Two Years or So Later

It’s a good thing I don’t write for a living.  I would starve.  Martha’s Dandee Cream  in Lake George, New York was the seventh stop on our TABICS2015 tour.  We went there in late July of 2016.  Here I am at the end of August 2018, writing the blog post.  We’ll see how good my memory is.

Part of the problem with my tardiness was that I couldn’t come up with a catchy title for the post.  The title sets the tone for my writing.  I remember considering It Was Still Hot In New York, because we left super-hot weather behind in Delaware and I hoped upstate New York would be cooler.  Nope.  It was in the 90s there, too, and you will see from some of the rapidly melting ice cream pictures.

To be fair, it’s been a busy two years what with traveling to Alaska in July 2017 and commuting between Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina to attend the births of two more grandchildren in late 2016 and early 2017.  I had some surgery along the way, too.  Still, it was quite the exercise in procrastination.

Martha’s (not my sister, the ice cream place) sells amazing soft serve ice cream in a great selection of flavors that change by the day.

I like a good soft serve, and theirs was delicious.  Steve got a large soft serve, which promptly started to melt in the 90 degree heat.

It was a challenge for him to eat it before it landed on the ground, but he was up to the task.  Good man.

Here are some other scenic shots of Martha’s:

 

Those red and white things are fountains.  The pictures are all of Steve because I’m terrible at selfies.

One good thing about procrastinating with this post is that I found Martha’s mentioned in a book series I’ve been reading, the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward.  The books are pretty angsty, but I like them because the good guys always win and almost everyone lives happily ever after.  Positive energy, that’s the ticket!  The books are set in Caldwell, New York (now Lake George).  They mention Martha’s and the Six Flags across the street.  Pretty cool.

We stayed at the Queensbury Hotel in Glens Falls, just down the road from Martha’s.  It’s very classy but not expensive, or we wouldn’t have stayed there.  I remember laying in bed and hearing 1930s music wafting up from downstairs late at night.  It was probably from the restaurant, but the hotel does have a reputation for being haunted, so who knows?  We ate at Fenimore’s Pub in the hotel and stayed late for the open mike night.  A lot of musicians who obviously knew each other showed up, and we enjoyed a very entertaining evening. Sadly, the bar did not have any mint for a mojito, so I had to settle for a Cosmopolitan.

 

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We spent a day in the town of Lake George, which is coincidentally right on Lake George.  We visited Fort William Henry, where Steve made friends with one of the costumed guides.  Lunch was at an outdoor restaurant, where we watched parasailers for entertainment.  I really enjoy sightseeing cruises, and we took one with the Lake George Steamboat Company

 

Cannon demonstration

Coming in for a landing

Parasailing is popular

View from a steamboat

Nice little vacation house

Steve and his new friend

Water, water everywhere

Island campers

Fort William Henry flag

We also stopped by Lake George Station, a historic train station built by the Delaware and Hudson Railway.  It had a bunch of small shops, and I’m sure I stimulated the economy while we were there.

The sky was beautiful.  The lake was beautiful.  We had a lovely day.  It was hot.

Of course, we had to stop at Martha’s one last time before we left for home.  I opted for a hot fudge sundae.  This is how they should always look:

Notice the extra hot fudge layer.  Delicious!  Hope is doesn’t take me two years to get around to writing the next scoop!

Lori

The one with the family

While we were celebrating my birthday with the Wessels, the topic of the Great Ice Cream Tour came up.  I’ve been a little amazed that people are so interested in our progress.  That night a few of the relatives said they definitely wanted to go on one of the trips, especially the one to Chincoteague.

I read Misty of Chincoteague in grade school and always had a yen to visit the island to see the wild horses.  The Island Creamery, sixth on the TABICS2015 list, provided the perfect reason not to put it off any longer.

U.S. 13 winds through rural “slower” Delaware down to Virginia’s Eastern Shore.    We took our time and stopped for lunch at the Cheddars restaurant in Camden DE.  They serve tasty food at reasonable prices.  We enjoyed our lunch and debated about having dessert but decided to save our calories for ice cream.

 

Chincoteague is well off the beaten US13 track.  You turn left (if you’re headed south) onto VA-175 (AKA Chincoteague Rd) and drive about 11 miles between the NASA Wallops flight facility and the Wallops Island National Wildlife Refuge before it turns to cross marshland and various bays until it delivers you to Chincoteague.

I researched the best places to stay in Chincoteague and found the Island Resort.  It’s right on the Inland Waterway, with a boardwalk along the water.  We didn’t occupy ALL of the rooms at the resort, but we accounted for a decent number of them with the 15 people in our party.  Both the Wessels and  the Roses were well represented.  Nice pool, nice breakfast, nice staff, nice rooms.  I did not want to try to herd 15 people, so we all did things on our own schedules and intersected periodically, mostly at the pool (but sometimes at breakfast!).

The first thing we did after checking in to the hotel was (surprise) head to the Island Creamery for our first taste of their ice cream.  Yum.  They have a good system for dealing with crowds–each employee takes ownership of a group and completes the order from (difficult) decision about flavors to ordering to payment.  It’s efficient and the line moves quickly because they have a lot of servers.

The flavors! The flavors!

