Liz's impromptu Midwest road trip

It started (naturally) with a curling competition.

After taking part in the Winter Carnival Bonspiel at the St. Paul Curling Club, Liz found that her flight back to Baltimore had been canceled due to the snowstorm making its way from the Midwest to the East Coast.

At the bonspiel

So -- Road Trip!

Liz rented a car and set off from Minnesota on a tour that took her to Iowa (even though she's not running for president, as far as we know), Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia on the way back to Maryland. The storm having passed, the weather was clear.

"The trip went very well, and it was exciting to get to a couple of new states and many new places," Liz writes. "But I'm happy to be home for a while."

Here's an album of some of Liz's photos from her journey, some annotated with her comments.

After the blizzard: Digging (and grilling) out

Austin, who hasn't seen snow since moving to Florida several years ago, is getting a really good look this week.

Tuesday's blizzard brought more than two feet of snow to Cape Cod, where Austin is visiting his brother, Owen. Above, he surveys the scene outside Owen's house the day after the storm.

Official reports put the snow total at 27 inches in nearby Hyannis.

From these photos, it appears at least that much landed in Owen's yard.


Nearby at Gerrit and Angela's home, Gerrit said it took until Thursday to fully dig out. But in the meantime he didn't let the snow stop him from doing some grilling.


"I kept the shovel in my house and opened the slider door, dug over to the grill and fired it up," Gerrit said. Why? Simple reason. "I had a bunch of chicken I had to cook."

Blizzard veers east to Nanette, Owen - and Austin!

This was the Tuesday morning view from Nanette's front door (above) and across her back yard (at right) on Shelter Island.

The blizzard shifted course to the east Monday night, reducing its impact on the New York City area but focusing on Eastern Long Island and New England.

"We have about three feet and still snowing," Nanette said about 10 a.m. "But the power is on!" She said she'll send more photos later, but "I can't really get out the door yet."

The National Weather Service had reports this morning of 20 inches of snow in Noyac and 25 in Mattituck, with winds creating deeper drifts.

The storm was also lashing Cape Cod. Owen reports: "Lots of snow and wind. But we have had much worse. Gerrit and Angela never lost power and we were lucky as well."

Snowed in along with Owen is his brother, Austin -- who flew up from Florida for a visit, arriving Sunday just in time to settle in for the blizzard. He said he "wanted a break" from sunny Florida and thought he'd take a "reverse snowbird" vacation.

The snow continued throughout the day and into the evening on the Cape and up the New England coast.

Here at Birch Street HQ in New Jersey, the snow that began Monday continued Tuesday, but by late Tuesday morning had accumulated only about six inches.

Dan & Julie's side yard, 10 a.m.

It was never anything like a blizzard in New Jersey, but enough to disrupt travel, and Dan and Julie were working from home.

Likewise, the New York City area was spared the "historic" blizzard that had been forecast. Brien sent along this street scene from his Yonkers neighborhood.

 "It didn't amount to much at all, never very much snow," Brien reports. "It did stick quickly and made streets slippery, but didn't warrant 'all non-emergency vehicles off the road by 11 p.m.,' which was in effect last night!"

The coastal storm developed from one that came across the Midwest on Monday, leaving this scene in Cathy's neighborhood in Ohio. "We had about four inches, so of course schools were all closed," Cathy writes.

Meanwhile, Hugh and Dolores missed all the excitement.

"We are in Rehoboth Beach, where Dolores is teaching some art workshops for the Rehoboth Art League," Hugh writes. "As luck would have it, Rehoboth was just below the rain/snow line, and we have seen almost no snow. Here's a photo from here in the south to add to your collection of blizzard of 2015 pictures."

From NJ-MA, we're bracing for blizzard

Here's hoping everyone in the Blizzard Zone is safely hunkered down! Stay safe and warm -- and share your stories and photos!

Christopher takes stage with HS troupe

Christopher was one of the dozen cast member in a production of "Crazytown" at Hilliard Darby High School this weekend.

The comedy, by Jonathan Rand, consists of a series of sketches depicting life in "the most messed-up town in America." It was produced and performed by the school's X-Theatre, which presents shows that are produced, directed and performed by students.

"It was a small, student-directed production where everyone had multiple parts," writes Christopher's mom, Cathy.
Cathy adds: "We also had our band solo and ensemble event over the weekend. Both Christopher and Stephanie were in ensembles that earned a superior rating!"

Another happy couple in our extended family

Romantic news from Rochester: Kathy and Daniel are engaged!

(For those in other branches of the family: Kathy is the daughter of Susan and Dave; Susan is the sister of Lisa, who is married to Doug and mother of Liz and Rebecca.)

Kathy and Daniel -- what fine names! -- have been dating long enough to have made two appearances at Doug & Lisa's annual Thanksgiving Weekend gatherings.

