Groan.

The nephew (Brian), his girlfriend (Vicky) and my Mother-in-Law are on their way back to NJ after a very filling Thanksgiving dinner. I sincerely hope they have an uneventful drive. I'm too stuffed to do much except watch some football on TV and maybe take a nap. They plan to drive down to Atlantic City tomorrow for a view of the boardwalk and a visit to the casinos. Vicky is from Tempe and, while she has lived in Charleston, SC, she has never experienced the Jersey Shore. (Not that Atlantic City is representative of the Jersey Shore or anything.) I would take her to Long Beach Island or maybe Wildwood. But, Brian and my Mother-in-Law have an established history of going to AC for a little gambling on Black Friday and they want to continue in this vein.

This morning there were clouds and showers sweeping through the area and early in the day we spotted a full rainbow to the northwest of the cabin as the sun rose behind the Aerie.

I took them everyone on a little road tour of northern Tioga County as Terry prepared our feast showing them the town of Wellsboro and then going up to Ive's Run on Hammond Lake, and the overlook at the Hammond/Tioga connector. We saw Bald Eagles at both spots. For Vicky, this was the first time she had ever seen an Eagle in the wild. I had just mentioned to them that there were eagles nesting in the area when I spotted the first one on a tree limb overhanging Crooked Creek at Ive's Run. The other two were soaring over the waters of Tioga Lake and we spotted them from the overlook.

below us in the channel between the lakes was a huge raft of mergansers. When I looked down, they spooked and all of them churned up the water and beat their wings in quick retreat out of the deep canyon like channel into Hammond Lake. A very impressive display as there must have been a hundred or more birds down there.

Weather today was -- changeable. The day started with a scattered shower or two but lots of blue sky peeking through the clouds. Then the wind started increasing. We had some showers around two PM but if you didn't like the weather you only had to wait a few minutes. A cold front was moving through and that accounted for the changes. The temperatures that reached as high as 57 degrees at noon had dropped to 38 degrees by 3:30 and are forecast to drop into the low 20s tonight.