Fort Meyers, Florida area Rotonda West

Since Sally was still keeping us from comfortably staying at our condo, we set off for Southwest Florida for a few days. We rented a house in an area called Rotonda West that had its own pool and near some bike trails. We brought our own bikes after not being able to rent earlier this year so of course, the house had a variety of bikes in its garage. 

While the theme of no bikes was broken with this trip, the theme of no food delivery was not broken.  We had trouble getting out the door and the condo complex so we got in later than we would have liked and had not eaten dinner. We had passed a Dominoes pizza not far from the house so we tried to order pizza delivery. Again we could not get delivery and Jeff set out to go get us dinner.

Babcock Ranch

A couple of years ago I read about a new community in Southwest Florida which would be strictly solar-powered. The ecological side of me wanted to know more and to visit it - maybe even consider it for a future home. Happily, it was located near where we were staying and Jeff was agreeable to going and checking it out. We had trouble getting the map system in Jeff's car to pull the town up or even an address we had, so it was challenging to find. Funny thing for the rest of the time we were in the area, I was always finding it on maps! Anyway, the town is still very much in development, but there was a lot I liked about it. Unfortunately, it is not near the beach and is kind of out in the country.  It will be a town of about 50,000 people when complete. There is already a huge solar farm, a small downtown area, a golf course, trails, and a couple of small lakes. Right outside the development, a new shopping center with a Publix is under development. There is already a public elementary school and a high school starting so it is a growing community. We toured 3 or 4 houses and liked a couple of them.  One thing you see a lot in this area is the back of the house "caged in" so an area where you can sit outside without fear of bugs bothering you. Which gives you a hint of one problem - bugs!

Bike Trails

As I said above, one of the reasons we chose the area we did was that there was a bike trail that we could get to on our bikes. The Cape Haze Pioneer Trail is 7 1/2 miles long.  It is a former railroad line.  A very straight trail!  It was nice to be able to ride to it and we did ride it twice but it was so straight it was kind of boring. From our rental house, we joined the trail close to the middle of it so we went the opposite direction each time. The first time we rode it, we found a part we were enjoying when we realized we had left the end of the trail and was on something else. We turned around on a bridge after circling a country club.  The second time we rode it to the opposite end which helped me at least with some perspective as to how some of the community was connected.  There was also a small park at the end with a historical building.

Hang out at the pool

In addition to the bike trails, one of the compelling reasons we chose the house we did was it had its own pool.  In Covid times, having a pool of your own right outside the backdoor was quite nice.  Several days we would sit on a chase lounger reading and then get in the pool for a while.  All of it was screened in so no fear of bugs really.  We saw little lizards climb up the screens some.  We enjoyed our short swims and some floating in a lightly heated pool in October!  Oh one of the first days we were there we had a visitor to the backyard - a bobcat stretched out at the end of the woods looking at us.  I had read up on local wildlife the night before so I knew it posed no threat to us but it was fun to see.  As soon as it realized we had seen him it left.  I kept a lookout for it the rest of the time we were there to no luck.

Golfing

We visited 2 different golf courses within 10 minutes of the house.  One was called The Links and the other was the Long Marsh golf course.  We weren't playing our best golf but enjoyed ourselves anyway.  My dad used to tell me that part of the joy of playing golf is enjoying the scenery. Well, we saw a lot of wildlife (birds) we are not used to and were on the look out for alligators while we played.  We played the Links twice (9 holes each time).  The first 9 we did pretty well for us, but the back 9 was a different story.  I have NEVER lost so many balls in one round of golf - I don't think I lost that many all summer in Collinsville.  Part of the problem was it had a small lake pretty much somewhere around every hole.  For example, one hole had a long narrow lake right next to the tee box that went the distance of my tee shots so if you went just 3 feet to the left your ball was swimming - our balls went for a swim/dunk.  Then on the same hole, you had land then another pond that was horizontal to the green so you had to get over a second pond before you got to the green.  The second course we played, Long Marsh, was a golf cart only for good reason.  It has 27 holes, so you get assigned a particular set of 9.  Well to get to that 9 holes we had to ride the cart along pathways paralleling streets, crossing them several times and over a bridge or 2 for about a mile before we got to the first hole.  It was a nice course, but it too had a fair amount of water on it so it too ate balls.  Before we left my mother's house at the end of summer, I had gotten a bunch of old Titleist brand of balls to be my water balls - I need to restock over Christmas.

