Supermoon

Met up with some friends tonight to welcome back Evan and Lonnie, returning for the week.  We had a thunderstorm pass through the area earlier around 8:00 PM.  A bolt of lightning hit very close to my place but the power didn't flicker at all.  So once it died down I headed over to Georgie's to meet up with the group.

Shortly after midnight a transformer nearby blew out and Georgie's was left in darkness except for the emergency lighting.  We hung around inside for a while, but could feel the air heating up so we headed outside to wait for the power to return.  The full supermoon was shining brightly overhead.

When I returned to my apartment I checked out some information online about the moon and saw some instructions about setting the camera to get decent pictures.  So, out to the balcony in the back of my apartment building I went.  I snapped the above image of the moon.  I was surprised at the detail I managed to capture!  Woot!

Father's Day Weekend

This was the first Father's Day in a long while, that I had one of my children with me.  Gina came to visit for a short weekend.  It was her break between graduation, unpacking, purchasing a new car and starting work again at Disney.

First, some nostalgia.  The first picture is of an electronic card I received from the Js and Rs.  I'm loving being a G-Pa now!  Several friends on Facebook posted pictures of their dads, so I decided to hunt a picture down.  The one picture is a picture on one of my birthdays, I'm thinking around my 43rd or 44th.  I like it because I'm both a son and a father in it.

I love the picture taken on this Father's Day, of Joe and Ruby and Red!  Ruby looks so much like both her Mama and Daddy, but in this expression she looks a lot like Joe when he was little.  That's a picture of Joe and me when he was about Ruby's age.

Gina arrived just after noon on Saturday and we had big plans for the short time she was visiting.  I love her new car!  Carrying on in the tradition of a VW and in the color red!

We first stopped at the Dairy Inn for lunch.  Always good, and the most delicious chocolate malts!  Then off to the beach.  It was a gorgeous day!  The water was perfect, comfortable, nice waves (for the Gulf!) and a nice breeze.  While we were there three separate areas were being set up for wedding ceremonies.

After spending three relaxing hours at the beach, we headed back to freshen up then went to dinner at Little Greek.

On Sunday morning we had reservations for brunch at Cassis Brasserie in the Ovation building.  This is the third year that Cassis has set up a "Beach Party" in the restaurant and bar.  I thought after trucking in all that beach sand the first year, that they would not be repeating it!  It was fun!  There was so much 'beach' there that you could hardly see the regular restaurant!  And the food was delicious!

We made a quick stop next door at the Cassis Bakery for some mini pastries.  Yes, they were as good as they look!

Next, we headed further downtown to the Coast Guard Station just south of the Albert Whitted Airport.  We waited just over an hour in line to get onboard.  It was a free, self guided tour, and was worth the wait.  I watched the ship as it came into Saint Petersburg (using motor power) on Friday morning.

After touring the ship we headed back to my apartment to rehydrate and have some ice cream (salty pretzel caramel and birthday cake flavors).  We went up to Coffee Pot Bayou for a photo shoot of the new Beetle before Gina headed back home.  It was a fun weekend; lots of activity packed into a short time!  And in between, we watched the Neverland two part miniseries on Netflix streaming.

See the pattern here:

Now . . . on to summer!  (Although we've already been having 90 degree weather!)

Red at Two Months!

Baby Red is two months old already!  He's growing so fast!  He looks a lot like his Daddy when his Daddy was a baby, and he looks a lot like his sister Ruby.

And here's a shot of Ruby having fun with Auntie Adele when she visited this past week.

North Saga Part III

I spent three days with my immediate family after arriving in Albany.  I stayed with Linda and Louie.  On Saturday night  Louie cooked hamburgers and hot dogs outside on the grill  and I had my first corn on the cob for this year!

On Sunday morning we stopped over Ray's and Iz's to see The Twinkies, my great niece and nephew, Gabriella and Lucas.  They are so cute!  Lucas was performing and Gabby was a little more reserved, checking me out.  Iz had mentioned making them grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and that put the bug in our ears!  So when Linda and I left, we swung by Grandma's Pie Shop to get grilled cheese sandwiches for ourselves; I got one with tomato and bacon, Linda got the tuna melt.

