Fall 2015 - Apple Picking at Linvilla Orchards

Linvilla Orchards is a family favorite for apple picking, Pumpkinland, the playground and the store.  The store is loaded with all sorts of edible goodies that you will never find in a supermarket; like jars of pickled bologna; home baked pies and pastries, yummy apple cider and apple cider donuts and more hot sauces than you've ever seen before.

This year, it was drizzly, damp, windy and COLD!  Apple picking went quickly for that reason.  The kids wanted to get to the playground and the adults wanted to get to the store!

Pics posted.

Summer 2015.

The Night in Venice parade was somewhat of a bust.  It probably was the poorest parade that we've seen in all the years that we have been spectators or participants.  Here's a quick video of the parade.

Off to Indy

We're getting ready for our trip to Indianapolis.  Lots or prep work is needed to gather up all of the things we'll need for the race weekend.  Radios, stadium seats, thermos bottles, cameras....  But, all are necessary to have an enjoyable experience.

Florida 2015

Well, here we are in sunny Florida while snow, ice and rain storms batter the folks back home.  We've been to Disney and are, now, in Clearwater Beach with a couple Phillies spring training games coming up this weekend.  We've been to Tarpon Springs, St. Pete Beach, John's Pass and to the end of the island at SPB. 

Here's a video of the aquarium at Guy Harvey's Outpost Rumfish Grill in St. Pete Beach.

I've posted some photos in the Family Photos section.  And will update as we go forward.

One event of the trip was the first flight of my DJI Phantom quadcopter.  It was a gift from my sons; a terrific gift at that.  I'll post a few videos as we progress.

Hope everyone survives the snow.

Sunset today at Clearwater Beach.

Christmas 2014

Well, Christmas has come and passed.  It was a very busy Christmas for Kathleen and I.  There was a lot on our agenda; trip to StorybookLand, Christmas shows/services, Phoenixville CC Breakfast w Santa, holiday decorating, shopping (thank goodness for the Internet), baking cookies (well, Kristie actually baked the cookies at our house), prepping for Christmas dinner, wrapping...LOTS of wrapping as you will see in the photos in the "2014 Christmas/Christmas Eve" album.

I pretty much struck out on my gifts for Kathleen.  Probably the worst year selecting gifts I've had in a long time.  But K knows what she wants and has found a few things after Christmas that she would prefer, including a very nice coat.  Kathleen likes to see nicely wrapped presents, so I go overboard to do something unique.  This year, I had custom wrapping paper made with pictures of our kids; two papers "before the Littles" and "after the Littles".  You'll see them in the pics of the "prissy" tree.

I got some great gifts; a set of collector-grade model Lionel trains from Kathleen, lots of cookies from Kristie, and a DJI quadcopter from Ron and Mark.  Can't wait to fly that copter!  It has a camera so aerial videos are on our agenda.

Kathleen and I also received tickets to a performance of the Pennsylvania Philharmonic, an orchestra dedicated to music education and appreciation in our schools.  The performance was unique.  The orchestra performed selections from the Disney classic Fantasia.  The unique part was that they showed the corresponding cinematic portions while they played the music.  The conductor's task was to match the orchestral performance perfectly with the showing video.  It was done masterfully.  The conductor did have some very sophisticated technology that he used to manage the performance.  So, for me, the performance was doubly entertaining; as music synchronized with video AND as an application of technology (which we could see) in a way I had never seen.

Of course, our trees are still up, but they will come down soon.  For those I haven't spoken to, "Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year!"

Lots of pics, and, eventually, some videos.

Here's a video of the train on our front lawn.  

I also got an opportunity to take some photos and shoot a video of a remarkable Christmas train display.  Bill Henning, of Henning's Trains hobby shop, built an outstanding "Train Tree" which wraps an O gauge train around and through a "tree" that Bill designed and constructed.  I hope some of the photos that I shot are available down the road.  Here's a video that I threw together to show off the tree on a national model railroading forum...

Walt Disney World - Boo to You!

This week we're vacationing in Florida.  Last week, Kristie, Henry and Sadie visited with us while we stayed at the Contemporary Bay Lake Towers.  Kathleen and I are staying with K's sister and brother-in-law in Clermont, FL for a few days.  We'll be heading home soon, but still making some use of our WDW annual passes.  

Weather is beautiful.  Had a great time at the Hoop-Dee-Doo Review last night.  Maybe back to the MK today.  

Pics are posted in the Family Photos section.

The Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and the Boo To You Parade are also on the agenda.

