Castles

We visited Edinburgh Castle for the 4th time I think. We love this castle in the heart of the city and always visit it every time we come to the city.

We also saw Eilean Donan Castle on the way to Skye and Dunvegan Castle on Skye. Dunvegan is home of the Macleod Clan and the Fairy flag. Eilean Donan Castle is one of the most photographed castles.

Edinburgh

The flat we rented was right in the middle of the Royal Mile. A few blocks down from the castle and a few blocks up from Holyrood house where the queen stays.

We stayed in a very nice flat on the 4th floor just above the Worlds End Pub. There was no elevator so walking up and down 4 flights of stairs was fun!

We were able to walk just about everywhere we wanted to go.

Spamalot!

We bought tickets to see Spamalot our last day in London.

We sat in the 2nd row and had a great view of the cast including Tim Curry playing the lead role of King Aurther. He played the same part in the Broadway version that won the Tony award for 2005.

Chris had the soundtrack and knew most of the numbers. I was a virgin and laughed the entire time. It is pretty funny.

Back from the UK

We just got back from our trip to London and Edinburgh. I have a ton of pictures and plenty of stories to tell. I'll try to give you a quick run down on what we did and upload a few pics with some more detailed posts.

We took off Friday morning Nov 10th and flew to Chicago and then to London. It was 11:30am Saturday when we landed. We took the tube to Paddington station and then walked a few blocks to the Westpoint Hotel. After cleaning up and taking a quick nap we were off to explore. We got tickets to see Donkey Years a funny comedy. The next day we went to the National Portrait museum and the Victoria Albert Museum. On Monday we went to Spamalot and set in the 2nd row and had a great time. We packed our bags and caught a flight to Edinburgh out of London on Tuesday. Derick from Claymore travel picked us up at the airport and drove us to our flat on the royal mile. We stayed in a 4th floor flat above the Worlds End Pub. We did some shopping and explored the castle. On Wedenesday Chris' birthday we went to the Witchery a great resturant and had a fine time. On Sunday we packed a few small bags and Derick picked us up for a 3 day trip to Skye. We drove most of the day with Derick giving us all sorts of history and local background. We stayed in a small B&B in Portree the bigest town on the island (which wasn't very big). The next day we set out for Dunvegan castle (home of the Macleod clan) and we saw the Fairy flag. We also visited Talisker Whiskey Distilery and had a wee nip. We headed home on Tuesday and stopped at Culloden Mour and saw were the Scotts lost their last battle. Back in Edinburgh we visited the Royl Botanic Gardens and then took a trip to see the famous Roslyn Chapel. On Friday we started our trip back home early in the morning flying out of Edinburgh and then from London to Chicago and finally arriving in Portland around 10pm. We took the day on Saturday to catch up on our sleep and get used to the time change and are still adjusting today. Thats the quick version of the trip pictures to follow.

News Video

Here are a couple of links to some news coverage video. They are large and might take a while to download.

KATU 2 News 10/31
http://www.davisgraveyard.com\katu2newsweb.avi

KOIN 6 News 10/29
http://www.davisgraveyard.com\KOIN6newsweb.avi

KOIN 6 Weather 10/31
http://www.davisgraveyard.com\KOIN6weatherweb.avi

KATU 2 AM Northwest 10/31
http://www.davisgraveyard.com\AMNWWeb.avi

We are on the Cover of Haunted Attraction Magazine

We got our copy of haunted attraction magazine the other day and it was all about the Hauntcon convention we went to in May. So we ended up on the cover and also inside in the big pic of people in costume.

Halloween

We had Jeff, the KOIN 6 weather guy, to contend with while we were setting up and as the first trick-or-treaters came by. The crowds grew steadily larger and as the KOIN 6 crew were leaving the gates were packed with people and the traffic on JCB was backed up and the cars were clogging our little 43rd ave. There must have been 1500 people that came by, maybe even more? We were prepared with tons of candy and PEZ despensers. Our supply lasted the whole night and the place was deserted by 10pm. All in all a great night.

We were on TV

Starting Saturday with the KOIN 6 News van that stopped by and interviewed me and then took some video of the yard. They ended up using this on the 6pm and 11pm news on Sunday.

