Visiting Mom, continued

One of the fun things we did after Martha got back was to go to a little place called Pumpkinville. It is the oldest working pumpkin farm in New York (and might be in the USA). Of course there were pumpkins, but there were also sheds decorated to be little shops, each with its own theme. There was one for apples, one for maple products, a gift shop, etc. There were also places to buy food, fun rides for kids (Martha let Tommy play for a while on a big, bouncy pillow thing.) and best of all (to me, at least!) a petting zoo. Tommy wasn't too keen on the pony, but he loved the goats! He kept hugging them and saying "Hello, my goat friend!" Tommy, who is my grand nephew, is only 2 1/2 and a total kick.

Visiting Mom

Mike and I just got back from a 5-day visit with my mother, who is living with my sister and her husband, upstate. We had a nice visit and it was good to see her. She's still pretty 'with-it,' although very slow in her movements and somewhat forgetful. Example: trying to heat something up in the microwave for 11 minutes, because she pressed an extra 0. I'm glad she is not on her own and has my sister and bil to care for her. Mom's main complaint is boredom. The house is very far from the next neighbor, and both my sister and bil work all day. As I understand, though, she'll be heading down to Georgia with my other sister in a few weeks. There are more neighbors there, which should make her happy.

Here we are having lunch (we both got turkey and stuffing) at Perkin's. Not the best picture, but I doubt selfies ever are!

T-Bone

Here is a picture of T-Bone with a Fruit Loop on his head, just because.

From My Garden

I'm so glad Mike had a big garden dug for me in our backyard! We've been enjoying tomatoes all summer
long!

Aunt Mary

Wrote this Monday and forgot to hit "publish"!

My cousin Kathy has been to visit our Aunt Mary and says she looks good. She has a new haircut and perm and is looking forward to visiting her 'good looking doctor.'
Today is Labor Day. Michael is coming for dinner. I have ribs, burgers and a shrimp dish I want to make--although the ribs in the oven might make a difference on the shrimp. We'll see.

Update--the ribs and shrimp were delicious! I would definitely make the shrimp again, it was so easy.
Michael enjoyed dinner with us and went home with tomatoes and peppers from my garden.

More AC

Atlantic City is the only place we go without family, unless John, Nor and John Joseph go, too. Most vacations are spent visiting Mom. So we really enjoy the relaxing time with no obligations.

I'm pretty close to being a slots addict and it's pretty good we don't go that often. I was actually up on the first day:

Ended up with nearly $200, but over the next day and a half I put it all back in and lost all but $5. But we have a strategy that we are trying to get comp points, which will mean a free room next time. So I don't mind. But next time I'm going to try a slightly different strategy. Mike said every time he won big he got off that machine and went to another, so he was able to make his money last longer. I'll do the same in the future.

Mike took me to a place up high where you can get a really good view from the windows:

I love the colorful umbrellas!

We also saw a Coast Guard ship, and some fighter jets in the sky. Got the ship but the jets were too fast.

I hope we get to go in November, maybe for our anniversary. I also hope traffic coming home isn't as bad as this time--jams added an hour to our return trip!

Atlantic City Again

Spent a few days in AC after a nice overnight visit with our friend Virginia. We've known Virginia since high school. She made schnitzel for dinner with mashed potatoes and it was really good. She lives alone in a really nice little house so we had a nice room to sleep in Sunday night.

Monday we took off for AC but first we stopped at a cute place Virginia told us about. It's called Smithville and it is a collection of cute little shops and places to eat made to look like an old-fashioned village. Mike and I had lunch there and I bought a few things, including a carved wooden squirrel and some Thanksgiving decorations. It's pretty close to AC, so if we get to go again in November (as I hope to do) I want to stop there and do some Christmas shopping. Some of the shops were a little pricey, but for the most part I thought everything was very reasonable. 

AC was lots of fun, but I only hit the Boardwalk in the evening because it was so hot. I enjoyed the slots and at one point had doubled my money. But I just kept putting it back in to help build up comp points. Our room was free this time because of the points we earned on our last visit. Well, sort of free, because there are always fees, but even then it only worked out to about $30 a night.We didn't have any food comps, so we avoided the hotel restaurants. A buffet is $27, and I sure can't eat that much food!

There were a few surprises, too. Miss America was there with the 52 contestants. They were all on bleachers on the Boardwalk and the current Miss America made a little speech. She was very pretty, of course.

We got to see a Boardwalk Parade that seemed to be about military, but I'm not sure what the theme was. It was fun to watch and even had some Civil War reenactors. There were also a few vets from WWII--not many of those guys left, I think!

The other cool thing is that the Blue Devils were practicing maneuvers so we got to see some jets doing fancy loop-de-loops and flybys. The coolest was when a jet got really close to the water and then shot up into the air, They leave and exhaust trail that looks amazing.