2 Girls and a Dog

Ok, so let me start. I had a really, really good time. I just don’t know why I got sent up the river twice. I’d been a good girl. Also, I don’t know why we had to stop. Mommy Sandy and I were still ready to keep going. Momma Michelle was ready for a break.

I had lots and lots of fun meeting new people. I like trolling for the Moms. I don’t know how they would do this without me. I have the whole back of the car. Mommies are cramped in the front. I get to play and dance and scamper around. I have my own driver. I stay in fun places. I get new sniffs all across the country.

I want to go again.

So, some facts and figures from our trip:

We traveled 6,800 miles and spent 35 days on the road. We drove through 20 states and visited 14 cities. We stayed in 9 hotels and 5 Airbnbs.

We had city tours in Salt Lake City, UT, Chicago, IL, Chincoteague, VA (pony tour!), Atlanta GA and New Orleans, LA.

Shout outs to family and friends (old and new) we saw along the way:

Colby, Hunter and Logan in St. George Utah – So great to meet new friends. Thanks for breakfast and the great SLC suggestions.

Deb and Virginia in Dubuque, Iowa– thank you so much for spending time with us in the middle of getting ready for a cruise.  Great dinner and conversation. Cheese curds. Who knew?

Dee and Denise in Dubuque, Iowa– wow, we could not have asked for better tour guides to your beautiful and interesting Dubuque, Iowa! Thank you so much for introducing us to your city.

Jan and Sue in Hightstown, NJ – fantastic conversation and a great breakfast.  For Sandy, seeing her best friend from High School after 52 years was amazing.  We loved getting to know Sue and Tucker. Eddie says “Hi and Let’s play some more!” to Tucker.

David and Lee in White Settlement, Tx.– so good to see family on this trip.  Thank you for showing us Ft. Worth and especially for the Longhorn herd and the Cowgirl Museum.  Your deck is beautiful and relaxing. It was such a lovely time.

Louis in Tucson, Az. – besides that fact we love you for introducing us, we thank you for spending time with us and sharing your wonderful church and self. 

Nathen in Tucson, Az.  – thank you for making our time at Caruso’s so much fun! We enjoyed the banter and conversation.

Steve and Sergio in Palm Springs, Ca. – a special shout out to Steve and Sergio who keep an eye on our home and kept our plants alive. Thank you, dear friends!

Lessons learned:

We really don’t need as many clothes or other items as we packed.  We can downsize. We think we knew that going in to this, but, oh well.

We need more than 2 days in most places.  Longer stays in fewer places will be more enjoyable.

We liked the big cities, but we enjoyed that smaller towns just as much.

We should cap driving times at 6 hours including stops.

We were concerned the blog might feel like an obligation or “work”, but it turned out to be a joy. 

Last thoughts:

There are amazing people all over this country – old friends and new. The barriers that we think separate us tend to fall away in the face to face meetings.

Bottom line, would we do this again? Absolutely!  We will just take note of the lessons learned and incorporate them into the next trip.  Currently, we think it will be next fall and we think it will be in a northerly direction.  Boise, ID and Yellowstone will be on the agenda as well as Vancouver Canada.  The rest to be determined!  We thank all of you who followed along with us and can’t wait to share stories with all of you in person! 

Until then, love to all!

2 Girls and a Dog

Are we homeless now?

Eddie, what?

Are we homeless now?

Firstly, no we are not homeless, and secondly you’ve had a roof over your head everyday. You can stop worrying.

Oh. Okay.

We arrived in Tucson at about 4 PM and unpacked our belongings in our lovely Airbnb.  We stayed in this same place two years ago when we last visited Tucson, and we really enjoy it.  After unpacking, we looked up local restaurants and settled on an Italian place called Caruso’s.  It is very old school, and the food was really good.  The highlight, however, was Nathan, our food server.  He was perfect and gave us great advice about the menu.  He is also really friendly, and we chatted as much as we could given the fact we were not his only table!  Back to the Airbnb and to bed as we have breakfast with a longtime friend tomorrow. 

Hey, I remember this place!  There are lizards to chase and birds to listen to in my great back yard!  I like it here. It’s a good feeling to be back here.

Up and off to breakfast with our friend Louis.  Louis introduced us to each other about 38 years ago.  And from that introduction, as they say, the rest is herstory.  We had a great breakfast at “First Watch” and then went over to visit the church where Louis is the Pastor.  The chapel is very pretty and well designed.  We could imagine Louis up at the pulpit every Sunday leading his flock.  We also visited his office which is filled with books and the numerous awards he’s earned from his good works.  We had a wonderfully engaging and wide-ranging conversation touching on everything from theology to birth order behavior to the metaphysical.  Louis says he isn’t terribly good at people “ing” but you couldn’t tell that by us.  We so enjoyed our time together we arranged to meet the next morning for breakfast.  Score!  We made our way back to the Airbnb to let Eddie out to get some exercise. 

Good feeling gone. They put me in that crate again. Veal. Someone report them!

We had dinner reservations at Sullivan’s Steakhouse in the evening.  They are a dog friendly restaurant so after brushing Eddie out, the three of us headed off to Sullivan’s.  Thank goodness the misters were on because it was still in the high 90s at 6 PM.  Our luck with food this trip held, and Michelle’s steak and Sandy’s crab cakes were incredible – however, the east coast oysters on the half shell did not hold a candle to gulf oysters.  We may be ruined for other oysters until the memory of our New Orleans oysters fades. 

Tucson rocks! LOTS of people want to love on me and see me do tricks.  I made new friends at Sulivan’s.  My martini was very refreshing. 

The next morning, we met Louis at a diner called Bobo’s Restaurant and Coffee House.  We had omelets, bacon and eggs and shared a gigantic blueberry pancake that was as delicious as it was big.  Again the conversation flowed like water and before we knew it, nearly two hours had passed and we were holding up the table so we reluctantly parted ways until the next time we meet up.  We hope Louis will be able to visit us in the Coachella Valley sometime in the future. 

One downside to our Airbnb, the WIFI is very sporadic and pretty weak bordering on dead.  Our host was aware of the problem and was trying to get it fixed but in the meantime, working on the blog finds us in a local Starbucks.  Yes, we are those people now.  We still couldn’t get much of a signal, so we eventually resorted to using our phones as hotspots.  Where there is a will, there is a way. 

