Back in WashPA

I'm way behind with the blog even though we have done a lot since the last post and  I have been lazy about posting. A big part of that is, we are no longer traveling so we aren't doing many new things. Another reason for not traveling is that the rising Covid numbers have made us more cautious. We had one scare when we had dinner with someone who got Covid who ended up in the hospital for six days. Because of that, we were tested twice and were very happy we tested negative both times. The person who had Covid is out of the hospital and on the road to recovery. We are slowly heading back to Stuart and as I write we have had a stop in Washington, DC and are now on the Outer Banks in Buxton, NC.

We arrived in WashPA on Sunday July 25 expecting to move into a furnished apartment for eight weeks. When we opened the door, this is what we found, a totally empty apartment without even a roll of toilet paper. So the first two nights we stayed at the Hampton Inn complements of the rental company.

On Tuesday three men and a truck showed up with everything we needed for our stay. Everything including wine glasses and a corkscrew, both of which made Nancy very happy. 

The furnished apartment at the Residences @ the Street.

It proved to be an excellent location with several restaurants within walking distance, including a Primanti's. There was also a brewery and winery.  

We checked out J and D Winery where I drank wine since they did not offer beer....

...and Whitehorse Brewery where Nanc drank beer since they did not offer wine. We liked both places.

On the weekends both had music. Neither has food but you could get takeout and bring it in or get your meal from a food truck the brewery has on Fridays.

Getting together with friends and family is always at the top of our to do list when we are in WashPA. Here is Nanc with Mary Lou, who is now back in PA after living in Florida for several years. She and Jack were the ones that introduced us to Stuart our first year on the road.

Here is Nanc, her cousin Bea and her sister Judy. We had not seen Bea for many, many years so it was great spending the day getting caught up with her at her beautiful home.

Bea's garden. She lives in Pittsburgh, but loves Florida so she has palm trees in her garden. No, palms do not survive the PA winters so she buys new ones every year. We hope to see her some time in Florida.

We always look forward to seeing friends at the weekly teacher's lunch bunch gathering. Unfortunately, we only got to do a couple because of rising Covid numbers and finding restaurants with outdoor seating for large groups. Here are Nanc, Georgie, Lena, Linda, Ann Marie,Charlene, Reg, Pat, Gail, Patty, Joy, Charlie and John. 

I took in a Pirate game with Mike, Brian and Garret. We had great seats in the second row behind third base. That was the good news. The bad news, it was well over 90 degrees, so we moved into the shade. While PNC Park is one of the best in the country, the Pirates are among the worst. On this day they were once again able to claw defeat from the jaws of victory.

The section we sat in was where usher Phil Coyne spent the last few years of his life seating fans. He worked games for the Pirates 82 seasons at three different ballparks so they put up this plaque for his 100th birthday. He was there working the day the plaque went up.

We had dinner with Rick and Denise at LeoGreta. 

In addition to music at the winery and brewery, we attended the First annual Washington Jazz Social Jazz Fest. The evening started with the Dan Baker Group. We have always heard them at Al'n Rubens, but because of Covid the restaurant changed their hours and no longer has music.

The next act was Calvin Stemly, a Chicago transplant who has a degree in Ethnomusicology from Pitt. He is a great traditional jazz and R and B musician.

The feature band was Marbin, a progressive jazz and rock band. Their music was a mix of jazz with heavy metal. It was a great evening and we hope the first of many Washington Jazz Fests.

We always look forward to euchre with our old card club. Here and Nanc, Mary Lou (smiling because she won), Mike and Tim.

At table one is Sherri, Jim, Di and Georgie. Playing cards with this group is near the top of the list of what we miss about living in WashPA.

On Thursdays when we are in WashPA Mike and I get together and usually go fishing at Cross Creek Park. The deck we fish from is normally three or four feet above the water, but after two days of heavy rain it was hitting the bottom. We did catch some fish that day after we realized they were hiding under the deck. 

