Bon Voyage Walker / final post?

Big Bird has flown East...

This morning was a combination of excitement and confusion.  Looking forward and looking back.  Finally mostly packed, three suitcases, two teetering around 46 pounds (50 pound limit! Mostly clothes). 9 boxes packed and ready to be shipped. (mostly books!).

Walker's new apartment is all ready for him.  He heard yesterday that they were painting, possibly removing carpet and replacing with area rugs (old wood floors).  He has a bed, three dressers, a couch and loveseat, dishes and a bicycle waiting for him there, thanks to the generous community he is moving into. He'll be living in the whole upstairs floor of a cute older home on a tree-lined street of other cute older homes.

I didn't go to the airport as Phil was dropping Walker off on his way to work.  That's ok. We said goodbye at home.  I think I'm ok without the stress and tension of the traffic and drop off! 

We had a great summer.  Lots of good family time and nice memories.  The best weather ever.  We find the weather in Pennsylvania is very similar to our weather.  The main difference is the humidity levels.  Walker is going into a week of rain and thunderstorms in his new town.  Fortunately, that is the kind of weather Walker especially enjoys.  He is seriously looking forward to teaching Latin to youngsters at Coventry Christian School in Pottstown Pennsylvania.

I started this blog as a "project" when I sent my youngest child off to college.  I've been posting for 4+ years. I think its time to retire and move on to something else.  Maybe another blog...with crafts and tutorials?  I'll let you know.  I also have a somewhat private blog with recipes.  Easy, few ingredients, cast iron cooking, one pot meals, you get the idea.  I may publish that one too. Its mainly for Walker.  He can access the recipes and ingredient list via his smartphone while he's grocery shopping.

Thank you for following along on my various events, interests and distractions. (nine hundred and twenty two posts, counting this one) My blog has served its purpose, which was to remind me there are plenty of fun and interesting things going on around me all the time.  I will probably post more on facebook now.  See you there!

Monday

I started this blog about four years ago, with photos from our "road trip" to Hillsdale College in August 2009.  This road trip will complete the circle, as we go attend Walker's graduation and bring him home.

 

 

 

 

 

End of Day 1

 

 

Adventures in Pottstown PA...

Some of my readers know that Walker has recently been to a job fair at school.  One of the schools that interviewed him invited him to their school for an additional interview...in

Pottstown, Pennsylvania

 

It doesn't take too much internet searching to find images of just about anywhere!

 

He really liked the sound of the school before he went,

and now he likes it even more.

 

six people - three jobs

 

It looks like a very interesting, friendly little town.

About two hours from Philadelphia.

Not so far from Washington, D.C.,

New York City,

Boston

 

He really enjoyed his stay, and the people he met.

 

He liked the rolling "mountains" that we would call foothills here.

 

These nuclear towers are visible from everywhere in town.

 

2-3 weeks before he knows if this will be his next stop.

 

 

 

 

Last day of my Minnesota trip

Shop...Fly...Home

Just for fun, on my last day there, we went thrift store shopping. Carissa knew of several stores close by, and Mike was home so we didn't have to take any children who didn't want to shop. It was really fun, and although we didn't buy much, it was a fun way to spend the morning, looking at things and being together. I didn't get any photos, although I'm sure I had my camera along. for lunch we went to Wendy's and I have a new favorite thrifty lunch menu item: Chicken Caesar Wrap (.99). Yummy. Eventually it was time to head to the airport. Lots of hugs, goodbyes, I love yous, I'll miss yous, come again soons...sigh.

This is what Minneapolis looks like from the airport. There were no lines for the security screening. I really didn't know where to go or what to do, because there was no one in front of me! OK, I figured it out, but it was still very strange.

Remind me to pack lighter next time -- my bag was to plump to fit in the overhead bin (without some force) and almost to heavy to lift up over my head to put it in!

This was the most beautiful flight I've ever taken. My photos just don't do it justice, but the clouds were so beautiful, and so varied.

They were changing all the time. Sometimes you could see the farms below, and sometimes nothing but miles of clouds.

I think the above looks like the frozen tundra..

The Rocky Mountains! The sun was just keeping ahead of us, lighting one side of the mountains beautifully, and casting long long shadows on the other side.

I don't now what peak this is, but it's not Mt. Rainier.

