West Virginia Fame

I don't how many people I know who have had the experience when traveling of telling people they're from West Virginia and people think they mean the western part of the state of Virginia!  We treat it as "sort of" a joke, but I'm sure for true WV natives, it rankles a little.

But...it's going to be difficult before too long for anybody not to know about us.  Just in the past few years, we've had our wonderful Hillbilly Hotdogs featured on the Food Network show "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives", plus they were mentioned in a travel issue of "National Geographic" magazine and even got a mention in a London newspaper!  And, of course, Jamie Oliver did his first set of the "Jamie's Kitchen" here in Huntington.  And I was just reading the latest issue of "Budget Travel" magazine recently, and they had a section on the "10 most delightful towns in the US" and right up in the number one spot was Lewisburg, WV!!  It IS a delightful town - I've been there several times and always enjoy it.  And, now last night, a young man from Logan, WV, Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., won "America's Got Talent".  I don't watch the show and only learned last week from a friend that he was one of the finalists.  When the news came on last night, that was the lead story which I thought was kind of fun.

So, look out world - West Virginia IS a state and who knows what will come next in our climb up the ladder of nationwide (and then world, no doubt) recognition!

And from my own experience, living in lots of different places, I can only say it is the friendliest state I've ever lived in and I love its hills and my Ohio River. 

Something New (and Fattening!) in Huntington!

Just a quick post to broadcast Huntington's latest new business.  It's the River and Rail Bakery located in the old C&O Railroad Station at Heritage Station.  They had their grand opening while I was out of town but I finally got there this past Saturday and oh, my...it's my kind of bakery!  To heck with cakes and pies...Kim, the owner, is concentrating on mostly bread products.  She does have some ginormous cookies, but other than that, it's scones (wonderful), muffins (tried the banana nut - wonderful), and BREAD!!!  And by bread, I mean BREAD!!!  She is open six days a week and each day she will have a lovely round loaf of whole wheat  and French baguettes along with a different specialty bread for each day of the week  When I was there Saturday, I waited until the baguettes came out of the oven (she also serves tea and coffee), then waited til mine had cooled enough to tear off a hunk and taste and I truly mean it when I say it was the best bread I've had here in the states.  Now for folks living in New York or California or all those fantastic food places, this might not be too exciting.  But to come across a loaf of bread like this here in West Virginia???  Unbelievable!  I gave one little hunk to Kim's husband there at the bakery, gave another little hunk to a neighbor, and then "forced" myself to finish off the rest before it got stale. :)

Kim gave me a list of some of the specialty breads, stipulating that it is subject to change and that she has other breads she plans to try, but that essentially, each day one of these will be available in addition to the whole wheat and baguettes:  olive bread with black olives, rosemary/pecan, sun dried tomato with parmesan, focaccio, Challah (this will be the traditional braided bread), and jalapeno/cheddar.

NOTE:  I was just there again this afternoon (Wednesday) and she's already added several more specialty breads to the list she'll choose from each day, including a rye, sourdough, a Pullman (which comes by it's name because of the perfectly cornered oblong shape of the loaf), and probably a couple of more that I'm forgetting.  And...when I was there on Saturday, I had mentioned that single people like myself might really appreciate a demi-baguette and those have now been added to the list also.  And the whole time we were there today, people were coming in for bread and the few remaining cookies.  While we were there, she brought out a pan of blueberry croissants and chocolate croissants (3 each) and I thought "oh no, I'm going to end up getting a chocolate!", but by the time my friend Brenda and I had taken a peek into the gift shop and come back out, all three chocolates were gone.  So I think the bakery is already very much appreciated.

Here are a couple of pictures.  Can't get any of the bread cause it's always sold out!

As you can see, the building itself is delightful - I love the brick walls...

And while I was there, I also went into the little gift shop next door that has been there for a while now.  But they've really fine-tuned it into a delightful gathering of West Virginia artisans' work - photos, paintings, jewelry, textiles, woodwork, etc.  And I took a couple of pictures of that also.

Both of these businesses are in the actual station, along with the Huntington Visitors' Center.  These, along with the already established business in the buildings behind the station (Crumpets and Tea Shop, Jenks Framing, a delightful antique store that I can't remember the name right now, a spa and art gallery on the lower level) all make Heritage Station a very pleasant place to visit on a pretty Saturday afternoon.

