Last Day in Connecticut

We spent our last day in Connecticut visiting with Uncle Jack. Cubby made himself right at home when he jumped on the back of Uncle Jack's easy chair and began looking out the window for "intruders" while we talked.

Uncle Jack has lots of great pictures in his house. One of the pictures that Uncle Jack has under his TV is of Mom. It was taken in Aunt Margaret's yard over 20 years ago and Mom is wearing some really large-framed glasses. What caught my attention about the picture is how much Carol (in Tennessee) looks like her mother did when the picture was taken. I took a picture of the picture....so that you can see what you think. I think there's quite a remarkable resemblance.

Our day at the La Quinta Inn started with what we thought was a "Bad Dog Cubby" incident. You will see a picture of Cubby looking down at a wet spot on the ottoman that Dad is pointing out to him. Then you will see a picture of Mom pointing at the ceiling....and finally you will see a picture of a leaky ceiling. We found out that the room above us had a leak that had gone through the ceiling and was dripping into our room. So, Cubby was a very good dog after all !! He has been excellent on the trip, not a single accident. And, he's been ever so cute and friendly to everyone.

The little Broad Brook Garage (which is no longer operational) and the Church in the pictures are just a few blocks from where Uncle Jack lives. The church has one of the great steeples that we have been admiring over the last few days while driving in the area.

We will all really miss Uncle Jack. He's got a great personality and gets a wonderful twinkle in his eye when he's amused. Dad and I have really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know him and Mom has loved every minute of her time with him. We love you, Uncle Jack!!

Our Connecticut Family

Our Connecticut family opened their arms and hearts to us and we had a really wonderful visit. The family arranged for a very tasty buffet dinner on Friday night at one of their favorite restaurants, La Notte. The food was really good and we enjoyed all of the great company. We had a private room which allowed us to move around and visit with one another. There was a prom-type dance going on in another part of the building, but everyone managed to control themselves and didn't crash the other party. We had an opportunity to get some family pictures so the rest of the Woolseys in Washington, California and Tennessee can see their cousins. Mom W was surprised to see how all of the young nieces and nephews have grown into adults with children and even some grandchildren. Uncle Jack and Mary put together a nice photo album with some of the older family photos and after seeing all of the great pictures, each of the families wants to get a copy for themselves.

On Sunday much of the family gathered again at Michael and Susie's home for more family talk and a nice pizza, pasta and salad dinner. Mike and Susie are living in Uncle George's former home and, as Mike says, he's had the same house and same bedroom for over 40 years. But, there have been major changes made to the house. Another bedroom has been added and much of the home has been remodeled. It is beautiful inside and the back yard looks almost like a park, complete with an above-ground swimming pool and deck area. It is really lovely and a very pleasant place to spend some relaxing time. We saw Uncle Jack's former house just across the street....the families certainly didn't have to go very far to see one another when they were living across the street like that.

The cousins that we were able to meet (along with their families) during our CT stay:

Uncle Jack's daughters - Annie and Mary (Uncle Jack's sons, Jack and David were not able to make it)

Uncle George's children - George, Charlie, Michael and Kathy

It was sad to say good-bye, but we were so very glad that we were able to meet everyone and loved spending time with all of the cousins and their families. Thanks for all of the hospitality!

Uncle Jack - Connecticut Waterfall and Pond

We drove through Pennsylvania, part of New York and finally into Connecticut as we made our way to Windsor Locks, CT...our newest "home away from home". When we crossed the Hudson River, Mom was quite excited and anxious to see her brother. She thought it had been 12 years since she last saw Uncle Jack. Uncle Jack thinks it was closer to 20 years since they'd last seen each other. No matter whether 12 years or 20 years is closer, everyone agrees that it was much too long since their last visit together.

It was great to see Mom and her brother together. It certainly put a smile on both of their faces and gave them the opportunity to reminisce together over some of the things that they experienced when they were younger, and to just enjoy each other for who they are now.

We took a nice drive with Uncle Jack to a couple of his favorite areas for picture taking including a large pond close to his home and another area with a walking trail and picnic area that has a wonderful waterfall and is reached by way of a one-lane bridge. Uncle Jack has several really wonderful pictures on his walls that he has taken over the years. We really enjoyed looking at his pictures. They are quite good!!

It was great fun to drive along the Connecticut country roads. The little towns in Connecticut are very picturesque and we love seeing so many beautiful old houses with front porches and all of the churches with the great steeples. These are things that you just don't see much of in our part of the U.S. During our drive with Uncle Jack, I saw that Massachusetts was only a few miles down the road, so we continued to drive until we had the chance to cross into Massachusetts....I wanted to have the "bragging rights" to say that I'd been in that state.....if only for a few minutes. I was just really surprised to see how close we were to Massachusetts. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't have a very good grasp of geography! Anyway, after our trip to Massachusetts, we turned around and found a McDonald's since Mom really needed a good cup of coffee and McDonald's has good coffee...at least that's been our experience as we've crossed the country. Mom had her usual lunch (an oreo McFlurry) while Uncle Jack had a salad.....are we really sure they are related??

The Amish Country

We said good-bye to Megan and while she was returning to Washington DC, we continued our tour into the Pennsylvania countryside to Strasburg where we stayed. Strasburg is in the center of the Amish country and we had great fun looking at the beautiful Pennsylvania farmlands while watching for the horse and buggies that the Amish drive along the sides of the roads as they go about their daily business. Besides the horse drawn buggies, we also saw some very strong farm horses pulling plows as they worked the fields. And, we saw some Amish children and women who were on a vehicle that was a cross between a bicycle and a skateboard. None of us had ever seen one of these vehicles before. They had wheels and handlebars like a bicycle, a basket in front for carrying things, and a skateboard like base between the wheels which was used just like a skateboard to propel them forward.

Some of the little towns that we went through included Paradise, Bird-in-the-Hand, and Intercourse..... Intercourse captures the imagination with its name, but it actually has more to do with intersecting roads than with anything else that comes to mind!!

We took time to go through a large antique mall in Bird-in-the-Hand before we went to eat at a buffet that featured Amish and Mennonite food. The food was really good and included a really good assortment, including some wonderful pies....no one tried the ShooFly pie because there were so many other great choices, but that is a local favorite.

We passed by a gathering of some of the Amish locals and took a couple of pictures of the buggies as they were gathered together. The buggies all have a red triangle warning sign on the back of them to make them more visible to automobile drivers. It's got to be really dangerous to drive one of those buggies on the side of the country roads, including some of the highways. One thing that surprised all of us was the speed that the horse and buggies were able to reach in such a short distance once they started out. But, they still go much more slowly than the cars that are sharing the same roads with them. I kept trying to get a good picture of a horse and buggy as a family was heading down the road, but kept getting lots of shots of the back wheel or a buggy just as it passed an obstacle that blocked part of the picture.....oh, well...at least I tried....

Gettysburg Battlefields and Ghost Tour

We stayed at the Battlefield Inn Bed & Breakfast in Gettysburg for one night after leaving Washington DC. It was wonderful!! It's the first time that any of us have been in a bed and breakfast and it was a really great place. The older part of the Inn was built in 1809 and served as a "hospital" for the wounded during the Civil War. Since there were no doctors on site, it was really more of a place for the wounded to wait for wagons to come and take them from the battle area. If you have never been to Gettysburg, it's really something that you should do someday. It's an amazing part of our history.

The Inn has many farm animals, including horses, goats, chickens and lots and lots of cats. Megan was surprised to see how very friendly these cats are. Cubby got a chance to be almost "nose to nose" with one or two of them....he also wanted to chase a couple of them...but Dad helped him to control himself!!

We had a meal at the Dobbin Tavern Restaurant in Gettysburg, which was built in 1776. Dad had the largest prime rib that I have ever seen....which was great for Cubby because there were leftovers!

During the day, Megan joined Mom W, Dad R and a battlefield guide for a battlefield tour. This was a personal guided tour where the tour guide rode in the car with them and spoke about the events of the war as they drove from location to location. Megan really enjoyed the tour, but it seemed a bit too much for Mom and Dad mostly because of the length of the tour (2 hours) and the guide was trying to talk about so much that he didn't allow enough opportunity for the questions that Dad really wanted to ask. But, they did get a really good look at all of the battle sites on a one-on-one basis. Cubby and I spent the time looking at the pond and the farm animals on the grounds of the Inn.

Gettysburg is known as one of the most haunted places in the U.S. So, Megan, Mom and I took a ghost tour that night with Miss Betty. Miss Betty is a story teller who took us to a few of the most haunted areas (including the Inn where we were staying!). We also went to a covered bridge and another Inn that served as a field hospital during the Civil War (many amputations were done in that house and we saw where the floor in the current dining room was still stained from all of the blood that once covered the floor). We listened to her stories and were encouraged to take photos as we went along. I'll include a few pictures of the orbs that were captured on my camera.....with our eyes we saw nothing....but the digital pictures show orbs....not in every picture, but in some of them. What's intersting is that one picture of the location might show nothing and the next picture might show an orb, or many orbs. The white orbs are thought to be positive energy...the orange orbs aren't seen as often, but are thought to be negative energy. One of my pictures showed a large orange orb as well as other white orbs....Miss Betty asked me to send her that picture so that she could include it on her website. Fine with me!! Whether you believe in spirits or ghosts or not.....the evening was entertaining and very intersting. I'm glad that some of my pictures captured something that I can't explain....we definitely saw nothing with our eyes.

I'm also posting a picture of our breakfast that we had at the B & B....it was really, really good and very pretty, too. Before the breakfast, there was a presentation by another storyteller about the role that women played in the Civil War. She wore 1861 clothing, including a big hooped skirt. She lifted the skirt at one point to show how women smuggled money, ammunition, medicine, messages, etc under the hooped skirts in the pockets that had been sewn onto the hoop.

As I said...Gettysburg is a wonderful place to visit and I'd highly recommend the Battlefield Inn and a ghost tour while you are there.

Our Last Days in Washington DC

For our last tourist day in Washington, Megan joined us for a tour of the US Capitol Bldg, which we all found very interesting. Afterwards, we walked to the Library of Congress by way of the tunnel that connects the Capitol to the Library. Later that evening we took an after-dark driving tour around the town and saw many of the monuments all lit up. Seeing them after dark is an entirely different experience from seeing them during the day. The Washington Monument is much more spectacular when it is all lit up at night. Mom enjoyed standing with the Washington Monument behind us and seeing the White House, even though the wind was blowing and she and Megan were freezing their patooties off.... Jack thought he could see someone lower a shade in one of the top rooms of the White House when he was taking a picture with his camera using one of his higher powered lenses. Maybe...or maybe it's just a good story?? Anyway, we had a good time.

On Mother's Day we fixed a nice meal in our motel room (which had a kitchen). It was very good and we even had dessert....slices of chocolate cake. Jack had to fly home in the afternoon, but only after helping his Mom do the laundry. Actually, Mom walked with him to the laundry room and he did all of our laundry before he left. What a good guy!!

Megan spent the night with Mom, Dad, Cubby & I in the motel before we headed toward Pennsylvania the next morning. She also joined us for the next day in Gettysburg, as well..... more on that in the next blog.

We all miss Jack, but are thankful that he could spend so many days with us on our trip.