OUR FIFTIETH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY Part Three

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The table was set:

 Jan had ordered a vegan gluten-free cake and Trista picked it up.

The steaks went on the grill:

Salmon and baking potatoes went in the oven. Shannon brought a perfect salad. Carole and Mike brought lots of BREADWORKS BREAD. Adam brought his roasted vegetables. Amy brought lots of wine and champagne.

Lookit' that plate piled high with filet mignon, salmon, salad and Breadworks bread:

The TV in the background is playing a slide show of pics from our 50 years together. Jan is wearing the dress she made for Trista and Adam's  wedding.

We managed to carve the cake without bleeding:

And get in a bit of smooching:

Photobomber! 😃

Our Pittsburgh friends snuck this in on us:

What a wonderful thoughtful idea!

Every time we enter our house we will be reminded

of our journey together

{and of our friends in far-off Pittsburgh}

Hamming it up:

It was a joyous and fun occasion! Back home now and Buffy loves her  nice warm doormat:

OUR FIFTIETH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY Part Two

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Thursday afternoon Buffy got to swim with the local ducks:

 

Thursday evening was wonderful!  We were all together for the first time since Dec 26, 2019.

By evening the weather turned decidedly rainy but Friday morning the radar revealed a couple hour break in late morning so we took off to find the church where we were married fifty years before to the day.

It was a Weslyan Methodist church back then. Now it is someone's house.

The rain set back in so we scarpered. By afternoon Shannon, Carole and Mike had arrived and it was time for crafty activities. You see, we had been busy at home embroidering and sewing up 12 place mats;

The idea was that each Guest would sign every placemat and would take one home with them as a remembrance of the occasion.

As well, we brought with us champagne flutes and etching supplies. Jan's sister Jerry crafted stencils with the message "Jan and Lew 50 years 2021" so each of our guests etched that and personal embellishments on a flute, also as a remembrance of the occasion.

 

A small item that had made it's way through time from that day 50 years ago was brought out for this occasion:

OUR FIFTIETH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY Part One

 In order to split up the driving we planned our 50th celebration in Penn's Woods and a suitable house was available at Treasure Lake, Dubois so there we were. Wanting to spend a day first in the Dear Old Woods we trundled off on Monday morning. The electric power situation there was uncertain so we spent the first night part way in order to have lots of time upon arrival to address any problems. There is a COE campground near Tioga, Pa at a convenient distance so we stopped there.

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There was lots of time for a walk!

After setting up in the Woods on Tuesday we needed a curbside order at Walmart for items we had forgotten to bring ........ across the parking lot was Wendy's ........ and Buffy had not partaken since March 2020.

Oh boy!

Yum!

Wednesday morning Adam met us in the Woods and we were off to the lawyer's office in Kittanning.

where we signed the deed over to Adam,

ending that chapter in our lives

and beginning his chapter.

Time for a Woods picnic.

On Thursday we were off to Dubois and the house we had rented there.

We snuck in a celebratory steak

before everyone arrived.

Summer Fun and Travels with Raindrop

 A primary reason we bought Raindrop was to enable [pandemic] safe travel to visit family and friends in Pittsburgh. By dragging our own bathroom, bedroom and kitchen along behind us we need not even enter a building while on the road. On May 20 we left Home and spent our first night RoVing in more than two years:

The next afternoon we set up camp in Shannon's driveway in the South Hills. Kinky Friedman calls visitors "house pests" in his books and it was/is wonderful to visit everyone without being in anyone's hair.

We had Dinner on Carole&Mike's deck and discussed backyard bunnies.

We learned first-hand that the playground at Boyce Park is a wonderful venue for Violet:

{Gramma and Dad looking on}

We helped Andrei and Violet plant a garden:

Then it was off to the Dear Old Woods:

Where we were greeted by David and Marci's Greyhounds:

 

We visited the Monument:

And entertained ourselves with a bit of tilting at windmills:

Then we zoomed back to the Beautiful Berkshires to plant our garden:

On July Fourth we had our first [non-Zoom] in-person church service since the beginning of the pandemic:

Dave and Steve setting up Zoom

for folks uncomfortable/unable to attend.

While Jan was off at Cape Cod Lew and Buffy faced this one day:

Smoke from the massive wildfires in the West and Canada made it difficult to breathe and the Taconic Mts were barely visible.

On August 5 we drove to Hickory Run SP and set up. Trista and Violet met us there and ....... we had S'Mores! Lew and Buffy hung out by the campfire until it burnt out:

Violet returned home with us:

With Degas's Little dancer.

On top of Mt Greylock.

In Gramma's lair with her Great Aunt Jenny's miniatures.

Examining fungus-amungus.

On the 11th we drove Violet home to Pittsburgh. While there we had a picnic supper on Shannon's lovely patio. On the 13th we returned home with Andrei:

With Degas's Little Dancer.

At MASS MOCA. Andrei returned there 

the next day and spent most of the day.

While shucking corn Nate is

pointing out the porch-Robin's nest.

On the 21st Jan and Andrei drove and met Trista at Seneca Falls: