While in the Carolinas, we roadtripped (E and S brought their temporary rental car as their car had been totaled by a tree in the hurricane) to Greenvile and visited the he Upcountry History Museum to view the traveling show Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West. My quilt, Langston Hughes: Pioneer Poet is part of that show.
Here are some photos of the museum’s interesting interior:
We headed upstairs to see the show and I discovered my quilt was on display as you first enter the exhibit!
I filmed a walk-through of the exhibit and uploaded it to YouTube (and I was so proud of myself figuring out how to add music so you wouldn’t have to just listen to my breathing!):
While I was there they museum’s Special Projects/Media Relations Director Meg Hunt came up to meet me, chat with my group (John, E, S and me) and take some photos.
Yes I am terrible at selfies…
I really appreciated her taking the time to visit with us.
Okay next post on the trip will be about our fun time at the Fall for Greenville Fall festival.
Originally we were going to visit them in Asheville (we made plans before September’s flooding disaster) and instead of canceling our trip (they are discouraging visitors to Asheville as they try to clean up from the massive damage), we decided to meet up with them in Charlotte, NC and roadtrip to Greenville, SC where my quilt Langston Hughes: Pioneer Poet was showing at the Upcountry History Museum as part of the traveling show Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West. We also decided to attend the Fall for Greenville Fall festival.
I’ll post more about those two events, but for this post I wanted to share a fun stop we made during our roadtrip – a visit to a quilt shop, Carolina Quilt Studio, where the John and E became enthralled with a computerized longarm quilting machine at the shop.
I knew S, who is an elementary school teacher and a very crafting-orientated person, would keep herself entertained wandering around the quilt shop while I looked around, but I wasn’t sure if I would be torturing the husbands if I spent too long in the shop.
Well halfway through my wander around the shop I discovered the husbands had “set up camp” around the shop’s computerized longarm quilting machine that was quilting a quilt.
They were absolutely fascinated with it and didn’t want to walk away from it. They joked that if someone gave them some chairs and a nice glass of bourbon they’d be good for a while! (After we left the shop, John and E keep talking about the “cool machine” that did the quilting and asking how much something like that costs…new career for their retirements perhaps?!?! Ha!)
In addition to the husband-hypnotizing computerized longarm quilting machine, the shop had Shop Dog that wandered about looking for pets:
I am sure if they could have provided comfy chairs and bourbons, John would have placed the dog on his lap and settled in for hours of computerized longarm quilting machine viewing!
I found a couple items at the shop – some Art Gallery Fabrics for 1/2 off in their clearance rack and then this – a bin of FREE fabric scraps where customers could take whatever they wanted:
I was well behaved and carefully curated what I was going to take – only if it was a scrap I could really see myself using in a piece in the future and only larger scrap pieces. I ended up finding some nice Art Gallery Fabrics scraps in the bin. S, who is a teacher, found some free panels to make ornaments in the bin and plans to use them for a student craft project.
The quilt shop staff were very nice and I recommend the shop if you happen to be in the Greenville, SC area!
I haven’t spent time on a beach boardwalk amusement arcade and amusement park area since I was a child growing up in Long Island, NY. I really felt like a kid again on the boardwalk!
First we went through the arcade area and John and I got into an intense game of Pacman:
Then we headed to take a ride on the famous Looff Carousel which was featured in the 1987 movie The Lost Boys (as were other parts of the Santa Crux Boardwalk):
Image credit: Wikipedia
Me trying to take a selfie while holding on to a moving carousel horse!
The boardwalk was amazing at night and my friend K and I enjoyed wandering around looking at the rides and the naughty nutritional choices (ha!) while our husbands went to go ride the famous Giant Dipper historic wooden rollercoaster.
Somewhere towards the end of our roadtrip we stopped at an amazing farmstand along the highway. We passed by miles and miles of gorgeous farmland including lots of artichoke crops.
When we got back to K and M’s home we had to spend time with their sweet Black Lab puppy who we picked up from dog camp on our way back to their house.
John got attacked with puppy love our evening back!
On our way to the airport the next day to fly back to Denver, we stopped for lunch at Fixins Soul Kitchen in the Oak Park area of Sacramento. Our friends have taken us there before and we had another exceptionally yummy meal!
We also stopped at a lovely independent bookstore around the corner, Underground Books before heading to the airport and I purchased a new tote bag.
At the airport, we saw a curious sight – a man appearing to be traveling with a doll in his backpack. I got closer to investigate on the shuttle train to our flight gate and I’ll close this post with the photos I took and you can come to your own conclusion about his travel decisions…
Thanks for reading about our adventures over these three posts!
Here is a continuation of yesterday’s post California Coast Adventure, Part Iabout our 4-day road trip with our Northern California friends K and M along the Northern and Central California Coast.
We got s kick out of the penguins at the aquarium – they were so fun to see in person (though part of me wished they were back in their native habitats wandering around…)
After the aquarium we had some delicious dumplings at Jack’s Bao:
We also stopped for a yummy ice cream sundae treat on the water:
That same day John, a golfer, got his dream and got to see Pebble Beach the world famous golf course where golf championships are held.
We had a wonderful wander around the luxury resort and even snuck a little step onto the edge of the famous golf course.
We hung out near the cafe and I whipped out the granny square crochet project (I always travel with a project!).
Catching up on sharing adventures we had this Summer and Fall.
In early September we flew to Sacramento, California and went on a spectacular 4-day road trip with our Northern California friends K and M to and along the Northern and Central California Coast. Our roadtrip included stops in:
First I have to say: California is a very beautiful state and the Northern and CentralCalifornia coasts have many breathtakingly beautiful areas! I keep thinking the Oregon and Washington coasts were the best on the Western Coast of the US but then I visit Northern and Central California coasts and WOW!
The first part of our trip involved hanging out at our friends K and M’s home outside of Sacramento and getting to know their relatively new puppy Maeve, a Black Lab. She is very sweet and very puppy (quite active):
They have a lovely home on a beautiful piece of land that backs up to the woods. I love this sign in their kitchen:
K is a quilter (I met her years ago when I lived in Washington State at a quilt retreat) and she has a cosy quilting room/studio in her home:
The first day of our roadtrip involved stops in Marina and Monterey.
