For several years, we have used the Merlin Bird ID app to identify different birds while on our walks. This morning, I heard a different bird (from our usual robins and house sparrows), and it said it was a red-bellied woodpecker. I stepped out on the porch and quickly found the little guy on a tree in our front yard!
It has been over 8 months since we last visited Donald’s parents in person in Florida, so we decided to take a trip down after Christmas, since the holidays worked out well to allow Donald to have the most time off while using a minimum of PTO.
We didn’t put any pressure on ourselves and took our time getting out the door, but we were on the road by 10 am. Our plan for today was to head to Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, and then head towards New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia (although we weren’t sure if we would have enough time to see the park before it closed today). We fueled the car, and then fueled ourselves with lattes from Percent Coffee and McDonald’s.
Our first stop was the Boston Mill Visitor Center at Cuyahoga, our 15th National Park! It was very interesting in that this National Park seems to focus more on the industrial importance of the area between Cleveland and Akron vs. nature/geological attractions. This visitor center is built right next to the Cuyahoga river and a railroad, and we were quite surprised to see a ski resort right across the street with people skiing.
The interior of the visitor center was impressive, with large wall murals and information about the area. We stamped our Passport books and gathered some literature, but didn’t stay too long, since we had a lot to see and a long way to travel before the end of the day.
Outside of the visitor center main building, there is a viewing platform overlooking the Cuyahoga river. Our eyes were immediately drawn to the colorful mural under the overpass for the road. Just to the right, there is another cute, little bridge allowing for non-vehicle traffic to cross the river.
We then headed to Brandywine Falls. They have a nice boardwalk down to a viewing platform. Even though it was a mild day, there were some icicles clinging to the rock of the falls.
Next, we saw the Everett Road Covered Bridge. We parked in the small lot adjacent to the path leading to the bridge, and regretted it as soon as we stepped out of the car. There was some crop planted in the adjacent field that was pretty, but had quite a foul odor – no idea what it was!
We had a late lunch at Taco Bell. This was a must-stop for me, since Ohio is the only state where Taco Bell serves their Chili-Cheese burritos, which are my favorite! Thankfully, Donald indulged me and my heart was happy!
At this point, we knew that we were too far away from New River Gorge National Park to make it there before the park closed (and wanted to spend more time there), so we decided to stop for the night somewhere close to the park, and we would visit it in the morning before continuing south. We passed through the West Virginia capital of Charleston after sunset – we didn’t see a lot of the city, but did see the beautiful capitol building.
We stopped for the night in Beckley at 8 pm. We grabbed some dinner from the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru, checked into our hotel (Tru by Hilton), and ended our long, but fun-filled day.
Days off together are uncommon and special, so Donald and I like to make the most of them when we can. This Thanksgiving day, Donald woke up before me and put on the America’s Thanksgiving Parade (from Detroit). I had mentioned that watching the parade(s) in the morning was a childhood tradition (and to this day, Mom still loves to watch the parade as she gets the Thanksgiving meal started).
We were running low on groceries (I need to grocery shop more routinely), but Donald was still able to make us coffee and a cheese omelet for breakfast.
We had a slow, peaceful morning watching the parade. It was fairly bright outside with some blue skies peeking through, so we opened the door to be able to enjoy the view from the couch. Even just our storm door was pretty good at keeping the cold out, which we were thankful for since it was in the upper 30s for a high today.
We got ready and headed over to Mom & Dad’s for Thanksgiving dinner. We got to nibble on crackers and cheese spread as an appetizer — I really love the Chicken in a Biscuit crackers with the sharp cheddar spread! While we were hanging out, we upgraded Dad to YouTube Premium, so he wouldn’t have to deal with ads any more. I think it was the best present we could have gotten him!
Dinner was ready just after 4 pm. It was a pretty typical Thanksgiving meal for us: roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (although this year, the topping was a bit different – a pecan praline), low-carb Hawaiian rolls, asparagus, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, and stuffing.
After dinner, Mom washed the dishes and then read a book in the living room, Dad and Donald watched some YouTube videos of people playing guitar. A bit later, Clint, Donald and I played a round of Marvelous Heroes.
We left after midnight to head home, having filled our bellies and hearts with goodness. We are thankful for a lot of things, to be sure, but we are most thankful for the people in our lives. We hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving with friends and family as well!
Love, Jenn & Donald
The view we have all been waiting for! Our finished street view! We painted our house yellow earlier in the summer/fall and on Thursday the security door was installed. It’s a quite sturdy steel door, painted blue on the exterior and white on the interior. We also installed a new storm door with full view glass (so you can see the pretty deep blue color of the door more), and a built-in retractable screen. On those rare perfect spring/fall days where it’s warm out, but not hot enough to have the AC running, we would like to be able to open the house up to a nice cross breeze and some fresh air.
I think…. this means that we are finally ready for winter?! Pretty close to it! Donald is still feeling a bit under the weather, so once he has recovered from his cold, I’ll ask him to bring in the Christmas decorations from the garage and we will start decorating the house for the holidays!
How early do you start decorating? What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?
Love, Jenn & Donald
We had our first snow of the season today! It wasn’t too much, and it didn’t last very long, but I’m quite surprised that it waited until the third week in November! We’ve had a very mild autumn so far. This is what it looked like – just a dusting on top of the car.
Today, we had our front security door installed! It was a little bit chilly outside to have a gaping hole in the house, but we stayed in our offices and worked while Phil installed the door, and the rooms stayed fairly warm.
At this point, the door was held in place with these temporary pieces of wood, but it was starting to give us an idea of what the finished door would look like – so exciting!
And… HERE IT IS! There’s still some finishing touches left to be done (trimming off the foam that you can see on the bottom after it has set a bit), but it looks great! We’re very happy with the lever and lockset that we have selected as well! I didn’t think that the door would make that much of a difference to the feel of the living room, but I think that it looks like a whole new space! Donald is already thinking about other things we can do to update and decorate the room! (New ceiling fan? Crown moulding?)
It was a bit too dark outside once everything was finished (Grrr, Daylight Savings Time changes!), so I’ll take photos once it’s light outside again. Let us know what you think of the new door!
Love, Jenn & Donald!
Paroxysm of Giggles / Critical Mass 