Back To Normandy - Utah Beach

 Andreas finally gave me some of his photos from our trip to France last summer, so it's time to show them to you.  These are all from Utah beach and its approach.  The trails are named for D-Day dead, and the flags still flutter high.  I thought it was neat that there was a statue of a Danish seaman showing how many different navies took part.  Bucolic Norman countryside surrounds the area with bits of history peeking out.

Slowed Down

Still on the last building before the middle town hall.  Almost all the lighter colored stuff done.

Making An Anchor Point

It's been getting a bit hard to tell where I am in this, so I decided to make an anchor point out of something large and bright.  Enter the little orange headband.  Hopefully, it will help.

Went To Wheeler's

 This is the last of the posts of food from the States for a while.  These photos were taken at Wheeler's Restaurant in Fredericksburg, where we had lunch one of our days.  Andreas had the chicken and dumplings and the jalapeno cornbread.  He loved them  I had chicken fried steak, which was also excellent.  

About Halfway

By stitch count, I think I'm over halfway done.  By the number of rows done, I'm right at it.

Banding Down

Done with another row and starting a large band now.  It's got three pieces to it, and only the first one's nearly done.

Everyone Loves Friday

 We went to TGIFriday's one night while we were in Pigeon Forge because we had a gift card for it.  The drinks were strong, at least, but the food was meh.  It wasn't bad, but there wasn't anything memorable about it.  As usual, we found we'd ordered too much food, too.  My sandwich, a barbecue chicken with bacon and cheese, didn't have any distinctive flavors.  The salad tasted as common as it looked.  On the other hand, the gift card was free...

The Other Side

I'm getting closer to the top left corner!  When I get there I'll finally be able to stitch in my normal way.  Happy day.

Some Sidewalk Color

There's a tree trunk now and some color around it on the sidewalk.  The progress is easily visible this time.

More Huge Food

My brother wanted to go to Star Cafe in north Fort Worth for his birthday, so we went.  The portions are huge!  I had chicken fried steak, onion rings, and cheese sticks.  Most of my food went home with my mom to feed my cousin.  There was sooo much food, but it was good.  Andreas had salad, chili cheese fries, and a burger.  He ate it all and loved it.

Up To Four

I've got four little handle-less buckets done.  I even crept down the side with a border too.

Checkering The Band

Another two bands done; at this rate, it'll be finished by spring.

Too Much Food

When you go to a restaurant you love, it's hard not to order too much food because you know you won't be back for a long, long time.  That's what happened when we went to Spring Creek.  It was goood, even though we walked out more stuffed than we wanted to be.  How was I to know beforehand, though, that they'd added fried okra to the menu?  I wish there was a Spring Creek in Europe.

Little Flowers

I got a couple more little flowers on the left done and some more feathering.  

Frou Frou Food

 On our drive from Texas to Tennessee, we were required to make a detour to Shreveport for lunch.  The lunch was at Fred's, a frou frou pizza and sandwich place.  It's another one of those restaurants that pretends to be more than it is.  I had the pumpkin soup, which tasted like it had some chili powder in it - not bad, but not what I really wanted in pumpkin soup - and a sandwich.  The sandwich was because there was no pizza I could find that I would have liked.  If you're going to run a pizza place, you should at least have one "pick your own toppings from below" choice on the menu.  The sandwich was greasy, which wasn't a surprise because it was cheese and salami in a panini (no choices on the sandwiches either).  Andreas' salad was good - I ate some of the actual green stuff, since he avoids it.  He also liked his pizza.

The service was good and the atmosphere noisy, but it was the end of the lunch hour. 

On The Hill

Got the hill started and one sheep outlined.  Now to do much more.

Butterflied

 I got this all finished!  I think leaving it as a square instead of putting the edges to the back was a good idea.  The butterfly backing matches pretty well, I think!

Cute Baby Skeins

I got yarn!  These cute little skeins are perfect for temari.  When I saw the package at Michael's, I knew I had to have it.

Sherlock Pub - Gatlinburg, Tennessee

 This restaurant is tucked away in the back of one of the shopping alleys in Gatlinburg.  The staff is nice and they have Blackthorne on tap - the reason we went.  It was great to have some hard cider, but the food didn't live up to the rest.  The fried items were obviously from bags of frozen food service delivery.  There were no original touches to them.  That doesn't mean they were bad - they were meh.  The salad I had was the same way - prepackaged and opened onto the plate.  This place could use a good cook to go with the friendly service!

Another House Done

One more building done over the stable.  Only one more between it and the middle town hall.

Bit More Hair

It's getting closer to being done.  Between the previous stitcher's markups on the chart and the close colors on this, it's a challenge to stitch.

Oil Derrick Earrings

Even though we bought these at the Ocean Star museum in Texas, I get compliments whenever I wear them.  As you can see from the tag, they weren't even expensive.

Handpainted Scarf

We bought this scarf at the embassy a couple of weeks ago.  I love the colors and the feel of it.

Working The Middle

The middle square's ready to be filled in.  Even working on the side strawberries.  Progress!

Roses Are Done

The row of roses is done.  Time to move on to the next band.

Models And Reality

There are so many well-executed models in the offshore oil museum that I had to take pictures of more.  I also took some photos of the outside deck where the actual drilling took place.  They even had a blow out preventer displayed ...