Category Archives: legend

Rock n Roll baby! Cleveland, Ohio

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After we spent the day in Pittsburgh back in October, we then had a long drive to Cleveland. I need to share our ride up the Pittsburgh cable incline too! Great shots!  The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame was our next destination. I thought it was a place that Brian would enjoy and I don’t know what our future will bring (as stated in my previous blog entry), so that’s where we decided to go. We didn’t get in town until after dark and then had to go out to eat. We had the van drop us off at an Italian place downtown as I found a coupon or discount for it. They happen to be hosting some party and she said we’d have to wait. I said we could have whatever they were serving and the waitress said it had been served already. She did seat us and we got what we wanted and it was pretty good.

The next day we had the van drive us over to the museum as it was so cold and windy right there on the lake. It was even flurrying that day. The museum is truly a work of art in itself!

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Sean posing with the late Johnny Cash’s tour bus. Not sure if you could go in it or not. We were so cold, we just wanted to get inside the museum!

2015 Nominees Including Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (a local gal from the same county that I grew up in) and Ringo Starr! Any Beatle memoribilia was awesome to us!

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The displays were so nicely collaged! You know I appreciated that! I took a photo of these for one of the posters….think it’s the Atlantic City one on the far right.

Taylor Swift’s barely there costume and Lady Gaga’s meat dress that she wore to the Grammys a few years back. They said the cheap cuts of meat worked better.

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The lighting wasn’t great and I tinkered with many of my photos. Brian and one of my brothers are big Jimmy Hendrix’s fans. It was cool to see some of his psychedic costumes. He could really play the guitar!

We were really excited to see this exhibit!

 

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Across from the Beatles were the other British invasion group, The Rolling Stones!

 

The King of Pop, Michael Jackson was represented

This is one of my favorite photos of the Supremes outfits. You can even see where the sequins are loose.Falltrip15 180

Cooperstown-a big museum in a small town

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Take me out to the ball game…

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On the 12th, Sean was nice enough to treat his dad and me to a Phillies baseball night game. It’s been about 3 years since I went to a game and the temperature was about 92 that day and a bad storm blew in. The game was cut short at the 5th inning and we got home to water pouring in our basement near the well and no power. Not fun.

So….this time around rain was again in the forecast.  We left around 4:15 and Sean headed toward 95 through Wilmington to hopefully avoid traffic. Turns out there was an multi-car accident near where we where headed. We thought to go back down Rt. 1 and that helped us get there before the game started. We wound through parts of Philly that we hadn’t been to in years! As we walked into the concourse area, we saw it was raining and the workers were laying down the tarp on the field. We thought we might as well get some dinner and went to a sit down restaurant adjacent to the stadium. The guys had burgers and me a cheesesteak.

After we ate, we saw that they were ready to start the game around 8 pm. Our timing was good then.

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We had good seats behind 1st base about 16 rows back.

PhilliesB&SThis was taken when we first got there.

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Sean took this cute photo of  us. I just had to use my Phillies bag that night!

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Love watching these guys watch baseball as they share a special father/son snicker-actually for football too!

We also had our Phillies umbrella with us which went up a few times.

The first inning was awesome, the Phils scored 6 runs! Roy Halladay, the pitcher had been sick and he looked pale and clammy. By the 5th inning he threw wildly to 1st and then 4 runs came in. He was really mad at himself too as he threw down a ball or something.

At one point, a foul ball hit by Jimmy Rollins bounced off a bar and hit a young lady in the back of the head (she was in the first row to the left of us). She immediately put her hands behind her head and the EMT and a bunch of people went to check her out. She got up by her own accord and I guess went to rest in the office there. Jimmy kept looking at her as he had made it to first base. I bet he went to check on her after the game if she was still there.

We stayed until the 7th inning stretch as it was getting late.

We stopped and grabbed a few shots leaving the park.

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Legendary pitcher Robin Roberts statue

We got home a little after midnight as Sean wanted to stop for a hoagie for lunch later that day.

