Girls Rock Camp

This past summer Audrey attended Girls Rock Camp for the second year in a row. This year she chose drums as her instrument.

Over the course of the week at camp the girls form a band, pick a name, write a song and then rehearse it. They also participate in other activities like self-defense. Then on Saturday after the week at camp there is a "showcase" at a real bar where all of the bands perform their songs on a real stage with real lights and sound system and a real audience of friends and family. It's a blast.

There is a volunteer professional videographer who shoots the showcase. They just posted the results on YouTube. Here is the video of Audrey's band, "The Lone Wolf's" performing.

Disney Cruise

Pictures | Slideshow | Video

We spent the month of May refining my cancer diagnosis and arriving at a treatment plan. Then we had about a week and a half between the end of that process and the start of treatment. We had been saving for a couple of years toward a European vacation with the kids that we thought we might take this summer. We had already delayed that for a year, but we had funds available to go with that week and a half of time. In addition to that, we knew it was going to be a very abnormal summer and thought it would be nice to have a "normal" vacation before the abnormal began.

Given all that, we decided to go on a surprise Disney Cruise. We booked it just a few days before departure. We kept it a secret from the girls until 5:30 AM on the day of departure, when we had to get up to get a cab to the airport.

The cruise was a blast. I just finished editing the video and Carol saw and said "Let's go again!"

Our cruise was 4 nights in the Bahamas. We departed from Port Canaveral and the first night we sailed to Nassau, Bahamas. We spent the first full day there. We went on a short glass-bottom boat cruise as a shore activity. It was cool, although not as colorful as we hoped.

That night we sailed to Castaway Cay, which is Disney's private island in the Bahamas. It is used solely as a Disney cruise ship stop. Most of their cruises spend one day there; one of the longer cruises stops there twice.

Castaway Cay was very fun. We started the day swimming with rays. Charlotte was reluctant, but Audrey really loved it. We got to feed them out of our hands, then swim with them for quite a long time. Then we headed to the beach where we played in the water. We also used bikes to go on a jaunt around the island, including out to an observation tower from which we could see the ship in the distance.

Unfortunately somehow Charlotte and I forgot to drink all day and we both ended up seriously dehydrated and maybe with a little heat exhaustion. I of course had perfect timing and came down with a cold the day before we left on the cruise, so I was already under the weather. We both felt pretty bad that evening. Audrey and Carol went to the Pirate Party and fireworks by themselves.

Fortunately Charlotte and I recovered and were able to enjoy the rest of the cruise.

The fourth day was spent at sea, cruising oh-so-slowly back to Florida. One of the TV channels in the room showed the ship's location and speed and at times we were "sailing" at 1-2 knots! We spent the day in the pools and riding the cool Aquaduck water slide that encircles the top of the ship. We intentionally chose a cruise on the Disney Dream, one of their two new ships (the line only has four ships), solely because it has the water slide.

The crew of the ship is wonderful. Everyone was friendly and it didn't seem fake. We found out from our waiters on the last evening how little they get paid (the waiters make only tips, which you give all at once at the end of the cruise). I went online when we got home to see what the crew members think of it and all I could find was glowing reviews of working for the cruise line. Their room and board is paid, so they keep everything they make. They are also employed through the Bahamas so they pay no taxes. In fact, it occurred to me later that they probably can't even get off the ship in Florida - they probably don't have US visas. They sign up to work 14 hours per day 7 days per week for 6 months at a time, and they still say it's the best thing they ever did. Mostly they love working with a crew that is from all over the world, and believe it or not, helping make families' dreams come true. They actually say that!

At an hourly rate it was the most expensive vacation we've ever taken but it felt worth it to us. We all had so much fun. We're planning to do it again when the girls are perhaps 12 and 14 - there are tween and teen clubs on the ship that the girls want to be able to hang out in next time.

Click on the links below the picture for the photo album/slide show and the separate link for the video.

Ipswich River Cabin

Ipswich River Cabin

While we were at the Ipswich River Sanctuary for canoeing, we passed by the Innermost House. It is a small cabin that Mass Audubon members can rent for $30 per night. We've always thought about it but had never done it.

