Island Thanksgiving

Next in our series of holiday-related posts is Thanksgiving on the Island. (The blog is, after all, called Life in Two Harbors.)

I will start out by saying that the weather is frequently beautiful around Thanksgiving in southern California. You don't feel so much like cozying up in front of the fire as you do going for a quick swim in the ocean. (Quick because the water is starting to get cold.) So many people are out and about during the day. We saw people flying kites, hitting golf balls, biking, hiking, hanging out at the beach, etc. Thing 2 and I went down towards the school to kick a soccer ball around, and had trouble finding a space with all these people out and about.

Last year, as you read here, we went to visit relatives in Arizona (although. This year, the school system did not expand the Thanksgiving break, so we decided not to travel. Since we were also not hosting anyone (no one traveled to see us, either - sniff), we didn't need to clean the house before Thanksgiving. So we cleaned the house ON Thanksgiving. Yes, we dusted and scrubbed, mopped and vacuumed, picked up and put away until the house looked like it deserved company.

Then we all showered and got dressed up in nice clothes - Thing 2 even wore long pants AND combed his hair - and prepared for one of our rare formal dinners. Extra leaves were put in the table to hold all the food; the wedding china was broken out (bad choice of words); champagne and sparkling cider were chilled; the good silver was placed in all the proper locations (prompting questions from the Things about the little fork above the plate); napkins were laid out.

Who is this kid?

Well of course no shoes. It's still the island...

Sweetie began bringing out the feast: traditional turkey with stuffing, cranberry dressing, a nice squash dish, peas with little onions (one of my favorites). We toasted the good things in our life - family, security, freedom, sparkling cider - and dug in. We talked about the Pilgrims and reminisced about visiting Plymouth this summer. When the carnage was over, it was all I could do to stuff down a delicious piece of pecan pie.

Around town, some families were celebrating just with immediate family, like us, others had invited over friends; some were dining at the restaurant where you can order a plate of food or an entire Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, trimmings, etc - and take home the leftovers; some yachties had gathered their extended families at the Isthmus Yacht Club for a home-away-from-home Thanksgiving; and up the hill the Banning house was also hosting family get-togethers. 

It's a time of year that Two Harbors doesn't feel like a tourist destination. It feels like, I don't know, a big backyard, and that's nice. If you ever get the chance, I'd highly recommend it.

Island Halloween

When you have a town the size of Two Harbors, Halloween doesn't just happen, there has to be some planning. That may seem surprising given the small population here.

First of all, there aren't many kids here - less than 10 - who go trick-or-treating. Instead, town is dominated by young adults who like a good party. So the annual Halloween bash is the Haunted House held up at the Banning House. People in town spend a good month or more preparing the various rooms to spook-out their friends - it's quite elaborate, and put together by some very devious minds. (I wish I could tell you more about it, but I've never been.) On the night before Halloween, they have a 'kids night' at the Haunted House, where they test out the rooms and adjust the scariness to whatever the kids request.

Since it's such a big deal, trick-or-treating is planned around the Haunted House. A time that the children will go out is decided (this duty falls to the PTA), and publicized around town. We try to make it early so everyone can get ready to go to the party.

Secondly, it is an annual tradition to pair the school's Halloween party with a costume parade around town (read: the various offices in town - front office, visitor services, waterfront, dive shop, snack bar, boat shop, general store, accounting...that may be the whole list). This is really a sort of early trick-or-treat, since the people in the offices have candy for the kids. This, too, needs to be arranged beforehand so everyone knows which day and when the kids will be by.

On the whole, it's a good time. Can you imagine going trick-or-treating and know virtually everyone who answers the door? It's really quite friendly. Sometimes the parents get a (liquid) treat, too. Although town is small, and it doesn't take long to get around to EVERY house, as I said, there are only a few kids, so people are quite generous in doling out the candy, so the kid's hauls are pretty sweet (ha ha).

Boston Vacation days 8 and 9 - Family Time!

The next two days of our vacation were spent in New Hampshire at Aunt S and Uncle K's house. We had a bit of a family reunion since many family members live close by, and none of them had seen the Things (or Sweetie) for many years.

Highlights of the day included visiting with family, of course, including seeing all the children that have been born in the last few years, the unbelievable spread of delicious food and, of course, chopping wood. We all had a very nice time, and my family is no longer mad at me for never bringing my family east.

The Mario Bros ascending Mt. Monadnock

The next day, we spent the morning hiking Mt Monadnock. Rather surprisingly, it is one of the most hiked mountains in the world, with ~125k visitors a year. This is mostly surprising because it is not the easiest hike. Being novices, (and having two Things with us) we decided to take the White Dot Trail up. While the rise isn't that much, only about 1800 feet from the parking lot, it happens over a very short distance (1.66 miles), so the grade averages over 20%. It was a humid day, and Sweetie and I are old, so we hauled ourselves up the hill while Calvin and Hobbes ran up and down trail, scrambling up and down the rock faces like lizards. There was some complaining, but that was mostly on the flat bits (that weren't as much fun). Eventually we got to the top of the climb only to realize that we were mistaken - we still had a long way to hike. Uphill.

Oh #%@$. That's the summit up there.

Not atop Mt. Monadnock

Atop Mt. Monadnock

Gamely we pressed on and achieved the summit just in time for lunch (since we had planned to eat lunch at the top). After nourishing our worn-out bodies, we rested and looked at the scenery. There were quite a few people up there with us, naturally, but we didn't feel crowded. We hopped around on the boulders a bit to look in different directions, and then started back down. For the descent, we chose the White Cross Trail, which follows a very similar route to the White Dot Trail, except I think it's even steeper in places. I was glad we weren't hiking up it. Having successfully negotiated the mountain, we got some ice cream and headed back to the house.

Although they were tired, the Things enthusiastically agreed to help Aunt S make the evening's dessert: gluten-free strawberry shortcake. There was much measuring and pouring and mixing, all under the incredibly patient watchful eye of Aunt S, and the result was a thing of beauty. (And tasted good, too!) A delicious end to the day.

Next time: A Minuteman to win it, man.

