Mountain Retreat

August 31st - Tuesday Sunny and very warm

Monday Lou and I were up early and into town to run a couple errands prior to driving to our friends home in Troy, PA, then on to Mountain Lake to spend a delightful afternoon at their country cabin on the Mountain Lake.

June had prepared a delightful lunch. She is originally from Philadelphia, the home of the "grinders"; therefore, she prepared grinders for all of us. We were also joined by another couple that had been members in SMART and had dropped out due to health problems. We had a lot of time to catch up on and the afternoon went so quickly.

We are our lunch on a screened in porch overlooking the lake with a delightful breeze flowing in on all of us. The cabin is full of antiques and history just poured from the walls, they have a scrapbook that they have kept that originated back to the first owner complete with receipts for all repairs that date back for over 100 years.

All too soon, it was time to drive back to Troy. Steve took us on a tour of the countryside of rural Troy and we ended up at their original bed and breakfast and then on to some of the newer developments in Troy. It was a wonderful day with our friends, and we left for home around 7:00 pm.

Upon arrival home, we decided to take advantage of the night air and built a fire in our outside stove and sat on the glider and talked and watched the many planes that are in our sky each and every evening.

This morning, we went back to the RV to do some last minute things in preparation for our SMART gathering at Centre Hall this weekend. We still don't have our steps or the parking brake repaired and Lou noticed a bit of a "skip" on his drive back from Morris. After some checking, he noted a crack in the manifold, so once again the RV went to Covington for a consult and it is scheduled for the installation of a new manifold for late in September. Lou's mechanic felt it was safe to drive it to Centre Hall, so the trip is still on. It certainly has put us back into the trading spirit and we spent some time on the computer looking at 2011 models.

I was able to get the lower part of our lawn cut this afternoon and cut off dead blooms on the roses and found that the bugs are about eating them up, so got them all sprayed and cut off the holly hocks and placed the seeds in a spot that would benefit from new seedlings.

We found that Lou's grandson is coming home on leave this weekend, so made several e-mails to our SMART group and have decided to postpone our departure by one day; therefore, will have a change to see this young man on Sunday after church.

Tomorrow we are going to run errands and that will allow us the rest of the week to get everything done here at home prior of our absence. Wish the weather could be a bit cooler, I do believe the calendar tells us fall is on its way and I for one am ready.

Square Dance Camp - Morris, PA

August 27th - Friday - Beautiful - Ideal weather

We left home yesterday around 2:00 pm to drive the twenty miles to Morris, PA to take part in the Canyon Square Camping Weekend. It was the perfect day to be outside and to enjoy the beautiful mountains and country breezes.

Lou was up early and went to our friends house, that is recovering from cancer, and helped he and his wife hook up their fifth wheel. They were not able to attend last year as he was receiving chemo at the time. So this year we are excited to have them in attendance. In fact they are parked right next to us.

This is a great group of people and we all have such a good time together. Yesterday, we all took our time setting up and just enjoyed chatting with one another. There were no planned activities yesterday or last evening.

We all sat outside and talked until dinner time and all back to their rigs to fix dinner. Lou and I had been cheated out of our good dinner on Wednesday, so I brought along pork chops so I fried them, cook potatoes to mash, had fresh green beans and made milk gravy along with freshly baked banana bread, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden and for dessert, I had baked a homemade chocolate-raspberry cheesecake.

After the kitchen was cleaned up and dishes done, we had friends from Middlebury Center that stopped in to chat, after they left, Lou and I settled down for the evening and enjoyed a movie that had just arrived. It was suggested by one of our SMART friends. The Bucket List, and Steve was right, it was a good movie and we both enjoyed it. We got ready for bed and both of us enjoyed our books that we had brought along.

We awoke early this morning and we were cold, it was 48 degrees outside, and I reminded Lou that he laughed at me last night when I told him I was going to turn on our electric blanket. At that point this morning, Lou turned on the heat, and it did feel darn good.

After breakfast we went into the building where we will hold the dances and decorated the tables with fresh flowers that everyone brought from home and set up the chairs for on lookers and put out games and puzzles for folks that don't want to dance. We also set up tables for a Chinese auction and used square dancing clothing.

Tonight we are all going to the "fish fry" at the hotel in Morris and we dance at 7:00 with ice cream sundaes after we finish at 10:00 pm. Saturday is full of many workshops, for square and round dancing and a pot luck dinner at 5:00 and "dressed" dancing tomorrow evening. We finish with a worship service on Sunday and a "trail away" dance following the service.

