Recently we returned from a long weekend trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. This time we did not stay on “The Strip” (the Las Vegas Strip where the major hotels, shows and attractions are located), instead we stayed in the section of downtown Las Vegas know as Freemont, or the “Freemont Experience“.
Freemont is older and grittier than the Vegas Strip and definitely filled with colorful characters. Initially I took photos in color but then I thought it would be fun to take a series of photos in Black & White and share them with you as part of my ongoing blog post series – Life in B&W.
One morning I went wandering and there were a few interesting metal art installation in downtown Vegas including a heart filled with locks and keys; and a very large praying mantis:
You’ll see the sun in some of the photos – it was only 9:00 am but it was already very hot (eventually climbing to 100 degrees F/38 degrees C) and the sun was definitely part of my walk.
Here are some buildings and street scenes that caught my eye:
Here is a little of the actual “Freemont Experience” section of downtown Vegas:
My favorite discovery during my wander in downtown Vegas was the street art on some of the buildings:
And here was my favorite:
Be a Maker! Not a Taker!
So awesome!
Oh and in case you are wondering – I donated a little money to the slot machines and called it good. I am not much of a gambler. We did take the bus and spend part of one day of the trip on the Vegas Strip and had some wonderful meals at a couple favorite eateries on the Vegas Strip: Eatalyand Din Tai Fung.
We didn’t catch any shows this time but we had a lot of fun lounging at the amazing pool at our hotel (Golden Nugget) that had an aquarium in the center.
My partner John was brave and did the water slide that takes you through the aquarium. I stayed poolside sipping on my frozen cocktail!
Early July we met my brother, his wife and son in Chicago for a long weekend.
I’ve been to Chicago, Illinois many times, and each time I visit it is like visiting for the first time as I have a different experience each time.
While visiting I took a bunch for B&W photos and this post is a photoessay of my visit.
STARBUCKS RESERVE CHICAGO ROASTERY
We went to our first Starbucks Reserve Roastery while in Chicago and it was so cool! I rarely go to Starbucks and would rather support a small independent coffee shop, but I would recommend if you come across on you should visit it at least once, it is quite an experience.
Here is a photo from first entering the roastery:
MILLENNIUM PARK
We spent a bit of time in Millennium Park which is a “mandatory” place to visit on first trip to Chicago.
DOWNTOWN CHICAGO
Here are some photos from wandering around downtown Chicago.
360 CHICAGO OBSERVATION DECK
On our last day in Chicago we went to the the 360 Chicago Observation Deck at the top of the former John Hancock building. I’ll close the post with these photos from 1000ft above Chicago on the Magnificent Mile.
She’ll be back tomorrow with Part III to finish the story, but I am slipping in today and sharing ten (10) B&W photos I took during the quilt retreat. I’ve numbered them, let me know which one(s) you enjoyed the best.
From the upper back deck of the quilt retreat:
#1#2
From the lower back deck of the quilt retreat:
#3
From the back of the quilt retreat on the beach level:
#4#5#6#7
From my walk along the beach:
#8#9#10
Black and White photography makes even the most mundane interesting in my opinion. The tire on the beach was sad (the pollution of our oceans) but beautiful at the same time when photographed in B&W.
My favorites of these ten photos are #4, #5, #9, and #10. I do love also the creepy mystery of #8 – the beach house obscured by trees.
I guess if I had to just choose one then I would choose #9. The beach was covered with oyster shells.
As I mentioned at the start of this post, I am just briefly popping in on the story of this retreat, the tierneycreates Beastie will finish up the story of our adventures tomorrow.
I was in Austin, Texas the week of 05/23/2022, the same week of the School Shooting Massacre In Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday 05/24/2022. I was staying in downtown Austin, where my partner John was attending a multiple day work meeting with his leadership team.
Tuesday 05/24/2022 I was coming out of the hotel gym after a great workout, about to go back to my hotel room, shower and then spend the day exploring downtown Austin, when I passed by the hotel bar area where news of the shooting was being broadcast.
I stood there dumbfounded and in shock, surround by other hotel guests who were equally in shock. The school shooting occurred 10 days after another horrible mass shooting that shook me to my core – the Buffalo, NY Grocery Store Shooting.
John was in a work meeting and could not be disturbed so I was left to spend the rest of the day in distress, flipping from news channel to news channel to find out more and more disturbing details while sobbing.
That evening I went to dinner an evening boat tour to see the bats that live under one of the bridges on the river that runs through downtown Austin, with John and his colleagues. At dinner we kept the conversation as light as we could and several of his Austin based colleagues talked about the amazing Central Library in downtown Austin.
Library? An awesome library?!?! Those of you who have followed my blog for a while know that I am obsessed with public libraries. I’ve loved libraries since I was young (9 or 10?) and spent a summer at the public library nearly every day, riding my bike to the library every day and befriending the kind librarians who worked at the library and took me under their wing.
John’s colleagues mentioned that the Austin Central Library had a rooftop garden and amazing architecture.
Libraries to me are nearly sacred peaceful oases. I knew that Wednesday I needed to visit the Austin Central Library.
And I did. And it was a peaceful oasis and my spirit was centered and calmed for a couple blissful hours.
Here is the photo essay about that visit.
I walked a mile through the beautiful park (River Metro park?) along the Colorado River running through downtown Austin to the Central Library. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and in another post I will share photos from that walk as well as other photos of downtown Austin.
I entered the library on a lower level and I tingled with anticipation. Here are the stairs that greeted me that I could not wait to climb:
Before ascending the stairs, I noticed the library had an amazing high tech book return station:
After ascending the stairs, and being the library geek I am, I stopped at the information booth, informed the library team member who greeted me that it was my first visit to the library (and how excited I was to be there) and got a map to guide me through the library.
The library’s interior was amazing. The library has 6 levels, connecting with lofty ascending staircases. I explored all 6 levels!
The library has a huge clock that it can be viewed from any level and is as tall as a level or more:
This window, viewable from many levels, is just breathtaking:
I already heard about the rooftop deck and was planning on making that my last stop after exploring the other levels but then I discovered the library had a READING PORCH and I started on a mission to put together a “library stack” to take out to the reading porch.
I headed to my favorite section – Non Fiction – 700s to put together my stack!
I took my lovely “library stack” to the reading porch and spent a couple hours reading books as well as having a little picnic lunch I put together on the enclosed porch with views of downtown Austin:
It was so amazingly peaceful on the reading porch and I could only hear the bird song (there were trees filled with birds near the porch) and the sounds of traffic below. It was such a wonderful place to read my “library stack”(which I could only read/look through at the library since I was not a local resident).
After a couple hours in the reading porch and some reading of/flipping through the books in my stack, I returned them for re-shelving inside, and then wandered additional levels until I got to the rooftop deck.
A couple fun standouts on my way to the rooftop deck include the “Technology Petting Zoo” and the Board Game area – where you could grab a board game and play games with friends/family at the library!
I was not sure what to expect of a library’s rooftop deck but I was pleasantly surprised! It was huge, filled with people reading, visiting and lounging about. It had a garden area and amazing views of downtown Austin!
Here are some of the photos I took while on the rooftop deck:
I was craving something sweet and after the rooftop deck, I headed back to the ground floor of the library and had a cupcake at the library’s cafe called the Cookbook Bar & Cafe.
And guess what – the cafe was filled with used cookbooks! You could browse/flip through cookbooks while you ate (and I did) – it was glorious (and the cupcake I had was glorious!):
With my belly full of delicious cupcake and my spirit soothed by the energy of a public library, I headed back to my hotel, enjoying the scenery immediately outside of the library on my route back to my hotel.
I took a ridiculous amount of photos but I tried to select the photos that would give you a general idea of how awesome the Austin Central Library was to visit. Here is a little video tour if you are wanting more:
Oh and I thought this was pretty cool – I’ve never seen a library do this!
Well since I appear to have returned to blogging, I should finish up my story about my trip to San Diego in October 2021 and stay at at theRancho Bernardo Inn/Resortwhen my partner John attended a conference (see postRancho Bernardo in Black and White).
The Rancho Bernardo Inn is one of the prettiest hotels I’ve ever stayed and their property is amazing. As their website proclaims, they have 265 acres to explore and I think I explored at least a quarter of those acres during the 4 days I was there, while John was attending conference sessions, etc.
In the previous post about this trip (Rancho Bernardo in Black and White) I shared some of the photos I took in B&W. Now I will share the photos in color so you can see the true beauty of this place.
Here is the photo I consider the “money shot” from the stairway down to the spa and pool area – it was just breathtaking:
We stayed in one of the rooms off the golf course (and John did get to play golf one afternoon) and here was the view when you stepped outside our room:
I spent several days wandering about the grounds of the resort and here are color photos from that wander:
The food at the resort was amazing, very “farm-to-table” style of cuisine. During my wandering I discovered they have a “Chef’s Garden” on site and I guess that is why the meals tasted so fantastic!
In addition to wandering/exploring the grounds while John was at his conference, I also found a cozy nook off the main lobby, in front of the fireplace (it was October and got a little nippy at times) to sit and work on the English Paper Piecing project I brought (I always bring hand work when I travel):
I’ve been working on this project for years, and I should do a blog post update some time.
Although I wish I’d had more time with John to do some sightseeing while in San Diego, as he was so busy with the conference, I did manage to keep myself entertained for a couple of days.
One thing John and I did do together was go to Eleanor Burns’ Quilt in a Day one afternoon. I’ll show you photos from that visit on the next post.
We went to San Diego, California in October 2021 for a conference that my partner John was speaking at and stayed at the lovely Rancho Bernardo Inn/Resort.
I came across photos from this trip in my online photo album and realized I never blogged about it (wait – did it really happen if there is no blog post?!?!? ha!). Next post I’ll share color photos and an overview about the trip (including stopping by Eleanor Burns’ Quilt in a Day) but for now here are some photos I took in B&W during my stay.
I like to pretend I am a photographer and do B&W photoshoots (see my blog post category Life in B&W if you want to see more of my delusional photography…)
What he didn’t share was that I took several cool (well I think they are cool) photos in B&W while we were on hike, as did my partner John. I thought I would share some of my favorites from this amazing hike (despite what Mike says in his post linked above!):
I guess the park had this sign to really discourage you from going off the trail:
Well it’s time for one of her guest bloggers to step in, as Tierney has disappeared from the blogging world for some time now due to “Hooman Life Distractions“.
I recently learned us dogs are supposed to refer to our Humans as “Hoomans” courtesy of looking at too many dog postings on Instagram. I guess they feel dogs are not very literate? Nah, I am going to keep called them “Humans”, as you can see I am literate enough to write guest blog posts.
In case you have not guessed it, this is Mike the Miniature Schnauzer here to fill in for Tierney and do a blog post.
Here to fill in (though it takes away from my nap time)
If you are new to this blog, I fill in from time to time and here are a couple samplings of my previous posts:
Once you recover your awe from the brilliant writing by a 12 year old Miniature Schnauzer in the links above, you can continue on with this post.
I am not sure if my Humans Tierney and her partner John will like this post, because I am going to tell you of how they attempted to COMPLETELY TERRIFY me by taking me on a day trip to Seven Falls in Colorado Springs, Colorado and making a death-defying vertical climb up the scariest stairs I’ve ever seen, with me in a backpack!
Here we are at Seven Falls before the terror started:
When I thought it was just a fun day out with the Humans…
Seven Falls, according to the Broadmoor’s website (yes Miniature Schnauzers are capable of online research, duh) Colorado Springs Seven Falls, is Colorado’s most majestic waterfall.
The only waterfall in the state on National Geographic’s list of International Waterfalls, and often called “The Grandest Mile of Scenery in Colorado,” Seven Falls is situated in a 1,250-foot-wall box canyon between the towering Pillars of Hercules. Take in stunning valleys, striking rock formations and golden prairies as you climb the challenging 224 steps to the hiking trails and the banks of glistening streams that feed the falls, and its 181-foot drop of falling water.
Did you notice the phrase in the quote above: “as you climb the challenging 224 steps…”? To me it seemed like they were climbing 224,000 steps to get to the top as I was looking our the backpack on the back of John’s back.
Here is the photo my Human Tierney took (she caught the photo during a moment that I had turned my head to take a break from the terror I was looking at below):
Why are they making me endure this? I was perfectly happy looking at the scenery from ground level
Oh! My Human Tierney just walked in while I am working on this post, and is now insisting that I share more photos from this day trip to show the climb was worth it.
My guest blog post writing is being interrupted by an irritating Human
Although I don’t agree, here are a bunch of random photos from our day trip to Seven Falls. Just know the photos I like the best are the one’s taken on the ground before the crazy climb, even if the Humans think the climb was worth it!
All I see when I look at these photos are rocks, rocks and more rocks. But the Humans seem to enjoy the scenery in Colorado.
Here is the scenery I really enjoyed: after we climbed back down the 224 steps (and the Humans’ legs were like jello), we found a nice place to have a picnic before heading home:
Now we are talking about beautiful scenery!
And here I am trying to convince the Humans that I’ve earned a sampling of their food:
Me, me, me, me, me!
So that’s the end of my story, here I am putting the finishing touches on this guest blog post:
I know I can edit this post better than my Human Tierney does her posts…
You will hear from my Human Tierney again after she catches up reading her blogging buddies posts (and she’s let them go too long without reading). Hope she gets her act together!
I love trains! When I was a kid we had an awesome old train set, courtesy of my paternal grandfather, that my parents would put around the Christmas tree each year. For a while I collected model trains and I’ve always loved riding on trains whether short distance or longer distances (for example see post – Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part IV).
So I was over the moon when our friends set up a trip to the California State Railroad Museum. I am not sure how long we spent in the museum (time ceased to exist while I was in there) but I remember them telling me: “Tierney we have to go now, we have other things to do…”
I took SO MANY PHOTOS of course, but alas it was quite dark in the museum so the photos are not my best. We began our time in the museum with a tour from a retired railroad man (the museum was staff with retired railroad people, likely volunteers) and then each wandered off on our own because there was so much to see.
