Blog for adaysouting.com

Over the last several years, fairies have moved into the shade garden that I have been creating by our home. At least that is what my children believe.

In one spot, the fairies have left a “wishing ball” for the children. These are small ceramic spheres that come in many different patterns and sizes. When you pick one up, close your eyes and wish, the fairies help make the wish come true.

There is also a small place where fairies gather together for their parties. There is a small stump for a table and a group of even smaller stumps all around it to sit down on. This little spot is for fairy tea parties.  Every now and then a different miniature tea set appears and my children know a special party must have been held.

This has been quite a bit of fun for me over the years. Even though my daughter is getting older now, she still enjoys the idea of fairies. She has begun to make fairy houses in the garden for the fairies to visit. She collects bark, rocks, moss and as many flowers as she can pick. These all are stacked together and fashioned into a house of some sort.  We have even been on walks in the woods when she will quickly pile some bark and stones together to leave a small house.

Whether you are young or old, you can enjoy fairy houses.  There are also fairy inspired places to visit in case you are looking for something extra special.

Fairystone Farms Wildlife Management Area

Fairystone Loop

Fairy Stone State Park

Fairytale Town

Find great parks and fairy house 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.

Beautiful purple, white and yellow crocus are beginning to bloom across the country.  I was looking closely at the purple flowers in my yard and wondering if my crocus were the same ones that produce the delightful spice saffron.

The true saffron flower is the ‘Crocus Sativus’.  The bright orange stigmas of this heirloom crocus bulb are the source of saffron. When the flower is in full bloom, the bright orange stigma are handpicked and then air dried.  It takes approximately 150 flowers to produce one gram of saffron, which is why the spice is so expensive.  You may have never purchased saffron, but you have surely tasted it.  Saffron is a quintessential spice in dishes throughout the Mediterranean, and this food simply wouldn’t be the same without it.

What I have growing in my yard is lovely, but it’s not the famous spice. Now I know that I have to plant ‘crocus sativis’ to get saffron, I might plant a few dozen bulbs next fall and give growing saffron a try.

Today is the first day of spring!  While there is still some snow on the ground in towns across the country, signs of spring are all around us.

Here are some photos — taken with my iPhone — to help get you in the mood for spring.

With the days getting warmer, it is a great time to visit a botanical garden near you. You’ll get to see hundreds of plants and maybe find a new plant or two for your garden.

If you are looking for something fun to do on a beautiful spring day, A Day’s Outing is here to help you discover local things-to-do all across the country.

I didn’t realize it, but there is a fierce competition in Philadelphia for rights as the best Philly cheese steak.  I was driving down the dreaded Interstate 95 from New York to Virginia with my family, and we decided to have lunch in Philadelphia.  I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into as we looked for a “the best” cheese steak.  A quick check on our phone, and we found ourselves at the corner of 9th Street and Wharton in Philly cheese steak heaven.

This corner is where Geno’s Steak House and Pat’s King of Steaks go head to head.  The lines for both takeout restaurants were around the block. I wasn’t prepared for the crowds, how much a lunch for four would cost or how absolutely fantastic the lunch would be. We could have eaten at either place, but we decided to eat at Pat’s. Walking around the building, I could see that locals ordered their food in a very specific way.  Luckily, there is a sign for tourists that teaches you exactly how to order.  It took us 30 minutes to slowly wind around the building and arrive at the window to order, but when we got there, we knew what to do.

The food at Pat’s King of Steaks was fantastic.  I did learn that we should have shared two orders of french fires – no one can eat that many!  And, if you go, don’t try and grab a table before you have your food.  I watched several people sitting at tables “saving” them for their group, while other folks walked around looking for a table with hot food in their hands. I almost missed the station with hot peppers, they’re fantastic — don’t miss these.

So, the next time you find yourself on I 95 around Philadelphia, and you have an hour to stop for lunch, head down to 9th Street.  I know you’ll love Pat’s, but if you do go to Geno’s, let me know how it was.

Find fun things-to-do in Philadelphia and other great towns 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 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

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.

Elizabeth’s post on hiking in the winter made me start to think about all the things we can do to get outside in the winter. After watching many of my neighbors out walking and running on a freezing cold New Year’s Day, I also decided that it’s really just about dressing for the weather.

My kids and I spent a great birthday weekend with my sister and nephew snow tubing at a ski resort near my house. We bought a family season pass this winter to go skiing and snowboarding there, but tubing was something we all (and virtually anyone else) could easily do. We had a blast. As you can hear in the video below, on of the littlest in our group thought it was “awesome”.

