Living Our Dream

A Couple of Trips to Pittsburgh

Berlin, OH - Events of Saturday, August 15 to Saturday, August 22, 2015

One of the reasons we decided to stay in Ohio all summer is so we could spend time with Lydia. On Saturday, August 15th, we drove to Pittsburgh for the day to do just that.

Lydia is really growing, and she is developing a personality. She is also on the verge of starting to walk. When Lora, J. Michael and Lydia were with us in Berlin for the Memorial Day weekend, Lydia pulled herself up to a standing position by herself for the first time. By her birthday in the middle of July, she was able to pull herself up and work her way along the couch while holding on.

Now, Lydia likes to hold onto your hands and walk all over the room. She has learned to twist her body to get you to change directions to go the way she wants to go.

Lydia is also able to get herself to a standing position and stay there for a short period without holding onto anything. Any day now Lydia will be able to put it all together and be able to walk completely on her own.

Lydia working on getting herself to a standing position

Look, Ma, no hands!

Since Lydia is starting to be quite mobile, Lora and J. Michael decided it's time to do some serious baby-proofing of the house. J. Michael is just beginning to recover from back problems he has been having for many weeks. Since he is still unable to easily bend, stoop or climb a ladder, Paul spent much of the day helping Lora and J. Michael with the baby-proofing. He installed a baby gate at the top of the stairs and he installed tie-down straps on book cases, on Lydia's changing table and on a chest of drawers to prevent them from tipping should Lydia try to climb on them.

We also spent time watching Lydia play. Although Lora and J. Michael's boxers are very gentle and patient with Lydia, she really seems to love Freeway because he is more her size. She can't throw very far yet, and her aim isn't very good; but she likes to throw toys for Freeway to chase.

Lydia playing with Freeway

Later on Saturday afternoon, Lora and J. Michael treated us to dinner at Bahama Breeze. Lora, J. Michael and Margery each had a Firecracker Shrimp appetizer for their dinner along with a side salad. Paul had chicken with cilantro crema. He also sampled a couple of the Firecracker Shrimp. Everything was delish!

We usually share a Chocolate Island for dessert when we go to Bahama Breeze, but this time we stopped at Scoops for ice cream on the way back to the house instead. Since it was a hot day, it was a great way to end a delicious dinner.

We headed back to Scenic Hills and arrived just as it was starting to get dark.

J. Michael had the following Friday off work. He and Lora were thinking about going to a late matinee, so we offered to go to their house and baby sit. That way, we would get to see Lydia again, and Paul could install the child-proof latches on the kitchen and bathroom cabinets that he didn't have time to do the previous Saturday.

Paul not only had time to finish the baby-proofing, but he also had time to give the truck a much-needed bath. It was filthy from driving back roads of Berlin during a rain storm a while back.

Later in the afternoon, we ordered a small pizza and a 6-inch Italian sub from Hunner's Pizza for the two of us to share for dinner. Since Lora and J. Michael weren't back from the movie yet, we decided to eat in the living room so we could watch a little TV while we ate. We used a snack table for our dinner, and we temporarily relocated Lydia's highchair from the dining room to the living room.

When feeding Lydia, Margery held the bowl of cereal in her hand, and she put the jar of baby food jar on the foot rest of the highchair. We thought it was really cute the way Lydia kept looking down every time she got a bite of baby food instead of cereal. She could easily see the cereal in Margery's hand; but since she couldn't see the baby food, she was trying to figure out where it was coming from.

Lydia looking for the baby food jar

The other thing that is cute is the way Lydia is becoming aware of cameras. When she sees one, she knows she is the center of attention and begins to grin, laugh and ham it up.

Lydia hamming it up for the camera

And just look at all those teeth! She has at least 8 of them.

Lora and J. Michael got home from the movie around 6:30. They saw "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation." We had seen it the day before, and we all agreed it was an excellent movie.

After saying our good-byes, we headed back to Berlin. With the sun going down earlier these days, it was almost completely dark by the time we got back around 9:00.

On Saturday afternoon, we fired up the smoker again. This time we smoked shrimp. It was the last batch we had left in the freezer from our stop last fall in Lower Alabama. We marinated them for about an hour in a little olive oil, Worcestershire and Tabasco. Then we added several tablespoons of melted butter to the pan before placing them in the smoker. Unlike pork and turkey that take hours, the shrimp only took about 20 minutes at 200º.

Smoked shrimp

We were afraid the shrimp wouldn't pick up much smoke flavor in that short a cooking time; but because the shrimp are small, 20 minutes is plenty of time for the smoke to penetrate. They were outstanding!

