baseball

judi somehow managed to buy three tickets to a phillies home game.  so we went - judi, jolene, and myself.  first we met up at honeys, that fabulous bruncherie i'd mentioned in another post.

it was a hot and sunny day.

our seats were in the shade for the first part of the mid-day game,

then in the hot sun for the last part of the game.

the phillies won, making it 5 and 0 for the games she and i have seen together, including a world series game in 2008.

at the end of the game i marked the occasion with my typical pose.

we finished the afternoon sibling time with dinner at sabrina's.  sabrina's cafe is another one of my favorite philly restaurants.

bikeride

one saturday i joined 12 of my friends for a 50+ mile bike ride.   we started at the art museum in philly.  thanks to catherine for this photo!

we rode to the valley forge national park, had a little picnic time, then rode all the way back to the art museum.

most of the path is pretty flat, but there were a few hills.  some of us opted to add "the manayunk wall" into the mix!  it's a climb with a 17-percent grade and is part of a popular cycle course in the philadelphia races.

ahhh, breathe that clean city air...

water ice with only a few miles to go.

fun day!

more ultimate

i love playing ultimate frisbee.  for the last three years, we've had a hodgepodge group of people gather on sunday evenings for a pickup game.

it's always lots of fun!

i got to play all five sundays that i was in philadelphia.  mmm...  good workout.

can't you feel the love?

weddings

three weekends in a row i went to wedding celebrations.  one was in pittsburgh and two were in philly.  all three had plenty of good dancing music, which was perfect for getting in some good exercise!  thanks to my brother-in-law joel, i had a suit to wear to them.

my friends jordan and deirdre had a sweet reception in pittsburgh.

it was an honor to be there and i miss them lots!

the next weekend my former office-mate jen got hitched to jeff.

this looks like some vintage photo.

this one looks peculiar too.

thanks to angy for this photo of my former stv family.

then a week later i celebrated the marriage of my friends duncan and lindsay at the ritz carlton in philadelphia.  i must have been having too much fun with them and our other friends because i only took one photo the entire evening!

it really was an honor to celebrate with my friends as they launched into that brand new phase of life where so many joys, challenges, and much growth are found.  : )  cheers to the newly weds!

wildwood, new jersey

i got to spend a few days with my parents in wildwood.  my sisters judi and jolene came down for part of that time and we had fun hanging out.  the visit was relaxing as well as productive.

my dad teaches history at the local public school and has been partly incorporating my journey into his curriculum.

i stopped in during a few of his classes to describe to his students a little bit about my experience and answer their questions of intrigue.  fun stuff.

mrs laffy who also teaches there is the one who sent me that awesome surprise care package in new orleans! : )

my mom helped me make screens for my van windows so that when it gets hot and buggy this summer i'll be able to stay cool and unbitten.

i was going to go for a bike ride with judi, but found out i had a flat tire.   instead it turned into a repair-the-bike kind of afternoon.

i couldn't get my pump to work, but judi did it like a pro.

jolene's typical arm-length self-portrait.

one of my favorite spots in town.

cape may - lewes ferry

the cape may lewes ferry crosses the delaware bay between the delaware shoreline and the southern tip of new jersey near where i grew up.   even though it was so close to where i lived, i had never been on it before.   so i decided to make it happen.   the sun set as soon as we departed.

it's a fairly large ferry.

when i got to the new jersey side, my parents were waiting for me and my mom hopped in my van for the 20 minute drive home.   i hadn't seen them for six months!

dewey beach, delaware

i worked my way up the barrier islands from maryland into delaware.

i do love beaches.  i stopped at dewey beach, delaware to toss the frisbee in the wind and do my typical head stand!

then i drove up through rehoboth beach, delaware and found my way to the lewes to take the ferry to new jersey.   southern delaware provides some enjoyable farm country driving.

ocean city, maryland

i drove through ocean city, maryland.  it was the first time i'd ever been there.

it was such a nice warm day and still the pre-crowd season.  i sat for a few minutes on the boardwalk.  very calming.

i liked how the boardwalk was at beach/street level.