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....