Boston Vacation Day 7 - Not Martha's Vineyard

So this was the day that we had planned to take the ferry from Wood's Hole over to Martha's Vineyard to do some bicycling. But we had some second thoughts. First was some rumors we heard that there were sections of Vineyard Haven that were a bit dicey to bicycle through (with traffic and all), and with the boys we were a bit hesitant. Secondly, we weren't sure how much time we'd actually get on the island as to whether it would be worth the trip. Thirdly, it looked like it might rain, which would make the bicycling idea a bust anyway. So we punted and decided (Sweetie and I, that is) that we would just drive up to Cape Cod National Seashore and see what was there.

After a wonderful breakfast, care of our hosts (another dozen thank-yous to them) we hopped in the car and announced our new plan to the things. Oops. Calvin had a conniption.

"What? We're not going bicycling? That's the only thing I really wanted to do on this vacation and now we're not doing it!"

So being the good, patient, flexible, (guilt-ridden, quiet-coveting) parents that we are, we said we'd look for a place to a) rent bikes and b) ride them in the Nat'l Seashore. Fortuitously, it turned out that this was a) easy and b) a really fun time. We first stopped at the Salt Pond Visitor Center near Eastham and picked up a park newspaper that listed local bike rental places. Then we spoke with a Ranger about the best place to go with our crew. They suggested a paved three mile trail up at the tip of the Cape. A quick phone call reserved some bikes in Provincetown.

We had lunch of lobster salad at a nearby restaurant and then drove up to P-town. The bike shop was easy to find and even had one of those kid's trailer-bike attachments that we got for Calvin (to increase the chance that he would have fun by decreasing the amount of work he'd have to do). In no time we were off and the trail was fantastic! Not too flat, not too hilly. Good views of the ocean, but also nice wooded areas and ponds to see. The trail is a circle, and half way around, at the top of the dune hill, is the Province Lands Visitor Center, which we stopped at. It has an upper balcony with nice views of Race Point Beach. Out in the water, we could see a whale watching boat that was, that's right, watching whales. There were several playing around in the water that you could clearly see, and with binoculars, it was a pretty good show.

Whale watching.

We had a great time. It's so nice to have an unexpected (unplanned) thing turn into a highlight.

A satisfactory end to the day.

It was time to leave the Cape. From P-town, we drove all the way to New Hampshire to stay with an Aunt and Uncle - tomorrow was family reunion day.

Boston Vacation Day 6 - A stove boy

On this vacation day, we were in New Bedford, MA to go to the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park (bet you didn't know we had one of those) and the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Alas, this was also the day that vacation fatigue set in on young Calvin. I guess five days of historical/educational vacation was about all he was going to absorb. And so he was a pickle for our entire tour of New Bedford.


We started out driving over to the Park office. A nice lady on the street told us that if we parked in this one parking structure, since it was a furlough day, we wouldn't have to pay for parking. So a bonus there. At the park office,  we picked up Jr. Ranger books and set off trying to find the various information required. We also watched a video on the role New Bedford played in the whaling trade and the economic impact whaling had on the region and the country. They soft-peddled the actual whaling part, probably due to the current endangered status of most whale species. I bought a copy of Moby-Dick, which, if you're really interested in the grisly side of whaling, is happy to describe it in gross detail.

Struggling through the latest Jr Ranger booklet

One of the Jr. Ranger activities was a scavenger hunt, which caused us to stroll around the historic district of New Bedford, looking at all the cool old buildings. We found the Seamen's Bethel, where the whalers looked for redemption between voyages, and down at the old fish market we learned about how a fish market works - a wild side of the economy that most probably don't think about until it shows up as "Market Price" on the menu at their local seafood restaurant.

The most excited he's even been to see a church.

We also stopped by the Whaling Museum. Calvin was having none of it at this point, so I worked on cajoling him through the museum while Sweetie and Hobbes learned a bit about whaling and whales. They had great displays at the museum - whale skeletons, a 1/2 scale replica of a whaling ship, the whaling boats that were lowered from the ship to actually chase the whales, rooms full of items made from baleen and whale bone. They also had cases depicting the advancement of harpoon and lance technology. What's the difference between a harpoon and a lance, you say? Well, the harpoon was used like a fishhook - you set it in the whale to attach it to your boat so it couldn't get away. Then, when the whale became tired or ran out of air and had to surface, you rowed up to it and stuck it with lances until it was dead. Sounds barbaric, but really it's kind of the way we kill everything, no?

The day was finally saved for Calvin by us allowing him to purchase Humpy. See the bright smile on his face?

Calvin, having found peace through consumption.

From here we drove down to Cape Cod. We stopped by Woods Hole, so Sweetie could visit the offices of SEA (the Sea Education Association) for whom she has done some teaching, and so I could visit a colleague at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI). That evening we stayed with my cousin's in-laws at their 'weekend house' in , who had very graciously offered to host us. The Things were really excited because they had a hot tub and cable TV. After a dip in the tub we had a lovely dinner, and then our hosts and I went back to WHOI for the Friday Evening lecture. The speaker was part of a celebration of 20 years of the Microbial Ecology summer course taught at WHOI, so they had a special speaker Roberto Kolter. He gave a charming lecture about microbes and how they can affect the atmosphere.

Next Time: A little Sturm, a little Drang, some lobster, bicycles and whales.

Boston Vacation - Day 5 - Pilgrim, you caused a lot of trouble...

"C'mon Sherman. Let's step into the WABAC machine."

Let's now take one giant leap backwards in American history. Way, way back to the very beginning of American history. Sort of. Depending on how you define "beginning". And "American". And maybe even "history". Look, I'm not here to argue cultural biases or every little right and wrong that occurred during the occupation and colonization of North America; this is a vacation travelogue. What I'm trying to say here is we went to Plymouth on this particular day to see Plymouth Rock and Plimoth Plantation.