A New Project

August 25th Wednesday - Sunny with bright blue sky

We were up early this am and left for Williamsport with the RV to have the problem with the steps looked at again. As I sit in the customer waiting room, it is a puzzle for the technician, but he promised he will keep working on the problem. For those of you that don’t understand the seriousness of this problem, if the steps come out while we are traveling, this presents a huge problem for the driver, as we could catch or bump any obstruction that might present itself.

You can see from the pictures, we have started a new project. As with most projects, this came about due to a project someplace else. The project elsewhere originated as a result of my brother wanting to cement the floor in the farmhouse where Krista lives. My mother had a ceramic shop in the farmhouse prior to her death and the molds are still in the basement and Jerry told Krista and I we could have the molds if we wanted them.

Lou looked at our large barn where all of our large molds are stored and felt we could store the molds by building some new shelving. Enter our "tack room" that has a new roof, however, still leaks and as a result of this leak, the floor was rotting, so Lou thought we should take everything out of the tack room and tear out the floor and replace the flooring. Good thought, and of course, what sounded like an easy job was complicated . We found that the joices under the floor were also rotted.

Lou and I scoured through lumber we had stored and found lumber that could be sawed and made into 2x4’s . Krista's in laws were at her house helping her, as it ended up Bob and Cliff helped Lou cut the lumber up and make new joices and even stayed to help Lou get them into place. I carried boards that could be used for the new flooring from the barn to the new construction site and before we quit for the evening, they were laid into place.

My brother was good enough to bring us a hay wagon to load all of our burnables on and he hauled the wagon load to his house to be burned at a later date.

As the day ended, both of our out buildings were cleaned out and we can not progress on with screwing the floor into place, then we want to stain the floor to match the stained walls. Lou and I have decided to move all of the wood working equipment into this old tack room and now call it the Wood Shop. This will give Lou a place to do his wood working projects and we won’t have to worry about cleaning up saw dust from the ceramics.

I have to tell you a bit about this building we now call the Wood Shop. This building is over 100 years old and came from a neighbors farm about a mile away. My dad and a neighbor, Francis Spencer, used my dad’s team of horses to drag it my father’s farm in 1938. It was painted white and housed chickens, pigs, young stock and was a much loved playhouse for my brother and me.

After I moved back to Pennsylvania from Ohio, we decided we would like to have some chickens and asked Daddy if we could have the old building that was behind his barn. Well, my dad’s eyes lighted up and he said sure, and he and my now deceased husband would go to the woods and cut down some trees to use as skids and they would use the Ford tractor and skid it once again back down the field to our house.

I can remember to this day, as we were preparing the building to be moved, asking Al if he knew what we were doing and Al’s reply was “No, but your dad does and we will just do what he tells us to do” and that is exactly what we did.

The building arrived in one piece, barely, and we were delighted with our new possession and we went to work getting it ready to house some chickens and would you believe a billy goat also.

You can see from the story the old building has been many things prior to coming to our house and has housed sheep, chickens, turkeys and was once again a playhouse for our granddaughter and her friends from down the road and now this granddaughter and her friend (Michelle and Curtis are off to college as new freshman and the old building is going to be a wood shop for my new husband.

I want to make new curtains for the windows and do some sprucing up so Lou can truly enjoy his time there and we can enjoy the doing some projects together in the Wood Shop. I will try to remember to include some pictures of the completed project before the snow flies.

We have square dancing this evening and tomorrow we leave for Square Dancing Camp in Morris through Sunday afternoon. This promises to be a really fun weekend, as we camp together and have couples from other Square Dancing Club attend also. We have some meals together and of course, have some workshops and dance on Friday and Saturday night and again on Sunday after our church service.

Monday we have been invited to Mountain Lake by our friends in Troy and we are both looking forward to that and the remainder of the week will be getting ready for out nine day campout in Centre Hall the first of September. When we arrive home after that campout we will hit the ground and fly through all of the jobs that need to be completed prior to cold weather.

PS Would you believe we are back home, we were away for twelve hours, waiting on the RV repair and it is still not repaired. We have stumped the technician. They have called Workhorse regarding the brake system and Quickie regarding our steps, so we came home the same as we left with the exception we have a new fuel filter and a tank full of fresh water. Decisions - Decisions. We missed square dancing, but are still going to camp, in fact we are going to help a friend get ready in the morning before we go. Guess the grass will have to wait at each of our homes this week.

