Living Our Dream

Pittsburgh Zoo

Berlin, OH/Pittsburgh, PA - Events of Friday, September 25, 2015

With all our appointments over, we wanted to do something fun on Friday morning before heading back to Berlin. We were happy when Lora suggested going to the zoo. Not only would it be fun watching Lydia watch the animals; but we haven't been there for at least 25 or 30 years, and we were curious to see all the changes that had been made.

The Pittsburgh Zoo, then called the Highland Park Zoo, was opened in the Highland Park area of Pittsburgh in 1898 thanks to a gift of $125,000 (about $4 million in today's dollars) from philanthropist Christopher Lyman Magee. The zoo provided visitors with glimpses of animals most people had never seen.

We headed out to the zoo around 9:00 on Friday morning right after breakfast and right after the morning rush hour. The air was cool, but the sun was warm as we headed into the zoo.

Lora, Lydia and Paul just inside the zoo entrance

Although Lydia rode in the stroller much of the time, she also did some walking. She still needs to hold a hand when walking long distances, especially outside on uneven ground, but she is getting to be very mobile.

Lydia walking through the zoo

The first area we came to was the Asian Forest and an exhibit of Amur Tigers.

Lydia and Lora checking out the tiger

In addition to the tigers and several other animals, the Asian Forest area also had Amur Leopards.

Amur Leopard

We then moved into the African Savanna where the first exhibit had brightly colored flamingos.

Flamingos

Also in the savanna were giraffes, zebras, lions, cheetahs, rhinos and several types of antelopes. In the same exhibit as the antelopes was also an ostrich.

Antelopes and an ostrich

One of Paul's favorite zoo animals is the elephant. Lydia seemed to like them, too.

Lydia and Lora watching the elephants

The Tropical Forest opened in 1991. It is a 5-acre, indoor rainforest that houses 16 species of primates. Different species of the monkeys and apes are in separate enclosures in the forest. The next photo shows Margery holding Lydia while checking out the gorillas.

Margery and Lydia checking out the gorillas

When the zoo was first built, it was constructed the same way as all zoos at that time with a series of indoor and outdoor cages to house the animals. In the 1980s, the Pittsburgh Zoo, along with most zoos around the world, began to develop more naturalistic habitats in which to display the animals. The last time we were at the Pittsburgh Zoo, they were just starting to transform the exhibits.

The only thing we recognized from the old zoo were the remains of the bear enclosures. Built in 1937 as a WPA project, the bear enclosures were some of the earliest attempts at naturalistic animal exhibits. They were huge stone enclosures built into the side of a hill. There were no bars. The animals were confined by a deep chasm and a vertical wall in front and high stone walls in back. There were several enclosures that each housed a different kind of bear.

Polar bear enclosure built in 1937

The stone bear enclosures are no longer used. Most of them have been almost completely filled in to match the original contour of the hill with only the tops of the stone walls visible. Trees have even been planted to eventually blend the remnants of the enclosures into the hillside. One bear enclosure has had only the chasm in front filled in so you can still see the general shape of the original enclosure.

Original stone bear enclosure

The only bears at the zoo now are two polar bears housed in a new, larger enclosure called the Water's Edge.

One of only two polar bears in the new bear exhibit area

The AquaZoo, which was originally opened in 1967, was renovated, expanded and reopened as the PPG Aquarium in 2000. It is located adjacent to the Water's Edge and houses fish and aquatic life of all kinds. Shown below are just a few of the hundreds of kinds of fish and aquatic life in the PPG Aquarium.

Puffer fish

Fuzzy dwarf lionfish

Anemone

Also housed in the aquarium are the penguins. It's fun to watch them waddle around on land, then jump into the water where they are very fast and graceful.

Penguins

After leaving the aquarium, we happened to pass by the sea lion exhibit on our way to the exit, and they were just starting a demonstration of sea lion training. The training of the sea lions is not just a way to teach them tricks to entertain visitors, but it is primarily a way to stimulate the animals. All the so-called tricks are related to the natural behavior of the sea lions in the wild.