We first stopped off at the Rock. Oops, sorry, the Rock. For those of you who have never been there, I have provided a picture of said rock above. Now no one is really sure if this rock is the first place that the Pilgrims set foot on land or not. The first person to claim it was did so 120 years after the fact, although he was 94 years old at the time, and it certainly is located within the relatively safe confines of Plymouth Bay and not far from where the settlement was established. You may note that it looks like the rock has been cemented together. That's because in 1774, the townspeople decided to move the rock to the top of the hill to display is as part of Massachusetts' cultural heritage, but I guess it was too heavy or something (over 10 tons), so they split it in half, leaving part of it at the water and moving the rest. In 1880, it was decided that the two halves should be reunited, thus the cement job. As you may imagine, many people wanted a piece of the rock over the years, and it is estimated that the top half is only 1/3 as large as it originally was. Well, as fascinating as looking at a big rock is (even when ensconced within a Roman portico), we didn't hang out too long before wandering over to the Mayflower II.

The Mayflower II was a project  (done in the '50's) to rebuild the Mayflower so modern people could really appreciate how entirely insane an idea it was to sail across the ocean to colonize the 'New World'. About 100ft long and 25ft wide, it carried 102 people and 25-30 crew on that voyage. A quick look at the accommodations will quickly persuade you that this is not Royal Carribean. To make matters worse, they hit bad weather which a) blew them off-course (they were aiming for Virginia), b) delayed their arrival until the  onset of winter, and c) probably made everyone throw up. The ship over-wintered in Plymouth Bay, and everyone continued to live on board. A disease outbreak killed half the settlers and half the crew. Don't you yearn for simpler times? I know these people were God-fearing Christians (most of them), but I bet they had some choice words for the Mayflower when they finally got off it.

Makes our house look big. 

Our next stop was Plimoth Plantation, a recreation of the first settlement that the Pilgrims established. I remember having a good time visiting this place on a grey day around Thanksgiving when I was kid in the 1970's, but I didn't remember much of the details. The way it's laid out now, there are two sections: a Wampanoag family homestead, in which they have actual Wampanoag people who dress traditionally and perform traditional tasks (like cooking, farming, and making log canoes), but they do not take on a historical role, they represent their nation as it is today, but are also able to answer questions about their history, as well. (I must point out here that it's always a little awkward when conversing with people your ancestors treated badly.) Then you have the English settlement, wherein all the people are reenactors portraying historical figures.  We immediately came upon the apprentice blacksmith who, while we watched, went from flint and steel to a fire hot enough to melt iron in about 10 minutes - it was impressive. He was repairing hinges that day. Hobbes had lots of questions. We also ran into a trader who was about to make a pile of money by buying out some of the investors in the colony - boy could that guy talk. It was a bit of a rainy day, but we enjoyed our stroll through history, seeing how the colonists lived.

Do NOT get this guy started...

From here we drove on to New Bedford. Here's a little preview of tomorrow:

School milestones

So today we embarked on a new island adventure. Thing 1 (aka Hobbes) started Middle School (6th grade). This is a big deal because the one-room schoolhouse that serves the West End only goes K-5, so from now on, he will have to ride the bus to Avalon every morning. Since the bus ride takes about 90 minutes, and the bus has another route it needs to run in Avalon before school starts, it leaves Two Harbors at about 6:15am. In the afternoon, it leaves AValon at about 3:30 and arrives back in Two Harbors around 5pm. You can see why they established the Little Red Schoolhouse. Can you imagine an 11-hour day for a first grader?

I guess in general this is the time of life when kids start getting more responsibilities and learning how to be more independent. The kids will have to keep track of class schedules, change (and shower) for PE, and Hobbes in particular will have to be better about remembering things like homework, permission slips, dates of events, etc. I think it will be good for him, but it will also be a steep learning curve these first few months.

Thing 2 (aka Calvin) also had a bit of a milestone first day at school. He has moved into the upper grades, and is now the oldest boy at school. In fact, he is the only boy at school. Five students: four girls and Calvin. To balance this out somewhat, we have, for the first time in the 20+ year history of the LRSH, a male teacher. It will be quite a different experience for all the kids (and maybe the parents and community) to have a male teacher, but he seems to be a very nice guy and we all have high hopes for the school year.

It was, all around, a pretty good first day. Both Things (and Sweetie) were up at 5:15am. Hobbes got through breakfast, chores and preparations just fine, and I stirred myself at 5:45 to go downstairs and see him off. (Then I went back to bed.) Calvin stayed up and had second breakfast (our little hobbit). Sweetie took the opportunity to go for a walk. At 7 I got up to find Calvin had already eaten, done his chores, and packed his backpack. He asked every 10 minutes if it was time to go to school yet. Finally, the time came and we walked down to the school for the traditional first day pictures. Mr. Frizzle seemed raring to go. The kids were very excited and seemed happy to see each other. We dropped our charge off, and headed off to work.

Sweetie has recently become employed (part-time, for now) by the Wrigley, so we were headed in the same direction, except she was on a bike and I was on foot. (At this point she was second-guessing her decision to go for a walk this morning.) The kids were released early today, so at noon, Sweetie rode back home (now REALLY second-guessing the morning walk) to greet Calvin and wait for Hobbes' bus. It was hot today, so at the end of the day, I suggested a swim at the lab. Sweetie brought the Things out, and we swam off the dock with their friends (the Bobsey twins). Both Things were completely exhausted by the end of this day. We had a quiet evening and then it was off to bed.

Tomorrow, we do it all over again. Although maybe with less enthusiasm.

Boston Vacation - Day 4: The Adams Family (They're creepy and they're spooky)

No, no, no. The OTHER Adams family. You know, the one that's not spelled Addams. The one with the guy who wrote the...and was...and his son, too...never mind. We'll get to that.

Today was a bit of a rainy day. Despite that, we again took the T to our destination. (I know the T is underground, but you have to walk on the surface to get to and from it.) Today's destination was Quincy, which, you'll remember from Freedom Trail Pt. 1, is pronounced 'quinzy'. No, not the market, the town, which was birthplace of the two Presidents Adams (John and John Quincy). The historic sites that are associated with Adams National Historical Park are spread out all over town, so they have a central Visitor Center from which visitors take a bus to the Adams birthplaces, and Peacefield. Despite the rain, it was rather busy that day, so we had a little wait before our bus time. We took the opportunity to get the Things started on Jr. Ranger badges. They watched a video and looked at the exhibits at the center: a timeline of Adams history, and models of various buildings that were important to the Adamses.


