3/13/19 Wednesday Home Again

We got an early start this morning and enjoyed a wonderful sunrise in the Blue Ridge mountains.  We got home around 4ish and decided that we would probably not make the trip going this way again. . . too many trucks, poor road conditions (CT has wonderful roads compared to WV, PA, and NY.  It was a pretty ride though and I'm glad we did it once to try it out. 

We got home to find that our neighbor's tree had fallen in our yard and crushed part of our stone wall in the front.  According to our neighbor, it was an act of God and he is not going to clean it up . . . so tomorrow we will be out with the chainsaw cutting up a pine tree - oh, hurrah, just what we had planned on doing right when we got home.

Ah, well, such is life.  We had an awesome trip and that is what I am going to focus on.

3/12/19 Tuesday On the Road Home

We got off about 7:30 this morning after breakfast and repacking the car.  We decided to try a different route home just for giggles.  We went a bit inland and then north.  When we skirted around Charlotte, NC, we waved to our friend Jonathan Owen.  We traveled up through western Virginia crossing and recrossing the Blue Ridge Parkway (at least five times).  We are now in Harrisonburg, VA and will be home tomorrow.  We did enjoy the drive through a different part of the states although there was a lot of truck traffic on Route 77 so the whole idea may be a wash, but we will reserve judgement until we finish the trip.  There were no restaurants near where we are staying so we drove to the nearest one, Cracker Barrel (my brother Ed's favorite), and had breakfast for dinner. 

3/11/19 Monday

Last night we had dinner in Hutson Alley next to the Music Hall at a fish restaurant named Coast.  Dave had grilled yellowfin tuna and I had fish tacos.  It was very good.  We sat next to a couple from Maryland and had a nice chat during dinner. 

It was cloudy this morning, but still in the high 60's.  After breakfast we walked down to Rainbow Row - a set of houses facing the water that are all painted pastel colors.  On the way we passed a cat cafe with two of them sitting in the window.

We then walked back to Meeting Street and were on the first tour group to go through the Nathaniel Russell house.  The house was built in 1808 and was quite elegant.

 The house is known for its floating circular staircase which winds up through all three floors. Here is a shot looking up to the third floor and the other is looking down to the first floor.

The photos above show the gold detail in the formal front room, the ornate fireplace mantel in the music room and the bedroom, which had a surprise - the lovely blue chair had a potty seat under the cushion so that the lady of the house would not have to pull a thunder jug out from under the bed or go to the garden outhouse in the middle of the night.  We have seen them before built into chairs, but I have never seen one in an upholstered chair.

We stopped for lunch on the way back to the hotel for Dave's nap and then took a bicycle rickshaw to the horse barn for a carriage ride.  The young lady who was our power source was very interesting: she bikes part time and helps to run a bus with farm fresh food to the poorer neighborhoods in the city.  She graduated with dual degrees in sociology and psychiatry and is doing this until she finds a "real" job.  Dave enjoyed patting the horses.  At one point a passer-by had his dog meet the horse nose to nose.  Neither seemed to mind the experience.  We enjoyed the carriage ride, but found it difficult to hear the whole commentary with the surrounding traffic noise.  One thing we did catch is the driver saying that his grandmother called the Civil War "that time when the Yankees declared war on America".

We walked down to the waterfront and ate at a lovely restaurant called Blossom.  We were going to walk back to the hotel, but it started to rain so we caught another rickshaw.

We were supposed to stay one more day in Charleston, but have decided to head home tomorrow.  We have seen a lot of the city by foot and I'm sure we could find something to do tomorrow, but I think we got a good idea of what the city is all about - Southern hospitality, beautiful hidden courtyards, history, etc..  We will stop in northern Virginia tomorrow night and will be back a day earlier than expected.

3/10/19 Sunday

Today after breakfast we went down to the front desk to ask for a different room.  The king bed room we were in last night was slightly bigger than a closet.  We are now in a normal sized room with two queen beds and a whole lot more space for the same price.  Another added benefit is that the new room is on a higher floor so we don't have the noise from the street.