Tuesday morning we got up at 4:30am and started setting up the yard at 5am when the Good Day Oregon KPTV Fox 12 showed up with their van and went live at 5:45am. They interviewed us and did several shots until about 9:10am.

am Northwest showed up with their van about 8:30am and they filmed a couple of interviews with me and were done by 10am. They also filmed some video and did a quick interview for the evening news on KATU 2.

Tuesday night as we were getting ready for the big show KOIN 6 News showed up and wanted to do their Weather remotely from our yard for the 5 and 6pm news.

We were on TV

The KOIN 6 News van stopped by just as our party was getting started Saturday Night at about 8pm. The camera man said he was out getting shots of decorated houses for the nights news. He was told to stop by this house on SE 43rd. He said it wasn't at all what he expected. He did a quick interview and then took some video of the entire yard. He said that it probably wouldn't be on the with the other shots and that they would do a separate piece on it.

Sunday Night the 6pm and 11pm news ran a story on us showing lots of video and a part of the interview. It was great to watch ourselves on TV and see how the yard looks.

The Big Party

We had a great party Saturday night. Lots of great costumes and fun visiting with friends and family. Everyone seemed to have a great time and enjoy the yard display. There were some very good costumes. I'll try to upload a good sample of them. Chris and I came as butchers from the Davis Meat Co. It was an irony costume since we are both vegetarian. There were costume awards given for sexiest, scariest, best couple, judges choice and best costume and runner up.

We are going to be on TV!

After over 8 years of decorating our yard we are finally going to be on TV.

I got a call from Joe V. from Good Day Oregon KPTV Fox 12 and they are going to do a remote shoot live from our house Tuesday Oct 31 Halloween morning. They arrive at 5am and they shoot from 5:45am until about 9:10am. Joe is their new remote location guy who just started and replaced Drew.

I also got a call from Corinna Allen from AM Northwest KATU 2. They are going to do a remote with us from the house too! They will be filming from 8:30am - 10:00am.

We are going to have to stock up on the Candy!

Graveyard Video

Here is a link to a short video of some of the graveyard.

www.davisgraveyard.com/DavisGraveyard2006.avi


This was taken Friday Oct 20th by Roman Moreno who offered to help us out and capture some video of the yard this season. He has done a great job.

The weekend

We have had some great photos taken of the yard over the weekend. We have also had a great response to the yard for people from all over. We stand out front all night each night until we turn the display off and talk to people. We even have people driving by after we turn it off.

Neighborhood Open House

The Open House was a HUGE success. We had people from all over stop by to see what we do and to talk to us. Here are just a few of the pictures from the day.

Opening Night

Friday night and we had our first full setup graveyard. The videos were running, the fog was fogging, the sound was....sounding. Drew quite a crowd all night. We ran it until 11pm. I had spent most of the day finishing things and getting everything setup. Thanks to Tony for coming over and giving me a hand. We had advertised a "Media Night" from 5-7pm and invited all the TV, Radio, and Newspaper contacts but no one showed. Our friends Floyd and Marc stopped by and they said that the response is typical for home events. We have fun anyway.

We made it!

It was a long and tiring weekend. We got all the decorations up with just a few details to finish this week.

Saturday we started at 8:30am and had the help of Chris, Jason, Jen, Nick, Marci, Jeannie and my Dad. We went until about 8pm. We were able to get the Cathedral up and all the yard display setup.

Sunday with the rain we were slowed down but had the help of Nick, Marci and Jen. We were still able to finish almost all the details including getting all the LED lighting wired (thanks Nick!). We were able to test the video projectors and sound. We are so pleased with how great things look this year and are VERY greatful for everyone that helped us out with this crazy idea of ours.

We have stained glass windows!

Our windows from Fast Signs are done. They look FANTASTIC! They are stickers that are put on 1/8" plexiglass. They go in the windows of the cathedral. Two 3 foot circles and two 2 foot by 4 foot tall windows. As you can see these are mirror images.

We have signs for our cars!

Chris had Fast Signs make us some magnet signs for our cars. They are pretty cool!