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I am guessing you have heard of a gristmill before, but have you ever visited one?

Luckily, you can find old mills all around the world.  Mills were a central part of local communities for hundreds of years, maybe a few thousand years. The earliest reference to a mill is from 71 BC – from a king’s palace in Asia Minor.

Growing up, I have heard a mill referred to as a gristmill or a corn mill – these are really any mill that grinds grain. Historically, a local mill is where the farmers brought their own grain and had it ground into meal or flour. They gave the miller a small percentage of the meal or flour as the “miller’s toll,” instead of cash.  Most towns and villages were dependent on their local mill to turn their crops into flour because bread was such an important part of their diet.

While the local mill may be long gone, millstones can be easily found. The millstones are what grind the grain. They are laid one on top of the other. The bottom stone, called the bed, is fixed to the floor, while the top stone, the “runner” is mounted on a separate spindle. A wheel called the “stone nut” connects the runner’s spindle to the main shaft, and this can be moved out of the way to disconnect the stone and stop it turning, leaving the main shaft turning to drive other machinery. This might be a bit confusing, so here’s a really fun graphic of how a water driven gristmill works. (the two gray circles at the top of the graphic are the millstones)

Keep an eye out for historic mills as your traveling. You might come across a millstone in a town’s square or find a working mill and bring home some freshly ground corn meal. Here are just a few that you will find on A Day’s Outing:

Bale Grist Mill, Napa, CA

Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Woodland, WA

East Rockaway Grist Mill Museum, Rockaway, NY

Historic Prater’s Mill, Dalton, GA

Kerr Mill at Sloan Park, Mount Ulla, NC

Pine Creek Grist Mill, Muscatine, IA

Find historic districts gristmills on A Day’s Outing…. and don’t forget to download the iPhone app so you can find new places to visit while you’re out and about.

Have you ever seen the blossom of a Tulip Poplar tree?  I am guessing that you haven’t. Usually, the blossoms are dozens of feet in the air and all you can see are the petals that have fallen to the ground.

Living in Charlottesville, Va, the home of Thomas Jefferson, I have learned that he described the Tulip Poplar as “The Juno of our Groves” when he forwarded seeds to a Parisian friend in 1805. The Tulip Poplar, also called Yellow Poplar or the Tulip Tree, is a fast growing tree and the tallest hardwood species in the eastern North American forest. It is a massive and graceful tree with branches that sweep downward. In the spring it has large ornamental, orange and green, tulip-like flowers. In the fall, it’s tulip shaped leaves turn a golden yellow color.

I am a huge fan of the Tulip Poplar tree. I am fortunate enough to have two massive trees near my home.  I am guessing they are more than 250 years old simply because of their size. If you find yourself at a State Park this summer scan the top of the forest for a Tulip Poplar, they are often the tallest trees you will see. You might not see one of their blooms, but the tree itself is a sight to behold.

Find historic districts gristmills on A Day’s Outing…. and don’t forget to download the iPhone app so you can find new places to visit while you’re out and about.

It’s strawberry time.  You can pick your own berries at a pick-your-own farm or you can find strawberries at a farmers’ market.  There are also plenty to be found at your local grocery store.

Once you get those beauties home, it’s time to hull them and make something wonderful. Look for berries that are small to medium size – they tend to be sweeter than the large ones.  To hull a strawberry you can either use a specialized toolor a small paring knife.  You simply want to cut away the stem and a small cone-shaped section of the top of the berry - leaving as much of the fruit intact as possible.

Once you have hulled the berries, it’s time to eat.  I love to eat strawberries by simply dipping them into a bit of sour cream and then into brown sugar.  For a more sophisticated dessert, nothing is better than Zingerman’s Strawberries with Balsamico ( … or Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar)

Zingerman’s Strawberries with Balsamico

2 Quarts strawberries, hulled
5 Tablespoons well-aged Balsamic Vinegar
Sugar (optional)

In a blender or food processor, puree ½ quart (1 pint) of the strawberries with the vinegar.

In a large bowl, toss the remaining strawberries with the strawberry puree. Add a little sugar if desired. Macerate in the refrigerator, covered for at least an hour before serving. Serve the strawberries as they are with fresh whipped cream on top, or spoon them over ice cream or pound cake. If you want to plan a dessert ahead of time – the Strawberries with Balsamico will keep for several days in the fridge.

It’s strawberry season. Enjoy!