We walked for four hours this morning.  Headed down King Street to the waterfront reading all of the historical plaques on the way.  We stood on the corner of King and Queen Streets (two of our friends will get the reference) and enjoyed some of the architecture and hidden gardens.  We walked along the park in front of the multi-million dollar houses facing the water and then looked over the bay to Fort Sumter.

On the way back we walked up Meeting Street.  We took pictures of the horse-drawn carriages and listened to the many church bells tolling.  We stopped in the oldest graveyard in the city and read some of the stones, but many of them were so worn that the dates and epitaphs were gone.  We stopped on North Market Street and wandered into the market for a bit, but it was crowded and the smells of the perfumed soaps and candles were getting to us so we walked on.  We stopped for lunch at Hyman's Seafood Market.  Dave had fish and chips and I had a cup of she-crab soup and hushpuppies.  They were delicious - although they were sweet enough to have for dessert.  The owner came over and told us the "story" of how they were named.  In plantation days, the kitchens were separate from the houses for fire safety.  The slaves were ordered to whistle as they walked the food from the kitchen to the big house to prevent them from stealing bits of food in the way.  When the dogs heard the whistling they would come running and bedevil the slaves looking for scraps of food.  The cooks got the idea of dropping bits of cornmeal in grease so the slaves could keep them in their pockets.  When the dogs bothered them, the slaves would drop the cornmeal bits and say, "Hush, puppy".  A bit far fetched, but a fun story.  As we walked back to the hotel for Dave's nap, we came across the Wine and Food Festival being held in Marion Square.  For $68 per person, you could have all the wine and food you could drink/eat.  That not being our cup of tea, we walked through and took some pics.  There was a huge structure where people were standing and drinking wine, food being cooked, and a country band along with vendors for full bottles of booze and wine to take home.  Just outside the square was a "booze pop truck" (like an ice cream truck for adults - I wonder if you have to show ID to buy one?). 

The last shot is of the door handle of a gelato shop near our hotel.

3/9/19 Saturday in Charleston

We got up early this morning and packed up the car.  We dropped Russ and Cathie off at the airport just before 7:30 and headed up I-75.  We did pretty well except for a bit of traffic near Tampa and then a big hold up further on near Savannah when the highway went from three lanes to two due to road construction.  We heard from Russ and Cathie as we were nearing Charleston.  There plane made good time to Albany, but had to sit on the tarmac for two hours as the jetway was too icy.  Then they were faced with a three hour drive to Burlington!  We made Charleston in good time, but we had a hard time finding the parking garage for the hotel.  We went around the block twice and finally were able to park the car and get into the hotel.  By the time we got our things into the room, we were starving so we went to a recommended grill up on the corner.  The food was delicious, but the music was too loud - we could not carry on a conversation.  On the way back to the hotel, we passed by the Charleston Music Hall and there was an Irish bagpipe band warming up for their concert on the street.  We enjoyed our free mini-concert before going in for the night.  Tomorrow we will explore the area a bit.  Only two pics today as most of the day was spent in the car.  A picture of where we ate: John King grille and bar (I'm going to say it was named after our friend, John King, but it was no doubt named that because it was on the corner of John and King streets and a picture of the pipers.  Also wanted to mention to those who know I love quirky signs - one seen on a billboard along the highway: Having a colonoscopy is important - get behind it.

3/8/19 Friday

Yesterday afternoon we took a short walk at Rotary Park.  There was not too much to see: one ibis, one turtle, and two ducks, but we did enjoy the walk and they had a butterfly garden at the end!  We took Russ and Cathie to Rumrunners for dinner.  Everyone enjoyed it - we will have the leftovers tonight.  We played another round of hand and foot and the boys clean our clock again!!!  We will play a revenge match tonight - it is definitely our (the girls) turn to win.