Large, male sea lion standing on his front flippers

After watching the sea lions, we continued toward the exit. We stopped for photos at a bronze sculpture of a tortoise.

Lora and Lydia with a bronze tortoise

We made a stop for lunch at Qdoba on the way back to the house, then finished packing stuff in the truck and made the two-hour drive to the 5th wheel back in Berlin. We have less than a week before we're scheduled to head south. We hope to have another update before we leave.

One Last Trip to Pittsburgh

Berlin, OH/Pittsburgh, PA - Events of Tuesday, September 23 to Friday, September 25, 2015

In the past, we have always taken the motor home to Pittsburgh for a week or so around the end of September for our annual doctor visits. We parked on the RV pad next to Lora and J. Michael's garage. For the first time this year we condensed our appointments into just a few days, left the 5th wheel in Ohio, drove the truck to Pittsburgh and stayed in Lora and J. Michael's guest bedroom.

We left Berlin early last Tuesday morning and headed straight to our first appointment - a cleaning and a checkup at the dentist for Margery. With a good report, we then headed to Lora and J. Michael's house after a quick stop for lunch at Qdoba.

We were happy to see Lora and J. Michael, but we were especially happy to see Lydia. Even with the passing of only a week or so, we can see changes in Lydia since we saw her last. Her latest thing is to want to sit on the couch or on the chair next to you like a "big girl" rather than on your lap.

Lydia sitting next to Grammy

Paul's dentist appointment was Wednesday morning. In the early afternoon, we both had our annual medical checkups. We're both good to go for another year.

Thursday was Paul's birthday. Instead of a birthday cake, Lora got Paul some chocolate chip cookies when she went shopping on Wednesday morning. They looked too yummy to wait until Thursday to try them, so we had them for dessert on Wednesday even though it was a day early. Lydia liked them, too.

Lydia about to take a bite of chocolate chip cookie

With our scheduled appointments completed, we had made arrangements to take Paul's step mom out to lunch at Bella Frutteto on Thursday. Bella Frutetto is located in a small strip mall in the North Hills of Pittsburgh. They have a number of good sandwiches, wraps and paninis for lunch that include house-made chips, regular fries, sweet potato fries or a salad of baby greens for about $9 to $11.

Margery, Lora, Lydia and Paul's step mom at Bella Frutteto

After dinner Thursday evening, Lora got out the bubble machine we got for Lydia's birthday party. Lydia likes chasing the bubbles and feeling them pop on her face.

Lydia having fun with the bubbles

Lydia popping bubbles

Trying to get good photos of Lydia with the fast-moving bubbles was a challenge, especially with the dogs also chasing the bubbles. However, Lora got the amazing shot below with her cell phone.

Lora's shot of Lydia chasing bubbles

We were scheduled to head back to Berlin on Friday afternoon, but first we had a special outing scheduled for the morning. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

Summer is Almost Gone

Berlin, OH - Events of Thursday, September 10 to Sunday, September 13, 2015

Although summer doesn't officially end until the fall equinox (September 23 this year), Labor Day is usually considered to be the end of summer for all practical purposes. The weather usually stays hot through Labor Day, much to the chagrin of students who are back in school; but shortly afterward, cooler temperatures start to creep in. That certainly was the case this year because the highs in the upper 80s of the Labor Day Weekend gave way to a high that didn't get above 60º only one week later. On top of that, we also had a couple of nights with the lows in the mid-40s. It started warming up again a few days afterward, but probably won't get nearly as warm as it was.

The impending arrival of fall means we only have a few weeks left in Berlin. Therefore, we have started thinking about where we want to stop on our way south when we leave here. We'll end up in Bushnell, Florida, of course, with a probable stop in Summerdale, Alabama, but we haven't decided where to stop on the way to Alabama.

One of the things Paul wanted to do before we hit the road was to root some cuttings of the calibrachoa flowers we got last spring. The hope is they will be ready to plant when we get to our site in Blueberry Hill in Florida. Last Thursday, Paul got busy preparing the cuttings.