We continue to enjoy our time in Ohio's Amish Country. It has been a very relaxing summer.

Time for Hobbies

Berlin, OH

Although we have been involved in several activities over the past couple of weeks like going to Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens in Canton, going Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh with Lora, J. Michael and Lydia and going to Kingwood Center Gardens in Mansfield, we have also been spending a lot of time just hangin' around the RV park relaxing.

When in relaxation mode, we play at our hobbies. Margery likes to read (she has over 700 e-books lined up for download to her Kindle), do Precept Bible studies, and crochet for charity. She also likes to cook, and now that we have a bigger kitchen in our 5th wheel, she has enjoyed researching and experimenting with low carb/low sugar recipes. Since we have additional storage space, she has also gotten several new kitchen gadgets including a full-sized food processor that she really loves.

Before we retired and became full-time RVers, Paul's main hobbies were woodworking and gardening. Although he had to give up his workshop, he has been able to do a little woodworking from time to time while we've been on the road. We recently wrote about a project for the 5th wheel where he added two leaves to our dining table so it will expand to a bigger size.

Except for a couple of house plants, Paul wasn't able to do much gardening until about a year or so ago when we signed up for a 6-month deal on our site at Blueberry Hill in Florida. As part of our agreement to sign up for two years, the owners of the RV park landscaped our site, and Paul was able to putter around and do a little gardening while we were in Florida last winter.

Paul has also been able to do some container gardening this summer. Since we decided to spend the entire summer in Berlin, we got a couple of pots of flowers and a pot of herbs.

Pots of flowers and herbs

Paul also planted a tomato plant in a 5-gallon bucket back in early June, and we were finally able to pick our first tomato a week or so ago. It wasn't very big, but it sure was tasty.

First ripe tomato

Paul also has a new hobby - barbecuing. A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the new Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker we got and about trying it out for the first time smoking pork shoulder to make pulled pork. Since that time, we used the smoker two more times. The second time was to smoke a turkey breast.

When we used the smoker the first time for the pork shoulder, we used an old meat thermometer we happened to already have to check the internal temperature of the meat. We had to remove the lid of the smoker every time we wanted to stick the thermometer into the meat, and it took so long to register a reading the smoker cooled off significantly.

Since that first time using the smoker, we ordered a new meat thermometer that has a probe that can be left in the meat the entire cooking time so the lid of the smoker doesn't have to be removed at all. Our smoker has a convenient, silicone-rubber port through which the wire for the probe can be run. We used the new thermometer for the turkey, and it made a big difference in being able to better maintain the temperature of the smoker.

Turkey breast on the smoker with temperature probe in place

Based on recommendations on many websites, we brined the turkey breast overnight before smoking it. Although the brining of poultry is recommended for roasting as well as for smoking, we've never done that before. There are lots of recipes for brine solutions, many containing herbs and spices; but we used a fairly simple recipe with 1/2 cup of kosher salt and 2/3 cup of brown sugar to a gallon of water.

The big problem with brining is finding a container big enough in which to submerge the turkey breast and then finding enough space in the fridge to put the container. We solved both problems by using a large, zip-lock bag for brining. The other good thing about using a plastic bag is, if you squeeze all the air out of it before zipping the bag closed, you can greatly reduce the amount of brine solution needed. A half gallon of brine was enough for a turkey breast weighing almost 8 pounds.

Paul smoked the turkey at 240º for about 6 hours. Unlike the pork that took longer than expected, the turkey was done right on schedule thanks in part to the new meat thermometer that didn't require removing the lid of the smoker.

Turkey breast ready for carving

Wow! Brining sure made a difference in how moist the turkey was. The turkey was delicious that evening for dinner, and it is even better cold on sandwiches. It looks like we'll be buying a lot less lunch meat in the future.

About a week after smoking the turkey, we used the smoker for a third time for baby back ribs. Like we did with the pork shoulder, we smeared the ribs with yellow mustard and coated them with dry rub the night before and put them in the fridge overnight.

Because our smoker is small, we ordered a rack that holds the ribs standing on edge so we can fit more on the grate. We also had to cut the strip of ribs in half before placing them in the smoking rack.

Baby back ribs in the smoker

The ribs took about 5 hours. For the last hour of the cooking time, Paul mopped the ribs with barbecue sauce.

Ribs ready to come out of the smoker

The ribs were delish! They were nice and smokey and fall-off-the-bone tender - just the way we like them.