A few tips for snow tubing -

-Make sure you are dressed to be outside in the cold for about 2 hours and the for brief periods you will be going up to 25 miles an hour.

-If you do not have reservations (many of the sessions at some resorts sell out on weekends and holidays), get there a few minutes early to purchase the tickets and make the most of your time slot.

-Remember, like anything, it can be dangerous. Make sure the heaviest person is in the front when making a train, keep your feet from hitting the berms, and make sure you look before stepping into other lanes after your trip down.

Here are a few of the things I found on A Day’s Outing -

Candlelight Ski & Snowshoe Hike Winter, WI  February 5th, 2011

Turtle Fambeau Flowage Ice Fishing Jamboree Mercer, WI  February 26th, 2011

Ice Fishing Rumble Phillips, WI  March 5th, 2011

Cross Country Ski & Snowshoe at Bristol Mountain Nordic Center Canandaigua, NY

Utah Olympic Oval Ice Skating Salt Lake City, UT

Wenatchee River Road Snowshoe Trail Leavenworth, WA

Recently, I have had to explain over and over again to friends and family what in the world I was doing in Sweden buying a car. I was interested in purchasing Volvo’s new smaller SUV the XC60. As a new model, it was in pretty high demand and I was having a hard time finding one available with the options I was looking for. As I began looking on the internet, I ran across Volvo’s Overseas Delivery Program. I was able to price the exact car I was looking for online and it was about 10% cheaper than the best price I had been able to find domestically. Volvo also provided two round-trip tickets on SAS, a night in a Radisson near the factory, lunch and a factory tour, European insurance and tags for up to 60 days, and free shipping home. I called the 800 number on their website and with a lot of help from them and my local dealer, in a few months I was on my way to pick up my new car.

As it turned out, our trip to Sweden to pick up our new car was as great as it sounded in the brochure. We had a choice of 12 locations to pick up our and 18 locations throughout Europe that we could drop the car to be shipped back. We chose to fly into Stockholm, spent a few days there, took a beautiful train ride across Sweden to Gothenburg where the factory is located, picked up our car, drove 600 miles throughout Sweden and returned the car to the port in Gothenburg a week later.

Six automakers currently offer Americans European delivery: Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and Saab. Of course, if you’re buying at the top of the luxury car market, Maserati, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Bentley will also cater to your desire to drive your new car on the autobahn. As a side note, much of the autobahn is speed controlled and there are hefty fines.

I can’t say enough great things about Volvo’s program. I hope to buy my next car the same way. I am also not affiliated with Volvo in any way.

There are a few minor sticking points.

Under the terms of all manufacturers delivery programs, you must pay for the car before it is built. Banks and credit unions are pretty leery of loaning money for cars that don’t exist yet, so you can be stuck paying cash. My local dealer, Volvo of Charlottesville, very generously worked with me and I was able to then easily finance the car through USAA, who is used to doing this for members of the military.

You have to pick the car up in Europe, you can’t send someone at the last minute to do it for you. All Volvo models are available for delivery, but many BMWs (the second most popular delivery program), Mercedes and some Saabs are manufactured stateside. All European delivery models are 100% North American vehicles equipped with U.S. spec lights and emissions control systems. You can’t ship Euro-only models back to the states, I would have loved to have Volvo’s SUV in the diesel model.

You must return the car to the port within 60 days, or you have to pay 25% in tax. Two months should be plenty of time for most of us to have a great European vacation. These programs are very popular with retirees, who can spend months driving all through Europe.

It does take 6-14 weeks to receive your car back in the states depending on where you live. It is about 6 weeks to the east coast and longer to the west coast, Hawaii and Alaska. I dropped my car off on September 24th, it was loaded on the ship October 4th and I can expect it at my local dealer November 4th. You also have to have your car fairly clean before you deliver it at the port, or you run the risk of having to pay the EPA to steam clean it for you. I had a little trouble finding a “Biltvätt”, or car wash.

Being the geek that I am, I loved the factory tour part of my trip, unfortunately you cannot take any photos. Even if you can’t make it to Europe, here are tours offered here in the states-

Ford Rouge Factory Tour Dearborn, MI

The Corvette Museum & Factory Tour Bowling Green, KY

BMW Factory Tour Spartanburg, SC

Mercedes Benz US Factory Tour Tuscaloosa County, AL

Last week while visiting Hilton Head Island, we took a tour by zodiac to visit a sandbar off Daufuskie Island and watch the local dolphins. On our way out from the Sea Pines Marina the dolphins immediately came up to the zodiac, they seemed to enjoy swimming with us as much as we liked watching them. We then headed out to a huge sandbar that sits between Sea Pines and Daufuskie Island. The tide was very low and as we walked out there were hundreds of sand dollars lying on the sand, there were also beautiful cat eye shells, starfish, and tiny horseshoe crabs. The kids and I were in heaven!