Island Hopping

Before we left for the area, I had asked a couple of friends for advice of where to stay or what to do.  All mentioned visiting the islands in the gulf for the beaches and the lifestyle.  So while we did not stay on an island, we did visit Anna Marie Island, Gasparilla Island, Boca Grande Island, and Manasota Beach, and Sanibel Island.  In short, I think we visited all of the islands in the area - we did a lot of driving while we were in Florida.  We also got some beach walks in and did spend one afternoon on a beach.  One of the first we visited was Anna Marie Island where we had a drink at Sandbar restaurant at the northern end of the island after driving around for a while. It was an enjoyable experience. We also drove around Gasparilla Island and Boca Grande Island early on. Later we went back to Boca Grande for a day trip. There is a bike trail that is a former railroad line so the plan was to ride it and then go to the beach. We deviated a little in that we started on the trail in town and went south to the tip, past the lighthouse, and then on our way back, we decided to ride through a community on the bayside.  Good decision! By wandering around in there we saw some gorgeous mansions - yes mansions and it was nice and quiet for bike riding. It was a fun ride which we followed up with lunch at the Loose Caboose and some beach time. We ended the day with dinner at an outdoor beachside restaurant  (Mucky Duck) where we had a nice meal and a very pretty sunset.

Pictures from the beaches

    Birds

The birds in the picture above are Sandhill cranes.  The sign was near our house.

Wood storks - they liked a house right down the street from us.

This bird is the Anhinga or snakebird.  When it is the water, you can only see its head so it resembles a snake and when out of water it likes to stretch its wings out to dry them.  This one was on a golf course.

Unfortunately can't find my picture of the gopher tortoise, but this is his hole and sign for his crossing in the neighborhood.

friendly neighborhood iguana

Englewood Farmers Market.

Englewood was a neighboring town that has a large farmers market which doesn't start until October 1 each year and then goes through March or so.  Different growing season.

Asheville, NC fall 2020

Blue Ridge Parkway view of the Blue Ridge Mountains

Summer of 2020 we had planned on going to Asheville, NC and then north on the Blue Ridge Parkway up to DC.  When we were about to leave, the covid metrics were bad for NC so we changed our plans and went to NY instead.  So where do you go when you suddenly need a temporary home?  Where you thought about going earlier in the year, since now it has lower/better covid metrics!  Asheville by way of Atlanta.  Thanks to Jeff's niece and her husband who car sat my convertible for us for a week.  Spent the night in north Atlanta and then onto Asheville.  We stayed at a Doubletree Hotel which was very empty and basically no food options.  We tried to order a takeout pizza and could not so Jeff went to pick it up - no food service at all at the hotel in the morning so we picked up egg McMuffins from McDonalds and started our drive.

We decided to stay in a Bed and Breakfast in Asheville - the Lion and The Rose.  It is a 5 bedroom inn so we figured that alone would help minimize our interactions with others.  It is pretty much in town - not downtown. There was a restaurant half way down the block and another one a block and a half away so food was in sight.  We stayed in the Marion Hall room which had a queen sized bed and a daybed so we had lots of room for our 4 night stay.  The first 2 mornings it was us and another couple.  The B&B did a good job of socially distancing us for breakfast when we had more guests later in the week.  Breakfast was nice each morning and kept us going for much of the day.  So what did we do while we were there?

We went on a hike, played some golf, went to the Abortorium, a winery, and just plain explored.  Jeff's niece and her husband really like Asheville so they gave us some advice on places to go and things to do. By chance, one of their favorite restaurants (Nine Mile) was the one practically across the street.  We could not eat outside there, so we enjoyed take-out on the nice big Victorian porch of the inn, which was quite nice.  It is kind of a Jamaican restaurant so the food was a little different than our normal but quite good.  The next night we went to the other nearby restaurant, Chisei.  It considers itself to be a neighborhood Italian restaurant. Jeff and I will tell you it is a very good Italian restaurant.  We really enjoyed our meal.

