Wow! What a title huh? Well to make things clear up front, we went to the restaurant and then we went to the haunted funeral home.
We’ve been talking about eating at the restaurant Galleria De Paco for a couple of weeks with my brother and sister-in law, but with all the field work going on it just wasn’t happening. But my brothers and Daryl finished all have the crops this week, so tonight was the night that we were going to give it a try. We knew a little bit about the restaurant, but not that much and let me just say that not only the atmosphere but the inside paintings were awesome! The parents and their son spent their life savings and started the business. Paco was interviewed and said that he wanted to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling ever since he was 6 and did it by memory at the age of 27 in the restaurant. OK, now that’s a pretty big goal for anyone! All the painting is done by spray painting and our waiter said that Paco used around 6000 cans of spray paint. He said not all of them were empty, but because he was using so many, the spray paint company was helping out with the cost. If you are lucky enough to eat at the Gallery De Paco, you’ll know that the painting isn’t the only reason that people come to visit. The restaurant has been Recognized World Wide by the following media: National Los Angeles Times, The Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune, Omaha World Herald, New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Hallmark Channel, ABC World News,& Rachael Ray. Yea, some pretty big names right? After we were seated (literally! Paco’s dad greats you at the door and pulls each persons chair out to seat them) we started our four course meal. The food and atmosphere was great. I pulled a couple of pictures off the web site to give you an idea on how cool the inside actually is.
With our bellies full, next on our list tonight was to head to Harris Haven Funeral Home. It’s a haunted building and not too far from where we ate supper. We weren’t sure if they were open tonight, and luck was on our side because it was their last night of the season. While we were waiting in line, the monster who was guarding the door said that they’ve had really good crowds and just the other day they had over 600 people in one night alone! But like I said, it was the last night so we didn’t have to wait more than 5 to 10 minutes before we were left in. We started our visit by going in the front door and I have to admit I was spooked more than once when we were inside. From people that you couldn’t even see standing beside you, to others grabbing your legs from under the stairway. You walked through what you thought was an outside pathway, but I’m thinking that it was really inside. And just as we could see the door and the parking lot, I made the comment that we finally made it! Then as if on cue – out jumps someone from the dark wall with a real chainsaw!! Yea.. did you catch the real chain saw part? Well, we did make it out after some pretty scary moments and had to laugh at the girl behind us was literally running through the cars in the parking lot with this guy chasing her with that chainsaw. Even though she was screaming and I did feel bad for her – deep down I was so glad that it wasn’t us he was chasing! Definitely a place to go to if you are in the Waterloo area around Halloween. Here is a picture off of their website of what the front of the funeral home looks like.