Later Sunday afternoon we went back to Ray's and Iz's for dinner.  And Gabriella was getting brave with me and even sat on my lap to look at family photos with her!   Andrea and Taras returned before dinner from their weekend getaway.  The twins were happy to see them!

On Monday morning Linda, Isabelle and I drove out to Manlius near Syracuse to visit with my nephew Michael and his wife Katie and to meet (well, Linda and I to meet here,  Nonna Isabelle already met her!) their new baby Annabelle Louise.  Of course, we had to stop at the nearby Wegman's to load up on snacks and goodies!

It was my first time visiting their 'farm'.  They've done so much work on the house and yards.  They have a meadow with buttercups as their back yard.  And beautiful Annabelle is the newest cutie to join our family!

We had a very nice time visiting.  I wish our families weren't so scattered.  Growing up, we had lots of family, grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins on both sides, living close by.  Now it seems that we are all over the place!

Gina's Graduation from Wellesley

The time has arrived!  Wellesley College Commencement 2013!  Adele and I arrived at our hotel just after 6:00 AM, just time enough for a nap before heading over to the Wellesley campus.  Lucretia had gotten up and out earlier to head over to meet up with Gina and to take care of a few things.  They came back for Adele and me and we all headed back over to the campus for the Baccalaurate Celebration at 2:00 PM in the Houghton Chapel.  That's Gina in the emerald beanie in the center of that group.  They were all senior members of the a Capella groups.  It was a warm afternoon, in the low 90s.  Every so often we caught a breeze blowing across the chapel.  After the celebration we headed over to the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center for the President's Reception.  Lots of delicious sweets!!!

We headed back to Gina's room and pitched in to start the packing.  Before long we headed back to the Houghton Chapel for the  Baccalaureate Concert.  Gina had two numbers  (A Simple Song from Leonard Bernstein's MASS, and The Music That Makes Me Dance from Funny Girl) as the final performer before the choir closed.  Gina brought down the house!  What an amazing voice!

Then . . . back to the dorm to do some more packing!

Friday morning dawned sunny and warm.  We headed back over to the campus so Gina could take part in the preparation events and we could get our seats for the Commencement Exercises.  Just after we parked the car in a little known spot, we saw this snapping turtle.  Two security guards had just arrived to check it out.  They were funny; they laughed, saying "who shall we call to take care of this?"  They were going no where near it!

We then headed over to the Academic Quad.  It was a hot day, 94 degrees, so we were sure to get seats under the shade trees scattered around most of the Quad.  Linda and Louie and Raymond and Isabelle arrived shortly after we did and joined us as we waited for the Procession.

The Senior and Academic Procession seemed to go on forever!  But finally, the addresses began.  The Commencement address was given by Valerie B. Jerrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama.  The reading of the names of the graduates was done in a brisk pace.  There were about 600 graduates and it went quickly!

After the ceremonies we headed over to the reception nearby in a giant tent on the Chapel lawn.  Long tables of a selection of fancy sandwiches and tables of desserts.  We tried not to fill up too much since we made reservations for all of us at the Cheesecake Factory nearby at the Natick Mall.

And we Gabriels do what we do best!  Mangia!  After dinner, Adele and I rode back to Albany with Louie, et. al.  Lucretia and Gina headed back to the dorm to finish up and load up the car for the trip back to Florida.  We were a bit nervous about all of Gina's stuff fitting in the car, so I took two pieces of her luggage with me to bring on my Southwest flight back on the following Tuesday.  Since I was flying back to Orlando to pick up my car, I dropped the luggage off at their home in Winter Park.  The car was packed to the roof, but everything but the garbage can fit!

Lucretia and Gina stayed overnight at their friend Nancy's house nearby and headed down to NYC on Saturday to spend a few days with the Js and Rs.  On Saturday morning we dropped Adele off at the train station so she could head down to NYC to also visit several days with the Js and Rs.  It was the first time for them all to meet Red!

It was a beautiful time at the Commencement activities.  It's hard to believe that Gina's four years there have ended!