Even the Beaver Lodge goes home for Christmas.

Happy Christmas to you all from us and the Clydesdales and Dalmatian at Budweiser. 🎄🎁🎄

...Oh, and the Leaf Cutter Ants at the St. Louis Zoo too.

When we woke up this morning in Wyoming there was a sense of relief that it had not snowed all night. We trusted that once we got on Rt 80 everything was going to be OK…

Unfortunately Wyoming is known for its black ice and treacherous conditions. We had to park at a rest area for several hours while trying to decide what to do while we waited for this wreck to be cleared. After this one we saw two other tractor trailers that had crashed at some point in the last 24 hours. I have to say after the craziness from last night I really wish that I had some blinders so I didn't have to look at the road.

One thing I do have to say for Wyoming is that they have an amazing website that informs you of conditions on Rt. 80. They are very realistic, and every time we checked the website the conditions at our present and future locations matched exactly. In this section of road it was zoned as yellow because of the dangerous snow blowing across the road.

Christmas is really ramping up for us and when we got to Laramie they had so many pretty decorations up all over town.

We hit two breweries in town, tried to do a geocache, and then slept just where you see the Beaver Lodge. I'm going to miss being out West and getting to simply sleep wherever we feel like it.

I felt like we had to do something in most of the States that we pass through on the way East. Especially in states like Nebraska that I usually just drive right on through. We looked up National anythings in the area and came up with this one. We didn't know anything about it when we showed up and I can't believe how glad I am that we did.

If you've ever been to Nebraska you might think where the heck is that? I said as much to the Park Ranger that we met. She laughed saying, " Most of the population of our State is in the East and they don't know that we're here either." I'm just having all of my allusions shattered about the middle of the United States being perfectly flat. First we found the mountains in Oklahoma and now the mountains here. These bluffs actually have a ridiculous amount of history wrapped up around them. The Oregon, California, Mormon and Pony Express trails all went through this pass.

As we stood at the top and looked out at the Valley, we tried to imagine 70,000 people passing through this area in a month and a half each year. I have to say that Nebraska rivaled Penn State for the population increase, even on football weekends.

The rock here is also different from what we have seen before. It is extremely soft and sandy. Were it not for the tough cap rock, I swear this landmark would have disappeared into the plains.

As you look out from the top you might wonder why all of the pioneers diverted themselves through this pass. What you can barely see starting off to the left is that there is an enormous badlands area. This area consisted of ravines, washes and canyons that would have been nigh on impossible for wagons to pass through. In fact this wasn't always the favorite pass. There is another one that is 8 miles to the South, but after this one was improved it cut off an entire day for the pioneers. Can you imagine only doing 8 miles a day going from St. Louis to the West Coast?

At first this picture may look like nothing at all, but I want you to look at the rutting that is just in front of the cliff face. They are wagon train ruts which were formed from 1843 until 1869. It is incredible that they have lasted so long.

Most families who went West traveled in a wagon like this. It is a farm wagon 4ft by 10ft. Contrary to popular belief and most movies, people did not ride in the wagons. This space was way too valuable for all of their worldly possessions and the sick. Once all the math was done out, the statistics say that only 1 in 10 of the 500,000 made the journey alive. They succumbed to cholera, being struck by wagons, accidental gun discharge as people cleaned or played with weapons and of course...

Sorry couldn't resist...

If you were very lucky and very wealthy you might have been able to afford a Conestoga wagon. Here is Mike leading the team of oxen. More often than not these were actually commercial wagons.

Next we found ourselves in Kansas at the Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge. This place is an amazing sanctuary for migratory and non-migratory birds. While here we saw lots of upland game, a wide variety of raptors, water foul galore, and songbirds, including Mike's new favorite species the Dickcissel, which overthrew his previous favorite the Yellow-Rumped Warbler from Canada.

We also stopped by the graveyard to do a bit of geocaching. It's nice that almost everywhere you go you can pick up a geocache.