Even if this had been the end of our tour, it would have been great. As we got in the boat our guide asked us to hurry and he would take us back into the tidal creeks and see if we could catch dolphins “Strand Feeding”. As we pulled into the creek, dolphins once again came right up to the zodiac. The creek was narrow and shallow and we loved being that close to the dolphins. As the dolphins swam in front of us, we could see large schools of bait fish scrambling to get away from them. There were also 3-4 foot sharks swimming close to shore and birds that seemed to know what to expect next.

Our guide, asked us to watch for the dolphins to start to head bob and begin to circle. As they began to circle the school in tighter circles, it trapped the 6-inch fish into a tighter and tighter ball. Then they created a powerful bow wave that rushed the prey out of the water and onto the muddy bank of the creek. The dolphins actually came all the way out of the water onto the bank and ate as many fish as they could. We then watched them wriggle back into the water, cruise around until they found another school of fish, and repeat the process. The two sharks that followed along with us waited with the birds until the dolphins finished eating and then ate everything that was left.

Bottlenose dolphins in Mexico and Portugal have also been observed strand feeding, but only the dolphins along the low-country coast of South Carolina and Georgia strand feed daily. Strand feeding is apparently a learned behavior and not instinctual. Young calves pick it up by observing their mother. No one knows why, but the dolphins always land on their right sides when they come up on the bank to feed. It looks like a synchronized trick.

So sorry my pictures of this are not better, I could not stop watching.

We went out with Commander Zodiac and our guide was Heath. The trip was amazing and something none of us will forget.

Our whole family loves the Florida Keys, I hope to retire there one day with a boat. We have travel down at least once a year. Usually we drive and that way we can take all of our gear, fishing stuff, skim boards, etc. We have also taken the Autotrain down from Washington D.C. and you can read a review of that here. In the past, we have helped many of our friends with their vacation planning to the Keys and so I decided to finally go on and post my list of favorite places.  I would also like to say that I am not affiliated in any way with the places I am recommending.

These are as you drive down from Miami -

Sunshine Market on Tavernier Key - This Cuban gem is on the left as you are driving down to Key West in a yellow building. The coffee is wonderful and the to-go foods are great.

Home Away Islamorada/Tavernier Vacation House - We loved renting this house, it was beautifully decorated, had an amazing kitchen, we could park our boat right out front and the owner is a delight. We have rented several times through both Home Away and VRBO and we have had a great experience each time.

Islamorada Fish Company Restaurant at the huge Bass Pro Shop on Islamorada - The food is very good and it is a beautiful location to take photos at sunset. It is also fun when they feed the tarpon, grouper, and HUGE lemon sharks that come right up in the middle of the dockside restaurant to eat. The Bass Pro Shop is also amazing and they give great fishing advice.

Robbies of Islamorada- It is great spot to hire a fishing charter, go out on their night time party boat, and their largest attraction is allowing people to feed GIANT tarpon from their dock. There are also cute little open-air shops.

Indigo Reef and Coral Lagoon on Marathon- We love staying here too. You can park your boat right out in front of your townhouse, they are beautifully decorated, have wonderful linens and great kitchens. If you sign up for their emails you can get significantly discounted rates.

Bahia Honda State Park - This my daughter’s favorite place on earth! The beach is beautiful and one of the only real beaches in the Keys. It is perfect for skim boarding. The fishing from the jetty under the Seven-Mile Bridge is also fabulous!

Big Pine Key Deer Watching - You can almost always find some of the endangered tiny Key Deer on back roads at dusk.

On Key West -

Mangia Mangia - A restaurant with great Italian food that has been there since we honeymooned in 1993. It seems to be a little more of a local place and away from the craziness of Duval Street.

Fort Zachary Taylor State Park Beach - This another gem of a beach in the Keys. It is very clean and you can snorkel right from the beach.

Mel Fisher Treasure Museum - Who doesn’t love treasure? The Mel Fisher story is wonderful and well worth going to see first hand.

Truman Annex - The homes in the Truman Annex are the epitome of the Florida Keys to me. It is one of the most charming neighborhoods in the U.S.

Parrot Key Resort - These are great townhouse style vacation rentals that also have wonderful linens, great kitchens and are beautifully decorated.

The Mermaid & the Alligator B&B - This B&B is another great example of Key West architecture. We even stayed here on our honeymoon in 1993.