Category Archives: photography

Dec7

Rock n Roll baby! Cleveland, Ohio

Posted on Monday, December 7, 2015 by Dianne

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

Sep13

Exploring new and old places

Posted on Saturday, September 13, 2014 by Dianne

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This gallery contains 12 photos.

Last weekend was the 29th Annual Mushroom Festival a few miles away from here. We had wanted to go on Saturday night, but we got heavy rain and decided to try a restaurant around the corner from where we live. I lately haven’t been pleased eating out. I got lobster mac and cheese which was […]

Aug29

Hershey Gardens daytrip

Posted on Friday, August 29, 2014 by Dianne

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This gallery contains 23 photos.

We went and brought my mom here to take her to Hershey Gardens which is a couple of hours from here. She hadn’t stayed with us since January! She had full charge of my brother’s old dog during the weekdays until the old fella was put down in July. I had taken my mom to […]

Jul24

I never promised you a rose garden

Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2014 by Dianne

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I few weeks back, maybe a month ago, Sean and I took my mom to Scott Arboretum Swarthmore College’s campus to see their renowned rose garden. We had been there a few years ago and the roses were perfect. We also went in May. By June and after a rainstorm, the roses were starting to fade. It was a bit warm also, so we didn’t stay long.

Mom isn’t fond of this photo, but I like it because Sean is in it too. He worries about her so much as she had two mini stroke incidents that required hospital stays. When we we can, we go down and take her to a store or place like this. Right after this stop, we ate in a restaurant in Media called Picasso and shared plated of shrimp kebabs, battered dipped asparagus and a few other things which she loved.

These are geraniums!

A bench with Dean Bond’s name on it. This is his rose garden. The graduates get a rose from the garden pinned to their gown.

Beautiful Clematis with one of the college buildings behind it.

Sean liked the Seafoam roses

The gate to the rose garden

Really love this one.

The summer is flying by!

Jun10

When something is recommended…go see it!

Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 by Dianne

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This gallery contains 17 photos.

We didn’t have a lot of time to see big attractions in Tampa, Florida when we were there in April. We decided to skip Busch Gardens and the Big Cat Rescue and check out mostly free attractions. (The first day is always a travel day and we were delayed an hour leaving as it was). […]

Apr28

Destination Florida!

Posted on Monday, April 28, 2014 by Dianne

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I thought I’d write a little about our trip 3 weeks ago since it was the first trip to Florida we’ve had in 9 years. I can’t believe we haven’t been on a plane in that long either. With electronics, travel is so much nicer. I had my Kindle, downloaded magazines on my iPad and cross stitching. We ended up mainly playing a game on the Kindle. There was lots of turbulence going down. We did take motion sickness pills. We also had male flight attendants who were dressed and groomed perfectly! They were slow doling out the beverages though.

We parked at the Sheraton near the airport-it was gated. It wasn’t that cheap to do that. They are smart as their hotel looks popular with the extra cars there. The shuttle bus from parking to the airport was nice. We then had to move from one end of the airport to the other-that was wearing. We all had carry on luggage. Mine didn’t have wheels, so need to use the one I have that has wheels next time. I thought with the quilted one, I could load it up, forgot it had to be carried A LOT. Brian got that job. When we were about to board the plane, they said Brian’s was too big (full flight-all compartments taken) and he had to check it. Did I mention we were an hour late getting out of there too? When we got to Tampa, it was pretty smooth until we had to start the keyless rental-new car-our cars are all 9 yrs and up. He had to push the brake and push the button at the same time.

We were about 20 minutes from the airport to go to the hotel. Now if if was me, I would have stayed in St. Pete’s and drove over to Tampa. Tampa is a big city, no beach. Not real touristy unless you are going to Busch Gardens, which we decided not to see.

The green trees were welcoming to us after our long, cold, snowy winter. I love looking at the palm trees, the trees with the Spanish moss and the flowering shrubs like hibiscus.

Our first view of Tampa!

We stayed at a place not near anything. We dropped off our luggage and headed to the restaurant about 20 minutes away as I had a coupon for the place. We got there a little early and they let us wait a bit. Every restaurant in the different towns we ate in were nicely decorated and fun to eat at!. I could go just on a trip like that! The guys had pizza and I wanted Chicken Piccata. All good-especially the 4 martinis we had! We thought they were to share, but no, you get 2 each. Ha!

We decided to go to Walmart to get nibbles for the room. GPS is a godsend in a strange area.

We then went to check out Tampa a bit so Sean would know where the convention center is where his conference was to be held. He also signed up to go on a trip to see the baseball stadium of the Blue Rays the next day.