When our tour started, the first stop was John Adams' birthplace. It's pretty much your standard old wooden building. No Adams artifacts were in them, however the guide was quite personable, and, naturally, knew a great deal about the history of the Adams family. John was the son of a farmer, and always wanted to be a farmer himself, but land was expensive, so he became a lawyer so he could earn enough money to buy some land and farm. Along the way he fell in love with Abigail, and needed to impress her in order for her to marry him, so he built a house - 75 feet away from his birthplace. It worked, and soon Abigail gave birth to John Quincy. And so two Presidential birth sites are 75 feet apart. Rather amazing. This second house is also where John had his law office, and where he (along with some others) drafted the Massachusetts Constitution, the oldest state constitution and a model for the federal version. Hobbes, I think, was impressed by this. Calvin, I think, was wondering what exactly a constitution was. This seems almost bizarre to me, but this house was being used as a residence until the 1960's. That's when they finally purchased it for the National Historic Register.

During the Revolution, after spending much time gallivanting about between Boston and Philadelphia pressing the cause of independence, John was called on to be a diplomat, and so he left for Europe with JQ (who was only 11), spending time in France, Britain and Amsterdam. He came home for about six months, in which time he wrote the Massachusetts Constitution, then it was back to Europe. John Quincy again went with him, but this trip he was apprenticed off to Russia (at age 14 !). Abigail quite forgot what both of them looked like. So at one point, John brought her over to Europe as well, not returning to the US until it was the US. By 1788, the war was over and the Constitution was signed. After spending barely any time at his new estate, Peacefield, he was off to Philadelphia to be Vice President. After holding that position for two terms, he was elected President (the first one-term President). After being defeated by Jefferson, he was done. Finally, he could go home and farm.

John Quincy, meanwhile, was having serious troubles getting out of Europe. After his apprenticeship, which took him to Russia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark, he went to Harvard and became a lawyer. But a few years later, he was appointed Minister to the Netherlands (1794), then Portugal (1796), then Prussia (1797). Returning home, he had nothing better to do, so he became a Senator in 1803. Until he was appointed Minister to Russia in 1809. Then, after being called back to Washington to negotiate the end of the War of 1812, he was appointed Minister to Great Britain from 1815-1817. At that point, the only job he was not incredibly over-qualified for was Secretary of State. So he took the job under President Monroe (writing the Monroe Doctrine). Seriously low now on job possibilities, he was elected President in 1824. Unable to retire after being defeated in the election of 1828, he became a Representative, and served until his death. This was a tremendously amazing guy. If you can read all that and not feel like an under-achiever, you are probably Richard Branson.

But back to our travelogue. Our tour of the birthplaces was over, we hopped back on the bus and zipped over to Peacefield. This was a considerably larger and fancier place, although apparently when they moved in, it didn't look so good. They expanded it quite a bit, adding the Stone Library which now houses both John and John Quincy's libraries. They also have the desk on which he wrote the Massachusetts Constitution.

That was about it for the NHP, so we returned to the Visitors Center (by bus) and got the Jr. Ranger badges. Then, after a quick lunch, we went over to the church where John, Abigail, John Quincy, and his wife Louisa are buried. This is amazing. You can go into the church, down to the basement, and into the chamber that holds the stone tombs. It's a tiny chamber, so you are right there next to them. What an incredible experience to learn how extraordinary these people were and then be in the presence of their mortal remains. I was touched.

So that was our Adams experience. Visiting the houses was so-so, learning the history was eye-opening, and seeing the graves was jaw-dropping.






More soon...

Boston Vacation - Day 3 The Boston Science Museum

Day three of our vacation was Hobbes' birthday. Since we had finished the Freedom Trail, we gave him a few options for activities for the day. He chose to go to the Museum of Science, which turned out to be a great choice.

We took the T down to Mass Gen (Massachusetts General Hospital) and then walked down by the river over to the museum. We got there pretty much when it opened. A few buses full of school groups (I think, or maybe they were camps) were beginning to unload. The front of the museum is a bit baffling. I found it difficult to figure out which door we were supposed to go in through. The boys had a great time looking at the space exhibits, the medical technology exhibits, the models of boats from different time periods, the dinosaurs, and a room about, well, playground physics.

We went to the electricity show. That was really cool. The docent? emcee? resident scientist had a huge Van de Graaff generator and made several types of impressive (and LOUD) displays. For one, they modulated the frequency of the sparks so that it played the William Tell Overature - very cool.

There was also a room about the human body. In it they had a "Circular Tree of Life" showing the phylogenetic relationship of organisms. Being a microbiologist, I was mightily offended by this slice:

The Archaea and Bacteria are much larger divisions (and way more diverse) than the Eukaryotes. Just sayin'. And the weird thing was that I seemed to be the only person who noticed this.

At this point, Grandpa was done with his genealogy business, and came to the museum to meet us. We had tickets to go see a show in the newly refurbished, fully digital, stereo 3-D surround sound, Smell-o-tron 4000, Charles Hayden Plane'arium (that's a little 'in' joke for you South Park followers). The show started with a little intro that just showed the capabilities of the new projection system, and it was awesome. Then came the main feature - Undiscovered Worlds, which was all about the search for exoplanets. I'm pretty sure Sweetie and Grandpa fell asleep. You know how it is with the dark and the comfortable reclining chair and it's after lunch and that plane'arium mellow space music is going in the background - you just kind of drift off. But Calvin and Hobbes loved it.

We were pretty much done with the museum at that point, so we went back to Aunt M and Uncle B's house. It was hot and a little humid. We're not used to the humid part.

For Hobbes' birthday, we had a lobster boil. We got steamed lobsters from a place down the street and taught the boys to shuck ears of corn (and clean up afterwards). It was a good meal, although Calvin didn't like the lobster (even with butter!). Afterwards it was time for ice cream cake and presents. One second cousin almost blew out the candles before Hobbes had a chance to, but his dad saved it at the last second. It was funny. Hobbes got some good stuff, including a cell phone. Such a grown up boy.

Then Grandpa was tuckered out again.

Boston Vacation - The Freedom Trail pt 2

On day two of our visit to downtown Boston, we did the other half of the Freedom Trail. Well, really it's more than half of both the distance and the sites. This section of Boston, Massachusetts, the United States, is steeped in history, being established so early in the European settlement. It boggles the mind to think about the events that occurred here and the many important and famous American heroes who lived and worked here. If you haven't visited Boston, hopefully I can give you a flavor of the experience.

