Monthly Archives: November 2010
IHOP and Mt. Vernon . . .
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So sorry that the line was longer than we thought! We will do better next time to get it right. Thank you for visiting Mount Vernon. I hope you enjoyed your time here (minus the wait time)!
Best regards,
Emily Dibella
Director of Public Affairs at Historic Mount Vernon
First off, Jan and I want to wish all our friends and family, and our many loyal readers, a Wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving. Jan and I certainly have a lot to be thankful for, and we hope you do too.
I’ve added a subscription link to the top-left of the blog so you can now get a email whenever I post a new blog. Let me know if you have any problems with it.
During the night it got real windy as the cold front started to move it a little bit. The real front will start coming in tomorrow afternoon. The high tomorrow is supposed to be 81. But the low tomorrow night is going to be 41!
A big difference of 40 degrees.
Then on Friday the temps are supposed to be 58 and 34. Hopefully winter will stay around for a while.
Jan was up early making her dishes for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. This year she’s doing her world-famous Sausage Balls and her equally famous Squash Casserole.
Tomorrow, a little after 10 we’re going to head up to our daughter Brandi’s BFF Shawna Oakley and her family’s house in Katy, TX, on the western outskirts of Houston proper.
Here Shawna is holding Landon at the restaurant after his christening a few weeks ago.
On the way we’ll stop off at Brandi’s to pick up the Honeybaked Ham and the two pumpkin pies we’re also taking. We stored them there since we didn’t have room in our fridge.
We’ve been having Thanksgiving dinner at Shawna’s for over 10 years, with a occasional Christmas and Easter thrown in for good measure.
And the first thing everyone says when we walk in the door is “Where’s the Sausage Balls?” She didn’t make them one year and there was almost a riot.
She won’t make that mistake again.
About 2:30 we drove up to Kemah to have “lupper” at IHOP, with Jan having a Soup and Sandwich, and I had breakfast.
That’s it for today. Here’s a replay of our visit to Mt. Vernon in July of 2009. I’ve included a comment at the end we got the next day from Mt. Vernon’s Director of Public Affairs. Who knew she reads our blog?
Thought for the Day:
Remember folks, it’s not really a "World War" until France surrenders.
Mt. Vernon, George Washington, but no cherry tree…
Posted on July 11, 2009
This is our last full day here in the Washington DC area, so we started it with breakfast for one last time at the Silver Diner.
After that we drove down to Mt Vernon to visit George Washington’s home on the Potomac River.
We got there about 11 am and the place was packed. They were already into overflow parking.
After watching a very good film at the Welcome Center on George Washington in the French and Indian War, and the Revolutionary War, we headed up the house itself.
And ran into a very long line.
They said it would take about 55 minutes to get into the house.
They lied. It took over 90 minutes to get in.
But in the meantime, we got to see some very old trees lining the path that were planted by George Washington.
They even have these old trees protected with lightning rods to keep them safe. Here you can see the ground wire from the lightning rod running down the tree.
Finally we got within sight of the actual house itself.
After touring the very large house (over 9000 square feet in three floors) we got to sit on the wide front porch and look out on the same river view that George Washington used to enjoy.
One interesting tidbit we learned from one of the guides during the house tour was that George and Martha must have presented a somewhat odd appearance as a couple.
George was about 6′ 3″ and Martha was 4′ 11″. Talk about ‘stooping to conquer”.
And from the big smile on her face, Jan enjoys it too.
After leaving Mount Vernon, we drove over to Alexandria, VA to eat at the Chart House restaurant on the Potomac River.
After a very good meal we headed back to the coach to get ready to leave tomorrow morning.
Comment One
Emily Dibella, on July 13, 2009 at 5:30 pm said:
Bingo Bound . . .
I’ve added a subscription link to the top-left of the blog so you can now get a email whenever I post a new blog. Let me know if you have any problems with it.
Today was the 3rd, and hopefully last, day of Jan’s migraine series so we didn’t do much of anything, but sit around the rig and enjoy the view, and coffee, of course.
About 4:30 we headed up SH 146 to Stomp’s Burger Joint to meet our friend Maria Sutton for supper. Then she and Jan were going down to La Marque to play Bingo again at the Knights of Columbus Hall
Leaving them I drove over to Kroger’s to pick up a last few things for Thanksgiving dinner preparation, and then came back to the rig.
Then, about 9:30 I drove down to La Marque to up Jan. Once again she was within just a couple of numbers of winning the big prize. Bummer!
Since today was a short day, I thought ya’ll might want to check out our visit to Halifax, Nova Scotia in September of 2009.
Titanic and Atlantic…
Posted on September 11, 2009
Today was our day to tour the Halifax, Nova Scotia area.
We had planned to get an early start, but then Jan woke up with a migraine. So she took her Imitrex and went back to bed for a while
Later, after the Imitrex had worked its magic, we went to breakfast about 10:30 am at the Finer Diner and then drove to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in downtown Halifax.
One of the things we wanted to see was the Titanic exhibit that they have. They also have an exhibit on S.S. Atlantic, a ship that went down off Nova Scotia in 1873. The 635 people who died when the Atlantic went down made it the largest loss of life until the Titanic in 1912.
They also had an interesting exhibit about the explosion of a ship in Halifax harbor that killed over 2000 people, very reminiscent of the Texas City explosion in 1947. In this case, it was a shipment of ammunition for use in WWI that blew up, rather than fertilizer, like in Texas City.
Finally leaving the museum about 2:30 pm, we were attracted by the smells coming from the Dragon King Chinese Buffet restaurant across the street and decided to give it a try.
And it was really good. Especially the Hot & Sour soup.
Leaving the restaurant, we drove around downtown Halifax for a while before taking the scenic drive down toward Peggy’s Cove. And it was certainly worth the trip.
On our way down the coast we passed St. Margaret’s Bay, a very picturesque dock area.
You can click on these pics to see a larger version
Arriving at Peggy’s Cove, we found a charming little village on the Atlantic Coast, filled with quaint little multi-colored houses.
The rocky coast is something we don’t see in Texas, but it’s always a scenic view.
And of course, the obligatory lighthouse.
With the sun setting, we headed back to the coach, stopping off at a hardware store, and driving thru a nearby gas station, scouting it out to see if we can get in and out easily in the coach.
Because fuel is so expensive here (about $3.60 a gallon vs. $2.50 in the US), I was hoping to be able to get back to the US before filling up the coach with diesel, but it will be too close for comfort. So we will probably fuel up tomorrow on our way out of Halifax.
One thing we found interesting in the area was this McDonalds complete with lighthouse.
Arriving back at the coach, we sat outside for a while and let Mister roam around for a bit and then it was in for the night.
Later…
Thought for the Day:
The reason ya’ll are so jealous is that the voices only talk to me.
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