2/23/20

We had a lovely morning exploring the very large, spread-out arts and crafts festival booths.  One thing we have noticed is that a lot of the young girls (not the senior citizens, thank god) wear thong bikini bottoms even while walking downtown on the sidewalks (at least they throw a tee shirt on top when off the beach).  We wandered around for a few hours enjoying the art and the homemade products.  We stopped at Meanies - a mini donut place that a friend of Cathie's had said was very good.  I am not a donut person generally, but these little bite sized ones were very good.  We bought some strawberries and grapes at the Farmer's Market and then came home for lunch.  After lunch Russ, Cathie and I went to the pool to read and swim while Dave took a nap.  We will have our leftover dinners tonight and then play a game of cards.  I think we will go to the beach tomorrow as it looks like the nicest day for a bit.  It is lovely to be so warm!

The top pic shows the thong bikinis - doesn't look comfortable to me, but is it because my rear never looked that good?  The next pic is of two dogs we ran into downtown - a Bernese mountain dog and a Leominster dog (I had never seen one before).  The Leo was only a year old and already weighed 130 pounds!  The next pic is of a painting - the scene is of famous people at the beach.  You can pay to have your picture taken and put into the painting - quite clever and would certainly make a conversation piece.  The next two are of signs seen while walking along downtown.  The last pic is of the pool here.  The funny thing is that there is a group of seniors standing on the other side in the water reading with their books on the concrete edge.  I hope they know that they are getting a lot of sun on their backs!

2/22/20 photos

Here is a photo of a grooming pelican, Russ relaxing in the living room, our bedroom, and the sunset from our screened in porch.

2/23/20 Siesta Key, Florida

After catching an early plane from Providence to Charlotte (had to wake up at 3:45 AM), we had a quick breakfast at the airport and then boarded our flight to Siesta Key.  Russ and Cathie picked us up at the airport.  They had come down Thursday afternoon as the flight was cheaper on that day than the weekend.  We drove into Sarasota and took a walk by the water - watching the pelicans and shore birds.  We then went to the grocery store for provisions and made our way to Harbor Towers and up to the fourth floor to settle in.  We decided to stay on the key for dinner so went into the center and had a lovely meal at The Cottage.  Cathie and I had bay scallops on a bed of risotto - delish!, Dave had grouper, and Russ had a seafood combo over pasta.  Everyone was stuffed and satisfied.  We took a ride down the key and drove by some impressive houses.  When we got back to the condo, we played a game of Hand and Foot - the boys beat our butts!  It's okay though, Cathie and I will have revenge tonight (fingers crossed)!  I have a few shots on the camera, but was having trouble downloading so will do so when the computer decides to behave itself.  We are off to an arts and crafts show this morning and then will probably just relax by the pool.  We will start our exploring tomorrow.

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.