Cuttings being readied for rooting

Paul removed the lower leaves of each cutting, dipped the base in rooting hormone and stuck it into the planting medium.

Placing cutting in rooting medium

Several weeks ago, Paul got a nice little "greenhouse" planter for the cuttings at Menard's. The cover will keep the humidity high to prevent wilting. With the cover in place, however, the planter has to be kept out of direct sun so the temperature inside won't skyrocket and fry the cuttings.

Cuttings in "greenhouse" planter

The cool weather we talked about earlier reached its peak with a rainy, windy day on Saturday. In spite of the inclement weather, we needed to run a few errands and ended up stopping at the Walnut Creek Amish Flea Market while we were out. The Holmes County Flea Market is close to the campground, and we have been to it a couple of times over the summer, but we haven't been to the flea market in Walnut Creek since we first got to Berlin last spring.

Fall is a very popular time in the Holmes County area. Summer weekends are busy, but fall weekends are really busy. Even though it was cool, windy and rainy, traffic in the area was very heavy. The flea market was very busy, too.

Even with the crowds, we had a good time looking around the market. Chainsaw carvings are popular at flea markets, and there were some very unusual ones available at Walnut Creek. Carvings of bears like the ones at the right of the photo below are common, but we have never seen anything like the deer in the center of the photo and the fox to the left.

Unusual chainsaw carvings - fox and deer head

Although we have seen bald eagles before, the one at Walnut Creek was particularly nice.

Chainsaw-carved bald eagle

Margery stopped to check out some kids' clothes at the flea market.

Margery checking out kids' clothes

After finishing up at the flea market, we headed back to the 5th wheel where we spent the rest of the rainy afternoon watching an old movie on TV. We also made good use of our electric fireplace because the temperature outside never got above 60º.

On Sunday, J. Michael had a golf outing he wanted to attend, and Lora had a fund-raiser bowling event for Mary Kay. We volunteered to drive to Pittsburgh to spend the day with Lydia babysitting.

When Lora, J. Michael and Lydia were with us for Labor Day, we reported Lydia was able to walk several steps at a time all on her own. One week later, she is able to walk pretty much anywhere she wants. She still crawls if she wants to get someplace in a hurry, but she has discovered a big advantage to walking is her hands are free to carry things. She is obviously pleased with her newly-learned skill.

Lydia happily walking all the way across the room

Our trip to Pittsburgh was also a good time to take with us the swing Paul had built for Lydia and to reassemble it there.

Lydia supervising the assembly of her swing

Lydia testing the swing

We topped off the afternoon with a small pepperoni pizza for Margery and an Italian sub for Paul from Hunner's Pizza for dinner before heading back to Scenic Hills.

Labor Day Weekend

Berlin, OH - Events of Friday, September 4 to Monday, September 7, 2015

Lora, J. Michael and Lydia pulled into the site behind us at Scenic Hills around 1:30 on Friday afternoon. After they got backed in, they brought Lydia over, and we watched her while they got set up. We stopped at the swing on the way back to our rig so Lydia could try it out.

Margery pushing Lydia in the swing

She obviously loved it.

Lydia having a ball on the swing

After dinner that evening, we sat around outside. As the sun started going down, it cooled off enough for us to have a campfire.

Lydia cuddling with Grammy before the campfire

Lydia at the campfire

On Saturday morning, we went to Der Dutchman for the breakfast buffet, then made a quick stop at Walnut Creek Cheese to pick up a few items. From there, we headed to Hershberger's Farm Market for Lydia to see the animals at their petting zoo.

Lydia and Lora with Big Ben

Feeding a goat

Feeding more goats

Grammy holding a kitten for Lydia to pet

By the way, we reported Lydia was able to get to a standing position on her own without holding onto anything the last time we went to Pittsburgh. Not surprisingly, she is now able to walk a few steps on her own.

Lydia is also able to walk fairly long distances while holding onto hands, which she demonstrated at Hershberger's by walking almost all the way to the car. She didn't want to stop and cried when she was picked up to be put into her car seat.

