Because this is theoretically a travel blog, I focused a lot of attention on our Norway and Iceland Cruise, which was a terrific trip, putting aside other great memories more of a family and friends nature.
That does not mean that these closer to home happenings are less significant to Julie and me personally. We love our time spent with family and friends. Now that we don't tend to print out photos, I use my blog very much as a photo album.
Plus it helps me keep track of what we did during the year, so this will be the first of a handful of posts that are somewhat light on details about what's happened over the last few months.
When in Pennsylvania, we take advantage of the many hiking trails and lovely suburban neighborhoods for long walks.
Julie and I love to walk at least two miles a day. When we are joined by family, that makes it even better.
For an extended Father's Day weekend, our daughter Amy came to join the usual Philly area clan of Gina, Laszlo, Emma and of course Julie
One of the more notable hikes was a return to Skunk Hollow in Radnor Township near Villanova. We got lost a few times but eventually found our way back to where we started.
My last post about the area left us on one of one of those walks, so I will jump to something more unusual, a day trip that Julie and I took to Belmar Beach on the Jersey Shore.
As I said, details will be light, but I can say that we loved this daytrip despite heavy traffic slogging through Philadelphia, which we avoided on the way back by going a few miles out of our way.
Once close to the Jersey Shore, the roads open up and the drive becomes very pleasant. Because of our morning of departure, this was a perfect sunny day.
We didn't realize that for summer the city of Belmar charges $10 per adult to go beyond the brand new boardwalk onto the sandy beach.
If it keeps summer crowds down, that is probably for the best, but we're happy our trip was early enough in June to allow us to walk to the sand and surf for free.
We were going to have a nice lunch on the lovely marina, but instead we ended up buying some fast food at a beachside 7/11 to eat on a park bench overlooking the ocean.
Great choice!
It turned out whales chose that exact moment to put on a remarkable show in the ocean, including a full breach and flop by one whale.
Our pictures don't do any of it justice, but we were very much involved in experiencing that wonder of nature, which was unforgettable and definitely worth the drive.
After lunch, we walked onto the "toll-free early summer" sand and took occasional dips in the cool but not freezing water before heading home. Perhaps next time we will spend the night, but this day we commuted home.
On the way out of town there was a four-alarm fire, and we found ourselves in an unexpected traffic jam trying to find a through road out of town.
On Father's Day weekend with Amy in town, we went on a walking tour of Independence National Historic Park in Philadelphia.
It turned out that one of Gina's weekly Bridge game friends, Larry, leads the free Independence National Historic Park Tour a few times a week.
Larry did a terrific job telling us about historic buildings and the remarkable people who helped create our great country. If you find yourself in Philadelphia, definitely take this tour.
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