Is It Monday Yet???

What a weekend! Lots of driving and LOTS of snow! Usually you try to stay home on days where the snow is coming down all day long, where there are white-out conditions and where the snowplows can't push the snow off the roads fast enough before it piles right back up and it looks like you are the first vehicle to drive on that road. Not us though. We had some very important events happening and wanted to be at all of them! (and I was glad Honey was driving for all of it!)

First off, middle child graduated from college! Oh yea! No more huge chunks of change going to a higher institution...at least for that child. We are proud of her graduating magna cum laude. And we are happy that she has already been offered her dream job. (notice the cameraman's smile???? what's up with that???? hmmmm...)



We spent Friday night at the cabin with some of the kids. Had a great time pretending we were pool sharks or playing air hockey or foos ball. I love being there with all the family. I opened the curtains in the middle of the night since not many people are up there at this time of the year and I wanted to awake looking at the mountain. When I opened the curtain, I noticed blizzard like conditions happening outside. It worried me enough that I awoke every hour after that checking on how much snow had accumulated throughout the night. I knew we had to make it to middle child's graduation and the roads could be hazardous since we had to travel over a mountain and through a canyon. Why this weekend for the biggest snowfall yet for the season?! This is one of the sights we saw as we traveled back through the canyon. Notice how heavy the snow is on the trees and snow was still falling.

The other big event was attending the baby's fiance's baptism. Here's a pic of the happy couple. Wedding won't be for awhile so I am not even going to begin to think of things that have to be done for it!

Ohio and PA quilt shops

While on vacation, the honey let me stop at some quilt shops. I was excited to see the prices on the bolts of fabric in Intercourse, PA. Most were $6.99 but I knew I had enough fabric at home so I didn't buy any. I was proud of myself.

This cute shop was in Bird-in-Hand and called Log Cabin Quilts. They had many Amish/Mennonite quilts for sale here plus some fabric. Prices on the queen size quilts were close to $700. Many years ago I bought 2 quilts from a B&B we stayed at for around $200 each. At some stores, the quilts were over $1000, many $1300. Probably a fair price when you think of all the hand quilting that is done on them but I know I couldn't afford them now.

 

Loved, loved, loved the paintings on the side of this shop in Intercourse, PA.

 

In the Amish Ohio area there was an Amish Shop Hop happening. I actually stopped at 3 of the 12 stores. This book was the only thing I bought though. Judy Martin's Log Cabin Quilt Book. I asked if I could take a picture of the quilts they had displayed from the book. It wasn't too hard to get the ladies to say yes. Now if I had asked to take a picture of them, that would have been another story since they were all Amish.

 

Gramma Fannie's Quilt Barn in Berlin, Ohio

 

Pittsburgh trip---Part Two

After we rode the Incline, dh decided he wanted to eat BBQ for dinner. He asked a man at a gas station where we could find good BBQ and the guy told him to just stay on the road for 24 blocks and we couldn't miss the restaurant. Well, we almost did---who would be expecting an old gas station to be a new BBQ joint?! Look really hard and you can see oil cans as the lights, the bay doors open in the summer, hub caps lined the ceiling and look at the tires holding the mirrors in the bathroom! The food came on tv dinner tins...and no I couldn't finish all of that! It was ALOT of food!

 

 

 

 

Downtown Pittsburgh. While honey was in meetings, I walked around the area.

 

 

Years ago, honey was t-h-i-s close to taking a job in Wheeling, WV. We never got the opportunity to go out and see the area so on this trip, we drove over to see it. Here is a suspension bridge and an interesting building in the downtown area.

 

 

We weren't sure what else to see in WV so we decided to head east and north into Ohio. I knew there was another concentration of Amish and I was hoping to be able to see them there. I am so glad we made the decision to stop and stay awhile. To me, Ohio is a surprising state. It is really beautiful. The first picture is taken from the balcony of the Carlisle Inn in Walnut Creek, Ohio. Such a quaint, cute village. We met some people from Cleveland that said they come down every few months and stay there to shop then take the back roads and just drive around because it is so peaceful and beautiful. I hope to go back here some day.

 

We stopped at an Amish grocery store in Walnut Creek. Here is where the buggies had to park. I loved this store! I wish I could have brought so many foods home with me! Especially the bulk spices.

 

Front of the store.

 

Saw this sign and had to take a picture.

 

More beautiful Ohio countryside.

 

 

The area had some cute shops. Lots of tourists, which surprised me since it was October 31st.

 

 

I was even able to see the famous Lehman's store in Kidron, Ohio! It is a store that caters to the Amish and has lots of items that are non electrical. I saw a mixer that had a bowl that looked like Bosch's. Cost was "only" $650!!! Remember this is non-electric so I can't understand the price being so high. Wonder how many they sell?!

 

The day was getting late but we hoped for one more stop before heading back to Pittsburgh for an early flight the next morning. We finished our tour of the Ohio Amish area and knew Kirtland was pretty close so we decided to run up there to see the Church history area. Since it was Halloween night, the missionaries were having a pot luck Halloween dinner. The visitor center was closed but they opened it up for us and one nice gentleman took us on a tour of the Newell K. Whitney store.

 

 

The room where the school of the prophets met.

 

By the time we had finished our tour, it was near 9 p.m. I knew I didn't have any light for good pictures but was pleased with this one of the Kirtland temple. It was a nice way to finish off our vacation.

 

On the way back to the Ohio turnpike, we saw a sign for gas....$1.98/gal!!! Everywhere we went we saw "cheap" gas prices but that one beat them all! I wish I had gotten the camera out and taken a picture. It could be one of those pics of "remember when".....out here, where the oil and gas fields are, we are at $2.47.

Great, fun trip! Now we get to stay home a bit and get ready for the holidays.

Pittsburgh trip--Part One

This past week dh had another business trip to go on and invited me to tag along. Who could pass up a vacation?! Especially since it meant seeing new country. We flew into Pittsburgh and immediately found our rental car. Got on the turnpike and headed east to Gettysburg. We weren't really sure where we were going to end up but that made it even more fun for us. Years ago we had been in eastern PA and loved it so we were excited to be heading back that way. Here are some pictures of our trip. I will break it up into a couple of posts.

Boyd's Bear Country. What a sight this was when you turned the corner and saw the side of the barn!

 

 

Inside the store there were 4 stories of shopping!

 

 

This was taken outside of Boyd's but it depicts what PA looks like. Lots of rolling hills and trees. Just beautiful country!

After lunch at the Boyd's Country Restaurant, we headed to the Battlefield of Gettysburg. I highly recommend going to see this amazing area. Splurge and take the 2 hour bus tour. It really helped to know what everything was in and around the area of battle. We spent 1 1/2 days there and could have easily spent 2 more full days in the area. We had visited this area years ago but it was so much more interesting this time. I think the tour and the visitor center were amazing!

 

 

 

 

On Monday, we drove to Intercourse, PA to visit the Amish area. Monday must be wash day. It was starting to cloud up and rain but all the Amish homes had clotheslines like this one where they raised high above the ground.

 

Tuesday afternoon, we toured the Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History. Also saw the Music Hall that is so famous.

 

 

University of PA in Pittsburgh---what beautiful old buildings!

 

By the time we got back to Pittsburgh, rain had started coming down but that was not going to stop us from playing tourist. I had been searching the internet for things to see and do while in Pittsburgh and riding this incline came up. One magazine said it was #2 of beautiful sights in the U.S.A. I don't know if I would rank it that high since I have seen some beautiful country but it was breathtaking. I wished we could have seen the same view at night.

 

 

 

Beautiful Pittsburgh! You have to drive across bridges to get downtown.

 

to be continued.....