Fall Ended Too Early!

Our first snow and frigid weather came on November 10th! And more is arriving every day!

Earlier in September - the Air and Space Museum is so huge you need several days to see it all. 

Scott and Kolya working on a robot project - lots
a very little pieces.

This immersive work of art at the National 
Gallery of Art  took a while to see it all.

The Botanical Gardens are a good place to go in
the rainy weather!

"Let the wild rumpus begin" at the Museum of
American Indian Culture.

 

The Northeast has been suffering from drought for the first time since they began monitoring in 2000. Impacts are widespread, including water supply and quality issues, increased wildfires, crop losses/low yields, and livestock forage concerns. Here is Shrewsbury many shallow wells have dried up or have little water. Luckily our well is deep and we haven't seen any reduction. The big visible change is a early and drab foliage season. And that means less tourists and unhappier ones than normal. For a change the constant nice weather is negatively commented on! And rain is a delight. Obviously there are lots of other parts of the country that have suffered much more, but it's all quite new to us. 

The modern wing of the Gallery of Art was spectacular!

We've been traveling to visit family this season. First a week babysitting our 7 year old grandson Kolya in Washington DC. They live right in the Capitol District so while he was in school, we visited several of the Smithsonian Museums: Air & Space, Museum of the American Indian & Culture, National Gallery of Art, and the Botanic Garden. James and Morgen had a fun week in Asheville, NC. 

Our oldest son Josh in Central Park

His birthday dinner - Michal, Shira, Heather, Josh,
Cookies, Uzi and Maya

Heather helps with the blowout!

Ready to blow out the many candles - Wilma,
Heather, Brent and Leslie

Brent's birthday party group at the restaurant: back row: Sharome, Morgen, James, Brent, Scott, Wilma, Joseph, Eric, LaVern, Leah, Gabriel, Wandi, Leslie, Lisa and Yosi. Front row: Heather, Muriel and LaVern. 

At Brent & Wilma's home later: Standing: Scott, Lisa, Eric, Maya, Yosi, Heather, Wandi, Joseph, Brent, LaVern, Uzi, Shira, Josh and Michal. Seated: Oren, Leah, Wilma, Lindsey and Muriel. 

Next we drove down to NYC to celebrate 4 birthdays - all in a week's time. Our granddaughters Maya and Ariella's were first, then our son Joshua and last Scott's brother Brent. We stayed two nights with Josh and family in the upper east side of Manhattan and then went over to South Orange, NJ for a big dinner celebration for Brent's 75th. Josh, Michal and 3 of their kids, Maya, Jonathan, and Shira came. James, Morgen and Kolya drove up from Washington. Scott and Brent's Aunt Muriel Fox Aronson, 97, came with her two children, Eric and Lis. She just recently finished her book tour for "The Women's Revolution". 

Chryl, Pam, Liesbeth, Heather, Reesa, Jean Marie, Kim, Sarah and Ella with desserts.

Meanwhile at home we kept busy as usual. Heather had here eighth cooking class to benefit Pierce's Store. The theme was Appetizers & Desserts. Eight students cooked 4 appetizers, two cold and two hot. They worked with puff pastry and filo dough plus arranged canapes. For dessert we made a chocolate raspberry layer cake and two fruit tarts. Five guests joined us for dinner. We raised $460 for the store. 

Grace Church with an unusual apparatus!

Our two Opera Singers - that's Elizabeth 
Wohl on the top.

Pink Martini is one of our favorite groups so we went down to Plymouth to see them and stayed with Debbie and Dick. Marty joined us The concert was wonderful as was the fun company and food! Then the Champlain Philharmonic Symphony collaborated with Arc Benders Circus Opera for a fun version of The Magic Flute at Grace Church. Two opera singers and acrobats performed both physically and vocally. The aerialist and soprano, Elizabeth Wohl, sang the Queen of the Night aria upside down hanging from silks! 

The Vermont Symphony Jukebox quartet

And then the Weston Theater did The Twelfth Night Show. Four band members are thrust into the spotlight when charged with staging a one-of-a-kind production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night to save their beloved theater. There was a good deal of the actual dialogue along with songs, puppets and general antics. Last was the Vermont Symphony's Jukebox String Quartet on stage - performers and audience - with a theme of Strength and Hope. The selections included both Beethoven and Shostakovich, as well as Ethel Smythe and Woody Guthrie! 

