Bill’s Blog

Annette and Jim insisted that we try Krumpe’s Do-nuts.  The shop itself is in a small house in a dark alley.  They’re only open 7 PM – 2 AM.  And they are delicious.  We had them one night and had to go back the next night for more!

That was certainly entertaining, but not the strangest thing we saw on our trip.  The town of Williamsport takes the cake. It was a lovely little town that we visited to see the civil war era bridge they have there.  While driving through the town, we noticed that many of the houses had downspouts that drained into the street (like the one below).

And speaking of bridges

We saw many civil war era bridges on our trip.  They’re interesting to look at.  It’s also interesting to see them still standing and still being used.

9200 Square feet!  That’s the size of our first President’s house.  Very cool.  It was fascinating to see what he’d done with the place.  The site is beautiful.  The house is beautiful.  The river is beautiful.  I enjoyed our little trip into history very much.  See all the pics here.

The 12-hour battle began at dawn, Sapetmber 17.  The battle ended about 6 pm.  Of nearly 100,000 soldiers engaged in battle, about 23,000 were killed, wounded, or missing.  It was the bloodiest one-day battle of the American Civil War.

Visiting Antietam was different than I expected.  The fields was empty, quiet.  While the battle came alive at Gettysburg, Antietam felt subdued.  Someone else described their visit to Antietam as emotional.  It was amazing to see the place where so many people fought and died.

The pictures don’t do the place justice, but they are here anyway.

This trip was our first visit to Gettysburg.  It was less than two hours away from where we were staying so we loaded everyone up and headed out.  One of the best recommendations we got was to hire a tour guide.  He literally drove the car around for us as he talked.  In the two hours he was with us, he gave us a brief history (more of a play by play) of the battle at Gettysburg.  What made it so interesting was that he drove us around in a way where he could stop and say here – this is where such and such happened.

After the tour we also took a little trek to Cemetery Hill where Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address.  It was sobering.  There was a monument, and also many headstones from the Civil War and other later wars.

After learning all of the history I was excited to find a bookstore in the museum.  They must have every book ever written about the Civil War.  The whole experience gave me a renewed respect for the people that fought for what they believed in.

See all of the pics here.

In going through my coins the other day, I ran across one I don’t recognize.  After visiting a country, I often leave with a small amount of change.  I save it for the next time I go back there.

I don’t recognize this coin.  A quick search of the various coins of the world didn’t turn up anything.  I’m hoping that someone out there will be able to tell me what country this coin is from?

This past weekend we all piled into the car minivan and went to spend some time with the relatives.  It was hot out, so the kids played in the water.  We all had a good time visiting and catching up.  See all the pics here.

Nicole came for a visit.  She had always wanted to see Astoria.  After watching Goonies and Kindergarden Cop, she just had to see it.

All of the images are here.

Karen’s been on me for a while about posting all of our pictures.  For some reason, things have been busy lately.  So tonight I finally uploaded a boatload of pictures.

• Getting Ready for Christmas – with Christmas decorations and baking Holiday treats
• Thanksgiving – Our Thanksgiving Trip
  
• Fall Leaves – More pictures from the Fall Leaves photo shoot
• Family Pics – Many many photos of various people
• JimB Portraits – Some of the best pics from Jim’s latest photo shoot
• Riley & Bailey’s Birthday -  A few friends
• The Hippo – A few more shots of the Hippo at the zoo
  
• The Girls

Enjoy!

I had the opportunity to go down to Mexico last week for work.  I managed to squeeze in some time to visit the pyramids at Teotihuacan, and to take a quick walking tour of Guadalajara.  There were some impressive sights!

I learned quite a bit about the history of Mexico, and a bit about the Spanish as well.  One of the most impressive things I saw was the 3rd largest pyramid in the world.  It is called the Pyramid of the Sun.

Mexico City is around 7300 feet in altitude.  Translation: I was very tired after climbing to the top of this pyramid!

In Guadalajara, we walked around Plaza Tapatio.  My favorite picture from the trip was taken there.

We went camping this past weekend.  Of the many things to do, fishing from a canoe was Emily’s favorite.  She was determined that she wouldn’t tip it over (and she didn’t).  She alernated between fishing and rowing – an impressive feat.

The camping trip was with 250 other people from our church.  The most interesting pictures of everyone else are here.