After returning to our car from the Old Seven Mile Bridge we drove non-stop to Key West and our hotel, the Pier House Resort & Caribbean Spa. My GPS was spot on; we had no difficulty finding the hotel. Check in was a breeze and we made it to our room in time for our first Key West sunset. It was beautiful…!

The Pier House Resort is located at 1 Duval Street. It is right in the midst of all the Key West goings on. Although it is an older resort, it is well maintained, the rooms are clean, the grounds are very nicely landscaped and manicured. There is a small beach area complete with a “top-less” section and a resident iguana named Boobs. The Pier House offers drinks and dining on-site at the Harbour View Cafe, the Wine Galley Piano Bar, the Beach Bar and Grille and the Chart Room Bar. As all you “Parrotheads” know, the Chart Room Bar was the first stop for Jimmy Buffet when he arrived in Key West way back in November of 1971. The bar tender assured us that today it is mostly unchanged from that period in time.

Our week in Key West was just wonderful. The weather was beautiful every day and the seven sunsets that we witnessed were simply gorgeous. There are plenty of things to do in Key West in the day time and at night the entertainment is unrivaled. During our stay we did a bunch of touristy things including: nightly visits to Mallory Square for the sunset celebration; a visit to the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory; gawking at the people in line for a photo at the Southernmost Point; a tour of the Key West Lighthouse & Keepers Quarters Museum; a ferry to Sunset Key for drinks, dinner and a sunset; a ride on the Conch Train; kayaking the back county mangrove islands in “Clear” kayaks; snorkeling out on the reef; nearly puking from the overwhelming smell of wet fiberglass in the Key West Aquarium; climbing the tower at the Shipwreck Museum with a slight hangover; sailing out on the Gulf of Mexico at sunset on the America 2 Schooner; drinkin lots a lager and sayin “Arrgh” and generally acting like a pirate in the Old Town Harbor by the Dinghy Docks, of course.  

Key West Tourist

30 Photos

As one would imagine, the food and drinks were out of this world. There is nothing like fresh seafood and a cold beer on an island a billion miles from responsibility. As the great Tom Waits says:

I’ve wined, dined, sipped and supped in some of the most demonstrably beamer epitomable bistros in the Los Angles metropolitan region.

Substitute “Key West” for “Los Angles” and he has it right. I complied the entire list of all the places that Robrandi and I wined and dined, and without further ado:

1. Jimmy Johnson’s Big Chill – Key Largo
2. Pilot House Marina / Restaurant / Glass Bottom Bar – Key Largo
3. Hog Heaven Sports Bar – Islamorada
4. Safari Lounge – Islamorada
5. Conch Republic Seafood Company – Key West, Old Town Harbor
6. Half Shell Raw Bar – Key West, Old Town Harbor
7. El Mason de Pepe – Key West, Mallory Square
8. Sunset Pier Restaurant – Key West
9. Latitudes Beach Restaurant – Sunset Key
10. Louie’s Backyard – Key West
11. A&B Lobster House – Key West, Old Town Harbor
12. Two Friends Patio – Key West
13. Harbour View Cafe – Key West, Pier House Resort
14. The Chart Room – Key West, Pier House Resort
15. Wine Galley Piano Bar – Key West, Pier House Resort
16. Beach Bar & Grille – Key West, Pier House Resort
17. Kelly’s Caribbean Bar, Grill & Brewery – Key West
18. Turtle Kralls Restaurant & Bar – Key West, Old Town Harbor
19. Southermost Beach Cafe – Key West
20. Bistro 245 – Key West, The Westin Key West Resort & Marina
21. Hog’s Breath Saloon – Key West
22. Sloppy Joe’s – Key West
23. Captain Tony’s Saloon – Key West
24. Hard Rock Cafe – Key West
25. Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville Cafe – Key West
26. Schooner Wharf Bar – Key West
27. Islander Bar – Miami, MIA
28. Barcardi Mojito / Lorena Garcia Cocina – Miami, MIA

Key West Restaurants

29 Photos

I know this looks like a long list but we were there for seven days. That’s only four a day. We had drinks in all of these places but in the places that we had food I can honestly say that we did not have a bad meal. If anyone is interested in additional information on any of these establishments just comment or email me back and I will give you some more opinion. Many thankx to all our friends who made recommendations. We went to all those places.