Lori, Steve, and Martha

Becky Wessel suggested Daisey’s Island Cruises as an activity, so we booked seats for the Rose crew (Linda, Tim, Martha, Steve, and Lori)  Friday evening.  If you are ever in Chincoteague, it is well worth the money.  They focus on pointing out wildlife and points of interest and provide a running narrative of the history of the  area, especially of the ponies.  We saw some actual wild ponies!

It was dark when we finished the cruise, so there was not much else to do besides go for more ice cream.  Why are you surprised?  The Creamery had a LOT of flavors we needed to try!  We managed to time it so we did not have to wait in a long line:

I’m used to the huge crowds and general busy-ness of Rehoboth and Bethany in Delaware.  Chincoteague is very different and a lot more laid back.  It’s smaller and the pace is slower even though as you can see from the above photo there are plenty of people in the town!   There is plenty to do–shopping, eating (not just ice cream!) and lots of activities.  I took a picture of the official Misty statue:

There are too many good eateries to count, but we really liked the taco place Barb Wessel and her friend Grace found.  It’s a permanent food cart and busybusybusy.  We waited in the yard for our food and listened to the late 70s-era music.  I felt like I was back in college, and the food was great.

One factor contributing to the relaxed atmosphere in Chincoteague is that the public beach is actually on Assateague Island and is operated by the National Park Service.  I know I’ve raved about the NPS in some of my other posts because they do a great job of everything.  We did not get to the beach, but on our last day there we drove out to Assateague (the Virginia end) to see it.  I bought my lifetime senior citizen pass ($10!), which got everyone in the car into the park.  They have two visitor centers with educational opportunities for kids of all ages.  It’s a birders’ paradise, with forests, marshes, and dunes that are hospitable to numerous migratory species.

We made one last stop at the Island Creamery before we left for home.  Their ice cream is pretty wonderful.  My favorite flavor was coconut, but the Java Jolt and limoncello were excellent too.  I indulged in a waffle cone on the last day because, well, it was there and they make them fresh.  There are about 7 waffle irons lined up behind the counter.  My granddaughter Edda approved of the ice cream too.  She did not fall far from the G (her name for me) tree.

I feel like I’m racing to a finish line with the TABICS2015 project.  Only 4 more to go!  Stay tuned for my next (ice cream) scoop.

Lori

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The trip with the friends

Ice cream always tastes better when shared, so we dragged some good friends along with us to Oxford, MD, home to our next encounter with ice cream deliciousness.

We drove into an earlier era on Oxford Day, with residents strolling the main street, enjoying each others’ company.  No one was in a hurry.  Oxford is a tiny town on Maryland’s Eastern shore, mostly surrounded by the Tred Avon River.  The pedestrians wandering down the main drag (Morris Street) enjoying the beautiful weather were intimidating to me, a non-local driver. The community-building day started with a brown bag breakfast in the park followed by numerous activities–plant sales, games, music, and a few vendor tents.  It was unsophisticated and lovely.

We were on a mission to get to the Scottish Highland Creamery, the fifth stop on our ice cream tour.  The Creamery is located at the end of Tilghman St., almost at the end of the peninsula where most of Oxford is located.  It shares space with Schooner’s, a seafood restaurant located right on the waterfront.  It was too early for lunch, so we went right to the Creamery (life is short–eat dessert first!).  Their menu has “Flavors of the Moment” because when they sell out of one they put in a different flavor.  Some flavors sell out in less than an hour. Good thing they use an erasable white board.

We were lucky there was not the usual long line when we arrived.  The employees offered samples of anything we wanted to try.  Small batch ice cream can offer more unique flavors than the mass-produced product.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Breyers and the rest of the grocery store brands too.  But you won’t find avocado ice cream in the Breyers lineup.  I’m something of a traditionalist when it comes to ice cream flavors and did not try the avocado at Highlands.  I should have, maybe I would have liked it.  After all, I like avocados.  The black raspberry tasted just like the fresh fruit, only without the seeds.  It was pretty amazing and sold out quickly, so no second servings for me.  I also had the Belgian chocolate, which was rich enough to satisfy the chocoholic in me.

Your heads are probably spinning at the thought of us having all this ice cream at once.  Don’t worry, we paced ourselves, going twice on the same day–once before lunch and once after.  I think Kaye and Dave restrained themselves and did not get seconds on ice cream after lunch, but Steve and I did.  We all agreed that the Spring Fling flavor, which sounds good in theory, was too sweet.

About lunch.  We ate at Schooner’s because it is strategically located close to the Highland Creamery.  It was no sacrifice–the food was good and plentiful, and we walked around the building for more ice cream afterward.  I took the picture of Steve behind an Indian motorcycle (complete with leather seat and saddlebags) in the parking lot.  We’d never seen one in person and were thrilled.

I tried to get reservations at a bed and breakfast for the six of us, but they were all filled, probably because of the wine festival in St. Michael’s that weekend.  We took the ferry to St. Michael’s after lunch, arriving just as the festival was winding up for the day.  We walked around town for a while and decided on a waterside restaurant for dinner.

It was pretty chilly by the time we finished, so we went back to our hotel in Easton.  It had a fireplace and we played Triominoes in the breakfast area until we headed to bed.  Good times.  The picture below is of the unusual wall sculpture over the breakfast line.

