Shenandoah Mountains

When we weren't at Bryce Resort, we found lots to do. In this picture you can see one reading and three making paper airplanes - I showed them how to make rubber band launchers.

I'm not sure how many puzzles were put together.

One day three of the kids learned about codes. This one was learning the Morse Code

and this one learned about binary and ASCII code.

There was lots of cooking and I always had helpers when I was in the kitchen. Our oldest granddaughter didn't need much guidance...

she even let her younger sister help.

One night we had a campfire and S'mores.

Ray wasn't as fast loading his Nerf gun as the grands. The gun battles eventually died down about day 4 or 5. We were there 8 days.

We decorated wooden letters. I can't believe I only got this one photo. They were all so neat! Can you see his J on the table? 

Two large gift baskets and a pie were left at our rental to welcome us. One of the baskets had glow sticks.

I woke up the last morning to find these two playing War.

Four of the kids made hot rocks. I think the other guy was watching a movie. There were lots of movies to watch.

One night most of us played Mexican Train, a fun dominoes game. It was fun to watch the kids think about their moves.

The night we had rootbeer floats, we put little umbrellas in each glass. Then people started putting the umbrellas in their hair and Grandpa really fixed this guy up!

The girls were riding with us when we went out to eat one night. It was a 20-30 minute drive to a restaurant and the older one was using my phone to take pictures of the mountains to send to her friends. Then the cute selfies began...

There was a little sewing. The two younger kids each made a jean bag.

The cooking wasn't limited to inside.

Our oldest granddaughter played her ukulele and sang for us! She doesn't sing for anyone, not even her parents. We were very honored! At that time, we were home with the two girls and everyone else was gone.

One day four of the kids went on a walk with us - we went around a block - at least a mile. There was lots of going up and down - we were in the Shenandoah Mountains - and they did great. 

We had a kid's zipline in our yard. It's near the back of the photo.

to be continued...

Bryce Resort

We had a really good time at our Basye-Bryce Mountain airbnb rental with our oldest son and his family. The kids have all grown and changed. They now range in age from 6 to 13. We spent a lot of time at Bryce Resort which was just 5 minutes away. At the resort, the kids enjoyed bungee jumping.

The 2 older boys quickly mastered back flips and then figured out front flips. One did 2 1/2 back flips!

Everyone enjoyed the chair lift.

The boys would have enjoyed the zipline course and the mountain bikes but they aren't quite big enough yet. All of the children tried the climbing wall. The two older boys were able to get to the top many times.

The grass tubing was a favorite. Sometimes the kids (and Dad and Grandpa) chained the tubes together. Three tubes were allowed to be chained and it really increased the speed.

Daddy took video on the way down.

Father (behind) and son (front) also made trips chained together.

 

The younger kids enjoyed the bounce house.

Lake Laura is also part of Bryce Resort. I think we managed to get there 3 times and the kids loved it. That is our crew on/around the raft.

to be continued...

A little downtime and more

Happy 4th of July!

Yesterday we had lots of downtime. Ray didn't feel very well so we decided to just hang out. He slept, read a little, and watched some TV. I worked on my Brioche knitting, read a book, paid bills😕, and surfed the Internet. Late in the afternoon, Ray felt some better so we drove around Strasburg a little and went to Woodbine Farm Market. Later in the evening, we took a walk around our neighborhood.

The Farm Market was great. You may recall that I love farmers' markets. We found local peaches, local sweet corn, local tomatoes, and some delicious cookies. Our noon meal today was wonderful - BLT's, salad, sweet corn, and peaches! Sorry I have no photos - guess we were hungry! Ray's stomach was fine yesterday so the cookies did not make it to today! Have you ever had shortbread cookies with raspberry filling? Wonderful!

Ray feels fine today so we headed to Winchester (about 15 miles north) right after eating lunch. Our destination was Old Town Winchester. We didn't know if shops would be open but we wanted to see the area. A few shops and a few restaurants were open and there were people around but nothing was crowded. The temperature was in the 90s.

City Hall

One of the entrances to the Pedestrian Mall

Building in Pedestrian Mall

Building in Pedestrian Mall

Pedestrian Mall

Fun on a very warm day in the Pedestrian Mall

Pedestrian Mall

Old Courthouse and Civil War Museum

Side view of the Discovery Museum

After leaving Old Town Winchester, we stopped by Apple Blossom Mall and walked around in the air-conditioning for awhile. On our way back to Strasburg  we stopped in Stephens City. I wanted to see the Cloth Peddler, a quilt shop located in a pre-Civil War home dating to around 1840. When it was built, it was a Methodist Parsonage and the backyard was used as a field hospital during the war. We were both surprised when the shop was open! One of the owners, I think Kathy, was long arm quilting. Whenever she is quilting, the shop is open in addition to the normal hours.

I found lots of beautiful fabric but limited myself to these two pieces.

Does anyone know what Missouri Star Quilt Company did with this last fabric a little while back? Cloth Peddler is having trouble keeping it in stock because of a MSQC video or pattern. 

When we got back to Strasburg, we checked out the park - the location of the fireworks tonight. There is very little parking and we can see that they plan to close some streets so we are looking for another site to watch from.

Tomorrow we will head to Basye, VA where we are meeting our oldest son and his family. We can hardly wait to see all of them!

We are in Virginia!

