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.