I Like Thursday #75

Wow it is Thursday already?  I  saw an article recently, well several that try to explain the phenomena of time speeding by the older you get.  Welcome to my 75th I Like post.  Thank you LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for encouraging many of us to find something that we like during the week and share it with others to bring some knowledge, light, and laughter to the world. 

I liked this teeny tiny flower I saw when I was pulling weeds.  I am sure it is some sort of weed, but it was so bright. 

I like this site that someone shared with me.  It is an interactive map, you put your address or zip code in it and it will tell you the native people that lived in the area. You can find the site here! Honestly check it out.

I like the surprise I discovered when I wandered to the backside of the house the other day.  Some of my zinnias are blooming.

I love that these last 2 are almost like flowers within flowers.  The little yellow flowers in the center. 

While I was taking pictures of my Zinnias they were photo bombed!

I love this building.  Jeff moved it to by our barn.  The day that Jeff was killed there was a windstorm and the wind picked this building up flipped it up over our barn and it landed turned 90 degrees and about 100 feet from where we had placed it.  This building has taken a beating the past couple of years.  Recently we had severe storms come through and this is the latest mishap for the poor thing.

That branch that landed on it is at least 6-8 inches across.  Dented the roof, caused the roller door to finally fall off.  But the building is still standing.  Maybe I love it because it represents my resilience in a way.  Storms come, things go wrong, but when it is all said and done I am still standing, maybe a few more bumps and bruises, but stronger and more determined.

I have started to read the Benni Harper Series by Earlene Fowler.

Benni is a young widow in a small town on the mid California coast.  This is the 2nd book in the series.  When her feelings are described there are times it is wow I totally understand that feeling. 

I love old buildings and am always looking at the different designs.  I saw this house with the loopy trim, and had to find a place to turn around and go back so I could get a picture of it while I was traveling with my parents.

Now head over to LeeAnna's and check out the other I Like Thursday posts!  Thanks for stopping by, find something to make you smile today.

Parental Road Trip Part 2

After a few days resting at my house in Michigan it was time to set out on the next leg of our trip.  I would have preferred to drive around Lake Erie through Ohio, the small corner of Pennsylvania, into New York to go to Niagara Falls.  My parents chose to drive through Ontario.  Therefore trip 2 through the border this summer. 

I will say I really dislike driving on major highways, so I was routed across into Windsor and told to follow 3.  We visited Point Pelee Park, and then got a little lost somehow.  We eventually arrived in Niagara Falls around 2pm.  I visited Niagara Falls about 15 years ago, and I was very disappointed.  It was more touristy than the previous visit and there were so many people that it was difficult to get close to the walkway even.  Bobbin and I took a wee stroll and took a few pictures.

 American Falls

Since the last time I visited they have put a cement point on top of the wall that runs along to discourage people from leaning over, or sitting on the wall. 

After the excitement we crossed the Rainbow bridge into the US near Niagara Falls New York.

Day 2 we were heading toward Buffalo, New York to meet some distant cousins along the way.  We stopped in Syracuse, NY at Calico Gals Quilt Shop. 

Neat quilt shop with a cute Row by Row, and lot of different types of fabrics. I fell in love with these two black on white prints. 

Then onto Clinton to meet Dorothy and her sweet husband.  My mother had met Dorothy doing genealogical research looking for information regarding a 3X great grandfather.  We had a short visit and then headed east further. 

We left the New York Throughway at Canajoharie and drove up into the mountains toward Sharon Springs, New York. Sharon Springs was once a spa resort.  The part of the family my mother had been looking for were Abenaki  (People of the Dawnland) which were an Algonquian People and ranged from Maine, into Quebec, and throughout New York.  Somehow this ancestor had been put on a census record as a 'Black Canadian' and therefore he could purchase property since he was considered "white" and he owned a large home and property in Sharon Springs at one time.  The site where his home was now stands empty.  What is sad is that when he passed away because he was married to an indian woman she could not inherit so the property was seized.  It was interesting to see the area, and hear the history of our family, but also of this tribe that I belong to.  Trying to imagine how this ancestor and his wife traveled from Odanak, Quebec to Sharon Springs, New York.  You can read more about the Abanaki here.  We went and visited the cemetery where the ancestor and his wife were buried.  Then headed toward Clifton Park for the night. We had an awesome room in a fairly new LaQuinta.  

