Beach Houses

When I was a girl, the one and only vacation I remember our family going on was to Galveston Island.  One of the things we kids loved there were the houses on stilts.  I still love them.  It is one of the things that makes island living seem so quaint to me.

Beach houses tend to have three things in common as far as I can tell.  They are on "stilts".  They have great porches.  They are built to have views of the ocean. I think they are beautiful.

  I have had some kind of creedy crud, or my allergies are really in high gear and it's been that way for over a week now.  I feel pretty miserable.  It was kind of nice today though because it gave me an excuse to sit and catch up on editing pictures and blogging some!

Dundee New York from My Window

We are all recovering from whatever physical ailments we have, and we are all recovering from visiting with family.  We have found the longer we live on the road, the harder it is to visit people when we are in an area.  We just move at a different pace than the rest of the world so it is tiring to jump back into that normal pace of life.  We selfishly just wish they'd all join us on the road, but since that doesn't seem likely we will just have to figure out how to deal with this in a way that allows for us to soak up time with them without it draining us so much.

We have now landed in Reading Center, New York for about ten days.  We are here to do a job.  This is our fourth official job and I think we are getting the hang of it.  Nathan is doing incredibly well with his end.  Some days I tag along with him, just to get out and see the area and so I can have time with him.  Today was one of those days. 

This area is really pretty.  But then again, I say that everywhere we go.  We are on one of the finger lakes so it is green rolling hills, huge lakes and vineyards.  The little towns are older towns and are adorable to me.  Here are some shots of one of the towns here named Dundee.

Jefferson Ohio From My Window

 

Goodbye for Now, Vermont

Today we said good-bye to lovely Vermont.  We were here a week less than we'd planned, so I'm hoping to come back again to explore more.  The weather was so nice and the scenery was so nice that we just soaked up what little bit of time we did have here.

I was trying to decide which I liked better: the landscape or the architecture.

What do you think?  I still can't pick one over the other.  I love them both!

We are heading west to explore some new states with the boys.  We are hoping the weather stays as great as it has been here!

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

My friend Patti asked me this past week if I ever fall in love with some of the cute small towns and want to stay there.  We get asked things along those lines quite a bit.  The short answer is yes I do fall in love and no I don't want to stay there.  Because I want to move on and see the other cute small towns too.

There's more to it than just that though.  I had been chewing on this very topic for a blog post when she wrote to me.  Because I'd been pondering how surprised I am that I still get emotional when we leave a place.  I get attached and do fall in love and am always sad to be saying goodbye.  Part of it is just my personality, meaning I hate saying goodbye.

The other part is that there is just something so uniquely endearing about each and every place we visit.  Each place has a way of worming itself into our hearts.  We find some good there.  We find something we admire there.  We find something that is beautiful there.  We find people that inspire us there.

 That might sound really cheesy to those that haven't experienced this way of living and seeing the world.  It might sound like someone who says they still love every girl/boyfriend they ever had.  Really though, it is quite a bit like all of the relationships one has.  There is always some downside or something that is snark worthy, and trust me we do our share of those observations when visiting.  We are human after all.  Like past loves though, there is always something that touched your heart and becomes a part of you when you live in a place.  Even if you do only live there for a week or two.

So yup, I sure do fall in love and as impossible as it might sound-not sometimes.  Every time.  It's a pretty amazing thing to me even two years later.  I hope I never become jaded in this area, because it's a pretty cool part of this journey.

Living the life in our beautiful country!

More New Hampshire From My Window

Williamsburg From My Window

I was sharing with my friend Laurie that I have only used my camera one day this month.  I knew she would get the symbolism there.  I've not went more than three days without having my camera out since we hit the road.

To put it bluntly, I've been in a serious funk.  No one thing led to this funk.  Rather it was a combination of things: regretting our decision to stay here so many weeks instead of traveling, facing some realities about some of the relationships in my life,  facing some stuff about myself and my role in those relationships, grieving the imagined loss of some things if we stay put in one place and dealing with bored men.  Oh, and the dog smells really bad and needs a bath but she hates baths so we haven't tackled it yet.  Since I'm hyper-sensitive to icky smells, that alone would be enough to put me in a funk.

So I knew I had to make myself take my camera with us when we went out today.  I'm so glad I did.  It was exactly what the doctor ordered.

There is hardly a town that could soothe my soul more than this one.  It's just lovely in that All American sort of way.  There are the parts that are more widely known about Williamsburg parts.  Like this section that is blocked off so no cars can drive there.  It makes it so nice to walk around.

There are also the not so widely known things, that are still really neat to look at.

As much as I enjoy seeing where people play, this time I focused on where people live.  Because as much as I have no desire to live in a house myself , I am still touched by the human element of people and their houses.  I find myself thinking, this is where someone lives.  This is where they share their lives together.  This is where a family is being made.  This is where people let down their masks and honest and raw exchanges take place.  It's where love and hate and all of the other range of emotions are displayed.  It's where wounds are made and wounds are healed.  It's pretty powerful stuff if you think about it.

It did me good to ponder such things today.  I feel lighter for it.  I'll share more tomorrow.

Living the life in Virginia!

More Charleston~The Porches

I couldn't resist sharing this lovely part of Charleston.  The porches on the houses were incredible.  I feel like the city should be dubbed "The Porch City".  I mean, I couldn't snap pictures fast enough in an attempt to get all of the insanely incredible porches.

  This is just a small sampling of the beauty here.  This place was hands down one of the prettiest cities I've visited so far.