More from the road...

Scenes from the road...

Home again, Home again, juggidy jug...

Well we made it home from our trip. We had a good time, although we had a change of plans while gone. We didn't make it up to NYC after all. We went to DC and did the usual sightseeing things; (ie., lots of walking). While we were there one of the Metro trains crashed, I am sure you heard about it, anyway, we decided we had enough of the city. We all wanted to go to the beach anyway, so we drove down to the Outer Banks and ended our vacation there.



When we got into the hotel near DC, Lauren, Andrew and Noah went for a swim while Megan and I went to a grocery store to get some supplies and back to Pizza Hut to pick up a pizza for supper. While out, Lauren called and said for us to come quick that Noah had fallen by the pool and hit his face and head and we were going to have to take him to the emergency room!

What a way to start a vacation. By the time we got back to the hotel, he had calmed down and we realized that he was okay except for a busted lip and a little bump over his eye...Thank God it wasn't anything more.

I use to think I would love to live in a large city. In fact, years ago, before I married, I had the chance to go to DC and work, but I chose to get married instead. And at the time Andrew was in the military and couldn't go anywhere, so I didn't go to DC to work...

Now, I don't like big cities...to many people, to much traffic...I prefer the slower, easier path. It is enough of a challenge for me to drive a few miles in afternoon traffic to get to Wal-Mart or Food Lion, I am not interested in long commutes and long traffic delays. I think that people who fight that traffic day after day probably age quicker than the rest of us do. That is just a theory of mine, I don't have research to back it up, but just country folk observation...

So when we decided to change our destination after DC, I found us a room on the beach. As we made our way south from the DC area, once we reached Newport News, Virginia, I could feel the difference in the air. I could smell the salt water. After going through the Hampton Bay Bridge tunnel, and arriving in Virginia Beach, the stress of the city was all but gone. I felt so relaxed. Driving onto the Outer Banks, where the living is easy and slow...I felt totally at ease and felt right at home...

After getting settled in at the hotel, we headed to the beach, only to find rough waters and we found out that someone had drown earlier that day, and they had not recovered the body...

While everyone else enjoyed the pool, Noah and I played in the sand and I just listened and watched the waves crashing onto the shore. Such a wonderful relaxing sound...

Megan and I rose fairly early and looked for shells along the beach and we took late evening walks after the tide came in. We came home with a bag of ocean treasures...

I was again reminded that I would love to live where I could get up every morning and walk along the shore searching for shells. I didn't take many pictures while there, I was hesitant about taking my camera out in the sand, so I only have a few to share. I did take some in DC and will be posting some of those later.

Now that we are back to the daily hum of life, I need to get up and go to the grocery store, so I will stop this post here. I will post photo's and more bout the trip another time.

Tuesday's Tidbits

Not a whole lot to blog about, or at least not a lot I feel like blogging about. I think I am in a writing slump...just haven't been moved on to write anything lately.

Trying to get ready for Lauren's arrival on Saturday. Doing a little house cleaning and rearranging so she will have a place to put her stuff.

Also planning our vacation. I am trying to find hotels and make our itinerary. We are doing a two cities tour. We are going to DC for a few days and then on up to NYC for a couple of days. Since our time is limited to only a week, we are choosing just the things that we really want to see while in both places. We aren't going to try to take it all in. So I am working our list down to a manageable amount of sightseeing.

Last week I went to the farmer's market and bought some veggies. Last night I made a wonderful tasting asparagus dish. Although it wasn't exactly the healthiest of recipes, it tasted good. I don't have any photo's but I put four pieces of bacon on the bottom of a skillet, put the washed and trimmed asparagus on top with some garlic, pepper, and sea salt on top. I drizzled some olive oil over the asparagus and covered it. I let it cook down until the asparagus was soft, ( I like it better that way). When it was finished I placed the asparagus in a casserole dish and chopped the bacon in small pieces and sprinkled across the top, added a little salt and pepper and enjoyed.

I had also purchased some leeks from the market and I made Potato and Leek soup with those. I was so good and nourishing. The only thing I will do differently next time is to puree the whole thing and eat it as a cream soup. It had such a soothing taste to it. I will definitely be having that again.

Today I am cooking some Banana Walnut Bread. I had some bananas going bad and hated to throw them away, (that is my excuse anyway!). So I found a recipe that includes crushed pineapples. I can smell it in the oven now. I am going to enjoy a little and freeze the rest until Saturday when Lauren gets here. She loves banana nut bread. That way, I don't trash my diet by eating the whole loaf today!

It is a rainy, lazy day today. I don't feel much like doing anything. I haven't done much all day.

I am still loving Curves. I injured my ankle and knee on my right side last week, and didn't go Thursday or Friday. I went back Saturday and they are closed Sunday. I didn't go yesterday because my ankle was swollen some and hurting. I guess I won't go this week, because I need my foot and knee to be okay by the weekend because we will be doing a lot of walking on our trip. Although I hate to miss this week I would rather be safe than sorry. I don't want to go to DC and NYC and not be able to enjoy the trip.

Well that is about all that is happening in my little world today. There are a few other odds and ends but nothing I want to write about anyway.

Thought For Today

A vacation is like love - anticipated with pleasure,

experienced with discomfort

and remembered with nostalgia

~unknown~

A vacation trip is one-third pleasure, fondly remembered, and two-thirds aggravation, entirely forgotten.

~Robert Brault~

Vacation: a period of travel and relaxation when you take twice the

clothes and half the money you need.

~Unknown~

It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end

~Ursula K. LeGuin~

Travel makes one modest, you see what a tiny place you

occupy in the world.

~Gustave Flaubert~

Another day in paradise...why not?

I went to Curves again yesterday evening. When Andrew got in from work, I was ready to go. I had cooked supper before hand and left it to finish. It had been the most awful day I have had in years...

When I got there I just worked all my frustrations out on those machines. I had a good work out and felt pretty good afterwards. I plan to go again this evening.

Megan's birthday is coming up soon, so I have to get to making plans...

Lauren is flying up here the end of June, so I have to get started planning our family vacation. I know with the economy like it is, we really should keep it low keyed. Maybe a trip to D.C. or even closer to home; The Outer Banks. But I am just not into it yet, to much other stuff rattling around in my head. I really don't know where everyone wants to go, so I suppose we all need to get together on some plans.

We are planning a trip back to Arkansas in August for Camp Meeting and then, Wow, by that time summer will be almost over and we will be getting ready to start school again. Time just seems to fly...We've been here for two and half months. In someways it seems much longer than that, but in other ways, time has flown by...

Well I sound like an old timer, talking about how quickly the years seem to get by...