We will undoubtedly continue relaxing, but we also have a few activities in mind. Stay tuned.

Kingwood Center Gardens

Berlin, OH - Events of Friday, July 31, 2015

We have been having some beautiful summer weather here in Ohio. The cycle of rain we had throughout most of May, June and into early July has finally been broken. On July 31, we took advantage of the good weather and drove to Mansfield, Ohio, to visit Kingwood Center Gardens. Mansfield is about a 1¼-hour drive east of Berlin.

Kingwood Center is the 47-acre estate that once belonged to Charles Kelley King, who made his fortune working for the Ohio Brass Company in Mansfield. King started working for Ohio Brass in 1898 as an electrical engineer and eventually became President and Chairman of the Board. He led Ohio Brass to success in the manufacture of electrical components for railroads and trolleys.

Mr. King built Kingwood in 1926. He was married and divorced twice, and he had no children by either of his ex-wives. Since he had no direct heirs, he left much of his fortune and his estate to a foundation which he established before his death. The foundation continues to operate Kingwood today. The estate opened to the public in 1953 one year after Charles King's death. Admission is $5 per car or $2 per person for walk-ins.

From the parking lot, we headed down the main garden path where we were immediately struck by the wonderful combinations of colors and textures.

Blend of colors and textures in the first garden area

The gardens at Kingswood are more extensive today than they were during Mr. King's lifetime thanks to provisions he made for expansion when he set up his foundation. The main path leads to the Terrace Gardens, much of which was created in the 1990s.

View of the first two terraces

Border along the edge of the first terrace

Border of the second terrace

Another view of the second terrace

We were constantly amazed by the spectacular vignettes in the garden. Each time we went up to another level of the terrace or looked down a side path, the view was more beautiful than the one before.

View down a side path off the second terrace

The next terrace features a sunken garden, which did exist in Mr. King's time.

Sunken garden

Margery beside the sunken garden

The upper terrace is another part of the garden that was there in Mr. King's time. It contains the Formal Garden which was originally built around the swimming pool. The pool has now been filled in.

Formal Garden

From the Formal Garden we followed a path to the left. It led back down the hill through the Perennial Garden.

Perennial Garden

Some of the many perennials

The daylilies in the Perennial Garden were just about at their peak. There were dozens of varieties with blooms of many different colors, sizes and shapes.

Daylilies

We then crossed back over the main path and headed to the mansion. In an area in front of the house is another terrace with even more gardens.

Garden area in front of the house

Margery photographing the terrace in front of the house

Today, the mansion itself is used for offices for the foundation and to house an extensive horticultural library. Parts of the house are also open to visitors for self-guided tours. At 11:00 a.m. on Saturdays and at 2:00 p.m. on Sundays there are guided tours of the house for $3 per person. The guided tour includes parts of the house like the kitchen that are not open for the self-guided tour.

Kingwood mansion

Living room

Dining room

From the house, we headed back toward the parking lot and made a stop at the greenhouse/gift shop before heading out.

Flower display in the greenhouse courtyard

The gift shop has garden tools, decorative items, annuals, perennials and herbs for sale. The greenhouse has display areas that include annuals, perennials, cacti and tropicals.

Tropicals in the greenhouse

We really enjoyed our visit to Kingwood Center Gardens. We have visited a lot of botanical gardens in our travels, and this is one right up there with the best in our opinion. It certainly isn't the biggest or most spectacular we've seen (that would be Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia); but we really appreciate the creativity of the plant selection with its rich displays of color and texture. Not only is there is a lot of beauty packed into a relatively small space, but the admission price is also very reasonable.

As is frequently the case when we go sightseeing, we also researched places to eat. Athens Greek Restaurant got good online reviews, and since we never made it to the Greek community of Tarpon Springs when we were in Florida last winter, Greek food sounded good to us.

Athens Greek Restaurant has two locations in the Mansfield area - one in downtown Mansfield and one in the town of Ontario just to the west of Mansfield. We headed the one in Ontario for a late lunch because it was closer to Kingwood Center Gardens and because it was also closer US Route 30 that we would be taking back to Berlin.

Athens Greek Restaurant

We both had super-sized gyros ($6.95 for super, $4.95 for regular). We split an order of fries ($1.19 when added to any sandwich). The gyros were very large, and they were delicious.

Margery with her gyro

With our bellies full, we headed back to Scenic Hills. We were looking forward to some relaxation time.

Holy Smoke!

