Summer 2003 Ends

The kids go back to school, and we miss them!

Period Ending September 10, 2003

As we came near the end of the summer, Lars and Marty had a little treat.  At least it was a treat for Marty.  John Prine came to town to the Pavilion in Portsmouth.  I know that Jerry and Marty had a great time.  You can see the view from our Norfolk hotel room as JJ looks out.  Lars and Jeremy watch a little tube before the concert as you can see below. 

The entire crew took a ferry across the river from the hotel to the concert after a great dinner at Dixie's.  I could not hear JJ, Lars and Jeremy from where we sat, but I think they heard us.  Jerry and I sang along with every song.  We found out at the end of the concert that we had ruined it for the guy that sat next to me.  We are still looking for him to give him a butt kicking.
We made our sort of annual trip to Chincoteague.  We stayed in the new Comfort Suites.  It looked out on the channel side of the island.  This picture was taken about 7 am while the only thing rising was the fog.  The kids thought it would be stupid to get up early the last days before school. We took a long walk to find the ponies.  We came within a mile or two.  But it was a LOOOONG walk on a pretty afternoon.  You can see the sun shining through the trees, but you can't see Kate.  She was power walking for exercise and kept a pretty good distance in front of us.
Here are a couple more shots of Cindy.  This was her birthday march and she got to enjoy the trails and the beach.
It was amazing to see how the terrain changed.  While it was never hilly, the foliage changed from hardwoods to pines and from dry meadows to lush salt ponds.
Above and below this text are the before and after pictures for our backyard.  The construction of the Storage complex started by cutting down the trees.  There is not much left in many places.  What used to be dark during mid-day is now very bright.  It will take a lot of getting used to.
You can see the shed snuggled in nicely before the trees were cut down.  This picture was taken about 5:00 pm.  It looks so dark behind the shed because of all the trees thickening up this year.  I have built the ramp, but it is not in this picture.
In the picture below you can see that not much is left as far as the eye can see.  It is just short of a 1/2 mile out to the street from here and every tree is gone.  It feels like Illinois again. But they do use some pretty cool machines to cut and knock down the trees.  This is taken from the back fence so you can see how close they are to the property line.  We will sure miss that forest behind us.