I’m all for trying new adventures. Horseback riding isn’t new for me, but I’m still a greenhorn, having only been riding once before in my lifetime. So when the opportunity came up for me to ride the trails at the Natural Valley Ranch near Brownsburg, Indiana, of course I accepted. Read more
The Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. may be better known, but it isn’t the first. Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the First Lincoln Memorial in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace, on Lincoln’s birthday in 1909. William Howard Taft dedicated the completed memorial in November 1911, a few years before construction of the Washington D.C. memorial began. Read more
Last weekend I discovered Piggott’s Farm Market in the country near Benton Harbor, Michigan. They advertise fresh local in-season produce, so I had to check it out. My hopes weren’t high. May in the Midwest is too early for most produce, and markets usually sell only annuals this time of year. Yes, Piggott’s was selling annuals, and I picked up some petunias and alyssum lavender. But they also were featuring asparagus and rhubarb, both at reasonable prices, and if you spent ten dollars or more, you got a free sage plant. Read more
It had been years since I last visited Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History–decades actually. It was long before Sue came to Chicago. As a child, I went to the museum every couple of years. I remembered a hall full of dinosaur skeletons, a roomful of mummies and sore feet. Oh, and the huge building. My siblings and I used to wish we lived in that building, with its vast rooms, marble floors and sweeping staircases. Read more
A ring of horses colorfully trimmed and bejeweled, chase a flamingo, giraffe, tiger cub and a menagerie of other animals round and round but never catching them. On the backs of the animals kids and kids-at-heart wear looks of delight as they whir to the tune of bellowing calliope music. This is the Silver Beach Carousel in St. Joseph, Michigan. Read more
Every time I eat at Missouri Hick Bar B Que I have to do a taste test of all six sauces. The winner is always Sweet n Smoky, but I still have to try Original, Honey, Spicy Sweet, Spicy and Smoky anyway. Not too much sauce, though. I don’t want to drown out the wild cherry smoked flavor of the meats. Read more