Dinner broke our streak of fantastic food.  We picked a place because it was dog friendly but it turned out to be a disappointment.  The pet-friendly “patio” turned out to be a loud garage behind the restaurant with smokers at a bar sharing the space with “diners”.  The food was very mediocre at best, and we declined the “no-name” wine.  When a food server can’t tell you the winery’s name it is best to take a pass.  The one redeeming quality of the restaurant was its name, “Bison Witches”.  We never did find out the origin of the name, but they certainly get points on originality. 

Hey, but I liked it! Lots of people stopped to adore and pet me and I got all the treats that fell through that holely table Moms were at. SCORE!

The next morning, we were up early so we could arrive at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum at opening time since the weather was predicting another scorcher of a day. Sandy went to the museum many, many years ago and was eager to return.  Michelle had never been and was excited to finally see it after Sandy’s descriptions of it.  Neither of us were disappointed.  The museum and park reminded us of the Living Desert in the Coachella Valley, and we loved seeing the mountain lion and other desert creatures in the outdoor portion of the museum.  We met Sally, a docent at the Sonorasaurs exhibit.  The skeleton of a newly discovery species of dinosaur was discovered outside of Tucson in 1994, extracted in 1995 – 1999, and reassembled and displayed at the museum.  Sally told us all about the discovery and we chatted for quite a while until duty called her back to her docent tasks.  We also talked to a docent about turtles and tortoises and Sandy reminisced about the desert tortoise she once had, Codger.  After 3 hours of happy wandering, we decided to go to the Saguaro National Park as it was right next to the museum.  The park is almost 77,000 acres and it home to the nation’s largest cacti.  The Saguaros are beautiful and spread out for as far as the eye can see once you are inside the park.  We went to the visitor center and stamped our National Park passport book and got a couple of postcards and a magnet.  We then drove through the park and enjoyed its splendor.  We decided to stop for a late lunch in northern Tucson before returning home and picked a restaurant named Wildflower.  Our dining experience could not have been more different than the disappointing meal of the night before.  Sandy had a lovely charred shrimp and black rice dish that was so delicious she is going to try and recreate it back home in the Coachella Valley.  Michelle had a fantastic pounded pork cutlet that riveled the Schnitzel at Johanna’s in Palm Springs.  Afterwards, we headed back to the Airbnb to start to pack up and get ready for the drive back home.  With all of our amazing wanderings, there really is no place like home.

We are turtles again, I can tell!  My toys, food and crate (hateful crate) get packed up and put into the car.

 ”On the Road Again …”

There will be one more blog for this journey to wrap up our trip.  It will be out in the next few days.  Until then, enjoy!

Ok, maybe not so deep.  We left New Orleans after picking up Eddie who was very happy to see us but actually seemed to like Zeus’ Pups people and the place.  They didn’t have her on her leash, and she happily ran in the back after ecstatically greeting us. 

They really appreciate me here and my gifts. They know about my burgeoning abandonment issues and were very nice to me. In fact, they liked me so much they held me ransom until Mommies paid a lot of money to get me back. So there!

We traveled through Louisiana once again marveling at the amazing bridge systems.  Water everywhere and yet we traveled through it quickly and efficiently.  Often it seemed we travelled through the canopy. We stopped in Texas to get gas and paid $2.88/gal.  For a couple of Californians, that was a shocking and a pleasant surprise.  We arrived in the Fort Worth area at about 6 PM and decided we needed a bite to eat before we rested up.  We found a great restaurant very close to the hotel called Fred’s Texas Café.

The cobb salad for Michelle and Sandy’s quesadilla were quite tasty.  As an added bonus, Eddie was able to eat with us even though they had their patio windows closed.  Back to the hotel and an early bedtime after our long driving day.

We went over to brother David and sister-in-law Lee’s house the next morning and put Eddie in her crate and took off for breakfast. 

I’m confused. Did you not learn your lesson? Here I am. Stuck in a jailhouse again. Enjoy your breakfast. Don’t even give a thought to me and my predicament.

David and Lee’s favorite breakfast place was closed for some sort of maintenance, so we took off for another favorite called Heaven’s Gate (nicer and with a happier ending than it’s namesake).  So glad we did as two good friends of David and Lee’s happened to be eating there so we got to meet them.  Ron and Linda lived in California for many years when the company Ron was working for, General Dynamics, moved them to the Fort Worth area.  The six of us had very fun and lively conversation and an excellent diner breakfast (our favorite kind). 

After breakfast, we headed for the Fort Worth Stockyards to watch the Fort Worth Longhorn Herd Cattle Drive.  But first, Lee took us to the Stockyards Hotel which truly reflected the time when Fort Worth was known as “where the west begins”.  It contained great period furniture, and it was obvious any remodeling strived to keep the quaint frontier décor.  Sadly, a much larger hotel just bought it and the employees were told it would be remodeled in a modern style.  We agree with the employees that it is a shame the old-time charm will be lost. 

As for the stockyard herd cattle drive, it was so cool to see the seventeen or so longhorns’ parade down the main street in the stockyards.  Their horns are HUGE!  These are pampered cattle, and you can tell that by their condition.  They looked healthy and well cared for.  A cowboy narrated the parade and told stories on some of the individual steers.  (An example is GUS, same name as Sandy’s father, a camel colored steer whose errant behavior often ended in people running from the bulls, not with them, and stores emptying as GUS decided to shop.) There are two saddled longhorns ready for people to climb atop and have their picture taken.  As the longhorn’s handler said, “Climbing on is free, climbing off is $10.”

Would I be able to go with you more often if I had horns?

Your’s just don’t show, sweetie. So no.

After leaving the stockyards, David and Lee took us to the Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.  It was so amazing and, for Michelle, a highlight for the entire trip.  There were very comprehensive exhibits on Annie Oakley and an exhibit called “It’s Never Just a Horse” filled with examples of how the partnership between women and horses occurs in so many ways.  Therapy horses, hunter/jumpers, barrel racing, rodeoing, horse racing and other partnerships were all part of the exhibit.  Another part of the museum displayed the western and cowgirl themed art of women photographers, writers and other artists.  Fancy cowgirl costumes filled a room with amazing color and bling.  It is a celebration of what it means to be a cowgirl and how strong women are imbedded in all aspects of the west.

