Pictures of Cincinnati

I will now share with you the pictures that I took on our tour last Thursday.

 Here's the beautiful barn. 

 This is the horse that played Seabiscuit in the movie.

 This is the statue in the middle of the "cemetery".

 And to follow the somber moment, here's Kentucky Hot Brown.

 Dumplin Jean's, where we ate lunch.

Looking back at one side of the town of Midway. 

I took some pictures at the vineyard, but had my ISO set too high so it's sort of washed out. It was a field of grapevines. Google them if you want to see a picture.

I also didn't take any pictures of the hotel. The one night I walked around with Brenda, I didn't have my camera with me. It was after we had gotten ice cream. Here's the link to the hotel, you can at least read the history and see a few pictures. It was amazing!

A Kentucky Tour

Like I said in my post earlier, Kim and I took a tour yesterday. Quota set it up and we were on a bus with about forty other Quotarians (and a few spouses).

We went an hour south to Old Friends, where former race horses go to retire. We got a tour of the facility and got to see many of the ninety plus horses they house there. We also got to pet and feed carrots to the horses.

I took pictures, so I'll have to post those once I get back home.

From Old Friends, we went to Midway. A small town full of southern charm along with train tracks that run straight down the middle of town.

We ate lunch there, I forget the name of the restaurant but I know it's in a picture, where we had Kentucky Hot Brown. If you don't know what that is I'll tell you. It's a piece of toast/bread (we never did figure out if it was actually toasted), covered with shredded turkey, diced ham, bacon, a rue with cheddar, mozzarella, and provolone, topped with a tomato and baked in the oven. It was delicious. This restaurant is also known for it's cobbler and we were all treated to apple cobbler a la mode.

From Midway we went to a vineyard called, Equus Run Vineyards. We got to sample a couple of their wines and then walk around and shop. The owner talked to us about her wines and her grapes. It was great; she was down to earth (she retired from IBM after thirty years to open the vineyard) and hospitable.

From there we came back to our hotel where we met up with other Quotarians to have dinner and ice cream. The local place to go for ice cream is called Graeters. I tried their Buckeye flavor.

In case you didn't know; there is a long running joke that between Michigan and any other state (in my case Indiana) the one thing we can agree on when it comes to sports and our universities is that Ohio State sucks, pardon my language. We have several friends who have lived in Ohio and have gone to schools in Ohio including my in-laws. But we are specifically talking about the Ohio State.

We also refer to Ohio as, "Land of Land". Have you ever driven through Ohio? You might agree. Especially after Kim and my drive down here Wednesday. We did not drive through the pretty side of Ohio.

So Ohio is the butt of jokes, at least around our house.

Which is why I surprised myself by trying the Buckeye flavored ice cream and then was shocked when I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much that it may be my new favorite ice cream flavor of all time.

I know.

Okay, it could be my second because that Jersey Express with the chocolate fudge and peppermint that Hudsonville ice cream made a few years ago does take the #1 spot in my taste.

But still, second place. An Ohio named ice cream. Huh.

I told Shannon that statement because she had asked (or told me to) check out Graeter's. Her response is  very appropriate, "That is a statement with lots of research backing it!!!" How true!

My time is running short here at Panera where the lunch hour has arrived making it a busy place. Plus my laptop is going to die because I didn't bring my charger. I'll see if I can blog again while I'm in the expensive fancy hotel (wi-fi is free in the lobby I discovered). If not, you'll hear from me when I get back home.

retirement and friends

We drove to Detroit today for a retirement party. Bill's former boss (when Bill was in Operations) Ron has retired to Traverse City with his wife, Cindy.

We've known Ron and Cindy as long as we've known John. 

Since I don't think I've ever blogged about this before, I will now:

   Jenny and I have known each other since college. We met in one of our Historic Preservation classes. We found out it was a small world when we discovered that she is from Birmingham, Michigan which happened to be where Bill was living at that time. Since then, Jenny and I have been friends. 

I have blogged about Jenny before, she and John host the annual Halloween parties that we go to. They also host the holiday parties for work and Jenny hosts a cookie party that I have attended off and on the past few years.

We met John when they were dating. They had gone out to New York City and we were still living in Toms River. We met up with them for dinner and a show, Spam-A-Lot, which was amazing! (Side note: we saw David Hyde-Pierce, Hank Azaria, and Tim Curry!)

Shortly after that, they were engaged. Then, six years ago to this day, we packed up and moved to GR. I made it to Jenny's shower, bachelorette party and we were at their wedding that year.

Then, in 2007 the four of us went on the Mediterranean cruise. 

In 2009, we went to St. Joe for Jenny's birthday and a wine tour (I managed to blog, albeit briefly, here).

Needless to say, we've done a lot with Jenny and John and I consider them close friends.


But this started out for Cindy and Ron, so good luck to them as they relax with family in TC. I'm sure I'll get to see them in the spring when Quota heads there for the annual conference!

Summer, so far...

It's been crazy busy. June started off with me flying out to NJ for the last days of the Show House. No photography was allowed, so all I have is the link here.

Two church friends had their babies. Both families added a baby girl. Both girls are adorable. A very close friend moved to Illinois, our bff Heather. She moved to become a full-time youth director at a church. She's going to be awesome and while I'm very sad that she moved, I'm so excited for her and this new opportunity to serve God and youth. She is coming back tomorrow for our Jr. High Workcamp trip. I'll get that posted when we return.

Then I had my 1/2 birthday. I love D.Q. ice cream cakes, and the D.Q. is closed here in the winter so I never get one on my birthday. My half birthday was a perfect way to celebrate!

At some point, Bill and I spent an afternoon at Meijer Gardens.

The strawberries took forever to come in due to the cooler weather. But it was definitely worth the wait. I didn't get out to a U-pick place, I picked them up at the Farmer's market. Yum!

Then, Jenny had her birthday party in St. Joseph. Several couples got together for a wine tour.


Here are the grapes on the vine. Not quite ripe yet...

We visited the Round Barn Brewery and Winery. The Cocoa beer was the best. Of course they were sold out of it in bottles. They still had kegs!!


The Vineyard at Karmen Vista

We visited five wineries and two chocolate stores.

Then Mom and Skylar came to visit. We went to Meijer Gardens (that Membership sure does come in handy!) and we were going to go to the beach, since it had been in the 90's the week before, but of course it was chilly and cloudy the week they were here.

The Children's Garden is celebrating its 5th Birthday this summer.


We took the Boardwalk path and saw all kinds of animals. Let's see if I can remember everything we saw; a couple turtles, a heron (or was it a crane?), a couple frogs/toads... we saw another animal... It wasn't a beaver, but it was some kind of animal like that. Not a muskrat... I'll have to find out. I forgot!

We also took a trip to the Farmer's Market. We picked up more strawberries, fresh green beans and some cherries. Then we stopped at Wealthy Street Bakery. Oh man! We each picked out something and then got cinnamon rolls for the next day. Everything was SO good. And since there were four cinnamon rolls, I was lucky enough to enjoy another one the day after they left.
Here is Skylar eating the green beans, they are really fresh!

That brings me to the Jr. High Adventure Camp at Lake Michigan. That deserves its own post...