Myscottieateyourgrandma

New Year's Weekend in Manchester Center, VT

2011-01-04T09:50:00.001-08:00

After driving back up to VT from MD, it was great to spend some time with Steve in his new apartment in Manchester. The Equinox/Range Rover Center trails behind his apt. were really fun to explore-not so fun fending for my life at the grocery store amongst crazy New York and New Jersey holiday tourists!

Xmas recap in pics

2011-01-01T13:37:00.001-08:00

I had the best Xmas with the whole fam!

North Dakota Outtakes

2010-11-20T09:58:00.001-08:00

Now that I've joined the new wave of blogging from my phone, here are some pics that didn't make my original post.

Encinitas,CA

2010-11-20T07:37:00.001-08:00

Sunset at D Street in Encinitas, CA

The Most Beautiful Boquet

2010-10-17T08:47:00.000-07:00

Over a month later...here is the most beautiful boquet-too amazing not to share!
Thanks Steve!

Labor Day Weekend-North Dakota Style

2010-09-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

I had a blast with the family over Labor Day weekend in North Dakota for Eric and Sarah's wedding. It couldn't have been a more perfect wedding and weekend for that matter.

After meeting up with my parents in Chicago, we got to Bismarck without a hitch. We hopped into our hilarious candy red Dodge Charger and headed sound to Rapid City, SD. After a 5 hour drive post a full day of flying, we were all ready to call it a night. After fighting for a place to sit at the continental breakfast spot in the hotel the following morning, we started off our Thursday with a trip to Mount Rushmore. The weather was perfect and we were able to get in and get as close to the monument as possible. I was a little disappointed that Teddy Roosevelt’s mouth didn’t open up like it does in “Team America World Police” just sayin…

After taking a few hundred pictures at Mt. Rushmore we hit the road to Deadwood. On the way we made an “emergency pit stop” at a South Dakota Winery (which surprisingly had some great wines) Once we got to Deadwood, we stopped for lunch in the downstairs "saloon" of a casino...we walked around and took pictures of the town, the buildings, and some interesting souvenirs (to say the least)

The Rehersal dinner on Friday night was a lot of fun...good thing it wasn't held in the creepy haunted downstairs area of the community event hall-where'd they find that "bartender"?

Wedding Saturday was amazing. Sarah was such a beautiful bride, so classic. The ceremony was perfect, the reception was a lot of fun…all in all…I cried about 22 times…and thanks to sister Lauren, my makeup surprisingly held up all day.

On Sunday we headed to Medora and did the 36 mile driving loop in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We saw wild horses, one tatanka, and bunch of prairie dogs. Dad won the prize for spotting the first wild animal, or should I say animals, when he spotted the wild horses in the distance. It’s pretty amazing that the horses in the park were descendants of the first horses that settled into the badlands of western North Dakota in the middle of the 19th century. Although the day started out pretty rainy, the weather broke long enough for us to hit the “town” and grab some souvenirs and some dinner. The first place we stopped at for dinner was priceless. I wish everyone I know was there to see this…We walk in, seat ourselves after we are greeted by a man behind the kitchen window saying “What, you gonna eat standin’ up?” after we sit down in this tiny run down diner that they were advertising as a “café” we get handed menu’s by “Betty Bad News” and we come to find out that the “café” is out of the following: Bread for sandwiches, sandwiches, chicken fingers, French fries, cheese, pizza, soup, salads…basically everything off the menu…when we tell the woman that we’re going to go somewhere else and get up to leave, she’s all, we can make you scrambled eggs with Texas toast instead of regular toast or we can make you a sandwich with hamburger buns instead of bread, but we don’t have cheese or lettuce, and reminded us again that they had no fries…haha…it was 5pm, I should have asked for a hamburger with a side of scrambies…hold the everything else.

We ended up hitting up a place that had ok food…hit up an ice cream parlor that only had cotton candy sherbet and strawberry ice cream (all set) picked up our tickets to the Medora Musical, which I hear is great, and headed to the show. The stage was amazing, the amphitheater carved out of the mountain, beautiful backdrop. As soon as we got settled into our seats, it started to DOWN POUR. I’m not talking a little rain, but a full on DOWN POUR. When show time arrived, a person from the show gets on the loud speaker to let us know that he checked the “internet radar” and it said that we were in the thick of the storm and that they were going to start in 10 minutes. In 10 minutes, the DOWN POUR turned into a MONSOON with thunder and lightning…needless to say, the show was cancelled and we were headed back to Dickenson. Never a dull moment.

Aside from our rainy adventure on Sunday, the trip was an overall blast. I’m glad I got to see Mt. Rushmore before their faces fall off, which is bound to happen sooner than later.

Howe Caverns, NY

2010-08-01T19:22:00.001-07:00

Steve and I ventured to the Howe Caverns in Upstate, NY this past weekend. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and the cavern was amazing! After taking the elevator down 15 stories into the cave,we started our guided tour by Drew the Amish teen wolf-I wish I got a picture with this kid. The tour was entertainingly informative and there was even a boat ride on the river that was responsible for carving out this wonder. All in all another amazing weekend!

Fourth Of July Weekend in Pittsburgh

2010-07-10T12:58:00.000-07:00

Pittsburgh, PA has the most bridges than any other city in North America, second in the world to Venice, Italy.

The inclines, sports facilities, parks, breweries, Primanti Brothers sammies, "burgaling" into the Carnagie Science Center and river boat rides treated us very well!