Here they are with the group in 2013: At center rear is Daniel (his beard was shorter), seated next to Kathy and her parents:

2013 file photo

Winter gives it another try in Northeast

So far this winter hasn't brought anything like the snows of 2013-14 to the Northeast coast. But an early Saturday snowfall left close to six soggy inches on the ground around the Birch Street Web headquarters in New Jersey.

It won't last -- the snow turned to rain by midday -- but more may be coming early in the week. Happy winter!

Got snow? Share your winter scenes with Birch Street Web!

A quick visit to New Orleans for Doug & Lisa

Jackson Square, New Orleans

Doug and Lisa had the chance recently to spend a few days in New Orleans just after New Year's. Lisa summed up the trip as "walking tours, biking tour, lots of music, food and just a few drinks."

Here are a few photos Lisa posted on Facebook.

Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis, King of France

New Orleans Musical Legends Park

Freezing beauty: A January beach scene

A cold day in January isn't exactly what we think of as "beach weather," but at least the sun was out at Corporation Beach in Dennis, Mass., on Thursday. The result was this great icy scene captured by Gerrit.

"Doesn't feel a degree over 0," Gerrit said. In fact, with both the temperature and the wind speed in the teens, the wind-chill factor really was just about zero.

Where we live: A map of the Birch Street Web

Just for fun: Here's a map of places where members of our extended family are living. See how many places you can match to people you know!

Fun fact: Google Maps says it would take 97 hours to drive this 6,225-mile route non-stop. Road trip!

Here's a closer view of the Northeast. Click either map for a larger view. And let us know what we've forgotten to include!

New Year's greetings from Florida

Rachel donned this festive headdress to celebrate the arrival of 2015. She and her mom, Cindi, send Happy New Year wishes to all the family.

New Year's celebration, winter-sports style

Liz and Rebecca spent the first afternoon of the new year cheering on their beloved Washington Capitals at the National Hockey League's Winter Classic.

Each year on or about New Year's Day, the league holds a regular-season game in an outdoor stadium. The 2015 game was held at National's Park, home of Washington's National League baseball team.

It turned out to be an exciting game, with a happy result for the home-team fans.

The Capitals went ahead 2-0 in the first period, but Chicago Blackhawks scored once in the first and once in the second. Then, with 12 seconds left in the game, the Capitals' Troy Brouwer scored the tiebreaker for a 3-2 victory.

Best wishes to all for a wonderful 2015!

Christmas gathering in Yonkers, 2014 Edition

-- Updated 1/24/15 with more photos --

Kevin and Kathy were the hosts of this years traditional Christmastime gathering in Yonkers. Here's a photo of the happy crowd, with the newly engaged Shanna and Rick front and center.

Here are a few more-candid photos of the festivities, including a couple of alternate takes of the group portrait.

Scenes of Christmas 2014 (Send us yours!)

---Updated 12/27---

We hope everyone in our extended family had a very Merry Christmas! We're collecting snapshots of the festivities, and here's what we have so far.

Hugh and Dolores are spending the holidays visiting daughter Cathy and grandchildren Christopher and Stephanie in Ohio. A couple of days before Christmas, they all visited the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus.

In addition to its horticultural displays, the conservatory was exhibiting the entries in a gingerbread-house contest and some glass sculptures.

Cathy has shared a collection of photos from the conservatory that you can see here.

Grandpa Hugh sent along this photo of Chris & Stephanie unwrapping presents on Christmas morning.

At Birch Street HQ in New Jersey, it was a traditional Christmas morning with Dan, Julie, Christine and Andy opening gifts around the tree.

From Virginia, here's a shot of Xander in high-anticipation mode on Christmas Eve. He and parents Marie and Brian had a fine time opening their gifts on Christmas morning.

One of Xander's favorites was this Nerf bow-and-arrow set. He had a great time playing with it in the yard on a very mild Christmas afternoon.

Meanwhile, Courtney flew up from Florida to New York on Christmas Eve to visit her mom, Nanette. They're spending time in the city and at Nanette's place on Shelter Island.

Send us your Scenes of Christmas!

Shanna and Rick are engaged!

Christmas brings some special news to our family: Shanna and Rick are now engaged to be married.

Sources tell The Birch Street Web that Rick proposed and Shanna accepted on Christmas Eve. They have not yet set a wedding date.

Jersey boy Rick is a graduate student at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. Shanna is a teacher at the Ann & Andy preschool in Elmsford. N.Y.

We expect to have more details soon, so check back!

Merry Christmas to all our family

This Nativity scene was displayed for many years at the home of Daniel and Lorraine and their family. Brien now has it at his home and shares this photo with Merry Christmas wishes to all.

Still more signs of the season

We hope everyone's having fun, or at least not getting too stressed, preparing for Christmas.

Above, Birch Street Web headquarters looking festive. At right, the tree at Cathy, Chris and Stephanie's home.