KIOTIE'S FIRST HAIR CUT!

Our little Kiotie is a year old now and today he got his first hair cut! 

VISIT WITH SISTERS!

Tuesday we had a wonderful visit with my sisters.  Kathy was visiting from Georgia and it was a perfect time to get together for a "sisters visit"!!!  Phyllis made a delicious lunch of Pot Roast complete with gravy, potatoes, carrots and onions, broccoli casserole, rolls and apple pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert!  Especially as we each get older we all realize that every visit is special!

VICTOR INSULATOR COLLECTION - continued

Below are the last variations of Victor mugs and bowls that we have...directly below are one white with green stripes around the top in the 7 oz. mug and two of the 5 oz. mugs.  One bowl is a larger white with green stripes around the top and two smaller bowls in white with green stripes.  The two smaller bowls we have had since I was a kid...my Mom used them for years and now we are using them.

 Below is a sample of 7 oz. Victor mugs in the Mahogany, Black, Creamy White and Chocolate Brown...each mug weighs ONE - ONE AND ONE HALF POUNDS...they are HEAVY!

Finally, I offer a view of our collection of Victor Insulators in Cobalt Blue, White, Mahogany and Light Blue like the mugs.

Next will be our collection of Victor Insulator Inc. Ash Trays:  A Large Square Brown one, a Round Mahogany Ash Tray that has been in our family since I was a kid and a Cobalt Blue Ash Tray that has "FFE" in the middle

This is a rather unique "hat style" ash tray that was also made by Victor Insulator, Inc....again, thought to have been made special for an Open House event!











 Our final item was probably made as a special project by an employee as I have never heard of this item being produced by Victor Insulator, Inc. -- it is a pair of BOOK ENDS with a BIG "V" on each of them!

Hopefully you will find our collection interesting and next time you have coffee or hot chocolate served in a BIG HEAVY Creamy White MUG...try to look at the bottom and see if the word "VICTOR" is on the bottom!  ENJOY!

OUR VICTOR INSULATOR COLLECTION

Over the years...50 or 60 now I have used a Victor Insulator Mug to drink my hot chocolate...when I was a kid and coffee as I became an adult!  My step grandfather worked at Victor Insulators, Inc. in Victor, NY from 1950 until he retired and moved to Florida in 1963!  When I was a teenager I can remember him bringing boxes of Victor Insulator Mugs to my Mom every time he and Grandma came to visit!  The cupboards became so full of MUGS that Mom began giving them to anyone who would carry some home with them!

When Dennis and I were married in 1962 we were given a set of 8 BLUE Victor Mugs and we still have 6 out of those original 8 as well as a few more that we have collected over the years!  Every morning Denny drinks his coffee from a BLUE mug and I drink my coffee from a Creamy White mug!  They are heavy and just make our coffee taste better as well as keeps it warmer longer!  Throughout the 50 years that we have been married we have collected a variety of Victor Insulator products including Insulators, Ash Trays, Bowls and, yes, more MUGS!  This is a sample of our collection!

These are the BLUE mugs...they hold 7 oz. and have a rather unique design.  The one in the middle photo was given as a Open House at Victor Insulators, Inc. April 28, 1948.  The stack of Blue mugs includes 6 of our original mugs given to us back in 1962 as well as more that we have collected.  Our first Blue Victor bowl was given to us by a schoolmate of my mother who had grown up in Victor, NY as my mother did...we found three other bowls here and there!

Below is our collection of Creamy White Victor Mugs...most are the 7 oz. size but 3 of them are the 5 oz. size!  Also in this group we have collected 5 Creamy White Victor soup/cereal bowls.

Three of which I believe to be the oldest of our Victor Mug collection are pictured below.  First is the Handleless Victor Mug which was the way they made them to begin with for sailors during WWII.  Many of the earlier bottom stamps were black...in later years the word "Victor" was incised into the bottom.

Second is the St. Denis Mug...very heavy and large!

Third is the Shaving Mug which is claimed to have been used by its former owner in the 1930's!

