Garden Fantasy And Reality - Plus A Gardening Tip!

Hello! We traveled to Lexington, Kentucky as part of a Memorial Day weekend getaway. During our visit, we walked around the University of Kentucky Arboretum, where I saw this:

In the vegetable garden area, multiple heads of beautiful leaf lettuces were growing. As it was a hot day (the high of 90 was just one degree shy of tying the high for that date), my mouth watered at the sight of those crisp heads of lettuce. I joked that I ought to pick a head and tuck it under my shirt. Of course I'd never do this, and just as well, for my husband pointed to the security cameras mounted on the outbuilding next to this garden. 

And there was a sign stating that the produce grown at the arboretum is distributed to those in need. I was glad of that, for I've often seen produce well past its prime at similar public gardens. Perhaps rotting tomatoes and greens gone to seed are meant to show the life cycles of the plants, but this has always seemed wasteful to me. 

That was my fantasy lettuce garden. Then I returned home to the reality of my own lettuce patch:

I don't have space for a big vegetable garden, so I grow some of my produce in pots on my deck. I got the idea of a "lettuce bowl" - a large pot of mesclun - from some of the vendors at our local farmer's market, who offer a similar item. But why pay $13 bucks or more when I can easily do the same for far less? I have two bowls of mesclun, sown a couple of weeks apart.

The only trouble with my deckside "lettuce bowl" is the gang of neighborhood squirrels. They're fond of digging up my pots of mesclun! So I learned to drape these plantings with "row covers" (sheer curtains purchased at thrift stores). This worked well, but of course I'd have to uncover the mesclun when I wanted to pick it, and I couldn't see the pretty leaves of my crop very well either. 

Then last fall I came across a tip that had potential: a woman's flower garden was beset by unwelcome visitors like squirrels and rabbits. Another avid gardener told her to place children's pinwheels from the dollar store around the perimeter of her garden. Supposedly the critters don't like the movement and shiny colors of these toys and so they'll stay away. 

Shortly before Memorial Day, our local Dollar Tree advertised pinwheels, so I picked up a baker's dozen. Some were placed in my vegetable garden and others were placed in my deck pots. You can see the red and blue of one pinwheel in the left side of the above photo. 

As a test, the pinwheels were put into place Friday morning of the holiday weekend, and we returned home the next Monday afternoon. I looked over my deck and garden plantings - not a single plant had been disturbed.

I was happy about this! In the past, besides row covers, I'd spent money on fake owls and snakes and various repellant sprays or powders. The fake critters have to be moved every so often and the repellant concoctions (some commercial, some DIY) have to reapplied after rains. But the pinwheels just sit there and spin around in the breeze, and look cute even when still. 

So there you have it - gardening fantasy and reality, plus an easy tip to try out if you have critter troubles too. Here's to a good growing season!

(If you'd like more information about the University of Kentucky Arboretum, go here. It's worth a visit if you're in the Lexington area.)

Thrifty Acres: Armchair Traveling

Hello! I've traveled a fair share of US, but my international trips have thus far been limited to Canada. That latter fact may change someday, but even if it doesn't, I'm always good for some armchair traveling. And thrift stores are good places to pick up trip accounts, such as these three books I've purchased recently:

From top to bottom: Cafe Oc, by Beebe Bahrami; Grandma's On The Camino, by Mary O'Hara Wyman, and The New York Times Explorer Mountains, Deserts & Plains.

The first two books are somewhat similar in that the authors immerse themselves in European countries for several weeks (Wyman) to a year (Bahrami) at a time, which gives both women time to make new friends, learn the history and customs of an area, enjoy local foods and drinks, and observe flora and fauna. 

Wyman doesn't have a car at her disposal, since she's "on the camino" - that is, a 500-mile route that starts in France but primarily traverses through Spain. Wyman was 70 when she set out on her 48-day walk, and was a solo traveler. I admired her for putting up with variable weather and sleeping conditions. She mentions others who made the walk easier by signing up with touring companies that arranged nice lodging and hauled excess gear. But even though Wyman was consistently beset by various foot injuries (she stops for medical services several times along the way), she rolls with the punches and keeps on walking. 

