Reunion of Childhood Friends, August 7-11, 2017

Barbara's closest childhood friends had their first ever reunion. Some of us had not seen each other since the early 1970s, so it was quite an occasion. We met at Cindy's family's Laurel Lake house south of Binghamton. Barbara and Kathy drove together from Binghamton and Diane arrived from Rotterdam, near Albany.

It was idyllic. We had no responsibilities - we talked, ate, talked, swam, talked, kayaked, walked, talked. The time we had been apart vanished and we discovered how much we still all have in common and love each other.

The cottage for 4 wonderful days!

Laurel Lake

We grew up in each other's homes and with each other's parents. Three of us went to St. Thomas Aquinas in elementary school. Two of us went to West Junior and three of us went to Binghamton Central High School. But, we always met in the neighborhood!

We went on a rather wet hike in the Salt Springs State Park only a few miles away.

Looking down at the brook

We were often hiking right in the river

This was more challenging a climb than it appears!

One of the falls in the park

Cindy led the way

Diane

Diane, Cindy, Kathy - best friends from the neighborhood

We walked around the lake more than once. By happenstance, one of Diane's nephews had bought a house just across the lake a few days before and we all kayaked over.

Diane on Laurel Lake, her first kayak trip

View from the cottage

Cindy

Diane

There was way too much food as we overcooked, but the menu was amazing - homemade cauliflower soup, chicken florentine, blueberry pancakes, pork tenderloin, spiedis, crustless quiche, homemade cookies, pie........ Luckily, one of Cindy's brothers, Marty, came over to mow the lawn and we gave him some.

Speidies about to go on the grill

Having fun!

Dinner on the porch

Everyone pitched in

Our selfie

We all hope that we can make it an annual gathering.

Trip to Pittsfield to see Nan and Jim, Aug 4- 6 2017

After a week in New Hampshire, Mark and I drove to White River Junction, Vermont where Barbara picked up a rental car (2016 Prius). Then, we drove in the truck and the rental car to Pittsfield to visit Nan and Jim. Mark stayed one night as he went to Alice's 95th birthday party in Bridgewater. Barbara stayed two nights.

We had a lovely dinner the night we arrived and then we went to Edith Wharton's Berkshire home, The Mount, for an evening of jazz. It was a lovely evening and we sat in lawn chairs. The music was great, although we cannot remember the singer's name. Afterwards we went to a chocolate store where Mark got some chocolates for Alice.

Mark, Nan and Jim at the Mount, Edith Wharton's home in the Berkshires

The  next day, Mark left and Barbara and Nan (and Boo) took a morning hike along the base of Mount Greylock, Massachusett's highest peak. Then, they drove to the top where they had lunch. There is a beacon at the top of the mountain which is the brightest beacon in the state. It has a war memorial inside.

View from top of Mt Greylock

Nan at Lodge atop Mt Greylock

Memorial to WWI dead at Mt Greylock. It is the brightest beacon in Massachusetts

Then Nan and Barbara went to an afternoon on the lawn at Tanglewood to hear the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The guest soloist was Yo-Yo Ma which was thrilling. (A Schumann piece) We had a hard time finding the car after the concert, but....after quite a bit of walking, we did find it.

The lawn at Tanglewood

The lawn at Tanglewood later in the day

Concord - Our last stop...and then...home.

  We had a lovely two-night visit in Concord. Jecca and Willy were on vacation which is always nice as they are relaxed.

  We had planned to stay till Sunday, but again, the weather intervened as a big coastal storm was predicted for Sunday when we had boat reservations.
     Our dilemma was that we had tickets for Hank's play, The Emperor's New Clothes and the Concord Youth Theatre sells out. But, we called and, in a stroke of good luck, someone had turned in two tickets. So, we were able to see the play. And, it blew us away it was so good.

Blurry - Hank in Emperor's New Clothes

    Willy spotted a bald eagle on Bateman's Pond and we all trekked down to look through the scope and binoculars. A deer had fallen through the ice and died and the eagle gingerly worked his way on the thin ice and tried and tried to drag the deer up on the ice. It was very interesting. The next day, after we had left, Willy reported two other eagles had joined the feast. (We also saw some beautiful wood ducks.)

Jecca and Mark on dock, Bateman's Pond

Bald Eagle attempting to get to deer carcass in pond

 

Otis is officially taller than Nana!

 Jecca made a lovely corned beef dinner for St. Patrick's Day including gingerbread cake - yum. (And, homemade buttermilk biscuits for breakfast!)
      We left on Saturday and had brunch in Middleboro with Matt Huberman at Dave's diner. We also got to see his apartment which was nice.

       In more good luck, we got on an earlier steamship after filling the car. It was nice to be home before dark and get the car unpacked.

