Red Lobster | Sasha Shangri-La

Some of you may have see this delightful girl on Shelly’s site recently. These first photos were taken by Shelly. ❤

She is an NP and her eyes were painted by Sara Doggart. I thought her eyes were just fantastic! The tiny line on her cheek does not appear to be a scratch but rather a very fine paint line from a very fine paint brush. A beauty mark of a different kind. ❤

Happily, I was able to adopt this special girl and her name is Sara. ❤ We will come back to Sara later in the post. 🙂

Moving forward, this photo is a wonderful reminder of Tricia and Janet’s arrival at the Columbus, Ohio airport. I was ecstatic!!! It was such a happy reunion and we set off to what was soon to be great times to be had both before and after the Sasha Festival in Rochester, NY. 🙂

We drove from Columbus and stopped in New Philadelphia, Ohio for dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. The waiter was delightful and brought us wonderful food, took our pictures and even danced with the other waiters in the Texas line dancing style. The silver bucket held peanuts in the shell and the second bucket held the spent shells. Looking back, it was just heavenly and a perfect first meal together. 🙂

Janet and I took a moment to admire the Texas Roadhouse’s “jack-a-lope”. 😉

Our next stop was the fantastic Carlisle Inn in Sugarcreek, Ohio. It was my first time to stay there and it was just wonderful. The Der Dutchman restaurant (home style cooking) and shops were nestled around the Inn to enjoy. The Inn offered breakfast each day and it was so very nice. 🙂

Remember the lovely Sara shown first on this post? Well, she made her journey to the United States most comfortably in Tricia’s carry on bag. As soon as we arrived at the Carlisle Inn, Sara was brought out and we met. Plus, Tricia made for her this beautiful smocked dress and Janet had knitted for her the lovely cardigan and hat and made her tights and shoes too! It is a fantastic, entirely new outfit for Sara which was a surprise for her and for me and a nice homecoming gift too. 🙂

“Oh my, isn’t this lovely?” exclaimed Sara. ❤

“Oh Mummy, I must try on my new outfit, oh please may I?” Yes, of course Sara. Let’s go and change into your new outfit. We will show those photos at the end of the post. 🙂

We took advantage of the beautiful, curving stairway spanning from the second to the first floor.

At the Carlisle Inn, there is a lovely library room located appropriately off to the side of the main lobby. Very comfortable. Laura Ward joined us on the second day of the stay at Sugar Creek. We all then ventured out to tour the Amish country. 🙂

Sugar Creek is located in the Amish country area. This roadway sign is a happy reminder to look out for horses and buggies that travel on the roadways. There are also a lot of bicycles on the roadways. 🙂

A few random photos of buggies.

We traveled to a nearby town of Berlin, Ohio. There was construction underway as you can see but it did not slow us down. We shopped at this Antique Mall which was very large and wonderful. All of the shops pretty well close up at 5:00 pm each day as most adhere to the good ole saying “Early to bed and early to rise, makes someone healthy, wealthy and wise”. 🙂

We shopped at a local Amish grocery which had wonderful, fresh whole foods. I wish the grocery was closer to my home. I do take home what I can when I am in the area. 🙂

We had lunch at the Honey Bee Cafe. 🙂

We also stopped to see a Thrift store and a local Amish doll shop that was small and nice. Lastly, before we returned to the Carlisle Inn, we visited the world’s largest cuckoo clock. 🙂

We left early the next morning and headed north towards Cleveland, Ohio where we picked up Jackie Kraemer. From there we headed on to Buffalo, New York where a friend of mine graciously offered to take a vacation day to spend time with us and to give us her first hand knowledge of Niagara Falls. I am forever grateful for her time and her kindness. 🙂

My friend Diane, took this happy photo of us at Niagara Falls. 🙂

It was so nice to see Jackie again. ❤

Happy times in front of the Falls. 🙂

I took photos from the Rainbow Bridge where we walked from the United States to Canada! How exciting that was for us! The boat you see is “the Maid of the Mist” and that is where they board the boat for the tours from the United States side.