Here is a sampling of some of the zillion photos I took:
Upstairs there was an amazing display of toy trains (oh my heart) – a family had donated their father’s extensive toy train collection, it was mind blowing!
If you’ve followed my blog for a while you know I like to pretend I am a real photographer and take photos in B&W. Here are a couple of the B&W photos I took inside the museum:
Of course none of my photos do justice on how awesome the museum is to visit in person!
SOME MORE LAB LOVE
It was great to visit our friends and one of the best part of the visit was to spend time with my “dog goddaughter” Riley, the chocolate lab supreme!
Here is Riley and I in April 2019 when I first met her and we fell in love (they had just adopted her):
Riley and her Godmother 🙂
And here she is in November 2021 in all her grown up cuteness:
This is my last installment in my series of posts about my trip to Quilt Town, USA to attend a Missouri Star Quilt Company (also known as “MSQC”) quilt retreat with my long time quilting friends.
If you are just joining us, here are the 5 previous posts in the series:
Included in our MSQC retreat was a trip to the Missouri Quilt Museum (which is housed in an old school), and this post will share photos from that visit! There was so much to see, I’ve curated my photos to just share my favorite exhibits at the museum.
MINIATURE QUILTS
When we first entered the museum, we spent a bit of time in the Miniature Quilt Exhibit! The work that went into these tiny doll size quilts was amazing!
The photos above has a lap size quilt on the wall and to the right of it, the miniature version of that quilt!
FULL SIZE ANTIQUE QUILTS
There were many antique full sized quilts displayed around the museum, here are a couple samples:
ANTIQUE SEWING MACHINES
There were endless examples of antique sewing machines. I especially got a kick of the antique Bernina sewing machine.
TOY SEWING MACHINES
Even more amazing that the exhibits of antique sewing machines, was the exhibit of TOY SEWING MACHINES!
NATIONAL QUILT MUSEUM GALLERY
The also had a gallery of quilts on loan from the National Quilt Museum:
Here are a couple of my favorites from those quilts. The second one has dogs incorporated into the trees in the quilts, so look carefully.
COOL “MODERN” QUILTS
They also had some cool “Modern” style quilts on display include the head of Albert Einstein, a quilt made entirely from fabric selvages, and an amazing denim quilt:
It was amazing, strange and interesting to see such a jam packed museum of quilting history in a small town!
Thanks for joining me on the six part series about my visit to Quilt Town, USA!
Time to continue my series of posts on my trip to Quilt Town, USA to attend a Missouri Star Quilt Company (also known as “MSQC”) quilt retreat with my long time quilting friends.
If you are just joining us, here are the previous four posts in the series:
Now to share with you what it was like to attend the retreat at MSQC and stay at the retreat center.
The retreat center, known as the Sewing Center is in the middle of downtown Hamilton, MO and is an old building converted to the retreat center and accommodations. I have photos below but if you want to see the official photos/info here is the link from the MSQC website – Sewing Center.
Here is the retreat sewing area:
Our group of 6 sat by the front windows. Here are photos of our assigned sewing area for our group when we arrived, and then when we got settled in!
We rented BabyLock Sewing machines from MSQC for the retreat since we were all flying in from various places across the country (Denver, CO; Seattle, WA; New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Sacramento, CA) and did not want to deal with lugging our sewing machines to the retreat via airplane.
The retreat center sewing area has a large kitchen and a snack table area. The photos below include the snack table at the beginning of the retreat. I should have taken a photo a couple days in as it was packed with all the snacks quilters brought and put out to share.
Our meals were served at the kitchen and they were nothing to write home about, but they were okay. They did have some great desserts a couple of dinners. But here is an example of one of the meals:
You could also go out to eat at various restaurants around town. We went out a couple times to eat, and several of my quilting friends discovered an amazing Mexican restaurant in town.
We also discovered a brewery in town, Levi Garrison & Sons Brewery and several of my quilting friends and I had a nice pint while chatting with the wonderful bartender who told us stories from her life and town history.
The brewery did not serve food, so we picked up food at a local eatery and brought it in to have with our pint.
In addition to a couple meals out and a visit to the local brewery, we also had a delicious ice cream treat at the local sweet shop one day!
It was like 17 or 19 degrees Fahrenheit outside, but it is never too cold out for ice cream! (We did eat it inside the sweet shop before re-bundling up to go back to the retreat center).
The sleeping accommodations at the retreat were upstairs. The twin beds had very comfortable mattresses. The main challenge was you had to like going up and down stairs – lots of stairs. (The retreat center did have a stair lift in the back in case you were “differently abled” and needed assistance to get upstairs).
I thought it was funny they had a chair on the landing of the first flight of stairs, in case you needed a break.
They also had a seating area at the top of the stairs when you finished your second flight of stairs to get to your room:
The bathrooms were lined up dorm style – they had plenty and they had decent showers (but no soap, you had to bring your own soap):
Here is an example of one of the rooms, it is the room I stayed in:
Here are a couple more photos of the upstairs sleeping accommodations areas:
One evening we were treated to a glorious sunset outside our window of the retreat center:
Everyone was out taking photos and of course it was cooler than my photos show.
During the retreat, we would periodically head over to the Main Shop and put stuff in our boxes to be shipped home. As I mentioned in previous posts in this series, they provide free shipping (of unlimited boxes) of whatever you purchase and any projects you worked on during the retreat, to retreat attendees.
I’ll close this post with a picture of me, taken by my friend Kathy, as I am leaving the retreat to take the shuttle back to Kansas City, Missouri to fly home:
This post continues my series of posts on my trip to Quilt Town, USA to attend a Missouri Star Quilt Company (also known as “MSQC”) quilt retreat with my long time quilting friends. The previous three previous posts in the series are:
First of all, do not judge. I have a fetish for fabric scraps – ha! Okay that sounds a wee bit weird, but I would rather make things from fabric scraps than cut into yardage. I only buy fabric by the yard when I absolutely have to or the fabric is so amazing I cannot leave it in the shop (and it looks at me with puppy eyes saying “Tierney take me home…”).
So when I heard that while I was at the MSQC week long retreat there was a “Scrap Bag Sale” at the Penny’s Quilt Shop I shivered with excitement.
This not my first rodeo as they say, I’ve been to lots of fabric scrap sales where you fill a bag for a specific price, with as much fabric scraps as you can fit in (and yeah, I am ALWAYS up to the challenge to see how much I can fit in the bag they provide without it breaking).
But, I’ve NEVER been to a “scrap bag” sale where 1 yard, 2 yard, and even 3 yard pieces are considered scraps!!! Yes there were a couple pieces here and there that you might call “scraps” – like quarter and half yard pieces, but most of what was in their bins were larger pieces that I definitely would not classify as “scraps”.
