What a Week

Unfortunately, due to a tragic Metro-North train accident in New York, my daughters and one of their husbands had to find alternate ways to get to work.

Due to expected parking problems, I drove with my daughters and one of their husbands to the Southeast train station in Brewster and back to Beacon at night.  Driving to this station added one-half hour to their already long commute.  Yesterday, the MTA had succeeded in opening one track. So last evening, my whole family returned to their regular train route from Grand Central Station in New York north to Beacon.

When I drove with them in the mornings, on the way back to Beacon, I stopped for breakfast at the Eveready Diner in Brewster, New York at Exit 19 on Route 84.  The staff was very pleasant and friendly, and the food is good.  I recommend that you try it out when you are in the area.  It is only one of the Eveready Diners.  I had visited the Eveready Diner in Hyde Park, NY on several occasions and enjoyed it.  The waiter advised me that there is another one in Rhinebeck, NY.

I think that everyone is glad to resume their normal routine. 

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Busy Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving weekend was certainly a busy one, but very enjoyable.  On Wednesday, my granddaughter made the pies while I peeled the apples.  My daughter cooked the turkey which was very moist.  I made my sweet potato casserole, but as I became engaged in conversation my granddaughter added the marshmallows at the right time.  My dinner consisted of a tiny bit of turkey and a little mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes.  Delish.... The dinner on Thursday with the family went by very quickly ending with an unplanned card game while watching "The Heat" with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.  A half sandwich of turkey and cranberry sauce was just the snack I needed at the end of the day.

I was so happy to see my Marine grandson, now a Lance Corporal.  Haven't seen him since April.  Looking forward to seeing him at Christmas.  Looking good.  He's happy to be a US Marine.  He graciously took the time to play cards with his grandmother.

Friday's excursion was a trip to the mall with my daughter and granddaughter to meet her other grandmother.  We missed the early morning crowd.  Our visit, though not purposely planned, seemed to be sandwiched between the busiest times.  I am not a crowd lover so this was perfect for me.  Before we left, we enjoyed coffee at Gloria Jean's in the Poughkeepsie Galleria.  I recommend it.  We returned home to prepare Thursday's leftovers for lunch with my daughter and son-in-law's friends visiting from Albany.  That evening I prepared to move to another daughter's in Fishkill so I could be ready for an early start the next morning.

Around six a.m., we piled into the van to travel to the Philadelphia area to participate in the Jamie O'Brien Kindem Memorial Run ( https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/216973548459287/ )   The temperature was 28 degrees.  Since I'm used to warmer weather, I wore four layers of clothing.  I was happy to be able to participate.  I was just a walker pushing one of the strollers (we had my daughter's two little ones with us).  We joined Jamie's husband, children and family at McKenzie's Brew House on Swedesford Road in Berwyn PA.  The staff was friendly and handled the crowd cordially and expertly.  I had hummus with flat breat, actually just two pieces, on the Tappas menu.  My son-in-law had what looked like a very generous Bacon Cheeseburger.  My daughter told us her fish tacos were delicious  Even the children enjoyed the ample servings from their menu.  My daughter made a point of stopping to speak with the hostess to tell her how good the food was.  If you are in that area of Pennsylvania, you might want to stop in.  Of course, we had more traffic probably due to this weekend being a big shopping opportunity coupled with the celebration of Hannukah and Thanksgiving.  When we arrived back home in Fishkill NY, we were ready for bed.

On Sunday, I accompanied my Beacon daughter to Worcester MA to bring my second oldest grandson to WPI.  The trip of 159 miles took us 6 hours.  Unbeknownst to us, there had been a 70 car pileup on the 290, due to early morning icy road conditions.  Thankfully, there were no fatalities.  As we inched along, we thought it was due to the conflagration of holidays and all the college students returning to school. Thankfully, our GPS put us on the right roads at the right time.  Without it, we might have been sitting in even worse traffic.  I didn't get an opportunity to see the campus as it was dark by the time we arrived.  Maybe another time.

Since I'm a "goer" this weekend was quite enjoyable for me.

Happy Hannukah!

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Benefits of Volunteering

                                      

This past Saturday, I volunteered at the sign-in table for the "work clean-up party" at the Famosa Slough.  It gave me a great opportunity to take some photos of the birds.  The Snowy Egret I caught fishing for his lunch is a resident.  I noticed a long time ago that he seemed to stake out his territory.  I've seen him chase a Little Blue Heron and other Snowy Egrets.  I haven't seen him bothering ducks or cormorants.

I believe that the bird shown on the right below is a Long-billed Curlew.  There are a few birds that are very similar in size with up or downward turned bills, such as Short and Long-billed Dowitchers and a Marbled Godwit.  The large bird below is a Great Egret on its way to fish.  It seemed to be headed to an area already scoped out by an unidentified duck.

