MEALS

I thought that maybe I would try to blog about our meals.  First, it might make me aware of how healthy (or not) we are eating.  Right now I am not intending to talk about restaurant dining - just in house meals.  So last week we had lamb chops one night.  They were cooked on the grill with a Chicago Steak seasoning rubbed on the chops.  We had a salad with one of the last homegrown tomatoes and a bread that had to be cooked.  The chops were really good.  We had not had any in a long time.  Later in the week, I made stuffed shells.  There are enough shells to freeze two meals for later in the year and enough for two meals this week.  Again, we had a small salad and one of the individual breads heated and split between the two of us.  On Saturday we were down watching our grandson's last football game of the season and got home around 6:30.  I cut a couple of sweet Italian sausages in pieces and cooked those and we had the second serving of stuffed shells as well as the last individual bread loaf.  No veggies Saturday night so not the best of meals.  So that was last week.  Let's see what happens this week.  If I continue to do this, hopefully I might take pictures of some of the meals.

FALL IS HERE

I cannot believe it has been so long since my last post.  The problem has been that I have been busy but nothing spectacular other than going to my grandson's JV football games.  I did go down one time on a Friday and spent the night before going to the game on Saturday morning.  Friday night I stayed with my granddaughter and 4 of her girlfriends while the rest went to the varsity game.  It was a great experience since I only had a boy.  Five 10 year old girls was quite fun.  We watched "Say Yes To The Dress" and it was a hoot listening to them talk about their wedding ideas.  A friend of mine made the comment that don't all young girls dream of what they want their wedding to be.  His wife and I both said that we never thought about our perfect wedding.  After the TV show they played nerf wars with camo paint and nerf guns.  Quite the dichotomy in interests.

SUMMER ENDING

As many of you know, whenever I set goals etc., I rarely achieve them. However this summer I set a goal to see my grandchildren every week. They start school this Monday. I did see them every week. Most of the time I drove there but they came up twice. It takes about 2 hrs and 45 minutes to drive and most of the time I returned the same day. There is a ton of road construction but it was worth every sore muscle and cramped fingers from gripping the wheel. They are the greatest and I thank them for welcoming me each week. I loved the laughter we shared and their willingness to do the projects that I came up with. I will miss those weekly trips.  They are now back in school but my grandson plays football at 10 AM on Saturdays so once again I am on the road for at least 3 out of the first 4 weeks.  I cannot believe how much they have grown and how mature they have become.  I am so proud of them and of course as I said earlier, I love being with them.

TALE OF TWO CITIES - PORTUGAL

Ok, it is now August and I will finally finish my May !!!! trip.  The day after Normandy (Day 5) we left Paris and flew to Portugal.  We were there two and half days and left Lisbon on day 8 at 6:30 AM to fly to Paris and then home.  Portugal somewhat surprised me.  I was not expecting much but was pleasantly pleased at the city.  We stayed at the Lisbon Sofitel and it was listed as a 5 star.  It was a delightful place to stay.   Lisbon is made up of many squares and each has their own personality.  I did not find the food as great as Paris and while the bread was good, it was not French.  We saw the Jeronimos Monastery, the Belem Tower, the Monument to the Explorers and took the train to Sintra.  Here are some of the pictures.
                                                                     Tea at the Lisbon Sofitel
                       

Belem Tower

The People's Palace in Sintra

TALE OF TWO CITIES DAY 4

It is now after the 4th of July but I have not yet finished my vacation blog so here goes another day. On that Wednesday we took a day trip to Normandy.  To be honest, there is so much to see it would have been great to have more time but we did the best we could.  Out guide literally put the metal to the pedal to get us there in record time.  The speed limit appeared to be about 110 km but I clocked him at 140 km.  Literally the cars next to us were blurs as we passed them by.  Our first stop was the town of Caens.  There we toured the D-Day museum.  Out front was a huge statue of the sailor and nurse in the infamous kiss as WWII ended.  Inside we went on a visual tour of the timeline from the war in England and the museum ended in D-Day.

After the museum we drove to Pont du Hoc.  Pont du Hoc is located between Omaha and Utah Beach.  There were German bunkers here with guns firing out into the English channel.  Some could fire as far as 10 miles.

After Pont du Hoc we drove to Arromanche which was named Gold Beach.  We had lunch there (I finally had my crepe) and then we made a quick stop at Juno Beach.  Juno was where the Canadians landed and we had a Canadian in our tour.  From there we went to the American Cemetery and then down to Omaha Beach.  The American Cemetery is set on a beautiful cliff overlooking Omaha Beach.  There are over 7,000 Americans buried there and the names of about 1200 more whose remains were never found.

The day ended with a fast drive back to Paris.  We then packed and got ready to head to the airport for our trip to Lisbon Portugal.