What I heard from another quilter during the feeding frenzy (photo below) was that Missouri Star will pull pieces off the bolt that are 3 yards or less and put them away for the scrap sale.
Oh my.
What you are about to see was what could be considered a “super spreader event” as no one was wearing masks, but luckily the pandemic is tapering down in my part of the world.
Here is the FEEDING FRENZY:
And yes I was right in the middle of it. I stepped out to take photos.
Actually everyone was so patient, thoughtful and kind. It was the nicest frenzy you could imagine. Quilters would yell out what they were looking for and we would pull for them and toss to them what they were looking for. I got so much Kaffe Fassett fabric this way from the bins.
Also people would take a break from being in the bins and make way for other quilters waiting in queue. Actually you had to take a break for a while as it was sort of exhausting sifting through all those yard pieces of fabric and a bit claustrophobic.
You also needed a break to stuff your bag!
Besides finding AMAZING top quality quilting fabric (of like every fabric line you could imagine) one of the most fun parts of the whole experience was laughing with everyone there as you tried to stuff your bag as full as possible.
Here were the early stages of packing bags with “scraps”:
Notice how no fabric is reaching over the top of the bags.
Here is my pile of bags starting to grow (I did stop at 4 but later got one more) as I left them among the pile of coats (it was getting warm from all those people foraging through all those bins of fabric):
Then we heard that the shop did not really care how full you got the bag as long as all fabric was “touching” the inside of the bag. So things got creative…
Here are a series of photos on my quilting friends and I engaging in “creative scrap bag stuffing“:
We were laughing so hard! It got to be a real game of “what else can we fit in there?“
Here are a couple of my long time quilting friends and I resting after our scrap foraging. We were exhausted but happy! (Note, not all our group attended the scrap sale, some were back at the Retreat Center being productive working on their projects!)
And here I am with another expression of “pure joy” like in the previous post (and note it was not just because of the amazing deals but that I was hanging out with friends, lol):
When we returned to the Retreat Center, Jessica, one of the Retreat Coordinators, challenged us to see how much yardage we had inside one of our bags.
One person had 27 yards of fabric inside ONE of their scraps bag. Yes that was 27 yards of fabric for $10.95! Most people had between 20 and 26 yards of fabric packed into ONE scrap bag.
One of the attendees actually ironed and folded her finds (show off, ha!):
I did not. I took all my scraps from the sale to the Main Shop for packaging up to send home to me! As I mentioned in the first post in this series (I think), MSQC will ship whatever you bought or worked on for FREE to you if you are attending a retreat so you don’t have to figure out how to get it home. (Yes they are encouraging attendees to shop to their heart’s content).
So, a couple days after I returned home from the retreat I received two boxes in the mail:
And here are the “scraps” I got from the sale:
I won’t tell you the total amount of fabric, because I did not even count the yardage.
I just ironed the fabric and incorporated it into my stash…while giggling…
So I downloaded 81 photos for this post from my Amazon Photos (I backup all my photos to Amazon Prime Photos) account, and then I realized that is ridiculous!
This post continues my series of posts on my trip to Quilt Town, USA to attend a Missouri Star Quilt Company (also known as “MSQC”) quilt retreat with my long time quilting friends.
I tried to make the first post in the series about what I worked on during the retreat, trying to make you think I was oh so productive during the retreat.
Actually I spent a lot of time with my friends wandering around the 13 specialty quilt shops they have in the town (if you’d like to see the full list see this link – MSQC Quilt Shops), in addition to the non quilting shops (like the yarn shop)! Here are some photos from those wanderings.
…and there might have been some purchasing involved…
FIRST STOP: THE MAIN SHOP
Our first stop was the Main Shop where we picked up our badges that got scanned with every purchase.
The Main Shop has numerous little “vignettes” previews of each of the 12 other shops, which are specialty quilting/craft supply shops, so you can see a sampling of what you might find in each shop. Here is a vignette of the Modern Shop inside the Main Shop as an example:
The second day of the quilt retreat, they sent us on a scavenger hunt to see all the shops and get a little treat/prize at each shop. Some of the photos below are from the scavenger hunt on the second day and some of from our first day wandering (as soon as we got into town, our feet hit the pavement to shop!)
Me on the scavenger hunt with my friends, yes that is the look of pure joy 🙂
They gave us cool bags as part of the scavenger hunt, at one of the shops, to hold our goodies from the scavenger hunt.
THE YARN SHOP– ONE BIG HAPPY YARN CO.
A couple photos from inside the yarn shop. I was well behaved as I have a decent stash of yarn and I am not a proficient knitter or crocheter (I get by), but it was fun to look!
Yes are you into the fiber arts, I bet those photos above were “yarn porn”, at least they were for me!
BATIK BOUTIQUE
Now pretend you hear the below statement read by Rod Serling writer/narrator for the classic TV series – The Twilight Zone…
Imagine if you will, a quilt shop, that only has batik fabrics…in every color and style you can imagine…
Here are photos from our wander around “The Batik Zone“!
I just realized, it would be too much to share photos from every shop so I will just stick to some of my favorites.
MAN’S LAND
They had an area connected to the Machine Shed shop called Man’s Land where husband’s could hang out while their wives went crazy shopping around Quilt Town, USA!
Here are some photos from Man’s Land. It was quite cozy, but no they did not serve any “adult beverages” there, even though it looks like it would be a nice comfy pub to hang out in!
THE MACHINE SHOP
The Machine Shop connected to Man’s Land was a cool shop where you could buy sewing supplies. Here are some photos from that shop:
PENNY’S QUILT SHOP
One of my favorite shops was Penny’s Quilt Shop, which was the old JCPenney’sDepartment Store (Hamilton, Missouri is the birthplace of James Cash Penney who founded J.C. Penney Company) into a quilt shop.
This quilt shop specializes in solids and blenders, and here are some photos from that shop:
It is also the shop that on Thursday of the retreat had the Scrap Sale, so I spent extra time in this shop. I share more about the dream Scrap Sale in another post in this series.
FLORALS
The most beautiful and serene shop (in my opinion) was the Florals quilt shop. The photos I share below do not do justice to how lovely this shop was decorated.
Here is my friend Judy making some yummy selections in the shop:
Thanks goodness I had recently re-organized my fabric stash at home and gave myself a limited budget for shopping (as I do not really need anymore fabric), otherwise I would have gotten in my trouble in this shop!
MODERN
I have so many photos that I had to cut it off somewhere so the Modern Shop is the last shop I will share photos of from our wander. As the name implies it was filled with “modern” fabrics with lines such as Cotton + Steel, Ruby Star Society, Riley Blake, etc.
Hope you enjoyed virtually wandering about some of the shops with me (or you are now really tired and need a nap).
Next post I will talk about the amazing Scrap Sale and the “aftermath” when my boxes of my purchases arrived home post retreat!