I had gotten on Trip Adviser to see what people recommended and the Tampa Theater was a must see place. We didn’t go in, but Sean and I jumped out of the car to grab a few shots.

I took many photos from the car! They may be a little crooked. 🙂

I’m waiting for Sean to upload his photos as he has some near the convention center.

I will do another post or two about our excursions to St. Pete’s Beach, Clearwater and a few other Trip Adviser recommendations.

Mar10

Articulture-different look for the Phila. Flower show

Posted on Monday, March 10, 2014 by Dianne

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This gallery contains 22 photos.

This past Friday, on the 7th, Brian took me down to the annual Philadelphia Flower Show at the Convention center. I saw that Rachael Ray was going to make an appearance (at a flower show, thought that was interesting as she is known as a cook), and I wanted to see her. We had gotten […]

Mar3

Snow, old architecture and caching

Posted on Monday, March 3, 2014 by Dianne

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Since Sean is off on weekends now, Sundays are our days to do a little investigating and caching. Last week, February 23rd, we went to the town where I was born, West Chester, PA. It’s the county seat of our area and a nice college town. I wanted to stop first in a cemetery to see where a cache was placed where a bomber plane went down in bad weather in about 1944. Never been to the cemetery, but my late uncle’s stepdaughter and husband are buried here. We went in a big circle because of the wacky GPS, and then went in the wrong entrance. The cache was down in a wooded area in about a foot of snow. We passed on that one until the spring.

We headed to a park next. We should have looked at the hint before we parked as the place we needed to look was on the other side of the park. We trudged through the snow in the park at first, but then started walking on a sidewalk and the street. I was huffing and puffing a bit, not knowing I was getting sick with a sinus issue (I missed two days of work last week). We had to walk in more snow, grabbed the one cache, but couldn’t locate another. I decided to take a few shots of the pretty Marshall Square Park area.

I had an Independent film maker from Instagram ask me if I took this shot. Of course!

We went looking for about 5 caches and only found 2 because of the snow. We kind of expected that, but it was nice to see the town with it’s covering of the white stuff. We will go back. The second one we found (we went out about 4:15 and ate a late dinner!) was also in a park.

Yesterday on the 2nd of March, we went down to around the Stanton area of Delaware. We wanted to check out not only caches but stores like Kohls (60-80% off!).

We do cache mostly from our phones and Sean doesn’t have a premium account, so he couldn’t count at least one find. A few stops we decided we’d skip or it wasn’t worth getting out of the car. It was raining also. Then I saw a FSC (First State Cache) at St. James Church in Stanton and we headed over. What a quaint place.

We want to come back and look around the cemetery.

We found a few in easy spots, but it’s the above places that really keep us interested.

This church was built in 1714.

We had a little more snow overnight again, about 3 inches. I decided to brave it and take a few photos. Here is one of my favorites of the day.

On a personal note, my mom was in the hospital over the weekend. She was down in her basement and all of the sudden her left arm and leg went numb and down she went. She managed to get up and crawl up the stairs! She called three of her kids first instead of 911! This was about 8:30 in the morning. When I got up to talk to her, her speech was slurred a bit. We went down to the hospital for a few hours, but her tummy was bothering her and she was waiting on a room, so we came home. She is 83 and apparently she had a mini stroke and they needed to watch her for a few days. They also found a small blood clot in her head, but she was sent home. Whew, that was scary!

Feb18

So far, 3rd snowiest winter ever

Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 by Dianne

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I’ve been hanging low watching the 58.4″ of snow pile up over the last few months. I can’t do any shoveling, not with my back. The guys have done their share, but they have a snow blower this time around too.

I’ve taken at least 20 Instagram photos featuring the weather and snow.

I did a cupid theme for Valentine’s Day on my mantel

Sean gave me the ‘Love’ print (in Philly) and I got to see it in person at the end of December.

I have been doing a lot of sorting-yarn, fabric, craft items, etc and it’s still a work in progress, but it’s spread all over the house right now. I really have to downsize more.

I’ve knitted a few hats too! One of which is ‘almost’ in the colors of the Geocaching logo. I made it too big at first, ripped out about 5 rows and did a little crocheting and gathering at the top. I added a pin I had and wore it geocaching on Monday in Dover, DE.

I’m working on a cowl right now. I had pretty old knitting needles and bought some new ones and what a difference!

We all were trying to think of a local place to take a day trip yesterday. We were going up to Allentown to see a car museum and maybe the art museum, but it was a holiday and a Monday. so they were closed. We took a drive to Dover, DE which is about 60 miles one way. I am trying to get to 500 geocache finds, but this winter it’s slow going.