Afterwards, we went to a great grocery store called “Central Market”.  It looks like a Whole Foods on steroids!  We picked up fruit, deli meats, fresh bread and crackers and, of course, a little wine.  We went back to the house and when we got hungry, we prepared a feast to have out in the “treehouse”.  What do we mean by “treehouse”?  Well, David and Lee’s backyard faces park land that will never be developed so they have a beautiful pastoral view from their deck.  Their backyard slopes downward and they have many mature oak trees and because the yard slopes, the deck is surrounded by the tree canopies.  They recently had their deck built and bought a modern fire pit.  We sat out on the deck surrounded by the oak trees and Lee is absolutely right when she says sitting out there is reminiscent of being in a treehouse.  We had such a great time just sitting and visiting.  Great conversation and great company made for a very enjoyable evening.  But alas, the time to leave came all too soon so we headed off to our hotel to prepare for the drive to New Mexico. 

They finally came home. I feel like veal. Still, getting out was fun and I LOVE the deck in the backyard. I visited with far away dogs and watched birds and SQUIRRELS! Now that’s fun. Don’t know why they want to go anywhere else.

New Mexico feels like going home.

The drive through Texas to the New Mexico border was filled with fields of cotton. We expected oil derricks, but we guess they are further north in the pan handle.  We crossed into New Mexico and arrived in Roswell around 2 PM.  Sandy has always wanted to go to Roswell and hunt aliens, so we wandered around the town, went in a few stores (they all let Eddie in) and collected E.T. magnets, stickers and a t-shirt and aliens were everywhere! By then we were hungry.  We found a dog-friendly restaurant called Peppers Bar and Grill that served New Mexican food.  Out on the back patio the grackles and a pair of moxie doves were making all kinds of noise, so they kept Eddie amused.  The delightfully hot Hatch green chiles and margarita’s kept Michelle and Sandy amused.  We checked into our hotel and settled in for the night (shout to Gabriella – she was amazing!).  Tomorrow we are off to Tucson and the last leg of our journey.

I saw aliens! They were everywhere! I don’t know why it’s just a big deal. They are easier to find than squirrels.

We took off early for our long drive to New Orleans and made pretty good time only running into a bit of traffic.  When we got close to The Big Easy, we started crossing very, very, very long bridges and miles and miles of roads constructed over the waterways and canals. They are a marvel of engineering and a sight to behold. We managed to find Zeus’s Pet Resort to drop Eddie off, who was singularly unimpressed to be dropped off again.

WAIT!!! WHAT THE FLUFF? I don’t belong here! Stop. Come back! Come back! Come….

The roads in all but the very interior of the French Quarter and the major highways in New Orleans, certainly leave something to be desired and by the time we found our Marriott Hotel, we were concerned the fillings in our teeth might be loose.  We unloaded and, unlike Chicago, we found ourselves at the correct Marriot on our first attempt.  After our long drive, we unpacked a bit and headed downstairs to have a drink and a bite to eat.  While sitting in the bar, we noticed the M Club off to our left and wondered how one gains entry to the club.  Michelle is a lifetime Gold member at the Marriott (after spending way too many nights away from home while working) and we just received an email the day before saying we had now obtained Platinum status so the attendant at the club door assured us we could get an entry card for the club at hotel reception.  And indeed, it was just that easy.  So, we entered the club to find all the free food we could eat and were delighted to discover local favorites such as alligator and shrimp gumbo, benignets and the like.  Since we were a bit worn out by the drive, we opted to eat at the club, have another drink and retire up to our room. 

I am so so happy for you. Do you realize the conditions you left me in? Barbarians! Barbarians ALL.

The next morning, we headed out for our small group tour of New Orleans.  Oz, our tour guide, picked us up at the hotel and then another couple at a nearby hotel and off we went to explore the local environs.  Anyone who has driven or been driven through New Orleans knows how narrow and congested the streets are, but Oz drove through them as if he was born to it and since is a native son, we guess he was.  He told great stories about New Orleans’ colorful history, first being a fully French city, then being sold to the Spanish and once again sold back to the French only to have the French king almost immediately turn around and complete the Louisiana purchase.  So, in 1803 the size of America essentially doubled, and New Orleans (and the rest of the Louisiana territory) finally became part of America.  However, Louisiana never relinquished Napoleonic law and to this day is the only state that has parishes rather than counties and some laws closer to France than the rest of the United States.  We toured many of the local neighborhoods and areas where the storm surge of Katrina broke through the canals (not the levees as was reported in the media, a distinction of note for the locals) and swamped most of New Orleans.  We also explored the cemeteries in New Orleans where the graves are all above ground due to the very shallow water table in the city.  Some of the entombment structures carry multiple generations of families and are quite ornate.  We saw Anne Rice’s family tomb as well as other famous New Orleanians.  After the tour, we went back to the hotel and focused on finding a restaurant where we could get authentic Cajan and Creole food.  We found one in the French Quarter called The Gumbo Shop and had delicious crawfish etouffee and shrimp creole.  Back to the hotel to rest up for dinner and more amazing regional food.  We truly intend to eat our way through New Orleans.  For dinner, we found a restaurant very close to the hotel called The Creole House.  We started with half a dozen oysters and promptly ordered 6 more before we even ordered our entrees.  Michelle had blackened Redfish and Sandy had Shrimp Jambalaya, both seriously delicious.  For dessert, we had the best strawberry shortcake you can imagine.  It had incredible strawberry preserves between layers of luscious shortcake and decadent thick whipped cream.  We warned you we will be eating our way through The Big Easy, so be prepared for many more descriptions of food.  Back to the hotel to rest our overstuffed selves for tomorrow’s adventures.

Bread and Water. That’s right, mommies. Bread and water. Did I mention the BARBARIANS?

