Summer 2020 Part I - Hiding Out In Illinois

Jeff and I decided pretty quickly that staying at the beach this summer would not be a good replacement for our canceled UK trip. Too many people for our comfort level. Happily, my mom offered us the option to come and stay with her. Our original plan was to leave right after the 4th of July to drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway ending in DC to see Cierra. Well, the coronavirus won another round since we canceled the car trip when the cases in those states started increasing quickly.  Now we are about to leave for New York state and then down to DC and on to the beach in Delaware.

So what have we been up to in Illinois?

Yardwork
       Apparently, we have not yet recovered gardeners because we quickly found some yard work for ourselves.  As we sat on my mom's covered patio, we noticed that the grass was no longer growing around the edges on 2 sides.  We realized that the walnut tree was so big and thick that the area was too shady for the grass.  Sooo off to the garden center we went with mom in tow.  She got to vote on what we got.  We bought plants like we had in our yard In Kirkwood- ajuga, coral bells, Japanese painted ferns and astilbes.  Plus true to form Jeff found some plants to transplant mainly hosta and some irises.  Oh, and for good measure, we bought a couple of azaleas to replace some.  So far the ajugas love it here and the astilbes are not too sure.  Time shall tell.

Closet/attic cleaning
      All of us were curious as to what was up in the attic above the garage. So that was the start of our cleaning.  Our findings? Magazines from 1963 (the year my parents moved into this house), my mother's wedding dress, and a few other things including old photos.  The cardboard boxes were falling apart, but the photos looked pretty good. From there, Jeff moved to the basement and to the old tools and stuff that had been my father's. I now know my father had the market cornered on golf magazines and racing forms from the thoroughbred racetracks he worked at.  I had to get in on the action a little too when I realized my mother had a kitchen cabinet full of old vases from floral gifts.  Being the recycler he is Jeff was able to give them and some from other aunts' to the local florist.

Sewing
     Since we knew we would be at my mom's house for awhile, I packed up my sewing machine and brought it up from Alabama.  It has been busy and is now getting a professional cleaning and tune-up! What have I been making?  Well, a few masks of course.  A skirt for my daughter,  a pair of shorts and a top for me.  The shorts and top were not as simple as they could be.  Both were from fabric remnants I had, the shorts required matching some ruffles on an angle.  The top was when I jumped in the deep end.  I again used a fabric remnant but used a pattern for a lined dress and instead made an unlined top. I really like the dress, but it is a more formal dress which isn't something I am wearing a lot now so a top version seemed good!

Bike riding
    Madison County, IL has a very large network of bicycle trails. Most if not all are from former train lines. There are 2 different entry spots we have used and have done some out and backs and a couple of loops.  If you remember from our last post, we were doing around a 12-mile loop in the State Park in AL. Well, we are up to 20+ miles now.  If we go to the end of one out and back we are doing 24.5 miles and the loops have been around 22 and 23 miles.  Happily, most of these trails have a fair amount of shade so we don't get too hot.

Golfing
    Ahh, one of the few socially distant and thus acceptable sports so off we went.  The par 3 course has been our Monday go-to spot with my mom and a couple of aunts.  Since normally a league would be playing at this time but it is canceled this summer, we have practically had the whole course to ourselves some weeks.  Jeff's arm has finally recovered so he has been working on his swing some including time with a coach. I have been playing on Thursdays too as part of a standing 4 some which have been fun.  The only downer is that summer has hit and it is hot and humid.

Cooking
    I started to do more of my baking, but when I almost did in my mom's mixer with a loaf of bread.  I decided: 1. there is good bread around here, and 2. it is too hot to be running a hot oven so time for a baking beak.  However, we have been faithfully ordering boxes from Hello Fresh and Blue Apron and making all sorts of dishes for summer.  Plus now local corn is in  - yum!!

TV watching
    I think like a lot of people we have been watching TV most evenings.  After dinner, clean up and short walk it is time for TV. Whether it is a Hallmark Christmas movie as part of their Christmas in July, a British TV show or a movie such as Tom Hank's new movie Greyhound which is quite good or Marvelous Mrs. Maizel.  The three of us pick our seat in the living room most nights and watch something together.

Exploring
   We did a couple of day trips.  We went to Kaskaskia, IL, Grafton, IL, and the Aeries Winery.

Kaskaskia
  I had wanted to go explore Kaskaskia for several years because it was where the nuns first started the academy that would become the Visitation Academy of St. Louis which is the school my daughter attended.  When we drove there we learned a couple of other things along the way.  The route from Collinsville to Kaskaskia takes you through the town of Chester.  Guess what - Chester is the home of the man who created Popeye the Sailorman.  There was a statue of Popeye at the visitor center at the state line/bridge over the Mississippi River.

