Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 574

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog then hop back here tomorrow to add your link to the party. See you there! 

1. Monday was National Apple Day...did you eat an apple or enjoy something made with apples on Monday? Do you like apples? Do you prefer your apples raw, baked, or in cider? Do you have a favorite variety of apple? 

2. Do you think there's any truth to the saying 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'. Of the following healthy habits which do you find easiest to incorporate into your life and which is the most difficult for you to adopt-

adequate sleep, a balanced diet, plenty of water, eat breakfast, don't smoke, exercise, limit alcohol,  include fruits and vegetables in your diet, manage stress, limit screen time

3. Who taught you how to drive? Do you enjoy driving? Would you rather be the driver or the passenger?  Do you have a favorite scenic drive near you? 

4. What small habit has had a big impact on your life? 

5. Tell us about something nice that happened to you recently.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

The Weekend Recap...Prost!

We had a nice weekend, somewhat low key, but honestly things never feel completely low key here. I don't think those are words that would be used to describe us. 

Thursday is my day to volunteer and I'm out of the house most of the day. I'd made soup on Wednesday evening to take to a friend whose husband has been in the hospital, so I packaged that up and hubs and I made the delivery. We decided to grab dinner out and had a nice meal at a local favorite spot. The moon was amazing every night last week. 

Friday I had an appointment for a facial and hubs had conveniently booked himself a hair cut in that same time frame. Approximately. Both appointments are in the nearby city so we were able to take one car. It required a little logistical planning, but I dropped him at the hair place and the plan was he would Uber to Costco after, and I'd meet him there once my facial wrapped up. 

A facial is the most relaxing hour of my life. 

Carry on. 

I wasn't thinking when we left the house and forgot to bring the cooler which meant Costco shopping was a bit limited. We live an hour from Costco. We did get the paper products restocked and hubs grabbed a jar of his peanut butter stuffed pretzels along with a few things like batteries, Mr. Clean erasers, and Rao's spaghetti sauce which I like to keep on hand, but nothing cold. Bother. 

We had lunch at a nearby bakery we enjoy and realized we were very near the outdoor furniture shop where we bought some of our porch furniture. We decided to make one more stop. Question-why is outdoor furniture so ding dang pricey???

We need a lot of outdoor furniture. We have a lot of outdoor furniture, but now we've added all these new spaces and people gotta sit. This store has so many beautiful things but since we didn't know we were making a stop here we didn't have any measurements with us. 

Batting 1000 on preparedness Friday. 

As it turns out the shop has a free design service and someone will come to the house to draw up a plan, make recommendations, and tell us what would fit best in all these new spaces. We said yes to that, and the designer will be here tomorrow. I'm anxious to see what he suggests. 

We didn't get home until almost dinner time at which point who felt like cooking? BLTs for the win. After dinner we watched a few episodes of that new show called High Potential with Kaitlin Olson. It's cute and doesn't strain your brain which is what we needed after a long day.

Saturday we sipped coffee and watched College Game Day, then watched Clemson win their game while somebody got a haircut. The groomer comes to our house with a van designed for just such a purpose and the little brown dog does not enjoy the experience at all. 

But he sure looks cute. 

Our VOLS played Bama which is a rivalry for the ages and we watched the first half at home. Volunteer football is so hard on the nerves. Always. We had plans to meet up with friends at a local Octoberfest celebration so had to head that way at halftime. 

Not quite like being in Germany but lots of fun nonetheless. 

Hubs hat is the real deal. 

The beer tent had big TVs behind the bar so hubs and I stood there to watch the last few minutes of the game. When the VOLS won the whole crowd around us cheered. For those not in the know, everyone in the SEC roots for whatever team is playing Bama, unless you happened to go to school there.  

The weather all weekend long was beautiful, but Sunday was perfection. Sunday afternoon hubs and I took a long walk in the neighborhood and hubs threw the ball for the little brown dog.

There aren't a lot of Halloween decorations in our neighborhood, but this chicken skeleton is a good one. 

We're still really green here, although a few trees are finally starting to turn. We've heard some of the roads into the mountains are now navigable so we'll take a drive up there soon for some true leaf peeping. 

Hubs had a project going on at the dock and I spent the rest of the afternoon right here working on my Bible Study (Jen Wilkin's Revelation), catching up on my blog, sipping tea, and reading one of the books I've currently got going-Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See. It's good so far, and I always enjoy her books. 