As with any vacation, the end of the week shows up much too soon. Before you know it it time to pack up and head home. I think that I can safely speak for both Robrandi and myself when I say that we truly had a wonderful time. Even though we did all these things and visited all these restaurants we found the time to slow down and enjoy each other’s company. By the end of the week the stress level was pretty low. We both fell in love, with each other and with Key West. We will be back.

One Leaf Shows The Autumn - Xing Rong

Last night was the annual Celebration of the Arts! A reading and reception for the unveiling of volume 14 of the ABSENCE 2012 Literary and Arts Review. The reception was held in the Ostermayer Room of the Student Community Center on the campus of Penn State Greater Allegheny in McKeesport, PA.

ABSENCE a magazine that showcases a selection of literary and visual art work submitted by full and part time students, faculty, staff, and alumni of Penn State Greater Allegheny. Works including original poetry, fiction, non-fiction, creative non-fiction, visual arts and photography are judged by student editors using a blind-review process to ensure that all submissions are judged solely on artistic merit. The magazine is published annually by the Penn State Greater Allegheny Press. This year the magazine printing was done by Penn State Multimedia & Print Center, University Park, PA.

From ABSENCE 2012 Volume 14 Statement of Mission:

The Mission of ABSENCE, published by Penn State Greater Allegheny Press, is an annual publication of a high quality literary and visual arts review for the PSUGA campus and surrounding community. The Review’s goal is to provide all full- and part time PSUGA students, faculty, staff, and alumni with a shared venue for their creative endeavors, and to generate interest in the arts in the Greater Allegheny community, and the Mon Valley in particular. ABSENCE also provides students the professional opportunity to prepare for careers in publishing and document design both paper and digital. Several student editors have gone on to careers in publishing.

This year I submitted 10 photographs, the maximum that can be submitted. Five of the photographs were submitted at the Fall deadline of December 12th, 2011 and five were submitted in the Spring by the February 17th, 2012 deadline. In early April I received not one but two emails from the Associate Editor, Ms Jessi Hank indicating that 6 of my 10 photographs had been selected for inclusion in the upcoming edition. Just like last year, I was extended an invitation to attend the opening reception and speak about my work. This was awesome news! Very exciting! Despite being away on vacation in Key West and not having a consistent internet connection I managed to email a response and acknowledge my attendance at the opening. Unfortunately my “75 word reflection on my creative work” did not make it in time to be included in the contributor’s notes at the back of the publication. That was one of the emails that got stuck in the queue. Oh well…

This year’s reception was similar to last year in several regards. Dr. Clifford Manlove, PhD, Senior Faculty Advisor and Publisher mc’d the event. There were hors d’oeuvres, singing, dancing, acting, poetry reading, drawings and photography. I got to talk with some of the editors, the faculty and some of the students about the publication and more importantly to me, photography. It was a really good time. My photographs were well received. I had several questions about HDR photography from the students. Hopefully I steered them in the right direction.

Unlike last year there a couple of new things. First, near the conclusion of the reception there were three short student films shown that were very entertaining. Two of them were presented by Lori Hepner, Assistant Professor of Integrative Arts and one was presented by LIQUID BONEZ (a.k.a Darian Stansbury). Some of Darian’s work can be seen here: LIQUID BONEZ

Second, at the conclusion my presentation I announced that just yesterday I had received notification from the Greater Harrisburg Arts Council that one of my photographs had been accepted into Art of the State: Pennsylvania 2012 at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. Since the student editors had just selected the same photograph for this edition of ABSENCE just before the Art of the State notification, I vowed to donate any prise money that I might receive from Art of the State back to PSUGA for their use in a future ABSENCE publication. Needless to say I got a resounding round of applause! Now we wait until the Art of the State opening on June 16th, 2012 to see if I win any awards.

