Dropping the kids off at the lake

Atlanta certainly has an array of "small cottages" in the area...



I love homes with lots of character and wrap around porches. Being such an old city, there are quite a variety of home styles on display as you drive around. From large victorians, craftsman bungalows and then several hundred McMansions that have popped up over the years.

When I look at some of the ginormous dwellings, all I can think about is how much "fun" it would be to dust them.

However, once you get inside one (David's friend, Mike, owns one for a wedding/catering business), you forget all of that and spend the next half hour saying "Wow".











There were 9 fireplaces in the home. NINE. Of course, back when the homes were built, they were the main heat source. But, between that and the stained glass, crown molding, wood floors and high ceilings...you half expect to see Suzanne Sugarbaker lounging about on the veranda with a mint julep.



After completing our tour of the house, we all went to Mike's lakehouse to hang with nature. That is a view from the dock to the refurbished double-wide, which is surprisingly large and comfortable inside. Then, you get the view from the house to the dock...



Then, from the dock to the beautiful lake.



It was the perfect way to end the day. So quiet and relaxing. We just sat on the dock admiring the spectacular nature all around us, chatting and feeding the fish....











After David cooked up some delicious turkey burgers (thank you "Oprah's Favorite Burger" recipe), we rolled ourselves into the car and headed back to the city.

Needless to say, we all slept very well.

There we are

A new featurette for the upcoming third season of The Crown was released today...



I really enjoy Olivia Colman and can't wait until this starts airing on Netflix this Sunday, November 17th!

Get on with it

The first teaser trailer for the third season of Netflix's The Crown was released today...



I just finished binge-watching the first two seasons and am really looking forward to the third season starting on November 17th.

It's a great show!

We're ready for you

The first full trailer for the upcoming third season of The Crown was released today...



This is looking REALLY good.

I can't wait until this starts airing on Netflix on November 17th.

All is Well….ington

Well, it was raining all morning as I packed up to leave Queenstown. I lucked out with the weather over the last week. If I had arrived today, I would have been a bit disappointed. Right before I left, I saw a rainbow over the hotel (insert song here...).



Figured it was a good sign. Then, as I was about to roll my luggage out to the shuttle, the rain stopped for a minute…long enough for me to get my raggedy bag into the shuttle without getting it wet (and then I put in my luggage…GOOD NIGHT! I’ll be here all week long! Tip the waiters, try the veal!).

The flight to Wellington was fine and went quick (another flight where I didn’t have to go through airport security…always a pleasure). I got to the hotel and checked into my room. This particular hotel has one wing for backpackers (dorms with bunks) and another wing with regular rooms at a discounted price. So, I took the regular room and it’s pretty nice. The building is old and there is a lot of character around with the crown mouldings and windows. The bathroom door in the room has a frosted glass window with “Bathroom” in old style writing.



When I got to the hotel, I was the first to be dropped off and, initially, thought perhaps I was staying out in the boonies. But, I headed down the street looking for an internet café and found quite the opposite. One block away, I turned down the street recommended by the hotel and it turned out to be one of the central streets with all of the bars, restaurants and other interesting sights.



So, I’m pretty centrally located and around enough things to see and do that I shouldn’t have to do more than put on my walkin’ shoes, which is fine with me. When I walked around tonight, I saw two different Burger Kings...one with a 50's theme on the inside and another, a couple blocks down, that was in an old bank building. Certainly a while different look/feel than our regular ones in the states, huh?





I also found the ONE gay bar in Wellington…



It’s a really nice, upper-class looking bar…very elegant and, if someone hadn’t told me it was a gay bar, I would never have known. The guys that run it (Scott and Mal, hence the sign) were really great and welcoming (one gave me some aspirin, cause my head felt like it was gonna bust open). I hung out there for a little while until one of their friends offered to take me for a quick drive around the city (he had to leave early, since he had to work in the morning), which was nice. I now have a better idea of how to get around the city (there is also a cool city view up into the hills, which I’ll need to see again in the daytime for photo opps).

He dropped me off at my hotel and I wandered back out to the busy area to find something to eat. When I saw this place….



I just had to try it.

You know, “I” make a pretty good cheeseburger…and it’s very affordable.

OH…I’m sitting here alone in the backpacker lounge and the TV station just started playing the original “Bionic Woman”.

Enjoyable.

Captain's Log Flume

It looks like Star Trek is getting the theme park treatment...in Jordan.

After more than 40 years, we finally have the green light on a Star Trek theme park, thanks to King Abdullah of Jordan (who once was an extra on an episode of Star Trek: Voyager when he was still a Prince). And it only cost a measly $1.5 billion to do it.

The project is expected to be completed by 2014, and will be the crown jewel of the planned Red Sea Astrarium resort in the coastal city of Aqaba. The whole thing will have 17 entertainment areas and 4 hotels on 184 acres of land, and all powered by renewable energy.

Hopefully when it's finished, they'll have developed working Transporters so that all of us can just beam over there without having to pay a million dollars for a plane ticket.

I'm sure that's part of their plan.

Smalltown boy

My favorite time of year....fall.

Yesterday was just about the perfect day. 80 degrees, clear blue sky, and a slight breeze to gently nudge you further down whichever path you happened to be traveling.

I spent three hours walking around my town with a camera, taking pictures of many of the historic buildings and landmarks, as well as the variety of vibrant fall colors that have popped out all around.











Growing up here as a kid, I was never interested in visiting historic places, checking out the unique architecture of older homes, or taking pictures of the beautiful falling leaves.

Kids only like visiting landmarks when it means a day away from school. Wrap around porches and crown moulding in homes just meant difficult places to dust and a bigger outside area to sweep.

The lovely fall colors of the leaves meant only one thing....something you had to constantly rake, bag up and either throw away or burn before any TV could be watched.









Now that I'm older, things are very different.

I've come to find my little town, with its one main street, charming and quaint. It's not too far away from seeming like a movie set on a studio backlot.











Those older homes that I used to rush by each day on the way to school are now beautiful, intricately detailed and full of character and personality (thanks to my obsession with HGTV and latent appreciation for detail and design style).







Those sporting fields, once a source of dread and personal embarrassment, are now just distant memories, replaced by my newfound appreciation for the excitement and hope that it gives for the many kids and adults, of all races, I now see in the area.

This weekend happened to be Homecoming for the High School and the "parade" (the band and several cars with kids) passed right by the front porch of my parent's house on main street.















The "there's nothing to do here in this boring town" feeling you have as a kid, is replaced by the "Ahhh....it's so nice and quiet here and a walk to the park would be lovely" feeling you appreciate as an adult.












And even the small-mindedness and prejudice that can seep into some of the minds and hearts of those that grow up here and, often, never leave, shows signs of forward thinking and progress.



As Martha Stewart would say...."It's a good thing".

Small or large, Democrat or Republican, Varsity or benchwarmer, Diary Queen or Coldstone Creamery....a town is always judged by the people who live there. What our city lacks in size, it makes up for in heart and kindness in the people who actually smile and make eye contact with you wherever you go.

Tipp City, Ohio may not be the largest spot on the map or the first stop on any travel plan, but if you're fortunate enough to happen by...

You may find yourself tempted to stay.



I saw this handpainted sign in the window of a restaurant that was open for its final day (they obviously had posted a daily countown at some point) and it pretty much summed up the time left for me visiting my family.

I fly out tomorrow and head back to my life in LA, where "traffic" means more than three cars on the road, where "crime" means more than "boy knocks over yard gnome", and where "friendliness" is usually indicated by which arrangement of fingers are raised when you ask someone to take their trash cans away from the front of your driveway.



There's no place like home....