Tour of Elizabethtown College

August 20th - Friday Sunny beautiful

I was up early on Tuesday to be ready to go with Michelle and Krista for a look see at Elizabethtown College. It turned out to be a really fun day from the moment I got into Michelle's car.

We stopped at Country Cupboard for a wonderful relaxed breakfast. I enjoyed chipped beef gravy on homemade biscuits and Kris and Michelle had hash with eggs. After our breakfast we were back on the road and we arrived at the college around 11:00 am.

Michelle needed to have her car registered for campus use and that was accomplished and the all important sticker was placed on her car. We walked over the the student registration office and Michelle arranged for a complete walk through tour of the campus for all of us, which I was delighted to take. I was so excited to see everything that I really forgot to take pictures after I saw where her dorm room was going to be. I was very impressed by the total campus and really feel like they will take good care of this special girl. We even had the pleasure of meeting her RA, which will be the person on her floor that will handle any problem that comes up for her.

We had lunch in the dining room where Michelle will be having her meals. The food was wonderful and the variety was unbelievable, suitable for college students and their parents!!

After lunch we drove the few minutes to the Rite Aid where Michelle will be working 20-30 hours per week. The store is located in Hershey, and I was surprised at how quickly we arrived on site.

After filling up the car with cheaper gasoline in Hershey we started back home with the idea we would stop in Lewisburg to visit the many shops that Lou, Preston and I had visited on the weekend. I knew Krista and Michelle would enjoy that adventure. By the time we arrived there we only had a little over an hour to shop, so we took advantage of the time and we did shop.

Michelle purchased a beautiful primitive "Grandma" sign for me that I just love, perfect for our home and I immediately hung it in our hobby room over my sewing machine.

We arrived home around 7:00 pm and all were tired, but very satisfied with our day together and after hugs all around we carried in our purchases and had to tell Lou and Steve of our adventures. We brought "smoothies" home to Steve and Lou for being the good guys that held home together in our absence.

While we were away on Tuesday, Lou spent the day at the homestead cutting the grass and on Wednesday he cut part of the grass here at home and finished up on Thursday. Wednesday night was square dancing and we really had a fun night there. Next week, we pack up for the weekend of square dancing in Morris.

Tonight was Michelle's going away party at Ives Run, I really enjoyed it, as I have never been to Ives Run for a picnic. Many of her friends and family members stopped by to wish her well and to enjoy the food that Krista had prepared for us. A good time was had by all. It is going to be a very different fall without Michelle. She has even worked into a special place in Lou's heart, always greeting him with a hug and another hug as she leaves. She told him last week that he could call her granddaughter also, and talk about a man brightening up, Lou was so pleased.

Many prayers will be sent upward for Michelle and her friends as they start the next phase of their lives. God bless all of them.

Hidden Valley Camping Resort - Mifflinburg, PA

August 13, 2010

We were up early and ready to load the RV for our weekend in southern Pennsylvania with our SMART group. We had been having problems with our step retracting on our RV and had an appointment in Williamsport to have them serviced. It was raining gently when we arrived for our appointment. It took about an hour for them to assure us they had been repaired and we were on our way, with a quick stop at Mickey D's for a salad. As we traveled down the road we noticed our steps had once again come out and wouldn't retract. So much for that service call. Lou drove very carefully to avoid any obstacles that might pop up. We arrived at the campground and got set up just before it stated to rain and rain it did. I believe the total was close to two inches.

Due to the heavy rain, we did not venture out to the clubhouse, we stayed in the RV and enjoyed our books. At 8:00 it was still raining and we decided to make a quick trip into Mifflinburg to look for a place to eat. This actually w as Lou's birthday and I couldn't really think of celebrating his birthday with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, although that is my favorite sandwich. We ended up at Perkins for dinner and had a delicious dinner and for desert we split Hershey's Choc. Kiss pie that was very rich and tasty. We later found out that the SMART Club had a birthday cake for Lou, and we enjoyed it the next day.

