Roller Skating

On Sunday the Elletts went roller skating together. The occasion was a fundraiser for Maura’s synchronized ice skating team. The Winterettes had booked the Carousel Family Fun Center in Whitman, Massachusetts for a private party and got to keep a part of the proceeds. We all went over in the afternoon and skated around the roller rink for a while. If not for the fundraiser we probably would never have gone but it was fun.

It was the first time Maura had ever been on roller skates and she had a bit of trouble getting used to rolling instead of gliding but she got going eventually. So did Jennifer and I. Both of us had roller skated before, though the last time was before Maura was born. When I was in grade school I used to roller skate occasionally. My school would have skating parties for the students at the local roller rink and I would usually go. That was more than 30 years ago and I was never very good but I don’t seem to have forgotten how to do it. I managed not to fall or run into anything on Sunday.

One thing I noticed was that very few of the adults present skated. Sometimes Jennifer and I were the only adults out on the floor. The team mothers were busy organizing raffles and such and some of the older adults present might not have been in good enough to roller skate but it seemed a waste to me to pay admission and then not skate. It was enough fun that I might think of going again. Maura expressed some interest in going over Winter Break. Perhaps I’ll offer to bring one of her friends along.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in the Ellett household was a time of peace and reflection this year; at least once the preparations for the feast were complete. Because our extended family members were far away or busy elsewhere we shared our feast with our good friends the Tittlers, then feasted again with them at their house on Friday. It was quite easy to resist the temptation to go shopping on Black Friday. The weekend as a whole was quite relaxing and there was plenty of time to contemplate the many things for which I am thankful.

On Wednesday evening we attended the interfaith Thanksgiving service at the Old Ship Church, in Hingham, Massachusetts. Attending the service has become a family tradition as important as the turkey, perhaps more important. This was my second year of attending but Jennifer and Maura have been going for longer. Before last year I had to work and couldn’t get the time off. The service draws from the variety of faiths represented on the Hingham-Hull Interfaith Religious Council and is the one religious service each year that all members of our interfaith family can attend and feel equally at home. It is always a beautiful service and a reminder that Thanksgiving is, at its heart, a religious holiday, though one that transcends the boundaries that divide faiths.

Thanksgiving is a time to count your blessings and despite troubles my blessings are many. I have a loving family and loyal friends. When it comes to material things I have enough despite tough economic times. I try to be truly thankful for the things that I have because I know that what I have is truly worth being thankful for.

Open Mic at the New England Wildlife Center

On Saturday evening we attended the weekly open mic night at the New England Wildlife Center in South Weymouth, Massachusetts. This weekly event, held at the center’s Catbird Café raises money for the New England Wildlife Center’s education and wildlife rehabilitation efforts. All the money is raised through voluntary donations. There is no cover charge and the coffee and snacks are free.

Since the event is an open mic anyone can come and perform. The poster for the event mentions musicians, poets and belly dancers. We heard from several singer/guitarists and one poet. As you might expect the quality of the performances varied from act to act but the majority of the performers we saw were both talented and accomplished. Most of the musicians had a folk style that goes well acoustic guitar accompaniment. They performed a good mix of originals and interesting covers.

We all had a good time at the show. I almost always enjoy live music no matter what the genre and with this show no one could complain about not getting his money’s worth. Not only do you get to choose how much you want to donate but the money goes to a cause worth supporting even if you didn’t get an evening’s entertainment in the bargain. We won’t be going every week but I’m sure that other Saturdays will find us at the open mic night again.

The South Shore Wildlife Center is located at 500 Columbian Street, South Weymouth, Massachusetts. The open mic is every Saturday starting at 5:00 pm. For additional information check out the center’s web site,  www.wildlife-education-center.com.

First Synchro Competition

Maura’s first synchronized skating competition was last Saturday. Her team competed in the Thanksgiving Classic at the Armstrong Area in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The competition was  a great experience for Maura but not so wonderful for me or the spectators in general.

It was a long day for everyone. We dropped Maura at the Rockland Rink at 8:30 in the morning and we all left Plymouth together at around 4:30 in the afternoon. Maura’s team, the Winterettes Basic 3 team representing the South Shore Skating Club, was the only team at its level so they skated against the book—meaning that they had to achieve a set standard to receive a medal, which they did scoring high enough to be awarded the gold. The Basic 1 team from Maura’s rink also took first place, though they had plenty of competitors to skate against. Once they had skated the team had to wait for the mid competition on-ice awards ceremony at 3:30.

For Maura the wait was fun. It was a chance to bond with her teammates and see some of what the higher level teams could do. For me the wait was a nightmare. The rink was overcrowded to the point where I am certain it was far beyond its capacity. In the event of an emergency I’m sure there would have been injuries. I’m not comfortable with large crowds and the crowd there was far beyond my tolerance. I felt like I was on the verge of a panic attack for most of the day. I hope that not all of the competitions are like that. If they are Maura will have to forgive me for not always being there to see her compete.

Halloween Classic

Last weekend was Maura’s first skating competition of the season, the Halloween Classic on her home ice at the Rockland Rink. Maura didn’t win either of the two events she skated in on Saturday. In fact, she came in second out of two competitors in both of them. She still had a good time, as she always does. The biggest reason she competes in individual events is because she enjoys it and that is always a good thing.

Even though she didn’t win, I thought Maura skated well. To my unqualified eye she skated better than her opponent in her individual program, though the judges did not agree. I am prejudiced in her favor. In any case, her timing was spot on and her form was as good as I’ve ever seen it. She’s been working hard on the ice and remembering to stretch and do posture exercises at home. She’s had extra ice time this fall and she has been putting it to good use. I rarely have to pester her to keep her working on the ice, even when she is skating alone. The practice is clearly paying off and her skating is smoother and more graceful than it has been and improving every week.

Much of the practice has been for her synchronized skating routine. Her team skated publicly for the first time on Sunday. It was only an exhibition, not a competition, but they did a great job. I think it was more exciting for Maura to take her place with her team than it was to skate her individual events. She is the youngest skater on her team and has the least experience but she is doing her part. The exhibition was a tune up for the team's first competition, which is this Saturday. Maura’s team looked really good in exhibition and I think they will do well.

Another Year...Another Trip to Nashoba Valley

Last weekend was one of our family’s milestones. We traveled to the Nashoba Valley Winery in Bolton, Massachusetts for the annual Brews and Bluegrass festival. It's annual not just for the winery but also for us. Jennifer and I have been attending festivals at Nashoba each year since before Maura was born and Maura’s first festival visit occurred when she was only three months old. She spent it in her baby carrier zipped inside my jacket for warmth on a miserably cold day.

This year the weather was dry, sunny and not too cold to enjoy being outdoors. I had a wonderful afternoon listening to the bluegrass sounds of Southern Rail and drinking a few tasty beers from Nashoba’s microbrewery. Between sets I had the chance to socialize with friends I rarely see and found time for lunch and to share a treat with Maura that was almost as delicious as the beer—caramel covered cider donuts. Except when it was time for food I didn’t see much of Maura. She spent the afternoon playing with other children but she seemed to be having a grand time

This year even the drive to and from Bolton was enjoyable. We always take the back roads when we go and the scenery along the way is beautiful. This year the fall foliage was near its peak of color and we avoided the worst of the traffic going both directions. Jennifer was driving so for me the ride home was relaxing, a good ending to an enjoyable day.

Ghosts of Halloween Past

Watching Maura grow up is a source of great pride and joy for me. She is smart, empathic and good at many things. Every day she is a bit more accomplished, sophisticated and poised. Soon she won’t be a little girl anymore but a young woman. I’m looking forward to that day but I am also dreading it.

There is some sorrow in watching Maura grow up as well as joy. Each stage seems to go by so fast that there is hardly time to enjoy it before it is gone. I don’t miss changing diapers but I do miss pushing Maura on the swings at the playground and walking her to school. The day will come when we go sledding together for the last time, when she no longer wants to be read a bedtime story, when her daddy isn’t the most important man in her life.

I spent most of yesterday working on an assignment for the web graphics course I’m taking—a Photshop project I’ve titled “Ghosts of Halloween Past”. I found old pictures of Maura in her Halloween costumes and put them together in one image with me in the middle. Each younger Maura is more faded just as those younger Maura’s are fading in my memories.

A Weekend of Festivals

We decided not to go camping over Columbus Day Weekend as we had tentatively planned. I had an event to attend at church on Saturday night and schoolwork that needed to be done. We did the take the time for some family fun, attending festivals on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

On Saturday we drove down to Marshfield for the South Shore Celebration, a sustainable living festival at the Marshfield Fairgrounds. It was an enjoyable afternoon for everyone. We learned about green practices, ate some tasty local food and wandered around a bit. I parked myself near the music stage to listen to the music provided by Boston area band Melloteen. They played great high energy rock music—a mix of originals and well-done covers, many with environmental themes. Their show also featured a bicycle powered sound system. It worked very well as long as they had a few enthusiastic peddlers to keep it going. Near the stage a vendor was selling handmade hula hoops and she had a dozen or so out for people to try. Maura spent about an hour learning how to hula hoop and now she wants to get one for herself. The fun of the afternoon was worth the ten dollars per family admission. It would be an even better deal for a larger family.

