Alexandria, VA

Jeff and I chose Alexandria, VA for our Christmas visit with Cierra this year.  It was partially planned and partially a last minute decision.  The trip was totally dependent on accommodating weather and Covid numbers.  Jeff and I drove there - straight through.  It was 13 hours each way with 2 to 3 of those hours being through the mountains which is tiring to us flatlanders!  We stayed in a Residence Inn - 2 bedroom with a kitchen that included a full stove and a family room.  Jeff and I got there the day before Cierra did.  We arrived tired so we unpacked, relaxed and went to bed.  

The next day was Christmas Eve and we needed food!  There was a Whole Foods grocery store right down the street so off we went.  After debating the easiest way to fix a couple of dishes in the unit and double checking lists, we got our food and hurried back to the hotel since it was starting to rain.  We dodged the snow getting there, but it was supposed to rain hard all day Christmas Eve.  Happily it did not pour right away so Jeff and I got a little walk in around town before Cierra joined us.  We had chosen Alexandria because:   it was billed as a USA city that felt European, it was listed as a top Christmas destination and oh it was close to where Cierra lives. Then it was time to decorate our Christmas tree.  When we packed up our house in Missouri, we kept out a little Christmas tree and some other decorations and marked them in a crate called "Beach Christmas".  Well it wasn't the beach but it was Christmas!

Cierra arrived in the afternoon, got unpacked and we all started to catch up some.  Then it was time to pick up our Christmas Eve dinner.  We had ordered a meal from Brabo Brassiere.  It was an Amish roast chicken dinner that we augmented with some veggies we had picked up earlier and some homemade Christmas cookies and wine.  The dinner was wonderful.  We spent our evening watching Christmas shows and then midnight Mass before we went to bed.

Christmas day meant presents, exploring Alexandria and food - great food.  We had picked up a quiche for breakfast at Whole Foods, so that with fruit Cierra had brought was breakfast.  Later in the day we picked up a to go Christmas dinner from Magnolia's on King.  We had a lot of food and it was very good.  We had a salad, mac and cheese, collard greens, ham, turkey roulade, green beans and dessert plus 2 bottles of wine.  It turned into  several meals for us- all of which we enjoyed.  Then we went out exploring - we needed to work off all of that food!

Thinking we might need some entertainment, I had bought 2 gingerbread house kits and brought them along.  Cierra and I worked on the kit that was 3 row houses.  For a first time effort for both of us, I think we did pretty good.

We drove around 2 nights looking for Christmas lights.  The first night we kept relatively close to Alexandria and saw very few lights.  We did enjoy one neighborhood that was on a hill and close to the George Washington Masonic National Museum.  It had narrow winding streets with lots of architecturally neat houses.  The second night we drove out to a park close to Annapolis and saw the "Lights on the Bay" for SPCA of Anne Arundel County at the Sandy Point State Park.  Since it was supporting an animal related organization, a lot of the the lights had a dog or cat included.  One of the displays they listed as a must see was the naval graduates throwing their caps in the air.

In addition to eating in our suite, we did eat out (literally outdoors) on Sunday on King Street which is the main road of Old Town Alexandria.  It was a nice restaurant so we had a nice brunch and were warm enough with our own space heater.

In addition to gingerbread house building and football game watching, we walked around Alexandria a bunch.  We went down to the water front and strolled along the river.  In warmer weather, they have boat rides on the Potomac.  By the waterfront was an old torpedo factory that is now an art center.  We found it at the perfect time - we were all cold and happy to go inside some place for awhile.  Cierra and I looked at shops and Jeff read all the displays they had on the history of the factory.  Then we were all ready to go back outside and explore some more.  Below are some pictures we took while out and about.

The three of us with the riverfront in the background

In front of a house the 3 of us liked a lot.

 

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.