Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We hope your day was filled with family, food, joy, and laughter.

We spent the afternoon with our neighbors and a couple of their friends, which was a nice day to spend the day - traveling no further than our feet could take us in a matter of minutes.

Yesterday I brewed a batch of beer, put up the Christmas tree, and watched Auburn beat Alabama - not a bad way to spend our 23rd anniversary. Hard to believe!

Later yesterday evening, I thought I'd snap a couple of photos of the kids in front of the tree.

Best wishes for a glorious holiday season,

Marc

Late November update

Happy late November everyone. Nothing terribly new here. Last weekend Ian and I went camping with his Boy Scout Troop - we put in 10 miles on a trail and then spent a chilly night in the great outdoors. We weren't expecting snow, but we had a very light dusting when we woke up.

We went to the late service at church today because Leah was singing with the kids's choir. Since we had some extra time, I grabbed photos before we left.

Other than that, Ian created some excitement by mixing up convention oven with microwave oven instructions. Leah saw the smoke, I killed the electricity, and the only thing that is a bit worse for the wear is the microwave -we'll need a new one of those.

Otherwise, we are prepping for a quiet Thanksgiving this week - and we have so much to be thankful for this year. We are well, and truly, blessed. Cheers!

Marc

Happy Veteran's Day!

Happy Veteran's Day everyone!

Yesterday Ian and I helped out with an Eagle project. It was at the same place Ian is trying to do his Eagle project. He presents his proposal to the Troop Committee for their approval this week...fingers crossed!

Today we went to church, where Ian was an acolyte for the first time in quite a while. Afterwards we came home so I could mow the lawn after lunch. Catherine has Ian helping to make some lasagna with a béchamel sauce - which smells great and is making me hungry!

Tomorrow will be a nice day off. No idea what we have in store, but I'm sure it will be a lovely day. Cheers!

Marc

November!!!

Hard to believe November is already here. The leaves are already past peak - which may be due to a very strong storm on Halloween - lots of wind and very hard rain.

Leah had a friend over for the weekend, I think they had a pretty good time together.

Ian and I had a campout with his Boy Scout Troop. This is the same campout as our first one ever with his new Troop, so we've been with them for a year now. We went to a local farmer's property and used a trebuchet to launch pumpkins down a hill where they exploded on impact. The cows should love the treat!

Things are getting consistently colder as we sink inexorably into winter. The time change went unnoticed this morning, but I am sure I will feel it tonight.

Cheers,

Marc

Fall is here

We started off the day with some pretty strong rain, which carried through to lunch. Sometime after, though, the blue skies and warm weather (mid/upper 70's) broke through. Meanwhile, yesterday while mowing the lawn, I noticed that we had somehow hit peak color around here, and that things were very pretty.

So I grabbed the kids and my big diffuser ring, and snapped a couple of photos - maybe 5 minute's work (including a re-shoot of Leah since I had bad focus on an earlier series of photos).

Otherwise, things are well here. Cheers,

Marc

Mountain Man Getaway

For four out of the last five years, Catherine has blessed me to be able to spend some guilt-free time in the woods with an old friend from high school. She knows I love me some mountains, and it is good for my soul to disconnect for some time and just soak in the sights and sounds of wilderness.

For this trip, Jason and I made our way to Cataloochee in the far east of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where we got to see and hear bugling elk in the evening. We camped somewhat close to this river - not close enough to hear it at night, but close enough to want to explore it in the morning.

From there, we made our way to the Shining Rock Wilderness Area in the Pisgah National Forest, where we spent a couple of days just exploring. This particular series of mini-falls was a ways up from our campsite.

This falls, below, is Skinny Dip Falls. It was a short walk from the Blue Ridge Parkway - maybe a mile or so. We shared it with some other hikers, most of whom came in and left while we just explored the area.

The leaf situation was a bit weird. On the north side of the Blue Ridge Parkway, like Graveyard Fields (below), the colors were popping. But other places, green prevailed.

