Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns
If you think Jesus would have come into your home that day and not issued a strong rebuke to the head of household, you are mistaken. These words of condemnation have been haunting me for days now. They aren’t all that different than the soundtrack I play in my head on an almost-daily basis. It’s…
I am nesting. On Saturday I emptied the refrigerator. Last summer’s homemade pickles in their jars. The bread ends that seem to multiply on every shelf. The eggs. The milk. The fruit and veggies. All of it sat on the floor or the counter as I carefully removed the shelves and wiped them down with…
I’ve heard that life is like a highway. And it definitely seems like that sometimes. The pace of life swirls around me at dizzying speeds. We’re all so busy. In such a hurry. Always somewhere to be, something else to do. I’m a get-to-the-point, get-there-quick kind of girl. I don’t like to waste time on…
For vacation this year, we took a road trip back to Illinois, stopping along the way there and back to see some things. In years past when we’ve driven to Illinois, we tried to knock out the 14 hours as quickly as possible. This time, we took our time to make it feel more like a vacation. We packed a lot in, so I’ve got a vacation round-up in three parts for you. Part One: On the way to Illinois; Part Two: In and Around Illinois; Part Three: On the way back to PA. If you’re on Instagram, I posted a daily photo round–up of our trip. Some of the visuals in these posts will be the same, but some will be different.
Here we go!
Because Phil’s vacation time is limited, we try to maximize our time by leaving after he gets off work on Saturdays. By 6 p.m. that night, we had our Sheetz order in hand and were headed to our hotel in western Pennsylvania. As I passed around the order, we discovered two sliders that belonged to someone else’s order. Oops. Nothing we could do. We pulled into the Super 8 in Uniontown, PA around 10 p.m. and the front of the building was lit with colorful lights. Hotels were a point of anxiety for me as I made reservations. Reviews are so mixed online. This one turned out to be just okay. All we really needed was a place to sleep. (The front desk clerk offered me the opportunity to play the video slots in their game room. I declined. 10 o’clock is already past my bedtime, and I’m no gambler.)
We had hotel breakfast the next morning: a smattering of continental choices, then headed out to Friendship Hill National Historic Site.
We planned most of our stops around national parks/historic sites because that’s our jam. We had two left to visit in western Pennsylvania after last year’s vacation when we visited the Johnstown Flood Memorial, the Flight 93 Memorial and the Alleghany Portage Railroad National Historic Site. Friendship Hill was the first this year. It’s the home of Albert Gallatin who was Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson.
Friendship Hill is the house he built for his retirement. We had arrived earlier than the visitor center was open, so we wandered the grounds for about 30 minutes. There’s a gazebo overlooking the Monongahela River, and we took a short walk to the supposed site of Gallatin’s first wife’s grave.
When the visitor center opened, we got a thorough introduction from the park ranger on duty. (Shout out to park rangers! They are knowledgeable and friendly, in our experience, and willing to answer any and all questions.) We did a self-guided tour of the house, which we had to ourselves anyway. Some of what we learned:
– the Marquis de Lafayette (yes, that one!) visited Gallatin’s house in 1825 and it was a big freaking deal. The county where Friendship Hill is located–Fayette County–is named after him.
– Our son was super interested in a display about tongue-and-groove construction.
– Gallatin was involved in the Whiskey Rebellion and had opposing views from Alexander Hamilton; he is also buried at Trinity Church in New York City. (We’ve seen Hamilton’s grave. We probably missed Gallatin’s because we didn’t know!)
– Gallatin founded the town of New Geneva and most of its businesses, including a glass shop (as in, they blew glass there)
I just love old houses and the history they contain. I like to imagine what they were like in their day and sometimes I can almost feel the presence of those who’ve been there before. I get a thrill walking in the footsteps of history. (Lafayette was there and so was I!)
After some obligatory purchases from the shop, we headed to our lunch stop, about an hour away in Washington, Pa., a place called Hog Father’s that I found on the map. An unofficial rule in our family (carried over from my family) is that we try not to eat anywhere that we could eat at home. (So, no fast food or chains that are found everywhere.) As a kid, this made me nervous because I hated the pressure of having to order something from an unknown place. I knew what I liked at the familiar places and didn’t like having to make a decision. Now, I know better what I like in general, although I still don’t like to take a lot of time to read the whole menu. When I find something I like, I order it.
Our son had a southern fried chicken sandwich and fries, and in his words: “This is the best chicken sandwich I’ve ever eaten.” He proceeded to tell two people who worked there that this was the case. Our daughter had the same chicken but in a wrap with cole slaw. Phil had a southern brisket sandwich, green beans and cornbread.
I had a brisket salad, and I use the word “salad” loosely.
There was so.much.meat along with fries and crispy onions on the salad. It was topped with their homemade barbecue ranch dressing. We needed more stomachs for all that food. And a nap.
But we got back in the car. We were planning to stop in Youngstown, Ohio, at an attraction I found on Roadside America, but we had an extended bathroom break and gas fill-up just across the Ohio border, so we scrapped that stop and headed for Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We’ve passed signs for this park many times, and our kids made a brief stop there one year with their grandparents. We knew we wouldn’t have a lot of time, so we made a quick stop at the visitor center.
We consulted a map and thought about trying to see one of the sights in the park called The Ledges, but when we got to the trailhead, we realized the hike was going to be longer than we had time for. So, we drove to the Great Heron lookout, which was our planned stop in the park. We saw a bunch of heron nests in the trees but were a little too late in the season to see any birds.
The drive through the park was beautiful and we’re already talking about taking a long weekend to come back and do a bunch of hiking.
Traveling back to the turnpike, we had a near-miss accident on the road. We were in the blindspot of a car that had just entered the highway. It started to change lanes and was inches away from hitting us. Phil was able to ease us onto the shoulder as the other car swerved back into its lane. We were shaken up but mostly okay. Then came several hours of anxiety-induced travel on the Ohio Turnpike. This is not my favorite road ever. I’m discovering for myself how bodies remember the trauma of place, and mine certainly seemed to remember that day so many years ago when I totaled a car on this very road.
We finally made it to our dinner stop in Toledo, a place we found off the turnpike years ago–Tony Packo’s.
The only way to describe it is Hungarian fast casual food. We had never eaten at the original location, only a fast-food style one in another part of town. This building also includes a hot dog bun museum–yes, you heard that right. Famous people (and locally famous people) have signed hot dog buns that are now on display throughout the restaurant.
Also, the food is amazing. Among the four of us we had sausages and hot dogs, mac and cheese, chili mac, chicken paprikas over dumplings, stuffed cabbage, pickles, cole slaw and cucumber salad. Phil and I each had a local beer.
Our hotel in Michigan was only another half an hour away, and we rolled into the Tru by Hilton around 9 p.m. after a small detour through town. I should mention that we let the 13-year-old navigate on this trip. Phil sent her maps and she told him when to turn. Except that in Monroe, Michigan, he hadn’t included the hotel, just the town name so the GPS took us to the center of town instead of out to the hotel.
A note about the hotel: we had never stayed at this brand before and it was pretty great. Certainly the best hotel of our stay. 10/10 would book again.
There was a beautiful sunset out our window. A great welcome from Michigan, which was a first visit for most of our family.
Monday morning, Phil woke up early to run to Lake Erie, which was only a couple miles from our hotel. He got some beautiful sunrise and bird pictures.
The rest of us took our time and went downstairs for hotel breakfast. The highlight of breakfast was the pancake machine. You waved your hand in front of the machine and it plopped some batter onto a conveyor belt and spit out a cooked pancake at the end. The kids were obsessed and I was fascinated. (I’m not a big pancake eater.) A quality hotel breakfast here, as well.
When we were all fed and ready to leave, we headed to our next park site–River Raisin National Battlefield Park.
We were there before the visitor center opened, so we walked around the site and read all the plaques, then took a walk around the meadow.
The visitor center opened at 10 and was a short drive from the battlefield, so we we went there and watched a short movie and listened to a park ranger give us an explanation of the map. After the movie, we viewed the large diorama of Frenchtown, which was what the settlement was called at the time of the battle.
River Raisin was the bloodiest battle on Michigan soil and the worst defeat of the War of 1812 for the American military. We heard a connection to our friend, Albert Gallatin, who helped negotiate the surrender at Ghent. Our son enjoyed the 3-pounder cannon mounted on a sled because the battle was fought in winter.
This visit raised lots of questions for us about what the Native American narrative would be about these events. There are some troubling parts to this story, but we didn’t ask our questions.
“Remember the Raisin!” became the battle cry of the western campaign of the War of 1812.
We had originally planned to eat lunch at a unique restaurant in Monroe, but it didn’t open until 11:30 and we were ready to leave town well before that, so we headed to Ann Arbor. We passed the University of Michigan stadium on our way to Washtenaw Dairy.
We picked this place because apparently Superman ice cream is a Midwest treat we’ve never tried and they serve it here. (The side of the building says, “We’re legend-dairy.” I love a good pun!)
Three of us had Superman ice cream, a blend of blue moon, lemon and red soda/pop. Our daughter had lemon custard. I would not have ordered Superman ice cream if we were on one of our normal ice cream visits, but I was glad I did. It was unique and oddly delicious. Since we skipped our lunch plans, we also ordered donuts at the dairy and had a nutritious lunch of donuts and ice cream. Donut flavors we tried: maple glazed with peanuts, vanilla with sprinkles, coconut flakes, cinnamon sugar and chocolate glazed.
Not long after we got back on the highway, we were diverted by Google to some backroads due to accident traffic. Our next stop was Battle Creek, Michigan, home of the Kellogg Company. We passed the headquarters, but that’s not why we were there.
On the Roadside America site, I found the Fantasy Forest, part of the Leila Arboretum.
It’s a collection of trees that were killed by the emerald ash borer and instead of pulling out all the stumps, the arboretum asked artists to design and carve them. It is incredible. Our son was excited for the life-size Groot.
As we drove through Michigan, we noticed all the roads named “mile,” such as 28-mile road. Can someone from Michigan explain this to me? Also, marijuana is proudly legal in Michigan. How do we know? All the billboards! (We still live in a state where marijuana is only legal for medical use, so we’re not used to seeing this kind of openness.)
Our next goal was the Indiana Dunes Visitor Center, which we thought closed at 4 p.m. central time. So, we were hustling to make it and pulled in to the parking lot before 3:30 p.m., only to find out they’re open till 6. Oh well. The Indiana Dunes is only a couple of hours from our hometown but neither Phil nor I can ever remember going there. This was another park that we couldn’t spend a lot of time at and that is still on our list of parks to visit. We asked a ranger what we should see if we only had an hour. She seemed disappointed. (To be honest, so were we.) We shopped the gift store and then headed to Kemil Beach. Our first glimpse of Lake Michigan from this side was awe-inspiring. We could see the Chicago skyline. (Usually we see Lake Michigan from the Chicago side.)
It was hot, though, and everyone but us was dressed for the beach so we didn’t stay long. Phil and our son took a short hike on one of the dunes while our daughter and I refreshed ourselves at the car then joined them for the last little bit. On our way out of the park, we drove through an historic part showcasing houses from the 1933 World’s Fair.
Our dinner stop was White Castle because we’d had the frozen microwaveable burgers once and Phil wanted to convince the kids that the burgers fresh from the restaurant were better. This particular White Castle was in a gas station, which totally tracks for White Castle’s vibe in my mind. There were double sliders, chicken and waffle sliders, single sliders, fries and onion rings in our order. Why do we do this to ourselves?
We rolled in to our hometown–as my son put it, “our last hotel” aka my parents’ house–before 9 p.m. and watched the Olympics before turning in.
Well, it’s already round-up time again, although I’ll admit that I cut this one a little bit short because we headed out on vacation, and that will, I hope, be worthy of a separate post all about our road trip from Pennsylvania to Illinois and back with a bunch of stops in between. Until then, please enjoy this overview of our monthly action, eating, watching and reading.
Early in the month, we attended a community fireworks celebration at our local baseball stadium. A bank in the area sponsored the free event. We ate some snack-y foods and drank sodas and beer while waiting for the show. It was a satisfying outing for the Fourth, and a way to test our anxiety about larger public gatherings. We might try to see a baseball game this summer now that we’ve been to the stadium when it’s full.
