Stockade Walkabout 2013

 

Today I went with Sharon Maughan and Nancy Crapo to the
Stockade Walkabout.  I've been wanting to go for years!

  The Stockade is where Schenectady began, as a cluster of houses behind a wooden stockade in the 1660s. The neighborhood was burned by the French and Indians in the massacre of 1690. But Stockade residents rebuilt. About a hundred years later, George Washington stopped by. The Marquis de Lafayette visited, too. The National Park Service says the Stockade has "the highest concentration of historic period homes in the country." And it was designated as New York's first historic district.

 This is a picture of the First Presbyterian Church.  It was built in 1760.

 

Isn't it beautiful.  They said its history includes Presidential visits, notable theologians and prominent people from around the area.

Here's a picture of one of the inside of one of the houses we was.  It was totally amazing.  I loved how they'd restored it!

 This is a photo of the First Reformed Church. It is the first church organized in Schenectady.  It was founded before 1680 and known then as the Dutch Reformed Church.

This is a picture of the St. George's Episcopal Church, which is the oldest church building in the area.  It was founded in 1735.

This is a picture of the statue of Lawrence the Indian.  He is said to have been a great friend to the early settlers. He helped track the French and Indians who attacked the Stockade in 1690 and was a Christian. The statue is a central feature to Schenectady's Stockade area.

We walked around.  They had 18 different things to see.  Houses, Inns or churches were open to go inside.  A couple houses were in the process of being restored.  One we saw had been re-done and was totally awesome.  I wanted to live there.  We ate at a little table by Arthur's Market.  It was a beautiful day for our bag lunch!  Fall in New York is the BEST!!!

Technical Awards Ceremony

Glen was recognized for having 25 issued patents on September 23, 2013. What a milestone! There was a reception where the awards were presented followed by a dinner buffet.

If you look closely at the tiny pictures above you can see Glen.  He's the second one in from the right side, and the second one down below "Technical Awards Ceremony".  He's wearing the Mormon "Helping Hands" t-shirt.  The photo was taken when he was in Schoharie for hurricane Irene clean-up.

We happened to notice that our neighbor Paul Buckley who lives a couple of houses down from us also got recognized for 25 patents issued.

You can see Glen. 
He's the fourth one in from the left on the top 25 row.

This is the award they gave him.  It's one of his patents with a plaque that says his name on it.

And here he is in his office after the ceremony with the candy bar I gave him.  Dark chocolate with a touch of sea salt.  Yum!

Seniors Rule!

Just got these pictures back.  

I can't believe that Lauren is a Senior in high school.
The time has flown by!

Monopoly - 25+ years later

Tonight Glen and I finished a Monopoly game that we think we started when we lived in California in 1987. We made these little cards so that we'd know where we were on the board, how much money we had, and what properties we owned.

Michelle eventually won after putting four houses on all of her properties!

LAST First Day of School at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School

This is it folks - the LAST first day of school for Lauren at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School.  Sure, there'll be other firsts, but this is the culmination of many, many years of children attending BH-BL.  Amazing!

Labor Day

We had a very stormy Labor Day weekend which caused us to rethink some of our outdoor plans. On Monday we decided to drive to Equinox Mountain in Vermont.

Along the way there we passed a covered bridge and had to stop and take a picture.  The drive up Equinox Mountain begins on Historic Route 7A in Sunderland, VT.  The drive up the mountain starts at an elevation of 800 feet.

As Skyline Drive winds and twist its way up the mountain, it provides panoramic views of lakes,  rivers and valley communities below. We stopped and took this picture when we were almost at the top.

There are many vistas and areas for picnics along the 5.2 mile drive, which has a vertical gain of 3,248 feet to the summit. By the time we reached the top the clouds had closed in, it had started to rain, and we couldn't see more than 20 feet in any direction.  

We went into the visitor's center to try to wait for the clouds to life.  It is new since the last time we'd come.  After waiting for 20 minutes or so we decided we weren't going to be seeing much and that we may as well head back down the mountain.

We decided to obey the sign and stop for awhile to let our brakes cool off. We were hoping that the weather would clear and we could head back up to the summit.  But it never did.

Amazingly, Glen was able to take a call from Jared at BYU.  I didn't think we'd have very good reception, but we could hear him just fine.

After coming the rest of the way down the mountain we drove into Manchester and looked around.  Lauren said that she wanted to live there forever.  I have to admit, it's a cute town.

On the way in we'd passed a sign that said "Chocolatorium" and thought it sounded wonderful.  So on the way out of town we decided we'd try to find it.  And after driving all over on winding roads and thinking that we'd somehow missed the turnoff we managed to find it.  What a disappointment!  It looked a little scary and we decided we weren't that desperate for chocolate.  We'd also seen the "Chocolate Barn" on the way into town on 7A and thought we'd just go there instead.  But by the time we got there it was closed.  Bummer! So we stopped at an ice cream stand on the way home instead.