Something of Interest…To Us, at Least-Part 2

15 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

As I mentioned last time, we were walking around Disney Springs recently and it occurred to me that lot of the door “handles” on the newer stores there are quite interesting and unique.  And just for information purposes, most of the stores I have photographed for this posting, are NOT Disney – they are just on Disney property.  Some of the names are quite recognizable, but others are not – at least not to either Fred or me.

Therefore, we’ve taken pictures of the ones that interest us the most, and present them to you now. These are some of the little “touches” at Disney that we enjoy.  We hope you do, as well.

This is a second “batch” of stores with unique door handles:

The Disney Candy Cauldron is a fun store.

There is a large front picture-window where the passer-by can stand and watch some of the candy being made.  Especially the candy apples.

All that metal frame work around the picture window is around the door as well:

Another unique door is at the George Wine Bar:

Can you say “shillelagh”

Columbia Sportswear Company has unique door handles – fish hooks perhaps?

And speaking of unique door handles, there is Kipling.

One of my favorites is the Levi store.

Description: Levi's sign

These handles really caught my eye:

Description: Levi's door

Here is the Keihl’s store – an unknown store brand to us:

Description: Kiehl's sign
Description: Kiehl's door

Okay, here come the cleats:

Description: Sperry sign

Imagine – having cleats as a door handle!

Description: Sperry - cleats - 2

Sugarboo is just a name that tickles my fancy.

Description: Sugarboo & Co

Their door handles are cute, as well.

Description: Sugarboo door

Frontera Cocina is unknown to us, but looks like a good Mexican food restaurant.

Description: Frontera Cocina sign
Description: Frontera Cocina door

Volcom is an unknown name to us, but has unique door handles.

Description: Volcom sign
Description: Volcom door

Uno de 50 is unique – as are the door handles.

Description: UNO de 50 sign
Description: UNO de 50 door

There are more to share with you, next time.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Entwined Hearts

14 Feb

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and Artist

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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My 2019 Great Lakes Road Trip Part 15

12 Feb

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 15 – Tuesday August 6

This morning Brian, Karen, and I had a great visit over breakfast and coffee, before Karen had to leave for work.  Brian took the time to follow me back into Chicago to turn in my rental car.  When that was out of the way, he took me around parts of the Oak Park area of Chicago where Frank Lloyd Wright had lived and worked.  Wikipedia tells me that Wright’s 1889 home was remodeled in 1895, and his studio was added to the house in 1898.  The house was then restored and registered as a National Historic Landmark in 1976, and is now operated as a museum by the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust.  

This part of the Oak Park area also boasts of an additional 25 Wright-designed structures, including the Frank Thomas House (1901), the Arthur B. Heurtley House (1902), the Edward R. Hills House (1906), the Laura Gale House (1909), and the Harry S. Adams House (1913), many of which Brian pointed out as we drove past them.

                                                Frank Thomas House (1901) 

                                                Arthur B. Heurtley House (1902)

                                                Edward R. Hills House (1906) 

Description: A large yellow house with terraces.

                                                Laura Gale House (1909)

Description: The exterior of the Harry S. Adams house. The facade is red brick. The house is surrounded by trees.

Harry S. Adams House (1913)

It has been said that Wright was heavily influenced by his first architectural “mentor” Louis H. Sullivan (who Wright called the Father of Modernism).  Wright worked for the firm of Adler & Sullivan from1888 to 1893, where he was Sullivan’s assistant.  During this time, he was introduced to the Prairie School style of architecture.   Wright has been quoted as saying of that style, “We were striving to establish simplicity and a real American form of architecture we could call our own.”  Note: The internet photos of Sullivan and Wright (below) are thought to have been taken of the two men in the late 1880s, during the time they were working together.

                        Louis H. Sullivan                                         Frank Lloyd Wright

After this interesting and informative tour of the Oak Park area, Brian drove me to the Midway International Airport were he dropped me off at the Southwest curb-side check-in area.  By the time I got processed through Security and made my way to the gate for my 1:00 pm flight I didn’t have to wait long.  The Southwest loading and departure for Orlando was right on time.  The non-stop flight was uneventful and the pretzels and mini- cookies were still fresh.  

Description: Image result for southwest airlines

DiVoran was there to pick me up at the Orlando International Airport, and we had a great Colombian taste treat dinner at the Oh! Que Bueno Restaurant on SR-436.  Then we made that familiar trip on SR-50 to Titusville, and home, for a good night’s sleep in my own bed for the first time in two weeks.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about this Great Lakes Road Trip as much as I have, reliving these exciting adventures into some of these areas of our beautiful country.  Stay tuned for another one-of-a-kind trip to places you may or may not have ever been to, as I take to the road on my next adventure in the near future.  Happy travels to one and all.

—–The End—–

 Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 61 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

 

Bill

 

                        One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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God’s Creatures- Part 3

11 Feb

Melody Hendrix

A Time to Live

Birds

Do you have a favorite bird at the Zoo?

MelodyWelcome! I’m so glad you stopped in to visit. I am retired and enjoying life. My hobbies are my 5 grandchildren, son and daughter, and my loving husband. I am a photographer and extreme nature lover. I love spending time in my garden or in the wilderness connected to God my Creator.
What a beautiful world we live in. We all have that in common. Natural beauty is everywhere, but sometimes we are not connected until we see a picture, taken just right, that makes it really come into focus and be admired. My passion is to make a connection between the lens and your soul. Photography is my passion.
 
My photography passion began when my Father handed me his old Ricohflex box camera when I was 12.  It was love at first sight. I still have it. My hand was never empty of a camera since.
 
 
I am a native Floridian. I am so lucky to call it home. I was born in Orlando BF (before Disney). My family moved to the Winter Park area when I was very young. Central Florida was so simple and quaint at that time. I wandered the streets barefoot with my friends, never worrying that something bad could ever happen. My Mom used to pick the sand-spurs out of my feet. I still go barefoot. It grounds me to earth and connects me to nature.
 
I have extensively explored Florida and its diverse beauty. So much to see and so little time. I would love for you to join me in my travels through the images I have taken. I wish you could hear the sounds, smell the fragrance and feel the breath of it. But for now we must be content with exploring with our eyes and only imagine the rest.
 
Thank you for your interest.

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Ponder and Meditate

10 Feb

My Take

DiVoran Lites

The Holy Bible made personal.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth

But you shall read and {meditate} on it day and night,

So that you may be careful to do everything in accordance with all that is Written in it:

For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will be successful.

I, the Lord your God protect you everywhere you go.

I have been carrying you on my back from the day you were born.  

I will never leave you nor forsake you. 

Description: A close up of a flower garden Description automatically generated

Joshua 1:8 and Hebrews 13: 5 Resource: Amplified Bible 

Author, Poet and Artist

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

SOMETHING OF INTEREST…TO US, AT LEAST Part 1

9 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Two things first of all:

1)        Fred and I really enjoy Disney – all things Disney.

2)        We like to notice little “touches” of things while at Disney.

Okay, that’s out of the way.  Now…on January 25, 2017, I wrote a blog titled “Tied in Knots” and the entire blog was written because I had seen the little boats at Disney Springs tie up to the cleat at the dock.  I still get a chuckle over that every time we are at Disney Springs and ride the boat from one dock (West Side/Marketplace/The Landing) to another.  (Just for your information, Downtown Disney is now known as Disney Springs.  I don’t know why they changed the name – perhaps “Disney Springs” rolls off the tongue easier than “Downtown Disney” does.  Whatever…) 

We were walking around Disney Springs recently and it occurred to me that lot of the door “handles” on the newer stores there have interesting and unique handles.  Now, we had noticed these before, but it didn’t occur to us until just that moment that my readers might also enjoy seeing those door handles.  And yes, one set of those door handles are cleats!  And just for information purposes, most of the stores I have photographed for this posting, are NOT Disney – they are just on Disney property.  Some of the names are quite recognizable, but others are not – at least not to either Fred or me.

