What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Today I asked a friend I had not seen since May, "So, how was your summer?"
And she replied, "Oh, is summer over?"
It is difficult to tell down here in the land of endless summer weather...but school has begun in most places-for friends and family, not me, of course, and it was a little cooler here yesterday morning, and the snowbirds have begun returning, so I would say, "yes, summer is done."
We had a great summer. It really did go by quickly. In honor of all those students who have probably been asked to write an essay, here is my photo journal of "What I Did on my Vacation."

In June, we took a road trip north. First stop, Chattanooga, TN. Not far from our hotel was Ruby Falls. (Those AAA guide books are really handy!)

After taking an elevator deep underground we walked about a mile in a cavern to see the tallest underground waterfall.

Next stop was Bardstown, KY, the Bourbon capital of the world. We stayed two nights, touring two distilleries with tastings, yum, and I bought a cookbook of recipes using Bourbon. I wanted to do all 7 distilleries on the "Bourbon Trail" but not enough time. Maybe we will return sometime and I will get the tee shirt for completing the whole trail!
(This is the world's largest barrel, according to the sign.)

This is the antebellum plantation house where "My Old Kentucky Home" was said to have been composed by Stephen Foster. We toured it inside. Beautiful and huge!

After leaving KY, we drove to Iowa to spend a few days while visiting son #2.
We found a small hiking trail along the Des Moines River.

Then we drove north to visit dear friends in Minnesota. We played Euchre, Quirkle, had a movie night, visited an historical village and history museums, and drove with them to South Dakota where we visited a zoo and an art museum.

at the zoo

DH said we could stop and see the largest ball of twine. Who knew, it was just down the road in Darwin, MN! There is a little museum beside the gazebo sheltering the big ball of twine.

Here we are saying goodbye. That's Joel and Julie's church, Zion Lutheran, in the background. What a great visit that was!

As we were driving the highway, DH saw a sign that said "Iowa's largest skillet" and took the exit. What a guy!

We drove to Pennsylvania, staying with the in-laws for a week, visiting family, then went to Virginia Beach to see my sister's family and some of our friends. We only had a 3 nights, so, sadly, not enough time to see all we left behind.

Last stop north of Savannah, GA. This big rocker was outside the restaurant, so we had to take a picture, of course!

It was a great three weeks, 13 states, and 4000 miles!

The Big Reveal

We pretty much are finished with our kitchen remodel. All the inspections have been done, but we need to get two glass door fronts installed and hinges replaced on 2 cabinet doors. (One closes too fast and the other too slow. They are soft-close doors, a really nice feature.) I love the kitchen and actually enjoy washing dishes in the sink, you know, so it stays looking nice and clean. We used the dishwasher of course when we had guests for dinner. Boy is it quiet! All the appliances are whirlpool. (So nice to be able to bake and not have stuff too browned.) The granite is New Venetian Gold and the maple cabinets are from Debut Cabinetry in toast finish.

Above you can see the glass doors on the cabinet over the frig where I have my cookie jars displayed. I also have 3 more in the corner cabinet. The teapot, teacup, and creamer collections are in that corner cabinet as well. Below is the corner unit with the lazy Susan that holds my pots and pans and left of that a pullout with 4 shelves that holds small boxes of stuff like rice, pudding, and drink mixes.

 This is taken from my living room. I am so glad Tim took the wall down separating the 2 areas when we first bought the house. The drawers to the left of the dishwasher hold in the top drawer my tableware (forks, knives, spoons, and serving pieces), middle drawer my dishes and bowls, and in the bottom drawer are mixing bowls and baking glassware. These drawers are about  24 inches wide. The ones in the cabinet on the side (the coffee bar) are about 26 inches wide.

This is what I see when standing by the back porch door. I wanted you to see the corner cabinet. The shelves are little triangles that I put some of my McCoy pieces on. The sugar bowl from our first set of dishes (from Sears) is on the top shelf.

 This is the added cabinet where there was none before. I love the three drawers(2 deep) for my table linens and plastic storage pieces. Cabinet below also holds wine and liquor bottles and small appliances (the toaster, hand mixer, 2 crockpots, electric skillet,and waffle iron). The other corner base cabinet on the left has my blenders in it. So nice to have everything together in one place!

We still have to remove the fan and the 2 ceiling lights. That "sky tube" provides lots of daytime light and at night the under cabinet lights are lovely. I am thinking 2 pendant lights over the coffee bar like the one over the sink and something to match over the table. 

In the meantime...

My grand nephew Toby has a school project to send a paper doll fashioned after the character "Flat Stanley" out of state(he lives in Pennsylvania) to see where he gets to. The recipients are asked to send back pictures of Stanley enjoying the visit doing something that represents the state. So what better place to bring him in Florida than Disneyworld!

 Here he is in the Magic Kingdom with Main Street and Cinderella's Castle in the background.











 Then we rode on the paddle boat. That is the Haunted Mansion in the background.      

Finally we went to Epcot where they are having a flower festival. Can you see Stanley in the among the flowers? It was a beautiful day. My friend Darlene also went with us, which was great because she is better to talk to than Stanley.

Stanley is being sent next to visit the kids in Portland, Oregon and then on to Hawaii before returning to Toby in PA. Wish I could go with him!