It was a hassle and a half to get there, but I think everyone should go to a game to see the action in real time. The Citizen Bank park is really a great park and they think of everything from a play area for the kids to a nice restaurant.

I just realized I have been blogging over 9 years now!

Tick tock, tick tock

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We hadn’t been caching for a week and I was itchy to go look for a few over this past weekend. I hadn’t been feeling good, so was ready for some fresh air too! Saturday I had missed a big Geocaching event and was a bit bummed by that.

We drove over to the Landenberg, PA area to find the ‘Ticking Tomb’. Here is the write up about it on the geocaching page:

 Back in 1764 when Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon were surveying this area in order to figure out the border of Pennsylvania with that of Delaware and Maryland, the English King held a contest to see who could develop the best device to measure longitude. Charles Mason developed this device, a chronometer, but legend has it that it was swallowed before it could be submitted for review by Fithian Minuet, who was an infant at the time. He grew up to be a successful clock maker and he and his wife Martha lead a happy life and had many friends. It is said that you could hear the chronometer ticking in him his whole life and that it STILL ticks in him to this day. Many people have put their ears to his tombstone and heard the ticking. Edgar Allen Poe heard the ticking and was supposedly inspired to write “The Tell Tale Heart.” George Alfred Townsend told the story in “Tales of the Chesapeake.” And most recently, Ed Okonowicz included the tale in his book “Up the Back Stairway (Spirits Between the Bays).”

Interesting right? But alas, the ticking  sound people thought they were hearing was probably from underground springs and something like rocks and dripping water has shifted as no one is hearing that sound anymore. Anyway, I enjoy visiting the old meeting houses and seeing interesting markers like this:

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This was the heart shaped stone that we were suppose to look for-the tomb was to the left of this.

What’s really neat is that we had to figure out the coords for the cache by looking at surrounding markers and to plug  in the numbers we got to get the new numbers for the final location. At first we were walking all around the cemetery, in the tall grass too. I looked at the description again and the ending coords were very close to the ‘suggested’ parking. We had parked down the road a bit. So we walked passed the parking lot and the numbers went down. I saw an old stump and looked closer and saw a tell tale pile of sticks and there was the cache! Not that close to the cemetery!

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I never found of cache before! I was pretty proud of myself!

This is a neat old place and is used for a nature center. Lots of taxidermy showing thorough the windows.

We then went a little bit down the road to a nice trail with two nicely made bridges and found the cache in a handmade wooden container under the second bridge.

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We did go get some pizza after our excursion which wasn’t as good as it usually is. Someone over salted the ingredients in it. Then we looked for one more cache and approached it from the incorrect direction. It was on the other side of a stream we were near. When I got home and read the logs, we were the only ones who didn’t find it! It shows that you have to read the logs carefully. A new geo pal said she’d show me where it is since she found it ‘first’ several years ago. She’s got many thousands of finds.

On a personal note, had a few days bad last week from overdoing it. Climbing in and out of the SUV is rough. I have noticed the bottom of my legs are red, almost like razor burn! And I can’ hardly button my jeans. I decided to ask pharmacist and when I mentioned my legs, he said to call the doctor. She called within a few hours and said I am retaining water and to stop the medicine I have been taking about 5 weeks. I have to wait a week to see if my legs get better and then I will call her back.

Happy Birthday JT

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Couldn’t let the day go back without wishing my lifelong favorite singer a happy 63rd!



