Category Archives: sightseeing

Maryland’s Northern shores

Standard

Blog post 3,330!!

I just had Sean help me with the title of my post. He said that the Ocean City area is on the eastern shores.

Saturday we went downstairs at the inn to a nice quiche, fresh fruit and strained tea (I had to pick out tea and use a tea strainer-they sell a lot of it there at the inn) breakfast and headed to the town of Elkton. There wasn’t much going on, but we found a cute wedding chapel there to admire from the outside. Elkton was famous for being the place on the east coast where you could get married without a waiting period. My maternal grandparents Alan and Ruth got married there in 1921 at the ages of 20 and 18. My sister-in-law’s mom and dad got married there. I thought for sure we had found the chapel were my grandparents got married. When I got home I read the historic marker in my photo and the entire Main Street was dotted with chapels! So if they got married here, it was a hit or miss thing.
Wedding Chapel in Elkton, MD

Historic marker for Elkton, MD
I would have liked to see the Cecil County Historic Society, but we found out they are open only one Saturday a month and we missed it. There were ‘corner stones’ in the side yard, so I’m thinking they were just saved from demolitions and put here.
Cecil County house with historic society

Historic cornerstones of Elkton, MD buildings

I’m not surprised by this:
George Washington traveled through Elkton, Md

This was interesting too:
Historic marker for Mitchell house in Elkton, MD

Mitchell House in Elkton, MD

I bought a lovely handmade purple beaded necklace with an ‘silver’ loop that had an Irish saying on it from a shop in Elkton to remember that I visited here and that I just found out how Irish I was with my DNA test!

“May you always have walls for the winds, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you, and all your heart might desire.”
– Irish Blessing

Our next stop was Chesapeake City where we grabbed a bite in a place called The Bohemia Cafe. The area use to be called that and I’m pretty sure my Mom-mom Ruth’s 1st cousin had a house in the general area. I loved this little area! The homes were so quaint. The vision of the steel bridge over their roof mixed old with new.
Modern bridge, historic homes

This was a gift shop, but they kept the original store’s wording.
Use to be  grocery/hardware store-now gift shop

This use to be the town bank-another gift shop! The boats can dock and come to town and shop a bit.
Old Chesapeake City Bank, now gift shop

Bridge and Bay

Road to the Chesapeake Bay

Easter is near!
Easter decorations in Chesapeake City

The lady in the above ‘bank’ shop said North East was a nice little town, so we headed down to there. I didn’t take photos here. We went in a few shops and a really neat antique place-it sold other things too, like some Phillies baseball t-shirts that I had picked out of a case and the lady forgot to ring them up! I got a clear glass Easter egg that is etched with violets for mom, a trio of Snowbaby Bunnies and a water pitcher. We’ll have to ride down in a few weeks to actually buy the shirts.
Our next stop was Port Deposit, a little town right up smack up to the Susquehanna River. We didn’t see the restaurant we were looking for, but again, it’s not that far and we can drive down some other time. The restaurant was a Colonial style one.
It was raining, but I at least got a shot of the town clock!
Port Deposit, MD town clock

