Here's what's been going on for the past three weeks in my world...
I saw these at Target...I can't collect any more...no more room!! They are perfect for candy on the counter though...
Easter mantle shelf
St. Patty's Day buffet
My traveling home...I went to Florida with my parents
I don't remember where this is, but it was pretty cool to look at!
Yay! We made it to Kentucky! I never realized how bouncy a truck is when it is pulling a trailer!! It swayed a LOT too, and my Dad never drove over 60.
My view for 3 days
Tennessee!
I'm thankful for these strong hands, that got us to Florida safely-thanks Dad!!
The first night, I went online while we were driving and found a nice looking Super 8. I called and reserved 2 rooms with just my phone number and asked if they had enough parking lot to house a 32' trailer with a truck for the night. While the desk clerk was assuring me that they had enough parking, I felt compelled to ask if their rooms looked like the pictures online. The clerk paused and then said, "uh, yes, yes they do."
When we got there, the outside of the building was disgusting! It looked run down and would have looked abandoned had there not been cars parked outside! At that point, Mom and I staged a mutiny, we said no way were we staying there!
So, I found a Holiday Inn, just a block or so away and it was AMAZING!!! I don't know how new it was but it was beautiful, and clean and sooo nice!! The best part...I used my travel eraser to pay for the rooms with my credit card points!!
This was my room!
This was the view from the elevator--Hi Dad!
This was in the lobby
In the lobby facing out from the wall of vases
Granite counters in the breakfast area
I asked for recommendations from the clerk for places to eat and he recommended this place. The Diner. It was a cute little place with homemade, made from scratch food. It was great to see an open Bible on a side table as you walked in and scripture verses on the walls here and there.
I think I had the best seat in the truck! I picked up a little travel pillow at one stop and was enjoying being a passenger for a change. Whenever I travel with Mr., I am the driver, so this was kind of nice for a change!
First palm tree sighting
Finally! Florida!!
This was our second night. We stopped at a little RV park in Lake City Florida called Inn and Out. It is near the freeway and has pull through sites. That is all that I can say that is good about this place.
It was filthy. The toilets in the bathrooms were all covered with plastic shopping bags with OUT of ORDER signs on the doors. It smelled like a sewer once you got 10 feet from the door. The showers were gross, and only had wooden restroom stall doors that didn't really provide any security. I am very glad we only stayed here one night en route.
BIG difference! This was our site in Cedar Key at the RV park. Each site had a cement pad to park the RV on as well as a little patio area and a cement parking spot for the truck.
We even had our own palm trees just outside the window! This park was super CLEAN! They even had daily, curbside trash pick up! It was easy to see that a lot of planning went into the layout of this park. Lots were huge and laid out in such a way that you weren't looking right into your neighbor's windows.
This was so therapeutic to me! Blue skies and sunshine!!! Michigan had been so gray for so long leading up to this trip, that this felt AMAZING to me!!
It got really wild and crazy with my parents in the evenings! LOL!
Our first adventure! My parents drove me back to Lake City to visit Webb's Antiques. I was super excited to check out a new to me place! It was a lot of fun to wander through. Just like any mall, it had great booths and not-so-great booths. It was a new adventure and I would recommend it to anyone!
Here are the things that caught my eye...
This actually happened! I found the largest bowl to my Glasbake recipes bowl set!!! I also found a tablecloth...because you know I can't seem to pass them up! The best part...Mom paid and said, "Happy Birthday!" I had to leave them with my parents, so I won't see them again until the 22nd of March, but omgsh!!! I am super thrilled for that bowl!!!
Worth the trip!! Check it out if you are ever in Lake City, you won't be disappointed!
Whenever I'm in a new area and it's time to eat, I always LOVE to visit the local places and skip the chains to add that much more adventure to my trip. This was where we had lunch after our visit to Webb's.
LOOK at that amazing burger! Cooked to order-medium rare-YUM! Dad said it was great! The waitstaff and the cook were super friendly and all of us really liked our food!