I would like to again thank Dr. Manlove, all the PSUGA (pronounced “sue-ga”, I learned last night) student editors, and everyone involved in putting together this fine publication. I had a wonderful time and I am looking forward to next year. Keep your fingers crossed for Art of the State!

ABSENCE 2012 Gallery | ABSENCE 2012 Program | ABSENCE 2011 Blog

I am very happy to report that Robrandi; my best friend; my loving wife of 30 years; and I had a really great week long wedding anniversary celebration in Key West, Florida. For better or worse, we are safely back at home.

Last week we flew from Maryland’s BWI Airport to Miami’s International Airport, rented a car and drove 161 miles to Key West. Despite a small snafu getting away from the airport, it was an awesome adventure. Along the way we stopped at many places, some of which we had planned, some of which we learned from the local folk, and some that we just stumbled upon. All in all I believe that it took us about 8 hours to make this 3 hour and 15 minute drive.

Our first stop leaving airport was the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce Visitors Center to pick up the requisite tourist maps. At the Visitors Center we met a older “Fanny” type lady who suggested we visit to The Glass Bottom Bar. I know that not everyone reading this knows our Fanny so grant me this aside. For those of you who do know Fanny, let me just say this; if anyone slightly resembling Fanny advises you to visit a local drinking establishment you should drop what ever it is you are doing and go there immediately. Just the comedic relief alone will brighten your day. Back to the story… The lady said her friends owned the bar and that it was a nice place to visit. “Okay, we’ll give it a try.” I don’t know why she pointed us towards the bar and everyone else that was there towards the dolphin show …?

Before heading off to The Glass Bottom Bar, one of the places that I wanted to stop at was coming up. Jimmy Johnson’s Big Chill located along Route 1 in Key Largo. The Big Chill has a restaurant, sports bar, pool and cabanas, tiki bar and offers waterfront dining along Fisherman’s Cove. The Mahi Bites are really good and the Jumbo Steamed Shrimp are, without a doubt the best that I have eaten. The old bay seasoning that they use is not the run of the mill Old Bay we get out of the can, up here in the northeast. Rather, it is a freshly prepared spice with larger pieces of bay leaves that give the steamed shrimp a wonderful sweet spicy flavor. If you are in the vicinity I highly recommend this establishment.

From the wonderful bar staff at the Big Chill we learned of a couple of other “must see” places that we added to our itinerary. The first was Hog Heaven Sports Bar and the second was the Dead Animal Bar. Our bartender told us that both of these bars were further south along our route and he assured us that these were worth stopping at. “Okay, we’ll give em a try.”

Leaving the Big Chill after our first seafood lunch on the Keys we set out to find The Glass Bottom Bar. We had a little difficulty finding it but after we did we learned that The Pilot House Marina/Restaurant/World Famous Glass Bottom Bar does in fact have a glass bottom walkway around it’s bar area. Unfortunately is was so dirty and scratched up that we could barely see through it. I don’t believe that either Robrandi or myself bothered to snap a photo of it (Update: I did find a picture on my cell phone 5/18/2012). The rest of the place was nice and “Fanny Like” that is if Fanny ever owned a marina bar.

After the Glass Bottom Bar we came across The Rain Barrel, A Village of Artists. You can’t miss this place, it has a giant lobster in the parking lot. It is pretty much the typical tourist type gift shop however sprinkled between the typical stuff are some really talented local artists. There were actually some pretty unique sculptures and some awesome hand made jewelry makers. The village itself is nestled in the trees and nicely landscaped. It was worth the stop. Robrandi liked the stuff she bought so much that we had to stop a second time on the way back home for more stuff.

With Robrandi’s shopping spree in check and our bladders empty we jumped in the car and continued south. After several miles up ahead on the left we saw a big sign with four big ole pink pigs. Hog Heaven, indeed. Off to the left we went. As it turns out this place is a kind of a strange mix of a biker, sports, beach, harbor bar. Tra-La-La who could ask for anything more? It was quite nice.

