What I did on my summer vacation 2010

This might not be terribly interesting but I promised to share and it's all priceless to me.

Kathy’s 2010 trip to see Robin

Fri Aug 13
Flight delayed 40 min because of weather. Frustration disappeared as soon as I was greeted my Michael and Robin. Thankfully they are both huggers.

Literally over the Ohio River and through the woods of PA and W VA we went (not necessarily in that order, wink).

Their house and my private basement apartment just a few doors away overlook the Ohio River, which is something I obviously missed in previous conversations with Robin. Beautiful sight from each location and also overlooks where their first house as a married couple and young family is located.

What a welcoming! Personalized hat, postcards, t-shirt, tote, mug, and a journal just for me were in the bedroom with some other postcards and brochures. A basket including pastries (scoopie, black raspberry turnover, sugar cookies) from Frank’s Pastry Shop and beautiful bouquet of roses welcomed me when I walked in to the apartment. There was a bottle of purple nail polish on the bed for the pedi the next day too! The pastries weren’t a surprise but the roses sure were!

Beautiful poolside cookout dinner with the whole family (the girls and son-in-law came over) included ¼ lb hotdogs, hamburgers, potato salad, fried green tomatoes (specific request of mine) watermelon, cantaloupe (that’s what I thought it was, delicious no matter what it actually was), watermelon, and 2 pies! I was too full and tired to enjoy everything. The foodie I am was sure to make up for that in following days.

I’m not sure if I said too much that night. I was exhausted and it can be hard to get a word in with that group. I was doing good just to keep up. I’m sure I missed more than a few things though. I loved every minute of it.

Entertainer that Michael is, he tried to get us to play Wii but once my butt hit that chair there was no way in hell I was getting back up. It did look like fun and I wish I had one but I was just too pooped.

I could have called it a night hours earlier than I did but like a little kid I didn’t want to miss anything.

Sat Aug 14
Hip and back pain combined with no CPAP meant that I overslept (great houseguest that I am), only waking by the 3rd alarm minutes before Robin called or texted because we had a (OMG much needed by me) mani/pedi appt.

We rode in style, topless! Thankfully, and since I missed a real shower, I had a cute hat to wear – the Alpine Way Resort and Spa hat that greeted me the day before. Curly bed head can only get worse when windblown and has been known to traumatize more than one innocent child.

We toured the down town area a bit, had fruit smoothies, and headed back to the house. Since I didn’t have any room left after dinner the night before, lemon pie for lunch seemed like a good idea to me! It was naughty but awesome!

We enjoyed the pool like the “ladies of leisure” that we wish we could always be and before long Michael would be home and it was time for dinner.

Lettuce and tomatoes from their own gardens, corn on the cob, shrimp, and leftover potato salad I didn’t get to try the night before followed up by more lemon pie at some point before I left for the night.

An early evening errand had to be run despite the on/off rainstorms. Since we were already out, Michael took us to check out the ducks at the river dock. I can now say that I’ve thrown bread like a Frisbee from inside an SUV while trying to keep said SUV and me from getting soaked. I still loved it. We also got to see “Penis Shrubs”. Robin spotted them so we had to take pics of that!

Back at the house we enjoyed the movie Drumline. I had never seen it and had wanted to, especially since some (if not all) of it was filmed locally in the Atlanta area.

I wanted to do my night owl routine with Ms Robin but I was again exhausted. I headed to “my place” and straight to bed.

Sun Aug 15
I had another rough night because of hip and back so I was in bed until 1pm. Unfortunately Robin had promised her mother that we would join her for breakfast or lunch (I didn’t know this) so they were waiting at R’s house for me. Um, oops!

Robin and her mom sat out in the hot sun chatting with me while I lounged (yes, like the lady of leisure I want to be some day, lol) in the awesome hot tub. The penetrating heat and jets aimed at the bad spots of the back and hip did seem to help.

After Michael got home from work, we had a bite to eat and I headed to the apartment to get ready to meet up with their daughter Chelsea to see the movie Expendables.

**Duh moment** I will give myself that I was exhausted and not exactly focused at that point……………… It was only when I went over to the apartment to shower and change that I thought about trimming the stems and changing the water for the roses……….The damn things weren’t real! I thought I would wet myself laughing so hard. I wasn’t expecting roses but I did know that they were going to treat me like gold while I was there so it was no big surprise and safe to assume these were real.

Despite having a full belly from lunch, movie popcorn (an extremely rare treat for me) called to Michael and me. With a little help from Chelsea, we did serious damage to a huge bucket. Yes, bucket. From then until the end of the year he can bring that bucket in and they will refill it for free! It is probably a good thing that they don’t have that deal around here.

The movie was full of suspense but a little graphic. It had some funny lines, good cameos, and lots of action. I liked it but did watch some of it through my fingers and off of my seat.

