Site Updates

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

Photos from Newport Trip

Newport, RII was scheduled to be in Newport for a week on business but the trip wound up being unexpectedly extended into a second week. I used the opportunity to do a little bit of sightseeing on the weekend. Besides walking about 10 miles, I took tours of two mansions (The Breakers & Marble House), toured the Breaker’s stables & carriage house, walked part of the Cliff Walk and did some shopping. If you have to unexpectedly get stuck somewhere, Newport is a good choice!

Check out the photos here.

Posted by Michael in Life, Photography, Site Updates

Western Maryland & West Virginia photos

Western MD Railroad

I just added 3 new photo albums. They are all from my trip to Western Maryland and West Virginia. We visited the Spruce Forest Artisan Village & Penn Alps restaurant. The bulk of our trip was spent in Frostburg & Cumberland, where we took a ride on the Western maryland Scenic Railroad. On the way home we spent 2 days in Charles Town and Harper’s Ferry. It was a fun couple of days. It was nice to send time in some very old, very small towns for a change and Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park is one of the most interesting NPS sites I’ve been to.

Posted by Michael in Life, Photography, Site Updates

Photography Category

Since more and more my blog posts seem to be about adding new photos to my site, I’ve now added a new Photography category to the blog.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates

Less Tweet Clutter

Instead of my blog creating post of all of my tweets each day, it will instead wait until the end of the week to gather all my my tweets for the week from my Twitter account. I’m hoping this will cut down on the burying of my real posts. I also went back and consolidated my previous tweet posts. I guess this also means I should post to my blog more often!

Posted by Michael in Site Updates

Jacksonville Photos

JacksonvilleI finally posted my photos from my week in Jacksonville, Florida. As i say on the photo album page, I spent most of the week indoors at a conference, but did get outside to take a few quick photos.

Check them out here.

Posted by Michael in Life, Photography, Site Updates

Christmas at Longwood Photos

Longwood GardensLongwood Gardens is a fun place to visit all year long but at Christmas time it’s a totally different place. The amount of lights and flowers is astounding. They’ve really exapanded the displays since the last time I was there two years ago.

Because we were there after dark this year, there aren’t as many great photos, but there was plenty of cold weather and Christmas lights which is all it takes to make me happy apparently! Check out the photos here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates

Koziar’s Christmas Village

KoziarsAfter going to the Bethlehem Chriskindlmarkt, we stopped at Koziar’s Christmas Village. It was the first time I’ve been there since I was a little kid. It’s only grown more impressive over the years. My photos don’t do it justice.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates

Two Chriskindlmarkts

BethlehemWhen I think of Christmas it conjures images of small towns with rows of little stores selling gifts in Germany. OK, so maybe not the Germany part. However, a really cool Christmas tradition does come from Germany. It’s the Chriskindlmarkt. Bethlehem, PA (a.k.a. Christmas City) puts on a huge one every year. I finally got a chance to go to it this year. It was a fun day of shopping and some sightseeing.

Then i heard Philadelphia was putting on one of their own at City Hall. It was called the Philadelphia Christmas Village. While not as big it will hopefully be an annual event because it has real potential.

Check out my photos from Bethlehem and then take a look at my photos of Philadelphia.

Posted by Michael in Life, Photography, Site Updates

Berks County Covered Bridges

Wertzs Bridge

I finally found time to go on another covered bridge tour. If you haven’t seen my previous photos from the Lehigh Valley, you can check them out here. Then go check out my newest photos from the covered bridges of Berks County. I’m sure they aren’t the last ones you’ll see posted.

The photos also include some pictures of the Reading area including the William Penn Memorial Fire Tower and Pagoda.

Posted by Michael in Interesting Links, Life, Photography, Site Updates

Tribute to my Father – emilgatti.com

Emil GattiIt doesn’t seem at all possible that more than 6 months have passed since the death of my father. I’ve created memorial pages on my genealogy site for other family members, but I felt like I should make something more substantial for my Dad. What started out as a page on my family tree site has slowly evolved into emilgatti.com.

Please feel free to visit and take a look at the photos, stories, biography, etc. Then if you have anything you’d like to add about my Dad, please submit it by using the links on the site. I know that there are more stories and details to be added, but I rely on the the people who know them to share them.

Go to www.emilgatti.com for info.

Posted by Michael in Genealogy, Life, Site Updates