Beach, ocean, blue skies, boats, delicious seafood, sea lions cuddling; and a woman drawing Mandalas in the sand.
We stayed at a lovely place (we rented an Airbnb house) in Marina for a couple nights of the trip so we had a home base for exploring the area.
In the evening we visited the Old Fisherman’s Wharfin Monterey where they were having FestaItalia, the Italian Festival.
Then it was back to the Airbnb house to head to bed after a long day one of sightseeing. More of our adventures in the next post.
Well it’s time to start catching you all up on our travels this Summer into Fall. It might justify why there’s been very little “tierneycreating” except for projects that I can take on trips!
It’s going to be in random order as I think of what adventure I want to share when I write the post. So this post I feel like sharing our trip in early August 2024 to Breckenridge, Colorado with a stop at Loveland Pass on the way where we stood on a section of the Continental Divide.
The Continental Divide extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan, and separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain into the Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, including those that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and Hudson Bay
Here we are at Loveland Pass at 11,990 feet above sea level (yes the air felt a bit thinner up there!)
It was a gorgeous day and we hiked a bit around the Continental Divide area:
We even found some patches of snow in early August!
Breckenridge, Colorado
After a couple hours at Loveland Pass we headed to Breckenridge, Colorado one of the many skiing towns of Colorado (like Vail, Telluride, Keystone, Steamboat, Aspen, etc) for an overnight visit.
Here are some photos from our time in Breckenridge:
I also found some cool old structure that were just screaming to be Black and White photos 😉
I am backdating some posts as I see my posting was sparse in October (and September) due to travel. I like having my blog be a record of my travels so I am going to catch up on sharing my Summer and Fall 2024 adventures.
In the middle of September I went to Richmond, Virginia to visit my sister while John went to Louisville, Kentucky to meet up with his friends to attend a Bourbon Festival. Below is a little photo travelogue of my trip to Richmond along with a couple photos at the end of John’s visit to Louisville.
Richmond (Tierney’s Trip)
My sister lives in Richmond but we wanted to have a “Sisters Trip” where she didn’t have to travel far (as she’s been very busy her work as a Construction Project Manager for a local University) so we rented an AirBNB place in Carytown so she could feel like she was on vacation too!
We spent a lot of time wandering around Carytownwhich is according to the tourism website:
Nestled in the heart of Richmond, Carytown is a unique shopping, dining, and entertainment district. With a focus on small, locally-owned businesses, Carytown is home to the historic Byrd Theater as well as several unique dining and boutique shopping destinations. Adjacent to the Museum District and Byrd Park, Carytown is a necessary stop for a day well spent in the city.
My sister knows how much I love independent bookstores so we stopped at a couple:
First there was Shelf Life Books which had a resident bookstore cat:
I didn’t get to pet the cat as customers were sort of lined up for cat petting. I did grab a quick photos when the cat was taking a break from endless pets:
I found a wonderful used book at this shop.
Later we visited Small Friend Records and Books, and I had a delightful wander in that shop while my sister found a cozy chair to relax in while I shopped. She was so sweet telling me to “just take your time, we are not in a hurry” (she is my kind of people!).
Although the store was called “Small Friend…” I didn’t see any “small friends” wandering about, but still it was a lovely bookstore.
We stopped for a wander around the The Jefferson Hotel to admire its historical architecture and decor; and relax a bit with a hot beverage in their lounge area.
We picked up some fun items from the gift shop including a little pewter pineapple for John who likes little cool things for his desk.
Some movie lore about The Jefferson Hotel: The classic film “Gone With the Wind” was allegedly filmed on the Jefferson Hotel staircase according to the Historic Hotels of America website.
We also visited the historic downtown Richmond, Virginia Public Library which was built in the early 1900s funded by philanthropist and steel baron Andrew Carnegie. The library sort of looks like it hasn’t been updated since the 1900s; and they had “old school” card catalogues!
My sister loves thrift store shopping like I do and we spent some time at Carytown Thrift as well as a couple other thrift shops around Richmond.
We ate at many cool places including a pizza place The Mellow Mushroom which had fun decor and 1970s vibe:
Finally here are a couple photos from an afternoon we spent lounging on a rooftop deck of a restaurant/bar in Carytown with a tropical/”Tiki Bar” theme (I do not remember the name of the place). We pretty much nested there for a couple hours and I pulled out my crochet and worked on my Sunflower Granny Square Blanket (see post Update on Sunflower Granny Square Blanket and Cool Community Garden) while we had cocktails and visited. (I always travel with a portable craft project!)
Here are some photos from John’s simultaneous trip to Louisville, Kentucky to attend a Bourbon Festival with a couple of his friends who are also Bourbon/Whiskey connoisseurs. One day they spent a couple hours at the Maker’s Mark Distillery and the photos below are from that visit.
In the first photo above, John is dipping into the famous red sealing wax a bottle of special edition Marker’s Mark Whiskey he bought at the distillery.
John also took a group of photos in Black & White on this trip for us to print out and frame for his bar area in the basement. Here is an example of one of those photos:
John and his friends stayed in a really cool Bourbon/Whiskey themed AirBNB house that I found for them (I have better AirBNB skills than John, ha!) so they were able to have a nice time visiting each evening after a day of attending the Bourbon Festival or touring distilleries. (Oh and they were smart/safe and did not rent a car, they used Ubers/Lyfts to get around so they could enjoy safely sampling at the distilleries!)
A couple months ago…not sure – from May to now has become a blur…on a Friday (John now has Fridays off work as he prepares for eventual retirement) we went wandering the RiNo Districtnear Downtown Denver.
The “RiNo District” is short for “River North Art District north of Downtown Denver”.
Google maps image
It is an amazing place to wander about on a sunny afternoon and has many eateries, shops, breweries and amazing graffiti art. It is known for it’s graffiti art on the side of buildings and I thought I would share a sampling of that art with you.
While we were we got to witness a graffiti artist working on a new piece on the side of a building:
We returned to the RiNo District last weekend while we had out of town visitors and got to see the piece completed:
While in the RiNo District during our wander a couple months ago, we stopped the Denver Central Market an amazing inside eatery with various food vendors/little restaurants to choose from.