While Mike and I fish the ladies shop. Here are Sherri, Georgie and Di at one of their favorite stops, Neubauers in Uniontown.

Ed and Donna had a gathering at their place with a few former co-workers. Here are Karen, Donna, Ed, Linda, Georgie, Cliff, Nanc and Chuck. It was a fun get together with old friends.

Nanc's sister Judy at her new house. She moved back to Wellsburg, WV after her daughter Betsy and her family moved to Hawaii from Marietta, OH. Her house, near her sons Rick and Scott, is a very neat 1950's home that she is remodeling with decor from that era. It is a work in progress and we are looking forward to seeing it on our next trip north.

Here are Nanc, Suzann and Judy at Suzann's new she shed. It was her aunt's home that she and her sister Patty and remodeling. Turns out that once the leaves fall, Judy and Suzann will be able to see each other from their new homes. 

While we had a great time in WashPA, will did not get to do everything we had planned because of the increasing Covid numbers. We did go out to dinner with many friends and family but did not patronize places that did not follow Covid safety protocols fearing they were still super spreader sites. One thing we did do was spend a day in Pittsburgh. We did so many things that day it will have to be another post. 

As I said we are now in the Outer Banks. When we leave here we are heading to Myrtle Beach for a few days and then back to Stuart. We still plan to go to Punta Cana for a week to celebrate our anniversary at the end of October. So it looks like I will have a few more things I can blog about. 

Stay safe and healthy and

GET THE DAMN SHOT!!!!!

Heading North - St. Augustine and Lake Norman

Since leaving the Keys at the end of January 2020 we have not ventured very far from our place in Stuart other than our trip to Mexico. We sold Opus in July so on our trip north we planned on staying in hotels. When we left Stuart covid cases were around 30,000 a day but climbing. We felt traveling would be safe since we have been fully vaccinated since February. But as I write, cases have climbed to over 128,000 daily. The good news for us is, though Florida is the worst place in the country, we aren't there. 

Our plan was to drive to St. Augustine on Routes 1 and A1A thus avoiding I-95. It was much more relaxing and we got to see some beautiful beach towns. We even saw the Blue Origin buildings near Cape Canaveral a few days before Bezos went into space atop one of their rockets.

We have been to St. Augustine several times in Opus, but this was the first time we stayed close enough to be able to walk to all the local attractions. It was a short walk downtown across the Bridge of Lions where you could view the boats anchored near the shoreline. In the background is Castillo de San Marcos National Monument that we toured on an earlier visit.  

Beautiful downtown St. Augustine.

One of the many lions near the appropriately named Bridge of Lions.

On our last visit we toured Flagler College located in the old Flagler Hotel. This time we went to the Lightner Museum, the building across from the college that was formerly another Flagler hotel. The Alcazar Hotel was the second one he built here before deciding that the winters were too cold so he built another hotel further south in Palm Beach.

The museum has an eclectic collection of art and artifacts. This child mummy is in a recreated Egyptian tomb. Strange but interesting.

Part of the huge collection of glassware and pottery that includes these beer mugs. 

This stained glass window, Woman on Garden Bench, was made for H. J. Heinz in Pittsburgh.

A large part of the hotel was a spa and fitness center with steam room, sauna and this pool.

Today the pool is a cafe. The Lightner is an interesting museum and well worth a visit.

A few miles south of St. Augustine is Fort Matanzas National Monument. The first historical event here was the massacre of French shipwreck survivors by the Spanish on 1565. In 1564 Spain learned that the French had built Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River near present day Jacksonville, land claimed by Spain. In 1565 both countries sent reinforcements to Florida. When the Spanish arrived they found Fort Caroline abandon so they proceeded to the newly established St. Augustine. The French plan to attack St. Augustine was disrupted by a hurricane that carried their ships south, before wrecking them. When 130 survivors were found near the inlet, all but 16 who were Catholics or artisans were killed. Two weeks later near the same place 250 more survivors were found and met the same fate. These two events led to the inlet being called Matanzas, Spanish for slaughter.  