They had terrible flooding there last summer and you can tell that they are still recovering. We did notice some newer townhouses right on the river. Guess they were built to withstand flooding.
We headed down the road, less than a mile to the Hollywood Casino. We had driven by here several times and we thought we’d try our luck with $20 and leave. There were 1 and 2 cent machines-you put $1 in and it gave you 90 bids with one push of the button. We never came close to winning, so we left, true to our promise, about 1/2 hour later.
I had a $20 postcard gift card I had gotten in the mail for a place in Newark, DE. You had to go on your birthday, so we went there and I guess we broke even doing that! We had pasta dishes and I had their trademark gelato. You know when things ‘bug’ you about a place and you just need to complain? Well they had coarse pepper in a shaker with little holes-we unscrewed the lid to get to the pepper. I told the waitress. Then at the end of the meal, I used the restroom and there was a squooshed roach on the floor. Our waitress happen to be going by and I pointed it out. She went in and got it up with a piece of tissue!  Hope she washed her hands. I guess she was told to watch for them? She was a bit snooty with me saying we’ll take care of that and the pepper shaker. She had just gotten a good tip on the full cost of the meal, not with the $20 taken off! It was a pretty place and the manager ran out and put more quarters in the meter for us. Too bad I had to see the last thing.  We walked around this town. Sean goes here to a few bars once in a while. I found a bookstore and got a few good reads for $5. We headed back to the hotel and they had a small wedding reception going on in the conservatory. They were singing a bit and having fun, but not enough to really bother us.
On Sunday we headed home a little before 11 am and went to church. It was great to go away with the birthday boy. I love to learn about towns and see their historic homes and museums. I hope to keep venturing further away in all directions in the future.

Spring has sprung, but it’s like summer too!

Standard

I’ve heard that my pals up in Canada and Michigan and getting nice 70 degree temps like we are down here in Pennsylvania! Tomorrow it will hover around 80! We haven’t had much rain lately and the ground is cracking. I had a circle of daffodils out where we planted the tomatoes and zucchinis and I guess us working the earth made them bloom ever so nicely this year. They look like this:

The forsythia are blooming and my PT looks pretty near them. Brian gave her a wash for me this week.

My friend Rachel had a little girl on the 15th of this month and I sent her a few gifts. I couldn’t believe I found an outfit that had a cross stitched bear on it! We met through cross stitching! I said I’d give her one of my passes if she wants to bring her two year old son and newborn for a walk in Longwood sometime. She lives closer to Philly, but to the north more.

Brian and I are off for our trip tomorrow afternoon. It’s about 25 miles or so, but a B&B. I have plans to see a few little towns and there is a casino not that far away. We’ll keep busy! I have to wrap up his gifts after I get off from here. I have only a few, but one was a little pricier than the others. He should like the main gift (from Sean and me). Speaking of Sean, he did Turbo Tax and got his refund in less than a week! How lucky is that? We probably won’t get a refund, but we hope to use the program also.

And to live up to my blog name, the person I sent the poppy ATC scanned it when it got to The Netherlands as I forgot:

Solemn Sunday in NYC

Standard

The last day we were in NYC, Sean left to go to his meeting before us. We then all met up at St. Patrick’s Cathedral where we went to mass like we did almost 5 years ago when we attended Karin’s wedding.

This was taken the night before:
St. Patrick's at night

It was a nice service and not as long as our church services here! We then decided to head over to Central Park and Strawberry Fields to see the Imagine plaque in memory of John Lennon, the Beatle who was killed across the street outside of his home, the Dakota building.
Sean near Strawberry Fields
Imagine memorial in honor of John Lennon
Brian on the left there, our biggest Beatles fan:
Brian standing near Imagine memorial
Strawberry Fields in Central Park

Strawberry Fields plaque
The Dakota:
The famous Dakota Building
What pretty sights here! I can just ‘imagine’ how pretty it is in the summertime. We’d like to see it all green and lush too. I believe Sean said it had over 800 acres here.
Footbridge and trees in Central Park

Horse Drawn carriage in Central Park
For it being a brisk day, there were still a lot of people milling around.
Our next ‘must see’ place was the new WTC Memorial which was in lower Manhattan. We had timed tickets for it. Sean paid for the almost $20 taxi ride as Central Park was on his ‘wish list’ of places to see, so that’s why we went. I am really glad we did though.
When we got to the memorial area, we were a bit confused as to where to go as they had fences with blue signs all around the area (lots of construction here). We went down one way, though the signs had arrows pointing the other. I saw other people walking the wrong way. We got in the line, which moved quickly, but they have a security check point where we had to put our coat and belongings through the x-ray machine! I believe our tickets were checked 3 times. With all the walking, etc. and no lunch, I has a bit light-headed going in the memorial area-so I was keeping my head up, believe me as it was hard to go in there. It was quite a place to see-such large flowing squares of waterfalls where the twin towers use to go. You start to read the names, but then you start seeing names like ‘Sean’ and you can’t read them anymore.

