FRIDAY JUNE 22, VERMONT, BOSTON, AND HOME

We packed, met Jonathan, and went out to breakfast with Martin Smith and his wife Terri.  We ate at a little cafe in Quechee village.  The cafe is only open for breakfast and lunch part of the year.  Winters aren't a big tourist season for this part of Vermont, apparently.  Good to see them again.  

After breakfast we headed south toward Boston.  Jonathan was going to go hiking with his dad in Maine - so he met up with his family in Manchester, New Hampshire.  It was odd leaving him in a 99 restaurant near a mall - but he was in phone communication with his family - so I guess he managed to get out of there.  Charlie and I continued down to Boston.  With the help of maps, and gut level feelings, we made it to Harvard Square for a quick recheck.  Again, the weather has been wretched - near 100 degrees in Boston - so hiking around just wasn't in the cards.  We found Tealuxe - one of my favorite Harvard Square places.  Off to the airport - then home.  Many degrees cooler in LA than the northeast.  It was a wonderful trip - despite the weather.  Here's a few last photos.

THURSDAY, JUNE 21 IN VERMONT

Like yesterday, I began my travels after breakfast.  I decided that I first wanted to go see Dartmouth University.  I'd never been there before, and like to wander college campuses.  Again the weather wasn't working for me - 95 degrees and humid - but I did get a bit of a stroll while the temperature was less than 90.  Here's a few photos.

Dartmouth is actually in New Hampshire.  For someone from a large-area state like California, hopping back and forth across the Connecticut River, in and out of Vermont, was really weird.  Terri had mentioned yesterday that the Vermonters often shop in New Hampshire to take advantage of no? low? taxes.  Still, the meandering between states, for me, was odd.  Especially, since I kept getting lost, it meant that I wandered out of Vermont several accidental times.

My Dartmouth trip was so successful, I decided to travel on up the 89 N and go on to the Vermont state capital, Montpelier.  Again, it was a wonderful stop.  Montpelier is very small, and easy to visit.  Hey!  I didn't even get lost!  Here's a few photos of Montpelier.

 The bridge above went over the Winooski river.  I'm not sure why that struck me as funny.

A government building along State Street.

I had a great lunch in a little cafe, Le Brioche, and felt my drive was so successful, that I'd keep going up the 89 N to Burlington.    The drive really is easy.  The highways in Vermont are well taken care of and there really aren't that many people, so traffic is easy.    Again, I had to use the bathroom as soon as I left Montpelier, so I pulled off the motorway at the next stop.  Middlesex was so small, I only saw 5 buildings - not a promising start for public bathrooms.  I went into a pottery store and asked for a public toilet.  The lady behind the counter told me to go ahead and use their facilities.  They were so nice, I bought a little ceramic jug.  It turned out, I fell in love with that little pitcher.  It's glazed to look like a hunk of birch.    I headed on my way to Burlington.  Once I got there I ran into my only real where-the-heck-am-I glitch.  My "goal" was to drive to the edge of Lake Champlain.  How could I lose a "great" lake.  Thanks to my cell phone, I found it.  When I got to the lake, I drove into a parking lot and was told that no matter how short my visit would be, it would cost me $10.  But the woman running the lot told me to go across the street to the Hilton.  That turned out to have free parking for 2 hours or less.  My half an hour along the lake was a freebie.  People have been nicer in Vermont in my two days of meandering around than I met in 5 years of "Happy Valley" - State College PA.  Here's a few photos of the lake and Burlington.

 A view of Burlington with Lake Champlain behind me.

 The photo above is of a ferry boat that toured around Lake Champlain.  I felt like I might have liked to go on the ferry until it pulled away from the dock.  They decided to blare a tinny version of Anchors Aweigh.  OK - never mind - I decided to skip the ferry tour.

I drove straight back to Quechee Inn.  Charlie's group broke up a little bit early.  I decided that since he'd been in Vermont, he hadn't seen anything!  I dragged him back to Quechee Gorge and Woodstock.  Ho ho ho, I managed to get us lost a bit again.  Since I've been lost on every road around here, all the roads look familiar.  Heavens!  We did get a walk about despite it all.  Here are some photos.

 Woodstock's village green.

 The outside of my favorite library.

Back at the inn, we had another feast.  Good grief!  This one was even better than last night.  The plane home will have to taxi an extra 12 feet along the runway to get me off the ground.  I'm rolling home

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, VERMONT DAY 2

Charlie's meeting began after breakfast (around 8:30).  I had a map (which I soon discovered was useless) and headed down a road toward the Simon Pearce Museum and shop.  I was delighted to find it right away.  Here's some photos near the museum.

I then decided not to take highways, instead I would wander backroads using my "map".  I drove toward Woodstock (so I thought) for 12 miles.  I spotted a highway (NOT near Woodstock) and realized my map wasn't worth a doodle.  I also realized that I had no sense of direction in the Vermont woods.  All roads look the same, so I carefully retraced my steps back to the Quechee Inn, took Rte 4 and got to Woodstock.  What a gorgeous town!  I found a parking space in a lot called "free parking" and then wasn't sure I'd ever find the car again.  Actually in a town with, at most, 10 roads - not a problem.  I had to go to the bathroom, found a local (actually a Boston-transplanted local) who worked at the library.  If it weren't for her, I would never have gone into that building.  It was beautiful!!  Here's some Woodstock photos.

 A working covered bridge in town,

 A board that struck me as fascinating.  Notice the temperature.  It was horribly hot and humid which was the only negative thing about the trip.  I would have loved to walk around more.

Inside the library - second floor.  This was the prettiest library I've ever seen.

I drove back to the east along rte 4 (no more backwoods roads for me), and came to the Quechee gorge.  The travel book I had said, "Well, it's not the Grand Canyon."  No, but it was very nice.  I wandered through the woods to the information building.  (In my get-lost-no-matter-what state, it was actually along the highway.)  But the woods were nice.  Here are some photos.

 In the distance, above, you can see the dam that's quite near the Quechee Inn.

The two photos below are from my walk through the Vermont woods.

I then drove to King Arthur Flour.  It's a great place for bakers, cooks, and eaters.  If I weren't flying home, I would have bought some flour there too.  I had a great salad and a wonderful roll for lunch.  Getting to the place was a hoot.  My instructions told me to drive to the 89 S, take the 91 S and then go 91 N.  Huh???  I managed to miss the last step, and ended up driving south.  No problem, thought I, I'll just get off at the next exit.  Gak!  Next exit was 10 miles away.  Ho ho.  I did get there though.

I went back to the inn, and decided to check out Vermont cheese.  Locally there was a Sugar Bush Farm that had cheese.  When I got there I found out that the grandfather had his knees replaced, and the family stopped cow farming.  They were, however, still maple syrup producing.   Somehow, they shipped in mountains of cheese and repackaged it.  Hmmm.  Not quite the same.  I wish I liked maple syrup better.  Here's some photos.

 The only cow on the farm was a baby who was there for effect.

After my travels I went back to the inn.  Charlie's group was done meeting, and ready for the group banquet.  That evening we drove back to the Simon Pearce Museum for dinner.  Super dinner, and even better, I had a chance to 1.) meet people that Charlie has talked about for years and 2.) meet up with Martin Smith and his wife Terri Frazier.  Charlie and I have known Martin for more than 40 years.  His wife, Terri, is actually from Oklahoma, but has clearly settled into Vermont.  Vermonters treat Canadian maple syrup like Voldemort - do not say its name!  Great evening.  Great day.

TRIP TO VERMONT - DAY 1 FLIGHT OUT

On Tuesday, June 19, Charlie and I flew to Boston.  He had a meeting near White River Junction, Vermont, and I was on holiday!  Hurray.  A chance to go with him on one of his trips.  I had managed to delay my jury duty from June 11 to July 30 (Thank-goodness!!!)  so 1.) I could get to my finals 2.) get to graduation with many of my seniors who've I known for 4 years 3.) get to my luncheon for the Hartsough award that I won.  The luncheon was incredibly nice.  What an amazing club to get to belong to.  Between my sons teachers and my work there, I've known many of the teachers for years.  They are a wonderful set of people, and I'm really honored.

We left the house early and drove to pick up a graduate student from Cal Tech that was going to the meeting too, Jonathan Mihaly.  We left LAX at about 9:30 and got to Boston at 5:30.  We flew over the fires in Colorado, and I managed to get some photos from the plane.

The only real snag was picking up a rental car.  There weren't any problems - it just took forever.  We got on the road at about 6:30, and didn't get to Quechee Inn (in Quechee, Vt) (pronounced Kwee Chee).  Our room was upstairs in a corner.  Very nice.  Only odd bit - it was a bed with a canopy.  What were those for?? In the middle-ages, curtains were dropped along the edge for privacy and warmth.  But now?  It had a net over the canopy.  Charlie said it seemed like we were sleeping in a tunnel.  I guessed it would be very useful if the ceiling began to collapse.  Other odd bit, getting in at night we couldn't see where we were.

ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE 2012

When Charlie and I got home from our trip to see Sarah's graduation, we had a chance to take a look at the annular solar eclipse.  In LA we only got 89% of the eclipse.  Ian and Sarah drove north to check out the total solar eclipse (annular) more to the north.  Dean Papadakis, a fellow physics teacher at the high school, had the school's reflector telescope out, as well as a great pinhole camera (with a lens and back sheet), and solar lenses that allowed you to look straight at the sun without blinding yourself.  The high school  balcony in front of the science classes faces to the west, so we had a fantastic view of the eclipse.  Another nifty side effect of the eclipse was that the sunlight spots though trees looked crescent-shaped instead of round holes.

Here are a few photos.

THE WEEK-END OF THE COUSINS

Glenn left for his European talk-a-thon on June 14.  He flew to France, and as I write this, is in Paris about to give the first of at least 10 talks over the course of a month.  Krysty, deciding that staying alone in Vancouver wasn't nearly so much fun as coming down to South Pasadena and hanging around with all of us.  She flew down with both Kayley and Holly, the dog on June 13th.  Ian, Sarah, Sean, and Harriet decided this would be a golden opportunity to come see Kayley.  They have all been down to LA several times, but haven't had their trips overlap for ages.  Sarah had just heard that she had a job, so the trip became a celebration too.

Krysty got cool pop-up books for Sean and Harriet (I didn't manage to get a photo of Harriet's book) And Kayley got a Pete's Buttons book which Harriet read to her.
But here are some photos:

Now that Wally wasn't the only "dog in town"  he needed a gift too.

The afternoon was warm, so we went out to splash around in the hot tub.  It was warm enough that Ian, Sarah, and Harriet (and Sean for a time) popped over to the much - cooler main pool.  Here are some photos.

We had a lovely Chinese dinner at our old stand-by Spring Garden Restaurant in Pasadena.  We figured out that we've been going there for 33 years.  Glenn was Kayley's age when we started to go there.

The next morning we had French toast.  Then Krysty went to the "blue house" to see her parents, and Ian, Sarah, Sean, and Harriet headed back up north to Hayward.  It was a perfect week-end!