On Sunday we headed into Boston for the Local Food Festival on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. It was a much bigger event than the one in Marshfield and admission was free as it always is for events on the Greenway. It featured local food producers, distributors of locally grown produce, restaurants that use locally produced food in their cuisine, and food related non-profit organizations. There was live music on several stages to give the festival a soundtrack. We had a wonderful time. Our visit was a wandering open air lunch. We sampled a great variety of foods ranging from pumpkin crab apple soup to locally produced chocolate. Some of what we ate was free samples and some we bought, though the prices were reasonable. We all enjoy eating a variety of foods so the festival was great fun. For me the highlight was trying raw oysters. I had them for the first time since I was six and Maura tried one for her first time ever. Maura enjoyed her oyster, which is no surprise since it came from the sea. Maura loves all kinds of seafood. I also enjoyed mine. It was a very different experience for me than the first time I ate a raw oyster. Then I definitely did not enjoy it. Of course, now I know that raw oysters are swallowed whole and not chewed.

Family Games

Last weekend was busy and tiring but we didn't do much out of the ordinary and very little worth writing about. Rain cancelled any plans we might have had to get outside on Saturday and I was very behind on my sleep and nearly exhausted on Sunday. On Saturday night I had run an odd job that kept me out until 3:00 am and I had already had trouble sleeping during the previous week. Partly for that reason we stayed home on Sunday. Our usual Sunday evening gathering with friends was cancelled. Instead we stayed home for a family game night.

Jennifer and I have played games together ever since we met twenty years ago and Maura has enjoyed playing games with us since she was old enough for Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders. We have a pretty good selection of games that we all like to play. They range from classics like Clue and Yahtzee to more recent games such as Apples to Apples, Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan. The list could go on—we have dozens. The collection is ever expanding as games are favorite holiday and birthday gifts. This year Maura received Lemming Mafia. Laugh if you want, but it is a fun game for adults to play with middle grade kids. Check it out online if you are in the market for a good game to play with your ten-year-old. Sometimes we will play for hours with each member of the family picking a game in turn so we get to play all of our favorites.

This Sunday we only played one game after dinner. Maura chose one of her favorites, Cannibal Pygmies in the Jungle of Doom, the B-movie card game. As always, all three of us played to win. Once Maura understands a game Jennifer and I never go easy on her. She wins her share of most of the games we play so I don't feel too badly about beating her. I know she’s happy when she beats us. Teaching Maura how to be a good winner and a good loser is one of the reasons why Jennifer and I play games with her. Of course, the biggest reason we play is to have fun. We could watch TV or a movie together but the games offer far more opportunities for interaction. Sometimes we can even have a conversation without interrupting the game play.

Corn Festival

On Sunday afternoon we had a family outing to the Corn Festival at the South Shore Nature Center in Norwell, Massachusetts. The festival featured local crafters, corn themed crafts and games for kids, food featuring more corn, live music, corn tastings, hayrides, animals brought by the local 4H clubs, a bake sale and the Nature Center itself, along with the woods around. There was an admission charge for the festival but it wasn’t excessive, especially since it included admission to the museum which is well worth a visit. Some of the attractions at the festival cost extra, though except for food and a few inexpensive items purchased at the crafters’ booths we kept our wallets closed once we had paid our admission. Except for the museum, and the bake sale and corn tasting which were inside, the festival was outside. The weather was almost perfect—warm in the sun but not too hot. It was a great day to be out.

The crafters’ had their booths set up closest to the entrance so we spent some time shopping when we first arrived. Jennifer and Maura always enjoy shopping, especially when the merchandise is hand made. I’m often board by shopping but I had a better time than I usually do. One of the crafters present was demonstrating weaving on a small table loom and I tried it out. It was very relaxing and I’m considering getting one for myself. Jennifer knits and is teaching Maura but I don’t think I have the dexterity for it or the patience to learn. Weaving has a rhythm to it that I think I would enjoy. Taking up a fiber art of my own would make visiting yarn stores and fiber festivals with Jennifer much more fun.

After shopping, Maura and I had lunch. Jennifer had already eaten so she didn’t join us. We both had corn chowder which was very good. So was the corn muffin we split for desert. Later we all split some homemade caramel corn.

After lunch Maura went to the kids’ area to do some crafts and Jennifer stayed with her. I went with them for a bit but then found a seat near the music. There was a singer with a guitar who was often accompanied by a mandolin player and occasionally by the sound-man on a banjo. His repertoire was a mixture of old rock songs, folk songs, country and bluegrass. I enjoyed his performance and would happily go to see him again; unfortunately I never caught his name. There was nothing posted and if he had introduced himself I arrived to late to hear it.

Busy

Now it is a busy time of the year, though every season is. This season is busy but offers little to write about. Maura is settling into her routine of school and practice and the little traumas of the first weeks are behind us. There is plenty to do and little time to do it. In addition to school, Maura has lessons or practice or religious obligations every day but Tuesday. There isn’t much time for us to take trips. Last week we had planned a trip to Cape Cod on Saturday but we had forgotten that Maura’s first soccer game was at 10:30am, much too late for us to go visit the Cape Cod beaches afterwards.

The big event this last week for Maura was the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. She spent Sunday evening, and much of the day on Monday and Tuesday in services with her mother. For me the days were ordinary. Because I am the member of the household who is not Jewish I stayed home alone. I stay home alone almost every weekday. I know I would have been welcome to attend services but I feel more comfortable staying away at the holiest times for a faith that is not mine. Somehow it seems more respectful.

Maura made a trifle for after the service on Sunday night. It was tropical fruit flavored, with mango Jello, crushed pineapple, banana pudding and shredded coconut sprinkled over whip cream on top. Jennifer told me that people didn’t believe that Maura had made it. Jennifer helped her with it but the trifle was Maura’s creation. I was lucky to get a taste of it. I can’t wait for her to really find her feet in the kitchen. I expect she will make some very creative dinners and I will enjoy eating them.

A Fresh Start

Maura is back in school now. This time of year is a time of new beginnings for both of us. This year it sees more beginnings than ever before. Maura is in a new school for 5th grade—the Abigail Adams Campus of the Weymouth Middle School. She’s taking the next step in her figure skating career by joining a synchronized skating team and taking on new responsibilities at home.

School may be the smallest change for Maura. She hasn’t changed school systems and much remains the same as it was in her elementary school. There is a larger pool of students as every 5th grader in the Weymouth Public Schools is at Abigail Adams but her class isn’t much larger and she stays with the same people throughout the day. None of her close friends from elementary school are in her class but she is staying in touch. She walks to school without me and sometimes her friends join her. So far she seems to be enjoying her new school. She doesn't complain and she gets out the door without any fuss in the morning. Her mother and I will be meeting her teacher this evening and I expect that we will hear that Maura is doing well so far. Time will tell if Maura has trouble adapting to the new school but I don’t expect her too. She enjoys learning. I hope that never changes.

There are some big changes in skating this year. Maura has joined the Winterettes, the United States Figure Skating synchronized skating team that is affiliated with the Winterland Skating School where she takes lessons. There are actually five teams separated by age and ability. Maura is on the Beginner 3 team. She is the youngest and least experienced skater on her team so she has some catching up to do but I expect that she will. Her practices with the team start today and she will be getting some extra lessons with the coach. She’s also keeping up with her individual lessons and we plan on her skating in ISI competitions as an individual like she did last year, starting with the Halloween Classic at the Rockland Rink where she skates. I think this is the year that Maura has to decide how much effort she is willing to put into skating. I don’t want her to stop enjoying it and I will never be upset at her if she doesn’t win first place but she may need to work a little harder if she wants to keep improving.

The last new start for Maura is that she began taking a share of the family cooking duties. She’ll be cooking dinner on Tuesday nights this year. She started last night by roasting a chicken. I was there to supervise and help but Maura did most of the work and as she learns her way around the kitchen I’ll expect her to do more. For now she is understandably a bit nervous with knives and the hot oven but I know she’ll get over that with practice. For now I will be in the kitchen with her but the time will come when I just expect her to get dinner ready and let me know when it’s done. I’m glad that Maura wants to learn to cook. I’ve always thought that it is one of the most important domestic chores to learn and that cooking from scratch is the best way to ensure you eat healthy food. Maura’s chicken was a very good first effort and every one appreciated it. Each meal is a lesson for her and she's already planning next week.

Camping in Allegheny State Park

We spent the Labor Day Weekend camping in Allegheny State Park, in western New York State. It was a long trip for us from Weymouth, Massachusetts but we had picked our destination because of its location, roughly halfway between our home and my parents’ home in Indiana. Maura was visiting her grandparents and we needed to fetch her home before school started this week. We met them halfway to make the exchange and enjoy our final short vacation of the summer.

Allegheny State Park was a nice place to visit. The park is beautiful and has very nice facilities nestled in a semi-wild area the size of a county with lakes, streams and miles of steep wooded hills. The campground at Red House was not quite as nice as the rest of the park because the sites were small and crowded together. On Sunday it was a city of portable homes. On Monday when the crowds were gone it was quite pleasant. We will likely be back for the same reason we were there this time—it is a convenient place to meet my folks and the beauty and amenities of the rest of the park make up for a less than perfect campground.

