Urban Waters

A river excursion - what a great idea! A new river to me - the Cumberland. A river I know nothing about.

So I am expecting some wildlife, bird watching, sitting out on the decks enjoying nature...

I am not expecting a sit-down meal in a huge inside dining room.

The shore slipped by outside the windows as we chatted and joked and ate.

When the very loud, kinda hokey country music show tuned up their electric guitars, I left for the quieter decks.

And discovered the skyline of Nashville off the bow.

The "wild life" we cruised by was the Hard Rock Cafe sort.

The river was narrow,

crossed and criss-crossed by all sorts of bridges.

 

I was fascinated by the structures we steamed under,

and by the hypnotic motion and sound of the bright red paddlewheel.

An unexpected pleasure - but not the only unexpected waterway on this trip.

Later in the day we visited the Opryland Hotel.

"Who wants a tour of the hotel?" asked our host.  

I thought "Tour a hotel? How interesting can that be?"  

Ha!  Shows how little I knew.

 There was another river

 and more bridges,

and a two story waterfall--

all INDOORS in giant glassed-in conservatories.

Another incredible and totally unexpected pleasure!

The unexpected weekend

I thought I knew what the first weekend in March would be like. I actually had some vague plans...

I didn't expect a trip.

Funerals can't be anticipated.

So here we are, crossing the Ohio River

heading into the hills at sunset,

and finding ourselves in the town where I grew up.

We drove down some familiar roads,

and found some familiar faces,

as we said goodbye to the last Adult who knew us as kids.

It was good to see my Li'l Brother (although we were sorry not to have longer together), and

good to see the old gang who played together on Woodland Lane so long ago.

It was a fairly serious drive back home, trying to beat the predicted storm.

Then

we arrived

to find:

SURPRISE!

Look who flew in from Philly!

Just in time for a party...

and it turned out to be a splendid party at that!

Happy Birthdays to Hoosier Kitty 

and to the wonderful Man in the Purple Hat.

It turned out to be a MUCH better weekend than I planned!

Here's to the unexpected!

Time flew by

Looking back at the weekend (and I promise this is the last post about it!) I'm thinking we really didn't have enough time...

enough time to look at everything we wanted to look at....








enough time to play guitars and
appreciate new musical discoveries...











enough time with old friends ...






enough time to explore and find treasures.













Still, what good memories we have - being with people we enjoy -






kicking off our shoes










raising a glass of smooth Irish whiskey.










We'll just have to go back again.






P.S. The print I bought is by my old art teacher, Ruth Ettling! Found it in the attic of an antique store on 14th Street in Huntington.

The old home place

I drove up through the area where I grew up while we were in Ashland yesterday. Over the Big Sandy river and into West Virginia,
past coal trains running by the road

past the little park where I worked one hot summer

past where my old elementary school building stood (the new building has two panels of stone from the old building),

up over the new bridge and up Spring Valley

and down the road to the place we used to park above our house.
This is where I lived from the time I started school until I was 9 .

The steps are still there, by the remnants of the old garage, but the steep narrow path that led down to the house is gone. We had to park up here and walk down to the house, but now there is a steep driveway up from the road in the valley and a place to park on a terrace below the house. I looked down to see the roof of the house below me. The hillside used to be so wooded that you couldn't see the house from above. The house is probably a lot lighter now. They've added on - a porch on one side, a first floor extension on the other. Bet they added a bathroom.

Several old trees remain - wonder if this is the one my dad climbed up to put a TV antenna high enough to pull in a signal over the hills?
The roads are narrower and the hills steeper than I remembered. I drove cautiously around the now-abandoned golf course where weeds are flourishing and came to the house on the other side of the valley where we lived until my senior year in high school.

The house is now home to a very nice family and very large dog.

I took their picture by the back door because this is where my family always took a picture at the end of a visit.

Road Trip

We were on the road this weekend. A familiar trip, but one we hadn't made for about five years.


We were going to Ashland for a brief visit.
For years we drove this route back "home" to see family. We drove it three or four times a year - the last year of my mother's life I drove it every month. And you know what? It really hasn't changed much.

Incoming

It is a beautiful day at the airport where we welcome the newest arrival from Germany
Glad you're here, Dr. Hausfrau!