Our 2025 Continued: July to September

Philadelphia is a lovely historic city. We have enjoyed every bridge tournament played there over the years. The venue is located downtown by the converted train station, Reading Terminal, with many dining options. The 2025 summer nationals were especially great because Kitty won the Mixed Board a Match teams playing with her son, as touted on the first page of this missive. We only managed 5-8 in the Grand National Teams and had a number of other low overalls as well.

Shortly after returning home we went on a road trip that included all five Great Lakes. This was to celebrate the nuptials of Oren Kriegel and Harini in the upper peninsula of Michigan. We drove through Canada and spent the night in a beach cottage on Lake Huron. Then we stopped to put our toes in Lake Michigan on the way to our hotel in Marquette on Lake Superior. The wedding was nearby at the house in the woods which Oren's Dad Steve built. The night before, they hosted a meal and a fun square dance.

Because Kitty posted many trip photos on Facebook, she got a message from Katie Thorpe inviting us to stop by for a visit on our way back through Canada. So we had a lovely time visiting with her and J.C.

One more visit on the way home was a stop with Bart's cousin Bruce and wife Cherie near Schenectady. Always a pleasure to see them.

We started September by winning a number of events at the Warwick regional. It was fun getting to know Jiang Gu, last year's top 500 winner. Back home, we had dinner at Wood-N-Tap on the Farmington River with friends Ann Clark and Dave Ehler. The food is only good but the location is gorgeous! They are members of Theatre Works in Hartford and everything we have seen there with them has been great! We also saw the Grateful Dead movie with Ann when it came to town.

We see black bears in our yard every few weeks, so we decided to learn more about them by attending a presentation at a nearby library. Click here for a link to Connecticut's site about them. Rockie has a special high pitched howl that tells us a bear is nearby. When Mark Feldman and Valerie visited, we had a mama and two cubs come by. Valerie got a great photo.

While they were visiting, we drove up to Vermont in search of foliage. While we did find some, the highlight was happening upon the Bennington Battle Monument. See episode 3 of Ken Burns' American Revolution documentary for more about that.