Jennifer and I got up early on Saturday morning to make the trip to Allegheny State Park. It was an all-day drive and we needed to get there before dark to make camp, which we accomplished by leaving at 4:00 am. Once we had unloaded the car and pitched the tent we made our way to where my parents were staying in a nearby town to collect Maura. We also had the chance to spend some time with my parents and with my sister Marcia who had come along on the trip with them. Seeing Marcia is a rare treat for me—my parents visit us several times each year but Marcia isn’t retired and can’t usually make the trip with them and we don’t have the resources to go to Indiana often. We had a nice restaurant meal and then headed back to camp to because we were all exhausted.

Sunday we all spent the day together in the park. We met after breakfast at the Red House lodge. We explored the lodge’s museum and gift shop, took a short hike nearby and then ate lunch at the lodge restaurant which was a friendly place that made great sandwiches. After lunch we went down to Red House Lake and played miniature golf at the course there. The course was in an advanced state of disrepair and was barely playable because of the resulting unintended obstacles. Despite the obstacles, or perhaps because of them, we had a very good time playing it. It was worth a few laughs.

After mini-golf we went back to camp. While my dad and I built and tended a fire the rest of the group drove to nearby Salamanca for provisions. We had an enjoyable dinner of sausages cooked in the fire wrapped in foil with s’mores for desert and beer for the adults. We all had a chance to relax and unwind. At the end of the evening we said goodbye to my parents and sister. They had to return to Indiana on Monday. We were lucky enough to have another day to enjoy the park.

On Monday we took a hike along little used dirt roads to Thunder Rocks, a group of strange rock formations perched on the top of a hill. They were clearly natural boulders of coarse sandstone not moved by man but I don’t enough about the local geology of the area to know how they came to be there. Despite the litter and graffiti left by previous visitors the rocks had a mysterious and primal air. I felt almost as if I was intruding on a holy place. Maura wanted to climb them.

After the hike we took another jaunt into town for provisions and then rented a paddle boat for an hour. It was fun to tool around the lake on an oversized aquatic Big Wheel until a storm threatened. Though the storm never arrived, the gusty winds and clouds were a signal that it was time to go in. We had planned on taking on taking a dip in the lake afterward but instead returned to camp for another relaxing evening. We roasted wieners on sticks, ate s’mores again and read stories aloud around the fire by flashlight. The next day we packed up as quickly as we could and drove back to Weymouth to be ready for the first day of school on Wednesday, both for Maura and for me.

Some Time Apart

When my parents headed for home last week they took Maura with them. It has become a tradition in our family for my parents to take Maura for a week or so during the summer. They’ve taken her on vacation to Maine in the past but most often they take her home to Indiana. They have her there until next weekend.

Maura always has a great time in Indiana. My parents take her lots of places when she is visiting. On this trip they’ve been to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, the Indiana History Museum and my parents’ lake house where they went out in their boat. Today they are going to the zoo. They also take her out to eat. Last night they went out for Brazilian food, which Maura loves.

More important than the places Maura goes is the time that she spends with her grandparents and with her Aunt Marcia. She sees my parents three or four times a year and my sister less often than that. Maura’s summer trips to Indiana give her a chance to get to know them she wouldn’t have otherwise. She’ll have memories of her grandparents and her aunt when she is an adult which will be part of who she is.

As important and enjoyable as Maura’s trips to visit her grandparents are for her they are also a treat for Jennifer and me. We know that she is being well taken care of so we can relax and not worry about her while she is gone. Our daily lives of work and chores go on but without the complications of parenthood. Dad’s taxi stays in the driveway. Jennifer and I can have adult conversations without interruption and we don’t have to worry about Maura walking in on us at inopportune moments. It is especially nice because our wedding anniversary is this week. We can celebrate without the need to make arrangements for Maura.

We miss Maura and will be glad to have her back. Talking to her on the phone every night is not a substitute for having her around. I feel bad for people whose jobs require them to be away from their children for long periods of time but because Maura is gone only for a little while we can enjoy her absence without any guilt.

Hammond Castle and Gloucester Harbor Fest

On Sunday we drove to Gloucester, Massachusetts, on the coast north of Boston. The trip was part of Maura’s birthday celebration and we were accompanied by my parents who were visiting partly to celebrate their granddaughter’s birthday. Maura had wanted to see Hammond Castle ever since she saw it featured in an episode of Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman several years ago.

Hammond Castle was built by John Hays Hammond, Jr. as both as a home for himself and his wife and as a display for his extensive collection of Roman, Medieval and Renaissance art. Hammond and his wife Irene Fenton Hammond moved into the building when it was finished in 1929 and lived there until their deaths (Hammond died in 1965). They first opened their home as a museum in 1930. Hammond was a noted inventor who held the second largest number of patents granted by the US patent office, behind only Thomas Edison.

Hammond Castle is worth a visit. Both the people whose home it was and the artifacts it contains have fascinating stories. It was fun to wander around the museum and its grounds for an hour or so. It’s particularly interesting thinking what it would have been like to see the inventor’s home in his lifetime when it was a combination of the very old and the ultramodern.

After our visit to Hammond Castle we headed up the road to Stage Fort Park in Gloucester for the Gloucester Harbor Festival. The Festival featured a classic car show, inflatable amusements for the kids, food, live music and a large art/artisan fair with vendors selling mostly handmade goods ranging from T-shirts to furniture and paintings. I’m not much for shopping but Jennifer, Maura and my mother enjoyed themselves. Maura particularly enjoyed looking at all the vendors who had earrings because she had just gotten her ears pierced. She won’t be able to wear any new earrings for a few months but she is interested in getting some so she will have a choice of what to wear when she can take her studs out.

After the fair we were tired. We had considered staying in Gloucester until the evening but we decided to head back to Weymouth in mid-afternoon for a rest. Before we left Maura and I took the opportunity to check out Stage Fort itself. The existing fort is a 20th Century reconstructed earthwork with a few old cannons but the first fortifications were built on the site in 1625 and the spot was used for some military purpose in every war from then until the Spanish American War in 1898. It’s easy to see why the fort was built where it was. It has a spectacular view of Gloucester Harbor and no one could sail past it undetected. There is much more to see in Gloucester and nearby towns so we may head back that way on a future trip.

The Museum of Work and Culture

Last Friday Maura and I drove to Rhode Island to check on a friend’s cat while he was away. Hobbes the cat was doing fine but wasn't in the mood for company, especially that of strangers in his home. Once we were sure he had ample food and water to hold him until his owner came back we headed out again. It was a long trip for us to take to spend an hour with a cat so I had planned a stop on the way home.

On previous trips through Rhode Island I had noticed a sign for the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket. I thought Maura might enjoy the visit and learn something while she was there. I got off at the Woonsocket exit from Interstate 295 and headed into town. On the way in we stopped for lunch at the Patriot Diner which looks like a classic place and has a menu to match. It’s the kind of place I like to eat in when I’m on the road. It’s quick and fairly reasonable and much better than fast food. Maura enjoyed her lunch of stuffed French toast. My cheeseburger wasn’t bad either.

Once we finished lunch we drove into downtown Woonsocket to find the museum. I promptly got lost and drove around in a strange town for a while before we found the museum. There were signs pointing the way but they were easy to miss in traffic. I should have printed out directions before I left home but that would have made things too easy.

Once we found the museum it was worth the trouble of getting there. The Museum of Work and Culture tells the story of the French Canadian immigrants who worked in the textile mills of Woonsocket. There are exhibits on their reasons for coming, the difficult conditions they faced in mills and in crowded tenements, on the labor movement that eventually helped to improve the poor conditions, and on the communities that the immigrants built centered on churches and schools. The exhibits had strong audiovisual elements and some interactivity. Maura enjoyed the visit as I expected she would. She enjoys history when it touches on the lives of ordinary people.

We left the museum after an hour or so. We had to be in Quincy, Massachusetts by 5:00 to pick up our weekly box of CSA vegetables from the Stillmans’ Farm stand at the Farmers’ Market and Jennifer from the T-station. It was a long day by the time we got home but an enjoyable one.

Harvard Museum of Natural History

Last weekend was the first weekend of the month and therefore Free Museum Weekend for those of us Bank of America credit cards. The Harvard Museum of Natural History is one of the Boston area museums that participates in the program which means that we only have to pay for Maura as both Jennifer and I have cards from BoA. Free Museum Weekend is probably my favorite credit card perk. Because we had not visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History recently and we were in the mood for a family outing we hopped on the Red Line Sunday afternoon and traveled to Harvard Square for a stroll across the Harvard University campus and a visit to the museum.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History is a traditional museum with exhibits in glass cases. It has extensive collections illustrating vertebrate anatomy, botany and mineralogy as well as some mollusks and arthropods and an interesting collection of fossils. The collections were intended for research and for educating students but they are also a draw for the general public. The stuffed and mounted animals are probably the most popular exhibits but I find them a bit sad. Maura is sometimes bothered by the fumes from the preservatives that keep them in good shape.

My favorite collections in the museum are the glass flowers and the mineral collection. The glass flowers are reproductions of living plants in imperishable glass. They are both accurate and beautiful. I’m not much of an expert at botany so I find I learn more from the glass plants than I do from other exhibits but I also marvel at them. I’m not sure Maura has much interest in botany but she doesn’t mind looking at the flowers because they are works of art.

The minerals are also beautiful and fascinating. I’ve always had an interest in geology since I was a small child and it was one of my majors in college. I could probably stare at the mineral samples in the cases for hours, partly filling in gaps in my knowledge of minerals and partly reminiscing over college days. Maura likes minerals and I think she would love to collect them herself though she gets bored of them before I do and wanders to the edges of the room where multimedia presentations cover other aspects of Earth science. 

