Birds of a feather…

Philip the Flamingo has graced our presence for the past few days. He’s visiting all the way from Joy’s in Minnesota. Fortunately, the temps have warmed up this week and we were able to get out and do some sight-seeing and have a bit of a history lesson. We headed down to the lake and Philip got to pose with the Sea Lion – a replica of a late 16th Century British sailing ship.

Next, posing with the Lighthouse – which was the first public building in the United States to be illuminated by natural gas.

Philip looking over the harbor…

We then headed to the beach where Philip felt right at home.

He wanted to wade in the water but it was frigid!

Then, on to the Welch building – as in Welch’s Grape Juice. Yes, the company started in this very town.

Next stop, the old train station where Abraham Lincoln stopped on his1861 inaugural train to meet Grace Bedell, the little girl who convinced him to grow a beard. She lived in this town!

Philip wanted to stop and look at the trains…

And I had NO idea what he had in mind next. I didn’t even see that he was carrying spray paint. He must have hidden it under all those feathers!

He was quite proud of himself. He’s a very talented artist. Who knew? I really couldn’t yell at him since he was our guest – plus he argued that there was already graffiti on the trains so it wouldn’t hurt to add more. And, as a fellow artist, I was not about to bash his artistic integrity.

I think Philip had a good time, even though he probably got far too much local history edumacation for his liking. He’s off to Trisha’s next…and I do believe it will be a full house!

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Good Times

We’ve had a busy week here in the hood; friends visiting from Florida, girls night out, circus came to town, hanging out at the beach, got a new purse. And here are some pictures to prove it:

First, some pics of the girls night out, well…of the drinks and the scenery seeing as no one would give me permission to show their face.

My beer with sister in the background taking photo…

The view of the lake from the deck we were sitting on:

Kate feeding the zebra some beer. We almost got kicked out for molesting that zebra. It was too irresistible to ignore. And we didn’t see any signs indicating that we weren’t to feed or touch said zebra. Who the hell puts a blow up zebra at a bar and expects it NOT to be played with?

And then the circus came to town! Yes, a real, live circus. I have, honestly, never been to a circus in a real circus tent, so this was a first for me. I was a bit Ieary about being in a tent with tigers and elephants and was quite sure one of the elephants would stampede but there were no mishaps. The kids had a blast and E even got to ride a camel.

Entering the big top:

E in front of one of the concession stands (gee mom, make me look into the sun, why don’tcha?)

An el ee fant

E & E riding the camel

Camel face

I was bummed, though, there wasn’t a funnel cake in sight. WTF?

One evening we took the kids to the beach, started a fire, made some s’mores, and had some beer (the adults only, of course, because what goes better with s’mores than beer? Gag).

Kate’s foot, my foot

They made me sit on the log with the protrusion. Yeeeeouch!

And because we’re all conscious about safety…

We paid close attention to the directive on the blanket.

The girls playing with glow sticks in the dark

Oh yes, and I mustn’t forget – I got a new purse; pink, of course

Whew. It was a very busy week. I’m tired. I’m going to go take a nap.

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More Randomness from My Life

Continuing on with the randomness that is my life, I’ve decided to share some photos that are near and dear to my heart. Here is my beach:

Well, it’s technically not “my” beach…but I like to think of it that way…just as I like to think of myself as King of the Mountain. Heh. Isn’t it loverly? I enjoy it immensely. And cannot (I repeat, cannot) wait until I can walk along this beach hand and hand with the one I love. *sigh* (wait, are those lyrics from a song? If not, they should be…gag)

These are my faves. I took them for my dearest, darling Dead Charming…

And some more shots of the beach and the lighthouse (yes! a lighthouse) As a matter of fact, this lighthouse is the very first public building in the United States to be illuminated with natural gas (how about that, a little history lesson thrown in there for you). First, the harbor:

And the lighthouse:

The clouds were magnificent on this day so I had to include a few pictures:

The dogs got to do their favorite thing today (well, Gus’s favorite thing, Ridley’s not too sure about it):

Look at how happy that Gus boy is. He’s smiling! Ridley looks traumatized and just wants to get the hell out. Unfortunately, I missed getting the shot of Ridley panicking and trying to climb up the side of the dock. We had to yank him out of the water, poor thing. I think he just has too much fur and it weighs him down when he’s wet. But, he has webbed feet…he should like to swim, dammit. I also didn’t manage to get a shot of him trying to climb on his brother’s back while swimming. Poor Gus probably feels like one of those kids at the community pool who everyone clings to because they’re a better swimmer. I was sure I was going to have to do some doggie resuscitation, but everyone made it out okay. Phew.

SPLASH!

That’s it for today, kids. I’ll be back with more in a bit.

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