Even though it was Memorial Day weekend coming up, I gave them a call to see if it might be available. It was! For Sunday night. I grabbed it.

The girls were very excited.

One of the coolest parts of renting the cabin is that you have the entire sanctuary to yourself once it closes at dusk. We took the girls for a walk with flashlights when it was almost dark. They really like the book Owl Moon, in which a child goes "owling" with her dad, walking through the dark woods. However, they did not find this as romantic as the book. They were terrified to be in the woods in the dark. I kept trying to calm them to no avail. We went on maybe a 1/2 mile walk. They survived but were very glad to arrive back at the cabin.

It was a little cool at night so we built a fire in the wood stove. The girls thought that was awesome.

I was amazed when I woke up at 7:00 and everyone else was still sleeping soundly. I snuck out of the cabin as quietly as I could and went for a dawn walk down to the Old Stone Bridge and then to the nearby platform in the swamp. This was in the Month of Diagnosis. We were spending all of this time outdoors because it was a good distraction for Carol and me. We didn't yet know exactly what kind of cancer I was dealing with so we hadn't told the kids yet. I lay on the platform and pondered my future. It was calming.

When I got back to the cabin at 8:15 or so the women were all just waking up. We decided to go for a little hike and then we would go in search of pancakes for breakfast.

The route I chose for the hike was one we had never been on before. It turned out to be fairly long, but beautiful. The girls were tired and hungry by the end.

Then we ended up at the Village Pancake House in Rowley, MA. Just what we were looking for.

We'll definitely be staying in the Innermost House again. We'll have to try it in different seasons.

That wood stove would make for a pretty cozy setting in the winter.

Memorial Day Parade

Memorial Day Parade

Every year the public schools are represented in the Melrose Memorial Day Parade by anyone from each school who wants to join in. Some kids walk, some pull wagons and some ride their bikes. This year we decided to participate on our bikes.

I often refer to Melrose as Mayberry. It really does have that feel. And nothing makes it feel more like Norman Rockwell's America then when Main Street is decorated with flags on all the lamp posts and people are marching down the street wearing red, white and blue.

It's charming.

This video contains some footage of us riding on the parade.

Ipswich River Canoeing

Ipswich Canoeing

I guess the visit to Odiome State Park wasn't enough outdoors for one weekend. The next day we went canoeing on the Ipswich River.

The Ipswich River is quite lazy. It actually starts not far from our house but it wanders through a whole bunch of towns before flowing through the Ipswich River Audubon Sanctuary (our favorite place), then through the town of Ipswich; finally reaching the sea at the Crane Estate. The portion in the sanctuary flows slowly through a very large swamp.

As with our walks through the sanctuary, canoeing there is so peaceful and beautiful. We just can't get enough of the place.

Odiome State Park

Odiome State Park

Both girls have been on school field trips to the Seacoast Science Center in Odiome State Park near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It has great tidepools and they have had a blast finding crabs and other creatures.

In May we visited on a weekend. We ended up not visiting the science center itself because we were having too much fun on our own picnic and beach exploration.

We followed the beach to the other side of a little bay and came across a rocky point where people had built dozens of cairns. It was a gorgeous spring day. I built a tall skinny cairn. Carol and I took a little catnap in the sun while the girls played.

Video Montage

In addition to getting caught up on photos, I have also organized the video from so far this year. I took all the clips from events that don't justify their own video and put them together into a montage that represents roughly the first half of 2013.

Click on the picture, or here, to get to the video.

Hiatus

We've had a little hiatus here at methot.net. I always assume most readers are family, but I know several are not: you've been in the dark all these months.

On May 6th I went to the doctor for a sensation in my throat. Over the next couple of weeks I would learn that it was a walnut-sized tumor at the base of my tongue.

That obviously sent us off on a little detour - a different kind of summer than we were expecting. In retrospect, I should have posted a notice here but my mind was elsewhere.