We flew in from the North, and I saw a beautiful view of the City of Seattle. I could see the Space Needle and all the skyscrapers, Puget Sound, marinas, it was enchanting.

My plane actually arrived early. It was nice to sleep in my own bed, but I am glad to have all these photos to remind me of my wonderful visit.

My trip to Minnesota - Day 1

Heading to Sea-Tac on Wednesday morning...dreary, rainy, gray gray gray...

This is my SECOND visit to Minnesota this year! Definitely a record. But, maybe one to be broken again, who knows??? My flight was great. With a window seat, I watched the world underneath me all the way. You really can see the curve of the earth. It is amazing to see how much unpopulated area there is between Seattle and St. Paul. I heard the weather would be beautiful in Minnesota. It was in the 80's when I arrived. I also arrived during rush hour - five-ish. So we went to the MALL OF AMERICA before heading on home. The Mall of America is an amazing place! In addition to all the wonderful stores there, it was like a trip to an amusement park!

First, we went to the AMERICAN GIRL store. The girls understand it is just like a trip to a museum or art gallery -- just to LOOK and dream. It was so much fun for ME...I have a special interest in American Girl dolls myself and picked up a catalog for "fashion ideas" for sewing doll clothes.

These dollies get to sit with the girls in the cafe, see how their little chairs hang onto the edge of the table? I heard that Taliah is going to have TEA in the American Girl Restaurant for her next birthday!

This roller coaster is in the middle of the mall! See how high it is? It continues around a tight short track up and down and upside down...probably about 40 seconds, but trust me it's an exciting 40 seconds!!! No, I didn't do that.

We all got excited to see this! A store just for peeps. I can imagine all the wonders that will be in there!

...and LEGO LAND! there is an area the kids can just play and build... and the store filled with many many wonders...

...including this gigantic WOODY from Toy Story... It was really fun walking around with the kids and Carissa, getting reacquainted, just having some fun together. I can see how wonderful a big mall like this would be in the long cold winter months in Minnesota.

When we got home, it was fun to see the big boys and Michael. So much visiting. It was so nice to see everyone again and the only one who had changed much was the baby.

A hugs and cuddles kind of evening.

October 26, 2009 Discovery Bay-Retreat

We got to our room about 4:00 p.m.

The view from the dock. It was a sunny/cloudy...wet/dry...dark/bright kind of day.

Many fascinating sea creatures attached to the pilings holding up the dock. Once when we were here, people were "squid-jigging"...
There was an old abandoned restaurant, with this statue inside.

All around the grounds are interesting rock sculptures, like these turtles. As we were leaving, we realized we should have designed and built a special one for our personal getaway! Next time for sure!


Tuesday morning we were delighted by this beautiful morning sunrise!

One photo is never enough!

This cormorant liked to sit on the end of the deck. We saw it there several times. Not much other wildlife, besides seagulls and a few ducks.

The view from our balcony.

Our room is way down on the end near the big trees. It was perfect!

Discovery Bay has this delightful bench. I was by myself when I took this photo so I couldn't have anyone sit in it - but maybe I can try to photoshop someone's portrait into the center.

September 26, 2009 - Saturday!

This is the cover of our ROAD TRIP scrapbook. The cover is a photocopy of a work of art Walker did in his art class, depicting the Central Hall at Hillsdale. I added a few things for the cover:Then, changing the subject -- today I went to Sharin' Memories Scrapbook store and bought some fun stuff at their used products sale: That is always so fun, people bring in stuff they don't want anymore with garage sale prices! Several of those rubber stamps were .10 or .25 and I thought they would be fun for my granddaughters to have! The black squigglies are acrylic stamps that I am going to use in the above project! I found some beautiful paper too.

Back to earlier today -- Today was harvest day at the Cedar Shores Farm. I picked all the grapes. There were more than I thought. I filled up a dinner plate with them. OK they are a little tart - but I am proud of them. I like tart fruit and I bet I eat them all. Phil thought they might make one glass of wine! kidder!

Can you see the maple helicopters in this vine maple tree? They seem especially plump and beautiful this year.

I haven't harvested these yet, but they are walnuts! I think they are supposed to fall to the ground, dry out, then you open them and find a walnut inside. I think I'll google it tonight and see if I'm right. There might be TEN walnuts on our tree.