 

Enough about food!  On our innkeeper's recommendation, we set out one morning to do the John’s Horse hike in the Pisgah Forest. We did not do the whole hike.  It is not a set path in the forest as there are no signs turn left here or go straight.  So we followed the orange trail blaze for awhile and then were unsure which way to go so we turned back.  Having said that, we did have a nice hike and we saw a couple waterfalls, crossed a few wood log bridges and it was just relaxing.  Also on our innkeeper's recommendation, we went to the Etowah Golf Course.  We played 9 holes which is our normal amount.  It was challenging for us.  We had a good time and it was a nice course with some pretty views. Jeff's niece spoke highly of the North Carolina Abortorium.  While I am only now learning about abortorium's, sorry raised on botanical gardens, I am learning to like them!  This one was nice and educational at times. We walked through an area where the trees were marked as to what they were which is a great way to learn the names of trees other than oh that is an oak.  Like many museums, etc they had an area for changing exhibits and while we were there it was one on bonsai.  I really liked the plants they had and the exhibit on one of the bonsai was formed from regular plant to bonsai.  Additionally, there was a Lego exhibit - sculptures slipped in around the gardens closed to the visitor center.

Pictures from our hike in Pisgah Forest

One of several Lego exhibits at the Arboratorium.  The Gardeners' look so real.

One cannot only eat and explore, one must also drink.  Asheville is big on craft beer and small on wine. We did visit a winery - Burnt Shirt. Their Covid tasting was to have you pick 5 two ounce wine tastes or a glass.  We chose to share a tasting - hey who needs 10 ounces of wine in the middle of the afternoon?  We liked 4 of the 5 wines we ordered.  Surprisingly we did not like their port wine it was too sweet for us. We bought a bottle of one of the other 4 and headed out the door.  Oh, the tasting was on a patio with views of their vineyards which was nice to look at.  Another day we explored downtown Asheville a little bit. We ended up at Wicked Weed brewery another recommendation from Jeff's niece.  We tried a couple of their beers and ended up eating there too, each having a bison burger.  From there we walked around some and ended up at a European bakery; so we had to pick up a dessert which was quite good.

Burnt Shirt Winery

There are probably 2 things that come to most people's minds when they think of Asheville - the Biltmore House and the Blue Ridge Parkway/mountains.  We both thought we had been to Asheville about 30 years ago and only remembered the Biltmore House so we decided to skip that this time.  We did enjoy a drive along the parkway and stopped to enjoy the scenery.  The clouds/skyline really does pick up a blue tinge in the evenings. We really enjoyed Asheville for its scenery and for the atmosphere there so much that we may have to consider it down the road when we look for a permanent home.

Our fellow guests at the B&B encouraged us to go visit the Grove Park Inn.   It's a majestic old hotel that has some very tasteful additions to it.  We greatly enjoyed the grounds as well as the huge fireplaces throughout the hotel.  We hope to stay there sometime in the future.

Grove Park Inn opened in 1913.  Click here for its history 

One of many grand fireplaces, that was perfect for a cold and damp day.

Much to our surprise, Jeff's brother informed us he had a contract on a house nearby so we stopped to check it out on our way back to Atlanta. We really liked the house's setting.  We were surprised/shocked at how much the area has grown over the years.  When we lived in Atlanta, we would go up to that part of north Georgia (Rabun Gap, Dillard) and we would be in the middle of nothing.  Not now!  There were resorts and all sorts of stores.

Waterfall at my brother and his wife's new vacation home.

Then on to Atlanta for the weekend.  We stayed at Le Meridian in Dunwoody.  It is another business hotel that is hurting some.  It is a hotel we have stayed at before for Christmas.  We like to upgrade our room there to a large two room suite with 2 king beds in one room and the other room has a large sectional and a couple of tables. We once again ran into issues getting food.  I think a lot of restaurants are closing early these days.  Jeff watched a Georgia football game and then we tried to order pizza delivery - no luck so off he went to pick it up. We also had a socially distant outdoor brunch at Jeff's niece's home with her and Jeff's brother and their spouses.  I think it was a good get together since it lasted 5 hours!  While in Atlanta, we also explored the Vinings area for future home potential.  Enjoyed driving around but not many residences that will meet our future needs at least not now.  We did enjoy a glass of wine along the Chattahoochee river before a pop-up storm cut it short.  On Monday, it was time to go see what our condo looked like now 13 days since Sally's visit.

Move Sally Move!

 

As in the hurricane.  A friend posted on Facebook that she kept thinking of the lyrics ride Sally ride.  I wanted to scream Move Sally Move!!!

