NYC Day 3

Getting the barriers ready for the crowds that will be watching the Rockefeller tree lighting tonight.

These guys are looking for their Wise Men.

The Rockefeller tree

Now lighted (looks better at night).

Day 3 Radio City Music Hall backstage tour

Definitely a small group tour led by an expert leading us up and down stairs and giving us lots of history from the 1932 opening until today.

The person who designed the architecture of the stage wanted it to mimic a sunrise, the curtain being the sun.

Photographs on the wall of the famous Rockettes....the renaming from the "Rockets" being a more feminine version.

A familiar figure from the Christmas Spectacular

Looking over the Grand Foyer chandeliers made from Swarovski crystals.

Jim with Jennifer, one of the current 200 + Rockettes.  Thirty-six perform at each show with four back up performers.

NYC....Days 1 and 2

First day was spent strolling shops and looking at windows being decorated for the holidays:

Christmas tree in the lobby of our hotel....live poinsettias everywhere.

Steak dinner out at Red Eye Grill

At Columbus Circle inside the giant 4 story mall

Close-up

We loved the play.....pretty music and the child lead is shared with a sweet six year old from Selbyville, DE......our neighboring town.

Winter Fest of Lights

It has long been a tradition (since our first grandbaby Kylie was just a baby) to go to Northside Park in Ocean City to "see the lights".  Tonight we waited in line for over 90 minutes as this Christmas tradition belongs to other families as well as ours.  Each year more lighted stories are told and slowly the displays are being lighted with LED lights, making the colors vibrant.

Reflection in the water

Jaws pops out without any warning!

New this year is the Wizard of Oz....see the blue tornado and witch flying toward the green castle?

Here they are.....our six cuties....they make our hearts so proud!  We missed you Will (at his other grandparent's house.)

Layne, Eva, Kylie, Keelyn, Jack and Ella.

Turkey Day

David is the king of fried turkeys, perfecting his skills over the years so that he fries perfect turkeys every time....yesterday he fried us three turkeys!  All yummy!

Into the pot.......

Beer and pumpkin crab bisque while we wait......

Potatoes will become French fries

The finished product!

Becky and the food

Trains with Will

Today was a first for me...a model train show with Will.  Lots of model trains big and small with people to talk to and gather information....Will is good at this.  His favorites are the Z series....very small trains with miniscule landscapes, cleverly done....even a drive-in movie theatre with movie playing!

This young man asked Will if he wanted to help operate his trains!

Two and a half hours of rapt attention!

Flower show at WCCBB meeting

Our monthly Women's Civic Club of Bethany Beach meeting yesterday showcased our local florist showing us how to make flower arrangements for the holidays.  She made five beautiful center pieces and raffled them off......I, unfortunately, did not win.

This looks like a delicious cake.  If it were mine, I would place our Advent candle ring in the center.  Misting the carnations will assure freshness through the holidays.

For the Thanksgiving dining table

And a  fall arrangement for the serving table

Debris.......

As another storm revs up here on the eastern shore, there is still clean-up to be done from last week's hurricane.  Jim is taking on this big job here in the hood.

"Found" stuff that he has displayed by our dumpster.  Maybe some one will recognize it?

Always pine needles all over.....the pile he is raking ended up being taller than Jim.

Pumpkin Chunkin'

A history lesson here:  In 1986 in a blacksmith shop in Lewes, DE, four men were discussing how some college students were throwing pumpkins in order to raise scholarship money.  They wondered how it would be if machines did the throwing, and the first Punkin Chunkin was born.  It was held the first weekend after Halloween (when pumpkins would be plentiful) on a 30 acre farm with 80 people and three machines, and the longest throw was 114 feet.

I think we attended one of the early events and ate sweet potato fries for the first time.......yes, eating is a big part of chunkin.......and tailgating and drinking beer.

Today's PC is held on a 1000 acre farm and is attended by 100,000 people over the 3 day weekend.  The current "world" (it is an international event) record for distance a pumpkin is thrown is 4483 feet and each year that mythical mile is the goal!  There are machines that measure bigger than the first throw way back when.  And over 250,000 scholarship dollars have been awarded over the years, averaging $30-$50 thousand yearly for the past few years.

Hopefully, our pictures will tell the rest of the story.

A cloudy day, it was hard to see the flying pumpkins.

Will rang the bell and won......

a blow-up cell phone.

Then back to the beach,  Will enjoyed getting wet in the surf.

Coming home

Once we got the all-clear from the town, we made our way home, expecting water, water everywhere and electricity.

Do you see where our dumpster ended up?  It normally resides in the dumpster shed, now full of pine needles.

Looking toward our building and our white Subaru, there is water on the roads.

Jim has his boots on.

Happy Halloween!  A buried pumpkin in the debris.