Colorful COVID 19 Travels

We've all been in quarantine around the globe for quite a while.  Cruise lines have finally stopped, planes are mostly empty, and I assume trains are as well.  We're wearing masks when out and about doing essential things like grocery shopping.  For many of us, working in our yards, or taking walks is our form of exercise, as most gyms are still closed.    I spotted this amazing beautiful tulip bed on my walking through the neighborhood the other day.  I've been by this corner before, but apparently not at this time of the season.  Isn't is gorgeous!!  

Some fun chalk art at the end of someone's driveway.  People are being creative trying to keep their spirits up and we all benefit from it.  

As I made my way back home, I spotted more Colorful Covid.  I stood a minute and realized how we go through our busy lives, rushing here and there and we don't stop to notice things.  Perhaps that's one good thing that will come from this Covid time.  Stopping to enjoy the color around us.

What have you noticed during this time when you can't travel?  Are you traveling around your neighborhood?

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.

Eerie Beach Walk Hilton Head Island

 Back in January hubby and I spent several weeks on Hilton Head Island.  We go every January.  Some think it an odd time to go to the beach, but it beats whatever the weather is here in Ohio.  It's generally warm enough to take walks, or ride bikes or play golf.  Sweater weather or a bit more.  Once in awhile fog will roll in about 4 o'clock.   It's usually quite quick and doesn't last long.

 This year however, we had days of fog.  Literally  3 or 4 days in a row that lasted all day.  It was quite bizarre.  As you can tell, you really can't see the ocean.  One day as I started out to walk from our condo (Marriott's Monarch in Sea Pines), I turned around and realized I couldn't even see the resort and thought I might not be able to find my way back.  

 This day's visibility was a bit better, but certainly not much by way of distance.  The blue walk way was very helpful though as I was making my way back.

It was rather eerie I thought.  You could hear people talking often but not actually see them until you were right up close.  Not sure why we had so much of it this year, but it kept me from walking as much as I usually do.  It kept me from bike riding as well.  If you can't see where you're going...best not go.  Now hubby still managed to play golf because the courses were far enough away from the ocean and they would clear.

I did a fair amount of knitting and participating in the resorts activities like playing Bingo and Trivia.  



PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your blogger profile.   Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit.

Dash In, Fort Wayne Indiana, and Fitbit

Dash In in Fort Wayne, Indiana.   I recently had an interesting travel excursion.  Fitbit, a tracker that keeps track of miles walked or run is a form of travel.  You travel around your neighborhood, to or from the gym, perhaps local parks to get your steps in.......miles in.  You travel miles.  A Fitbit friend from Canada, Sandy R. and I have been connected as friends for a long time on line in various Fitbit Groups.  Her hubby was doing business in Fort Wayne Indiana, which is about a 2.5 hour drive for me from Columbus, Ohio.

 Sandy and I made plans to meet up--face to face--while her hubby was taking care of business.  We stayed downtown at the Convention Center (other pictures later), this restaurant was within walking distance of our hotels and came highly recommended by the hotels front desk.

 It didn't disappoint.  Lots of very good options at Dash-In.  The restaurant has a lot character, friendly staff and excellent food.  

 This was my lunch, wonderful homemade soup, (tomato bisque).  It was a good day for hot soup, as it was quite chili and windy out.  

Sandy also opted for half a sandwich and soup.  We both enjoyed our meals and would indeed recommend this restaurant.  What a joy it was too meet face to face after talking daily on line for YEARS.  We had a wonderful lunch and never stopped finding things to talk about.

If you have the opportunity to travel to Fort Wayne, Indiana...please do take time to get a drink and a meal at Dash In.  I would indeed go back.

Would love to know if any of you have let your Fitbit lead you to interesting travels.  Please let me know in the comments.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.

Pacific Northwest, Port Orford, Oregon

Back in June, my Darling Daughter and I combined a business trip she had visiting colleges (she's a college counselor) with a drive up the west coast.  It was quite a drive with some beautiful scenery in places, but a very tedious and LONG drive.  Not one I would want to repeat.  The road is narrow, very twisty, and there's next to no way to stop for food or potty etc.  That wasn't something we were expecting; but............one of the bright spots was Port Orford, Oregon.  We stopped for an overlook area.

We wanted to see, and we wanted to get out of the car and stretch our legs a bit.

  Pretty views, and you can see off on the right lots of fishing boats.

And in general, it was just pretty, peaceful and we were glad we stopped.

This caught our attention and so we made our way over to the sign.

It's still a bit hard to read, but after some googling this is what I learned.  The propeller is all that remains from The Wreck of the Cottoneva from Feb 10, 1937.  This ship was a cargo ship, transporting lumber and had started in Los Angeles.  It stopped here in the port of Port Orford presumably to take on more lumber to make it's way to Grays Harbour in Washington, but 75 mph winds made the ship run aground.  The Coast Guard saved all 26 Seamen and their Captain, Captain Eberhard Stahlbaum.

I wanted to learn more about it, but the little visitors center was closed when we arrived, so all I managed to do was to get a few pictures looking through the glass.

 You can see even though these aren't great pictures how difficult the shoreline must have been

The google map above and search indicated it is 412.1 miles from Port Orford, Oregon to Grays Harbour in Washington which was the ships intended destination.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.

In Route to Chillicothe, Hello Farmers Market

Bambi's Farm Market II, located at 19417 US #23 South (Circleville, Ohio), Pickaway County.  It's that time of year when people think farmers markers, pumpkins, fruits and veggies, gourds, Squash.......and more.  This farmers markert had a huge selection of very interesting pumpkins.  First time I ever saw a White Pumpkin.