If you remember the ending of our last post we headed down to the beach after Labor Day with dreams of beach walks and floating in the warm ocean.  Yeah well thanks to Sally we got to do that for a couple of days and then she crashed the party big time.  First she teased us - the weather men said we are on the outer edge of the cone today but we will know more in a day or 2 when the cone width shrinks.  Okay we stocked up on water and batteries and started trying to figure out what to do with my convertible but no biggie.  The update came out with us no longer in the cone - phew - back to the beach for a walk.  Next thing we know darn Sally had moved east a little and we were back at the edge of the cone but she was also dropping down to a tropical storm.  Okay unpack my sewing machine and things to do for a couple of really rainy days.

Then we had a cleaning crew in working on our upholstery and the lead asks if we are staying there thru the storm to which I replied yes.  He said he wouldn't.  Huh???  He said yeah she is coming for Mobile Bay now and the way she is just sitting there I think she'll grow to a 3.  Gulp.  (We are located very close to the opening of the bay and in fact you can see the bay from our front door.)  Knowing me he saw a panicked look on my face and then said yeah on second thought it probably won't grow.  This by the way is Monday afternoon at about 3 o'clock or so.  Locally there is a 4 o'clock news so we start preparing to leave and say we will decide based on the news.  Lets just say we were out of there by 5 pm.  Yeah not a lot of forethought was put into what we took with us.  We grabbed clothes for 4 days in hindsight more would have been good, our computers, some of the charging blocks for phones we had charged, reading material, a quilt I am working on and a little food from the freezer since we knew we had a microwave and refrigerator in the room.  Trust me when I say there were still a fair number of people at the Beach Club and a lot heading out to the end of the peninsula as we were leaving.  At that moment, I felt a little wimpish, but I also kept reminding myself of what a former co-worker who now has a place on an island by St Pete told me was their hurricane plan - we leave when they say the word hurricane.  People asked how the rain was - light for most of the drive, but the wind was strong as we crossed over bodies of water.  Due to Sally's expected turn after landfall, we headed towards Tallahassee.  But, Tallahassee itself has bad covid rates so we stopped a half hour out of it in the small town of Quincy, FL where the rates were much better - hey I don't want to die by hurricane or covid!

So Sally did visit the Beach Club.  I think she is one visitor we wish had never come or at least made it a quicker visit.  A lot of owners have complained how rough and unruly the clientele was this past summer; well I am sure she was our worst visitor EVER.  She took part of the roof off of one building, ruined its penthouse, took a part of a side wall off another, part of an exterior staircase, blew in glass sliding doors, broke trees, threw things everywhere and scared guests to death (yes guests stayed through a hurricane).  From the maps of landfall I have seen, I believe either the eye went over the Beach Club or just missed it a little to our east.  

Avalon and Bristol suffered the worst damage

Bristol's Penthouse 1 lost its roof, which caused significant water damage on multiple floors.

The moment of truth for Jeff and me was when we opened the front door of our unit 3 days after the storm.  If it was dark in there that would be good because I had closed the curtains before we left - crazy mind thought that would help somehow.  The front door was there and when we opened up it was dark.  We hugged each other in relief.  So how did our condo do?  Well pretty good considering everything.  Like a lot of units our front bedroom or north one suffered some water damage.  Seems the one traditional window we had in the unit leaked so the wall got wet as did the carpet along that wall.  We also had some water spots on the ceiling close to our utility closet which makes sense since there is a drainage system from the roof that runs through all the utility closets.  30 inches of rain overwhelmed it - no big surprise there.  

Personal Protective Equipment is required

We spent 2 nights in our condo.  The first night was without power at all and the second night was on a huge generator that was doing all 128 condos in our building- very impressive.  By this time, there were workers everywhere - literally a couple hundred.  We agreed we needed to leave and get out of their way.  So we left for a week to go to Asheville where we had wanted to go earlier this year and chose not to at the time.  We stopped in Atlanta on the way there and back.  Partially to visit Jeff's relatives and  partially to leave my car there for the week.  When we got back to our unit 8 days later, we found huge blowers and dehumidifiers in our unit, the carpeting gone in the front bedroom, even more workers on the resort, and security concerns starting because robbery was becoming a problem in Fort Morgan in general.  After 2 days, we decided to leave for a few days for our safety and sanity.  We headed to the Fort Meyers area of Florida.  And wondering if when we come back to our unit next time if there would be wall board removed from part of our front bedroom.  

Massive Diesel generators for each building powered the AC and industrial dehumidifiers

Run off cut a gorge through the dunes about every quarter mile.

