Category Archives: Travel

Our Trip – Stop 1

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We are in PA right now. We left early morning this past Saturday (driving) and have been in one of my hometowns since Saturday night, Williamsport. I lived here with my family from the age of 7 to 13, then we moved to FL.

That was the hardest move I’ve ever made. It killed so many things for me, and being here again is bringing up all that loss heavily, seeing the place I loved and wanted to stay my whole life long in. It’s been nearly 29 years since we left.

Our old house looks great. Apparently it had a couple or few owners until the most recent one, who updated everything immensely, but made the house look it’s best, not changing it outside, just making it nice. I can’t share the pictures online since it’s not my house to post pictures of, but I will be sending the pictures I took to my sisters who may care to see them.

Today it’s raining and I realized that I didn’t get any outdoor pictures except of the house. I’m having issues with my camera batteries, I need new ones, and just haven’t gotten them (not regular ones, recharge-able Canon for my Digital Rebel $$.)

It’s just so nice to be here and get to walk around the town. The downtown is greatly changed from the last time I walked it’s streets. They are working on bringing things back in. There are several really nice shops there, but so many empty store fronts. The library is getting a new children’s wing and though it looks so familiar on the outiside and has the same impressive enterance feel, the cases of books don’t look as impressive as I remembered and there are computer monitors all over the place. The childrens books are in the basement, as they were when I was young, but this time it was a great shock to see what has become of that section, videos and dvd’s and cd’s take up huge floor space, and then the books in there are mostly for young children, no books remain there that I would have read from the age of 8 through 13. I used to go there often, and check-out large stacks of books and then voraciously read them deep into the night.

So libraries age, it’s not that though, we looked and looked and never found much of interest like they had when I was young. Classic things, important books for young people like I read. I didn’t just read “classics” but good books they were. Maybe there are some somewhere there …

The street I lived on is paved, and wasn’t paved while I lived there, but was starting to be paved the last summer I spent there in ’79.

I saw the old haunts we had frequented as kids, the Wildwood Cemetery, the Lycoming Creek, the ravine at the end of our street. The field the had existed a block up the road is gone. Apartment/Assisted living buildings fill the once wild space. It was a way we used to cut through when going into town, or just to play there. It was a nice testament to what our street was, Rural Ave. Oh well, it’s not there anymore. The street is still there, but paved. The old houses are still on that block, but the road is paved the whole way up around the bend and goes on and on and on, past a new (to me) hospital and other old residential places, continuity of street name. I don’t remember that it did that back in the 70′s and before. I don’t really know, it was so wild and different going up the road and around the bend back then …

I got some news of the neighbors from the family that lived next door to us. They are still there, but the neighbors all around either have died or something, mostly. It was another place where I had to tell about my mother not being with us anymore. It was striking to me to look at the house, see it well cared for, remember when I lived in it, and how much it needed but my father couldn’t provide for it. He’s gone, and so is my mother. It’s there and plodding along for some more years. It’s an old house. I don’t remember when it was built precisely, but when we moved in it was supposedly more than 80 years old. It’s exactly the sort of house that I like, though the stucco finish outside isn’t what I’d want on a house –it is what that house is, and that is that.

I love this area and if we could live here it’d be great, but it’s not the right area due to traveling needs. I love smaller towns and what I love about this place is that it looks great, even if the downtown still needs revitalization. It’s not shabby. It’s river valley living, nothing like we can get where we live right now.

Overall it’s a matter of what we like, what we want, and compromises and it’s complicated. We want to move sooner than later and need to find the right situation, house, property, close enough to hub-travel for my hubby.

This isn’t a “looking for where to move” trip. It’s a business trip that we are taking advantage of PA and getting to visit all the places I never did get to go back to since leaving. I’ve talking of moving to PA for years, and it’s deep in my heart. We do want to move sooner than later, as I said above, it’s just all those compromises between two people that have to be agreed on.

Well then, today we check out and head east, we’ll be staying in Princeton, NJ for the centrality of it for hubbies business meetings, but I’ll get to go to Easton, PA, by first hometown, and see the old haunts of my very young life, birth to 7 years of age. I’ll also get to go to Manhattan on Saturday, well WE will be going, all of us, to all of this. There are some sites in NJ and Easton, PA and on Long Island that are historical ancestrally that I’d like to see as well.

Florida Trip

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We were in Florida last week, into the weekend. Our niece (Frank’s) got married, hence the trip. It was a nice wedding. Lovely bride and ceremony, nice reception. Many Happy Congrats to the couple.