Once again, we took the T down to the start of the Freedom Trail in Boston Commons. This time, however, we located the beginning of the trail and traveled that path back through history...or at least across the Commons towards the State House. We opted to go with a self-guided tour, rather than crowd in with the, well, crowds who were waiting for the period-dressed tour guides provided by the NPS. Sweetie had purchased an informative booklet, which I read from in an authentic (in my own mind) colonial Boston accent.

Our first stop actually had nothing to do with the Revolutionary War or the founding of our country. It was a monument to Col. Robert Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. You may remember them from the movie Glory. They were a regiment in the Civil War that was composed of African-American volunteers. While I don't think it could be argued that they were the most successful unit for the North, they certainly proved both their bravery, their ability and their devotion to country and duty during the assault on Fort Wagner - a major step forward for former slaves (many of them) looking to be accepted and valued as people in our divided nation.

From there we wandered over to the first of two graveyards we would visit, the Granary Burying Ground. They were just starting construction there to make the place more accessible to the thousands of visitors, which, of course, made the place less accessible to us. We eventually found our way inside the gate, and gaped as we saw the graves of many who we learned about in school. The victims of the Boston Massacre (note the linked image was published by...Paul Revere), including Crispus Attucks, are buried there, apparently in a funeral procession witnessed by almost the entire population of Boston at the time. Right next to them is the burial site of Samuel Adams, a key agitator against British rule in the colonies. Also buried there is John Hancock, notable signer of the Declaration of Independence and Paul Revere (more on him later). Your sense of these names learned in school being real people who performed dramatic acts of courage (be it political or physical) is enhanced when standing where they lived and viewing the resting place of their mortal remains.

Our second graveyard visit was King's Chapel Burying Ground. This yard has some of the oldest graves in the country (not counting, of course, those of the indigenous people). Pilgrims and Puritans are buried here in sites marked with beautifully carved headstones. The chapel itself was originally established in 1688 and has been in near-continuous use since. And guess who made it's current bell. That's right, Paul Revere.

From here we walked past the site of the first public school (Boston Latin School - established 1635) and the site of the Old Corner Bookstore to the Old South Meeting House. The Old Corner Bookstore has a really interesting history. Back in the day (the 1630's), it was the residence of Anne Hutchinson, who you can read about in Wordy Shipmates. She was a bit of a character, for a Puritan, and ended up being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for thinking a woman could preach and the government had no business saying she couldn't. So, of course, she settled in Rhode Island, that hotbed of dissidents. Later the site was a bookstore where literary giants like Longfellow, Emerson, and Holmes would hang out.

We next arrived at the Old South Meeting House. Here there was Jr Ranger stuff to do. Calvin (or Thing 2, I can't remember what I'm calling him now) was getting hungry, so it was a bit of a struggle to get him started, but once he decided to do it, he really got into the sequence of events of the British levying taxes and the colonists getting mad, culminating in the Boston Tea Party. Many of the meetings about these exact issues went on in the Old South. We finished our learning tasks and headed out for a 'picnic' lunch on a bench outside the NPS office.

At this point, I'd just like to acknowledge that this is way more than you were expecting from a vacation wrap-up, especially one nearly devoid of photos.

So on to the afternoon. The Old State House is right across from the NPS Visitor's Center. Amongst other historical events, the Declaration of Independence was read to the Boston populace from a balcony on July 18, 1776. Despite the fact that it meant a war would start right there, the people cheered and burned symbols of royal authority. Right across the street - okay, well really it's pretty much in the middle of the street outside the OSH - is a once-brick-but-now-asphalt circle that marks the site of the Boston Massacre. (Not sure what happened there. It's described in all the guidebooks as a brick circle, but it was blacktop this summer. Unless there is another circular feature beneath the lion and unicorn that we managed to miss...)

Faneuil (rhymes with Daniel) Hall was next on the agenda, but some Congressmen were holding a meeting about fishing rights (or something) in there, so we couldn't go in to visit. The boys were entertained by a group of guys who were threatening to break out into a hip-hop street performance, but they never quite got there. It was odd and pretty lame.

We walked down a street (Marshall Street, I believe) that had very old businesses like the Green Dragon Tavern and the Union Oyster House. The road is still cobbled. Walking up to the North End, our destination was Paul Revere's House. Seeing the house was pretty cool. It's not very extensive, and there don't seem to be too many Revere artifacts, but still, this is the structure wherein Paul Revere lived.

Speaking of Paul Revere, our next stop was the Old North Church. This is in a really nice area of town. The gardens and statues and memorials surrounding it are really nice. The church itself is very proud of its history (as it should be) and a nice young woman gave a good retelling of the events of April 18, 1775.

Afterwards, we got a dozen cannolis at Mike's and walked back to the NPS Visitor Center to pick up some Jr. Ranger badges for the Things.

Believe it or not, we've reached the end of this great, history-filled day. Dang I feel patriotic now. I really feel the need to buy a gun, join an unusual religion and write something nasty about the government, all while paying my taxes and voting. Zoroaster Bless America!

Actual Boston Vacation Day 1 - The Freedom Trail pt 1

[Eds. Note: Apologies for the dearth of pictures associated with the first few days of the vacation wrap-up. Sweetie normally takes the majority of the still pictures whilst I man the video camera. She had a memory card go bad, and we lost the photos from these first few days.]

It being Boston, we decided to do the Freedom Trail, a 2 1/2 mile trail through Boston (physically marked in the city by a brick path or a painted red line) that passes by sites with historical significance, many of them from the late-Colonial/Revolutionary War period, but also some from more recent times. The whole thing is now part of a public/private partnership between the NPS and the private groups that had previously been preserving and sharing these sites with the public.

We decided to do the Charlestown section on Sunday, since the USS Constitution was only open to tours Thu-Sun. It was also Father's Day, so there was an extended breakfast at which much family was present (five fathers and nine children with mothers as well). So we got a bit of a late start. We took the T from Cambridge (where we were staying) to the Boston Common.