The Boo-To-You Parade...http://youtu.be/dLS-jwY-eNs 

Apple Picking at Linvilla Orchards

We went to Linvilla Orchards to go apple picking.  Linvilla has a very large country store with all sorts of locally produced items (pickles, pies, jams, etc).  The orchard has several varieties of apples, some of which I've never heard of.  In a short time, we picked three large boxes of apples. Those apples resulted in some fine baking by Mike and me just eating the apples (lots of macintoshes).  Apple cider donuts are always a hit.  Lunch at the country club.  Fall is here.

Joshua elevated to Life Scout

Josh was elevated to Life Scout at his troop's Court of Honor.  This is the last step before Eagle Scout.  Josh, now, gets to begin working on the stringent requirements to achieve Eagle Scout. 

Congratulations, Josh!

Great Grandpop Joe's 91st Birthday

Joe was in his glory with lots of family members surrounding him.  He especially enjoys watching and interacting with the little guys.  You could see it in his eyes.  Of course he had his Black & Tan and a piece of his huge birthday cake.  Happy Birthday, Joe!

Some pics are posted in the Family Photos section.  Enjoy.

Jeez, I didn't really post all summer!

Well, no excuses.  We did have a very busy summer with lots of family and friend activities.  We didn't really get to spend much time in Ocean City.  It almost seems like the summer just didn't happen. 

But, that brings us to fall.  An annual destination for our family is Linvilla Orchards in SE Pennsylvania.  Linvilla has a huge "PumpkinLand" with activities for the kids, a country store with homemade baked goods and all sorts of fresh produce and flowers.  Linvilla also has a very broad selection of locally made jellies, jams, chutneys, pickles and other jarred goodies. 

Important for us is the apple orchards at Linvilla.  Our trip starts there with an hour or so of picking apples.  All varieties are represented, even some I've never heard of.  With a large group of us (see the pics) it doesn't take long to fill three large boxes of apples.  By the way, they are delicious.

Coming up, Halloween.  So far, we have a Spiderman and a Minney Mouse planned among the grandchildren.

Snow, snow and more SNOW!

Well, we got another 12 inches of snow today in Lansdale.  Schools and businesses were closed and the roads were a nightmare.  Kathleen and I simply stayed at home and watched the snow fall.  Kathleen made some homemade tomator soup to keep us warm inside.

One of our daughters lost power for several hours.  I can't imagine what our 15-year old grandson did without his video games.  But they got a lot of exercise shoveling their driveway.

The snow looks beautiful but we've had our quota for the season.  It's time for spring!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Everyone.  It was a quiet New Year's Eve at our house.  Watching football and the channel surfing the new set of New Year's Eve "specials".  What ever happened to Guy Lombardo!?

We started the new year off with a snowfall and extremely cold temperatures (3 degrees above zero last night).

There was a new train under the tree this year for Christmas.  The new Lionel O gauge Polar Express set with the Lionchief remote control.  Lionchief is a simple to use handheld remote control and was great for the younger ones to use.  It also saved more "adult" trains from projected catastrophe.  The set is a lot of fun.  We gave one of our grandsons a similar Thomas the Tank Engine set for Christmas.

Here's a short video of the Polar Express O Gauge model train that was under our tree this year.  I've followed that with a brief video of our trip the the Strasburg Railroad in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for a ride on the Strasburg RR Santa Train.   Happy New Year!  Hope your new year is full of good health, prosperity, friends, family and good times.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, tomorrow is Thanksgiving here, in the U.S..  We will be celebrating the holiday with the traditional turkey and trim.  We'll be at our daughter Rebecca's home so that Kathleen can cook but Becca will not have to leave home with the new baby, Ella Catharine.

We recently returned from a brief trip to Florida to Walt Disney World and to visit with relatives and friends.  Some photos from the visit are posted in the Photos section.  One of the seasonl highlights that we wanted to see at WDW was the display of the Osborne Family Christmas Lights at Holywood Studios.  A brief history of the Osborne Lights.  They were part of a large Christmas display built by an individual for his wife and family. It grew and grew until it was, literally, too large for his residential neighborhood.  An arrangement was made with Disney to move the display from the midwest to WDW, where it now resides.  A couple videos to give you the feel of the display follow.

Happy Thanksgiving, All!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Well, fall is here and Christmas has arrived at the big box stores and on all of the cable-based sales channels.  I actually fell prey to QVC and purchased three new lights for our Christmas outside decorations.  Called Bliss lights, they use lasers projected through holographic lenses to form large "star fields" of small points of light that, when projected onto the house or a tree, make it appear as though thousands of small lights have been installed.  I'll try to remember to post some pics after we get them installed.