I had a yummy seafood taco sampler with a different sauce/topping on each taco (okay don’t cringe those of you who live by/close to the ocean, I am fully aware Colorado is completely “landlocked” and the fish was frozen not fresh before they prepared it – ha!)
Later we had gelato at my favorite gelato place in Denver – Heaven Creamery. It’s not like the spiritually transcendent experience I had eating gelato in Italy the first time many years ago, but for Colorado it pretty darn good!
One of our favorite pieces of building graffiti art in the Rino District is the piece below which changes as you walk along the building. It’s difficult to capture on photo but it is such a cool effect in person!
I just love the RiNo District and look forward to returning for a wander when we have cooler Autumn weather!
As I mentioned in another recent post, I’ve had a very busy summer so far.
It feels like I’ve been traveling out town monthly since April 2024, sometimes several times a month. We are either flying somewhere to visit someone, go somewhere on a weekend getaway, or do a Colorado road trip (we’ve done at least 3 since May so far). Now we are at home for a while but we have a series of 3 different out-of-town guest visiting over the next 2 months.
Sounds insane, right? We didn’t actually plan for this, we just kept saying yes – ha!
So in early July 2024 John and I traveled to the Eastern Coast of the US to visit my brother and his family who lives outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (or “Philly” as us East Coaster call it); and went to the Bronx in New York to see a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. We also visited with my long-time blogging buddy some of you know – Claudia McGill of Claudia McGill and Her Art World who also lives outside of Philly.
In this post I share stories and photos from some of the highlights of our recent East Coast Adventures.
Trip to the Bronx to see the Yankees play at Yankee Stadium
The second day of our visit with my brother, he droves us to New York, to the Bronx to see the New York Yankees play baseball against theBoston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. This is an iconic/legendary match up (not a lot of love between these two teams) and this was John and my first visit to Yankee Stadium. My sister-in-law did not attend as it was a swelteringly hot day (nearly 100 degrees F and humid) and she decided to stay cool at home!
Here we are outside waiting on line to enter the stadium:
And here we are inside the stadium as we tried to watch the game while melting from the heat!
My brother found a place near a set of concession stands that had air conditioning (sort of) and we moved to that area to finish watching the game as we were turning into piles of sweat! John took my nephew Austin to get Yankees hat so he could be an official looking Yankees fan!
John absolutely adores my nephews (my brother and my sister each have one son) like I do and we always have a wonderful time with them.
The Yankees beat the Red Sox so there were a lot of happy New Yorker fans in the stadium!
AVisit with Claudia
On the last day of our trip before heading to the airport, my brother dropped us off at the beautiful home (filled with so much amazing art) of my long time blogging buddy, Claudia McGill of Claudia McGill and Her Art World.
John and I spent the afternoon with Claudia and her wonderful husband. She gave us a tour of their home and her studio filled with her art and inspiration.
Here is a photo of a section of her studio that was in her recent blog post, Tiny House 24!.
We got to spend a lot of time talking about art and life while sitting around her living room having tasty snacks.
If you follow her blog, you might recognize this photo of Claudia as an image similar to her inspiration for one of her sketches or paintings (by the way she had fabulous lamps in her house, they all looked like they should be in her sketches/paintings).
And as a nearly overwhelming surprise, Claudia gave me one of her Tiny Houses art pieces that she made for me! Below are photos that do not do the piece justice. She will have a future blog post with much better photos about this house:
I couldn’t fit it in my suitcase so she is mailing it to me and I cannot wait for it to arrive!
Claudia in person was just as wonderful as I imagined she would be. She is the fourth person from “bloglandia” that I’ve now met in person.
Fiber Art in the Philadelphia Airport
I love the Philadelphia Airport. It isn’t more convenient or better laid out than most airports I’ve traveled in, but it always has fantastic art exhibits. When traveling alone to Philadelphia, I’ve spent an hour or more while awaiting my flight, wandering the concourses to see the different rotating art exhibits.
They have an ongoing (for a couple years at least) exhibit of fiber art, primarily crochet as well as new pieces that have been added. Thought I would share some of those cool works:
It was an awesome trip!
Postscript
Mike was at “Dog Camp” while we were traveling and here is a photo of him with his friends playing:
John has lived in Colorado all his life and has never been on a gold mine tour. It was of course my first gold mine tour.
If you’d like to read the history of Colorado and the gold rush/gold mining, here is a link to a wonderful article – Colorado Gold Rush. Like parts of the Pacific NW where I used to live (Washington and Oregon), the hunt for gold help put Colorado on the map of the United States.
We went on an awesome tour guided by a 5th generation descendant of Colorado miners of the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine, descending down 1000 feet in a mine elevator, packed in like sardines (the tour was not for the claustrophobic).
I’m just going to now share a bunch of photos from the tour without explanation but you all can figure it out (and you can see I just had to take some Black & White photos…)
We had a blast during the tour and the tour guide demonstrated some of the historic equipment that miners used in the 19th and 20th centuries to mine for gold. We only went down to 1000 feet underground but our understanding from the tour was the full gold mine goes to 3000 feet+ down under ground! Here are a couple more photos from the tour including the awful “restroom” that miners had to use of a bucket that got emptied out by the children that worked in the mine for 50 cents a day; and the large bucket that was used to transport miners up and down the mine!
The mine is no longer used as a mine; and according to John in Colorado they no longer do underground mining in Colorado, they only do surface mining as underground mining is now too expensive.
After our mine tour, we had a car picnic in the parking lot:
Here is a view of the Cripple Creek valley that I photographed before we headed back home:
It was a great little road trip exploring more of Colorado I haven’t seen!
Well I’ve been on more summer adventures than spending time crafting, so it’s another post about my travels.
Last weekend we did a road trip to Cripple Creek, Colorado. Out of the blue we received an invitation for a free hotel room, $75 dining credit, and $75 free slot play at the new Chamonix Hotel and Casino in Cripple Creek. So we took advantage of a free-ish weekend getaway and an excuse for me to see another part of Colorado I had not yet visited.
