This is Tammy and Wendy at a doll show!
My trip to the Ashby, Ma. Dawn Bairds (Wendy's house) By, Dawn
"I arrived at The Baird's house on Tuesday, June 5th. It sure was nice to be out of that box! It is getting very hot in there and wish it was air conditioned!
I hung out with the girls relaxing and drinking Tab that afternoon.
Wednesday morning I had a minidress and purse made just for me! I chose a pretty red fabric with gold swirlies running through it.
It looks great on me! I just love it!"
"The next day we had to go to Leominster Ma. to return some library books. Dale came along too and we had our picture taken at a monument to the famous Johnny Appleseed. He was from Leominster Ma."
"Friday I did a little sightseeing with Denise. We went to a historical monument in Ashby out in the middle of no-where! The monument is a little difficult to read in the photo but it says this.
~Near this spot was the residence and garrison of John Fitch for whom Fitchburg was named. On the 5th of July, 1748 he was attacked by indians and after a hot fight in which the two soldiers with him were killed. He was captured with his whole family and his dwelling was burned. All were taken to Canada where they were held about one year and then ransomed.
This land at that time a portion of Lunenburg and afterward a part of Fitchburg was later set off to Ashby.~
Anyway, that is what the monument says. There is much more to the story and it is pretty interesting. He had several children and some were very young when this took place. What a difficult life they must have had."
"That Friday night we went to the city of Gardner Ma. and walked in the Relay for Life. We raised $117.00 for the American Cancer Society. Wendy walked. I rode in a little purse. It was so cool!
Saturday was Wendy's daughter Erin's 11th birthday party. There were kids all over the place! It was really fun! We had water balloon and squirt gun fights, Batted a pinata around and tie dyed t-shirts.
I was careful not to fall in the dye bucket!
Sunday we went shopping!!! It was a really warm day. First place we went to was a dollhouse shop, The Stone Chimney, in Ashby, MA. It was so much fun there!
Everything was my size!
I had my picture taken on the porch of this cute little country log cabin.
Gary, Gary are you listening? I want THIS one! I also bought a little pitcher of Kool Aid to enjoy when I get packed up in that hot shipping box again!"
"After that we went to a really nice farm stand where I had a groovy time dancing among the flowers! Here I am taking the time on my trip to stop and smell the flowers, ah!"
"What a day! That night was girls puzzle night which happens pretty often here. Wendy's friend Cheryl came over and we stayed up drinking frozen mudslides (Yum!) and working on that puzzle till the wee hours! I loved the picture on the puzzle! It was all cute dollhouse miniatures!"
"Monday I was off again! Thank goodness the next stop is local. I'm off with Wendy, HTT Angie and all the Baird Kids. There's Lucas, Erin and Amelia out for a day of sightseeing with the Schaubs. Here we all are in the truck! I'm with Amelia. She's 3. She looks like she's really upset but she is just scrunching up her face and mugging for the camera.
More to come from my stay at Tammy's!
Take care!"
Hugs,
Dawn
PS. Wen says "Hi!"
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Dawn on the Beach in Santa Monica, CA
By Carie M.
I received a package at my door and opened it, when to my shock and delight Dawn jumped out and yelled "Take me to the beach!". "No problem!" I said, "I'll get into my swimsuit, you get into yours." Dawn gave me a blank stare, she didn't pack a swimsuit! I couldn't believe it, who goes to So. Cal. without a swimsuit? Well, I whipped up a suit and some sunglasses, grabbed my walking shoes, and off we went. Dawn had Angie's surfboard (given to her from Shelly. THANKS!) and thought surfing would be easy. Go figure! It's a lot harder than it looks! WIPEOUT!!!!!
After that, Dawn was looking for something a little more tame. We headed to downtown Santa Monica. Our first stop was the Santa Monica Pier. The pier was built in 1921. It has restaurants, dance bars, rides at Pacific Park amusement park, a 1920's carousel and many outdoor performances, including Thursday night concerts all summer long!
We left the pier and headed to the 3rd Street Promenade. The Promenade is a 4 block long outdoor walking mall. There are many shops, boutiques, bars, restaurants, movie theatres, galleries, book stores and street performers.
The Promenade is crowded with locals and tourists even late at night. We shopped for a while then walked back to the cliffs to watch the sunset.
Clouds had rolled in and the sunset was beautiful! Being from New Jersey Dawn is not used to seeing sunsets over the ocean, only sunrises.
She was mightly impressed. We headed back to the promenade to snap a night photo then headed home.
The next day we decided to go on a hike in the Santa Monica Mountains. After a short 5 minute drive north, we reached the Temescal Canyon Park. The trail starts there and then turns into The Backbone Trail when you hit Topanga State Park. The Backbone Trail roughly follows the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains for 70 miles! Of course, we weren't going that far, we were headed for Skull Peak, elevation 1100 feet.
The view is amazing, unfortunately, it didn't show up in the picture.
What you can actually see is downtown on the left, and the ocean and Santa Monica to the right. We headed down and when we were finally done we had gone 4.5 miles! Of course Dawn spent most of the hike riding in my backpack (cheater!).
The next day we walked down to Venice to check out the Boardwalk and Muscle Beach. The Boardwalk is super cool and filled with lots of crazy sites to see. We spent some time watching some wacky street performers.
After that, I almost got run over by a rollerblader wearing an elaborately decorated unitard and giant butterfly wings! I wanted to get a pic but she was gone before I could get a shot.
This is a pic of my favorite mural in Venice. Dawn loved the Botticelli influence!
On the walk home I took Dawn by my favorite building. It's aptly named "The Binocular Building". "The Binoculars" were created by Claes Oldenburg and the building designed by Frank Gehry.
The next day we drove out to the valley to meet up with Deb. We chatted a while and then I said my farewells to Dawn. All in all, it was a great visit!
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