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Micah Christian Hall

 

Thirty years today, Micah Christian Hall went to be with the Lord.  Having Micah, as well as his Brother, Chris, and sisters, Beth, Ami, Bonnie, Terese and Becky was such a joy.  I am blessed with a wonderful family.  Micah was born with Down Syndrome and lived 6 1/2 yrs with no center wall in his heart.  A piece of membrane created the chambers and the amount of blood that circulated into his lungs was five times the amount that circulated throughout his body.  You can read about this in "The Book of Micah" on Kindle and the Nook.  As a family, we were and still are very normal and certainly blessed.  I am so thankful that my children are so good to me.

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Wanderings

 On Friday, October 25, I went to Cabrillo National Monument.  I was hoping to see some migrating birds, but didn't.  I did see a few Painted Lady Butterflies near the top of the hill near the lighthouse.  Made my day!

                                                                                                                       

Painted Lady Butterfly

Cabrillo National Monument Lighthouse

Today, I was able to join a Girl Scout troop touring the Famosa Slough lead by the Chairman of the Friends of Famosa Slough.  I was enjoyable to see how much the girls enjoyed learning about the presence of fresh water just a few feet from the presence of salt water.  Binoculars were provided to enhance their experience.  The girls enjoyed zooming in on several species of ducks, a Snowy Egret, a Great Egret and three Black-crowned Night Herons.  The night herons are nocturnal birds.  I had posted photos of Juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons, but I've never seen an adult Black-crowned Night Heron out in the Slough.  Below are pictures of the three we saw this afternoon.  I consider the adults very elusive.  Previously I've only spotted them in a tree, surrounded by the leaves.

Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron

Adult Black-crowned Night Heron

Adult Black-crowned Night Heron

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Walking Ocean Beach Hills

Last Sunday, I walked the hill on Niagara Avenue in Ocean Beach.  After checking out the apparent steepness of several blocks, I decided on Niagara because I wanted a challenge.   After the first block that is mildly hilly, the next two are similar to climbing steps.  This is, of course, the way it feels to me.  As  I trudged up the hill, a runner sprinted up on the other side of the street.  Although he seemed to be laboring, within minutes he was a block ahead of me.  I was really out of practice.  I walked as far as Venice where Niagara then proceeds down another hill into what looks like a ravine.  I only wanted the upward climb.  As I wandered around, I found a great vista of the shoreline and the ocean at Delmonte and Guiznot.

After taking a few photos, I proceeded down Guiznot to Brighton.  As I wound my way through the streets, at Lotus and Froude I spotted a beautiful, small olive green bird with a lighter green cheek sitting on a wire.  As I grabbed my camera out of its case, the bird flew into a nearby tree.  Then, the chase began.  Apparently, it liked this kind of tree as it flew to another tree with the same type of leaves and then, back to the first tree.  I scoured the leaves of the tree.  Of course, this green bird blended right in to the tree making it very difficult to follow.  As I was trying my best, I spotted two larger birds, one with a markedly yellow stomach.  I was able to photograph one of them more successfully while it was sitting at a juncture of many electrical wires.  I believe it is a Cassin's Kingbird, which is in the flycatcher family.   For aesthetic value, I would have preferred that the bird found a better place to perch.  I guess all those electrical impulses surging through the wires is of no concern to this Kingbird.  The little olive green bird continued to quickly flit  between the trees with very slender green leaves, never to be photographed by me.   

                  

 

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Past Week's Excursions

This past week was a busy one.  On Monday, I went to the San Diego Zoo.  They have a sightseeing bus that travels through the park.  You can see everything and then, get off the bus and see the animals more closely.  If you pay to ride on this bus, you can also use an Express Bus to go back to see your favorite animals.  It stops at five different spots throughout the park.  You can get on and off at any of these spots at will. 

After getting off the bus, we had lunch at Sydney's (hamburgers and fries were good) and then, we headed for the giraffes.  Following this we went to the Australian Outback Koalafornia Dreaming exhibit.  The napping Koalas were cute.

And at the La Jolla Cove, the Gull was taking a walk across the road, but when a car came near he hightailed it back to the curb.  Why he didn't just fly across the street is beyond me.  He or she didn't seem injured.

At the La Jolla Children's Pool (which is really sort of a cove), an area of the rocks are populated by first on lower rocks, cormorants, secondly, closer to the water, seals (perhaps Elephant Seals), and thirdly, on a higher portion, the Brown Pelicans.

Brown pelicans

Cormorants

Seals

The Children's Pool at La Jolla Cove

The photo above shows the total area at the La Jolla Cove.  There is a small beach for swimmers and there were some.  Swimming so close to the large seals would not be my "cup of tea." 

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