And finally for this blog entry, we babysat our 2 year old grandson Rowan in Boston for a week. Sean and Will went to London to celebrate Will's 40th birthday. Halloween was really fun for us - hundreds of kids came to the house and Rowan handed out a lot of candy! He was an adorable duckling and Scott was a giant bee. I was much more pedestrian with a horse head. It was a wonderful week!

Grandpa, Rowan and Jeremy

A bee and duckling prepared for Halloween.

Grammy with Rowan who is trying
out Scott's bee glasses

Great visit to the Children's Museum - here Rowan powers 
up the lights.

2024 - Finishing up the Year!

Scott and I took some long walks in nearby 
Central Park and got to watch the runners in the
NYC Marathon.

Daniel and Shira contemplate one of my 
chocolate chip cookies. I brough tons of 5 
verities and they were all gone in a few days!

 

Cookie, Uzi and Maya pile up on Josh

Uzi, Heather, Maya and Shira at the Museum of
Modern Art.

Before our trip to Ireland we went down to NYC to visit our oldest son Josh and his family. Michal and their two younger children moved to Manhattan in September. They joined their oldest three kids who are all at Columbia University: a Senior, Junior and a Freshman. Their Coop apartment is on the corner of Park Ave. and 84th and has room for all of us. So we'll be visiting NYC more often!

Heather with Jessie and her son.
Mollie's 3 children and Rowan were
there as well, but somehow I only
took 2 photos!

And here's the other one: Doug, Carol, Julie and Gene.
These are both at the Holiday Open House

After returning from Ireland we had several parties to enjoy. First, Pierce's had a dinner for all their volunteers and staff - great fun and excellent food. Then our annual Holiday Open House in Boston which this year was hosted for the first time by Marty Wolf and her daughter and son-in-law, now living next door, Molly and Patrick. Scott and I stayed with Marty for the weekend to help out with the preparations. We had a big turnout with lots of family and friends. Last was a pot luck dinner for my Book Club members and their spouses at our good friends and neighbors, Lily & Eldred French.

Everyone dressed and ready for a day on the slopes. Michal, Maya, Daniel, Shira, Uzi & Cookie.

It was Daniel's 22nd birthday and we
made a three tier chocolate cake
filled with s'more ingredients!

Michal, Cookie, Shira, Scott, Uzi & Daniel - lighting the 
Menorahs

This was our year for Thanksgiving so the rest of our family was celebrating Christmas with their in-laws. But Josh's family accepted our invitation to come visit us for the week and celebrate Hanukah with us. Yeh! The only sad news was that Josh could not goin us. He was stuck being the doctor for his partnership during the holidays. Michal, my daughter-in-law drove up from NYC with our grandchildren, Daniel, Cookie, Maya, Uzi and Shira. What a great time we had and the weather cooperated with lots of snow. They skied two days at Killington, made snow forts and snow men, sledded, and roasted a LOT of marshmallows. 

Also in November Kolya got to go on his first
real tent camping trip on the AT.

And now we're on our way south - more on my next post.

And I couldn't resist adding this
fun photo of Rowan and a pair of
outsized boots.

Belhaven to Maine

Sean, James, Brent, Scott, Joshua and Daniel - The Garren Men

We returned to Bel Haven, N.C. after James' graduation and some time at Tall Timbers in Vermont. I was alone at the house when a serious thunderstorm struck. Scott had called me to warn me and a minute later I heard a roaring sound. I ran to the front of the house and saw the wind come across the lake, creating a wave, and then the tall pines at the waterfront started to crack and fall. I ran to the other end of the house fearing the ones closest to the house would fall on it. They didn't.

James' Graduation from Marlboro College, VT

It took quite a while for Scott and the boys to get back as the roads were closed and the telephones and electricity were out. They were a bit worried. I was alright and so was our house, but trees fell on the boathouse and canoe.
It took a while to clean up the mess. But we had fun visiting Montreal and the Barns in Essex, NY with Sean for a week.
Then we headed back to the boat to get it north before hurricane season. A few days in Bel Haven to prepare the boat and we tried to leave early in the morning but couldn't get out of the slip - stuck in the mud. Finally after an hour of rocking back and forth we pulled out. After two nights at our favorite stops we entered Norfork, VA where we had an exciting Fourth of July celebration anchored just off the hospital. The fireworks went off right over our head.
The next day we sailed over the tunnel section of the Chesapeake Bridge and started a three day journey to Newport, R.I.

