Et Cetera Timberline 2012

 Random shots of our family vacation. There are three more entries that follow this one. Keep scrolling ;-)
 

 view of screened in side porch

 view of the wall Zoey balanced on

 view of top front of the house

 Bar in the great room with view of the deck, grill, and the door to the screened in back porch.

 The foyer, stairs - up and down, deer antlers on the sconces.

 In the great room, couch against the outside wall of windows.

 In the great room in the leather chair beside the fireplace.

Our girls mug for the camera.

She's calm, cool and collected. That's Dad on the cabinet in the hall.

S'mores in the fireplace every evening.

We did laugh a lot!

There was a goose on the table.

Overlooking the great room - the upstairs lounge.

Don't forget the stag over the fireplace. I did not get a photo of the bear soap, sorry.

 

Our vacation Installment #3-Dolly Sods

Well, there's no time like the present to post our family photos.
So here goes.
         This was our last day at Timberline cabin #99 up on the hill beside the ski slope, almost to the top if the mountain, on the other side of the hill from Dolly Sods, or so said the map. We had found Trout Pond, the only natural lake in WV, earlier in the trip, but it is now inside a private compound and therefore unavailable to the general public.
        The door to our lodging has a stained class skier and a big white tree as its motif and the house is called White Tree.   
         The house has three levels. The main level has a kitchen, gas fireplace in the great room, a gas fireplace in the master bedroom suite. Each level has bedrooms and baths. The lower level also has a kitchen and a wood burning fireplace. There were bear and deer objects everywhere: a reminder that we are, in fact, in the woods with wild animals. We saw deer, raccoon and heard other things outside...

 Zoey, age four,  is the only one I could catch going in and out to pack the car. She was a willing subject ;-)

 She is walking on the decorative wall outside our lodging. It was about two stones high and she was balancing very well. The hillside is steep here to the lower level of the house. there is an access road, grass and gravel, at the back of the house. Someday there will be houses built near this one - right now, there is only one near neighbor and it's out of sight to her right.

 Lots of decorative walls hold back the hillside. She is standing with her back to the east where we think the edge of Dolly Sods may be traveling along that hill top ridge from her right to her left above our house.

This is the view as we drove out of our Timberline  residence, White Tree, October 22, 2012. The elevation is responsible for the leafless trees; we saw many trees with leaves at lower elevations that weekend. But, the place was beautiful every day we were there.


          WV Historical Marker:  On our way out we caught this sign - made in Marietta and full of information about the geology of the area. The sign is somewhere in Canaan Valley to the north of Timberline I think toward Davis. Davis has a Supermarket - maybe a Giant Eagle. Everything else is small town and rural looking until you get to Elkins...

         US Forest Service/WV DNR sign:  This next sign must have been on the other side of the mountain. I think the Blackwater River is in the Cheat, Mononghela River Basin and flows west. The Potomac, of course, flows east toward the Chesapeake Bay. This makes sense if you know that Dolly Sods is on the Allegheny Front which is the mountainous area that faces east toward Virginia and edges the Chesapeake basin.

 I needed this sign to prove we were going the right direction. I could not remember the scenery as we drove - (THIRTY YEARS IN THE PAST, COME ON...GIVE ME A BREAK) Later, I did discover we had driven into the Sods from an entirely different direction.

We drove through rural WV and finally got to the plateau past these signs. then we saw the rocks that make this place memorable.

 And its not just the rocks, its the trees, with the branches on one side -the wind blows constantly and powerfully here -- all the time.

 There are hiking trails, not well marked. One can get lost here for a short time. But one can walk for a long way without being out of sight of one's car. Daddy thought Zoey needed more protection from the cold wind. He likes the cold, but she didn't bring a coat.

 We all needed time out of the car.

We are not yet to the Roaring Plains, but the plateau effect is visible everywhere.

This is the Roaring Plains - see the edge of the glacier push? It's the row of stones.

these are the famous trees caught in the constant wind.

This is the view from the end of the glacier push. we are looking toward the south.

More rocks and trees (out of order, I think)

 Our trusty chariot, with the 4 wheel drive, at the end of the Sods. After 30 years the wind filled the cracks in the rocks with soil and vegetation. It doesn't look like I remember. I wish I had some pictures of the place in the 1970's... Here is the place my memory stick was filled up.

 

Trisha is up there in those rocks with Zoey. I could see her with her red scarf, but she kept moving out of the photo. And so it goes.

The road off the plateau is in the middle of this photo, too.  Next stop, Seneca Rocks, Yoakum's store, then on to Elkins and linner at CJ Maggie's. Then home.