Fall is my favorite. 

And every once in a while I guess we can do low key. 

I'm joining Holly and Sarah for their regular Monday morning link up today. 

What kind of fun did you have this weekend? 

Bamboozled By A Battenberg

Do you watch The Great British Baking Show? My daughter2 and I have watched every season together apart. By that I mean she's in her house and I'm in mine, but we start the program at the same minute and then text throughout the show. 

We decided this season we were going to attempt to bake the 'technical challenge' from each week's show. Both of my girls love to bake and are excellent bakers, but daughter1 is currently in a rental home several time zones away so she's not joining us in our little kitchen endeavor.  

If you don't watch the show here's the 411...

The season begins with 12 home bakers and then each week one is eliminated until a 'star baker' is named. There are three parts to each episode-

• the signature challenge (where the bakers put their own spin on the same dish; they've been able to practice this one ahead of time at home)

• the technical challenge (where the bakers follow a surprise recipe, usually an incomplete one at that)

• the show stopper (showcasing their talent in a showstopping bake, also one they've been able to practice at home). 

We're doing this at our own pace and a week ago watched the first episode. In the technical challenge contestants had to taste a mini Battenberg cake, then replicate it without a recipe. 

prepping the pan...two batters, one pan

Spoiler alert! We used a recipe. In fact at one point I was working with pieces of three different recipes because whew, this was not easy. I had to watch a youtube video just to get the pan set up. 

If you don't know what a Battenberg is it's a light sponge with various colored sections held together with jam and then covered in marzipan. The cake calls for homemade jam and homemade marzipan but we both bought the apricot jam and tried making the marzipan ourselves. Three ingredients. How hard can it be? 

Harder than it should have been that's for certain. 

I do not care for marzipan. After making this cake I especially don't like it. In fact I use almond paste to make macaroons at Christmas time and I told my daughter I'm not sure I'll make them this year because I may never get the smell of almond paste out of my head. 

I had this notion I'd snap pictures documenting the process but y'all! Ain't nobody got time to take pictures when they're trying to put a Battenberg together. I was three quarters of the way through when company dropped by so I paused. The cakes were baked (that was simple) and I'd made one batch of marzipan that was so sticky you couldn't work with it so I froze the cakes and figured I'd deal with the rest another day. 

Hubs took the spackle knife to the countertop (only slightly kidding) and then it was actually something like four days before I could face it again. And I waited til hubs was going out because he for sure couldn't face it again-ha! 

The TV bakers got it all done in two hours and mostly succeeded (although theirs weren't perfect either). Watching them make their cakes had us thinking it wouldn't be too hard, but we both struggled. We sent a million hilarious (to us) texts, our kitchens and ourselves were a hot mess, and while we wouldn't call the finished product a complete disaster it came awfully close. 

my finished cake

My daughter set hers in front of her 2-year old son who asked her to 'take the lid off' (that would be the marzipan) and then he left the cake and enjoyed the lid. Pure sugar so of course. 

my daughter's finished cake

This is not a cake I would ever make again, order in a restaurant, or serve to a guest. Unless maybe I bought it from a British bakery. 

Week 2 is Biscuit (Cookie) week. We consider this our wheelhouse so here's hoping!

A Nutty Hodgepodge

Welcome to another edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger before you. Here we go-

1. How did you meet your significant other? If you don't have a significant other, tell us how you met your best friend. 

I was looking back through some old blog posts recently, and came across one I'd written telling the story of how we'd met, which is what inspired this question today. The post is linked here-When Harry Met Sally . The short version is we met at university. We went to a medium sized school and that meant you knew a lot of people. He was in a fraternity and I was in a sorority so we attended a lot of the same events and had a lot of mutual friends. Mutual friends brought us together and together we've remained some 40+ years later. 

2. It's Department Store Day (October 16)...do you still shop in department stores? If not do you miss that kind of shopping experience? Do you have a favorite department store? Any fun memories of department store shopping when you were a child? 

I used to really enjoy shopping in the big department stores. Strawbridge and Clothier was a favorite when I was growing up. Most of the bigger department stores had restaurants on their upper levels, and it was fun to go to the mall with my mom and shop, then have lunch afterwards in the store's restaurant. I grew up mostly in the NJ suburbs of Philadelphia and at Christmastime we'd always go in to the city to see the light show at Wanamakers Department Store. Such a treat! 

