Georgetown

We went to Georgetown last Saturday and I have to tell you I'm in *love* with Georgetown!  It's so stinkin' cute!

We drove up Guanella Pass to Clear Lake for a picnic lunch. The lake was nothing too exciting but the scenery around was fabulous and the drive, while full of switchbacks, was gorgeous. Thank goodness for my seabands or I'd get sick every time we go up the mountain! We started to have lunch and the wind was blowing and it was C-O-L-D!

We ate in a hurry because, well, it was cold. Just as we were heading back to the car it started to rain. Before we left that morning we said "maybe we should bring jackets" but then we forgot. Lesson learned! It's late August - we need jackets. We should probably always have them in the car anyway.

After lunch we went into Georgetown. It was cool in Georgetown but substantially warmer than up the hill aways!

One thing I love about Georgetown is that it sits in this little valley and any direction you look is a towering mountain covered in pine trees. Love!

We walked around the main street area for awhile then went to the Hotel de Paris Museum. The poor volunteer who was taking care of admission that day was an older lady and she was so frazzled that she had to run a credit card charge through because we didn't have cash. Lesson #2 learned for this trip - bring cash! Some of these small places deal better with that and some only take cash.

It was a fun tour that even takes you into the cellar. That wasn't so good for my tall husband but it was still interesting to see. Something like 90% of what you see there was original to the first or second owners - very unusual for a museum so I was pretty excited about that.

We also did the tour of the Hamill House museum - that was an excellent tour!

The house is gorgeous and the tour guide was great. We were the only ones on that tour and that always makes me happy because then you can go at your own pace and ask questions and really get the info on whatever interests you. The guide also gave us good information on Georgetown in general which always helps put things in context.

One thing he told us was that while most mountain mining towns had one decent fire department Georgetown had four (4!) excellent fire departments and because of that it's the only mountain town in the state that has never burned to the ground. This also explains why I love this town so much - seriously there were old houses and buildings everywhere with their little plaques "1875," "1888" and so on. No wonder it's so adorable!! There were two houses (adorable houses) for sale right across the street from the Hamill House but Dave wouldn't let me buy one. Well, actually he said I would really hate the commute. I said that's ok, I'll quit my job and stay right there in Georgetown...  ;)

This little mountain town is a gem and it's only about 45 minutes away from home. We both loved it and we'll definitely be back!! Next time we'll stay overnight so we can take more time exploring Guanella Pass.

The House I'm Going to Buy

Last night while I was waiting up for the J to get home I was rifling through a pile of magazines. The idea of course being to toss the old ones but clearly it also means that I have to take one last glance in them - you know, to make sure I haven't missed anything of importance. And I had! There was a section of historic houses that are for sale, generally for low prices, and one of them was just so adorable I had to go online and look at it in greater detail. It was featured at www.oldhouses.com and I just had a lovely time meandering through that site.

Then I found my house. Well, actually I found 9 or 10 houses that I could absolutely love. And really, I didn't really have time to look at every house on the site so there could be more... BUT this one just stuck with me. It's in New Jersey. I've never considered living there but I'll consider it now.

Here's the house (built in 1731):

In this living room (disregard the laser lemon paint - not sure what's up with that) notice the fireplace. I swoon over such fireplaces. In kitchens they were even bigger, called walk-in fireplaces, and I really love that kind. The kitchen in this house has one but you can't see it well enough from the picture.

This room may possibly be my favorite:

Oh, if walls could talk! I love it!! The site says that this is very near the Delaware where Washington made his escape in 1776 and the men marched right in front of the house. I would stand out front every day and envision that march in my mind. Seriously - it just makes me happy. Now, granted, you'd have to do the research yourself and make sure it's true but I can live on the idea of it for now.

It also sits on 8.4 acres. That would be fun. I love the idea of feeling a little isolated but still being relatively close to civilization.

Sadly, I'm short $1.45 Million for the purchase price. (This is not the house my adventure started with in the magazine and it's not in the 'generally low prices' category either.)

I wonder if they just want me to live there and take care of it? It's about an hour from Philly so I could go to school there (roughly the same commute time as going downtown from here) and I'd be in my history heaven.

If you want to see the rest of the pictures of my house you can see them here. :)

Random Thoughts from Utah

I still can't wear a normal shoe except for tennis shoes (too tight and painful) so on Sundays I have to wear one regular shoe and my surgical shoe.  I was getting my shoes out of my suitcase and Avery said, "Are you just looking for matching shoes?" Who knew a 7-year old would be embarrassed that her aunt was wearing mismatched shoes?

Kelton adores Justin. All weekend he told J where to sit (right next to him if possible and close by if not), and just loved to be with him. I wish J could see how much those kids look up to him and adore him.

Jeremy decided that I'm perhaps more of a nerd than him. (Although he's a math/science nerd which is hard to beat... seriously.) In a nutshell, Elvis came up in the conversation and I had to correct some facts. Jeremy didn't know I knew so much about Elvis. I believe his exact quote was, "And people call me a nerd." Funny. He doesn't all about Elvis? Oh, you mean it's possible that most people don't know the exact date the king died? Hmm. Guess that places me squarely in the nerd category. But I've been there for long time... I'm good with that. 

Just TCB baby!

And for those of you with toddlers - bubbles are a lifesaver in the car! Becky saw the idea on a website so she brought bubbles along. As soon as Mia was fussy I'd start blowing bubbles at her and she immediately calmed down. Now, my back was a little wrenched from being twisted around for so long (but that might have to do w/the cereal fight too...), but the baby stopped crying and that was fabulous. The boys were a little sad that they bubbles didn't reach all the way back to them but it was still entertaining for them too. If you have little ones - try it!

time to organize

Always at this time of year I want to organize things. Well, I want to organize things pretty much all the time but mostly don't have (or take) the time but now I'm ready. And feeling a desperate need to do so. (Have you seen my desk?) I was pretty excited to see rubbermaid tubs (not for my desk) and other various organization tools in the ads yesterday. Am I the only one to get excited about that? Every year? 

I was also wishing we could have our 2nd annual Stuff Swap in January but alas, basketball trumps all. So, that gives me until March 21st to clean out and organize and clean out so I can donate all sorts of things. It just occurred to me that maybe not everyone knows what the Stuff Swap is... 

Our Stuff Swap is like a giant indoor garage sale where everything is free. People bring anything they want to get rid of and we set it all up by category in the gym at church. Then for the next few hours people can come "shop" and take home whatever they might need/want. Last year was a huge success and we had stuff in just about every category you can imagine - clothes, electronics, toys, fabric, decor... Someone even donated several bars of soap that they didn't want. That might sound odd but it was great! The left overs go to various charities such as Goodwill, the Jeffco Action Center (JAC), Warm Hearts Warm Babies, etc. Places like JAC help homeless or needy families so things like soap are needed. 

Anyway, it was really cool and I'm looking forward to it this year. (You may be able to tell that I'm also in planning mode...) I guess I'd better get back to my desk.