Balloons and music at annual festival in NJ

As they've done most summers for years, Dan & Julie attended the Quick Chek Festival of Ballooning in central New Jersey in late July. Christine, Andy and Shannon came along, and for a second time, they were joined by Dan's friend and former co-worker Tom and his wife, Marcia.

Although it was a beautiful day, the wind was too brisk for the balloonists to take off. Some had trouble inflating their hot-air balloons, while others managed to get them filled but stayed on the ground.

As dusk fell the periodic bursts of flame keeping the air heated caused the balloons to glow in the dark, while the crowd listened to a concert by classic rockers Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo.

Angry bird looks angry.

Visiting Grandma & Pop at the beach

Cathy, Stephanie and Christopher spent a July weekend with Hugh and Dolores at their summer residence in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Cathy and Stephanie were on an East Coast college-visit tour (Stephanie is entering senior year of high school). Chris joined them for the visit to the beach and the grandparents.

Cathy writes that they packed a lot into the weekend, hitting all their favorite Rehoboth spots. "We shopped at the outlets, walked on the boardwalk, bought some taffy at Dolle's, browsed at Browseabout Books, had brunch at The Back Porch Cafe, swam in the ocean and ate some Thrasher's fries."

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Kathy travels to Switzerland, stops in Iceland

Kathy recently traveled to Switzerland to attend the wedding of one of Robert's relatives. Afterward, Robert headed to Brussels for business while Kathy headed home -- and paid a brief visit to Iceland on the way. Here are some photos of sights she saw in the two countries.


"The boat is the Italie, built in 1908, which took us on dinner cruise from Port D'Ouchy on Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) in Lausanne to Montreux in Switzerland," Kathy writes. "This is one of a fleet of restored steam paddleboats that are operating on the lake."

"This sculpture is on the grounds of CERN, site of the Large Hadron Particle Collider, in Geneva. I was there to get inspiration and ideas for the 'Science and Art' senior elective that I teach, and to enjoy some SCIENCE!"

"Here is a particle accelerator that was taken off-line 30 years ago. Just this year, it was deemed no longer radioactive and made available for public viewing."

"An art installation, 'Cosmic Song,' by French sculptor Serge MORO, inspired by cosmic radiation."

"This exhibit of Audrey Hepburn fashions by Givenchy was in Morges, Switzerland, about 10 minutes from where she lived most of her life (although she was born in Brussels). The exhibit was great, and included lots of clothing from 'Breakfast At Tiffany's,' including this red ensemble."

On to Iceland: "This sculpture of a Viking ship is in Reykjavik. The photo was taken close to sunset -- at about 11:30 pm."

"The geyser Strokkur is part of the popular 'Golden Circle Tour,' which includes the amazing Gulfoss waterfall and the tectonic plate rift visible in Thingvellir National Park."

One last shot, taken on Kathy's flight home: An aerial view of glaciers in Greenland.

A beautiful summer weekend on Long Island

A couple of branches of the family got to spend a bit of the Independence Day weekend together in Noyac.

Genevieve, John and Bea; Vivien and CJ; and Patrick were all able to join Kathy at her summer house for the weekend.

Dan and Julie, Christine and Andy and his girlfriend, Shannon, also came out from New Jersey for a couple of days.

A family of swans joined the gathering for a while.

The group spent Monday night enjoying a pleasantly warm evening and some unofficial fireworks displays from the "back beach."

Everyone was back again for a short time the next morning before setting off in various directions.

Dan & Julie's group also squeezed in time at the ocean and bay beaches during their roughly 30 hours on the East End. Here are Christine, Andy and Shannon enacting a charge into the ocean surf. (They did not, in fact, take the plunge. The water was still pretty cold.)

Marie, Brian, Xander visit Trenton for art's sake

Marie, Brian and Xander traveled from Virginia back to Trenton, N.J., last month to visit Brian's parents and attend the city's annual Art All Night festival.

It was at least the fourth time they've attended the event, where any and all artists are welcome to exhibit one item apiece. Xander has exhibited each year, and this year showed this drawing of a cat waiting for food to appear in its bowl.

Meanwhile, Brian exhibited a large-scale painting of one of his psychedelic cat images, which have become very popular on internet sites (see previous article).

Brian's mother, Barbara, showed "Patriot's Dream," a vision-through-a-window quilt, with a schoolhouse in the center -- appropriately for the retired teacher and current literacy volunteer.

Brian's father, Steve, presented this painting of "Fiddleheads in the Moonlight."

The event fell on Father's Day Weekend, and provided a chance for a get-together between Marie and her dad, Dan, along with Julie, Christine, Andy and Shannon. Everyone enjoyed strolling through the exhibit hall - a former Roebling steel factory - and watching artists at work on the surrounding grounds.

Celebrating 2 birthdays in style

Hugh & Dolores and Doug & Lisa treated themselves to dinner at the Hopkins Club in Baltimore on Saturday to celebrate the birthdays of Lisa (July 9) and Dolores (July 11).

Saturday also happened to be the wedding anniversary of Dan & Julie, whose reception was held at the same club. That couple was meanwhile dining out and catching a little live music in New Jersey.

Senior Stephanie & band-mates in July 4 parade

The Hilliard-Darby High School Marching Band took part in the annual Fourth of July parade on Tuesday, and Stephanie was among the marching musicians for her fourth and final year.


Stephanie is now heading into her senior year as a student and member of the marching band and other music ensembles at Hilliard-Darby.


Her mom, Cathy, has spent the Fourth assisting the band at the parade for the past several years, as first Christopher and then Stephanie played and marched.



Click here or on this last photo to see a video of the band on the march.

Dan & Julie catch U2 on anniversary tour

Irish rock band U2 has been celebrating the 30th anniversary of its acclaimed album The Joshua Tree with a series of concerts where they play all 11 tracks from that LP in sequence, preceded and followed by other songs from their large catalog.

Dan and Julie caught them at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on June 29. "Our seats were high up but with a good view," reports Dan. "The band sounds as good as ever, with Bono in fine voice and The Edge's iconic guitar riffs propelling the classic songs."

"Hearing the album performed brought back memories of playing it on a turntable in our Brooklyn apartment some six months after we moved in. It may have been one of the last records we bought on vinyl before we bought a CD player!"