21
Mar
2021

South Jersey Christmas Lights Photos

I’ve finally gotten around to posting the few photos I have from this last Christmas. In a normal non-COVID year, we would spend Christmas week visiting with friends and family, cooking big meals at my house, meeting them at restaurants, going to Christmas shows, traveling to their houses, etc. Of course, thanks to the pandemic, none of that was in the cards. So, we did something we haven’t done in a long time. We researched some of the most wildly decorated homes in the area and drove around to look at them. From a small home in Hi-Nella to a compound in Hammonton, we found a high tech digital light display, an entire street that goes way overboard with lawn decor, and more. It was a fun way to spend a few socially distant evenings. There’s even a video! Take a look at the photos and video here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
20
Mar
2021

Review: The Avocado Mexican Grill – Runnemede NJ

I’m always on the lookout for good Mexican food and will happily drive a long distance to get the good stuff. When I noticed that a new Mexican place had opened close to home, I had to check it out right away. With the COVID pandemic limiting us to only getting takeout, close is a good thing. Their menu includes all of the standards, so we ordered a bunch of stuff to make our own sampler. Yeah, we’d have a lot leftover, but if it’s good, who cares!
When I say the standards, I mean tamales, enchiladas, chiles rellenos and few other items. Sure, they have a lot more than this on the menu, but if they can make these items well, they can probably win me over. Well, they certainly won me over and I have a new go-to place for Mexican food! ALL of the dishes that we ordered were some of the best I’ve had anywhere. I can’t wait to go back and pick up some of their steak dishes.
I look forward to the day when it’s safe to start eating out at restaurants again because Avocado Mexican Grill will be on my list of places to go. However, their great food and close proximity to home means I’ll be ordering curbside pickup many more times between now and then! Plus, despite only interacting with the staff on the phone and at the car window, they were incredibly friendly and helpful.
Posted by Michael in Reviews
10
Dec
2020

Coronado, California Photos

Our annual meeting that’s usually in May was moved to February this year. That was a lucky change because it meant that it took place right as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning but was not so bad that we couldn’t travel. As fate would have it, this would be the last trip any of us would take for business or pleasure for quite a while. The meeting was on Coronado Island this year. In our off hours, we enjoyed a lot of delicious Mexican food in San Diego and even found ourselves an incredible Mexican diner for breakfast every morning.

Click here to view the photos.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
09
Dec
2020

Gatti Family Yahoo! Group Shutting Down 15 December 2020

It’s been quite a while since anyone, myself included, has posted to our Gatti Family Yahoo! Group. So, the news that Yahoo! is planning to shut down the Yahoo! Groups service on December 15th probably won’t upset anyone too much. However, I thought I should make sure everyone is aware of it since it’s been available for everyone’s use for over 18 years now.

I also want to take a moment to thank everyone who participated and shared volumes of invaluable family info and stories using the group over the years. It predated my family tree website and without it, we never would have had the massive reunion in 2002.

My family tree site (michaelgatti.com/familytree) is still available and hopefully I’ll finally get around to updating it someday soon. Despite the lack of updates there, I’ve still been doing a lot of genealogy research including a DNA test a few years ago and a lot of records searches recently. It’s amazing how much spare time you can find during a global pandemic!

Posted by Michael in Genealogy
06
Dec
2020

LumiNature at the Philadelphia Zoo Photos

Despite being a week away from having surgery to repair the injured knee, I decided to test my stamina and walk around the Philadelphia Zoo at night during Christmas week of 2019. There were no animals to be seen. Instead, the zoo was alive with lights. They put on a light display called LumiNature. It wasn’t a traditional Christmas light display by any means. It was more like something out of a fever dream with a giant tree make of plastic pink flamingos, talking Christmas trees, a giant polar bear made of car doors and a field of color changing penguins. It also had an educational element to it mostly talking about conservation. For me, it was also nice to get out of the house and experience something new knowing that it would be the last I’d be doing it for a while after my surgery.

Click here to view the photos.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
02
Dec
2020

National Lampoon House Photos

In December 2019, when I heard there was a guy in East Greenwich Township that decorated his home to look like Clark Griswold’s house from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, I knew I needed to go see it. On a cold and icy night, we drove down there and I’m glad we did! Besides covering his house with lights, he even had a Ford Taurus station wagon with an uprooted tree on the roof, a period Chicago Police car and Cousin’s Eddie’s RV. The little touches like a mannequin of Cousin Eddie himself, a burned out chair with a fried cat on the bottom and a disc sled with hole in it made us feel like we were in the movie. Oh, and did I mention that Clark himself was hanging from the rain gutter? His neighbors probably hate him for the crowds he draws to their dead-end street, but this guy truly wins Christmas!

