Disposable Paperbacks (Tuesday Tips: Travel Edition)

We're in the midst of planning a family trip to Europe this summer, complete with a vow renewal ceremony to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. So I've been thinking a lot about how to squeeze a lot of travel into a little suitcase (or at least one that will be easy to carry on a train, store in a ship's stateroom, stuff in the trunk of a taxi, haul up stairs, cram into elevators...).

I really look forward to lots of light (no pun intended) reading on my vacations. The Queen Mary 2 has a huge, beautiful lilbrary, so I'll have plenty of books to choose from while crossing the Atlantic. But what about hotels and trains (and train stations)? Last year I had a brainstorm. Why not take along a few paperbacks from the thrift shop (50 cents apiece)? Once you're done with one, just leave it for someone else to enjoy! So I left one on the train, two in the hotel in NYC, and another on the train back to Virginia.

Library on Queen Mary 2
The shelves all have locking fronts in case they need to "batten down the
 hatches" to keep the books from falling out in rough seas!

The room curves with the shape of the ship's bow.

This year, I think I can top that. In the free bin at the YMCA Thrift Shop, I found three newer novels by popular authors! They didn't have front covers, but who cares? (I know they're not supposed to sell those, since credit for them has probably been claimed from the publisher by the retailer who couldn't sell them for some reason, but as far as I know they are allowed to give them away). So my suitcase will just keep getting lighter and more spacious, and it costs me absolutely nothing to read the entire time!

If the thrift shop or second-hand store doesn't work for you, try asking a friend to save you some as they finish with them. All it takes is a little planning ahead! Or, if it's your style, you could just buy them and still leave behind, but I never buy new paperbacks myself.

Any travel tips you'd like to share?

Weekend in Williamsburg

We had a great time in Williamsburg this weekend.

It's tradition for Madeline to have her picture taken with this big bear in the Scotland Shoppe on Duke of Gloucester Street every time we visit! We have them from when she was tiny.

They have a fabulous farmer's market on Saturdays. I grew up in peanut farming territory, but somehow had never managed to see an uprooted peanut plant! This peanut vendor from Surry had one on display. It's sort of hanging upside down- the peanuts grow underground, as the roots. One of the owners said that she gives out little seed peanuts to children when it's time to plant, and they come back to tell her they have a peanut plant growing at home. I think that is so sweet and fun.

They also grow cotton.

The perfect end to a perfect Saturday was watching to sunset over the James River.

I promise to get back to relevant blogging next week. I've just been having too much fun to let my summer end just yet!

One Last Fling!

We just returned from Williamsburg! With the first day of school (Monday) looming alarmingly near, we decided on a whim to drive down on Saturday. Williamsburg is quite familiar to us, and is only four hours away. So it shouldn't require advance planning, right? Before this week, I would've argued that it still did (what if we can't find a place to stay? what if we forget something? who will feed the cat? how long are we staying?, etc.). Guess what? Everything went perfectly. It was so-o-o-o-o liberating!

To test the concept even further, once we were there, we didn't plan each day's activities until breakfast! There's plenty to do in Colonial Williamsburg and the surrounding areas. No matter how many times you visit, there's something new to do. But the beauty of going someplace familiar is that you've seen most of it, and you can revisit your old favorites without feeling like you're missing anything. You can also spend time really relaxing by doing absolutely nothing, which is what a vacation is actually supposed to be be about! (Yes, it is...)

The result? I feel like I've had a vacation, instead of being exhausted from four days of staying up too late, getting up too early, rushing to get from place to place on a very strict schedule, eating strange food, sleeping in a strange bed, and having absolutely no time to myself! I think I can speak for all of us- we feel great!

I took the time to watch the bees and butterflies in one of the lovely colonial gardens:

We always visit the pond on the golf course at the Williamsburg Inn. For years, we have have been good friends with all the ducks, geese, catfish and large turtles that live there (everyone who feeds them is...), and have occasionally observed this blue heron (below). Well, there must be a pair of them, because this time we saw what appeared to be a baby blue heron (sorry,no picture- baby was shy). Then, at night, the frogs come out in force!

But in all my years of visiting and enjoying that fabulous pond, I had never appreciated it as a reflecting pool. Isn't this gorgeous? (And I shot these images with a Sony Cyber-Shot one-shot camera, so imagine the actual beauty which can't possibly be adequately conveyed here...)

All that and a jar of buttons, too!

We even had time to browse one of our favorite Antiques Malls, where I found this quart Ball jar full of all white, all old buttons! I can see without even dumping them out that there are lots of beautiful mother-of-pearl buttons in there, which I just happen to collect! I'm just bursting to get a chance to play with and sort all these beautiful old buttons, but it'll have to wait- hopefully not too long! (When I dump it, I'll post...)

Five Days Aboard the Queen Mary 2

On July 1 (day 1), we boarded the Queen Mary 2 from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. The cruise, called a "Fourth of July Getaway: North American Odyssey" is the same one we took last year. After doing the same thing twice I feel like I finally got to see most of the ship- it's huge! This is how huge- look at it berthed next to what appears to be a three-story building in Nova Scotia!

On day 2, we were at sea travelling towards Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada). The weather was clear and we enjoyed this view from our private balcony:

At 6:30 am on day 3, we arrived in Nova Scotia. The ship was greeted in the harbor by "Theodore", a tugboat with a big smile and a ball cap! Last year, we had a blast touring the harbor aboard Theodore.

Nova Scotia has a beautiful pier and plenty of beautiful blue water for the cruise ship tourists. 

This year, since we had previously toured Halifax and rain was threatening, we stayed within walking distance of the QM2 and enjoyed the harbor area and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

Some of the musicians playing for tips on the pier play the bagpipes. Nova Scotia, after all, means "New Scotland".


And there are lighthouses, which I absolutely adore. I took this picture last year from aboard Theodore the Tugboat. 

This part of Canada is similar to the U.S. in many ways- they speak our language and they accept our currency. But some things are different:

If I had not eaten a big breakfast on the ship, I would've definitely tried one of those McLobsters!


Day 4 was a leisurely day at sea, on the way back down the coast to Boston. We could have been there by the next morning, but then it wouldn't be a five day cruise, would it? The extra day gives you a little time to rest up and enjoyed the ship's activities. We were greeted in the morning (obviously, we missed the actual sunrise because I was not getting up that early) by this view from our balcony:

Now that's a great way to start the day! On sea days, we enjoyed bridge lessons, plays (including the Canterbury Tales), two Juilliard Jazz Orchestra concerts, two classical piano concerts, an amazing Nat King Cole tribute performer, deck games, ping pong, Scrabble at a game table overlooking the ocean, a British film, and other activities too numerous (and fun!) to mention. On formal night, we attended the Black and White Ball. I got to wear a full-length gown for the first time since prom! Some other activities we couldn't squeeze in were: swimming, dance lessons, drama classes, casino gambling, watercolor classes, computer classes, a planetarium film, and the list goes on. I should note for you here that if you are looking for waterparks, rock-climbing walls and such, a Cunard cruise is probably not for you.

And the sunset that evening was particularly gorgeous.

This would probably be a good time to mention that we ate a lot. We reserved a Queens Suite, which entitles you to eat your meals in a small restaurant called the Queens Grill, where you have your own assigned table and waitstaff, and the most delicious food you can imagine. I tried foods I've never been offered before- most I loved, a few (perhaps surprisingly) I didn't (caviar, foie gras, rare ahi tuna). But I've never eaten better food or experienced better service on land or sea! 


On day 5, we could have left the ship in Boston and didn't have to return until 11:45 pm for sailaway at midnight. However, since it was nearly 100 degrees, and since we seen a lot of Boston before, we elected just to stay on the ship! It was a great time to get some lobby shots of the ship, while so many of the other passengers were ashore.

And to enjoy one of my favorite places on the ship, the library:

After dinner, from our balcony, we enjoyed the fireworks on the Boston skyline from dusk until well after midnight as we sailed out of the harbor.

I'll admit that debarking  (a fancy word for getting off the ship) at 9 am, catching a cab to Penn Station, waiting for our train, riding the train for and hour and a half longer than expecting, and arriving home at midnight to our storm-damaged property was a bit of a letdown. But we had the time of our lives (again)! 


Thanks for reading such a long post. I wish you could've come with us!

Four Days in the Big Apple

As I mentioned in my last post, we just returned from a nine-night vacation.  Two weeks ago tomorrow, we left home at 5 am to board a train to New York City at this quaint little Amtrak station in Lynchburg, Virginia.

This beautiful moonlit view was from the lower end of New York City's Central Park (husband and daughter leaning on the fence), a very short walk from the Sherry-Netherland Hotel, where we were made to feel at home in a city where it's very difficult to feel at home if you're not "city folk".

Of course, we shopped and shopped on Madison and Fifth Avenues (window shopped, mostly), walking our legs off in 95 to 100 degree heat!

My favorite shopping excursion was to the Garment District (also called the Fashion District), where there are, block after block, fabric stores galore (apparel only, not quilting), trim and notions shops, tailor shops, and more. A highlight of the day was our visit to Mood, made famous by Project Runway. I bought two beautiful silks which I can't wait to turn into scarves of all shapes and sizes! You know you've reached the Fashion District when you see the big button:

The most beautiful place we visited was The Morgan Library. This room was the person library of J. Pierpont Morgan, who collected most of the leather books housed in this room, some of which date to the 15th century. The museum also owns a vast collections of original musical and literary manuscripts, some of which are on display here. We were hoping to see works of Jane Austen and Chopin, but they weren't included in the current exhibits. It was a thrill, however, to view personal papers of Mozart, Henry David Thoreau and others.

