August 12, 2022

We went to a mini-golf course today.
 

August 11, 2022

We visited Lanterman's Mill in Youngstown.  It's a restored grist mill.  The water wheel is on the lowest level, inside the building, and was very interesting to watch.
 

August 15, 2021

I was looking for a day trip to go on during our 'vacation'.  I stumbled across this place in Pittsburgh- Carrie Blast Furnaces.  These were part of a plant for making steel.  Most of the plant is gone, but this bit remains and they give tours.  It was very interesting and they are working on restoring what they can.  We learned a lot and enjoyed the tour.
 

August 9, 2019

We went to the Cleveland Zoo.  They're having a special show now with 'paper' lanterns.  There are a lot of these light-up things all over the zoo (they're made from material rather than paper).  We weren't there at night, but saw them during the day.  My favorite was this dragon.

Aigist 11, 2018

We headed home today.

August 10, 2018

August 8, 2018

We stopped at Luray Caverns and saw the formations.

August 7, 2018

We saw the white house today.

August 6, 2018

We walked around quite a bit today to see the monuments.

August 5, 2018

August 4, 2018

We went on vacation this week to Washington DC.  Our campground was in the woods of a farm.

June 10, 2018

This was the lake in the campground.  It was a little cool, but we still had fun swimming.

June 9, 2018

We made pie iron pizzas for supper, after we went swimming in the lake.

June 8, 2018

We went on a weekend trip to a campground not too far away. 

August 22, 2017

Traffic on the way back home was just as bad as it was on the way south.  There were about 4 times as many cars heading north, away from the eclipse, as there were heading south.  We continued to see license plates from several states and Canada.

August 21, 2017

I am going to break my one picture a day rule today.  These are some of my photos from the eclipse.  We did not drive down to totality.  We heard of the the expected traffic and crowds, worried about finding a place to park, and the thought of standing on an asphalt lot in 90+ degree heat and high humidity for 5 hours or so did not appeal to us.  We remained at the camper, relaxed, and enjoyed a quiet family experience in a deserted campground.

12:22 PM  I don't know if it will show up, but there are several sunspots visible.

12:55  Our deserted campground.  There may have been one other family still there, on another level.  The previous night, the place was booked solid.

1:21  A big dark cloud blocked the sun for a few minutes, which turned out quite interesting, as we could see the sun without the dark protective glasses.

1:23  The decrease in light was so gradual, our eyes adjusted.  My camera did not.  This picture has the same settings as the one above showing the campground, but came out a lot darker.  I could see a difference in light, but didn't know how drastic it was until my camera wanted to use flash in what I perceived as broad daylight.

1:26  My son turned on the awning lights, which glowed much more than they should have in the middle of the day.  He was also excited to note the lights for the interstate came on as well.

1:29  This is about as small as the sun got for us, so I guess this is approximately 1% of the sun's light.  The sky was not dark, the filter makes it appear black.  It was still very blue, as the next photos of us show.

1:30  I took the filter off for a few photos at the peak.

1:30  This one is also without a filter, but with different settings on the camera.

1:32  Here is the family near the peak of the eclipse.  This approximates how much light we had.  My eyes didn't see the shadows that dark, however, but it was dark enough to need a flash.

1:35  The moon's shadow is now on the other side of the sun.

1:37  The family photo.While it appears fairly bright out, it is dark enough for the awning lights to glow.

August 20, 2017

We drove around to do some sightseeing in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  One of our stops was a historic train station with an engine and several cars to explore.  This is a mail car, where they sorted mail while on the move.

August 19, 2017

We drove southwest to get closer to the solar eclipse.  Our campground is about an hour away from totality, with 99% coverage of the sun.  The roads were busy, as a lot of other people have the same idea.  We heard one man on the radio say it's the biggest migration of people for a natural event.  It was interesting to see how much more traffic was heading south compared to northbound.  The campground was full.

June 7, 2017

We made it to Monticello today (the building on the back of the nickel).

June 6, 2017

We went to the top of a mountain on Cass Scenic Railroad.