Her book is presented as a three-part journal. Part One is the daily postcard she wrote and mailed to her five-year-old granddaughter. Part Two is her daily journal entry, and Part Three includes reflections she added for each journal entry after she had returned home. (Thus, each day's walk includes three entries.) Considering how challenging the walk was, I was impressed that Wyman kept to her writing schedule every day! I think I would have been nodding off the minute I stopped walking.

Bahrami doesn't have a car, either, when she settles into the town of Sarlat in southwestern France for a year. So she does a great deal of walking as well, both around town and in the countryside. She revels in local foods and wines, explores prehistoric caves in the region, makes new friends, brushes up on her French and meets with a group who gather to speak the local dialect, Occitan. This gathering takes place in Cafe Oc, the basis of Bahrami's book title. (By the way, "oc" means "yes" in Occitan.)

I'm a regular visitor to our local farmer's market, so I really enjoyed Bahrami's frequent trips to Sarlat's version of this enterprise. Such wonderful descriptions of such wonderful food! I swooned at the delectibles she brought back to her rental apartment.

The last book, the one produced by The New York Times, is very different from the first two books. Instead of one author who describes her adventures in (mostly)a single country, Explorer is a compilation of travel articles about locales the world over. Sure, there's write-ups of visits to US spots in Idaho (Sawtooth Valley), Georgia (Okefenokee Swamp), Alaska (Inside Passage region), and more. But there's also descriptions of trips to Peru (Machu Picchu), Chili (star-gazing hot spots), Germany (the Alps in the winter) and so on. 

The articles are short and I found myself wishing they'd been a bit longer. I would have liked to have learned even more about each writer's experiences during their visits. But again, these articles had originally appeared in the travel section of a newspaper, where space was limited. 

Explorer doesn't skimp on page quality or photographs though. Both are along the lines of what I'd consider a "coffee table book". I wasn't surprised to learn that brand new, this book was $40.00. I was happy with the $2.99 I paid at a thrift store. 

So until my next big trip (a summer vacation out west is in the works), I'll continue with my armchair traveling.

Holiday Trip Part Two

Hello! My previous post had highlights from a trip we'd made before Christmas; today's post will cover the excursion we took just as 2019 was beginning. We traveled to the Chicago area, plus the Wisconsin cities of Madison and Milwaukee. 

Madison is not only the capitol of Wisconsin, but it's also the home of the flagship school of the University of Wisconsin system. With such important entities within this city, you'd expect a lively mix of shops and restaurants, and you'd be right. We focused on State Street, which runs near both the university and the state capitol building. Since neither the college nor state government were in session the day we visited (January 2nd), some businesses were shuttered. Still plenty to see and do, however, and those closures meant less people and traffic to clog up the sidewalks and streets. 

We began with lunch here: 

Himal Chuli, a Nepali restaurant. Tiny place, so online reviews mentioned it can be difficult to get a table. We had no such trouble on this day. We'd never eaten at a Nepali restaurant but the menu looked good. Many of the dishes reminded us somewhat of Indian cuisine. For instance, samosas, which I ordered, had the familiar-sounding filling of potatoes and peas. They were fine, but shaped differently than the Indian-style food of the same name: rather than looking like turnovers that lay flat on a plate, these were more like pyramids that rose up from my plate. 

What I liked even better was the cup of dal that came with my order. The menu called it a "mixed bean soup", and while it was much more broth than beans, it had a delicious flavor. I would like to try to replicate it at home sometime. 

After lunch my family of three split up to explore various shops along State Street - we each have different tastes. I checked out Madison Modern Market, which has a lot of cool items for kids and adults, as well as things for the home and fun gifts - all in all, a well-curated place. I saw many potential purchases, which is saying a lot for someone like me who normally shops secondhand. I did finally succumb to this:

Kikkerland's Rainbow Multipen, which has ten different colors. It's the type of pen where you swivel the top around to change colors. I'm a sucker for color variety in my artwork, so I happily paid three dollars for this. But I was sorely tempted to buy so many other goodies at this shop - that's the kind of store Madison Modern Market is!