See some previous photos of the Heritage Station area at this previous post:

A final piece of advice - if you live anywhere near Huntington, come visit this bakery!

The Mighty Ohio is Making News Again!!

I walked down to the river yesterday after a neighbor told me she had heard on the news that the river is supposed to crest sometime Sunday and they might be closing the flood wall.  When I got there, the water was higher than this picture I took last winter - you could just see the top of this wall under the surface:

And, of course, I had just taken off for the river as soon as she told me and I didn't have my phone or my camera so couldn't take any pictures.  But since it's been raining pretty much forever, I figured I could still get some pictures today (Thursday).  So late this afternoon I armed myself with my camera, a raincoat with a hood and went to see what was happening.  And this is the first thing I saw:

I couldn't get in through my normal point of entry because they are, indeed, closing the flood wall.  I kind of doubt (although what do I know?) that it will end up being needed, but better safe than sorry.  As you can see from the next picture, they closed it, so far, to the 63 foot point and last I heard it was expected to crest somewhere in the high 50's.  But, WOW!!!  I've lived here 33 years and the flood wall has never been closed in that time that I know of.

And I always wondered how it all worked so the next picture gives a general idea of that.  The horizontal pieces come up from the street, I think.  I seem to remember an opening that goes across.  And then those support beams also come up from these normally covered openings in the pavement:

So it's quite a system.  Designed and installed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...

And some pictures of the current state of the river:

This is a shot pointing the same way as the one at the beginning of this post from last winter.  You can see that the wall which was partially submerged last year is totally covered now and the water has started up the steps to the entrance circle.

And this is the entrance circle and road with the partially closed flood wall in the back.  I find it all very impressive and exciting.  And exciting is probably not a good thing to admit to since I'm sure that lots of streams and small rivers are flooding all over the area, but the power of this river and the mechanics of protecting a city from its potential devastation is exciting.

This picture is looking towards the lower parking level where the boat ramp is located.  It extends from what's left of the bank on the right side to beyond that mostly submerged tree so I thought that might provide some idea of how high the river is.

And that's all the pictures for today.  There are great black clouds in the sky  although right now, looking out the windows, it doesn't appear to be raining.  Tomorrow's going to be a busier day than normal for me, but I will certainly try to get to the river and if the second opening in the flood wall is still open, see how things are developing.

Just Catching Up... (with a link to a new recipe)

My sister and I were talking this morning and trying to decide how many times and when she's visited me since I've lived downtown and we decided it was a shame I wasn't blogging back then and we could just look it up!  So, with that in mind, I'll keep on postin' - even if there aren't great events to relate.

It wasn't a great event, but yesterday my friend Jamie and I spent the day in Charleston which is always a treat.  She took the day off and I was delighted that she was willing to spend it traipsing around with me.  We had to drop off her "almost daughter-in-law" at her home in the hills up above Charleston and it's a good thing we did cause she was able to show us how to get to a little area called "the hill shops" so that when we were ready to go there later for lunch and a little shopping, we only got lost once or twice. :)

Our first stop was The Charleston Bakery, a real, honest-to-goodness bakery mostly baking bread of all sorts.  So, obviously it is a "must" every time I'm in Charleston.  They do have cookies too (which we each bought one for an after lunch treat).  I bought a loaf of light rye which I sampled last night and it's delicious.  Then today, I sliced a couple of fairly thin pieces, made my normal ham, turkey (and this time some pastrami) sandwich on that and then toasted it a little and my normal sandwich went way beyond normal.  Jamie bought a loaf of ciabatta which looked wonderful.  After that we stopped by the Capital City Market which during the warmer months into fall has lots and lots of produce outside, but even in the winter, there are a bunch of foodie type shops inside - one has only products made in West Virginia, then there's a wine and cheese shop where I bought a delicious brie that I had on my rye bread last night plus an Emmentaler that I'm going to use to make my one-person fondue one of these cold winter nights.  Then they have a market type store that has produce (including items that you don't see in the local stores here), and lots and lots of different kinds of dried beans in bulk which this time I managed to avoid buying.  There's a fish market and a meat market too and a Hall's Chocolate Store, so it's a neat place to visit - and it's right off the interstate if you're ever driving on I-64 through Charleston.