Sometimes driving the back roads really has its benefits. This time we ran across a weird roadside attraction we never would have seen otherwise.

One of the many benefits to traveling all the way home is that Mike got to fulfill his dream of having a beer in every State of the United States over 14 months... minus Hawaii which shouldn't even be a State, it should be an independent Republic but who's counting. At this brewery we met a woman who had spent her entire life in Topeka. During our conversation I asked her if there were any odd sights in Topeka that we shouldn't miss...

Well I have to say she hit the nail on the head. I had no idea that this hate group was located in Topeka.

I feel terribly sorry for the normal people in this neighborhood because it's really turned into a bit of an extreme battle. Those who believe in equality...

And those who don't. I was not terribly familiar with this group before we came to see this location. I think one Google contributor really did a nice job in explaining what one can take away from this experience.

God does not hate you. If you're a member of the LGBT community, or if you aren't a christian...God still loves you the same! Here are some verses that prove it. ~Romans 5: 8: But, God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we are still sinners, Christ died for us. ~Isaiah 43:2: When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. ~Hebrews 13:8: Yesterday He loved you, Today he loved you, Tomorrow he will love you, Nothing will change. ~Psalm 46:1: God is our refuge & and strength a very present help in trouble. You see! God does love you! Don't let anyone let you believe that he doesn't. I'm not telling you to become a Christian, i'm just telling you to avoid these lies. If God doesn't love us then why would he create us?

~ Fearsome Taco

It feels like we're just screaming across the Midwest. Mike wanted to stop at Boulevard Brewing Company. He said it's one of the most well known in the Midwest.

I shrugged my shoulders and said whatever you want. I'm glad that I did because we ran into their Christmas party!

They had bingo, a kitchen with good appetizers and the best holiday cider I've ever had. The best part is that the bingo was free. I've never played bingo so this was a fun first.

This is not a park that I ever expected to visit specifically. I have driven by and seen it from the highway but never took the time to get off. Unfortunately it's under a lot of construction right now and so there's no visitors' museum or video. You can still go up into the arch if you want, but we opted not to.

You can see the very obvious evidence of construction going on everywhere you look both inside and outside the arch. But nonetheless we visited and there are some fascinating facts about this structure.

It is properly called the Gateway Arch, and is a 192 m tall stainless steel monument built in the Structural Expressionism architectural style. The arch was completed on October 28, 1965. It is built in the form of a weighted catenary arch and is the world's tallest arch. It is also the tallest man-made monument. The arch was built to commemorate Western expansion in the United States. It's interesting that we have now been to so many places that were on people's route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It was officially dedicated in 1968 to "the American people".

This is a beautiful mural that shows the building and dedication of the arch. On the right hand side it also shows how the arch stacks up against other famous monuments.

For the last few hundred miles Mike had been going on and on about how he wanted to see the Budweiser brewery all lit up. When we got there we were a bit confused....there was a very long line of people wrapped around the side of the building so we simply got in line and thought we'll figure it out when we get up there.

We eventually figured out that if you're over 21 this line is to get a bracelet that gives you 5 free beer samples while you look at the holiday lights. Mike was as surprised as I was because he had no idea how incredibly Budweiser does up their brewery.

This is us standing in front of the entrance to go into the actual brewery itself.

What we also didn't know is that it's not just the buildings that are lit up but that they decorate the entire facility.

Anheuser-Busch has an incredible number of breweries under its umbrella company. I had never had a Budweiser before we came to see the lights, so Mike got in line to get us some. Interestingly he didn't come back with Bud or Bud Light but with a vanilla Porter and something ridiculously hoppy…

Next we went outside it to take a walk down the historic Pestalozzi Street which is the main road in the historic Anheuser-Busch Brewery.

We opted not to see the Clydesdales because the line was ridiculously long, but they are always in residence at this location.

The buildings are not just edged in lights but they created an entire light tunnel very reminiscent of old city Las Vegas.

Being from Philadelphia we both found this sign extremely amusing. I have to say this might have been one of my hardest won photos! People have absolutely no care for anyone in the world that's not them. They let their kids run, jump, play and beat on this sculpture without any concern for the fact that other people are trying to take photographs. Finally I simply had to step in and say "Hey can we have it clear for 3 seconds so that people can get their photograph and leave?" Sometimes I think that Mike wants to bury his head in the sand, but I did get my photo.

This photograph was insane! It makes it look as though Mike and I were practically the only people here, which could not be farther from the truth. You can see the historic clock tower, as well as the Anheuser-Busch "A" and Eagle.

This shot gives you a better idea about how crowded it was and shows you the portion of the factory where most of the bottling lines are located.

After having such an incredible time seeing the lights, Mike said that he would really like to tour the entire facility during the day. So I said, "Let's get tickets. What kind of tour do you want to go on? " In the end we settled on the Beermaster Tour. It is their longest and most in-depth tour.

The website describes it this way, "The tour provides a unique behind-the-scenes look at the brewing of Budweiser. On the St. Louis Beermaster Tour you will visit the Budweiser Clydesdale Paddock and Stables, the historic Brew House, Lager Cellar, Packaging Facility, and Finishing Cellar, including a sample directly from a Finishing Tank. This experience lasts approximately two hours." But when we went to sign up only the afternoon session was available. We really didn't want to stay that long because we were on our way home, but we thought what the heck we may only ever be here once.

Did you know that there are still free zoos left in the United States? I certainly didn't and more than that I didn't know that there was one in Saint Louis. It was actually voted best free attraction in the United States last year and I hope that you'll be able to see why.

The zoo is absolutely enormous! And as you walk through you see lots of plaques from the benefactors who keep this zoo running. If you know anything about Mike and me, you know that insects are one of our favorite things in the world. So our first stop was the insectarium. Before we knew it we spent more than an hour inside ,but it was well worth it.

They had an incredible collection of creepy-crawlies and they were all in cages that made them extremely easy to view. They even have a butterfly house for free! We got to walk through and met a wonderful autistic volunteer who helped us to see some butterflies that we missed.

After the insectarium I wanted to see the pachyderms next. They are one of my favorite class of animal and this zoo has a beautiful enclosure for them to live in.

I was just enthralled watching this guy drink!

In the same area we got to watch the train that circles the park go by. It was adorable and the conductor even gave us a wave.

Next we were treated to another amazing pachyderm experience. The Black Rhinoceros in the St. Louis zoo are not on any kind of a publicized viewing schedule, so seeing them is just pure luck. The baby is Moyo, which is Swahili for heart, and is the second offspring for mother Kati Rain and father Ajabu.

At the end of 2015, conservationists' best estimates were that around 30,000 rhinos (all five species) survive in the wild. Large-scale poaching of the now Critically Endangered black rhino resulted in a dramatic 96% decline from about 70,000 individuals in 1970's to just 2,410 in 1995. The African black rhino numbers have risen to a current population of about 5,042 individuals. Perhaps someday we'll be lucky enough to see them in the wild in Africa.

The Saint Louis Zoo is a very old US zoo, being opened to the public in 1904, although it's not as old as the zoo closest to us. The Philadelphia Zoo was actually the very first one, opened to the public in the United States July 1, 1874. But nonetheless there are beautiful architectural buildings all over the Saint Louis zoo. This was one of particular interest because it used to be the elephant house, now it's the bird house, and of course the elephants are now in the large outdoor enclosure you saw above.

I've shown you just a tiny fraction of the species that we looked at in this 90-acre park. If you could see every species that's on display you would look at more than 17,000 in one visit. Some of the stuff that we didn't put up was the bird house, the primate house, and the outdoor enclosures for large animals such as the giraffe and kangaroos.