The next stop in our journey to Key West was the Dead Animal Bar, as the locals call it. The Safari Lounge, it’s real name, is located on Islamorada, on the waterfront near Caloosa Cove Resort. The lounge is filled with all sorts of big game hunting trophies, skins, horns, antlers and artifacts from the original owner’s numerous hunting trips. It’s the kind of place you’d expect to see in northern Pennsylvania but not in the Florida Keys. In fact I didn’t see one mounted fish in the entire place. The bartender and the three drunk guys on the corner of the bar all said hello to us on the way in. One of the drunk guys even tried to take our picture but he only managed to get the ceiling. I must say that it seemed pretty unique for the area.

We left the Safari Lounge, did a time check and decided not to stop again until the Seven Mile Bridge. The Seven Mile Bridge starts on the southern end of Marathon and runs 7 miles (dah) to Little Duck Key. Actually there are two bridges: a New Seven Mile Bridge and right along side it, an Old Seven Mile Bridge. The New Seven Mile Bridge is the driving bridge. The Old Seven Mile Bridge is closed to all traffic except walking and bicycling. On the old bridge you can walk out 2 miles out to Pigeon Key. Pigeon Key was an old work camp for the workers who helped build the Flagler Railroad which ran from Miami to Key West. The walk to Pigeon Key was one of the things that we had planned to do. The sun was pretty intense, the water was very choppy and we couldn’t see any sea creatures so halfway out we decided to turn back. Oh well, on to Key West.

After returning to our car from the Old Seven Mile Bridge we drove the remaining way to Key West and our hotel, the Pier House Resort & Caribbean Spa.

The map below shows the stops we made along Route. 1 on our drive to Key West.

View MIA To Key West in a larger map

Stay tuned, more to follow…

Isabella is potty training and Lilly is nursing. Between feeding Lilly (on one side), running Isabella off to the “new bathroom”, changing a diaper, feeding Lilly (on the other side), changing another diaper, running Isabella back to the “new bathroom” cause she probably wasn’t done, changing another diaper, burping Lilly, running Isabella back to the bathroom a third time, probably for attention,  and changing another diaper, I am not sure how she manged to hold a conversation. Somewhere in the middle of all this Isabella took the lid off a bottle of water and poured it out on the dining room carpet. Holly made her sit on the step until she said sorry to Mr. Jim and Mrs. Robin. The greatest thing about all this is that both Robrandi and I thought it was hilarious. I know if it were 20 plus years ago and this was our children we would have been pitching a fit. Funny how you change over time.

During their visit I tried to photograph Isabella utilizing only the existing light which was one incandescent lamp. My ISO was set very high (2000) and I shot wide open at f2.8. Because of the high ISO the photos are somewhat grainy. Even though she was somewhat camera shy at first I managed to get a couple of good shots. She was non stop motion the whole time and I did not attempt to pose her. It was hard catching her in a still moment. The photos are somewhat soft but here are the 4 best shots. Let me know what you think.

Many thanks to Holly and Brandt for letting me share these pictures of their beautiful daughter.

Last week I had some business in the windy city of Chicago. I drove out on Monday and worked in the office thru Wednesday evening. Business concluded, I checked out early Thursday and headed north to Evanston, Illinois.

Always on the lookout for photographic opportunities, I had hoped to take advantage of my  return trip by planning out a route to eight lighthouses that I had not previously seen. The list included, Groose Point Lighthouse, Old Michigan City Lighthouse, Michigan City East Pierhead Lighthouse, Celina Lighthouse, Behm’s (Grimm Memorial) Lighthouse, Northwood Lighthouse, Huron Harbor Lighthouse, and the Vermilion Lighthouse. The driving mileage totaled up to about 500 miles with the first part of the trip in the very traffic congested Chicago area. Despite this fact I was optimistic that I would make it to every location.