Chamonix Hotel & Casino, image from Casino Careers website
Cripple Creek is one of the historic Colorado mining towns that were granted gaming/casino building licenses to try and revive/save the old mining towns. The other mining towns in Colorado granted this special license are Central City and Black Hawk, Colorado where John goes to play poker tournaments. Gambling is only legal in these three towns in Colorado, except for two Native American run casinos in the Four Cornersarea of Colorado.
The Roadtrip
Driving from our home to Cripple Creek we passed by some beautiful and interesting sights, some of which we had to pull the car over to see better.
Of course I had to sneak in some Black & White photography…
We came across and old abandoned under the mountain passage that we think was once used for gold mining since we were in historic gold mining country:
Cripple Creek
When we arrived in Cripple Creek, ColoradoDonkey Derby Days was going on.
“People from all over the world descend on downtown to be inspired by the town’s resident donkey herd, who roam Cripple Creek in honor of the original Cripple Creek donkeys from the town’s Gold Rush days.“
They had lots of booths/vendors set up as well as donkey exhibits and we had fun wandering about. They also had a beer garden and food court with an United States Air Force cover band playing (they were really good!) playing good blues, rock and country music in their military uniforms.
After wandering the festival for a while and then checking into the hotel, we ate a nice buffet dinner at the casino with an amazing desert bar:
We tried not to be too naughty at the desert bar, agreeing to only one trip each to that magical section of the buffet!
Okay that’s enough for today and tomorrow I will share Part II with our adventures during our first underground gold mine tour 🙂
At the end of May into the beginning of June, John and I did a 4-day road trip from Colorado to New Mexico. Our final destination before heading back home was Taos, New Mexico.
While looking for an open restaurant we stumbled upon this…Taos Adobe Quilting quilt shop!
But it was closed for the evening! Oh the torture! All I could do was stare into the window:
Oh I couldn’t wait until the next day to wander over there, and the next day I did:
I had a fun time chatting for a long time to the quilt shop owner’s son, who was headed out the next day on a major solo camping trip. He noticed my tote bag that said: “Libraries Build Communities” and being an avid reader himself, a lover of libraries, struck up a conversation with me while I was browsing. We ended up talking about books, fabric and life!
I didn’t go too crazy on my purchases from this lovely shop but I did get a little sampling of their Southwest fabrics and some other little remnants of artsy fabric.
I thought I would dive into stories from my recent travels by sharing some Black & White photos I took in Taos, New Mexico on the 3rd day of our 4-day Colorado to New Mexico roadtrip at the end of May/start of June.
Taos, New Mexico was just screaming for me to pull out my smartphone camera and take photos in B&W, with it’s adobe structures and clear blue skies punctuated with a little cloud here and there.
I’ve loved the work of the photographer Ansel Adams since I was a teenager and while much “cooler” teenagers had posters of the latest “teen idol” on their walls, I had several Ansel Adams posters. I’ve also loved the work of the painter Georgia O’Keeffe (who lived in New Mexico) since I was in my early 20’s and I used to have several Georgia O’Keeffe posters in my room when I was in college (I was fortunate to visit the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum on a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico 6 years ago, see post Creative Inspiration: Georgia O’Keeffe Museum).
Well our first tourist stop in Taos, NM was the adobe San Francisco de Asís Mission Church at the Ranchos de Taos, which was built 1813 – 1815 and was photographed by Ansel Adams AND painted by Georgia O’Keeffe!
Here is the Ansel Adams photograph “Church Taos Pueblo 1942” courtesy of fineartamerica.com:
Here is the Georgia O’Keeffe painting “Ranchos Church” courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s website:
And here are my photos:
Yup, Mr. Ansel Adams is probably rolling his eyes from the afterlife on my B&W photographs; but I had fun taking them and pretending I understood composition and all those other mystical photograph taking terms – ha!
No I didn’t attempt to paint it like Georgia O’Keeffe did!
Ok so you might notice the church Ansel Adams photographed in the 1930s looks different than the one I photographed in 2024. According to Wikipedia the church has gone through several restorations over the years (we are talking 90+ years between Mr. Adams’ photo and mine) and the article on San Francisco de Asís Mission Church verifies it was photographed by Ansel Adams and painted by Georgia O’Keeffe. (But if you discover my research is wrong, let me know in the comments.)
Here are some other B&W photos I took in Taos. I was fascinated by the old style doors; as well as the simple tree limb fences.
And finally (to end your visual torture of seeing my B&W photography attempts), when we visited the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in Taos, it looked ripe for B&W photos so here you go:
At the end of April my sister and I met up in New York City and spent a couple days together in Brooklyn, exploring the Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-stuy) neighborhoods.
I always get a kick out of the “I love NY” sculpture at La Guardia airport where I flew into from Denver:
I do love New York. Although I was born in Pittsburgh, PA, I grew up in New York State, living in Long Island and in Upstate NY. I’ve been to NYC a zillion times and I remember being 14 and taking the train with a friend all the time for the day from Long Island to NYC (I wonder if parents nowadays would let their teenage daughters do that?). I always feel like NY is my home state, it holds a special place in my heart. When my late husband Terry died, I did consider moving back to New York State and explored with my sister Tarrytown, NY on the drive back from the celebration of life with Terry’s family in Upstate NY. (For some not-light reading…me as a new widow in late 2018…about the road-trip across 7 states with my sister here is the post –Stories from the Road, Part I)
But it seemed Colorado was calling me and besides John was waiting for me in Colorado (smile).
While visiting the NYC area my sister and I stayed at an Airbnb apartment in Bed-stuy and we had these hysterical narrow and steep stairs to climb to get to our apartment. Here is my sister doing the climb (we got use to it after a while):
We spent a day at theBrooklyn Waterfront/DUMBO area shopping, checking out the Brooklyn Bridge, and enjoying delicious food.
We spent a couple days wandering around the Williamsburg Brooklyn area and found the best little tea shop (which we visited twice!) as well as a wonderful indie bookstore. We were naughty and enjoy some amazing pastries at an exquisite bakery.
We also explored the Bed-stuy neighborhood and had a wonderful breakfast at an outdoor French-style cafe as well as got to see Director Spike Lee’s original studio.