Our first spot was Pickering Beach. A few of us had to go to the bathroom and the little cottages were locked up tight. I completely forgot there were caches there, but the GPS was out anyway. I usually am very thorough with our trips to do caching, but I was aiming for Allentown, not Dover. I did notice there were several DGT (Delaware Geocache Trails) ones and we did find one when we could get to it. It was at a brewing company! I had brought a little beer mug trophy to add to the swag. When I ordered them, I thought they were much smaller. So glad to find an appropriate place to add one.

The other places, all museums were closed. We plan to go back in May to see them all. The beach should be crawling with horseshoe crabs from the Delaware Bay.

We did find 5 geocaches, but not the neat ones at the John Dickerson Plantation and airplane museums as the gates were closed at these locations.

I’ve only worked 2 days for the entire month of February because of the weather. The kids all have cabin fever and get a bit itchy.

Some things are going on like the orchid show at Longwood Gardens and the Flower show in Philly. Hope to get to Longwood in the next few weeks.

And last but not least, some Artist trading cards were made much to my enjoyment! It’s been a while, though I made 13 Valentine’s Day cards for the kids.

Jan28

Mighty oaks of Maryland and other things

Posted on Tuesday, January 28, 2014 by Dianne

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A few weeks ago, Brian and I drove down to Rising Sun, Maryland to do a little geocaching. Caching has been not happening that much this winter as we have had a classic ‘Alaskan’ winter. My pal was saying it is milder this year in Alaska than it is on the mainland. They can’t even have their iditarod races this year for lack of snow and cold. Wow!

So we hit a few caches and they involved mostly humongous oak trees. This one was near a school and cemetery. Brian looked like a peanut under it! The cache was pretty easy to find.

Just think of the history this tree has survived through. All the winters, storms, etc. and it’s still standing!

I’m sure the oak was planted around the same time this meeting house was constructed.

A few other oak trees along route one were not as lucky. One was near a little cafe, aptly named ‘The Spready Oak’. There was suppose to be a cache tucked in the remains of it, but we couldn’t find it. We went in the cafe, and sure enough the waitress knew all about the cache (she said it like a cache case) and it was gone as she use to put stuff in it. The cache owner knows about it and plans to add a new one.

We found a cute diary in the middle of no where. There were some goats and ponies too. The cache was kind of out in the open, but it probably under bushy leaves in nicer weather.

That pony nibbled my fingers!

It was lunchtime, but we didn’t want ice cream for the meal. Maybe we’ll come back another time if we remember the place.

Our last stop was this cemetery that would have been perfect for a Stephen King movie. It was up on a hill. The little church is so tiny (locked up tight and under surveillance). Out of picture range is a modern day housing development.

Well we looked for that cache high and low, and could not find it! I was kind of glad to get moving as the sun was hanging low by the time we gave up. My phone GPS was going too and we missed a cache in a memorial right down the hill! Brian can take about 5-6 caches and call it a day.

We headed to Oxford and got some produce and ordered pizza from one of the last Pizza Huts around.

A few days later, the three of us were off on a Monday (MLK day) and drove up to the Pottstown, PA area to the Philadelphia Outlets as we had never been to these. There were a few stores I adored- Crabtree and Evelyn and Vera Bradley! I got some long sleeved t-shirts at Talbots too.

We then headed to Skippack, but this wasn’t the best time of year to go there. We looked for about 3 caches and found two.

This past weekend (1/25 to 1/26) I had my mom here to treat her to a show. We sent down to Wilmington and the Dupont Theater to see ‘Ballroom with a Twist’ featuring ‘Dancing with the Stars’ dancers Cheryl Burke, Derek Hough, Tony Dovolani and Peta Murgatroyd. We also were pleasantly surprised by the talent of ‘American Idol’ finalists Von Smith and Gina Glocksen. Also the Cirque De Soleil acrobats and ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ performers. The many troupe dancers performed the most.

We had to climb up to the balcony (oops) but we had a very good point of view of the stage. I don’t remember seeing performers faces so clearly either. The costumes were sparkly and the dancing almost effortless, though certainly not easy.

My mom had a little trouble hearing the question and answer session, but all in all I think she enjoyed the show. I really thought the acrobats were amazing! They used ‘silks’ and twisted and turned on them-I don’t know how they do it!

When we were waiting for Brian to pick us up, we ended up chatting with some ladies who had driven up from Virgina to see the show. I went out to take a few shots and came in and saw the one young lady posing with Von and Gina! I took this quick shot and mine was better than her friend’s shot. I put it on Instragram and she did finally see it.