Reminiscing again. I just received a loving e-mail from my cousin Kevin. If you go back in my blog you'll see Kevin with the cupey doll hairdo, at one year old, standing at a fence in our old neighborhood. Now I'm sharing a picture of our Grandma Ramsey with you. She's holding another cousin on her lap. The front porch is just a few houses down from where we lived and right next to the coal yard. My cousin lived next door to our Grandma in the row house. Grandma Ramsey was the most loving grandmother a child could have. I'm positive that she's an angel in heaven. She could be a saint. As my cousin Kevin reminded me, Grandma Ramsey used to sing to us and she always loved to hold us. Ireland released her as a teen, we kept her all the rest of her life and cherished her. I still think of her often even though she's been gone from us since I was 12 years old. Her last living child, my Aunt Mary, is an example of her mother's love and charity. We are all blessed to have Aunt Mary to carry on where her mother left off. I love you so much Aunt Mary. God Bless you! Kevin is my Aunt Mary's son.

Crystal Cave, Kutztown, PA/Tour of Amish country, Lancaster County, PA

A week ago Friday, we decided to take one of the trips on our "to do" list. We went to Crystal Cave in Kutztown, PA. This picture isn't very clear and the reason that I'm only posting one picture. It's difficult to explain the formations when the lighting is not that good. This formation is known as "Jack Frost." Can you make out his face? It's the dark part of the picture. I decided to go on a weekday, thinking it would be less crowded. However, I didn't account for the kids from summer camps. They were a bit noisy inside the cave, making it difficult to hear our guide. Aside from the noise, it was interesting and fascinating. I enjoyed the stories of the cave and all of the information we learned. After the cave, we went in search of Amish food. Lo and behold, the Kutztown Fair, a fair which I've long wanted to attend, was in town. We drove over there only to be disappointed by the small size of the fair. Soooooo, I said, "what the heck, let's drive to Lancaster and see the Pennsylvania Dutch country." We did just that, found the city of Lancaster too busy, checked our map and headed for the Intercourse Pretzel Factory. That is where we noticed that we were in the heart of Amish country. We did the pretzel thing, found an Amish buffet for dinner (yum, yum is all I can say) and then set out driving around the countryside. Pictures and comments of that venture below. We want to go back and see more! We had a very full and great day. We left home at 9am and returned at 11pm. Went one way, came back another.

We arrived in Amish country and right away we had company on the road. As I stated further down in the blog, these horses are fast and it's difficult to get a good shot of a passing buggy. But, this will give you an idea of what the traffic is like. One must be very cautious when driving on the road with Amish on scooters, Amish walking on the side of the road and all ages of Amish in all types of buggies traveling on the road with you. It's a wondrous thing to see. We want to return to learn more about these fascinating people. Oh, I almost forgot. We went to the Intercourse Pretzel Factory and learned how to make pretzels. We twisted our own. Not quite ready yet to open a pretzel shop.

Venturing into Amish farm country we came upon a large number of Amish people pulling their buggies into one farm. There seemed to be a gathering of some kind. The faces of the two Amish ladies in the lower left of the picture are reflected in my sideview mirror. Antonio was taking pictures from the back seat of our SUV. I think the reflection is cool!

This is one end of an Amish farmhouse. The houses get bigger as young couples, in the family, get married and the parents add on to the house for them. Right as we got to this farmhouse we saw hot air balloons going up in the sky. Due to the haze, it was difficult to see the colors of them so I decided to leave them out. And, much to my delight, two piglets escaped from their pen and ran across the highway. Traffic stopped dead for them. Soon, an Amish couple came running across the road to gather them up. We have goose crossing, the Amish have pig crossing. It was tooooooo cute for words! The great piglet escape...maybe they know what their future holds.

While driving around we came across this very long covered bridge. The bridge is listed in the National Historic Registry. There's a campground next to it with a stream running through it. Really beautiful. The campground was also very full. I'm not surprised that it is popular.

We park cars in our garages, the Amish park their buggies and their horses. One of my kiddies asked, with much surprise in her voice, "The Amish play basketball?"

This is an example of a typical horse that pulls an Amish buggy. Notice how long legged it is? The horses we saw were regal and gallant. They are fast, which we noted, when trying to get a picture of a horse and buggy passing by us. You have to be quick. They are truly beautiful creatures. I imagine they cost plenty.

A young Amish couple in an open buggy which is used for courting. This picture was taken in the town of Intercourse, PA. This town and the town of Bird-in-Hand seem to be the center of Amish activity in Lancaster County.

An Amish farmer is plowing his field. I thought I cropped this picture but, guess not. Anyway, the countryside is plush and green. The farmer and plow are being pulled by horses. It was hazy all day which explains the grey sky in the background.

I wish we had gotten a better picture than this. These are Amish men's clothes hanging on a clothes line on a front porch on an Amish house. We had to hurriedly pull over, with traffic on our tail, so we couldn't position ourselves to get a proper picture. I loved seeing all of these clothes hanging on the lines!