We have been in sunshine most of today- some clouds but no rain! I loved going through West Virginia on what seemed like back roads. West of Clarksburg, WV, we met and passed many, many trucks carrying fresh water.  Wondering where they were going, I asked when we stopped for gas. It is all for the fracking that is going on all over the state of West Virginia! I'm really glad that no community needed that much fresh water.  As for all of the fracking... I'll leave that topic alone for now.

We pretty much traveled Highway 50 across West Virginia, the small tip of Maryland, one of the tips of West Virginia, and into Virginia. The GPS and Internet said about 4 hours; it took over 5 but it was a nice day!

We were in the mountains and the trees. We both love driving/riding through a canopy of trees. . .

especially when there is sunlight at the other end!

We enjoyed lunch at Flying W Farms near Burlington, WV. It's a restaurant and meat market and oh, so good! We overate yesterday so we were a little smarter today. We both had the small steak salad (natural Angus beef) and I couldn't finish all of mine! We bypassed the homemade pies which looked wonderful.

After reaching Virginia, our first stop was in Winchester at the Patsy Cline Historic Home. Ray is a huge Patsy Cline fan. Here are a few pictures:

We were done with the tour when we found out we could take photos inside (recent rule change!) so I took a couple. Patsy designed her clothes and her mom made them. She didn't wear dresses; with measurements of 36-25-38, it was a better fit to have a skirt and a top.

The house was originally a log cabin. Part of the logs are exposed behind glass near the inside of the front door.

We traveled another 20 minutes to Strasburg, our current rental. This time we have a 3 story townhouse which is plenty of space for us. We'll be here for a few days and then head on to meet our oldest and his family. We're not sure what we'll do each day that we are here - plans will depend a little on the weather. It was 93 degrees today with a lower humidity - still hot.

If we do anything super exciting, I'll let you know...

Travel Day

Thankfully, it hasn't rained much today! It's been a travel day and we are now in Parkersburg, West Virginia. It's very warm here but dry. We agree that moving in for the night is better in heat than driving rain.

We spent most of the day in traffic and saw LOTS of law enforcement. Ohio must have had all of their State Troopers working today- we might have seen every one of them! 

We had dinner in Grove Port, Ohio at the Family Affair. 

We had exited the highway on the south side of Columbus, Ohio, looking for a place and Ray spotted this one in a strip mall. 

The menu had my mouth watering; I felt like I was back in the south with the menu choices. My meal was fried perch with breaded okra and baked beans made with sorghum.

Ray had catfish bites, coleslaw, and the baked beans.

Of course we both had the delicious, warm cornbread.

Neither of us could finish our meal - but we TRIED and we both overate. This was a neat little place with great service and delicious southern comfort food.

Tonight we are just being lazy. It's still too warm to take a walk - maybe later. Tomorrow we will travel on.

A Finish and A Start

We've had a wild week. Wednesday night we had storms - 6 1/2" of rain, 2 tornado sirens, and 10 hours without power. There was a lot of cleanup going on in the area so we were very surprised when the guys showed up Thursday afternoon to install the gutters on our garage. Our garage is finished! 

Today is Day 1 - the start of our trip to Virginia to meet our oldest and his family.  The sun was shining in our eyes right before we left. 

We got an early start but the weather deteriorated; we finally made it to Indianapolis through some heavy traffic and very heavy downpours with wind. We never saw the Welcome to Indiana sign - the rain was too heavy! The rain did let up a bit as we were finding our rental. We sat for a few minutes in the car and as soon as the it let up slightly more, we headed for the door which was a long way from where we parked - more in a minute. Well as soon as we were out of the car, we knew we were in trouble. I was standing in 5" of water and the downpour immediately intensified! We moved as fast as we could although we were already drenched!

We finally made our way inside and found our condo - then we both stripped down and put our clothes in the dryer. After a few minutes they felt so good. Then we threw our raincoats into the dryer - yes we were wearing raincoats and still got thoroughly drenched. Even Ray's wallet and money were soaked! Some of it is drying out here. The camera came in later.

We are at an airbnb rental in Indianapolis. This minor league stadium was converted to condos in 2013 and it just sounded like fun to stay here. 
  
Located within the original confines of historic Bush Stadium, Stadium Lofts truly are a one-of-a-kind living opportunity. By saving the original structure of the stadium, Core has managed to find a new life for this Indianapolis landmark.

We had to park in the visitor lot and walk to the entry of the stadium - close to a a city block. Now that we have a key fob, we are able to use other doors and gates.

After about an hour and a half, the rain let up so we decided to bring in what luggage we needed and we were lucky to find a shortcut to the car but the deep water still needed to be crossed. We were able to look around and take a few photos before the rain began again. 

The ballfield is still here. 

Some of the stadium seats near the workout rooms.

On the first floor, looking up above a workout room, you can see the understructure from long ago.

We love how they labeled each condo.

There is also an outside fireplace with lots of seating, a grill area, a frisbee golf course, and a sand volleyball court. This would be a great place to live or to visit when it's not raining! Our condo is small but sufficient. Sadly we are looking out on the parking lot rather than the ballfield. It has still been a fun experience.

We are spending the evening online, reading, and knitting. Although we are very close to lots of things going on downtown, it is still stormy.

Tomorrow we will head to West Virginia. I really hope we see the rain end...