Celebrating Summer

The first day of summer is Bill's most favorite day of the year, totally because the light lingers the longest on this day. Who doesn't remember childhood summer evenings, playing tag or catch or trying to capture fireflies? We don't seem to have many lightening bugs in Pittsburgh; I think I've only seen a few over the decades here. The river was calm tonight; not too much traffic, recreational or otherwise. Now that we're berthed in a slip closer to the middle of the river we have a different perspective. This view is from the fly bridge looking back toward the stern. We have a new flag on the stern canopy; the previous one disappeared in a strong gale a few weeks ago.

Saturday morning we hosted an impromptu continental breakfast on the main deck as three other couples joined us to see the annual poker run commence. Each year the marina sponsors a competition for all the go-fast boats. Although it's not a race -- you simply have to pick up five cards from various points along the river and the best hand wins -- they all take off at once parallel to our dock and head down the Allegheny only to come to an abrupt halt when they reach the lock and dam two miles later. This year I got a few quick photos but the one that had us all laughing was this one: can you imagine the look on this skier's face when nearly 20 boats exploded out of the water seemingly heading toward him?

Notice the "no wake" buoy bobbing in the water? Two weeks ago the river was running so high it was completely submerged. Yet there were still eager boaters out on the river then, dodging logs and other debris just to shake off winter's lingering effects. We'll have an opportunity to take Pure Grace out this weekend as we host the first of many summer parties. Our good friends Cassandra and Garrett Eggers are moving to Cleveland next week so we'll talk ourselves hoarse before the night is over!

Tomorrow is Bill's 65th birthday and we'll celebrate the reason we're now "river liv-ers"!