I realized I haven’t posted about my NEW reading challenge. This year, I wanted to join the “When Are You Reading” challenge. Below are the categories. I have a few more to fill in. Any suggestions?
The time periods are:
Pre 1200: Pope Joan
1300-1499: The House on the Strand
1500-1699: The Miniturist
1700-1799: A Girl Called Samson
1800-1899: Where the Lost Wander
1900-1919: Moloka’i
1920-1939: The Christie Affair
1940-1959: The Last Year of the War; The Book Woman’s Daughter
1960-1979: Necessary Lies
1980-1999: I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives
2000-Present: The Girl in the Glass
The Future: Illuminae
There are so many fun challenges. I’ve got 6 more to read for this challenge, and then I think I’ll start an Around the World reading challenge. As always, send any book recommendations my way! I’m always looking for wonderful NEW books to read!
Have a great day and I hope you do or learn something NEW today!
Happy Friday! It’s been a while since I joined in on a photo challenge. So, when I saw this week’s #362 Sports, Sporting Events, and Fun Games challenge at Wandering Dawgs, I thought of a fun event we recently attended and wanted to join the challenge. This baseball game was played at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. The players dressed up in vintage baseball uniforms and played with rules from 1867. That means NO baseball mitts (they weren’t invented yet), and many other slight variations from current baseball rules. It was a lot of fun!
And other miscellaneous NEW experiences:
Thanks to reading Travel Means Life, I was “in the know” when we saw several Quilt Gardens in Indiana.
Then, in Genesee County, New York, spotting quilt blocks on barns, houses, or sheds etc. is a thing! There is even a website about it {HERE}. Are there any other quilt related I-Spy-type hunts that I don’t know about??? :o)
And lastly, I thought I’d list the random museums we’ve visited in the last few weeks….just so you know that we do more than hike to waterfalls and visit national parks, haha!
We’ve visited:
Jell-O museum! (Did you know there’s such a place?!?)
The Corning Glass Museum
The Safe Haven Holocaust Museum
The Detroit Art Museum
The world’s largest Christmas store! (Bronner’s)
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Town of Stafford’s Historical Museum
The George Eastman Museum and House Tour
I think that’s enough for now. I gotta go research more NEW things to do, see, or learn about! Have a great day!
Happy Monday! Boy oh boy, if you want to visit waterfalls, the Finger Lakes Region of New York is where to go! We hiked to different waterfalls nearly every day last week! I’ve added 12 NEW waterfalls to my 100 Waterfalls Bucket List! Only 20 to go until 100!
To be clear, I’m not counting some we attempted to see. Some were duds – hardly any water at all (it is August, after all. Namely Aunt Sarah’s Falls, Hector Falls, and Shequaga Falls were the duds :o). But most were fantastic! Here are a few photos.
The top photo is Rainbow Falls at Watkins Glen State Park in New York. The best part of that hike is that you can see many little falls on your hike (something like 19 in a span of 2 miles), like these little ones:
Ithaca Falls near Cornell University was a good one:
A favorite is the Middle Falls at Letchwork State Park in New York:
Although the Upper Falls at Letchworth were great too!
The hike up Stony Brook Creek in Stony Brook State Park was a nice (and a good workout!). It is a well-maintained trail with rock or wooden steps placed at the steep areas. I Googled how many steps there were. Here’s what my friend Google told me: “Stony Brook State Park has approximately 800 stairs, though a specific count is difficult as trails are a mix of stone, wooden, and dirt steps. The trails, particularly the Gorge Trail and West Rim Trail, are known for their many steps, with the West Rim Trail’s section sometimes called the “thousand steps”. We hiked up the gorge trail and came back on the West Rim trail. Here’s a photo from one of the Stony Brook trail waterfalls:
I hope you have a great week and get to do or learn something NEW!
We’ve been visiting several NEW (to us) botanical gardens on our travels. I can’t help myself from snapping photo after photo of the lovely blooms or foliage! And if they have a butterfly or bumble bee on them – extra bonus!