The next morning we awoke, we were going to meet 2 different sets of relatives.  One around lunch time and another for dinner, but we had time to kill in between.  Our first stop was  The Quiltbug Quilt Shop.  Tiny quilt shop, but the owner was super nice.  Of course I had to do some stash enhancements.

Looking for the quilt shop I had spied a place called the Pine Bush Preserve, and I had to check it out.  The Albany Pine Bush is one of the largest of 20 inland pine barrens in the world.  They have a great Discovery Center for kids, lots of hiking trails and it was very informative.

I saw a fisher, it was stuffed but man it was a lot bigger than I was expecting.

And neat flowers.  Bobbin liked this place, she could go out and explore. 

We met one family member in Rensselaer.  We had decided to pick up a pizza and take it to her house.  My mom wanted me to stop at the police station and ask where a good pizza shop was--um just no.  I had looked pizza up on my phone and saw a shop that had great reviews called Cugino's Pizzaria.  It was across the street from the police station and imagine the smile on my face when I walked in and saw about 10 policemen waiting for lunch.  The pizza was awesome well worth the wait.  There is just something about New York style pizza you can't beat.  We then drove by the State Capitol in Albany, is mighty impressive. 

We met the next set of family at a Cheesecake Factory for dinner and visited.  It was interesting to meet them and make more familial connections.  We stayed a 2nd night in Clifton Park.  I kept seeing this building and I kept telling my parents I bet it used to be a stage stop hotel.  They laughed at me.  I finally had an opportunity to stop and get a picture.

See the sign?  I was right!  That was 3 nights in the books.  Where to next?  Wait and see!

Waterton and Homeward Bound

Boy it has been a busy two weeks.  I better pick up where I left off on my summer travels.

After leaving Many Glaciers we headed into Alberta and Waterton Park which is a sister park to Glacier.

Waterton has a lodge called Prince of Wales which is called a grand hotel.  It was built by the Great Northern Railway in 1927.

Many of the roads in Waterton were closed due to the Kenow Fire which occurred in 2017.  Waterton Lake is very pretty, but the area is very touristy.  About the only site to see is Cameron Falls.

One night I did spy a bear, but it is difficult to get pictures because as soon as a bear is spotted the rangers or RCMP would show up to shoo away the people.

The lodge that we stayed at we had a visitor.

This buck deer is in the "velvet" and he was rubbing his antlers all over people's car grills trying to rub that velvety coating off.

The one thing that I did see that I thought was interesting was this rock formation.  If you look closely you can see daylight underneath, so it is precariously perched there, waiting.

The next day we headed back to the states and I discovered that I could not locate a hotel heading toward North Dakota that would take dogs.  So we had to improvise.  We headed past St. Mary toward Browning.  There was a rest stop with some really amazing art, and information regarding Glacier, and the indigenous people.

Outside of Browning we saw another neat metal sculpture marking the entry into the Blackfeet Nation Reservation. 

I cannot believe how incredibly long Montana is and when you are driving diagonally from the Northwest to the Southeast it is a bit of a jaunt.  I did see some neat things and looked them up later. 

We passed a farm called the Kingsbury Colony, we could see many men out working in the field.  I discovered it is a Hutterite group.  Per Wikipedia Hutterites , also called Hutterian Brethren, are an ethnoreligious group that is a communal branch of Anabaptists who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the early 16th century.

At Great Falls, I got turned around and soon realized that I was heading west.  In Ulm, which was the first place I could get off the freeway and turn around I saw a sign for First People's Buffalo Jump State Park, which of course caught my attention, and so off into the prairie along a dirt/gravel road I traveled.  