After that we drove over to what they call "Corridor G" (and I have no idea why) where there are a lot of the chain stores including a Home Goods which Jamie and I both love to wander through.  I was pretty good there, though - only bought a cute, plump, corked bottle to keep olive oil in, a real nice-smelling hand soap with olive oil in it and in a pretty pump jar, a chocolate bar that was a brand I hadn't seen and had a real pretty label (and was quite good too!) and...a jar of preserved lemons.  I've run across recipes that call for preserved lemons, including the one that I used recently for my lamb shank experiment (see Moroccan Style Lamb Shank).  I even have a recipe for making them yourself.  But here was a jar, so I bought it and now when I try using the lamb shank recipe idea with another type of meat, I'll be able to make it even more authentic.  So all that was good.

Then it was off to the hill shops where we first of all had lunch at a little market/cafe type place.  Had a very nice chicken salad sandwich on ciabatta which turned out to be the ciabatta from The Charleston Bakery!  Had a little glass of wine with it too which is a nice treat when having lunch with a friend, I think.  Poked around in a really neat boutique-y type store a couple doors down from the cafe and found some bits and pieces to buy but the stores up there are mostly for browsing when you're in my income bracket.  But fun.

We stopped off at the Charleston Town Center Mall to get a coffee and tea at Starbucks and eat our cookies and then home with lots of talk on the way.

So a very nice day it was.

A Wonderful Labor Day Weekend

Gosh, I haven't posted since August 29!  I guess I figured all I would have to say is I was looking forward to Chris coming over for Labor Day weekend!  But he got here, we had a real nice weekend (at least I did!) and now I have a little bit to report.

Chris drove over and I suggested that I meet him in Lewisburg, WV, to break up the drive but also to have lunch there and poke around in the town a little bit.  I visited there with my sister a few years back and we really enjoyed it and I figured Chris would too.  There are a number of real nice galleries with lots of beautiful art pieces and we all seem to enjoy that kind of browsing.

Lewisburg is an old, old town.  It was formally established in 1782 but a young surveyor by the name of Lewis (hmmmm) had established a camp there back in 1751 I think I read.   So there are a lot of old buildings, not necessarily that old, but old and it's really a lovely little town.  And, actually, the Presbyterian Church there is called The Old Stone Church and it is old - the inscription over the door states that the building was erected in 1706 so I guess that means it was there before the town and even before the surveyor set up camp.  I searched on line for a little more detail about the history of the town and/or the church but wasn't successful.  And, of course, I took a couple pictures of the church.  Totally didn't think to take any of the town itself until we were on the way out of it!  But here's the church with its very old cemetery.

Very plain, very simple, but pretty wonderful when you think about the fact that it's been there for 304 years!!  That's hard to believe...


So, that pretty much took care of Friday.  We had a large lunch while there and I can't remember that we did anything in particular for dinner


Saturday we hung out in the apartment for a while with me getting Chris to help me with various little camera, computer, and whatever issues.  We took a little tour of the downtown area to see what was new since his last visit (most everything really).  We visited the 842 Gallery which is a really nice gallery a group of local artists have established in one of the empty storefronts right downtown.  Their current (well, actually it came down yesterday) exhibit was really wonderful.  Two beautiful pieces of handmade furniture and lots of wall art, ceramic pieces and several items that really made me wish I wasn't quite so short of space for more "stuff".  I didn't think to take my camera with me but don't know if they would have wanted me to take pictures anyway.


We also visited the new Simply Whisk store which had opened the day before and it is delightful as I figured it would be since the woman who owns it owns the also delightful Mug and Pia shop.  I did take a couple of pictures there just because everything was so colorful although the pictures don't really do a good job of showing that.  She seems to have a little bit of everything and I love looking at kitchen stuff.  And the name is appropriate - she has all kinds of whisks, some of which I've sure never seen before!  

Lots of LeCreuset too which I kind of lust after.  Although even if I could afford one of the Dutch oven types, I don't know how I'd lift it once it was filled with a pot roast!

So, then we wandered on down the street and lo and behold, there was another new store that I hadn't even known about.  I remember seeing the name on the front - Room 2 Create - but I thought it was probably an interior decorator's shop.  We went in for a look around and it's wonderful - all kinds of beautiful, quirky, chic, etc., things for the finishing touches.  Turns out she is an interior decorator but decided to expand her business to include a retail shop.  The shop has been open since June of this year.  Can't believe I missed one! :)  I took a couple pictures of her shop also...

Well, this is pretty embarrassing - I took three pictures but no matter what I do this is the only one that uploads right side up.  I've edited the other two over and over, rotating them so they're right side up in the file and then when I upload them here, they're upside down again.  I took them with my I-phone - could it possibly be because I was holding the phone the wrong way?  I don't think so...  But, this was the nicest picture anyway and I may try and get another one tomorrow or Saturday.


Saturday evening we had a really nice dinner at Savannah's Restaurant which is within walking distance.  It's in an old house with all the various rooms set up as small dining rooms and the food is fairly upscale and good!  I suggested we just order a variety of appetizers because they all sounded pretty wonderful and seems like the older I get, the more I enjoy getting a little of this and a little of that when I'm eating out instead of one huge entree.  We had seared sea scallops, some shrimp, mushrooms stuffed with crabmeat and some cheese beignets (they used another name but that's what they were) served with a spinach and ricotta cheese ball.  Then, since we hadn't stuffed ourselves with a big entree, we felt entitled to have a delicious dessert.  Mine was this soft fudge-y "something" that they serve in a wine glass with whipped cream and a raspberry coulis.  Oh, my...


Sunday morning of course was still Starbucks even with a visitor.  And Chris bought the NYT so I got to work on their crossword puzzle for a couple of days.  Our outing for Sunday was to visit the Huntington Museum of Art which I always enjoy.  And I'm always kind of stunned at what a wonderful collection of art the museum has managed to acquire.  And, of course, they have special exhibits - not just all their own works - and we chose a good time to visit - all the exhibits were interesting and impressive (well, except for one that we agreed didn't do much for us).  They also have a pretty incredible conservatory - that was added to the museum since I've lived here - and it just gets better and better.  One man is pretty much in charge of it and has done a great job with it.  I have probably more pictures than necessary of mostly the conservatory but I think the museum is a real gem.

A view of the conservatory...and the rest will be in the conservatory.

A chocolate plant (I guess really it would be a cacao or something?)

This is a chenille plant, a totally appropriate name.

And I loved this one called a red wax ginger plant.  I didn't do it justice and it's not really very big - maybe four inches or so.

One of the many orchids.

And a miniature orchid - probably not even an inch long.

A pomegranate tree filled with fruit!

And such a pretty little white flower - very feminine somehow.

And a real stunner - a Dale Chihuly installation courtesy of a very generous museum donor.  I love this - when I'm standing in front of it, especially in the evening, I almost expect it to move - it's so alive somehow.


So, that's your tour of our museum.  If for any strange reason you're reading this and sometime find yourself anywhere near Huntington, it really is worth a visit.


Sunday evening we had dinner at Chili Willi's the local Mexican cantina that goes way beyond Taco Bell!  Our whole family has always loved it so, of course, it was on our list.


Monday all I can remember of our doings was going out to the mall.  I wanted to go to Best Buy and think about memory sticks and camera memory cards and I don't remember why I mentioned the Hobby Lobby that's out there but when I did, Chris had no idea what it was and decided we needed to go there too.  And once we got there, he decided that he would have to go up and down each row which was quite fun, actually.  Monday evening I fixed one of my spaghetti with a made-up sauce - the zucchini, the yellow squash, the olives and so on, and unfortunately I decided to try using tomato puree instead of tomato sauce and so it wasn't one of my better ones.  But it was all right and I made little bruschettas as a pre-dinner nibble with a little glass of red (getting into Italian mode...)


Tuesday was the drive back down to Lewisburg, pick up my car and me come back here and Chris go back home.  So, just a real pleasant weekend and so nice to have a visit from one of my kiddies!  That makes two this summer and it's not definite at all, but there's been a little talk about the possibility of January and Maggie coming here for Christmas!  Be still, my foolish heart.  (tee hee)

Well, if I can go on this long about 4 days in West Virginia, I imagine everyone is cringing at the thought of my upcoming three weeks in Italy.  But coming it is - I leave on September 22 and I will be posting so better rest your eyes now.

Another First in Huntington!!

Thank heavens there's a lot going on here to help these last few weeks til my trip move along!  And having my son, Chris, come this weekend for a visit will certainly help too.

But for right now, I'll report on this newest event in Huntington - 'The First Annual Diamond Teeth Mary Blues & Arts Festival".  I find "the first annual" hopeful - means they plan to do it again.  And with the nice turnout that they had, I expect they will.

Diamond Teeth Mary was born Mary McClain in Huntington, WV.  This first picture is of the plaque that they dedicated during the festival which was held at Heritage Station.  It will tell you a little of her background...

Kind of fantastic, isn't it?

Starting at 5:00 p.m., the festival presented five different blues music groups.  The first one was the Huntington Harmonica Club which I've seen performing during the free summer Thursday night concerts at Pullman Square and enjoyed their sound.  They were set up in front of Heritage Station whereas the other groups all performed on a stage behind the station.  Here they are making music...

Later I took a picture of this whole area because it's quite scenic and it was a beautiful evening...

Next on the program was John "The Blues Troll" Taylor - new to me but then I'm not in the know when it comes to the blues.  I know I like Odetta and Luther "Guitar" Junior Jackson but that's because I heard them first on Mountain Stage, a radio program out of Charleston, WV, which is aired on NPR, and ordered CD's. :)

So, here's the blues troll in action:

He was a lone performer, but he sure made a powerful noise!

Next came Maynard Chapman & Black Sedan, a Huntington group.  They were foot-stomping good...

While we're waiting for the next act (tee hee), here's a picture of the area behind the station.  The upper level is where the tea shop and frame shop I mentioned in an earlier post are located and it turned out the tea shop had some good eats for sale so I didn't need to worry about going hungry!  And, Jenks, the framer, was sitting by himself at one of their tables and since everything else was pretty much filled up, I boldly plopped myself down there and was glad to have found a familiar face to visit with.

Heritage Station really is a neat area and I'm hopeful now that the Huntington Parks and Recreation Board has taken over management, it will come back to life. 

They also had vendors located out in the street area, including three West Virginia vintners.  I only managed to have a glass from two of them - had I gone for the third one, I might not have made it home!  Here are a couple pictures of that area:

This first winery is the Wine Tree Vineyards in Vienna, WV.  Their booklet says they are West Virginia's newest winery.  They have a website at www.winetreevineyards.com if you'd like to learn more about them.  The second table is the one that I didn't get to and I'm sorry that I didn't think to at least get their name.  It doesn't seem to be on any of the information I brought home with me.  And the third table is the Vu ja De winery located in Spencer, WV with a website at www.vujadewine.com.  I'd sampled his wine previously at a wine tasting and enjoyed it then and now.  Took my glass back to the table with me and had a truly scrumptious brownie from the tea shop ladies to go with it.

After my little wandering around break, it was time for Liz Pennock and Dr. Blues who, as the program states are a "blues and boogie-woogie duo who performed and recorded with ...Diamond Teeth Mary."  And boogie-woogie is right - Liz plays the keyboard and is all over the place on it.  And, of course, rag and boogie-woogie on the piano/keyboard is one of my great loves, so I really enjoyed their set.  Here's a picture of them "gittin' down!"

There was one more performer scheduled for 9:00 p.m., but I'm afraid I didn't last that long and I think I missed a good one.  He's Nat Reese "The WV Blues Man" who is a Vandalia Award Winner and the 2009 WV Music Hall of Fame Inductee.  But having had that delicious brownie and the second glass of wine, I was ready for home.  It was a real nice evening though and I'm glad I decided to check it out.

And, before I close this, I mentioned in a previous post that I wished I had taken pictures of Hammer's Sandwich Shop and now I have, so here they are.  It's a neat place cause you go down this long, quiet hallway and then wind your way through various little table areas to the deli itself.  Quite attractive really.

This is the owner, Josh Hammer (oh-oh, now I can't remember if it's Hammer or Hammers - I'm sorry...)

And this is the largest eating area - there's another sort of outdoorsy feeling one behind that big arched window and a wee little one around the corner by the pop machine.