You can read that story in great detail at Cancer Fun Time!. There are currently 87 posts there, but if you want to start at the beginning, here's a link to the first post.

Treatment ended two and a half weeks ago. I have a long way to go in recovery but I've had enough energy this weekend to organize a bunch of photos covering April-June. I'll get some posts written to accompany those albums in the next couple of days if I continue to feel relatively good.

The cancer I had, by the way, is considered curable and I am expected to be cured at this point. That's not official until after five years of clean PET scans, the first of which I'll have in November. But it is our assumption going forward.

Boston Bike Commute Video

I've been thinking about making time-lapse videos of my bike commute route for many years. Now that I have the GoPro camera it's dead simple. Yesterday morning I finally remembered to mount the camera and off I went.

The video is shot with an image taken every half second. After conversion, the end result is that the motion is sped up about 10 times. Some of those cars crossing my path look like they are cutting right in front of me (which does happen a lot) but I'm not approaching them as fast as it appears.

One thing I notice is that with the distorted time and the resulting rapid light changes as I ride in and out of shadow is that you lose all sense of up and down. There are several hills along the route but one can hardly tell in the video.

Nine

Sheesh, it's been a busy couple of months and I've gotten behind again on publishing photos. Here are nine new photo albums all at once.

Photos | Slideshow Audrey Science Fair The Science Fairs at all of the Melrose elementary schools were held at the end of February. Audrey planned her project before we left on vacation since we'd only have a few days to complete it when we got home. She decided to put nails in different liquids and see which liquid caused the nail to rust the fastest. Her hypothesis was that salt water would be the winner. She also tested plain water, vinegar, and canola oil. It turned out plain tap water rusted the nail the fastest! And vinegar didn't rust the submerged part of the nail at all but the vapor above the vinegar caused a cool black lumpy corrosion. I used our new GoPro camera to make a time-lapse movie of the experiment, which ran for about 12 hours. You can see the video here. Audrey won Honorable Mention for her age group. She was very proud and excited!

Photos | Slideshow Ski Bradford Audrey had a taste of skiing two winters ago on a trip organized by my work and then another outing with Carol. Charlotte had no interest at the time. Last winter skiing didn't really exist in New England due to very warm temperatures and very little snow. This year when it started to snow Audrey started asking to go skiing again. Then Charlotte chimed in and said she would like to learn to ski, too. Carol and I both grew up skiing and enjoyed it for decades, but we both wandered away from the sport partly due to cost. Especially since we don't own equipment it costs a small fortune for the four of us to go skiing for a day. Audrey likes it enough that we decided to buy some used equipment for her so that helped a little. The first day we went Charlotte was adamant that she did not want to take a lesson - she wanted Carol to teach her. I was not optimistic about the outcome but went with the flow. Carol did a fantastic job and was incredibly patient. After a couple of hours Charlotte was doing pretty well but still needed physical contact with Carol while skiing. We decided to swap so Carol and Audrey could ski together. I skied one run holding on to Charlotte and the next time I let go of her but stayed very close and gave her encouragement to make turns. One key I found when helping Audrey learn is that a new skier gets frightened in the middle of the turn when they are facing straight downhill. They stop turning, which is exactly the wrong thing to do at that moment because they just pick up speed. I found that if I ski very close to them and keep reminding them to keep turning until the turn is complete they can build confidence quickly and then suddenly they are over the hump. Carol had prepped Charlotte very well and then I was able to get her linking turns and we were in business. That was all on the magic carpet, a type of lift for beginners that is a slow conveyor belt that you step onto. Once Charlotte had gained some confidence with turning she wanted to go to the rope tow. I was worried that she would have a hard time gripping the rope at the right rate and then hanging on but she rocked it the first time! Charlotte decided the rope tow was the best thing ever. Audrey, meanwhile, has become a speed demon. We had to have a talk about skiing in control. That girl is pretty fearless. We bought Charlotte some used gear. We'll acquire some for Carol and myself so that next year we can ski a few more times without going broke.

