Our Three Sons

Heather got to celebrate her birthday with family this year with our oldest son Josh and his family. For many years we've been away during April.  And every year is a milestone year now - she's 81! From left Scott, Jonnie (old friend), Jonathan, Josh, Maya, Michal, Shira, Heather and Daniel in their dining room.

Over the next several weeks we schlepped back and forth between our three sons and their families.  Our youngest had asked us to babysit their 2 year old, Rowan, while he and Will went to New Orleans. It was too early to get to Boston with the RV, so we flew down from Washington DC. 

Rather a gloomy rainy Easter but it didn't stop the 5 kids from
their Easter egg hunt!

Kolya diving into his Easter basket
with Mom looking on.

But first we spent a long Easter weekend in Washington with our middle son, James, daughter-in-law Morgen and grandson, Kolya who is 7.  Easter day itself was with Morgen's parents and sister's family. Despite the rain there was a successful Egg Hunt and then a wonderful holiday meal. On Monday we spent the day at the National Aquarium in Baltimore with Kolya. It's one of his favorite places and a remarkable building and location on the inner harbor as well as, of course, an excellent aquarium.

The live version of the stuffed alligator we brought
back from Florida for Kolya.

Kolya added a Moray eel to his collection at the
Aquarium Gift Shop. 

Our time in Boston with Rowan was great as always. We got to see son Sean the first night and he and husband Will the night they came home. Two days were with daycare so very easy but then two full days over the weekend. He is so much fun but keeping up with him was exhausting. One day we went to the Franklin Park Zoo. A huge success were the groundhogs, cranes, and especially the giraffes, which includes a baby one! The second day we stayed close to home. There is a terrific playground and park at a nearby beach. 

It was a windy day at the Franklin Park Zoo -
as you can see from Rowan's hair!

He loves to climb and is pretty fearless - he
keeps us on our toes!

After returning to Washington we spent three more nights including our 47th Wedding Anniversary with James and family. We went to dinner at a local Trinidad Restaurant and it was great. We spent many months there on 3 different times on our boat, including two summers and the 2 months of Carnival preparations and events. We also had another fun day with Kolya at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History - another big favorite of Kolya's, especially since it includes another gift shop. This time a beautiful butterfly. And Scott had a day visiting politicians for a bit of lobbying. He talked to staff at Chuck Schumer's, Senators Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch. One of Bernie's staff took Scott on the underground train over the Representative Becca Balint. He was really sorry he didn't get a photo of that!

Lunch with a butterfly at the Natural History 
Museum.

James, Kolya and Morgen

Scott at Chuck Schumer's

The Capitol District's gardens were fabulous with
spring flowers and trees. 

Last, we took the Amtrak down to first, South Orange, NJ for a night with Scott's brother Brent followed by 3 nights at our oldest son's home in the upper east side of NYC. Josh, Michal and 4 of our grandchildren were at home. They had a wonderful birthday party for Heather, who turned 81!.  Several of their friends joined us for that. On Sunday we visited the Frick Museum and saw the Gainsborough Exhibit. We're usually away for my birthday so it was a treat to celebrate this year with family.

Michal and Daniel look on while I
attempt to blow out the candles.

Then back to Washington once more to pick up our RV at the Virginia State Park and head home James kindly offered to pick us up at Union Station and drive us. We decided to break up the long trip with 2 nights in Pennsylvania seeing Longwood Gardens. That will be my next entry.

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.

Home Again!

 

Kolya is a budding artist in all mediums. Here
he has created an island in play dough 
populated by dinosaurs!

Kolya shares the family red hair!

We left the campground in West Virginia early as it was a 4 hour plus Google trip to Washington. That usually means another hour or more as we go slower than the speed limit. But we enjoyed the scenery on the first half before joining an interstate. Cherry Hill RV Park in College Park, MD is a beautiful full service resort.. Unfortunately we pay for that but never really spend any time there. We stay with our son James and his family in the Capitol District of Washington. We arrived Friday afternoon so had a full weekend with he, Morgen and our (so far) youngest grandson Kolya. 

The weather wasn't great, cool with occasional showers but we had some good walks, a fun trip to Kolya's favorite, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, and a great lunch out at Belga's. James is a excellent cook so we enjoyed some wonderful meals at the house. On Monday we drove up to my sister's in Belcamp, MD  We planned to drive her to the doctor's that same day so rented a car nearby (she can't get into our truck). Again, we left Baby & Junior at the Bar Harbor RV Resort for the week while we stayed with Paula. We had 5 days with her and managed to help her organize doctor appointments and hire an agency to provide in house services. 

Brent lights the birthday candles while Kimmy 
and Wandi look on with Heather.

Wilma, Brent and Wandi at home in South Orange.

On Saturday we drove north to South Orange, NJ to spend the night with Scott's brother Brent, his wife Wilma and their daughter Wandi. It was Wandi's birthday so we shared a celebration meal with her friend Kimmy. Brent made a great Jambalaya for dinner. They got special permission for us to park the RV in front of their house. This really splits up the trip home and allows us to spend time with them. 

Rustic Rooster is our "local", only a mile
away in our village of Cuttingsville

Although it was 70 degrees out, no one seems to
be ready to eat their dinner outside on this day.

We didn't rush out on Sunday but had a great walk up at a nearby Reserve with views of NYC with Brent. Then drove home after lunch in sunny warm weather. We laughed as it was over 70 degrees and sunny at home - better than a lot of weather down south these last months! It was too late to cook a meal at home so we parked our rig at our "local" (British slang for your nearby special bar/restaurant), the Rustic Rooster. There we were greeted with hugs from the owners and welcomed home. 

This year's journey has ended. It has been an amazing trip. We're already planning the next one! But it's wonderful to be home and there are lots of things planned here. So the blog will go on....

Baby upon our return in May

And to contrast, the day we left in December

Looking up at the house in December

The same view in May!

And We're Off!

 

Junior and Baby buried in the snow

It wasn't a good start but a happy ending. And that's just the first 20 minutes! I thought we were in good shape this  year as we  had only 1 and 1 /2 feet of snow (unlike 2 years ago when we had 3 feet) but underneath lurking, was some ice. We had planned carefully to avoid the long drive in 2020 when we arrived at our first RV park in the dark. So the RV was all packed and we spent our last night there. But we had waited to shovel out and hook up the truck until the morning. I carefully edged the truck out of the parking spot and turned down the driveway. But the tires locked and we turned sideways and skidded down, jacking the trailer. I managed to stop in front of the garage at the lip of the driveway. 

The snow fall ended a few days before we left giving Scott enough time to shovel the walk down to the driveway so we could pack up the RV. 

Scott was amazing. He directed me to manage a controlled (!) sideways skid of the front wheels that slowly turned the truck down the driveway and we were able to slowly descend towards Spring Lake Rd. But as we neared the bottom junction the brakes locked and I couldn't slow down or stop. We entered the road and managed to turn down it - but if a car had been coming, there would have been a crash! But luck was with us. The rest of the trip was a piece of cake. 

Baby and Junior hooked up and shoveled out, ready to skid down the driveway.

Scott's brother Brent and sister-in-law Wilma had applied for permission for us to park in front of their home in South Orange, NJ. They, unfortunately for us, were with their family in South Carolina but after a 5 hour drive, we were able to spend a comfortable night in their home before continuing on the next day for another 4.5 hours, all the way to Cherry Hill RV Park near Washington, DC. Baby will stay there for 8 nights while we visit my sister Paula in Belcamp, MD and our son James and his family in Washington.  We'll continue south on 12/28.

Quincy Market looks deserted but inside it was teaming with shoppers and people having lunch.

Earlier this month we went down to Boston for 5 days with Sean & Will. Our Annual Holiday Open House, suspended the last few years for COVID was planned for Sunday at their home in Dorchester. I also had the last of my yearly appointments with my thoracic surgeon. After 11 years with no problem I no longer need to see him. Scott and I had a great day in Boston enjoying the holiday decorations and doing some shopping down at Quincy Market. Each night with Sean and Will we had fabulous dinners out at Darryl's Corner Bar & Kitchen (followed by seeing the Soweto Gospel Choir at the Berkley School of Music), Oleana in Cambridge, and at their home. 

We pose for a photo with Sean & Will after our dinner at Darryl's Restaurant in the South End.

But then the bad news/good news vibe hit us. The first two nights we spent some time with Jenny Wolf, who is renting their third floor and on Friday night she tested positive for COVID before a Master's Swim Meet. So we had to cancel the party and spent the next five days worried about catching it. So that was the bad news - but happily none of us came down with COVID and Jenny never had a single symptom! It was sad for everyone to miss seeing all our friends again this year but maybe we'll try again in the Spring! So now we are at Paula's enjoying her company. Tomorrow we move on to James' for Christmas. 

A tiny tree all decorated at Sean & Will's for
the holiday

It just fit in this alcove perfectly.

Faneuil Hall is dwarfed by sky scrapers but the 
Customs Tower in the background is still there.

Quincy Market was decked out for the holidays 
and we enjoyed clam chowder for lunch.

This huge dinosaur didn't miss out on the festivities.