A MARCH 2023 UPDATE

 Dear Blog Friends,    I thought I'd better give you a March Update since I haven't written lately.  First of all,  I do want you to know that George and I are fine--for two old people!!!   We are slowing down but enjoying life!!!!!   Today I'll share a few pictures from  THREE  March events you may have missed (unless you follow me on Facebook)...

FIRST was our little trip to Cades Cove (in the Smokies) to celebrate George's 81st BIRTHDAY on March 9.

SECOND-- shows you some of our DAFFODIL collections in our yard.  The Daffodils must love our rainy weather since they have really put on a show this past month.

THIRD-- was our little spur of the moment trip to KENTUCKY   (March 25 and 26).   We seldom go anywhere much anymore --so this was a nice change for us,  and we NEEDED it.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!!!!

The Birthday Boy enjoying some ice cream at Cades Cove in the Smokies

I love this picture that George took on his Birthday --showing the silky water at the Sinks in the Smokies.

 Two very happy people enjoying George's Birthday at Cades Cove in the Smokies.

Daffodils in our Yard,  March 2023

These little Daffodils were given to us many years ago by George's sweet Daddy.

More pretty Daffodils in our yard;  We have so many different varieties.

This is from the PINNACLE at the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Middleboro, KY..  You can see the little quaint town of Cumberland Gap below.  We love to visit the Pinnacle every time we get near that area, but this time --the high winds and cold temperatures made it more difficult to take pictures....  

From the balcony of our room at the lodge at Pine Mountain State Resort Park,   we enjoyed watching the sun disappear behind the mountain.   NOTE the colors in the sun's rays!!!!  I called it a Sun-Bow!!!!! ha

Another beautiful photo of the fantastic Kentucky mountains,  taken from the lodge at Pine Mountain State Resort Park

The next day,  on our way home,  we stopped at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park.   The waterfall was dirty but beautiful after all of the rains we have had.

Finally,  an update on son BERT who has terminal cancer:  

March 1st-- Bert had his last visit with Palliative Care.

March 2nd-- Bert had his last visit with the Oncologist

March 10--Bert was evaluated by HOSPICE care.

March 13-- HOSPICE took over his care.  We (the family) are very pleased with Hospice so far.  They visit him often,  have taken over his medications and have them delivered to his home the next day after being ordered,  and have given the family much information about cremation,  giving his organs for research, etc. They have taken a lot of responsibility off of the family --AND they are keeping him out of pain.

Right now,  Bert is doing remarkably well.   Even with this terrible cancer --he has been healthy in all other ways (which really is helping).   He still cannot eat/drink much since the cancer is in his throat and has destroyed his taste buds... The Radiation treatments HELPED shrink the big tumor but in the process,  he has struggled swallowing and eating solid foods...  Hospice has provided some healthy 'clear' drinks for him which help him get the necessary calories....  Because of his lack of hunger and being able to taste,  he is losing weight plus the fact that he doesn't have much energy.   BUT--he'll tell you if you ask that he is doing FINE...  Bless his heart...

I took this photo last Wednesday  (March 29) when we took Bert to the Soup Kitchen for lunch.  He was able to eat 1/2 cup of Curried Chicken soup  and drink some water.   He took the rest home to eat that night for his dinner.... 

I'm so proud of him and his wonderful attitude.   As I said before,  we don't know how long we will have this wonderful guy on this earth,  but every day we do have him is a BLESSING...

HAPPY EASTER to ALL!

Love,

BETSY and GEORGE 

Pine Mountain State Resort Park -June 19-21, 2013

Pine Mountain State Park Lodge,  Kentucky

We took a short vacation to Kentucky in June to celebrate our Anniversary.  We spent two nights at the Pine Mountain State Park Lodge and two nights in Corbin.   We absolutely LOVE this lodge and restaurant ---and will return in October to see the Fall Leaf Colors with friends.   Today,  I will share a little of this beautiful state park lodge with you.  I hope you can visit this area sometime since there is SO much beauty around here to enjoy!  The photo above shows the front entrance to the lodge.  Be sure to enlarge the photos for bigger pictures.

George sitting on the lodge porch. 

This is another view of some of the rooms at the lodge.

Here I am sitting on one of the little benches around the grounds... This is a wonderful place just to come and relax ---and maybe even read a good book!!!!

Another view of the grounds around the lodge

This is George standing outside of our room.   We were in the last building on the left of the lodge/restaurant --and loved our room.  It was quiet and we had a great view from our back porch.

Here  was our view looking at the woods/mountains while sitting on our back porch.

Our back porch;   We loved sitting out there doing our daily devotions and just enjoying the quietness around us.  Our room had a king bed,  flatscreen TV,  microwave and frig  (all the conveniences of home!)....

We're on our way to breakfast at the delicious lodge restaurant.  Our building was the last building you can see in this photo.  We ate breakfast at the lodge both mornings and one of the evenings we were there. The food was delicious.

Here we are in the restaurant.  Look at our VIEW from the big picture windows in the restaurant.   There's FOG in the valley below.  (We saw fog in the valley BOTH mornings when we went to breakfast.   SO gorgeous!)

Look what else we enjoyed while having breakfast.    They have bird feeders (on pulleys) near all of the windows of the restaurant... You can imagine how much I loved that... This is a cute picture of a NUTHATCH eating upside down...   I loved watching not only the FOG --but also the BIRDS while we ate breakfast.

