h heeled fuchsia colored sandals to match the dress I’d be wearing), but bought 2 ½ inch heeled shoes as well, so we could decide on the day which ones I’d wear. When Sandy was home from work and saw my sandals, the first thing she exclaimed was “Oh, Carlos Santana!” I hadn’t a clue what she was talking about, but soon became enlightened that Carlos Santana is a top shoe designer. I’d only bought them because the color was right, the heel height was higher than I’ve worn in close to 45 years, and most important, I liked them! Bob was back for a restful hour after the golf outing, and then we were off 2-3 miles to the Karrington Woods neighborhood, where Chris & Linda live, as well as our other mutual friends, Tom & Amy Molenda. We left our car at the Molendas’ home, and drove with them to Slippery Rock, a little college town about 35 miles further north up the I-79 from the northern area of Greater Pittsburgh where most of our friends live. There we found our way to the “North Country Brewing Co.”, which is a favorite pub of students in Slippery Rock, as well as Grove City College, which is the college a bit further north that the bride-and-groom-to-be attended, and where they met, and where the Saturday wedding 
was scheduled to take place in its chapel. Many of Justin’s relatives were there for us to meet in a lovely casual and relaxing 
atmosphere prior to the wedding, and we had a truly fun evening eating the pub’s wonderful plain food, sampling its great beers, and enjoying the company of Tom & Amy as well as Chris & Linda, and a few other old Pittsburgh friends, plus Courtney & Justin of course, Chris’s other daughter Lauren (maid of honor to be) and the other two bride.jpg)
smaids.
Friday 8th was a non-wedding-related day for us, and Bob took the opportun
ity of driving into Pittsburgh to visit his old PPG office and go for lunch with some of his former IT Dept. colleagues. Then he went to the KORYAK offices and met up with his friend/"post
-retirement employer", Suresh Ramanathan, and a few other employees of the consulting company. I spent a quiet day at the Bayer home, playing with their lovely springer spaniel, Duke, and catching up a bit on preparation of photos for this blog, and writing some more text.
In the evening Ed had a commitment to spend time with his elderly father, but Sandy, Bob and I got together with our other Rihn Strasse next door neighbors, Tony & Leslie Ferri, and the 5 of us went to a local restaurant, Atria’s, for dinner. It was great catching up with Tony & Leslie, who, like Ed & Sandy, lived next doo
r to us the whole 12 years we were in Rihn Strasse. It’s hard to believe that 7 years have passed since we were all neighbors. Outsiders might say many derogatory things about the Pittsburgh area (and they are not wrong about the weather), but we made and have kept very many good friends during our time there. How many of you reading this have not heard of, or met/know, Bill & Judi Horn, who lived across the street from us in Rihn Strasse? They “retired” to the Orlando area of Florida a few years ago, and we’ll be seeing a lot of them in November this year when we go to Orlando to spend a “timeshare exchange” week. We’re so behind in getting this blog up-to-date that it’s now football season. “GO STEELERS!” Enough Pittsburgh sentiment! I must now write about the wedding day itself:
Saturday, August 19
A nice “lie in” in the morning, save for Duke jumping on and sharing our bed with us (encouraged by us of course). Anyway, today was the day of THE WEDDING, so by late morning we were getting ready, and the Carlos Santana sandals were chosen for me to wear. Once again we drove to the Molendas’ home, and then Tom drove us and Amy to the chapel at Grove City College. This is indeed a beautiful structure, and it was quite obvious why Justin & Courtney had chosen this place (where they had both sung in the choir) as the perfect venue in which to make their marriage vows. The chapel was full of family and friends, including many old college friends of the happy couple, and the marriage ceremony was straightforward, but full of meaning. Following the ceremony and the customary hugs, etc. outside the chapel afterwards, the 4 of us found our way to The Olde Stonewall Golf Club, and its “Grand Hall” for the wedding reception. The guest tables were set up for 10, and with us at our table were Renee Burke, Jim & Candy Latch and their son Tyler, Mason & Louise Cass, and Tom & Amy Molenda. Other friends, Mark & Mary Bulger, were seated at the next table. Renee, Jim, Tom, Amy, Mark & Mary were PPG/Lynx personnel during our Pittsburgh days; Mason & Louise became friends after a small motor accident Bob had in the snow and ice near their home back in early 1999 and knowing it was too icy to continue driving home, Bob parked beside their driveway, walked up to their house, knocked on the door to ask if he could use their phone (this was before he had a cell phone!) and was greeted at the door by Louise and her easily distinguishable “not far from London” English accent. An extremely friendly British couple living so near to us—that was the start of another good friendship, and M & L soon became friends of Chris & Linda, and other PPG/Lynx friends of ours.
The short slide show now following shows all the friends mentioned above, as well as the lovely bride and groom, so I’ll write no more about the wedding and reception. It truly was a wonderful time for us—thanks Courtney & Justin for creating the reason for this day!
ity of driving into Pittsburgh to visit his old PPG office and go for lunch with some of his former IT Dept. colleagues. Then he went to the KORYAK offices and met up with his friend/"post
-retirement employer", Suresh Ramanathan, and a few other employees of the consulting company. I spent a quiet day at the Bayer home, playing with their lovely springer spaniel, Duke, and catching up a bit on preparation of photos for this blog, and writing some more text.In the evening Ed had a commitment to spend time with his elderly father, but Sandy, Bob and I got together with our other Rihn Strasse next door neighbors, Tony & Leslie Ferri, and the 5 of us went to a local restaurant, Atria’s, for dinner. It was great catching up with Tony & Leslie, who, like Ed & Sandy, lived next doo
r to us the whole 12 years we were in Rihn Strasse. It’s hard to believe that 7 years have passed since we were all neighbors. Outsiders might say many derogatory things about the Pittsburgh area (and they are not wrong about the weather), but we made and have kept very many good friends during our time there. How many of you reading this have not heard of, or met/know, Bill & Judi Horn, who lived across the street from us in Rihn Strasse? They “retired” to the Orlando area of Florida a few years ago, and we’ll be seeing a lot of them in November this year when we go to Orlando to spend a “timeshare exchange” week. We’re so behind in getting this blog up-to-date that it’s now football season. “GO STEELERS!” Enough Pittsburgh sentiment! I must now write about the wedding day itself:Saturday, August 19
A nice “lie in” in the morning, save for Duke jumping on and sharing our bed with us (encouraged by us of course). Anyway, today was the day of THE WEDDING, so by late morning we were getting ready, and the Carlos Santana sandals were chosen for me to wear. Once again we drove to the Molendas’ home, and then Tom drove us and Amy to the chapel at Grove City College. This is indeed a beautiful structure, and it was quite obvious why Justin & Courtney had chosen this place (where they had both sung in the choir) as the perfect venue in which to make their marriage vows. The chapel was full of family and friends, including many old college friends of the happy couple, and the marriage ceremony was straightforward, but full of meaning. Following the ceremony and the customary hugs, etc. outside the chapel afterwards, the 4 of us found our way to The Olde Stonewall Golf Club, and its “Grand Hall” for the wedding reception. The guest tables were set up for 10, and with us at our table were Renee Burke, Jim & Candy Latch and their son Tyler, Mason & Louise Cass, and Tom & Amy Molenda. Other friends, Mark & Mary Bulger, were seated at the next table. Renee, Jim, Tom, Amy, Mark & Mary were PPG/Lynx personnel during our Pittsburgh days; Mason & Louise became friends after a small motor accident Bob had in the snow and ice near their home back in early 1999 and knowing it was too icy to continue driving home, Bob parked beside their driveway, walked up to their house, knocked on the door to ask if he could use their phone (this was before he had a cell phone!) and was greeted at the door by Louise and her easily distinguishable “not far from London” English accent. An extremely friendly British couple living so near to us—that was the start of another good friendship, and M & L soon became friends of Chris & Linda, and other PPG/Lynx friends of ours.