This tree in the Cornell Botanical Gardens caught our eye. The tree had a rectangle cut out of it with a wind chime inserted in the trunk, but it was still growing! We asked a gardner about it, and she said a few years ago, they had to cut down the tree, because it was a safety risk, but this year, it is obviously sprouting new growth! If you saw my “New thursday thought” post from yesterday, this tree would also apply…where new growth appears, so does hope!
Here is a link to an article about cutting the tree and inserting the wind chime {Link HERE}. You’ll see the photo of the tree looks vastly different!
I have many more photos of blooms, but they might have to be uploaded another day.
I hope you get to do or learn something NEW today!
Recently, we visited Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. What a unique national park! It’s basically in the middle of some towns and very close to a large city – Cleveland, Ohio. It was made a national park because the beauty of the area was being threatened by development. We rode our bikes on the Erie-Ohio tow path, then made our way to this awesome waterfall. I’ve wanted to go here ever since Nancy at Two Trails One Road recommended it! It did not disappoint! Thanks, Nancy! We rode further on the tow path and saw this awesome bridge. I believe it’s called Station Road Bridge:
After lunch, we hiked to Blue Hen Falls. However, after visiting Brandywine Falls, these falls were a bit underwhelming (especially after a semi-difficult hike), but hey, any waterfall is worth it in my opinion! I’m thinking perhaps there might be more water in the spring rather than the hot days of August!
On the drive back to our campground, we stopped in the cute little town of Chagrin Falls. We bought an ice cream cone and enjoyed their falls right in their downtown.
Toward the end of the week, we hiked the short distance to Minnehaha Falls and Cascade Falls in Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park. The Minnehaha Falls has a glass bridge that you can walk over the large gorge that the waterfall flows through. Again, I’m thinking there would likely be more water in the springtime than there was in August. But I’m counting them both toward my 100 waterfalls!
So, the bucket list stats are at 29 out of 63 national parks and 68 out of 100 waterfalls. We’re getting there. Being retired will likely speed up the progress!
Have a great day! I hope you learn or do something NEW today!
Happy Thursday! In honor of National Lighthouse Day, I thought I’d post a few photos of lighthouses that I’ve seen in the last two weeks – and update my Lighthouse List.
The top two photos are of the William Livingstone lighthouse on Belle Isle, Michigan.
And this one is the Milliken State Park Lighthouse, which is close by – just across the Detroit River from Belle Isle.
I’m not sure I’ll count these as “visited” because I was so far away. But these are the Cleveland Harbor Main Entrance Lighthouse and the Cleveland Harbor East Breakwater Lighthouse – taken from across the harbor. Then again, maybe I’ll count them. I just learned they are privately owned, so you can’t visit them without permission. These photos will have to suffice.
Have a terrific day! I hope you get out and learn or do something NEW today!
We recently visited our 28th (out of 63) National Park. We explored Indiana Dunes National Park. The weather was perfect. The crowds were small. Yay!
I’m not sure if drones are permitted at this national park (probably not), but there are some impressive photos posted online which were taken from above at some point. Here are a few of mine taken from ground-level. Maybe I should look into getting a drone, haha! (????)
35 more parks to go!
I hope you have a lovely day and learn or do something NEW today!
I thought it was time for another A-Z list of all the little miscellaneous NEW things I’ve been learning or experiencing. My first one was back in 2023, (how time flies!). I got the prompts from Deb’s World. Here goes:
Admiring: this beautiful fountain and the lovely gardens at Buxton Park. We spent a night in Indianola, Iowa, and after dinner, noticed a lovely park, so we got out and walked around. Now that’s my kind of after-dinner walk! It was very lovely. I took lots of photos of the flowers and this beautiful fountain. Then I changed the photo into a watercolor painting using the Waterlogue app on my phone.
Becoming: more adept at setting up and taking down our 5th wheel RV (named Stebi = Spending ThE Boys Inheritance). In the past, hubby has done the vast majority of the outside work, and I’ve taken care of the inside. However, I’ve helped out more with the outside lately. It’s a process! I haven’t touched the sewer hose yet, and I don’t plan to!!! :o)
Curious: about Narwhals. I just recently learned about them. How did I not know about this fascinating species earlier?! Do I live under a rock?!
Delighted: by these fun fishing poles my friend gave us for a retirement gift. She knows we’re not really big on fishing, but fishing is symbolic of retirement, right?! Aren’t they SO adorable?!
