the celery root looks in the water!  Purple lights on the bar in the background.

dinner anyone?

bar covered with sixties bar ware, spider webs and purple lights

See what happens when you smoke! 

eyeball hi-ball

mad men with red votives and dripping blood on the background shelves - lit with green flood lights

let's party

 

 

vintage hearse is waiting and ready for Ghost Walk victims

 

 

Our little town is full of lively history - some true, some embellished  and some not so true.  Every two years the Lake Bluff History Museum produces  a Ghost Walk, depicting scenes that are somewhat historical? really? sea monsters in Lake Michigan?????   This past year we were awarded the honor of being named the 4th happiest seaside town in America by Coastal Living Magazine!  So Lake Bluff's history - especially stories about the lake front- will be the focus of this year's walk.  It also seems that the fictional character, Don Draper, from Mad Men, was based on a gentleman  that actually lived  in Lake Bluff on North Avenue in the 1960's.  Rumor has it that he was responsible for the Marlboro Man campaign and worked for Leo Burnett in Chicago.  According to the script for the ghost walk,  Don Draper and his Mad Men team have been hired to fix the PR problem that Lake Bluff has regarding sea monsters, missing dogs, etc.  So Don and Betty Draper  are having a dinner party with their cronies  to discuss the situation and determine what can be done.  I was asked to stage the dinner party in the Baytree Bank Lobby!. A 1960's dinner party was not complete without Old Fashioneds, Martinis and cigarette smoke.  While I did use 1960's bar ware, the table still needed to be a little creepy since its a Halloween Ghost Walk,  Gummy eyeballs, centipedes and lots of red food coloring  were used to set the scene.   Two niches in the  back wall were filled with "mad men" photos and red votives. Celery root, cling on  bloody hands and red food coloring fill the candle lit vases on the table.  The glow in the dark eyeballs are lit with battery operated party lights and are tucked into little nests of red lettuce garnished with dried ancho chilies.  All of this lighting will look great as the sun goes down and a dark spooky evening begins.  Should be  a fun couple of evenings - Saturday and Sunday nights, the 27th and 28th of October.