Random.

The Church Brew Works brewery, was pretty amazing...so was the beer!

I had a great weekend visiting Steve in Pittsburgh, PA for the 4th of July. Who knew Pittsburgh would be so fun! I guess anywhere we go is fun!

Herkimer Diamond Mines and Moss Island

2010-06-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

land of the lost...

oh hey there

wolf howl!

In summation, who knew you could have so much fun in the Mohawk Valley?

What $20 in gas gets you in VT...

2010-06-01T17:53:00.000-07:00

Pretty eventful couple of hours this Memorial Day I should say. Its crazy what you can find driving around VT when you're looking for weird stuff...

My main goal was to scout out general stores and country stores...this turned into looking for odd signs, old trucks, and landscapes. I took all the shots except the last sitting in my car to keep these shots as candid as possible.

The smoke that drifted down from the Canadian wildfires made quite an intereting backdrop, I thought I was in Cali with all the smog in the air.

This place was so cool...chickens, eggs for sale, odd sculptures, bikes hanging from trees...I can't believe I've never seen this place before!

I got honked at like a leafpeeper in October...wow I just made a leaf peeping joke...

God?

Sunday, SUNDAY, Sunday...

2010-05-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

Bocce (Bocci or Boccie) is a ball sport in the boules sport family. With ancestry from ancient games played in the Roman Empire, the current game of bocce was developed into the game we all know and love in Italy. Bocce the plural of the Italian word boccia (bowl) is a game that is played with 2 players or teams of 2 players all over the world in countries inhabited by Italian immigrants.

Thank the lord...

2010-05-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

...it's not in the 90's anymore...just picked up a new A/C after mine conveniently broke the day the heat came... here's the sunset over Lake Champlain after Kickball...The Suits formerly known as Skins, formerly known as Kick James, formerly known as B By Balls is 0-2...I'm blaming drunky 2.0, where does ARS find these girls?!

What's wrong with this picture?

2010-05-25T16:05:00.000-07:00

I guess not this picture, but this this picture:

It's. Hotter. In. Burlington. VT. Than. Miami. FL.

Did you know that...

2010-05-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

...there are over 3,000 known varities of Tuilps?

The Kingdom-plantae, Divison-Magnoliophyta, Class-Lilliopsida, Order-Liliales, Family-Lilliaceae, Genus-Tulipa, the Tulip was originally brought to Holland by Roman Botanist Carolus Clusius who was appointed to the head professor of Botany at Leiden University.

Please note-keep Tulips away from small rodents and Scottish Terriers.

America.

2010-05-23T10:18:00.000-07:00

I miss this guy...

2010-05-22T07:35:00.000-07:00

In the nook...

2010-05-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

Here's another shot from the nature walk...it was so bizarre that this little sprig of a plant was nestled right in the nook of the tree.

Before you can even ask me, the answer is yes, I'm working on some fresh material...stay tuned.

So far I've received one request for next months theme: "Pick a Color" Because of how "green" this month is shaping up to be...I'm going to steer clear from greens...any suggestions??

Quit Looking at me Swan!

2010-05-18T19:59:00.001-07:00

First Day Monday

2010-05-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

Here is another shot from the amazing weekend I just had!

This spot was already in use by a pretty serious fisherman..red and white striped bobber to boot.

More from the weekend.

2010-05-16T18:48:00.001-07:00

Since I didn't hold up to my end of the bargain and post throughout the weekend, here's another to hold it over to Monday.

Big Steve in the BTV

2010-05-16T18:40:00.000-07:00

Very excited that the man came into town this weekend. The weather couldn't have been better. Our nature "hike" down by the Winooski River was mosquitotastic...the sites were pretty epic as well!

and another...

2010-05-13T16:16:00.001-07:00

This shot was taken off the Fishing Pier...I know, I know...but this place is pretty awesome...

Day four, the morning after...

2010-05-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

Here is my post from yesterday...I will post up later today as well...

This shot was also from the Park's and Recreation's Fishing Pier...I couldn't resit posting more from this day...if you think this is lame, please navigate up to the right hand corner for PC's and the left hand corner for Mac and just leave already...

Day Three

2010-05-11T20:25:00.001-07:00

This shot was from a few days ago. It was a Saturday and super rainy all day. Mid afternoon the clouds split for awhile...

The Burlington Fishing Pier was built adjacent to the Coast Guard station on the Lake Champlain waterfront, which is behind the Water Department Building found in my first picture of this blog.

This is by far one of my most favorite spots to sit on the water and the first spot I thought of when I had 5 minutes to take pictures before it started pouring rain again.

Day Two...

2010-05-10T19:39:00.001-07:00

I got this shot before the May snow storm came...rumors of a foot of snow in the mountains this Mother's Day makes me wonder what the hell happened this Winter, or should I say, what the hell didn't happen this Winter.

We're on the fast track to 2012 folks, take everyday as a gift!

Mission: 30 pictures each month

2010-05-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

Partly due to the fact that my lack of creativity is catching up with me and partly due to the fact that I just got a brand new amazing camera (thanks Mom and Dad) I'm going to pick a photo topic of the month and run with it.

My first topic-Burlington, VT

Burlington, with a population of appx. 40,000 is the nations smallest city to be the largest in it's state. Home to The University of Vermont and Champlain College, this lovely little gem I call home is often overpopulated with annoying co-ed's and their inability to park correctly from the months of August to May.

**If you have any ideas for monthly topics, fire them my way**