I was recently asked to post a painting of my favorite spot in Boston with the Redfin magazine.
You know I chose the Boston Public Gardens!!! I've painted every inch of it, lol. You can read this beautiful article by clicking on the link below!
https://www.redfin.com/blog/beautiful-places-in-boston
Thank you to Ana de Guzman and Redfin for inviting me into this article!
After an uneventful stay in Indianapolis we crossed the Mississippi to see the Gateway Arch in St Louis. Another thing to cross off the bucket list. St Louis was a very pretty and clean city for what we saw of it. I think the Arch was bigger than I imagined. I guess you have to book tickets in it way in advance online cause it was full. But I don’t believe I would have gone up even if I could have.
Unfortunately, I had another crappy night sleep. It was hard sharing a room again. Wary eyed we got a big cup of coffee and began our quest west. Debbie saw an interesting place to visit in Ohio so we headed there. It was supposed to be 4 hours away, but being a seasoned traveler I know it usually takes longer than planned. When we got near there, the exit was closed to construction with no detour signs to help us through it! We had to figure it out for ourselves! Because we were tired it was really frustrating. After dealing with the traffic and confusion it created we finally got back to where the exit was closed and we found the park. Since it was so late we figured we would get a hotel before hitting Hocking Hills State Park. Of course, because we were so tired, everything that was pet friendly was booked due to a soccer convention, so we had to double back to Lancaster in order to find something! By the time we got to the hotel, we were completely frazzled. No way to see the park that day!
We did the Old Man’s Cave first. A two mile trail named for an old recluse who made the cave his home in the 1800s. Asher loved it!
After a rough night sleep, Asher was up most of the night in a new place, we got started early to head for Niagara Falls. It was about 7 1/2 hours north. After a tearful goodby to our host we were off!
We were very happy the weather was good and for it being the end of the Forth of July week, the traffic was light. We couldn’t believe how well Ash was doing in the truck! As soon as we got moving he curled up and put his head on my lap. He stayed that way most of the trip. No car sickness! What a relief.
The Niantic Bay Gallery in CT asked me to do a demo to kick off the new summer hours. Because I didn’t want to load props in my truck with all of my luggage we decided to do a portrait. Claudia Post asked her athletic neighbor if he would be interested in sitting and he agreed. I have been trying to paint Claudia for years now and she did well wrangling out of it with such a handsome model.
We had a big tent outdoors to lure in the street traffic. The lighting was a bit flat but I went to work anyway. We had a decent showing for such a nice day. It was nice to see some faces I hadn’t seen in a while! I had to paint quickly since I only had two hours. As I painted, I tried to explain what I was doing and why as I went along.
We spent Friday night packing up. After spending two weeks there we were pretty spread out. We had to be out by 10 am so we wanted to have most of our work done so we could have a stress free exit. I got up early to see the sunrise here for the last time. I was a little late and left with flip flops and without an extra coat. It was cold out so it wasn’t going to be a long walk for me that day!
We were all set to go and were in a good mood. It wasn’t supposed to take too long to get to St Simons Island. As we were approaching the very high bridge to get to the Island, I was very nervous. It looked like the bridge that my truck lost power over on our last trip only a little higher. We made it over, even though we were going slower than most. The road past that bridge was also very narrow. With my knuckles white we made it to our cottage. But we were early and had to waste some time. We checked out the cottage and it looked like someone was still there. Christine called the realtor and he gave us some bad news. We weren’t suppose to arrive till the next day…..Oh dear. Widow brain strikes again. We did the same thing last year. Now I have to go over that damn bridge again!
We found some parking and started to research for an RV park. There were a few but because it was a holiday weekend most required a 3 day stay. We found something not too far away for only one night. It was their last spot! We felt lucky. When we pulled in we were happily surprised to see that we were right on the water. It seemed like one of the best spots to be. It made our mistake feel a little better. It was our first time in this kind of RV Resort. Big bus campers lined up one after another. We didn’t care to much for it, but we did like our spot. We looked like the youngest ones there, lolAfter sunset, it began to rain. We lucked out with the weather again.It was only going to rain that night. But rain on a tin can was very noisy. Christine loved it, but I didn’t sleep much that night. The next morning we left just as it was clearing, but it was windy, and I was worried about going back over that damn bridge. I asked a gentlemen neighbor if he thought we would have trouble going over it because it was so windy. He thought we would be ok and proceeded to give us advise on good restaurants there.People are so nice down here! Polite and are happy to chat with you. After our expert demise from the resort we headed for the bridge. I was terrified but tried to keep it together. Christine gave me pep talks to help me get over it. And we did it with ease. I was so relieved. When we got to our cottage someone was still there, and when we talked them the day before, they told us we could get in early. After another talk with our realtor they said there was a problem with the cottage and they upgraded us. It wasn’t right on the beach, but it wasn’t far. After seeing our McMansion, we were overwhelmed with how big and pretty it was. We were very pleased.
