O Canada

Canadian Fall Foliage

Chateau Frontenace - the hotel is perched atop a tall cape overlooking the Saint Lawrence River, giving a spectacular view. The building is the most prominent feature of the Quebec City skyline.

Northern Maine

Randy has a nephew who lives with his family in Oakland, ME and who was willing to put us up. Mark and his wife, Nancy, cooked us a delicious gourmet fish dinner and we had a great time talking with them and their two teenage children. Since both of them work (Mark is a doctor and Nancy a 1st grade teacher), they had to go to work early the next morning (Friday), but left us to enjoy their hot tub outside on the back deck. That was very relaxing in the crisp morning air and it was hard to leave.  Thank you Mark & Nancy!  Later that afternoon we arrived at the Dernlan's cabin (up here it's called a camp) on Long Lake. If you look on a map it is located at the northernmost tip of the US. Gary & Susie arrived on Saturday night and we have been enjoying this beautiful scenery, crisp weather, wood fires to keep warm, steaks on the grill, and wonderful conversation. Alicia and I have started through a book called "10 Great Dates to grow together spiritually".

Whale Watching in Boothbay Harbor, ME

When we called to make reservations for whale watching excursion in Bar Harbor, ME, they were already booked up. So we ended up booking another whale watching boat in Boothbay Harbor, which although not as famous a place like Bar Harbor, still provided a nice excursion. And, most exciting, we saw a Fin Whale (or Finback Whale)!  We all kept our eyes peeled and when someone saw a whale spout shoot up from the surface, we called out and the boat captain sped us toward the area so we could see it closer up. It was quite difficult to get a photo, so we can't really show you that, but it was exciting. After the trip we enjoyed delicious clam chowder in a restuarant overlooking the wharf.

Newport, RI

We arrived in Newport, RI in the afternoon and found the Cliffwalk. Above the cliff are the huge mansions that have been well-preserved by the historical society. We were able to tour two of them: Rosecliff (which served as the setting for the movie "The Great Gatsby") and Breakers (which was built by Vanderbilt who spared absolutely no expense in its construction and interior decorating). Although it would have been awesome to stay and tour the rest of the mansions, we had to move on and spent the night in Freeport, ME. The mother store for LL Bean is in Freeport, and to our astonishment, it is open 24/7 365 days a year! So at 11pm we went to exchange a shirt for Alicia's mom. Wow, what a gigantic campus of stores!  We were one of about 4 customers at that time of night wandering around this huge store.  A personal shopping night.

Mystic Seaport

As we left PA, we drove over the George Washington Bridge into upper Manhattan. We could see lower Manhattan (my old stomping grounds where Randy worked for 3 yrs) as we drove.  We arrived in Mystic Seaport and since it was already early evening, we decided to spend the night and tour the historic seaport on Wednesday morning. We had a delicious seafood dinner and Alicia finally found baked clams (!) something she had been unable to find for many years. That was very special. The next morning we spent several hours walking around the old fishing & seaport village. Here are some photos:

Houston to Dillsburg, PA

We had a lot of fun in Houston with Kiki, Brice and our grandkids (Jude, Brooke, Jacob) - playing games, playing with Max (their Rhodesian Ridgeback), watching a movie, selling school cookies (fundraising), swimming (well, not Randy), having a lobster fest with marinated shrimp on the barbie. It was hard to say goodbye to them.

Alicia with Brooke (left), Jude, Jacob

Our Houston airport experience on Tuesday was not fun due to a tropical storm. We stood in a long line to change our flight, then given 18 minutes to get to a different gate at the other end of the terminal, then to find out we had 8 minutes to go to a completely different termina via train. That was hard on my (Randy's) legs. When we got to the other terminal, there was no flight with our flight number. Then the Lord helped Alicia figure out which gate for us to go to even though we were given the wrong flight number, wrong gate and wrong terminal when we were re-routed. We finally arrived in PA at midnight (only 3 1/2 hours late). Our suitcase spent the night in Cleveland and arrived the next day.

The twins - Julia and Micah

We have been having lots of fun with our son and daughter-in-law, the twins, and new baby Connor who is so cute and cuddly. He's been sleeping a lot. But the twins are very active!

Grandpa checking emails with Connor asleep on his lap

Connor Ryan Clarke

Fighting Back

Our church family has been under attack with A/C problems and a broken water pipe under the building. Not to mention what happened to me. We all must ban together and Fight Back with prayer. Special thanks go to a great group of people who are taking on these challenges: Rick, Jonathan, Bob, Karen, Jerome, Mark, Jay, maybe more but that's who I heard about. Be strong and courageous!

We had some delicious smoked chicken dinner today and looking forward to a lobster fest on labor day and some basketball (horse) with grandkids. Be blessed!