Emma

Here's our granddaughter, Emma, age 6.

Emma is a little gridders cheerleader this
year in Maryland.

Isn't she cute??

Camping with the Bekkers July 2008

July 25-Aug 2, 2008

Bill and I camped at Evangola State Park on Lake Erie in New York for a few days in mid July. It is located about 40 miles south of Buffalo.

We took a short hike down the bluff and enjoyed an afternoon by the water. Here is Bill and Ceilidh. Ceilidh doesn't much like the water, though!

One afternoon we took a bike ride and found this covered bridge on one of the walking/biking trails.

This was the best sunset picture we could get. As you can see the lake was rough with a storm coming in.

We drove over to Letchworth on Monday, July 28, to meet up with our friends, the Bekkers, from Ontario, Canada. It is such a beautiful park. It is 17 miles long and follows the Genesee River along beautiful gorges and waterfalls. It's difficult to determine whether you are going upstream or downstream. You see, the Genesee starts in northern Pennsylvania and flows north through New York, finally ending in Lake Ontario. So, is upstream south towards Pennsylvania?

You never know who you will find camping these days. These folks pulled in across from us one evening. They had been to a Ford Model A get together in Richmond, Indiana. They traveled all back roads, going 35 miles an hour. It took them 5 days for the trip out. They were well organized, getting their tents set up and settling in for the night. One couple even had their dogs with them. They were on day 4 of their trip home.



One thing we do well on our camping trips is eat good meals!

This evening we had a tossed salad, salmon, potatoes baked with onions over the campfire, a zucchini, tomato, onion casserole, and wine. Not sure if this was the night we had strawberry shortcake, but we did have that one night.

Bill, Gerard, and Nellie.



Barb and Ceilidh sitting on a (walking) bridge over the Genesee River looking south (uptream?) towards Pennsylvania. We had to walk up a gazillion steps to get back up to the parking lot. While out riding around today and sightseeing, we spied some rafters on the river. Looked like fun, so we asked a few questions and ----

The next day WE were on the river. It was great fun even though we were "on the rocks" several times. There were about 20 rafts in our group. We had a ball!!

There's Gerard in the rear doing the steering. Maybe that's why

we were on the rocks........ just kidding!!

Nellie was in the middle and Bill and I in front. Will definately have to do this again.

Break time. The overlook where we spied the rafters yesterday is at the top of this cliff. Now we are the ones in the river.

We spent the weekend of Aug 1-3 back at Evangola. Here's another sunset.

Saturday we were sitting around the campfire and were able to see the Space Station go overhead. We always see satelites, but this is the first time for the Space Station.


Good trip, good food, good friends....

Meadville, PA in June

If you are lucky enough to be in Meadville, PA in late May and early June, you won't want to miss the annual riot of color known as rhododendren season.

Greendale' Cemetery's rhododendron collection, which got its formal start back in 1875, was named one of the Cultural Landscape Foundatin's "Hero's of Horticulture" in 2007.

Entered through an elaborate gate at the top of Randolph Street, the non-profit, public cemetery known as Greendale was created as --and remains to this day -- both a public park and a burial ground.

The final resting place for more than 21,000 individuals, the park-like grounds cover more than 200 acres and has more than 1,000 bushes ready to spring into bloom in late May.

If you get off the main roads and on the back dirt roads you will find the most beautiful bushes, many 25-30 feet wide and 25-30 feet high. Also on the grounds are beautiful hiking trails winding through a massive ravine on the property. There's virgin timber, the trails are maintained, and the ravine is amazing.

Jim Vogan, superintendent since 1981, encouraged visitors to stop at the main office, open dawn to dusk, and get a map. He will tell you how to get on the trail and where it will take you.

He also has an offer that's hard to refuse: he will give you a personal tour. You can get a lot of history in an hour. The tours, by the way, are free.

Also in June, on Father's Day weekend is the annual Thurston Classic Hot Air Balloon Event which draws between 30,000 and 35,000 visitors.

This year 30 balloonist were present from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and South Carolina.

Thursday evening is the annual "Night Glow"> eight pilots and their balloons participated this year. The pilots use special burners called glow burners that produce a bright flame showing off the design of their balloon.

The balloons actually lift off early mornings and early evening. The skies over Meadville are filled with color for these few days.

Beginning to inflate Sunny Boy, which takes about an hour.

The 2008 Thurston Classic features an unusually shaped balloon - "Sunny Boy", a sun-shaped floater that is piloted by balloonmeister Bob Zanella,(77) a retired pharmacist from Ohio. He holds many awards and his most memorable moment was flying a 400,000 cu.ft. balloon in Kenya, West Africa. He has logged over 4000 hours in the air.

"Sunny Boy"