Summer Activities

Julie and Peter Gowan came for a visit in
early June. We've been friends now since we
cruised together in the Bahamas. 

Uli & Thomas "Toriba" visited us in June. We've known them
 for years cruising Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico.
Here - having lunch at Mountain Top Inn.

On the top of Killington Mountain

We're on the porch of W.E.Pierce General Store in
Shrewsbury. Heather runs the store several times a week as
a volunteer. It's a Coop.

Tom, Uli, Will & Sean. After visiting us they went to Boston
and stayed with our son and son-in-law before flying
home to Germany.

Scott, his brother Brent, cousins Lisa & Eric Aronson at
Lisa's daughter Marlena's baby shower in Amherst

We visited our daughter Zoe and her family out in Palo Alto,
CA in June as well. Here we are about to take a hike - Scott,
Heather, oldest grandson Nick, George and Zoe in their
backyard.

Younger grandson Tommy at the lake where Nick is
teaching sailing.

Scott had to watch Kolya pretty carefully
during our Fourth of July week! He turned
one August 1st.

Our daughter-in-law Morgen with our
youngest grandson Kolya.

Molly & Patrick in front of Molly's fantastic
Artichoke tarts. Their wedding was just after
our Fourth of July event in Portland, ME

Our son James and Kolya enjoying the sprinkler on the lawn.

Julie led yoga classes out on the lawn.

Kolya, Morgen, James, Julie, Heather, Molly, Patrick, Will, Russ, Debby and Sean at the Lake. Marty, Jenny, Larry, Luke, and Doug didn't get in this photo.  At our first Fourth of July get-togethers, James and Jenny were just babies and the others were yet to arrive!! 

That's Heather's new painting of our Tortugal Marina
in Guatemala where "Scott Free" spends her summers.

The Vermont Symphony Orchestra performed at the
Mountain Top Inn just after the Fourth of July. 

Marty, Molly & Russ Wolf coming down the
aisle to the lovely wedding site near
Portland, ME. It was a fantastic three-day
event!!

We walked all around Portland during the weekend. Here we
met up with David & Leslie Silverstein

Sean enjoyed lots of time with his new nephew
Kolya. We rented a house downtown Portland
from Airbnb that was great for ourselves,
Sean & Will and James, Morgen & Kolya.

Judy, Debbie, Scott, Heather and Paula pose
out on the deck.

My sister Paula came for 2 weeks from Maryland. We also
had Scott's brother Brent for a week during that time - and
briefer visits from Scott's cousin Lisa and Yosi, and my
first cousin Judy with her daughter Debbie and her new
dog.

The annual Haystack Dinner & Dance was as fun as usual -
it was a beautiful night but the bonfires were wonderful
after the sun went down. This benefits our all-volunteer
Shrewsbury Library.

We are so lucky to have such a variety of entertainment options
 here in Vermont. We attend the chamber music concerts:
Marlboro Festival, the Yellow Barn, Killington Festival and
the Lake Champlain Music Festival. This year we saw the
Fantasticks, Always Patsy Cline and Oklahoma at the Weston
and Private Lives and Dig at the Dorset Playhouse. This
photo is at Marlboro - their closing concert. 

We celebrated Pierce's stores 10th anniversary (as a Coop)
with a wonderful BBQ.

Sean & Will's new house in Dorchester. They are in the
process of selling their condo.

Flavia and Joey coming down the aisle
after their beautiful wedding. Flavia and her
family are great friends of our's from
Venezuela.

No this isn't our dining room! It's the Downton Abbey set
which we saw at the Downton Abbey exhibit in Boston.

We loved seeing the original costumes - here several of the
bridal outfits.

And of course the downstairs kitchen!

Back in the U.S.A.

I just love the Tshirt message... Kolya's a redhead like
our sons James and Sean. He is 9 months old now.

