New England Summer, Part 1

Our trip began on Wednesday afternoon, August 12th. We left for State College after nap time, and stayed one night with Rich, Amy and the kids. Amy made delicious pizza with home grown eggplant, and the chocolate spice cookies I used to make when I was in graduate school. The kids played very well with each other, and Amy made delicious waffles for breakfast!

We stopped at a few rest stops on our way to New Haven. Oh, I also wanted everyone to admire the car trash can I made out of at oatmeal box that I covered with duck tape! I designed it so that it fits in the posts of the head rest! Also, the trash bag "screws in" on both sides with some soy milk carton lids that I put on the sides of the can! The new trash can worked really well!

And, finally, I wanted Nana to see that we finally found some patches for Jacob's pants. Josh and I got these patches on our anniversary (at the airport in Pittsburgh) and placed them on Jacob's two butt cheeks (on the pants). On our trip everyone knew where we were from!

New England Summer, Part 2

The second stop on our trip was the new palatial home of my old grad school chum Debby and her husband Bruce. They bought a French? style country house built in the 1920s with dozens of rooms a backyard to which they could charge admission. Debby plied us with delicious snacks and champagne, as well as a lovely spaghetti dinner. She invited a few other friends from graduate school and everyone admired our children! The parrot was a dastardly toy that literally repeats the last thing that is said in its presence. Though Jacob commands Casey to "don't repeat me" he loved this parrot, and it was his constant companion until bedtime. We also had a fire and s'mores! And sugared cereal for breakfast! Needless to say Jacob was in heaven! We all were....

New England Summer, Part 3

Our trip to Martha's Vineyard was a bit of an adventure---and not in a good way. We arrived at the Steamship authority parking lot closest to the ferry just as the last car, literally, was allowed in that lot. We then had to turn around and drive back 20 minutes in the direction we had just come to park our car in one of their overflow lots. We then grabbed all the stuff we had packed for our one night on the island and ran to the bus that would take us back to the ferry. We were the last family allowed on the bus, which got us there with about 20 minutes to spare.

When we got to the dock it was mobbed with people. We stood in line for tickets and then waited in another line to get on the ferry. The ferry was more cramped and dark then the Seattle ferries we are used to! And the food was more expensive! When we landed in Oaks Bluff we walked a few blocks to our hotel, which I thought looked charming on the outside. But then we arrived at our room (pictured above).

According to its website, "the Wesley Hotel is the last of the grand hotels which were built in Oak Bluffs during the late 1800's. The Wesley has been in continuous operation as a destination for travelers since 1879." Unfortunately, they have not significantly renovated the rooms for more than 100 years either. I won't say what we paid for the room above, but I think it's safe to say it's the most we've ever paid for a room in our lives! On the other hand, it's the only lodging we paid for on the whole trip, so we can't be too grumpy!

New England Summer, Part 4

David and Heather were our personal taxi service on the island, which saved us literally hundreds of dollars. On Saturday morning they picked us up in Oak Bluffs and we drove to Vinehard Haven where we beat the ferry crowd to a famous island institution called The Black Dog. The restaurant is named for the dog in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. The food was scrumptious. Heather and I had a wonderful poached egg, Hollandaise sauce, avocado concoction and the kids had the Black Dog signature pancakes.

New England Summer, Part 5

David and Heather rented a house near their favorite beach, called "Long Point Beach." This is an exclusive haunt with only 100 parking spots. If you get there after it's already full you have to walk about one mile to the beach! That happened to us on Saturday but it was more than worth the hike. This magical beach has a fresh water pond on one side with real beach sand, and a very surfy beach beach just over a small hill on the other side. We stayed on the pond side and Josh and the boys played in the water with a ball until Josh had a blistering sunburn (why is it that we always remember to slather the kids, but not ourselves?). It was a magical trip!

New England Summer, Part 6

On Saturday, August 15th we took the ferry back from Martha's Vineyard to Woodshole, Mass. We took the second picture so that Nana could see that they have chocolate milk on the ferries on the East Coast, too! We were carrying a lot of baggage (including Casey's Pack n Play and the Pack n Play mattress!) and when we got off the boat we had to wait in a long line for a bus that took us back to our car, which was parked about 15 miles from the dock. There were times when we felt less like vacationers and more like refugees!

New England Summer, Part 7

Tina and Carlo, along with their daughters, Ling Li (8) and Yuan (6) were gracious enough to invite us to spend some time with them in their large, breezy, rented house in Cotuit, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. The house was one block from a darling beach called Loop Beach. Tina has been going to this beach for 40 years! In these pictures you can see Yuan, Jacob and Casey eating Cheerios and Ling Li playing with the flags that Casey discovered in a musty cabinet.

New England Summer, Part 8

On the last day of our trip in Cotuit we drove about 20 minutes to Sandwhich town where we enjoyed a sandy beach at the tip of a shallow inlet. The water was colder than at Loop beach, but the water was much shallower so that we felt a lot safer kicking back under the shade while the kids played a few feet away. We used household tools to make a sand castle; the kids pitched in with gathering and tamping down the sand, and Josh sculpted our mound into a castle. We also played with our beach toys, and at the end of the visit Casey managed to get her diaper off for a last dip in the water.

Urban Summer, Part I

During the summers that we spent in Nashville we discovered something called the "spray park." This, as you can see, is a series of sprinklers, some of which spray from above, and others which spray from below. I was not sure if Pittsburgh had one but I decided to find out! I looked online and found out that one had just opened this summer on Pittsburgh's Northside. I took the kids there one morning while Josh worked on his dissertation. It was a good trip overall, with lots of waterlogged smiles. The only mishap was Jacob falling and scraping his knee on the concrete. Curse you summer cement!

Urban Summer, Part II

Last year we joined the city pools for the first time. Schenley pool is the closest pool to us and it's jammed with young bathers and their erstwhile supervisors, especially on the weekends. Jacob is making good progress on the dog paddle in his "bate," and Casey made great strides this summer as she started to wade in, chest high. She calls this "swimming."