There are lots more animal videos over at our Youtube channel... Just click here.

I'll leave you with this photograph of Mike looking at the beautiful polar bear. We had an amazing time at the zoo but ended too soon because we had to scamper over for our Budweiser tour.

Mike might have wanted to come to the Budweiser tour to see the facility, learn about their particular production methods, and of course taste the beer... but I came for the Clydesdales!

You wouldn't think it was possible for such a large animal to be so snugly. The handlers are amazing and this beautiful guy just snuggled right in for a photo.

We all met for the tour right next to the Budweiser Christmas tree. You can't see it but they have the most amazing garlands shaped like hops.

This building used to be the schoolhouse which the children of the area attended. I guess at some point they thought "Is letting children attend school across from a brewery the best idea?" I say it is but I'm probably the minority. Now it's one of Anheuser-Busch's beautiful museum properties which houses incredible artifacts of both beer and national interest. In the museum there are the following things....

An original time clock that employees used to “punch-in” from roughly the 1910s to the 1980s.
A beautiful reverse painting on a glass sign featuring a Prohibition era-product, “Grape Bouquet”.
A neon–lit registered trademark symbol that was recently removed from the top of the Bevo bottling plant.

It's amazing to be at a brewery that has so much history.

This picture should ring a bell from earlier in the blog because I had taken a photo here at night with all the lights. It's such an iconic view of the brewery that I thought maybe one more shot in the day time was advisable.

This is a photograph of the arena that holds the Clydesdale hitches. They were formerly introduced on April 7, 1933, to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition. August A. Busch Jr. wanted to commemorate the special day, and the hitch thundered down Pestalozzi Street carrying the first case of post-Prohibition beer from the St. Louis brewery.

We got lucky because not only were the resident Clydesdales here, the entire Saint Louis team was as well! This is because of the Budweiser Holiday Lights Celebration. The Saint Louis brewery is the only one that has Clydesdales in residence all the time. One of the reasons I was so excited to see them is because we missed them by a couple of days at the Fort Collins plant in Colorado.

You may wonder what qualifies one horse over another to be on the Budweiser team. So here is an explanation of the qualities that a Budweiser Clydesdale must possess:

They must:

Stand 72 inches, or 6 feet, at the shoulder
Weigh between 1,800 and 2,300 pounds
Be bay in color
Have four white stocking feet
Have a blaze of white on the face
Have a black mane and tail.

Originally the Clydesdales were transported by train, and then, after 1940, by truck. They must have very comfortable travel accommodations because they're on the road about 10 months a year. They often pull one of these circa 1900's Studebaker wagons too.

Many of the Clydesdales owned by Anheuser-Busch are raised and reside at Grant's Farm, which is near St. Louis. Anheuser-Busch owns a total of about 250 Clydesdales, which is one of the largest herds of Clydesdale horses in the world. Here is just one of those horses being groomed. I think that this really gives you a perspective on how large these animals are.

Here is a view of the inside of the curved brick building you saw before. The hitch of Clydesdales are housed in this historic brick and stained-glass stable that was built in 1885.

On the brewmaster tour you get to see some artifacts that are not available on the free tours. This is a horseshoe that is worn by one of the Clydesdales! Not exactly like the ones for normal horses, are they? You can get a better look at the team's companion, a Dalmation. A Dalmatian travels with each hitch, a Budweiser tradition since the 1950s. Historically, the role of the dogs was to guard the wagon and protect the team while the driver went inside buildings to make deliveries. Luckily that doesn't seem to be a problem for these pampered pooches.

The names that are above each of the horses are not the name of the horse that is currently located in the stall. Budweiser decided to keep the name of the horses from the first Budweiser hitch above each stall. I guess it's just one way to add more history and prestige to an already amazing hitch of horses.

Here is a picture of the gigantic holding tanks that house the Budweiser as it rests and waits for final processing.

This is what Budweiser looks like before it's gone through that final processing. If you notice, it's cloudy and looks more like a wheat beer than a Pilsner. This is because it has not yet been clarified and watered down to its traditional a.b.v. content. Both MIke and I agree that maybe Budweiser should put this product out as an alternative. We both liked it better.

I want to give you an idea about how beautiful every single one of the buildings on this property is. I know it may seem odd to have a brewery as a historic landmark but I think that the wrought iron railing, staircases, and chandelier from the World's Fair really bring that into perspective. If I had to compare it to one other place that I've seen before, it would be the inside tour of the Hoover Dam.

Please allow me to introduce you to Reynard the fox. This little guy has an amazing and long history at Budweiser. The reason why he, and not a traditional gargoyle, was chosen to adorn the brewing and bottling building is quite fascinating. Remember, to call yourself one of the oldest breweries in America means that you had to have survived prohibition without producing alcohol. Anheuser-Busch had many ways to try to stay solvent; one of them was a product called Bevo. It falls into a class of non-alcoholic prohibition-era drinks known as cereal or near beers. Bevo was by far the most popular and in the early 1920s, more than five million cases of Bevo were sold annually. Reynard the Fox is based on an 11th century fable in which he is the character who always knows the best places to eat and drink. Hence he would hang out at Budweiser's bottling facility.

Here is a shot of the bottling line. By the way, we had an interesting experience; something went wrong on the lines and we actually got to see it running, stop, and run again.

One of the other perks of the tour is that you get to pull one glass of Budweiser out of the tanks that are ready for bottling that day. They bill it as the freshest Budweiser available. All I can say is that it's a lot of fun to be able to stand next to a production operation of this magnitude.

CHEERS!

At this point we really needed to get on the road again as we wanted to be in Olney, Illinois tonight. Mike had the feeling that the town might dress itself up for Christmas too… I can't imagine why he had that intuition but he was right.

When we arrived in Olney the lights were astounding! It was a over a mile drive through their central town park which was covered in lights and lit-up cut-outs. They also had the longest choreographed light-to-music display that Mike and I have ever seen. Over 30 minutes of Christmas songs with ornate light movement. We went to bed nearby and crossed our fingers that tomorrow we would see what we had come for… the albino squirrels!

This is the very first one that we saw. I took about a 1000 pictures because I wasn't sure if we were going to see any others.

As it turns out one of the locals is very fond of the squirrels and comes to feed them twice a day. He goes and buys second-run nuts at the local pecan factory and brings them for the squirrels. Spoiled squirrels!

You can also see other videos of our albino friends here...

All said and done, we saw about 10 white squirrels which we were told was a lot. The entire town has caught on and there are several white squirrel statues around town. Before leaving we stopped in town so that I could buy a Christmas ornament and some gifts. What we didn't know was that we were going to get some gifts for Caster and GS!

So here is the funny story on their new clothing. Olney Illinois isn't the only place to have white squirrels, but it is the only place to have albino ones. Oddly, the other place of the white squirrels is in Brevard North Carolina, and for some reason a shirt manufacturer for stuffed animals sent them Olney Illinois t-shirts. Not being able to use them, the Brevard visitor center sent them to the Olney visitor center and we got two for free.

After Olney, we were supposed to wind our way up towards Philadelphia but we ran into some issues with the van. Now we know why the Buffalo hunter couldn't jump our vehicle, because the problem was never the battery, it was the starter! We got it started outside of Olney, but I had no trust that it would start again. So instead of heading towards Philadelphia slowly, we headed straight for State College to drop the van off.

We got to surprise everyone at Mike's house but I think Anna was the most excited of all. Unfortunately we only had a day and a half there before we needed to head to my Mom's house for Christmas.