Photos | Slideshow New England Aquarium Boston has a pretty good aquarium. We've only been a few times but the girls always love it. We can get discount passes through the public library so we take advantage of those when we can. We visited a few weeks ago and saw lots of jellyfish, petted rays, and learned that piranhas don't eat cows or people. Then we had lunch like tourists in Quincy Market. They are in the process of installing a cool carousel on the greenway (the park on top of the Big Dig) between Quincy Market and the aquarium. Instead of horses it has custom-designed New England sea creatures: lobster, clams, cod, etc. I can't wait to visit it when it opens.

Photos | Slideshow February/March Shots Lots of fun photos. The topics are too varied to summarize here. See the photo captions.

Photos | Slideshow 2013 Ice Show Audrey has been taking figure skating classes non-stop since November 2011. The "main" session is from November-March, and in March the woman who runs the program produces a large ice show as a recital. Audrey was very excited to perform and worked hard to learn her routine. We all loved her costume. Unfortunately, Audrey broke her arm two days before the performance. She probably could have performed but her routine included several parts where the skaters hold hands or link arms. Audrey was concerned that something would happen that would hurt and she would disrupt the routine for the other skaters, so she opted not to participate. She didn't even want to attend because watching the routine would make her sad. Poor thing. Oh well, there's always next year. The photos are from the dress rehearsal the week before the performance.

Photos | Slideshow Squishy Circuits Goes Pro A few months ago the Cambridge Science Festival was seeking participants. I signed up the family to present Squishy Circuits, our favorite science activity to share with the world. I decided to step it up a little and have a real banner printed. My friend and former colleague, graphic designer Marita Graube of Pixel Theory, kindly donated her talents and turned my badly sketched idea into a thing of beauty. I also used Marita's design to make t-shirts for the "staff". Thank you, Marita! The festival went very well and we probably taught between 100 and 200 kids how to make simple circuits. It's a really fun activity to present, because every single time a kid makes a circuit that lights up an LED the kid's eyes light up just as much. Jack, a student from the high school robotics team I mentor, volunteered to join us and did a great job.

Photos | Slideshow Bill/Sara Visit Bill is one of those friends who even though we might not see or talk to each other for lengthy periods, when we do we just pick up where we left off. I contacted him a few weeks ago to see if he would like us to come for a visit in Hoboken. It turned out they were planning to come to Boston the following week. So Bill and Sara and kids Cole (10) and Tatum (8) came and stayed the night with us. On Sunday we ventured into Boston to visit the girls' favorite playground on the Esplanade. The kids had a blast. They enjoyed the playground itself, but then they started playing near the water. They found a small plank and decorated it with leaves and rocks and whatever else they could find and then launched their vessel into the lagoon. I kept wanting to guide them and caution them not to fall in but managed to keep my mouth shut. It reminded me of all the time I spent as a kid doing the same thing: playing with stuff in ponds and streams. After they had played at the playground and near the water for a long time, we walked over to the Public Garden and rode the Swan Boats. We hope to visit Bill and family in Hoboken in a few weeks.

Photos | Slideshow April Foolin' Another miscellaneous collection of photos. Enjoy!

Photos | Slideshow Breakheart Reservation Breakheart Reservation is a large piece of state forest land very near to home. It's a beautiful place; I'm not sure why we don't go there more often. It even has a swimming beach with lifeguards that you have to hike into. On the day of the Great Boston Manhunt I wanted to get the girls out of the house and get myself away from the TV. So we headed out for errands and then a hike at Breakheart. We visited the beach for the first time and the girls loved climbing up in the lifeguard chairs. It was the first warm day of spring at 72 degrees. I must admit it felt weird to have warm air on our skin, but the girls thought they were being tortured having to walk for an hour in the woods. They survived somehow.

Phew! All caught up with photos. For the moment.

Winter Break 2013

Winter Vacation 2013

OK, so this has taken a long time. We took our annual winter break trip to Arizona and California almost two months ago and I'm just getting around to posting photos and story! Let's just say I've had a lot of other demands on my free time.