We hiked in to the Great Smokies on the south central side - about 5-6 miles in. We shared the site with a couple of other hikers, but they arrived late, so we pretty much had this river to enjoy until just before dinner.

Cheers,

Marc

Early October portraits

Once more, nothing terribly new here. I just figured I'd post some photos of Catherine and the kids.

Ian and I did a 10 mile hike yesterday with his Boy Scout Troop - I'm surprised I am a bit sore, but not bad.

And of course, Catherine was a birthday girl earlier this week.

Cheers,

Marc

Oh the fun we'll have!

Hard to believe October is only a week away!

I had some continuing education in Baltimore this week, and that meant I got to come home a bit early most days, which was a nice treat. Catherine invited some friends over - the people who picked up Ian and Leah for swimming this summer. It was nice to get to know them a bit more.

Otherwise, nothing terribly new here. Kids continue to do well with school.

I think the kids are a bit "done" with my weekly photos. I hope to continue to string this along for a bit longer, but you can see that the fun meter is quite pegged on Ian's face.

Cheers,

Marc

First week of school

Both kids started school this week, and both are off to a great start! Ian has come home and spontaneously sat at the dining room table to complete his school work. Leah is living on easy street - so far the only homework she has had was to get a photo of her printed for her teacher.

Otherwise, Ian and I did an 8-mile hike yesterday with his Boy Scout troop, getting ready for next summer's Philmont adventure.

Catherine and the kids have been canning peaches yesterday and today - I think they are all tired of canning (but they'll sure enjoy the fruits of their labor this winter).

Cheers,

Marc

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day everyone!

We stayed home and had a friend and his family from my previous job over today. It was good to get caught up, as it had been several months since I've seen him.

Once they left, I quickly set up my little studio so I could snap some photos of the kids.

Cheers,

Marc

Niagara Falls

Okay - final post from the Skinner 2019 summer vacation super trip.

We made it to Niagara with time to grab a dinner and then go find the falls which were only about 15 minutes or so from where we were staying. We had driven through some pretty strong storms along the way, and it was still drizzling when we got there, but Ian and I made the short walk from the parking lot we found (American Rapids) to the falls to see them lit up.

We then turned in to prepare for super tourism day.

For Niagara, we went full Tourist (with a capital "T") and got the super happy discovery pass, which got us into Cave of the Winds (which Leah wanted) as well as the Maid of the Mist (which Catherine and I wanted...Ian was indifferent).

We started at Cave of the Winds with an elevator ride to the bottom of the Bridal Veil falls, and got these amazing yellow ponchos.

I took another photo of the Cave of the Winds folks from the deck of the Mist of the Maid boat, below.

Leah had a good time on the Hurricane Deck (I think we all did, she was the only one foolish enough to go back in once I could pull my phone back out to snap some photos!).

We then beat the other tourists to an early lunch, and avoided the stupid long lines. While they ate, we then avoided more lines at the Maid of the Mist. They run things often enough that I think the lines are relatively quick, at least at anything other than peak peak season. Maid of the Mist is blue poncho. Ian and Catherine decided to admire the Canadian Horseshoe falls from the 1st story deck.

We then saw the movie at the visitor center, and then made our way to the aquarium. Niagara tourist quadrifecto!

Cheers,

Marc

Acadia, Day 5 and then off to other parts

I got up early on our last morning to go take some more sunrise shots, but from further south along the Otter Point peninsula.

I moved around to a couple of different locations, partly just to see new places, but also to avoid the millennial nerds playing loud music like we were at a rave or something. Dorks.

Once the sun was good an up, I headed back to camp where we took everything down, and reloaded the van.

We then hit the road to a little place in the northwoods of Maine. We went there so I could drive by Saddleback Lake on our way through the next morning. We got all the way there, and then the privacy signs turned me away. We were set to spend the night in Keene, NH, and the route I took had us pass through the White Mountains, around Mt. Washington and then along the Kancamangus Highway. Once past Concord, the GPS took us right past Keyser Pond where my Mom's side of the family would spend summers. It was fun to see how much the area had been developed.