with good weather. It didn't hold however and we battled wind and rain as we tried to round Long Island. The wind was coming straight at us and so were a group of fishing boats we could see on our radar (no visability outside and it was the middle of the night). They wouldn't answer us on the VHF and we had a hard time getting around them. Meanwhile the boat is bashing up and down.
"Do we need to get to Newport tomorrow", I said.
"What do you mean?"
"How about heading west to NYC and getting in the shelter on Long Island"

"You don't have to say it twice" He was out at the wheel and I trimmed the sails for a much easier reach and we said good-bye to those nasty fishermen. It meant 2 additional nights before reaching Newport but they were in comfort. And we got to sail into NYC at dawn - a beautiful sight.
It was an easy trip up the East River with the correct timing and a nice sail up Long Island Sound. We had friends waiting there - Roger and Francoise on "Starship Annie" and we took turns having dinner aboard both boats. My ski instructor buddy DeeDee  and her husband Eli Watson-Simon came aboard for dinner one night and she treated us to a great lunch out.

From there we sailed to Quisset Harbor where we took a mooring for a few days to visit Karen and Ted in Falmouth. Then off to Nantucket in the heavy fog. It was eerie and a little scary to hear the high speed ferry pass close to us in the channel and not even see them a bit. We made our way into the harbor slowly and carefully and picked up an empty mooring. Nantucket was a beautiful sight the next morning in the sunshine. We rented bikes and toured all over the island for a few days.
We returned to Quisset for a few nights. Russ and Ted joined Scott for a day trip over to Cuddyhunk and then through the Canal. We planned to stop in Scitate

Bel Haven has many lovely homes along the waterfront

The sun hits a skyscraper in Portsmouth
just across from Norfork.

once more but we "stopped" right outside the harbor when the engine cut off. No luck getting it restarted, it was getting dark and we aren't comfortable with sailing through a narrow channel and into a packed harbor. So Boat US to the rescue and thank goodness. They put us right on a mooring.

Sunset at anchor Duck Island Roads, N. Clinton, CT

Next day Scott replaced the impeller and we were off, back to Boston Harbor Marina. It was 7/22. We left Bel Haven on 7/2. Six days later after making some repairs we left and headed overnight to Portland, Maine. We left Scott Free at the Portland Yacht Services while we attended Sean's Family Weekend at Dartmouth (Sophomores spend the summer at Dartmouth). Once back we set sail again north at 6:45am 8/1 and by 6pm that night were anchored in Kent Cove, Fox Island Thoroughfare after a day often in thick fog.
More on our month in Maine in the next posting.

Russ and Marty Wolf on Ted and Karen's beautiful
front porch in Falmouth

Southward Bound

At our mooring in Mattapoisett  at dawn

On August 22 we left Boston behind and made our second trip through the Cape Cod Canal. We did it at night. I was at the wheel, Scott below sleeping, when I turned the boat around the markers and headed up the channel, looming rock jetties on each side. The bright lights lining the canal blinded me and as I started under the first bridge I suddenly realized a huge tanker was coming right at me. Wow! Did my boat turn on a dime and head for the edge! Luckily it's pretty deep close to.

Schooner on Long Island Sound

We were headed for Mattapoisett again, this time to pick up Sean and friend Caitlin for a cruise. This is a wide pretty bay with free moorings from the boatyard. The next morning we sailed up the south coast of the Cape and flew through Woods Hole Cut. The currents here are extremely strong and it's necessary to plan your passage through here at close to slack tide. We were a little late. There are a lot of channels here near the mouth of the harbor and it was confusing but we made it through.
It's a short sail across to Martha's Vineyard. We moored again in Oak Bluffs. It was more fun this time as we were a bit more experienced. This is a tight harbor with packed in boats.
We rented bikes and explored. Sean and I spent a great vacation here many years ago and one of our fondest memories was jumping off the bridge over an inlet along the beach. We did it again - still fun! Edgartown is a beautiful town with great restaurants and we love walking through the cottage community at Oak Bluffs.
After a few days there, we left and as we did with the Korbeys the year before, we stopped at Tarpaulin Cove in the Elizabeth Islands to swim and eat and then continued to Cuttyhunk Harbor for the night. This has been a favorite place of ours for years.

Scott's Dad Mitchel at home in Conn.