We'd agreed to meet up at A Room Of One's Own, an indie bookstore around the corner from State Street on Gorham Street. As indie bookstores are one of my favorite places to browse, I made sure to give myself some time to look around before reconnecting with my family. I was attracted right away to a grouping of journals and planners near the front door. I'm also a sucker for these, so I succumbed to this:

Mary Kate McDevitt's Every Day Is Epic, "a guided journal for daydreams, creative rants & bright ideas". I liked the author's take in the introduction: "You may sometimes feel that if you aren't skydiving, cliff-jumping, or living the life of an action-movie stuntperson, your day somehow isn't measuring up. But every day has the chance to be epic...it just comes done to how you frame it. This journal celebrates embracing everyday events - from the mundane to the magnificent - that all add up to something incredibly awesome." 

And to prove her point, the author showed a sample from a "general notes" section, (part of most of the journal pages). Along with "moved to new studio" and "booked summer vacay", she listed "trash-picked a plant" and my favorite: "met a baby named Fritz". I found that last tidbit very amusing somehow!

Here's what a couple of the pages inside look like:

And a close-up:

I like the funky graphics! The layouts do repeat, but there are enough different ones that they don't feel repetitive at all. I'm happy with this purchase. 

Due to lack of time - my husband and daughter showed up before I got very far into the store - this was my only purchase from A Room Of One's Own. Well, that's not exactly true - near the cash register was a small shelf of uncorrected proof books. If memory serves me correctly, these were free with a purchase, although a 50c donation toward a jail literacy program was suggested. I scanned the books, and selected Ryder Carroll's The Bullet Journal Method (he's the creator of this planner system, which I've pondered using). And yes, I did give 50c for this book. 

Also of note: various promotional posters from book releases were for sale; I saw several mounted on the cash register counter base. Perhaps I've not been looking hard enough while at other indie bookstores, but I've not seen such posters, nor proof copies, on offer elsewhere. I liked that A Room Of One's Own had both. 

We arrived in Milwaukee in time for dinner at Jalapeno Loco, which is located across from Mitchell Airport. Solid Mexican food. 

We visited more of Milwaukee the next day. We have a fondness for this city and its blend of old-fashioned neighborhoods and shops of interest.

I always try to make it to American Science & Surplus, my go-to place for containers I use for storing various all-natural DIY cleaning supplies and toiletries. I often find interesting craft supplies as well. And during a previous visit, my husband purchased a particular piece of lab equipment for around 20 bucks. It had been used, but so are the versions he'd seen on eBay - that go for a few hundred dollars! (The AS&S piece didn't have a sign labeling what it was, so my husband suspected the employees there didn't know.)

From AS&S, we trekked over to Outpost Natural Foods Co-Op for wholesome lunches at their cafe. Excellent bulk food section too. 

And speaking of bulk foods, you can't go wrong with The Spice House in the Old World 3rd Street area. We went there so I could find jalapeno pepper powder (the food co-op didn't carry it) - but I ended up buying a few other spices as well. This is a very nice store. Very high quality store, but it doesn't have the upscale feel that newer stores of this type tend to have.

It's become a Christmastime tradition for us to visit the holiday display at Mitchell Park Domes. A "Scrooge" theme was featured for Christmas 2018. I didn't feel this theme was covered very well, but the variety of poinsettias was breathtaking:

This is only a small sample of what we saw. I thought the blue-tinged poinsettias especially noteworthy since I'd not seen them before. 

With a busy but fun day in Milwaukee over, we headed down to Chicagoland and dinner at Rockwood Tap house in Downers Grove. My husband is fond of the beer menu and the food menu has many good choices as well. 

Before departing Chicagoland the next day we stopped off at one of our favorite area plazas. Also located in Downers Grove, the Downers Shopping Plaza has, among other retail establishments, a See's candy store, a Trader Joe's and a nice Goodwill. My husband and daughter busied themselves at the first two stores while I checked out the Goodwill. 

I found it loaded with a lot of good stuff during this visit. As it was so soon after Christmas (January 4th), I wondered if people had donated gifts they didn't want, or else had gathered up older possessions to make room for the gifts they'd received. Either way, there were a lot of purchasing possibilities! I was happy to find a pristine copy to replace my beat-up volume of Asian Noodles (Nina Simonds, author). And these really appealed to me:

A set of four chunky colored pencils with folk art flavor. 

A close-up:

So cute, and the group was mine for one dollar. 