So here's a part of the story that I hadn't brought up yet… Mike's cousin Alison needed to re-home her over 4' long ball python, Sasha. For some reason she didn't put this out on Facebook until the day before Sasha needed to be gone. Lucky for her Mike saw it, I called my coworkers at Methacton who said that they would babysit it until just before Christmas, and it was possible to drop Sasha off. So here she is at her intermediate home before she goes to live with Kristine in Hamburg.

Oh and we wanted to make a belated birthday cake for my Mom. She picked lemon poppy seed cake. I think it went over pretty well!

On Christmas Eve our neighbors, the Osterhoudts, have an open house Christmas party. They suddenly realized that four of their guests had all gone to the University of Pittsburgh so this picture was arranged. The girl in the Snoopy sweater is the younger sister of one of my two best friends. It was wonderful to catch up with her at this party.

Then came Christmas Day and our tradition of going to Lisa & Joe Dougherty's house for dinner. This is the other of my two best friends, and Lisa's family has always been so lovely as to include us on Christmas night.

The deal is that we do Christmas at my Mom's house, and Boxing Day at Mike's parents' house. Here we are making a coconut cream pie for Mike's mother's birthday. We just made a lot of confections! Not something you can really do in the Van.

This is First Night in State College. It's not a tradition that I was familiar with but I gather the fact that other towns have them too. State College just does it up in style! It starts around noon when men come in and carve the ice sculptures that you can see us sitting on.

It's not just one or two sculptures; there are a ridiculous number all over town and in the park.

In this Video you can see Mike taking advantage of one of the more interesting ice sculptures… an ice slide!

Also there's a lot of places where you can make your New Year's resolutions and hang them up. You can see Mike doing his.

One of the other things about First Night is that if you buy a button for $10 you can attend a ridiculous number of concerts. We are seeing Kim Cook, a professor at Penn State University and a consummate cellist .

She has so many online accolades... "a superb American cellist" (Die Rheinpfalz, Frankfurt), "truly glorious tone" (Musical Opinion, London), "ravishing colors and textures" (New York Concert Review, Carnegie Hall), and "keen awareness of line and style" (The Strad)... but I think if you just listen to this video you can make up your own mind. You can also hear her play Auld Lang Syne here.

After the concert we went to get some kettle corn and Mike couldn't help himself, posing by one last ice sculpture.

On January 3rd Joe was nice enough to take me out squirrel hunting. I wasn't lucky enough to get one but he got two! Out of the tree and into the stock pot I say.

Most of you know that one of the main reasons that we came home was because we needed to fix the Beaver Lodge. I know it seems crazy but it was much cheaper to drive all the way here, and then all the way back rather than have someone else do the work. This is what happens when you take your van on ridiculous dirt roads.

I am not going to do a very good job of explaining to you everything that we did. But here is a look at John's garage setup. Now you know why we were so successful!

But I'm kind of hoping that adding in a few photographs of Mike doing his thing,. along with a list of what he did accomplish, will help you know how much work went into getting us back on the road.

Cheryl's birthday comes at a tough time of year. She's a right-after-Christmas baby! So this year she picked to go to the Tavern for her birthday. I had never been there to eat but it is one of the classic restaurants in State College. We had a very nice evening.

Here is me performing one of my more significant and independent tasks. I needed to wash all of the grease out of these bearings and then pack it back in. I can't explain to you that this is definitely the first time anyone has ever asked me to do that. One of the best parts about bringing the Van home to be fixed is that now I have a much better understanding of all of its parts. By the time we got to the end of doing everything, here is a list of the most significant things that we accomplished:

This video is just one on the things that Mike and John worked on together. Here is a list of all the stuff that Mike did.

front and rear brakes
rear shocks
steering gear
inner and outer tie rods and connecting steering bars
replaced starter
blower motor and resistors
replace and rewire all lights
installed 12v power outlets and usb outlet
insulated van and pipes
wiper motor electrical issue fixed
air bag clock spring replaced
replacement of head unit and mounting bracket

Needless to say Mike could use a vacation from coming home! You can see more videos of his work here...