Click here to view the photos.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
28
Nov
2020

Cape Breton Photos

Several years ago, when we took a vacation to the Canadian Maritimes, we had to cut Cape Breton off our schedule in Nova Scotia due to time constraints. We decided that Cape Breton deserved an entire trip to see it all, especially the Cabot Trail. This is that trip. In July and August 2019, it was the last major vacation we took before COVID curtailed our travel. Other than a short time in Halifax since that’s where we flew in and out of, we spent the vast majority of our time in cape Breton. It’s such a fascinating place. You almost feel as though you’re no longer in Canada. We experienced Gaelic, Acadian and Mi’kmaq cultures both by visiting museums/cultural centers and by talking to some locals. We also learned a lot about Alexander Graham Bell that isn’t taught in the US such as his huge impact on aviation.

The food in the Maritimes is always incredible and we literally ate lobster every single day of the trip. Some days we had it more than once! It’s also rare that we go back to a city we’ve previously visited, so while we were in Halifax, we hit one of our favorite restaurants and stood in line for Cows Creamery ice cream.

Click here to view the photos.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
24
Nov
2020

Arizona Photos

The Grand Canyon has been a bucket list vacation for a long time. In April 2019, we finally made it there. We explored every inch of the south rim and took a helicopter flight over and into the canyon.  Of course, while in Arizona, we also visited a number of other places as well. We drove a portion of Historic Route 66 and checked some roadside attractions and the cool little towns that remain along the “mother road.” We also headed into the desert to check out some more little towns, drove into the mountains for a boat ride on a mountain lake and even visited an olive mill. Yes, they grow and press olives into olive oil in the Arizona desert. Before heading home, we spent some time in the Phoenix area visiting the botanical gardens, Scottsdale, Tempe and more. Because our vacations are never dull, we spent the last evening of the trip dealing with a crazy person at the hotel. Now you have incentive click and read on!

Click here to view the photos.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
20
Nov
2020

Lancaster County Photos

I’m not usually one to go on any kind of vacation with no planning, but one Thursday night  in February 2019 I found myself booking a hotel reservation (thank goodness for Hilton points!) and packing at midnight to leave for Lancaster County PA on Friday. It would turn out to be one of the most eclectic weekends we’ve had in a long time! We drove directly to a small supermarket to buy a button that would admit us to a chili cook-off (more about that later) and then headed to downtown Lititz for their Fire and Ice Festival. The ice part consisted of 75 ice sculptures lining the streets and 20 or so ice carvers creating more sculptures as we walked around. The fire part of the evening was a fire show set to music over the duck pond in Lititz Springs Park.

On Saturday morning, we went to the local high school for the second fire phase of the festival, the chili cook-off. We tasted 14 chilies made by a variety of local chefs, each supporting a different charity. Some were better than others were. Ironically, the one Lancaster County restaurant entrant that I’m familiar with, Isaac’s, got our votes. I swear I wasn’t biased! After the cook-off, we drove around Lancaster County before enjoying a relaxing dinner at Miller’s Smorgasbord Restaurant. We’d never been there and since we were playing tourist, why not? Besides, the little spoonfuls of chili didn’t exactly fill us up at lunch. Then we headed back to the hotel, relaxed with a cup of coffee and met a scary clown in the lobby. Yes, you read that right! Zeebo, the scary clown. There’s never a dull moment on a Gatti vacation!

On Sunday, we checked out of the hotel and went back to Lititz to a wolf sanctuary. It was a fascinating place. Most of the animals there are actually wolf dogs but have too high a percentage of wolf DNA to be legally kept as pets. There are also some full-blooded wolves. They’re beautiful animals and all very well cared for. Unfortunately, thanks to the ridiculously warm weather we’ve been having, much of the snow melted and we were up to our ankles in mud the entire time. We got cleaned up and did another Lancaster tourist thing we’d never tried before, an Amish buggy tour. That was fun too. Our driver was ex-Amish, so I found it particularly interesting. He didn’t whitewash the story of the Amish. He told it like it is. It was hard to take any photos out of the buggy windows, but we learned a few things. Then we headed out of Lancaster County; stopped at Valley Forge Casino for a little gambling and dinner and then headed home.

Click here to view the photos.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
16
Nov
2020

Brandywine Zoo Photos

Everyone knows I like a good zoo. Animals are just fun to photograph. I’d never been to the Brandywine Zoo in Wilmington, Delaware even though it’s only a few minutes from home, so in July 2018 we decided to finally check it out. It’s a very small zoo, but it’s a lot of fun. You can get up close with the animals and it it’s easy to see all of it in a few hours. Of course, we chose the hottest day ever to visit, but we survived even if a few of the animals looked very tired due to the oppressive heat too.

Click here to view the photos.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates

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