The name of this Vegan eatery in Bed-stuy made us laugh- Slutty Vegan!:
It was definitely Springtime in NYC and we enjoyed seeing lots of flowers (and lots of tulips). I also went for a walk through one of the parks in Brooklyn and ran into a woman walking two adorable miniature schnauzers on a beautiful Spring day.
One evening wandering around Williamsburg, we stopped at an Irish pub for a pint of Guinness and met this awesome Willimsburg based couple that we spent the evening chatting with and sharing a meal. They might be visiting Denver in the future and we plan to connect again.
New Yorkers are definitely my people – I connect so easily with other New Yorkers!
It was a memorable trip and I just enjoy hanging out with my sister!
I’ll close this post with a poster on someone’s window in Williamsburg that made us smile:
I did ask my dog Mike but he is not ready to start up his Presidential campaign just yet…
I spent a day at the Hard Rock Hotel wandering about and donating some money to slot machines while John was in his poker tournament.
The hotel’s decor was a tribute to Rock & Roll and when you first enter the hotel they have guitars on their doors:
The also have a guitar shaped Guitar Hotel!
Image credit: kayak.com
The hotel had an AMAZING collection of Rock & Roll memorabilia, primarily instruments (mostly guitars) and outfits that Rock & Roll icons played and wore. For those of you who love music like I do, I thought you might enjoyed some photos of their displays.
The Guitars
Here is a selection of some of the awesome guitars on display:
In case you have trouble reading the sings below the guitars in the images above, they are in order: Lenny Kravitz, Tom Petty, Geddy Lee (Rush), Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, and Nancy Wilson (of Heart).
The Clothing
Here is a sampling of some of the outfits worn by Rock & Roll icons they had on display:
The signs might be difficult to read in the image above so here are the artists attached to the clothing in each image in order: The Supremes, John Lennon (The Beatles), Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, George Michael, Keith Moon (The Who), and The Temptations.
Of course the images I share in this post do not do justice to what the guitars and clothing looked like in real life. It was amazing to see the displays of Rock & Roll history in person.
The hotel and casino was beautiful inside and I really loved this entire wall of seashells they had on display:
More on our recent trip to Florida in another post, just wanted to share a little about my visit to this hotel/casino.
Back in early January in the post 2023 Recap: A Year in “Makes” and WIPs Going Forward, I mentioned I might do a 2023 Recap of my travel in 2023. Since we are now halfway through February I decided to skip that 2023 recap, but I will share a trip I went on in early December 2023 with my sister that I didn’t post about in 2023.
So my awesome sister, who knew that December is always a challenging time for me (12/13/23 was the 5th anniversary of my late husband’s passing), came up with the idea that we should go on a “Sisters’ Trip”/do something fun in December to distract me.
She randomly selected Englewood, Florida because it is near the coast, had nice Airbnbs (she loves to stay in Airbnbs) and seemed to have a low touristy/laid back vibe. My sister loves to visit places are on not highly touristy but have a cozy vibe.
We stayed at a cottage above a garage at a house near the beach and was called “The Tree House”. The charming elderly proprietor lived on site and had decorated it in a quaint vintage “shabby chic” style with Asian influence:
The house’s garden was amazing and had a little pool as well as lots of scenic seating and wandering about areas:
And there was a garden kitty to pet:
We were able to walk everywhere including the charming downtown and only used our rental car a couple of times. One of those times was when we went on a thrift shopping excursion one day (my sister LOVES thrifting and introduced me to it years ago).
Here I am with a fantastic Marimekko purse I found for $5 at one of the thrift shops:
We visited a giant resale and flea market type of shop where we browsed for hours it seemed and ended up getting ourselves each a teddy bear as a souvenir of our fabulous time together:
It appeared to be a family run shop and we made the teenage boy running the cash register laugh when we were checking out our bear purchase, by making the bears talk to each other and him. It was fun to be so lighthearted and silly with my sister!
This sign at the shop made us laugh:
Ha!
We ate lots of seafood, as I live in a “landlocked” state and whenever I am near fresh fish, then fresh fish and I are together!
We also went to the beach and had a lovely afternoon wandering about the coastal area:
Because it was not a high touristy area we got to hang out with “the locals” and spent each morning at an awesome coffee shop walking distance from our cottage. We hung out one morning with an elderly gentleman (Englewood appears to be a large retirement community) who was from Colorado and his very friendly dog who seemed to know every other local that came into the coffee shop. We had fun chatting with people while eating our breakfast in the living room like seating area at the front of the shop:
You can see in the first photo that the dog is getting his regular “pup cup” of whipped cream.
It seemed like a wonderful and friendly place (with a super laid back vibe) plus the temperature was wonderful in early December – 60s to 70s F (16 – 21 C) – but I was attacked by a zillion mosquitos (they seem to love me) and I do not think I could live in Florida unless I walked around with a mosquito net on – ha!
I’ll close my little travelogue with a magnet that was on the refrigerator of the cottage we stayed in that made me smile!
This is Mike, the Miniature Schnauzer that lives with Tierney and John. If you are new to this blog I guest blog post time to time. It’s January 31st and Tierney has not posted on her blog since January 15th (ScrapHappy January 2024 – Update on Table Runner and More ) and I needed to intervene and jump on her laptop and write a post (even though I don’t have opposable thumbs so typing is challenging).
I need to figure out the dictation feature…
Tierney has been busy doing some purging in her crafting area and quilting table runner she discussed in her January 15th (so long ago) blog post. Also she and John have been doing some traveling and recently returned from a trip to Las Vegaswhere John was in a poker tournament (he didn’t do too bad in the tournament!)
Since I am on her laptop I was able to find a couple photos from her trip to Las Vegas to share with you including a meal they had at Hell’s Kitchen (Chef Gordon Ramsey’s famous restaurant) of the renown Beef Wellington and Sticky Toffee pudding on the menu.
But what is more exciting than their trip is the time I had at “Dog Camp” where I stay when they go out of town. “Dog Camp” is only for dog’s my size and I have a group of dog friends (like my Miniature Schnauzer friend Bandit is a regular at “Dog Camp”).