I've already made a couple Christmas gift purchases.  Started early this year.  Still, I'll be headed to Ocean City tomorrow to work out some details on the boat before it goes into storage for the winter.  

Happy Halloween to all.  Get those Christmas decos out.

Out for a tuna trip.

Well, the weather finally cooperated and we headed out for a day of trolling for tuna.  While some tuna were being caught far offshore (70-90 miles), we chose to troll a couple mid-shore locations that were 30 miles closer to shore.  We headed out of Great Egg Inlet about 6:30 AM and headed for The Cigar, a long rise in the bottom that is shaped like a cigar.  This rise in depth causes an upswelling of bait and, hence, attracts gamefish.

After a couple hours of trolling The Cigar with no success, we moved a bit further out to the 750 Square.  I shot several pictures and a few videos.  The videos are below and the photos are posted in the Photos section of the site.

We saw lots of sea turtles.  We were passed by a huge container carrier.  Unfortunately, we had no success at all with the tuna.  We saw one fish that swam around our boat, swam directly through our trolling lines and, then, swam away.  Strikeout today.

The benefit was a beautiful day with calm seas (see some of the photos for the glassy appearance of the water).

Labor Day Holiday

Well, it's Labor Day Weekend already.  The, sort of, official end to the summer season in this area.  Of course, there will be visitiors to the shore and the stores and restaurants will stay open for some time.  There are several "season extending" events, like a Corvette show, a craft show, a street rod show, etc.  All of these attract weekend visitors well into the fall.  

Fishing, especially for striped bass, will continue right through December.  However, the flounder fishing season will close very soon.  If the weather holds well, we may get a couple tuna trips in.  Tuna trips are offshore trips, generally 40+ miles out.

A short video taken on a sunset cruise with Kathleen tonight.  It shows the illuminations on the new 9th Street Bridge into Ocean City.  Red, white and blue for the holiday.

A Beautiful Day in Ocean City

It was a beautiful day in Ocean City today.  I took the opportunity to shoot a couple pictures of the boat and a panorama of the bay behind the house.  Hope you enjoy.  Only a few weeks left before fall sets in with all it's fury.  Check out the full size pics in the Photos section.

Summer is winding down.

Many kids are back to college already.  Elementary, Middle and High Schools start back as soon as this coming Monday.  This time of year causes a shift in the sun on the bay and leads us toward more dramatic tide changes. Used the opportunity of a low tide to try another timelapse series using my GoPro Hero3.  During the process, we managed to capture a very brief storm front blowing through (and shaking the camera).

A Night in Venice, Ocean City's Annual Boat Parade

Last night was Ocean City's annual boat parade for the "Night in Venice" celebration.  Normally, houses on the waterfront decorate in various themes and host parties where attendees can watch the boat parade of decorated boats.  In previous years, a majority of the houses were decorated but this year that number was reduced significantly.  We, for example, have retired from the decoration competition after seven wins in our class.  I suspect many homeowners are still recovering from Hurricane Sandy.

Similarly, the boat participation in the parade seemed drastically reduced.  However, the parade was bolstered by about 15 boats specifically celebrating our military and first responder heroes.  Overall, the quality of the parade was not on a par with previous years.  Even the parties on the boats seemed somewhat subdued.

Still, we had fun.  I experimented with my GoPro Hero3 camera and shot a time lapse video of the entire parade and the storm that followed shortly after the parades conclusion.  Enjoy.

The Parade:

The Storm:

Summer is almost here. Time for Indy!

Kathleen and I left Lansdale for Indianapolis yesterday.  We stayed overnight in Dayton, Ohio and, today, we made a short visit to the museum of the USAF at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.  The museum is quite a place, staffed largely by retired USAF veterans.  The collection of aircraft from all time periods is incredible.  We've made a few previous trips to the museum and a few pictures from those, longer visits are posted here on the the site.  

This visit was a short one as I was feeling a bit under the weather.  We visited some of the aircraft that are currently stored outside, the WWII 8th Air Force control tower and huts recovered from the U.K., then made a quick trip through a couple parts of the museum.  It was very crowded.  We'll be back.  In two years the museum will open a completely new hall that will had 30% new space.  The new hall will have the Presidential Collection of aircraft as it's focal point

In the next couple days, I'll post some pics from our visit to the museum and some pics from Indy.  Look in "Photos".  Probably won't take many pictures of race day.  Been there, done that.  

Security is elevated this year.  Good.

Drivers, start your engines!