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Montreal and Ottawa Photos finally posted

Michael — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 14:46:31 +0000

My photos from Canada are finally online. We spent 5 days waking around Montreal and exploring the sites. All of the kilometers that we walked were offset by eating tons of amazing French food at a variety of sidewalk cafes. After 5 days of enjoying Québécois hospitality we rented a car and drove to Ottawa where we got to experience the British ceremonial and political side of Canada. I honestly did not how much there was that I didn’t know about Canada. It was a really educational trip. The last day of our trip was spent in Perth, Ontario, where we wentto the Perth Garlic Festival which was a ton of fun and a delicious experience!

The photos can be found in the photos section of the site.

I Joined Google Plus

Michael — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:43:48 +0000

I had no plans to sign up for Google Plus until I did it on a whim a few days ago. I never used Friendster when it was the big social site. Then when MySpace and its animated GIFs and embedded MIDI files came along, I never signed up. Then Facebook showed up and despite the fact that many of my friends and family are addicted to it, I never signed up for an account and don’t plan to do so. In general I’ve never seen a need to provide a forum where my coworkers can contact my family or my high school friends can contact my former employees, etc. If want to talk to a friend or family member, I can send an e-mail, send a text or call them.That being said, I do use Twitter and pipe my posts back to my own website. This is an important fact because I think I’ll use Google+ much like Twitter or my own site. I plan to make everything public even though Google+ offers some very granular and really easy to use privacy options should I ever want to use them. One of the main reasons I’ve avoided Facebook is their disastrous history of making people believe their posts are private and then violated their trust by somehow accidentally making their posts public. I’m not naive enough to think place blind trust in any company, but unlike Google’s “Do no evil” motto, Facebook seems to go the exact opposite direction!

Up til now, I’ve loved almost every Google product I’ve used in the past, so I do have high hopes for Google+.

Who knows how much I’ll use it, but you can find me on Google+ right here.

2 New Albums – Fort Miles and Lewes, DE

Michael — Sun, 15 May 2011 03:32:52 +0000

I just uploaded two new albums to the Photos section. They may not be as glamorous or stunning as photos of Alaska or Las Vegas, but some of the photos hold a special interest due to a tie to my family. While visiting a friend in Lewes, DE, we took some time to explore downtown Lewes including the waterfront and a historic churchyard cemetery. Those photos can be found in the Lewes album.

We also visited Fort Miles, a historic Army base at in what is now Cape Henlopen State Park. The fort consists of 15 observation towers (11 in Delaware, 4 in New Jersey), 10 gun batteries and other support structures such as barracks, etc. It was built during World War II to defend the mouth of the Delaware Bay from German ships and u-boats that might want to do harm to the vital ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia.

This facility holds a special interest for me because the people who assesed incoming vessels and decided whether the Army should blow them out of the water were US Navy sailors. One of those sailors on watch in Fire Control Tower #9 was my grandfather. While visiting Cape Henlopen we were lucky enough to be there on a day when the facilities were open for tours. We climbed tower #7 and toured gun battery 519. We also watched as renactors acted out a battle with the Germans that thankfully never really took place at Fort Miles. These photos can be found in the Fort Miles album.

Las Vegas Photos Now Online

Michael — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:18:39 +0000

When you think of Las Vegas, you usually think of gambling, drinking and general debauchery. Before heading there for a long weekend, I researched and found some fun things to do that didn’t involve getting drunk and passing out in the Bellagio fountains. It was supposed to rain on Saturday and Sunday so we ran around on Thursday night and Friday trying to do as much as possible. The only rain (and a little snow) that we got was during the night, but it’s a good thing we got an early start because we barely finished my checklist of places to see before it was time to fly home on Monday!

My photos from the trip are now online in the Photos section of the site.

Fire and Ice Festival Photos Posted

Michael — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 04:18:59 +0000

I just posted the photos that I took at the Mount Holly Fire and Ice Festival. It’s a ice carving competition and chili cook-off. This year is was nice and cold and there was even snow on the ground which made it even more fun than the last time I went four years ago. Check out the photos here.

A quarter century since the Challenger disaster

Michael — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 02:14:39 +0000

Time really flies. I mean that in more ways than one tonight. I noticed this video of the Challenger disaster on CNN.com because today is the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. It s the exact video that I watched live at my Grandparents’ house in 1986. It hardly seems possible that it happened 25 years ago. after watching the video, I thought about writing a blog post, but I felt like I’d written something about it already. I couldn’t figure out what would have prompted me to write about it in recent months. When I looked back, I realized that previous post was from 28 January 2006 on the 20th anniversary! Like I said, time clearly does fly by.

You can check out my previous post here.