I enjoyed the British department stores when we lived there-Harrods and Liberty especially, but also the smaller chain called Debenhams where you could easily find things you needed for home and wardrobe. 

I do still love Nordstroms, but we don't have one nearby. Most department stores are attached to malls and I rarely set foot in a mall these days. It's easier to shop online or in the outdoor shopping centers where some of my favorite stores are all in a row and you can park right out front. 

3. Something you're currently nuts about? 

Fall temperatures. I'm always ready for summer to take a breather. 

4. What's your favorite nut and is there a favorite recipe where this nut is used? 

I like all nuts. Cashews are a favorite for snacking, along with pistachios. I cook mostly with almonds, walnuts, and pecans and have a lot of favorite recipes that call for nuts. 

As the holidays approach I think of shortbread made with almonds, cranberry bread made with walnuts, and so many delectable Christmas cookies that call for chopped pecans. 

5. On Wednesday we officially reach the '70 days until Christmas' mark. Have you purchased any gifts? If you don't celebrate Christmas then how about Hanukkah presents? 

Nothing big, but I have purchased several smaller stocking stuffers for various family members. I also bought both girls, both sons-in-law, and all five grandchildren matching Christmas pjs. Best of all the pjs have all been wrapped and delivered, ready for opening once December rolls in. I like to give the pjs early so they can wear them in the weeks leading up to Christmas. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

I thought I'd try to dig out a picture of the hubs and I when we were in college but there aren't a lot. College students didn't take gobs of pictures 'back in the day' like they do now. It wasn't a priority, plus we had to use actual cameras and not very good ones at that. We didn't have phones with built in cameras, in fact we didn't have phones except the ones attached to the wall, so unless you lugged your camera to a party or event you didn't have pictures. Most Greek events had a paid photographer present so there are pics from a lot of those type things. 

A lot of our pictures have red-eye because you wouldn't know that until after they came back from the developer. This particular picture is in fact a Polaroid. I cropped it but there's no mistaking a Polaroid.  They had a white border all the way around and you could write on the bottom portion of the frame. This one has Spring Formal 1981 helpfully scrolled across the bottom, but I'm not sure if it was his formal or mine?

Regardless, I had a lot of hair that for certain had seen some hot rollers earlier in the day, and hubs was still sporting a mustache with not a single follicle of gray. 

I can very clearly remember the outfit. It was a silky jumpsuit with spaghetti straps and the bottom portion was all black, only the top half was patterned. It had a longish kimono style jacket? wrap? you wore over it and I loved it. 

Young love is so sweet. 

Old love is pretty sweet too. 

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Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 573

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog then hop back here tomorrow to share answers with the universe. See you there!

1. How did you meet your significant other? If you don't have a significant other, tell us how you met your best friend. 

2. It's Department Store Day (October 16)...do you still shop in department stores? If not do you miss that kind of shopping experience? Do you have a favorite department store? Any fun memories of department store shopping when you were a child? 

3. Something you're currently nuts about? 

4. What's your favorite nut and is there a favorite recipe where this nut is used? 

5. On Wednesday we officially reach the '70 days until Christmas' mark. Have you purchased any gifts? If you don't celebrate Christmas then how about Hanukkah presents? 

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

Good Day Sunshine

Hello friends. We've had an absolutely gorgeous fall weekend here weather wise and it looks to be more of the same all week. I'm joining Holly and Sarah for their weekend recap link today so here we go-

First of all, it's hard to get things done when you have a brand new waterfall in your backyard. 

Especially on a sunny day. I kind of just want to hang out here and think deep thoughts or nothing at all.  Our travels and the busy days following have caught up with us and we were feeling it this weekend. At one point on Saturday I knew hubs had gone outside to sort out a few things and when I went looking for him he was sacked out in the hammock. Just taking a little rest he said lol. 

Let's back up to Friday. I spent the afternoon with a little baking project I'll talk more about later, but suffice it to say I made the biggest mess in my kitchen and when I was three quarters of the way through friends dropped by the dock to say hi. Hubs invited them up and I'm not kidding when I say there was sugar on every surface of my kitchen. 

These friends had never actually been inside my house before so 'oh hi, don't put your hand down on my countertop or you might be stuck there permanently'. I decided to finish the baking project later and have a glass of wine on the deck instead. In my apron, but hey that's lake life. Come as you are. 