Here is a set of TAN Victor Bowls...one was a door prize at Open House Victor Insulators, Inc. 1946 as well as a 5 oz. Tan Victor Mug.  These mugs were also made in the larger 7 oz. size as they were what I remember using the most when I was a kid.  My Mom probably gave ours away when they moved to Florida in 1963!

I have a few more items to add...so check back OFTEN for updates!  Hope you all enjoy our collection!

Last Day at St. Francis B&B Inn St Augustine, FL

Our third day began early...again, with me going across the street to the Inn for a couple of cups of coffee to drink while we were getting ready to go for breakfast at 7:30 AM!  WOW...what a breakfast it was...Egg in a Basket with Hollandaise Sauce, Hashbrown Casserole, Strawberry Soup (cold)...this was sweet but delicious, fresh cinnamon rolls, homemade breads, English Muffins, Yogurts, cereals, juices as well as coffee and teas!!!  The Egg in a Basket was rather unique (to us anyway!) and I think Denny has come pretty close to duplicating it for breakfast this morning.  There was a thin outer crust of maybe thin ham placed in a muffin pan then some kind of cheese with an egg cracked over it and baked until egg is done...sprinkled with cheese on top!

After breakfast we finished packing and loading back into the car and took off to tour Castillo de San Marcos (the Fort)!  It was already HOT so we were glad we could get it in fairly early!  It was very interesting and it made us even more curious how it would have been possible for hundreds of folks to be held up inside the Fort for months at a time!  We always wonder how they would have been able to have enough drinking water as well as food!

After a tour of the Fort we headed back to the Inn to turn in our room keys and officially check out.  We grabbed one more cup of coffee as well as cup of ice water to go, chatted a few more minutes with our new friends from PA and then headed to the Old Town Trolley Main Station where we could park free! 

While there we toured the St. Augustine Historical Museum which was a nice trip through the ages from the Timucuan Indians, to the first settlement over 400 years ago...showimg the tools each group used as well as typical clothes and living conditions...it was very interesting!

It was now LUNCH time at the Columbia...so we rode the trolley around to the Columbia and indulged in Black Bean Soup and a REAL Cuban Sandwich with Sangria!  Before they brought out soup and sandwich...they brought out a 6 inch slab of Hot Cuban Bread with a dish of Butter...real BUTTER...not buttery spread!!!!  It was all very good and lived up to everything I have heard through the years about the Columbia Restaurant!


LUNCH at THE COLUMBIA RESTAURANT, St. Augustine, FL

 

After lunch at the Columbia we continued the trolley ride back around to the Trolley Station where our car was parked...it was time to say "Thank You and Good Bye" to Old St. Augustine and a BIG THANK YOU to Randy, Maddie, Russ and Dianna for sending us on such a wonderful trip!

We headed SOUTH across the Bridge of Lions on A1A toward the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum...we had tickets to go up the Lighthouse...but, we figured 219 steps up the open spiral staircase was a little too much to even attempt...especially on a day when it was nearly 100 degrees!  The Lighthouse Museum was interesting as it showed tools the Lighthouse keeper had to use as well as gave everyone the opportunity to pick up the pail that the keeper had to carry to the top every night in order to keep the light burning throughout the night!

Below are other places of interest that we heard many stories and historical facts about, but we did not actually go inside.

The Gates to Old St. Augustine...they used to be closed and locked at sundown each night:

The THREE FLAGLER hotels...the only one that is still an actual hotel is the Casa Monica!  The one below used to be the Ponce de Leon Hotel and is now Flagler College

 This is the Casa Monica Hotel...still a hotel today!

 This is now the City of St. Augustine Museum home of Lightner Museum!  "Back in the Day"...this hotel was called the Alcazar and it was known as the "fun hotel" because the dress was casual and it had gambling and "fun" things to do!!!

 Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church that Henry Flagler had built in memory of his deceased daughter and granddaughter, who had both died as a result of childbirth!

 

 Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth

The home of the FIRST Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum was once the winter home of Margaret Kinnan Rawlings and her husband!

This is a beautiful street lined with arched Live Oak Trees!

Below is the Villa Zorayda Museum!

The "Old Senator" Live Oak Tree that is over 600 years old and has a Palm Tree growing in the middle of it!