Category: Personal

We began the third day by backtracking a couple of miles to New London, CT, to see the USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine.  There is a VERY nice museum in New London to the submarine force.  We had intended to spend a half hour there, but we ended up staying 90 minutes.  The story of the Nautilus is fascinating.  I wonder if we have the same drive as a nation to accomplish great things like building the first nuclear submarine or putting men on the moon anymore.  It seems to me that when a country stops striving for great things it is on the path to mediocrity and merely a footnote in history.

After visiting the Nautilus, we took a quick spin through the grounds of the Coast Guard Academy.  It is a beautiful campus, but there is no visitor center.  Other than driving through the campus and identifying different buildings from the guide map, there really wasn’t anything to do there.

We then headed to Newport, RI.  This is where lots of rich people have their mansions.  As a result, prices were crazy expensive, making New York City seem pretty inexpensive.  After taking out a second mortgage to park, we took a water taxi to Fort Adams past all kinds of yachts with more square footage than the barracks at West Point.

Ft. Adams, built by Brigadier General Totten, is the largest fortification ever built in North America with the most sophisticated land defenses ever built here as well.  Forts McHenry, Sumpter, and Ticonderoga would all fit in the interior parade ground — at the same time — and still leave room for a large number of troop tents.  Ft. Adams was built after the War of 1812 as one of 40 or so fortifications built from Maine to Florida to ensure that never again would a foreign power be capable of attacking the United States.  You can only enter the fort on a guided tour.  The guide reminded us of Gilbert Gottfried, the actor, but he was very informative.

After visiting Ft. Adams we took a bus to the start of what is called “the cliff walk.”  It is a trail along the ocean.  Some of the going is difficult; other parts are easy.  The cliff walk runs behind many of the huge mansions for which Newport is famous.

It seems that many of these mansions are beyond the means of many of the rich folks to maintain.  Some have been developed as condominiums.  Others are now open for tours — at $15 each.  No thanks.  While some of the architecture was quite impressive, I didn’t have a lot of interest in seeing how the other half lives.

We completed the cliff walk late in the day and were quite hungry.  After the $4 hotdogs earlier in the day we were looking for something both quick and inexpensive.  We stopped at a grocery store and bought some prepared sandwiches.  We found a small coffee shop with exterior seating that was closed, so we illicitly staked out one of their tables for our “picnic” dinner.  We completed our day in Newport, RI, with a walk along Thames street to look in shops of stuff we don’t need.  I came close to buying a “bobble head” Robbie the Robot, but resisted.  The lessons of all the junk jettisoning we did on our recent move from Aberdeen to Severn were still to fresh in our minds.  We then drove to the Naval War College to stay in Navy Lodging — an adventure in and of itself — for the night.

Leaving Newport we eventually crossed the Cape Cod Canal.  This is widest canal in the US built at sea level.  It is this canal which designates the boundary between Cape Cod and the rest of Massachusetts.   We stopped briefly to put our hands in the water and then continued to Sandwich, MA, where we played miniature golf.

After some a little shopping in Sandwich we drove some back roads to Hyannis, MA, and eventually on to Orleans, MA.  Orleans is about the last built-up area prior to entering the part of Cape Cod which is largely nature preserve and beaches.

Candy found a place called the Cove, which is a nice mom-and-pop hotel in Orleans.  The room is large and clean.  We are right on the beach, but the hotel also has a heated outdoor pool.  (The kids like to play on the beach, but they prefer to swim in pools.)  We played miniature golf at Cape Escape Mini Golf in Orleans until the sky opened up and a boat with pairs of animals floated by.  We had had a large, Italian lunch in Sandwich, so we all had salads at Wendy’s for dinner while waiting for the rain to abate.  Then we finished our game and went back to the hotel for the night.

Tomorrow we’ll spend the day exploring and hiking the lower cape and perhaps spend some time on a beach.

The second day of our trip we drove about 90 minutes to Mystic, Connecticut.  Mystic Seaport is an outdoor museum featuring a whaling ship, Captain Morgan, which is under restoration.  In addition, there are a number of shops set up like a typical New England sea port village, such as a cooper, rope maker, printer, smithy (for making the metal parts of a ship), and a shop where wood is steamed and then bent to make boats.  All of the shops had interpreters and/or docents who did an excellent job discussing their “trade” with visitors.

One of the interesting exhibits was a history of light houses on three large monitors.  This display was inside the light house shown below.  It was an interesting presentation.  One of the interesting facts we learned is that many lighthouses have different paint schemes, called day marks, so that they can be distinguished in daylight as well as by different light patters at night.

At the shop where sextants, telescopes, and clocks were made and repaired, Sammy signed up for “Nav Quest.”  This was an activity that involved finding a series of points around the village using a spyglass and compass.  Sammy did a nice job of following the directions and finding all four points.

One of the interesting exhibits was rope making.  It turns out that the only missing requirement for Tommy to earn the Pioneering merit badge was making rope.  We learned about how at each phase of the process (fibers to yarn to strands to rope to cable) the material is twisted in the opposite direction.  It is these opposite twists working against each other that cause the rope not to unravel.

After witnessing the man overboard drill in the bay, Tommy and I helped hoist up the 2000-lb lifeboat.  This involved winding rope around the capstan and pushing it around in circles while one of the crew led us in sea shanties.  It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be; however, I can imagine it would get old if you were a sailor and had to do it all day, every day.

As many of you know, we’ve been executing a plan to get the kids to all 50 states before my son goes off the school in four more years.  In a previous set of posts, I described our trip from last August to the Northwest US.  This year’s trip encompasses the Northeast.  After a very hectic week at work, combined with coming home to chores like putting up pictures and blinds in our new house, I was ready for this trip to begin.

Our first stop was New York City.  Now, you probably couldn’t see all the high points of New York in a week, but there were a few points we hadn’t seen in previous visits to the City.  On our last visit the kids were very  young, so we just wanted to give them a memory or two of the Big Apple.

On our way, the GPS took us down Canal Street, where we saw LOTS of freaky people and also a drug deal taking place.  Perhaps the kids are sheltered, but on this day they saw their first green Mohawk haircut.  We met Mark Ryan, who used to live in the city, had lunch in a New York deli, and then took the Staten Island Ferry.  We just took the ferry to Staten island and came back.  This gave us a view of Governor’s Island, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty.

After a walk around the are of the World Trade Center (which is what Tommy wanted to see) and the financial district, we drove up town to Central Park.  Mark had relatives from Germany arriving on Saturday.  We met them at one of his wife’s stores and strolled across Central Park together.

The park wasn’t as crowded as I expected it to be on the weekend.  Mark said that New Yorkers head to Long Island and elsewhere on the weekends.  We saw “the great lawn,” wandered past the the Central Park Zoo, and other sites.

Despite being surrounded by tall buildings, there are places in the park where you can’t see any of them or hear the traffic.

Sammy wanted to see FAO Schwartz.  It had changed a lot since the last time I had been there — nearly 30 years ago as a cadet.  It seems to me that it had more floors of stuff back then.  While it was impressive, I didn’t see any unique toys that I couldn’t get elsewhere.

There were several Lego “sculptures.”  Since Tommy is very fond of Legos, we took his picture with Indian Jones made of Legos.  We saw someone being assisted buying toys for a birthday party by a personal shopper.

Soon after visiting FAO Schwartz, we fought our way out of the city through traffic.  Mark told us the “good” route to take.  It would have been worse otherwise, but there was a huge accident on the West Side Highway (9A), so the entrances to it were blocked.  We ended up taking other streets to get to the Cross Bronx Expressway.

We passed New Rochelle, where Dick Van Dyke lived in the 1960’s sitcom, got some very good, but overpriced, burgers at an apparently regionally famous place called Burgers Shakes and Fries, and made it to our hotel around 2100.

It was a good first day!

Tommy’s Eagle Scout project has been the re-dedication ceremony for a memorial monument on the Edgewood area of Aberdeen Proving Ground.  The monument is dedicated to civilian personnel who lost their lives in service of the Army.  His project involved laying concrete to place benches, planting bushes and flowers, getting the garrison to reposition lights, and cleaning the monument itself.  It involved fund raising, supervising work days, and finally the orchestration of a rededication ceremony.  At age 14, very early, Tommy has met all the requirements of his project and now just has to complete the paperwork and wrap up the details.

We are very proud of him.

My dad is scanning his slides and putting them on CDs for all of us.  Here is one he found from almost 30 years ago.

My grandmother (on left) and grandfather (on right) both died in the past couple of years (at over 90 years each).  I sure miss them.

This past weekend, we attended the Gettysburg Civil War ball in the Gettysburg Hotel.  The event began for us Saturday morning with a two-hour lesson on period dancing.  It was very fun.  After lunch and just a few minutes to peek into one or two of the stores very close to the center of town, it was time to begin to suit up and prepare for the group photo.  After photos we headed to the ball.  While people were being seated, a guy who looked like Andrew Jackson played and sang period songs on the piano.  The dinner was better than the average “event dinner.”

After we finished eating we left the dining room so that the hotel staff could clear the tables and make room for dancing.  The dancing began with the grand entrance march.  The entrance march reminded me of films of the RCMP horse troop at the Calgary Stampede.  By following the person in front of you and taking commands from the platoon of professional dancers we travelled around the room in various formations.  The purpose for this, I gather is so that everyone sees everyone else in a Victorian-appropriate manner.  Many of the women put some incredible effort into their dresses, so it was a good opportunity to see them.  The dancing lasted for about three hours.  Music was provided by a three-piece bad, called “Smashing Windows,” consisting of a piano, violin, and recorder/flute.  I wasn’t sure how much fun this would be, but we’ve made our reservations at the Gettysburg hotel for next year.

Candy wore a borrowed dress, but she’ll probably have one made for next year.  For next year, we’re talking about getting her a wig, since her hair was too short for Victorian styles and she couldn’t find a good hair piece that matched in color.  I told her this is her chance to be a blonde with long “boing boing” curls.  I pieced together a uniform from my dad’s closet, as did my brother-in-law Rob.  For next year I may have a uniform made that will fit a little better.  (The uniform was a little large, and we couldn’t get the belt to fit properly.)  Just to be different, I’m thinking about a naval commodore’s uniform.  Everything was re-enactor quality, except I wore my real shoulder boards.  Since they are bullion, it worked, even through the eagle on Colonel’s rank has changed shape just a bit.

Below are some pictures of our Christmas decorations.  Yes, we celebrate Christmas, not the generic, winter, non-denominational, gift-giving holiday.

Our tree is decorated with a combination of real and reproduction ornaments from the 40’s and 50’s.  There are also many decorated eggs from Slovakia and Eastern Europe.  There are also several ornaments that have been in our family since the 60’s.  The lights are LEDs.  Under the tree are paper buildings.  Before there was Department 56 and the like, people used to put paper houses under their trees.  These houses have cellophane windows.  People would put the old, hot C-9 bulbs inside these paper houses.  Between these kindling houses and real trees, it’s a wonder any of us lived to adulthood!

From this close-up view of the houses, you can see that some are original, but others are reproductions.  The reproductions are ca. 2005 Christopher Radko Shiny Bright.

This is my silver, aluminum Christmas tree.  You can just see a snapshot of this tree near its base.  The snapshot shows this tree on a console TV in someone’s house and is dated 1963.  The color wheel is original, as is the rotating base that plays jingle bells.  My wife never liked this tree until the year she volunteered our quarters at West Point for the tour of homes.  There were so many positive comments about this tree that she changed her mind.  My grandmother had one when I was a kid, but it was full size and lit by two color wheels.  My uncle and I would put our green Army men in the branches and when they came back around, we’d pretend we were shooting them out of the branches.  Invariably we’d find several Army men under packages on Christmas day.  My friend Chris found this one for me.

This is the Charlie Brown tree that my sister got me a couple of years ago for Christmas.  Now they sell them with a small blue blanket.  When I got this one, they didn’t come with a blanket.  My kids found a small baby blanket that we used.

Chris Palmer made the Christmas tree lot.  You can see the LEDs on it.  I added the pond, skaters, etc.  Many of the figures are original Barclay, some are new Barclay, and a few were sculpted by Chris.

Finally this is a bubble light tree.  Apparently these were popular in the 60’s.  I saw one a Chris’ house and have been wanting one.  I guess I’m a sucker for vintage Christmas stuff.  It’s nostalgia for a simpler time that probably never really was.  In any event, the originals I had seen were in poor shape, so I ordered two strings of bubble lights on line.  The kids found the tree for me at Home Depot.  An hour of struggle with the wires produced this result.  I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Happy Christmas!

While in Slovakia six or more years ago, I was attracted to the painted eggs.  I brought home several and would have brought home more if I had been more confident I was going to get them home in one piece.

I have tried my hadn at simple eggs.  I haven’t worked up the gumption yet to do the complex geometric patters of the central and eastern European eggs.

This is the egg I painted last year.  There is a different scene on the front and back.  The two images are incongruous, but it was a first attempt.

I made two designs this year.  The first is of Santa in his sleigh.  The second is the magi walking toward Bethlehem.  It’s been fun.  Perhaps next year, I’ll try my hand at more intersting designs.

The “diorama” below was inspired by something (overpriced) I saw in a catalog.  I used O- or S-guage railway figures I bought unpainted in a bag in the Choo Choo Barne in Strassbourg, PA.  The window was made from a simple, white picture frame on which I applied individual bricks cut from picture matting.  The molding on top was from a doll house store.  This year, I added the wreaths and the garland to decorate it for Christmas.

I have purchased lights and other odds and ends.  For next year, I’m going to make a retro department store front with four windows and a fancy door.  The windows will have moving displays like major stores from the 50’s.  I’m starting with some surplus Lemax kits from Michaels to get the motors.  It should be an interesting conversation piece at Christmas next year.