LBL Continued....

Our second day at Land between the Lakes, we got up to a pouring rain. So we went off to Mass at St. Anthony's nearby and asked the locals for a recommendation for breakfast. We ended up at a sweet little cafe run by a couple who sold their house in San Diego twenty years ago and drove west until they hit water. They bought a home on the river and relaxed for four years then opened up the cafe/bakery to help the cash flow. Now they are dropping days and are down to Thursday-Sunday. What a great way to retire. In the summer they hire extra help for all the tourists. We had a delicious crab benedict for breakfast - on a croissant. Yum!

Hiking seemed to be out and we were still trying to decide what to do in the rain, so we asked the two couples at the table next to us if they were from the area. Bingo! They suggested a trip to Paducah to the quilt museum and a few other places in town including the river front to see the murals on the flood wall. So off we went. By the the time we got to Paducah the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to peek through. It was perfect for a walk along the river. The murals tell the history of the town and some of them were so realistic I felt like I could walk straight into them. What scope for the imagination! Imagine walking from 2012 right back into the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.

Each of the murals had a description. Some were underwritten by different groups. Lourdes Hospital, the first health provider in town run by sisters (I don't remember the order.) had a mural. So did the Boy Scouts. There were some that described the history: the local Indian tribes, settlement by the explorers and pioneers, the buildup of shipping on the river. There was even one[panel that showed harvesting of mussel shells to be used for making pearl buttons. It is worth going to Paducah just for the murals!

But the quilting museum was also a terrific stop. I wish I could have taken pictures, but they didn't permit it. They had one gallery of art quilts, one of award winners, and one of historical quilts. There also was an exhibit of quilts by Paul Pilgrim, an art teacher who later made quilts incorporating bits and pieces of historical quilts. He said he wanted to preserve what was being lost because they were never finished. So he would buy a stack of squares from one place and put them together in interesting patterns. The results were a mix of old and new.

My favorite quilt was a white Victorian all hand quilted. A flower was missing because the woman who made it was working the day of the Challenger explosion and forgot it. She decided to leave it that way as a memento of the loss. The quilt had a lace border that she made with a shuttle in the old fashioned way. That is, indeed, a lost art. The quilt was magnificent! There was another quilt honoring Tolkein. In the center was the wedding of Strider and his fairy queen with Gandalf doing the honors.

In the lobby there was a display of children's squares and I did take pictures of some of those. Here are a few to shame those of us who doubt we could do as well as the young 'uns.