Our Labor Day Weekend Getaway To Cumberland Falls

When we first moved to Kentucky, I kept seeing license plates with a picture of a waterfall on them. I told Alan that one day I wanted to see that waterfall in person.

So way back at the beginning of summer we reserved a "rustic" cabin at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park. I've yet to figure out the "resort" part of the name, but as state parks go it was a pretty beautiful spot in the hills of Eastern Kentucky near the Tennessee border, a mere 180 miles from our house.

The first thing that we did after checking in at the park lodge, finding our cabin and unloading all of our stuff, was to head out and see the falls. Mind you it was something like 104 degrees that day and even though it was nearly 5:00 it was still very steamy.

Our first glimps of the falls was exciting, but on day 2 of the trip we got there earlier in the day and we were able to see the rainbow at the bottom of the falls. It was also about 20 degrees cooler, so much more enjoyable.

We being the tent campers that we are, staying in a "rustic" cabin seemed really up-town, especially a "rustic" cabin with a full kitchen, nice bathroom and a TV. We spent the first day joking about

what the "rustic" part was? We found out the evening of day 2 while we were watching the LSU vs Oregon football game. We were snuggled down on the "rustic" sofa when all of a sudden a tiny litttle field mouse ran out from the top of the chimney and zipped his little self behind our "rustic" sofa. I did the typical lady thing, screamed and jumped up onto the nearest chair. Alan grabbed a shoe and we both just stood there and waited. A minute or so later that dang little mouse ran back up the chimney and back out the little hole he came in. I wish that I could say that that was the last we saw of him. He seemed to think that our "rustic" cabin was really his "rustic" cabin, so he came back every night to check out our garbage can and who knows what else. We took some long naps during the days because there was not a lot of sleeping going on at night. (Click on the blue '"rustic" cabin and you can watch someone else's little YouTube video of what our cabin looked like on the inside.)

We ate some great food on this trip. I'll share more about that another day, but the night we grilled burgers we also made s'mores. We pride ourselves in toasting the perfect marshmallows to go with the perfect chocolate smushed between the perfect graham crackers. They were perfect!

On the way home from our little getaway, we stopped in Corbin, Kentucky, home of the first KFC. It was like going back to 1940. The sign out front calls Colonel Sanders the most famous person from Kentucky and that he was responsible for making Kentucky a household name throughout the whole world. I guess some people think he's actually more important than Abraham Lincoln.


I ordered the original meal with 2 pieces of chicken, 2 sides and a biscuit. It was finger lickin' good for sure.

Tomorrow I'll share some of Alan's beautiful scenery pictures of the falls and the park. There's a bunch of them, so it will probably be more pictures and less chatter from me.

Sally

Remembering Grammy Connie

One of my best memories of my Grammy Connie (my Mom's Mom) is that she ALWAYS had a little pot of chocolate sauce sitting on the back burner of her stove. She would make her special sauce and just keep reheating every night. One scoop of vanilla ice cream, special sauce and she was good to go. I don't think she ever bothered to wash out that pot. She just kept adding to it. As a child I thought of it as the never ending pot of chocolate sauce. I found this adorable little pot when I was shopping at IKEA back in July and I knew that it was destined to become my little chocolate sauce pan. I can't share Grammy's secret sauce recipe, which was actually her mother's secret sauce recipe with you, because, well, it's a family secret. I can share this new chocolate sauce recipe with you that I think might just be even a tad bit better that Grammy's. I can't believe that I just said that. The new sauce is a lot easier to make and it makes a ton. I found it on Susan Branch's August 27th Bog entry. She lives on Martha's Vineyard and was making it right before Hurricane Irene hit. I'll list the ingredients for you under my "I love the taste of.." tab up at the top of this page, but you really should check out her description of the sauce. It will cause you to want to make some right now!

Sally

Dinner on the Deck Under the New Umbrella

Trying to keep busy while waiting to hear from Grace so that we would know she had made it saftly to Spain. (which she has and she's already having a wonderful time.)

We decided to do a little grilling and chilling out on the deck. The weather was perfect, cool with a nice breeze. The insects were awful and eventually ran me back into the house. The misquitos were bearable, but the flies were just down right disgusting. Does anyone know how to keep them away?

