Category Archives: Sean

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

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!

May30

I’m still a blogger!

Posted on Friday, May 30, 2014 by Dianne

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I see it’s been a month since my last post about our Florida trip and I wasn’t finished posting about it.

I haven’t been on my laptop because it’s getting old and one of the buttons broke off. I made a replacement, but it’s easier for me to pop on my iPad to check email and Facebook.

But on the other hand, the virus software has been updating for 45 minutes and I had 1,300 emails. I just put them in order as who sent them and get rid of most of them as I’ve seen them on the iPad.

I need to upload several folders of photos to Flickr. I have my sidebar with my newest photos to keep a little updated.

That being said, I have had dental woes and an illness. I’ve had 3 root canals and one extraction in the course of a few months. I’m on my 3rd round of antibiotics as the latest root canal was just a week ago, and an emergency one at that. One of those toothaches that wasn’t relieved right away either. And it ruined my crown as she had to drill through it. I am getting a dental implant in July.

I had a cold or allergies a few weeks ago which set me back a bit. Then my son came down with a flu like virus. He was feverish and achy. It is taking him a bit to get over the coughing part. My son took me up to a green house on Monday and I was pretty good. By the next day I was coughing and then by Wednesday night I had a 102.4 fever. I was pretty miserable. I’m not coughing that much, but not as feverish today. The aches and pains were horrible.

I was glad I opened the laptop to leave a post. I do want to keep blogging!

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.

Apr28

Whirlwind past 30 days!

Posted on Monday, April 28, 2014 by Dianne

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I saw where I was going to update my blog at the end of March. That didn’t happen and I want to share so much that it will take a few posts just to catch up. We were in Tampa, Florida for 4 days almost 3 weeks ago! We did our beer budget exploring there-no Busch Gardens, etc. We went along with Sean on his conference trip. We also saw St Pete’s Beach and Clearwater, Florida on day trips. More about Florida soon.

I also found a website I have entered over 130 of my photos on. It’s called Pixoto. So far I have won 31 awards. Your photo is matched up against someone else’s in the correct category and people pick which one they like better and you get points. 500 and up are good. It’s fun! I even got a few of my photos printed on canvas. Mine are all for sale! They look nice and are ready to stand up or hang up.

Back to March! After we saw the America on Wheels exhibit in Allentown, PA. we went back to a trout nursery to see what that was all about. There were lots of people enjoying the nice day. Some were buying food to feed the trout. It so happens that a lady I work with grew up in that area and knew all about the nursery, etc.

The main house at the nursery past and present

We drove around Allentown a little. First to look for caches. Many happened to be parks filled with basketball players, etc. Not too much fun to look, so we left. There was some construction also. We were looking for the Liberty Bell museum and didn’t see it.

I got out and took a few photos of the Trout Historic society. Sure, that makes sense. What a grand old place. We tend to go places when buildings are closed or too late in the day. This was closed.

Sean wanted to check out the casino in Bethlehem, so we said ‘why not’? There were was a little shopping area there too. A steel town, many factories are shut down. The casino is in a converted factory. We shopped a few stores. I love The Farmer’s Almanac store and bought a few things there such as marked down St. Patrick Day’s things, a fairy canvas that lights up and some food items like jam and mustard. After that, I was zonked. It was getting late, so we headed home. We had to find a restaurant too.

We had a late dinner in a place near Exton like a fancy Denny’s. We got breakfast food and a lady was playing the piano to boot. We enjoyed that and our day. Glad to see new parts of PA. Even though we don’t live that far away, we hardly venture up this way. I’ve never been out to Pittsburg, PA. out in the western part of the state. Oh, someday!

Next post Tampa and the western area of Florida!

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.

Jan22

Longwood’s Christmas lights 2013

Posted on Wednesday, January 22, 2014 by Dianne

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This gallery contains 23 photos.

Sean and I went to Longwood Gardens a few weeks ago so we could see the holiday decor before it came down. What was exceptionally pretty to me was the outdoor lighting! They really outdid themselves. It was fun to walk among the glowing, glistening tree and things. Not having a tripod made it a […]

Jan2

Happy 2014 and all the jazz

Posted on Thursday, January 2, 2014 by Dianne

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This gallery contains 25 photos.

Wow, it’s been a while since I posted on my blog! With the short time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, life moved pretty quickly! I was making cookies right up to Christmas eve. Sean and I went to visit my mom on Christmas eve, came home and ate shrimp and ravioli with Brian and headed to […]

Dec4

Pennsylvania’s only President

Posted on Wednesday, December 4, 2013 by Dianne

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Our Christmas adventures begin!

On November 30th, we took a little trip up to Lancaster, PA to tour the Jame Buchanan house. To make the tour special, they had actors playing Clement C. Moore who penned ’twas the Night Before Christmas, his wife, a housekeeper and Mr. North/St. Nick.

We got there thinking we’d get in on the 4 pm tour, but had to wait until 5 pm. They couldn’t add us to the group. We went around the mansion and took photos of it outside to kill time.

We would get to see it in the dark all lit up (just the back). I just love when the sun sets at 4 something these days.

grape arbor

Colonial garden done for the fall

This was the door we would go in to start the tour.

When it was our turn, Brian, Sean and me were the only ones on the tour.

It was kind of interesting! We got to talk to the actors as if they were the actual people. We tried to take photos, but the lighting was bad.

This was Mrs. Moore. The tree behind her was gorgeous. It has a big peacock at the top.

We played 1820 parlor games with them. We were suppose to make someone laugh and I said ‘hello handsome’ to Mr. Moore and made his wife laugh! Then we had to read cards which were aimed at the humor of that time. Like the one card would say ‘when should we drink a cordial’ and the other card say, ‘not a quarter to midnight’. They all chuckled. Ha ha.

The mansion is really a lovely place. They did a nice job decorating it inside and out.

There were torches lit along the back too. We didn’t go around front to see it lit up!

The Lancaster Historic org is on the property and this is where we were waiting for our tour. We watched a short movie about Buchanan first. He was a bachelor and a lawyer.

Buchanan’s carriage

We thought it was different and fun. We headed to look for a few caches in Lancaster and couldn’t put our hands on them. Pizza Hut was calling our names, so we had dinner there. We did find one lone cache in a metal bus stop on Rt. 30. Brian found it on a ledge on the top inside-in the dark with my phone’s flashlight.

I can’t wait to see what Longwood Gardens did this year!