Installment #2 Timberline!!! in late October

While I watch the news about the remnants of Hurricane Sandy, I thought I'd continue with our family vacation.
            We had a fun night Saturday. Tracy put together a slide show of pictures found in the attic. She didn't bring them all, but what she did bring were a hoot!  What great memories. I hope she can get them transferred to a CD so we can enjoy them again. 
             She set up on a table that projected on the wall next to the fireplace.  The girls, Zoey and Delia,  loved the blank spaces. They made bunny ears in the light.  We were surprised at all the photos Dad took, the clothes we were wearing, the family we seldom see anymore.  Everyone laughed and nobody cried, at least where the others could hear them.
           On Sunday morning, Cabin Fever got hold of us: Tracy and Keith went off to hike a trail. I wanted to shop and I got the grandkids (and their driver, Dad and their Mom/Aunt) to go with me to the new Canaan Valley lodge (gift shop) and restaurant.

 The wind was brisk and the temperature was cold, so we didn't stay outside very long. Everyone wanted a photo op with the beautiful fall colors!

 You can see why we took two of this lovely pair ;-)

 That's better!

When we discovered that the restaurant stopped serving at 2 and would reopen at 4 or 5, we decided we couldn't wait there to eat. No snack bar for us. We need real food. So off we go to Big John's Fixin's. It's a kind of Chucky Cheese in the Mountains -- games for the kids--skeeball and other arcade games, and trains for the Dad's to watch and 'play' with.

 We were hungry and freezin, but we mugged for the photo. The

Strothers caught up with us soon and we all ate macaroni and cheese, meatballs, and other weird fixin's from the buffet bar inside Big John's. I told you - we were hungry!

After that load of carbohydrates, we went home to the cabin so Tracy and Keith could pack to go home. We took the family photo with Dad, and Trisha was the expert photographer then. I hope she sends me a copy ;-) hint. hint.
The next installment is Monday on our way home...

Snow Day - October 30 - Frankenstorm Sandy

Dear Familia,
          The Frankenstorm, Sandy, has given us a snow day (and by now 4PM) we will also be off from school in Taylor tomorrow, too!     
          Yippee for me; so sorry for those without power, heat, water, and good friends to help them with the downed trees and icy roads. That said, I now have time to reflect on the past few months and the photos to prove what I'm reflecting upon.

            So here goes Installment #1 

 Our Family Vacation at Timberline, in Canaan Valley-Tucker County West Virginia!!!

        This was our day "out" of the 'cabin' on Saturday:
        We went to the nature center @ Canaan Valley for the girls, cultural self-definition for me ( I bought books, got a free poster, made a friend in the bookstore and took photos of the fun.)

Even then, the weather was c-o-l-d and the wind was f-i-e-r-c-e; so we rushed inside (the Nature Center) from our separate vehicles. I realized this might be the best time to get the gang's photo so I started snapping.

And they were very co-operative. Taking advantage of the local color (the bear and the beaver, which I thought at first was the woodchuck from our backyard) they gave it their all and made lovely memories.

The Beaver Twins (Delia and the Beaver - not Trisha and Tracy!)

Little Miss Turkey - those are Rainbow feathers!

Cultural Self-definition at the book stall and oddities cabinet.

"Do they have bubble gum here, Daddy?"
"I'll get it for you soon."

Off we go to the town of Davis. We explored several cute shops on Main Street. This one is an Artisan Shop that sells to tourists.  I looked at the quilts and stained glass - old habits die hard. these are machine quilted but very colorfully patterned. I bought the autumn leaf w/acorn stained glass and the stained glass  autumn pumpkin with acorn -  for the girls.

Needless to say I was tempted, but did not buy this pretty thing.  Then we went on down the road to Thomas to eat at the Purple Fiddle we thought...

But as it turned out, The Purple Fiddle was full of people waiting to hear the band and/or singer at 2 p.m. so we walked on down the street to a place called the TipTop  a coffee shop with FOOD.

So here goes that snaps from that part of the adventure:

Just like most small towns trying to catch a buck from the tourists, this coffee bar has some cute and odd art work. And it tries to keep the ambiance of the old store front they occupy.

This was the art on the wall. A new use for all that 'heirloom silver' from your 25th anniversary.




We ordered and the kids brought the food to the table. Delia got some ETSY buttons and everyone admired the artwork on the walls - odd stuff ;-)

We loved the food, too.
Beer or liquor at the coffee bar, too.
Cookies from the bakery.
Gourmet sandwiches.
Ahhhhhhh!


Next off to the shop down the street to see if the displays 'do right' by the artists.

 Then we decided to go back to Timberline and see the horses! 

 Yes, we told the girls we would stop at the stables and inquire about the horses. The cat Pumpkin and the dog were a better draw after we got there ;-)

Now it is time to go back to the cabin and EAT, and view those slides of previous family vacations  you been promised. Continued later....