After the movie, shaved ice was calling to Robin. Of course I had to have one too! Red raspberry is one of my favorite things in the world. They also had FRIED OREOS! I will eat just about anything fried but I still wasn’t sure about fried Oreos. OMG, good stuff and again a good thing these are not available around me.

Early evening sightseeing highlighted by….. wait for it…… the “novelty store”. It was fun playing in the stripper clothes and accessories but the deer and views of the Ohio River were beautiful.

We also visited the local horse track, near the big casino. We parked along the side to watch them come around the corner. I got all lined up to take a picture and panicked and took it too soon but it was cool to see and hear in person. We drove right by the casino but didn’t get out. I’ll save that for the next visit.

I had told Robin that I wanted to try pizza “up there” while I was visiting to compare to what I’m used to here in Atlanta so on the way home we picked up some squares I guess is what you’d say. The sauce was sweeter, the shape was square, and ability to top each piece by request was cool. Good stuff!

Mon Aug 16
Any day that starts with Raspberry Toaster Strudel, time in the pool, some sightseeing, and a great dinner with even better scenery is a good day!

For lunch we had a sub from Sal Mari’s Subs just down the street from Robin’s. It was huge! It had stuff on it I’d never heard of but was goooooood.

Rosemary knows her family history and had a lot of the area to show me. It was another wonderful and beautiful drive but don’t quiz me on any details.

This might have been the day that we teased Rosemary by saying that my bf is black. During our drive she was explaining some of the town’s history and the ethnic makeup of different areas. I knew what she meant and took no offense as I don’t think she meant any harm by what she was saying.

Rosemary took us to a wonderful dinner at Pier Lock 6. I was amazed that we could sit outside and not melt. What a difference humidity makes! After dinner, we went in the building so that we could see more of the beautiful view of the Ohio River.

Tues Aug 17
No Toaster Strudel for breakfast but equally as good we had breakfast at Crickster’s with Rosemary before she headed off to work. It’s kind of a 50s soda fountain-ish kind of place, with a slot machine area in back.

There is an ordinance or something like that in these areas that does not allow businesses to advertize or have anything indicating gambling available in the establishments BUT if it says “and more” that means that there are slot machines to play so many restaurants and stores have “and more” in the name. Robin had explained this to me but it is another thing to see as you are driving.

Robin took me to the drug store just down the hill from her house. I did a little shopping while she did hers. I was shocked. She just had them put hers on her bill! Holy crap! They still do that?!

Then we checked out the Homer Laughlin China Company Factory Outlet (home of Fiestaware). They had the usual latest and greatest items at full price but then there was the “seconds” area in the back. I could see spending a lot of money there but I resisted. I had to laugh though as there were items that I had no idea what it was and had to ask Robin.

We picked up lunch via the Hot Dog Shoppe (“The Big City Has Nothing Over Us. There’s No Place Like Home!”) drive thru just around the corner from where Robin works and headed for the pool.

I was honored to join the family for Robin and Michael’s anniversary dinner at Caitlyn and Steve’s house. It was an awesome spread. Caitlyn definitely has her mother’s cooking and entertaining gene.

Wed Aug 18
Quick breakfast of Raspberry Toaster Strudel and we were off to Caitlyn’s so she could drive us in to Pittsburgh.

Robin nodded, Caitlyn raged at the traffic and dumb drivers, and we chatted. It was kind of nice to only have 1 ½ (remember Robin was nodding in and out) Webster’s to keep up with.

We drove in and around Pittsburgh while Caitlyn explained what was where. I definitely felt my age as she was able to point out all of the cool bars and what made each cool (or not cool).

We ended up in the Strip District of Pittsburgh. We did some cool, diverse, shopping: sports memorabilia store, Asian food shop, Greek food shop, awesome kitchen store, etc. I’m sure there is an area like this in Atlanta but I’ve not seen it as I’ve not looked for it. (wink) We thought about more shopping but were just too pooped.

We had lunch at the “Almost Famous Primanti Bros” (you can pull Man v Food guy video off YouTube). I didn’t have the famous sandwich with the fried egg and all of the stuff - all sandwiches come topped with French fries, coleslaw, and tomatoes - but wish I had “manned up” to give it a try so that I could say that I did. There is always next time. I did make a point to get a couple of t-shirts from the “gift shop” which was a guy with boxes resting on a bar stool telling you to keep digging to find the size and color you need

On the way home we stopped at an awesomely huge Whole Foods type store. It has everything you can think of and many things you didn’t think of and in any size you might want or need. Items to eat or drink as you shop included coffee, smoothies, and ice cream. Items needed to do the cooking yourself – ingredients and the appliances/tools to do the cooking. Items ready to cook and items ready to eat are plentiful, including made to order sushi. They have huge sections devoted to typically small sections of a traditional grocery store. The cheese section is huge! I think Caitlyn said there are 100s of cheeses. The sections for the ethnic foods are big too.

