The Last Day

Today is it.  The last day of my official summer.  Tomorrow the kids go back to school and this household will resume something that resembles a routine.  There are both good and bad aspects of this annual occasion.

The Good:                                                      The Bad:
Up at 6 every morning.                                    Up at 6 every morning.

Structure to the day.                                         A little less structure never
                                                                        killed anybody.  ; )

Kids will be with friends.                                  I'll miss having them at
                                                                       home. 

More time for me to write.                               *No bad side to this!

For now I'm going to leave you with a few of my favorite shots from this summer.  And I'm going to go and enjoy this last day and try to not think about the fact that it is, in fact, the last day of Summer 2011. 

Morning on Myrtle.  

Don't know the person in this shot...I just loved the way the light 

was reaching down through the clouds.  

Beautiful.  

Tucker's first experience with All Stars.  : )  

He was so thrilled to be chosen and had such a good time.

A boy and his fishin' pole.

My Tucker Man does love to go fishin'.

Any day spent in the ballpark is a good day.

Any day spent watching my Yankees is an excellent day!

The peaceful beauty of Amish Country.

Wow.

Planking Perri.

No, I don't get the appeal of it.

No, I don't know why it became THE thing to do.

Yes, I find it slightly amusing.

Her gymnastics muscles sure paid off in this one.

I'm outta here.

I have ONE LAST DAY of summer to enjoy.

Follow Directions Much?

We were in the breakfast area of the hotel Saturday morning

grabbing a bite before we hit the road.

Totally surrounded by families, older couples and 

the occasional sleepy-eyed teen

seeking a waffle and a glass of juice,
we perused the offerings and made our choices.

Needing to warm a cinnamon roll,

I went to the area where the 

microwaves and toasters were located

and that's when I saw it.

I was laughing so The Hubster 

had to come see, too.
And of course it was necessary to 

pull out my phone and snap these pics,

'cause I had to share it with you guys!

Pretty simple instructions, ya know?

This would be WHY:

Really???

WAY TO GO! 

Wanna see?

A Continuation of Yesterday's Post
I put together a couple of collages of the Amish Country pics.
(Click on the collage to enlarge it, then hit your 'Back' button to return.) 

This first one is from some of our shopping.

Yes, we went to a Christmas shop,

Tis the Season.

Christmas in July, ya know!  : )
Christmas makes me happy and I'd even do a Christmas shop in January.

Yeah, I'm one of those people.

I never get sick of Christmas.

Clockwise from top left:

NUTCRACKERS!

I love them.

I think they're beautiful.

I have my own little collection of  them.

A person can never have to many nutcrackers.

I. WANT. THESE.  

; )

A shot from the second floor of the shop.

This is a big ol' round building

and the interior is very dramatic.

All the lights, all the trees, all the glitter and glow.

It's truly spectacular.

Bins and bins of decorations are divided

according to theme.  

Several small rooms all around the perimeter 

of the building cover everything from

traditional to hunting/fishing lodge,

Wizard of Oz to teddy bears,

primitive to modern.

They have EVERYTHING.

The Big Guy himself.  : )
I love me some Santa/Father Christmas/Saint Nicholas.

Whatever name and form of the legend you choose,

he's my homeboy.

Love that guy.  : )

And now, on to some more shots of the hotel.

Lots of shots from lots of perspectives.  

The library just off the lobby.  A lovely, quiet place to 

browse the shelves; a comfy chair to sit and read;

a cozy corner to work a jigsaw puzzle.

The second floor breakfast and sitting area.,

complete with a Baby Grand.

The beautiful, sweeping staircase.

A bright and inviting area with board and card games.

The beautiful flower beds out front.

I can't begin to tell you how beautiful and inviting 

The Carlisle

really is.

*You may remember that last year I did a post regarding the Inn at Amish Door.

We have always stayed there but this trip was rather last-minute and they had no vacancies.

The Carlisle was a wonderful substitute and
I'm sure we'll go back. : )

And a bit more of our shopping excursion.

(Yes, we shopped a whole bunch.  

Is that not one of the reasons you go to Amish Country?)

As I mentioned in a previous post, most places aren't 

wild about you taking pics in their shops.

I managed to sneak a few.  ; )

Do you not LOVE this stuff?

There will be more on that sign in the bottom right pic in a future post.

*If you love any of it enough to want it, just check HERE.

Pretty and Peaceful

This is just the tiniest snippet of the beautiful scenery

I've enjoyed this weekend.

How could a person not be at peace 

with a scene like this laid out before them?

And this sunset sky.

Is it not breathtaking?

The Hubster treated me to a couple of days 

in Ohio Amish Country.

We stayed at The Carlisle at Dutch Valley

and this is the view from our balcony this morning.

When the fog clears, the rolling countryside

seems to go on and on forever.

And in the fog at the top of this shot

I could see something trying to peek through the misty air.

I zoomed in and this is what I saw.

Just beautiful.

And this was our room.

The quilts on the beds were simply beautiful

and the artwork throughout the room was lovely.

Isn't the furniture pretty?

Love this little corner.

I'm not sure why the colors in these pics do not look true 

on my computer screen, but the carpet was a 

very pretty dark shade of green.

Not the ugly pea soup shade that I'm seeing here.  ; )

And the walls were a light sage.  

Very tranquil.

Very tasteful.

The bathroom was SPOTLESS.

That's a must for me.

I detest a nasty hotel bathroom.

The dressing room/closet.

(The closet area was to the left of this scene.)

Notice the mini-fridge under the counter.

LOVE having a mini-fridge in the room.

When you have dinner in the Amish Country, it's extremely difficult

to save room for dessert.  That handy little icebox enabled us to

order fresh, homemade pie to-go.

Midnight snack, ya know?  ; )

I have a ton more pics on my phone that I hope to share with you in the next day or two.

I took a few shots of the rest of this lovely hotel

and snapped several when we were out shopping.

Some places frown upon picture taking when it comes to 

craft or decor items,so I wasn't about to attempt it with my camera.  

Hope the phone shots are okay.

Perri and Tucker left yesterday morning for King's Island and Great Wolf Lodge for the weekend.

Brie, Josh and the boys took them for a little getaway 

before school starts back.

They won't be home until tomorrow evening sometime.  

I hope they're having as good a time as we did.

: )