TRINITY ACRES: July 2017

July 31, 2017

New York Day 4 - Happy Birthday Mom

Boat and Birthday Day

I started the day with going to Mass at a polish church, St. Hyacynth. This is a statue of said saint.

They also had a lovely little shrine in honor of St. Maximilian Kolbe. There was a 1st class relic of a strand of hair (very rare). One of our priests, Fr. Rick Heilman, has one, too, I believe!

There was any number of these beautiful "3D" picture-statues of many saints. Very lovely. Since people were praying I couldn't just wander around taking pictures *snap*

Outdoor Fatima statues.

Afterwards we bummed around for the morning then ate lunch (leftovers from the Country Club dinner). Then we met my parents at the Marina to get a pontoon boat for the following 4 hours.

The people who had bought my parents house, who also tore down our house and are in the process of building a new place, built this beautiful gazebo type boat house. Very nice.

The cottage is there there at least!

Then it was time for some tubing.

Sheila's husband is a great chef (without really being a chef).

We closed the evening with a little singing for my mom's birthday.

My sisters and some of their children and Maria sang a great "poem" someone or other in the group wrote. Here are the lyrics... (to the tune of "Raindrops on Roses"

Drinking cold Riesling and days at the beach;

Baking a pie whether apple or peach;

Sinking a ball with her nine iron Ping

These are a few of her favorite things.

Hunting for bargains on shoes or acc’sess’ries

Knowing the details on store return policies

Hemming and clipping and Parisian flings

These are a few of her favorite things.

Visiting grandkids and reading the paper;

Checking on Fox for the news’ latest caper

Pedicure, books and…counting her blessings

These are a few of her favorite things.

When the wine’s warm;

When the town swarms;

When she’s feeling sad.

She simply remembers her favorite things

… then she won’t feel so bad.

Thoroughly enjoyed.

My sister Sheila and her family are returning from 7 years in Germany. So they sang happy birthday in German.... Enjoy, below! :D

July 30, 2017

New York Days 1, 2, and 3 - July 28-30

Galadriel, Merry, Pippin, Bilbo, and I were heading out to visit my family in upstate NY. This is the train station near us... no joke. It's really more like a train hut.

The train was pretty nice to go by. The people working on the train were great.

Playing Chess

Light reading

Thugs in the "Great Hall" of Union Station in Chicago.

3 Stooges meet 3 Stooges on an exhibit.

We had an excessively long lay-over in Chicago. 5-1/2 hours. We ate, wandered around, sat around, played chess, scrabble, checkers, etc... and ate again.

Finally got to Syracuse after 14 hours on the 2nd train.

Thugs (who really are having a good time...) at the Syracuse station waiting for the car rental ride.

Here was the driver, complete with dredlocks.

This is our car which has hypersensitive brakes.

First things first, Mom and Dad took us to Doug's Fish Fry. Best Fish Fry ever.

Thankfully this is not a disease, just tiny shale rocks.

Swimming with Cousin L.

View off my sister Sheila's rental cottage.

How many family members can be in a tiny kitchen with a large buffet at the same time?

Sunday Morning we went to Mass (Divine Liturgy) at the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church. Absolutely beautiful and brought back really great memories. I had gone to the school for 7th and 8th grades... and even had to learn Ukrainian.

Afterwards mom and dad took us to Johnny Angel's for breakfast.

I had this great portabella mushroom omlette.

Signs in a store in downtown Skaneateles

The weekend also happened to be the antique boat show. In the background is the dinner boat the Judge Ben Wiles.

Really, they are thrilled. Kinda hard to believe.

HAHA (a bar of sorts)

And here is our cabin (not on a lake)

We have a view of Owasco Lake.

Thrilled, we have laundry facilities.

These 3 were enamored with the dishwasher... at home they are the dishwashers. (I'm enamored, too...) Of course we won't really be eating there enough to even get a load in there.