Blogging can make me nuts!

It's early November in Pittsburgh, the gold, red, and orange leaves on the tress are absolutely beautiful.
But we are really starting to yearn for the boating life, so I thought I would go onto my blog and do some work.  I have never liked how BIG the picture of our spinnaker sail is on the home page - I don't know how that happened and have tried before to change it with no luck.  But recently,  my new Dr. went on my blog for the first time while I was there and when that picture came up he went "Whoa -big!"  Sooo,  today I decided to try again.  That was an hour ago!  I couldn't access it,  had to change my profile,  then needed a new password - maybe for a 12 year old it would have been a cinch, but for poor old me it was a frustrating challenge.  I have been following a few blogs these past months and so admire their skills and creativity.  Maybe I am not so much a blogger but rather a blogee?

Nov.22  Hmmm - not much luck increasing my skills.  I even checked out other sites like word press and sailblogs but they didn't look much different.  So, sorry, you will just have to deal with the BIG spinnaker.  I did manage to add a few gadgets - a "favorite blog list", but would really like to add a weather gadget that would show the weather wherever we are, and also a map that could show where we are.  so if anyone wants to send me advice on how to do that I would love it!

Meanwhile, I'll practice a little by posting some pictures from this past hurricane season spent in Pittsburgh.

We started off the summer by attending our first grandchild's graduation from Upper St. Clair High School.  We just can't believe it!  She is now at Miami of Ohio and has made the transition really well.

A trip to Chicago in July (but it was chilly!) to visit Megan.  These were taken at Millennium  Park downtown - a truly beautiful place to listen to a concert.  When you ever go to Chicago don't miss it.

We left Chicago and followed the Lake Michigan shoreline, stopping wherever we wanted in small, cute and quaint towns.  We then finished the trip on Mackinac Island and this is the picture of our historic Bed and Breakfast.

I forget the name of this arch on Mackinac but it is awesome

The front of the Grand Hotel which has the longest porch in America.  We were told every room is decorated differently.  Very beautiful grounds and interiors.  Site of the movie with Christopher Reeve "Somewhere in Time"

View of Lake Huron from the top of the Grand Hotel

The town is filled with magnificent Victorian houses and the flowers are amazing.

We were just amazed by the foliage around this entrance.  Summers are short and winters are harsh up here but it sure produces some gorgeous landscaping.

Mackinac can only be reached by ferries and there are no cars or other motorized vehicles (except of course on the golf course), so all transportation is walking, biking, or by horse.  Here is a delivery being made to a grocery store by horse drawn dray after it met the ferry to get the supplies.

The middle of town, which has no less than 17 fudge shops and also 17 bars.  The smell of the fudge mingles with the pungent horse manure in abundant supply on the streets.  There are workers constantly shoveling it into wagons and then rinsing off the streets.  There are about 800 horses on the island during the season.

We all got together at my brother's house on the Chesapeake Bay and Mom got to crabbing again one year after her open heart surgery.
 Jim's crab boat "Bluegill" was my Dad's on Seneca Lake in Ohio.  Jim has completely redone it, including all the fiberglass.

boating on the Chesapeake in Jim's other boat, a Pursuit called "Day Dream".  His last name is Day

Sunset on the Chesapeake

In October we were lucky to be included in a family trip to La Jolla, California.  Alyza was in college by this time so here are Jane,12, Charlotte,15, Mac, 17, and Gigi 10.

Hanging at the beach

the beautiful La Jolla shoreline

A beautiful fall day in Sewickley, PA.  Notice this is a cemetery !  We went there to see the Tuskagee  Airmen memorial.  They were all African-American aviators in World War 2 who flew 1600 missions.  100 of them were from Pittsburgh.  What a beautiful spot for this memorial.

                                           Finally  -  a blast from the past    Finally  -  a blast from the past

We have been going through boxes of stuff from the basement and found lots of old pictures.  This is Ray on our first sailing adventure on Houston Woods Lake in Ohio - just a little sunfish but I guess we caught the bug.