Friday it rained most of the day and we again stayed in for the majority of the day. We did have a pot luck dinner that evening and we were able to gather with the whole group and have a good dinner and for enjoyment that evening we learned a new card game. Hand and Foot. It came easy for me, as it was very near Racehorse that I used to play with my parents and that game is close to Canasta. With Racehorse and Hand and Foot you use six decks of cards. It made for a fun evening.

Saturday morning we were around early and back to the clubhouse for a business meeting. The Pennsylvania chapter (The Keystoners) are hosting the National Smart Muster in September and we have over 120 rigs coming for the event, so as you can imagine there is much planning underway. This event takes place September 6th at Centre Hall Fair Grounds. We will be there for nine days and nights.

After the business meeting, we had lunch and were off to find a place Preston was aware of called Street of Shops in Lewisburg. There are 125 shops located in a restored historic Woolen Mill. This was a dream of a place for me. We spent three hours there and I could have stayed much longer, as we were getting ready to leave, Preston told us there was another set of shops downstairs, so I just had to see it. This was like different antique shops set up. I could not believe my good fortune to find a framed print of a picture that hung in my first grade classroom in Charleston. That picture has been a favorite of mine since then. I had never been away from my parents except, to stay with my Grandpa and Grandma, until I started school at a very tender age of five years of age. I cried for days after I started school, however, I found that the kind gentleman in this picture resembled my "daddy", so as time went by, when I missed my "mommy and daddy", I would look at this picture and it seemed that it was me in the boat with my daddy and I would do a bit better that day. As time passed I learned to love school and did up to the day I graduated.

While at the shop, I also found pieces to go into my Village collection of Pfaltzgraff. This has been a collection later in my life, I started out with Americana and Pfaltzgraff decided to make that a collector's set, and no longer make those pieces. I then purchased Heritage and gave that to my daughter and she tired of it and gave it back to me, it was a large set, service for twelve and I ended up shipping that to my son and daughter-in-law in Florida. I then purchased Folk Art and just wasn't happy with the colors, as my true love was for the Americana. Then I started picking up odds and ends of Village from Goodwill and darn, I really have grown to like that, so after Lou and I were married, we have used that and I found the complete and unchipped canister set there for only $25.00. I also found some small plates and saucers, I almost have a complete set of service for eight. I was delighted. Lou said, he could hear me on the other end of the store, and knew I had found something great. I came away feeling darn good, but we had to leave before seeing the whole area, as we had dinner reservations at The Country Cupboard at 5:00 and we still had to change.

We all had the buffet dinner special at the Country Cupboard, one of my favorite restaurants to eat at and the table chatter was just wonderful. I love to hear other travelers tell of their stories. I sat close to Bernie and Betty Brown, and they were telling me of their adventures traveling for eight months to Alaska. The evening went much to quickly.

It again rained while we were braking camp to come home and rained most of the way home. We arrived home to find that only one half inch of rain had fallen here. Much more is needed.

Today, Monday is going to be catch up day, ironing, completing the laundry and want to fix a nice dinner tonight with some fresh peaches that we purchased at a farmer's market. Tuesday, I am off to Elizabethtown with my granddaughter to see her new college. School starts soon. sss

Hand Thrown Pots

August 10th Tuesday - Hot and Humid

I mentioned in a previous post that Krista had been down to work on ceramics in our garage. The pictures above show the story.

When Lou and I went to Tyrone to help Preston with his new deck, I spotted hand thrown pots sitting by his work shop and inquired as to what they were for and Preston told me they were left over from a project that he had done for one of his sisters and then he went on to tell me if I wanted them I could have them. Well let me tell you it did not take me long to sort through them and discard the ones that were badly broken and put the rest in a plastic container for the ride back to Wellsboro.

On the way home, Lou asked me what I was going to do with all of those pots, actually 62 pots made that trip to our garage. I told him I was going to glaze the insides in clear glaze and on the outside I was going to paint each and every one with a different color, so we could see what all of the paints looked like. The reason for this is, I bought out a Ceramic business several years ago and Krista and I have been buying paint whenever we would find it some from Goodwill, some from The Salvation Army and yard sales and some we have purchased new from our supplier.

Krista likes to pour the molds, and I usually clean and do some painting, and we both load the kiln, but due the my late husband's health and then Krista's cancer we have not been able to do much in the ceramic line. I guess these little pots got Krista going, as she took it upon herself, to paint them after I had run them through the dishwasher and fired them once to remove any traces of mildew or soil. We came up with the idea of not glazing the bottom of the pots, but would give each pot a number and add that number to the jar of paint used on the sides of the pot, and take pictures of each pot with the jar of paint after they were fired the final time.