Connected to the Museum of Natural History is the Peabody Museum which houses Harvard’s ethnographic collections and archaeological collections from Mesoamerica and the United States. I find them interesting but I never get to spend as much time exploring them as I would like. We never get to the Peabody early in our visit and Maura doesn't enjoy them as much as I do. On this trip Jennifer and Maura left me to explore the Peabody Museum on my own for an hour or so while they went back to the Museum of Natural History. It was a good compromise. Maura was saved from boredom and I got to see some things I enjoyed that I would have missed otherwise.

Going to the Movies

Last night our family went to see a movie, a rare treat these days. We went to see Brave at the Patriot Cinemas in Hanover, Massachusetts. Maura had wanted to see it all summer and Jennifer and I had no objections. We generally enjoy animated features, particularly the films made by Pixar.

We were not disappointed by Brave. I was happy to see an animated movie about a young woman that did not revolve around her relationship with a man. Visually the movie was stunning. I was particularly impressed by the animation sequences in some of the important scenes that slipped effortlessly between a cartoony style and a more realistic one. I noticed the transitions not because they called attention to themselves but because they were so artfully done.

I also enjoyed the movie because it fit so clearly into the fantasy genre that I love. While the setting was based on Scotland it was in no way a historical one and the plot featured plenty of magic and swashbuckling action. It was fast paced but the movie still took enough time to develop the characters beyond mere sketches and to allow them to change emotionally in significant ways.

Maura enjoyed the movie at least as much as I did. She has inherited her parents’ taste for the fantastic. When the action hero is in fact a young heroine it is all the more exciting for her.

We may find the time and money to see a few more movies at the Hanover Patriot Cinema. We will probably be back on a Tuesday night. Tuesday is a bargain with $5 tickets all day. With snacks thrown in we managed the evening for around $30 and if we skipped the overpriced treats we could managed the evening for $15. On our tight budget we couldn’t manage that every week but it is reasonable enough that we can afford to go occasionally, especially if we plan for it.

The Summer Rut

Summer is in full swing for Maura and I and we’re in a bit of a rut. It hasn’t been a summer for ambitious plans or even much activity. The weather has been hot and money has been short. We’ve stayed close to home most days and not found the energy to do much while we were here. I’ve been remiss as a parent and a travel writer. I’ve left Maura mostly to her own devices—which means she’s spent her time reading, playing video games and watching TV. At least a good deal of her time is spent with her nose in a book. I don’t have to make her read.

I’ve spent my days in front of the computer screen. I’m taking on-line courses in web design so time spent at the keyboard hasn’t been entirely wasted but I have not been as productive as I would like. I have not been writing.

We have managed a few activities besides our trip to Six Flags that I wrote about last week. Jennifer ran in the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge for the second consecutive year. She’s not a competitive runner but she did finish. Maura and I were there not far from the finish line to cheer her on as she limped by. Unlike last year we didn’t make it a father-daughter dinner night. There was no money in the budget for us to go out to eat, even for a hotdog. We had an early dinner of leftovers and then traveled into Boston where we sat on a bench in the Public Garden and read our books while the runners waited for the start, then made our way to the edge of the garden to see the finishers as they ran by.

Last week Maura started her formal summer activities. She’s in WeyRec activities at Great Esker Park again this year. The first week was tubing on the Back River, which should have been enjoyable given the heat early in the week but the session seemed to be under a curse. The tubers were bothered by bees and horseflies, swept away by currents (they wear life jackets and weren’t in any danger) and chased in by a thunder storm. Maura didn’t have nearly as much fun as she had the year before.

This week seems to be going better. She’s in “Survivor” learning how to build a fire and how to find food and water in the woods. She comes home tired and muddy every day but so far has always had a smile on her face.

A Trip to Six Flags

Last Wednesday we had a family outing to Six Flags Over New England in Agawam, Massachusetts. Jennifer and I had promised Maura we would take her to an amusement park during the summer since we had reneged on our plan to go to Busch Gardens when we were in Virginia during the spring. Serendipitously we received two tickets to Six Flags from Jennifer's sister Andrea, who had won them in a raffle but could not use them. That meant we only had to buy one ticket for the family, an adult ticket because Maura counts as an adult. The ticket prices are based on height - if you are tall enough to ride all the rides you can pay full price.

We got up early so we could be at Six Flags when it opened for the day. I needed to be back by 7:30 so that I could log on for a chat session for one of the online classes I have been taking. That meant that we had to leave the park around 5:00 to be sure of getting home in time. That left us plenty of time to enjoy ourselves  on the thrill rides with a break for lunch and a magic show thrown in.

Maura loves amusement park rides. She always has a good time when we go to an amusement park or a carnival. I don't think I've ever seen her not enjoy a ride except when she insisted on riding a kiddie ride she was too old for. She still gets scared sometimes. We rode most of the rides at Six Flags except for a few of the wildest roller coasters. I would have been game for some of the wild ones if Maura had wanted the ride but she wasn't up for everything yet. She did ride most of the smaller roller coasters and at the end of the day I talked her into riding the Tomahawk, which is one of my favorite rides. It's a giant horizontal wheel that spins while it swings back and forth. Maura was afraid of it in the morning and refused to ride it with me but at the end of the day she had found her courage and, as I expected, she loved it. She always seems too, especially when she's most afraid before she gets on.

We were ready to go at 5:00. Everyone was tired and ready for a rest. I didn't get one for a while. I had to drive home. Fortunately the traffic wasn't bad except near Boston. The only problem was that Maura had been drinking soda and juice all day and had to use the bathroom right when we were in the longest gap between service plazas on the Mass Pike. Some things never fail.

ISI District 1 Championships

On the weekend of July 1^st Maura competed in the ISI District 1 Championships at the William L. Chase Arena in Natick, Massachusetts. She competed in two events at the Alpha level.  She came in 6^th out of 8 competitors in both events but she was happy with her performance, and she had a good time, which is what matters the most.

Jennifer and I got up early and drove her to Natick twice. On Friday morning we fought traffic at rush hour to get there on time because Maura had an early ice time for her individual program. She was scheduled to skate at 8:40 am but she had to be there an hour earlier. She had a special treat—her grandfather came to see her skate (she calls him Papa). He lives in Florida and hasn’t had the chance to see her compete before. On Sunday we were back for Maura’s stroking competition. Maura skated even earlier than she did on Friday but it was an easy trip because there was hardly any traffic.

The truth is that Maura loves skating and she enjoys competing but she doesn’t care that much about winning. I think if she did she would work a little harder than she does. She has exercises to do when she isn’t on the ice but she never does them unless I bug her about them—not just remind her but bug her. It’s about as easy to get her to clean the cat’s litter box as it is to get her to practice holding her arms out for a few minutes so she can train herself to keep them up when she’s skating. I don’t expect Maura will come in first often unless she discovers that she cares more than she does now but if she is happy I am. She’s found a sport that she enjoys enough that she wants to participate regularly. It’s something she can keep doing for as long as it interests her. I’ll never be upset if she doesn’t want to be competitive.

Camping in Sandwich

The last week of June was a big week for us. Monday was Maura’s first visit to Fenway. Tuesday we all headed to Sandwich, on the upper part of Cape Cod, for a camping trip. After we had discovered that our luggage rack wouldn’t fit the car we bought in December and then fixing the problem after a quick run to REI for a part we packed up and headed out on our trip. We arrived at our campsite in Shawme-Crowell State Forest in mid-afternoon and had just enough time to get camp set up before the first of several thunder storms hit. Fortunately there was little wind and our tent was snug and waterproof, as was our picnic shelter once we threw a tarp over the top. Heavy rain made it hard to get a fire started and once we retreated to the car because of nearby lightning but the storm finally passed. We were able to enjoy our dinner and eventually s’mores around the campfire.

Wednesday was our day in and around Sandwich. We visited the Sandwich Fish Hatchery where Maura fed the trout being raised there for stocking the ponds and rivers of Massachusetts. It was fun to watch the fish swarm to the food scattered on the water.

From the Fish Hatchery we drove to Long Pasture Audubon Sanctuary in Barnstable. While I was changing into my boots a titmouse landed on my hat. Later as we hiked along the beach the same bird visited all three of us as we walked on the sand, pecking around our feet and landing on my shoulder and again on my hat. We later learned that the bird was a fledgling. He hadn’t yet learned to stay away from humans and to avoid being caught in the open. With luck he will learn the lesson before he is eaten by a hawk. On our trip to the Audubon Sanctuary we also saw crabs and mud snails, as well as two musk turtles basking on a log in a fresh water pond. Honeysuckle was in bloom and it filled the air with the sweet scent of its flowers.

After our visit to the Audubon sanctuary we headed back into Sandwich. We stopped at the Greenbrier Jam Kitchen and bought some spicy fall fruit jam, then drove down to the Cape Cod Canal to have a picnic. After lunch we visited two historic buildings in Sandwich. The Hoxie House was built ca. 1675 and once housed the family of Sandwich’s minister. We had a very nice tour from the friendly docents in the house, though I’m not sure of the accuracy of all the information that they gave us. After the Hoxie House we visited the gristmill at the other end of Lower Shawme Pond. It is a working reproduction of one built on the site in the 1650s which operated there from the 17th century until the late 19th century. It was interesting to see how flour was made before modern flour mills.

