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Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Trip to Youngstown and Mill Creek Metro Parks

As promised I said I would tell about any trips we take along the way.  Again, just because we are no longer on the boat does not mean we aren't going to travel.  This past week we decided after being back in town almost a month is was time for a ROAD TRIP!!!!  So off we went up to Youngstown, Ohio.  While there we decided to visit as many of the Mill Creek Metro Parks that we could.  This first one was Fellows Riverside Gardens.  Can I just say they were breathtaking.  All types of flowers, trees, plants, wildlife, gazebos, bridges, sculptures, everything you could possibly want in a tour of a garden.



The rose garden was a must see.




A little FUZZY selfie.


We traveled further down the road and came across this waterfall and took a stroll down this creek.  What a peaceful place to enjoy the day.  See we still need to be near some water.





We then worked our way to Lanterman's Mill, what an awesome site this was.  I must admit Mike was much more interested in the history of the place than what I was.  I just wanted to take pictures.  Hmm imagine that!  So he listened to the tour guide and gave me the cliff notes later.  It really was a fascinating place.
The view from under the overpass.


Do you ever wonder who has gone up and down these stairs



Captivating Waterfall
Down the road a bit was this wonderful covered bridge.

A beautiful covered bridge


Then further down the road was this suspension bridge.  The work that went into this bridge was amazing.



We enjoyed a beautiful ride home that evening after an exciting road trip.  Many more to come!





Free Wheeling...the joy of a bike.

Several years ago I purchased a small red tricycle at a flea market.  I bought it way before we ever had any grandkids.  It was more a decorative item and a remembrance of when I myself had my first tricycle which was red.  Well a couple of years went by and soon we were blessed with our Grandson, Miles.  One day Mike tried putting Miles on the trike just to see how he fit.  Well as you can see from the photos below his little feet couldn't even touch the pedals.  I can remember we would gently push him along the side walk.


He had such determination when learning to ride this tricycle.  Last week we pulled the same tricycle out of our garage while Miles was over and wow what a difference.  At this point he was too big for the trike, but wow did he peddle his little heart out.  He and Mike spent an hour just riding back and for in front of our home.  

By this time the the poor tricycle has seen better days.  So....



While we were at a flea market in Youngstown earlier in the week, Mike spotted another bike that we instantly knew would be a much better fit for "Little Dude" (Mike's affectionate name he has called Miles since birth.) We made a quick purchase and off we went.  We were so excited for Miles to try it out.


Well Monday night Miles and Kate came for dinner.  The reaction from Miles was priceless.  He was so excited that he and Mike went straight outside to try it out.  He was a natural.  He informed us too that blue was his favorite color and that the flames painted on the bike made him go faster.  Unfortunately the photo below is a bit blurry, but you get the idea of the joy and determination in this little guy.  I am thinking those training wheels will be coming off sooner than we think.  Oh the joy you get from riding a bike.







Monday, September 28, 2015

Settling In

So many folks have asked, where are you now?  We want to see pictures.  Well we have settled back in to the Columbus area.  In a suburb called Blacklick.  We were able to find a great condo to rent, yes rent.  Since we aren't really sure what our future plans are we decided renting would be the best route for us right now.  So we currently are living in a 2 bedroom, 3-1/2 bath condo.   Yes you read that right, we have more bathrooms than bedrooms.  When you go from living on a boat to living on land there are several amenities that one learns to appreciate.  Like for instance toilets that flush, and that don't have to be pumped out every 4-5 days.  So we were amazed, confused, overjoyed, when we found out this place had 4 toilets.  Okay probably more than you needed to know, but there is definitely no waiting at our house.
One of the four bathrooms in our humble abode.

Let's move on.  This place has 3 levels.  Two bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs, living room, dining area, kitchen and a half bath on the first floor and then in the basement another complete bathroom (shown above) a finished basement and a laundry/storage area.  The basement is really set up like a bedroom, but because there are no windows in that area it can not be "technically" used as one.  So instead we made this into my craft room and a play place for the boys when they come to visit.

The stairs to the basement, could be problematic with little ones, but we use a baby gate to
keep the boys from traveling down the stairs.


The Grandsons area on the right

My craft/sewing area 

The first floor is where we spend most of our time.  On the boat Mike had a chair and I used the bench to relax on.  But now we have some comfy chairs and a new sofa.  Before we left on our journey we gave away most of our furniture to our family so purchasing a few things when we returned had already been planned into the budget.

The walls came pre-painted in these colors so we worked around them.

The dining area is small but fits our needs.

The dining area is small but it fits our needs.  When we have folks over we move the recliner and put the extension in the table.  Cozy, but as I said before it works.

The kitchen is a galley set up. Ironic since that is what the kitchen was called on the boat.  It's just the right size for me (Jana).  Because of limited cabinet space though we do keep larger serving ware and some canned foods, etc. in the basement storage space.  I put together a bit of a pantry down there.  It seems to be working out just fine.

A very functional kitchen.

 A place to display my fiestaware again!

Off the living room outside the sliding glass doors is a good size deck.  We were given a great table and set of chairs from our friends the Kerns and my brother Gary gave us back our gas grill he had been keeping for us.  Plus there is a large planting box and areas around the deck that I help me get back to gardening.  

A nice place to spend some time outside.
A beautiful planter given to me by Susie to help me get my garden started.  Love it!
As stated earlier there are two bedrooms upstairs.  One is our room, we have to sleep somewhere.  The second bedroom will be used for Mike's office and a room for the grandsons to stay when spending the night.  Papa has plans to build them a trundle bed.  (More on that to come)  Our room has not been completed so no pictures yet.  We are working on a headboard for our room.  We have plans to make it out of some old fencing we found piled up behind our garage.  Yes there will be a post about that crazy project.

Oh dear almost completely forgot the 2-1/2 car garage.  Mike's little slice of heaven.  He is currently working on setting up half the garage for a workshop.  He has really missed the one he had in Ashville.  This is still a work in progress and I'll show more pictures once this is completed.

Mike working hard at building his workshop

 For now though we are happy to be here near family and friends and settling into our new home just fine.  Life is GOOD!!!



Sunday, September 27, 2015

OK I am going to do it!

Do I start another blog or not?
I have pondered this question oh so many times since Mike and I have returned back to Ohio from living full time on the Lady J.  I still need to go back on our original blog and let folks know what our status is.  For some reason I have been putting this off.

I have been told by many people how much they enjoyed reading the blog, not only our adventure, but the photos and such.  So I kept wondering to myself would people read my blog if we weren't living aboard any more.  Well that's the million dollar question.  After talking with some of my friends, they told me to go for it.  People will either read it or they won't.  So I, or we (might get Mike to contribute once in a while) will continue a blog, but now it will be about our life on land.  What will the blog include, well a little of everything.  I have always been a bit eclectic so why shouldn't the blog be that way.  I'll tell you about our adventures, share stories about our families, share projects we are working on,  share an occasional recipe, talk about anything and everything that is going on.  Do people really give a hoot?  (cleaned that up a bit) well I guess we will see.  But I will promise lots and lots and lots of photos, cuz that's what I do.

So where to start, well how about with today.  (I will fill in the blanks of the past month in future posts).  I wanted to share what a fantastic afternoon I had with a wonderful old friend.  Hmm... let me rephrase that.  We aren't old, but we have been friends since Junior High School, way back in the 70's.  

My dearest friend Kathy.  I think that this was taken in 1982 or so.  Quality of photo not great, but it was back in the 80's



Kathy and I taken just this afternoon.  We maybe Silver Sisters, but we still got it!
We have been in and out of each others lives for EVER!  And thankfully now we are back.  She was an avid reader of our first blog "Lady J Journey" and has encouraged me to continue on.  So here ya go Kathy you get to be the first post.

We spent the afternoon taking a long beautiful walk through the grounds of the Franklin Park Conservatory here in Columbus Ohio.  (1777 E. Broad Street).  For those that live in Columbus, everyone pretty much knows about this place, for those who don't it's AWESOME! The flowers, the gardens, the exhibits that change throughout the year.  It's definitely a destination spot if you visit Columbus.  Ok enough advertising.  We enjoyed a long walk, talking and catching up on what's been going on in the last couple of months.  So here are some photos that were taken today.

Winding paths and water




Gentle water falls










Love that smile.







Having so much fun cooling off in the water.



























They had a BIG BUG exhibit

Look who's watching.