TODAY WE WENT TO THE ....

 

Bakery and Museum Co. 

The last time we were here was a few weeks ago with the family. We had fun chatting about them, enjoying that special time we had. 

It has been lovely coming here.

We both had different sandwiches. They were a nice change of pace.

Our next stop was the garden center, which is my favorite one, even though it is not the closest. I had noticed this truck when we passed by during the last few weeks. I have also shared a yellow one before. In that post I identified the make but not sure about this one today. Any experts out there? I will continue looking for an ID in my spare moments.

The hibiscus flowers were putting on quite a show.

I have been looking for something to put on the trellis out back and was quite taken with this. 

Made out of metal butterflies. 

I appreciated the skill and creativity of the artist, but the price was out of reach and more than I was willing to even contemplate ($220). I think whoever purchases it will be a happy person. Whenever I see these things, on my next visit they are usually gone. My mind was more on plants and plant pots, though I didn't see any that I wanted to buy today.

I liked these two fountains and thought the one above looked lovely among all the ferns and was my favorite, picturing it in my mind's eye at home.  Again, not serious about buying fountains, so...

off we went home without buying anything. It was fun to look though.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Have a great day!

NATIONAL HARBOR IN MARYLAND

I am not 100 percent sure as I forgot to look for its information, but the closest ID I could find online was a 1931 Ford Model A De Luxe Roadster.  Also, there is a statue of Henry Ford nearby, which apparently I also didn’t take a photo of. There are more statues to see, a good excuse to go back! This is a beautiful car close up.

We were at National Harbor on 3-31-24 and our schedule was tight, so we didn't walk along the Potomac River, staying in the upper city area for the most part. We will leave a proper walk near the river until next time. It's not too far from home and now the weather is warming up, it will be a nice trip.

We were at the same hotel as the ice show in December 2022, not staying the night this time as this was a much shorter visit. You can revisit posts I made on the ice show here, here and here if you have seen them before, or hopefully enjoy if they are new. Also where we stayed was at this link. You can read National Harbor's actual website at this link, and the following is a short description I found.

"National Harbor is situated on the banks of the historic Potomac River, just minutes away from the nation's capital. Featuring 350 acres of waterfront resort space, National Harbor is a destination unlike any other. Developed by Peterson Companies over 15 years ago, this area is home to 160 stores, 40 restaurants, an iconic Capital Wheel and the best sunsets in the DC area."

They don't mention the MGM Casino (at this link). We have yet to visit it. Not much into gambling but there are other entertainments. They have a huge theater for instance, and several restaurants. 

I did a tiny bit of window shopping while walking at a fast pace. Photos on the run are always fun, you just never know how they are going to turn out.

We did stop to chat with a few people along the way. Rosie the Riveter for one. An iconic symbol here in the United States but she also appeared in the United Kingdom and Australia.

This is a very famous poster which you will probably recognize.

She even has her rivet by her foot, plus her sandwich box.

Here is Gregg saying hello to Winston Churchill. These figures are true to life. I was very surprised to learn that he was 5 ft. 6 inches. We would have been on an eye level with each other.

His statue is by Ivan Schwartz and is part of the collection along the American Way Park Esplanade, which we couldn't go by without taking a few photos.

The Kiss, from a very iconic photo taken on VE day in Time Square, New York. You can read its story at the Naval Institute website here. There is another much larger statue in San Diego in California (click on link if curious).  

I almost felt like I was intruding but Winnie raised his hat to them.

Gregg wanted a photo with Abraham Lincoln...

another larger than life statue. He was 6 ft. 4 in.

Next to Abraham was Frederick Douglass who was about 6 ft. tall.

You can read about him at this link.  There is a lot of history in these statues that I have been enjoying reading.