We chatted for a while then they boated on home. Hubs fired up the new griddle while I tried to put the kitchen in to some sort of order and then we had our first BBQ in the new space. 

The chef's view is a win-

We made fajitas and by we I mean hubs grilled everything and I watched. They were delish. 

Saturday morning was another beauty. You should know I take a million pictures of the sunrise this time of year. It's the best. 

Does your neighborhood Boo people? It's a thing as Halloween approaches where someone secretly leaves a bag or bucket or box of goodies on your porch with a message inside that tells you to now go do the same for another neighbor. There's a foam pumpkin in the bag too,  that gets hung on your mailbox so you know who has been boo-ed and who hasn't. 

I snapped a picture of what was in my bucket...two cute pumpkin coffee mugs, some cinnamon flavored coffee, a fall kitchen towel and pot holder, two jumbo Reese's cups, a little cup filled with snickers bites along with candy corn and a decorative pumpkin.  

I'm not going to say what I put in the bag I gave away because a few neighbors read here and it's supposed to be hush hush. 

Except everyone in my neighborhood has cameras so it's hard to be too hush hush. I dropped mine off after dark and donned a baseball cap and a dark jacket to make the delivery. It's a fun little neighborly thing to do this time of year and I enjoy seeing what people put in their bags.

Hubs and I spent Saturday mostly trying to get the house cleaned and ready for company on Sunday. I finally tackled all the bathrooms and he vacuumed and then we both conked out and watched football. 

The Vols. Have mercy. That game was so painful to watch. Will they ever play a game where we're not yelling at the TV? A win is a win, but it was not pretty. Or quiet. 

The lake this time of year often looks 'smoky' early morning and Sunday was one of those times. It's called steam fog and it happens when warm water vapor rises from the lake into cooler air to form a mist you can see. It adds a mysterious quality to the early morning and I love it. 

Sunday was a fun family day. My momma and my younger sister and her family plus two of my nephew's friends all flew to SC for the weekend. My older sister lives about an hour from here and they were with her on Saturday then everyone came here on Sunday. 

Half of the crew came early so they could swim and have lots of lake time, the other half came a little later. Hubs and my brother-in-law took the boys for a boat ride while my sister and I sat by the waterfall and got caught up. We don't have a lot of time where it's just the two of us so this was really nice. 

The pup even got in on the action and hopped on a paddle board. The boys swam and kayaked and played corn hole and pool and they couldn't have asked for better October weather. The lake is still warm enough for swimming and the air was 82 degrees on Sunday so plenty warm out of the water too.

My sister brought my mom out to the lake later and my niece and her husband came too, so a houseful. A patio full? Hubs grilled burgers and wings and we put a couple of tables in the new outdoor dining area and declared it open. 

Furniture, fans, and lights will come later, but on Sunday we made do with what we had and it was better than fine. 

My younger sister has a birthday in about three weeks, but because we're almost never together on our birthdays I decided to get her a cake and celebrate a little early. 

It was a fun surprise. This was from our Publix bakery, and I don't know who did the decorating but they had some serious skill with a pastry tip. We all thought it was the prettiest writing on any cake we've seen. 

It was a great day. As the saying goes...I'm glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. 

And sisters too. 

Five Things On A Friday

 Linking with Erika and Andrea today and sharing a few favorites from the week that was...

1. My sister was going through some of my mom's boxes (my mom lives with her) and she sent me this-

A Father's day card I made when I was in elementary school. Here's what I wrote inside...

Comparing him to the father of our country and the patriarch of Israel. Not bad for a ten year old. 

My dad was not a man who gushed and the fact that he saved this makes it feel extra special to me. 

2. Luggage. Go big or go home. I bought the world's biggest suitcase before our trip and I'm not even kidding. A stranger in an elevator even commented on the size, and hubs had a lot to say about it too lol. 

Also, I loved it. Empty it weighed just 8 lb, which given it's size wasn't much, and it rolled like a dream. I wore every single item of clothing I brought with me and I had a jacket for hubs and his shaving bag in there too. The brand is Travel Pro Maxlite 5 Breakaway (I chose slate green) and I bought these cute luggage tags (Amazon) to go with-

It's the little things, right? 