After we crossed the Mississippi River, we were in Missouri for about a mile before we entered back into Illinois WITHOUT crossing the Mississippi River. So for future trivia games. The town of Kaskaskia, IL is on the WEST side of the Mississippi River. Seems back in the 1800s there was a flood so bad the river changed its channel there and the town of Kaskaskia ended up on the west instead of the eastern side of the river.  Further trivia information - Kaskaskia has the Liberty Bell of the West.  We could only peer at it through a window since it was closed due to the virus.  Kaskaskia also hosted the Lewis and Clark expedition.



 

Jeff at the Chester Il bridge over the Mississippi River.









Grafton and Aerie Winery
    Early in July, Jeff, my mom and I headed about an hour north to Grafton, IL which is another river town on the Mississippi River.  When we had a sailboat, it was a popular destination for all of us sailors.  Grafton is at the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers.  The picture below shows the 2 rivers meeting on the left side. Oh, I should add this was while the rivers were at flood stage.  Plus the marina we would visit is at the bottom of the photo.

We went to the Aeries Winery which is on the bluffs above the river. We enjoyed lunch and the view. The wait staff there has the saying "best view in the Midwest" on the back of their shirts. You can see for a long way up there. The farm fields in Missouri were all green and pretty from our view.  Oh, you may notice from this photo  I am part of the going grey with the pandemic women.

Look for part 2 next month!

Leaving for the Season

It is Memorial Day Week-End which means the start of summer which is the start of high season at our beach condo.  So Where are we?  At Carol's mom house in a state that is still on lock down.  On top of all that, it is rainy and cool here.  Oh well.  The last couple of weeks at the condo were interesting and nice.

Why interesting?  Well we learned a couple of new things in April and May about the area despite the corona virus.  Like did you know there are forest fires/grass fires along the coast?  Yeah one night on the local 10 o'clock news they start talking about the 6 fires in the area. Huh?!  So further story was that I 10 was closed at one exit because of the fire and another was around Bellingrath Gardens.  We knew we were under a drought advisory.  Hey if you only get 0.10" of rain in a month (yes less than a single inch in a month) and the next month is dry it is not hard to assume droughts were a concern.  What we had not considered was that humidity was really low (like 20%) and it was quite windy so it was not that hard for a controlled burn to get out of control and the other one - who knows.  Anyway, it is common enough that the TV guys had a catch term for it to get your attention.  Even the state had a term - fire advisory.  They spoke just like they do for the fires out west - the Bellingrath fire is 20% contained X number of acres have burned and Y buildings.  To say the least, we were surprised.   Oh, and for those who don't know the area.  Bellingrath is a former fishing retreat for an early Coca Cola bottling exec where he fished and wife gardened.  Right on a bayou close to the gulf itself so an area I would expect to be wet.  The gardens and home are available to tour.

The nice part?  Long car drives, sitting on our balcony and staring at the beach/water and walking on the beach.  We did not get to go to the fairs that we had expected to visit or go out to eat much, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.  We explored the area on long drives with my convertible top down.  It is also very relaxing to just stare at the waves.  Any dolphins today?  No.  But I did see skate rays while I was walking the beach as well as their egg casings/mermaids’ purse.  (See Video)   Then all the tourists started to show up - time to let them enjoy the area and us to go away for a while.

Sheltering In Place Coastal Style

Like many people, Jeff and I are sheltering in place.  Unlike most people, we were supposed to be putting our final preparations in place for a 5 month trip to the UK.  Instead, we are still at our condo, on the Alabama gulf coast. We live in a high rise building with over 100 units.  Currently, there are 12 or so cars out front with 2 of them belonging to us.  The other 3 buildings are similarly occupied so in other words there are very few people staying here since the beaches and pools were closed.

So what are we doing to pass the time?  Well, being runners, we are running some, bike riding a little, walking a lot, and indoor activities such as reading, cooking, and sewing.  We are also finding a few new activities relevant to the current world situation.

Great perch for reading

Our running is around the resort and long runs on a nearby bike pathway that we have been doing for years so no new routes there.  Bike riding has been at the Gulf Coast State Park which did a lot of work on their trails a couple of years ago.  We were quite surprised to find the backcountry trail included hills!  At the beach, hills!!   The plants make us feel like we are back in northern California.  Then as we continue to ride we get to a marshy area where you may see alligators.  Continuing on we ride on a long wooden bridge that goes over the Alabama Beach Mouse preserve and then along the marshy side of the lake.  Just to be sure you see a little of everything on the bike trails in the park, you also ride in an area that is a former road.  Jeff took some pictures.  We have not done all of the trails these pictures are from our current 12+ mile route.

We love the live oaks

Orange Beach in the distance

Miles of causeway

They cut the asphalt of a former road creating a winding bike path.

While we have learned a new bike route, our walking has been limited to the roads in the resort itself.  The State closed all the beaches to ensure social distancing so we cannot walk on the beach.  There is a garden walk by some of the cottages that have a pergola covered in jasmine which smells wonderful these days.  We also enjoy looking for our creature friends (yes we are little lonely!)  So we stop on the bridge over the bayou where the turtles are and watch them, then we move on to where the blue heron is (Mr. Heron) and look for the "Mexican ducks" - a breed that is normally in Mexico but migrates up here for part of the year.  Lately, we discovered there are at least 2 alligators on property.  One is rather small - maybe 5 feet in length and then another one who is a little bit bigger is in a more secluded spot so we have only found him a couple of times.  After that, we end up walking around a bunch of empty lots.  Us and several other couples that are here - go down the little dead end and then circle the empty block ending up one way or another up at the promenade which is on the south side or beachside of the buildings.   I am glad to get out and walk, but I look forward to when we are allowed to go on beach walks.  I know lots of my neighbors feel the same way!

Causeway to the beach is blocked due to closure

Our Covid test is if we can smell the Jasmine.

These Mexican ducks have orange bills and pink feet.

When the beach was open, you would find these Blue Herons by the fisherman hoping for a handout.  Now you find them gathering their own food in the ponds.

We have to gators we look for each day, both small.

Well, our governor is changing our orders to "safer at home" in a couple of days and opening up the beaches so I think we will have company soon.  Thus, this is the end of our sheltering in place blog.

Snowbirds: 1st Year

So this was our first year as snowbirds and I have to admit we have a bit of room for improvement.  Our mistakes:  we came to the beach on the later side, we left twice and we did not join that many groups/activities.

Unfortunately, we still had things to finish up in St. Louis at the beginning of January so it was middle of the month before we both made it to Gulf Shores.  Then we turned around a week later and went back to St Louis for a few days!  At the end of January, we made it to stay or so we thought only to find ourselves running back to St Louis for a couple of days for a funeral.  We did a much better job of staying put in February.  And we started to get a little active.  We both volunteered to take on keeping up the directory and I joined a group of ladies for golf on a weekly basis.  We also enjoyed spending time with my mom, aunts and a family friend.

When we say we need to do more next year, realize there is an assortment of activities: card games ranging from bridge to poker, board games such as mahjong, outdoor activities such as bocce ball, exercise classes, weekly movies, and trips. I am probably missing things. All of that is just options that are on the Beach Club property. The resort is sort of like summer camp for older adults!  

What is life like as a snowbird?
Monday is movie night and what is even better is that they are recent movies like Harriet Tubman and Overcomer and there is free, freshly made popcorn. Happy Hour is prior to the movie so we would grab our glass of wine from the bar downstairs and then head up to watch the movie. Tuesdays I played in my golf league which is in the afternoon, a nice change from playing in the morning. The group plays at Peninsula which has 3 different 9 hole courses all of which are quite nice.  On any week day, there were group exercise classes such as yoga or pool aerobics classes.  There were multiple activities every day of the week.

Of course one also needs to do things that the typical vacationer comes to the area to do, like walking the beach (too cold for most of us to swim), shopping at the outlet mall and eating lots of good seafood.  I had planned on getting a lot of sewing done and in reality, only got one dress done.  I did put my new, fancy toaster oven to good use and made bread a few times.

Our plans for next year?  Well, we will be back coronavirus willing. We will join in some more activities, be better organized with our "stuff" so we can have friends visit and spend time in our guest bedroom. Lastly, we hope to go on a trip or two and we will again enjoy some Mardi Gras fun!

Mardi Gras Mobile area

Did you know Mobile was the first city in the US to celebrate Mardi Gras?  Bet you thought New Orleans was where it all began. Wrong - Mobile started celebrating Mardi Gras in 1703 which is 15 years before New Orleans was even founded. The celebration while not as well known as New Orleans is none the less a major part of life in the city and surrounding areas. Let me explain a little bit.

