The Olympic Club, Shankz Mini Golf and Dead Ending Haunted House

Today was Halloween.  Yesterday we had a horrible rain/wind front come in and it just about rained and hurricaned all day long to the point where events, haunted houses and trick or treating were canceled.  Most importantly our haunted house in Puyallup we were suppose to be in was canceled.  The wind and the rain ruined the structures rendering them unfixable with the amount of time we had to do it in before the event started.  It was disheartening, especially for the people who put a lot of effort, time and money into it.  Luckily, most of the plastic was ruined and that is a cheap supply to purchase again.

Ben had to be at work for half the day on shift at the fire station and I was at home helping mom do chores and watching some Pac-12 football.  I was disappointed our game was one of the night games instead of the afternoon game.  We had a good chance of beating #8 Stanford if we play to our potential.  Throughout the day Ben and I talked about what we wanted to do for the evening and I really didn't feel like doing anything but staying home and watching scary movies with him.  He wanted to go somewhere and mentioned Shanks, a glow in the dark mini golf place in Chehalis.  He said he heard they added Halloween decorations.  That might be fun.  I said sure, let's do it.  He was going to meet me at my house and take the Escape back down for the festivities.  He said he would be there close to 5:30.

He got here and I had to get him motivated again because he got so comfortable he almost fell asleep.  I put my Cougar gear on, grabbed him, got his clown outfit from his car, got into the Escape and made our way over to my grandparent's house for some trick or treating.  I do this every year regardless of my age.  They don't get any trick or treaters at their house but they do enjoy seeing their grandkids show up and visit them.  This year I brought Ben with me.  Previous years he was not able to due to work.

We got to Grammie and Grandpa's house, walked in, got our picture taken and she gave us some candy.  We stayed for about a half hour or so visiting.  We told them what we were going to do next and they said that sounded fun.  We said our goodbyes and told them to enjoy the rest of their Halloween.

We headed towards Chehalis and decided to eat some food before we played haunted mini golf.  We really couldn't decide on anything so by default we chose the Olympic Club mostly because they have good food, beer and pool!  I parked in the back and we walked up to the bar and ordered drinks.  Ben tried the Black Widow and I had the Ruby Ale.  We ordered burgers and borrowed the pool balls.  We played three games, I lost them all but made a good run, ate our burgers and watched part of the Cougar game.  We were up at this point.  We paid and returned the pool balls.

Yard Birds was only a few miles away from downtown Centralia.  We made our way south.  I've never been to Shankz but have seen it the few times we've been to the Yard Birds building over the years.  I remember coming here with my family back when it was a shopping center and not a giant swap meet with random businesses inside.  We paid for our admission into the haunted glow in the dark mini golf, got our golf balls and clubs.  Once inside, the glow and the dark theme they had was really cool.  The first half of the course was an under-the-sea theme and once we rounded the corner and headed to hole 9, the course turned haunted with skulls and bloody body parts.  It was awesome!  Even our scorecard glowed in the dark.

Halfway, Ben was ahead of me by one, 24-25.  Now we entered into the haunted part of the golf course.  They had a lot of skulls, spider webs, spiders and some wolf and ghoul creatures scattered all over the three rooms of the remaining holes.

Surprisingly, we were the only people in the putt putt area playing.  From the looks of the parking lot it looked like there should have been more people inside the building.  Later, we found out they were all there for the haunted house upstairs.  I beat Ben in the second half of the 18 holes, which gave me the edge at the end.  I beat him overall, there were four holes in one, both of us used our mulligan and we saw some cool decorations.  We returned our stuff to the front desk and Ben talked to one of the guys who set up the decorations inside the golf course.

When we left the putt putt place, we noticed this table and people standing in line to get into something.  Then a person dressed in a Yard Birds costume came by and chased Ben with a plastic bloody knife, yelling me me me me me!  Ben thought it was hilarious and posed for a picture.

We walked up and asked what was going on.  It was a haunted house called Dead Ending and they've been operating out of the upstairs of the Yard Birds building since 2012.  We decided to go up and see their haunted house and some mental notes on how they did and what kind of rooms, characters and props they had.  They had a guide go with us to relay us what to do and where to go.  It was a don't touch the actors and they will not touch you type of haunted house.  They had a 3D glow in the dark room, some creepy Nazi experimental rooms, a giant spider room and a guillotine with very convincing actors.  They even had an elevator, which made it even cooler.  We were impressed.

Ben chatted with the owners while I looked at the snake they had in the cage and then I wandered around the building for a bit while the Yard Bird followed behind me with the knife making a me me me me noise.  We left and headed back home.

Once home, we found a movie to watch, Premonition, ate popcorn and chilled for the evening.  Ben had to leave to go back to the fire station.  Happy Halloween everyone!

Next Adventure:  Seattle, Firefighting Exam and College Football Games