Discovering Pennsylvania, Last Day

Hello again! This time I am updating with the last day in Pennsylvania. I have to say that this was my favorite day of them all. If you know me at all, you will see the reason in these photos! It slowly started snowing throughout the day and got heavier as well.


This is what I woke up to that morning... my dad called it a "light dusting" of snow. I LOVED it!

Taking Albert for a walk along this little path that ran around the house.

I liked how the tree sort of framed the pathway in this photo.

Awww! He was so cute. I still can't believe I managed to capture such a clear shot of him looking up at me. He was a very rowdy little guy!

Fork in the road... we took the right path...

...which led to this frozen lake. Though you can't really tell that there's a lake in this photo.

Side view of the lake, with the snow-covered rocks.

This was kind of a spontaneous shot... I liked how there were the paw prints, tire tracks, and footprints all in one spot... like "signs of life."

Walking further down the road... I just liked this barn with all the snow, and that long long driveway.

One of my favorite shots of the day, with the gate looking almost as if it's about to tip over.

Very old one-room schoolhouse, built in 1890!

Another favorite! This was taken while randomly driving around. I loved the look of the bridge with the snow.

And the other part of the bridge that was closed for construction.

Very beautiful scene in Mercer Citizens Cemetery.

I liked how the sign looked with the rest of the clutter from the trees. (it says "Black Willow")

This was actually taken through a window at a jewelry store. We were going to walk down to those beautiful falls, but they had the trail closed for safety because it was too slippery with all the freshly fallen snow. :[ I was very disappointed.

Different angle, still taken through a window.

On the way down to McConnells Mill for some truly amazing views!

The mill. It was snowing at this point, and as you can see, it kinda ruined my shot.

It was such a beautiful scene, especially because no one had been there and the snow was completely untouched by footprints.

Another favorite from the day. This was leaning off the side of the railing to get a view of the other side of the mill.

Something about these snow-covered steps just drew me to it... not really sure what.

The calm on the other side of the mill.

Another favorite of the day! I could have stayed there all day, it was so soothing.

My dad and I posing with a beautiful background.

And in black & white as well!

Looking across the covered bridge before crossing it.

Overall view of the mill, from across the covered bridge and looking through the trees.

Icicles found on the side of the rock, as we were driving back.

More of the scene while driving away from the mill. We were rapidly running out of daylight.

Looking directly up into an icicle. =P

I had an awesome vacation, spending some quality time with my dad, and getting to see some truly beautiful scenes. Even though I only got to spend 3 days in Pittsburgh, I made some wonderful memories that I will keep close to my heart. Love you, Dad.

Discovering Pennsylvania, Day 2

So I've realized after looking through a few older posts that I totally forgot to continue the photos that I took from my mom's visit here back in June/July of last year. I need to stop letting myself get so behind on this blog. -.- But I don't want to interrupt the photos from PA, so I'll continue with those, and then post the rest of my mom's visit afterwards... plus some photos from a spontaneous trip to Oregon.

Anyway, back to Pennsylvania's trip. Day 2 revolved all around Pittsburgh. My dad lives about an hour north of the city, so we started early.


We stopped in Carnegie first before getting into Pittsburgh to get a photo of this beautiful Russian Orthodox church.

And this equally beautiful Ukrainian Orthodox church right next door.

Going through the Fort Pitt tunnel into Pittsburgh, I liked how this turned out.

Me in an eyeball chair right outside the parking garage that my dad parks at every day.

This was a beautiful old church right in the middle of downtown... the photo does not do it justice!

The cracked and broken tombstone of a Revolutionary War Veteran, in an old cemetery located right next to the beautiful old church.

Side view of the church... I liked how the new buildings were mixed right in with the old. It was like that all over downtown.

Market Square. I forget what that glass building was called but it was pretty!

Same building, closer and from a different angle.

Dad and I with the Christmas tree. A nice guy offered to take this shot for us.

Walking along the river. It was really cold down there. I wanted to walk further but Dad was getting too cold and we were running out of time anyway.

Very creepy depiction of Mister Rogers.

Me with Pittsburgh in the background, taken up on Mt. Washington.

