| A Month in America and Northern
Ireland |
| |
| My First Phillies Game |
 My
first Phillies Game was an awesome event... |
|  See
more, read:
My
First Phillies Game:
Philadelphia Phillies -vs- Arizona Diamondbacks
|
|
|
| Glenside Farmer's
Market |
|  Glenside
hasn't changed much since our last visit exactly two years ago.
(See
May 2002)
However, it now has a Farmer's Market every Saturday at the Glenside
Train Station. |
|  A
guy I went to high school with, Jim Kenny, started the market and
it is a big success.
Fresh produce, handmade gifts and flowers were the items of the
day on the first Market this season.
Good job Jim. Keep up the good work! |
|
|
| St. Luke the Evangelist
|
|  A
little bit about my past... I went to St. Luke the Evangelist Catholic
School from grades one to eight.
It was a good education; very comprehensive.
There are a lot of things I can explain thanks to the teachers
of St. Luke's School. Thanks Mom and Dad for making the decision
to send us there. It was worth it (in spite of the indoctrination!) |
| 
These are the door handles to the church.
Aren't they beautiful?
What a nice way to mark the entrance into a place of worship. |
| 
This is the stained glass window above the altar in the front of
the church.
I spent HOURS staring at the patterns and colours during school
masses.
(I suppose I was meant to be listening
to the sermon, but to be honest, once you've heard the mass a
few dozen time you can recite it by heart. Maybe this stained
glass is the reason my design skills are so good?) |
|  This
is the upper school (grades 4 to 8). I loved the fact that the school
was only a five to ten minute walk from our home.
Ah the memories... |
|
|
| Spring time in Glenside,
PA |
| 
Ahhh... Spring is in the air.
Here you see Devon in the process of learning the West Ham songs
from Uncle Tom.
Devon doesn't know what the words mean (not that the rest of us
can make them out anyway) but he's giving them a try! |
|  The
trees are blossoming as well.
Walking around the neighbourhood is a delight, the smells are
divine.
Lisa & Auntie Shawn |
|
|
| Brunch in Hoboken, New
Jersey &
A Day at the Symphony |
|  One
weekend we took the opportunity to go to the Symphony in New York
City.
Chris (Shawn's boyfriend) is a bassist and plays in the Musica
Bella Orchestra of New York. |
 Mom
& Dad Clark, Lisa, Devon, Shawn, Tom and I decided to go to Brunch
with Amanda, her parents & brother in Hoboken, NJ. (Just across
the water from NYC.) |
| 
It was delightful and delicious.
Devon, as you can see, enjoyed the brunch too!
See our whole New York Brunch and Symphony adventure... |
| |
|
|
| Devon - a Month in Review |
|  See
the photos and read all about...
DEVON'S MAY 2004 in
Glenside & Coleraine
- - - HERE - - -
|
|
|
| Visiting Nana, Memom and
Poppy |
|  Thursday
was the day we visited Nana.
Memom and Poppy visit Nana to assist her in getting her chores
done.
We left with full bellies thanks to Memom.
Thursdays were great. |
|
|
| The Dad Vail
Regatta 2004, Philadelphia |
|  We
were lucky enough to find the Dad Vail Regatta was on during our
visit to the USA.
We visited the Regatta two years ago too.
Click
here to see that adventure. |
|  This
year Coach was actually participating in the regatta. He was the
coxswain for guys who raced in the Dad Vails 50 years ago!
See the photos of the day here:
Dad
Vails 2004 |
|
|
| Good Times in Glenside |
 Uncle
Tom and Amanda would come and play with me EVERY weekend. |
|  Auntie
Shawn would look after me while my mommy and daddy did some work.
It was nice to have Auntie Shawn around during the week to play
with.
She taught me how to play the zylaphone... xylaphone.. zilafone?
(I'll have to ask my daddy how to spell it.) |
|  I
also learned how to play the Bass.
Chris taught me.
Over all I think I like it, the SOUND is amazing... but I think
it is a bit big for me at the moment... |
 Chris
and Auntie Shawn also took me for walks around the neighbourhood.
Springtime in America sure is beautiful!
|
|
|
| A Farewell Feast on
Mother's Day |
 ...I
got to see just how lucky I was to grow up in such a beautiful place,
with such a wonderful family.
I saw how blessed I am to have such expressive, intelligent, insightful,
creative and delightful people to call my family (and friends)... |
 And
of course, it was Mother's Day.
To my wife:
"You are a wonderful mother."
Devon is so lucky to have such a caring, attentive, gentle, committed,
sensitive, and beautiful mother.
