Morgantown in November

I'm still playing blog catch-up, so today's post will be about my trip to visit Lori, back in November (if I can ignore the whining and pleading from Bonnie, who wants to Go For A Walk RIGHT NOW).

It's been two months since my trip to West Virginia, so I'm sure my recap will be limited and incomplete and (possibly) inaccurate. Hopefully, Lori will correct and clarify and amend in the comments.

My drives there and back were uneventful. I had good weather, and plenty of podcasts on my iPod, so I was well entertained.

(My most eventful trip was in November 2008, when I got a flat tire driving home, and had to wait while it was repaired. Then, as I was finally back on the road, I realized I'd forgotten my laptop at Lori's house. I headed back toward Lori's, and she met me halfway, at a Starbucks.  We shared a brief snack (hot chocolate! cake!) before I started for home again. What a long day that was!)

I love my visits with Lori - pleasant, relaxing, low-stress. We play Scrabble (Lori always wins), and eat pizza from the bakery down the hill from her. (We did have pizza this time, right?)

We always do lots of walking (and talking). This time, we walked a trail along the river on Saturday, and just around her neighborhood on Sunday. (A walk around Lori's neighborhood really is a bit of a workout, owing to the rather steep landscape.)

Before we could head out for our walk on Saturday, we had to wait for the high school marching band - they were practicing, and just happened to pass by Lori's house as we were leaving:

Here are some photos from the walk along the river. It was a beautiful day, and we didn't need much in the way of coats (my recollection is that we each wore a sweater, and ended up carrying them).

Lori!

I took this picture in Lori's neighborhood.

PumpkinMan?

Our visits also include adventures. After resting from our walk, we drove down to Bridgeport, where we visited The Nest, a yarn store that Lori had discovered. Of course I bought some souvenir yarn:

Madeline Tosh Sport

I only bought one skein, which probably was a mistake. I should never buy just one skein. But I'll find something to do with this yumminess, even so. (Perhaps a delicious hat....)

They also had some wonderful shop samples. Lori admired their Clapotis shawl, and I was attracted by a cabled scarf (I first wrote 'attacked by a scarf,' by mistake, but maybe that is an apt word when talking about yarn shops and yarn). The woman working there, however, didn't know what the pattern was, and since it was near closing time, and since they'd had an open house all day, and since she seemed to be holding the fort alone, I didn't want to make her track it down. But I did take a photo, and recently tried to email the shop to ask about it.

Alas, the email bounced back to me, and I thought all was lost. I decided to check their blog, even though my last perusal had indicated it was pretty inactive. But look! they must have a made a New Year's Resolution, because when I checked their blog, not only did they have a new entry, but it featured The Scarf, and listed both the yarn and the pattern:

http://www.thenestyarn.com/january-brings-the-snow-get-ready/

(I've since tracked down and bought the pattern, and added the Elbaite scarf to my rather lengthy to-knit list.)

Back to my visit with Lori... We had dinner at the Provence Market, right next to The Nest. As I recall, we had the special, which was a delicious salmon dinner. I think we even had dessert, though it's the salmon that sticks in my memory (so good...).

We decided, on a whim, to stop at Barnes and Nobles on the way home. It was fun to look at books together, sharing notes about what we'd read and what we wanted to read. We each bought a book, which we've since read and traded. Lori bought An Invisible Thread, by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski; I bought The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. Both were good reads. (I need to do a book review blog entry; I have a stack of books on the table in front of me, just waiting...)

Of course, with all the time sitting and chatting, knitting happened as well. I finished the shawl I'd been working on:

This is the just-finished, still-unblocked version;
there are more photos on Ravelry

I'm thinking it's about time to start planning my next visit with Lori.

But first, there's this beagle still begging for her walk...

A Few More Random Tidbits Regarding My Trip to West Virginia

Our beautiful Bonnie!

What a change in weather! Last weekend, when I was visiting Lori in WV, temps were in the 70's (I think they were similar back here in Kalamazoo). Today they've been in the 50's, and so windy - it looks and feels like fall.

Bonnie & I went for a walk on the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail this afternoon - we started at 10th street, and walked east, toward town, for a mile or so. The sun filtering through the trees was beautiful.

Lori & I walked a good bit last weekend as well, around her neighborhood and downtown Morgantown and at Cooper's Rock. Here's a house in her neighborhood that I got a kick out of:

The Cow House!