Here is another place we stopped at on the way back to the trailer. It was a quick zip through for us, we didn't find any thing that was a must have, and the prices seemed on the high side.
This was very near to where we were camping. Unfortunately, the day we stopped for dinner, they weren't open. Mom and Dad were planning to eat there tonight...I'll have to check with them to see how it was.
This was the view from the walk back from the bath house/restrooms/laundry facility.
Sitting on the patio relaxing in the sun!!
We check restaurants out online and found Tony's. Famous for their world famous clam chowder.
Dad and I got the dinner feast for two. Shrimp, clams, oysters, scallops, grouper, hush puppies, roasted redskins and potato salad. YUM!!!
My first ever steamed clam! Not my favorite, but I did it!! My favorite, believe it or not, was the fried oysters! That I would eat again!
My last night with my parents, we visited Steamers for dinner. It was built on posts over the water and above a little gift shop so you had to climb stairs to get to it. More pics of our food and the inside coming later.
This was at Manatee state park on the Suwanee River. We wanted to see the manatees, so we took a pontoon boat ride...it wasn't until after we got off of the hour and a half ride that they told us they haven't seen manatees for 3-4 days. We didn't see any either. We only saw turtles that were the size of dinner plates and smaller. The park was interesting and the boat ride came with two beverages each and a BBQ lunch!
We were told these are called black buzzards. They were in the trees all along the little inlet and on the rails of the dock/boardwalk to the boat. They weren't afraid of us and were kind of creepy.
Mr would love to make something out of this tree with the burls!
Mom posed for the obligatory vacation photo...
Flood level markers
It started off sunny...but once we got going on the boat, it got cold and rainy. The boat was not in the best shape, the birds had pecked holes in the seats-those were taped up, but there was a ton of mildew on the seat and carpet. The captain was super fun and friendly and the BBQ lunch was smoked on-site and was very good. I was disappointed in the mildew and the lack of manatees.
Dad's obligatory vacation pose
Another place we stopped was Shell Mound just outside of Cedar Key. We all expected something a lot more than just a little trail in the woods with a boardwalk/dock on the water, but that's what it was.
This little guy was on the sidewalk outside of the laundry facility at the RV park. I almost stepped on him!
Another adventure that we took was to Micanopy. Pronounced Mick-a-No-pee. We were planning to visit a HUGE antique mall. Unfortunately, when we got to it, it was burned out and boarded up. We were told it had happened during the night about a month prior to our visit. We went a little further on the same road to see what we could see and we found a sleepy little town with a few cafes and antique shops. I got a shirt that said, "Micanopy, where Mayberry meets the Twilight Zone." It is so true! It is a neat place to visit, but it has a feeling of, you don't want to be there after dark-LOL!
This made me think of my friend Carla.
I saw this set and it reminded me of my friend Kathy.
This was the little cafe where we had lunch. Great sandwiches and a funky, fun atmosphere! We chose to eat inside and it's a good thing we did, it started to rain just as we sat down!
Beautiful burst of color outside of one of the shops! LOVE this!!
Creepy, but cool at the same time!!
Here's another antique mall in Waldo. They boast a huge flea & Farmer's market, we just picked the wrong day to visit and only got to explore the mall and not the market.
It looks like it would have been a great market too!
This is the most "Gingham" that I've ever seen in one place. I have one bowl from the mixing bowl set that I've had for years, but I've decided I'm not going to collect the rest. I don't LOVE it, just kind of sort of like it, so it's not worth the $$ and the time to look for the rest.
My great aunt used to have one of these at her cottage on the St. Mary's River in Detour, Michigan. I remember my mom using it when we were up there on vacation in the summer when I was a kid. My mom remembers using one of these when she first got married.
This is the inside of Steamers. The windows to the left look right out on the ocean. The whole left "wall" was nothing but windows.
The right side looked out over the street and other restaurants.
My happy-hour special, blue Hawaiian.
