Category: Travel

We just got back from another weekend of camping, this time in the opposite end of the Catskills, with our friend Seth and his daughter Erin, and our friends the Blickers, and bunch of friends of theirs. We’ve been doing this a few years now, and it seems to get larger every year, so we’ve dubbed it Blickapalooza. More hiking, canoeing, hanging around the campsite making fires, cooking food, singing songs and drinking beers. How can you complain? Well this trip was too cold for swimming, and hikes we took were kinda short, but we had lakeside campsites and I got to do a lot of canoeing with Michelle and Lizzy. And it rained Friday night, but at least the fire kept going and then the stars came out and our new tent stayed dry, so now we know it rocks!

Also, after years of never practicing guitar and having only a basic knowledge of simple chords and a repertoire consisting mainly of Neil Young songs, I’ve decided for what I do it actually sounds pretty good, and it might be worth it to learn some more chords and some new songs, so I’m thinking of getting a new acoustic guitar to replace the one I got for trading an old boom box years ago. That guitar is amazing in that it has almost no wood at all in it, but it still has a great bright tone. Unfortunately neither the action nor the intonation is very good, so it’s a bit hard to play.

We took tons of pictures. I think Lizzy took about 20 just of Erin’s feet. Here are a few to start with; a more complete gallery will follow on sometime later. Most of the feet pictures will be removed as part of the curating function.

We just got back from a weekend of camping in the Catskills with our good friend Nick and his family, and my brother Martin and his girlfriend Kathleen. The weather was great (no rain!), and we got to do some good hiking, swimming and canoeing, and lots of hanging around the campsite making fires, cooking food, singing songs and drinking beers. Ahhh, good times.

Part 1: Road Trippin’

You may be wondering why it’s been over a week with no new post. Well it’s because I’ve been on vacation! I just got back from a trip to upstate New York and Canada to visit family. Lots and lots of family. Four towns, two countries.

Saw my brother-in-law and his family on the 4th. We had hoped to spend the day in his pool, but the rain gods had other ideas, so instead we visited the Strong Museum of Play in downtown Rochester. The kids had fun there, but the part that was most interesting to me was a hall of old toys from the 19th century. No plastic in anything. It was all tin and wood, glass and leather. And perhaps obviously, no electronics. Plus there was a whole gallery of obsolete household items like inkwells and oil lamps. Makes you wonder what things we all have around the house that’ll be in a museum someday. Plus there was a fun area to play with shapes. More on that later.

Visited my parents, had some barbecue, did some rollerblading. One day we took the kids and my Mum up to the Falls. Pictures below. Visited my brother Martin in his new house. Lots of very nice woodwork. In addition to remodeling the place, he’s also in the beginning phase of an internet startup company, so life is interesting for him. Perhaps the highlight of the trip was the cousin’s reunion from my grandmother’s side of the family on Sunday in Port Colborne, Ontario. Lots of people there I haven’t seen in a while, including my cousin Barb, my cousin Peter all the way from Florida, and all my motorcycle riding, building and racing second cousins. All in all very fun and relaxing. More pics to come.