We get tons of pictures of ghosts emailed (info@bulldogtours.com) to us, posted on our Facebook page, and mailed to us. Many people ask us our opinion on the image. They want to know if the unexplainable image they captured is indeed a spirit or something else, like dust, pollen, bugs or just shadows. We would like to debunk the information out there about what is a ghost image and what isn’t. Here are some of the signs of what constitutes a ghostly image and what wouldn’t.

Orbs – Orbs are best to zoom in on. They are often seen as bright, solid spheres. Something to look for with these would be how consistent the light saturation is (unless the picture was taken in the sun). Outside light sources will affect the appearance of the saturation in the orb. Flaring light on the edge of the sphere also indicates an orb. It is best if the orbs are in color, like red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, white or golden. If there is no pattern, it could be moisture, as water reflects light from a camera flash. If there are spikes or dots in or around the orb when zoomed in on, it is pollen. You will be able to see the insect details when you zoom in if the so called orb is indeed an insect. A really good orb will have a clear face in it without having to zoom in.

Vortex or Light Rods – Some of these look like a small lightning bolt, light tube or a tube of fog with light shining through. These images vary in size, appearance and color.

Ecto Plasmic Mist  - When examining a mist in a photo, look for items to use as markers to determine the size. If the mist is like a fog throughout the room, there is most likely an energy present. If the mist has taken shape, then study the mist for attributes or features and see if the mist has color. If you have two or more photos in the same location with the mist present, check the photos in sequence and determine where the mist is located in regards to the established markers to see if the mist was moving.

Full Manifestations – These are opaque, so you can see through them, and they usually have some detail. Examine the picture for light sources to see if anything is affecting the image. There should be fade portions in the image when viewing it at dark.

Shadow People – This is an image that appears dark in the photo. It does cast a shadow itself. Examine the photo to see if there is a logical reason for the shadow to be there, such as seeing where the surrounding light sources are as compared to where the shadow appears. Study the details of the shadow image and notice if it is opaque.

If you have an image that you question, please email it to Theresa@bulldogtours.com. We will be happy to examine it to see if what you captured was indeed a spirit or something else. We encourage you to take lots of photos on the tours!

Last Thursday and Friday were quite exciting in Charleston! Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb aired their show in the Cistern Yard at the College of Charleston. Tweets, facebook posts, and blog posts filled the social media air in Charleston all week telling everyone to show up by 7am that Thursday in order to get a spot in the studio audience. The show aired on the Today Show’s fourth hour at 10am. People gathered in the Cistern Yard at the crack of dawn to watch the taped show at 8am and then the live show at 10am. Hundreds of people seemed to have spent hours upon hours creating signs that would catch the eye of the great Kathie Lee and Hoda. Some may have called it mayhem, while others found all the fuss fun and exciting!

They arrived by horse and carriage for the show on Thursday and immediately were handed cocktails by the lovely people at the Cocktail Club. The Peninsula Grill served them a large slice of coconut cake, which both Hoda and Kathie Lee devoured. The two ladies then found themselves at Drayton Hall wearing some divine threads that screamed southern. They then did a little shopping at the Old City Market where the Peanut Man sang them a song or two. Back on the set at the Cistern Yard, the ladies learned to create hanging baskets from Southern Living. Our very own (and very dapper), John LaVerne, hosted a game show with trivia questions inspired by the movie The Notebook (Hoda’s team won). The Lee Brothers gave them a peek of lowcountry cuisine at its finest. Finally, the Birds of Prey segment supplied the women with a “bird’s eye” view of Charleston that not many tourists or natives often see.

