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!