After the visit to the grist mill we headed back to camp for another evening by the fire. We had another enjoyable night in camp, this one without rain. We cooked in the open fire, had s’mores for desert again, and read stories aloud around the campfire until it was dark (and then finished the story by flashlight). The next morning after breakfast we packed up and headed home. Everyone had a good time and we returned energized and rested, but covered with mosquito bites.

Maura at Fenway

On Monday June 25th I took Maura to see the Boston Red Sox play the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park. Even though the Sox lost the game we had a great time rooting for them. We had field box seats near third base with a great view of the action. The tickets were courtesy of Jennifer who had them as a perk from her job. We could never afford to buy tickets for seats that good.

It was Maua’s first time going to a game at Fenway and she was excited about it. We rode the T to the park in our Red Sox colors and found our seats about a half-hour before the game started. From the start it was fun to be there. We listened to the music on the PA and watched Wally the Green Monster rev up the crowd. We stood with our hats off for the singing of “O Canada!” and “The Star Spangled Banner” and applauded the people who were honored at the game including one young man who had given away not one but two trips to Disney World to the families of soldiers who had been killed in Afghanistan. I’m proud to say that the applause the crowd gave him was more than polite. He got a standing ovation which was what he certainly deserved for his actions.

Once the game started Maura and I watched it. We’re not huge baseball fans and I don’t pay that much attention to it most of the time (Maura pays even less) but I’ve always thought baseball was a sport best experienced live. You can see the whole field and there is a sense of scale. The crowd and the roving refreshment venders fill the empty moments in the game in a way TV color commentators never can. Maura and I enjoyed an ice cream from one of the venders during the 5th inning. I think it was the highlight of the night for Maura but she clearly was enjoying the whole experience. I certainly enjoyed it both when I was watching the game and when I was watching Maura. The only thing that detracted from the game for me was the occasionally rude fans sitting behind us. I wish they would have watched their language since there were kids present. One thing they did that didn’t bother me was the ribbing they gave the guy wearing the Yankees cap—he took it well since he was their friend and had come to the game with them.

Though the Sox lost they gave us a good game to watch, at least after the top of the first when they gave up four runs to start the game. They fought back to tie things up 5 to 5 before they lost it again in the 6th inning. We left the game when a thunder storm hit in the 7th inning and the game was rain delayed. It was already a late night for Maura and we had big plans for the next day so she needed her sleep. WE would have stayed to the end if it looked like the game would be over on time but with a rain delay it seemed likely to go very late. When we left Toronto was up by two and when I checked the score in the morning I saw that the Sox were unable to make a comeback. That was a shame but there are always other games and perhaps we will someday have the chance to see the Sox win in Fenway.

A Long Walk

Maura’s school year came to an end with a half day on Monday. We have no ambitious plans for her first week of freedom but we took the first full day of her vacation to take a hike in the nearby towns of Hingham and Cohasset. The weather was perfect. It was overcast but not rainy and warm without being hot.

After a few morning errands, including a stop at our local library, we drove to Wompatuck State Park in Hingham were we planned to hike. We parked at Mount Blue Spring, which is near the center of the park. From there we set out on what proved to be a four hour hike that took us out of Hingham and out of Wompatuck. At first we hiked on old roads through the park. We passed through quiet woodlands and damp swamps. Our route took us past ponds where frogs croaked and by the graffiti covered ruins of old military buildings.

Eventually we shifted to unpaved trails and headed over the park boundary into the Whitney and Thayer Woods Reservation, owned by the Trustees of Reservations. We struck a trail along an old rail line and followed that to the Cohasset train station. From there we walked along the shoulder of Route 3A until we came to the main entrance of the Whitney and Thayer Woods Reservation and from there back to Wompatuck State Park and eventually to our car. We made one stop along 3A, at JJ’s Dairy Hut where we took our only extended break of the day and enjoyed some ice cream. Maura had a big cone of Maine Black Bear ice cream and I had a root beer float. The rest of that leg of the trip was a bit nerve wracking. Route 3A is not a good road for pedestrians to follow. The shoulders are narrow and there are no sidewalks. Many of the drivers seemed not to be paying attention and sometimes Maura didn’t seem to be paying much either. I would not take that route again. The woods were certainly safer and more pleasant.

We didn’t have many wildlife sightings during the day. We heard frogs but didn’t see them and mammals were only in evidence from their scat. We did see two turtles sunning themselves on a log in one of the many ponds we passed. When I pointed them out to Maura she moved quickly and then they slipped into the water with a startled splash as they dove from sight.

Maura was exhausted by the time we made it back to our car but she had done a great job. I’m not sure how far we had walked but it was certainly more than a couple of miles. We walked for nearly four hours with few breaks and most of the time we kept a good pace. Maura did complain at the end of the hike but she had walked far enough without any whining that a little at the end of a long day on the trail didn’t upset me. I was glad to get back to the car myself.

Backyard Wildlife

Sometimes the best place to experience nature is your own backyard. You don’t have to travel far and sometimes you see things you might miss if you were outside your familiar surroundings. Though we live on a crowded street with apartment buildings and businesses tucked in among the houses the woods that abut our property are full of wildlife and it is not uncommon for it to wander through our yard.

Last week while I sat at my computer in my upstairs office I looked out the window for a moment and spotted a deer feeding in our neighbor’s yard. The office window was a perfect vantage spot to watch the deer. It never looked up to see me and it couldn’t hear me through the window, though it was not far away. I went downstairs to get my binoculars and then called Maura to come see. Through the binoculars the deer seemed close enough to touch. We watched it, taking turns with the binoculars, for at least five minutes as it contentedly browsed shrubs at the edge of the woods.

Watching the deer was a special moment shared with my daughter but only one of the many encounters with wildlife we’ve had on our own small patch of land. When I used to come home late at night I often saw skunks or raccoons on our driveway when I pulled in. Once I spotted a fox travelling through. A red-tailed hawk hunts on our street. Maura and my mother once saw it take a pigeon off of our lawn. When I saw it dive on its prey its quarry escaped. One summer evening around sundown Jennifer saw a coyote pass through the yard. It came out from behind our honeysuckle bushes about fifteen feet away from her and was as surprised to see her as she was to see it. I’ve only heard the coyotes’ eerie howling in the woods on cold winter nights.

I’m sure there is much more that we haven’t seen. I’d never seen the deer until this year but I expected they were there and I know there are wild turkeys in the woods because I’ve seen them elsewhere around its bounds but never on our property. I look forward to many more wildlife sightings in our own yard in the years to come.

Growing Up and Moving On

This afternoon I went to Maura’s school for my very last Field Day lunch with my daughter. Every year since she was in kindergarten I’ve gone to school on Field Day to sit with her and have a hotdog. This will be the last year. Fourth grade is the final year of primary school in Weymouth. Next year she’ll be at Abigail Adams Middle School. I don’t know that they have a field day but I suspect if they do they don’t invite the parents to lunch.

Maura and I are both looking forward to middle school. The school is closer and Maura is older so she’ll be walking herself to school next year. She’s already made plans to walk with some of her friends. I’ll have more time because I won’t have to drop her off or pick her up. The school day is also more convenient for me. I’ll be able to get started sooner and I won’t be forced to take breaks at awkward times. Change is always disruptive but my life will be easier once I am used to the new schedule.

Though I’ll be happy when Maura is in middle school the end of primary school is a bittersweet time. Maura is growing up and it is happening fast. It seems like yesterday that she was starting school for the first time. Maura had just turned five a week before when we took her for her first day of kindergarten. She was eager to get started but also a little scared. Her mother and I felt the same way. Now in just over a week I’ll be dropping her off at Seach School for her last day as a student there. It hardly seems like it’s been five years.

Along the way Maura has learned a lot. She’s quite accomplished at reading, writing and arithmetic. She does her homework with little prompting (she still needs to be reminded to do her chores). She calls her friends on the phone and has an email address. Before she heads to middle school we will get her a cellphone of her own. Five years ago all of that was in the future. I can hardly imagine what the next five years will bring.

Flowers and Flags

We really enjoyed our Memorial Day weekend this year though we stayed close to home. Memorial Day weekend for us has traditionally been used for one of two things. We either work outside around the house or we take a short trip. Last year we went camping but this year we did the yard work. We worked very hard Saturday and again on Monday making our yard look as nice as it has in a long time and probably as nice at it will look all year. The lawn is mowed, the flower beds weeded and bushes trimmed. Everyone pitched in, though it was hard to get Maura motivated on Saturday morning.

On Sunday we took the day off from our labors to visit friends. We went to a barbecue on Sunday evening where we enjoyed the company of friends old and new as well as plenty of great food outside in perfect weather. There were dozens of people at the event so I found it stressful. I’ve always been a shy person and I’m not always comfortable around strangers, particularly when I meet many at once. Maura, fortunately, is not shy and she had a great time. She makes friends wherever she goes.

On Monday we had more work to do but first Maura and I went to the Town of Weymouth’s Memorial Day Parade. The East Weymouth Congregational Church, where I am a member, is directly across the street from the small park where the parade route begins. As a public service the church offered water to the parade participants and also made our restrooms available to any who needed them. I was there to pass out water. Maura came along to help but she was mostly interested in watching the parade. She waved a flag as it went by. It was good to be at the ceremony at the start of the parade that commemorates those who lost their lives fighting for our freedom. We stood respectfully while the flags were raised, taps was played on a lone bugle and a salute was fired. It can be easy to forget the meaning of the holiday amid the sales and barbecues but this simple ceremony helped us remember.

The church lawn is not a bad place to view a parade. The parade route starts there so we can see it all before it starts moving. There was a small contingent from the National Guard, the police and firemen in their dress uniforms, local veterans’ group chapters and service clubs, the high school marching band and the Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, led by Boy Scout Troop 2 with a spectacular, and loud, flag and drum core.

After the parade it was back to work. While we were there Jennifer had gone to buy plants and they had to be put in the ground. She bought tomatoes and herbs. We’ve had good luck growing both of them in the past and they will add great flavor to our summer and autumn meals if we are as successful this year. The herb garden is in the spot recently occupied by Maura’s sandbox which she had stopped playing in. We’ve laid it out to be attractive as well as useful. The varying greens of the different herbs are set off by a ring of blooming marigolds, which also help to keep rabbits away. The garden is decorated with a fairy house made from an old chimney pot. Maura made furniture for it so the fairies should be quite at home there. The garden is guarded by a concrete cat, always poised to pounce on anything that might make trouble. Maura helped with the planting, particularly of the marigolds, and so far she’s been doing a good job of watering every day.

Mother’s Day Adventure

Mother’s Day was Jennifer’s day and after breakfast we went where Jennifer wanted to go. She chose a trip to the SoWa Open Market. Open Sundays 10 to 4 from May to October, the Open Market is a showcase for artists and artisans. It is located in a parking lot off Harrison Avenue in the South Washington neigborhood of Boston. There are all manner of original artworks and handmade goods on sale to match almost any taste. Food is provided by an array of Boston’s gourmet food trucks, with enough variety to offer lunch for almost any taste as well. In the next parking lot is a concurrent farmers’ market and the SoWa Vintage Market, selling antiques and vintage clothing, is indoors next door. Also nearby are a collection of artsy stores and galleries, most open for business during the market.

Jennifer and Maura enjoyed the trip immensely. They both enjoy shopping and there was plenty to look at. Jennifer particularly enjoys knitting and textiles. Jennifer looked at clothing that she could use in a Steampunk costume. Maura likes anything that features cats. She found a set of handmade magnets with cartoon cats on them that she liked and could afford to buy.

I mostly looked for a place to sit down but I didn't find one. In a perfect world I would fill my space with cool handmade items but as things stand I can’t. When I’m not able to buy I find shopping a bit depressing. I get no thrills from looking at cool goods for sale that I can’t possibly afford. For me the highlight of the day was a snack of hot dill pickles from the Grillo’s Pickles Cart. We buy them at Whole Foods to eat at home but they are every bit as good on the street. I hope I didn't bring Jennifer down by being unenthusiastic about shopping. It wasn't my intention to throw a wet blanket on her fun day.

Saying Goodbye to a Friend

Mother’s Day was last Sunday but I’m not writing about that this week. On Saturday there was a sad occasion that marked my weekend more. We had to say goodbye to a beloved family pet.

Our cat Elmo had been with us since long before Maura was born. He was an affectionate and usually gentle animal who liked people and was often to be found on someone’s lap. Most often the lap was mine. Elmo was 16 or 17 years old (we aren’t quite sure) and had been sick for months so we knew the end was coming. It was still hard on Saturday morning when it was clear his condition had taken a turn for the worse. We took him to see the vet, half hoping that she would tell us that he would respond to treatment and improve. We were not surprised when she told us that he was unlikely to get better and the best thing we could do for him was to have him euthanized. He was clearly suffering; the decision was not difficult.

I stayed with Elmo until the end while Jennifer took Maura to the garden store to purchase a plant. It is a family tradition to mark the final resting place of pets with a planting. Elmo is now under a lilac bush. It is small now but it was already covered with flowers when we planted it and if it thrives it will add beauty to our yard in the spring. Not far away is the maple tree we planted over the ashes of another departed friend which gives great color to our yard in the fall. On a happier occasion the planting would have been a fun family activity. We have gardened together before and it is usually very enjoyable when we all work as a team. The weather was perfect and it was better to be outside than indoors.

We are all missing Elmo now, especially me, because I am home alone much of the time. Our remaining cat Houdini has his affectionate moments but he is not as much of a snuggler as Elmo was. It has been lonely around here this week. It won’t be for long. We have room in our home and hearts for two cats and we have already been talking about getting another. Elmo can’t be replaced but there are lots of cats looking for good homes. If one doesn’t come to us from a friend or acquaintance the way most of our cats have over the years we will adopt from an animal shelter, probably before the end of the summer.

Ice Show 2011

Maura has stayed busy since we came back from vacation. She hasn’t competed in figure skating recently but she hasn’t stopped skating. In fact she’s been skating more than ever the last two weeks. A few weeks ago she tried out for a synchronized skating team. We haven’t heard whether she will be on the team or not but Maura and I are both hoping that she will be. I think it would help her get better at her individual skating because she would learn to skate with precision, which she doesn’t always do now. She will have more time on the ice, which would help her improve even if she learned nothing new. She would also have a chance to make more friends at skating. Maura is a very friendly girl but she has only made a few close friends at skating so far. I’m sure that as time goes by she will make more but she is likely to get close to her teammates more quickly than to girls she doesn’t spend as much time with.

This last week Maura performed in the Rockland Rink’s annual ice show. She spent lots of extra time at the rink. The show was last Saturday Night but she’d had three rehearsals during the previous week to get ready. The dress rehearsal was on Friday night and I took her so I saw the show twice.

This year’s show was Broadway themed. The routines were all performed to music from Broadway shows. Maura was in two group numbers. One was “Strangers Like Me” from Tarzan and the other was a song from Hairspray. She had a great time and did a fine job skating. The Hairspray number was the most fun. She wore a sparkly shirt and a pink wig that matched the big smile on her face. She got to keep the wig and she plans to wear it to school on Friday.

We had a full contingent of Maura fans in the audience to watch her skate. Julie Tittler came to watch and so did Rheannon Swire and her parents. We took up a whole row in the bleachers. We had gone to see Rhea skate in competition earlier in the day and watched her take first place in her group. Rheannon is one of Maura’s idols and Maura was very happy that Rhe was there to see her show. Maura could certainly pick a worse person to idolize; Rhea is a great role model—not the least because she has done many of the things that Maura wants to do over the next few years of her life.

The ice shows that Maura has skated in so far have been her only experience with skating in a group but she seems to do it well.  I think she will enjoy skating on the synchro team if she makes it. I’ll get used to the extra hours in the cold.

Williamsburg Again and Yorktown

Our vacation continued on Thursday, April 19th. After breakfast we headed back to Colonial Williamsburg. Our first activity was an audience with George Washington in 1775. The people in the audience played the part of the people of Williamsburg and he addressed us as a member of the House of Burgesses and delegate to the Continental Congress. The war hadn’t started yet so he wasn’t yet General Washington. He gave a great picture of Virginia on the eve of the American Revolution and took questions without ever breaking character or forgetting his moment in time. I was very impressed. He kept everyone’s attention, even Maura's. She had been worried she might be bored. After the audience we spent the morning in Colonial Williamsburg visiting houses and shops. We had lunch at Chowning’s Tavern, which we enjoyed.

After lunch we went back to pick up the car at the Cedars and headed down the Colonial Parkway for Yorktown. It was a very pretty drive. It would have been nice to take it slowly and stop to enjoy the scenery but we were in a bit of a hurry because we needed some time to spend at Yorktown before everything there closed. We stopped at the Visitor Center to pick up Maura’s Junior Ranger book for Yorktown and then took a whirlwind tour of the battlefield. We didn’t really have enough time to explore but we did get to hit the highlights. The siege works were very impressive, particularly the remains of the British works which were repaired by the Confederate forces during the Civil War. Maura learned about the American victory at Yorktown which convinced the British to give up trying to compel the colonies to return to their allegiance and resulted, after long negotiations, in the recognition of American independence and peace between the United States and Great Britain. Maura got her paperwork in for her Junior Ranger badge just before they locked the doors. It was the second she earned on the trip and she was proud of it. Despite the rush we did get the chance to learn some interesting details. I hadn’t known that a German speaking regiment in the French Army had attacked a position held by Germans in the British service.

We drove through the town of Yorktown after our battlefield tour. We stopped for a short time at the monument commemorating the victory but nothing else in the town seemed to be open. There was much we might have seen had we been there earlier in the day. Yorktown is another place we will have to visit again if we ever make it back to that part of Virginia. Afterwards we headed back to Williamsburg for dinner and a night’s rest.

