Saturday, September 30, 2006
Indiana/Niagara Falls Trip
Hi Everyone
We decided to work on creating our own BLOG. Here is the latest updates on our travels and lives in Pittsburgh, PA.
We just came back from a nice trip up to Holmes County, Ohio and South Bend, Indiana. Holmes County is an area in central Ohio that contains the largest Amish settlements in the US. It is a beautiful area of farms and rolling countryside with great towns like Berlin and Charm, Ohio. We ate ourselves full from town to town trying out home cooked foods like the healthy choices of fresh vegetables, sweet potatoes, noodles with chicken, fresh biscuits and the best soups and desserts we have had yet. We heartly recommend this area if you come to visit us and want to really sample Amish country. It is much different than the Lancaster area, not so commercial and more spread out and easier to drive around and view the farms and the Amish way of life. We have always liked Charm,Ohio especially during October when they have "Charm Days". It is a special time when all the Amish come to town for festivals, auctions and the like. Our visit to South Bend, Indiana allowed us to stay at a time share location for one week and see Notre Dame University, which has a beautiful setting and has an established reputation for education. We did a walking tour of the campus and sampled some of the activities there and found the campus a very lovely spot. Of course we took more time to drive out in the country to the Indiana Amish countryside and went to a trades fair that they have on Tuesday and Wednesday every week(almost 700 vendors).
After coming back from our week long trip we took a few days and rested and than drove four hours north to Niagara Falls, Canada for our first trip to the Falls. We had several days of excellent weather and saw a lot. It is a very clean and a nice area to view the Falls, especially on the Canadian side which has the best viewing. We are home now.
Rita will be starting a new job on October 2nd as a Senior Administrative Assistant for the University of Pittsburgh. She is excited about her new position as it will utilize her grant and budget skills that she did at UC Davis, in Sacramento, CA. It took three months from the time she applied, was first interviewed and started to work. The faculty waited for her to come back from California, as we were out there for Mom's memorial service and to visit family. I keep thinking about doing some x-ray or ultrasound work but most of the positions are full time or regular part time(which I know usually ends up working full time). If I could find something I wanted to do that gave me "a lot of flexibility" I might do some work to keep me busy this winter. Rita says that she would rather I stay at home and be the "cook and bottle washer" so I can be home when she gets there, so.... We ask your prayers for Rita and me as we continue to settle down here in Pittsburgh and intergrate into the community. So far Pittsburgh has been a wonderful place for us to live. The climate has been mild the past few years and we are hoping for a continued mild winter this year. We have many opportunities for recreation here and great places for us to camp with our motorhome not far from home. Fall is beginning and the colors will be beautiful in a few more weeks so we are excited to take some short trips and see the splendor. One of our favorite spots is in the Laurel Mountains where Frank Lloyd Wright's design home "Falling Water" is located
Our spiritual lives are enriched through our becoming members at Upper St. Clair Alliance Church near us and with involvement in home study groups and other church activities we have made many friends and feel more at home. Having our home very close to the downtown area was a wise choice as Rita has a lot of flexibility to take a short ride on the local train to work when she needs to. I next year will be 65 and will get free transportation within the Pittsburgh area and the train stop is only two blocks from our home. It will be fun to take it quickly downtown and walk to the library and downtown attractions.
Well this is our first update of what is going on in our lives. We have been following all of you through your Blog sites and through the family conversations and we are glad that everyone seems to be doing well. Please keep us informed, we miss everybody but it seems with planned moves for some of you we will have the good old USA covered for family. "GO STEELERS"!!!
GOD BLESS
DAN & RITA
We decided to work on creating our own BLOG. Here is the latest updates on our travels and lives in Pittsburgh, PA.
We just came back from a nice trip up to Holmes County, Ohio and South Bend, Indiana. Holmes County is an area in central Ohio that contains the largest Amish settlements in the US. It is a beautiful area of farms and rolling countryside with great towns like Berlin and Charm, Ohio. We ate ourselves full from town to town trying out home cooked foods like the healthy choices of fresh vegetables, sweet potatoes, noodles with chicken, fresh biscuits and the best soups and desserts we have had yet. We heartly recommend this area if you come to visit us and want to really sample Amish country. It is much different than the Lancaster area, not so commercial and more spread out and easier to drive around and view the farms and the Amish way of life. We have always liked Charm,Ohio especially during October when they have "Charm Days". It is a special time when all the Amish come to town for festivals, auctions and the like. Our visit to South Bend, Indiana allowed us to stay at a time share location for one week and see Notre Dame University, which has a beautiful setting and has an established reputation for education. We did a walking tour of the campus and sampled some of the activities there and found the campus a very lovely spot. Of course we took more time to drive out in the country to the Indiana Amish countryside and went to a trades fair that they have on Tuesday and Wednesday every week(almost 700 vendors).
After coming back from our week long trip we took a few days and rested and than drove four hours north to Niagara Falls, Canada for our first trip to the Falls. We had several days of excellent weather and saw a lot. It is a very clean and a nice area to view the Falls, especially on the Canadian side which has the best viewing. We are home now.
Rita will be starting a new job on October 2nd as a Senior Administrative Assistant for the University of Pittsburgh. She is excited about her new position as it will utilize her grant and budget skills that she did at UC Davis, in Sacramento, CA. It took three months from the time she applied, was first interviewed and started to work. The faculty waited for her to come back from California, as we were out there for Mom's memorial service and to visit family. I keep thinking about doing some x-ray or ultrasound work but most of the positions are full time or regular part time(which I know usually ends up working full time). If I could find something I wanted to do that gave me "a lot of flexibility" I might do some work to keep me busy this winter. Rita says that she would rather I stay at home and be the "cook and bottle washer" so I can be home when she gets there, so.... We ask your prayers for Rita and me as we continue to settle down here in Pittsburgh and intergrate into the community. So far Pittsburgh has been a wonderful place for us to live. The climate has been mild the past few years and we are hoping for a continued mild winter this year. We have many opportunities for recreation here and great places for us to camp with our motorhome not far from home. Fall is beginning and the colors will be beautiful in a few more weeks so we are excited to take some short trips and see the splendor. One of our favorite spots is in the Laurel Mountains where Frank Lloyd Wright's design home "Falling Water" is located
Our spiritual lives are enriched through our becoming members at Upper St. Clair Alliance Church near us and with involvement in home study groups and other church activities we have made many friends and feel more at home. Having our home very close to the downtown area was a wise choice as Rita has a lot of flexibility to take a short ride on the local train to work when she needs to. I next year will be 65 and will get free transportation within the Pittsburgh area and the train stop is only two blocks from our home. It will be fun to take it quickly downtown and walk to the library and downtown attractions.
Well this is our first update of what is going on in our lives. We have been following all of you through your Blog sites and through the family conversations and we are glad that everyone seems to be doing well. Please keep us informed, we miss everybody but it seems with planned moves for some of you we will have the good old USA covered for family. "GO STEELERS"!!!
GOD BLESS
DAN & RITA
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