We flew back to Washington DC from Guatemala City to spend time with our son James, daughter-in-law Morgen, and newest grandson Kolya. It was a fun week touring the city with them. They live in the Capitol district so we could walk to most things. Of course, we enjoyed many excellent meals at local restaurants and happily babysat to allow James & Morgen a few night's out. Kolya is a dreamchild - so easy to take care of and laugh with.
I had the pleasure of waking with him in the morning and can report that he's happy from the start of the day.  I miss him so much now that we've left and moved on to my sister's for a few days before returning home. Happily, he'll be coming with his parents for a good long stay in July! We can't wait!
But it's a pleasure too being with my sister Paula. And she is also coming this summer for a visit so good-byes are not so hard.

Happy Grammy and Kolya!

Kolya checking out the menu at the Rappahonnock Oyster
Bar down on the Potomac River - excellent!

And visiting the American
Pre-Raphaelites exhibit at the National Museum.

Taking a break at the museum's cafe..

But his favorite was the ARTECHOUSE's newest interactive
exhibit, "In Peak Bloom." by a group of women graphic
artists.

Here Kolya gently touched the hanging plants in the
exhibit to generate a music and light show

It was hard to tear him away!

Heather, Paula and our friend Judy out for lunch

Final post this year from Belize!

Scott, Morgene, Marc and Heather

We met Morgene and Marc from Lianda at the Pelican Cayes earlier in the season and have enjoyed many fun times with them since. Morgene is French and Marc Belgian and Lianda a 57 foot Swan.
We did land trips to Dangriga and Hopkins and fun evenings on each other's boat. One day Morgene arranged a bread making class with a French professional baker (from another boat) - fantastic opportunity!
Renate was feeling well enough back in Vancouver after her heart attack in Belize that Jim decided to fly back and sail Emerald Seas south and back up the Rio Dulce in

Heather and Marc at lunch at Hamansi

The grounds and pool at Hamansi in Hopkins where we had a delightful lunch

Students gather to watch while Patrice gives a demo

Guatemala. Scott and I sailed north to meet him on his first night in Sapadilla Lagoon and then buddy boated with him all the way back to Tortugal Marina. It was a fun trip, although we missed Renate a great deal, and for a change, everything went well!
We had an easy trip across the bar at the mouth of the Rio Dulce with only a short time pulled over on our side to cross the shallow bar. And we managed to get Scott Free ready to leave with less than a week at Tortugal. Happily, as the weather turned hot, hot, hot. Jim, Scott and I had a long trip up to Guatemala City on 4/26  and all flew out the next day. For the second time we stayed at Las Americas Hotel and find it very comfortable and convenient. There is a large modern mall nearby with lots of dining options and the buffet breakfast at the hotel is good. They have a free shuttle to the nearby airport.
Now we are enjoying a week with our son James, daughter in law Morgan and new grandson Kolya, now 9 months old. After a few days with my sister Paula, we return home to Vermont!

We watched the master baker and then copied
his every move.

Scott makes a lot of bread but mostly in the bread
machine or the "no knead" recipe so this was
different. We had two risings and the second one was
overnight in our frig followed by baking it for breakfast.

Dinner at Wendy's to say goodbye to Uli and Imke from Eiland and Dani & Jens on Arwen. They headed north up to
Mexico and then Florida. Rick & Marsha from She Wolf and Roy & Dale from Wahoo joined us.

It was Heather's 74th birthday and we celebrated at Yoli's.
Our friends Rosie & Don from Chickcharne ordered a
beautiful cake!

Our charming waitress at the great
Garifuna restaurant Tuani we visited in Dangriga

The owner gave us a history of the Garifuna people. The
walls of his restaurant have paintings illustrating it.

Here's one showing the process of making cassava bread

Our host, our waitress, Marc and Morgene

Heather, Rick, Jim, and Marsha enjoy a fun dinner on board
Scott Free at Sapadilla Lagoon. Jim sailed down that day
from Cucumber Beach Marina to join us on a buddy boat
trip south to Guatemala.