He is so lovely because you made him.
Happy Mother's Day.
|
| |
|
|
June 2004 - Round
the World
From the USA to Northern Ireland |
 After
leaving a family SAD to see us go, we were headed to a family
HAPPY to see us arrive in Northern Ireland.
Devon, as always,was great on the flight.
He slept for the entire night...cute eh! >>> |
 As
expected Mum and Dad were very pleased to see us and Devon and he
is a much loved little boy. |
|
|
| The North West 200
- Motorcycle Race |
The North West 200 is Northern Ireland's premier professional motorcycle
race. I happens very close to where the Parkhill's live, in a town
called Portrush. |
| 
Fortunately, it happened to be on during our visit, so we took a
drive to see it LIVE. (It's only 5 miles away after all!)
See
photographs of the Northwest 200 here! |
|
|
| A Weekend's Treat - a visit
from Russell and Natasha |
|  Russell
and Natasha, the newly weds (check
out their Barbados Wedding here) came over for the weekend.
We all had a fabulous time.
|
| |
|
|
The
Causeway Coast:
Mussenden Temple & the Giant's Causeway |
| 
Lisa's parents live in one of the most beautiful areas in all of
Ireland (north or south) - the North Antrim Coast.
And given the chance to go and explore, it could not be missed.
We visited Mussenden Temple with Russell and Natasha one afternoon
(they are recently married - see March 2004 for photos of their
wedding). You can view the photographs here:
Mussenden Temple Photo Gallery |
|
|
| The Causeway
Coast: The Giant's Causeway |
|  And,
of course, what's a visit to Northern Ireland without a trip to
the Giant's Causeway?
This time we took Devon in his baby-backpack and hiked the cliff-top
trail which overlooks the Giant's Causeway.
If you get to Northern Ireland, this is NOT
TO BE MISSED.
See the photos of our cliff walk here:
The
Giant's Causeway Cliff Walk |
|
|
| A Picnic in the Country |
|  My
cousin Andrew and his wife Carol invited the whole family over for
a delicious barbecue.
Ordinarily, an invitation like that would be FANTASTIC, but what
makes it even more exciting is when that cousin is a CHEF!
We had a fantastic evening thanks to the company, the food, and
the weather. |
| |
|
|
| Shipping to Australia |
|  As
you may or may not know, we've recently been granted Australian
Residency. (This means that we can
live permanently in Australia.)
|
|  Our
household possessions have been stored in Stewart & Carol's
garage for the last few years, and it was now time to re-pack them
all (again) for their six week boat trip to Western Australia...
Read more here:
Shipping
to Australia |
|
|
| A Visit from
old friends |
 Tracey,
my great firend from Scotland flew over from Ayr with her little girl
Olivia. My dear school friend Niki was also over for the school reunion...so
we all got together. |
 It
was a great few hours.
Here is Olivia and Devon after meeting for the first
time. They are only 6 weeks apart in arriving on the planet!!
See the photo
gallery here. |
|
|
| The Foyle Class of
1984 Reunion |
|  There
are three pages associated with my school reunion.
The first is a look at what the School
looks like during a brief visit pre-reunion.
The second is a write-up (with photos)
of the Reunion which gives MY account of what it was like.
The third is a photo gallery. You
can find links to all three pages below. |
|  I
went up to Foyle to deliver invitations to the teachers, and while
we were there, we took some photographs of the school.
To view photos of my visit to the School, click
here. |
|  The
reunion was great! It was good to get back together with friends
from so long ago.
It was such a success that we're having another one in five years
time!!
To view the photographs of THE
REUNION, click here. |
| And finally, the photo album of the night. To view
all the photographs, click here: Reunion
Photo Album |
|
|
| A Trip to
the South of Ireland |
|  One
fine day, Stewart, Carol, Lisa, Devon and myself took a ferry to
the South of Ireland for lunch.
View the photos here:
Lunch
in the South |
|
|
| And Finally... |
 As
you can see, it's been a busy month. Two families, two countries,
two flights, two wonderful visits.
We've made a few changes to the way this site works too. As you
probably noticed, instead of having our adventures open in the SAME
internet window, NEW windows open with the adventures in them.
We would love to know what you think of this new system - we want
this site to be as user friendly as possible. (The comment that
had us try this new style was that sometimes people got 'LOST' in
all the pages and sometimes had to 'start all over again'.)
Your comments would be most welcome. Please CONTACT
US to let us know what you think.
Ciao.
We're off to Italy tomorrow... watch this space... |
|
Here...
Read
more about our day in: