To Maryland and Virginia
In July (and into August, actually), we went to Maryland to see Ian and Fiona
(and their parents). We flew from Medford to Baltimore by way of Phoenix. As
you may know, we've had lots of fires within a hundred or fewer miles, so
depending on the wind, we've also had smoke in the valley. Not only in the
valley, but here is a picture of the (just past, about 4 hours) full moon
through the smoke above Mt.
Shasta.
That evening there was a little ceremony to honor the swimmers on the Whetstone
Whales that made it to the Regional Swim Meet. Fiona made it! Here's a
shot of
Fiona with some of her
friends. Here's the
whole crew (probably).
The next day (Saturday),
Fiona swam.
In the time between swimming events,
Fiona and Ian relaxed.
On Sunday the Whales had their annual
awards picnic to
celebrate a successful season.
Ian and Fiona
both got awards. Here's a shot of
Fiona and the coaches.
On Monday, Ian, Amelia, and I drove down to Orange, VA and visited the James
Madison home,
Montpelier. The reconstruction efforts
are pretty interesting. The next day we drove on down to Charlottesville
to visit Thomas Jefferson's home,
Monticello. There was a small wait
to get in, and we were able to visit the gardens and the
cemetary.
Ian was suitably attired
for the warm, sunny weather. One of the young people's activities was
writing with quill and ink, and Ian wrote
his name with some
flourishes. Here's the back of a structure that no doubt looks a
bit familiar.
After lunch we drove out to James Monroe's
Ash Lawn-Highland. Unfortunately,
we didn't have time to visit inside, but I took a picture of this plaque
celebrating the proximity of the
three presidents.
It is only about 25 miles between Monticello and Montpelier, and Ash
Lawn-Highland is only a couple of miles from Monticello. Jefferson's influence
can be seen at Montpelier, but Ash Lawn-Highland is (I believe, even though
I haven't seen it) a much more modest dwelling than Montpelier, and certainly
much more modest that Monticello. I did manage to take a picture across
the fence of this statue of
Monroe.
The Outer Banks
Sunday
On July 27 we set out for Duck, NC, on the
Outer Banks. We arrived safely, picked
up the key to our rental house and struggled through the traffic to it (Saturday
Sunday are the turnover days). We found it without difficulty and it was
satisfactory. A few hours later, Evan, Laura, Ian, and Fiona arrived.
Here's one of
Evan and Fiona at
Hailey's pool. Later we got together with some other folks, including
Sulwen and
Fiona, Phebe, Ian, Quint,
and Lauren. Here's a shot of
Evan, Fiona, and Sulwen.
Time for a little
snack.
It's been a tough day, eh
Lauren?
Monday
The next day was BEACH TIME! The beach was less than a quarter of a mile from
the house. And a very nice beach it was, with waves of various sizes coming
in so one could enjoy them in the water or out, and also do a bit of boogie
boarding if so inclined. The pictures are pretty much self explanatory, but
I'll denote them with a few words.
' Amelia and Laura
' ' Fiona and Ian try the boogie boards
' ' ' Grandad takes it easy
' ' ' ' Ian and Quint take time out for some sand work
' ' ' ' ' Soon they are back in the water with Grandad watching for waves
' ' ' ' ' And it's a good one!
' ' ' ' ' ' Another one coming
' ' ' ' ' ' ' And another
' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' Away they go
' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' Hailey gets in on the fun
' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' Sulwen likes the beach, too
' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' Well, pretty well
' ' ' ' ' ' ' Nothing like a nice sunburn
' ' ' ' ' ' Look at that
' ' ' ' ' Tanna and Hailey take a short break
' ' ' ' Big one coming
' ' ' Let's jump
' ' That's a crew if I ever saw one
' Sulwen pretending to be shy
In the evening we went down to the beach to see if we could find some crabs.
But, before the crabs, here are
Fiona and Laura (and I
sort of got the redeye removed). There's
Ian with a crab in the
dish. Here's a better shot of
one on the beach.
Tuesday
Tuesday we had a much less eventful day, I suppose. Amelia and I (and Hailey)
went for a little walk up near Tanna and Stephen's place. Along the way,
we saw a rabbit.