And that's it!  Now, it's Sunday evening, has gone back to being a little too hot today, and come this Friday, I'll be driving down/over to Lewisburg, WV to meet up with Chris for his visit.  I better get busy and clean things up a little around here!

Out and About at Home, Part II

So, we left off at the new kitchen store and the new Thai restaurant.  I keep peeking in the kitchen store door and I don't think it will be open by September 1, but it may come close.

A very exciting piece of news is that Marshall University has bought the old Stone and Thomas department store buildiing and plans to move its arts program there.  This is right across from Pullman Square (hmmm...I'm going to go see if one of my existing pictures includes it...be right back)  Yes, in fact if you look at "Out and About, Part I", the first picture for the hot dog festival that shows the Pullman Square canopy with 3 stories of another building behind it...that's the building.  It's a 6-story building and has been a really huge eyesore on this street.  The other buildings are all owned by a local physician who has made even his vacant buildings very attractive (and I think now is down to just one or two vacant - at least for first floors of them).  But this building was languishing, with huge, dirty, cracked windows looking in on first a junk-type "shop", then an empty, torn up shell - ugly in other words.  So this is really great news.  I'm sure it won't be a quick change because there will be a LOT of work to be done, but at least it's good to know it's going to happen.

I took this picture of our most recent success story one night when I was at Pullman Square.  It's the paint-your-own pottery place and business has really been booming there.  You look in the windows in the evening and there are kids, grown-ups, golden year types, men, everyone seems to love it which is great.

And here's a picture of the River Tower building about a block up from Pullman Square.  It's a beautiful building, I think and is mostly offices.  But I've always seen a small sidewalk sign when I'm up that way that advertises a sandwich shop and one day last week I decided I was finally going to investigate that.  It's called Hammer's Sandwich Shop and when you go in that lovely front door, you follow a grand marble hallway all the way to the back and there it is.  The owner is very affable, the prices are very reasonable, and the two times now that I've eaten there, it's been very tasty.

And writing about that one makes me remember I tried out another newish place - the Tea Room in Heritage Station which is located right behind the River Tower Building.  It is delightful - very much a tea shop with teapots and teacups everywhere.  They're only open for lunch on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and have a set menu, but you can kind of rearrange the menu to your liking.  I had a delicious chicken salad sandwich there and it was also very reasonably priced.  I'll try and remember to take a picture or two of the interior the next time I'm there.  Oh, and also in that same space, tucked away behind a separating wall is the frame shop of my favorite framer, Jenks, who used to own a craft store in Huntington and did his framing there.  He always lets me poke around in his various framing jobs and it's fun seeing what everyone else is getting done.  My first lunch there was because I took a postcard my grandson sent me from Paris to have framed.  I liked what it said so much on the back, that I wanted to be able to see both sides and Jenks took care of that for me.

And these last couple pictures are just pictures...I love crepe myrtle bushes - not only are they lovely, but they seem to stay in bloom forever!  I'd say it's been at least about two months now that I've been seeing them.  This isn't one of the most gorgeous, but I was there, it was there and I took a picture.

And this is just a young one enjoying the fountain at Pullman Square - the kids do love it.  This morning, I saw a little girl (probably just 3 or so,) who seemed entranced with it - had dipped her hands in and then ended up standing there sticking her tongue out waiting for the spray to hit, I guess.  Cute as a button and, of course, reminded me of my little Sophia.

So, I think that's all the news from Huntington for now.  No, wait...there's actually one more item.  Last night was the last "Picnic with the Pops" which is the Huntington Symphony Orchestra's summer program of concerts down at the riverfront.  This year, for the first time, as part of their fund-raising efforts, they had a "Symphony Stroll" where you paid $10 and got a ticket to go to five different restaurants downtown and get "little bites".  So I did that and brought all my bites back home to have with a glass of wine.  Friends and I had talked about then going to the concert but it ended up raining and finally pouring.  I read in the paper this morning that they managed to get about half-way through the concert before they had to cease and desist.  But all in all, I think it was a success.  At one of the restaurants, they told me they had 300 tickets they punched, so the idea was well received.  One of the friends who had planned on going to the concert came to my place and we took a glass of wine up on the roof cause she had never been up there.  Then when she left and I had walked her out of the building, I ran into a neighbor walking her dogs so we went back to her apartment and had a nice visit with another glass of wine.  I slept well last night! :)

To keep myself from worrying about my upcoming trip (which I start doing about this time), I'm going to work on my recipe collection.  I want to get it set up by categories and then add in some of my long-time favorite recipes.  So if you've visited my collection at some point and found anything of interest, give me a little time (between now and when I leave for Italy) and check it out again.