This is the museum under construction
South Tower Memorial-Museum in background will open 9/12

I read that the remains of about half the victims will be placed somewhere in the museum as they couldn’t be identified.
Basin in middle of Memorial

Names of victims in bronze
I happen to look up Vanessa’s name and read a little bit about her. Her mom is a writer who said 3 days before Bin Laden was killed, an angel fell off her table and the wings ‘perfectly’ broke off the back of the piece. She feels her daughter earned her wings then.
We only stayed about 20 minutes or so. We stopped to hear an excellent guide say how the letters are chiseled out to make the names, so something is missing, like the people here. The falling water is like ocean tears. He stood near a tree that survived the attacks, it was being nursed back to health and had wires, etc. to train the branches. It may have been a sweet gum tree. I had no desire to have my picture taken here, though Sean did and his face told it all. We nodded to the police officers standing near the exit to pay our respects to their deceased brothers and sisters in uniform.
We found a little place to eat a block down from here, after we had gone through the gift shop. We bought pens, a wristband and a ‘gold’ sweet gumball tree leaf to symbolize the trees they will be planting in this area. Most of the money goes to the memorial. They had moving videos playing and items like a wallet from a victim with his lucky $2 in it as he asked his fiance to marry him, it being the second time for both.
The restaurant was near the Freedom Tower
New Skyscraper
I believe they said a floor a week goes up. I heard there is also a Subway Sandwich shop a floor or two below that follows the workers up so they have a place to grab lunch or a drink.
The restaurant was nice with Picasso like painting and the shine from the Freedom tower coming in through the window

I ‘check in’ at the different places we go to with the phone app ‘FourSquare’ and this restaurant had a link to another NY app and we got $20 off. Too bad they didn’t take any off the price of beverages. I tell the guys to get water, but they don’t listen. They made me peppermint tea as I was chilled to the bone.
So we walked up a few blocks-it was about 4:30 and not one taxi was stopping. When we thought we had one, the guy asked where we were going and we said 42nd and he shook his head. The young woman said we should have just climbed in as they aren’t allowed to refuse passengers. After 20 minutes or so, a taxi did stop as he was headed in the direction we needed to go. A few times the 3 of us were squeezed in a Ford Escape taxi. We gave him a good tip for helping. He said that time of day the shifts change so they won’t stop that much.
We had a busy 3 days and saw a lot of neat things and we’d go back again! The more you go, the more you can find your way around. Not driving was a good idea. The bus was convenient as were the taxis.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I got a Connect My DNA kit from a LivingSocial.com offer as I thought it would be fun to see the distribution of my DNA. I knew I was English, Danish, Swedish, German, French and Irish. They send you the cotton swabs on sticks to collect DNA off the inside of your cheeks and you send it back in an envelope with a barcode on it. I remembered to look last night and low and behold, they must have messed up or mixed me up with someone else as I am not, Russian, or mostly Irish or Syrian! I wrote to them this morning and let them know I know my heritage from genealogies from both sides of my family. I’d like a re-test for the money I spent. We don’t have one Russian that I know of in my family.
I guess I’m off to go shopping with my mom soon. The above info made my mind wonder a lot last night until I told myself it just couldn’t be true for goodness sake. : )
Last but my least:
Our view going home Sunday night:
Sunset coming home

