I admit that I was a little bit spoiled by living in Pennsylvania my entire life. I take for granted the availability of inexpensive, non-commerical, family-friendly places to visit where I can picnic, look at some water, spend time in a clean, quiet forest, and even learn a little bit about history. I have been able to do all of these things in the many parks that surround the places where I have lived. I was able to do all of these things during the three summers that I vacationed in Northern Michigan as well.

Back in 1994 when I was still in high school, my hometown of Berlin, PA decided to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Whiskey Rebellion. Plans were made for a big festival. The event was to include, among other things, an essay contest for the school kids, a race, and of course a parade. I was in the Berlin Brothersvalley High School Marching Band at that time, so I would march in it. This was to be a very big deal.

Bedford County, PA still looks pretty much the way I see it in old pictures and in my mind. At Shawnee State Park, the little swing still sits in its secluded picnic area at the top of the hill overlooking Shawnee's lake and beach. I have a 30-year-old picture of that same swing set, with me and my sister and my dad posing in front.

Jonathan's Facebook entry about lighthouses today reminded me of this website that I found on Lighthouses of Australia Project.
True to its title, it contains some decent photos of Australian lighthouses. Scroll down the site a bit, and you will find "Corrugated Lighthouses," a memoir by a Lighthouse Keeper's wife. Part 4 of this piece provides an engaging description of the aftermath of a shipwreck.

My sisters and I spent entire summers when we were kids playing with an Apple PC. The computer was from my dad's classroom (he is a retired teacher), and in the summers he was permitted to bring it home. We spent hours generating Print Shop banners on the loud, slow dot matrix printer. We also were enchanted with putting together wagon teams on The Oregon Trail.

Two weekends ago, Jonathan and I watched our friends John and Mari pledge their faithfulness to each other in a stucco-covered adobe church in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Congratulations, Mari and John! It was a beautiful Orthodox Christian wedding. The church itself is Antiochian Orthodox, one chain in the lush emblazoned tapestry of culture and faith that is Santa Fe.