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When I started my retirement travels in 2009, I wanted a way to share it with family and friends as it was happening. Hence, "My Travel Journal". However I realized I wouldn't always be on a trip and wondered what to do with the blog in between times. My daughter pointed out, wisely, that travels can also include trips to the kitchen to try a new recipe, trips to visit family, trips to my neighborhood Starbucks, or a fun day trip with a friend. You're welcome to join me on any of these journeys! I've set up individual pages for each of my major trips (see tabs above).

Also, I have an Etsy shop where my current needlework resides. The last pieces I posted here were in 2013! So if you'd like to see what I have accomplished recently, go to (and I apologize for having to copy and paste):

www.etsy.com/shop/thedollhouseneedle

I recently added an "Italian Word a Day" thingie which shows up at the bottom of every page. You see the word and can click to hear it pronounced. I've been enjoying it and I think my accent is improving as time goes by.

April 08, 2010

My Week With Johnny (and his week with Grammy) - Part I

It's Thursday now and our first rainy day, so it's been a nice week. We've done a lot of walking, a lot of eating, a lot of reading, and Johnny, at least, has done a lot of DS'ing (and one has to wonder if we will slowly evolve into a species that can only function electronically!)  But we've been having fun.  We've made our first batch of pasta which we used for spaghetti and meatballs.  Either today or tomorrow, we'll be making another batch for ravioli.



We've had lunch with Jamie at Tudor's Biscuits where, we all agree, they serve the best pancakes in the world.  We've discovered that it's fun to go down to Starbucks in the evening and play Crazy Eights while we nibble on a little treat.  We've watched the movie "Night at the Museum - Battle of the Smithsonian" (that may not be quite the right title).  We had our Easter dinner at Taste of Asia - Johnny with Chicken Fried Rice and me with sushi.  We've also had our obligatory pizza at Schlotzsky's Deli which was yummy good.

 This was at Schlotzsky's and we thought the decal on the table was pretty neat.  It's not a plate of cookies!

And we had one big day so far - yesterday.  It was still beautiful weather and we decided that was the day to go over to Charleston to see the Egypt exhibit at the Clay Center Museum.  We packed up a picnic lunch to eat once we got to Charleston and decided when we got there that we would eat at the Mound - one of several Indian burial mounds located in West Virginia.  Strangely enough, this one just sits in all by itself surrounded by roads and shops.  But it was a pleasant place for lunch.  And, of course, we both took pictures.


The mound doesn't have hair - those are trees at ground level behind the mound.  Apparently, this mound is about 2000 years old.  It was excavated by the Smithsonian in the late 1800's which I don't exactly understand.  Once it's been excavated, it's no longer a mound, is it?  Although, I guess they just put it all back together.  At any rate, they found 13 skeletons, one of which was that of a 7 foot tall man!














Then it was on to the museum.  The exhibit is a traveling exhibit from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  They send it to two museums each year and we got it this year.  It centers totally around the Nubian area of ancient Egypt and was quite interesting.  We weren't allowed to take pictures and Johnny was quite disappointed.  I knew how he felt after all the places I visited in Florence that didn't allow pictures!  And they didn't have any books about the exhibit in the gift shop - apparently, the Boston museum doesn't allow that.  However, they had a couple of books on display as part of the exhibit and when we got home, we went on line and ordered one.  So there!

And when we went outside, we took pictures of the two sculptures located in front of the museum.  So there again!

We made a stop at a bakery called Charleston Bread  which gives you an idea of what they specialize in - yep, the staff of life.  They have breads that are gorgeous and some cookies and rolls, croissants, etc.  No cakes, no pies, just the really good stuff.  We bought a loaf of semolina bread and a little cinnamon roll, then went over to the City Market which is still in basic hibernation mode outside, but has a couple of eating spots, a cheese and wine shop, a butcher's, etc., inside.  Got ourselves a drink and split the roll which was, of course, yummy.

After such a really pleasant and fun day, it's really sad that we ran into a traffic jam on the interstate going home that made a normal 45 minute trip into probably about a 2 hour trip.  But we made it home, cooked up some meatballs (while Johnny made the sauce, bless him), cooked our noodles and enjoyed the fruits of our labors, along with some really delicious bread to mop it all up.

Only a couple more days left to our visit but I'm ending this post and will wrap it up in a second post cause we managed to find a couple more things to take pics of. :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow! sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun. And aside from Thursday the weather has been outstanding! He sure is a nice young man with a great sense of humor! I enjoyed the pancakes very much. Hope you guys have a safe trip back tomorrow.

Love ya
J

January said...

GREAT report Mama! And I love that They Might Be Giants t-shirt he's wearing. Does that mean he listens to the cds Maggie and I got him?? That's exciting. Anyway, it sounds like you guys are having a great time and eating really tasty things. Keep on having fun!

Christopher said...

Sounds like another great visit... I never knew Charleston had burial mounds!
Tell Johnny I love his They Might Be Giants t-shirt, in that photo with the spaghetti!! :)

Mary Lynne said...

It HAS been fun - right now, we just got back from walking to Subway for lunch and are taking a brief breather before starting a batch of pasta dough.

And, yes, Johnny does listen to his TMBG CD's he says. The shirt is from a concert that I think Chris, Kathleen, Steven, and Heather, Alex and Sophia all went to see.

xo

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