I didn't know what these were, or who had made them. For all I knew, they were from a set of kids' colored pencils. But from searching eBay and Etsy, I learned that these pencils are based on Russian matryoshka (nesting) dolls and are considered souvenirs of that country. Like with most listings, the asking prices for vintage versions are higher than for newer examples. I'm leaning toward thinking mine are newer. Even so, the price I paid for four was a bargain. 

Our trip was over, other than taking our daughter back to West Lafayette, spending the night there and returning back home. The resumption of our everyday routines was about to begin. But we'd had two very nice holiday trips!

 
 

 

Holiday Trip Part One

Hello! Yeah, the Christmas season is over and done and we're already over a week into January. With two out-of-state trips and an in-state visit with relatives, the holiday went by very fast for me! The days I was home, I was busy making special foods for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. This is a long way of saying I should have blogged more recently about my Yuletide travels, but hadn't.

So I'll make up for that now, beginning with a little about our first out-of-state trip. It covered central Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. The genesis for the excursion began when, while traveling through Pennsylvania in the fall, I'd picked up a brochure about a Christkindl Market in Mifflinburg, PA - the oldest such event of its kind in the US (the market website, seen here,  states that the event was begun in 1987). I commented to my husband that it'd be nice to go there sometime - well, he took my casual comment seriously and made the travel arrangements. We visited the Chirstkindl Market on December 15th, 2018.

A few scenes from the event:

A festive entrance to the market.

Entrance to one of the small buildings used by vendors at the market. This seller was skilled in scherenschitte, German-style paper cutting. 

Lovely examples of this craft!

We watched a folk dance troupe perform a variety of European folk dances. When the group went through the steps of a Dutch dance, my husband and I were reminded of the Dutch dancing done during our town's famous tulip festival. One big difference: the people above weren't wearing wooden shoes!

We enjoyed seeing the various examples of German-style and American-style arts and crafts at the Christkindl Market, but we also enjoyed viewing some of the older buildings around town:

Mifflinburg is a very old town; it was first settled in the 1700's and became a village in 1827. 

When we first arrived at the market, it was late morning and not terribly crowded yet. But as the day went on more and more people appeared, and eventually it became one of those events in which you can barely move due to the crush of people. Of course, people were there because it's a fun, unique event, but it made it hard to take pictures, let along shop. So after lunch from a couple of the many food vendors, all we bought was a small glass-blown snowman figurine for our daughter.

To escape the crowds, we started walking through the nearby downtown blocks. But I was quickly distracted by a sign pointing the way to a pop-up artisans' market. We followed the arrow and found ourselves at a small events center a couple of blocks away. I was taken with the upcycled sweater mittens crafted by this vendor:

Alas, she'd sold out of my mitten size; she's standing by men's mittens. I tried one pair on and found them to very warm and soft. I liked how she combined different sweaters to create each pair, and she even had the cuffs of men's blazers repurposed as mitten cuffs. Her prices were good too. She and her husband were very nice and I felt bad that I couldn't buy anything from her. If I recall correctly, this was her first craft show, and I hope it went well for her. I wish her luck in her future endeavors!

Would you believe I didn't even get this talented crafter's name? However, I did pick up one of her business cards, and learned that her business is called Recycwool Mitten Co. If you'd like more info, go here.

From Mifflinburg, we headed toward Williamsport. Along the way, we stopped at one of our favorite candy stores, Purity. I'd blogged about seeing their candy canes being made last year in this post.

I was content this year with just going to the store to buy more candy canes without seeing them being made first (some viewing sessions had already taken place that day). Like the Christkindl Market, it's a fun but very crowded event. And without the hordes there, I was free to take some pics:

Employees busy behind the scenes, with trays of chocolates and a large chocolate Santa in front of them. 

A cute chocolate cottage.

And for the white chocolate fans:

I'm not a fan of snow, but I'd make an exception for these snowmen!

Once in Williamsport, we ate at my favorite restaurant there, Boom City Brewing. I don't care for beer, but I like the cozy atmosphere and good food served up there. 

We went to bed with the hopes of going for a hike the next day, but unfortunately the weather gods, who usually smile on us, didn't cooperate. We were stuck with an all-day rain, which meant no outdoor activities. So instead we decided to visit the Woolrich outlet store, which was a short distance away. 