I did not go into the visitor's center, but I did go up to the top of the buffalo jump.  Indians would create brush fences and then herd buffalo up onto the plateau,  then stampede the buffalo over a cliff.  At the bottom of the cliff injured buffalo were killed and the tribe would butcher them for the meat to sustain them.  

 Here you can see some of the rock ledge along the cliff, but it is pretty hard to tell you are heading toward a cliff until you are right upon it. 

 I cannot get over the vastness of the prairie looking out from the cliff.  You can also see that well worn path, where for many years the buffalo were driven. 

It sounds funny, but growing up on a farm certain animals have a scent, and if you have ever butchered a large animal there is also a scent.  I could smell the animal scent still after all this time.  
There were a lot of informative signs.

I saw a prairie dog town and had to stop and take a picture.

We eventually made it to Billings, Montana which total for the day ended up being well over 650 miles. 

We left Billings early the next morning heading across Interstate 90 and started running into a lot of groups of motorcycle riders.  Little did we know that it was the beginning weekend of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.   We entered Wyoming, and about 100 miles from the Wyoming, South Dakota state line the speed limit dropped from 70 and 80 to 55 mph for biker safety.  The speed limit did not pick up until about 100 miles past Rapid City, South Dakota.  We could not get over all the bikes, groups and singles, as well as motor homes with toy haulers, we passed.  

In Chamberlain, South Dakota I stopped at the rest area so that I could see the sculpture Dignity.  It is on a cliff overlooking the Missouri River. 

I had to stop of course because of the quilt.  We drove on to Mankato, Minnesota for the night.  At that time I realized that 700 + mile days would not be feasible for my parents, but they were having some tummy trouble and I knew that one more day driving would have us to my house in Michigan, so we powered through and arrived back in Carleton the next day.  The grandsons were happy to see their great grandparents and we took a much needed rest for a few days.  

Lessons learned.  I needed to find hotels for the next day the night before because of Miss Bobbin.  My parents limit was about a 500-600 mile day.  Saturday and Sunday nights should be spent in the same hotel so we were not dealing with weekend travelers. 

I Like #74

Welcome to my 74th I Like Thursday post.  Thank you LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for encouraging us to find things each week that we like. 

I love these fabric panels by Riley Blake they are the National Park Series.

These are just a few of them.

The oldest grandson laughs and says his spirit animal is a sloth.  I found just the right towel for him the other day.

I thought the bins of skeleton decorations were interesting, especially the shiny unicorn ones.

The other day before my parents left for home a floral delivery truck turned up with flowers for me, from John!  The card said pretty flowers for a pretty lady. My mom's first comment was you know you really shouldn't waste money sending yourself flowers.....her next comment was I think John really needs glasses. 

While my parents were here they watched a lot of TV.  First we watched Shetland, then we began watching McLeod's Daughters. 

Now head over to Not Afraid of Color to check out the other I Like Thursday posts.

I Like Thursday #73

Welcome to my 73rd I like Thursday post.  Thank you to LeeAnna of Not Afraid of Color for encouraging us to post things we have found that we like during the week.  I had been MIA due to traveling but I am getting back into the groove.

I love visiting Cabela's outdoor store.  There is a small one in Portland, near Tualatin it is not as large as the one near me in Dundee. 

As I was walking through the store I looked down at the floor and saw these prints.

I followed them prints through the store to this tree.  With a bear!

Of course while in the store I lost my parents and had to go on a search.  In the back of the store was a large tank with native trout, steelhead, and salmon.

I love seeing them.

I am envious of my parent's garden.  These are the leaves which were on the zucchini.

I like the view of Mt. Hood from my parents house.

I had the hardest time getting a clear day while I was there to get a picture.

I liked this sculpture in Portland.

I love these flowers, they are actually artichokes at a garden store.

I saw them last year, but by the time I decided to take a picture they were gone. 

Now head over to LeeAnna's to check out the other I Like Thursday posts.