Our appetizer-alligator bites!!! YUM! It did "taste like chicken"!
Water views from Cedar Key
This was one of the shower stalls at the RV park in Cedar Key. It was HUGE, and super clean. I twisted up paper towel and tossed it in the trash cans in an attempt to see how often the restrooms were cleaned and it looked like they cleaned them twice a day!
On the day that I was to leave for my in-laws, my Dad decided he wanted to drive me to the Melbourne Airport to get my rental car. I was perfectly fine with him driving me into Gainesville to get a car, but he insisted and so we set off on another adventure! We came across a few fun shops in Dunnellon, and of course, we had to stop! I had a great chat with the guy who owned this shop and we compared our Pyrex stories and collections. He almost fell off his chair when I showed him a pic of my Pyrex shelves in my sun room!
I drooled over this Friendship Oval casserole, but didn't buy it because I don't have room for it!
He had Pyrex stashed in every nook and cranny! Most of it was tucked under tables, and he was sure to point each piece out to me. Too bad I have all of the pieces that he had for sale!
I also visited a few more shops just down the street. What a fun sleepy little section of town!! My Dad later found out that his cousin lives in Dunnellon and he and Mom went back to visit them a couple of days ago!
I fell in love with this basket thing!!! Oh, if I only had the room!!!
This was the porch of the place with the basket racks.
This is the outside-doesn't it look like a FUN place to visit!?!?
Their gardens were amazing!!! The best part, all the plants were for sale!!!
Saw this pic online while I was gone! I couldn't wait to get back to get mine! I could only find one size though! Have any of you found the smaller size???
This was a little shop in Grant, Fl., just down the road from my in-laws house. Do you see what I see??
A couple of shops to visit in one stop!
Oh...what's hiding here? LOVE all the kitschy vintage kitchen stuff!!!
Yes...I did find one... It's a sickness, I tell ya...I think I need a 12 step program for my vintage tablecloth addiction!!
This made me think of Auntie...
This is my 84 year old MIL. She is doing very well! A year ago she fell and broke her hip, and you wouldn't know it! I see a LOT of older people every week at work. We have a group called Primetimers that meets at our church (my work) every Thursday, and I have to say, my MIL is doing much better than most of the ladies I know who are her age.
We had a great visit! I got to have a great one-on-one afternoon with her. We drove around in my rental car and checked out a neighboring town that she wanted to see, because she hadn't seen it for a few years. We visited a local thrift shop, and a couple garage sales. We went swim suit shopping since she doesn't have one and wanted to go to the pool in her complex with me.
That was a funny adventure! We don't have the same taste in swim suits-that's for sure! I was trying to help her find something, modest, she was looking for something sexy! There was a lady shopping for her own swimsuit who was chuckling at our conversation. We had fun bantering back and forth!
She found three to try on, but came out of the fitting room with nothing. She didn't like any of them once she tried them on, so we didn't get to go swimming, but we had a long lunch at her favorite place-Ruby Tuesday's! She loves to be able to putter around and do her own thing. Mentally, she is very sharp, and physically she is amazing. She did take her cane with her everywhere we went, without me even prompting. She is very stubborn, but I think that gives her spunk!
When she left for church on Sunday, I got to spend a couple of hours with my FIL. I had a great talk with him. A lot of questions were answered, and I really think God orchestrated the whole timing of both one-on-one times and conversations. He's frail, but doing great for 89 and having advanced Parkinson's. Mentally sharp as a tack, and very set in his ways! We butted heads a little while I was there, mostly over the remote for the ceiling fan and air conditioning! :)
This little guy hides out in this vase on their front porch. Each morning, I was up and showered well before my in laws, so I sat out on the porch, soaking in the sun and watching my MIL's little buddy.
My brand new rental with less than 1000 miles on it! It was a zippy little car and quite comfortable.
This was on a bush in their back yard.
She wanted to pose next to this tree to so I could send a pic to her daughter to show her how much it has grown since she planted it.
