Memorial Day 2014

Memorial Day is a U.S. federal holiday, a day set aside to commemorate the men and women who have lost their lives in the service of their country. When I was young, it was called Decoration Day, a day when we visit the graves of deceased loved ones to decorate them with flowers and, if they are veterans, flags. Many communities hold parades and ceremonies to mark the occasion. Today, being the beginning of the Memorial Weekend, Bob, Gulliver, and I drove to Bob's hometown of Altoona, Pennsylvania, where we met his brother and sister-in-law. They brought the flowers this year, and together we visited the graves of their parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. So today's blip shows the cemetery and some of the graves. Altoona is in the Allegheny Mountains in central Pennsylvania. The view from the hillside is breathtakingly beautiful, and the weather could not have been better.

Side note: The trip to Altoona and back to Ohio took 13 hours, making this a long and tiring, but rewarding, day.