out and about – Page 23

Treasure Hunting 2014

November 17, 2014November 17, 2014 by KTgreen

Okay, so this is like almost the biggest day of the year for me. This weekend was the Renninger’s Antique and Collectible Extravaganza in Mount Dora! So Connie, Michelle, and I headed in that direction and we were supposed to meet Kathryn but never found her so I just assumed that she decided to go a different day. But she was there. Along with about 1.5 million other shoppers.

But Kathryn did send me a photo of her treasures…

Kathryn's treasures — Bet some of that booty is for her wedding decor!

Here’s Connie, me and Michelle after our long day…

And the back of Connie’s van with our finds…

Treasure Hunting 2014 at Renninger's Antique and Collectibles Extravaganza in Mount Dora — B is for Booty

This is my favorite shop, didn’t buy anything there this year but I spent a lot of time browsing.

A trend I spotted…..

The heads

And the headless

and just plain bizarro

So try to wipe all that scary stuff from your head and look at my perfectly normal treasures…

OMG! How much fun did we have? Love to look at all that crap and wonder where it came from! Especially all the creepy bizarro stuff. It was a great day and I was totally wiped out by the end of it. And as usual, we drove by the huge flea market that was right across the street and wondered what cool stuff we were missing. But our bodies could not actually make it out to see what we could see. Maybe next year.

Check out badzoot.com for Michelle’s treasures!

Out and About: Downtown St. Louis

September 16, 2014 by KTgreen

This “out and about” thing I’ve been doing the last several weeks is kind of like when you go to someone’s house after they get back from vacation and they say, “Wanna see my photos of how much fun I had while you were working and I was on vacation?” The answer is always NO. But since you’re here, you get to see them, anyhow.

On our way up to ND, we went through St. Louis. We stayed at a La Quinta, as usual, but it was nasty. Smelled like dog pee. And was just dirty. Right after we stayed there, that whole Ferguson rioting started and guess what? That motel wasn’t too far from Ferguson! So on the way back, we decided to splurge and stay downtown at the Hilton. They allow dogs with a large nonrefundable fee. Valet parking is really overpriced and a Kettle One Martini (dirty dry and up) is $12.50. Ouch! But the room was free since we used the last bit of Terry’s hotel points from back when he spent his entire life on the road. Or in the air. Totally worth it.

We stayed at this hotel last year, too. I love all the places to walk in St. Louis and there are so many green spaces.

Hilton Hotel — Here’s our very cool downtown hotel.

Maggie on Chaise — And here’s Maggie enjoying a little break on her chaise that she claimed as soon as we walked into our room.

There’s some construction going on around the arch.

Construction

How about those cobblestone streets?

This place was right around the corner.

Jungle — Looks like scary fun. But we had Maggie with us so we couldn’t go to the jungle.

Maggie did not want to go into a dark jungle. She preferred the parks.

There’s a lot of bridges over the Missouri River. And I seem to feel the need to take many pictures of all of them. Weird since I have a slight fear of heights. Thought I’d share a few bridge photos with you.

bridge

St. Louis — I love the symmetry of the buildings and park.

Downtown St. Louis — Anyone know who this running guy is? Or why the water is dyed blue?

Great evening. Would love to stay longer, do some more exploring and check out the night life someday.

Spread your tiny wings and fly away

September 12, 2014September 12, 2014 by KTgreen

In case you’re not old enough to remember that bit of a lyric, it’s from Snowbird by Anne Murray. And if you do remember it, now you have that ear worm for the rest of the day.

And that’s the subject of this post. (Snowbird, not ear worm)

We were in North Dakota for six weeks. Does that make me a snowbird? Say it isn’t so! I’ve been pondering it. Keeping awake at night. Tossing, turning.

So I looked Snowbird up on Wikipedia. Not much help but it did mention that many snowbirds have RVs. I don’t have one of those. Hey, I was only away for six weeks! And I’ve endured those 24-hour sauna deep south summers since 1982.

I’ve decided that you’re not a snowbird unless you arrive after Thanksgiving and leave before Easter. Everyone okay with that definition? Now I can sleep again.

Anyhow…..

Because I was in the great white north for six weeks, I got to experience a lot of ND family life.

I attended Riley’s first football game of the season. (And possibly his last.)

I was entertained by this little lady for six weeks.

Piper Baking — Doesn’t she look like Suzy Homemaker? Adorable! She should have her own baking show! And she needs a Kitchen Aid Mixer. She’s going pro!

And I got to meet this darling baby when she was about 3 minutes old.

Gonna miss everyone but it was really COLD on our final walk with Maggie and the wind force was almost at cat 1 hurricane strength. Give me some Florida Sunshine!

Oh, and by the way, the bunch of them are coming to Florida in about seven weeks. (Except for Alan–someone has to stay and drive the train and keep that oil boom going!) So I’ve got some more quality grandkid lovin’ time coming up!