Maura Skates at the Colonials

Maura’s Synchronized skating team skated last Sunday in the Colonials at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts. It was the largest meet she’s yet been in and unlike at the others her team had competition. They skated very well but Maura's team placed third in a field of three. The Tsongas Center was by far the most comfortable venue I’ve watched figure skating in. Though a third of the stands were blocked off there were still plenty of seats and it was comfortably warm. I wish all the competitions were held in places so nice. On the downside tickets cost $22.00 each.

Maura’s team skated about as well as they ever have despite one of her teammates skating on a possibly broken toe. They came in third partly because they had only eight girls on their team and the other teams were larger.  Larger teams get the benefit of the doubt because more skaters make errors more likely. I’m not sure they would have won even if they had been equal in size. I could see a few spots in their routine where they were just a little out of synch and I’m sure the judges could see mistakes I could not. Unlike me, they know what they are looking for.

Maura was upset when she found out that her team had come in last but she got over it eventually. I’m glad Maura cares a little about winning now. It will help motivate her to work a bit harder to improve.  Despite the loss it was a good experience for Maura. She had been talking about dropping out of synchronized skating but now she has decided to stick with it. I’m glad that she has. I think she will enjoy it more as she gets more experienced and develops her skills. She will also not always the youngest person on her team. She would miss out if she quit now. If keeps on with synchronized skating I expect that some day she will find a place on a more advanced team and get to compete in some of the larger and more prestigious competitions. That will be an experience she'll tell her children and grandchildren about some day.

Lowell National Historical Park

On Sunday Maura, Jennifer and I visited the Lowell National Historical Park, in Lowell, Massachusetts. We hadn’t been planning the trip but Lowell came up in conversation on Sunday morning and we decided to go that afternoon as soon as I was done with church. We loaded up the car and drove to Lowell, arriving around 1:30. At the Visitors’ Center we registered for a free trolley tour and picked up a Junior Ranger book for Maura. Because our tour started in an hour we explored the exhibits in the Visitors’ Center, starting with the multi-media program “An Industrial Revelation”, which was a good orientation for what we would see later in the day. After watching the program Maura worked on her Junior Ranger activities until it was time for the tour to start.


On the trolley tour we rode a restored antique trolley on old railroad tracks through Lowell. Along the way we learned about the trolleys that transported the mill workers around the city and the canals that brought water from the Merrimack River to power the mills. As part of the tour we got to see the River Transformed Exhibit at the Wannalancit Mills. The exhibit, which is rarely open to the public except for guided tours, showed the workings of the mill including the turbine that extracted power from the water flowing in the canal and the gears and flywheel system that transferred that power to the looms and other mill machinery.

From the Wannalancit Mills we rode the trolley to the Boott Cotton Mills where we left the trolley tour to spend some time at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum. There we learned more about textile manufacturing and the history of Lowell. Upstairs at the museum were some well put together but fairly standard exhibits on the history of the city and the manufacture of textiles but the most interesting exhibit in the museum was the working weaving room downstairs. The constant noise of the machinery in the large room closely packed with looms gave a real idea of what it would have been like to work there when the mill was still operating and working looms gave an idea of what was really produced there and how it was done. Only a half dozen or so looms were actually producing cloth under the eye of one worker in period costume but it was enough to conjure in my imagination the busy scene where dozens of workers tended hundreds of looms.

Our visit to the Boott Mills allowed Maura to complete her Junior Ranger requirements and since the Visitors’ Center would be closing soon we headed back, making a brief stop at the Mill Girls and Immigrants exhibit at the Mogan Cultural Center next to Boarding House Park. There we learned just a bit about the Mill Girls lives working in early Lowell. We didn’t have enough time to fully experience that museum and that is one of the reasons why we agreed that Lowell is worth a return trip. There is quite a bit that we didn’t see.

At the Visitors’ Center Maura collected her Junior Ranger badge. Then we made a pit stop at Brew’d Awakenings, a few blocks away, for a pick me up before heading back to Weymouth. We’d all enjoyed ourselves and leaned a lot about the history of Lowell and of industry in America.