The first stop was the Groose Point Lighthouse north of Chicago in the town of Evanston. As some folks may know, Evanston is home to Northwestern University. The lighthouse is on Lake Michigan just to the north of the university. Built in 1872-73 for about $35,000, it is constructed of brick and stands 113 feet tall. I made some images of the keepers house and the light from the front side and a couple from the top of the dune on the beach side. With an eye on the time I quickly made my way back to my car and on to the next light.

The next stop was 74 miles away across Lake Michigan in the town of Michigan City, Indiana. Here there are two lighthouses, Old Michigan City Light and Michigan City East Pierhead Light. Both lighthouses are owned by the city and both are located in Washington Park. The Old Michigan City light is a land based, two story house with an integrated tower. The East Pierhead Light is located in on the lake at the end of a long concrete pier and was once owned by the coast guard. After a few photographs of each light I was back in the car and off to lights four, five and six.

Next up, a 183 mile drive to a man-made lake in the state of Ohio that boasts 3 lighthouses. Grand Lake Saint Marys State Park is located south of Lima, Ohio between the towns of Saint Marys and Celina. Located on this lake are the Celina Lighthouse, Northwood (Eddystone) Lighthouse and Behm’s (Grimm Memorial) Lighthouse. Interestingly, until the construction of the Hoover Dam, Grand Lake was the largest man-made reservoir in the world. I was able to photograph all three lighthouses even though the Northwood Lighthouse is not accessible and located entirely on private property.

With 6 of 8 lighthouses in the can I pointed the car north to Lake Erie and the town of Huron. Unfortunately after I plugged in the Huron Harbor Lighthouse coordinates into my GPS it cheerfully informed me that I would not arrive in Huron until after sundown. Not one to let a little darkness get in the way I still made the 148 mile drive. I arrived on Main Street in Huron at 8:30PM. I could not see the light from the parking area and I did not have a good feeling about walking the 1/4 mile out over the stone sea wall to get to the light so I decided to officially end my tour. The Huron Harbor Lighthouse and the Vermilion Lighthouse will have to wait for another day.

This year, in talking with my eye doctor I learned that prolonged exposure to ultra-violet light is a factor in the formation of cataracts. Sunglasses help to prevent this. Why I am just learning this I do not know but I do know that my family has a propensity for cataracts. Both my grandmother and my father have had cataracts. I too, have the beginning stages of a cataract. Not to fear though, on a scale of 1 to 4 mine’s about a 0.5. My doctor assures me that I have many more years before I will have to deal with it head on.

Once I re-learned (dumb) the importance of sunglasses I went ahead and ordered a pair along with a new pair of regular glasses. Yesterday I picked up both pair and today I took my first walk along the river with my new Ray Ban Polarized Prescription Sunglasses. Holy shit…!! What a difference…!! Everything was clear, the water was a deep green, there was no glare, I could see to the bottom of the river, all the colors of everything were brighter and more saturated. I felt like I was walking in OZ.

Because of my love of photography I very rarely go anywhere without a camera and today was no exception. I had my Canon S95 advanced point & shoot with me. It has a large, roughly 2″×3″ display on the back and lots of menus and controls.  Typically, as I walk, if I see something interesting I’ll stop and shoot a photo or two and then move on. Today I came upon an interesting pile up of sticks along the waters edge. As I composed the shot I turned the camera from a landscape to a portrait orientation and much to my surprise, the display blanked, it went completely black! WTF over…! I turned it back to landscape and the display lit back up with the pile of sticks. I turned it back to portrait and it blanked again. Shit…..so I took the photo in landscape orientation and started walking again.

For the next 35 minutes as I walked, I reset the camera twice and went through every menu and setting at least three times trying to figure what I might have done to enable the magical “Portrait Orientation Display Blanking Mode”. I could not figure it out and I almost tripped and fell down the river steps into the water. Nice..! No matter how I held the camera, pointed up to the sky or pointed straight down to the ground as soon as I turned it to a portrait orientation the display blanked. By this time I was convinced that my camera was FUBAR.