The next morning was all about the New Orleans Museum of Art.  We called a Lyft and made our way to the museum.  When we arrived, there were cars parked on both sides of the very long driveway and our Lyft driver told us this was very unusual.  As we arrived, we realized we had stumbled onto a Japan Fest!  Not only was it much livelier than it would have been, but the admission was about half the cost of a normal day.  Score!  There were really cool Tiako drummers who provided great music while sweating in the New Orleans sun.  The art museum itself is small but quite impressive with several impressionist art pieces, some modern art installations and a smattering of good representations of other genres.  A lovely eleven-acre sculpture garden is adjacent to the art museum, and we happily wandered through it.  A side note, we were also there on the day of the partial solar eclipse.  As we walked into the area of the sculpture garden, a young man had a pair of eclipse approved dark glasses.  Sandy asked him if he could see the eclipse, and he replied in the affirmative and asked if she wanted to use the glasses.  Of course, she said yes and viola, she could see the eclipse.  She tried to hand back the glasses and he told her to keep them.  So, we got to watch the moon slowly occlude the sun.  At first, the sun was covered by just a thumb nail and eventually most was covered.  We then watched it crawl over the surface and reveal the sun.  For us it was about 80%. Talk about a serendipitous day!  An unexpected Japan Fest and glasses to watch the eclipse.  Life is good.  After a few hours, we walked into the nearby neighborhood and caught a Lyft.  Then, as we did the day before, we poured through the possible restaurants in search of more oysters and regional food.  We settled on the New Orleans Cookery and later found another Lyft.  A note about our Lyft; when we requested it, we didn’t pay attention to what the make of the car was at first.  When it was only a couple of minutes away, we noticed it was a Silverado.  What we didn’t anticipated is that it would be a “lifted” Silverado.  Hmmm, getting into it was a challenge.  Sandy would have been happy with chains and pitons. From this point forward, we will more closely pay attention to the model for the vehicle.  Lesson learned. 

At any rate, we slid out of the truck and arrived at New Orleans Cookery. What a great choice!  We ordered more oysters and gobbled them down.  A short word on gulf oysters.  They are incredibly delicious!  Plump with subtle brine and a great finish.  It’s too bad we can’t get them out west, but most gulf oysters are consumed locally and, if exported, it’s usually to nearby states.  For our entrees, we had “A Feast of New Orleans” which consisted of Shrimp Creole, Jambalaya, Crawfish Etouffee and Red Beans and Rice.  We adored Tanisha, our food server, and she mentioned that we should try their upscale sister restaurant, Briquette, where her fiancé, Perry is the executive chef.  Well, as you all know, we are always up for upscale food, and we were eager to experience New Orleans food at its finest.  Michelle immediately made reservations for the next evening.  During dinner, a parade went by our window seat and Tanisha told us it was typical of a French Quarter wedding and she and Perry and their wedding party would be parading through the French Quarter next year in May.  After dinner, we decided to walk back to the hotel and experience Bourbon Street on a Saturday night.

Michelle was in New Orleans for a conference a few years ago and explored Bourbon Street, but this was Sandy’s first visit to the Big Easy.  It was everything you might think, a great cacophony of sound, men and women standing on balconies yelling down for people to do something so they can throw bead necklaces at them, people putting necklaces on women and hoping for a monetary award, live music and karaoke in the many, many bars and men and women walking around with alcoholic hurricanes and hand grenades.  We ended up at the New Orleans Hard Rock Café and of course, bought pins and a t-shirt.  We left Bourbon Street bejeweled, and we will leave it to your imaginations on how that happened.  We made it back to the hotel and sat in the M Club discussing our day. 

BREAD AND WATER! Is anyone listening? Wait, I am soooo happy you are having a good time.

On our last full day in New Orleans, we were scheduled to go on an Anne Rice walking tour in the Garden District.  However, the day dawned quite cold and VERY windy.  We probably could have struggled through one or the other, but not both.  We opted to hang out in the hotel and take a ‘down’ afternoon.  We had breakfast at the M Club, as we had every other morning in New Orleans, and then read for a few hours.  However, we still had one more dining experience to go at Briquette.  We caught lift (a regular car this time, thank goodness) and found ourselves at the restaurant a little bit before our reservation.  We were greeted by Perry when we arrived. Good grief, the food was incredible!  We started with a Crab Napoleon that was out of this world.  Layers of gulf crab barely held together so the crab was the star of the dish.  Amazingly tasty – for entrees we both had fish.  Michelle had Branzino on the bone (!) covered with an olive relish and accompanied by a red cabbage slaw.  Sandy had a whole Red Snapper on the bone (!) with a puttanesca sauce.  For dessert we had a lovely crème brulee.  A wonderful bottle of Sancerre complemented the meal.  A lovely shout out to Charis, our food server who added to our delightful evening with great conversation and outstanding service.  And thanks to Perry for a truly spectacular dinner. 

Again, just saying, bread and water and DOGS who certainly are letting the good times roll. I can’t get any sleep,

Back to the hotel – tomorrow we drive to see Sandy’s brother, David and our sister-in-law, Lee.  But first a couple of last notes on New Orleans.  The first is a charming aspect of New Orleans, our Lyft drivers were almost all women (except the Silverado driver – figures) and most of them told us great stories either about their lives or about the city itself.  I would imagine that’s because they almost always drive tourists as opposed to current residents but it charmed us.  The second is a frighting aspect, young men on Japanese motorcycles driving through the downtown streets doing wheelies, standing on the seats on one leg and doing other tricks at outrageous speeds.  It freaked us out, mainly because we didn’t want to see them or anyone else hurt – it was seriously scary.  

So, with that, goodbye to New Orleans.  We can see us coming back here.  If for no other reason, to have more gulf oysters! 

We made our way from Chincoteague, VA to Williamsburg, VA and arrived about noon.  We were able to check into our hotel early, so we found a dog-friendly restaurant called Craft 31.  Eddie was quite appreciative after being left so much in Chincoteague.  The food was pretty good, and the weather was just about perfect.  As often happens, Eddie attracted the attention of a gentleman who commented on the fact she is so well behaved.  His name is Scott and he and his wife and a couple of friends were visiting Williamsburg from Pennsylvania.  We shared about our driving trip, and he said he and his wife want to do the same thing sometime in the near future.  Scott also told us about a restaurant in Old Town Williamsburg called Berrets.  They are famous for their $1 oysters they serve from 4 PM until closing. We had planned on going to the Colonial Williamsburg attraction, which consists of shops from the colonial period as well as people in period costume, but the price of admission was $50 each and it was due to close in an hour and a half, so we decided to just wander the streets of Old Town Williamsburg.  We saw homes from colonial times – it is so interesting to think about the fact we are looking at houses that were built when we were still a commonwealth of Britain.  Of course, compared to Europe nothing here is very old, but it is the very beginnings of what is now the United States. 

I like Williamsburg. They build a whole road just for us. It called DOG road.

Eddie, nice thought. It’s true that they are very, very friendly towards dogs, but that street is called the Duke of Gloucester Street. Okay, the initials work.