In early 2018 before all of our lives would change, my quilting friends and I first discussed the idea of doing a cool “bucket list” thing: visiting the Missouri Star Quilt Company, also known as “MSQC”, in Hamilton, Missouri. It wasn’t until 2021 after a year and a half into the pandemic, we decided: “let’s do it, not just visit but attend a quilt retreat there!”. I have to thank my friend Judy (the one who got me into quilting back in 1999) for her amazing facilitation and coordination of our adventure.
If you are not a quilter, or just never heard of MSQC, there is a wonderful story behind it.
Basically a quilter moved to an economically depressed small rural town in Missouri, opened a quilt shop which evolved into a quilting empire, essentially a “Quilter’s Disneyland” and saved the town.
It’s a pretty amazing story and you can read more about how MSQC came to be on their website at this link: About Us; or read one of these stories below from other sources:
My long time quilting friends and I have ordered from the MSQC website over the years and have been familiar with their story for about six years. So it was pretty exciting when we arrived in town on the shuttle van we took from the Kansas City airport. Here is what we first saw from the shuttle van and then immediately walking around when we arrived in Hamilton, MO:
Some of the different quilt shopsThe main shop buildingOur retreat centerMural on the side of the building of the retreat centerSign about townThe iconic mural across from the retreat center
The “downtown” is filled with speciality quilting shops. Here is the map from the MSQC website page MSQC Quilt Shops:
missouriquiltco.com
There are 13 specialty quilt shops, plus a yarn shop and other little gift and boutique shops. We did a scavenger hunt the second day of the retreat which took us to all the shops (well we did explore most of them on our own the first day) as well as several local businesses.
Once you visit Hamilton, MO, you will see why it’s called Quilt Town, USA!
Well that is enough for this post (I think there will be a lot of posts in this series, ha!). Next post I will share photos from my adventures in the shops with my quilting friends.
II’ll also have a future post coming up on the Scrap Sale we attended (fill a bag for $11 to the brim with scraps…that were not really scraps – they were 1 yard to 3 yard pieces!!!); and how they will ship all your purchases (and anything else you can fit in the box they provide) home for you for free – OH TROUBLE FOR THE WALLET! (but good trouble…)
One of the wonderful signs they had in the quilt shops around town
As I mentioned in the introduction in the past severals posts, I recently returned from a nearly week long quilting retreat with my long time quilting friends at the Missouri Star Quilt Companyin Hamilton Missouri. My next series of posts will be about that retreat. It was one of those “bucket list” experiences.
For this first post about the retreat, I thought I would do a follow up to my February 8, 2022 post Preparing for Quilt Retreatand show you what I actually worked on during the retreat – one thing – the first 20 blocks for the Tula Pink’s City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks quilt:
image from amazon.com
As I shared in the 02/08/2022 post Preparing for Quilt Retreat , I cut out the fabric from my scrap collection for the first 20 blocks and made them into little packets to take to the retreat:
I had so much fun at the retreat opening up each packet and working on it. Each packet was like a surprise as I forgot what specific fabrics and colors I cut for each one.
Here are the blocks in progress on the design wall I sat next to at the quilt retreat:
And here are the completed 20 blocks which took me a couple days to complete (because there was a lot of shopping and wandering around “Quilt Town USA“, but that is another post), and it was all that I worked on despite the other projects I had prepared and brought:
Now I have the blocks home and up on my design wall at home (each block measures 6.5 inches by 6.5 inches), and it will be time to try to make another 20 to get me closer to the 100 I need to complete for the quilt!
I am daydreaming about the day I complete all 100 blocks and then have to decide on my block setting options – the end of the book has so many awesome setting options!
Of all the things I took for granted that I could do “pre-pandemic”, going to a breakfast buffet was one of them. This weekend I got to eat at my first breakfast buffet since 2019 and meet some very confused deer.
My partner John and I have an obsession with historic hotels and gravitate towards staying in them. We live in the Denver Metropolitan area and we’ve even gone for a weekend to a local historic hotel in downtown Denver, just to experience it.
Colorado has some cool historic hotels and one of them that we love is The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. I stayed there for the first time in May 2021 and you can read about that visit in this post – Weekend at The Broadmoor.
Well for Valentine’s Day weekend we returned there and surprisingly they had their renown breakfast buffet at the Lake Terrace Dining Room recently reopened! It had been closed for a long time due to the pandemic of course.
I tried to remain calm and make good choices, but I was ECSTATIC to wander about a breakfast buffet. Here are some photos from the buffet (why yes, I was the idiot wandering about the food at the buffet taking photoswhile “oooing” and “ahhhing”...):
They had a custom omelet station as well other delights such as cheese blintzes with berry compote. There was a lot more food than what was pictured but I would have looked even more pitiful (like I am never allowed out the house) if I took pictures of all the food stations at the buffet while people were waiting to serve themselves.
Yes, I was acting like I’d never been to a buffet before, like ever. Or like I had just landed on this planet and was learning my way around…
One of the things at the buffet that made my jaw drop was their honeycomb display for the local honey that had on the smoked meat and cheese table:
Perhaps I am just being weird after losing access for a couple years to things I took for granted, but I thought this was quite the delightful (and delicious) sight! And yes the honey drizzled over the gourmet cheese and smoked meats was sublime!
Although I wanted to be very naughty, I did not return for any refills (except on tea) and here are our plates after making our way through the buffet:
After our breakfast, we wandered outside to watch ducks and geese (they also have swans living on the lake) who live at the little lake at The Broadmoor fly about.
You are going to have to trust me that is was austere and peaceful to watch them, as the photos above do not do the experience any justice.
While watching the birds, we noticed a trio of deer wandering around the cobblestone grounds near the building where we had breakfast. At first they looked like they knew where they were going as they trotted down the stairs to the paved little shopping area below on the property. However after a while they looked like their GPS directions stopped working!
They looked like confused deer:
In the image above it looks like they are saying: “I thought you knew where we turn next…”
I hope they found their way to wherever they were going!
Finishing out my little series of posts on a recent trip to North Carolina when I joined my partner John on a business trip to Wilmington, NC. Here are the previous two posts in the series:
I’ve never visited Raleigh, North Carolina before, so we flew into Raleigh and spent an evening and 1/2 a day there before driving our rental car to Wilmington, NC. The two major airports to fly into when going to Wilmington are either Myrtle Beach or Raleigh.
We got a great deal on a hotel near Raleigh downtown and then randomly decided where to go eat (and later what to do after eating) in downtown.
I was in the mood for Dim Sum and we found online a restaurant that is both a brewery (we both love a good craft beer) and specializes in Dim Sum – Brewery Bhavana!
As an added bonus, it also had a bookstore next to and inside the dining area, so I got to browse books while we waited for a seat at the bar for our amazing meal!
Here are photos from our experience there.
Books, craft beer, and Dim Sum – YES PLEASE!
After a wonderful meal (and exceptional friendly service), we randomly decided to check out a place called – the Boxcar Bar + Arcade in downtown Raleigh. Yes, it was exactly what the name says – a bar and an arcade!
It was an arcade for adults (you had to be 21 to enter, which is legal drinking age in North Carolina). It was filled with vintage (and some newer) arcade games to include Pacman, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Galaga, air hockey, skee ball, and lots of pinball machines!