As I approached the Market Street Bridge where the water starts to get deeper I noticed a very large catfish lying on the bottom of the river about 4 feet down. Now, so you know, it’s not unusual for me to speak out loud when I’m alone (I’m crazy) and just as I said, “I can see you Mr. Catfish”, it dawned on me what my camera problem was. It wasn’t my camera at all, it was my new Ray Ban Polarized Prescription Sunglasses. As I turned the camera the polarization blocked out the display. When I took off the glasses I confirmed that the display was there the whole time. I felt like such an idiot. I don’t know how I would have explained falling in the river losing my new Ray Ban Polarized Prescription Sunglasses and ruining my camera all in one lunchtime outing.

And when I got back I learned from Mr. Google:

Polarizing lenses work by filtering out horizontal light that causes glare. Imagine those slatted window blinds in an office, that’s kind of how polarizing lenses work. LCD displays also have a polarizing filter, but the “slats” are generally at around a 45 degree angle. this means when you tilt your glasses at the right angle, all of the light is filtered out and the screen becomes blank.

It’s good to learn something everyday.

National Nurse Anesthetists Week is a yearly celebration occurring in the last full week in January. It began in 1999 and this year, 2012, will mark its 13th year. This year’s theme is “Quality and Excellence in Anesthesia Care.”

From the AANA website, “Established by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA), National Nurse Anesthetists Week was created to encourage CRNAs [Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists] to take the opportunity to educate the public about anesthesia safety, questions to ask prior to undergoing surgery, and the benefits of receiving anesthesia care from nurse anesthetists” (AANA).

To kick off the celebration week my wife Robin, and her friend Natania, both of whom are practicing CRNA’s, planned and orchestrated a CRNA Dance-A-Thon. The 4 hour nonstop Latin dance marathon, hosted at the LA Fitness Club  in Camp Hill, PA raised over $3100.00 for the Central Pa Food Bank.

As a “CRNA Husband” I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph this charity event from start to finish. Here are some of the photos from the day.

I would like to personally thank everyone who contributed a donation to the food bank. Your generosity helped to make this a very successful event! A very special thanks goes out to Robin and Natania,  Sara Myers, from the Central PA Food Bank, LA Fitness and their instructors Alexis, Kelly and Flo. They were awesome and kept everyone movin and groovin the entire 4 hours. In addition, thanks to all the York College of Pennsylvania/Wellspan Health Nurse Anesthetist Program students and graduate CRNA’s for helping man the registration-education table and participating in the marathon. The YCP/Wellspan program is a top notch, class act and their students reflect it…!

All comments are welcome.

Our weekend adventure began Friday afternoon with the drive out to the great city of Pittsburgh. Robrandi, Jess, Phil and myself all rode together. Meg and Troy drove separately and met up with us later in the evening at the hotel. Along the way we stopped in Monroeville and had dinner at the El Campesino Restaurante Mexicano. Even though this is a family oriented Mexican style restaurant the food was good, the wait staff was prompt and courteous, the drinks were cold and the chips were pointy.

Leaving the restaurant, we drove through the city, across the Fort Pit Bridge and up the hill to Green Tree and the Doubletree Hotel. This hotel was previously a Marriott and then a Radisson and was just recently purchased by Hilton and turned into to a Doubletree Hotel. The hotel is just 3 miles outside the city of Pittsburgh and conveniently, they offered round-trip shuttle service to and from the Gateway Clipper Fleet at Station Square on New Years Eve. Because our celebration plans included a 3 hour cruise on the three rivers aboard the Fleet’s flagship, The Majestic, this was a perfect location for us to stay.

After checking in and depositing our luggage in our rooms we ventured downstairs to the Rivers Lounge to await the arrival of Megan and Troy. Our bartender, Mike,  was very nice and he kept us entertained with stories of his travels to Disney World, his triple bypass surgery, and how, “back in the day, this hotel was the place to be seen in Pittsburgh”. According to Mike, all the visiting professional sports teams used to stay at the hotel and it was also a common hang out for some of the Steelers. Not so much today though.

When Megan and Troy arrived we had a few more drinks, some late night munchies and then we retired for the evening. Saturday’s itinerary included a a late morning visit to my parents house in Green Tree and then back to the hotel to get ready and depart for the New Years Eve dance cruise. No one wanted to be tired for the big cruise.

Late Saturday morning we left the hotel, grabbed some Starbucks coffee and some Einstein Bros bagels up on Green Tree Road and headed to my parents house for a short visit. The visit was nice. Along with my parents, we got to see two of my brothers, three of the nieces/nephews and Elwood, the dog who never blinks. Elwood loves Jessie and stared at her the entire time. After saying our goodbyes we returned to the hotel to begin getting ready for the evening dance cruise.

Back at the hotel, as everyone got ready I made a food run up to Vincent’s of Green Tree. Vincent’s is a small restaurant on Mansfield Avenue offering Italian cuisine and pizza. It’s actually pretty good. The cruise offered snacks but not dinner so we did Vincent’s. Close to 7:00PM we all met in the hotel lobby to board the shuttle for the trip to Station Square and the boat dock. The shuttle, it turns out was a Charter School Bus. The trip to Station Square was only 15 minutes but our bus driver drove like a crazy man and when we arrived, we were all feeling a bit queasy. Robrandi remarked that after drinking all night the return trip was going to be interesting if we had the same crazy driver.

Our boarding time for the cruise was 8:30PM so having arrived a 7:15PM we had some time to kill. Right up the street from the Gateway Clipper Fleet dock are like 3 or 4 bars including Pittsburgh’s Hard Rock Cafe, Buckhead Saloon and Bar Louie. We decided to stop at Bar Louie for some “Pre-Cruise” cocktails. Bar Louie is a serious drinking establishment. It has one of the biggest bars that I have seen in a long time. We found a nice table near the bar and had a few rounds. At 8:30PM we left and made our way over tho the Gateway Clipper Fleet dock.

When we arrived at the dock to board the cruise ship we learned that we would be sailing on the Gateway Empress and not The Majestic. The First Mate informed us that originally The Majestic, the larger of the two ships, had a band and the Gateway Empress had a DJ. Because they booked slightly over 500 people for the DJ and only 240 people for the band they had to switch the ships. We sailed on the Gateway Empress with 240 people and the band called Twice As Nice. The Majestic left the dock with 500 people and a DJ.

Once we had the correct ship, boarding was easy. You had to be 21 to board the cruise but I don’t think anyone’s id was checked. On the gangway we stopped and had our picture taken by Sharpshooter Lab. They came around later in the cruise and sold the photos that they took at boarding time. There was an 8×10, a 5×7 and 2 wallets. I think the whole package was $25.00. Upon boarding we were given our table assignment, table 208 on the second floor. When we arrived at our table our waitress for the evening greeted us and took our drink orders. There were several snack tables set up with crackers, cheeses, fruits, chips and pretzels. We dug right in. The ship was all decked out in balloons, streamers, mirror ball and full New Years Eve regalia. It was awesome…!!

At 9:30PM the gangway swung free and we set sail up the Monongahela River.

The cruise lasted 3 hours from 9:30PM until 12:30PM. During this time we sailed up the Monongahela, back down around the point and up the Allegheny River. The timing was such that we sailed up the Allegheny and came back down entering the Ohio River and facing the city just prior to the New Year. The captain’s timing was impeccable. The band, Twice As Nice played the entire time and they were very good. They played a bunch of oldies with lots of slow songs mixed in. There was dancing, drinking, singing, drinking and picture taking aplenty.

With the New Year appropriately rang in and the ship docked, someone got the bright idea to gather up as many of the remaining helium filled balloons as possible and take them out and about the town. The crew were delighted because every balloon that we took meant one less for them to clean up. After posing on the dock for the requisite New Years Cruise Balloon Photos it was back down the street to Bar Louie to show off our plundered booty (hey that rhymes).