And where is the Woolrich outlet store located? Why, in the small community of Woolrich,PA, of course. Here is the festive scene outside the shop:

Once upon a time, the Woolrich store had a nice selection of their various fabrics, sold by the yard, and I think they had some sewing patterns and notions too. Now there is just a very small section of fabrics - perhaps the better to make room for the gift shop-type offerings we saw. But a big selection of Woolrich brand clothes are available, of course. I tried on a corduroy shirt from a sales rack, but it didn't fit right, so no purchase. (My husband did buy one of their knit hats.) Still, it's a fun place to poke around and even in rainy weather, a pleasant drive from Williamsport. 

We left Williamsport the next day and began the trek west to return home. Stopped in the Cleveland area for the night. The hotel we stayed at was so uncrowded, we got stellar service from the breakfast bar employees the next morning. They came around with refills of coffee, asked us if we needed anything - all the niceties they don't always have time to do. My husband has often commented that Christmastime is a good time to travel. There's usually few business travelers, and I guess enough people stay with relatives for the holidays that they're not in hotels either. So you end up with lower-priced room rates and excellent service from the bored staff!

From Cleveland we journeyed to the Cincinnati area to visit Jungle Jim's in suburban Fairfield. It's undoubtedly one of the largest grocery stores in the country and always worth a visit. And if you're an Ikea fan, then do as we do and stay at one of a cluster of hotels in nearby West Chester. (we've used the Homewood Inn there.)There's an Ikea so close by you could literally walk to it, except there's not sidewalk all the way there. But of course that means it's just a very short drive away.
 
The next day found us at our daughter's place in West Lafayette, IN. She'd just finished another grad school semester, so it was time to pick her and take her back to our house for Christmas. 

I'll talk about our post-Christmas trip in my next post.

Views From The End Of The World

Well, not actually the end of the world - but we did recently travel to Worlds End State Park in northeastern Pennsylvania. We used to live about 3 1/2 hours from this park; which made it a nice weekend escape from our workweek life in suburban Philadelphia.

We no longer live nearly as close to Worlds End State Park but still enjoy revisiting it from time to time for a little hiking. A few photos show why we like returning:

Views of many small waterfalls on Double Run. While I did enjoy sights on this part of our hike, I was less enamored of the trail routing. We were led onto rocks that lined the stream bed - not great footing, and slippery to boot. But by walking carefully we got through this part of the trail unscathed. 

We climbed steadily up to our ultimate goal, Canyon Vista. According to a guidebook I have, Hiking The Endless Mountains by Jeff Mitchell, Canyon Vista is "One of Pennsylvania's most famous vistas..." In a state abundant with natural scenery, that's high praise indeed. 

When we got the Canyon Vista, here's what we saw:

 That's Loyalsock Creek you see below, from Canyon Vista's height of 1,750 ft. Mitchell comments that "Canyon Visit is not very high, but it offers incredible mountain scenery and an awesome view of Loyalsock Canyon." 

We were hoping for more fall color, but a couple also at the vista said that the frequent rains in the region had hurt the maples; they were told that the leaves had died and fallen off before they could change color. Nevertheless, my husband and I, and the couple (visiting from Philadelphia) were as happy with the views as Mitchell was. 

After the climb to Canyon Vista my husband and I prepared to climb back down. This actually took us a bit longer than the trip up. The descent was quite steep in spots, steep enough that we worked against gravity to ensure we wouldn't go too fast. The amount of boulders to cross, tree roots to avoid and wet leaves to guard against made for slow going. But again, we were cautious and made our way back to the car with no issues other than the skid I took down a wet, slippery boulder. No injuries from it, though, so no harm, no foul. But because of such tricky footing - along with that close-to-Double Run trail on the way up to Canyon Vista - I didn't wish to stop to take more photos.

Despite that iffy footing, we were very happy with our excursion to Worlds End State Park. Mitchell calls it "...one of Pennsylvania's most beautiful state parks...beauty encompasses the entire park." Truthfully, we didn't go to many state parks while living in Pennsylvania. Our hiking activities mostly took us elsewhere. But Worlds End State park was an exception, since the nearly 60-mile-long Loyalsock Trail passes through it. (We went on parts of the LT to and from Canyon Vista on this hike.)