Then, we celebrated the Fourth of July with our friend David. It was a two-months’ late celebration of our birthdays (he and I have our birthdays on the same day in May but we weren’t all fully vaccinated yet and school was still in session). He came over and hung out and we ate food. (See the What We Ate section for specifics.)
July gave us more catch-up time. We had friends over for a short hangout/lunch. The kids played games, the moms talked, and it was a lovely time of catching up.
And we hiked with church friends up to Eagle Rock, a moderate uphill climb at one of the nearby state gamelands.
The kids and I also attended a launch party for my friend Shawn’s new book, The Weight of Memory, at the beautiful creekside home of a friend of his. It was a fun night of celebrating creativity.
We went to the drive-in to see Black Widow. Since we’re all caught up on Marvel movies as a family, we thought this was a good way to see the newest release. It rained for close to half the movie which meant we were trapped inside a steamy car, wiping down the windshield. It’s been probably 20 years since Phil or I went to a drive-in movie. (There was a drive-in theater 10 minutes from where we grew up, so we went all.the.time as kids and youths.) Cars are different. People are different. (Sorta rude sometimes.) But it was a good experience.
I had lunch with a couple of work friends. Way back in May, I had ordered some end-of-year gifts for two of my co-workers and the shipping was delayed until after school was already out. Then with vacations and such, we finally found a time to get together for lunch. It was a fun time of catching up.
As a family, we hiked the Turkey Hill Trail near the Susquehanna River. It was more than 6 miles on a steamy summer day. And it was labeled as strenuous. (It was not wrong.)
We almost ran out of water. We had to rest in the shade in the last two miles so those of us sensitive to heat did not succumb to its pressures. But overall it was a great hike! Beautiful and challenging with varied terrain and lots of good views. We hiked a ridge line, crossed a creek (no one fell in this time) and walked through a wildflower field.
Phil saw a bunch of birds, including an indigo bunting, which was one he’d never seen before. We looked at it through the scope and it was brilliantly blue. We haven’t had a lot of hiking opportunities this summer compared to last summer, so we’re trying to make them count. Despite some whining, complaining and mild fighting (all part of the hiking process these days, I think) we all really enjoyed this hike.
Haircuts! Daughter and I went a little bit shorter for the rest of summer.
Long’s Park Summer Music Series! We missed the first one of the return to summer concerts because we were at the drive-in, but we made sure to make it to the next one. Maggie Rose and Them Vibes performed. According to our son, “This band is A LOT.”
He wasn’t wrong, and I wasn’t informed that there would be a ’70s costume contest. The music was amazing, though, and I didn’t realize how much I missed hearing it live with crowds of other people. (Outdoor crowds. I’m still not an indoor crowds person.) A lovely Sunday evening.
Vacation prep. Going on vacation is so much work. It’s worth it, but it’s so much work!
Mac and cheese pizza. Our son has added to his weekly menu rotation. I under-seasoned this, so next time, I’ll adjust that part of it. Otherwise, it wasn’t too bad.
For our Fourth of July gathering: baby back ribs, creamy potato salad, grilled zucchini, and, of course, cake.
Breakfast at Gracie’s on West Main. Phil took me out for a breakfast date on a Wednesday when we couldn’t go to the woods because of appointments and a heat advisory. I had the Gracie’s breakfast: two eggs, bacon, home fries, a slice of toast and a slice of banana bread. Phil had the chili hash. We ordered banana bread to take home for the children because we’re nice like that. (And as the kids were putting away dishes, a glass broke and they cleaned it all up with a little direction from us.)
Ice cream. We hit our Wednesdays hard on the ice cream trail. First up was Pine View Dairy, which has the best waffle cones in the county, hands-down; our choices for flavors were: butter brickle, strawberry cheesecake, triple dark chocolate and chocolate chip cookie dough.
Then it was Oregon Dairy. But it was so hot we had to eat these so fast, plus we’d gotten double scoops because this was “dinner” after our hike and late lunch. We were a mess by the time it was over. Flavor choices (we each had two different ones): cashew raspberry and cookie monster; unicorn and rainbow sherbet; coconut almond fudge and salted caramel truffle; chocolate fudge brownie and chocolate marshmallow. The waffle cones were just meh. I think we would have enjoyed this more if we hadn’t had to inhale them.
