We hopped along from Spain to Paris to Iceland, finally
landing stateside in Boston. We have
wonderful friends in New Hampshire, and I was particularly keen to talk to my
friend Laura this crazy election season, as she’s the voice of New Hampshire
Public Radio’s morning talk show.
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| Hiking in New Hampshire |
But first we had to make it to Annapolis. My 30th college reunion was happening
right that first weekend back, and I just couldn’t resist, so we ditched the
girls and left them safe and happy with Laura and Steve. Together with our longtime Johnnie friends
Sandy and Jenny we rented a clapboard house on Fleet Street, right next to
where I used to live. It was a real
nostalgia fest, and the people from my class were just as interesting and fun to
catch up with as I remembered from 10 years ago.
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| Alumni seminar, so familiar, just with a little added technology |
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| Love these people |
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| Awarding Kevin Heyburn a croquet mallet for founding the annual Croquet Cup with Navy |
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| 40% of the class turned up |
We then headed to Boston, where Tia and Sasha had landed
after a mid-state transfer at the outlets on the New Hampshire border, where
Todd’s brother Mark lives with Bridget and their five kids. It was a blond-haired, blue-eyed fiesta of
epic proportions, as the cousins were thrilled to be hanging out again.
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| Just a few of the cousins |
As we were home-schooling pretty steadily, I arranged a
surfeit of field trips to catch up on U.S. History: The Minuteman Trail, marking the start of the
American Revolution; The Fort at Number 4, a critical location in the
little-known French and Indian War; the Hannah Dustin Memorial (Hannah was a
no-kidding frontierswoman who was abducted by Algonquin Indians and
subsequently escaped after killing her captors). We went south to Plimoth Plantation and the
Mayflower, where the recreations were spectacular—you could really feel what it
was like to be there in 1620. The Salem
Witch Museum was a complete disappointment after the spectacular movie The
Crucible, but the tour guide, in full colonial persona on Boston’s Freedom Trail, was hilarious,
informative, and well worth it.
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| Corny |
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| Hannah with a hatchet and a handful of scalps |
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| Swept back into 17th-century America |
The highlight of the trip was plunging into the flaming
forests of New England. Suzi and Ethan
flew out for Ethan’s cousin Rowie’s wedding, so we headed north to join
them. The trees created the perfect
backdrop for a set of autumn chemistry lessons, and we hiked the New Hampshire
mountains with Steve, a forestry expert.
On next to Maine, we relished Suzi and Ethan’s new house on Penobscot
Bay, Tall Oaks. Steve, Laura, their son
Abe, Mark, Bridget, the five cousins Ailis, Aidan, Teagan, Keelan, and Kieran,
plus our friends John and Thais and their son Liam all joined us for a raucous
Columbus Day weekend.
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| Photo shoot on the Maine shore |
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| Waterskiing in October!! |
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| New England beauty |
So on we moved on the penultimate leg of our journey, flying
to Los Angeles en masse with Suzi and
Company. My aunt Andrea was visiting
from Germany, so I flew up to San Jose and we drove down Highway 1 together,
marveling at the gorgeous coastline and the elephant seals. What a scenic re-entry into California!
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| With Andrea on Highway 1 |
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| Elephant seals galore! |
Our last stop was to see Grandpa Rich and Parviz in
Cupertino. We wandered through my mom’s
house, mostly unchanged since her death three years ago, and relaxed, enjoying
Rich’s photo exhibition in Los Gatos, dinner with him and Colleen, and entertained
by the cooking show with Parviz at Benihana’s.
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| Fund-raising in LA |
California, we are home!
Our cabin in the Sierras, here we come!