Excited: to visit NEW places and meet NEW people on our 4-ish month RV trip.
Feeling: like I’m gonna really miss my one-year-old granddaughter while we’re gone!
Going: to take an online landscape design course and maybe an online Master Gardener course. Any good recommendations?
Helping: the victims of the devastating Texas floods by donating to relief funds.
Imploring: people on both sides of the political aisle to “just get along”!
Joking: with my son, whose middle name is Geoff, by sending him this hilarious SNL clip!
Knowing: that computer algorithms feed me certain content, often one-sided content, is concerning. Any good ideas on how to remedy that?
Loving: it when we see awesome sunsets! This was taken in Laramie, Wyoming. I’ve never been to Laramie before. Well, I guess I’ve driven past it, but never stayed there. I love it when the sky says goodnight in such a spectacular way!
Making: my art journal needs to become a priority. Doing art in an RV might be challenging, but I brought a few supplies. Wish me luck!!
Next: phase of our life is beginning! Bring on the Golden Years! It’s gonna be GREAT!
Observing: the world’s largest train yard from the observation deck of the Golden Spike Tower in North Platte, Nebraska. The train yard is 8 miles long and about 2 miles wide.
Posting: more often (hopefully), because retirement = more time (again, hopefully). ;o)
Questioning: why my computer keeps spazzing out! Agh!
Reading: My NEW reading challenge is to read a book set in each of these time periods: Pre-1200, 1300-1499, 1500-1699, 1700-1799, 1800-1899, 1900-1919, 1920-1939, 1940-1959, 1960-1979, 1980-1999, 2000-present, the future. I found this “When Are You Reading” challenge HERE.
Staying: and traveling in our 5th Wheel full-time until about November. We’re thankful our son can keep tabs on our home for us while we’re gone! I’ve told neighbors to text me if the lawn isn’t mowed or if the weeds in the flower beds get out of control. Haha!
Trying: to remember that we’re actually retired folk now. Haha! This vacation we’re on is permanent!
Understanding: Spanish isn’t really getting any easier for me. I’ve been doing Duolingo for over 3 years, but I think I need a real, live tutor. Will that happen any time soon? Not so sure!
Viewing: fireworks from the soccer stadium. It was great because the entire family was able to attend the game together. Getting schedules to align like that rarely happens. Fun night!
Welcoming: the NEW technology of Starlink for our travel necessities!
X (Our choice): Extra hard finding a laundry mat in certain areas!
Yes: to playing MORE pickleball and racquetball!
Z (Our choice): People watching is a joy! Watching the young man on the riding lawn mower dance and jive to the music (I’m assuming) on his earbuds brought a smile to my face!
Whew! That was kind of time-consuming! But I’ll appreciate looking back at this post in a few years.
I hope you all have a great week and do or learn something NEW! Take care!
Happy Sunday! I recently finished up my A-Z reading challenge and wanted to document and remember what I read.
A: At the Existentialist Cafe
B: Build the Life You Want; (The) Body…a guide for occupants
C: (The) Christie Affair
D: Demon Copperhead; Death Behing the Dumpster
E: Everyday Dharma
F: Freakonomics; Forever Strong; Follow the River; (The) Frozen River
G:Gossamer
H: Hidden Potential; How to Know a Person
I: (The) Invisible Life of Addie Larue
J: James
K: (The) Keeper of Hidden Books
L: (The) Lost City of Z
M: Made to Stick
N: Nurture Shock: New Thinking about Children
O: Outlive, The Art and Science of Longevity
P: (A) Place to Hang the Moon; A Piece of the World
Q:(A) Quiet Life in 7 Steps
R: Rough Sleepers
S: (The) Shadow of the Wind
T: Think Like a Monk; Tiny Habits
U: Under the Java Moon
V: (The) Vanishing Half
W: (A) Woman’s Place; (The) Wager
X: X-Marks the Spot
Y: Year of Wonders; Year of Yes
Z: Zen in the Art of Writing
I’m off to figure out my next challenge. With SO many books on my TBR list, it helps to work on a challenge to filter the books I decide to pick up! Have a great week and I hope you do or learn, or read, something NEW!
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