h20skibum

I am seriously behind by about 20 pages, so I spent some time skimming while grilling diner tonight. Teriyaki vegetables cooked on the grill Add some teriyaki chicken Served up with side of rice and some Miso soup made a tasty meal.

It doesn’t seem to matter where you are going either. We have flights to Boston from Pittsburgh for our October cruise, and we have a stop in Baltimore both going and returning. No non stop flights.

It was quite apparent to me, but was the same excuse they gave at the ports.

Today is my daughter’s 15 year anniversary, so we will have all our grandkids starting around lunchtime. Bigger trips planned for tomorrow and the weekend with them, so this may be a day to stay local.

Ah, the Peace Bridge. One place where they took all our passports and had all our carload go inside while they gave me an extra thorough screening. They said my common name triggered it, but they were looking for someone with that name but a different race. That was a bad year, because I got extra screening after a couple cruises also.

Today, we took the grandkids to Living Treasures Animal Park, near New Castle, PA. It looked like they were the first ones to the goats to feed them, because they sure were hungry. A couple decided they wanted to go for a camel ride. Too bad we couldn’t convince the third one to climb on. For any bat lovers, they had those. They enjoyed their up close, personal time feeding birds Another nice outing. Can’t believe that in three weeks, our CA grandson will be home and starting school.

The other side had a nice, detail sculpture too, but the lighting was not the greatest. It could be lack of help, and maybe just more shopping online. Several stores have moved out of there.

Last night, we were in Niles, Ohio for some hibachi. Stopped in at their mall, and found a sand sculpture in the center. Not sure why, because it is not near a beach. It has been a while since I have been in any mall , but was surprised that most stores closed at 7 pm.

That would be nice. We like that southern 8 day itinerary. We have a couple friends that booked and will be joining us on the cruise.

We are booked for the sailing on the 7th. We are on a short one on Liberty after New Year, then move to Harmony. Maybe we will see you onboard. We have a house in Fort Lauderdale for our Christmas/ New Year holidays again. We are hoping airfare comes down so the kids and grandkids can join us again.

The two times ours were damaged, we were at Port Everglades. First time with the handle, it was damaged between drop off and delivery to the cabin. The second time, when the cracked the case, it was after they picked it up at the cabin and when it was placed in the terminal. And it is not specific to Royal. Friends of ours had one damaged on one of our Celebrity cruises. They gave them a $400 OBC for that one. That cruise was from Port Everglades also.

We were talking the other day about vehicles counting down the seconds while stopped at traffic lights. This is where it is displayed on our Highlander. We were busy again with grandkids today, plus two. Our daughter took our PA grandson to a golf tournament this morning. He came home with the first place trophy for his age group. He would have placed in the next age group also. They only play 9 for his age, and he shot 43. We had our CA grandson, our granddaughter, and two of her friends while they were at the tournament. I wouldn’t want to watch 4 or 5 every day. They did enjoy the spin cycle. Anyone want a ride?

Yes they are. They damaged the retractable handle on one of our hardside cases a couple years ago, and gave us enough to pay for a replacement handle. One of our cruises this year, they cracked one of our hardside cases. Insurance paid for a replacement. Get a good hardside that will not crack. We had problems with soft side cases that got soaked, as well as everything inside getting soaked while waiting to load on the plane. Would not get soft side for this reason.

I realized I should have given you a little more info, and a size reference. The ones we have are the Powercore II 10000. We have had them for several years. This is the size in comparison to my iPhone 12 Pro. It is a little thicker than the case. They are easy to carry in your pocket. They do have newer, higher capacity ones out, but these have worked for us

We have a couple of these from Anker, that we take on cruises for portable charging. Will charge an iPad once, or a phone maybe 4 times on a charge. Good to see you back, OB.

I tend to focus on pennies. Putting empties to good use. But seriously, the grandkids classrooms usually have a penny drive each year, so we let them take them and donate to their cause. Without the rum bottles, of course. 🤣

This is what happens then. Our crew is busy with a Lego building contest this afternoon. We don’t fret the mess. Sometimes it has to happen for fun play.

For multi-quotes on a phone, I learned something new today. Before, if I wanted to only quote a portion in each post, I was using the + beside the quote, then going in and deleting the extra portions. I found that if you just press the and hold the start of the section you want to quote, and highlight the area and select the quote that pops up, you can then move to the next post you want to quote a portion of, and repeat, it will quote both with a space between to type your comment. I may never use the + button again. It is much easier on a computer with a mouse, but I only use mine for maybe 1 out of 100 posts.

I think I saw a patent drawing with it in the over position, so that should definitely be the correct position. That is, unless you have a cat or toddlers That’s my boy! 39 years ago. 🤣

Our Toyota Highlander has it. Depressing the brake fully starts the countdown. We do basically the same here. Use the good stuff for hosting, and paper plates for picnics.

with the start stop feature on our vehicle, it counts the seconds for me.

We had a huge storm roll through around 2 am, and were under a tornado watch lots or rain, but no tree damage at our place, and it is now 72°. Surprised it didn’t wake our grandson up. And speaking of storms, we drove through some pretty intense ones yesterday on our way home from Titusville. We passed one mobile home park where a large tree came down across a couple of them. The one looked like a hot knife through butter, because it crushed the width of the tree, all the way to the floor. Unfortunately, I read this morning that someone lost their life.

Happy 18th Anniversary to you and Lisa. Wishing you many more.

Today, we were in Titusville, PA, for Christmas in July aboard the Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad. Titusville is known as the birthplace of Oil, and it was here that Edwin Drake drilled the first commercial oil well in 1859. That oil strike spawned an oil drilling boom in the area. In fact, my grandfather, who was born in 1885, worked on several oil wells that were still producing in this area in the early to mid 1900’s. All aboard for Christmas in July. The conductor had a little trouble coaxing the ticket from this guy. 😏 Mr. and Mrs. Claus met us at the station and climbed aboard to visit with all the kids and give them some small presents. It seems that Santa likes The Beach Boys, because they were playing most of the ride. The train traveled south from Titusville, along Oil Creek, to the village of Rynd Farm. They then decoupled the locomotive and moved it to the opposite end for the return trip. We are in an 1865 passenger rail car with Santa. They have one car as an open air platform, so you can enjoy the views. However, there isn’t much to see along this route this time of year, since Oil Creek State Park is heavily wooded. I would say the highlight scenery was this guy’s house. I am taking notes for decorating ideas. I need to buy a few flamingos.

Yes, they light them at dark. They have another one coming up in September