Closeup of the Steelers stadium, from the lookout at Mt. Washington.

Pittsburgh at a glance - the city of bridges.

Driving towards the 16th Street Bridge.

Beautiful heavy door that still worked, built back in 1869. It opened into a very old cemetery. (this was after leaving Pittsburgh, in the city of Harmony)

View of the fence surrounding the cemetery.

It was a great day and I really loved all the quality time I got to spend with my dad. :] Him being all the way across the country really gets to me sometimes, but it's trips like this that make it better. Look for lots of snow photos in the next update, Day 3 in PA!!

New and Improved?

Hi everyone. So I've decided to try and utilize the new template designer on this blog. I want the extra features that it offers, but this means I will probably have to give up a few of the customizations that I currently have. I'm still in the process of working on a test blog to try and keep some of the features that I have now, but I'm having a problem with my header image. Apparently having the image reach over the entire page is not possible. So I will probably have to condense the image down to blogger's maximum size.

Anyway, just figured I would update a little. Things are going okay here. I've recently started tracking food and exercise in an attempt to get in shape. It's something I tried doing awhile back, but eventually gave up. That's not going to happen this time. I want to feel comfortable in my own skin again, as well as build up my confidence. I recently acquired a Wii as well, and have been using that to get in some exercise on my days off. I'm waiting for about two more paychecks until I can buy the Wii Fit Plus and possibly My Fitness Coach as well.

That's about all I have to say for now. Back to working on my design layout!
Done with the update! Added a new feature where you have the option to sign up via e-mail and get notified of my new updates! Look for it on the left. Also, you can now add comments to each post, so if you have a critique or any comments at all, please feel free to let me know! :]

Discovering Pennsylvania, Day 1

So back in January I took a trip to visit my dad in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the first time I'd gone to visit him there since he moved across the country from me and I was really really excited about visiting a place that I hadn't been before. I think I was more excited for the snow, to be honest! My brother and his wife had gone to visit him the week before and one of the days, they went skiing... I was so jealous! And then when I arrive in Pittsburgh, the snow is ALL GONE. Of course, that is just my luck. But the good thing was that it came back throughout my trip so I did get to capture some beautiful snow photos!

Starting off, I had to get a photo of my dad's new puppy, Albert. He was soooo cute and sweet! Kinda rambunctious also.


I kept wanting to call him Alby for some reason.

I took this one mainly for that tree in the middle. There was something about it that drew my eye to it every time I saw it. This is part of my dad's backyard.

An old barn that looked interesting.

This is the courthouse in Franklin, PA. Notice how the right tower was built higher than the left -- the reason for that dates back to the Civil War.

I love capturing pathways. This was taken at the little park area next to the courthouse.

Memorial to the fallen soldiers of the Civil War, edited for more emphasis.

Closeup of the writing on the memorial.

The Franklin courthouse from a different angle.

Fountain near the courthouse... I was told that it's prettier in the spring/summer when there's water running from it. It was too cold when I was there to have the water running.

Random alley among the Franklin city streets.

Scene I noticed while driving around and made my dad stop so I could capture it!

Railroad tracks with an old abandoned train station in the background. I love railroad tracks photos!

The same railroad tracks, the sun decided to come out between taking the previous photo and this one.

So I jumped out of the car on a bridge to catch a view of the scenery and immediately almost jumped right back in when I looked down to see that this is what the bottom of the bridge looked like. I thought I was going to fall through!

The rest of the bridge.

An old railroad bridge that is no longer in use.

The Eagle Hotel in Waterford, PA -- no longer in use, it dates back to 1826.

Now we're up in Presque Isle State Park by Lake Erie... this is the peaceful side of it.

Other side of Lake Erie, rocks with ice and snow built up around it. This was also the COLD side of Lake Erie.

Dad and I with Lake Erie!

It was sooooo pretty with the snow floating on the water, and all the ice dunes on the shore.

More of the floating snow on the water...

Result of the waves crashing in between the ice dunes... very slippery!

I caught a hint of the sunset in this one... soooo pretty.

The perfect end to a great first day in Pennsylvania.

-smiles- More to come later.