Geowoodstock IX

July 2nd was the 9th annual Geowoodstock.  This year it was in Warren, PA, so I knew we HAD to go!  Because of a last minute flight cancellation back in January, AirTran had given me 2 free roundtrip tickets which I decided to use for Sam and myself to fly up to Pittsburgh.  Sam hadn't been up there in 2 years, so he was overdue for a trip.

The first night there, George took us on a nighttime tour of downtown.  We rode an incline down to the city, which was lots of fun.  The picture below is really bad, but I think you can get the idea of how beautiful it is at night.

On our way to Warren, we stopped at a park that had a small lake in it.  We all had to go into the water up to our knees.  Doesn't sound like much, right?  But let me tell you, that water was FREEZING!  And there were BABIES in it!!!

We decided to stay in Ludlow which is less that 20 miles from Warren...this is where we stayed:

The Olmsted Manor was built in 1917.  It is a beautiful place, full of fine, old furnishings and gorgeous landscaping.  We had the place to ourselves, too!  There was a Steinway in the living room, fireplaces in every room (too hot to start 'em, though!), stained glass windows, a grand oak stairway, oriental rugs everywhere...kinda creepy, but very cool.  I think my favorite room was the kitchen.  It was bright an cheery. Modern yet had the most wonderful old stove!  I've decided I want one.  Bad.

Entrance to the driveway (sorry for stupid blogger not uploading the picture right).

Here is a little tour.  First, the Dining Room.

 (Blogger is making me MAD. These pictures were oriented right side up, but when I uploaded them here, they got laid down and I can't seem to fix them. SORRY!)

This is that stove. Isn't it great?

The entrance.

The main staircase. Let's go up!

 This was our room...

Our room had the neatest little sun porch with a bed on it.  After the kitchen, this was my favorite room!  I could imagine spending hours sitting there reading.

 This was Sam's room...

The bathroom is Sam's room was beautiful...the colors and layout of the tiles, the half circle shower...very nice.

 This was a creepy little "servant's room" down the hall from us.  For whatever reason, there was an old teddy bear propped up in a chair.  It was creepy. Trust me.

Now this is where the trule creepiness begins.  When we first got there, I went through all the rooms in the house taking pictures.  The one below was of the bedroom next to ours.  Not a good picture as I've blown it up.  See, that bed is made perfectly, right?

The morning we left, I again went through all the rooms.  I noticed in the room above, that in the bathroom, there were 2 towels on the floor.  Had they been there before?  I couldn't remember.  I picked them up and they were dry, as was the shower.  Strange, but whatever.  Then George calls me to come look at something...

 He asked if I'd messed up the bed.  No.  Maybe Sam did, to mess with us.  No.  I though that maybe it was possible to have not noticed it before.  I didn't realize at the time that I had taken a picture of it a couple days before.  You can imagine how we all reacted when I looked through my camera later and saw that I DID have a picture of that bed and that it WASN'T MESSED UP!

NOTE:  WE WERE THE ONLY PEOPLE STAYING IN THAT HOUSE THAT WEEKEND.  NO ONE ELSE WAS THERE - NO STAFF OR ANYTHING!

Hmmmm.....George had stayed there before, and although nothing had ever happened to him, he had heard other people talk about strange things...being pushed, blankets being pulled off them, etc.  I wonder if all the incidents happened in THAT bedroom?

 Just some random shots of the grounds around the house, "Olmsted Manor".

 A labyrinth across the street.  It's nice, but George can make them much better than that.

 GEOWOODSTOCK!!!  Trust me, this doesn't even come close to showing how many people were there.  Last I heard, it was over 5,000!

Ana made this her 5000th find.  I would've burned if I hadn't told her to look at her sign.

 Off in search of caches!

 Saw this street and had to get a picture of it for my friend, Heather, who's caching name is "Blueye"!

Fresh bear print...YIKES!  Can you see it?

Back in the Manor...there is a bowling alley up in the attic.  Very cool and very old!

Off to Niagara Falls!  we made a pitstop at Kinzua Dam...amazing with awesome views.

Niagara Falls!  The view from the Canadian side is better, but without passports, Sam and I couldn't go across the bridge.  Still a pretty amazing view.

 Hello, Canada!

That's the top edge of one of the Falls...I'd hate to go over that in a barrel!

 My guys!

(again, not a great picture, but I like it)

I have a few other picture that are still on my phone.  I'll try to post a couple of them later.  Now it's time to get off the computer and start cleaning the house!  After that, we're planning on going to the Deering Estate.  They are offering free admission today. Hopefully it won't be too crowded and I'll be able to get some pictures for here and my "Remembering Old Miami" blog.

A little caching around The Gables

Yesterday we did a little caching around Coral Gables.  We didn't cache too long as Lois's "3 DNF" rule was in effect.  Anyway, the following are just a few shots I took while we were out messing around.  Not much...

