...and we're back

We're back from our yearly Pennsylvania/Maryland/Delaware tour.  A good time was had by all.  Apologies to those of you we didn't get to visit; things were a bit jam-packed.  Some highlights from our major destinations:

Carlisle: They'll fix you up
The above proposed promotional tag line for Carlisle is a result of the fact that we (finally) got a bunch of things fixed while we were here.  And all within like 8 hours.  I got a new battery for my watch, then Jake got his battery fixed, then we got the car fixed.  It was an amazing day of getting stuff fixed.  What was wrong with the car?  Well, if you saw us during our travels, you also heard us....Ernie suggested that we could easily join a motorcycle gang.  Lucy exclaimed "the car farted!"  We needed a bit of exhaust work.  But all is well now!

Sign that delighted me: Free Veggies Mondays 5:45 / Next Bike Repair Clinic (seen outside a local church)

Sign that horrified me: Gun Raffle (seen outside the local fire station)

Sight that delighted me: A giant field of solar panels at my old high school, including SHEEP grazing underneath them to keep the grass & weeds under control.  Brilliant!

Other highlights: walking Gus (Mom's neighbor Gloria's dog), as pictured here:

Among other Carlisle attractions, there's always the fun of going up into the attic archives at my Mom's house.  On this trip I found and claimed:
-a doll that I made of Long John Silver as a book report project in the seventh grade (it now sits in my office as a talisman against extra credit projects)
-two metal casket plates engraved with my name (I once made these regularly on Saturdays spent at the Boyertown casket sales office with my Dad.  I thought they were all long gone, so I was delighted that these had been saved!)
-my three Strawberry Shortcake dolls (Apricot, Lemon Merigue, and Lime) all wrapped up inside their original boxes (will they go to Lucy or will they go on Ebay?)

Being back at my Mom's house always involves seeing things that I haven't looked at in decades....particularly since she did a really good job of saving all of my (and Brendan's) toys and has cleaned them all up to share with Lucy and Luke. One of the greatest hits is these fish (shown above), which are a really simple thing -- basically plastic or vinyl and they cling to the walls of the bathtub.  I remember them vividly my childhood, and Lucy is crazy about them.  The design is just so simple and pleasing.  But we have no idea where they came from, or who made them, or if anything like them is still made.  Readers, do they look familiar?  We think they're circa 1978 or so.  Maybe 1980.
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Maryland:
It was a short visit to Germantown, but we were delighted to see Brendan & Jennifer & Luke.  We can't wait to meet their new family member, too.  We visited the best playground ever: South Germantown's Adventure Playground.  It was really, seriously, amazing.  It even accommodated grown-ups (though the taller ones had some trouble with the height of some things).  Because Lucy and Luke were both vibrating balls of excitement flying off in different directions, it was difficult to get a photo of the two of them together.  But there are a few good ones:

There's some video of that madness, too, and I will try to process it and get it posted soon.

We also played an exhausting game of Settlers of Catan.  Mistakes were made, alliances formed, trust broken....we may never play again.

Below is the first photo on the camera from Germantown, which bears striking resemblance to the last photo on the camera from Rehoboth (a bit further below):

There was a lot of reading going on.
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Rehoboth:
There was so much that happened in the week that it's hard to keep track.  Lucy had an amazing time with her cousins, who very kindly tolerated her particular variety of insanity, which included fairly constant singing, a return to her narration mode ("she said"/'she exclaimed"/"she yelled as she pushed" after every statement), and an obsession with being read to.  Jamie read her a ton of books, as did most of the visitors to the house.  She slept in our room, and in the middle of one night, she awoke and groggily, pitifully asked, "can somebody please read something to me?"  Yup.

 

Speaking of beach reading, I picked up the second installment of Deborah Harkness's trilogy and devoured all 500+ pages while at the beach.  I was in a race against Jessamy (I lost) to finish.  It was terrific.  You may recall my praise for the first volume, A Discovery of Witches, but I may have liked this one -- Shadow of Night -- even better.  

In the spirit of reading, we visited our favorite beach store, Browseabout Books, where we had a special visit from Clifford, the Big Red Dog. Here's Lucy's face when he arrived:

 

Yup, pretty excited.  But she wouldn't go up to him.  Oh well.  Instead, she and Jamie and Ma read some books together:

Besides reading, there was also some bike riding, with the tandem playing a key role in our transportation around the beach:

 

(And yes, Lucy is carrying two loaves of french bread there in the back seat.)