I saw this set at the Beall's outlet, I am hoping to find one online...I love the colors!
I found this at St. Luke's-the local thrift. It's the 404, in great shape and only $5! I was prepared to leave some clothes behind to fit this in my suitcase! I packed it in with clothes in my carry-on. I must have done a good job, because when I boarded my connecting flight in Atlanta, they made me check my carry-on because there wasn't any more room on the plane for carry-ons, and it survived! My MIL thought $5 was way too much! She said Pyrex is usually $2-$4 there-lol!
I learned a very valuable lesson...when you rent a car from Budget, you have to return it at the same time you rented it...or pay for another full day's rental...even if your flight doesn't leave for another 5 hours! I spent 5 hours in the Melbourne Airport. At one point (for about 3 hours) I was the only non-employee in the whole place!!! It is a very nice, very tiny airport. While I would have rather spent my time with the in laws or site seeing, it was what it was and I survived.
They actually closed down the TSA security check-point area for a few hours too, so I had to wait in the restaurant/lounge area. It made for a really long day of travelling. All in all, it was about 12 hours. I got home around 1am.
I got a little lunch while I was waiting. It was VERY good and nowhere near as expensive as I thought it would be.
This was a little museum inside the airport.
Can you hear the crickets chirping?? See, how nice it is?
Ahhh...in the air--FINALLY!!! My flight was late taking off from Melbourne, so I was a little nervous about my short 45 minute lay-over in Atlanta. I was anticipating running full out once I got there.
I got off the plane and took off for a screen to find out what gate I needed to get to. I wasn't even sure if I was going in the right direction! I found my way to the plain train that runs through the airport to the terminals. Just as I was walking up, the doors closed and it took off. At first I thought I'd just keep walking, but I looked to my right and saw another one...and this one was the CORRECT one! Had I gotten on the first one, I would have gone the wrong way!
Soon I was off and only two stops later was my stop. I briskly walked to my gate and right on the plane! I had to leave my carry-on just outside the door and I was one of the last 5 people to get on the plane! I was sure the bowl was going to be smashed when I got my luggage in Flint when I finally landed. I was very pleasantly surprised to find it in perfect shape when I got home!! YAY!!!
This came in the mail for me while I was gone!
My blue set is now complete and only one to go to finish my yellow set! I'm planning to trade my extras for some of the harder to find pieces that I'm looking for.
While I was gone, my son's van developed a problem with the head gasket. It was going to cost $2500 to fix, so we decided to give him my 11+ year old Rendezevous and I would look for a new used car. I was able to take half a day off on Monday, my first day back at work and my son and I went car shopping. For five hours we had the experience of a visiting 5 dealerships and only 3 of them actually had sales men who came outside to try to sell us a car.
We wandered one place for almost an hour, sitting in car after car opening the lift gates of several and all the doors of most, and yet no one came out. It was very different at the other places. We were pounced on at one place and at another one, the one closest to home, we had to stand and stand and stand in the lobby to try to get someone to help us--and that was after we had wandered the lot for about 15 minutes!
I ended up fining my car online at Sundance in Grand Ledge. Last Friday, my son and I test drove it and negotiated a great deal, and Saturday, Mr and I paid for it and picked it up.
It's way more fancy that I need, I just wanted leather seats, but that comes with a lot of extras. It's a year old and had only 13000 miles. I was proud of myself in my negotiating skills and was even complimented my the teller at my credit union when she found out what I got the car for!
There are horse statues all over this dealership. It is HUGE too-1400 cars on the lot!! It was the best car buying experience I've ever had!
This past Monday, my oldest came home and spent the night...he brought his new fur baby...he and his fiance got this little peanut to be their little pumpkin, and he brought her over while he stayed with us. Our house had 4 little peanuts that afternoon, all night and all the next day until 9pm. She is three months old and super cute. Our little monkeys didn't know what to make of her and really weren't big fans. I'm sure they will get used to her over time. It was funny to see him with his own pooper.