(Mitchell says that the Loyalsock Trail is "...one of Pennsylvania's most famous hiking trails". Again, high praise for a trail in a state loaded with them. We have a fondness for the LT ourselves since we've hiked it in its entirety.)

By the way, it's believed that the "Worlds End" moniker came from early settlers to the region. According to the park's website (found here):

Early settlers to the area used two horse trails to cross the rugged highland from Muncy Creek to the forks of Loyalsock Creek at the town of Forksville. This treacherous road became obsolete in 1895 with the building of PA 154.

Pioneer Road Trail and Worlds End Road follow the path of the old horse trail. Worlds End Vista, at the junction of Pioneer Road Trail and Worlds End Trail, is the view that possibly inspired the name of the park.

And I should also note that one can view Canyon Vista without the rigors of scrambling over boulders and huffing and puffing up hills:

ADA accessible Loyalsock Canyon Vista, reached via Mineral Spring and Cold Run roads, and nearby High Knob Vista, provide outstanding views of the Endless Mountains region. Scenery is particularly unforgettable during the June mountain laurel bloom and the fall foliage period in October. (this info also came from the park website). 

We did see some folks approach the vista via the roads, which of course is fine and sure saved them some wear and tear on their legs. 

But even by foot, the views from the end of the world are worth it! 

A Northern Michigan Getaway

Hello! I've done enough traveling this month that I hadn't even gotten around to blogging about a recent northern Michigan getaway before I left for another trip. So, now here's an account on what we did and saw up north.

My husband surprised me by planning a visit to Mackinac Island for our wedding anniversary a couple of weekends ago. We hadn't been there in 10 years and so were looking forward to it. We drove up to the region that Friday and used the Hampton Inn in Petoskey as our base. This hotel has a nice location: on a hill, so you can see the blue waters of Little Traverse Bay if your room, like ours, faces the water. If not, you can still see the bay from the breakfast dining area. Very nice!

We went up to Short's Brewery in Bellaire for dinner. My husband's a huge craft beer fan so that is the main draw for him, though he likes their pizza as well. I'm not crazy about their pizza, and the rest of the menu is rather limited. So I got the soft pretzel app with three dipping sauces (queso, peanut butter and homemade jam, and spicy mustard). Plenty substantial! Like most microbrewery eateries, Short's has a cool vibe. 

You can learn more about Short's here.

Saturday morning, we hustled over to Mackinac City, hoping to make the 11:00 ferry to Mackinac Island. We made it with a few minutes to spare. 

The view from our Star Line ferry boat:

Passing by the Mackinac Bridge. The water was quite choppy, so I was grateful that the ride was a short one. 

First order of the day after docking on the island was getting lunch. We split a small pizza at Island Slice Pizzeria. The last time we were on the island, I think there was a pizza place in the same location but with a different name. It appeared that the menu was basically the same as before, and the pizza's pretty good. Website is here.

In case you didn't realize it, no cars are allowed on Mackinac Island, so people get around via bikes, carriage tours, renting their own carriages to drive, or by walking. My husband and I did the latter, so what follows are various pics along the route we took.

An empty carriage pulled by horses, followed by one filled with tourists. 

The iconic Grand Hotel; always well-known in Michigan but became even more well-known after being featured in the 1980 movie Somewhere In Time. Fun fact: my husband and I saw this movie while living in East Lansing, MI. In the scene in which the Christopher Reeve character arrives at the Grand Hotel, he's shown driving up in a car. The movie audience immediately booed since cars aren't allowed on the island (obviously an exception was made for the movie filming). We enjoyed that dissent as an only-in-Michigan moment. 

Pretty cottage with picket fence.

 

I've always been fond of Victorian houses that have turrets. 

The Windermere Hotel, one of several lodging options on the island. Have never stayed there, but doesn't it look charming? 

Yes, I didn't take many photos, but that was in part because we did so much walking. My Fitbit showed that I had logged almost nine miles by the time we were ready to board the ferry back to the mainland. I was tired enough that I didn't even go into any of the shops. Perhaps that was just as well, as the downtown area was crawling with visitors. Even though the summer tourist season was over, the weather was pleasant that weekend (sunny and in the low to mid 60's), so apparently that brought out the hordes. Yes, Mackinac Island's downtown gets crowded, and it's pricey, but we've always found it well worth an occasional visit. 