3. These shoes-

They're the Skechers Virtue Show Runners and I got them in navy. They came in my last Stitch Fix box and I love them. 

I told the stylist I would be traveling and doing a lot of walking and the comfort factor with these is five star. They're light weight and run true to size. I'm thinking about getting a second pair. 

4. This coat-

True story...I lived in this coat the second week of our trip. I paid 25 pounds (roughly 32$) for it at the Super Tesco near my daughter's home. Yes, I bought a coat at the grocery store. It's got a fleece lining, a hood, is water resistant, and the pockets are perfect. 

I brought my Barbour coat with me but forgot the hood and I also inadvertently left my rain jacket at home (still filled that giant suitcase though lol). It wasn't a problem week one because the weather was amazing, but the Sunday before hubs and I were to head to York I could see there was rain in the forecast.

I was kicking myself for leaving my rain jacket behind, and my daughter suggested I try the local grocery store (this one also has clothing, etc so more like a Walmart). Voila! 

It's so cozy comfy and definitely saved the day. 

5. Our outdoor project. It's mostly done. Not 100% which is the goal, but we plan to break in the BBQ bar this weekend. 

The project was basically three pieces-the waterfall, the BBQ bar, and the outdoor dining space under the screened porch. This is the view looking down from the porch above. 

Prior to the project we had riverstone underneath the screened porch. Almost as soon as we built the house hubs was wishing we'd made this area a patio. Until we took the riverstone away I didn't realize how big the space was. 

We added pavers in their place and we're waiting on a fan and some twinkle lights to be installed in that section. This is the lower level of our house and we mainly use these garages for storage and a little car hubs gets out from time to time. Mostly we use this driveway for cornhole so it will be nice to have the grilling bar right there. There's room for some bar stools but add that to the list of things we need to buy. 

I don't have a picture of the actual dining space but once we get the fan and the lights and some furniture in there I'll share. I have family coming for dinner on Sunday and we'll probably use the space with our current table and a folding table and that will be fun too. 

Have a nice weekend everyone! 

Stray Thoughts And Observations

There are a few things I've wanted to mention here, but mentally I feel drained. Doesn't everyone these days? Our area is still very much all about the devastation left by Hurricane Helene, and now here comes Milton hot on her heels. We're not expected to see any weather related impact from Milton, but some of the linemen and other folks skilled in disaster recovery and relief, working so hard to get NC up and running, will need to shift their immediate focus to Florida. 

Add to that war in the Middle East, the heartbreak of Israeli families whose loved ones continue in captivity or worse, and the most contentious election cycle the US has experienced in a long time and whew. It's a lot. 

Is it any wonder people are feeling like their emotional bandwidth is full? 

When everything feels huge writing helps. And writing about nothing is okay too. Life carries on in an everyday kind of way even as it teeters on what feels like the edge of a precarious cliff. 

Our trip feels like it happened a million years ago but of course we've only been home a week. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and it's made me extra grateful to have had the opportunity to live abroad in an era before the internet took over and everyone decided they needed to see the world. 

And pose in front of it. 

There are lots of what used to be little out of the way places that are now filled with tourists. I'm not suggesting people shouldn't travel, I'm just saying it's a different experience than it once was. If you could see the queue of people standing in line for an hour just to snap a photo of the Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 wall in Kings Cross you'd know what I mean. 

There's less discovering something for yourself with the world in the palm of your hand. 

We opted not to go back into London after the day spent there because there were just so many people. Throngs of people. And protests. And then more people. In 2024 the world feels somewhat less stable than it did even right after 9-11, and I have a greater sense of caution in big crowds than I did fifteen years ago. My teenagers used to hop around London with friends and honestly it felt fine. 

There were no Iphones, but they did have a 'top up' phone and we'd put money on that so they could call in an emergency. Mostly though, my teenagers learned how to figure some things out for themselves and that most certainly helped shape them into who they are today. 

Timetables were little printed cards you held in your hand. You checked the tube maps (actual maps hanging on the wall) to figure out what line you needed, and you had a paper ticket you entered at the gate to get to the correct track.

There's an app for absolutely everything now so all your travel related documents, questions, and needs are right at your fingertips. So long as your phone is working I mean. 

The countryside is where it's at. It's beautiful and ancient and green, and in every little dale and borough there is something to see. Not with your camera, but with your own two eyes. To feel a sense of history and place and wonder as you stand where others have stood, and see what people made centuries before you were born with rough hewn tools and their bare hands that still stands today. 