Here's one more photo from the lodge restaurant that morning of the FOG in the Valley below.   One of the people working at the restaurant  took us to another place in the lodge where we could open the windows and take photos of the fog and mountains WITHOUT the glass glare!  Wasn't that nice of them to do that?

WELL---we didn't get paid anything to promote this place,  but we just love it so much that we want to tell the world how much!!!!!  While at the state park,  there are lots and lots of things to do.  Besides the lodge,  this resort park has cabins for rent.  They offer picnicking,  hiking,  nature studies,  swimming,  golf and many other options.  For more information about this state park,  click HERE.

We took several great hikes while here --and even saw one small waterfall (Honeymoon Falls)...  It's just a great place to take a vacation!

Have a great Wednesday and now pop over to my Photo Blog (click HERE)  to see a photo from one of our hikes in that park.

Hugs,

Emoticons

Celebrating our Anniversary

Celebrating 12 Glorious Years together (6/23/13)

Hope all of you have had a great couple of weeks since I have been gone.  George and I celebrated our 12th Wedding Anniversary on June 23, 2013... We took a short trip north of where we live to Kentucky to do some hiking,  see some waterfalls --and just have a good time!

We visited the Cumberland Gap area to do some hiking and photography.  We stayed a couple of days at one of our favorite state parks,  Pine Mountain State Park.  While there we did ALOT of hiking and exploring that beautiful area.  Then we spent two nights in Corbin --and visited Cumberland Falls State Park and did a hike at Yahoo Falls which is near Whitley City.

We had a great time --but the highlight for me was seeing the Super Moon and the Moonbow (rainbow at night) at Cumberland Falls.  And of course,  we enjoyed a fabulous buffet dinner at the Cumberland Falls Lodge Restaurant on our anniversary.

Today I will share some pictures from our anniversary dinner --plus a few more of the highlights of this trip.  Above,  you will see a photo of us taken on our anniversary outside of the lodge at Cumberland Falls... Be sure to click on all photos for enlargements.  Hope you enjoy some of our MANY photos from this trip!

This is a photo of the lodge at Cumberland Falls State Park.

Here is a view from our table in the restaurant (taken through a double glass window).

Here is a photo of George at the table getting ready to eat!!!!!  Their Sunday buffets are fabulous (with lots of choices of salad items, meats, veggies, breads, desserts, etc.). 

And here I am getting ready to chow-down... Oink Oink!!!!!!! ha  (By the way,  my roast beef was terrific!)...  Don't you love our Mt. Rushmore shirts?

My Anniversary Gift from George

George gave me another one of his great photos on canvas (I now have 3 of them) for our anniversary.  This one was one of our favorite photos (which he took)  from Pikes Peak last September--showing the snow-covered mountain peaks  and the clouds in the distance.   Pretty,  isn't it? I love it!!!



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HERE ARE SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR TIME AT CUMBERLAND FALLS STATE PARK:

Gorgeous Cumberland Falls  (showing off lots of water on 6/21/13)--68 feet high and 125 feet wide (known as the Niagara of the South)

Beautiful rainbow at Cumberland Falls--which we saw the morning of 6/22/13

That glorious full moon (Super Moon) --taken on 6/23/13 right after midnight at an overlook near the state park

Moonbow (Rainbow at night) at Cumberland Falls, KY-taken on 6/22/13 at 11:30 p.m.

We had tried a few years ago to see the Moonbow --but the weather didn't cooperate that year.  This year,  it was perfect.  However,  since it was a Saturday night (6/22/13) in Summer --and since there was a Super Moon,  about 500 million (it seemed) of our best friends joined us at the falls to see the Moonbow.  We did not have a good vantage point due to the people --and were lucky to see the moonbow at all.  However, we found out  that the human eye cannot detect the colors of the rainbow at night.  It looks all white/silver.  But--a good camera CAN..... George set the tripod up (which kept getting kicked by people nearby) --and set it for a two minute exposure.... Even though he is not satisfied with the picture,  I think he did well, under the circumstances.  SO--we left very pleased that we had seen it AT ALL.  The waterfall is out of our view (to the left) --but the spray/mist from the waterfall is what causes the rainbow... We WILL go back sometime --during the off-season, during the week (when there's a full moon), and will go about 2 a.m. Yawn!!!!!!!  SO---next time,  we may get something that looks more like the rainbow photo above (which was taken during the daytime at a good vantage point).....

All in all,  we loved seeing the Moonbow --since we had never seen it before --so there are no complaints from either of us!!!!!!   Can you see what a great anniversary we had?

Us on the Blue Ridge Parkway (6/27/13)

I'll close with a photo of us taken on our 2nd trip during those two weeks.  We took a trip to North Carolina to see George's son and family... AND--on the way there,  we just HAD to check out Craggy Gardens and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The reason I'm enclosing this photo is to show you our new Moonbow t-shirts which we got at Cumberland Falls State Park before leaving that day.  Aren't they pretty ---along with the mountain views behind us in this photo????

Hope you had a great couple of weeks...  I'll begin checking your blogs as soon as I have some free time... IF there are any specific posts you want me to see from these past 2 weeks,  please let me know so that I won't miss them.  Thanks!!!!

Happy July 4th to ALL and God Bless America.  Be sure to check out my Photo Blog  (click HERE)  on Wednesday for a beautiful patriotic photo.  

Hugs to ALL,

Emoticons