We flew from Seattle to Phoenix where Carol's dad picked us up and drove us to Oro Valley near Tucson. We spent five days there in temperatures pleasantly warmer than Boston.

One day we visited the Tucson Children's Museum. It's relatively small but man is it high quality! The best part? All of the interactive activities actually work! The girls had a great time there. Their favorite parts were the big tube assembly set that you could send ping pong balls down when you were finished, and the pretend veterinarian clinic and the large pretend market with smoothie bar. My favorite thing was the pneumatic tube system through which you could send foam balls or scarves and after traveling through the complex tube system they would be launched out into the middle of the room. After the museum we visited the huge Tucson Gem and Mineral Show where we saw many pretty things. The girls each bought a small item that incorporated her birthstone. After that Grandma and Grandpa took the girls home and Carol and I had a nice dinner out at the fantastic Downtown Kitchen.

Another day we visited the family fun center and drove go karts, played mini golf and laser tag and rode some rides.

One of the coolest things we did in Tucson was visit Kartchner Caverns. The story of the caverns' discovery and development is fascinating. Both girls loved the tour.

The girls swam in the pool every day. While in Tucson I bought a GoPro sports camera - something I've been wanting for a long time. In case you missed it, I played with the GoPro's time lapse and slow motion features and produced this video.

After five days in Tucson we drove to Palm Desert, CA to visit my parents. Lots more swimming for the girls, of course. We returned to the Living Desert Museum which is always a favorite. We got a very close-up view of an owl on the glove of a handler. We also got to pet goats lots of goats (those goats have a rough life sitting around getting petted all day!).

One day Carol and I drove up Highway 74 over the San Jacinto mountains, through Idylwild and back down to Banning. Up near Mountain Center we encountered snow! That's the last thing we thought we'd see on our desert vacation.

This was the week before the Oscars and Carol and I had our evenings free thanks to Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Betsy, so we had our own little film festival. We saw five of the Best Picture nominees. That's the most movies we've seen in years!

On our last full day in California Carol and I went for a lovely hike up Palm Canyon on the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation. We almost had the place to ourselves. We hiked up onto a plateau and then returned via a wash that was dramatic and beautiful. We ended up hiking about 5-6 miles and had a wonderful time.

Alas, it took me so long to post this that's it's almost spring break now!

Dear Easter Bunny

Broken Child

[Mostly written by Carol]

Audrey was playing at a friends house the other day after school. They were climbing around on some rocks in the backyard. Audrey says there was a spider and she intentionally jumped back off the rock onto the ground but had a little too much momentum so she fell back and caught herself with her left hand. The Dad called me and said she was crying a little and wanted to go home. You couldn't see anything wrong, but she rarely cries over an injury and the way she was holding it I felt it warranted an X-ray. Before heading to the ER I swung by home and had John take a look. Since the location of pain Audrey was pointing at was not at a joint (thus probably not a sprain) he agreed we should probably have it looked at.

As Audrey and I waited at the ER she was moving it more and more and I began to think that maybe it was fine. Audrey was sure she had sprained it. But shortly thereafter the X-ray showed she had a "buckled distal radius". It is a very common injury in kids. The bone above the wrist is still soft and often will bend or compress (buckle) instead of fracture fully. It is an injury that heals quickly without complications. It is not in a growth plate area which is good.

Audrey is in good spirits. She has a little discomfort but not a lot. She wasn't interested in taking Tylenol at the hospital so you know it wasn't too horrible for her.

Audrey left the ER with a splint and advice to see an orthopedist the next day. The orthopedist said if she were older they would just leave it splinted but with younger, more active kids they use a cast so the patient can move around more freely. He says Audrey can do all sports and activities except swimming.

The cast will come off in three weeks when they will take another X-ray. She may have a Velcro splint for another week after that if needed.

Audrey is very happy it was her left hand and not her right. It will make school work so much easier. And she was excited to get the choose the color of her cast.

Unfortunately, this happened two days before the end-of-session ice show in which Audrey was very excited to perform. I'm writing this a few hours before the show and Audrey has decided she doesn't even want to watch. But she's likely to continue taking year-round figure skating lessons so there's always next year.

