Day 5: On to Boston

I could not leave Gettysburg without seeing where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. We decided to stop by the Soldier's National Cemetery before leaving town and the 15-minute excursion turned into almost an hour.  But no one complained.  This giant monument sits at the spot where Lincoln gave the address (which was met with very mixed reaction.  I find it beautiful and eloquent, and while some find the brevity offensive, it was probably welcome since the guy who spoke before Lincoln went on for two hours.)

The Union Soldiers are buried in rings that surround the monument.  They are arranged by state.  New York and Pennsylvania had the most casualties.  Illinois only has 6 men buried here.  The section shown below is one of three "unknown" areas. 

Seen in the background below is the monument to President Lincoln.  On the left is the script of the invitation to speak at the dedication of the cemetery.  On the right is the text of The Gettysburg Address.

After the somber visit to the cemetery, we got on the road for the long drive to Boston.  Do you ever get the feeling that Siri likes to mess with you when it comes to driving directions?  Holy cats, the route we took was crazy.  Jason had a ball driving the Saw Mill Parkway though NY.  He said it was like Mario Kart.  As for me, I wore a hole in the floor mat pressing my imaginary brakes.

I was totally amused by the fact that the Massachusetts turnpike signs have Pilgrim hats on them.

We finally arrived at our hotel about 7:45.  We needed to eat, but decided to explore the neighborhood.  Fenway is only about  a block and a half from our hotel.

As we were walking around Fenway, enjoying the complete lack of crowd, we discovered a restaurant/bar called the Bleacher Bar.  (Explanation below.)  You can actually sit there, eat and look out onto the the diamond from center field.  It was pretty damn awesome.

After that, we were all exhausted.  It was a good day.  

Day 4: Gettysburg

On Day 3, I dragged my butt out of bed at 7:00 am (that's 6:00 am for you Central Time Zone People.) Pap Z cooked us some dippy eggs, my favorite, and then we said a sad good-bye as we headed to Gettysburg.
We took Route 30, also known as the Lincoln Highway, the entire way there.  It was a lovely drive, save the lone police officer who took offense to Jason's speed through his little village (it was only double the posted speed limit.)  The trip got a little more expensive today.

This was the high point (literally.) It may not seem high to you people who live out west, but for us Illinoisans, the ears were were a-poppin'!

And then I was seriously worried about our brakes going back down.  If you think we had problems going down that hill, here's the runaway truck ramp...if you lose control, just drive your truck onto this gravel road.

When we got to Gettysburg, we started at the Visitor's Center and Museum.  We saw a short film, viewed the Cyclorama (100-yard painting in the round) and then visited the museum.  We all agreed that the museum was very detailed...a little much for us, but history buffs would love it.  I loved this Union flag.  The Union always kept the stars for all the States...never removed them for the ones that had seceded.

And I think it goes without saying that I would love the pen that was used to sign the surrender papers.

After the museum, we purchased a CD Auto tour of the massive battleground.  It was great.  The tour is well-marked throughout the huge battlefield and we were able to stop and get out to take photos as we liked.  Ok, Kyra and I took photos.  You would not believe the number of monuments.  Here is Abner Doubleday, "inventor" of baseball.

Many states had monuments (Illinois does not, except for individual brigade monuments.)  Louisiana's was my favorite of the state monuments.

We got to climb this tower at one of the stops.  I almost died, from the 8 flights as well as the height.  The view was pretty awesome though.

Little Round Top was our favorite stop.  The kids enjoyed climbing on the rocks and the view was beautiful.  The photo below is of Devil's Den from Little Round Top.  Beautiful as it is, the valley between was known as The Valley of Death.  

The largest state monument is for the State of Pennsylvania.  It's incredible.  You can climb stairs to stand near the top.  We didn't.  We were nearly done at this point.  And while PA has this incredible monument, NY has a gazillion monuments.

The final stop on the tour is known as the High Water Mark, where Pickett's Charge took place.  Confederate Forces marched, a mile wide, toward the Union Army.  We sat and listened to the story as the sun set.  It was a fitting ending to the tour.

So, if you want the opinion of the Killions, Gettysburg is very worth the trip.  We thought the museum was nice, but too detailed for us.  We really enjoyed the Auto Tour.  And we certainly could have spent another day in Gettysburg as we didn't have a chance to explore any of the downtown and the Civil-War-Era buildings.