After breakfast Sunday morning we drove to Easton for shopping and lunch.  Easton’s business area is quiet on late Sunday mornings and we traipsed through the Historical Society’s garden on our way to the shops.  Steve was dying to buy me something, so I found a Vera Bradley handbag (on sale, of course) for him to purchase, making both of us happy.

We stopped for lunch at Banning’s Tavern, which had some bittersweet memories for the women in our group.  In May 2003 we spent a weekend with several other couples at a bed and breakfast in St. Michael’s.  On Saturday the women in the group went to Easton for a spa day and lunch.  That was the weekend our friend Sally told us that she was having difficulty talking.  We ate at Banning’s Tavern that day and we all remember how Sally loved their tomato bisque soup.  That was the year a lot of us turned 50, and we celebrated Sally’s  birthday because hers was coming up in June.  Sally was eventually diagnosed with ALS and died 5 years later.  She was so courageous through it all.

The back of the bar at Banning’s is made of beautiful carved wood.  We all marveled at it, and Steve asked our server about it.  I have a tendency to become embarrassed when Steve approaches total strangers, but I should get over it.  He has great conversations with people and they all love talking to him.  The server told Steve that the tavern owners bought the bar at an auction in Kentucky and brought it to Easton.  If you’re ever in Easton, stop in at Banning’s Tavern for a great meal and take a good look at the bar.

Steve talking to our server

Courtsey of Lisa D, Yelp contributor

From Banning Tavern website

Everyone else left for home after lunch, so guess what Steve and I did?  A no-brainer.  We headed back to Oxford for more ice cream.  We also cruised round-trip on the ferry because it was such a beautiful day.  Steve quizzed the skipper and discovered that he is retired and now runs the ferry as a second career.

 

On our way out of Oxford I stopped to take some pictures of one of the houses.  The garden was filled with tulips.  I could use all kinds of adjectives to describe it, but I’ll settle for a picture:

Saturday night at the hotel was exciting.  Steve left for a walk and I was reading.  After an hour or so Steve called to tell me he was lost.  Thank God for cell phones.  Luckily he was outside a volunteer fire station and knocked on the door until the lone fireman answered.  He did not know the fire station address and they did not have a website, but he gave me good enough directions to find Steve.

After that adventure, we were both ready return to Delaware on Monday.  You probably expect that we went back for more ice cream on Monday.  Nope.  One of the logistics we have had to consider for the tour is ice cream shops that have seasonal hours, and the Scottish Highland Creamery is one of them. They are only open Fridays through Sundays until the end of April, so no Creamery ice cream for us!  That’s okay.  We can go back.

 

 

Procrastination

My blog post titles reflect what was going through my mind either during or after the trip.  As you can see, I was all about putting off  writing the California blog until many tomorrows had passed.  Sure, I had a lot going on after we got back from California:  the flu (two days after we returned–I debated titling this “I should have stayed in California”), shoulder surgery, some trips to South Carolina and Catonsville (grandkids!), doctor visits, another TABICS2015 trip, inertia…

The truth is I had plenty of days with nothing going on to write this, but I practiced my procrastination skills instead.  I eventually reminded myself of an important life truth:  you have to start to finish.  Doesn’t matter what the task is–writing (which really  is 99% perspiration), cleaning the house (a useless task in my opinion, since it just gets dirty again), TAXXXXES (eeew); I’m sure most of you have favorite jobs to put off.

It’s been so long that I can’t find all the brochures I collected to use as memory joggers.  I checked all the logical places where I would have squirreled them away and came up dry.  I’m sure they’ll turn up as soon as I publish this.  Then we’ll see how good my memory is.  It was a long trip, so I’ll go through day by day to tell you all about the great California excursion.

Day 1   February 9, 2016

Actually Day 1 should be February 8, because we drove to Catonsville to spend the night at Bridget and Justin’s house because  we (my friend Bernie, Steve, and I) had an excruciatingly early flight out of BWI the next morning.  We had a great dinner and then we played cards.  Probably.  I think that’s the dinner where Edda reached over to my plate and helped herself to my beans because we wouldn’t put any more on hers.  Hilarious.

Lousy flying weather was predicted for the Baltimore area for February 9.  It was supposed to sleet all day, and we were worried about our flight being cancelled, but the airport was prepared!  We were delayed more than an hour because of the weather and the antifreeze procedures for the planes.  We watched as they hosed the wings and tops of our plane with a couple of chemicals–it had to be hundreds of gallons.  The stuff was totally gone from the wings within minutes of takeoff.

I guess there are no speed limits in the sky, because we landed a few minutes early at LAX even though we left from BWI so late.  LAX was  very confusing to navigate, especially because they were in the middle of major renovations at our terminal.  We hiked to the baggage claim and picked up the rental car and were on our way to the Embassy Suites resort in Oxnard. The sky was blue and it was warm!  Nice change from the East coast.

I would stay at the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach resort again.  Bernie and I wandered around gawking at the magnificence of the lobby  while Steve hunted up his favorite room when we arrived.  The place was pretty empty because it was midweek in the off season and we pretended it was our own private estate.

I figured you were ready for some pictures.  After we dumped the luggage in our room, we headed down to the poolside restaurant for sustenance, mostly liquid.  Here’s the view from the restaurant:

Beautiful!  Bernie and I decided that we would hang out at Mandalay for two days instead of running ourselves ragged sightseeing every day.  We didn’t get to a couple of the tourist places on my list, so we’ll just have to go back!  I’m sighing just thinking about it.