While waiting for the boat to the fort we took a walk to the beach along a short nature trail. All along the trail we saw many of these Golden Silk spiders. The smaller one is the male, the larger the female. The male stays on the opposite side of the web from the female until they are ready to mate. As soon as that happens she eats him to provide nutrition before the babies are born. They were neat to see and generally harmless to humans.

Fort Matanzas, really a watchtower, was built by the Spanish in 1740 - 42 to protect the inlet from British ships trying to attack St. Augustine. The fort is on Rattlesnake Island, a name that may have been used to keep people away. That said, the ranger told us you are just as likely to meet a rattler in the other part of the monument back across the inlet. 

While the fort never came under attack, today it is often under siege from many boaters. Access to the fort is on a free park service boat with ranger guides.

Nanc heading up to the watchtower for a better look.

As with all park service forts there are old cannons that would have been used mostly to discourage invaders.

Each of these poles was used in the firing of the cannons. Each had a specific job such as putting in gunpowder, packing a cannonball on top of the powder, then cleaning out the barrel for the next shot. 

A couple more cannons and the guard tower.

The whole fort is quite small and would have had only a few soldiers stationed there at any time.

This 1939 photo shows the fort after it had been reconstructed. The fort and surrounding area is well worth a visit if you are in search of a day away from the crowds in St Augustine.

We have been to St. Augustine a number of times but this time we found two or three restaurants that offered much better food than we had in the past. As you can see, Harry's is "the" place to go. This line was just to get to the hostess to put your name on the waiting list. Our overall wait was about 40 minutes, but well worth it.

While standing in line we ran into Kristen Chase Gore, a former student, and her husband Randy who were vacationing on Florida. We always say meeting people on the road is the greatest thing about traveling. Great seeing Kristen and Randy. 

Harry's served Cajun food and I'm happy to report the crawfish etouffee was wonderful.

If there is a lighthouse we will climb. Our motel was close enough that we walked to the St, Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum. There are 219 steps to get to the walkway around the 165 foot tower. It was built between 1871 and 1874 following the same plan used for the Bodie Island and Currituck lighthouses in North Carolina. 

The view looking toward the Atlantic Ocean.

The view looking toward downtown St Augustine.

There is a wooden boat exhibit where volunteers build a boat every year that is raffled off to raise money for the museum.

A model of the original lighthouse that fell into the ocean in 1880. The light keeper's house has been restored and is furnished with period pieces. There is also a special exhibit about the German U-boat attacks on US ships off the coast of Florida during WWII.

The lighthouse is another must see stop. The climb is not too bad and is worth it for the view. 

We left St. Augustine and headed to Mooresville, NC to spend a few days with my brother Rick and his wife Denise at their beautiful place on Lake Norman.

We went for a boat ride and enjoyed a dip in the water. Nanc and I both paddle boarded but we did not get a picture.

A beautiful sunset through the haze of the wildfires a couple thousand miles away. 

Something new to us that we discovered on our way north was bars offering exotic mixed drinks. There were a couple places in St. Augustine and this one at Barrel and Fork in Cornelius, NC where your drink was as much about watching the bartender preparing and mixing your drink with fresh and homemade ingredients, as it was getting to enjoy it. Yes, where there is smoke there is fire, that burned on the bar while this Old Fashioned was being made. 

As you can see it was not just a bartender mixing and serving a drink, it was a show right down to the crazy goggles.

Cheers!!!

Nanc had a Ghost of Shiloh made with bourbon, blackberries and beet shrub, fermented honey, cocchi Americano, lemon juice and aromatic bitters. It sure put a smile on her face.

Relaxing on the dock. We always enjoy our time at the lake.

We are now staying in an apartment in WashPA until September 19. Some of our plans have been disrupted because of rising covid cases, but we are having a good time in our old hometown.