We came here twice on a friend's boat and Scott and James spent a weekend here once fishing. We only had one night as Caitlin needed to get home so we returned to Mattapoisett to let her off. Sean continued with us towards Newport R.I. but we ran into bad weather. The wind was directly in front with gusts up to 30 knots. It was VERY uncomfortable and after hours of crashing into the waves, I suggested we just turn to port and spend another night at Cuttyhunk. Relief! Amazing what a difference it was on a reach with the sails up! It was wonderful to pick up a mooring and relax.
We left early the next day and it was thrill to sail into Newport Harbor! This has always been a favorite place but we've never been on a boat here, let alone our own. Sean took a bus home and after two nights we headed on down the Long Island Sound. We had a reservation at the Noank Yacht Club for ten days. We needed to take Sean up to Dartmouth and get him settled. Scott had some work to do, we wanted to visit Scott's father Mitchell and we needed to close up Vermont.

Clouds building up over Noank

When we arrived at 5 PM, no one knew we were coming. The man Scott talked to during the summer had left and evidently didn't tell anyone. Everyone was so nice. They insisted we tie up to the dock for the night and they'd figure it out. By morning we had a mooring, Paul Taylor's for the next eight nights. We could only get to the mooring at high tide and I think we had little to nothing under us at low tide. Luckily the bottom was mud. During the week a hurricane brushed by off shore and it was really rough. I was on board alone for the day and very nervous. Paul came out with two heavy anchors to reinforce the mooring. We couldn't thank him enough - and he refused any compensation.


We anchored next at N. Fisher's Point, Saybrook on the Connecticut River and then again at Milford. Leslie Smith's college roommate's mother and husband, Mike and Sandy Madigan, invited us to use their mooring at Bell Island, off South Beach, near Norwalk. We ended up staying in their home for two nights. They were great hosts and had a beautiful home there.

Scott and brother Brent at the 79th St. Boathouse mooring

Our last anchorage in Long Island Sound was off City Island. There is a yacht club here although we haven't gone ashore. It is necessary to time your passage down the East River the next morning from the Sound to the Harbor through Hell's Gate. Well named we hear, although we carefully planned our three passages through it (two others the following year) and had no problems. The first part was a peaceful and interesting trip past the Maritime Academy and under the Long Island bridges we'd been over hundreds of times by car. Then the positive current swept us down the river, faster and faster. We were around Hell's Gate bend and in a few minutes the United Nations Building gleamed in the sun - seen here behind me. It was a thrill to see the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges from the underside!

The United Nations building gleaming in the sun on the
East River

Our oldest son Josh lived for many years in a loft on the river, which we saluted as we passed. The current slowed after we went around the tip of Manhattan and we had it against us slightly going up the Hudson. We stayed on a mooring at the 79th Street Boathouse, a few miles up. The currents on the river make it quite challenging at times getting on and off the boat but it's an amazing place. For only $40 a night we were fifty feet from the shore and let's say, 1000 meters from Zabar's Deli. We love New York and this was a thrill. There is even a charming cafe and FREE laundry facilities at the Boathouse!
We left the boat on the mooring for two nights while we visited Brent and Wilma, Scott's brother and his wife. We even participated in a labor rally in Atlantic City with them. He's Chief Counsel for UNITE.

An old boat tries to make way against the current

When we got back we found our dinghy, tied up to the docks, filled with debris and barely floating. There had been a storm during our time away. It was a huge job pulling it up on the dock and cleaning it. Disgusting!!!
We left NYC in the very early morning before dawn. It was a thrill to sail past the Statue of Liberty and out into the crowded harbor, under the Tappan Zee Bridge and out to sea. We planned to visit our friends on "Sea Angel" at Brielle Marine Basin at the Manasquan Inlet for one night. The weather was lovely for a sail down the N.J. coast and the entrance easy into the inlet. Once in we passed under the railroad bridge and docked at the Brielle Marine Basin marina. Ed was there to tie up our lines and take us out to lunch. His wife Benia was unfortunately away.

UNITE protest in Atlantic City, NJ

The next morning we had to leave in the dark. We called the bridge attendant before casting off our lines and waited for the bridge to open. It was pretty frightening for us newbies to navigate out the inlet in the dark - a first, for sure. But we had a long trip ahead of us, down the rest of the NJ coast to Cape May. We wanted to be safely anchored there before dark. We came in through the Inlet from the Atlantic and anchored near the Coast Guard Station.
We could not exit via the Cape May Canal out to the Delaware due to fixed 55' bridges so we made another before dawn exit back out the Inlet and carefully made our way through the complicated channels around the Cape and up the Delaware.