President Barack Obama presenting the National Medal of Arts to James for his outstanding achievements and support of the arts (along with 9 others). The medal was presented by the president in the East Room ceremony at the White House. Mrs. Michelle Obama was in attendance. The National Medal of Arts is a White House initiative managed by the National Endowment for the Arts. Each year, the NEA organizes and oversees the National Medal of Arts nomination process and notifies the artists of their selection to receive a medal, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence.
Jenn arriving at her party
I had a nice time at the bridal shower of Brian’s ‘2nd cousin’ (I guess), his first cousin Kathi’s daughter who graduated the year ahead of Sean from high school, though they are only 3 months apart. The day Jenn was born, Brian and I were taking the tour of the maternity ward. There was Kathi laying on a gurney all blissful from having her Jennifer. Hard to believe she’ll be a married woman at the end of May. I took some photos, but many are dark and I have to fix them. She loved the apron I bought her from etsy.com (colors go with her dishes) and the glass beverage dispenser (two glass jars that hold 17 cups each). The ‘theme’ of the shower was suppose to be bbq or party. A few gave her some wine. I thought my gifts looked pretty to match the wedding colors.
Collins Cousin Bridal Shower gifts
Pretty bride and bridesmaid. Her sister is in white and her cousin is next to her sister.
Jenn and the bridal party
We had some yummy quiche, tea sandwiches and ambrosia. Kathi lives right down off our or road, yet we don’t see them that often and we are the same age. She works outside the home and I don’t.
Love Cake
Fireplace mantel in kitchen
Kathi loves to decorate her mantel and home.
Mike and Jenn got engaged in front of the ‘Love’ sculpture in Philadelphia, hence the “Love” cake.
Jenn in the apron I gave her
Jenn in the apron I gave her.
I’m waiting on Brian and Sean to come back from church.

Oh what a night!

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Totally messed up a good photo, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Few legends are born that you get to see in person. Sir Paul McCartney was part of a group that changed music on so many levels. He was part of a song writing duo that produced hit after hit. They arrived on the scene just when we needed them. I was 4 going on 5 in 1964 when the band played Shea Stadium in New York. Within a year or so, my older brother was playing their hits. When I turned 13, I absolutely loved the lp ‘Band on the Run’ and Paul! So imagine me at 50 and my husband a few years older getting to see a legend this close?
I was misty-eyed when he sang ‘Jet’-why this song, it was near the beginning of the concert. Sir Paul is a young 68 and his fellow guitarists are 55 and 51!
Paul and guitar band mates

I thought they were in their 30s they were rocking so well! Hearing so many hits by both The Beatles and Wings (and solo I guess) was a dream come true.
So this concert was definitely meant for us to attend. The place was packed-thousands of people-and I look to my left in a section over, and there is my friend and maid of honor standing there! I hadn’t seen her in years, though we talked on the phone a few months ago. And she isn’t a computer person, so she didn’t know we were going to the concert. During a break in the second encore (when Sir Paul signed a lady’s back as she was a breast cancer survivor and you know his first wife Linda wasn’t) we went over to see my friend Linda. She was so surprised! We took this photo before we went to see her as I was afraid I’d miss a chance to talk with her.
I spotted my friend from college in the crowd!

The couple next to her had left, so we stood next to her for the remainder of the show and she got a few hugs and we got to see the big screen we couldn’t see where we were sitting. I took some videos and spliced them together and will burn a copy for Linda and share here too.
The most exciting part of the concert-the piro-techs for the song ‘Live and Let Die’. If you know the song, there is a very loud part-fire shot out of the front of the stage in about 4 cyclinders! It was awesome! You could feel the heat from our seats! And the fire came out twice.
He did lots of tributes-to his first wife Linda, John Lennon and George Harrison-he played a ukelele for George-Something in the Way She Moves.
The concert lasted almost 3 hours! No intermisson! Over 25 songs and two encores!!! I thank Sir Paul for waving the Pennsylvania flag, but not for people handing out brochures about how badly chickens are treated before the show-ugh.
We had to wait a bit to get out of the parking lot, but when we did, we saw a white stretch limo-wonder who was in it?
Great photo from Brian
We were a bit ‘behind’ the scenes, but I’d rather be 75 feet away to grab a photo like this then way in the back of the place where they had to look at the big screen. We couldn’t see the big screen where we were, just a few smaller ones, but who wanted to look at them anyway?
Bri found this video that showed our section of the audience. We are marked with an orange arrow (we are both in black t-shirts) and my friend was behind the guy in the blue shirt a little over on the right. Cool!
Our point of view of the concert!