Friday’s show started out with drinks of course from Jesse McCartney with Army Wives. The women in the audience swooned as he served Hoda and Kathie Lee their morning cocktail. After a short chat with the young heartthrob, the ladies learned to dance the Charleston and to Shag. They then spent some time with a few of the “ultimate Southern gentlemen.” These guys catered to Hoda and Kathie Lee’s every need. The women were quite impressed with our pick of men here in the lovely south! Abundant Seafood conducted a shrimp peeling contest and Kathie Lee won! The South Carolina Aquarium introduced America to some of their favorite residents – stingrays, turtles and a hermit crab! The audience was serenaded by The Citadel Band and harmonies from some gospel singers. Joint Base Charleston had a short segment on the show where the audience learned about their daily activities and what it takes to hack it in the military service in Charleston. The head chef from Hanks showed Hoda and Kathie Lee a thing or two about gourmet Southern cooking and the show rounded out with a performance by Johnny Swim. It was another great day in Charleston for Hoda and Kathie Lee, and they ended their visit by thanking the Charleston Area Convention and Visitor Bureau.

This week the hospitality industry of Charleston did what it does best – welcomed new guests to our fine city. Those “guests” just happened to be Kathie Lee and Hoda. We’d do it again, should any more TV personalities find it fitting to air their show from here. Actually even if you aren’t airing a show, we’d welcome you with open arms. That’s just how we roll.

To view the segment of Bulldog Tours’ owner John LaVerne’s performance as game show host on the show, click here!

We are excited about our latest partnership with Charleston Harbor Tours! We are now offering a ghost and harbor tour combination package for $4 off the regular ticket prices if purchased separately! This tour will feature a harbor tour aboard the Carolina Belle. This day tour will take you all around the Charleston Harbor where you will get to see the USS Yorktown and Fort Sumter up close and personal, the view from the water of the Battery and the Waterfront Park, and you’ll see the Cooper River Bridge from below (a view worth seeing). Frolic with the dolphins and watch them play while you relax and unwind on this magnificent boat.

After your day tour out on the harbor, head inland for a spooky ghost tour with Bulldog Tours. You’ll have the option of taking either the Haunted Jail or the Ghost and Graveyard Tour. These two tours, both at night, offer much more than entertainment. Prepare yourself to be scared, and you just might learn a thing or two while you’re at it! You’ll tour the Old City Jail on Magazine Street on the Haunted Jail Tour, which housed some of Charleston’s most infamous criminals in the 19th and early 20th centuries. You’ll tour the hallways and cells where the city’s worst criminals lived and died.

The Ghost and Graveyard Tour will take you inside of Charleston’s oldest graveyard at the Old Circular Church. Inspect the headstones, step across the graves and inspect the dark corners of this creepy cemetery after dark. Learn the history of Charleston’s burial practices and hear stories about the people who found their final resting place there.

All for just $33.50 for adults and $22 for children, you can experience the thrill of a Charleston Harbor Tour by day and a spooky ghost tour by night. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to explore the city by boat and on foot. For more information call 843-722-8687 or book online by clicking here.

Did you get a chance to take our Haunted Pub Crawl back in October? Well, if you didn’t you now have the chance to take this tour as we will be offering them throughout the rest of this year! The Haunted Pub Crawl will run on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 6pm to 8:30pm. Reservations are required for this tour, so we highly recommend that you call in advance to get your name on the list.

Everyone knows that Charleston is known as one of the most haunted cities in the country. At every corner and inside virtually every building there exists some sort of haunted story. On this pub tour, you’ll hear tales about Charleston’s most notable ghosts and ghouls, while you tour around the city and stop inside a few notable bars that happen to have their own share of hauntings.

Charleston is also a great place for celebrating the best hour of the day, otherwise known as Happy Hour. This tour starts at 6pm in order to take advantage of the happy hour specials at the local bars that we will patron. Try a Palmetto, a beer that is local to the area, for a refreshing taste of the Lowcountry with an orange slice included to add that extra shot of flavor. Listen to the haunted history of Charleston while you relax in some of the city’s finest distilleries. You’ll stroll around Charleston at dusk, sip on some spirits, and hear about how our picturesque city came to be known as one of the most haunted in the country!

You won’t be disappointed with this tour! Don’t leave Charleston without experiencing this city’s wonderful bar scene! This unique tour will give you the experience of a ghost tour and a pub tour in one shot, all in just two and half hours! So call now for reservations and get ready to raise your glass to the ghosts of the Holy City! Call 843-722-8687!

2013 is a big, celebratory year here at the John Rutledge House Inn. It’s our 250^th anniversary – our semiquincentennial. How does one celebrate such an incredible milestone? You give silver for 25^th anniversaries, gold for 50^th anniversaries, but for 250^th anniversaries…? Well, we decided to present our guests with a Bulldog Walking Tour.

For this special occasion, our pals at Bulldog Tours pieced together a special tour for our guests, dubbing it the ‘Birth of a Nation’s Constitution’ tour. Along the route, guests visit the stomping grounds of American revolutionary and U.S. Constitution signer John Rutledge.

By today’s standards, Rutledge and his contemporaries had celebrity status. There were no flash bulbs and paparazzi back then, but incredible records of their life and times in Charleston are left behind. One of those momentos is our historic bed and breakfast here at 116 Broad Street. This is the home that John built in 1763 – a dazzling wedding gift for his young wife Elizabeth Grimke.

The John Rutledge House is the only home of a signer of the Constitution of the United States that serves as both a living historic landmark and a grand bed and breakfast. Follow along as we peek inside the inn and out at the many places that influenced Rutledge’s life and politics.

Here’s the first behind the scenes glimpse at the Birth of a Nation’s Constitution tour route. Stop #1: the Heyward-Washington House.

Charleston has aged beautifully. Thanks to the city’s preservation efforts, our centuries-old homes and gardens remain lovely as ever. Along the Birth of a Nation’s Constitution route, the Heyward-Washington House stands out – for its architecture, beautiful setting, formal garden, and preserved kitchen house. And just like the John Rutledge House, its original owner played a pivotal role in American history.

The history behind the home at 87 Church Street is incredible. The home was named after two VIPs in Rutledge’s life- Thomas Heyward, Jr. and President George Washington. The three story brick building was a town home for Thomas Heyward Jr., a gift from his father. The city of Charleston rented the home for President George Washington (who Conde Naste Traveler named an ‘accidental hotel promoter’) for a week-long trip to Charleston. During this trip, the President stopped by 116 Broad Street to have breakfast with Mrs. Rutledge.

The Church Street neighborhood is marked by a skyline of steeples, cobblestone streets and pastel-colored homes, all a stone’s throw from the Battery overlooking Charleston Harbor. Its beauty is so profound, that Dubose Heyward set one of the country’s most iconic operas, Porgy and Bess, in the neighborhood. Though not officially recorded in Rutledge history, we imagine John and Thomas spent time at the Church Street home, chatting about American independence, of which they both fought tirelessly for.

Interested in hopping on the special Birth of a Nation’s Constitution tour?  Guests of the John Rutledge House Inn can hop on board with the tour’s namesake package, during our Semiquincentennial Celebration Weekend or with our Steeping in History Package. Come visit to play your own role in the house’s ever-evolving history.

Thanks to our friends at the Bulldog Buzz for sharing the blog spotlight. Until next time…!

Spring is coming! Your kids will be off from school for a week and what are you going to do with them? We came up with a list of the top ten things to do with kids in Charleston. From tours, to frolicking at the beach, to exploring the USS Yorktown, you are bound to find something to do in Charleston with your kids each day during their Spring Break. Charleston is the ultimate place for a staycation!

1. Bulldog Tours Ghost Tour – Step into the shadows of Charleston’s oldest graveyard or explore the dark corners of a Pre-Revolutionary dungeon on a ghost tour with Bulldog Tours. Kids love the ghost stories and legends told at various locations throughout the city. This is something you will enjoy, along with your kids, as you learn the haunted history and chilling superstitions that abound right in here in Charleston.

2. The South Carolina Aquarium – Discover fish, sea turtles, jellyfish, sharks, alligators, snakes, frogs and more! Exhibits from the coastal plains of the South Carolina Lowcountry to the upstate’s mountain forest will not only educate your child about our native species, but will also enhance their sense of adventure encouraging them to want to learn more. Don’t miss the touch tank where your child will be able to handle starfish, hermit crabs, sand dollars and more!

3. Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry – Everything is hands-on at the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry! That means your kids will get a chance to touch everything and play until they can’t play anymore! There’s an art room, a medieval creativity castle, a shadow cave, they can climb a mountain, play on a raceway, act like pirates, splish and splash, pretend they are shopping at the market and if you have real little ones, they will enjoy the infant and toddler area!

4. Charles Towne Landing – Where else can you step aboard a 17th century ship and see real cannons fired? Charles Towne Landing offers a trip back in time for your kids, along with a sneak peek at otters, bears, bison and more at the Animal Forest Natural Habitat Zoo. There is plenty of space for your little one to run around as the whole park is over 80 acres. Enjoy the overhanging oak trees, and don’t forget to smell the flowers in their beautiful gardens.

5. Go to the Beach – There are six beautiful beach communities in the Charleston area, so you can take your pick. Choose from the Isle of Palms, Sullivan’s Island, Folly Beach, Edisto Island, Kiawah Island or Seabrook Island. Your child will enjoy hours of playing in the sand and water, and you’ll enjoy the picturesque atmosphere while lounging at one of Charleston’s coastline gems.

6. Patriots Point  – Your kids will love exploring the USS Yorktown, a real aircraft carrier that served the US Navy in the 1940’s. The aircrafts that are on display on board are awe-inspiring and the stories told in the Medal of Honor Museum are even more amazing! This spectacular ship is enormous and your children will love exploring every crevice, not to mention taking in the view!

7. Mount Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Park and the Ravenel Bridge  – Just over the Ravenel Bridge is the Mount Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Park. Not only is it gorgeous, but it is also a great place for kids because of the playground with all kinds of exciting slides and jungle gyms. There are also great fishing opportunities that the very long pier provides. After enjoying the amenities at the park, walk to the top of the Ravenel Bridge and take in the spectacular view of Charleston with your child. It is sure to provide a special bonding experience!

8. Charleston Harbor Tour  – Who doesn’t love a boat ride? Climb aboard the Carolina Belle and enjoy the beauty of the Charleston harbor! Your kids will love to point out all the sights and they’ll most definitely get excited about the dolphins, who simply love to show themselves when the Carolina Belle sails by!

9. Magnolia Plantation and Gardens  – Kids will marvel at the winding trails through untamed gardens at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. There’s a maze in the garden too, so that should keep your little ones busy for a bit! Bring some change so that your kids can feed the many farm animals they have in their petting zoo too!

10. Charleston Pirate Tours  – Take a tour with a pirate, literally! Your tour guide will be in authentic pirate attire, equipped with a parrot that he calls Captain Bob. Here stories about the pirates that walked the streets of Charleston and who plundered, partied and perished here. You won’t be “saw-arr-y” for taking this tour!

Charleston has many secrets. There are stories that have changed so many times that you may not know what version is fact or fiction. There are secret alleyways, hidden gardens, and undisclosed entrances and exits to buildings. We picked several of our favorite factoids and thought we would share them with you.

1 – What are those long wooden benches seen on porches and in backyards? These are known as “Joggling Boards” and they have been a part of Charleston culture for as long as we can remember. They are made of yellow pine and originated in Scotland hundreds of years ago. The long pine board is very flexible which allows you to bounce up and down. Joggling boards have rockers on each end so they also rock back and forth.  This up-and-down rocking back-and-forth is known as “joggling”. Local nannies would often joggle the family babies to sleep as it is a very relaxing motion. Also used by Charleston boys and girls during the courting process. Girl at one end, boy at the other, they would joggle until they met in the middle and quickly scoot back to the end of the board.

