Beautiful Fall

We are having beautiful fall weather.  Except for the fact that the election is still 3 1/2 weeks away, all is good!


The last day of September was the end of the five-month National Bike Challenge.  Rusty and I went to Ploughshare for free beer and prizes to celebrate Lincoln being the first-place city and NE being the first-place state for number of recorded bicycling miles!  Woo-Hoo!

Yummy food.

Part of the Just Sayin' team.

This event really inspired me to put in a lot of miles on my bike.  I rode over 2000 miles during the 5 months and already have in over 3000 miles for the year.  I rode a century in July.  I increased my average riding speed by over 2 miles per hour.  As the weather turns colder, I've backed off considerably on the riding, but I'm feeling really good about what I accomplished.


Last weekend I flew to Philadelphia to be with the Caviezel family.

This is the Coming Out event that was being held a few blocks from the Caviezel home.

Ruby gave us an impressive piano concert.

Loved our trip to the used book store to buy a book.

I visited Ruby's school and met her teachers.

...and saw her self portrait.

We made cookies and spooky drink.

On Monday I rode the Bolt Bus to NYC and met up with stepdaughter Anna and her partner, Michelle.  We had a lovely lunch together, toured Grand Central Station, and shopped.

Grand Central Station

Anna and Michlelle

These two jewelry makers perused many bead shops.

Me at the New York Public Library.

We took a nice stroll through Bryant Park.  Follow this link to learn about it's history.

After an invigorating walk from Grand Central through Times Square, I ended up in Central Park.

Playtime

The city, as viewed from the park.

Street scene as view from my coffee shop window.

I met Sam for dinner.

We ate at Trattoria Dell'Arte, which had wonderful food and crazy body-parts art.  (see nose in picture)

The entry had a bronze casting with a woman's buttocks and a sign that said, "Touch me for good luck."  To Sam's horror, I did.

Dinner before the concert

Carnegie Hall

The evening with the Philadelphia Orchestra playing Mahler 6, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, was beyond words!  If you want to see the review, check here.

Row D, seat 22 at Carnegie Hall.

I was fortunate to ride back to Philly on the Orchestra train with Sam.  It was wonderful to have Sam all to myself for an evening!

Once home, we picked the last of the veggies before the hard frost Thursday night.

Gretchen was glad to have me back home.