Lydia walking with Mom and Dad

We also made a stop at the Holmes County Flea Market on the way back to the campground. From the full parking lot and crowded aisles, it looked like it was a good weekend for the vendors. Fall merchandise was abundant at the flea market, and there was at least one vendor with Christmas items on display.

Back at the campground, we had a dinner of grilled chicken and tomato-cucumber-feta salad. It was too hot for a campfire, so we just sat outside chatting for a while before heading off to bed.

Speaking of it being hot, except for one breakfast we had at Der Dutchman, we ate all our meals in the air conditioned comfort of the 5th wheel. The enlarged dining table worked very well and provided plenty of room for the five of us.

On Sunday, Lora and J. Michael headed off after breakfast to play mini-golf while we watched Lydia. Paul was busy off and on most of the day tending baby back ribs in the smoker for dinner that evening. They were delish - nice and smokey and tender.

Baby back ribs

It was too hot again for a campfire on Sunday evening, so we headed into downtown Berlin after dinner for some treats at the new Dairy Queen that just opened a few days prior. The Dairy Queen is one of only a very few places in the area that is open on Sundays.

Lydia at the Dairy Queen

After breakfast on Monday, we watched Lydia while Lora and J. Michael packed up their trailer. They headed back to Pittsburgh shortly before noon. Although we had a few chores to catch up on, we spent most of the rest of the day settling back into our relaxation routine.

More Smoke and a Project for Lydia

Berlin, OH - Events of Saturday, August 29 to Tuesday, September 2, 2015

We have been putting our smoker to good use ever since we first got it. We have smoked a pork shoulder, a turkey breast and baby back ribs.

Walnut Creek Cheese has a nice selection of meats at their meat counter, and that's where we get most of our meats when we are staying here in Berlin. When we were shopping there last week, we saw they had beef brisket at $4.79 a pound. The going price these days for brisket is around $8 a pound, so we bought a small one and smoked it last Saturday.

Most of the time meat is smoked right on the grate; but this time, we decided to try putting the meat in a shallow, disposable pan to catch the juices.

Brisket in the smoker

The brisket took about 5½ hours. After a 45-minute resting time wrapped in foil to give the juices time to redistribute, the brisket was ready for carving.

Beef brisket

Wow, was it tender! It was also nice and smokey. The downside to smoking in a pan is you don't get a nice, crisp bark from the caramelization of the brown sugar in the rub, but the flavor of the juices that are captured in the pan are outstanding when poured over the meat. You almost don't need barbecue sauce.

Then last Wednesday, we smoked a meat loaf. The recipe we used is half pork sausage and half ground beef. Since is also contains bread crumbs soaked in buttermilk, the finished product is nice and moist. It was smokey and yummy served with barbecue sauce.

Smoked meatloaf

And now on to Lydia's project. Lydia loves swings because she seems to like to feel the wind in her face. Therefore, family friends bought her a swing seat by Little Tykes. Paul volunteered to make a frame to hang it.

Since Paul would have to assemble the swing to fit everything together before taking it to Pittsburgh anyway, he decided to build it in time for Lydia to use it when they came to Scenic Hills to be with us for Labor Day. Afterward, he will disassemble it, we will take it to Pittsburgh the next time we go, and he will reassemble it there.

After picking up most of the materials at Lowe's on a recent trip to Massillon, Ohio, Paul started cutting.

Cutting uprights for the swing

It was a little tricky to wrestle the leg assemblies around to get the crossbar bolted in place and then get the whole thing standing upright, but Margery helped. Once the main assembly was put together, it was only a matter of installing some angle braces...

Assembly upright with angle braces installed

...and then hanging the swing. It's now ready for Lydia to test it out.

Completed swing

Aside from smoking meat and building the swing, we continue to spend a lot of time relaxing. And who knows how to relax better than a dog. The next photo shows Freeway in one of his three favorite locations on the top of the back of our theater seating. His other favorite places are the top of the back of the couch so he can see out the back window or on someone's lap.

Freeway relaxing

With the Labor Day weekend approaching, the campground is filling up. We're looking forward to the arrival of Lora, J. Michael and Lydia. Stay tuned.