After Keene, we made a long drive to Niagara where we played super tourist...

Cheers,

Marc

Acadia, Day 4

This was a BIG day!

First up, Ian, Leah, and I hiked up the Beehive trail. If you look closely at the exposed rock/cliff faces, you'll see the trail of people leading to the top.

The hike itself isn't terribly difficult - it has less than 1,000 feet of vertical gain, but it goes pretty much straight up!

It has iron bars sunk into the rock to help make the hike a bit easier, which was really very helpful.

And it only had a couple of sketchy areas - and sketchy only because the trail was pretty narrow in 2 or 3 places. Nothing bad without a fear of heights - both kids did great!

And here we all are at the top.

With the view looking south and east towards Sandy Beach and Great Head to the left with little Otter Point sticking out there in the right.

Later, we picked up Catherine and we took the kids for a horse carriage ride on the carriage roads.

Our two horses did a good job hauling us (and several others) around in the hot sun (we hit upper 80's low 90's while we were there - not what we were counting on).

Afterwards, we loaded up and made our way to Southeast Harbor where we ate at Beal's Lobster Pier. I had a delicious lobster roll that was pretty darn tasty.

And finally, we drove to Bass Harbor to watch the sun set at the lighthouse. From a photographic perspective, we were unlucky to be blessed with cloudless skies. So seeing there wouldn't be any color to wait on, I took a couple of photos different from what you'll see on postcards of the place.

When we left, there was a line of cars waiting for a spot in the parking lot. Glad we got there when we did, and even more glad we left when we did.

Cheers,

Marc

Acadia, Day 3

The next day I had an early start. I went back to the coast near Otter Cliffs and pointed my camera towards Monument Cove with the rising sun in the background.

I then went back to the campground where we enjoyed some breakfast before heading out for a short hike to find some of the bridges on the carriage roads. It was pretty warm, so it was just me on the hike, while everyone else stayed in the shade.

I made my way to Waterfall Bridge (which had no waterfall).

And then down to Hadlock Brook Bridge. Afterwards, we went in to Northeast Harbor to enjoy a nice lunch, and then back to camp for some quiet time. That evening, everyone came down to Otter Point to catch the Milky Way. We had taken part in a Ranger program the evening prior about the night skies - this was just the repeat attempt to take a better photo.

Cheers,

Marc

Acadia, Day 2

If you have been following along with our journey, you'll recall that we arrived at Acadia National Park the day before, and hiked down to the ocean. The next day, we drove to Jordan Pond, arriving well before the crazy hordes of vacationers got there (say 9 o'clock - not too early).

We hiked around Jordan Pond, hiking clockwise - taking the more difficult portion first, so we could have a nice relaxing hike to finish it out. It starts onto these elevated boardwalks - which I thought were pretty cool.

It eventually goes through a rocky landslide with some minor scrambling - everyone managed it. Once through the slide, the trail opened up onto a graded path, with two bridge crossings. The first a loon had set up its nest not 20 feet from the trail in full sunlight, with a beaver lodge about 10 feet further back from there.

We completed the hike around 11 o'clock and Catherine got us reservations for the Jordon Pond House restaurant for an early lunch. We enjoyed the popovers and the nice break. Afterwards, Ian, Leah, and I hopped on a shuttle and went to a trailhead to climb the Bubbles (the two rounded mountains, below). We climbed up South Bubble and then made our way towards North Bubble, but stopped short of the peak so we could catch the shuttle back to Catherine.

We stuck around for sunset, which the colors fizzled in the sky, but it was still quite beautiful. Afterwards, we drove to Otter Cliffs where I took some photos of the Milky Way (didn't turn out). Again, even though the photos didn't turn out, it was still pretty awe inspiring to see all the stars and the Milky Way overhead, with the tide coming up.

Cheers,

Marc