Day 2, February 10, 2016:  Mission Santa Barbara

The whole point of this trip was to taste McConnell’s ice cream, so we headed to Santa Barbara.  We visited Mission Santa Barbara, the tenth of the 21 California missions founded by the Spanish Franciscans.  On the self-guided tour we visited the museum, church and cemetery, where we saw the grave of Juana Maria, whose story inspired the book Island of the Blue Dolphins.  Juana was stranded alone on San Nicolas, one of the Channel Islands, for 18 years.

Bernie is a good influence, and we attended Ash Wednesday services while we were there.  The church was packed.  Steve and I considered becoming monks for a few minutes.

The original McConnell’s shop is just a few blocks from the mission.  Wow.  REALLY good ice cream.  They have a lot of flavors, all of them delicious.  My favorite was lemon marionberry. It had a really tart lemon flavor offset by swirls of marionberries.

I was in an ice cream coma so we headed back to the resort to be in time for the manager’s reception, a nightly event at Embassy Suites.

Peace and all good, as the Franciscans say.

Day 3, February 11, 2016  

We hung around the resort on Wednesday, enjoying the beautiful weather.  Bernie and I lounged by the pool while Steve explored the resort and beach.  We had lunch and snacks on our balcony, which overlooked the pool area.  Check out the picture–Embassy Suites said our room was one without a view!

 

Day 4–February 12, 2016   Morro Bay and Hearst Castle

Friday was a big day.  We headed to Hearst Castle with a stop in Morro Bay to visit Bernie’s Uncle Tom.   A word of warning:  just because Googlemaps assures you that you are on the quickest route does NOT mean that you won’t be terrified by the drive.  Since I’m clueless about California roads, I went along with the Googlemaps directions when they said to exit U.S. 101, which runs from Los Angeles to Northern California.  We ended up on SR 154 (aka the Chumash Highway),  driving through the mountains.  Folks, it was NOT the quickest route because I was driving under the speed limit most of the way.  Needless to say, we stayed on U.S. 101 on the return trip and resisted Googlemaps’ importunings to take the exits for the mountain road.

We had a nice visit with Uncle Tom and stopped in Morro Bay for dinner on our return trip from Hearst Castle.  The Hungry Fisherman is a local restaurant with great food and prices.  And pies.  Must…have…pie…   Huge pieces of the classic pie flavors.  Yum!  Be sure to stop there if you’re ever in Morro Bay.

It turns out that you don’t just drive up to the front door of Hearst Castle.  You catch a shuttle from the visitors’ center at the bottom of the mountain for the tour.  I had my eyes closed for most of the trip up.  Has anyone figured out yet that I am not a mountain person?  I like looking at them from miles away, but driving and walking around on mountains are not my cup of tea.  Fortunately, we were inside for most of the tour.  Hearst Castle is a major tourist destination and we got the requisite pre-tour picture:

Hearst Castle is a monument to money and imagination.  William Randolph Hearst named the retreat he built with architect Phoebe Morgan “La Cuesta Encantada”, which is Spanish for “The Enchanted Hill”.  I guess my definition of “hill” is really different from Hearst’s.  Some outside views of the castle (and yes, we drove on that winding road to get there!):

The statue in the middle picture above is Sekhmet, the ancient Egyptian goddess of war and destruction, plagues and healing.  The statue is over 3000 years old.  I don’t think Hearst found it at his local interior design store.

Sadly, the famous Neptune Pool is out of commission due to damage from earthquakes.  You can check out YouTube for a video of Lady Gaga to see how beautiful it is with water in it.

The interior of the castle is every bit as impressive as the grounds.  It showcases Hearst’s art collection, which is amazingly eclectic.  He was not a slave to any style or period–he just bought stuff he liked.

The next set of pictures are from the interior of the house.  I admit I went overboard on the indoor pool.  It was just too beautiful.  The guide told us that the family turned it over to the staff for their use because they didn’t use it (they used the Neptune Pool instead).  Nice perk.  The last picture is of the bottom of the pool.

We took the grand rooms tour, but there are two other tours of the house which would be equally fascinating.  Some day if I get back there I’ll do the other tours, but I will NOT take the Chumash Highway to get there!

On the way down the mountain, our driver kept gesturing for us to look at various sights instead of keeping both hands on the wheel as any sane person with a fear of heights would do.  I was having heart failure and yes, I kept my eyes closed!

Hearst maintained a wildlife preserve at La Cuesta Encantada, complete with polar bears with ice imported to keep them comfortable.  The driver on our return trip told us about the zebras that still run wild with the local horses.  Sure enough, we saw them in a field as we exited the estate.  I didn’t get a picture of them, but I did get some really nice views of the Pacific from a scenic overlook on the highway.

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Day 5–February 13 2016

We were pretty tired after all the mountaineering, so we chilled at the resort.  Total hardship.  Not!  The weather was as consistently beautiful as it had been since we arrived.  I took some pictures of the Pacific at sunset.  Try not to be too jealous.

Day 6–February 14, 2016  Santa Barbara

After breakfast at the resort (really wonderful–check out the blood oranges), we went to Mass at Santa Clara church in Oxnard.  We THOUGHT we allowed plenty of time to get a seat.  People, it was not Christmas, Easter, or Palm Sunday and the place was packed.  We ended up standing behind some pillars at the side of the church.  I was amazed by the number of adults who requested a blessing at Communion. Very different (in a good way) from what I am used to.  Here is the picture of a blood orange.  Locally grown and luscious.