The buildings are located on the Canada side of the Falls.

Areas above the Falls.

My friend Diane photographed by Janet on the Canada side of the falls. I love the rainbow captured in this photo. Thank you so much Diane! We had a fantastic time and it was so much fun to visit the Falls and to “feel” the power of the Falls. It was wonderful to experience it and share it with good friends! ❤

Moving forward to after the Sasha Festival held in Rochester, New York ( the festival was covered in other posts), Janet, Tricia and I traveled back to Sasha Shangri-La on Cow Creek in West Virginia. This photo of me and Shelby was taken in the doll room. 🙂

One of the places requested to see was the Red Lobster restaurant. My husband, Rick, took this photo and we all had our bibs in place and so enjoyed the good food! 🙂

Happy times. ❤

Fun times at the lobster tank in the lobby. 🙂

The hostess took our photo too. 🙂

Back on Cow Creek, we enjoy some tea time and of course managed to have dolly time too. We had extra special times sharing stories and jokes too. It feels so very good to laugh and be happy! 🙂

Gracie joined us at the table and Lucy is also there though laying down at the moment. Tricia is working her sewing magic on a dress that Abby wore and now is given to my course girl, Mary. I love the finishing enhancements that Tricia added to include lovely knots and tiny buttons. 🙂

Janet working her magic with the paint brush on a very old cloth doll of mine. You might notice on her plate a piece of pumpkin cake. Rick made it since we were wishing their visit would extend until Fall when you bake and enjoy pumpkin goodies. We thought, why wait? So we had our pumpkin cake then and we ate it too! ❤

On the last day as we were on our way traveling to the airport in Columbus, Ohio, we decided to stop in Point Pleasant, WV to see the “Mothman” statue. You may have seen the movie called “The Mothman Prophecies” starring Richard Gere and released in 2002. The location of the sightings of the Mothman is about 45 minutes from Sasha Shangri-La and it was on the road which took us to the airport so we decided to stop and see it.

Janet had asked to see a Piggly Wiggly grocery store during her visit and sadly we were not able to see one during their very short stay. You can only imagine our surprise when we crossed the bridge over the Kanawha River and into the town of Point Pleasant, and there was a Piggly Wiggly grocery store right there and so we stopped and went inside in search of t-shirts! 🙂

While there, we saw the Piggly Wiggly Mission statement proudly posted on the wall. 🙂

Plus we found an entire rack of the coveted Piggly Wiggly t-shirts. We all bought t-shirts for ourselves and our loved ones! 🙂

A very kind gentleman took our photo in front of the Piggly Wiggly. What a hoot! 🙂

We then left to see the Mothman statue………

There it is, the Mothman statue! Very large and very imposing!

The Legend of the Mothman explained. 🙂

A close up photo of his red eyes and his 6-pack! 😉

The backside of Mothman showing his full wings and other anatomical features. 😉

Oh no, the Mothman is trying to fly away with Janet…..

Oh no, does he have her?

And now, does he have them both?? Oh dear, what ever shall we do???

Fortunately, the Mothman turned out to be well behaved and did not move nor try to fly away with my friends. Funny how your imagination works when you find yourself face-to-face with the legendary Mothman! 🙂

We made our way to the airport and said our sad, bitter-sweet goodbyes after lunching and hugging and crying too. It was a wonderful, wonderful and most delightful time visiting with Janet and Tricia and touring around parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia….and let us not forget Canada too! I will always treasure these happy memories in my heart. ❤

Lastly, I wanted to share photos of dear Sara wearing her lovely gifted outfit made by Tricia and Janet. ❤

I have taken indoor photos for now and hopefully I will be able to go outdoors soon to take better photos. It has been terribly hot and humid and we have had a lot of rain downpours too. I can hardly wait until Fall. 🙂