This volume from the 1400s, printed on vellum, is embellished with gorgeous hand-colored drawings. I couldn't help thinking that, due to our dependence on technology, our generation may never have anything this beautiful to pass along.

I think the neatest thing I saw (of course, I'm a word nut), was a draft of Noah Webster's first edition dictionary, in his own handwriting.  I believe they said it took him 23 years to complete, and was the only dictionary ever compiled by one person alone. He also learned 26 languages so that he could note the origins of the words. Incredible!

Mabzie designed her own muppet at the FAO Schwartz workshop (shown above) Below: muppet (left), puppet-maker (right).

One of our most unique meals in NYC was at Fishtail. They serve their fries in these tiny fry baskets:

As we were eating, a gentleman came to our table and introduced himself as David Burke, which meant nothing to me until he added that he was the owner of the restaurant. Which still meant nothing to me until I got home, googled him, and learned that he's a celebrity chef. Where have I been? All I know is, he serves some delicious dry roasted mussels!

Another beautiful building is the New York Public Library, built completely of marble in 1913!

I'm out of time for tonight, but I'll tell you about the second part of our trip as soon as I get a chance.

What are your NYC favorites?

Back From Vacation! Not Such a Warm Welcome Home...

We just got back from a fabulously fun nine-day vacation. I'll tell you all about it as soon as time permits, but here's a little hint, actually two since it was a two-part trip:

Days 1-4

Days 5-9

Here's a glimpse of what we returned home to on Sunday night, which is why I haven't much time to elaborate right now:

Side Yard

Front Yard (this one turned into a 3 tree pile-up)

The 3 above are our trees, and our fence, in our next door neighbors'  yard...

While we were gone, we missed a 90-mile-per-hour wind storm! I'm told I should be glad I missed it, and I am. We were fortunate that there was no significant property damage. A tree belonging to our other adjoining neighbor came to rest gently next to my sewing cottage, crushing two corners of the copper gutter and blocking the entrance, while managing to not even scratch the paint! So I do feel lucky. But between chain-sawing, carrying logs, dragging brush around (all in 90-plus degree heat), and writing checks to the arborists who must do the dangerous work of removing all the trees that are severely damaged but still standing, it looks like I'm going to be busy for the next few days.

Thanks for reading my pre-scheduled posts while I was gone. I can't wait to share with you about my vacation, and I promise- no boring, lengthy slide shows- just a few highlights!

Road Trip Essentials

Even if you're just running downtown for errands, there are certain things you seem to always need on the road:

• first aid kit (especially band-aids)
• pen and notepad
• change for parking meters
• pain relievers and other medications you may need
• feminine sanitary products
• water
• eyeglass cleaning cloth (if you wear glasses or sunglasses) 
• baby wipes for cleaning up messes or sticky hands
• hand sanitizer
• sunglasses
• sewing kit
• umbrellas 
• lint roller

Keeping these items in your car at all times will save you many expensive stops at convenience stores, where a handful of Advil or a box of tampons could cost as much as the full-size package you normally buy. And how many times have you had to buy an overpriced bottle of water just to take an aspirin (or used it as an excuse to buy a soft drink, which is even worse)?

For any trip longer than a couple of hours, we also pack:

• cell phone charger with cigarette lighter adapter
• dry snacks like granola bars, animal crackers and apples
• water bottles on a small cooler with an ice pack
• jackets (in case of nippy evenings); rain gear would probably be a good idea, too
• extra shoes (if lots of walking is involved in the day's activities and tired feet are expected)
• sunscreen (if planning to be outdoors)
• camera
• extra set of keys

Of course, we are all at least 13- the younger your children are, and the more you have of them, the longer your list will be.  Family Fun offers a helpful kid-oriented list.

Happy travels!

My Baby's Growing Up!

My baby girl turned 13 today!

She is shown here with the beautifully decorated (and delicious) birthday cake delivered to our room at the Ritz-Carlton Tyson's Corner this weekend.  I should have arranged it on the platter so you could see that the chocolate scroll is even personalized with her name.  I mentioned when making the reservation that the trip was in celebration of her special day. Upon check-in, we were granted a complimentary upgrade to their Club Level, where we enjoyed a spectacular view from the twenty-third floor, along with the privilege of spending time in their concierge lounge. She received so much special attention that she felt like a princess!  Mom and Dad felt pretty special too...  

TIP:  Mention your special occasion when making reservations at restaurants and hotels, particularly if you are a frequent guest. Our travel agent got us upgraded to the most amazing suite on our very first cruise last summer just by mentioning our anniversary. It never hurts to ask. They want to make you happy and will honor your request if they can!