We did a lot of driving, mostly on small roads with high hedges opening up into big vistas. We crossed many a roundabout, and hubs and I both say that in general we think people in the UK are better drivers than Americans. I know the narrow streets and multi-lane roundabouts and single track roads with oncoming traffic in your!! lane all feel a little bit crazy to those of us who learned to drive on this side of the pond, but somehow it works. 

People seem to obey the rules of the road, and this of course helps. The passing lane is for passing. Keep up with traffic. If you're approaching a roundabout the highway number is painted in the appropriate lane so you know exactly where you need to be. 

Also roundabouts. Just go round again if you somehow ended up in the wrong lane. 

There's very little honking. 

One thing that felt especially odd to us was how fast the speed limits were on some of the smaller roads. We were on a 2-lane road with high hedges on either side and I kept asking hubs how fast he was going because it felt like we were literally flying. He was going 45 and the speed limit was 60!! In the US you don't find two lane roads with hedges on either side with a speed limit of 60. 

Hubs loves driving in the UK. 

You see very few police officers/speed traps on the roads in England, but there are speed cameras everywhere. So many cameras. And there are signs telling you there are cameras so no excuses. 

Driving in the UK is definitely easier with GPS, but you miss out on the feeling of accomplishment you get when you navigate a place on your own. When we lived there we carried pages of printed instructions off of Mapquest and also had a huge atlas book in our car. We used it too! Actually I like an atlas because it allows you to see the whole of your trip which I find helpful. We're all about verbal instructions from our devices now, which I'm not complaining about exactly because my sense of direction is pretty much nil, but driving around England was more of an adventure before GPS. 

And we always carried a 'torch' aka flashlight in the car back then too, so we could read house numbers or house names as the case may be. Now we all have phones with flashlights at the ready. You don't have to figure out as much on your own or learn by doing like you did in the early 2000's. It was nerve jangling fun and I'm so glad to have had that experience. It helped shape me into who I am as well. 

We rode a lot of buses while visiting my daughter, and unless you live and commute in a major metropolitan area of the US chances are you never ever ride a city bus. When we'd have visitors and  suggest a bus they would usually recoil at the idea. But in England everyone rides buses. 

My daughter has a bus stop very near her house and this is most often the easiest way to get around her area. Like everything else bus lines, timetables, and tickets are all on your phone and she had it all figured out before we ever got there. She knew which bus we needed to be on (there are many many), where to catch them, and where to get off depending where we were going.

My daughter. 

She treks all over her city with three kids in tow, usually 'wearing' one while the two oldest each grab a hand to hold. Sometimes she's carrying shopping bags too. Y'all. It is something. She weighs about as much as a feather and it's no wonder.  Her youngest of course can walk but in general you're moving at a clip so as not to miss the next bus. Plus safety is a factor and it's just easier to have the littlest one contained when they're moving from home to bus to town and back. 

The boys always want to ride up top (a lot of the buses are double decker) so it's get everyone on board, show your ticket on your phone to the driver, schlep three kids up a flight of spiral stairs and then find a seat. Her boys act like they've been riding public transport all their lives and one of the cutest things you'll ever see is my almost two year old granddaughter, with an arm outstretched at the bus stop to let the approaching driver know he needs to stop. 

One thing I've been thinking about a lot since arriving home in the wake of a hurricane is cash. We still have a large supermarket chain in our area that is cash only because their servers are underwater in nearby North Carolina. We found on our recent trip to England so many places would not take cash. Most places it seemed were card only. 

Helene (and also Hurricane Sandy several years ago) have shown me we don't want to be a cashless society. At least I don't. When there's no power your card won't work and you need cash. 

When we travel we like to keep a very loose schedule. We don't want to book every minute before we even set foot in country but in 2024 booking some things ahead is sometimes necessary. We love to go where the locals go and eat where the locals eat and we love to meet people along the way and think about all the ways our lives are different, yet the same. It's not as easy to get off the beaten path now because it feels like people have a giant check list and they are going to check it. I get it but I don't love it. 

We always make room for spontaneous side treks and unexpected finds. For sitting in coffee shops and plazas and on park benches to watch and taste and learn. We did a lot of that this trip and it's our favorite. 

Add grandchildren to the mix and it was pretty much the perfect holiday.