Philly Home and Garden Show and Ambers Birthday

This weekend we went up to the Philly Home and Garden Show at the Expo Center in Oaks.  Had a great time looking at various home improvement and lawn and garden vendors.  Ran into Jeanette's cousin Chrissy there.  The event was highlighted by a lecture by WHYY personality Mike McGrath of "You Bet Your Garden" on growing tomatoes.  It was awesome to hear him speak - super entertaining and informative at the same time.

Mike McGrath of "You Bet Your Garden"

In the evening we met up with friends at the White Dog Cafe for Ambers Birthday.  The food and company were excellent.

Amber and Mike

Amber and Rach

Chris and Somnang 

Bob and Mary

 Timm, Ian and Henna

 Me and Jeanette

Sunday we met up with Wendy and John and had lunch at Woody's in Northeast before heading out on a hike out at Elk Neck State Park to the lighthouse on Turkey Point.

Location : 1252-1298 Appleton Rd, Elkton, MD 21921,

Catskill Ice - Buttermilk Falls

Jeanette had Monday off so I played hooky from work and we did a 1 day assault of Buttermill Falls up in the Catskills.  We drove up Sunday evening and stayed in Tannersville at the Swiss Chalet - as one guest put it "like stepping back in time."  Pretty crazy to be hiking in shortsleeves on Saturday and ice climbing on Monday.  This climb is a real gem - 7 pitches and a real beast of an approach.  Jeanette and I had a great time.

Jeanette descending into Kaaterskill Clove from 23A

 

"I think I liked the warm weather better"

Me at the Creek

Beautiful Kaaterskill Creek

Jeanette after the somewhat hairy snowbridge crossing

Climbers on the 1st Pitch

Jeanette coming up the 1st Pitch

Walking towards the 3rd pitch

Me on the 3rd pitch

3rd pitch again

Jeanette on the steep 4th pitch

Michaux HIking

On Saturday we decided to try to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather (frowny face for ice climbing) and check out a hiking area in south central PA - Michaux State Forrest.  We did 3 mini hikes in the Northern part of the park, Hammond Rocks, Pole Steeple and Sunset Rocks.  Hammond Rocks was right off a road and thus was pretty impacted with graffiti.  Still it was a pretty neat place with lots of rock piles.  Pole Steeple was a 1 mile hike up to the top of a rocky out crop - really neat views and perhaps the possibility of climbing.  Sunset Rock was a neat hike out of Pine Grove Furnace to a nice overlook.  We finished up the day gorging ourselves at Shady maple Smorgasbord in Lancaster.



The girls at Hammond Rocks

John and Wendy in a neat tree on the way to Pole Steeple

Pole Steeple

The gang on the loockout of Pole Steeple

Pole Steeple Overlook

Pine Grove Furnace

My and my lovely lady

John and Whoops at Sunset Rocks

That's all folks

Winter Warm Up

Saturday I took an opportunity to ge out on some ice with Chris, as Jeanette was busy with the science fair.  May be one of the last days of PA ice as the day had temps in the 40s and we're forecasted to hit the 60s almost all next week.  We headed up to Glen Onoko falls in the Lehigh Gorge, home to the takeout of the lower Lehigh paddling section we've come to know and love.  It was a nice day, barely needed more then a long sleeve shirt on.  We climbed the Weeping Wall area on the left of the main falls and the pillar on the Lower falls.  It was a great time.

The stream on the hike in

Chris at the base of Weeping Wall

Chris getting at the steep section of Weeping Wall

Chris on the pillar on the left of Lower Falls

Local Music

Last week was one of good music.  The old East End Cafe in Newark has recently re-opened as Mojo on Main and is hosting a good number of local bands.  Tuesday we went to see an excellent performance by Katie Dill (front woman for Diego Paulo) perform sort of an electronic set.  Great.  Then the Spinto Band, a local Wilmington band who has had some success with a song entitled Oh Mandy.  Great time.

The Thursday we headed up to Philly to the Trocadero with Timm and Rach to see Josh Ritter.  The opening band was a solo performance by Scott Hutchison (of Frightened Rabbit) - a great Scottish folk rock singer.  He performed a great set with a particularly touching song called Old Old Fashioned that really struck a chord with me.  Josh Ritter was awesome as always.  I think this is the 4th time we've seen him and he just keeps getting better - we've never seen someone have so much fun on stage.  They did a Valentines tribute reading little messages from people in the crowd and featuring a slow dance, ala middle school, during the bridge of one of their songs.  We had a really great time.

Katie Dill of Diego Paulo

Scott Hutchinson

Josh Ritter and Band

Crepes

Through the guys at the treehouse we've had the good fortune of meeting some great international students/interns who couchsurfed at the guys place when they first came over.  Recently Arthur and Anna Marie have been having us over for a French tradition - crepes.  They start with a very thin pancake made of buckweat and are stuffed with various delicious fillings like egg, mushroons, ham, leeks, onions etc.  After dinner they make dessert crepes with Nutella or honey or lemon and sugar.  Jeanette got a chance to learn the tricks of the trade and made some pretty good ones if you ask me.  Really neat to be exposed to these traditions from other cultures.

The crew eating around the fireplace

Jeanette making crepes

One of the masterpieces

Inside Arthur's igloo