Therefore, we’ve taken pictures of the ones that interest us the most, and present them to you now. These are some of the little “touches” at Disney that we enjoy.  We hope you do, as well.

The Disney Springs logo is interesting:

Ron Jon Surf Shop is self-explanatory, I think:

The Art of Shaving is a unique store dealing with everything “shaving.”

We were amused to see the door handles are “barber poles”, as well as the barber pole off to the side – even if it is not red/white/and blue.

Tommy Bahama is fairly well known.  All types of clothing.

                        The door handle is quite unique.

Sephora is a cosmetic store – and a large one.

The door handles make an “S”

Melissa is an unknown brand name to us, but love the “M” of the door handles.  But both doors must be closed to see the rounded “M”

Alex and Ani is an unknown store to us.

But the door handles are unique.

Most people are familiar with Kate Spade, for one reason or another…

While the door handles aren’t unique, the “spade” is everywhere!

One of our favorite store “handles” is for the Johnston & Murphy men’s shoes store:

If ice cream – and chocolate – is your thing…here is a store for you!

Love the door handles!

And then there’s the Disney Ticket Center…

With rather unique door handles…pure Disney!

Much more to share – so until next time…..

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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I Will Give You Rest

7 Feb

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Beloved,I will give you rest. I am copy

Author, Poet and Artist

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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Planning a Road Trip

6 Feb

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

This week has been exciting. I love road trips and we have begun planning and plotting a long trip to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. Technically it will be a forty-nine and one half anniversary if one wants to quibble.

We will be traveling from our home in North Carolina to Montana, then spend a week exploring the Canadian Rockies before moving west.

Above photos credit Pixabay

Since the first time I watched the movie O’Canada at EPCOT, I have longed to visit Victoria, British Columbia. We have made two trips to the Canadian Rockies but always ran out of time and money before we could get there. We won’t have a lot of time to spend there this trip, (I’m sure I could spends days there exploring all the small islands) but I am going to be joyful and thankful for the time we have!

Above photos credit Pixabay

Speaking of being joyful and thankful, I wouldn’t be able to see Victoria on this trip without the generosity of a precious friend sharing her vacation treasures, time share and hotel points. To make it even better she and our daughter will fly in to join us for part of the trip. We are so blessed.

I love camping. On our first trip to the Canadian Rockies with the family we tent camped. It was quite an adventure. Our second trip we transitioned to an RV. I felt nostalgic for the tent experience but my husband’s back simply wasn’t compatible with a bed on the floor of a tent.

Image by Brahmsee from Pixabay 

As I began searching VRBO for places to stay, I came across a 22 foot 5th wheel trailer in a campground for rent. It is beautiful and has two bedrooms! I am already savoring a campfire.

To make this trip more delightful, the timeshare home in the Canadian Rockies is located in a campground! I get my camping fix and husband gets a comfortable bed. Win-Win.

I haven’t mapped our route west to Montana or the return but I will definitely be looking for camping opportunities! I am trying hard to not create a road trip snowball. As my husband gently reminded me, you have to draw a line, we can’t see everything!

If you have tips on places you recommend please share! I found that AAA TripTiks allow me to customize the suggested route by dragging the line. I look forward to dragging a lot!

<!– /wp:paragraph I'm a winnerAfter my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors. My 2019 goal is to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media. You can visit Real Life Books and Media You Tube Channel if you would like to view some of the mini-videos I have created for our church, Gateway Community in Titusville, Fl.–>

I'm a winnerAfter my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.

My 2019 goal is to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media. You can visit Real Life Books and Media You Tube Channel if you would like to view some of the mini-videos I have created for our church, Gateway Community in Titusville, Fl.

