Site Updates

New features or changes on Michael’s Piece of the Web

16
Nov
2024

National Harbor Photos

Visiting National Harbor in the Washington, DC suburb of Oxen Hill, MD for Christmas was on my list for a while. Marriott puts on a yearly Christmas extravaganza at all of its Gaylord hotels and National Harbor is the most convenient for us. The centerpiece is their “ICE!” display which features 2 million pounds of ice carved into a walkthrough display kept at 9 degrees. Don’t worry, they provide you with a parka. When I heard the 2022 theme was A Christmas Story, we decided to make this one of the first trips we took as the COVID pandemic was in its last throes. It was a fun trip and certainly put us in the mood for Christmas! Take a look at all of the photos here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates, 0 comments
13
Nov
2024

Christmas at Peddler’s Village Photos

It’s always fun to walk around Peddler’s Village and get some Christmas shopping done. This visit was on a rainy evening, but the wet sidewalks just made the Christmas lights look even more magical. We also walked across the street to check out their annual gingerbread house competition entrees. The judging was already complete but we saw some cool creations. View the photos here.

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10
Nov
2024

Alton Brown in Bethlehem Photos

I’ve seen all of Alton Brown’s previous live shows. So, when he announced he’d be doing a Christmas version of Beyond the Eats in 2022 and one of the stops was Bethlehem, PA, I had to go. Besides, we usually go there for the annual Christkindlmarkt anyway. So, we got a see a really cool show and shopped the market on a slightly rainy day avoiding the crowds. It was a win-win! Check out the photos here.

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05
Dec
2022

Easton Bacon Festival Photos

A few years ago, we went to Easton, PA for their garlic festival and it was a lot of fun. Check that out here. So, when we heard they were having a bacon festival, we knew we wanted to go. We braved the massive crowd and sampled some delicious bacon products. We also watched the hog calling contest (seriously). We might have hung around longer, but the crowds were getting to be a little too much. I’m really glad they had a great turnout, but it made it really hard to walk around.

Take a look at the photos here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
04
Dec
2022

Mount Vernon Photos

While in the DC Metro area visiting my cousin, we took a side trip to Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. They were having a “Colonial Market and Fair” which meant there was more going on there than usual. After browsing the market vendors and walking all over the grounds, we took a guided tour of the mansion. Despite being from Philadelphia and having been in many of the buildings where our country was founded, walking through Washington’s home was fascinating and a bit awe inspiring. It portrayed him as a person, not just the mythical history book character who led our country. It also meant walking the same halls he did and seeing his work and living spaces up close. It was easy to imagine what it was like in the 1700’s when George lived there.

Check out all of the photos here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
22
Mar
2021

Winter in Wilmington Photos

I just posted some photos from another one of our socially distanced Christmas activities this past year, a visit to Winter in Wilmington. It was a light display set up in a parking lot on the waterfront in Wilmington, Delaware. You may recognize this (but you probably won’t) as the area where Joe Biden gave his victory speech when he finally won the presidency a month or so earlier. It was a fun excursion since we weren’t doing much else over the holidays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Conveniently, it also is right across the parking lot from one of our favorite seafood restaurants, Big Fish Grill, so we did some curbside pickup and took home a delicious meal. Check out the photos here. 

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
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
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
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