New England Catch-up Time --- May 12, 2014

Dear Friends:  Sorry we have a case of Blog Neglect, but we are still up and about.  It is just that our cups runneth over here in the northeast where we lived for 52 years of our lives and still a bit off and on since we moved to San Francisco 25 years ago. Too many old friends, old haunts, and old pathways!

Aside from the surprise inserts from our kids, who have free access to this blog, you have our Easter 2014 message from Wareham that reflects on what this adventure means to us, but the last actual log of our travels and people and sightseeing  stopovers was back in Asheville, NC on April 16.

We did then head up a good part of the Blue Ridge Highway, beginning in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Knoxville, up through Asheville on a good part of the 450 mile, two-lane, 45 mph highway through mountains of NC, VA and almost to the outskirts of DC. Our weather was beautiful and views magnificent. There was an irony: the mostly deciduous trees were leafless so we could easily savor the mountains and valleys either side of the ridge top; yet the massive rhododendrons under them most of the way were a few weeks away from blooming. We could only imagine their splendor, but at that time, the trees would be fully leafed out so the expansive distant views might be largely blocked!

The Blue Ridge Parkway joins the Skyline Drive that marks the spine of the Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia. That, too, is breathtaking. It pained us to pass near numerous historic sights, mostly Civil War battlefields, but our timing had become restrictive…(we must watch that!)  Soon we were skirting Washington on our way to Chestertown to spend several days in the bucolic countryside of Maryland’s Eastern Shore bordering the Chesapeake Bay and distinguished by its vast low rolling countryside, farms, streams, forests and calm villages.  Central for us in that land was the home of Happy’s sister Peggy and her husband John – relatives yes, but also old and dear friends and frequent traveling companions.

The peaceful respite there was welcome not only for us but also for the delight of our 4-legged Luke, who could romp freely across their fields and woods with their two dogs. Luke had by then become a magnificent traveler, adjusting to being in his RV crate day and night pleased by frequent stops for walks, and happy as long as he could see or sense one of us or both at all times…and, given our tight quarters, that was usually the set-up day and night.

From Chestertown we moved on to Philadelphia where we spent a night with long-time (NYC just after college) friends Jo Walker and Margee Kooistra. And now begins again a listing of the many upcoming friends with whom we had overnights or meals. These connections were, of course, highlights of our travel, likely known to some or many of you. In Swarthmore, PA our cousins Penny and Phil Weinstein, the latter retiring after 40 years teaching there, our nephew Jed Esty ad wife Andrea, both professors at Penn; then (without further bios!) in Princeton, NJ, Meredith and Henry Von Kohorn, Fred and Betty Morefield and Steve & Angela Bileca in Tarrytown, NY.  A return to our old stomping ground, Westport CT, where we lived for 5 years, began with lunch with our former landlords & friends, Debby and Tony Angotti. We stayed with Giselle Wagner & Paul Myerson and were feted by former Greens Farms Academy colleagues, Robbi Hartt and Lynne Laukhuf and a gathering of my past faculty and staff, including Happy’s long time friend and colleague Elizabeth Cleary, and current Head, Janet Hartwell, who guided us through a largely reconfigured and expanded school from my time there in 1998-2003.  We made a poignant stop in New Canaan, CT to see Happy’s 98-year old aunt Lib Ogden. Then it was up to Newbury, MA to stay a few days with our son Jay, his wife Susan and daughters Charlotte and Athalia. Had lunch in Gloucester with David Foster and another in Newburyport with Terry and Wanda Blanchard.

Craving a city fix, in late April we left RV and Luke with Jay & Co. in Newbury and spent three glorious days in Boston, using the exquisite apartment of old friends and Amherst college roommate Jim and Hanna Bartlett, who were in France. The fix was recuperative in many ways. Again we could spread out, catch up with computer and paper work, plan coming weeks of travel, walk, read, eat and go to the extraordinary Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. The greatest of the cultural exposures was the Boston Symphony Orchestra Friday concert, conducted by Charles Dutoit who brought magic to and a 5-minute standing ovation for the brilliant Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique. Yet forever memorable, we were mesmerized by the 24- year old Uzbek pianist, Behzod Abduraimov, who performed Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The rapt audience was on its feet for easily 10 minutes, demanding as many curtain calls. This was truly again one of those sensations of speechlessness over beauty and awe (albeit human art here) such as we experienced looking at the Big Sur coast, The Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Caverns.

 You will find a few pictures of Boston, one day rainy, one day bright, all cell phone photos, all weak and hardly representative of that great city. There is the Mary Baker Eddy mother Church of Christian Scientists, some Commonwealth Avenue street scenes, The Boston Common and Gardens and, we think, a façade of Symphony Hall. As contrast to the Boston Common, but right nearby, our friends Jim Canales and Jim McCann, freshly moved from San Francisco, gave us a fine dinner in their new apartment overlooking dramatic city towers and down on bustling theater and restaurant life.

Onward… From our Boston binge Happy rejoined the Jay Esty family for some Granny duty while Peter took a train to NYC for a two-day board meeting of Global Citizen Year. Always exciting is New York in spring and, as I was staying with Bill Bullard and Bodie Brizendine on Park Avenue, I could repeatedly view the masses of tulips along its center gardens running at least from 96^th to 42^nd street.  I also had time to have dinner with educator colleague Peter Herzberg, and lunch with Deerfield classmate Adlai Hardin.  Meanwhile, Happy was able to connect by phone with 8 members of our co-ed Sausalito book group who were meeting to discuss two Steinbeck novels. We look forward to rejoining the group when we return to CA.

And, finally, we returned to cool yet budding Massachusetts in the last two weeks. Most time has been spent at Happy’s long-time family place in Wareham, MA on the coast of Buzzards Bay. Here, we have again had time to relax, collect ourselves, do serious planning for the summer weeks soon to begin, and also to do some spring house cleaning, inside and out, to ready this big old house and adjacent cottage for the summer parade of family visitors and renters. A welcome dividend is catching up with Happy’s brother and wife, sisters and brother-in-laws, nieces & nephews as well as other drop-ins. It all spells FAMILY, and it is one of the best and warmest.  Some pictures of this place are scattered here…  We managed a break away last week to spend two nights with Julie & Ridley Rhind, old friends of post college NYC, then east coast, then west coast, partners in global trips over time and now retirees in nearby South Dartmouth, MA. Our old and now nearby friends, Frank & Laura Perrine, joined us for dinner one night while there.

We both have 55^th college reunions at Smith and Amherst in the next two weeks, and then our summer loops begin, taking us twice to the Adirondacks, Ontario, Canada, and all New England states a few different times.  Our clock is ticking rapidly!

Love to you all,    Happy & Peter