View illustrates the volume of people  and materials.  Note the cranes between each pair of buildings

All 3 Spectrum buildings at front of property had water damage.

Home on east side of Avalon Tower had wall sheared off.

Bristol's garbage room, disappeared.

Note the black triangle, which was part of Bristol's roof.

End of Summer

After our trip to the Northeast, we went back and stayed with my mom in Southern Illinois till Labor Day.  During that time, we played some more golf, visited some more with relatives and did a couple of day trips.  With the pandemic still in full force in Southern Illinois, we had a couple of small get togethers with relatives too.

One of the other enjoyable things we did was go to Vin De Set in downtown St Louis for a Sunday brunch.  The food was tasty and generous portions - I think that brunch provided me with 3 additional meals as leftovers!  They have a roof top deck that is quite large and much of it is covered so we had an enjoyable outdoor dining experience.  Due to Covid 19, they have tweaked their brunch and that is part of the reason I had sooo much food from a single meal.  Each table starts with breakfast food baskets.  We had scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage balls in one basket and then another with breakfast pastries.  We also had a complimentary mimosa - yum.  We had to be careful because that was enough food to fill us up and we had 2 more courses coming.  The second course was of your choosing - I had ham, broccolini, and potatoes; my mom had prime rib and potatoes, and Jeff had chicken and waffles.  We had requested and received a box for our leftover breakfast goodies and then we all had boxes with our leftover main course.  The final course was dessert.  They brought out a tray with 3 small desserts - mini crème brulee, mini cheesecake, and a mini chocolate mouse.  We could have had seconds if we wanted.  In addition to good food, the setting is nice.  It is well thought out and you have a view of the arch from up there.

When we had gotten back from our trip, my mom had mentioned that an aunt had suggested the two of them go for a ride in the convertible with the top down.  The only problem was we took the convertible.  So a day trip with the convertible top down it was.  Scenic drive near us- hmm. Jeff suggested Lake Carlyle so off we went one afternoon.  It is about a 1-hour drive there.  Amazingly, Jeff, the navigator sent me to the sail boat dock/marina there - think someone wanted to check out the sail boats.  Lake Carlyle is a large lake in Southern Illinois that is a State Park.  My and my mother's impression is that it is a park that has never really taken off.  We have both heard stories of how it is a dangerous lake when the wind comes from certain directions so maybe that is why.  Regardless when we were there we only saw 1 boat out on the lake.  We did wander the marina a little bit and saw a couple of people around their boats, but all in all, it was pretty quiet.  I learned some family history on the ride too.  Lake Carlyle was made by damming the Kaskaskia River and it seems that my great grandfather had a clubhouse up around what is now the lake.  My mom had stories about a couple of the small towns we went through to get there.

Our other day trip we went to the western side of St. Louis to the Long Row Lavender Farm in Wrightsville.  Summer isn't really the time to go to a lavender farm, but the write up said they had sunflowers and zinnia blooming so off we went.  We expected to have the farm to ourselves, but boy were we wrong.  The parking lot was almost full.  We wandered the rows of lavender and other flowers for a few minutes and I recognized a couple of different types of lavender.  Then we decided that it was lunchtime and they had a café and some tables outside so lets eat!  It was a great decision.  The setting was quite pretty and the food was delicious.

One of our small get togethers was the day after our drive to the lavender farm.  The next day was the Kentucky Derby.  We invited one of my aunts over for mint juleps, quiche, and dessert.  I had to do something for the derby.  If you remember I had a virtual cocktail party for the virtual derby in the spring so I needed to do something for the real derby, but the whole covid thing meant no party (oh, and yeah I am a guest at someone else's house!).  The mint juleps were good, but maybe a little strong.  We all picked a horse and my aunt chose Authentic who won which was nice since her birthday was coming up.  Our dessert was a Mrs. Hullings split lemon cake we had bought the day before specifically for my aunt.  She had asked us about the locations of the stores that still carry that cake so we knew she would enjoy it - we did too.

We had another aunt over for labor day pizza and apple pie.  Apples had started to come in locally and let's be truthful - fresh local apples don't happen along the Alabama coast.  Apple crumb pie it was and it turned out well.  Finished up our visit the next day with one more aunt - her house this time.  My Aunt Marilyn is a very good cook so she made us a very nice send off dinner.  Yep, Wednesday morning we drove off for Alabama happily imagining beach walks and playing in the ocean.

Summer Part 2: Venturing Out

   We canceled our trip to Tennessee and the Blue Ridge Parkway since the virus was bad, but were determined to go visit our daughter in DC and then my cousin Kathy at her beach house in Delaware.  As we talked about it, we both wanted to do more, but what could we do in the age of corona?  We heard wonderful things about Maine and since we had also heard it was a popular vacation spot for Canadians it sounded uncrowded and good. The problem is that to visit there we needed either a negative corona test within 72 hours of showing up at the state line or the ability to quarantine for 14 days. Neither seemed likely so we gave up on that idea - for this year. We had pretty much given up on the Finger Lakes region of NY thinking we couldn't go there either.  Then we realized we could, so before anyone changed their minds we were off.  Yep 36 hours after deciding to go there, we were in the car heading there. Made the reservation on Thursday afternoon and left on Saturday for a very long 14 hour straight thru drive. Stopped at truck stops and roadside rest stops I think lunch was a Chick-Fil-A somewhere or maybe Panera - eating in the car.  Dinner was from a New York Highway plaza that was barely open. The other two restaurants were closed. We had a choice of a Tim Horton or the vending machines. Lucking Tim Horton has more than breakfast food!!  We ate outside at a picnic table and then back on the road.

Finger Lakes, NY

   We stayed at a B & B I had seen on the Fodors website which had a AAA 4 star rating and sounded nice. It was a wonderful choice - more so than I realized at the time. It was a very comfortable place for us. The innkeeper lived onsite in an apartment in the second level of the barn on the property with her 89-year-old mother. So she was very determined to keep her mother safe and provide still the very nice experience the place was known for. She succeeded. Every morning she served a gourmet breakfast - the first day was fresh fruit, crème Brule french toast, and sausages.  Every morning was heavenly good. When the weather was good, we had an assigned table for 2 with a tablecloth, fine china in a garden. By the way, it was a very pretty garden. On the two overcast mornings, we sat indoors - more than 6 feet from anyone else. Because we were there during the week, we were their only guests part of the time. If you go to Canandaigua, NY in the Finger Lakes I highly recommend the 1795 Acorn Inn.  We were in the Hotchkiss room on the first floor with our own little patio. Oh and a funny thing is we were in the township of Bristol. Bristol was going to be one of our first stops in England so we made it to Bristol; just not the one we had planned on visiting!

   Breakfast the last morning in Finger Lakes.  The red on the table by my hand is my mask. Notice too the ribbon with hand sanitizer on the door behind me.  

   The gardens are the above picture and our patio is the bottom picture.

   When one decides to go somewhere and leaves 36 hours later, there isn't a lot of time for planning of activities! Cheryl the innkeeper helped us out some.  We knew we wanted to visit wineries, maybe hike a little, some bike riding, and maybe a little golf. Cheryl suggested the two wineries we visited and she was right on with her recommendations. Had an idea for a bike ride/kayak trip and a hike to a waterfall. We visited Herron Hill Winery first. While sitting in the tasting room drinking our wines and nibbling on cheese and meat talking with our server who was a local school teacher we could look down the hill and see one of the lakes - Keuka. After our tasting, we sat outside on a picnic table watching the view on the lake.  It was a nice afternoon and an improvement from our morning golf game. Jeff had chosen the course because they advertised their lake view. That was true they had a gorgeous view.  But, the course was lacking. It was lacking water. The ground was so hard we saw dust fly from our balls and our balls took bounces neither of us could explain. Ah well, we got out and it was a very pretty view.

  

   The golf course with a view.  (Note the condition of the green)  We were adventuresome that day because we also headed out to Watkins Glens Falls.  See below

 

   Watkins Glen Falls is a state park. The path around all of the falls is very well built out so easy walking. Well let me clarify it is nice and level concrete for the most part, but there are something like 200 steps. If you look closely behind me in the picture you can see some of the concrete steps. The official write up says there are 19 waterfalls. Oh and yes we did have masks with us which we wore when others were around us.