You can see the results of mostly Krista's labors and Lou's and my enjoyment in seeing the finished product. Thanks to the hand throwing of Preston, each pot is different from the other. This is a project that united two families with a product of love that can be seen.

Now we are coming up with all kinds of ideas of "what to do with the pots". I know four of them are going to have dirt added to them and I am going to plant herbs in them, so I can have my herb garden when we travel this winter.

Tobyhanna Army Depot

August 6th Friday - Sunny Beautiful day.

Lou and I were up very early and on the road to Tobyhanna Army Depot at 6:00 am. We had signed up for a day of activities and seminars for retired Armed Forces personnel. The colors were being presented at 9:00 and our goal was to arrive in time for that.

It was a beautiful drive down and we drove for a couple of hours and decided to take a break and have a quick breakfast, who has better coffee than McDonalds? Not only that we really had a good breakfast and had time to chat and enjoy the setting.

The total drive to Tobyhanna was three hours and the scenery was wonderful, as it was a beautiful day and we could see activity every place we looked, from farmers harvesting grain, so some Amish finishing their haying. Beautiful fields of corn and family gardens lush and ready for the harvest.

Upon our arrival to the base, we found huge tents set up with vendors filling the spaces. They had information on everything a retired person could ask for. Even a health clinic was in operation, checking blood sugars, blood pressure, and giving our menus for special diets. If we had been interested in a nursing home, I do believe we could have reserved a bed on the spot.

We did pick up a little information for future use regarding health benefits. The planned program was very short with their choice of speakers and we were soon dismissed to tour the base by bus and a bus ride to the cafeteria for our lunch. During lunch we were able to chat with a couple from the same town we will be camping this weekend, so that was enjoyable for us.

The seminar Lou and I decided to attend was given by a retired officer that was now an attorney. He talked and gave out information for over an hour and he covered every topic one could think of. Explained the new tax law as they will affect retired persons along with inheritance tax changes as of this year and how best to overcome the changes. I took many notes and we both found it all very interesting. Lou and I stayed after the seminar for some questions that we had and he was very gracious to answer any and all questions.

Of course, any time we visit a base, we visit the Commissary and the PX and we again saw most of the people that had been at our seminar. We picked up some things that we always try to get on base and were back on the road for home at 4:00 pm.

We drove into the sun coming down and of course, going home it was the same thing, so we stopped in Williamsport and had a very relaxing and fun time for dinner, and arrived home safely at 9:30 pm.

We had been a bit concerned about Estee, as we left her at home, as she is aging and having difficulty getting around, so we were delighted to walk in the house and find a note from Krista saying that she had been down and had been working on ceramics in our garage and she took Estee out with her and before she went home fixed Estee a special dinner, fed and loved her. It is really nice to have family close by that seem to know what needs to be done and when it should be done.

Square Dancing

August 6th - Friday Sunny and Cooler

On Wednesday night square dancing was a bit different. We started out with a picnic at 6:00 pm; however, Lou and I were not able to attend that portion of our evening. He has been working with the mechanic at our garage trying to install the new towing hitch on our new car and they have had one problem after another. This project started on Tuesday and isn't completed yet. Hopefully, today will finish up the project.

Back to square dancing, there is a group of square dancers throughout New York State that like to camp and they met at Ives Run to camp for the week and this group of retired people joined our group for an evening of dancing. Some of the square dancers belonged to groups that had closed and no longer dance on a weekly basis, others still belong to active groups. We all joined in and had a really good time. Their colors are red shirts and white pants and for summer our colors are just "casual" some of our seasoned dancers do wear the Canyon Square green shirt. We had three to four squares dancing at all times and a good time was had by all that attended.

I wished I had remembered that I had my camera with me earlier, as the pictures I snapped quickly was as we were all preparing to go home.

Yesterday, my granddaughter, Michelle called me and asked me if I would join she and her mother for lunch at the Native Bagel, I was baking at the time she called and I quickly finished up that job and went into town with them and spent a very enjoyable afternoon with the two of them. Michelle is getting excited about going off to college at the end of this month. In fact, we are planning a trip to Elizabethtown in several weeks so I can see her campus. This also should be a fun time.