Here’s Bandit trying to manage one of the humans that run “Dog Camp”:
And here are more awesome photos of me recently at “Dog Camp” (the humans that run it take photos and send to Tierney so she knows I am having more fun that her and John while they are on vacation):
Yes I need to nap, as do my friends,after all that fun!
Well that’s all I had to share, but I am going to talk to Tierney and ask her to get caught up on her blogging friends’ posts as well as start writing her own posts again!
John’s long time friend E was our tour guide during our trip and one day he took us to an absolutely magical place – the Southern Highland Craft Guild’s The Folk Art Center.
Downstairs was an amazing craft shop with everything from handmade baskets to spectacular quilts; and upstairs was a craft museum with exhibits of new work and historical works.
I took like a thousand pictures (okay perhaps only 70 or so) but here are a couple of my favorite images of what was on display or for sale.
If you are a crafter visiting Asheville I highly recommend this place. John and E were very patient as I wandered around this magical place wanting to see everything. I think they had a good time also (E and his wife S have purchased some amazing crafts from this place for their home); or they were patient because they knew afterwards we’d be visiting another amazing Asheville, NC brewery (Asheville is known for its craft breweries!)
I love trains and I am especially fond of old locomotives!
The day started with an hour road trip to Idaho Springs and a road trip is a great excuse to stop for snacks at a roadside convenience shop in the mountains:
Those were poor nutritional choices but they were delicious!
Snacks in hand, I enjoyed the mountainous scenery and tunnels along the way:
We had lunch in the darling town of Idaho Springs at BeauJo’s Pizzaknown for it’s “Mountain Pie” a pizza with a tall/large crust with accompanying honey to dip it in.
After that tasty experience, we wandered around downtown Idaho Springs, a former mining town, window shopping and stopping at one of my favorite charity thrift shops that I always visit when I am in the area.
And there was a 50% off sale, but I was good as I didn’t really need anything, I just like to browse!
Georgetown isn’t far from Idaho Springs, so a short drive and we were there:
From the parking lot you can see the train:
Waiting at the station for it to arrive:
We sat right behind the locomotive engine so we had a great view. Here are photos from the train ride:
We stopped at another station for a gift shop and bathroom break and I realized just how high above sea level were were!
My favorite part of the train ride was listing to this – so awesome!
And here is video I found on YouTube by a self proclaimed “train nerd” that provides a nice overview of the experience with history (we didn’t do the optional mine tour this time):
What? Two tierneycreates Beastie guest blog posts in a row? No actually I am sort of cheating – this is a re-post from October 2022. Since it is the tierneycreates blog’s 10th anniversary in October 2023, I’ve challenged myself to post everyday (or shall I say “torture you all everyday to another post”) and I thought I would pepper in some re-postings during this anniversary month of some favorite posts (yep, that’s my excuse for not doing new posts everyday, ha!).
This post is a very special memory from my first trip to Ireland with John, our friends K and M, and our Beasties! Plus we got to meet M’s new Beastie – “Matty” Beastie; and of course meet Helen of Crawcrafts Beasties who made all the Beasties happen!
Please see the “Postscript” section of this post for a special dedication.
Guest Blog Post: Beasties Return to Ireland! (October 11, 2022 re-post)
This is tierneycreates Beastie guest blog posting (if you are new to this blog, my story is on this post – I’m A Monster!!! and you can see all my posts at this link: Beastie Adventures).
You haven’t heard from Tierney or myself in a while as we’ve been in Ireland!
Tierney, John, John Beastie and I recently returned from Ireland and I got to see my maker Helen of Crawcraft Beasties & Knit with Helen; and Tierney got to meet Helen in person for the first time!
We had lots of adventures in Ireland visiting cities such as Dublin, Galway, Doolin, etc. I told Tierney I would get the blog posts on our trip started as she is still rather jet lagged.
Here I am trying to write this blog post (sitting at my desk that John built me, see post Guest Blogger: A Desk for Me!) while my dog Mikelet is trying to get attention from me as he missed me on my long trip (we did not take him for fear he might get misplaced during the trip).
We visited Ireland with Tierney and John’s friends K and M who visit Ireland a couple times a year. K’s family is from Ireland and she still has family there and M who is part Irish, is well versed in Irish culture and history.
K also knows Helen as she has been working with Helen to get her husband M his very own Beastie!
John Beastie, Tierney, K and I met up with Helen and visited a pub for a Beastie reunion with Helen. Here are a couple photos of our initial reunion, I could not decide which one I like best of my awesome maker so I included them all!
She was pretty pleased to see us again as she sends her Beasties out all over the world and rarely gets to see them in person again once they’ve traveled across the ocean!
After the pub, we all headed to Helen’s studio for a little tour of her studio, to meet the new Beastie for K’s husband M, and to take a little knitting class (Helen is a professional knitting instructor) to learn how to knit cables (which scare K and Tierney).
This is Helen’s new studio and although John Beastie and I were not “born” here but it was awesome to be in a place where our fellow Beasties are now “born”:
Here is a little photo tour of Helen’s bright and cheery studio:
After a little studio tour, it was time to meet “Matty Beastie” (and his dog Riley) the new Beastie Helen made for K’s husband M:
Matty Beastie comes with his dog Riley the Chocolate Lab (to see the Canine Riley check out the post Loved (or mugged) by a Lab, Tierney is Riley’s “Dog Godmother”), a pint of Guinness, as well as his PJs (if he gets tired of wearing his jeans) and his famous slippers.
Helen brilliantly added a magnet to Matty Beastie’s chest so he could hold up his pint of Guinness:
John Beastie and I took a group photo with our new friend Matty Beastie who we would now be touring Ireland with:
As you can see I was not sure where to look during the photo as Helen was also taking a photo of our group at the same time.
We got distracted during the photoshoot and Riley ended up sampling some of Matty Beastie’s Guinness!
I did take Matty Beastie aside and give him some tips on managing humans and how to get away with things right under their noses…
While John Beastie and I visited with our new friend, the humans Helen, K and Tierney) had a cable knitting class. Below is a photo of the class sample and a photo of Tierney clumsily trying to knit her first cable (she won’t be whipping out a new Aran sweater for me anytime soon…).
I am sure Tierney will do a post about it whenever she finishes that headband.
After the knitting class, we headed back out to a pub (the humans visited a lot of pubs while in Ireland) to meet up with human John and human M so he could be surprised with his new Beastie!
John Beastie and I watched with anticipation while M excitedly unboxed his new Beastie:
Matty Beastie was a hit with M and John Beastie had raise a pint to toast the newest member of our US based Beastie family!
Sláinte!
More stories to come on our Ireland adventures. Tierney asked me to include this photo as proof that she and human John really did come on the trip:
I am also including this photo – Tierney captured in a moment of pure joy hanging out with my maker Helen in person for the first time:
image courtesy of K.
POSTSCRIPT
This post is dedicated to Riley (2019 – 2023). The pup that “Matty Beastie” had with him was based on the real life Riley, see post Loved (or mugged) by a Lab. Riley suddenly passed in the summer of 2023 from an unknown illness.
Many hearts were broken including of course K and M who were absolutely devastated.
They do have a new lab puppy which I featured in this post Bag to Celebrate a New Lab!, and their hearts are slowly healing.
John got to meet Riley in 2021 when we visited K and M in California:
Riley giving John lots of kisses
I met Riley in 2019.
Riley was my “dog goddaughter” and I first met her as a puppy a couple days after they adopted her and a couple months after my husband Terry had just died, when visiting K and M in California. Snuggling with their new puppy very comforting and healing:
Riley was not my dog but she and I had a special connection. I miss you Riley.
I love sushi but I rarely eat raw fish sushi, just the sushi rolls with smoked or cooked fish; or vegetarian rolls. Well while in Montréal we discovered VEGAN SUSHI! One night we had dinner at Bloom Sushi and it was the best sushi I’ve ever eaten!
We sort of gorged ourselves on vegan sushi – the flavors were so amazing. (When I returned to Denver I found a vegan sushi place and John and I have since eaten there in downtown Denver twice. Who knew vegan sushi could be so delicious?)
If you are ever in Montréal I highly recommend Bloom Sushi even if you think it sounds weird to eat vegan sushi. In addition to the exquisite food the service was impeccable and the atmosphere was very zen, warm and inviting. My sister and I did not want to leave the place but it was eventually closing for the evening, ha!
NOTRE-DAME BASILICA
One morning we toured the breathtaking Notre-Dame Basilica and here are some of crazy amount of photos I took while we were inside:
Photos do not do it justice, so here is a video walk through I found on YouTube if you’d like to see more. I would say it is a mandatory tourist stop if you visit Montréal, even if you do not care for “churches”.
If you wonder what the massive pipe organ sounds like I found a video of it being played:
The outside was pretty awesome too, here are some photos from when we were on line waiting to get in (with all the other tourists!):
OTHER SIGHTS/ADVENTURES
We wandered the neighborhoods of Old Montréal, Downtown Montréal, Petite Italy, and a little of the Latin Quarter.
We had fun visiting many little shops, neighborhood eateries and bars. Below is an example of some tasty martinis we had.
The people of Montréal were so friendly and helpful. I brought along my terrible high school French and tortured the French-Canadians with it. Nearly everyone also spoke English so we got by just fine. I did get some giggles from my attempt at communicating in French and they quickly redirected me into an English conversation, ha! I did smile when I got mistaken a couple times for a local and the shopkeepers began speaking French to me.
This reminds me of years ago when my late husband Terry and I went to Denmark (to visit a friend); and then onto Amsterdam, Brussels, and Antwerp for a little Belgium beer holiday (we were really into Belgium beers at the time). While in Belgium, Terry a Napoleonic Era history buff, really wanted to visit Waterloo (Napoleon’s last stand). From Brussels we had to take a bus and then a train to Waterloo and NO ONE along the way spoke English, it was an all French speaking region of Belgium. I had to definitely pull out the very rusty high school French.
When we got on the bus first to get to the train, Terry and I could not sit together on the bus as there were only single seats available and so he sat in back. The gentleman sitting next to him spoke to him in French (Terry knew like little to no French) nearly the entire bus ride and Terry just kept eye contact and nodded. I kept looking back and saw that the guy seemed to think Terry was his new best friend and had no clue that he was not understanding a word he said! When we got off at our stop the guy wished him well in French and Terry nodded goodbye!
I teasingly asked Terry what they were talking about and he said he did not know but the guy was very chatty and seem to think they were having a very engaging conversation!
Okay so back to my Montréal trip. Bringing out my rusty high school French (which wasn’t even French-Canadian French) brought back that memory!
The best part of the trip was just hanging out with my sister and I look forward to our next sister adventure.
I’ll close this post (and this three part series of posts) with a sign that was out in front of Le BeauMarché where we’d by our groceries, that made me smile:
Here is Part II (or “deuxième partie”) of my series of posts (there will be three total) on the little holiday my sister and I took a couple weeks ago in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Please see this post for Part I –Bonjour Montréal! (Part I).
Montréal has the feels of an old European city and there are so many wonderful photo opportunities. My sister and I decided to take some photos in Black & White and here is a selection of our photos from our sightseeing:
There we so many amazing doors! I had to control myself and not take hundreds of photos of doors an entrances.
One door in particular caught my eye – not because of it’s amazing architectural style but because of it’s message:
Sounds like great advice!
The next post on this trip I will finish sharing some of our adventures, but tomorrow I have a special post with some fun news to share (smile)…
I’ve shared background on my father’s legacy in older posts such as this post – Creative Inspiration: Stories My Father Told Me (re-post) His legacy is more than I’ve shared in previous posts and in this post you will learn even more.
As I shared in the previous post, my younger brother, younger sister and I traveled to Saltsburg, PA to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony/dedication ceremony on Tuesday September 12, 2023 of a classroom at The Kiski School where my father, Raoul A. Davis, Sr. (1931 – 2008) was the first African American graduate (1950). (He attended The Kiski School for his Senior Year of high school)
Below is the placard to be mounted in the dedicated classroom:
To give you all the background on this, I am going to share the excellent post my brother did in the social media platform LinkedIn:
Yesterday we celebrated a legacy. Seventy-four years ago yesterday, my father, Raoul Davis Sr., courageously walked through the halls of The Kiski School as its first African American student. Returning to those same halls and seeing the reverence with which he is remembered, touched my heart in ways words can barely express.