   One thing we don't have pictures from is our car drives.  We took my convertible on the trip so a couple of days we just went out and drove around with the top down. We saw some of the area that way including some of the other touristy areas like Geneva and the other lakes. We went to Ben and Jerry's in one small town and a marina was a couple of blocks away that looked like it would be a blast in a normal summer.  Like so many things these days we had to have reservations for tastings at the wineries in the Finger Lakes. Cheryl had recommended 3 wineries - we visited 2 of them. Hermann J Wiemer Vineyard was the second one and my favorite of the 2. We had a table for 2 on a smaller shaded patio. The tasting was set up a little differently - you picked, however, many wines you wanted and then they priced it according to how much you tasted. Each wine tasting came out in a small carafe that you could pour into your glass. It made it easy for us to share. Since the law said we had to have food too, we were served a little tray with some nuts, popcorn, and dried fruit. It was a very relaxing experience - our host came and checked in on us every so often, but otherwise, you were enjoying nice wine on your own patio. They taught us that the climate in the Finger Lakes is very similar to Germany's so they grow many of the same grapes thus making a lot of German-style wines. We had a couple of different Rieslings and in fact, I brought a bottle of one home. I ended my tasting with some of their sparkling wine which was quite nice too. On our final day in the Finger Lakes, we drove to Pittsford, NY to the Erie Canal. We thought we would ride bikes along the canal, but that was not to be.  We did walk it some which were interesting and nice and we had a nice beer at a restaurant overlooking it.  If ever in the area, I would go back there.

 Washington DC

   DC was our next stop on our trip.  We were both looking forward to seeing our daughter.  For this part of the trip, we had rented from a long term stay hotel in town so we could cook some of our own meals. We had also downloaded an electronic version of our room key so we could do the contactless check-in. Um yeah not so much. Seems like many downtown hotels you need an actual key to unlock elevators and some of the exterior doors. So they had to give us room keys after all. Also don't you love the sign that welcomed us!

    

   We also learned that DC was very strict about mask-wearing. You were required to wear a mask when you were outside unless you were exercising or eating. No mention of if you can not keep 6-foot distance - nope it was wear a mask. So we wore masks. Hopefully years from now it will be easy to know what year it was that we have a family picture in front of the WWII memorial with masks on!

    

   We walked around the basin and along the Potomac River, the Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington Memorials on Sunday. We fortified ourselves at the Federalist Farmer with a very nice Sunday brunch before we started out.  

Railroad, PA

   Jeff and I had gotten in on Thursday night in time for dinner. Then Friday the three of us headed up to Pennsylvania in search of some family roots. Jeff's maternal grandparents had a furniture factory near York. He knew that the factory had been near a town/borough called Railroad too. GPS got us close to it all and in fact right by a rails to trails park so out we got and started exploring. The Innkeeper at a B & B knew of the factory and set us down the trail parallel the train tracks. Jeff knew that the factory had a sign from the days of passenger rail service that faced the railroad tracks rather than any road. When we saw this sign Jeff compared the current sign to an old picture he had found on the internet a few years back and compared - yep we were in the correct place.

    

   Seems the local park district repurposed the supports when they set up the new park!  But where was the factory? Jeff knew that while it had been nearby it had never been visible from the train tracks.  after we got in the car and drove a little we did find it. Looks like someone had started to do something with it - some newer facades, but it was now vacant. The picture below is the main town of Railroad and the bike trail is there too. You can see there are still train tracks.  In fact, as we were leaving a small tourist train went by.

Fenwick Island, DE

   From DC we headed to my cousin's place at the beach.  We hesitated a little going there at the last minute because the tropical storm Isaias was heading that way and we wondered if it was a wise time to go. After assurances that flooding was not expected and that the convertible could be kept undercover, we hopped in the car and went. It was about a 4 to 5-hour drive and for the most part interesting to Jeff and I since it is a part of the country we are not that familiar with. We saw lots of farms and passed several farmers' markets. Traveled over bodies of water that had just been names to us before. We got to the end of the road, hung a left, and went a couple of blocks and found their place. They are right in town, but without high rise condo buildings the traffic wasn't too bad and they had a back road they could use to get to places.  Have to admit a little jealous of how easily they can eat at a variety of places.  

   The beach was a very short walk away and of course over a dune.  We walked the beach the first day some and sat around and talked. Learned to the south where it looked more crowded was Ocean City, MD with high rises and to the north was a state park and then expensive homes and eventually Rehoboth, DE.  In the end, we would get out on the beach for all 3 days we were there. Yes, tropical storm Isaias hit, and yes it knocked out the power for a while, but we all got a laugh because it was worse in the DC/Baltimore area where we each had a child suffering through it.  Sorry no pictures, but a great little beach town and a good time had with good friends.

