Merry Christmas!
In the spirit of the season and instead of a Christmas card this year I thought I would take the opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season via my website! Whatever you celebrate this time of year I hope you are surrounded by friends, family, great food, and Joy.
Looking forward to a happy New Year!
I have added some highlights from the past year below! Feel freel to skip to the photo album at the bottom!
Our 2024 Christmas Tree!
Shane, Stacey, Elspeth and I in Front Royal
Spring
It has been a great year! Filled with lots of good times with friends and family. With some exciting progress in my career.
In the Spring Elspeth and I visited Front Royal, VA with our good friends Shane and Stacey Wilcox. We visited lots of great wineries, and some amazing restaurants. One of the best was Field and Main. We had the most amazing meal there in one of their small Cabanas. It featured a fireplace, our own bluetooth speaker we could stream music too, and one of the most amazing Wagyu burgers with bacon and caramelized onion jam. I have even been able to recreate that burger on my own, not as good, but close!
The next day we visited the farm where the beef featured at the restaurant were raised!
It was really a great time.
Also in the spring we visited the Poconos with a large group of friends. I have no idea why I have no pictures of that!Â
Elspeth and I went on a 7 mile hike including a trip to the boulder field at Hickory Run State Park. I highly recommend a visit if you are ever in the area.
Also in the Spring Piper got her driver's permit! These kids are growing up so quickly! Spencer was also finishing up his first year at Pitt studying engineering.
I also tried Top Golf for the first time. It was fun!
Trying to smack a golf ball as far as I can with a video game component is the closest I want to get.
The whole experience was very cool
Elspeth Addressing the Ball at Top Golf
Revivalists at the Let's Go Festival
Summer
In the early summer, we went to Anne Arundel Fairgrounds for the Let's Go Music Festival with our friends Rita and Sean, Kate and Josh. Elspeth and I rented a place with Rita and Sean Boer in Annapolis and had a great time exploring the city. I got to see a couple great bands there. The weather was perfect, the crowd was great, easy parking reasonably priced food and drinks!
I am a huge fan of this festival, and if you have spent any time with my you know I will tell anyone who will listen. It is incredibly well organized, has a great selection of bands to suit every taste., depending on what day you go.
Definitely worth a visit at least on at least one of the three days.
Also in the Early Summer, Elspeth and I made another trip to the Blue Mountains of Virginia to visit The Homestead. Elspeth's family has a time share there, and we were able to take advantage of all the area has to offer including a hike in the Blue Mountains!
The historic nature of the hotel is impressive, and the architecture is beautiful.
The views of the mountains on that hike were amazing!
Later in the summer, Spencer, Piper, Rodrigo and I made a trip to New Hope PA. It was so incredibly hot that day it was hard to enjoy it, but we made the most of it and it gave us a chance to show Rodrigo more of the country while he was visiting Spencer from Mexico.
The View of the Blue Mountains on our Hike
Some of the Art at the Chinese Lantern Festival
As the summer went on we also made a trip to Washington Boro for the Annual Tomato Festival. I think Elspeth and I have been talking about doing that for the whole time we have been dating! It was well worth it, the festival was not huge but they had tasty BLT's. The tomatoes truly are the best.
For our vacation week in August, Spencer, Piper and I stayed on Lake Anna with my sisters Susan and Nancy and some of their families. It was a lot of fun. Lake Anna is the cooling reservoir for a nearby Atomic Power plant, so the water is oddly warm. It was not refreshing on a hot day, however it was fun to play in and the lake is huge so the Kayaking opportunities were great! It was so much fun spending a few days there with everyone, then on the way home we made a stop at LuRay caverns. I have to say that was a lot more interesting than I expected it to be. The size of some of those underground rooms was impressive. Plus it was cool in there on a hot day!
To finish up our vacation week, we took a day trip to Philadelphia to visit Wonderspaces, and Reading Terminal Market. Then we finished the day by meeting Cotie and Hillary and their family at the Chinese Lantern Festival. We had some amazing food and had a great time wandering around!
Fall
Piper started her Junior year in High School. Spencer headed back to Pitt for his sophomore year, where he is now sharing an apartment with two friends.
Elspeth and I made another trip with Shane and Stacey. This time we stayed in Alexandria, VA and visited a couple great restaurants. We had a great time wandering around and enjoying being in another community on the water. If I could someday live on a town like Annapolis, Alexandria or Woods Hole I think it would be amazing! It's my retirement dream.
Also in the fall we did a Glass Blowing Class with Mike and Jenn Sheinberg. That was a really interesting experience and we are joining them for another class in November. We made glass flowers and I have them proudly on display in my home!
In September my brother Brian visited Lancaster to attend the Lancaster Roots and Blues Festival! We had lots of fun and got to check out Southern Market for dinner one night.
We also went to Mickey's Black Box in Lititz to see the Old 97's! It was our first time there and it was a great venue!
AND PIPER GOT HER DRIVER'S LICENSE! She passed it on the first try and is doing a great job behind the wheel.
As the fall wrapped up I started my new job with UPMC. I am working on the team that is supporting installation of new Technology in the 636 bed Presbyterian Tower in Oakland. I'm working remotely with the occasional trip to Pittsburgh but it is really exciting to be involved on this new building. I think there are lots of big things to come our of this project.
Finally we just went to see Dawes at XL Live for the second time! Great band in a great venue!
The shell of the New Presbyterian Tower in Oakland
It has been a great year! Check out the photo Album below for some of the highlights from 2024!