Vacation 2015 Days 2 and 3: Latrobe, Pennsylvania

Got up Saturday morning and drove the 5 hours to Latrobe, PA to visit family.  It's always good to see family, but since this is supposed to be about our adventures, let me tell you about Latrobe.

First of all, every time we go there, we go to a restaurant called Gino's and I have pierogie pizza.  Pierogie pizza has the best of everything: crust, butter, mashed potatoes and cheese.  I refuse the sauerkraut.  Don't knock it until you've tried it.

We decided to give Latrobe the tourist treatment on Sunday afternoon.  For those of you who don't know, Latrobe has several claims to fame:

1.  It is the home of the very first professional football game ever played, in 1895.  A man was paid $10 to play quarterback for the Latrobe YMCA.  

2.  It is credited with being the birthplace of the banana split.

3.  It is the birthplace and childhood home of golf legend Arnold Palmer.

4. For the last 50 years, it has been the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers training camp.

5.  It is the birthplace of Mr. Rogers.  I didn't want to be a total creep and post photos of his grave, but he is buried in the same cemetery as my grandparents and great-grandparents.  About 10 miles up the road, at Idlewild, a small but awesome amusement park, you can ride Trolley into the Land of Make-Believe.  At the end you sing "It's such a good feeling, to know you're alive..." and I get weepy every time.

Vacation 2015 Day 1: Cincinnati

Woo Hoo!  Vacay 2015!  Planned by mom.  Not fun for kids.  Educational!

Kyle got us started by driving to Danville, where we gassed up and switched drivers.  We are unclear on the legality of him driving on states other than Illinois with just a permit, so he got to the state line and then he got the boot.

We made it to Cincinnati in about 5 hours.  Getting to the hotel was an adventure with traffic, construction and three missed exits/turns (but we won't speak of that.)

Cincinnati is a pretty city and still adorned in the All Star Game stuff.  Anything with that striped hat and mustache just made me smile.

We wandered along the riverfront.  The Ohio is quite high.  We were careful not to fall in.

Also, Kyle loves to take selfies with his mother.

We got to the ballpark well before game time and wandered around the gift shops and checked out the statues.

Great American was a really nice park.  The concourse is very open, which was awesome for the 45-minute rain delay we had.  We checked the forecast before we left the hotel and there was a 20% chance of rain.  That changed.  We sat there, in the great wide open, watching lightning spiderweb across the sky, followed by thunder so loud you could feel it in your chest.  And still we sat there.  The announcer asked us to move to the concourse.  And still we sat there, because they were still playing.  As the one vendor told us, "As long as they are still on the field, it's fine.  They are worth a lot of money.  We are expendable.  But if they pull the players off the field, run like hell."

They started the game back up and then 2 innings later, it started raining again and never quit.  We sat there for a while.  And then we decided it was stupid to sit in the rain watching two teams that none of us were fans of, so we left in the top of the 9th.  It was nearly 11:00 pm anyway and we had a long day ahead of us.

But it was all worth it because the kids managed to get another MLB ball during batting practice.

Also, we made lots of friends with people who couldn't understand the Pirates/Dodgers/Cubs thing.

Grace the Terrible

I've been known to be impulsive, and back in 1994, while in college, while living in University Housing, I decided I wanted a kitten.  I figured if my RA could could get away with having a beagle, I could hide a kitten.

So, my roommate, Rachelle, and I went and picked out a little black furball, without the blessing of any of our parents, because hey, we were ADULTS.

We came home with Grace (so named for Mark Grace, of Chicago Cubs fame, and my dear friend, Amber Grace) and that little black kitten promptly stole my heart.

When I brought her home, I called my mom with the great news.  Mom wasn't as excited as I thought she should be.  Her first question was, "What are you going to do with her for the summer."  Whoops.  Hadn't thought about that.  But my parents were gracious and I took her home for the summer.  And she was a giant pain in the arse.  She yowled every morning as soon as the sun came up.  My bedroom faced east.  It was tragic for me, as I am not a morning person.  I threw things at her.  I yelled at her.  She kept yowling.  My mom said, "If you can't deal with this cat, how are you ever going to deal with kids?"  I threatened to kill her more quietly after that.

We survived that first summer and when I moved back to Millikin, the new RA wasn't quite the rebel the previous one had been and I couldn't chance having her in my apartment.  I had two friends who had a house and multiple cats and they graciously kept Grace for me for a whole school year. I'd go get her and take her with me to visit Jason in Champaign.  She was like a queen riding on the clean laundry.