Detail

Actually, I should share a photo of Lori's house. She's had a lot of work done on it over the past few years - new windows, a new furnace, various repairs, a new front door. There used to be two large trees in front of the house; she removed those, and replaced them with two redbud trees. It really looks nice:

 

Lori's house

It's comfy inside, too, and we enjoyed some quality Scrabble time. Saturday night I lost, but I attributed that to my being really tired. Lori clobbered me again on Sunday night, so I guess I have to accept that she really does play much better than I do! (Both scores were 300+ to 190 or so...)

The Scrabble Wiz

Saturday morning (yes, I know, this is in totally random order), we drove to California State University, in Pennsylvania. Lori taught a poetry workshop that morning. The students were teachers (from Pennsylvania and West Virginia), and the goal was for them to learn poetry writing exercises that they could subsequently use in their classes.

Participants each received a copy of "The Working Poet," which contains such writing exercises, along with an anthology of poems (for discussion, and to serve as models). But we didn't even crack the text during class. Lori began with a quote by Dean Young, about writing poems.

Let us suppose that everyone in the world wakes up today and tries to write a poem. It is impossible to know what will happen next but certainly we may be assured that the world will not be made worse.

She then presented several exercises, and we all worked with them, putting ideas (if not poems) on paper. I was so impressed with her teaching - well paced, interesting, involving the students, encouraging them to share what they'd written. It also was a good bit of fun, trying to follow the exercises and create the beginnings of poems. Afterwards, I observed most of the students wanting to chat with Lori, thanking her for her ideas, and in one case proposing that Lori visit and teach at her school.

She was a hit!

We read a number of poems during the workshop; this was my favorite:

Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota
By James Wright

Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,  
Asleep on the black trunk,
Blowing like a leaf in green shadow.  
Down the ravine behind the empty house,  
The cowbells follow one another  
Into the distances of the afternoon.  
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,  
The droppings of last year’s horses  
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.  
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life. 

Afterwards, as we headed to our car, we noticed this interesting sculpture:

The Ascent of Humanity,
by Allan Cottril of Washington, PA

We detoured to take a closer look. Apparently this sculpture was originally installed on the side of a building. When that building was later demolished, they kept intact the walls with the sculpture.

The descriptive plaque explained

The sculpture consists of fifteen human figures in bonded bronze, each one eight to ten feet tall, ascending two adjoining walls of the Duda World Culture Building at California University of Pennsylvania. The sculpture begins with Cro-Magnon man at the bottom and ends with a female astronaut at the top; in between are figures representing various races and cultures of the world.

This sculpture is an inspiration to humanity's quest for excellence and the ascent to knowledge, wisdom, caring, responsibility, and humanity.

One night - I guess it was Saturday - we had dinner at Chaang Thai Restaurant in downtown Morgantown. The restaurant was very pleasant. We sat at a high table, against the wall, so we could chat easily, and still have a commanding view of two very cute babies, at nearby tables.

The food was delicious. Here is just one photo, of the Chaang Fresh Rolls we shared (it is possible that I could have enjoyed an entire meal of those rolls).

We followed that up with ice cream, across the street at Cold Stone Creamery. That was probably a mistake - it was delicious, but probably more food than we needed. And, come to think of it, probably the reason I struggled to stay awake during that first Scrabble game! But we made up for it the next day, with lots of walking at Cooper's Rock.

As always, a fun visit with Lori. Can't wait til next time!

Fall in West Virginia

West Virginia is a beautiful place. Lori says they've gotten more than their fair share of rain lately (when I arrived on Friday, she was happily mowing the jungle of grass that had been thriving with all that rain). But this weekend there has been no rain, just blue sky and sunshine.

I took this photo from my car, driving south on I-79 (Please don't tell my mother; I promise I didn't actually look through the camera while driving.  I have many blurry photos to confirm this). This is typical of highways in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, built after blasting through rock:

These beauties were somewhere in Morgantown, along one of our walks with Misty:

Asters

And these mums are in the flower bed, alongside Lori's house:

This is the view down the hill, from Lori's porch, looking east as the sun is setting:

Today we drove to Cooper's Rock State Park, and visited the overlook, and did some hiking.

Near the overlook, looking out over the Cheat River Gorge

Looking back from the overlook

 

Cheat River

Hiking through the forest

I am always amazed at the size of the rocks
that we see just lying around in this forest

Lori and I tried to take a picture of ourselves, first with my camera, then with hers. We took shot after shot, most of them looking like the old snaps we'd take at the photo booth at the mall. We laughed and laughed, arguing over who looked dorkier in each picture.

At one point, I said, "that picture makes you look taller than me." Lori was quick to point out, "I am taller than you!" This is true; she is taller...

The best of our self-photography

Taken by a kind stranger who took pity on us!

Misty thoroughly enjoyed her walk, sniffing diligently, and barking furiously at a variety of dogs. She became particularly vocal when Lori left us for a few minutes:

Where did she go?!?

When we got home, Misty collapsed for a nap. (So did Lori, but I didn't take her picture.)

More West Virginia updates to come...

Road Trip: Morgantown

Jim and I recently took a road trip. We drove to Morgantown WV; Columbus OH; home for a day; and then to Chicago IL.

The first installment: Morgantown! We drove down last Thursday. The trip was uneventful, and we arrived in the late afternoon and checked into the Clarion Hotel Morgan.

Hotel Morgan, behind the red building

The building to the left is some sort of art gallery

Hotel Morgan is a historic building in downtown Morgantown. It was built in 1925 and renovated in 1999. We found it pleasant and comfortable, and convenient to downtown.

Thursday evening, we enjoyed pizza at Lori's house, and let her win at Scrabble. ("Let her win" - Hah! She is the Scrabble Queen.) The pizza was from the New Day Bakery, just down the hill from her place. Apparently she orders from them often - when she called to place our order, she gave her name, and the fellow on the phone immediately offered, "we do have fresh tomatoes today!" And I should have taken pictures of Lori's new porch swing (of which I am now jealous...)

After breakfast on Saturday (Jim appreciated that the breakfast room did NOT have a TV blaring), we walked to the library and met Lori. (Lori's comment about the Morgantown library made me laugh: "It will make you really appreciate the Kalamazoo library.")

From there, we walked to the PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) station. WVU has 3 campuses, and this system connects them, and downtown Morgantown. As many times as I've visited Lori, I had never riden the PRT, so we made sure to check it out. It was great! Many students had already finished the term and left the campus, so there were no crowds and we could enjoy talking and gawking. We also enjoyed trying to figure out how the cars operate, and how the track is kept clear in winter - our engineer father would be proud of us! 

Those metal bars, at wheel height, provide power.
The cars are small - there are 8 seats, and 
room for a few people to stand as well.

At times, we had the feeling of being on a 
roller coaster, though of course we didn't
achieve amusement park speeds!
And we were right about dealing with 
weather: embedded piping contains a 
solution to melt snow

The view was gorgeous - spring is further along in WV than in Mich, as these photos show.

Lori & Robin - not really scenery...

Back in Morgantown, we stepped off the PRT and Jim pointed across the street and said, "Look, a yarn store!" Indeed, he was right (he is always right): there was The Needlecraft Barn, and we stepped inside to take a look. It was a lovely store, with a lovely owner, and we enjoyed ourselves, while supporting the local economy.

The yellow-green yarn will likely become a sweater, and the blue yarn (a gift from Lori) will be a shawl. But more about those in another post...!

We walked through town, and visited a coin store - but Jim didn't have as much success there: apparently there was a trade show in Pittsburgh, and most of the interesting stock was there, instead of waiting for Jim in Morgantown. :(

We lunched at Maxwell's, a quiet little restaurant that I think we would never have found on our own. It was located on a little side street, down some stairs (in a basement?). The food and ambiance were wonderful! If I were a more diligent blogger, I'd have pictures of the food. But at least I have pictures of the people.

Lori and Jim, playing nicely

After lunch, we stopped at the Appalachian Gallery (another of my favorite Morgantown spots), and then made our way to the car, and back to Lori's place. We used our time there productively (!), looking up shawl patterns to knit out of the newly purchased yarn. Lori & I finally tore ourselves away to walk Misty (who, at some 10 years of age, is finally slowing down a bit).

In the late afternoon, Jim and I climbed back into the car & headed for our next stop. Stay tuned for Road Trip: Columbus!

Thanks Lori, for a great visit!

Edited 5/25 to fix labels - they've been driving me nuts, since Blogspot had their issues a few weeks ago...