The next day was our last day in Virginia. We spent in the whole day in Colonial Williamsburg and there were many things there that we didn’t have enough time see. We had had tentative plans to visit Busch Gardens, which is nearby, but we convinced Maura to forego that part of our trip by promising a visit to an amusement park in New England over the summer. We started on the third day with another visit with a historical character. This time it was Patrick Henry, firebrand orator and first governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The man who played Patrick Henry had a very different style than the man who played George Washington just as Henry and Washington had vastly differing styles. He stayed in his character very well but didn’t stay in his time period, which I believe was 1778. He answered questions that were a bit anachronistic. I might have to read a biography of him. He was certainly a strong character and an important creator of public opinion in Virginia and throughout the Colonies in the time leading to independence. We all agreed that we preferred the audience with Washington however.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the Colonial Williamsburg. In the morning we explored the gardens of the governor’s palace, the gunsmiths and the print shop. We had lunch at the King’s Arms Tavern and we enjoyed it thoroughly. The taverns generally were less crowded at lunch time and we did not need reservations like we did in the evening. They might be busier during the high season. After lunch my parents left us to go visit some old friends who had moved to Virginia and lived an hour or so away from Williamsburg near Richmond. We went on exploring without them. We saw a working kitchen with a newly built bread oven, the courthouse, a blacksmith, and a book bindery. At the guardhouse Maura participated in the militia drill with a two smaller children. Sticks filled in for their weapons. They all had a bit of trouble telling right from left so they got posted to awkward squad.

We wanted to purchase some souvenirs so we walked to the Visitor Center to spend some time at the gift shop and bookstore. On the way we found one more of the highlights of Colonial Williamsburg, the Good Hope Plantation, which gives the visitor an idea of the environment in which most of the people of Virginia lived—on plantations in the backcountry. It had a slave cabin and a tobacco barn They raise hogs and chickens there the way they did in the 18th Century and smoke hams in their smokehouse. They also have a saw pit where they were preparing timbers for use in construction in Williamsburg. The town is as realistic as it can be but by itself it doesn’t give a very complete picture of colonial society in Virginia where the plantations were the source of the wealth that built the town and the home of most of the people, white and black.

We bought our souvenirs and headed back to the main part of Colonial Williamsburg. Maura chose a wooden hoop for the hoop and stick game she had learned on the Palace Green earlier in the day. She had fun with the game and wanted to bring it home. I bought a t-shirt, my usual souvenir. Jennifer brought home cookbooks so we could duplicate some of the food we had eaten in the taverns.

Our last activity in Williamsburg was a talk the Native American actors who played the Shawnee characters in the Revolutionary City program we had seen on Wednesday. We didn’t ask many questions but the answers that the actors gave to the questions that other people asked were fascinating. It always enlightening to get a chance to see the world through other people’s eyes and the Native American point of view is one that the rest of us need to try to understand if we want to further justice in our society.

On Saturday our vacation was over. It just remained for us to drive home. We went back via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on several people’s advice. It probably would have been faster to go back Interstate 95 because the traffic was very slow through Maryland and Delaware. Crossing the bridge was neat though and the countryside of the Eastern Shore of Virginia was pretty but very flat. It was late when we arrived back in Weymouth but we’d very much enjoyed our days in Virginia.

Jamestown and Williamsburg

On Tuesday, April 17th we headed south for a vacation in the Williamsburg, Virginia area. The whole family went, including my parents. My dad did the driving. I would have taken a turn at the wheel but it was his car and he didn't want to share the task. We took my parents’ SUV because unlike our car it is large enough to comfortably hold five people with luggage. We hit the road around 8:30 after we had dropped our cats off at the vet’s to be boarded while we were away. It was a long day in the car and we arrived in Williamsburg around supper time. We checked into our B&B, the Cedars, which was very attractive and comfortable, a marvelous place to stay.

After we had unpacked the car we headed out for dinner. We picked Berret’s, the first restaurant we saw but a good choice. We all enjoyed our meals. The food and the service were excellent. None of us really needed desert but the delicious smell of the peach-apple cobbler from the next table was enough to tempt us. On our waiter’s advice we ordered two orders for the table because it was too large a dish for one. Two orders was enough but the cobbler tasted every bit as good as it smelled. In fact, it was declared to be the best desert Maura had ever had in a restaurant. We are still talking about it a week later.

After a good night’s sleep we gathered for breakfast. My birthday, which was earlier in the month, was celebrated with a candle in a muffin and Bob, our genial host, took our pictures. Then, after a quick stop at the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center to pick up our tickets we headed down the Colonial Parkway to Jamestown Island, the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America (and, of course, in Virginia). The site saw many firsts but it has long been abandoned as a town and to unpracticed eye there isn’t much there to see. Fortunately we were able to take an archaeological tour of the site of the first fort at Jamestown led by one of its excavators. Once thought to have been washed away by the James River the site of the fort was discovered in 1994 and found to be mostly still on land. Archaeologists have been at work there ever since and have discovered tens of thousands of artifacts that shed light on the history of the site and the life of the early settlers. During our tour we heard a fascinating presentation that touched on the early history of Jamestown and on the ways that archaeologists learn about it from the artifacts and the traces left behind in the soil by human activity. Afterwards we made a short visit to the Archaearium, a museum dedicated to the finds from the site. I enjoyed seeing some of the things that our guide had seen excavated but Maura was beginning to tire, so we headed back to the Historic Jamestown Visitor Center. Maura turned in her paperwork for her Junior Ranger badge and we headed back to Williamsburg for lunch and a short rest. There was much more at Jamestown that we didn’t see. We never explored most of the ruins of the 17th century town beyond the first fort. We also didn’t visit the reconstructed Jamestown Settlement on the mainland at all. Perhaps someday we will go back but we couldn’t see everything this trip.

After lunch we went to Colonial Williamsburg for the rest of the afternoon. Colonial Williamsburg is a living history museum made up of a collection of buildings, some restored originals and some reproductions based on documentary evidence and archaeological exploration of the site. Buildings that are open to the public are furnished as they might have been in the 18th century. Colonial Williamsburg is staffed by reenactors and interpreters in 18th century dress. Reenactors play the roles of 18th century people. Interpreters admit the existence of the 21st century but demonstrate some aspect of 18th century life, often by practicing an 18th century trade. On Wednesday afternoon we arrived in Williamsburg late enough that we didn’t see many of the shops and houses that were open but we did get to take in the Revolutionary City programs that reenacted events from the time of the American Revolutionary War as they happened in Williamsburg. Some of the characters were well known people such as George Washington and Benedict Arnold but others were poor whites, African American slaves, or Native Americans. The program was excellently done and gave a view of how the war affected people who might not have benefited much from American independence.

Our dinner in the evening was at Christiana Campbell’s Tavern, one of the taverns in Colonial Williamsburg. We had been looking forward to it but the evening was not as enjoyable as we had hoped. The entertainment was good—both the singer who performed with her guitar in the dining room singing 18th century songs and the character portrayals of our waitress and of our hostess who portrayed Mistress Christiana Campbell herself. As a server the waitress seemed a bit overwhelmed. She forgot things we had ordered and brought food to the table cold. The food would have been better had we been served it promptly and the evening would have more fun and memorable as we had hoped it would be.

While dinner was a slight disappointment the day as a whole was fun for everyone and we had two more days to enjoy in the Williamsburg area which I will write about next week.

Heritage Gardens and Museums in the Spring

This week is Maura’s spring break from school and we’re taking advantage of it, especially since the weather has so far been very pleasant. Yesterday we drove from Weymouth the Williamsburg, Virginia, but we’ve seen little except the very charming bed and breakfast where we are staying so I’ll save that trip for next week. Monday we did some more local travel so that Maura wouldn’t miss her skating lesson. We drove down to Sandwich on Cape Cod to show Jennifer, and my parents who are visiting from Indiana, the Heritage Gardens and Museums.

We had a very nice day, though it was hot for April. I never saw a weather report for Cape Cod but in Weymouth the temperature was reported to have hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit, though I was never uncomfortable. It was dry and there was a nice breeze. We left early and stopped for breakfast at Persy’s Place, in Kingston. They claim to have the largest breakfast menu in New England and I find no reason to doubt them. We don’t go there often because Kingston is a bit far to go for breakfast but I like the place a lot. It is the only restaurant I know of anywhere near where we live that has hash browns, which are my favorite breakfast potatoes.

After breakfast we drove on down to Sandwich. The gardens were beautiful though not yet in their full glory. There were many blooming daffodils and a few of the hundreds of rhododendrons had started to bloom. Some day we will have to visit in May, when they are in full flower. The crowds were not as oppressive as they had been when Maura were there before, on Free Museum Friday, and we walked the labyrinth almost undisturbed. Maura and I rode the carousel while my parents and Jennifer watched from a bench. I felt like a little kid and a proud dad all at once.

At the antique automobile museum we had a chance to enjoy the air conditioning while we had a leisurely look at the collection. Maura and I sat in the model T Ford that is the only one of the cars in the museum that you are allowed to touch. I imagined what a ride must have been like back then. The seats were remarkably comfortable but the car wasn’t moving so there was no way to know how good the springs were.

After the visit to the gardens we drove to the Thornton Burgess Society’s Greenbriar Preserve not far away. We went to visit the jam kitchen. The kitchen was a popular stop on the Cape before World War Two and hasn't changed much since then. We bought two jars as souvenirs and to enjoy later. I let Maura pick out a jar of orange cranberry rhubarb relish. Jennifer and I agreed on a jar of rhubarb ginger preserves.

Afterwards we rode home in comfort for a short rest before skating and a fine dinner at Stockholders, a Weymouth restaurant we had long been wanting to try. We were not disappointed and everyone agreed that the food and the service were excellent.

Holiday Feasts

Last weekend was a busy one for our interfaith family. Major holidays for both Jews and Christians came almost together. The first night of Passover and Easter fell on the same weekend and we feasted in celebration of both.