One of the other fun things that we've done since being home is that we went up to visit Jess and Evan. This is the last part of Mike's friend group from college that I had not met. They live in Mt. Lebanon outside of Pittsburgh. Of course the entire group wanted to go to one of the local breweries. This is Hitchhikers and they make a very good product.

After hanging out, Mike and I went to tour a bit more of the city and meet up with one of my old college friends, Dan. We started off by taking a walk on the promenade on Mount Washington. I hope you can see why Pittsburgh has one of the most photographed skylines in the world.

I insisted that we ride the Mount Washington incline to Station Square. It gives one a beautiful view of the Monongahela River, the football stadium and the city behind the river. Unfortunately while we were taking this ride the Steelers were losing their bid to go to the Super Bowl. We then went down to Piper's Pub on the South Side and finished out watching them lose the game.

Then I took him to see the Cathedral of Learning. It stands 163 m tall and has 42 floors. It is also the tallest educational building in the Western hemisphere. The Cathedral of Learning was commissioned in 1921 and the first classes were held in the building in 1931. It was finished and dedicated in June of 1937.

Here is one more shot of the building in the evening. I think its Late Gothic Revival architecture looks pretty with the lights on. Then we headed across the city to see the two places where I had lived and then went to Shadyside for dinner at Soba. It was very nice to catch up with Dan and his girlfriend as I haven't seen them in quite a long time.

After getting back from Pittsburgh, Mike stayed more days than we had planned because we wanted to take a look at a couple of houses in the area. After house shopping Mike and I swung through the green dump (aka Composting Center) in Phoenixville to pick up all of this amazing free wood. I know that using a chainsaw to cut it up is not exactly the correct way, but it's what we had. Not enough wood to justify getting a splitter, mostly because Mike is headed home today.

My Mom and I saw Morning's at Seven by Paul Osborn at People's Light and Theater. The plot focuses on four aging sisters, their crazy husbands, and one very inept son living in a small Midwestern town in 1938. The play uses this cast of characters to shed light on the ramifications within the family when two of them begin to question their lives and decide to make some changes before it’s too late. Almost the entire cast was over 60 and the acting was marvelous.

Have you ever played Bridge? I'm not sure that I'd recommend it just anywhere because I have heard horror stories about starting out and learning as an adult in other places. I have to say that if you live in Phoenixville or anywhere near it, you should learn to play Bridge at the YMCA. These people are so welcoming and friendly and, even though they have years (or decades) of experience behind them, they want you to learn to play too. Let me tell you about my story. I went to watch my Mom play with her friends, and one day they needed a player and they said "You've seen enough hands, I think you can make it work". I guess I did, and I'm a (novice) Bridge player now!

Just be warned, if you choose to play at the YMCA they do encourage snacks to be brought. I'm not the greatest baker but this was my contribution.

My good friends Angie and Sandon invited me to have dinner before I left again. I cannot say enough thank you's to Angie for making her Enchiladas. They're always wonderful. Sandon and Joey got Angie this amazing frog for Christmas. It's Australian, which makes it even better. I even got to hear this Australian White's Frog croak before I left.

This is the Philly Pops playing their Lenny's Revolution program. We're referring to Leonard Bernstein of course.

This was the best pre-game show ever! We were lucky enough to go and see the Philly Pops, in which three of our good friends sing in the choir. We got such amazing box seat tickets because a lot of people turned them in because they wanted to watch the Super Bowl. More fool them because we got home in time for the kick-off!

Today, February 4th, is not going to be the best known day in the world but it is the day that the Eagles won their very first Super Bowl! This was our spread. I think it pales in comparison to a Super Bowl ring.

Fly Eagles Fly, you have victory! I just wish my Dad had been able to see them win for the first time ev.

The day after the big game Mike thought that he might take a few minutes and enjoy the snow. So he headed out on his snowmobile for the first time in years. Global climate change has not been kind to cold weather sports.