No one thought for a second before entering the bar with with over 6 dozen balloons in tow…Hell No…we just barged right in. It was great. We rushed right up to the same table we had at the beginning of the night and set up shop. Somehow our table number, 208, magically appeared, and all sorts of bar patrons came up to have their pictures taken in front of our Balloon Spectacle. I’m not sure if we were the hit of the bar or not, but it was hilarious.

One hour and several more cocktails later we had to leave Bar Balloonie (used to be Louie) to catch the final shuttle back to our hotel. As quickly as we rushed in, we rushed back out onto the street, balloons in tow and headed for the bus. As much as we thought about entering the bar with the balloons, we thought even less about entering the bus with the them. So…onto the bus, with the same crazy driver, and back to the back seats we went. The bus driver didn’t say anything about our Balloon Horde and I’m glad he had side mirrors to see out of because you couldn’t see jack out of the back windows. After we boarded the bus two couples got on behind us and sat down a few seats in front of us and then we were off on the return trip.

Shortly after leaving the parking lot it became apparent that at least one, if not more of the riders were going to become ill. I am not sure if this was due to excessive drinking, excessive bus swaying by the crazy bus driver or a combination of both. I guess it really didn’t matter which, and I’m sure that is why our Chartered School Bus came complete with a Body Fluid Cleanup Kit.  Next one of the girls from the two couples that sat in front of us stood up, put down the window at her seat and began to hurl out into the night. Me being the avid photographer that I am, could not let a photo opportunity like this go by so I snapped  a few pictures of this girl with her head out the window and I believe that someone said, “if she is going to be sick then I’m going to be sick as well”….and then all hell broke loose…!! The two guys in their group jumped up and charged to the back of the bus with one of the guys yelling at us to stop insulting his wife. Whoa dude….. no one insulted your wife, and we all simultaneously yelled at these two, to grow up, sit down and stop acting like jackasses. It was New Years for crying out loud. Well…that didn’t work, the guys advanced forward and a minor scuffle immediately ensued. Fortunately for everyone the scuffle did not last very long, in fact after one of the guys wound up on the bus floor and at the first sight of the blood on the other guys face, it pretty much resolved itself. Meanwhile, Mr. Crazy Bus Driver had his pedal to the medal and he never stopped the bus the entire time. We arrived back at the hotel in about 13 minutes from the time we got on. Once back at the hotel we all got off the bus and pretty much went on our way. Yes, in case you were wondering, no balloons were broken and they all made it off the bus into one of our hotel rooms…!

Once we made it back to our rooms we chilled out for awhile, changed into more comfortable clothes and all decided to make a trip to the Rivers Lounge for one last cocktail. Standing in the hallway we realized that it was 3:00AM and that the bar was closed. Everyone chuckled and this was the official end to our 2012 New Year Celebration.

Despite having grown up, spending my first 20 years or so in Pittsburgh, I could not remember the street at the top of Mt Washington. It’s Grandview Avenue. All I could remember was Carson Street, which as it turns out, is the street at the bottom of Mt. Washington. Not knowing for sure, we wound up setting the GPS for the address of the Duquesne Incline and hoped for the best. After an uneventful drive we arrived at the Duquesne Incline Lower Station at about 4:35 PM. The sun light on the buildings was awesome but we were at the bottom of the mountain. We parked in the Station Square parking lot along the Monongahela River and attempted to catch a incline ride to the top before the sun went completely down. The line for the incline was out the station door across the elevated bridge over Carson Street and almost down into the Station Square Parking lot…!! It took us another hour and eight minutes to get to the top of Mt. Washington, a trip that normally takes about 5 minutes. Needless to say we missed the sun light.

Once at the observation platform, at the upper station, we photographed the Pittsburgh skyline, in the dark for about 45 minutes. We both got some great photos of the city, all lit up, including Heinz Field, The Science Center, Fort Pitt, Point State Park and a beautiful lighted Christmas Tree near the point fountain. Last evening I presented this photo at the Harrisburg Camera Club’s print critique and received a good review and many complements. In fact, today I received an inquiry for the purchase of a matted copy. Yeah…!!! I hope everyone enjoys it.