Out and About at Home

Well, now that my trip to Italy is only about a month away, time is beginning to drag a little.  But Huntington has been staying busy and I've been taking a few pictures here and there of events, new business, and such and will share those just to keep my blogging abilities honed and ready. :)

It's probably been about three weeks ago now that Huntington had its annual Hot Dog Festival (don't you wish you lived here?!)  It's all about hot dogs with various popular vendors including Sam's Hot Dogs, Hillbilly Hotdogs, Stewart's Hotdogs and some I've never heard of but they have hotdogs.  They also have antique cars on view and several contests including a wiener dog race which is really something to see and another one that I think is a dog looks like owner contest.  Or maybe owner looks like dog?  Which way is that supposed to work?  Anyway, people come from all around.  In fact this year's wiener dog race winner was a returning champion who has won the last three years and he's from Virginia!!  And, of course, there are various musical groups that play throughout the day, other treats to eat (funnel cakes being a big favorite - unfortunately they don't sit well with me anymore), fresh lemonade, and other goodies.  I was kind of late getting down to Pullman Square so missed the race, but enjoyed my hotdog.  I must have timed it right cause this year I got to get mine from Hillbilly Hotdogs without waiting in a loooonnnng line.  There's always a good large turnout (which my photos don't properly show - I couldn't find a good vantage point) and everyone seems to have a great time.

A family settles in to chow down.  I wanted to get a better picture of the little sweetie in the white hat but she turned her back on me just at the last minute.

The next three were taken from the second level of Pullman Square - there are two restaurants up there, both with an area to eat outside, so that was the best spot I could find.

Looking straight out...

To the left - that's the pottery painting place in the building with the white roof...

To the right...can you see the giant red shoe?  That's the entrance to a funky shoe store.

And, then as long as I was up there, I took a picture which shows the top of my building which is one block up from Pullman Square:

The scalloped looking top is where the roof garden is and you can see the top 6 floors in this picture.  My windows aren't on this side of the building.

Next on the agenda was this past weekend when Huntington hosted the annual Rib and Music Festival.  The name pretty much explains this one and it is a pretty big deal.  Bar-b-q-ers come from all around the country to compete for best ribs.  I didn't go this year cause it was SO hot, so crowded, and plus which, the admission fee is now up to $8.00, then you get in there and have to try and decide which ribs to try and by the time you're done paying for some ribs, a drink, maybe cornbread or potato salad, you've managed to rack up a fairly expensive, nowhere-to-eat-it, my-gosh-it's-hot, meal.  But fortunately for the event, that didn't deter too many people!  Since I wasn't going in, I had to get these three pictures from outside the flood wall...

This is the entrance at the floodwall gates with a strangely turquoise sky.  I took these pics with my I-phone so maybe that's the problem... And, since it's through the floodwall, that means it takes place on the banks of the Ohio which is a great location for it.

Looking in you can see the Rib King's stand.  These folks come in three or four days prior to the event cause it's a real job getting everything set up and then doing the long, slow cooking. 

And then this one is just pointing in the other direction - there are vendors here too but this side is where the stage is set up for the concerts.

While I was out that evening to get these pictures I also took the following pictures of two new businesses:

This is going to be another cooking store but I'm hopeful this one will get along better than our first one.  This shop is being opened by a woman who already has a shop called "Mug and Pia" across from Pullman Square.  It's been opened at least one year and has done very well, so hopefully, she will have the right touch with her new store "Whisk".  I certainly like the name!  She's hoping to open September 1...

And this is "Thai House", a new restaurant that has opened right beside Starbucks.  I haven't tried it yet but it has been pretty busy any evening I've happened past and I've heard good things about it.

Well, once again, I amaze myself with my own verbosity!  I've a little bit more "out and about" to share, but I also did some cooking last night that's inspired me to add a couple of recipes to my collection, so I'm going to end this post, get to work on that, and will back in touch in a couple of days.