We left on Wednesday morning and got there in the evening. It was HOT. It’s hot in the Atlanta area, where we live near, but that’s NOTHING compared to S. Florida. :eyesroll: I lived there from 1979 to 1996. I know what it’s like. I never fondly recall the environs temperatures, and never really WISH to go there either, but have gone, due to circumstances that demand my attendance, and such.

When my husband and I got married we first lived in an apartment not far from the intercoastal, on the last canal (to the west) that leads to it. We could easily walk to the draw bridge that goes over the intercoastal, or keep going to the Atlantic (ocean) to the beach. The temperatures there are lesser than further west, but still stifling hot (sub-tropical is very intense, unlike other hot places in the south U.S. that are just plain hot.)

We stayed at a place that is across from the ocean, on the other side of the street, not right on the beach. It’s a place we’ve been to before, but not somewhere we’ll stay at again, since my hubby understands now how I want to be ON the beach easily, right from the room. In the off season that should be affordable somewhere down the South Florida coast. Well, we have no ultimate need for-see-able to be there again soon (no more weddings planned or for-see-able for a few years at best.) So if we just decide to take a few days and go visit hubby’s sister, we will try to find a better staying place. Then we can be at the beach when the sun comes up and not have to drag a bunch of stuff there and back. It’s a drag after playing in the ocean to have to drag youself and children and towels and toys off the beach, through a parking area, across the street, down to your hotel room. Ugh.

Sure others do it. So have we. We prefer to try to get it done another way next time. Whenever that is. The beach is horrid during the day in the Summertime. Early in the morning, from before the sun comes up to about 8am it’s nice. Warm, but the ocean is nice, and there isn’t any Sun to worry about (burning, and freckles, etc.) Then the sun is higher and the intensity ramps up to unbearable. Walking from an A/C room to a car outside, close, is more than I like to take. Sweat starts dripping and pouring off of you. Just a few seconds outside, that’s that. So then it’s in the room or in the car going to some other indoor place during the day, then later afternoon the beach is bearable again, as the sun moves to the western sky.

We went to the beach early on Friday morning. It’s the first time I’ve been IN the ocean in a very long time (used to go frequently when I lived down there.) I was in the ocean with two of my children, Victoria and Asa, they weren’t afraid to go out a bit and wait for a wave to come crashing in, and jump into it and ride it in some way buoyant fun. Baby Q wouldn’t come off the blanket, cried if his feet touched the sand, cried if you tried to put him in the water (after all, he hates bathtime too, and won’t walk on grass already.) Russell, our eldest, is afraid of water way more than his other two longer-time siblings. He’s quite shy about it, and is happy to stay on the beach and build with wet sand. He wouldn’t go much into the ocean with me, though I tried to get him to come in with us. He finally went in later when Frank went in and I went onto the blanket with Baby Q.

Friday evening was the wedding. We all got dressed up and it was a very nice evening together. That night I awoke in the middle of the night not feeling very well, and ended up very, very sick all that Saturday, until finally in the late afternoon, early evening it all abated a bit. Bottom line was, I had my worst migraine in years. What turned the tide for me was allowing myself to finally throw up … then I could rest and not be fully miserable, and the pain eventually subsided and all worked out by morning to be gone.

Originally we were to travel home on Saturday. Friday night at the wedding we decided to stay one more day and leave early on Sunday. Good thing, considering how I was feeling later. Our idea was to go to the beach early in the morning and later in the evening on Saturday. For me, I did nothing but stay inside and feel horrible and feel time crawling and having no comforts of home, and wishing time to fly and pain and miserable sickness feelings to fly away from me. Oh it was terrible. I had nothing to eat all day, any trials with water or Ginger Ale resulted in trying not to move so as not to throw up all day. Mid-afternoon I felt some better, and hungry as well, and I successfully ate a string cheese stick, and drank (sipped) some water just fine (though my head was still terribly painfully sick feeling.) Then within the hour I was sorry, and it was a couple of attempts of abating the ill feelings in my tummy, then within the next hour my body had had it and it wouldn’t allow me NOT to throw up. I’d fitfully napped here and there before that, all day, and after that finally slept in nappy ways more soundly. I was just dragging around and careful not to move much and slept mostly the evening and the night away, with a bit of being up around 10-11pm only. We got up Sunday morning and packed up and finally left for home. Hurrah!

We got home Sunday night and now have laundry to do, and other cleaning and organizing that we left behind to go to Florida. :sad:

We came home to one of my birthday presents sitting on the front porch though. That’s is another post for later. :smile:

Orlando Fl and Epcot

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We got home late last night from Florida — after midnight, actually, which is “technically” today.

DH had business there (wed, fri, sat,) and we also took a day, Thursday, to go to a Disney park, Epcot — first time for the whole family. DH and I have both been there together a few times, and I have been there a couple or more times before meeting him (in fact I was there the first day it opened, an accident really, being there with an [singing] ensamble from HS, traveling for something else, we all just “went” there that night, and it was a suprise to us, it was the FIRST opening day.)

I’ve loved Epcot and have many fond memories from being there through the years. The last time my hubby and I were there before this recent time was in Nov. 1995, when I was 3-4 months along with my first baby. So it was longer than 11 years since we were there. Many changes indeed.

The children, being 10, 8, and 6 did like it at Epcot, but not a whole bunch over all. We sort of knew that might be the case, but we had just one day to do something and we really wanted to do Epcot and it could be done in a day, a long day, yes, not seeing “EVERYTHING” but doing alot, and seeing most of the “important” things to us.

It was a hard day for me, being over 5 months along now, on my 4th baby (or 5th if counting my 4th preg. that didn’t work out.) Being a 5th pregnancy I’m fairly big already, have been for along time, and getting bigger week by week (day by day sometimes it seems.) I hadn’t walked that much since being pregant, nor had I walked that much in the past few years or more, mostly. I’m older now, I was in my 20′s when there last [nearly out, but still in my 20's.] I didn’t “feel” so bad, just had to go to the bathroom alot, and was tired and had to sit here and there. But later in the afternoon I started getting a heat rash on my inner thighs, I was wearing a skirt and no leggings of any sort, and it got quite painful and just got worse and worse. Finally we stopped for dinner around 7pm in “Morroco” and sat there awhile waiting for the food, then eating. I had wanted to see the fireworks at 9pm, but was so miserable because of the “rash” thing, by the time of eating, and I just didn’t want to walk any more or wait to walk out in the crowds after fireworks.

So we finally decided to, after 8pm, just haul ourselves back to the lockers, and get our stuff and get to the vehicle. Before we left “Morocco” I put Neosporin on the rash and also took Tylenol (quick release sort) — and the  ointment really made everything burn badly, it hurt to walk in the first place, and that made it THAT much MORE horrid. But as we were going out of the park, I didn’t feel as badly, the pain really went down to a small level and it didn’t “hurt” to walk, thanks to the Neosporin finally “killing the pain” some, as well as the Tylenol taking effect, no doubt. But I was more than ready to just take leave and just come back another time for the fireworks, later in the year when we want to go back to Disney for 3 or so days, maybe, and will do Park Hopping and be able to see Epcot fireworks with little problem, hoping to be staying on the Disney property and able to go in and out at will to parks and our hotel room.

I got to enjoy one of my favorite rides though, in Norway, I love that ride. It’s sort, but really good. My fav every since my first ride, whenever that was, so long ago. Mexico’s ride wasn’t open, being refurbished.

Everyone but me did the Test Track and really liked it. Being preggo, I couldn’t ride it. Tomorrow Land was quite different from last time we were there, many things the same, but other things changed. We did the new Nemo ride, cute for little ones. We did The Land, one of my favorites, and Space ship Earth. We ate in The Land area, the lesser eating place, but it was really a good lunch.

We stayed with the “$” places for food on this trip to Epcot. We had a snack from France later in the afternoon, and as I said above, Morocco for dinner later.

Hubby had appointments in FL on Friday (as well as the day we got there, Wed. and we “rested” then too,) so we rested in the hotel that day, me and the children. I was really into resting, sleeping often through the day.  I did get a migraine that afternoon that I had trouble with until finally it left me the next day, and felt it was coming back in the afternoon, but didn’t after all.

Anyhow, on Saturday DH had an appoitment on the East Coast of FL near where a family we are very good friends with lives, so we left the hotel that morning, drove over and me and the children waited in the vehichle during the appointment, then we drove to our friends house. We had a short vistit, we hadn’t seen them in awhile, and it was nice to see them all — they are a very large family, our children and theirs are in the same age ranges, only we have three, currently, while they have quite a few more. We’ve been friends since before we all had children, known each other before getting married, better friends after my hubby and I were married in 1992 (they got married in 1994.)