Berlin, OH - Events of Sunday, July 26 to Monday, July 27, 2015

Wictionary defines "holy smoke" as an idiomatic expression of surprise. Most of our regular readers know we love barbecue and just about anything smoked, but the fact that we bought a smoker to carry along with us in our RV was kind of a surprise, even to us.

A couple of years ago, J. Michael's brother got a smoker for Christmas. We have had the opportunity to sample several of his creations, and they were yummy. Then J. Michael got a smoker a few months ago. We had pulled pork when we were in Pittsburgh for Mother's Day and again when we were there for Lydia's birthday, and it was excellent. On one of our visits to Pittsburgh, Lora thawed some smoked turkey breast J. Michael had made previously so we could sample it, and it was also delicious. We have also been hearing about some of the other yummy things J. Michael has made like smoked pizza.

All that talk about smoking finally got to be too much, especially now that we're not doing as much traveling and sightseeing as we used to. Several weeks ago we started researching smokers that would be small enough for us to carry in our RV. We ended up with a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker. The Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) is available in three sizes - 14", 18" and 22". We got the small one. While it is supposed to be big enough to smoke a small turkey, we think it is also small enough to transport in the RV.

14" Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM)

A little over a week ago, we gave the smoker its first test by smoking a piece of pork shoulder to make pulled pork. Margery mixed up some dry rub on Sunday evening using a recipe we got from J. Michael.

Margery mixing up dry rub

Paul coated the pork with yellow mustard and then the dry rub. We refrigerated the meat overnight to give the flavors time to absorb.

Paul coating the pork with yellow mustard

Applying the dry rub

Unlike grilling that is done over a hot fire, smoking is done low and slow. Cooking temperatures generally run 225 to 250º, and cooking times are usually in the 4 to 8 or even 12-hour range.

Paul calculated a cook time of around 7 hours based on the weight of the piece of pork we had. We wanted to allow time for the pork to rest after cooking for the juices to redistribute and we also had to allow additional time to pull the pork before dinner that evening, so Paul got the fire started around 9:45 a.m. on Monday morning.

Starting the fire

After giving the fire a little time to get going, Paul put the pork in the smoker around 10:15. He held off putting the lid on the smoker just long enough to take the photo below.

Pork shoulder on the grate

We had a large, inexpensive smoker back when we had a stick house. Since our old smoker had a lot of air leaks, it didn't hold the temperature very well. The temperature inside the smoker is regulated by opening and closing vents (opening the vents lets in more air allowing the charcoal to burn hotter). After initially fiddling with the vents quite a bit, Paul discovered it was better to leave the vents of the WSM alone because it held a fairly stable temperature and only required occasional adjustments.

When the pork reached the recommended internal temperature, Paul removed the meat from the smoker, wrapped it in foil and placed it in a cooler to help hold its temperature while it rested.

Paul placing the foil-wrapped meat into a cooler to rest

The time for the pork to reach the recommended internal temperature took a little longer than Paul had calculated probably because he had to remove the lid of the smoker several times to insert a meat thermometer into the pork. Because the old thermometer we had took a long time to register a reading, the smoker had time to cool significantly each time Paul checked the temperature of the meat. We ordered a new meat thermometer the next day that has a probe that can be left in the meat continuously so the lid of the smoker doesn't have to be removed at all the next time we smoke something.

It was getting late and since we were hungry from smelling the pork cook all day, we were starving when it was finally time to unwrap the meat so we could pull it.

The big reveal - pork shoulder finally unwrapped

Pulling the pork

The surface of the meat in the photo above is quite dark, but it is not burnt. That's the bark created by the caramelization of the brown sugar in the dry rub. The bark was delicious. We know that because we both sampled it numerous times during the pulling process.

We ate a little later than usual, but it was worth the wait. The pork was tender, moist and smokey - just the way we like it.

There are a lot of different things we want to try in the smoker. Looks like it will be getting a real workout in the weeks to come.

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Kennywood Park

Berlin, OH - Events of Saturday, July 25, 2015

Kennywood Park is an amusement park in the Pittsburgh area. Anyone who is our age and who lived in Pittsburgh will remember the iconic Kennywood directional signs like the one shown at the top of the post. They were on telephone poles on almost every street corner in and around the city. There are still some signs today, but not nearly as many as there were years ago.

Every year, the car dealership J. Michael works for, Colussy Chevrolet, has a picnic for employees and their families at Kennywood. The picnic was on Saturday, July 25. Since we are staying nearby this year, we were invited to go along.