Tonight is square dancing here and I need to get things cleaned up a bit before everyone arrives. We are having sundaes for our snack tonight. One of the girls have the recipe for Gus's Candy Kitchen hot fudge sauce and she is making that to bring along. For those of you that don't know about Gus, he was the gentleman that owned and operated The Candy Kitchen in Wellsboro when the majority of us were in school and what a treat it was to have $.25 to stop in at Gus's and have a hot fudge sundae and a fountain Coke. The shop is gone now as is Gus, but the memories are very vivid in all of our minds.

Garden Produce

August 2nd - Monday - Partly cloudy 85 degrees

Here we are back to Monday and back to the jobs at hand. We had to run into town to do some errands, after doing the laundry and getting it on the lines.

We had fired the kiln on Sunday so was anxious to see what everything looked like. This is a hobby that Krista and I share and with her treatments for cancer last year, she has not been up to the task at hand; however, she feels like she wants to get back at it and Lou also wants to get his hands into the task also, so Kris has poured and we are awaiting the greenware to dry enough to be cleaned.

We have been driving into Wellsboro each morning to walk and then to Lou's house to check on things there and pick up his paper and mail and with the bridge being out this takes us the majority of the morning, so by the time we return home it is lunch time and that really doesn't allow us much time to do the tasks that come with each day.

The garden is growing great and we are harvesting something each and every day. I am in need of time to do some canning of beets and green beans and want to make some pickles, also have yard work that needs to be done so every day seems full to the rim, like everyone else this time of the year.

You can see that the Kentucky Wonder Beans are just that, and we keep adding string for them to climb up. We had green beans, beets, cucumbers and summer squash for dinner last evening, and as Lou said, who needs meat with all of this; however, I fixed some fish and a baked potato for us.

Today, he is off to Mansfield to have the hitch installed on the car so we can haul the car behind the RV. He has a gentleman that will do this for him and Lou helps him do the work, so hopefully the hitch will get installed today and the wiring will wait for another day. We are planning on going to a SMART Muster next Thursday, so time in running out for that also.

I am off to cut the grass and trim off dead heads from the roses, as they are soon to bloom again. We have not been troubled by Japanese Beetles this year, for which I am thankful for.

Dinner with Friends

August 1st - Sunday - Showers off and on

Lou and I were up bright and early on Sunday and quickly did up what we needed to do as we knew we would be gone for the majority of the day.

We attended our weekly church service and due to the fact we have a bridge out between our house and our church we need to travel about 12 miles to go the normal four miles to church. Seems like we forget about that until we are about to leave, then find we must hurry once again.

Our sermon was on "stuff" that we gather here on earth and our pastor told us that she didn't think she had ever seen an U-Haul hooked to a casket, thought that was food for thought. After cleaning out several homes, after a death, I try to be very careful about the amount of "stuff" I hold on to and my new husband has a problem with the things I take to Goodwill, as he thinks I might need it sometime!! I just remind him that my kids aren't going to have the mess to sort through, if I can help them while I am alive I intend to do so. This became very clear to me after the death of my husband and after his body was removed from our home and I looked around at everything we had both worked hard to achieve and all of a sudden it no longer mattered, the one thing that did matter was what was awaiting him in Heaven and I knew God in all of His goodness had a special place prepared for him. The "stuff" no longer mattered and I went through my things at that time and gave away many things that I thought the kids and my friends would enjoy using now, not after I was gone and I am ever so glad that I did. I have seen first hand how estates, money, belongings and treasures bring out the worst in people and if I can do anything now, to prevent this from happening while I am alive I intend to do so.

After church, we drove to Lamb's Creek Inn ( a wonderful restaurant in Mansfield owned by Nell Rounsaville, a special friend of mine from Wellsboro) to meet one of our SMART couples and their son and his wife from Troy for brunch. I had not met their son and his wife, but soon found them to be as delightful as their folks. I don't know where the two hours went, but we sat and chatted the whole time, as we enjoyed all of Nell's special foods. This is a buffet that is served each Sunday and it consists of many foods for breakfast to a full dinner. The desserts are to die for and I always save extra room for them. I kidded Lou about coming back the first time with creme puffs, and his comment was he wanted to make sure he got at least one.

As we were telling each other goodbye, we walked through Nell's unique gardens and enjoyed her water displays and flowers that are so expertly maintained by her staff. It is truly an enjoyable place to visit, but do plan to stay and see all that is available.