8-24-2010 Seasons?

The weather has changed! It was actually almost cool today - maybe just because it was overcast. I wore a long sleeve shirt into the office for the first time in over a month! And I wore one of the office coats home. Could it be?

8-22-2010 A weekend in Milwaukee

Sue and I flew to Milwaukee after work on Thursday the 19th for a visit to Mike and Peg McElwee - Sue's sister and hubby. We missed visiting them in their Arizona summer habitat this year and this weekend was Irish Fest in Milwaukee. Friday we visited Penzies Spices in the AM and Sue got some good flavors. Penzies only sells out of the showroom and online and the warehouse there is simply gargantuan. The ladies then hit a Quilt store while Mike and I sat it out in a coffee shop.

We headed down to Irish Fest at about 3:30 to get in during the free window from 4 to 5. Met Mike Jr. their son down at the waterfront park. Lots of people, lots of food and drink and several stages with live shows. The shows go until 11 at night. We wandered, got travel info, beer, and food. Saw several traditional and non-traditional (Red Hot Chili Pipers) Celtic groups. I even got a lighthouse picture - the Milwaukee Shoals light! It was stormy and raining on and off. At one show we got drenched by a wave of water that came on a strong wind with little warning. Seconds to being soaked. Well at least it wasn't cold.




Saturday we drove out to see a covered bridge about 40 minutes outside of Milwaukee and then visited the little town of Cedarburg nearby. Got some wine at a winery, the ladies hit and quilt store and Mike and I sat on the street.

Went to lunch at a small French restaurant near their old home in Wauwautosa - great crepes. Then on to Gilles, the custard stand for an obligatory custard sundae. Back home for a big meal - Mike Jr. joined us again.



Sunday went to Church at the McElwees parish - a very nice place, very friendly, in a modern, open and bright Church. Then to the airport. A great time!

8-17-2010 1812 Overture

We drove down into DC at about 6:45pm and found a parking place by the Mall. The rules about parking and when the maters are "hot" are pretty obscure but the place we found was good. We walked over to the Sylvan Theater by the Washington Memorial to see the Army Band, the chorus and the Herald Trumpets perform a concert. The finale was the 1812 Overture accompanied by the Presidential Old Guard and their 4 howitzer cannons. This is a yearly event to mark the almost end of summer. Not very crowded and we got there early enough to find a close place on the grass. A very pleasant evening - nice breeze and comfortable.

8-15-2010 Home Weekend

Not much enthusiasm for traveling around - too hot, too humid. So we stayed in town this weekend. Went to the Farmer's market on Saturday morning. Then we went to Irish Fest in Alexandria - a very small affair in the park down at the end of King Street. Some Irish dancers and the town's Drum and Pipe Band. We only stayed about an hour - sweat dripping down our backs. Then out to Brian Foster's condo by Franconia for a party of people from work - mainly Labbies on assignment like me. Good time, and good food.

Sunday we went to see the movie Inception - very novel. Unfortunately I had a huge coke and had to get up and go to the bathroom with 10 minutes left in the movie - Argggg. Now I'll have to rent it - Oh well, it needs to be seen more than once.

We came back home and then walked downtown to have dinner at the Union St. Public House. Good but not memorable.

8-7-2010 National Lighthouse Day

Yes, can you believe it? National Lighthouse Day! Great news for the guy that got the Lighthouse-themed Virginia license plates. Sue is out in California for a Grandma visit. She left last Wednesday. I stayed behind for some meetings on Thursday and Friday that I probably could have skipped, but it was better that I didn't. Anyway, since Sue is not high on lighthouse hunting forays, what better time for a .... Road Trip!

So off I go at 8:30 on Saturday morning to visit 6 lighthouses on the peninsula of Maryland between the Potomac and Patuxant rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. First up, Blackistone. It's on St. Clement's Island, the first landing of Catholic pilgrims in Maryland in1635. The island is a lot smaller now than then. I took a motorboat over and back. It was hot today and the flies were biting if you stayed on one place. The lighthouse had actually been rebuilt, probably for tourist draw. The original one got destroyed by naval fire from Dahlgren.

Next up, Piney Point. This was farther east on the coast. Drove through a beach community - summer homes and rentals -to get there. It was pretty torn up since they had gotten ARA funds to rebuild walkways and generally spruce the place up. Well, check off another one.

Then, Point Lookout at the very tip of the Maryland peninsula. This one demonstrated why finding lighthouses is such a good strategy for seeing the country. I found that this Point, at the very tip of the peninsula, was the home of a massive Northern hospital during the Civil War AND a massive POW camp for Confederates. Some 50,000 soldiers went through the POW camp and more than 4000 died on disease,neglect and abuse.

There was a State monument to the Civil War dead in the POW camp - that's the tall traditional obelisk in the picture. But just 50 feet down the road was a more modern monument to the POWs, done by a private group on private land. Their point was that the Federal and state governments wanted to censor what this organization of POW camp survivor descendants had to say about the North and the Federal government, so they built there own memorial, complete with a central Stars and Bars flag and the confederate flags of all the Southern states in the Civil War. Ah yes, Friends, the Civil War lives on in the south and Maryland is the South.

Then I headed up the coast along the Chesapeake to try to find an offshore light. After some driving and a wee bit of trespassing, I found it and got a picture. This was the Point No Point light.

Then farther north, across the big bridge over the Patuxant River, to the town of Solomon Islands. There one found a Maritime Museum and the Drum Point light relocated to the harbor behind the Museum.

I then drove a few miles north and out through several private communities to get to a locked gate in front of the Cove Point light ( the light is just peeking over the top of the house in front of it) - missed being able to get in by about 30 minutes. Oh well, good excuse to come back - Solomon is a nice looking place that Sue would probably like - and then there's all those lights up by the Chesapeake bridge ....

8-1-2010 A home weekend

The weather broke again on Friday and got much much more tolerable. There was a huge storm in DC, Va and Md last Sunday (killed 4 people, put out power to 275,000) and after that, the weather on Monday was less humid. But it quickly got back to nasty. And then Friday came - we went out of the house on Friday morning to go to the gym at 5:15 and it was so fresh and cool we decided to walk instead. We've been doing that when the weather allowed us. It's getting lighter later so this is probably the last time we can do it. A great walk, up into town and then back along the river. When it's nice, it's very very nice.

On Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market for our fruit fix and then, at about 10:30, headed to downtown DC, driving no less, with an $8 parking coupon in our pocket. We were going to go first to the Portrait Gallery to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit but it was closed. So down to the Building Museum to see the Lego display - Legos used to build scale replicas of the largest buildings in the world. Long line, lots of kids - not the time to see the exhibit! So we poked around an exhibit on DC history and then went back to the Portrait Gallery.

The Rockwell exhibit was very interesting - he really had a way of using light in his art - it is much better to see his paintings than the magazine covers. We also toured the Christo exhibit, about the 15 mi white drapery that was spread across Marin county in the late 70s.

We left and went to Pot Belly for sandwiches and then to the Corcoran (it's free on Saturdays) to see the exhibit of Chuck Close prints. He makes large prints using small pieces of color or grey tone. We both were pretty tired by the end of our foray. But another good day in DC. Went to Famous Dave's to get takeout for dinner, chowed down on BBQ and fresh watermelon.

Sunday was a down day. We did our second St. Vincent de Paul visit to someone needing help. Did the first one Friday afternoon. Then cleaned up the house, did some computer stuff (like these blogs), looked at possible new rentals if our rent gets upped soon. Quiet days are good too.