Alaska Photos

Michael — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:18:19 +0000

At long last, I’ve posted the photos from my trip to Alaska. For those of you who don’t know, I spent a week travelling by cruise ship from Vancouver, BC to Seward, AK followed by a week on land ending up in Fairbanks, AK. Some of our stops included Ketchikan, Juneau, Hoonah, Skagway, Hubbard Glacier, Anchorage, Talkeetna, Denali National Park and Ruth Glacier. We also spent Canada Day in vancouver prior to leaving and spent one day in Seattle, WA on the way home.

I took over 4,700 photos. Of those, I kept 1,300. About 600 are posted on my website. Click here to view them. I hope you enjoy looking at them a much as I enjoyed taking them!

Alaska photos coming soon

Michael — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:04:43 +0000

I know everyone is wondering why no one has seen my photos from my 2 week trip to Alaska. Well, they’re coming soon. However, I was home from Alaska for barely a day before leaving again for Norfolk for work. When I got back last week, I started working on them. This Alaska trip was a vacation I’ve wanted to take all my life and we saw a huge variety of sites. So armed with a ton of memory, I snapped approximately 4,700 photos. I’ve now pared taht down to 1,300 “keepers” but they still need sorting and editing before I start to get them online, and I’ll most likely pare that number down even more before posting them online.

So, keep watching this space, and soon you’ll be bored by looking at hundreds more of my photos!

New photos from Newport, Saratoga & Syracuse

Michael — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:08:25 +0000

I just uploaded a bunch of new photos that I took in while on a six city road trip for work. They’re in the Photos section of the site. There are some from Newport, RI including some from the Newport Cliff Walk. The next gallery is from Saratoga Springs, NY (downtown and the harness racing track). Last is a single shot that I took in Syracuse, NY of a really good sunset.

Longwood Gardens Tulip Photos

Michael — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:07:09 +0000

Longwood Gardens has always been one of my favorite local day trips. I’ve been there a few times at Christmas and once a long time ago during the summer, but I’d never been there for tulip season. A few weeks ago when their tulips were in full bloom I went out there for the day. Almost a quarter million tulips is hard to descibe. Luckily a picture says a thousand words and I took plenty of photos.

You can view some of them in the photos section of my site, right here.

Yankee Candle Village Fall Festival Photos

Michael — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:17:04 +0000

When you hear Yanke Candle you think candles, obviously. But Yankee Candle Village in South Deerfield, MA makes you realize what a huge empire this compnay has built. You could (and we did) spend the better part of a day wandering through the many sections of the village. The slightly imperfect candles of the discount room are a great deal at half off. OK, so maybe you don’t want an Apple Cider scented candle that red on one side and pitch black on the other, but a tangerine candle that’s filled just a tiny bit too high is a great deal!

My personal favorite was the Bavarian room. $6000 giant German stein anyone? And who wouldn’t love the Black Forrest room where it snows all year long?

The Fall Decorations and events of the Fall Festival made it that much more fun. As usual I took plenty of photos. You can see them right here.

Mount Snow Oktoberfest Trip Photos

Michael — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:08:41 +0000

Mount Snow is a ski resort in Vermont, but before the ski season starts German beer, food, music and events take over. I am, of course, describing Oktoberfest. They also had an arts & crafts show and scenic ski lift rides to the top of the mountain. Despite rain on Saturday, Sunday turned out to be a very nice cold day. As expected, the Fall foliage was impressive to say the least. It also gave me a chance to really test out my new camera. It turns out that shooting photos while hanging on for dear life to the ski lift isn’t easy. But that’s what a love for photography and a terrible fear of heights will get you!

The photos are posted in my Photos section.

Orange County Choppers Photos & more

Michael — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:42:04 +0000

I just added 2 new albums to my Photos section. The first is from Orange County Choppers in Newburgh, NY. You probably recognize the name from the Discovery show American Chopper. I stopped by the Teutels new “world headquarters” on the way to Vermont last week. They have a retail store which is fairly over-priced, but I did shell out for a keychain anyway. The best part of it is the bikes that are on display. They have many of the theme bikes they built on the show on display. There’s also a viewing area where you can see into the shop area.

I also added a small album of photos from the Bordentown, NJ Cranberry festival. Thrown in with that album are also a few shots from the Blackwood Pumpkin Festival in Gloucester Township and my backyard all from the same day.

Another important note… these are the first photos I’ve posted that were taken with my new Nikon D90!

Check out them all out here.

Photos from Newport Trip

Michael — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 04:13:19 +0000

I was scheduled to be in Newport for a week on business but the trip wound up being unexpectedly extended into a second week. I used the opportunity to do a little bit of sightseeing on the weekend. Besides walking about 10 miles, I took tours of two mansions (The Breakers & Marble House), toured the Breaker’s stables & carriage house, walked part of the Cliff Walk and did some shopping. If you have to unexpectedly get stuck somewhere, Newport is a good choice!

Check out the photos here.

Western Maryland & West Virginia photos

Michael — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:46:49 +0000

I just added 3 new photo albums. They are all from my trip to Western Maryland and West Virginia. We visited the Spruce Forest Artisan Village & Penn Alps restaurant. The bulk of our trip was spent in Frostburg & Cumberland, where we took a ride on the Western maryland Scenic Railroad. On the way home we spent 2 days in Charles Town and Harper’s Ferry. It was a fun couple of days. It was nice to send time in some very old, very small towns for a change and Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park is one of the most interesting NPS sites I’ve been to.

Photos Getting Noticed

Michael — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:28:14 +0000

I post hundreds of photos on the site and usually don’t know if they are getting noticed by anyone or not. However, lately, besides all of the dozens of contacts I get regarding my genealogy work, I’ve been seeing more comments on my photos. It makes me glad that I take the time to post them. A pro photographer in Virginia commented on my Hampton Roads photos, a model builder used one of my photos as reference for a model and last week I granted license for use of one of my photos by a company in a case study. You can check that out at Lencore.com.

If you are interested in acquiring or licensing any of my photos, please feel free to get in touch with me.

Jacksonville Photos

Michael — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:00:28 +0000

I finally posted my photos from my week in Jacksonville, Florida. As i say on the photo album page, I spent most of the week indoors at a conference, but did get outside to take a few quick photos.

Check them out here.

Twittering Away

Michael — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:12:18 +0000

Over the past few days you probably have seen posts that consist of any “tweets” I’ve posted to twittered on a given day. Obviously, this means I’ve caught up with the bandwagon and joined Twitter. You can find me at twitter.com/megatti. I got the idea to have my tweets automatically cross posted to my blog from Leo Laporte. Like him, I don’t like the idea having anything I create hosted solely on a service that I don’t control. So, the result is that you can catch up with my tweets on twitter, but you can also check them out on my blog. That way they’re all saved for posterity. (Don’t take that to mean that you can expect anything profound from me! )

Happy 2009!

Michael — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 13:12:24 +0000

Happy New Year! Here’s to a happy, healthy and prosperous year! I’ll be spending today recovering from all the cooking and eating I did yesterday and watching the mummers parade. Hopefully, the parade will go on again next year despite the city’s budget problems.

Merry Merry Merry!

Michael — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:01:33 +0000

I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas!

Two Chriskindlmarkts

Michael — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 02:36:59 +0000

When I think of Christmas it conjures images of small towns with rows of little stores selling gifts in Germany. OK, so maybe not the Germany part. However, a really cool Christmas tradition does come from Germany. It’s the Chriskindlmarkt. Bethlehem, PA (a.k.a. Christmas City) puts on a huge one every year. I finally got a chance to go to it this year. It was a fun day of shopping and some sightseeing.

Then i heard Philadelphia was putting on one of their own at City Hall. It was called the Philadelphia Christmas Village. While not as big it will hopefully be an annual event because it has real potential.

Check out my photos from Bethlehem and then take a look at my photos of Philadelphia.

Berks County Covered Bridges

Michael — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:11:18 +0000

I finally found time to go on another covered bridge tour. If you haven’t seen my previous photos from the Lehigh Valley, you can check them out here. Then go check out my newest photos from the covered bridges of Berks County. I’m sure they aren’t the last ones you’ll see posted.

The photos also include some pictures of the Reading area including the William Penn Memorial Fire Tower and Pagoda.

Vote now!

Michael — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:10:43 +0000

You’ve heard and seen the months of annoying campaign ads. You’ve endured constant polling calls. Now it’s your turn to impact the election. Whether you’re voting for McCain or Obama, just make sure you vote!

I won’t tell you who I’m voting for in about 6 hours when the polls open, but if you look closely at this post, I think you’ll figure it out.

Tribute to my Father – emilgatti.com

Michael — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 05:05:28 +0000

It doesn’t seem at all possible that more than 6 months have passed since the death of my father. I’ve created memorial pages on my genealogy site for other family members, but I felt like I should make something more substantial for my Dad. What started out as a page on my family tree site has slowly evolved into emilgatti.com.

Please feel free to visit and take a look at the photos, stories, biography, etc. Then if you have anything you’d like to add about my Dad, please submit it by using the links on the site. I know that there are more stories and details to be added, but I rely on the the people who know them to share them.

Go to www.emilgatti.com for info.

New Haven Photos

Michael — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:42:10 +0000

I just posted some photos taken on a weekend in New Haven Connecticut. We stayed in New Haven and made side trips to Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods and Olde Mistick Village. Our room at the Omni had a spectacular view of the Yale University campus.

On the Fourth of July, we stopped at Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria for lunch. They originated New Haven style pizza. That was fun. We also tried to go to Louis Lunch, but they were closed for the holiday, so we didn’t get to taste a burger from the place that allegedly invented the hamburger.

Enjoy the photos right here.