I’m all about the ice cream, so we went back to Santa Barbara after Mass.  This time we took a trolley tour around the city while the driver pointed out the homes of the rich and famous.

Bernie and I have a sweet memory from the trolley stop at Mission Santa Barbara.  In the parking lot we saw a man down on his knee proposing to his girlfriend.  She said yes!  I just now realized that it was Valentine’s Day.  I should have figured it out, since Steve and I got engaged on Valentine’s.  We enjoyed the rest of the tour and of course stopped for more ice cream at the McConnell’s in downtown Santa Barbara.  Look how blue the sky is!

Sadly, they did not have soft serve at this location so we had to go back to the original shop so I could sample it.  Bernie was driving and was very understanding about my ice cream needs.

Day 7–February 15, 2016

This was our last day, since our flight was scheduled to leave at 10pm.  We made the most of it and visited Channel Islands National Park.  I’m a big fan of the National Parks Service.  They do a great job of presenting and preserving our national parks.  This park is a little out of the way, but well worth taking the time to visit.

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We headed to LAX after the Channel Islands park visit.  Since we allowed lots of time to get to the airport, we ended up warming some chairs for awhile.  We had a true red-eye flight, landing at BWI around 7am.  We came back to the same kind of weather we left behind the week before–the sky was slushing.  We should have stayed in California!

 

 

 

Reflections on Stained Glass

I haven’t written a post for a long time.  After our Ohio trip, I was busy with the holidays.  Christmas was especially great since all of my immediate family (can you say grandkids?) were with us.  Time slipped away, and now we are getting ready to leave for California in two days!  I have to relearn how to blog.

The next TABICS2015 stop is McConnell’s  in Santa Barbara. In case you want to preview what we’ll be doing, check out their web site:  McConnell’s Fine Ice Cream

This post isn’t really about ice cream, though.  I had a thought about how people are like stained glass a few months ago when a friend’s relative died.  I had never met the person and formed an opinion about what he was like based on off-hand comments people made.  The things I read about him after he died made me realize that we never really know the whole of any person, no matter how intimate we are with them.  Sometimes we know just a little bit, like seeing one pane of glass in a window:

They don’t look like much, do they?

But if you look at the entire window, you see a beautiful whole:

When you look at the whole thing, even the colors look different.  Your view can change depending on the light, too.  The light can shine from inside or out, or there might be no light at all.  I guess what I’m saying (to myself, mostly, but maybe someone else will get what I’m talking about) is that how you understand a person depends on a lot of things, all of which are subject to change.  Maybe when we think someone has had a metamorphosis, what really happened is that we see more of their window or the light is shining through or on them differently.  Or maybe we’ve changed or moved further back from their window.

Arrrgh.  I promise the next posts won’t be all philosophical.  We’ll be in California for a week and I expect to have some excellent adventures.

Lori

 

Life is a journey, not a destination (Emerson)

The third stop on the great ice cream tour was Dietsch Brothers  (pronounced “Deetz” by the locals) in Findlay, Ohio.  I have a loose plan about what to do at our destinations, but serendipity usually sneaks in to make our trips more interesting.  It isn’t just about the ice cream, you know.

The drive to Ohio was long but easy.  We chatted with Steve’s cousin Chuck a few times on the way (cell phones make social planning simple!) and made plans to meet with him and his wife Sue for dinner on Monday (November 9) after we arrived at our hotel.  They live in Detroit but happened to be visiting Cincinnati and were heading back on the day we arrived.  Since Findlay is just off of I-75, we were on their way home.  Funny how things work out.

Chuck, Sue, and Steve

We went to the National Museum of the U.S. Airforce (free admission!) in Dayton on Tuesday.  The museum spans the history of aviation from hot air balloons through space exploration.  The exhibits are in chronological order and  include the development of the U.S. Air Force from its early stages through space exploration.  The place is huge.  We wandered through hundreds of planes and collections of memorabilia.  The many videos brought aviation history to life.  I had a hard time watching the Vietnam POWs’ stories.  What they went through was chilling.  There are also tributes to the Berlin airlift, the Holocaust, and Bob Hope.  The museum was well worth the 2-hour drive from Findlay.

This is the plane that dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki

I liked the picture on this one

We felt special boarding Kennedy’s Air Force 1

We did some additional traveling in Dayton

We made our first stop at Dietsch Brothers on the way back from the aviation museum.  Folks, they don’t just make good ice cream–they make some great chocolate too.  Needless to say, we did our part to stimulate the economy in Findlay between buying ice cream (two scoops for $3.75 and they were HUGE!).  I had lemon custard and banana, and Steve had strawberry cheesecake and orange pineapple.  Crazy combinations, right?  The place is extremely popular–there was a constant stream of customers for both the ice cream and the candy.

Say it “Deetz”!

I need to work on my selfy skills.  How do people do it?

On Wednesday we drove to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.    The 2 1/2 hour trip to Cleveland was exciting (code for stressful) because the car charger for my cell phone broke and I couldn’t use it to navigate.  Eeeeeee!  Luckily I had printed MapQuest directions (I never put all my trust in technology) that got us there.  Whew.  The Hall of Fame is a great place.  As we made our way through the galleries, we saw costumes and historic mementos from the greats of rock and roll.  Amazing.

