West Virginia

Click HERE to see more pictures of our first day in West Virginia. We drove from NJ through the Maryland Panhandle into West Virginia's Potomac Highlands taking roughly about 5.5 hrs. Once in West Virginia we stopped at BlackWater Falls and Canaan Valley Park, which was very impressive. From the falls we traveled south through Monongahela Forest as well as Dolly Sods (aka Satan's hole) The drive through the "hole" was very dangerous, foggy, pot hole ridden, and wet (very wet). It must have been awesome scenery but we were too busy changing our Depends to notice! It had been a very long day at that point so we made our way to Elkins, WV- our home base for the next few days. We had a quick Cinco De Mayo dinner at the local Mexican eatery, Humberto's, and headed back to the room. At that point we realized we will not get the Hockey games down here. This was followed by the sun coming out and a rainbow which we saw from our hotel. We are too bushed to get back out there to enjoy it. Tomorrow we are heading further south towards Snowshoe and back.

The Catskills

Lori and I have spent the last few days tooling around the Catskills in New York. We saw lots of waterfalls (unplanned), reservoirs, got lost, and had a awesome lunch in Roscoe NY in a place called Zach's (also unplanned, but worth the trip). Most of the time we were on roads that were not on our maps nor the GPS, yet we made it back to the hotel with out getting too lost, (many " Look kids Big Ben's/Parliament" from the movie European Vacation). One of the pictures we posted is of our future dream home we will never own, just amazing!

Spring

I am sure I wasn't the only one outside this weekend playing in the yard! We spent all day Sunday planting Gerbers and cleaning up outside. Today I took a short walk and snapped some pictures.
Left to right the 1st photo is of one of our Gerbers followed by a tadpole in my pond, followed by a stupid Canandian goose sitting on her nest right next to the play ground at Newton Lake! The 1st picture on the bottom row is of a Praying Mantis egg sack, in that little sack holds roughly 200 babies, which if I am lucky enough will be present when they hatch. The last picture is one I took a few weeks ago of an unfortunate squirrel being consumed by one the lakes red tailed hawks.

Cutest little ice cream

Walking through our local Super Fresh I couldn't help but notice the smallest of ice cream containers. At the time they were on sale for 10 for $10, not a bad deal. The only problem is I could eat the normal size pint and want more, so the small single serve does little to fill you up!

When Irish eyes are smiling

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day by going on a cruise on The Lantern Queen in Havre de Grace MD. We cruised along the Susquehanna River listening to Irish music and eating Irish food as well as sipping on a Guinness. A word about the Guinness: while visiting Ireland in the fall a lot of co-travelers suggested that the Guinness in Ireland was better then here in the states. After much consideration and many trials both here and there, I have to say I think it tasted just as great in both places; however, I will continue my experiment in the matter of science only! Back to the cruise, we were entertained not only by the authentic Irish music but also some truly authentic Irish dancers (see video). The amazingly cute red head is Katherine (our friends the Weber's little girl), who will be three in June. I'd like to point out the other little dancer in the video was four yrs old. We had a great time and hope to do it again next year!

Glazed Eyes

Yesterday our cat Licorice had to have blood taken and since he is ferocious, the vet had to sedate him with a little IM shot of Ketamine. Check out how big his pupils remained 5 hours post sedation. (I also added a picture with his normal looking eyes) Had he let the vet take blood without sedation the procedure would have only taken seconds, instead it was a whole day event. On the plus side they were able to examine his gums, teeth, and cut his nails (which is a first in 13 years). Licorice has been consistantley losing weight about half his body weight over the last 5 years. We think he may have a hyperthroid? We will find out on Monday? Apparenlty Lori gets just as upset with our cat getting sedated as she did with Courtney's knee operations.

SNOW DAY!

For the first time this season we finally received
about 6 inches of snow! It took Lori and I about 45 minutes to clear off our trucks. There were a ton a kids sledding across the park, Lori and I treated ourselves to some ice cream, and even our cat got to enjoy the birdies on the deck digging for the bread crumbs we put there.
Also check out our traveling "white boy" truck, he is almost covered in snow. (again if you don't know check out the license plate)