The Kiski School has long stood as a beacon of excellence, nurturing young men to become their best selves. My families gratitude to the entire Kiski community is immeasurable – from the dedicated staff and the spirited students to the school’s leadership, who made me and my sisters feel like we were home. A special nod to Carla Ross and Mark Rhodehamel, whose warmth and dedication were palpable throughout our visit.
To hear the current students express appreciation for my father’s willingness to be a trailblazer was humbling. It’s one thing to know your parent’s worth within the confines of home, but quite another to witness the far-reaching impact of their bravery. Kiski set the foundation for my dad to go onto to the founder of the URBAN LEAGUE OF LONG ISLAND, INC. Serve as the Executive Director of the Urban League of Albany. He loved working with the National Urban League going back to Vernon Jordan.
He worked with street gangs in New York City on creating truce, and served with distinction former NY Governor Mario Cuomo to celebrate African American culture in the state.
In 1949, the foresight of Dr. Clark, the headmaster at the time, is a testament to Kiski’s enduring spirit of inclusivity. By actively recruiting my father and ensuring he had a memorable experience, Dr. Clark did more than just integrate the school; he set the stage for a more inclusive future.
As Kiski steps into its 136th school year, the Raoul Davis Sr. ’50 Classroom stands not just as a brick and mortar testament but as a symbolic commitment to honor diverse histories and ensure that every student recognizes the strength that lies in unity and diversity.
Kiski’s commitment to celebrating trailblazers and preserving the legacy of those who’ve paved the way is commendable. My father’s story, intertwined with Kiski’s, reminds us of the unwavering spirit of those who dare to be the first and the institutions that support them.
Thank you, Kiski, for keeping the legacy of Raoul Davis Sr. alive and for reminding us that true legacies are built on the foundation of courage, determination, and resilience.
The Kiski School is a private all-boys preparatory (prep) school that was established in 1888. Here we are arriving at the school and were warmly greeted by the two security officers at the gate who took this photo:
Two awesome Directors from The Kiski School, Carla and Mark (who were also responsible for making the classroom dedication happen and are in the first photo below), gave us an amazing tour of the school’s grounds. Here are some photos from that tour:
As you can see in the photo above, The Kiski School overlooks the town of Saltsburg and there is a lovely view!
During the tour, my sister came up with the awesome idea of a cool group standing/feet photo around The Kiski School image on their rug in the administration building:
(Just a little humor: my sister and I both have an obsession with dapper mens footwear – there is something so cool about a dapper pair of mens shoes. We really got a kick out of the wonderful shoes that the Director Mark wore – the brown shoes to the right – and we became obsessed with them! We might have to convince our husbands to get those shoes! Ha!)
The ribbon cutting ceremony was an experience I cannot put into words. It was VERY stirring.
A touching speech was given by a young man of color who was the current Class President. He shared how my father’s legacy has inspired him. Here we are in a selfie after the ribbon cutting ceremony with that amazing young man:
My siblings and I were trying to keep the tears out of our eyes (we weren’t always successful) during the speeches. Then we got to actual “cut the ribbon” with a giant pair of scissors to the new classroom dedicated to our father. They gave us a pair of giant scissors to keep to commemorate the event.
Inside the classroom was a slide presentation of photos from our father’s time at The Kiski School and the amazing art by the artist Yvonne Davis (no relation):
One of the photos in the slideshow (“Class of 1950”) was of our father standing on the back steps of the school. My siblings and I got a chance to stand on those exact steps during the tour before the ribbon cutting:
We got chills when we stood where our father stood 73 years ago, I cannot put into words what I experienced but it was amazing.
After the ribbon cutting ceremony we met with an amazing group of students in the school’s library, answered their questions, and had a panel interview for their school’s newspaper. We were interviewed by an engaging young man who definitely has a future in journalism if he likes!
It was an experience I cannot put into words, talking with the group of young men in the library post ribbon cutting. It was like interacting with a group of glowing beacons that were going to help improve the future of our world. It is a moment in time my siblings and I will never forget and we are so appreciative to The Kiski School for giving us this moment.
We also got to see the collection of communication that the school kept on file from the time our father attended, including this piece of correspondence from 1949:
Little did our father know when he wrote this letter in 1949 what his amazing legacy would be!
I’ll close this post with the amazing stained glass window in the same building as the school library which really captured my attention (the photo does not do it justice):
I thought I would do this post in two parts since I have a lot of photos to share.
Monday September 11, 2023 I met up with my brother and sister in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to embark on a road trip to Saltsburg, PA to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony/dedication ceremony on Tuesday September 12, 2023 of a classroom at The Kiski School where my father, Raoul A. Davis, Sr. was the first African American graduate (1950). I’ll tell you more about that in the next post but in this post I will just share some photos from our first sibling road trip in over 20 years!
Here we are in my brother’s car headed out on our 5+ hour road trip. My beautiful sister wasn’t ready for the impromptu photo (I surprised her) so here are the sections of the photo of my brother and I:
We stopped along the way for a meal/snack and here are a couple of the poor nutritional choice we made (ha!) – well it was a road trip and you have to enjoy some “road trip food” at truck stops when you roadtripping!
Besides chatting with my brother and sister on the road trip, I did try to be productive as a passenger and I worked on some English Paper Piecing hexagons during the trip for the quilt I will someday finish (see post The Horizontal Diaries, January 30, 2023):
After a long day of road tripping, we stayed overnight in a hotel in Pittsburg, PA and then in the mid morning headed to Saltsburg, PA for the ribbon cutting ceremony. But first when we got to Saltsburg we had lunch at a delightful little cafe in downtown Saltsburg:
Downtown Saltsburg looked like a time capsule from the 1940s/1950s/1960s – here is the “old school” parking meter we put a quarter in (yes one quarter) to pay for our parking (I thought it needed of a B&W photo):
Here we are outside the cafe before heading in for lunch dressed for the ribbon cutting ceremony:
It was an awesome roadtrip with more awesomeness to come later that day at The Kiski School!
tierneycreates 