Trip Around Lake Superior - Day 1

The first trip we decided to take after my retirement was to drive around Lake Superior.  It's officially called the Lake Superior Circle Tour, but we only did a partial circle around the lake.

Day 1, we drove from South Carolina, through North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio.

The West Virginia turnpike was great - surprising because I seem to remember the Pennsylvania and Ohio turnpikes as being nightmares. The rest areas were amazing and the scenery was beautiful.  There were also several tunnels which I also enjoyed -- must be good memories from my childhood.

That night we stayed at my sister's house in Oxford, Ohio.  She lives there with her OD and her two children.  Her YD lives in town with her husband and two kids, as well, and we were able to see all of them.  

This was the first visit to her house, but we've been to Oxford many times as my grandparents used to live there.  I would have loved to stop by their house, but sadly, it has been gone for many years.

It was a fairly long driving day but we had time for visiting and dinner.  Here's the group for dinner (without me as I'm taking the picture).

2026 - Update

 So, I have a bunch of things to cross off my list.  I plan to blog more regularly, now that I'm retired.

 #2 - I went to Gallifrey One with Nevada and met up with my nephew.  Link to photos.

#11 - Go to beach. In April, we went to Ocean Isle, NC, with myYD and family. 

Then in May (right before Memorial Day) we went to Florida with my DIL and her husband.

#12 - Visit with Jennifer and David. Spent the day with them in August -- it was beastly hot.  The only evidence I have of the visit is a picture of an owl we saw on our walk.

#15 - Plant more rosemary and mint.  Done - but we'll see how well it does.

#17 - Visit MS - we visited in April for his birthday and then again in July (right before I retired).

#18 - Visit YS & family - will post on this later
#23 - Spend time with sister(s) - will post later

#24 - RETIRED - as of August 1, 2026!!

#26 - Coffee with Amanda - no evidence but we got together in April.
#28 - Go to Eagle Harbor - more later
#30 - Go to Sault Ste Marie  - more later
#33 - Go to California - April and then again in July (for work)
#41 - Get a new laptop - Done
#46 - Become a grandma again - As of July 8, 2026 - try this link
#47 - Find a church - Done

Baking Challenge #1 - Update

 Here are Nevada's biscotti ...

 

 

Week 7 : Feb 12 to Feb 18

Feb 12 

Feb 13 

Feb 14 - bowling 

Feb 15 

Feb 16 

 

Week 6 : Feb 5 to Feb 11

Feb 5 - the snowman ... 

Feb 6 - in LA 

Feb 7 - in the TARDIS 

Feb 8 - without me :( 

 

 

 

Week 5 : Jan 29 to Feb 4

Jan 29 - self portrait 

 

Jan 31 - snow!!

 

 

Feb 1 - Snowman 

 

Feb 2 - #3 

 

Week 4 : Jan 22 to Jan 28 2026

Jan 22 - trying to be artsy :) 

 

Jan 25 - a light dusting 

Jan 26 - dancing? 

Jan 27 

Jan 28 - polished rocks 

 

New Restaurants #1 and #2

So I swapped out one of the items on my goal for 2026 for going to new restaurants.  Hoping this will be something that we do.

 

 #1 Millstone Pizza and Taphouse in Rock Hill

 

This was a pizza place that we went to after New Years.  It was okay. They are connected to a brewery which wasn't open when we went -- they didn't really have kid's foods.  Not a family sort of place but it was fine.  The pizza was good; the bread knots were good. No pictures.

 

#2 Seoul Food in Charlotte 

 

This was a good place to go with kids.  They had little animals the kids could ride on (for a fee); they had a playground in the back. I don't remember what I had to eat, but the beer was good.  Definitely would go back.  

 

 

Okay, I obviously need to work harder at doing this -- not just provide the name of the place.  I'll have to give more of a critique as the year goes on.  But anyway, we've gone to two new places which is a good thing.

 

 

 

Baking Challenge #1 - Biscotti

So for the baking challenge with Nevada, we're going to find different things to make.  She picked the first one (to be fair, she gave me a choice of a couple of things and I picked biscotti because I've made it before and had success).

 

Here's the link to the recipe that we used:

 Chocolate dipped almond biscotti 

 

Fortunately, I had all the ingredients on hand.

• Flour
• Eggs
• Almonds
• Semi-sweet chocolate
• baking powder
• cinammon
• salt
• butter
• oil 

 

 

I thought they turned out great.  I actually don't like the chocolate -- so I'd probably leave that off next time.   Just waiting to get pics of Nevada's ...

 

Week 3 : Jan 15 to Jan 21 2026

Jan 15 - snow in Cleveland 

 

Jan 17 - biscotti 

Jan 18 - shopping :) 

Jan 19 

 

Jan 20 - me being artsy

Jan 21 - a light in California 

 

 

Week 2 : Jan 8 to Jan 14 2026

Jan 10 - my great aunt's china 

Jan 11 - Jax 

Jan 13 - a great aunt, again 

Jan 14 - art from Africa