We made the cover of the Rolling Stone!

I love shiny things

Steve outide the Hall

We stayed close to Findlay Thursday in anticipation of the long drive home Friday.  I noticed a sign for the  Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation   in Carey OH on the interstate shortly before we arrived in Findlay.  I believe that sometimes things are put in your path for a reason.  We took the opportunity visit the shrine and pray for my nephew Matthew and his wife Kerri.  Kerri was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer shortly before she was due to deliver their first baby, Lance.  Many miracles are attributed to Our Lady of Consolation; the basement of the basilica has stacks of crutches and testimonials from people who were healed by her intercession.  Another of Steve’s cousins, Theresa, met us at the Shrine.  Theresa has been there several times and showed us around the basilica.  We went to Mass in the original church and then to the gift shop (naturally) before we went to lunch with Theresa.

I do a lot of research to learn about the areas we’re visiting for the ice cream tour.  The Mazza Museum   got rave reviews on TripAdvisor.  Located in one of the University of Findlay buildings, it is a collection of children’s book artwork. I was particularly interested in visiting it because I want to write a children’s book and have Grace illustrate it.  The docents were very helpful and explained the organization of the collections so we could make sense of everything.  I thought the sculpture in front of the museum was perfect.

Naturally, we had to visit Dietsch Brothers one more time before leaving for Delaware on Friday.  This time I had a chocolate malt (yay!) and Steve had a banana split.  When I asked the server to put in four scoops of malt instead of the usual one, he laughed a little and said he would try to fit some ice cream in as well!  I finished slurping down my malt (I could taste the malt!) before Steve was half way through his banana split (Oh my God, this is amaaaazing), which was ginormous. When I asked Steve what his favorite thing about the trip was on our way home, he got this ecstatic look and said it was the banana split.  Of course I had to comment that we should have just made another trip to Dietsch instead of spending 2 1/2 hours each way to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  He was quick to say no to that!

I wish I had had the nerve to take a picture of the two scoop cones people were ordering.  They were huge, almost 8 inches high including the cone.  They don’t use the tiny scoops you get most places, either–these are full sized scoops!  Deliciousness.  We bought chocolate covered pretzels and “snow balls” (chocolate balls rolled in coconut) based on the recommendation of one of the docents at the Mazza Museum.   Their dark chocolate is amazing.  I don’t think I’ve ever had better, and that includes Godiva and Lindt.  Thank goodness you can order their candy online!  They always offer to gift wrap boxed chocolates, too.

Big! It’s big!

Steve thoroughly enjoyed it.

He couldn’t eat it all at one sitting.

 

Sigh.  All good things must come to an end, and so it was with our Findlay odyssey.  We got on the road early, planning to stop at the Flight 93 National Memorial.  I noticed a sign for it as we headed west on Monday and felt that we were being called to visit and remember.  The National Park Service has made a beautiful monument in a place of tragedy.  You should visit it sometime.

Wall of names

The boulder marks the point of impact

 

It will be a while before we leave for our next ice cream trip to Santa Barbara.  We hope to go in February and escape the cold weather here for a bit.  Stay tuned for the next scoop!

Lori

 

 

Why did the bear cross the road?

Stop number two on the TABICS2015 tour was Bellvale Farms Creamery in Warwick, NY.  We drove up on a beautiful fall Saturday.  One of my bucket list items is to take a fall foliage tour; I can check that one off now.

It would be a little crazy to drive 3 1/2 hours just to eat ice cream (although it would be totally worth the trip to do only that), so we stayed two nights in Greenwood Lake NY.  The Warwick Valley has a number of small towns and none of them are very far away from each other.  The “big” towns are Warwick, Florida, and Greenwood Lake.

We stopped at the Pacem in Terris Sculpture Garden in Warwick on the way.  It’s open seasonally and lucky for us it was open the Saturday we were traveling.  It was well worth the time and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting the area.  The garden is filled with sculptures by Frederick Franck, who transformed the property with his art.   As we wandered the grounds, I was struck how one person’s vision could outlive him in such a concrete way.  The babbling Wawayanda Creek running through the garden made me think about what it would be like to live near rushing water and wondering if I would ever tire of the sound.   The Frederick Franck website has more information if you’re interested in visiting.  As usual, I took a lot of pictures:

Faces

Living Sculpture

The Unkillable Human–inspired by the shadow of a human form burned into a concrete wall in Hiroshima

St. Francis of Assissi

Seven Generations–“In all our deliberations, we must be mindful of the impact of our decisions on the seven generations to follow.” From the Great Law of the Iriquois Federation

Creek view

After lunch in Warwick, we continued on our way to the hotel.  We had planned to visit Bellvale Creamery on Sunday after taking the farm tour, but our route took us right past the Creamery.   We took that as a sign that we should have ice cream on Saturday AND Sunday, so we stopped.  Imagine eating ice cream in 50 degree windy weather (the creamery is up on Mount Peter).  We were cold, but that didn’t stop us from getting ice cream.  I had the coconut  (yum!), Martha had Great White Way, white chocolate ice cream with swirls of raspberry and chunks of chocolate (also yum), and Steve had Calf Trax (vanilla ice cream with peanut butter swirl and mini peanut butter cups–yum again!).  We also had their soft serve in vanilla and chocolate twist.  It was really creamy and rivals my personal soft serve favorite from the beach.