We went to the beach this morning.  It was a beautiful morning.  We found a thatched hut that Dave  and Cathie could sit under to stay out of the sun.  Russ and I sat in lounge chairs.  Today was our last chance for some sun.  We stayed until noon - everyone had lunch there, but I opted to wait until we got back as I wasn't super hungry (I had made French toast for breakfast).  We came back and did laundry, packed up our suitcases, cleaned out the fridge (I gave some things to our neighbors, and sat on the back patio chatting with Mike and Molly.  When Dave got up from his nap, we went to a park north of us.  It was a bit of a bust except that we did see a couple of manatee backs and tails - they never did pick their heads up out of the water.  We then found another park, but it was more of a boat launch.  We will drop Russ and Cathie off at the airport on our way north to Charleston, SC tomorrow morning.

 
So today's pics are of the ibis, an unknown duck, a monarch butterfly, and a pair of them mating from yesterday's walk.  Two shots of a painted bench from today, a manatee back, an unknown flower, and a brown pelican.

3/7/19 Thursday

Yesterday when we were at Ding Darling, we chatted with a man who told us about a place called Harn's Marsh just north of Fort Myers.  Since the temperature was 46 this morning, we decided we would check it out.

The pictures today are of a baby sand hill crane, a snowy egret, glossy ibis, coot, adult sand hill crane, baby sand hill crane on a rock (it took him a while, but he did finally figure out how to get down), boat-tailed grackle, a bumper sticker on the car ahead of us on the drive back, anhinga, and a tricolored heron

Things that we saw that we didn't get a good picture of: a bald eagle soaring overhead, a marsh hawk, gallinule, cattle egrets, unnamed ducks - too far away, and we heard the elusive limpkin several times, but I did not get a shot of it.

After lunch, we went to the beach - didn't stay too long as we don't want to get fried.  We are going on another nature walk here shortly and then out to dinner.

3/6/19 Wednesday

We tried to go to dinner last night at New England Moorings.  Despite the fact that it looks like a hole in the wall, the ratings are very high.  However, when we got there, a young man came out to say that the boss was away therefore they couldn't serve food - only the bar was open.  We thought this was strange unless the boss is also the chef.  At any rate, by the time we drove to our second choice of restaurant, Lobster Lady, the wait was over an hour.  We called around to another restaurant and their wait was longer.  We did take a walk and come back to finally get seated.  The food was worth the wait - we had crab cakes, shrimp scampi with linguine, and grilled grouper.  We chatted for a bit with the people at the next table.  The man said his daughter lived in Stonington.  When I asked where she worked, I started to laugh as she works with Jaime!  What a small world!!!  I texted Jaime with the story and he texted back today to say that Alison laughed as her father had called her last night to tell her that he sat next to Jaime's parents.  By the time we got home it was too late for hand and foot so we played pinocle.  The boys won - boo! hiss!

We woke up this morning to 50 degrees.  If we were home in Connecticut, this would be a cause for celebration at this time of year, but down here, it was cold!  We had to don long pants and sweatshirts or jackets.  We took Russ and Cathie to Sanibel.  We got there very early and took a spin through the wildlife loop, but since the tide was a bit high, the birds were not too close.  We got back to the visitor center and took a walk down Indigo trail and then took another car ride through the loop as the tide was low by this time.  We had a bit more luck with the wading birds the second time around.  By the time we finished, it was time to head for lunch.  Russ and Cathie wanted to experience the "wacky" Bubble Room for themselves so we drove to Captiva Island.  Lunch was good as usual and Russ bought a sampler of desserts for the next several nights: red cocoa cake, orange cake, key lime pie, and chocolate cake.

We stopped at the beach on the way out and picked up a few shells.  Once back in Cape Coral, we put our feet up for a bit until it was time for our leftovers dinner from last night and dessert from the Bubble Room.  It is a wonder I can sit here and type as I am in a sugar coma from the dessert sampler!

So today's pics are: a great white egret, bottom of a gator in the ceiling of the visitor's center, blue-winged teal duck, white pelican, roseate spoonbill, inside the stall of the ladies room at the Bubble Room (the mens room was pin-ups), tern, plover, osprey, ibis, bottom of a duck in the ceiling, Russ and Cathie in the Tunnel of Love at the Bubble Room, gull, desserts, little blue heron, cormorant drying his wings, and a tricolor heron.