The visitor's center there in the park was under construction, which made the start of the trail less impressive - plastic sheeting and scaffolding and all. Since we were doing the Charlestown bit, we walked directly to the NPS office to pick up Jr. Ranger booklets. While there, Grandpa bought tri-cornered hats for the Things. Thing 1 immediately put on his hat and wore it the rest of the trip. Thing 2 insisted on wearing his Boston Redsox hat. [Turns out, when you're in Boston, complete strangers will comment on the quality of the Redsox if you are wearing their cap. Curiously, it seems like equal portions of comments are for and against the Sox. Damn Yankees.]  From there, we walked down towards Long Wharf to catch a ferry over to the Charlestown Navy Yard. Since it was lunchtime, we stopped at Quincy (pronounced "Quinzy" locally) Market and had a bite a a local establishment. There was a "living statue" street performer there who drew quite a crowd.

After lunch, we had a bit of walking around all over Long Wharf (due to bad signage and bad directions), we finally discovered which dock we were supposed to be on to catch the ferry. After a lovely ride with nice views of the city, we arrived at the Navy Yard and strode over to the Constitution complex.

The USS Constitution is actually an active ship-of-the-line - the oldest active warship in the world - so it is in a Naval installation and the tours are run by active duty sailors. (Good gig if you can get it.) After going through security, and looking around the visitor's center displays, we waited for the guided tour. The tour of the ship was very interesting. We learned why she was called 'Old Ironsides', what a scuttlebutt was, and to duck your head pretty much all the time when below decks.

From there, we walked over to Bunker Hill. There is an enormous obelisk at the site of the battle, which at one time you could climb up like the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., but right now it's under repair. We saw the statues of William Prescott and Dr. Joseph Warren, and heard a Ranger talk about the battle. Across the street from the monument is a small museum, which we stopped by to see the diorama of the battle and buy some water.

That concluded our visit to that section of the Freedom Trail, so we headed home. The Things were pretty worn out. (I think Grandpa was, too.) We returned via T from the Community College stop, which is at the college where some scenes from Good Will Hunting were filmed (you like apples?).

A successful day one, ended with more good times with family. Vacation is good for the soul.

Boston Vacation Day 1

Day 1 of any vacation is never very interesting. Especially for us, since it mostly consists of finishing packing and getting on a boat for the mainland. We spiced it up a little by stopping by REI to pick up some shoes and a fleece Sweetie ordered for Things 1 and 2 (respectively). Thing 1 needed new sandals because he lost one of his nearly brand-new pair. He left it at the lab, and when we got home he asked me "Didn't you bring it home?"

We stayed in a hotel that evening, eating in the restaurant there. Thing 2 managed to leave his new fleece in the restaurant, which we didn't discover until the next morning. Total time actually possessing the fleece: 4 hours. I suppose it's possible it will be in the lost and found when we return, but somehow I doubt it.

Turning from the foibles of my children, we move on to...

Day 2. This day started with getting up very early (looking for a lost fleece) and going to the airport. The hotel was very close to the airport, or we would have had to get up even earlier. When we got there, our gate was changed and we boarded a little late. The reason, it turned out, was that our original plane had a maintenance issue. ("It had this problem the last few times it landed," the pilot told us, "and there's only so many times a problem can occur before maintenance pulls it from service." I feel so much better.) So then we needed to wait for the catering to deliver food to this new aircraft. For an hour we waited for airplane fare. Oy.

The flight was relatively uneventful. There was a bit of turbulence, but nothing major. We arrived to muggy Boston. Thing 2 complained about the heat. Cousin S picked us up and took us to Uncle B and Aunt M's house. My dad was also there. They were just getting back from a day's cycling in Rhode Island. We dined and talked and had a beer or two. It was good to catch up with family, and they hadn't seen the Things in about 5 years, so there was a bit of catching up to do. The Things also got to meet their second cousins L, S, D and M. They are considerably younger, so the Things were alternately charmed and irritated by them.

I'll leave off here for now and save the juicy bits for the next few posts.

Little Red Schoolhouse Field Trip = Exhaustion

The Little Red Schoolhouse kids went on a field trip to the mainland last week.  As with most things on the island, this trip was considerably more complicated than a normal field trip would be…

We decided that school would meet at 8:00 AM at the ferry terminal in Avalon.  Parents were responsible for getting their children to the mole, where the ferries depart Avalon.

So I got up at 5 AM, began getting ready, then awoke the boys at 5:30 AM.  We ate breakfast. Mom got fueled up with coffee. Dad came downstairs to say goodbye and we were on our way by 6:10 AM.

We arrived in Avalon, picked up an overnight parking permit from the City Hall, parked our truck, and walked to the ferry terminal.  There we met with the teacher and waited for the rest of the boys’ classmates to arrive.

Our group was complete by 7:50 and we all piled on the ferry. After an hour-long ride across the San Pedro Channel, we disembarked at Long Beach and transferred to two rented vans. Our next stop: the Discovery Science Center in Anaheim.

The Discovery Science Center was great.  It is an interesting mish-mash of science topics that kids love, from dinosaurs to rockets. They feature hands-on activities for to help kids understand inertia, the water cycle, mechanical engineering, anatomy, and dinosaurs. The kids tried lying on a bed of nails, rolling balls across a spinning disk, stepping into a chamber where 80 mph winds whipped at your hair, and shooting rockets powered by water. They made art out of coffee filters, soluble markers, and water (and learned a bit about liquid chromatography in the process).

We ate lunch in the restaurant at the Center.  Thing 2 was particularly angry that we were eating our bag lunch rather than buying pizza at the Pizza Hut. He threatened a hunger strike, but a grumbling tummy got the better of his indignation at being denied pizza and he eventually ate something.

We drove back to the ferry terminal around 3:00.  Some of the class caught the ferry back to the island, but we stayed on the mainland for a weekend of fun.

Total travel time (round-trip): about 5 hours

Time at the Science Discovery Center: about 4 hours

Many thanks to the Del Rey Yacht Club for funding our trip.  This yacht club has been a huge supporter of the LRSH over the years and we thank them for their support!

What a Long Strange Trip It's Been

Finishing our story (finally)...