We also saw William and Mary College (beautiful grounds and lots of students) and quite a few upscale and touristy shoppes.  As we were walking around, we happened on Berrets restaurant.  It has outdoor seating (for Eddie) and live music (for us) so we grabbed a couple of glasses of wine and listened for a while.  The performer’s name is Todd, and he has a nice voice, but his real talent is his guitar playing.  It was really good; at one point he even played a box guitar his brother-in-law made him.  I’ll post a couple of videos on of him on Facebook as the weak Wi-Fi signals at the places we are staying will not load them on our blog.  First world problems.  After Todd stopped playing for the evening, we struck up conversations with the people at the tables around us (Eddie once again being the catalyst as they noticed her dancing to AC/DC as Todd was singing “Dirty Deeds”).  However, our chats were cut short as we realized our parking time was about to run out.  So, we beat feet back to our car and drove back to the hotel.  We went to bed soon after as we will be up very early for our 9 – 10-hour drive to Atlanta. 

I liked that place. I was really cutting up the rug. And they had SQUIRRELS!!!! Squirrel, Squirrel, Squirrel.

We hit the road at about 6:30 AM and we don’t have much to say about the drive to Atlanta, GA except that we drove through 4 states to get there (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) and we hit the 4,000 mile mark for our trip on Highway 84 in North Carolina.  Did I mention it was a VERY LONG drive?  However, we eventually arrived in Atlanta, had a quick Firehouse Sub salad a little TV to wind down and to bed. 

Are we turtles?

Eddie, what?

Are we turtles? We crawl around on 4 paws and have all we own on our back. We ARE turtles! I’m a ninja turtle! I want to be Leonardo. I’m the leader.

Nice try Eddie. You are not the leader.

Okay. Then I’m Michelangelo! I look good in orange. I’m a NINJA TURTLE!

Okay. Whatever.

We thought we could eat breakfast at the Hilton where we were meeting our bus tour but oddly, you can only eat at the restaurant if you are staying at the hotel.  The clerk did point us towards a local restaurant called “The Atlanta Breakfast Club” so off we went to find it.  We found it pretty easily and the food was really good but again, oddly, there was no diet coke or green tea to be had.  They had regular coke and strange sounding herbal teas. We assumed they catered to the local college kids who can still burn off nearly 40 grams of sugar in a regular coke.  The highlight was a young food server.  We talked with her for quite a while about books and museums.  She told us she loved the J.P. Morgan library in Manhattan, and we told her about one of the books we read for book club called The Personal Librarian.  She shared how much she loves books and has thought about being a librarian – book lovers are truly everywhere.

If anybody cares, I’m stuck in a metal crate somewhere in Atlanta.

We arrived at our tour meeting area and met Luke our tour guide and Marvis our bus driver.  Luke was very entertaining and Marvis, bless her, was very skilled at driving the narrow and crooked roads of Atlanta.  We were quite surprised to discover that the population of Atlanta proper is about the same size as Long Beach, CA.  The tour took us by the CNN building which isn’t actually the headquarters anymore as the company relocated to a different part of the city when Warner Brothers acquired them.  We also drove by the Coca-Cola headquarters and the World of Coke attraction.  We spent about 20 minutes of the tour in downtown and then we ventured out into the neighborhoods surrounding downtown.  It is very lovely here – the homes are very southern in style but most of the homes were built after the late 1860s because Sherman burnt most of Atlanta down in his “march to the sea”.  Feeling still run high on this subject. The tour also took us to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center where he and Coretta Scott King are entombed. It is quite beautiful there with an eternal flame, the freedom walkway and a stunning reflecting pool.  Quotes from Dr. King’s speeches and Coretta King’s writings are displayed on the walls, and this is where the Center for Nonviolent Social Change is headquartered.  It was a powerfully moving experience to be there. 

After the tour dropped us off, we decided we needed some down time, so we just went back to our Airbnb and chilled.  We also decided we needed BBQ for dinner, so we went by the Georgia rule (probably more a southern rule) that the more run down and/or funky a place looks on the outside, the better the BBQ is on the inside.  It certainly held true for Daddy Dz’s BBQ Joynt.  Trust us when we say the BBQ was pure heaven.  Juicy, succulent and falling off the bone for Michelle’s chicken and just plain finger likin’ good for Sandy’s pulled pork.  Sandy even scooped up the leftover BBQ sauce and ate it with a spoon.  The collards were delicious and riddled with ham hock remnants.  After that incredible meal we packed up to get ready for our 8-hour drive to New Orleans in the morning.

Distilling the Chincoteague visit into a blog post is going to be challenging.  We saw and did so much!  However, here goes.

After a wonderful breakfast and a quick sightseeing trip through Princeton with Jan, we left New Jersey and headed through Delaware and Maryland on our way to Virginia.  As we were getting underway, I noticed I had an email from Captain Dan, the captain for our upcoming boating pony tour on Sunday.  Apparently, the weather was going to turn and he was concerned the wind would be too high to take the boat out on Sunday, but that the rest of the weekend looked OK.  Sandy and I talked about it and decided to change our Pony Tour to Friday to be on the safe side.  After that decision, we settled into the drive to Virginia.  We passed through farmland and rolling hills that made for very pleasant scenery. There continued to be, no surprise, more corn and soy beans. Once we hit Delaware, we were surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay on the west and the Delaware bay on the east.  The towns became more and more rural and smaller and smaller.  We decided to grab a fast Subway dinner in a small town at the far south point of Delaware, then we crossed the Virginia border and in no time at all arrived in Chincoteague, Virginia.  This is a place Michelle has wanted to visit ever since she read the book Misty of Chincoteague when she was eight years old – so this is on her bucket list.  We are staying at a short-term rental we found online called “Peace, Love and Ponies.  The instructions from our host told us in no uncertain terms NOT to follow Google directions because we would surely get lost.  The last bit of the directions read something like this:

“Turn left on Zxxxx Lane. It is a private, sand packed lane.  Bear right at the fork, which is Jxxxx Lane. Drive past the marsh grasses (they were about six feet tall on either side of the very narrow one lane road). Make the first left when you see boats on the right, trailers, and two red sheds.  Drive down the road past the trailers. Even if it looks like the road is ending (it did look like it was ending) keep going, go past the thick grove of trees, go past the home on the left with cars galore and the trailer with the pond (a trailer with a pond?!? Yep, that is exactly what it is). When the road winds around and meets the marsh, you will be at Peace, Love and Ponies.  (This is the best part.)  You can’t miss us.”