Passover began on Friday evening. We hosted a seder—a meal and ceremony in one that tells the story of Passover with a dinner. We didn’t have a huge crowd. It was only the three of us plus my sister-in-law Andrea and her two daughters. Even for a small number of people a seder is a big deal. It needs to be a special meal. Jennifer, as always with holiday meals, did a wonderful job. The kitchen was filled with delicious smells all afternoon and everything tasted just as good. I’ll admit that I wasn’t as much help as I might have been. I had a great deal of work to do for school and I didn’t have much time to assist Jennifer with the cooking. I did do the shopping and some cleaning before and after the event so I won’t claim to have been useless, just busy with other things. Though I am not Jewish the Passover seder has become one of the things that I look forward to every year. It comes at season when I often need a little cheering up and it has also given me some great snapshot moments that help me enjoy my daughter growing up. Each year she gets a little more deeply into the ritual and more adult in the way she enjoys her meal.

Easter was the joyous day for me that it should be. I went to church in the morning and thoroughly enjoyed the service. As always I went alone. The downside to being part of interfaith family is that I can’t share everything that I love with my family. Other parts of our celebration of Easter are generally low key. Sometimes we dye eggs but not this year. Maura did get some chocolate from the Easter Bunny and Jennifer bought some Peeps to share with her. They can have them. Peeps are one Easter tradition I can do without.

In the afternoon we went to our friends the Tittlers’ for Easter dinner. Julie does a dinner on Easter that is anything but low key and I feel privileged to have been invited to share it more than once. Julie cooks a traditional Polish Easter feast and it is a treat. I think I would like to visit Poland someday. I know I would enjoy the local food. Even better than the food was the company. We often get together with the Tittlers but we don’t always have the chance to linger at the table and talk for hours which we did on Sunday. Our friend Jeremy was the fourth guest at the Tittlers’ table and he always has interesting things to say. Along the way we had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. The men hid the eggs in the yard for the three children to find. Maura found hers quickly but afterwards she helped the Tittlers’ youngest find the remainder of hers. She even rehid a few of the one’s she had found when we realized there were not as many eggs as we had thought there were. I was very proud of her when she did that.

The Boston String Quartet at Sanctuary Hall

On Saturday March 31st we went to see the performance of the Boston String Quartet at Sanctuary Hall, otherwise known as the East Weymouth Congregational Church. It was a treat for me to celebrate my birthday which was on Sunday. I’ll admit to being prejudiced in favor of the East Weymouth Congregational Church because I am an active member of the congregation but the truth is that the church is an amazing place to see a concert. The sanctuary is an intimate space with great sight lines and fantastic acoustics. Musicians love to perform there because they sound their best. The ticket prices were another reason why this was a great show to see. Adult tickets were only $10 each and a family ticket was $20 so Jennifer and I brought Maura for free. Home baked goodies were available before the show and at intermission for a pay-what-you-can donation.

The Boston String Quartet gave a great show. They played with energy and style and it was clear that they enjoyed what they were doing. Most of the pieces that they played were from their most recent CD which was recorded in the sanctuary at East Weymouth Congregational. The concert this year was offered as payment for those recording sessions. Most of the pieces that were played were arrangements of pop songs or folk songs from around the world, all arranged by members of the quartet. It was a very eclectic mix that ranged from Michael Jackson to Taiwanese folk songs and included Santana and the Charlie Daniels Band.

You might expect that pop songs played by a string quartet might sound like something you would expect to hear on an elevator but nothing could be further from the truth. All of the pieces were interesting and exciting to listen to. The range of sounds that the Boston String Quartet produced from their instruments was astounding and included many that I wouldn’t expect to hear from stringed instruments. Maura enjoyed the music as much as I did and wanted the CD. We purchased the latest one plus an the earlier one and we’ve enjoyed listening to both of them.

The Boston String Quartet is active in supporting music education and frequently travels around the country working with high school students. A portion of the CD sales goes to support these activities. They will also be in concert at Jordan Hall on April 15 to benefit music education. They will perform with the Grammy winning Turtle Island Quartet, Jeanette Olson from Glee!, the Xibus World Orchestra (composed of students from around the country) and other special guests.

A Lecture and a Concert: Cultural Enrichment for Maura

Jennifer and I believe that it is important to expose Maura to many different experiences and give her many opportunities to learn. The education she gets at school is vital and provides her with basic skills but the world is full of interesting things that she won’t be likely to learn at school. Maura is curious and smart. She takes an interest in most of the new things she is exposed to and her mother and I are comfortable in taking her to events that might not interest many nine-year-olds. This Saturday we took her to two of them.

The first event was a lecture at our local library. Authors Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald discussed their recent book Northern Hospitality: Cooking by the Book in New England. The book (and the lecture) discusses the history of cooking in New England through the cookbooks that were used here from the 17th Century to the early 20th Century. Maura likes history and I was fairly certain that she would be interested enough to pay attention to a talk about the history of food. If she was bored she could have gone into the children’s library which is just across the hall from the room the lecture was in. She stayed through the whole lecture and was well behaved so she must have found it interesting enough to hold her attention. I found the topic fascinating. We both enjoyed tasting the plum cake, baked according to a 1796 recipe, that we had a chance to sample at the end of the lecture. Some of other patrons were surprised that Maura would eat the plum cake but it was not a surprise to her mother and I. We have always encouraged her to try new foods and by now she does so as a matter of course. Very often enjoys them. We all liked the plum cake. It was rich and lightly sweet. If we had been at home I would have had a second piece.

In the evening we went to the Cantors’ Concert at Congregation Sha’aray Shalom. Cantor Weiss of Sha’aray Shalom was joined by six of his colleagues who serve other congregations to present a concert honoring the musicians who perform in services at Sha'aray Shalom. The performers came from as far away as California, though the majority were from the Boston Metropolitan Area, They sang a variety of music—a mixture Jewish religious music, pop songs and show tunes. There were several ensemble numbers and each cantor had at least one solo or duet. They all had wonderful voices and had chosen their pieces well. Maura was well behaved but it was a late night for her and by the end of the show she was falling asleep. We stayed at the reception afterwards for a while but it was clearly time for Maura to get to bed so we didn’t stay long. We might have left as soon as the show was over but Maura would have been disappointed.

Happy Spring!

It was still officially winter last Sunday but it wasn’t obvious from the weather which was nearly perfect. Sunday afternoon the temperature was near 70 degrees Fahrenheit with few clouds and a light breeze. It was a day to be out of doors.

When our Sunday morning activities were over we took the opportunity provided by the perfect weather to get out for a hike. We went to the Moose Hill Audubon Sanctuary, in Sharon, Massachusetts. We were joined by our friends Mike and Becca and the younger members of their household, who live in Sharon and had invited us for dinner afterwards.

Our hike took us through the varied terrain of the sanctuary, through upland forest and boggy bottoms, by open fields and past ponds and vernal pools. With three active children (Maura and Becca’s two boys) plus a baby in a stroller, there wasn’t much wildlife to see or hear but it was still a pleasant walk. I tried out trekking poles for the first time in the hope that they would save my knees which have been hurting after long walks. I had received them as a Christmas gift but did no hiking during the winter. They either worked or the walk was not long or rugged enough to cause a problem with my knees. I did find that my arms and shoulders were tired after the hike.

I didn’t see any wildlife except for chickadees and crows, which are everywhere and unafraid of noisy children, but we did hear frogs as we walked by the vernal pools. They were likewise undisturbed by children and loud enough that they could have been heard over a dozen kids. I could only identify the spring peepers but there were also lower notes of another species of frog also breeding in the vernal pools.

The fine weather continues this week. I may go hiking again on my own but even if I don’t I’ll take the opportunity to walk around town. At the very least I will dodge traffic and skirt construction to walk to Maura’s school at dismissal and come back with her in tow. We both enjoy the outdoor exercise and the time together. Suburban sidewalks are not as pleasant a place to walk as wildlife sanctuaries but they are still much better than a stuffy house on the finest days in the early spring.

Maura the Star

Last Friday night was a proud parent moment for me. Maura had a role in the Purim Spiel at Congregation Sha’aray Shalom. For those of you who are not familiar with it the Purim Spiel is a dramatic retelling of the events of the Book of Esther which is presented to celebrate the Jewish holiday Purim, which was actually Thursday.

At Sha’aray Shalom the Purim Spiel is always a spoof of a hit Broadway musical. This year’s spiel was based on Les Mis. Maura played the part of Logo, the little girl from the Les Mis poster. She helped to introduce the show and sang several solos. She did a wonderful job in her part. She had worked very hard in preparing for it and it showed. He lines were clear, audible and delivered to the audience with a smile. When she sang she was on key, which is more than can be said for many people who sing in amateur performances.

The show was a lot of fun to watch, which is part of the point of putting it on. Purim is not a solemn holiday but a celebration of life. All the performers had worked hard and enjoyed their roles. My friend Julie and her son Peter came to see Maura perform with us and had a good time too.

I lost track of the number of people who told me how great Maura was after the end of the spiel. She did do an excellent job but I think people were particularly impressed because she was the youngest person in the show. It’s the second year she has taken part and I wouldn’t be surprised if she kept at it. She might decide she wants to try out for roles in other plays. There are several amateur theater groups in our area that she could join. I would certainly encourage her to try if she has an interest in it. I just hope stardom doesn't go to her head.