The city of Mobile has multiple parade routes - as in at least 8 different ones. From a listing we had, there are at least 40 parades over 18 days. On top of that, I know of 25 parades in the suburbs of the Eastern Shore (including Gulf Shores and Orange Beach). Plus I heard of at least one parade in Pensacola, FL.  Oh, and by the way, it is a school holiday. Many of the parades are the work of an individual krewe, but some are organized by local cities or local organizations and thus you see floats from the vet clinic down the street or a local restaurant. Jeff and I made it to 5 different parades.

We started our season at the Knights of Ecor Rouge in Fairhope. It was a night parade so we drove up to Fairhope with my mom and brother had a nice dinner and then staked out our spot on the main street. We were ready. We had our chairs and our bags to hold our throws. Fairhope has a reputation for being generous with their throws. Since the parade went down our part of the route twice that was definitely true. We had filled up a string backpack with our goodies plus were being weighed down with beads.

So what do they throw? Beads, small stuffed animals, frisbees, plastic cups, frozen decorated donuts, miscellaneous small toys - think little footballs, balls, stress ball type toys and most importantly moon pies. I have heard that some Mobile parades have unique throws - believe I heard one throws ice cream novelties. Below are some pictures from Fairhope

We had a break before our next parade in Mobile. We did some research and heard the Mystics of Time was a really good parade. It was on a Saturday at 5:45 pm so we planned an excursion to Mobile. We found a parking garage early in the parade route parked and walked down. We thought we had less than an hour wait - unfortunately, it was longer. Word on the street was that a float had a flat tire so there was a 45-minute delay. Boy were we tired of standing by the time the parade started.  However, I have to admit some of the fun was before the parade. Across the street, there was a bar with a balcony and people on it who were throwing beads and little footballs and ribbons to the crowd below. Before long there were footballs flying back and forth across the street and all sorts of impromptu fun going on. It was a really good parade as advertised. By chance, we ended up by some friends of a krewe member. They had signs to let him know where they were. The response from that float was a deluge of things - handfuls being dumped in the area which was good because Jeff and I weren't doing too good catching things there! What we had not realized is this krewe is known for their "dragons". Think Chinese style dragon that's been automated. The only people are those tossing throws as it zigs and zags down the street. Some blew smoke out the nostrils. They were impressive.  Oh, the high school marching bands were impressive too. You see they did not just march down the street, oh no everyone had a gimmick or special performance up their sleeves. On cue we had them running to the spectators saying hi and giving beads or suddenly doing some impressive dance moves - especially when it was the tuba line! Pictures from Mystics of Time parade

Since we were now in the very heart of Mardi Gras season, the very next day we went to the local parade. It is only in its 2nd year and still very local. We are out a way out from downtown, so the Fort Morgan parade is heavily golf carts with some floats pulled by pick up trucks. It is low key and fun in a different way then the big parades and this one is open to all.  By chance, pirates was a common theme this year and Jeff enjoyed yelling at them with his best pirate interpretation. 

We skipped the Monday parades and made plans for the Gulf Shores parade on Tuesday which started at 10am.  Gulf Shores is the oldest parade in the area and it was large and popular. We had planned on going to a pancake breakfast, but the line was out the door so a change of plans. We set our chairs up close to the starting point and made a McDonalds run. When the parade started we were not disappointed. It was a good parade.

Our group with our beads after the parade.

We ended our Mardi Gras parade season with the smallest parade of the year for us as least. Lulu's boat parade started at the Wharf and went up the Inter-coastal waterway to Lulu's where they were having a big birthday/Mardi Gras party. We decided to go to the Wharf to see the beginning. While driving there we saw people setting up along the Inter-coastal to watch and since the Wharf tends towards the yacht category of boats we were excited. Well, we had trouble finding it at first. Decided these are boat people, they will all show up at the last minute so we got a drink and wandered around (yes it was perfectly legal). Then we found some boats - not yachts. They were numbered up to 10 but I think it was more like 6 boats, 3 of which were pontoon boats and 3 fishing boats (OK I could not afford a couple of them). Anyway, in true Mardi Gras and boater fashion they were decorated and ready to have a good time! They were all talking with the spectators and throwing beads at us from the dock. Then when they started one boat was going along the shoreline a little and throwing beads to us. It was a lot of fun although it does make one miss our old boat some.

Salty Mardi Gras dog

One last thing.  Thanks to one of the plastic cups I caught.  I can tell you the dates for the next few years Mardi Gras so you too can come to visit Mobile during Mardi Gras!

Feb 16, 2021, is next year then it is March 1, 2022.  

For further planners Feb 21, 2023, and Feb 13, 2024.  

Finally for those really long-range planners:  March 4, 2025.