Find local farmers’ markets on A Day’s Outing…. and don’t forget to download the iPhone app so you can find new places to visit while you’re out and about.

I don’t think of travel games as games that you only play in the car.  Travel games for me are the fun, easy to pack games that you can play on a rainy afternoon or in the evening when you’re away from home.

One of our all time favorite portable travel games is Ruckus.  Rukus is a card game for the whole family… children as young as six can easily play. You have a deck of cards with a dozen different symbols on them.  As you draw cards, you put down pairs of cards from your own hand.  However, if you have the same symbol that another player has already placed in front of them, you can “take” all of their cards that have the same symbol and claim them as your own.  This “taking” goes back and forth until someone has put all their cards down and is declared the winner!  It is a fast paced game and is simply wonderful.

Another fun, portable travel game is Zeus on the Loose.  This is another card game, but I recommend it for children eight and older. It has addition, subtraction and multiplication as part of the game — so there is a bit of learning going on as well. This game is a bit complicated to describe but all in all it is a whole lot of fun.

The next time you head out of the house for a weekend away or a family vacation pack a few games.  You never know if you might have a rainy day and there really is nothing like playing card games together.

Find fun things-to-do  on A Day’s Outing…. and don’t forget to download the iPhone app so you can find new places to visit while you’re out and about.

I started taking photos out the window of our car awhile back.  It started when I wanted to take pictures of old farmhouses that looked like ours.  We really couldn’t stop every time I saw a house I wanted a picture of, so I started to take photos while we drove on by.

Now I take photos of all sorts of places as we speed down the road.  I wrap the cord around my wrist, hold on tight to the camera, roll down the window and snap away.  I have many blurry images, but with a digital camera it is easy to delete the photos you don’t want.  I also have really fun photos of building, signs, animals and the beautiful countryside all taken from a moving car.

One of my favorite all time photos is one I took in Washington D.C. of the Jefferson Memorial. We had been visiting one of the Smithsonian museums and were headed out of town. As we drove by the Jefferson Memorial, I rolled down the window and snapped a photo.  I know that I can’t stop ever time I see somewhere wonderful, so instead, I take a photo as we fly on by.

Find fun things-to-do on A Day’s Outing…. and don’t forget to download the iPhone app so you can find new places to visit while you’re out and about.

I didn’t know what to expect.  I was visiting the Washington National Cathedral without knowing its history or just how amazing it was going to be.  I know I should have done a little research before our outing, but I have been so busy that I didn’t.  I made up for it by I learning a ton while I was there.

After 83 years of construction, the cathedral was completed in 1990.  Formally named the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the Washington National Cathedral is the second largest cathedral in the country and the sixth largest in the world.  Built, as it would have been in the 14th century as a Gothic cathedral, the Washington National Cathedral extends almost the length of two football fields.  It stands as one of Washington D.C.’s highest points, this soaring Gothic cathedral rivals the Washington Monument and the Capitol.

The aspect of the cathedral that amazed me was the juxtaposition of the immense 14th century Gothic architecture and the contemporary elements in the stained glass windows.  There are many small chapels in the cathedral with themed stained glass.  The War Memorial Chapel honors men and women who have dedicated their lives to the service of our country.  The central alter window in this chapel is of Jesus dressed in camouflage upon the cross.  Surrounding this are images depicted in stained glass of women and men who fought in wars from the Revolutionary War to World War II.  There is another chapel that displays kneeling cushions that volunteers have needlepoint.  Harriet Tubman, an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War, has an ornate prayer cushion in her honor.

While I was mesmerized by the inside of the cathedral, all my son could talk about were the gargoyles on the outside.  A gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque (from the Latin root of “Grotto”, meaning a small cave or hollow). A gargoyle is a spout designed to move water on a roof away from the side of a building.  The Washington National Cathedral has 112 gargoyles. The different designs are amazing, and the gargoyle my son was excited to see was the one of Darth Vader.  You have to search for it, but here’s a hint… it is on the “dark side” of the building.  A wonderful book that we read before our trip is the Guide to Gargoyles and Other Grotesques.

The cathedral sits a top 59 acres.  The grounds include the Bishop’s Garden.  I was only able to snap a photo of its welcoming twelfth century Norman arch.  The Bishop’s Garden is on the south side of the Cathedral. Inside its stone walls are two herb gardens, a rose garden, two perennial borders, a Shadow House and winding stone paths.

The next time we visit, I will make sure we have more time to enjoy the Washington National Cathedral.  We’ll also bring a pair or two of binoculars so that we can really see the gargoyles.  I think we will also pack a lunch and enjoy the Bishop’s Garden from inside its stone walls.

Here are a few fun facts to know before you visit (I learned these while I was there):
Height of Cathedral’s center tower: 30 stories tall
Total cost of building the Cathedral: $65 million
Total years of construction: 83
Number of stained glass windows: 231
Number of gargoyles: 112
Number of angels: 288
Weight of the entire Cathedral: 150,000 tons
Heaviest single stone: 5.5 tons

Find other great things-to-do on A Day’s Outing…. and don’t forget to download the iPhone app so you can find new places to visit while you’re out and about.

It’s time to welcome birds to your home by giving them a place to nest.  Small birds, such as house wrens, chickadees and blue birds, will happily raise their young in birdhouses.  Here are a few tips to attract birds to your birdhouse.

•   Hang a birdhouse at least five feet off the ground.

•    Birdhouses can be attached to a tree, but a freestanding pole with the birdhouse mounted on top is best.  This way you can also attach a guard to the pole to keep unwanted predators out.

•    Clean out old birdhouses to remove the prior season’s packed bird’s nest. New birds will rarely want to nest in old materials.  Cleaning will also help control insects, mites and lice that can hurt baby birds.

•    While a perch on a birdhouse is cute, birds don’t need one. A perch really only helps predators get a better grip.

Early March is the best time to get a new birdhouse or to prepare your old ones for the new season.  You want to be ready when the weather warms and birds start looking for a new place to raise their fluffy brood.

It’s February and while spring is still a few weeks away, flowers are blooming at garden shows around the country.  Now is the time to get ideas for new plants in your garden, to see beautiful display gardens in dozens of styles and browse among the booths in the garden marketplaces that many shows host.

I recommend that when you visit a garden show you take a camera along with you.  Not only do I like to take shots of the large garden displays, I also like to take photos of the individual plants that I want to remember.  Instead of trying to write down a description of the plant along with the Latin and common names, I take a photograph of that plant’s name tag, as well.  I found that if I have a photo of both the plant and its name, I could more easily find that plant for my garden.

With garden shows popping up around the country, I hope you can find one near you to visit.  It’s a great way to get ready for spring.

Here are a few that I found:

Cherokee County Home and Garden Show
Indiana Home and Garden Show
Minneapolis Home and Garden Show
Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show
West Michigan Home & Garden Show

I love musicals and I am not ashamed to say it.  I grew up seeing every musical that the Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke, VA produced.  As a really small child, my favorite part of the evening was intermission and the lemonade we would drink, but as I grew older, I loved the music and the costumes, too.

We took a long weekend trip to Philadelphia and my sister-in-law recommended that we take all the kids to see “Oliver!” at The Media Theatre, in the borough of Media.  This was a great musical for the children to see because the play had a dozen or more kids on stage, and of course, the story is about a little boy.

After the play, we talked about who their favorite character was and what they liked the most.  My son liked the character Bill Sykes, and my daughter liked Nancy.  I thought they would say Oliver but no, they like the bad boy and the pretty girl, instead.  Their favorite part of the whole play was intermission, which was made complete with yummy candy canes.  Hopefully, this one experience is the start of a lifelong love of the theater and musicals.

Railroads have a long and illustrious history dating back 500 years.  Early railways were created on wood and stone rails - and were powered by people and horses.  The first commercial steam engine was introduced in 1812 in England.  In the 1830s-1860s there was an enormous railroad-building boom in the U.S.  President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act in 1862 authorizing the construction of the first transcontinental railroad.

Today, you can visit railroad museums all across the country.  You can learn about the history of rail transportation, see how railroad technologies have changed over the years and climb aboard some of the retired engines, cars and cabooses that made rail travel possible.  If you really love trains, there are also miniature railroad museums that highlight the amazing toys that have been created.

You can also take a ride on a train yourself.  While passenger train travel isn’t as popular now, I really enjoy it. My family took a train from Charlottesville to Philadelphia during spring break.  My husband and I loved not driving and the kids thought it was an adventure.  Cathy wrote about her family’s trip on the Auto Train from Virginia to Florida. Whether you are riding on a train or visiting a museum, you are sure to have fun.