A Wandering WeyrCat...

It all started because I wanted to see where my favorite coffee is roasted. Really! My MiL and I packed up the kids and took a 40 minute drive to Bones Coffee in Cape Coral Florida. The manager wasn't in to give us a tour, but we took some pictures, got some coffee and swag, and had a few squees. Then MiL decided to play Tour Guide, and I LOVE that. So off to Pine Island we went! We crossed the beautiful Matlacha Pass Charlotte Harbor estuary , a tidal node connecting Charlotte Harbor and the Caloosahatchee River . The winding water is home to oyster bars, mangrove islands and seagrass flats. It contains the Matlacha Pass Aquatic Preserve , and ends at the Matlacha Aquatic National Wildlife Refuge . Unfortunately, it suffers from Red Tide . Tucked in between Pine Island and the mainland is a tiny island called Matlacha.  Matlacha, Florida , population 537 ( 2019 ), reminds me very much of the tiny fishing town on the way to Apalachi...

Sticker or Label showing the Hotel Central in Solingen Ohligs, Germany, around 1940.  My husband's great grandfather ran the hotel. I'm posting in hopes of getting more information on the place or town at that time.  On the corner of Bahnhofstrasse and Düsseldorfer Strasse, The Hotel Kaiserhof (at least 1920) later became the Hotel Central. After that, an amusement arcade was and is located there again until now ( Bilder-von-Solingen ).  1907, 1960, 2013 ( BvS ).  The Hotel Kaiserhof burned down in 1920 and was rebuilt towards the end of the decade as Hotel Central, ”Werner Janßen wrote to us. The modern architecture of the 1920s can still be recognized today by the horizontal lines of the facade. The great room in the hotel served as a casino for British occupation officers after the Second World War.  Karl-Heinz Eggert remembers his first steps on the dance floor. In the Hotel Central he attended a dance course at the Wagner dance schoo...

IN PROGRESS ENTRY 2021, May 13-17 Baltimore Maryland  After enduring two and a half hours of a screaming car ride, we arrived frazzled and hungry in the inner harbor of Baltimore, Maryland.  In Maryland, I MUST have crab. It's what they're known for, afterall. So, to Bubba Gump Shrimp Company we went. Yes. Bubba Gump, as in Forrest Gump . It's right on the water, and our window table was smack in front of the tied three masted ship the Constellation . Absolutely gorgeous.  Built in 1797, and rebuilt in 1854, the US Naval Sloop of War boasted 38 guns. She was the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. *She served in the blockade of Tripoli in May 1802. *In 1813 she warded off attacks from the British, during the War of 1812. *During the Barbary War, 1815, she joined in the capture of the Algerian frigate Mashuda. *From 1918 to 1825, Constellation served as flagship, protecting American commerce in Venezuela and Peru against privat...

Today we went  the Science Center of Baltimore, MD, in the Inner Harbor! We spent 20 minutes in the dinosaur section right inside the front door. Hobbit was enthralled by the activities where you figured out what animals were (or weren't) dinosaurs! Barb and I had a little fun in there too! Nemo (and honestly all of us) fell in love with the physics section. The floating ball station was a huge hit.  Nemo didn't get as much out of it as his brother, but soon,, Tiny human, soon. (Check out the harp with laser strings!) Hobbit spent maybe a third of the our museum time at this giant Mousetrap. We couldn't tear him away for longer than a couple minutes. We did every activity in Newton's Alley and he kept coming back to this contraption.  Barb showing off her cycling skills to power a lightbulb. The walk to dinner was nice, except for Hare Krishna telling us we were g...

May 14, 2021. Thomas the Tank Engine came to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, MD. At just 2.5 hrs away, I booked tickets. We decided to make it a weekend in Baltimore. We booked rooms, stayed the night before, and the very first thing you get to see is Thomas! A "real, with a face" Thomas. Not to be confused with a "real Thomas" aka LB&SCR E2 class Engine. (Spoilers at the very end.) p ⚠️⚠️ The rest may contain information that is unsuitable for young Thomas fans. Akin to Santa, if you catch my drift. ⚠️⚠️ The Engine at this Day Out with Thomas may be more of a caboose than an engine. The face moves and he toots, which is cool, but when he took us out on our ride, the train was actually pulled by a B&O diesel. At happened to catch it pulling out with another excursion.  There is a Thomas, in Japan, that appears to be a full size working engine (if not Thomas's actual model)....