Martha and Steve

It was cold!

We were frozen (haha!) after the ice cream, so we went looking for a place to get hot drinks.  We ended up at:

For those of you not in the know, Edda now calls me “G” instead of Granny.  We started it because for a while she was calling Steve “Z” (Dan’s name for Steve).  I like it better than being “Granny”.

There is not a whole lot for visitors to do in the Warwick Valley on a Sunday morning if you’re not a hiker.  After continental breakfast in our hotel room (delivered in a wicker basket–pretty cool), we decided to go to Woodbury Common Premium Outlets.  Yes, daughters, I went shopping!   What a shock. They were pretty high end (Warwick is only about 55 miles from NYC).  The outlets were so fancy there were shops for merchants I had never heard of.  Ermenegildo Zegna was one.  I googled them and learned it is a very fancy men’s store.  $375 for a shirt.  A shirt!  We were looking for coffee (for me) and found a little kiosk selling coffee (I could finally wake up) and genuine French macarons (made in New York, but they were great.  A zillion flavors.) That made the whole trip worthwhile.  Yes, we brought some back, and YES, they are all gone!  Macarons are best eaten fresh, you know.  Fortunately, we had to leave to for Bellvale Farm for the tour or I might have gone into a shopping coma.  We did go into L’Occitane and found some nice Christmas gifts for the family.   No pictures of the outlets, aren’t you glad?

Bellvale Farm is about 10 minutes from the Creamery and offers tours on Sunday afternoons.   It was interesting to see where ice cream gets its start (cows!) and learn a little about the process.  Will (our guide and grandson of the owner) told us the farm sells its milk to a middle man (I forget the technical term), who pasteurizes it.  They buy back what they need to make the ice cream and the rest is sold.  The farm has Jerseys (higher milk fat, but relatively small) and Holsteins (bigger and produce more milk).  They breed their own cows and even name them.    We got up close and personal with Egypt, one of their champion milk producers.  She was very calm, eating alfalfa while we quizzed Will about farm operations. Their website (at  Bellvale Farms)  has more information.  I just have (more) pictures:

Making friends with Egypt

Holstein calf

Cows in the barn

Jersey calf

Will and Egypt

After the tour we walked around Sugar Loaf (an artist community) with the idea of having lunch there before going back to the Creamery (aren’t we virtuous–having real food and not subsisting on ice cream), but the restaurant was closed.  Sugar Loaf is tiny and worth spending an hour or so in if you’re in the mood to shop.  We were too hungry for that, so we went to a different restaurant that was on the way to the Creamery.

I was in heaven–Bellvale ice cream two days in a row!  We decided to try some different flavors,  and they did not disappoint.  Martha’s favorite was the butter pecan (recommended by Will), even though she doesn’t like nuts in her ice cream.  Steve was focused on Great White Way and had that again.  We added some of the basics–vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.  We also tried Bellvale Bog (dark chocolate), but Martha and I agreed we liked the plain chocolate better.  It’s a matter of taste.  My favorite was still the coconut from Saturday.  It was like eating an Almond Joy (it had dark chocolate covered almonds), only better because it was ice cream.  We had another soft serve twist, too.  I let Martha and Steve have more of the soft serve Sunday since I kind of hogged it Saturday.  All of the ice cream was deliciously creamy and rich.  There was quite a long line when we got there, but it moved quickly.

Line on Sunday

View from the Creamery

Another Creamery view

We stayed at a hotel on Greenwood Lake.  It was kind of quirky and retro (when was the last time you had an actual key for a hotel room?).   Some random views:

View down the lake

Mist on the lake

Fall colors

I expect you’re wondering how I came up with the title for this post.  I don’t know why the bear crossed the road, but one did amble in front of us as we were headed home on Monday.  I never expected to see a live bear outside of a zoo.  Another experience I would not have had if not for the ice cream tour.   Who knows what will happen at our next stop in Ohio?

Stay tuned for the next scoop!

Lori

Weather for Ducks

I remember one of the stories in my grade-school reading book.  It was titled Weather for Ducks.  I think it was in one of the Dick and Jane reader series.  In the story their town flooded.  I can’t remember much else about it, but that’s where I got the title for this post.  I remember thinking it might be fun to be in a flood, mostly because then school would be closed.  I’m older now and know better–floods are inconvenient at the least and deadly  at their worst.

During the week we were in The Villages with Joan and John, it was raining in South Carolina.  The low-pressure system that brought the rain was held in place by Hurricane Joaquin, which lounged around in the Bahamas for days before it finally moved on.  The rainfall was record-breaking and caused wide-spread flooding in South Carolina.

We were fine at Claire and Dan’s house, although a couple of small lakes formed in their yard.  Other folks in Summerville were not so fortunate and some had to be evacuated from their homes.  We waited out the monsoon, playing cards and drinking wine:

Coastal flooding done right

Of course we had the most fun watching the grandkids and keeping them entertained.

Bayer’s cool jammies

Blanket forts rule!

Edda loved the car!

Fascinated with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Crated cousins

Bayer kicks back

The rain finally stopped (mostly) and we went for a walk and shopping at Claire’s new favorite grocery store, a sure cure for cabin fever.