About 5:30, they (the winds) picked up again and everyone woke up. I was thinking to myself I don't want to camp again in wind like this and I don't want to have to try to make breakfast. But through some brilliant non-communication with Sweetie, I got up and attempted to make pancakes while she packed up gear, Thing 1 jumped around on rocks, and Thing 2 (very tired) threw conniptions about just about everything he encountered. The pancakes were a spectacular failure. The griddle couldn't heat up enough so... I don't even want to go into it. It's still too soon. Turns out Sweetie didn't want to have to make breakfast either, and was hoping we'd go to a restaurant for breakfast. We bailed on breakfast, finished packing and found a diner - the perfect Easter breakfast.

We had originally planned to take a longish hike this day, but since we were working on minimal sleep, we decided not to push it too hard. We drove out Rt S22 through the Badlands and found the pull-off for the hike. Again, Sweetie's hiking blog is the place to go to read about the Calcite Mine Trail. I will summarize by saying that we saw some pretty cool stuff, but it was also alternately windy and hot, and we had a very cranky Thing 2.

At this point we decide to leave Anza-Borrego behind and head over to the Salton Sea. We stopped at Salton City for a soda and some ice cream. We had the Things' mouse bone collages on the dashboard, and as I opened the door, the howling wind blew Thing 1's clean away. I managed to grab Thing 2's. Fortunately, since we anticipated something like this happening, Sweetie had taken pictures of them for posterity.

We took off up Rt 86 and had only gone a mile or so when there was a loud pop and Sweetie (who was driving) announced "We lost the car topper!" Indeed, there it was on the side of the road 300 feet behind us. I determined that we could scavenge some parts and re-hook the topper to the car, but neither of us was enthusiastic about a long drive with this thing. So we pulled off at the next stop (the Red Earth Casino - an enterprise of the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians) loaded the stuff in it into the back seat with the Things, and threw the topper in the nearest trash receptacle.

Okay, that all was a little more excitement than anyone anticipated or wanted. On to a drive around the Salton Sea. I thought this would be scenic, but the road is, for the most part, fairly far away from the water, so it was mostly like driving around an industrial construction site. Are you familiar with the Salton Sea? I've linked to the wikipedia site, but for those of you too, um, 'busy' to follow the link, here's the quick dope: in 1905, a particularly heavy snowmelt and spring rain season overwhelmed some dikes built to irrigate farmland, causing the entire contents of the Colorado River to be dumped into the Salton sink FOR TWO YEARS! before it was fixed. (Oops.) An unexpected benefit of this environmental disaster was that large numbers of migrating waterfowl now had a new stopping place. On the downside, since there's no outflow for the Sea, it's getting progressively saltier (already saltier than seawater). So eventually it will become uninhabitable to everything except brine shrimp and bacteria.

We drove to the happening town of Brawley, a mere 15 miles from the Mexican border and got a room at the local Best Western (we were done with camping). After an authentic meal at a local restaurant, we got some well-deserved rest.

The next morning we drove to the Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge and went birding. Well, at first we were mostly lizarding and bunnying, but eventually we got to the birds. Sweetie has now included this on her hiking blog, but I'll summarize our sightings. A short hike from the visitor's center takes you around some artificial ponds and lowlands that are preserved as habitat for the migrating birds. At the center we saw some Collared Doves and Great-tailed Grackles and Gambel's Quail. As we hiked down towards the water, we got a glimpse of a Black-headed Grosbeak, and a great (and long) view of a Western Tanager. We also caught a glimpse of a pair of Roadrunners poking around in the weeds. Finally, we got to the water and saw a ton of terns, some grebes, Black-necked Stilts in their breeding plumage (very handsome), skimmers, and more. When we got back to the Visitor's Center, the Ranger said 'Go out and look in the palm tree.' There was a Barn Owl roosting in it! The bottom of the tree was surrounded by owl pellets, which was very exciting to the Things (having just dissected some - see yesterday's entry).

From there, we drove down a series of roads where artificial burrows for Burrowing Owls had been placed , and boy howdy did we see owls - at least 15! At almost every hole there was one or two standing there looking, you know, owly. We arrived at a wetlands birding spot, but there wasn't much there (although we think we heard a Clapper Rail). We ate a quick picnic lunch and then hied it back to LA.

Despite the inconveniences and problems, we did have a pretty good time, and saw a ton of cool stuff. And we survived, so there's that. Can't say I would recommend camping in Anza-Borego during the windy months (or the hot months), but there are some cool things to see if the weather cooperates.

The Answer, My Friend

Continuing our story from yesterday...

Saturday morning we woke up feeling somewhat refreshed and ready for a fun day of visiting Anza-Borrego State Park. We had breakfast in our room (since it was a suite, it did have a kitchen, and we did have food for camping), and then drove over to the Visitor's Center. Since we would be camping that evening, we talked at length with a Ranger about some of the back country camping sites around. We were far too rustic to want to camp in the improved campground at the park that would have people who 'camp' in RVs with their satellite TVs and quadrophonic stereos. We wanted a place without picnic tables or water. Cause we're outdoorsy.

We decided on the Culp Valley site, and drove up to pick a site. The campsite sits in a pass at about 3400 ft elevation. When we got there, the wind was blowing pretty steadily at probably about 10 knots or so. We tried to figure out a) which site would give us the best protection from the wind, b) where we were supposed to build a fire (since there was a sign saying you could only build fires in metal containers and there didn't seem to be any metal containers at the campsites) and c) exactly where the heck the campsites were. (It turns out in the desert a campsite looks a lot like a patch of ground with no vegetation.) Finally we chose a site where we could set up our tent next to a tree which we thought (ho HO!) would give us some shelter from the wind. We set up and hurried back down to the Visitor's Center so the Things could participate in the Jr. Ranger program.

For the Jr. Ranger program, they had the kids learn about owl pellets (sort of like cats' furballs, but with bones), and then each kid got to dissect their own pellet, mounting all the little mousie bones on a sheet of card stock with glue. It sounded like a lot of fun, but parents weren't allowed in. Sweetie and I browsed the museum and watched the short film while the Things Rangered. They emerged about an hour later with a shiny metal badge and their mouse bone collage (which we were quite sure would not survive the trip home). Thing 2 was particularly pleased because he found FIVE shoulder blades.