Getting around NYC

Standard

I’ve not been vegetating here, well maybe a little. We’ve been trying to get ourselves on our regular schedule again as a few days away can mess up your system. Brian’s dad was suffering with his right leg so much, Brian took him to the ER on Monday. They said it looks like arthritis to them. He’s going to get to the point where he won’t be able to get around or drive-your right leg is important for that. I think the next few months will be very telling in what the future will be for Brian’s dad. We all have to face this I guess.
Yesterday Sean took me out for pizza and I headed across the street to Kmart to get plastic boxes. There must have been a dozen or more racks with the sign ‘$5.99′ displayed for nice things like corduroys, Jaclyn Smith items (I got a $79.99 jacket for $5.99), Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) items. I bought several pieces and tried some on that just fit too snuggly, so they are going back shortly.
We got home from New York late on Sunday, after 8:30 pm. We arrived about 2 pm on Friday, grabbed lunch at an Olive Garden and then got on the bus to the city around 4:30 pm. Repeat this, never take a bus to NYC between 4-7 pm on a Friday. A 15-20 minute ride took 1 hour and 15 minutes. There were 4 of us on this huge NJ transit bus. The one problem with that is I saw dozens of near empty buses-so that made more traffic. We were punchy when we got off the bus and found our way through the bus station. We got outside and it was raining and very crowded. Silly me thought Sean knew his way to the hotel where his GIS conference was-he didn’t. It had been almost 5 years since we were there to boot. Sean was like a deer in headlights and didn’t know where to go! A cop directed us to the Hilton in Times Square-nope, we needed the one near Rockefeller Center. So we walked a block or so out of the congestion and hailed a cab-got us to the Hilton, he signed in and then we headed across the street to the Museum of Modern art (MoMA) as it was free on Friday nights between 4-7! And it too was crowded. I love art and got to see so many masters’ work like Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso,Matisse, Gauguin, etc. Here is Monet’s Agapanthus
Dianne with Monet's "Agapanthus" at MoMA
There are two of these large murals by Monet which took him 4-5 years to finish:
One of two of Monet's large Waterlilies murals
I was thrilled to see ‘Starry Nights’ by Van Gogh:
Van Gogh's Starry Night
We didn’t get to see Andy Warhol’s famous Campbell soup cans or Jasper James Flag-some other time.
We then headed to the Rockefeller Center area. It was raining off and on, so we were glad to have umbrellas. Unfortunately the bottoms of our pants and shoes got very wet.
I thought this was cute of Sean near Radio City Music Hall.
Sean walking in the rain near Radio City Music Hall
We then saw this pretty area.

Prometheus lit by colorful lights 

Rockefeller ice skating
We asked the young lady guard in the concourse, under this area where we could eat and she suggested Billy’s Burgers. So we headed there where Sean enjoyed a large turkey club (yes, he blew Lent) and Brian and I had shrimp burgers, though we messed up for Lent in Olive Garden earlier.
We walked along and saw the following:
Today show NBC center
Set from Today Show
Chase Bank fountain
Chase Bank
Sign for Elizabeth Taylor auction
Window of Christie’s Auction showing the Elizabeth Taylor auction (I think one took place already and they sold one of her Van Gogh’s)
We ended up back in Time’s Square-we walked many blocks too.
Dianne and Brian in Times Square
Sean would go here Saturday night
Ripley's Believe it or Not in Times Square
And we stopped and bought cupcakes to eat later-Sean had a toasted coconut and I had a white chocolate and Brian a Chocolate Snowball. I thank them for showing the calorie count (about 1/3 of your daily intake if you are a lady on a diet-oy).
Crumbs cupcakes in Times Square
And yes, they were yummy.
I’ll talk about the next few days in different posts.

Whirlwind 3 days

Standard

If you see me on Faceback, you know we’ve been up in New York City as I do a blow by blow with my cellphone and FourSquare. I uploaded photos there, and here’s a sneak peak of what we did and saw.

Sean at the WTC/9-11 Memorial-South tower area

Museum of Modern Art in front of Christina’s World by local Andrew Wyeth. I had seen this at the Brandywine River Museum and we weren’t allowed to photograph it then and at it’s home here at MoMA, we could!