Back in Petoskey, dinner was on the horizon. Via Yelp, my husband had scouted out Freshwater Grill, a place known for good local fish. Alas, it was unexpectedly closed when we arrived. A search of their website revealed that the owners were taking a well-deserved vacation after the busy summer season. So instead, we went to yet another craft beer-centric place, Beards Brewery. Since I'd been looking forward to seafood at Freshwater Grill, I got the fish and chips here. It was pretty good and I also enjoyed a black cherry cream pop (I was designated driver, after all) from Northwood Soda, a company in the region. My husband had the red curry bowl and, of course, more beer. Beards Brewery is nicely decorated inside and  has a good view of the bay as well.

If you'd like to know more about Beards, check here.

As I'd said, my fish and chips dinner was good, but I wouldn't have ordered it if I'd known my husband had fish in mind for lunch the next day: Scalawags Whitefish And Chips on the edge of downtown Traverse City. This place looks pretty basic on the outside, but I loved the fishing-theme interior decor and took several pics:

A lineup of used (vintage?) outboard motors.

Old bait buckets turned into lamps above our booth.

And to go along with those bait buckets (at least, I think that's what they were), a grouping of old fishing poles. 

Some fishy details on our table. Note the bobber-like salt and pepper shakers. I appreciate such attention to details!

My husband and I both got the whitefish sandwich baskets, which included fries and coleslaw. Other types of fish are available, but as whitefish is in the name of the restaurant, we felt that was the logical choice. And it was! An employee explained that the fish comes in freshly-caught from the region (Charlevoix area) and definitely tasted it. The whitefish had a subtle sweetness and was expertly prepared. I can highly recommend this place! Their website is here.

If it sounds like we mainly ate, drank and walked around on our excursion, you're correct. Even though we were visiting the region on a weekend, it was definitely a slower time of year. Most shops were closed in Petoskey by the time we hit downtown both evenings, and we simply didn't have much time in Traverse City since we stopped there on our way back home. But we'd had a very nice time anyway; it was a great way to celebrate our anniversary. 

And it sure beat the trip I've just returned from, a visit to our daughter for a marathon cleaning session of her apartment. Her various grad school duties keep her quite busy, so I was being a nice mom to do some cleaning for her. Not sure if I'd do that again, but I'd certainly welcome another northern Michigan getaway!

 





 

Thrifty Acres: TV Time In 1965

Hello! Once upon a time, network television was the only game in town: no cable channels, no original programming from online sources, etc. So ABC could promote its 1965 programming line-up with a 10-page ad in Reader's Digest:

Today is a Thursday, but it is September 13th, so what better day to show off what TV watchers could expect from ABC back then? 

How about "The most exciting of all television seasons. A season of great entertainment. Seven nights a week. All year long. On ABC." 

Sounds rather grandiose, doesn't it? But after all, it was the debut of "adorable newcomer" Sally Field, in Gidget:

Gidget fell under this heading:

"The excitement of high comedy", which also included shows that became rerun staples for decades: McHale's Navy, F Troop (new in 1965), Ozzie and Harriet, The Patty Duke Show, The Donna Reed Show, Bewitched, The Flintstones and The Addams Family. But as I'd never heard of The Farmer's Daughter, O.K. Crackerby! or Tammy, I assume those weren't nearly as successful. Still, obviously a line-up that stood the test of time!

Maybe you'd rather have "The excitement of great drama"? Then these are the shows for you:

Of this grouping, Ben Casey, Peyton Place, The Fugitive, and The Big Valley stand out as shows people talked out. The Big Valley was new in 1965, and newcomer Lee Majors was on the show. 

And there's another new show:

 The FBI, starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. I was 5 1/2 when this show debuted, but it lasted through 1974, so I do remember watching this one! 

Another new crime-oriented show in 1965, although one that wasn't as successful, was Honey West. The ad blurb for the show is cringe-worthy today: "Wait till you see Anne Francis as Honey West, private eye-ful if there ever was one". Ugh. I'll admit that Ms. Francis was attractive: 

However, I don't think that "eye-ful" remark would go over too well these days. By the way, the show only lasted one season. 

