At Camp

We just got back from several days at camp.  We drove up December 28th and came home today.  We had hoped to stay until tomorrow, but freezing rain was forecast so we changed our plans.  It was great to see everyone at the New Years Eve party.  There was a fair amount of snow while we were there, snowing about 3 inches several times.  The rain forecast for today will spoil most of it.

Quilt 49

I made this one for my daughter.

Sanibel

The following is a hint of where we have been for the last few days.

We returned last evening from a trip to Sanibel Island, Florida.  We flew down on the 8th and back on the 13th, which is the time we usually go.  We were very surprised that we saw so few birds on the shore.  We are used to seeing lots of terns, but the only ones we saw this time were a few perched on pilings in Tarpon Bay during our sunset cruise.  The only birds on the shore were the usual sanderlings and some other shorebirds that I think were snowy plover, ruddy turnstone, black-bellied plover, and willet, but I could be wrong about all of those.  I have trouble with shorebirds at the best of times and winter plumage doesn't help.
But we did see a snowy egret in the surf.

We did the usual Ding-Darling drive and had great sightings there.
There were the usual white pelicans.

We saw about two dozen spoonbills, which was a real treat.

On a walk through the mangroves we saw lots of mangrove crabs, which probably were always there, we just had never had them pointed out to us.

We walked in the Bailey Tract and it was so nice we rented bikes on our last morning and rode through there as well.

There was a lot of wind the first few days we were there but on Monday we rented kayaks and did the Commodore Creek paddle, which was great as usual.



We didn't see much on the sunset cruise but it was still enjoyable.  As usual, there were birds on every piling.

It was a nice trip and we were sad to leave.

Westminster Bell Choir Concert

I went to the holiday concert of the Westminster Bell Choir this afternoon.  It was great, as always.  And I found a large parking lot behind the college, so I needn't have arrived so early in order to find parking.  I'll try to remember for next time.  Leaving home at 2:45 for a 4:00 concert is plenty of time to get a good seat.

Another Concert at NJPAC

We heard the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra play

• Mozart's Jupiter Symphony
• A Mozart Horn Concerto
• Beethoven's Symphony #7

We stopped at Ponte Vecchio restaurant in Old Bridge for dinner.

Thanksgiving Dinner

We went to Rooney's on the ocean in Long Branch for Thanksgiving dinner again.  I was surprised to see that some of the restaurants in Pier Village were open as well, including McLoone's.

Quilt 48

This is pattern Turbulence by Linda Warren.

A Very Busy Day

We started yesterday with another excellent talk at 55PLUS in Princeton.  The speaker was David Redlawsk, chair of the department of Political Science at the University of Delaware and until recently director of the Eagleton Center at Rutgers.  His talk was "A Post-mortem on the 2016 Presidential Election."  It was very informative.
After the lecture we had lunch at our favorite spot nearby in Kingston, then walked on the tow path for about 3 miles.
Then we drove back into Princeton, parked the car, and didn't leave again until about 10:30 at night.  We explored the art museum on campus, checked out the library which we discovered you can't use without a Princeton ID, and looked around the bookstore.
We had an early dinner then went to a lecture by Linda Greenhouse on "The Evolving Dialogue Between Courts and Legislature."  It was somewhat arcane, but interesting, and it was neat seeing her in person.
Then off to Richardson Theater for a concert by the Takacs String Quartet.  They are playing all the Beethoven quartets over a period of several months.  We'll attend two more of their concerts early next year.

Chamber Music Concert

Another great concert in the Red Bank Chamber Music series.  The New York Woodwind Quintet played music by Samuel Barber, Carl Nielsen, Claudio Monteverdi, and Felix Mendelssohn.  The last two pieces were transcribed for wind quintet by the group's French horn player.

Trip to Corning and Watkins Glen

We had a great weekend.  We drove to Corning Friday afternoon and spent the night at a very nice Staybridge Suites hotel.  We spent Saturday touring the Corning Museum of Glass and making our own glass pieces.  These are mine.






These are some of the underwater-themed pieces in the museum.




You have to wait until noon the next day to pick up your pieces, so we spent Sunday morning hiking at Watkins Glen.  My knee managed all the steps without complaint.