Sunday Up the River

As you will remember from yesterday, Dear Readers, Agnes and I had driven up to Pittsburgh for the Labor Day weekend to visit my Father. My sister and youngest brother also live in the area, and we'd also looked forward to seeing them. And then our son Jason and his family had driven over from Dayton, Ohio, in a surprise visit. Yesterday, we packed up the whole group and drove up to the teeming megalopolis of Franklin, Pennsylvania, to the fishing cabin Dad built for the family on the banks of the Allegheny River back in 1966, for an end of summer picnic blast. Of course, there are pictures...

Welcome to ... well ... our place ...

The view from the front porch ...

Hello from up the Allegheny!

My sister Lisa, Dad, and I ...

The kids discovered that a box fan, a few bunks, some sheets, and a few strategically-placed clothespins can make a pretty cool air tent upstairs in the loft...

The cabin is full of the little odds and ends that the family has accumulated over the years. What would a fishing cabin be without a Fishmas Tree?

Everybody had a job to do. Our grandson Joe demonstrates the proper technique for shucking the corn that went with the ribs we grilled...

And his brother Noah demonstrates the proper etiquette for eating it...

And, of course, there were the obligatory group photos. Here's Dad with three of the four sibs - my brother Paul, Sister Lisa, and I (our brother Mark lives in Florida, and wasn't there) ...

Our oldest granddaughter is Marcy, who is now 10 (!). She has boundless respect for her grandfather ...
Great Granddad is now up to 12 grandchildren and five great-grandchilden. Since I didn't bring my wide-angle lens (and the entire family wasn't there), we had to settle for two of the grandchildren (my sister's son Ed and daughter Elena) and the Ohio Munchkins (Noah, Marcy, and Joe). We're still working on the "get everybody to smile and look at the camera" thing ...

Am I a lucky guy, or what? Not only do I have the world's best wife ...

I've also got the world's greatest daughter-in-law ...

It has been a great weekend. The weather was cool and partly cloudy, the food (fresh corn on the cob, ribs, and Brenda's vegetable soup) was great, the scenery as wonderful as only a Pennsylvania summer can provide, and we had four generations of the family under one roof for a day. I got to see my brother Paul and his wife Brenda for the first time in several years (he usually manages to be working the wrong shifts when we're in town), and Great-Grandpa had a chance to oversee it all as the Family Patriarch. It really doesn't get much better than this.

Those of you who are among my Facebook friends can see more pictures posted there after we get home. For now, though, it's time - sadly - to pack up our things so we can enjoy one more breakfast with the group before we all hit the road home ...

... and wait for our next opportunity to get together, at Thanksgiving.

Yep, life is good.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo