Seattle/Richland Vacation 2017

Last week we returned from our annual pilgrimage to our respective homelands.

We spent the first four days in Seattle and visited a lot with John's parents and sisters. We enjoyed dinner with Grandma Kay and Grandpa Doug and Aunt Betsy almost every night. We also had a reunion dinner with a great circle of friends from Seattle, including Kathy and Mark and their kids in town from Myanmar. This whole circle of friends met when none of us had kids; now we all have teenagers.

This year Audrey flew to Seattle two weeks before the rest of us and attended Hidden Valley Camp. John worked there as a counselor for two summers in college: 1981 and 1982. We drove to camp to pick up Audrey a few days after we arrived. The camp is still run by the same family and it was great to see them again, and to revisit camp. Audrey definitely wants to go back next year, and Charlotte is considering it.

The next morning we had breakfast with John's sister Tricia and her husband Frank. John's sisters and Frank are building a house together in Puyallup, to sell. We visited it when it was nearing completion. Tricia and Frank are also selling their current home in Puyallup and moving to Yakima. The girls helped them out by mowing their lawn with their riding lawn mower.

Then we headed over the Cascades to Richland to stay with Carol's parents. Richland is always very relaxing. We watched the entire 5 hour broadcast of the Tour de France every day (some of it through eyelids). Carol played cards with her parents every evening. And we had two wonderful boat outings on the Columbia River, one of which was with Carol's childhood friend Kim and her family. It's the second straight year we've done that and it might need to become a tradition.

One thing that does seem to have become a tradition is driving back to Seattle via Chinook Pass. It's a "minor" pass over the mountains that is closed in winter. It's very scenic, and there is a 3-mile loop hike that leaves from the summit that is very pretty. The kids thought it was a death march this year, but they survived.

Back in Seattle we turned into tourists for three days. We visited the Museum of Flight, Alki Beach and Pegasus Pizza, the Pike Place Market and the University of Washington.

We also enjoyed a lovely backyard feast with Carol's brother Bob, his wife Torii and cousin Alex and his wife Jade. Bob and Torii are foodies and the vittles are always fantastic. This year it was steamed clams and cowboy steaks - huge steaks that take special preparation and then everyone carves off what they want.

On our last day the girls got to swim in Greenlake, which is always a must.

This vacation felt nice and long, which is always a good sign. And by the end we were ready to head home.

But man, was it fun.

Winter Vacation 2017

Hey, it has only taken me a month to post the photos form our winter vacation in California, Arizona and New Mexico!

We flew to Los Angeles and arrived in the evening. We picked up our freakishly cheap rental car ($77 total for a week!) and hit the road for my parents' winter home in Palm Desert, arriving there about 10:30pm.

The girls had a great time hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Betsy, as they always do. Grandma and Aunt Betsy love to take them shopping for clothes. This year we made sure to arrive with suitcase space to spare. They filled it.

We celebrated both girls' birthdays with their favorite Grandma dinners: spaghetti for Audrey and Lasagna for Charlotte. And for a bonus, Grandma made a Thanksgiving dinner! It's also a tradition for us to go to The Old Spaghetti Factory so we did that, too.

Our trip is usually the week preceding the Oscars, so Carol and I try to go to as many nominated movies as we can. This year we saw Lion, Passengers, Arrival and Manchester by the Sea.

After five days we drove to Tucson to stay with Carol's parents. Carol and I love the five-hour drive across the desert. The kids tolerate it with devices and a wifi hotspot. We make them look out the window every once in a while. We also play a game where we guess the distance to the next mountain range. The girls are getting pretty good at it!

In Tucson we spend a lot of time relaxing. That's always very welcome.

This year we took a bonus trip. In the early 80s I became friends with Barry, a coworker at Boeing, and his partner Rabih. Two years ago they retired and moved to Las Cruces, NM, where Barry went to college. Last year they built a custom home in the hills overlooking the city and the Rio Grande valley. During our visit to Tucson in 2016, Barry & Rabih came to Tucson and they and Carol's dad and us all went to Kitt Peak Observatory and we all went to a lovely dinner. We pledged to visit them in NM in 2017.

We rented a minivan so we could all make the four-hour trip in one vehicle.Once in Las Cruces we had a delicious lunch at Las Posta de Mesilla, a restaurant in what was once a stagecoach station. Then we headed to La Cueva, a BLM property that was previously the site of a sanatorium, and also housed a hermit for many years in the namesake cave. After that we returned to their house for a wonderful dinner.

In the morning, after another delicious home-cooked meal, we drove east about an hour to the White Sands National Monument. We rented sledding discs from the gift shop and had hours of fun sliding down the white sand dunes. It's a spectacular place. Great vistas and sparkling light. The weather was perfect - warm enough for t-shirts but not broiling. White Sands was a highlight of the vacation for the girls.

We had a couple of days left after returning to Tucson. We went to the go-karts and laser tag place and had fun. And this year all four of us hiked Picacho Peak. Carol and Charlotte had never been past half way, but this year we all made it to the top. Charlotte loved the cables and catwalks and did very well.

Then it was back home to winter in Boston. Although Boston had been having a warm spell and on at least one day it was warmer in Boston than where we were!

Charlotte Turns 11

Can you believe we have two tweens now? We can't!

Charlotte turned 11 at the end of November. These are photos from her first party with just family, at home. And from her second birthday party, with friends, that included an outing to play laser tag.

Photo Flood

This year I did a much worse job than usual editing and curating photos as we took them. Over Thanksgiving weekend I spent a couple of days catching up. The result is the following 13 new albums. Enjoy!

Click on each photo to go to that album.

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I can't believe I've been slacking all the way back to last Christmas! Well, here you go.

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Apparently the day after Christmas was very pleasant last year because it looks like we went to the beach.

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I made a couple trips to the UK for meetings in the other Cambridge related to my old job at Biogen. On both trips I also spent some time in London. During this January trip I found a concert by an African musician and had a great time.

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So I never posted photos four our annual February trip and no one complained! Next time, let me know!

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From January through early April we had our basement remodeled by the world's best contractor. He was a dream to work with. Now it's our favorite part of the house!

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Audrey stopped skating, but Charlotte continues to enjoy it. Here is video of her group's routine in the annual ice show in March.

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Here's a collection of favorite photos from the first half of the year that aren't related to a specific event.

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Three neighbor families joined us for a weekend camping at our favorite campground: Pawtuckaway State Park in New Hampshire.

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My second trip to the UK. More time in Cambridge and in London. This time I got to spend a couple of hours at the New Tate Modern gallery.

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This year both girls went to circus camp for a week, at the same time. Carol and I had a week to ourselves and a date night, during which we saw a favorite performer: Sarah Jarosz.

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Favorite photos from the second half of the year.

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For her birthday in September, Carol traveled to Colorado to attend Girls Gone Grape with her best friend Kim. It was modeled after the famous "I Love Lucy" episode. They stayed in a swanky hotel in Vail, stomped grapes, went on a jeep tour, had a couple of nice dinners and best of all got to spend time together.

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The girls started swim team at the YMCA in September. They are really enjoying their practices even though they come home exhausted. We've been to three meets so far, and there is video of all the events in this photo album.

Charlotte Turns Ten

Charlotte's tenth birthday was yesterday. Since it was a holiday, she had the whole day planned out. It was very fun.

A few weeks ago we replaced our decrepit old waffle iron and we've been a waffle craze since. So we started the day with waffles, but this time some of us topped them with chocolate syrup and whipped cream.

Yum!

Mom and Dad did some chores, but then we went to Bonkers, a party/play place nearby. It's in a large former grocery store and has a huge Habitrail-like "maze" with cool slides. Like a McDonald's playland but four or five times as big. Plus it has lots of arcade games, and pizza.

We were there for three hours and the girls had a wonderful time with each other.

Since we spent Thanksgiving at our friends' house, we didn't have leftovers. So Carol cooked our own Thanksgiving dinner on Charlotte's birthday. Then we put candles in the pumpkin pie since it is one of Charlotte's favorite desserts.

We can't believe our little girl is 10 years old!

Strandbeests

At the beginning of October we went to see the Strandbeests exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum.

The strandbeests ("beach creatures") are fascinating machines made by a Dutch artist named Theo Jansen. They are powered by the wind and walk along the beach.

I first read about the strandbeests several years ago. This is the first time they have travelled for an exhibit. I'm so glad we went because I learned so much more about them.

I didn't realize they are almost entirely made out of PVC, including many small parts that make up the joints and mechanisms - not just the "bones".

It also hadn't occurred to me that to make the larger beests required many copies of the same part so he had to devise "mass production" techniques. There were some great videos in the exhibit that showed that.

The best part was getting to push one and examine up close how it works.

The PEM always has an activity for kids. This time it involved building ecosystems out of colored foam and other bits. Each of us built one.

Outside the museum there was another exhibit called Stickwork by Patrick Doherty. Back when it was installed the artist invited the public to help build the "houses". We missed that, but we sure enjoyed the result.

Also, Salem has become quite the tourist attraction during the month of October, leading up to Halloween. As many as 100,000 people show up on actual Halloween! Outside the museum the streets and alleys were filled with witch and Halloween-themed stuff.

Carol's Birthday

Carol turned 29 in September!

We had a lovely birthday dinner on our screened porch. We re-screened it at the end of last summer and it's now our favorite dining space.

Happy Birthday, Carol!

School Play - Cinderella

Way back in January, Amy, another mom at the school, started organizing the school play, which takes place just before school gets out in June. Amy has produced the play for several years and the result is far better than I would ever expect from an elementary school play. It always has great costumes, great sets and amazing singing. This year both Methot girls decided to participate.

Charlotte had no interest in a speaking part but was quite happy to be a mouse in the chorus. Audrey also didn't want to appear on stage but really liked the idea of being a stage hand. Fine with us - that meant quite a bit fewer rehearsals they had to attend!

Carol volunteered to help paint the set. She did a great job sketching the furniture (other volunteers painted it in), and painting many of the detail objects in the backdrop. I thought it looked wonderful.

The girls worked all three performances the first weekend in June. We all enjoyed the experience.

Why look! Here's a video!

May-July 2015 Miscellaneous

Once again I've gotten way behind in posting family photos. Well, now I've got a bunch in the queue and will get them to you forthwith!

I'm going to start protecting the photo albums with a password to prevent search engines from crawling them. I don't want people to be able to google the girls' adolescences in the future. I'll use the same password for all albums going forward, and it's easy to remember - my last name, all lowercase. If you forget, there is a way to get a hint on the screen that asks for the password. Let me know if you have problems; if there a lot of problems I'll reconsider.

We've had a pretty busy late spring and early summer!

The girls finished up the school year with the school play: Cinderella. Charlotte was a mouse in the chorus and Audrey was a stage hand. They both did very well. The school plays are put on by a mom from the school and are surprisingly good!

Since Audrey was in her second year of taking flute, she was eligible to participate in the Melrose Youth Band. She practiced a lot. The first band concert was June 2 in the middle school auditorium with a large crowd. It was Audrey's first time on stage in front of an audience and she was nervous. She said later she felt like she might faint. But we couldn't tell from the seats - she did great. Here is some video of the concert.

The free state pool is just a few blocks from home and it opens mid-June. The girls have already visited many times. Sometimes I join them after riding my bike home from work. It's a great way to cool down.

Continuing in the musical theme, we've been to a couple of concerts as a family.

The Rockport Music Society received a large donation just before we moved to Boston, and they used it to build themselves a fantastic, state-of-the-art performance theater that seats about 400 people. It was designed with exceptional acoustics. But the highlight of the space is the 30' tall wall of glass that forms the back of the stage and looks out over Rockport Harbor. I read about it when it opened but hadn't yet found a concert to see there.

We went to see Pokey LaFarge, who's 7-piece band of wonderfully talented musicians play old-timey, folky, bluesy music. The girls thought it was fantastic. I loved showing them quality live music.

Later the same week we drove to Portsmouth, NH to see one of my favorite bands play on an outdoor stage in a park: Thao and the Get Down Stay Down. There's a common thread through my favorite musical acts through time: interesting instrument combinations and creative arrangements. Thao has them both.

The evening was absolutely perfect and the setting was gorgeous. We all enjoyed the concert very much and ended it by all dancing together to the last few songs, right in front of the stage. The girls learned how to clap and yell until the band comes back for an encore.

The girls have also been off at a plethora of camps this summer, and we've had a couple of camping trips. Those will be the subject of more posts in the near future.

Ice Show 2015

Ice Show 2015

The girls take skating lessons all year round these days, but the "main" season is October-March. And at the end of that season there is an annual ice show produced by the woman who heads the skating school. Each year the girls get new costumes for their routine in the show.

Every girl (there are zero boys in this skating school, at least this year) skates with her class group. And once they advance from the eight Basic levels into the eight Free Skate levels they can also skate in a trio, duo or solo. Charlotte is currently Basic 5. Audrey is Free Skate 3, so in addition to her group routine Audrey also performed a duo this year.

Both girls skated very well.

You can see videos of the performances here:

• Charlotte's Group Routine
• Audrey's Group Routine
• Audrey's Duo Routine

Picacho Peak Hike

We're on our annual February trip to the southwest to visit all the grandparents.

Next to I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson there is a very distinctive landmark named Picacho Peak. It has very steep sides and doesn't look like you could hike to the top. Last year, however, I got curious and looked it up. it turns out there is a popular hiking trail to the top. I vowed to do it this year.

We went on Sunday afternoon. Temperatures have been in the mid-70s during our visit which is quite pleasant for hiking. The girls took off up the trail like a couple of rabbits, leaving Grandpa Dennis in the dust. He told us not to wait.

The girls did great up to the saddle, which is the midway point. Charlotte was getting tired, though. And after the saddle the trail gets more dangerous, traveling along cliff edges with cables to hang on to. Charlotte wanted to go home.

Audrey was very disappointed as she had peak fever. I consoled her, and we decided to come back on Monday and go to the top.

Monday was another very pleasant day. Audrey said, "We'll go really fast back to the saddle, and then take it carefully from there." Ha!

We did, in fact, get back to the saddle pretty quickly. Then the fun began. The trail descends quite steeply from the saddle for about 400 vertical feet, along the base of (and often *under* the base of) the cliff. Then it turns around the end of a spur and begins climbing again toward the summit.

There are several very steep sections of rock with cables and one place with a "bridge" that allows you to traverse about eight feet across the face of a cliff. It's very adventurous! Audrey was a little nervous, but loved it.

Charlotte was sad not to get to make it to the top. But the hike was so fun that I'm pretty sure we'll make it a regular feature of our annual visits from no on, so she'll get to the top next year.

Click on the picture to go to the video, or click here.

On Frozen Pond

Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest where it never gets cold enough to freeze bodies of water enough to make them safe to skate on, I've never skated on a pond. Neither have the girls, except for playing around on a chunky pond a couple winters ago.

We live one block from a small wooded park with a small vernal pool, and several blocks from a much larger park with a larger vernal pool. This year we had a couple of big rainstorms very late in the fall that enlarged the ponds not long before they froze. We haven't had any big snows yet to cover the ponds and make them chunky. Conditions are perfect for pond skating.

On Sunday we packed snacks and a thermos of cocoa and headed for the larger pond. I took Rhodie for a long walk in the woods (in the same park) while the girls skated a little waiting for a group of older boys to finish playing hockey. The boys soon left to watch the Patriots' game and the girls had the pond to themselves. An hour later, their schoolmates started showing up and soon there was a great crowd of kids and their parents skating.

Audrey has been taking figure skating lessons once a week year round for more than four years now, and Charlotte for two years. It was really fun to watch them use those skills. They had such a good time that we stayed at the pond for almost four hours. Monday it rained (a natural Zamboni!) and Tuesday they had commitments after school but today they got to skate on the pond after school for an hour. As long as the ice is good I think they'll be regulars.

I brought the GoPro camera with us on Sunday along with our extendible monopod (aka "selfie stick"). The girls were cooperative and I captured a ton of great footage of them. It's been fun choosing the best shots and making this video.

Nothing makes this dad happier than his progeny enjoying themselves outside on a pretty winter day. In fact, the girls barely used electronics all weekend!

Click on the image to go to the video.

Young Artist

When Charlotte has possession of one of our phones, she will often make a video. Typically they are too long, even though I keep reminding her that we live in the post-MTV era when no one wants to watch a video more than two minutes long, and with no cuts longer than three seconds.

This one is just about the right length.

She's a documentarian in the making.

As always, click on the photo to go to the video.

Greenlake

During all my years living in Seattle I have never swum in Greenlake - until this summer. The lore is that you'd get swimmer's itch. Apparently that was true at one time but since the geese have been better controlled it's no longer true.

Anyway, my parents' Seattle home is a block from the lake and this summer the girls swam in the lake every day. The weather was perfect and the water was warm.

I only brought the GoPro (waterproof camera) one day. Unfortunately it wasn't one of the days that Audrey jumped off the high dive!

Click on the image to see a little video of our lake adventures.

Audrey Water Skiing

During our Seattle visit our friends Matt and Jeana invited us and other friends over to swim and boat.

Matt has a brand new ski boat, and the kids who wanted to got a chance to try water skiing. Audrey, as always, was game.

She fell while trying to get up on her first two attempts, which is completely normal. But on her third attempt she made it, and then stayed up for a long time before letting go.

Audrey was very proud, and we were excited for her!

Thank you very much, Matt and Jeana!

Click on the image to go to the video.

Vacation Video: Columbia River

Our Washington State summer vacations always have two phases: Richland to visit Carol's parents, and Seattle to visit mine. The two phases have very distinct flavors. In Seattle Carol and I scramble to see as many friends as we can while giving the girls as much grandparent time as possible. In Richland we relax, relax, and then relax some more. Oh, and eat Mary Jane's great food.

The only thing that interrupts our relaxation in Richland is taking the boat out on the Columbia River, which is a block away from home. A few years ago Dennis dusted off the boat they've had since Carol was a child. It's become a favorite activity of the girls.

They have a large inflatable sled-like raft that is towed behind the boat. Audrey has loved riding on it for a few years. Charlotte is much more nervous on the water and hadn't ridden it yet. But this year she gave it a try. We taught her the hand signals so she was in control of the speed. She loved it, and was very proud of herself for getting past another fear.

Click on the image to go to the video.

Now we're in the Seattle phase. More on that later.

Crane Beach Video

Here's some video from our lovely visit to Crane Beach last Saturday evening.

It was shot with the GoPro on a monopod (a stick).

Click on the image to go to the video.

Roller Skating

Audrey and I went skating yesterday with some friends. I made a little video.

Look! I'm being creative again!

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.