 Poconos, PA

   We drove north along the coast for a while which was nice because to us it was all new and we both love the beach.  Then headed west around Philadelphia and onto the Poconos and in particular East Stroudsburg for our second extended-stay hotel.  We had a nasty surprise at the first extended-stay hotel - a kitchenette does not include an oven.  We had a refrigerator, a microwave, 2 burner cooktop, but no oven which was a problem since we needed an oven for a couple of the dishes we had chosen from Hello Fresh!  So this time we stopped at a Wegman's grocery store in Allentown, PA, and stocked up on some ready to heat dishes from them.  Wegman's is a nice chain that does a lot of partially prepared dishes.  Our first night we had a couple of dishes we simply microwaved and a couple of other nights we did dishes on the cooktop.  

   Sorry to say, but the Poconos were underwhelming.  It seemed like a place that had been nice at one time but now was rundown.  We had good friends joining us later in our stay or we probably would have left earlier.  Now not everything was bad, it just wasn't the Finger Lakes.  

   We were very close to the Delaware Water Gap National Park so of course, we checked that out promptly.  We ran into a problem we had in NY too - no one was currently renting bicycles.  So even though there were trails we would have loved to ride along the river, it was not to be.  Jeff tried to talk me into floating, but I wasn't interested.  We did have another convertible top-down drive though!

   Bushkill Falls - Niagara of PA per the advertising.  This is actually a commercial place, not a state park.  It claims to have the largest falls in PA and they were big.  Thanks to the recent tropical storm the falls were really moving.  In some of the pictures, the water looks kind of brown that is not mud but tannin picked up from the rocks.  We of course hiked the longest route and had our masks with us for when we saw others.

   This is towards the end of our hike. We had seen similar rock pilings earlier on our way, but this area was full of them. They made me think of a meditation spot.

   My cousin had informed us there were wineries in the Poconos. In fact, there was a couple near us. In the end, we only visited one and we actually went to it twice. True to its name, Mountain View Winery has a very pretty setting in the mountains. It is a newer facility with a deep porch on 2 sides meant to sit on which is very convenient these days. The first time we went during their "happy hour" and had our food for half price. It was Friday night and their entertainment started shortly before we left - he was pretty good. We decided we would take our friends there when they got into town.  We did.  The winery was also a brewery and distillery too so Jeff and I decided to try a beer each when we went back.  Jeff really liked their Randy's Brandy Barrel-Aged beer (it was a porter) - so did I.

Milford

   Our friends had mentioned a little town called Milford that they had thought cute years ago so off we went one day. We had a nice drive there and walked around it some, but not a lot open at least on a Sunday afternoon. This is the old hotel/restaurant we ate at. We sat on the porch and watched a lot of motorcyclists go by. We had driven there with the top down and had to agree it was a pretty area for a drive.    

Jim Thorpe - last town, I promise

   So are you surprised there is a town in PA named after an athlete who lived elsewhere?  Seems that in 1953 after his death his wife wanted a fitting tribute to him. She moved his body to what was then Mauch Chunk, PA, and East Mauch Chunk. The towns agreed to merge and name the new town Jim Thorpe. We wandered around the town on a quiet Monday. There was a nice looking live theatre/opera house, but due to pandemic was closed. We also saw some people white water rafting. The Appalachian Trail is nearby as are other hiking areas and there was a B & B that is an old mansion that has a popular series of mystery dinner weekends so Jim Thorpe could be a fun few days. We had a nice day wandering and a little shopping.

Dingman's Falls and Silver Thread Falls

   On our last day in the Poconos, we visited these 2 waterfalls in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. We thought we were going to get a short hike to each of the falls only to find that the road back was closed so instead we had a mile hike each direction to the visitor center. The walk was mostly in the shade happily. The falls were pretty. Silver Thread was well named because it was skinny in width but strong in volume. Dingman's Falls was impressive too. I would love to visit in the spring some year when the rhododendrons which are huge and thick are in bloom.

Lafayette, IN

   Onto our last stop - Lafayette, IN, and a chance to visit Jeff's, Aunt Mary. We were supposed to go to her 100th birthday party in March, but it got canceled days before the big day due to the virus. We were lucky to get to go inside to see her since inside visits had just started at the assisted living center the week before. It was good to see her and catch up with her. Then homeward we went.