The directions were somewhat concerning but we found it without trouble, and it really is a lovely place.  It overlooks the marsh and we saw white tail deer right outside our wrap around windows on Friday evening and ponies grazing in the distance on Saturday and Sunday.  We also saw dozens of not hundreds of waterfowl migrating south over the marshes outside our windows; some of them even stopped to feed right in front of us. 

I saw all of the animals except for those horsies. They looked a lot like ants to me. I like this place, but Mommies tricked me. There is a HUGE fenced yard for me to play ball, but there are really horrible stickers that hurt. I think they knew.

The next day (Friday) we were scheduled to be at the boat dock for a 10 AM, two-hour tour.  We found Captain Dan’s boat and Captain Dan.  There were 14 people on the tour and six of them were from Ventura so against all odds, the Californians outnumbered the other passengers.  The tour was everything we could have asked for – we saw a bald eagle, a pod of at least 30 dolphins that played in the water around our boat for 15 minutes or so and LOTS of Chincoteague ponies!  We also saw a Flamingo that was blown off course during the recent tropical storm and is now pretty much lost.  There is another Flamingo in the south end of the marshes that is most likely a mate to the one we saw.  It was pretty cool to see a Flamingo in the wild, but sad to think that they are lost and separated. 

Now, a little about the ponies.  The most common origin story is that the ponies are on the island because of a shipwreck of a Spanish Galleon.  That’s a very romantic tale but the most likely explanation is that local farmers turned their horses/ponies out on the island to graze and over the years enough escaped to create the herd.  The local volunteer fire department keeps the herd at 150 head by selling some of the foals every July.  They round them up and swim them from Assteague Island to Chincoteague and hold an auction.  We came this time of the year because we weren’t interested in the auction, we just wanted to see the ponies in their natural habitat. And see them we did.  Captain Dan brought us to within 10 or 15 feet of ponies.  We saw at least 5 different herds and probably 30 – 40 ponies of the 150 on the island.  Captain Dan identified the ponies by name for us and told great stories about the ponies and the island.  He loves them like they are his own.  This trip he was searching for one particular pony who was very pregnant.  Most of the ponies foal in the spring but there will always be a few late foals.  We found her and she was still pregnant, so no foal yet.  After a wonderful two hours, we returned to shore and had a nice lunch at A.J’s on the creek.  Not sure why it’s named that as it sits on a bay not a creek but, you do you, Chincoteague.  We also picked up our trays at the Chamber of Commerce for the oyster festival we are attending the next day.  We read online that it’s much easier to collect the goodies at the festival if you have a tray.  We then wandered back home and rested for the next day’s events. 

It sounds like you had lots and lots of fun. I was in prison in a crate in a closet. I thought you two were all about being out of the closet. Well, you be you, Mommies. Don’t worry about me.

Saturday morning saw us up bright and early so we could get to the festival and in line.  It’s a good thing we are always early, because the line was already pretty long, and we were there almost an hour before the gates opened.  We struck up a conversation with the people in front of us and passed the hour with conversation.  Once we got in, we realized that everyone gets there early with the hope of staking out territory and setting up chairs, tents and other creature comforts.  It’s quite a thing as some people decorate their area, some hang flags and we saw one area completely decorated in Alice in Wonderland decor. 

However, we could see why it is so popular.  The music was provided by a local band called “The Island Boys” and was really good.  Their set list included Journey, the Eagles, Chicago and even a little Dave Mason.  All the band members were great singers and at one point when an Eagles song was on, Michelle walked over to see them because the vocals were spot on.  The food was great, oysters on the half shell, shrimp cocktail, clams steamed, fried and frittered.  The lines are VERY long to get the more popular dishes, but everybody talks to everyone else in line so it’s actually fun to stand in line.  We had two companions at our table, Desmond (Des) and Dawn who were there from Pennsylvania and spent the few days before the festival crabbing in the area.  They were bringing home 10 pounds of crabs and that’s just what they caught and didn’t eat. 

By 2 PM, we were stuffed and ready to head home.  We rested and decided we wanted to eat out somewhere, but every restaurant was booked so we found a great wine and cheese shop and bought a fabulous bottle of Sancerre, good cheese other nibbles and had “noshes” back at “Love, peace and ponies”.  Hard to imagine a restaurant could have beaten that.  Another wonderful day on the island. 

Glad you had such a wonderful time. I know songs. I can sing. “O lord, stuck in Lodi again…..”

Eddie, want some cheese and crackers?

All is forgiven. I love vacation.

Sunday was our last day on the island, and we decided to visit Assteague Island National Seashore and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.  But first breakfast.  There are surprisingly few breakfast restaurants on the Island and Sandy had a unfortunate meal at the one we tried on Friday.  So with some trepidation, we decided to try the Beach Road Round-up, which is purported to be “the home of the Saltwater Cowboys”. The Saltwater Cowboys are, for those who don’t know, the riders who wrangle the ponies for the swim and auction.  It was good inexpensive food and decent portions.  Then we headed to the National Parks.  We’re so glad we did!  Both parks are beautiful, and we were lucky enough to see more ponies and lots of waterfowl.  We also saw a woman doing plein air painting by the side of the road.  As we went by, we could see she was finishing a beautiful picture of the bay marshes.  

We walked out to the beach and Michelle touched Atlantic Ocean water for the first time.  We went to the visitor center and met a very nice woman named Susan who works the retail shop at the center.  We chatted and she shared how much she loves living here.  We’ve had many, many people tell us the same thing, that they love living here and are still knocked out by its beauty.  We can understand why although we’re not sure how they put up with the mosquitos.  This is supposed to be a good time of the year for mosquitos, so we shudder to think about the worse time of the year.  It’s a big part of the reason we didn’t come for the pony swim and auction, it’s at the height of the “buggy” season. 

We went to dinner at a local eatery called “Bill’s Prime”.  In spite of the name, the server pointed us towards the seafood and it was pretty good.  Tomorrow we take off for Williamsburg VA to explore some historical sights. 

I liked this place. I could see lots of fun stuff outside through the windows. There were giant dogs, but Mommies said they were deer. Oh deer. Deer me.

Another bucket list item checked off!

We set off for New Jersey through the great state of Pennsylvania.  Pennsylvania state is chuck full of United States history and we both wish we could spend some time here exploring and visiting some of the Keystone state’s historical treasures.  I mean really, the first baseball stadium and the first golf course in the United States were built in Pennsylvania! 

