Day 10 - Pittsburgh to Cincinnati Ohio

Day 10 - Today we had time to visit the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky, which is just across the river from our concert at Shiloh United Methodist in Ohio.  Then some of us stayed at host homes in Indiana.  Almost four corners here, but not quite.  At the aquarium we walked below and above sharks, petted them and enjoyed penguins being fed and seeing seahorses and white alligators.

Once at the church we enjoyed a wonderful "taste of Cincinnati" dinner.  We had BBQ from Montgomery Inn, pizza from La Rosa's, and of course Skyline ("Cincinnati") Chili, which involves spaghetti, chocolate, cinnamon, onions and mounds of cheese and is delicious.  In the morning some of us had goetta, which involves beef and pork and pin oats made into a patty.  Also delicious.  The concert was very well attended and the kids played wonderfully..

Gina was reunited with old friends from the area. And we had one former ringer, Jeff Herman, Emma's uncle, who is Cullen's cousin's cousin's uncle and who is Pam (Herman) Allison's brother, so Dave's brother in law, and Eric's brother's brother in law's brother in law, and Janette's brother in law's brother in law's brother in law and Mary Ann Allison's daughter in law's brother and so Mary Ann's granddaughter's uncle.  That's probably enough of that but honestly I could go on and on.

We also had Doug Hattery and all of his family from the area at the concert.  It was great to see and meet them.

No photoshopping occurred in the creation of these images, even the ones showing a bit more about life on the bus.  Guitars, singing and Mario Kart!

Day 9 - DC to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

Number 9  Number 9 - Another successful day!

We stopped an hour or so outside of DC at a Maryland state park - Cunningham Falls - where we made a short hike to a waterfall and enjoyed nature for a bit.  After that we traveled into Pittsburgh and were in awe of the beauty of tonight's venue.  An historic church patterned after cathedrals in France, this church features 3 of the largest Tiffany glass windows in the world.  It's a downtown church with a smaller congregation.  The audience was also smaller, but very appreciative and fed us both dinner and breakfast the next morning to send us on our way.

These are unaltered images:

Day 8 - Washington DC Day Three - Concert at the George Washington Masonic Memorial

Day 8 - Another amazing day in DC.  After another great breakfast at our usual reserved tables we started the day with an exclusive tour of the Perry Belmont Mansion.  This is the home of the International Order of the Eastern Star, part of the Masonic family of fraternal organizations.  We learned a lot about the Masons today, from this tour, our tour of the Memorial where we performed tonight and from Alicia G and Katie.  Notable masons include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and John Lay.  Ruth Lay and Katie and Alicia are members of auxiliary organizations.

The mansion is an amazing and opulent "home" in the Dupont Circle area of DC.  As part of the tour Ed got to play an historic organ, which included a set of chimes and also a gold leaf Steinway piano, one of only two in the world.  We saw priceless Ming Dynasty vases, and Tiffany vases that started at $60,000.  We asked the ringers to make a wide path around almost everything in the mansion.  And to hold the railings while going up and down the stairs.   Every year we try to find something new for Ed he has never done in all his years on tour.  Katie arranged the golden piano and Terry, she'd like you to note, she wins!

We made a quick stop in Georgetown to see the University and then went to Georgetown Cupcakes, made famous by the TV show DC Cupcakes, and  Pie Sisters, a little shop that isn't famous but makes some mean pie.

After some time at the hotel to refocus we traveled to the Washington Masonic Memorial.  What a venue!  We took a tour of the memorial, and then set up and played in a very cool concert hall.  We didn't get a big crowd, but we did get several former ringers and the kids played great.  The alumni included Nicole Howell Meek, Tracee Gross Sutton, Tammy Stolen Hettinger, Melody McNeal Moore, Geoff Lay and Randy Milligan (ringer #33)!

Here is visual proof that all of this actually happened: