Fly fishing indoors in December

I stopped by the Bass Pro Shop store in Foxboro,Mass on Christmas Eve which is right next door to Gillette Stadium on my way to my parents home for "Christmas In Connecticut".

This is quite the store if you are any type of outdoor enthusiast. Here in this picture a fly fisherman patiently waited as I took a photo of him catching a fish right in the stocked stream that is in this store as a big moose looked on at this scene.

There are also bears in the store as well as other animals but no one is allowed to feed any of these animals as they are stuffed and can't eat another bite.

A CHRISTMAS MORNING TRADITION

Each Christmas morning my Dad makes oyster stew for breakfast just like his Dad made for him when he was a boy. Here is a shot of the oyster stew we had this Christmas. We also have oyster stew for Thanksgiving morning breakfast as well with a dash of crushed pepper and official oyster crackers, condensed milk, and butter.

I like all kinds of seafood including clams, lobster, fish, scallops, and yes "Oysters too".

"My First Time Co-Piloting an Airplane"

Here's a photo of the control panel of the Cessna airplane I helped "co-pilot" on December 8th this year on a flight from Nantucket Airport to Barnstable Airport on Cape Cod. Since this was my first time "up front" I decided to let "Captain Tom" do most of the hard parts of the flight like taking off and landing the aircraft as I concentrated my efforts on "supervising" him as well as keeping an eye on all these controls and looking out the window for visual confirmation that we were on the right flight course and not going off track and heading toward Spain. I must say that between the two of us we did a good job and had a smooth flight. I didn't even have to give "Captain Tom" any advise and although I was in position to take the controls in the event of an emergency; I didn't have to step in and take over the wheel.

Yes, this fifteen minute flight went off without a hitch and my first time as an airplane co-pilot was an unqualified success.

A little shot of leaving Nantucket

Here's a little shot of leaving Nantucket Island by plane on the afternoon of December 8th. I was in an eight seat Cessna aircraft that departed from Barnstable airport and after a long airplane ride of 15 minutes we finally arrived at the Nantucket Airport. It seemed to be a much longer flight like maybe twenty or twenty-five minutes but no, fifteen minutes it was.

UCONN MARCHING BAND 12/5/09 HALFTIME

Here is a photo of the University of Connecticut marching band taken during the Saturday December 5th Halftime performance at Rentschler Field (aka "The Rent") in East Hartford at the final home football game of the year between the UCONN Huskies and the South Florida Bulls.

Rentschler Field is built on a former aircraft runway of the Pratt and Whitney company which makes aircraft engines. I can't tell what this band formation is supposed to represent but to me it looks somewhat like a tribute to the "Stealth Bomber".