Fall Colors

My parents were in town last week and wanted to see some fall foliage. We took them to the Old North Bridge in Concord where the leaves were just turning.

Then, we drove past Walden Pond and over to the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park. As we were exploring, I noticed this wall covered in ivy.

Prime Italian Steakhouse

We arrived in Lenox and only had a short time before we needed to be at Tanglewood. I hadn't done any research on places to eat, so we decided to ask at the hotel. My wife found a listing of several places in the lobby and picked one out. The person at the front desk said that they send a lot of people there.

Prime Italian Restaurant is located in historic Lenox and is only a few miles away from Tanglewood. The atmosphere inside seemed more like a place you would find in a major city instead of western Mass. But, our waitress was friendly and helpful. And the food was excellent. I had pasta that was perfectly cooked with a fantastic sauce.

Tanglewood

We went to Tanglewood this weekend. We made the trip out to the Birkshires to see James Taylor perform. He does concerts there every year. But this time as a fundraiser, he performed with Sheryl Crow and Yo Yo Ma. Actually, it was only through a bit of luck that we got tickets. Some friends of ours had a pair of tickets and then found out they couldn't go. They put word out that the tickets were available, and several people wanted them. They decided to randomly pick who would get the tickets, and we were the lucky couple. When we found out, my wife actually screamed with joy.

We hadn't been to a concert in 19 years. This one was worth the wait. Here is a sample of what it was like to see JT and Yo Yo Ma perform together.

White Mountains

Here are some final pictures from the New Hampshire part of our vacation. We drove to the top of Cathedral Ledge just outside of Conway. You can park near the top and look out over the White Mountains.

There were a few climbers who were going up the rock face.

The picture below is near Emerald Pool. The sun was shining through the woods, and the water level was higher than normal because of all the rain this year.


And finally, while I was out on the lake (not catching fish), I did see a lot of loons swimming. You really understand the expression "crazy as a loon" when you hear them call to each other.

Strolling in North Conway

It is time to catch up on my blogging. I have lots of pictures from our vacation that I need to write about.

While in New Hampshire, we visited North Conway. We found a place to park on the street and took a walk past the local stores.

I like the small shops more than the outlets which are closer to Conway. There were New Hampshire gifts and a "Five and Dime" with lots of candy options.


There were also several New Age shops with collections of mystical gifts and treasures. My older daughter liked the shop with Egyptian replicas. My younger liked the expensive jeans.

Fishing but not catching

This week, I really felt like fishing. I tried in the morning and in the evening. My son and I went out on the canoe at dusk and fished until dark. There was a full moon, and the lake was very still. We passed some loons but didn't get any bites.

I had dreams of catching a brown or rainbow trout. But, I only caught little fish like the one below. Maybe next time...

Evening at the lake house

We left this morning for New Hampshire and our annual lake house
vacation.

After a quick drive, we arrived and set up the house. Then after
dinner, my son and I went for a swim.

Father and son at Fenway

Last night, I took my son to a game at Fenway Park. It was our annual Father and Son evening. We arrived early and sat down. I turned around and saw these original wooden seats in the evening sun. They filled up a few minutes later.

I love to eat peanuts at the ballpark. My son likes fried dough.

It was a great game with Dustin Pedroia hitting a double in the 8th to drive in the winning run. Papelbon got the save with a perfect 9th. Go Sox!

Pioneer for a day...or more

I left the house this morning at 6am to drop my daughters off at a church Youth Conference. The theme this year is a pioneer re-enactment.

Everyone was supposed to dress in 19th century pioneer clothing. The picture above is one of our friends and a "Ma" on the trip. She and her husband took time off work to lead a group of 10 kids on the adventure.

When I dropped off my girls, they saw what they would have for transportation over the next three days. I took a picture of this handcart before they started filling it up.


There was a large pile of belongings to pack into each cart. My daughters' group had around 13 people and what looked like more stuff than could possibly fit into a handcart. Luckily their "Pa" is an engineer (and also a friend of ours). When I left them, he was busily figuring out how to pack everything (see below).

They will push and pull their carts about 5 miles/day over the next three days.

Happy 4th of ...Thanksgiving

Late last week, we had reached our limit with the cold, rainy weather. I heard on the news that in the month of June, Boston only got 28% of the total available sunshine. And on July 1st, it was 62deg and rainy in our town.

So, in our own effort to try to bring the sun back, we decided we had to take some action. The obvious thing to do was to go ahead and celebrate Thanksgiving. After a funny look from the check out lady at the grocery store, we had a large turkey and were ready to go. Some friends came over to help us celebrate.

And, the next day, the sun came out.

Birthday Dinner at Durgin-Park

We made our annual trek into Boston to celebrate our daughter's birthday.

She went back and forth on where to go to eat. At first, she thought she wanted to go to Faneuil Hall. Then, she mentioned going to the North End for Italian food.

But, in the end, she decided to stick with tradition and go to Durgin-Park. She got her lobster, and I got to help her finish it.

Concord Shops

After work, I had to run an errand in Concord. Most people know Concord, Mass for Walden Pond, the Old North Bridge, and Louisa May Alcott.

But, in addition to its rich history, Concord has a fantastic village center with several small shops. I took the picture above of the Market Cafe. The picture below is a nice planting of hostas.

Ogunquit

I'm still catching up on pictures I took a while ago.

When we went to the Marginal Way, we parked in the center of Ogunquit. There is a parking lot right before the bridge that goes to the beach. And, across the street from that parking lot is a great little store.

My kids loved the samples of jellies and jams. I tried some Blueberry jam that was amazing.

The Marginal Way

Happy Memorial Day!

I arrived back from Japan and spent a perfect Memorial Day weekend. On Saturday, we decided to drive to Maine and visit Ogunquit. From our house, it takes about one and a half hours to drive to Maine.

We like Ogunquit because it has a great walk called The Marginal Way.


The pathway goes a little over a mile from Ogunquit beach to Perkins Cove. Along the way, you can climb down the rocks and see tidal pools.


Even though our kids are teenagers, they had fun exploring and looking for sea creatures.

I liked looking at the ocean, and my wife loved the sound of the waves.

Time to plant some seeds

Over the past month and a half, I've been spending my spare time making a garden. It seemed like an easy project at first but was complicated by things I kept digging up.

After getting the sod dug and the rocks out, I started working on a simple fence. I made a gate from some pickets and put in the posts. Actually, before putting them in position, I used the 4x4 posts as levers to move the piece of granite we had unearthed.



Above is a picture of the garden with a couple of the raised beds complete. And, you can see the granite in its position as a bench.

Finally, we finished the "construction" part of this project. The garden has four raised beds and one long bed. I mulched a path between the beds and around the fence.

I got the kids out yesterday to plant some seeds. But, I am on my way to Tokyo today. Maybe when I get back, there will be some seedlings...

Wisteria

Years ago we lived outside New York City. We rented part of a house that had wisteria growing on the side. Every summer, the owner would come out and hack away at the vines. At first, I thought he was crazy with the amount he would prune. But, he knew what he was doing, and his wisteria bloomed every year.

I've followed his example with the wisteria we have in our yard. I prune it after it flowers and again in mid-summer. And, it blooms every year.

Home Plate Seats

Yesterday, I got an early morning email with an offer to go to the Red Sox game last night. The seats were at home plate - front row. I wasted no time accepting the offer.

When we got to our seats, we were sitting just a couple of feet outside of the home plate TV shot. Since our neighbors hadn't arrived yet, we moved over so I could see myself behind the batter on the TV monitors built into the wall. OK, I admit it sounds like I'm 11 years old. But, we're talking Fenway here.

Here is a picture of David Ortiz at bat.


And a picture of Jason Veritek starting to swing.


The Red Sox lost, but I did get to see the 2004 and 2007 World Series Trophies before the game in the EMC Club. I hated to see the Sox lose, but those were some amazing seats.

Bleeding Hearts

I am amazed at how fast the Bleeding Heart plant in my yard is growing. One week ago, it was just starting to develop new shoots. This week, it is over 2' high.

We've had a few days of summer-like heat that probably made the difference. I'm glad winter is over but not really ready for summer heat.

Red Sox Sweep Yankees

Last week, I took this picture of a t-shirt in a Boston store. It turns out, it was a prediction of the Red Sox / Yankees series this weekend.

Go Sox!

There are rocks in New England

I decided a week or two ago that we should have a vegetable garden. I like the idea of growing fresh vegetables and some berries.

We picked out a place in back yard that would be good for a garden. Then, I got the kids out and started digging up the grass. After a few minutes, we ran into a pretty good sized rock and dug it out (see above).

After working some more, my shovel hit another rock - a bigger one.


The second rock was so heavy that we had to roll it. I explained to my kids that the rock walls in New England were built by farmers who dug up rocks and had to put them somewhere.

Then, my shovel hit another one. I tried to dig around it but couldn't. We decided to stop digging up sod and focus on digging out the big rock.

After some effort, we discovered that it is actually a granite slab similar to the ones used for our home's foundation (we have an old home). I think this slab is from the foundation of an old barn.

I guess I'll be asking some friends to come over to help me get it out of the ground.