These guys were wandering around our yard one day...they have gotten very big!! They've been coming around for a while now.
Tuesday I couldn't use my Office 365 for a few hours...did you have any problems with this crash?? Three of us at work were idle while we waited.
Tuesday was also a bittersweet day as we said goodbye to our dear friend Bonnie. That is something about working in a church...it is so awesome to be able to attend funerals whenever you need to, the bad side is, there is a LOT of funerals for people who are your friends and church family.
On Wednesday, we had a HUGE windstorm blow through and it blew out the electricity at work. We were sent home around, and the power didn't come back on until around 11 am this morning. I had to go in this morning to get the number for a guy from a local church who was planning to use our facility for a huge fundraiser for his church and tell him we had to cancel because we didn't have power. I felt soooo bad for them! They were planning on having 250 guests! After doing a couple of errands and telling him the bad news, I talked with one of my supervisors that had joined me at the church and left to wander a local resale shop.
While I was there, only about 15minutes after I left work, I got a text telling me the power was on and could I come back and help! I was sooo happy to set up table and chairs with him for the other church's fundraiser!!! I even got to drive the ride-on vacuum that our church maintenance team uses to vacuum our huge building!!!
So, with an unexpected day off on Thursday, I sent a last minute text to Auntie and we headed to Bay City for an adventure wandering around a couple places that we haven't visited for a couple of years. Here are some of the things that we saw...my battery on my phone died, so I didn't get as many as I would have liked, but I got quite a few.
I have never seen a console bowl with a matching frog! I had a couple of console bowls from my grandma that I had no idea what to use them for. I didn't keep them, and I wouldn't have kept them had I known they were supposed to have a frog, but I thought this was interesting!
Found this tucked away in a dark little corner--Fiesta go-along popcorn bowl, minus the little individual bowls.
Auntie told me this was ready to go in today's houses! I really thought she'd buy it to use at her house, but she surprised me and didn't get it.
I knew she'd LOVE this booth, and I was right!!
Pyrex was alive and well represented at the Bay Antiques Center!!
Anyone looking for a Hillary mask?? Ewww!!!
My heart swooned over this turquoise canister! I'm so glad Auntie took it home with her!!!
These match a set of square canisters that both Auntie and I have in our
hoards collections. We left them there for someone else to discover.
Hi Carla! This made me think of you!!
I had this pan (the whole set actually) when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's!
One last stop in Saginaw at the Antiques Warehouse (and a couple of tablecloths later) we were on our way home!
Chicken of the Sea shakers!
What a great idea! Old marbles on a glass frog!!
A plate that incorporates so many things I love...a plate, a basket, and a hanky!!
Time to get out the St. Pat's tablecloth for the dining room table. It's not old, because I cannot afford an old one, but it does the job!
These were my bargain finds from our adventure. The treasure was the friendship and conversation-as always!!
Both of them have Wilendur tags still! The pink one feels like it was never used or if it was, it wasn't used much! The yellow one has some light stains, but I can get them out.
This was the big room at the church after it was vacuumed and after we set up all the tables and chairs! I got an hour of walking in in short order this morning! I can't even begin to say how happy I was to help so that the other church could hold their fundraiser dinner!! I felt so bad when I though we were going to have to cancel due to the power being out!
Tomorrow Auntie and I are going to the Mason's Antiques show at the old Hartland High School...anyone want to go with??
We have adventures coming up on each of the next three Saturdays, and are always open for more treasure seekers to join us! Let me know if you're local and interested in going along for the adventure!!
I know this was a huge post, so thanks for hanging in there and getting this far!! I have had a great time with LOTs of adventures the past few weeks! I'm looking forward to the next three Saturdays and also the coming of spring and garage sale season!!
I hope you are all doing well, and I hope you all have your electicity turned back on and are toasty warm! We never lost our s at our house, we were blessed-so many around us have not had any for a few days!
See you soon!! Happy Hunting!!
Posts