The short slide show now following shows all the friends mentioned above, as well as the lovely bride and groom, so I’ll write no more about the wedding and reception. It truly was a wonderful time for us—thanks Courtney & Justin for creating the reason for this day!
The next morning we attended a brunch at Chris & Linda’s home, to which we had been invited along with other friends and relatives who had come from “out of town” for the wedding. Linda had set up a table of delicious food in their lovely big kitchen, and a few good platefuls were enjoyed along with coffee and/or champagne and orange juice. All our photos taken at the wedding had already been downloaded to our laptop, which we took with us, and some of those present enjoyed seeing photos so soon after the event. It gave Alison particular pleasure to show the pictures to Linda’s 92 year old mother, who looked them over 2 or 3 times. Chris’s parents also took great interest in the pictures and the marvels of modern technology that allowed them to be viewed large and clear on the computer screen.
We were back at Ed & Sandy’s by early afternoon, and went out with them to a local winery (La Casa Narcissi) for a look around, and a little tasting and buying. This winery had not been there when we lived in the area, so E&S thought it would be nice for us to see what had been done there. Very impressive. On our return to Rihn Strasse we walked down the street to visit Ray & Roseann Anderson. Ray was the developer of Rihn Strasse, and still lives in the original home that was on the land before development. We spent an hour or so catching up with them, and their youngest son, Bobby, who was also there. We talked about this blog, and Bobby gave us a good tip concerning returning to the blog after clicking on a photo to see it larger, which has proved to be very useful. Just use the “backspace” key on the keyboard instead of rolling the mouse up to the “back” arrow/icon on the screen. Never too late to learn something new, although it seems a lot of people already knew about this action.
In the evening Ed & Sandy’s daughter Lauren arrived home from her extra week of vacation in South Carolina, and all five of us went out for a “goodbye” meal at the North Park Clubhouse restaurant. We were up early next morning (Monday) and bade our farewells to Ed & Sandy as they each left for work, and then we were soon packed up and off on our way to Melanie, David & Indigo’s home. Our sincere thanks to Ed & Sandy for their very kind hospitality during this short visit to the Pittsburgh area.
We were back at Ed & Sandy’s by early afternoon, and went out with them to a local winery (La Casa Narcissi) for a look around, and a little tasting and buying. This winery had not been there when we lived in the area, so E&S thought it would be nice for us to see what had been done there. Very impressive. On our return to Rihn Strasse we walked down the street to visit Ray & Roseann Anderson. Ray was the developer of Rihn Strasse, and still lives in the original home that was on the land before development. We spent an hour or so catching up with them, and their youngest son, Bobby, who was also there. We talked about this blog, and Bobby gave us a good tip concerning returning to the blog after clicking on a photo to see it larger, which has proved to be very useful. Just use the “backspace” key on the keyboard instead of rolling the mouse up to the “back” arrow/icon on the screen. Never too late to learn something new, although it seems a lot of people already knew about this action.
In the evening Ed & Sandy’s daughter Lauren arrived home from her extra week of vacation in South Carolina, and all five of us went out for a “goodbye” meal at the North Park Clubhouse restaurant. We were up early next morning (Monday) and bade our farewells to Ed & Sandy as they each left for work, and then we were soon packed up and off on our way to Melanie, David & Indigo’s home. Our sincere thanks to Ed & Sandy for their very kind hospitality during this short visit to the Pittsburgh area.
1 comment:
wow - them's some sexy shoes mamma! A lovely post and I actually got all teary about you talking about your good Pittsburgh friends, many of course, whom we remember from all out Pittsburgh trips and the wonderful anniversary party etc. Now, bring it home baby!
Love, Melanie
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