Christmas 2009

A Christmas tree and Maggie...

Christmas Sunday at Trinity United Methodist Church

Pittsburgh Addendum

One of the reasons were were in Pittsburgh last weekend was to celebrate an early Christmas with Jesse and Aurora. This is one of Jesse's gifts from CL - an orange corduroy apron. (See his blog if you don't know its significance.)

Handmade Arcade

This morning we got up bright and early and faced the cold

to visit Handmade Arcade,

an armory full of artists and crafters (and about a million shoppers).

A pair of churches we walked by.

Pittsburgh

On Thursday we drove to Pittsburgh. It was a relatively uneventful trip; we made it in 7 3/4 hours. The only problem was the road salt on a section of US22 east of Piittsburgh; there were snow flurries, and the road crews dumped more salt than the total snowfall.

Yesterday we went to the Strip District, as is usual for our Pittsburgh visits. The following are just a sample of the variety of stores there.
(Chinese food)

(spices)

(Steelers gear)

(cheese)

(dried fish)

(bulk olive oil)

(mini donuts)

(coffee)

Then back at Jesse and Aurora's, they had a Greenfield Ave. Christmas Parade watching party.

Home

We got back Wednesday afternoon, after a 7 hour 15 minute trip from Bumpass, VA to Springfield. Total distance travelled: 3275 miles; average MPG: 34.13.

On Thursday it was unseasonably warm, which made installing Mr. Toad's early Christmas present very easy. I removed the 245/45R17 summer runflats and replaced them with 195/55/R16 Bridgestone Blizzaks (snows) on Sport Edition wheels.

Now we're ready to leave for Pittsburgh on December 10 (Thursday).

Signs

We made a quick return trip -- Ft. Myers to Florence, SC on Monday. Here are a couple of the more common signs alone the highway in FL:

Less common, but equally ignored:

On Tuesday, we stopped by Mac's General Merchandise in Dunn, NC to pick up a ham, some cornmeal, and a bunch of sausage.
We also stopped at Parker's Barbecue in Wilson, NC (picture of it in my 11/24 post) for lunch, and we bought some BBQ to go for supper at John & Bev's and to bring home with us.

Farewell to Fort Myers

This was shot from ground level, directly below M&J's condo. This is typical of the views they get from their lanai.

We spent a week in Ft. Myers, and it was very enjoyable, not just because it wasn't New England in November, but also because of our wonderful hosts. Thank you, Marge & Jack; we're looking forward to seeing you again when it's warm enough for you to migrate north.