Back in April we took a road trip through Southwestern New York to attend the Full Solar Eclipse Festival in Dunkirk. We decided to travel a lot of the back roads so that we could explore the area. Let’s face it, you don’t see much if you stay on the interstate or main roads when traveling.

One thing that we noticed as soon as we crossed over the boarder into New York (from Pennsylvania) were miles and miles of signs that warned motorists to watch for the deer (common) and bears (uncommon). Say what? Bears? Yup, Bears! Luckily we saw NONE during our trip.

About 20 minutes after that we started seeing Amish Horse and Buggies. We’re used to seeing them because we live 40 minutes from Lancaster Amish Country. We just didn’t expect to see them going down the road in western New York. A nice surprise to see that! After doing a little internet search I learned that western New York has a nice size Amish coummunity.

Finally…as we got further into the state of New York we started seeing mile after mile after mile of Windmills. Seriously, hundrends of them! We had seen a lot of them during our road trip to Niagara Falls several years ago so it shouldn’t of been a surprise to see them in southwestern New York…but it was. Especially the amount of windmills that we saw.

So, there you have it. Just a few little things that we saw during our road trip into the state of New York.

Two weeks ago we went on a week long family vacation down to the Jersey Shore. We go down to North Wildwood several times every year. It’s our favorite beach to visit and we’re hoping to retire there in 2 years for full-time living. It’s the BEST Jersey shore beach and vacation destination.

My wife Shelly loves to craft with seashells. She has shared 100+ seashell craft projects on the TwoClassyChics blog over the past 14 years. She has made garden yard art with them, strung them together to make windchimes, made candle holders, jewelry, wind spinners and all sorts of things with them.

On this most recent trip down to the shore we were specifically collecting empty Atlantic Surf Clam Shells. She needed medium, large and jumbo sized clam shells and wow…we hit it just right! We came home with 2 large boxes and 3 bags full of clam shells! The best time to go shelling is during Low Tide when you’re visiting the beach. We did find a few large Whelk Shells too.

Once we got home the shell washing begun. She likes to soak them in warm soapy water using Dawn Liquid Dish Soap for 20-30 minutes. Rinses with clean water. She has a plastic drop cloth outside and lays them in a single layer on the drop cloth to air dry out in the hot sun. Once they’re dry she stores them in large plastic storage containers until she’s ready to paint them or craft with them.

If you’re looking for some great Seashell Craft Projects you can find them right here on the TCC blog.