Looking back, #2…

In July, Greg and I managed to make it back to Griswold, Connecticut to look at the sunflowers on the last possible day.  The next day we were leaving for our annual trip to Ohio.  We added another leg to our journey by traveling out to Fort Wayne, Indiana first to visit our friends, Misty and Jenna.  It was a wonderful visit with our old friends, who we miss a lot, and we were impressed with Fort Wayne.  Of course, Misty was a terrific tour guide.  And then we headed back to northern Ohio to celebrate our nephew A.J.’s high school graduation and then down to southern Ohio to visit my family.  Whew!  Sometimes you need a vacation from your vacation.

We weathered the dog days of summer by hanging out.  Not much went on in August but we did occasionally make it down to the beach to watch the dogs frolic in the water.

September was the beginning of a graceful slide into autumn and an interesting month for us.  We participated in our neighborhood yard sale, which is something we haven’t done in many years.  We welcomed a new minister to our church, the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church.  I was very happy about welcoming Rev. Craig Nowak because I was on the committee put in charge of finding him.  All that work yielded happy results.  And late in the month, we went down to Bangor, Pennsylvania to visit Greg’s cousins and his Aunt Ann, who we hadn’t seen for years.

October was gorgeous here in New England.  It’s my favorite month of the year.  When we weren’t enjoying the spectacular color, we were staying up late watching the Red Sox win.  To say that we enjoyed the World Series is a supreme understatement.  We also attended the wonderful wedding of Evan’s friends Bryan and Stephanie.  It was a very good month.

November was quiet except that I got to meet my sister Susan in Mystic, Connecticut for a sleepover.  It was great seeing Susan and I had a terrific time at Mystic Seaport.

At Mystic Seaport.  My mother's clan is Thomas, but I don't think any of them were oyster men.

So here we are in December, the end of 2013.  We lost our good friend Jim Egan in December.  And while that brought us great sadness, in general, we had many more gains than losses in 2013.

  It was a pretty good year.

Have a safe and fun New Year's Eve and a Happy and Healthy 2014!

The Things You See Along the Way: Into the Mystic…

My sister Susan, who lives in Ohio, travels on business.  This past week she was spending time in Connecticut and asked me if I had time to join her when she got to Mystic, which is about two hours from home for me.  Off I went on Thursday afternoon.

It was drizzly and cold here in Massachusetts when I traveled through the town of Southbridge on my way down to Mystic.  The traffic was heavy for some reason so I got a chance to take a good look at the old Unitarian church (circa 1841) that had recently been painted in a controversial color scheme.  An article in the local paper quoted one Southbridge resident as calling the paint job “cartoonish.”  On that dreary afternoon, I thought the building was a breath of fresh air.  What do you think?

Once I rolled into Mystic, Susan and I decided to play tourist and have dinner at Mystic Pizza.  I have very little recollection of the movie Mystic Pizza (Julia Roberts and Vincent D’onofrio) though I’d seen it years ago.  Even the big screen TVs hanging in the restaurant that constantly showed the movie did nothing to help jog my memory.  But, I enjoyed our meal and the conversation anyhow.

This is Susan.  She was getting over a bad sinus infection but looks good in spite of that.

The next morning Susan had to work so I was left to my own devices.  I decided to take a stroll through Mystic Seaport, a living museum depicting life in a New England seaport village in the 19^th century.  But on the way, I passed an intriguing cemetery and took a bit of a detour.  Here are some pics from my day.

The masthead of the "Joseph Conrad"

After a few long gab session, I parted ways with Susan and took the long way home. It was great getting to spend some time with my sister who I don’t get to see all that often.

Here's my nomination for best named restaurant in Mystic.