For dinner we had beef kabobs, corn on the cob and salad. For desert we enjoyed fresh peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. If you want the cobbler recipe click on "I love the taste of..." at the top of this page.

The weather is supposed to turn hot again here starting tomorrow, but when I woke up this morning it was 68 degrees. I'm begining to get that fall feeling, but I'm not quite ready to let go of summer.

Sally

The Fastest Service Ever

You may remember this picture from a couple of weeks ago. The big storm really did a number on our poor picnic table umbrella. Try as we might we could not bend it back into any kind of usable shape, so to the garbage it went.

The problem with loosing your umbrella in August, is that apparently they are now out of season items. Everyone in Louisville must have needed a new one because we looked just about every place we could think of and there were none to be had.


Leave it to my Dad and his trusty laptop computer.
We ordered the perfect umbrella online for just $99.00 including shipping and it arrived the very next day. I'm not kidding. It only had to come from Cincinnati, but still. The very next day our new umbrella was up running.

I would highly recommend this company if you find yourself in need of anything patio related.

Now that we have this beautiful new umbrella, I'm thinking that we might need some fancy new cushions to go with it.

Sally

Seeing Grace Off

Her bags have been packed for nearly a week. She's been counting down the days, hours and minutes until finally the big moment arrived. We took Grace to the airport at 6:15 this morning. Her bag weighed in at 46.5 lbs. 50lb was the limit. The main problem is that she can't really carry it. She's hoping that a nice Spanish boy will help her once she gets to Madrid.











She tolerated all of my picture taking pretty well. Her plane was scheduled to leave on time, from Louisville, to Chicago and then on to London and Madrid. With the crazy hurricane Irene weather going on on the east coast we are keeping our fingers crossed that everything stays on schedule. Alan has a plane tracking App on his new phone, so we will be watching her every move. Don't you just love technology?
Speaking of technology, Grace is planning on keeping a Blog while she is in Spain. If you want to keep track of her too and see what she's up to, you can follow her here
I'm hoping that she will take lots of pictures, but she doesn't seem to have inherited that gene from me.

We are so excited for her. What a huge adventure. She is not the least bit nervous or worried about anything. She is just all smiles. I guess that's the way it should be.



My Dad ran into an old friend at airport. I'm not sure what they were talking about, but it probably had something to do with chicken.

I'm going to do the best I can adjusting to life without Grace (She keeps reminding me that she is not dying) I'll do my best to keep you all up to date.
Enjoy your weekend!

Sally

Gifted with a Blast from the Past

Friends of ours recently lost a family member. Aunt Ruth was 100 years old and from the stories that we have heard, a real character. She lived by herself in the home she had grown up in until she took a little spill and probably broke a hip. While sorting through her house, Gordon and Kathy came across a package of knitting things and thought of me.

Opening the package was like stepping back in time. Way, way back. As best as I can tell she must have started this unfinished project sometime during the early 60's.

The yarn is crazy. She apparently paid 85 cents for each skein and it's a mix of acetate and nylon.

I can't find a date anywhere in the pattern book, but I'm going to do a little research. It shouldn't be that difficult to find out when it was published. The hair styles of the models are almost as much fun as the patterns themselves.

The best part of the whole package is this amazing needle set. I don't think anyone has touch it in years. I'm not sure how usable it will be, but considering it's only missing on needle I think it's in wonderful condition.

I have no idea what some of the parts are for and it did not come with an instruction manual, so I guess I'll be spending some time on GOOGLE.

What a totally unexpected gift.

I love it!

Sally

Something New

How do you like my new water shoes? I think they are adorable myself. I took a water aerobics class back in May and really loved it, except for the fact that my bathing suit seemed to lack the support I needed and I did not own a pair of water shoes.

Then the Lands End sales catalog arrived and solved all of my problems. I found the perfect suit(OK, so that's not a picture of me wearing the suit, but it looks just like that on me...) and the perfect shoes at bargain prices. I tried them both out last Friday and I think water aerobics is the exercise for me. Kind of reminds me of my old swim team days. The best part is that I'm the youngest person in the class by far, which makes me feel especially athletic.
Sally