We got a roll of tokens for the arcade games and proceeded to lose track of time and play for several hours. We had so much fun! The vintage arcade games like Pacman we only 25 cents just like when I was a teen.
John was much better at the games than I was but I had an awesome time (even if I was absolutely terrible at pinball).
One of the very cool things is that the bar had TV screens in which they played vintage cartoons from the 1980s and 1990s including the one my brother was addicted to growing up: He–Man and the Masters of the Universe.
Watching it for a while at the bar reminded me of my younger brother being glued to the TV screen while that animated show played; and him wanting all the action figures!
Here are some photos from our time at the arcade bar (they are dark because it was rather dark in the bar-arcade).
What an evening! I look forward to flying into Raleigh again on our next trip to Wilmington, NC for John’s job and exploring more of Raleigh!
In yesterday’s post about my recent trip to North Carolina to accompany my partner John on a business trip (Trip to North Carolina: Quilt Shop Wander), I mentioned how happy I was to have fresh seafood because we are “landlocked” in Colorado.
Well in addition to seafood fresh from the ocean, I was so happy to be back at the ocean!
Wilmington, NC is right on the Atlantic ocean and I spent a lot of time wandering along Wrightsville Beach either with my partner or alone (while poor John had to work!)
We stayed at The Blockage Runner Beach Resort, which was right on the ocean (and we had wonderful views of the ocean from our room).
image credit: Blockage Runner facebook page
Here is a view from our hotel room window:
And each morning, we woke up to some amazing sunrises! We made sure to be up early each morning and watch the “show” out our window:
I brought several handwork craft projects to work on during the trip but I got nothing done because I got distracted by this:
The Atlantic Ocean, so happy to just stand here
I spent a lot of time walking the beach. Here is very happy me (taking a bad selfie as usual) about to head out for another walk along the beach:
Even if it was a gloomy/overcast day, I still walked the beach:
I had fun one afternoon selecting seashells from all the shells washed up on the shore. I only took a little as already had some from our previous visit to Wilmington, NC.
My partner John joined me for some of the walks. On one of our walks on the beach we spent a long time just standing there watching pelicans dive for fish in the ocean. There was something so peaceful, quiet and amazing doing that, I just cannot put the experience in to proper words. Here is a little video snippet from our experience:
Pelicans diving for fish
I took a hundred additional photos but most of us have seen the ocean before (and likely more beautiful ocean vistas than the ones I had from the Atlantic Ocean in the Winter) so I will spare you from all the other photos.
I do love the mountains of Colorado, but every so often it is so wonderful to see the sea…
We needed to return to Wilmington, NC for his work conference, but first we stopped for an evening and 1/2 a day in Raleigh, NC which I’ve never visited before. I will share a little about our trip to Raleigh in an upcoming post, but for this post I wanted to share photos of the quilt shop we stopped at during our drive from Raleigh to Wilmington, NC on Sunday January 30.
For a quilter, besides the thrill of returning home to fondle your new fabric purchases or completing a major quilting project, is there anything more awesome than wandering around a quilt shop you’ve never visited before? For me, it is one of life’s true pleasures!
I may not buy something at every quilt shop I visit but I love seeing the “creative potential” of the fabric, patterns, samples quilts, etc.
And here is the very patient partner John, waiting while I wandered about the shop:
Hope you enjoyed that virtual wander, sorry you could not fondle the fabric with me!
The staff was very friendly and the wonderful woman who rang up my purchases (I bought a pattern), gave me this wonderful pin as a gift to welcome me to the shop and to North Carolina:
It can be worth chatting with friendly people in quilt shops!
Postscript
Before we went to the quilt shop, we stopped for an amazing seafood lunch at a Farmers Market in Raleigh called the State Farmers Market. We ate at this friendly and amazing fish fry/seafood fry place called N.C. Seafood Market.
Oh my goodness. We are “landlocked” in Colorado and do not get much access to fresh seafood (unless a Colorado restaurant has a system to fly in seafood fresh each day), so we were in “seafood heaven” at this place.
The food was very reasonably priced and tasty is an understatement. It was so good that on our way back to Raleigh (we flew home to Denver via Raleigh) we stopped there again for lunch (and they recognized us and welcomed us back)!
I did not take any photos, I was just too excited! But here is a photo that I downloaded from Google Images from the restaurant to give you an idea of what our platter looked like:
Hmm…suddenly I am very hungry…
Next couple of posts I will share more about our trip to North Carolina.
I mentioned in my previous post that I was in Northern California (small town outside of Sacramento) visiting friends Kathy and Matt this past weekend, and I would share some stories/photos from that visit.
This post is sort of inspired by my blogging friend Beth’s blog Lessons from a Lab, where she blends her spirtuality with life lessons from her labrador retriever.
Labrador Retrievers are smart, loving and amazing dogs and although I’ve never owned…no wait – “partnered” seems more appropriate…with one, they are one of my favorite dog breeds (but don’t tell Mike my Miniature Schnauzer).
Kathy and Matt assigned me to be Riley’s “Dog Godmother” and she has always had a special place in my heart since then!
Okay so now the subject of this post: When I took my partner John with me to visit Matt and Kathy for the first time, Riley fell in love with him. I have this wonderful series of photos I wanted to share with you of John being loved/mugged by Riley which seemed to be a pure moment of JOY for the both of them!
When a lab wants to love on you, they go all in! John could barely control all that loving at one time – ha!
I’ll close this post with a sort of calmer photo of Riley from the trip – here I am attempting to do whiskey tasting while acknowledging Riley (and not both successfully)!
This post is my photographic travelogue of my recent trip to Austin, Texas.
I’d just returned from New York City when I turned around and went with my partner John to visit his son who recently moved to Austin, Texas. It was a quick 3 day trip and it was my first return to Austin, Texas since I used to live in Texas over 25 years ago.
I love taking photos when I travel and Austin lended itself (at least in my mind) to Black & White photography with my camera phone. Here are a sampling of my photos from my trip to Austin, Texas.
I had a wonderful time in Austin, Texas and I had the best beef brisket I’ve ever had in my life at the Rolling Smoke BBQ food truck. I also saw my first Lone Star Beer chandelier (see 2nd photo), a sight I can never “un-see” (smile)!
I remember moving from New York to Texas so many years ago when my late husband was in the military and having complete culture shock as a New Yorker. But I adapted and met many great friends; and now having lived in 5 states around the country it is easier to acculturate when moving (but I have no plans to leave Colorado).
That is it for traveling for now, am currently “travel out” and have a bit of traveling fatigue. It is good to just be home for a while!
So where did I leave off in this series of posts about the recent visits to New York City? Oh yes, on my second visit to NYC my sister and I visited NYC during New York Fashion Week (and the 20th anniversary of 9/11).
After having yummy gelato in Little Italy on Saturday after my first fashion show, we wandered around Soho and stop at a delicious little shop (Cha Cha Matcha) that specialized in green tea matcha and had green tea lattes with special messages from the barista:
We were joking because we just had a break to have gelato, only made it 2 blocks and had another break to have a latte!