Picked up some homemade Amish Jam, pear and Fig.  Love Fig jam on brie.

Never knew there were so many different sizes, shapes, and colors for squash and gourds.  Aren't they cool!

Table decorations or food?  You decide.  They can certainly be both.  These are called Carousel Squash, and apparently you fix them as you a butternut or acorn squash.  Cut them open, remove seeds/pulp, add butter and bake them.  The lady that told me what they were says she likes to add brown sugar in her's, but that sounds way too sweet for me.

I was heading to Chillicothe with my cousin who was in town from Arizona when we stopped at the market.  We were heading to Chillicothe to visit family graves, drive by houses of our former family members and to just spend some time.

Hop in your car, grab a map or look at google maps before you go and find yourself a farmers market.  This time of the year, you might even get some apple cider.  Not all adventures have to be far from home.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.

Wineries, Airbnb and Mother Daughter Trips

Ell Cove Winery in Gaston, Oregon.  On a recent Mother Daughter trip to the west coast we spent a few nights in Portland at a Airbnb.  The purpose of the trip was business for my daughter, but I was able to accompanying her for about half the trip.  She kept busy during the day, while I knitted and walked and explored the neighborhoods where we stayed, but on our first wkend we were able to visit some wineries and to some wine tasting.

General View of Elk Cove Winery which was started in 1974, very early in the Oregon Winery Story.  At that time there were less than 10 wineries in Oregon.  40 years later there at 700.

 A beautiful and very peaceful hill top patio/deck area for wine tasting.

We really enjoyed our time at Elk Cove with our knowledgeable guide.  The story behind the name of the winery is cute.  Back in the early days Pat and Joe Campbell were working in the field near their trailer (which preceded them building a home) when 40 Roosevelt Elk showed up.  

 Very pretty in every direction.  In some areas you can see Mount Hood off in the distance.  Truly a very pretty area.

 We enjoyed a flight and selected what we liked best.  We purchased a bottle of Pinot Noir to take with us and a Rose, and had a half of a case shipped home.

This was the first of our stops.  We both enjoyed it and highly recommend the staff, the views, and the wines!  My daughter's been able to locate a local wine shop at home (St. Louis) to purchase Elk Cove.  Thus far, I've not been success in Columbus Ohio; but still have 1 bottle left from my shipment...so hopefully I'll find more locally.  If not, I can order and have it shipped.

My daughter purchased some beautiful flowers at the farmers market prior to picking me up at the airport, which added to homey feel at our airbnb.

She likes traveling using airbnb's over hotels for added comforts and space of having a kitchen and living room.  And when you're multiple nights in the same location it is generally more cost effective.  I got a kick out of the canisters and thought them picture worthy.  If you're a child of the 60's, you no doubt will chuckle.

 A huge benefit of an airbnb over a hotel room is fixing your own meals.  My daughter loves to cook and is a rather good one.  We had wonderful avocado toast for breakfast for several meals.

 She prepared a lovely salmon dinner one evening with fresh salmon purchased at the local farmers market.

Recently I read an article with some stats from research about how important, and healthy mother daughter trips were.  See how smart we are, lol.  We've enjoyed several trips together prior to reading the article; but both agreed it's time to consider where we go next.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate and visit your blog. Profile pages do not.

Bourbon Legends Evening of Tasting

Bourbon Legends Boxcar!  That's my passport for a local evening of learning about and tasting Bourbons.  Kentucky is Bourbon country, but a temporary Bourbon Trail was set up in downtown Columbus about a month ago.  While the event was free, you did need to register ahead of time and wait for your confirmation of what time to attend.  

A quick walk through a Boxcar gives you some general information regarding how Bourbon is made, as well as history of it during the dark times (prohibition).

Bourbons represented here were:
Maker's Mark
Knob Creek
Jim Beam
and my personal favorite, Basil Hayden's.

Prior to the event I had not tasted Knob Creek or Jim Beam's Bourbon.  Jim Beam was a surprise to me, not because I hadn't heard of it, but because it's quite smooth and tasted better than I anticipated.  I had had it in mixed drinks, but don't believe I had tried it straight.  Since they started aging their bourbon in 1795, it has grown to become the number one bourbon in the world.  7 generations of the family has continued making the bourbon.  It was shut down for 13 years due to Prohibition.  **The photo was a real Edith Ann, the chair really was that big and we had to climb into it!**

Neither hubby or I enjoyed Knob Creek, we thought it seemed quite harsh.  When Prohibition ended in 1933, may distillers tried to cut corners to get their production going as quickly as possible.  One way to do that was to not age the barrels, Knob Creek took the long proven way and has a very full bodied flavor as a result.

Makers Mark is made with soft winter wheat instead of the usual Rye which makes it a very smooth, and to my palette far sweeter bourbon.  The red dipped bottle is their signature.  

Basil Hayden's is a high-rye mash which combines the sweetness of the corn with the spicy undertones of rye.  It's a bit more pricey than the others mentioned above, but when I'm just sipping........I want Basil Hayden's.  When I'm having a Manhattan..I can enjoy less costly Bourbon's.

They had these 2 staged areas where you could get your photo taken (also free, after scanning the front inside of your passport which had our number.  Later with that number we could obtain our photo's on line referencing our number.  Quite an efficient system.

As this is a very cleaver way to market, check to see if your area has one scheduled.  Nice intro to doing the Bourbon Trail.......which is on our list of things to do in the future.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.