We had a decent time, but I was feeling spacey –needing to eat and generally just sort of “out of my element” from the Epcot day, the migraine the next day, and recovering energy still, and not having much sleep because of that migraine too. We had lunch with them and I began feeling better but the time with them was so very short it wasn’t as fun as other visits with them have been in the past, and will be in the future. :)

We stayed at the Old Town area in the Orlando vacinity to Disney-ish area. It was an OK place with a “kitchen” which was big, with two burner stove top, but only one burner worked. They provided no kitchen items, but you could rent them per day, but we brought some things ourselves since we drove down. A full size fridge was there too, but no regular oven, and yes, there was a microwave, but I don’t use microwaves. I made breakfast items, and a quesadilla sort of thing another time, and that was it, but it gave us breakfast and lunch when we wouldn’t have had them due to hubbies business otherwise. It was a suite place, so it had the kitchen in-between two areas, the front had a murphy bed and also a couch and regular tv. The back room was the ‘bedroom” and had a door to shut, two beds, a sink, a small tv. Bathroom next to the kitchen. Not huge, not small, but I didn’t like it much, the children went nuts in it worse than they do in a regular hotel room with two double or queen beds and one tv and a couch and bathroom. Since I didn’t feel good at all the full day, Friday, that we were there, I didn’t like the place at all. FWIW. Also, the “wi-fi” was a problem, we were in one room at first when we got there, but there was NO wi-fi avail, when we made sure over the phone that there would be access to it in our room, when making the reservation. So after hubbies appointments that first day (we checked in early) we swapped out rooms to another building that they said did have wi-fi, but they gave us trouble about it, as if we were weird to need or want wi-fi in our room, :rolleyes: so in the end we could only have 1mbp connection in the back room, and it wasn’t aiding me to use my laptop when DH and I used to front room, murphy bed to sleep, and I spent most of my time there on Friday … so anyhow … I’d rather not ever stay there again. We’ve stayed in two different places there in Orlando recently, all due to DH’s business, and both I’d not ever use again. The other was a Travelodge suite place. Ick. Worse even, but both bad enough to avoid completely, in my very pointed opinion.

It’s nice to be home, even though it’s still a mess here. We have the trip clothing to wash, and other clothing still that hasn’t been laundered of course, and just the basic stuff that is always needing done that doesn’t get done enough, and the mess of how things gather and collect and get dirty in this house, which  is troublesome for me. All this piled up to be done now that we are home, and the mess the cats made when we were gone.

Future times we do wish to have all things cleaned up before leaving, but it’s so hard for me to manage and DH helps alot or totally, but it’s just too much day to day for me now and he doesn’t have enough time to do it all either. The cats we’d like to seclude in one room for when we are gone, and the one good place is the laundry room, but it’s not ready for that, needing some ceiling to be put in, and the storage stuff moved out. It’ll be there “room” for litter eventually and that’ll be good for containment when we need them to stay put anytime, it’s a decent room with a window they can look out. :) Just need to clean it out and set it up properly. If that can happen, our next trip should be nicer upon return. FWIW

Lexington, KY

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We left MI on Friday morning and drove to Lexington, KY, where we had a hotel reservation. This cut our trip basically in half. We can go multiple ways home, so this one was by choice, for the views it brings.

The Lexington side of Kentucky is very horse farmy, with a few cows here and there (the brown cows are my favorites!) We stayed on the NE side of town. A few miles above is the Kentucky Horse Park. After dinner we drove to that, where they had what was called “Southern Lights” — 4 miles of horse themed Christmas lights. There were some nice views for our 6 year old, the other two were asleep, so the $12 it cost … a bit steep …

Before that we went downtown Lexington, to Joe Bologna’s, a local pizza place. Distinct pizza, and particularly a distinct atmosphere–an old church building. Originally built by a Presbyterian congregation in 1891 … they sold it to a Jewish Synagog in 1912. The floors are original Kentucky Pine, and the windows are all stained glass and protected on the outside by modern material to keep them safe. Our table was right under the big 18-foot high stained glass window that looks out over the street, and has since 1891. Gorgeous. The bar is at the opposite end of the building — yes, right where the Minister used to preach from! Not a problem for Presbyterians, who believe that the Bible teaches, and it DOES teach this, that alcohol in moderation is fine.

The bread sticks are huge, and come with melted butter/garlic in a dish, the dish which reminded Frank of some kind of church dish–metal and just not a shape expected for restaurant use … oblong and boat-like, yet not. Makes no sense as I’ve worded it! LOL

But the bread sticks are good. They are chewy and light, but not heavy and gooey, yet have body. Perfect for white flour bread. Better than any chain restaurant makes, across the board. How was the pizza we ordered? It was a 16-inch round, ham and sausage. The sauce was more like we like, a marinara-ish sauce. And the crust was crispy on the bottom and light and body-like the bread sticks only better. The crispy bottom really made the difference. Good pizza! My whole family ate each slice wholly. I mean, that’s not normal ;-)

So, if you are ever in the Lexington area for lunch or dinner, try out Joe Bologna’s downtown. Any local should be able to point you in the right direction, it’s a known landmark. The biggest disappointment is how North that State is. No Suhwheat Tuhee (sweet tea, to you non-southron’s!)