We stopped at the store to check out the Amish scooters. Antonio was hoping to buy one. The bright colored ones are not used by the Amish. The storekeeper convinced the Amish builder to make these in colors for her to sell. The dark color is what the Amish use. We saw young Amish girls riding their scooters barefoot on the edge of the highway. We also saw many Amish children using them on their farms. Adults use them as well. Great exercise! This merchant directed us to the dairy farm mentioned below.

Antonio with his new friends, the calves, on the Amish dairy farm. We almost didn't make it to the ice cream store in time as we got lost, even with a highlighted map given to us by a merchant in Intercourse, PA. We were racing with the waning daylight as the merchant told us he thought the dairy farm stayed open until dusk. The darkening sky was chasing us.

Homemade ice cream from the Amish dairy farm, mmmm. It was so hot and humid that there was steam coming off the ice cream (notice the steam to the left of the ice cream). The merchant who sent us there was soooooo right about how good the ice cream was. What was fun was seeing the Amish buggies pulling up to the drive through window to buy ice cream.

Antonio loved making friends with the calves. There were a lot of them. He thought the feeling of this calf's tongue was weird. Antonio was fascinated with all of the cows on the dairy farm. There was also a miniature pony and a couple of peacocks. Oh, and a cat and a dog. I was fascinated how the calves played with an Amish woman who cares for them. They were like puppies, wanting attention and mooing to be petted.

This just tickled me. Two young Amish lads in their kid size buggy, buying ice cream at the drive through window at the ice cream store. The local merchant who told us about the ice cream store on the Amish dairy farm did us a great service as we had an enjoyable time there.

As promised, the aforementioned "Blubby"

This is the aforementioned "Blubby." Note it is filled to the brim with water. Thankfully, we have a picture of "Blubby" as now, "Blubby" has gone to the great garbage can in the sky.

"Blubby" led a fun life as it frolicked in the water with the children who played with it. "Blubby" provided much joy to those who encountered it. Farewell "Blubby", you were fun while you lasted.

Broadmead Swim Club

This is the swim club, owned by Princeton University, where we are members. It's great because it is practically in our back yard. The kids are lined up with some of their friends as they are getting ready to jump into the water together. There are a couple more friends that you can't see. Just recently, the kids filled a beach ball with water and named it "Blubby." I was present on the day that they finished filling it. It took five and a half hours to fill it over a two day period. I learned that when it was half full, they carried it to the woods near the pool and hid it so they could pick it up the next day and finish filling it. I asked them what they planned to do with it now that it was full and they told me they were going to roll it home. NOT! So they left it and other kids played with it after we left. Today, the kids received a text from their friend who was already at the pool, telling them that "Blubby" was alive and to bring tape to patch a small leak. That's the last that I heard about "Blubby." I just checked with the kids and learned that "Blubby" is fixed and still at the pool. Story to be continued.

Fireworks commentary.

We've been going to all of the fireworks displays that we can squeeze in. That's because I'm obsessed with fireworks. I looooove them! The next one we want to see is at Longwood Gardens in PA which, has fireworks and fountains. The music for this particular display will be by ABBA. The fireworks we saw on 7/16/09 at Berkley Heights, NJ lasted for an hour because it was an anniversary of the event. Just like the Red Bank, NJ fireworks which was celebrating it's 50th year so they went all out. Red Bank is now my #1 pick of all the fireworks I've seen over the years. The latest we attended was at a winery. We nixed that for a return visit because it was buggy, probably from the grape vines. Also, due to the fact that I was driving, I couldn't imbibe any wine at the event. Let me tell you, I never saw so many bottles of wine being consumed in one location. This was a first and I was lured there by the reputation of the fireworks company putting on the display. The winery is up in the mountains and there weren't thousands of people to warrant a huge display. Oh well! Antonio did make a tie dye tee shirt so we have something to show for the visit. I bought a bottle of wine to bring home.

Awesome fireworks 7/3/09 at Red Bank, NJ

The "Imagine" fireworks video has peace signs and smiley faces which aren't clear, as I had hoped. I guess they lost some of the clarity in the video transfer. But, you get to hear me singing! This was the most awesome, awesome fireworks display I've ever seen. During the Bruce Springsteen, "Born in the USA" display there was USA spelled out in the sky. There were also Japanese lanterns that went up in the sky and then drifted slowly away like parachutes. There were fireworks stars and hearts too. The children and I voted this display as our #1 favorite to date. Thanks to the kids for the videos from their phones.

Note minus the pictures/PICTURES FOUND!

FOUND THE PICTURES THAT ARE REFERENCED BELOW!!!!!!!!!

Well, I was going to insert two pictures here, after my cousin Kevin's cute picture but, I scanned them and am not sure where they are filed on my computer. I'm having technical problems with the scanner. The pictures are of my daughter at age one with the same hairdo as Kevin. The second picture is of my granddaughter Jessica also with the same hairdo. In our day, we called it the "cupie doll" hairdo. Today, it is referred to as a "mohawk." How times have changed. When I locate the pictures, I will post them.