Nice to get out of the house

Chatting at HT

We spent an extra day in Summerville because of the flooding.  A stretch of I-95 was closed so we had to detour around it on our way home, but we still made good time.  Steve and I were glad to get home, but now I’m going through grandkid withdrawal!  Yes, I miss their parents too!

The next stop on the TABICS2015 tour is Bellvale Farms Creamery.  I checked out the ice cream flavors on their website and my mouth is already watering!  We’ll be going within the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned for the next scoop!

Lori

Casa di Rossi at Rossipolis

You could say I’m writing about our first TABICS2015 trip in chapters.  It would be a very long post otherwise, and I wouldn’t be able to give proper attention to each part of the trip.  We stayed with Steve’s sister and her husband, John and Joan Rossi, at their home in The Villages (aka Disney for grownups) so we could make a day trip to Punta Gorda for the ice cream project.  They are truly the monarchs of hospitality.

Just like Disney, Joan had the guest rooms ready with towel critters on the beds:

A manta for us and a dog for Bridget and Edda

Along with delicious meals and a beautiful home, Joan and John showed us around The Villages (yes, The is capitalized!), which has golf courses everywhere.  We visited Brownwood with its bronze cattle drive entrance:

 Florida was known for cattle!  The cowboys were called crackers due to the sound of their whips cracking.

Steve and I spent a day in Tarpon Springs with Joan and John while Bridget and Edda had a “down” day. Tarpon Springs is a largely Greek town known as the sponge capital of the world.  Or maybe just the U.S.  We had a delicious lunch at a Greek restaurant there and dipped our fingers in the Gulf. Of course, Joan and I did some serious shopping too.  Bet you didn’t know I had a business in Tarpon Springs.

Old-time sponge diver

Steve sponge diver

John and Joan have been having a lot of fun decorating their home.  Their most recent project is Rossipolis, a summer kitchen and Greek-inspired birdcage which they expanded from the original lanai.  As you can see, Edda made the most of the chaise longue.  John has written the history of Rossipolis, with many plays on words (I think they’re really funny).  Be sure to take a look at it if you visit.

The summer kitchen

Getting chummy with Poseidon

Edda lounging around

Gallery of the gods

To get the full Villages experience, you really need to travel by golf car (that’s what they call them, not golf carts).  We tooled around Thursday evening while Joan was fixing dinner, but she didn’t miss out on all of the fun.  I really think Joanie enjoyed getting the mail more than Edda did!

We were sorry to leave on Friday, but anxious to get back to Summerville to beat the monsoons that were predicted in South Carolina for the weekend.  Edda was a good little traveler again:

Lori

A fabulous day in Punta Gorda

I was a little nervous about how today would go (actually it’s Sunday because I started this post on my tablet and it didn’t cooperate).   Silly,  I know, but I come from a long line of worry warts on my mother’s side of the family.  For example, I worried whether I would be able to taste the malt in the chocolate malt that Claudia was going to make.  Snort.  It was  sooo delicious.

This was a two-fer visit to Punta Gorda.  After a leisurely lunch visiting with Steve’s cousins, who live near Harborwalk Scoops & Bites, we trooped downstairs for ice cream.  Claudia greeted us with “Is that Lori?” as we walked in the door.  I don’t know how she could tell.  Maybe it was the 7 chattering adults and one toddler that gave her a clue.

Over the years of my quest for the perfect chocolate malt,  I’ve had few that were up to my standards.   IF I could taste the malt (which MANY TIMES I couldn’t despite asking for quadruple the normal amount–disappointing!), the confection  (do you know there is no synonym for chocolate malt when you do a Google search?) was almost always overly sweet from too much chocolate syrup.   I knew I had met a kindred spirit when Claudia told me she had looked up an old fashioned recipe that called for only one spoonful of malt and she didn’t think that would be enough.   She said she uses three scoops and increases it to four when customers ask for extra.   She made mine with five scoops of malt, vanilla ice cream,  and exactly the right amount of chocolate syrup.   It. Was. PERFECT.

Claudia arranged for a reporter from the local NBC affiliate to report on the ice cream project.  Eeeeek!  Here’s the link to the segment with my five seconds of fame (cuteness alert–notice my granddaughter in the clip):

http://www.nbc-2.com/clip/11885739/tourists-worldwide-flock-en-mass-to-charlotte-co

What I said in the interview is true–visiting top ice cream shops is a great way to pick travel destinations.  Most of us go to the same place for vacation year after year, for various reasons.  When I think about the  huge variety the U.S. offers in terms of culture and entertainment,  it seems a shame not to sample parts of the country that I would not normally visit.  I guess this is my way of channeling Charles Kuralt, only with ice cream.

I also like the idea of promoting small businesses, which are the backbone of our country.  At a time when more and bigger is considered an improvement in business,  we should give serious consideration to the idea that a business paradigm shift is in order for improving both our mental health and the economic health of our country.  Imagine having a job where the creative process involves coming up with new and interesting flavors of ice cream!  That’s what Claudia and Ron have.  I’m still marveling over their wine ice cream, made with red wine so it’s good for both your heart AND your spirit!

Enough philosophy.  Here are some pictures from a day that I will savor forever in my heart, along with the memories of a warm welcome from Claudia, both by email and in person:

Stay tuned for the next scoop!