The big beach event was the Cocktail Party hosted by Ernie and Vonnie.  The crowd was huge, the food was amazing, and the dancing....well, here you can see for yourself:

Sadly, I didn't get many pictures (though I did take some pictures of the night-before-practice-cocktail-party: check the flickr stream right around here), but boy, did everyone have a good time.  On the way home from the party (we were on the bike) Lucy asked, "Can we have a cocktail party at our house tomorrow night to thank Vonnie and Ernie for their cocktail party?"  Genius idea.  The kid likes a cocktail party.

Jack and Charlie and Sammy's Lemonade Stand was another standout, particularly with the amazing feature of potato chip cookies.

These boys are sitting on a goldmine -- investors?  Seriously, they could make a mint on this.

We also took the requisite visit to Funland, which was, despite this image of Lucy's apparent displeasure:

very fun, as you might infer from this image:

Cousins: they make everything more fun.

And although Lucy was completely exhausted (and covered in ice cream) by the end of the evening, she really did have a tremendous time.  We all did:

Final analysis: Funland: it's fun.

 

So long, Farewell, 506 Scarborough:

I'm going to wind things up here, but wanted to end by thanking all the lovely folks who made our trip possible.  It was great to see all of you.  I've tried to put the better photos up on Flickr.

And if we didn't get to see you on this trip, I sure hope we can next time!

Where has the summer gone? It's almost August. 

Return to 83 Durant

We're back from our trip to Vinalhaven, Maine. We had a lovely time (see the Flickr pix for more specifics). Lucy had a grand time being the focus of lots of adult attention.

Here is the house where we stayed:
It was amazingly awesome, with lots of rooms and nooks and crannies and tons of books,

and lots of nooks where the reading of books took place:
The house was HUGE, with 9 or so bedrooms (we lost count) and a HUGE fireplace:
Here's the large kitchen:
There was a music room:
(we had to provide our own musicians, though the piano was provided).

[Edit: We only had to provide a violinist. The man on the piano is the owner of the house, Mr. Terry, whose family built the house in 1917.]

There was also a cocktail room.
This photo doesn't do it justice, but it was upstairs, with full-length windows to the outside, and these windows (in the picture) to the inside. I wish we had a better shot of it, but it was perfect. We're thinking of adding a cocktail room to our house!


On the way there, we had terrific lobster rolls at Red's in Wiscasset, Maine.
And here's the famous lobster rolls:
YUM!

We went to the beach for a bit one afternoon; it's not quite Rehoboth, Delaware (where we usually spend our beach vacation).

Despite the muddy, muddy sand, and the cold, cold water, Lucy insisting on going out into the ocean. Jake was a good sport and walked her out through the sink-into-mud-sand, and Lucy got into the water up to her neck. Seriously.

Next time, we'll bring a swimming suit. And boots.


On the way home, there was a bit of drama when the tandem bike fell off the roof of the car while we were on route 95, crossing a bridge between Maine and New Hampshire. Thankfully (and amazingly) no one was hurt. We were in the middle lane when it went over (on the passenger side) and it ended up in the right lane. Jake did some great driving and managed to get us pulled over quite quickly. It was in the middle of the lane with heavy traffic, so it wasn't safe to go grab it. He called 911, and within 10 minutes or so, a state trooper came and retrieved it safely. Meanwhile, we had pulled off the bridge to await what we thought would be 1) the drastically damaged remains of our bike 2) a lecture and ticket from a trooper or 3) both of the above. Instead, the trooper left the bike by the side of the road on the bridge, called our cell and told Jake he could go retrieve it. WOW! We were very relieved. It turns out that the frame wasn't damaged (as far as we can tell). The handlebars and one saddle sustained some damage, but really, it doesn't seem that bad. Jake will be doing a full maintenance check (we had already broken the chain while we were on a ride, so the bike was out of commission pending a mechanic anyway).

So that's the update for now. We had no internet access while we were in the house, and our cell phones didn't work either. It was nice to be (mostly) disconnected for a bit. And you should think nothing of the fact that while we were on "vacation" and you weren't able to contact us, fugitive Boston mobster Whitey Bulger was captured. Nope, nothing at all unusual there. We were on vacation.