After that we ran into Sunny Fong, winner of the second season of Project Runway Canada and competitor in Season 7 of Project Runway All Stars. My sister is a huge fan of Project Runway so she recognized him immediately. She took a photo with him and he invited us to stop by his pop up shop for his new line of watches.
Saturday was the 20th anniversary of 9/11and instead of a somber mood people appeared to be exceptionally warm and friendly. There seemed to be so much love going around on Saturday and we gave the same warmth and love back to those we met and talked to,
We did not attend any of the 9/11 20th anniversary memorial events due to the crowds since we are still in a pandemic, but we did stop for a while at Engine 55 fire station (we came upon it walking around Little Italy) and pay our respects to those firefighters who died during 9/11.
While walking around we stopped by a couple sidewalk vendors on the streets on NYC and spent time chatting with a lovely couple who made amazing little leather wallets. My sister bought one and we had it engraved. We enjoyed chatting with them so much we took photos:
After a long day of wandering about, meeting and chatting with people, and stopping at lots of interesting places (this blog post would never end if I shared all my photos from the trip) we retired for the evening at our lovely historic hotel in Soho.
Here is the lobby where the next morning we met a real Instagram Influencer (they always seem like mysterious people who do not really exist) and her stylist and had a wonderful chat while they waited for their Uber. It would seem strange to have like 100,000 followers on Instagram but she made her living off of it and even had a paid stylist!
In NYC, like in Los Angeles you can always get the opportunity to see famous people wandering about. My sister attended the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC in 2019 and got a special invitation as a past attendee to go see Robert De Niro interviewing Martin Scorsese about their new film The Irishman. A couple rows sitting in front of her was Leonardo DiCaprio!
She had invited me to go with her (she automatically bought 2 tickets thinking of me) but it was in April 2019 and I was moving to Denver, Colorado. I sure wish I went. Of course I was in the midst of some scary stuff – starting a new life after my husband suddenly died in December 2018 so I was not thinking fully about the opportunity I was missing out on.
I can tell you this – I will not turn down an opportunity like that again (smile).
Sunday I needed to eventually get to LaGuardia Airport to fly back to Denver but first we wanted to find an interesting place for brunch. My sister and I thought we’d been all over NYC but we stumbled upon an area outside of Soho we’d never seen before: Little Paris.
We only found it because we asked someone on the street where they recommended we have breakfast and they recommended Maman.
We had an amazing breakfast, amazing server and the atmosphere was amazing!
I had the best almond croissant I’ve ever tasted!
Across the street from Maman was the NYC Police Department and it was just like something out of a movie or a television show:
The photo above does not do it justice – it was so immense and elaborately historic looking!
My sister and I parted back at the hotel and I headed via Uber to LaGuardia Airport. I hadn’t been to the airport in a long time (I usually fly into NYC via JFK Airport) and they had done some major remodeling and I enjoyed watching an elaborate laser water show at the fountain in the middle of the concourse before heading to my gate:
I found a video of it on YouTube if you’d like to see:
Continuing my story of surprisingly visited NYC twice in the span of two months which began in yesterday’s post New York City x 2, Part I.
So a couple weeks ago my sister called me up and asked: “Are you going anything the weekend of September 10 – 12th?” To my reply of “Nothing planned”, she responded: “What about doing something crazy and going to NYC to attend a fashion show during NYC Fashion Week?”
Not sure what came over me but I said “Yes”.
Must be something about these pandemic times and realizing you should take opportunities where you can (as long as you are safe, masked and vaccinated, at least in my opinion not necessarily the opinion of some of my fellow Americans…oh and I am aware that vaccine may not stop you from getting COVID but it does seem to lessen the symptoms).
It seems like 2020 took so much away from us and perhaps I am taking a little too many risks in 2021 but we did recently cancel our long awaiting and planned holiday in Hawaii because the governor of Hawaii asked people not to visit unless it was essential travel.
My sister was invited to buy to tickets to several of the NYC Fashion Week shows because she’s attend pre-pandemic. She got invites to mid-level shows, not the big designer shows like say the Prada show or something (I think you have to be a celebrity or in “the industry” to get invited to those). We decided to go to one show.
Yesterday’s post I mentioned some of the awesomeness of my younger brother. Well my younger sister (there are three of us and I am the oldest) is pretty awesome! She is very adventurous and has done a bit of world travel (more than me) and is not shy in seeking out new opportunities like regularly attending the Tribeca Film Festival, NYC Fashion Week, and getting me into one of her industry conferences where I got to see President Barrack Obama speak as the keynote speaker (see post Bucket List Delight!).
As a full-time working mom she went back to school and got her MBA with a focus in Project Management and now works for a university in a male dominated industry: Construction Project Management. She is ex-military and can hold her ground with “the boys” of the construction industry! She got me into “thrifting” and she has curated for herself a lovely second-hand thrifted wardrobe (I am still in training).
If you can’t tell, I am in awe of my siblings and consider them some of my best friends!
So it wasn’t just the opportunity to attend my first fashion show during NYC Fashion Week but an opportunity to hang out with my sister.
The journey began on Friday September 10th with a flight to BWI (Baltimore-Washington International Airport) with a “Sisters Road Trip” to New York City:
It is crazy driving into NYC so we drove to Secaucus Junction in Secaucus, New Jersey which is just 5 miles from Penn Station, New York.
There you can park a car at reasonably priced overnight parking and take the NJ Transit train for under $5 from the Secaucus Junction to Penn Station. Here are a couple photos from that trip for NJ to NYC:
An interesting note about NYC – not only were masks required in many places, but proof of COVID vaccination was required to eat in many restaurants, stores, museums and to get into the fashion shows, etc.
From Penn Station we walked a couple blocks, then took the subway to Brooklyn were our Airbnb accommodations awaited.
My sister got a room in a boutique hotel in Soho for Saturday night, so I treated us to a unique Airbnb stay in Brooklyn for Friday night. The owner is a curator of unusual antiques, vintage items and plants. It’s difficult to describe the place we stayed at but here are photos (and yes the late 20-something host/owner could be described as the “Ultimate Hipster“):
It was awesome but a little bit visually over stimulating!
We found an awesome neighborhood deli/grocery store and picked up a delicious assortment of hot and cold yummies to take back to our room to eat. We returned to that deli for breakfast the next day also. It was the sort of deli you can only find in New York.
The next morning we headed to the Angel Orensanz Foundation, a beautiful event space, for my first NYC Fashion Week Fashion Show!
We had little free gifts from the designers on our chairs and the atmosphere/vibe inside the place was awesome. We saw runway shows by 5 – 6 local NYC designers and here are some images from the runway shows:
After the show we headed to eat a very tourist lunch at Katz’s Deli (famously known for a scene in “When Harry Met Sally”):
But it was really different with it’s COVID restrictions/protocols and for the high prices (which did not used to be so high) we decided to pass on the tourist trap. I’ve eaten there several times before pre-COVID the food is great and the atmosphere is delightful – the crowded busy NYC deli – but had no charm this time unfortunately due to its rigid COVID safety set up.
