"TRAVELLIN"

Did some travelling over the weekend to Baltimore and Harrisburg.

Phyl's youngest son, Tad, who is on the Pensky management team, invited us to his 3rd floor apartment in Owing Mills. Great choice but it's been a long time since these old legs have climbed two flights of 17 stairs each.

In preparation for the 2 1-2 month trip to Pittsburgh from "the flatlands" of Florida ,we both went on diets. We remembered the hills as well as all the steps in the 3 floor home we had in Harrisburg.

That was also a great choice.

Our 2 1/2 days in Baltimore were great and extremely relaxing. Tad's not only a great host but fun to be around. He's been down to our home in Florida several times and we definitely wanted to share and become familiar with his digs.

His decor is contemporary in both his choice of paintings and furnishings. His selection of funky jazz pictures blew me away.

The apartment reminded me much of one that I had in Pgh out in the South Park/Library section. Both had balconies with relaxing and pleasant views.

Phyl and Tad had fun shopping, picking out exotic spices, and then cooking together. Old Ish here specialized in consuming the delicious results.

Just a lot of talking and watching TV as Baltimore had their inagural Gran Prix that weekend with a few hundred thousand people jamming up the Riverfront. We took in the races on TV and were cheering for the eventual winner of the second race won by Will Power, driving a Penske car.

When Tad's in town he's kind of a prisoner of old fart TV so we reversed roles and watched his ecletic style. We learned a lot and even Bella stood still at our feet or up on the couch.

I vowed never to watch an auto race which I likened to watching your old Christmas train endlessly circle the Plasticville houses on the train platform - but, even that was fun (for a while).

We have a very adaptive dog who loved all the new smells Maryland had to offer outdoors in the beautiful apartment complex. She walked me like a dog.

I got doggy toilet duty all weekend to save Phyl from having to climb and reclimb all the stairs. Some health issues precluded that from happening so I got a lot of "Bella time"..

Late Monday morning we headed over to route 83 for about an hour or so drive up to Harrisburg, Phyl's home town.

We stayed overnight and had a good time visiting a couple of familiar restaurants, renewing some old friendships at the restaurants for a short time before crashing.

We also made sure we stopped at Al's in Mechanicsburg for three of his famous cheeseburger subs which we devoured when we returned to Pittsburgh.

The ride back on the turnpike was a real challenge as the tropical storm made the three hour trip feel like we were driving on ice.

Based on the weather channel reports of subsequent flooding in Harrisburg, our timing could not have been better. Our motel was right across from the Susquehanna river and the water was already higher than we could remember for a long time.

A few more trips are in store before we head back to Florida at the end of the month. The nice part of both of us being retired is we can decide and then change our mind about where and when.

Some plans do include dinner with the kids on Saturday, a Pirates game with friends next week, the Steeler/Baltimore game on TV Sunday and a golf outing with oldest son Bruce around the middle of the month.

Life is good for these aging retirees!