Merry Christmas

Millerton Lake State Recreation Area, Friant, CA. The stockings were hung by the window with care, but we had to go to Fresno for the fillings and the dinner fixings.

This is our seventh season as camphosts at MLSRA. We'll be here until sometime in the spring. We're not seeing very many campers this holiday season. We believe the economy is taking its toll. Fewer people are traveling.

We are thankful for family, for freedom to worship in a wonderful church, and for friends. We have wonderful friends all around the world. We've seen so many this year. God is good, even when the economy is not. He is our Jehovah Jireh.

Our Short Time in Canada

Wndmill Point Campground in Fort Erie, Ontario, was our first stop. The TransCanada Trail runs right beside it. So we had to walk a few miles on it.
Our next stop was Toronto, where we spent three days in a city park nursing our sick dog. She had succumbed to too many treats from her baby(dog)sitters at Niagara. No pictures of Toronto or of Lake Ontario from the Canadian side.
Next stop was Kingston, ON, a military town at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River at Lake Ontario.

City Hall was amazingly ornate. The mayors had a tradition of adding a link to the decoration shown around the neck of the mayor in the picture. After awhile it got too heavy to wear. Ft. Henry is on the hill. The old railroad station is across from City Hall. Kingston was the first capital of Canada, later moved to Ottawa a few miles north.

Niagara Falls Honeymoon (Fiftieth Anniversary)

First two pictures are of the upper Niagara River as it approaches the falls.

Our first views of Niagara Falls from the American side. Below, a view of the Canadian Falls from the American side and the Maid of the Mist boat headed for the Canadian Falls.
First view of the city of Niagara Falls, ON, Canada, and a picture of the American Falls from the Maid of the Mist.

Another view of the American Falls from the Maid of the Mist. By this time, we are getting very wet. And a picture from the bridge to Canada. We had to go to Canada to get the Maid of the Mist ride.

Pictures of the falls from the Canadian side, one from the restaurant in which we had our first gourmet luncheon. Last picture is of the famous Floral Clock. The flowers and design are changed every three months.

Lake to Lake

Two pictures of Lake Ontario and folk sailing on the lake. We're in Conservative Mennonite country. The produce here reminds Bear of the Victory Gardens of WWII. The cauliflower was bigger than Sophie.
We're wrapping it up here in the Fingerlakes.

How We Got to New York

Saying goodbye to Keith and Jeremiah in Keith and Frances' front yard. Jeremiah is the next door neighbor and helped with cleaning our camper. Camping at Quantico Marine Base near Washington, DC. Spending time with Melissa Beatty McGrath and her girls, Veronica and Robin.
Before leaving Quantico we traveled to Easton, MD to see Louise (Weasie) and Art Shelby. Weasie is a second cousin I had not seen since I was a kid growing up in Hopewell, VA. In Harrisburg, PA we stopped for lunch with Bob and Carrie Beatty, friends from our days in France before Melissa (above) was born.

Friends who love Pennsylvania and the Susquehanna River Valley wanted us to grab some pictures of that area. We weren't able to get the pictures of the area around Harrisburg, which is the prettiest part of the Susquehanna, but we managed pictures around Lewisburg of a much narrower part of the river. Of course, we had to get pictures of Yogi Bear's Jellystone park where we stayed and of Bear at the helm of a ship anchored there.

Watkins Glen State Park, Watkins Glen, New York

Followed Seneca Lake on the west side of the lake all the way from Geneva to Watkins Glen, the full length of this Fingerlake.

Visiting Jeff and Terri Robinette in Morgantown, WV

Terri and Sophia sitting at the overlook. The other children rock climbing at Cooper's Rock.
Rachel at Cooper's Rock. Rosalie and friend Joel climbing rocks at the lookout.
Jeff and Terri have eight children. Two, Tiffany and Katie are in college. Laurel and Grace are in high school. Rachel, Rosalie, and Grayson (the only boy) are the next younger children. Sophia is the youngest until December, when she will have another sister.

Here is Jeff piloting the boat on Cheat Lake. Grace and Laurel taking two year old Sophia rafting on the lake. They took a spill on one wave, but Sophia came up laughing. The child knows no fear.

Laurel's tennis tournament (below). She won a trophy.

Jeff and Grayson relaxing on the back patio. A front view of the Robinettes' home in Morgantown, West Virginia