After a quick picnic lunch, we headed out on the Borrego Palms Canyon hike, which Sweetie has covered quite nicely in her hiking blog, so I won't go into detail, other than to say it was quite pleasant, and we did meet our goal of seeing many desert wildflowers.

It was with some tired Things that we returned to the car and headed up the rise to the campsite. The wind had picked up some, so now it was probably around 15 knots, and it was getting dark and chilly. We didn't have a table at the campsite, so we cooked in the back of the car (with the hatchback open). We did a ground turkey lettuce wrap, which was pretty good, but sand was starting to blow around, so sometimes a little crunchy. We decided to just head into the tent after dinner. Having neglected to bring cards, we ended up reading and the Things played with their new puppets they bought at the Park, Hootie (an owl) and Jake Fuzzy Nelson (a coyote). About 8pm we decided to call it a night.

The winds were howling. The tree was not much help. Some of the tent stakes were pulled from the ground. It was loud. I was having trouble falling asleep, as was Sweetie and the Things. The Things were worried the tent would blow away. Sweetie was concerned how the morning would go. I, on the other hand, tried to construct in my head a scenario in which we would need to evacuate during the night: a tear forms in the tent (maybe from a branch of the tree?), the wind proceeds to tear the tent to shreds, and there we are trying to pack our gear in the dark in the wind to find shelter elsewhere. That didn't come to pass, but it was fun to worry about while my sleeping pad (which didn't hold air) deflated. At one point I thought to myself, "well, maybe it's close to dawn and this night is nearly over." I looked at my watch - 12:40am. The wind was still howling (the next day I looked it up - 20 knot sustained, 40 knot gusts), my pad was flat, and I was worried the boys were either cold, or had snuggled into their sleeping bags because they were cold and were slowly suffocating. I get this from my father. Finally, around 1:30, the winds died down some and I got some sleep.

I'll quit here for today and finish up tomorrow.

A Simple Plan

I don't know how many of you have seen the movie A Simple Plan, but the story goes something like this: three guys find airplane wreckage in the woods with a bag full of cash. They decide to sit on the money until spring, and then split it and move away from the small town they live in. Unfortunately, the 'simple plan' goes wrong because, well, people are greedy and stupid, and $4M makes you kinda paranoid. In the end, everyone is either dead or unhappy, and the money is up in smoke, so it was all for nothing.

Now, what does this have to do with our camping trip to Anza-Borrego State Park? Well, we did find a plane wreck full of cash... No, not really. We did have a simple plan for a nice weekend, which sort of spiraled down into a suburbanite survival adventure. Let me explain.

Sweetie thought it would be nice over Spring Break to head out to the desert while the flowers were still blooming to see, well, all the pretty flowers blooming. Being the hardy variety of suburbanite, we decided it would be fun to camp. I should note that the last time we camped in the desert, it was 118F when we arrived. We cleverly were planning our trip in a cooler period of the year, so we did not anticipate a repeat of that experience. The plan was to go over to the mainland on the Friday boat (arriving around 2pm), drive out to ABSP, camp Friday night, see the park Saturday, camp Saturday night, do a longish hike Sunday, camp Sunday night, drive to the Salton Sea Monday morning to do some birding, and then drive back to San Pedro.

Logistics for a camping trip, when the first part of the trip is 'Get on a boat', are a little more complicated. While we would be car camping, the car would be our tiny Prius, which doesn't hold much more than the four of us and a cooler. So we pulled the car topper we used for our Trek Across America (see my July 2007 blog postings) out of the shed, filled it with camping goodies, and we were on our way.

The boat trip was uneventful. I spent most of it talking to some colleagues who had been out on the island for a meeting I had organized, the Things were in the wheelhouse learning how to use the radar, sonar and AIS software. (Capt Trevor was very patient.) We arrived, hauled all our gear to the car, and managed to squeeze it all in. We had two stops to make before leaving, one to the apartment to drop off a bag for the post-trip activities (doctor and dentist appointments for the boys) and the other to REI to pick up our new GPS unit. So we got a later start than planned for.

We took the 91 east, not running into serious traffic until we were approaching Riverside. I don't know why there's always such bad traffic around Riverside. Who in their right mind would want to live out there? (And commute into LA, I mean.) This reminds me of the people who live in Hagerstown and commute to DC, except there's like a million more of them. Anyway, we had dinner in Corona, hoping some of the traffic would clear up, which it did, some. We then headed south on 15.

When we hit Temecula, I had no idea it was the last bastion of civilization, so I neglected to fuel up. Forty minutes later, with at least forty minutes still ahead of us to get to the park, we were on our last bar of gas, and in the middle of nowhere. Sweetie and I began to get anxious, which started making the Things anxious. Night was now falling, and we were feeling less and less enthusiastic about camping. After passing through one 'town' (Santa Ysabel, which, to my knowledge, consists of one 'Resort' and one gas station that closes at 6pm), we were losing the last of our optimism. Fortunately, a few miles down the road we ran into Julian. Not some guy, a town named Julian (elev. 4200 ft). They had an open gas station. Hooray! Crisis averted. We could now get to someplace to sleep for the night.

Wait a minute. We were in a cute little town (in some creepy fog that had rolled in). Why not stay there? So we browsed around for a hotel. The one hotel on the main street was full, and the other 'inns' appeared to be more of the bed & breakfast variety that don't appreciate last-minute arrivals. So we took an absolutely insane road (Rt. 78 - more like skiing slalom (and dropping like a stone) than driving for the first 4 miles and then straight as an arrow for the next 4 - after that I guess it's creativity is spent and it turns into a normal road) down to Borrego Springs (elev. 600 ft). On the plus side, Sweetie and I spotted a spotted skunk, which was gorgeous; on the minus side, the Things were extremely anxious about not finding a hotel. At this point it was about 10pm. Finally, we did find a room at Staunlands Resort Inn and Suites, which was reasonably cheap, but stretched the definition of both 'Resort' and 'Suite' (and perhaps 'Staunland'). It had beds though, so everyone in our car was happy.

Well, I'm exhausted, and we haven't even really started yet. More tomorrow!