Moving along, we now come to:

"The excitement of music...and movies". Shindig was "...entertainment as its go-goest!" This was the 2nd season of the pop music-oriented show, but it didn't last beyond January of 1966. 

Of course, other musical genres had a home on ABC as well, like The Jimmy Dean Show for country music fans. I wonder how many people today now associate that name with sausage and other breakfast foods? But Jimmy Dean had a long career in music and in television. 

The Lawrence Welk Show had its fans too, of course. Fun personal fact: my parents, my in-laws, and the parents of my two brothers-in-law were all about the same age. Yet out of these four sets of parents, mine were the only ones who never watched Lawrence Welk and his gang. Because of this, I grew up thinking hardly anyone had watched his show in the 1960's. I was quite surprised to learn that wasn't the case, at least among the families whose sons married into mine!

The King Family sounded interesting: "Thirty-seven (count 'em) thirty seven singing, dancing sisters, husbands, nephews, cousins and aunts in a warm, wonderful half-hour variety show". Quite a family indeed! This was actually the second season - and last - of the show, so the 39 shows produced just about equaled the number of people who were on the show. 

ABC didn't have much to say about movies, just a list of some that would be aired (North To Alaska, The Hustler) and some of the stars in them (James Stewart, Helen Hayes, John Wayne, Paul Newman). Nevertheless, "Save Sunday nights for movies on ABC!"

And, let's not forget:

"The special excitement of specials...and the thrill of sports." The dapper gent in the top of the photo is Rex Harrison, who was set to show off Paris on TV. An animated version of Alice in Wonderland was going to appear over the holidays, and Robert Preston was going to tour the US in six appearances of This Proud Land.

Sports programming featured pro bowling, NBA basketball ("pro basketball at its best, brought close to you by ABC's imaginative techniques" - I assume they meant camera work here), baseball, football specials, golf and the US Tennis Championship. 

"Not a week goes by without outstanding sports on ABC." But what I remember most about ABC sports is this show:

Hooray for Wide World of Sports! "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat". I remember watching this show with my brother. For some reason, motocross was one of my favorites (I still enjoy watching it, which my husband can't understand.)

Wild World of Sports ran for an incredible length of time: April 1961 to January 1998. Yet it had  been conceived as only a single-season summer replacement series for that first year! 

This show made the sporting world big news, but naturally ABC didn't want us to forget its news division either:

"The excitement of world-wide news". And who's the man at the news desk at the top?

Why, it's none other than "dynamic, fast-moving Peter Jennings with the News". Dynamic he might have been, but apparently his first stint at the anchor desk didn't go well, and he became a foreign correspondent in 1968. But eventually he triumphed at that earlier position: ten years after that, he returned as one of three ABC news anchors, and became sole anchor in 1983. He remained at that helm until his death in 2005. 

So who's this guy, and why is there a bottle on the wall near his head? Silly you, didn't you know about ABC's "...superbly informative reporting of the news from space...Jules Bergman, ABC's Science Editor, and the entire news team with their continuing coverage of the Gemini flights". So you see, that's not a bottle above Bergman's head, it's a model of a Gemini spacecraft. Looks pretty cheesy compared to the images we see from space now, but that's the best they could do back then. 

Bergman would have been plenty busy covering Gemini flights, as there were seven missions in a little over a year's time after this Reader's Digest issue came out. And there was plenty more space news to cover in the years ahead, which Bergman did through 1987. So from unmanned space flights to man landing on the moon to the space shuttle program, he saw a lot. And I bet eventually he didn't have a bottle-like object above his head during his segments! 

Back to the general news, in 1965 Bob Young did the weekend news. And for the ladies, "Marlene Sanders and News with the Woman's Touch, weekday afternoons". That sounds awfully lightweight, but Sanders was actually a trailblazer for women in television. She had many firsts in her long career, such as being among the first women war correspondents in Vietnam. After joining ABC in 1964, she became the first woman to anchor a major network's news show when the regular anchor became ill. And eventually she became the first woman vice-president of ABC's news division. I have no idea if "News with the Woman's Touch" was actually lightweight, but clearly Sanders' career was anything but that!

Well, I think this is enough of TV Time in 1965. I enjoyed the look back - but I think I'll go read a book now!