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.