Diggin' Out

We had a weird snow storm over the past 36 hours. The center of the storm is parked 500 miles away in the Atlantic but the ends of its arms delivered plenty of snow to parts of New England. Local meteorologists found it hard to forecast because they knew different parts of the region would get very different accumulations. We got about 8 inches or so.

We got a robocall at 6:30 saying school would be two hours late. Then at 7:30 they cancelled it. The girls were very excited.

Click on the picture to see a time-lapse video of me doing the snow clearing chore. It's not so bad with a machine!

New Pool Toy

For a long time now I've wanted a "sports camera" to make videos of bike rides and other outdoor activities. The most popular camera for that purpose is the GoPro Hero series. Two days ago I finally bought a Hero 3 Silver Edition.

Of course we had to play with it right away. I charged it during the evening and, as is my geek habit, I read the owner's manual cover to cover. One of the main features of the GoPro line is that it comes with a waterproof case that protects the camera to a depth of 160 feet. So yesterday we took it to pool to experiment with the camera's time-lapse and slow motion capabilities. Click on the picture to see a video I made from our experiments.

I chose a 5 second interval for the time-lapse portions. That turned out to be too long for the activity we were filming so the motion of people in the pool looks almost random. Perhaps I'll try it again with a 1 or 2 second interval.

The slow motion footage came out quite well. This model can shoot at 60 or 120 frames per second (fps). Normal video framerate is 30fps. Video shot at 60fps can be converted to 30ps, resulting in half speed slow motion. 120fps footage converted to 30fps results in 1/4 speed slow motion. I shot some of each.

One pleasant discovery I made is that even though the 120fps footage must be shot at a lower resolution, iMovie (which I use to edit videos) had no problem scaling it and it looks great at HD resolution.

The video we shot comprised a bunch of random length video clips. When the camera is in its waterproof case it doesn't pick up much sound so I decided to put the video to music. Then as I watched with the music I found that I really wanted the cuts to match the beat of the song I'd chosen so I edited the clips to sync to the beat. It's the first time I've tried that. It's not perfect but I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

We'll think of lots of other activities during which to use the camera. It can be mounted on a window, a helmet, bike handlebars, etc. Even the front of a ski! Maybe that will be the next video you see from me.

Audrey Turns Nine

Slideshow | Video

Carol pulled off another great birthday party at home for Audrey's ninth birthday. This year the theme was games. There was a game where kids had to move M&Ms from one bowl to another using a straw. A game based on Battleship but using Hershey kisses and hugs and when you guess a location you get that piece of candy. Carol made a giant Tic Tac Toe board out of felt. They played "Quack", where a player is blindfolded in the center of a circle and then has to guess a person's identity just from hearing that person say "quack." Plus maybe another game or two I can't remember.

Carol also made and decorated the cake. Audrey chose the design. It started as a chess board in honor of Audrey recently learning the game. Then instead of chess pieces on the board it turned into chess and music, in honor of Audrey's love for singing around the house and trying to learn the cello.

Audrey invited a bunch of friends from school. It's our practice that the non-birthday girl gets to invite one guest so a friend of Charlotte joined in. It was a cacophony of giggles and screams for two and a half hours but quite fun. Carol also served dinner in there somewhere between games, cake and presents.

It is taking a while for it to sink in that we have a nine year old. That's halfway to adulthood! I feel so far behind on what I want to teach her! Not to mention fixing all the stuff I've not done as well as I'd like.

C'est la vie.

All we can do is try harder.

Here Comes the Big One!

The Blizzard of '13 is on the way. The National Weather Service says we'll get 18-24". The local TV weather guy thinks those of us north of Boston might get 33".

The girls have been wishing for a snow day all winter. They got their wish: school on Friday was cancelled at noon on Thursday.

We're looking forward to hunkering down during the storm and then enjoying some excellent sledding after it passes.

Jupiter!

One of my many interests is astronomy and astrophysics. I read a fantastic blog called "Starts With a Bang" by Ethan Siegel, an astrophysicist and great teacher from Portland, OR. I often share what I learn with the girls. Ethan frequently uses images from the Hubble Space Telescope which are especially amazing and inspiring. I try to inculcate the girls with a sense of wonder about the sheer scope of the universe. Audrey has taken a real interest, to the point where she sometimes says she wants to be an astronomer.

For some time I've been desiring a telescope for skywatching with the girls both at home and while camping away from the light pollution of the city. It took me a long time to learn enough to select a telescope. Last week I finally felt confident enough to choose and I ordered an Orion XT4.5 Dobsonian telescope. This particular type of telescope strikes a good balance between observing planets and deep space objects like nebulae and clusters.

From reading the amateur astronomy forums, it sounds like there is a law of nature that when you buy a new telescope it will be cloudy on the day you receive it. It was true the day we received ours. Last night, however, the clouds dissipated around sunset. We went out to dinner and when we returned I pulled out the new scope. It was only 34F out so I knew we wouldn't be outdoors too long. Jupiter was conveniently right overhead so I sighted it in. Each of us got a good look at Jupiter and we could also clearly see four of its moons. We don't have a camera for our telescope yet (you can bet we will) but what we saw, other than the positions of the moons, looked very much like the image above.

I've very satisfied with the instrument I selected. I'm very excited to have many years of skywatching ahead of us and it's going to be a fun addition to all of our summer camping trips.

Breakfast in Bed

This morning Carol and I slept in a little. By that I mean until 8:00. The girls, who normally play downstairs until we get up, had decamped to Charlotte's room and were playing quietly until they heard us talking. Then they decided to bring us breakfast in bed. Ten minutes later this lovely meal was delivered.

Sledding

We got our first real snow of the season back on December 29th while we were out of town. We received about 3-4 inches at our house. The girls have been enjoying sledding in the Burtnetts' back yard across the fence from us.

On January 6th Audrey and I went to Melrose's public Mt. Hood Golf Course which is the semi-official sledding hill in town. We'd never been before. I was concerned there might not be enough snow left but it was fine.

As soon as we got there Audrey shot downhill headfirst on a disc. A mom standing nearby said, "She's a daredevil!" Indeed.

We had a fabulous time! I think we'll be making regular trips there after future snowstorms.

Washington D.C.

Washington D.C.

When we made the decision to move across the country we listed the ability to visit Washington, D. C. as one of the benefits. After three years we hadn't yet done it. In November we realized we had a week between Christmas and New Years with no particular plans. Hotel rooms near D.C. were dirt cheap so we made some bookings.

The drive should be about 8.5 hours not including stops. We drove down the day after Christmas. There was a storm working its way up the east coast that brought a lot of snow away from the ocean but only rain along I-95. Even just rain caused very slow traffic along most of the 125-mile New Jersey Turnpike. We had hours of stop and go traffic and the trip took 12 hours from door to door. Oh well, we survived.

Carol had contacted our local congressman in advance hoping to arrange a White House tour. The White House was closed that week but we made reservations to tour the Capitol. That was what we did on the morning of the 27th. The girls enjoyed the rotunda under the dome. The tour guide referred to it as "the Wow Room."

After the Capitol we stopped by the Museum of the American Indian and then made our way to the Air and Space Museum. We saw a cool exhibit about astronomy and the universe. In a corner of that exhibit was a model of the Mayall Telescope. For many years starting in 1973 it was the largest telescope in the world. The chassis for the telescope was built at Western Gear in Everett, WA - my dad's employer for 22 years all through my childhood. Somewhere in a box there are photos of me climbing on the telescope chassis while it was being assembled in Everett.

For the girls, the highlight of any trip that involves a hotel stay is the pool. So after the Air and Space Museum we headed to the hotel and went swimming.

The 28th was expected to be the nicest day - still cool with temps around 40 and some wind, but sunny. We thought we'd start by going to the "money factory", the Bureau of Printing and Engraving where they print paper money. Unfortunately the money factory was closed for the holiday week.

We weren't far from the Jefferson Memorial, which I had always wanted to visit, so we bundled up and walked around the Tidal Pool to visit it.

After that we drove closer to the other memorials and visited the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the World War II Memorial, the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial. Showing the girls those memorials up close and in person was one of my goals for the trip - check that off! The Lincoln Memorial is always especially impressive.

After our tour of the memorials we drove to the National Zoo. We saw pandas, tropical birds, elephants, gorillas, orangutans and a bunch of other animals. Too bad we visited during winter because in warm weather the orangutans get to use an aerial cable system to travel from their enclosure to an enrichment facility, passing over the main pedestrian walkway.

Then back to the hotel for more swimming.

On the 29th we started the day at The Original Pancake House. They had Audrey's favorite breakfast food: crepes. Then we drove about 10 miles to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's estate on the Potomac River. From the girls' point of view the very best thing about Mt. Vernon was that it was snowing huge fluffy snowflakes that they could catch on their tongues. But we also enjoyed the tour of the house and the excellent exhibits in the galleries. I didn't realize what a successful businessman Washington was. He owned land all over the country as far west as Ohio and Kentucky and ran several businesses including, for a time, the US's largest distillery.

After Mt. Vernon we drive back to the District and visited a few more Smithsonian museums. We started at the Castle - the original Smithsonian building. I don't think I had ever been in it. It's quite small! Then we walked across the Mall to the Natural History Museum where we saw the Hope Diamond and the very large gem and mineral collection. That museum was completely packed and we could hardly move, so we didn't stay too long. Then we walked next door to the American History Museum. We saw the ruby slippers. We also toured a cool exhibit on the history of transportation.

Then back to the hotel for more swimming.

On the 30th we planned to drive to Hoboken, NJ to spend the night with my good friend Bill. But in the middle of our last night in D.C. Charlotte got sick with a stomach bug. Seemed like we had three options: stay longer; fly Charlotte and Carol home and I drive with Audrey; or tough it out in the car with a sick girl. None of the options were going to be especially comfortable for Charlotte so we went with the most expedient: drive home.

We made Charlotte as comfortable as we could in the car. Audrey, who can't stand to hear people be sick, withdrew into a cave of pillows with earphones and movies for the entire drive. Charlotte was of course miserable and we felt badly for her. Carol, I have to say, is an excellent nurse. We powered through and after a 10 hour drive we were home. By the following afternoon Charlotte was starting to feel better.

Except for the ending we had a wonderful trip.

Another place on my list to visit is Quebec (both Montreal and Quebec City). The six hour drive to Montreal will seem easy now compared to the D.C. drive!

The Silent Walk to School

When I don't ride my bike to work the whole family walks to school together. It is about three blocks to school then another two blocks to my train stop. My train arrives at a convenient time just after school drop off. I miss riding my bike when the weather stops me but I sure enjoy the side effect.

This morning Charlotte was unusually quiet on the way to school. Then when we got there she announced, "It's 268 steps to school!"

Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012

We had a lovely Christmas at home.

When we bought the house we were told there was something wrong with the fireplace chimney so we had never used the fireplace. Having it checked had never made it to the top of the list. Shortly before Christmas we had a chimney person over to check out the boiler chimney and we had him take a look. He gave the fireplace a clean bill of health. I bought some firewood and we enjoyed lovely fires on and around Christmas.

It's becoming a tradition that we have dinner on Christmas Eve with our neighbors the Latta-Giulianas. We had a wonderful evening with Dana and Rachel and the boys.

On Christmas morning we awoke to a perfect little coating of snow. I thought it was funny that the local TV weather people pointed out that it isn't an "official" white Christmas unless we receive at least an inch. It was white enough for us!

Charlotte discovered that Santa had brought her a new larger bike with polka dots. He brought Audrey a pogo stick. They also each received a gift or two from Mom and Dad. Unfortunately with the snow neither girl has been able to enjoy her new conveyance. We're supposed to have a thaw this week that should remedy that.