OK, now back to my scrapbook...This is the inside cover. I've been gluing interesting bits from our trip there. Motel names, Wall drug, etc.

This is our first day on the road -- I drew a sketch of Mt. Rainier as the sun was coming up. The cherub with the wine glass was the back of a Trader Joe's receipt, from snacks we bought for the drive.

This is a sketch I made from a photo Walker took at the end of day one. We had driven a lot of miles, the back window of the Cadillac was stuck OPEN and we had a gourmet dinner at McDonalds. All in all, it had been a pretty good day.

Another little piece of our trip -- the front end of the cadillac, crossing the mountains with classical music playing.

One more thing -- I made Pesto for dinner tonight. I bought a bunch of basil at the farmer's market on Thursday and make it into pesto and pasta tonight. I just ate that, but Phil had some leftover roasted chicken with his, oh, and dilly beans. Here is my recipe which I LOVE!

PESTO

1/2 cup olive oil (use some to brown nuts)

1/4 cup pine nuts, or walnuts or almonds

2 cups fresh basil leaves

2 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup parmeson cheese

1. Start water boiling to cook your pasta. I like bow tie pasta, but this time we used whole wheat penne. Cook according to directions.

2. Brown the nuts in some oil - watch them carefully. (I don't think there is much difference between pine nuts (which are EXPENSIVE) and almonds - so I use almonds)

3. In your food processor or blender, put 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, and half of the basil leaves. Give them a whirl. Add the browned nuts and all the oil they were cooked in and the rest of the basil leaves. process until pretty smooth.

4. Put your parmeson in a serving bowl, add the basil mix and stir together.

5. Drain the cooked pasta, and add to pesto-parmeson mixture and stir together until all coated and green. I sometimes add a little more parmeson on top. It is so gloriously green and gourmet! Enjoy.

I know I put a lot of photos in this post, but I might not have anything to put in next time! We had a very nice telephone visit with Walker today. He still enjoys his classes and his new friends, his job and the food at college. He had plans to play ultimate frisbee later in the day but mostly to study and catch up on his sleep.

Dilly Beans for Alan - also notice the darling teddy bear cup and saucer, and the adorable china salt and pepper shakers - gifts from the Blanchard girls!

September 5, 2009

We have just returned from an 8-day road trip to drop Walker off at Hillsdale College in Michigan. Talk about souvenirs! We covered about eight states, saw Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, The Badlands (South Dakota and North Dakota), the historic cowboy town of Deadwood, South Dakota, and many many cows. I see I have found a photo of Abraham Lincoln, not Walker and I, standing in front of Mt. Rushmore. Hmmm, its a start.

I have started a vacation journal, and started organizing my photos to make a slide show cd and a hard-cover photo album.

While we were on the road, Alan called and said his green beans were ripe and was I ready to make dilly beans when I get home? Sure! I haven't made dilly beans for quite a while and now I am remembering why. It is easy but time consuming. Right now I have three jars of Alan's home-grown beans, and three jars for us, from the grocery store produce aisle. I can't make dillies for Alan and not for Phil!

Here's my recipe:

2 lb trimmed green beans / 4 heads dill

4 cloves garlic / 1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 1/2 cups water / 2 1/2 cups vinegar

1/4 cup pickling salt

1. Sterilize jars and lids;

2.. In each jar place one head dill, one peeled garlic, 1/4 tsp cayenne

and I added a sprinkle of red pepper flakes as well.
3. Then, pack beans, lengthwise into hot jars.

4. Meanwhile, boil the water, vinegar and pickling salt.

5. Pour boiling hot over packed beans, leaving 1/3 inch head space.

6. Remove air bubbles.

7. Adjust caps

8. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

Yield: about 4 pints. Let them sit several weeks for the best flavor. *

*As soon as I finished processing these, Phil came in from the garage and said the radio was going to talk about a recipe for pickled beans - I turned it on and it was my recipe exactly!

This year I am going to label the lids with a marker: "Thanksgiving" "Christmas" "New Year's Eve"

Phil and I connected with Cindy and Eldon and went out to dinner (more food?!) tonight. We tried out a Thai restaurant, which I have been to once, but it was a new experience for the others. It was very good food (especially the sweet and sour soup, which I would have been happy to eat just that! - but of course I didn't).