Instead we wandered to Soho (where we would be spending the evening in the Sohotel a historic hotel in Soho) for find dining.
Before getting to Soho we ran into Little Italyand had a delicious stop for gelato!
I’ll continue the rest of our adventures from this visit to NYC in my next post!
It seems like my blog should be called “tierneytravels” instead of “tierneycreates” as it feels like I’ve been doing a lot of traveling over the past several months, especially since leaving my job of 16 years and taking a break.
Over the past 2 months, I’ve been to New York City (NYC) twice: at the end of July while visiting my brother and his family; and just this past weekend with my sister during New York Fashion Week. In this post I will share my adventures and photos from the visit in July with my brother and his family. Part II will be about my more recent visit.
I was born in Pennsylvania but grew up in Long Island and Upstate New York. I spent a lot of my youth traveling to New York City (we would go to Rockefeller Center around Christmas time to see the tree, ice skating rink and Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes). I remember as a teenager (I think I was 14 the first time), my parents let me travel with my friend to NYC for the day on the Long Island train (things were different then and you could actually be okay letting your teen travel without an adult to the city).
When I lived in Upstate NY, NYC was only a couple hour train or bus ride away. When I moved to the Pacific NW, I would take the JetBlue “red eye” flight from Portland to JFK Airport/NYC to meet up with my sister for a long weekend a couple times a year. NYC holds a special place in my heart and I have lots of fun memories tied to NYC.
So until July 2021, it had been the longest period in my life that I had not been to NYC.
Since taking a break from my job of 16 years at the start of July 2021 (see post News) I’ve been doing a bit of traveling (staying safe, I am vaccinated and always wearing a mask and social distancing) which included reconnecting with my family who lives on the Eastern Coast of the U.S.
My brother and his family live outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and I’d not seen my darling now 9-year old nephew since 2019 (they came to visit me in Denver when I first moved here) and it was definitely time for a visit. My brother surprised me as I was about to arrive, that I would be going with them to NYC for an overnight because he had a client meeting in NYC he needed to attend.
They picked me up from the Philadelphia airport and we headed to NYC (couple hour drive) to stay at a nice hotel in Times Squarefor the night and have breakfast with his client in the morning.
NYC has not recovered from the pandemic yet and tourism is still down. It was surreal to wander around a fairly empty feeling Times Square with my brother and nephew after we got to our hotel.
Usually there are throngs of people wandering around Times Square.
The next morning we had a wonderful breakfast with his client, a television actor and author with a current television show. (A side note about my brother – he has his own Public Relations/PR and Branding company. He is quite the entrepreneur and started his company while at university in his undergraduate studies. By the time he was in graduate school he had his company up and running which at the time found speakers for colleges. It has grown since then quite a bit).
It was fun dining with a celebrity at a hip eating establishment in NYC! A very unexpected experience.
After the client meeting, we headed to the “spy museum” in NYC called SpyScape. My brother and nephew love movies focused around espionage, covert organizations and intrigue such as The Bourne movies and James Bond movies. We had a blast at the museum on simulated espionage adventures.
I did through the “spy training” academy and the “spychology” assessment I participated in at the museum with my brother, his wife and son, that I was not cutthroat enough to be a spy and that my best position would be an Analyst that works in the background of a covert organization.
Here are some photos from our visit to SpyScape, including the history of espionage, more than you wanted to know about “government surveillance; and the amazing James Bond Exhibit they had:
If you weren’t already paranoid about the government listening in when you arrived, you were definitely by the time you finished going through the museum! But it was really cool to see the James Bond Aston Martinup close!
After the museum we headed to the Central Park area to wander around.
Here I am in Central Park, just absolutely amazed to be there (but a little jet lagged and sleep deprived as I never sleep well in hotels):
We could not help ourselves, we had to stop for some yummy ice cream from the Ice Cream Truck parked in the area (it reminded me of the Ice Cream Trucks that would come around our neighborhood as a kid). My brother and his son have red arrows next to them:
I posted this photo on Instagram around the time of my visit and we had a little laugh that everyone seems to have gotten the memo that is was “blue t-shirt day” that day!
My brother had the idea that we should do a bicycle carriage ride (where you are transported by someone driving/riding a bike carriage) through Central Park. Here are some photos from that adventure:
But the best part of the bicycle carriage ride through Central Park was on one of the many “photo breaks” the driver gave us I discovered “Open Air Salsa” in the middle of Central Park! I spent my entire photo break watching people dance and took this little video which I will use to close this post:
This is sort of Part II of my post from yesterday, Wilmington, North Carolina in Black and White. We also took photos in color and I wanted to share a little more from our trip to Wilmington, NC for my partner John’s business meetings.
Let’s get started with THE BEACH!
In yesterday’s post I provided a little preview with this B&W photo I took after we parked our rental car and were headed to the beach:
Well here are some in color photos from our afternoon on the North Carolina coast:
There was something special about being on the East Coast of the US at the Atlantic Ocean again. It seems like I’ve spent a lot of my life (living in Seattle for 8 years and Oregon for 14 years) on the West Coast near or on the Pacific Ocean.
I grew up on the East Coast (Long Island and Upstate NY) and there was something so nostalgic about swimming in the Atlantic Ocean again! Now for me there was not much swimming as the waves were very active and even while standing on the shore I got knocked down by some forceful waves. John was braver and headed in deeper than I did.
A special treat of being on the Carolina coastline/Atlantic Ocean for the afternoon was all the SEASHELLS!
I spent part of the afternoon at the beach hunting for perfect seashells. I felt like I was a kid again wandering the seashore looking for shells!
Here is my haul:
And yes I have not been landlocked so long in Colorado that I thought the rock (with red arrow) was a seashell – ha! It was just a cool rock I found on the shore that wanted to come home with me!
We had a delicious lunch at a restaurant overlooking the ocean (had one of my favs for lunch – fish tacos!):
Since we were in a touristy coastal town, we had to of course indulge in the obligatory visit to the handmade candy shop (though we stayed away from the standard “salt water taffy” and fudge) and buy a caramel apple – yum!
Although tasty, it was not the best caramel covered candy apple we’ve ever had, that honor belongs to a candy shop in Estes Park, Colorado at the base of Rocky Mountain National Park (see post Rocky Mountain National Park).
Here are a couple more photos, this time in color, from the wander about downtown Wilmington I mentioned in yesterday’s post:
There was beautiful foliage everywhere. Definitely different types of plants than I see in Colorado!
Here we are at the shopping center I mentioned in yesterday’s post, before having dinner with his colleagues at a restaurant called “Port Land” instead of “Portland”.
Did you notice I managed not to cut off anyone’s head in the selfie above? Well that is because I think John took the selfie for me!
I will close this post with some photos that John took of the beautiful sunset on the river as we spent the early evening wandering the Wilmington Riverwalk:
tierneycreates 