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My 2019 Great Lakes Road Trip Part 14B

5 Feb

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 14 – Monday August 5 (Continued)

To continue this day’s activities, and as I mentioned last week, at the Chicago Maritime Museum, I was interested to read, as part of the museum’s information, the story of the two 1900s paddle-wheel passenger steamers that the U.S. Navy converted to the aircraft carriers “USS Sable” and “USS Wolverine” during WWII.  These two carriers were stationed in Lake Michigan and Chicago was their home port.  The two aircraft carriers were used to train U.S. Navy carrier pilots.  Navy records indicate that many aircraft were lost in the lake, due to multiple causes, and the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum in Florida, where I now volunteer as a tour guide, has one of the restored F4F Wildcat airplanes that was recovered from the lake 1993.  However, that fascinating story is for another time and another blog.  Look for that blog coming soon.

As I was leaving the maritime museum, I ran over something and damaged a tire on my rental car.  I had made plans to have dinner with my niece, Karen, and her husband, Brian, that evening, so I called to tell them I might be late.  Brian is a great communicator, and he set about to locate the closest Avis agency for me.  He found one within 3-miles of where I was stranded.  This car did not have a spare tire (only an Emergency Repair Kit), so we called the Avis Roadside Assistance people for a tow.

The Avis Roadside Assistance wanted to tow my car 20+ miles to trade cars with me.  Brian said, “In Chicago’s rush-hour traffic that will take hours!”  So, we ended up using my personal Roadside Assistance people, who said they would take me to the closest Avis agency.  They said they could have a tow-truck to my location within one hour.  That was great.  But then about 45 minutes later, they called to tell me that the driver had been given the wrong address, and it would be another hour before he could get to my location.  It was a total of three hours before the tow-truck finally dropped me off at the local Avis lot.   The agent said they didn’t have another car of the type I was driving, or even a tire to exchange, and anyway they were getting ready to close.  Did all this upset me?  Nahh!  

Just to show you how good God is.  There just happened to be a Goodyear Tire shop right next door to Avis.  Now is that a coincidence or what?  So I thanked Him for the tire shop, bit the bullet and took the car to Goodyear for a new tire.  They were swamped with work, but were kind enough to work me into their schedule before quitting time.  I considered myself lucky that it only took them another hour to get the tire replaced.

I chalked up the flat tire fiasco and missing the other Chicago area museums on my list today to some kind of Divine Intervention that I would never figure out.  I  headed north about 60 miles on I-90/I-94 to Lake Villa, IL where I hoped my relatives had not gone to bed.  As luck would have it, they were still up and even had some left-over dinner that they warmed-up for me.  After a short visit, I was more than ready to take a relaxing shower and sleep easy tonight in their guest room.

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 61 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

 

Bill

 

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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God’s Creatures~Part 2

4 Feb

Melody Hendrix

A Time to Live

Photos from the zoo.

Zebras!

MelodyWelcome! I’m so glad you stopped in to visit. I am retired and enjoying life. My hobbies are my 5 grandchildren, son and daughter, and my loving husband. I am a photographer and extreme nature lover. I love spending time in my garden or in the wilderness connected to God my Creator.
What a beautiful world we live in. We all have that in common. Natural beauty is everywhere, but sometimes we are not connected until we see a picture, taken just right, that makes it really come into focus and be admired. My passion is to make a connection between the lens and your soul. Photography is my passion.
 
My photography passion began when my Father handed me his old Ricohflex box camera when I was 12.  It was love at first sight. I still have it. My hand was never empty of a camera since.
 
I am a native Floridian. I am so lucky to call it home. I was born in Orlando BF (before Disney). My family moved to the Winter Park area when I was very young. Central Florida was so simple and quaint at that time. I wandered the streets barefoot with my friends, never worrying that something bad could ever happen. My Mom used to pick the sand-spurs out of my feet. I still go barefoot. It grounds me to earth and connects me to nature.
 
I have extensively explored Florida and its diverse beauty. So much to see and so little time. I would love for you to join me in my travels through the images I have taken. I wish you could hear the sounds, smell the fragrance and feel the breath of it. But for now we must be content with exploring with our eyes and only imagine the rest.
 
Thank you for your interest.

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