No, I didn't find this in a cache...*sigh*...I just have to take a picture of it every now and then...

Holiday Weekend Caching

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Every holiday, we manage to run out and grab at least one cache.  Well, this long weekend, we managed to get a few, including 3 puzzle caches - one of which was out 1,700th find!  The black thing that Aidan is holding is a magnetic keyholder.  One of the most hated, and yet overused cache containers out there.  BUT, urban caching can be limited as to places for hiding an ammo can, so we put up with the key holders.  At least this one required some thought put into solving the puzzle (and thanks to Lj for bringing it all into place!).

Friday, my love and I paddled the yak out to Chicken Key so he could get the cache that's hidden there.  It's only about 3.5 miles roundtrip, but throw in currents and winds across an open Bay and it can seem much further.

The water was too cold for me to swim in.  Couldn't make it in past my crotch!

The water was so clear, but it's not the pretty blue you see in the Keys.  And no sandy beaches, either!

And let's see...the day before that was Thanksgiving and we had dinner with good friends at Texas de Brazil on Miami Beach. Not bad, but not the usual turkey dinner!  Afterwards, we were all pretty stuffed so we walked to go find a cache nearby.  It's pretty strange that Miami Beach doesn't have more caches than it does...odd.

So that was my weekend.  The Christmas stuff is down from the attic, but we've yet to start decorating.  I do NOT do Black Friday and have no shopping done yet.  As much as I swear "Next year, I'll be done by Halloween", it never happens.  I fully plan on scurrying around like a chicken with her head cut off all the way up to Christmas Eve, buying presents.  Unless I do like I've done before and just try to make my presents.

Meh, why worry about it now?  We have, what...25 days before Christmas...plenty of time....yeah...

Panther and Ridley Did It!!!!

My friends Chris and Misti (aka the SeaAggies for any cachers out there...aka Panther and Ridley-their AT names) completed hiking the Appalachian Trail yesterday.  Over two thousand miles....they did it!  I am so very happy and excited for them.  Most people only dream of doing something like that, but they DID IT!

Congratulations, guys!

(sorry guys, but I had to copy this pic of the two of you...don't be mad!)

Please check out Misti's blog  OCEANIC WILDERNESS  and read about their adventure and see some awesome pictures, too. 

Porcupines, Allegany State Park and Creepy Angels

This weekend, I flew up to PA to go to a geoevent in Allegany State Park in New York.  This big, stumpy squirrel was not in New York, but in my boyfriend's yard.  We don't get squirrels that big back home unless they're Fox Squirrels...  There was also a cute little bunny next to him, but I didn't get a good shot of them together.

Ok, so now we are out of the yard and on the way to New York...  we passed alot of old barns that have Mailpouch Tobacco ads painted on them. I want to start taking a picture of every one I see.

Some old building even have it painted on them.  It's faded, but you can still see it.

We stopped in Bradford, PA at the Zippo Case Museum.  It was a pretty neat place even if you don't collect Zippos or Case knives. There's a cache out front, but we couldn't find it. Neither could the other people who were hunting for it.  Oh well... our first DNF of the weekend :(

Yay!!!  Crossing into New York!

The first place we stopped in Allegany State Park was the Red House Lodge.  It was so beautiful inside, but reminded me of something out of a Stephen King novel.

After some driving around and looking, we finally found the HQ for the event.  

We went in, checked everything out and signed the log.

We set up and camp and spent some time exploring...and caching, of course!  

Never did see any beavers, but did see a few of their dams...

And thankfully we didn't see any bears, either!

We stopped to do an Earth Cache at Quaker Lake.  SO pretty!

I believe these are flowers on a Hawthorn tree.  Very pretty but very thorny.

Buttercups and something...can't remember the name, but they were all over the place and very pretty.

Science Lake

These little pumps are all over the place!  Never saw any of them actually pumping, though.

After seeing 7 + roadkill porcupines, we finally spotted a live one!  I got so close to him and he stood his ground...old? sick?  or just their demeanor since they have very few enemies?

We also saw a beautiful skunk one night in ASP, but seeing this guy was a highlight of my weekend.

We stopped in Ludlow to see the Olmstead Manor.  An old, extremely haunted house that I believe belongs to the United Methodist Church (maybe?).

A really bad picture of some really pretty "Forget-Me-Nots".

Gotta love it!

In the town of Brookville, there is a cache called Scripture Rocks.  Way back in the woods, totally unmarked by any signs or arrows, are hundreds of bolders carved with Biblical verses.  One man did it all by himself about 100 years ago.  That's what's so cool about caching...you see places you never knew existed!

Any thoughts as to what these angels are all about?  I mean, I see the stars all over the place, and they are really cool (I have one thanks to my sweetie!)...but then we started noticing these kind of creepy angels on houses. Not as many as the stars...they all appear to be the same angel...creepy if you ask me.  Does anyone know what they are about?