Here Amelia and I and
resting on the dock
overlooking the sound side of the island. Then we went to see
Sulwen, who was up
and happy as ever with her Mom and
with her Dad.
A little later it was beach time again. Here's the
"take it easy on the beach"
bunch, while
Hailey and Quint take
out the boogie boards. And bring the
Hailey brings her's back in
while Quint waits for a better wave. Later we went to Tanna and Stephen's
community pool. Before the festivities get underway, here's one of the
hosts.
I guess this one of
me was too good to miss?
The kiddie pool was
plenty popular, especially when
taking a break from the pool
. Some of the rest of us just pretended we were
taking it easy, like on the
beach. There was some
friendly competition,
as well as some
ups and
downs.
Wednesday
Wednesday was the Big Day! My children gave me a flight over the Outer Banks
(well, at least part of it) in a small airplane. Bright and early that morning
Hailey, Evan, and I traveled out to the Dare County Regional Airport where
Barrier Aviation has its
facility (unfortunately, the airplane on their home page is not the one we
took). Be that as it may, here is
me and the aircraft
we did fly in. Here we are aboard and the front seat's
about to get underway,
as are (believe it or not)
the rear seats.
Shortly after takeoff we had a view of
Kill Devil Hill
and the
Wright Brothers National Memorial.
We circled around the neighborhood where we were staying, and Evan took
this picture of
our house, in the center of
the picture. Another shot from the ocean side shows
the house, just behind the
house with the pool. A bit further north we saw the
Corolla lighthouse and
beyond that a shot of the bay side of the island, and for those with sharp eyes,
there are some horses.
Further north on the ocean side, the houses are
less crowded, but access
by motor vehicle is by driving on the beach. Heading back south we fly by
Hailey's condo (mid-
picture) with the Duck water tower in the background. On the way back in to
the airport, we had a much better view of
Kill Devil Hill.
Here we are approaching the
runway. Here's the
happy flyer looking
happy, but wishing it could have lasted another hour or two. Here's the
three of us after
disembarking. Outside the fence, I'm still looking
pretty happy. Two more,
with me and Evan and
Evan and Hailey.
It was a great flight. Thanks, offspring.
The really, Really, REALLY BIG EVENT of the day was yet to come. Sulwen would
be one year old on August 16th, but here was her entire family: parents,
grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all in one place at the same time.
From Oregon, California, Maryland, Colorado, North Carolina: that may not
happen again for a long time. So, PARTYTIME! Here are more than a few
pictures of the party. First off, the happy
guest of honor.
Here's a bunch of pictures of the festivities.
.Sulwen and Grammy
. Sulwen and Fiona
. .Grant, Sulwen, and Jessica
. . Sulwen, Jessica, and Hayley
. . .Fiona, Sulwen, Hayley, and Grant
. . . Laura, Amelia, Sulwen, Fiona, Hailey, and Tanna
. . . .Tanna, Sulwen, and Stephen
. . . . As above, one more time
. . . . .Sulwen (What's that!?)
. . . . . F - Lindsay, Finn, and Grant; R - Amelia, Nancy, and Michael
. . . . .F - Annie, Hayley, and Lindsay; R - Diane, Kim, and Amelia
. . . . Too numerous to mention
. . . .Guess who?
. . . Couldn't decide which one to use!
. . .Tanna and Sulwen
. . R1 - Paul, Grant, and Charlie; R2 - Jessica, Sulwen, Lindsay, Hayley; R3 - Fiona, and Ian
. .As above, different pose
. Stephen and Sulwen
.Stephen, Sulwen, Fiona, Laura, and Ian
Thursday
On Thursday various folks did their own thing. Amelia and I went out for
lunch to
Dirty Dick's Crab House (also
see me at Dirty Dick's).
From there we went out to the
Wright Brothers National Memorial.
Here's a shot of a replica of the
Wright Flyer.
Outside the museum area is the field where the flights were made on
December 17, 1903. The boulder shows the
take-off point and
the marker on the right side at the first landing point, 120 feet away.
The next two flights covered 175 and 200 feet, as the
markers show. The
plaque on the boulder commemorates the
first flight.
Here we see the
four flight markers
from the vicinity of the boulder, the last flight having lasted for
852 feet. Here's another shot of the
boulder and a
commemorative plaque with a picture of the first flight (yeh, they actually
had a photographer there). In the direction opposite that the flights went is
Kill Devil Hill, from
which several years of experiments with gliders were conducted. This is a
closeup of the
monument.
Here is the
flight line and
musuem from the top of Kill Devil Hill. This is a very interesting
place to visit.
Evan, Laura, Ian, and Fiona opted to head south to Ocracoke Island, but being
about 95 miles and a ferry ride away, we had decided to do the above. They
had a good time and saw
Black Beard and lots of
other pirate stuff, which I would have liked, too. Tanna, Stephen, Sulwen,
and Hailey came over in the afternoon. Here's a
happy Sulwen, but even
happier with Dad.
Sulwen enjoyed the
pirate head scarf.
That evening Scott and Susie came over for a
rice bowl dinner and
some good times.
Friday
Ian was up and reading
this morning, while
Fiona was making
cookies for our joint dinner this evening (more on that later).
A little later it was Beach Time! Here are more beach pictures:
Laura and Hailey
~ Quint and Phebe
~ ~ Phebe, Hailey, Evan, and
Ian
~ ~ ~ Phebe, Fiona, Quint,
and Ian
~ ~ ~ ~ Hailey
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Dick, Amelia, Evan,
Sandy, and Lauren
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Ian, Evan, Quint, Phebe,
Fiona
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Ian
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Fiona, Phebe, Quint
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Phebe and Fiona
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ You name'em - have you
breen paying attention?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Phebe, Hailey, Sulwen,
Quint, Dick, and Fiona
~ ~ ~ ~ Dick, Sulwen, and Hailey
~ ~ ~ Dick, Hailey, Sulwen,
and Fiona
~ ~ Fiona and Quint
~ un-named
That evening we joined our friends at their house for dinner - pizza, salad,
ice cream, ... There were a few shots of various folks around various places.
Here goes.
* Sulwen and Phebe
* * Lauren
* * * Lauren and Sulwen
* * * * dinner looks about over 1
* * * * * dinner looks about over 2
* * * * * * dinner looks about over 3
* * * * * * * dinner looks about over 4
* * * * * * * dinner looks about over 5
* * * * * * time for some serious
game playing
* * * * * some take great joy in
Apples-to-apples
* * * * * * Oh my gosh, what'll I do
with that set of cards
* * * * * * * I think I can make
something of that
* * * * * * *some play something more
serious
* * * * * *some folks opt out
* * * * *the photographer at rest
* * * * this is more fun
* * * but not as much fun as
this
* * now this is really fun
* at last, the ladies get
the greens to themselves
Evening cast its spell,
so some of us went down to the beach to search out
crabs.
Saturday
Saturday Hailey, and Stephen, Tanna, and Sulwen all left The OB. We had a
little going away party for some of us at an ice cream parlor as Evan and
family left to go home. We stayed until Sunday morning, when we too headed
back to Maryland. That evening took the last couple of pictures of
Fiona and her swim
awards, and
Ian and his swim awards.
Sunday>
Bright and early we headed for BWI (hint, coming from the south, take the HW
100 exit on I-95 to Arundel Mills Blvd which turns into Ridge Road, which in
turn turns into New Ridge Road and takes you to the car rental facility in a
couple of miles. Gas stations are near HW 100 and Arundel Mills Blvd on Dorsey
Road. We were home in the early afternoon after passing near
Pyramid Lake northeast
of Reno, NV.
It was great fun, the Outer Banks are interesting and nice, not too crowded
beaches with reliable (but not too big, usually) waves for boogie boarding.
After staying at Sea Ranch, CA a few times, though, it was a shock to find
that nothing (I mean, pretty much NOTHING) is supplied with a rental house.
No sheets, no bath towels, no dish towels, no soap, no salt, no pepper, no
sugar, no nothing. Of course, all you need is available for rent (well, not
salt and pepper), and at not too outrageous prices, including
delivery. Different way of thinking, I guess. Plenty of grocery and other
stores are not far away, so it is not necessary to bring consumables.