Summer fun

Lynn and her friend Ann came to visit us and we had a great day visiting the aquarium and the Coke museam. No trouble sleeping after that day but it was a great time.

The giant whale shark is always a big hit. It's just amazing how huge it is.

Then there's the giant grouper that is just as amazing.

While we were in Buffalo to visit Carol and Charlie we helped them stack wood for the coming winter. This is about 8 or 9 cords of wood. Not even half of what they still had left to do. Yikes! We made quick work of it though and it was nice to be able to help out.

The wood was up behind this barn. The guys would load it up on the pick up truck then drive it down to the garage for us to stack. It was a really nice day at least.

Here's Charlie coming down from the barn. I think we wore him out.

You can rarely see Carol without a camera. That's the garage we stacked the wood in. She did the cooking which is always a good deal. She is one of the best cooks I know and after a bit of work you love digging into whatever she has fixed.

Carol and Charlies son Rick was also in town to help with the wood and visit his parents. Rick was dying to go into Buffalo to scope out their old haunts. Definitely a place to lock your doors and not make eye contact. This was Bill's old Lutheran Church he used to attend as a kid. It looked like it was still in use and still had the same name - Resurrection Lutheran Church - but I would be hard pressed to want to stick around there much.

This is the house that Bill grew up in. Also now a very sketchy neighborhood. The road still had cobblestones. All the houses around were sadly in terrible shape. I can't imagine the neighborhood ever being recovered. It would take more money to redo then it would to tear it all down and start over. Very sad. He said they all used to walk everywhere, to church, school, shopping. They used to run the streets and have a ball with his cousins and family. At least the house was still standing.  I guess the brown siding at the top of the roof peak is the original siding.

Public school #62 where Bill went to elementary school. All boarded up now but still there. I wonder what they will do with it?

Seneca vocational highschool where Bill went to high school. It looks like they are doing a lot of construction on it so I am thinking it is still in use for something if not a high school.

There are two houses in this picture one of which is where Bill and I lived when he got out of the service and started school at Buffalo State. We couldn't remember which one it was. I am leaning towards the one on the right as the house number 586 rang a bell. I will have to look that up somewhere and find out. Anyway, we lived on the second floor and the owners, Mr & Mrs. Stoberl let us use the attic where Bill set up his trains. Oh, the good old days!

We all went for a fish fry on Thursday evening. Bill Carol, Charlie, Rick and Me. It was the best fish I ever had. And it was very cheap too which made it taste even better.

I just had to take a picture of this. It is sideways but I thought it was so cool. It was of a tree with no leaves. At the wedding we went to everyone made a colored thumb print and placed it on the tree and wrote your name by it. A fun way to see all who came to your wedding and made for a nice wall hanging afterwards. I thought it was a great idea.

The wedding was for the daughter of Valerie Taylor, life long friends. It was at Keuka Lake State Park. The day brought some rain but it cleared up beautifully.  Gram, Mike and Donna on the back deck of the pavillion.

Me and Bill on the same deck.

Nyn & Nel trying to escape the loud music and enjoy the lake view.

On the way home we came across this field of sunflowers. I just had to stop and get a picture. They were all so happy looking.

On Tuesday, Mike took a half day off and took Bill and I fishing on Irondequoit Bay. It was a beautiful day made even better by some good fishing. Here is a nice 1 and a half pounder that I caught. It was a great fish and was so fun to catch. I ended up catching 6 fish which is a rcord for me and most of them were pretty nice sized this being the largest. I had to post this picture first because......

..... Mike caught Moby Dick a bit later in the morning and would have made mine look like a minnow. I have never seen such a big bass in person before. It was a 5 pounder and was HUGE!  As you can see Mike was smiling ear to ear and his eyes were about ready to pop out of his head. Even after he let the beast go, after dropping it 3 times, he said his heart was still pumping like crazy. It's a wonder he didn't have a heart attack. It sure was fun to see him catch it. He had a great day catching about 10 fish. Another one was about 2 1/2 pounds also dwarfing my nice catch.  Can't feel too bad though as Bill got skunked. Had to be the best day I ever fished in my whole life. It was hard to have to pull up our rods and get back home for Mike to go back to work. I imagine he had a great half day none the less.