My senior year, Rachelle and I were able to move into the house and Grace and I got to be together for an entire school year.  I fell asleep every night with her curled up on my chest (and then she'd sneak up and suck on my earlobes.  Totally weird, and she'd do it to anyone she was snuggled with.  You had to protect your earlobes around Grace.)

My favorite Grace story ever was my senior year, living in that old house that probably should have been condemned.  I was doing my homework in my room and I looked up to see Grace stalking a bird that was flying around my room.  Then my brain processed the fact that those weren't bird wings, but bat wings and I involuntarily shuddered as I watched her nimbly leap about 4 feet in the air and snatch that bat right out of midair.  Then she came trotting over to me with the bat, a wing hanging out of each side of her mouth, pleased at punch.  Obviously, I was hidden under my comforter, terrified, but I made her drop it and I went screaming down the stairs for help from my roommates.  We never did find that bat, or see it again.

That same summer, Jason and I got married.  As we were driving back and forth from the suburbs, looking for apartments and jobs, she was lonely, so she lived with my parents and their two cats.  After our honeymoon, we went to mom and dad's to get her and she actually hid from me.  She crawled under the couch and refused to come out.  My mom felt sorry for her and suggested that she just stay with them because she'd gotten used to being with their two cats, Bart and Poupon.  And from that moment on, Grace belonged to my mom.  (If you ask my dad, he'll tell you an entirely different story, but the point is that she ended up with my mom and dad.)  She was my mom's cat for nearly 19 years, until she passed away this morning at the ripe old age of 21 years and three months.

RIP, Grace the Terrible.  May there be lots of cheese in kitty heaven.  As my sister said, "Whoever was ruling in Kitty Heaven just got dethroned."

I hate gym lighting/A photo recipe

My daughter is now playing junior high volleyball.  I have spent four summers capturing softball and baseball and I pretty much have that under control.  I know where to sit and how to handle the bright sunlight and when to click.
Volleyball is another beast entirely.  The action is so much faster, the gym is so much more compact and the lighting is just terrible.  Awful.  Pardon my French, but it sucks, especially in a building that was built in the 1930's.
I have a photographer friend whose daughter also plays volleyball and her photos are so much brighter than mine.  Part of that is her better camera (I can't do anything about that right now) and part of it is light.  So I started thinking about whether or not I could fake the light.
Here's what I started with.  My daughter is a setter.  This was their 4th match of the season and I finally got a decent photo of her waiting for the ball.



I have learned that it is better to shoot wide and then crop...I have a better chance of getting the ball in the frame, especially since I am a newbie.  So I cropped it to make it look like I am really good.  ;)



First I did a little levels adjustment to brighten it up and then I looked at color.  Between the fluorescent lights and the yellow floor, there are all sorts of awful colors going on here.  I thought that white wall looked rather blue, so I toned down the blues a bit.  I eyeball all of this.

Finally I really wanted my daughter to stand out.  I went to the Love that Shot Olde World  Collection Textures (my favorites) to look for one that would really brighten things.  I chose one called "La Rochelle" and applied it at 50% in overlay mode.



Is it perfect?  No?  Do I love it?  Yes.  The texture brightens my daughter and creates a slight vignette.  You can still tell that it's a photo taken in a crummy gym, but it looks less like a snapshot and that makes me happy.

Why I send Christmas Cards

After reading a blog today explaining why the blogger was not sending Christmas Cards, I felt very defensive about the fact that I do send them.  Then the blogger asked for one reason why I am sending cards.  Here's a list:

• I send them every year. I send a letter.  I suppose that I am one of those annoying people who irritates the crap out of everyone.  I do try very hard not to make my letter vomit-inducing, but I am probably deluding myself.
• I send cards because I enjoy it.  I enjoy it much more now that I quit hand-making my cards (whose crazy idea was that, anyway?)  I enjoy the act of addressing the envelopes and signing the cards and spending a moment thinking about that recipient and sending them glad tidings from my heart.
• I send cards because I love receiving cards.  One of my favorite things this time of year is heading out to the mailbox and settling in and savoring those cards and photos and letters.  Yes, I even love the letters.
• I send cards because I have elderly family scattered all over the US who are not on Facebook.  I want them to know that I am thinking of them.  
• I send cards because I think that good, old-fashioned communication is a lost art form.
• Also, I love addressing the envelopes.  Weird, huh?