Food USA

We have been on the road for one full month touring the western USA.  It has been an awesome experience and though we hate to see it end, we miss our family & friends and we have made some wonderful memories!  I have snapped nearly 1000 pictures (so thankful for digital!)  So you will may see a few of them on here over the next 6 months periodically.

But the first pics I want to share are some of the wonderful places we ate, both for atmosphere and for the food.  We tried to avoid chain restaurants altogether, and we only ate about 3 times at chains during the entire month.

 We ate dinner at this little place in the historic downtown of Van Buren, AR.  We were the only ones in the restaurant and when we walked in the hostess asked, "Are you here to drink?"

 Since there was a bar to the left of these tables in a step down room, we thought she meant did we want to sit in there or in the upper dining area.  I said, "We are here for dinner."  She asked, "What are you drinking?" and I responded hesitantly, "Water."  She then said that if we wanted a glass of wine with dinner we would need to fill out a form...  Turns out it is a dry county, so they have posted on the wall that it is a "members only club."  But to "join" the club you just will out a form with your name and address, then they give you a membership card that you bring each time.  We did sit in this area because we could sit right by the window.  And right behind my chair was this:

 I had said before we got there that I was NOT going to have dessert that night.... WELL... I gave into the coconut cream & have no regrets!

I was so excited when I saw this French bakery because I wanted my dear hubby to taste some of the delicacies our daughter and I had when he sent us to France about 14 years ago.  The restaurant was very crowded and we wanted to get ours to go so we could eat it in the park across the street in downtown Santa Fe, NM.  I specifically asked for a raspberry tart since that was the one thing we would have every opportunity we had.

I purchased this and an apricot turnover so we could share each of them.  As beautiful as this was, it was not like the ones in France.  And the turnover had a half of one dried apricot in half of the turnover and none in the other half.  It was an $8.50 "experience" for hubby since he had nothing to compare it to, and we enjoyed watching people in the park.

Now to find some clothes that I can fit into...

A House for Everyone

My sweet hubby drove me up one block and down another, slowing at each house where I said, "stop" so that I could snap a picture of it.  I was just so intrigued by the variety and number of homes in this historic district.

Ready for more?  Stay tuned.

Home Sweet Home

As I said in my last post, I am ready to share some fun things and our recent trip out west provided a whole series to share with you.  I've been in many towns/cities where we drove through the "Historic Area" and most of them have a few or several historic homes that are attractive.  But when we toured one city on our trip we hit the jackpot on historic homes: attractive, unique, and more than I've ever seen anywhere.  I'll share a few at a time and see if anyone can tell me where they are...
The first picture is a lead in to the second picture:

                                          The mailbox belongs to

                                     Did you ever see such as cute house?!

I love this one that seems to say, "Welcome, come on in."

Did I mention the diversity of the houses?

Or how colorful some are?

Or the different sizes they are?

These went on for blocks and blocks and blocks!

More next time....

Kindred Spirits

My brain has been on "blog hiatus" for the last 6 months...  I've read a lot of books, but have given up on the book reviews for now.  I was ready for something fun, and a recent trip out west gave me just the material I needed.  I have over 800 pictures from a wonderful trip (no, I won't bore you with all of them).  I plan to share some of our adventures on future blogs, but I have one that I just have to start out with.

I have enjoyed "getting to know" new friends through blogging over the last couple of years and know a few because they are friends IRL (that's "in real life" for those of you who may not know all the lingo... it took me awhile & I'm sure there are still many I don't know.)  But a few weeks ago I realized I would be in the far away state of a blogger I have followed long enough that I felt I already knew her.  I also play WordsWithFriends with her nearly every day.  Then I realized she lived in the same city of some friends we would visit, & that we would come through that town twice!  My excitement began to build, & we messaged each other back & forth to see if a meeting would work out.  We eventually set up a place, a date, and a time to meet.  As the time approached I began to have those middle school little "doubts" like, "will she like me?" "will we find something to talk about?" "will we have enough in common (I am old enough to be her mother!)?"

Well, after a 3 hour lunch my doubts were gone!  Like middle school girls, we looked at the photo (taken by my wonderful hubby who dropped me off & went off until I called him to come back) & she said, "I look old," while I said, "Wow, I need to lose weight!"
But what a wonderful time we had and I really feel like Mer is a dear friend now!  As we shared all the wonderful things God has done & is doing in our lives, He just gave me a love for this dear sister in Christ.  Though many miles separate us, though we are of a different generation, though we had never met until that day, though we are at very different stages in life, the immediate connection we made knowing that our lives are in God's hands made us kindred spirits.  What a special gift that day was!