      Total Miles on this trip: 4,677. Gas cost us: $266
   
Summation: This was a family-oriented trip overall. We spent quality time with Cal & Alice. We spent time with Michael and Nancy (only in Atlantic Beach - the first time we didn't get to Lake Worth). We helped Christina and Mike move. We saw all 4 of the grandchildren.
      We also did some research for Anna Gardner book - Library of Congress, Cedar Hill, New Bern, Camden. It was mostly to get photos and we were quite successful. Barbara also did quite a lot of editing.
         We are happy to be back home despite the weather. There is a lot to do on the island in the winter. We went to see a good TWN play, Mere Mortals, went to Town Meeting, saw NT Live's performance of The Tempest.  Mark is working hard on getting the cottage ready to rent after all the water damage. Barbara is finalizing her book.
     

Washington DC - a bonus trip because of the unexpected storm 3/13-3/16

  We drove from South Hill to Falls Church, Virginia. We had a terrible rattle underneath the Prius that kept getting louder and louder. We stopped at a Toyota dealer outside of Richmond but they said it would be hours before they could check it. We envisioned the need of a new car as the rattle grew. We made an appointment (thank you cell phones!) for a Sears Auto place in Falls Church.
    We stayed at the Governor House Inn on Route 50. It was not a great motel but we got a good price and the manager gave us vouchers to the restaurant for two breakfasts which was cool. And, it is next to a big laundromat so we were able to do a wash easily.
     Anyhow, off we went to the Sears place, expecting bad news. But, it was GOOD news. They put the car up on the left and found that a clamp had broken on the muffler system and the heat shield had lost a bolt or two. They gave us the clamp and said it would be fine for a while and screwed the heat shield up. Best of all, even though we were there about half an hour- they did not charge us! (We sent a letter to Sears praising the service and the man who worked on the car.)
     We also went to an Apple store and got another (3rd) new cord for Barbara's MacBookPro.
     Needless to say, the weather was not good while we were there, but Washington was spared the snow that it could have had. Mostly it was cold and very windy.
      We found out that Falls Church has one of the largest Vietnamese populations in the U.S. and we were close to a unique strip mall that has become all Vietnamese with DOZENS of restaurants as well as stores (lots of jewelry ones) and two supermarkets. it is Eden Center. Some of the restaurants were tiny. We ended up eating there for two meals and we liked The Rice Paper so much that we ate there twice. We also went to the supermarket more than once - got some spices and some tea.

Eden Center

      Because of the weather, Washington was empty. The first full day we had a wonderful big breakfast and were the only ones there. All schools were closed and they had a skeleton staff.
       That day we parked easily in the city and went to the National Gallery. It was wonderful. (Although we dodged slush and had wet feet.) It was so nice to have the galleries so empty.

        The next full day we went to the National Museum of the American Indian. Again, it was easy to park and we had the place almost to ourselves. Later we went to Simply Thai, a restaurant we discovered several years ago near the Architecture Museum.

One Bowl, Many Spoons

And, on our way out of the city, we parked at the Jefferson Memorial (quite illegally). Mark stayed with the car and I braved the bitter weather as I have never visited that Memorial close up.

Near the Jefferson Memorial

Freezing Cherry Blossoms

     The last night we were at the motel it sounded like there was a party going on in the next room. But, the room was empty. Hmmm. So, we went to the office. It turns out that they rent out the basement of the motel to an evangelical group. We were told it would be quiet by 9. It was so loud that it was hard to hear our tv - they were miked and there was singing and shouting. It was still going strong at 10 and Mark got dressed and went to the office to complain as it was right below our room and we needed sleep for our next day of driving. It shut down shortly thereafter.
     Overall, it was an unexpected visit to Washington and we had a wonderful time. The downside was that it meant that we had to skip our planned visit to Nan and Jim in Pittsfield. And, they got 33 inches of snow!
      We left Washington and drove to Concord. The roads were nice and clear. We did get stuck in a long traffic jam due to an accident on the George Washington Bridge. (1 1/2 hours) We stopped at Katz's Deli on Route 15 in Connecticut. Mark was craving a deli sandwich! We will stop there again.

Katz's Deli

   

Visit with Cole in Morganton, 3/12

   We left Asheville with snow on the ground and drove to Morganton. It was pretty snowy in the mountain pass, but once we dropped down, the snow disappeared. Whew.

    We stopped to visit Cole who was babysitting for his little sister for the weekend. We had a wonderful chat with him. He is planning a school trip to Ecuador in June to volunteer at an orphanage and do some sightseeing as well.

     Later we met his lovely girlfriend, Mackenzie,  at a pizza place (name escapes me as I am writing this 2 weeks late). We had never met her before so that was really nice.

     We left them and headed toward the coast. We had planned to go up Route 81, but the snow storm made us change our plans. We drove to South Hill just to a hotel at the side of the road. We did drive around the town and went to the grocery store and got food (soups) to eat in our room.