We haven't been to Kennywood for years, and it brings back a lot of fond memories of school picnics and Lora's high school band performances. We were looking forward to going to Kennywood again not only to reminisce, but also to watch Lydia's reaction to all the lights, colors and sounds. We left Berlin and drove the truck to Lora and J. Michael's in the morning.

After arriving at Lora and J. Michael's house around noon, we waited for Lydia to finish her morning nap then headed to Kennywood around 1:00. After finding a parking space, we headed into the park.

Entrance to Kennywood

Kennywood Park opened in 1899 as a trolley park at the end of the Monongahela Street Railway. Its purpose was to encourage people to ride the trolley. The park was built on the bluff overlooking the Monongahela River in a treed area of a farm owned by Anthony Kenny. Kenny's Grove, which had been a popular picnic area for locals since the Civil War, became Kennywood.

It was going on 2:00 when we arrived, and none of us had any lunch. Therefore, our first destination was the Potato Patch for some fries. The fries ($5.99) are available with numerous extra-cost toppings like bacon bits, cheese sauce and gravy.

The Potato Patch

Lora, J. Michael and Margery enjoying their fries while Lydia looks on from her stroller

After finishing our fries, we walked around the park to reminisce about some of the old rides and to see what was new. Kennywood has several historic, wooden roller coasters. First opened in 1927, the Pippin (now the Thunderbolt) was one of Paul's favorites. The unique feature of the Thunderbolt is it does not start out from the station by going up a lift hill. Instead, it immediately drops down into a ravine. The lift hill comes later in the ride.

The Thunderbolt

Of course, any time you mention roller coasters, there is bound to be a discussion of which is better - wood or steel. Kennywood has newer, steel coasters as well. The Phantom's Revenge originally opened in 1991 as the Steel Phantom. It had the longest drop and was the fastest coaster in the world at the time. It is now 10th place or lower in terms of speed.

Phantom's Revenge

One of the newer rides that is a jaw-dropper is the Black Widow. Opened in 2012, this ride has a giant pendulum that not only swings riders in an arc that reaches a height of up to 146 feet above the ground, it also rotates. Riders experience weightlessness as the pendulum drops.

Black Widow

While walking around the park, we passed the Fish Pond. When Lora saw they had plush Minion toys as prizes, she couldn't resist.

Lora and Lydia trying to win a Minion toy

Of course, we know there aren't many fish in the pond that are marked for the big prizes, so Lora ended up with only a small, stuffed green bug. However, while we were standing there, a man walked by and handed Lydia a larger, stuffed flamingo. He had won an even bigger bigger stuffed animal at the baseball throwing booth next door and apparently didn't need two prizes. Lydia was thrilled. She loved the fuzzy beak.

Lydia with her stuffed flamingo

We knew Lydia was too small for most of the rides, even in Kiddieland. However, the Olde Kennywood Railroad was certainly tame enough, even for us adults. Opened in 1945, the narrow gauge railroad traverses the top of the bluff overlooking the Monongahela River. The ride features displays of old photos of the park while a recording tells about the park's history. The locomotives, which are gasoline powered, are from the 1939 World's Fair.

Train pulling into the station

Lora and Lydia on the train

From the train, we headed to the carousel. The Kennywood carousel was originally built for the 1926 Philadelphia Sesqui-Centenial. When it was not completed in time, it was purchased by Kennywood and began operation in the park in 1927. The carousel has 50 jumping horses, 14 stationary horses, one stationary lion, one stationary tiger and four benches. The carousel is decorated with over 1500 lights.

Carousel with 1500 lights

Lydia enjoyed her ride. It's surprising how fast the carousel goes, but that didn't seem to bother her. She liked the wind in her face.

Lora and Lydia on the carousel

In addition to supplying admission tickets, Colussy Chevrolet also provided a catered dinner. After riding the the carousel, it was approaching dinner time, so we headed to the pavilion Colussy had reserved.

Lydia waiting for dinner

Of course, Lydia had a dinner of baby food while the rest of us dined on hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken, baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad and cookies. After dinner we stopped at the carousel for one more ride before heading to the car.

Lydia, who had missed her afternoon nap, seemed pretty tired while sitting at the picnic table after dinner, and we all thought she would be asleep before we got out of the parking lot. However, the carousel ride must have given her a second wind because she was bright eyed for the entire 45-minute drive home.

Lydia was bright-eyed all the way home.

From Lora and J. Michael's house, we headed back to Berlin, OH. We made good time and arrived at Scenic Hills around 9:30.

We have a new hobby to report on in our next post. Stay tuned.