Robin picked up kabobs for the grill to go with corn on the cob and the Baklava that she picked up at the Greek shop on the Strip. Caitlyn picked up a whole rack of ribs and a few other things. I wouldn’t even know where to start with a rack of ribs, lol.

After yummy dinner Michael, Robin, and I went and fed the ducks. It was simple fun. Good stuff. I think I’ve already said it but it is so much more enjoyable to be outside when the humidity is tolerable.

A private tour guided by both Robin and Michael of the Lou Holtz Hall of Fame was awesome. I got to check out the behind locked bars vault and see the steam organ run. There are a lot of cool sports and local interest displays. It was a lot to take in but worth the “spoons.”

Fortunately Rosemary’s basement apartment included a laundry room so the evening ended doing laundry and some light tabloid reading.

Thurs Aug 19
Breakfast at Frank’s Pastry was a huge cream puff. HUGE! I was so involved in what I was having I don’t remember what she had. Lol I do remember how nice it was to be sitting comfortably outside as the wonderfully slower paced world drove by. Doesn’t sound like much but there is nowhere around me where that would be possible.

We headed on to Chelsea’s place. She’s made quite a lovely home for herself. I love all of the pink. She has her mother’s eye for decorating and several cool ideas. I wish I had taken some pictures of us there. (frown)

The three of us then went to Gabriel Brothers. OMG! I bought so much stuff I had to buy a suitcase to bring it all home. It was SO awesome. I guess you could say it’s like a Marshall’s or TJMAXX or Stein Mart. I have not been shopping like that in so long. I got me some serious retail therapy done that day!

We had a late lunch at Robin’s favorite place Fujiyama. I can see why it is her favorite. Yummy! (Um, no, I didn’t eat any sushi.)

After dropping Chelsea at home and a quick road side stop for special tomato sauce, we headed home.

Robin got some zucchinis from her garden and duplicated the appetizer dish we had at Pier Lock 6 on Monday but in meal size portions. Yummy! Robin MUST be related to Betty Crocker or maybe Martha Stewart as her talents are not just food related.

That night we (lol) made meatballs to have for dinner Friday. The girls had come by to get some things for the special anniversary party on Sunday so I was seriously distracted, in a good way for me but in a bad way for Michael who was trying to sleep. Robin poured some of this and some of that in to a bowl, mixed it up, and I actually managed to help roll them out for baking. That’s why I laugh when she says “we” made them.

When we were in the city Wednesday Robin got the key lime juice she needed to make pies so she whipped two together in no time since the oven was already hot. She doesn’t even have to think while she cooks. It is awesome to be around.

Before bed, I started pre-packing to see what needed to go where now that I had “extra” room with the new suitcase. Um, nope, no extra room! Yikes!

Fri Aug 20
I’m sure the day started with me having Toaster Strudel with Robin or her watching me eat mine.

Knowing that no trip to Chester WV would be complete without a picture at The World’s Largest Teapot we made a point to get there during the day to get a picture of me in front of it.

This might be the day that we ran a few errands and had Mexican for lunch with Caitlyn.
Spaghetti and meatballs followed by homemade key lime pie. No complaints from me!

Robin and I looked at Chelsea’s scrapbooks that evening. Each had wonderful memories and is something to be treasured forever.

We would have loved to stay up all night talking or whatever as the week just went by so fast but we knew that was a bad idea since I had to have my wits about me for travel.

It took forever to pack. The carry on bag I brought with me was stuffed to the max so none of the souvenirs or retail therapy was going to fit in it. To my shock, it was tough to get the extras in my new suitcase. What a dork!

Sat Aug 21
Last minute packing, linen laundry, and picked up apartment. Had breakfast in town at the L&B Diner (where everybody knows your name kind of place) with Michael, Robin, and Rosemary and headed back to the house.

I got notification that my flight had been cancelled so we tried to figure out how I could stay for the party the next day and still get home within a day. There were storms expected and that would have been an issue, I was already packed, and it was just time to go home.

There was unexpected time to kill. I napped. Michael napped. Robin whipped homemade blackberry cobbler together! Nice to wake up to after a nap and a warm fuzzy way to head out the door for the airport. Hmmmm, a distraction to my feelings? Ya think!

Robin and Michael took me to the Pittsburgh airport which was basically empty, almost Twilight Zone to me. They were able to pull right up the curb and get out with me while I checked in. Hugs and fought tears until I got to the restroom inside the airport.

We forgot to take pictures or make note of all the food and adventures but I do know that I ate VERY well and had a great vacation. I wish that we would have been able to do all that we did and get some extra rest but I don’t regret using my “spoons” just the way that we did.

To be welcomed in to their homes, lives, and getting to spend quality time with them all was a special gift that I am grateful for. Even their dog Rowdy is a love.