The trees are showing more and more fall colors as we move further east.  We hit New Jersey a little after noon.  I bet some of you didn’t know that New Jersey’s nickname is The Garden State.  Driving through it, you can see it is called that because it is lush and green and really quite lovely.  However, that is not why the state received that moniker.  It was actually used as a way to advertise farmland across the country to prospective farmers during the early to mid 1800’s.  However, it fits well enough as agriculture is New Jersey’s third largest industry.  But I digress. 

We are on our way to New Jersey to visit with one of Sandy’s closest friends from high school.  Jan is a retired educator and was born and raised in New Jersey.  She and her wife Sue, live in Kendall Park, a peaceful and lovely town very close to the Princeton area.  In fact, Jan’s father worked at Princeton when Jan was growing up.  We arrived right around 4 PM.  Now understand that Sandy and Jan have not seen each other for 52 years so they were both a bit anxious about this long-delayed reunion.  Their nervousness was unwarranted as they pretty much immediately started sharing their life experiences of the past 50 years and soon were in deep comfortable conversation.  Sue and Michelle chatted and traded life stories as well.  Needless to say, a good time was had by all.  Jan and Sue have a very sweet dog named Tucker who is a year old and was thrilled to see Eddie.  Eddie is usually quite shy around other dogs and Tucker’s youthful enthusiasm was at first a bit much for her so she took up residence on Sue’s lap to avoid his affections.  Eventually she ventured into a bit of play with him.  Thanks to her friend Maxi in the Coachella Valley she is more comfortable playing with other dogs.  Thanks Maxi!  

I like Tucker! He’s big and silly and lots of fun to play with around the house and yard. Plus, we both got lots of treats as Mommies’ wanted to encourage us. He’s big, but I’m older and wiser.

After sitting outside in their wonderful backyard and garden enjoying charcuterie, Sue prepared a lovely dinner of salmon and asparagus. Wine flowed. Old stories reminiscing and new stories filling in the gap since graduation were exchanged. It way tremendous fun and rewarding to know both lives, so far, are filled to the brim with great stories to tell.

Both Sandy and Jan seemed to feel that both have lived this first half century well. Now for the next few half centuries.

Conversation continued well into the night, sending Sue first, then Michelle, off to bed while the conversation between old friends continued.

I went to bed with Momma Michelle. I was tired and Tucker was tuckered out. Ha Ha.

Finally, around two, they surrendered to sleep. Sandy is looking forward to the next reunion.

You know how when you are traveling some rain must fall?  Well, our metaphorical rain fell after we left the hotel in Chicago.  First of all, we called the numbers on the receipts we had from the very sketchy valet who took our car and neither of the numbers on the receipt worked.  We resisted panicking and went up to the Marriot desk clerk to ask about the valet.  She told us he should be right outside the door and much to our relief, he was. Whew! It did take about 15 minutes for him to show up with our car, but at least we were mobile again.  We took off to get Eddie with more wrong turns, but we finally found Tucker’s Pups and got our girl.  She had a few things to say about us leaving her.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? The people are nice here, but the clientele has gone to the dogs. Okay. You are forgiven as long as we leave here and you don’t have any more diabolical plans for me.

We noticed the driver’s side rear tire pressure was once again too low.  We decided the prudent thing would be to find a Honda dealer in Chicago and have it fixed or replaced since it obviously had a slow leak.  Big mistake.  Just our luck, the Chicago Honda dealer was a hot mess that day, short-handed, slammed with customers and in general disarray.  But they said they would try and squeeze us in.  By the time we realized this wasn’t going to work, it was too late to get our car back so we settled in with the faint hope that they would at least take a look at it.  After two and a half hours, we told them to just put air in the tire and we would have it taken care of it another time.  It took another 45 minutes (and some increasingly not so gentle encouragement) for that to occur.  The cherry on top is that the guy who finally brought us our car asked us to please give them a 5 star rating when we got the survey.  I let you imagine our response to that.  So, nearly four hours later we are finally on the highway driving towards Cleveland.  It’s now the middle of the afternoon and much later than we anticipated but C’est la vie.  At least we’re moving.

Karma is sometimes satisfying.

Eddie, be nice.

 The roads out of Illinois and into Indiana are mostly toll roads, something we don’t really have in the west and that’s not a problem except because we don’t have the proper fast pass we have to stop and pay all along the way, further delaying our arrival in Cleveland.  We finally made it to our Airbnb about 10 PM.  Along the way, we called a Cleveland Honda dealer to try and get an appointment.  No luck on the appointment but one service department opened at 6 AM and they told us if we came in before 7 AM, they would be able to help us without an appointment.  So we quickly unpacked and got some shuteye in anticipation of a very early morning start.

I like this place. There is a church across from us. Let’s play!

Eddie, please go to sleep.

Wow – 5 AM EST is really early for those of us used to PST.  However, we arrived at the Honda service area just before 6 AM and our experience could not have been more different.  Fred and George (short for Georgina) were pleasant, friendly and very happy to help.  Two hours later we are on the road with a patched tire (we picked up a nail somewhere between the Coachella Valley and Salt Lake).  We went back to the Airbnb to let Eddie out, put her back in her crate (she was NOT happy with us) and headed off to the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. 

I think I misunderstood the “Let’s go on vacation with Eddie. It will be great fun. She’ll have a great time”. Hmmmmm.

The Rock Hall (as locals call it) was incredible and heaven for these two old rockers.  It so well represents the roots of Rock in the Blues, Gospel, Country and Folk music.  The videos are incredibly interesting and well done with very high production values.  We saw the 2022 inductees’ presentation.  Pat Benatar was inducted in 2022 and she is one of our very favorite performers.  The 2023 induction ceremony is in a couple weeks and the preparations are well under way at the Rock Hall. 

We spent 3+ hours immersed in the music we love and respect.  The 50^th anniversary of Hip Hop is 2023 and the retrospective at the Rock Hall is very well done.  But what we loved most of all was the history on the bottom floor.  It is comprehensive and so well presented.  Michelle’s personal favorite was seeing Robert Johnson right at the beginning of the history as he should be.  Sandy especially loved the Hendrix display and we both spent a lot of time pouring over the Janis Joplin memorabilia.  We listened and watched an incredibly well-done video on the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger is always a compelling performer. 