Finally, we went back to Good Life because they had sweet corn ice cream available and our son really wanted to try it. So, that’s what he had: sweet corn ice cream sprinkled with Old Bay; other flavors we ate: fresh mint with oreos mixed in; raspberry with butter cream and brownies mixed in; blueberry with graham cracker crumbs and pecans. It’s hard to top Good Life for us because of the overall quality of what we eat there.
Pattypan pizzas. I went out to the garden one afternoon and discovered our squash plant had been BUSY. So I pivoted on our dinner plans and made these personal pattypan pizzas. Our son, who last year was not a big fan of squash, ate it and liked it.
Kenyan braised collards and meat. This was just something different to use up some of our garden produce.
Popcorn and ice cream and snow cones at the drive-in.
Pattypan squash stuffed with pork and rice, topped with parmesan. I get asked a lot what we do with the pattypan squash. Here is exhibit B.
When Calls the Heart. I finished season 8. That’s all I’m going to say about that.
All the Bright Places. Apparently I was in a YA mood after finishing the book Not If I Save You First, so I watched the movie version of the book I’d read with my book club last school year.
Falcon and the Winter Soldier. This is our Saturday night show but we spent a couple of Saturdays outside the house, so we got back on track. I love the banter.
Kim’s Convenience. A solid comedy choice for nights when we don’t have a lot of time to invest in a show.
Fresh Fried and Crispy. We checked out one episode of this and learned about some new foods we’d like to try if ever we’re in St. Louis. But the show overall feels overproduced and maybe for the TikTok/Youtube viewer. I don’t know if we’ll go back to this.
Upload. So much yes. We watched one episode and it’s good.
Legomasters. Every week, the creativity leaves me in awe, and I’m 100 percent sure I don’t have the patience for epic Lego builds.
Love and Friendship, a movie adaptation of a Jane Austen story, Lady Susan, I’d never heard of. It had some funny moments.
Black Widow. Amazing. I can’t wait to rewatch so we can fully appreciate the storyline without thunderstorm interruption.
Virgin River. I had to start a new series for me in the evenings after I’m done working and taking care of people for the day. I got to episode 2 and realized this was based on a book series! My TBR pile keeps growing. There’s only a 6-month wait for the first book on the library’s digital book app.
Rick Steves’ Europe. Our favorite travel show with Debra and David Rixon is no longer included with Amazon Prime, so to get our travel fix, we have to look elsewhere. We watched one episode with Rick Steves about the Austrian and Italian Alps. Do I want to take a cable car to the top of a mountain? Yes. Would I be anxious about the whole thing? Also, yes.
Nailed It! The kids and I finished the current season.
The Olympics.
Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter. A recommendation from the middle school librarian, and a perfect choice for my North America selection for the Read Around the World Challenge.
Spy School by Stuart Gibbs. Another read-aloud at bedtime. Hilarious. And page-turning.
South by Ernest Shackleton. I’m obsessed with this real-life exploration adventure and I need a book set in Antarctica for my Read Around the World challenge. Written in the explorer’s own words, it’s sometimes technical but also fascinating.
On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn. The final Bridgerton book. (Except there’s a prequel, I think, and some bonus epilogues I haven’t read.) My favorite of all the books. Now to wait (not so patiently) for Netflix to catch up.
Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Of course, I finish this one and immediately want to read the next one. I’m having a problem with starting a bunch of series and getting overwhelmed by wanting to finish them all.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. Maybe my favorite read of the whole year so far. I love One and his grumpy nature, and the way the story builds is just brilliant: slow at the start, drawing you in until you realize what’s happening, then everything goes NOT according to the main character’s plan and you can’t stop reading. This is on my all-time favorites list. (Now maybe I should actually make that list.)
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. I was overwhelmed by this one at first because there is an extensive family tree at the beginning of the book, but once I was invested in the characters, the lineage didn’t matter so much, and I couldn’t put it down. This one checks the box for Asia for my Read Around the World challenge for the library’s summer reading program.
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. My pick for South America on the Read Around the World challenge. It’s a slower pace than what I usually read but beautiful so far.