The last one for this post was George Washington. He was in the same area as the previous two. They would have been the first to see if we had started from the river area, but as we had parked our car halfway up the hill, they were the last. I am very glad we didn't miss them. Washington’s  height was 6 ft. 2 in.  I have one more post from our visit, which I will share as soon as I can put it together.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

SUNDAY DRIVE - 2-5-24

I wanted to mention and say a big thank you to all of those who follow me, old blogging friends and new blogging friends. It is very much appreciated, as are the comments you leave when you visit. I enjoy reading every one of them. I also want to add that I am continuously late in returning your visits, but I never forget your kindness and will be returning in kind hopefully sooner than later.  It is another wonderful part of blogging to see what is going on in your part of the world.

I forgot to share these at the beginning of February.  We were on the Snickersville Turnpike.  There is a short history if you click on this link.

In part, it reads:

“Snickersville Turnpike has been a setting of great significance to our nation’s history. While still a land surveyor for Lord Fairfax, George Washington traveled this road over Snickers Gap and often spent the night along the Shenandoah River, where Edward Snickers kept an inn and operated a ferry.”

I couldn’t see the property that is guarded by the stone lions. I have mentioned before but whenever we come across these large gates, I often wonder who lives at the end of the long driveway. The  properties are often hidden by either hills or trees. I found another photo of this gate entrance last year in May. If you would like to see previous drives along the Snickersville Turnpike, you can click on this link.

We passed a man on his own Sunday Drive. The closest I came to identifying this old car was a 1930 Ford Model A Station Wagon which you can see at this link.  The website belongs to the St. Louis Car Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. In part it read, “Ford faced competition after the unrivaled success of the Model T and had to update and improve their next design to be more convenient for the driver and still efficient for production. Ford introduced the Ford Model A in late 1927 to be sold as the 1928 models.” and “He sold almost 5 million units in its span from 1927 to 1932.”  Also, "2,848 Woody Wagons were built in 1930."

There are other forms of transport on this road.

The historical markers are always interesting.

Not too many photos today as we went for a shorter drive than we normally do.

TAKEN AT THE MERRIFIELD GARDEN CENTER - 6-29-23 - PART 1

I hope those of you who were celebrating had a Happy 4th of July yesterday.  Our neighbors put on quite a firework display in their yard at the back of us.   It was fun to watch from our deck.

A few days ago we went to a garden center to look around. As you can see, Mrs. Gnome gave us a lovely welcome. 

 Okay, I added her thanks to paint shop pro.  She was for sale inside the building.  Unfortunately, she did not come home with us. We were there to find potted plants for the deck at the back of our house.  We were impressed with the staff who were very friendly and helpful.

We were also greeted with this beauty!  I checked online and the one I saw identical to this said it was a 1930 Ford Model A Pickup.  For the classic vehicle enthusiast there is a very interesting page here.  I fell in love with it.  I am by no means a car enthusiast, hence my first rust bucket (Morris Mini Cooper) very similar to this one. 

 It got me from A to B, and I saved every penny for three years, finally purchasing my old car second hand when I was 21. I said goodbye to it when I got married and moved across the pond.  I loved it dearly and traveled many miles along those narrow, country lanes, back and forth to work, a night out with friends, and further north to visit my sister and her family on the occasional weekend.  I sold it to a good friend who needed a second car.  She and her husband drove it for several years.  It was a good little car to them also.  However, getting back to that gorgeous old pickup truck, these old classics are the kind that I have always coveted, even before my old rust bucket.  I say this realizing that it is never going to happen.  Maybe in my next lifetime.

We started off inside the store and I took photos of things I might want to purchase in the future.  For instance, cute hummingbird feeders.

Here she is, Mrs. Gnome

A pretty little angel birdfeeder.

Lots of items that I didn't get a chance to look at, but there's always next time.

Beautiful orchids!

The last three photos were items we found outside, with a 4th of July theme for Independance Day. 

People are celebrating this weekend also, though the actual 4th isn't until Tuesday this year  (which will have been yesterday when you read this).

This patriotic wind spinner was very colorful.  I expect it would have been a pretty sight on a windy day.  

I have photos from the outside also, which I will share soon.