Hunger finally drove us to hunt for a Cleveland restaurant as the café at the Rock Hall just did not appeal.  To her great joy, we picked Eddie up and went on the hunt for a dog-friendly restaurant.  The weather was perfect for eating outside as it was in the low eighties with relativity low humidity.  We found The Great Lakes Brewing Co and had wonderful, juicy hamburgers.  Then, back to the Airbnb for laundry, packing and a couple more episodes of Batwoman.  We have another early morning tomorrow as we head to New Jersey. 

I had a great time at the restaurant. Other people really appreciated and loved on me. Pay attention Moms.

We left Dubuque and headed for Chicago IL with a song in our hearts.  We had such a wonderful time in Dubuque and we have high hopes for the next stop on our cross country journey.  Chicago is one of the great American cities and we both had only been to The Windy City for business so we never were able to really enjoy it.  The travel there was fairly short and uneventful.  We arrived and had to find Tucker’s Pups where Eddie was to be boarded.  Now, Chicago is an amazing and wonderous place but driving in it is crazy making.  The pedestrians pay no attention to the status of the walk signals and stride fearlessly out into the street regardless of the color of the lights or signals.  The Chicago drivers could easily qualify for NASCAR status and the non-Chicago residents like us are scared to death which provides its own type of danger.  We found Tucker’s Pups with only a few hair-raising incidents, found a gas station and then tried to find our hotel.

Wait! What the fluff? I have plans to dine and play. What am I doing here? It was all going so well and then I’m dumped. Come back! Come back!

We thought we found our hotel with a few wrong turns and trips around the block due to one-way streets, only to realize, we were at the WRONG Marriott Courtyard.  This was after the valet and bellhop helped us unload our luggage and we tried to check in.  OK, so back out to the streets of downtown Chicago and many, many more wrong turns before we found the RIGHT Marriott Courtyard.  The hotel had previously sent us an email to let us know the cost of parking (eye-watering high) and there was a $20 per day additional charge if you wanted in and out privileges.  We did not as we did not intend to drive again in Chicago until we left, thank you very much.  Oh, and by the way, the valet only accepted cash and you had to pay for all the days you planned to park in advance.  Money laundering, anyone?  When we handed over $225 in cash, the valet wasn’t going to give us a receipt for the cash but just a claim ticket (WTF?). Sandy insisted on a receipt which the valet reluctantly provided and we watch our car drive off while wondering if we would ever see it again. 

It serves you right. I’m your lucky charm. Mommies be…..

We just opted for dinner at the hotel restaurant called the “Copper Fox” and a few adult beverages to calm our nerves.  Then, off to bed as we had an Architecture River boat tour the next morning.  The boat tour was wonderful and Kathy, our tour guide was incredibly impressive.  Her knowledge of Chicago Architecture and history was as wide as it was deep.  She pointed out all the iconic buildings and some lesser-known ones and told great stories about the city itself.  Afterwards we had lunch at a cool local restaurant called “The Egg Harbor Café” and wandered around downtown.

We went into the futuristic looking Apple store where there is an auditorium with Apple employees giving classes on how to use their new products to anyone who walks in off the street.  After exploring, we headed back to the hotel to rest, clean up and decide where to go for dinner.  We opted for something close and chose “The Capital Grill” right across from the hotel.  It was delicious, of course, and Michelle got the steak she was jonesing for since the beginning of the trip and Sandy had a delicious seared ahi (no surprise). 

Hello? Hello? I need to speak to management. There’s been a terrible mistake. There are DOGS here. Someone? Hello?

The next morning was our land tour by van.  There were only six of us, so the tour was pretty intimate and laid back.  We saw more incredible architecture and heard more stories about Chicago.  Rick, our tour guide, told us stories about gangsters, bank robbers and politicians who he put all in the same category.  There were a couple of commonalities between our tour guides.  Kathy was professional and still friendly, and Rick was acerbic and sarcastically funny but they both told us the same two things.  First, that the name Chicago comes from a Native American term that means “stinky onion” and that the tallest building in Chicago is the Willis Tower and “Willis” is pronounced Sears.  Apparently even though the tower was renamed in 2009, no one calls it the Willis tower.  After our tour we decided we would continue our tradition and go to the Hard Rock Café for a late lunch/early dinner.  The food was as expected and afterwards we bought HR pins and a t-shirt.  Another Hard Rock visited – mission accomplished.

The DOGS in this prison slam their water dishes against the bars all night long and talk incessantly. I can’t sleep. Where is the manager?

Saturday brought weather in the low 80’s and joy for all the Chicagoans.  Everyone we met was rejoicing about the weather.  I would imagine it’s like how we Coachella Valley people react to a pleasant day in the low 90’s in the summer!  We headed for the Field Museum in a Lyft (thank heavens they have Lyft here) and spent the next six hours marveling at the exhibits and the true grandeur of the Field (we’re told it is like Cher and just has the one name here in the city. No one calls it the Field Museum.  We loved the Ancient American exhibit and spent nearly an hour and a half there.  But, of course, the real star of the Field, is Sue the most complete and largest skeleton of a T-Rex ever discovered.  We must say, she is pretty cool and awe-inspiring when you lay eyes on her.  If any of you find yourself in Chicago with some time, she is worth the price of admission.  After six hours, our brains were overstimulated, and our feet were exhausted so back to the hotel we went and sat at the bar drinking diet coke and sparkling water (you can guess who had what).  We met a very nice gentlemen named Brad while sitting there.  He is from St. Louis, but wouldn’t you know it, he is planning on moving to Palm Springs!  We connected on Facebook so he can keep us apprised of his progress towards moving to the Coachella Valley.  For dinner, we saw an intriguing restaurant called “Lure” in our wanderings, so we decided to try it.  We were able to get in without reservations because it was still fairly early, and the sushi was delicious!  We are batting 1000 for food so far this trip. 

Bread and water. I hope they are having fun. It’s just bread and water here.

Sunday is our last day in Chicago, and we debated what was a “must-do” for this trip and decided on The Art Institute of Chicago.  We believe we made the right choice if, for no other reason, the Impressionist art.  They had so many Van Goghs, Monets, Manets, Cezannes, Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas that we were left a bit dazzled.  But we both agreed that it was the Renoirs that truly enchanted us.  They have over a dozen in two rooms and we found ourselves lost in them.  For dinner, we decided we would go back to Lure since we loved it so much.  We explored a few different things on the menu and loved it just as much as the night before.  Tomorrow we are off to Cleveland. 

Remember me? Will you remember to pick me up? Hello?