2 – Charleston Green – The recipe for Charleston’s signature color is nine parts black and one part yellow and known as “Charleston Green”. In the daytime it looks like a dark green but at night it looks black. Anywhere you go in the city you will see shutters, doors, joggling boards, and the window trim of many homes adorned in our famous color. Legend has it that after the Civil War residents of Charleston used the leftover black and yellow paint to create our well-known Charleston green.

3 – Haint Blue – Look up at the ceiling on most downtown Charleston porches and you’ll see a blue color that resembles the sky. This tradition dates back to the early days of Charleston and has ties to the Gullah culture of the enslaved Africans. Many of the enslaved Africans believed the haint blue color would ward away evil spirits, including mosquitos and other insects. The color is also relaxing which is exactly what we like to do on our porches in Charleston.

4 – How do we know that certain ironwork in downtown Charleston is really the work of the famous Charleston ironworker, Phillip Simmons? One way to distinguish his work from others is by taking a close look at his work. When he had a piece of iron that left an edge, he was known to take the piece all the way around and into a tight roll versus others who sort of cut the roll off and didn’t complete it. For a complete guide of his work, purchase Charleston Blacksmith from The SC Historical Society bookstore.

5 – Why are those yummy pre-dinner treats called hush puppies? Well, this may be a secret or it might be obvious. In the 19th century many homes had brick kitchens that were detached to prevent fires. In order for the people who were preparing the meals to keep the dogs quiet while they delivered the food from the kitchen to the dining room, they created these kitchen scraps (breaded cornmeal) that came to be known as hush puppies. It isn’t just the dogs that enjoy them anymore!

1. Best Place to take a screaming child – South Carolina Aquarium – There are some squawking birds that may help drown out the noise. Plus, you can always take them to the touch tank where any child will stop crying for at least five seconds in order to touch some slimy sea life.

2. Best Place to People Watch – The Market –  Nice mix of tourists, some natives who just want to shop, interesting vendors and families who are just looking for something to do with the relatives.

3. Best Place to lose an unwanted visitor – Charleston Harbor Tours and Schooner Pride – Your guest might “fall off”  the boat. And if that doesn’t work, you yourself could “fall off”  the boat. Either way, you are sure to find a way to get separated!

4. Best Place for smells – the animal section at Middleton Place – They’ve got horses, goats, chickens, pigs, sheep, and much more. You are sure to get a good whiff of something!

5. Best bathroom in downtown – “The first black door on the right” is how you find it inside the Rainbow Market on Market Street downtown. There’s no bathroom sign, it just tells you where it is. And, since Bulldog Tours maintains this bathroom and they specialize in ghost tours, you are certain to be scared while using that bathroom. They say it is the scariest part of their tour.

6. Cheesiest date location – The Waterfront Park is top for this! Swing on the swings while holding hands and you are sure to be known as “a keeper!”

7. Best place to spot a cute dog – Marion Square is a hot spot for cute dogs. Take this as a warning that your head may explode from cuteness overload as many different types of dogs tend to gather there.

8. Coolest place to get hitched – We are going to go ahead and say the beach! We’ve got Sullivan’s, Folly, Isle of Palms, Wild Dunes, Kiawah Island and Seabrook! Take your pick and make your plans at least a year in advance! This is the number two wedding destination in the US after all!

9. Best place to get stuffed – Charleston has a plethora of restaurants. You can’t go wrong! Choose a seafood joint, a fancy schmancy place, Thai or Mexican, or even an Irish pub! You are sure to find something to help pop that top button right off your pants!

10. Most Haunted spot in the city – The jail. Want to get locked in there all night long? Talk about an experience. Call Bulldog Tours, 843-722-8687. They’ll be happy to lock you in, throw away the key and check to see if you survived later.