Catching Up

Today we stayed home and caught up on some of our to-do's. We spent some time trip planning, and I caught up on some blogging and researched places to go and things to do in Boston tomorrow when Terri and I go to meet Chris there.

The major project was getting the HughesNet dish up and working with the new Cradlepoint router. After figuring out how to set the router up for incoming ethernet, it's now working fine, so both our Internet sources now work with one small router. That's a real benefit with a small living space. Now we can get rid of the Linksys.

Terri played Mahjong this morning with her group of military wives.
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Cliff Walk

This afternoon we parked at Easton Beach on Memorial Drive so we could walk part of the Cliff Walk, a 3 1/2 mile National Recreation Trail in a National Historic District (as the signs proclaim). It runs along the waterfront in Newport, through the back yards of many of the mansions. We walked to just past the Breakers today and look forward to doing the rest soon.

The Chanler at Cliff Walk

Cliff Walk is a National Recreation Trail in a National Historic District--Double Dipping!

The path goes by Salve Regina University, located in some of the old mansions.

Both the ocean views and the views of the mansions are impressive, in their different ways.

Surfers on the beach

Catching a wave

Sea walls

Rugged coast

The second half of the walk is rougher and steeper, but some hikers assured us it is also the best part.
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Walking Around Newport

Terri took us for a walking tour of parts of Newport this afternoon. First we went to the public library to check out free passes to a whaling museum and a discount pass to Plimouth Plantation (where we plan to go next Sunday). That's right--the library checks out passes for local attractions. Nice, huh? On the way out we couldn't resist stopping at the used bookstore, where we picked up five books for $8.

As we walked around the historic district and the waterfront, we were impressed by the plaques on every other building proclaiming the year they were built, etc. We saw the church where JFK and Jackie were married.

St. Mary's Church saw JFK wedding

We walked by St. Anne Square, which was dedicated by Queen Elizabeth and which stretches in front of Trinity Church. Unfortunately the church was closed, so we'll have to go back another day. We walked down to the waterfront and viewed all the sailboats.

St. Anne Square in front of Trinity Episcopal

Funky Wave!

Resort town

For dinner I fixed eggplant spaghetti sauce, using the long thin eggplant from the Boston farmers market, which I thought was Italian, but it may have been a Chinese variety called Ping-Tung Long. The sauce turned out delicious. Terri and Blake went to a nearby bakery for bread. They were closing, and the owner's son gave them five small loaves of delicious bread.
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Rainy Day Visit

It rained pretty much all day today, so we didn't do any sightseeing, but Terri and Blake and Molly came over and got the 2-minute tour of Venture. They were in Italy until this spring, so this is the first time they've seen the rig. They're living in half of a historic home with 3000 square feet on their side, so our compact little home felt like a postage stamp to them.

Venture at Melville Ponds

Terri made a delicious plum galette for dessert. We've never had plums cooked this way, but they were excellent. It seems like a cool, easy way to make a kind of pie, since it only requires a single crust and it's okay if it's not perfect (mostly my crusts aren't perfect). The only problem Terri had is that it stuck to the pan despite her spraying it liberally.

We kept the bed slide in most of the night last night and most of the day today to avoid getting water in our leak. Fortunately we didn't have any of the predicted possible thunderstorms, just mainly drizzle.

We were able to get the TIVO to recognize the new router and do a program update, but again got the dreaded S03 error after it had loaded only part of the data, so I did a kickstart. That fixed it, but I'm worried about the integrity of the hard drive.
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Trip to Providence

Terri took us to Providence today to visit the Rhode Island School of Design Museum and for Molly to buy some cosmetics at Nordstrom. Blake stayed home working on a paper.

The museum is attached to the school of art and design, which offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees. The collection is, to say the least, eclectic, ranging from ancient to contemporary and from furniture and textile design to painting and sculpture. We were lucky to be among the first to see a special exhibition entitled Inner City, which opened yesterday.

Inner City is a ceramics installation by Arnie Zimmerman, commenting on the human condition

Often whimsical looking people find themselves crushed by or enmeshed in their work

As usual, there was more to see than we had time for, so we saved some for another visit and moved on to Providence Center, a large downtown mall. Molly picked out her Mac cosmetics at Nordstroms, while Ken and I walked over to the Sony Style store to drool over Sony readers and netbooks.

Awe-inspring giant Buddha

Lee relaxing on cast glass and patinated copper bench (art object, but with an invitation to sit down)

We set up our Cradlepoint CTR350 router today. It's small but elegant, and (after dealing with some glitches in the installation) we love it. Now our broadband is always on, and we can both use it. Plus as a bonus, it actually seems faster... and since it's a travel router, it's easily small enough to take with us on a trip if needed.

Router with Sharpie, cell phone and quarters to show relative size--tiny!

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Wompamatuck to Melville Ponds

Today we left the Boston area. After eight days there, we had barely scratched the surface, so we agreed we’ll go back again another time to see more. We set up camp in our new campground, a city campground that has a rural feel, with large spaces and trees. Our campsite is open, so Ken put out the Qube for DirecTV. Then we headed over to Newport to see Terri and Blake and Molly. It was a bit tricky getting our ginormous truck in their driveway, but we did it.

It was a treat to see everyone again and catch up on hugs. Terri was especially excited to see Sweetie again. Then we opened all our mail and packages we had sent to their address (thanks, T.). One thing we got was a Motor Carrier’s Atlas to replace the one we got in August of 2007, which was falling to pieces. Another was a new broadband router so Ken and I can share the Verizon broadband connection. Ken was pleased to get a package from his granddaughter, Cathy, which included a self-portrait she had drawn in art class. She is a black belt in Red Dragon Karate and will test to advance to level two in November.

Black belt!

Cathy Marks self portrait

We took a tour of the house, which has many interesting architectural features. It was built in 1865 and is in a historic district, so the homes are preserved. Terri and Blake say that means no window upgrades (unless the window is broken…..).

Terri and family live on the right side--owners occupy the left

Restful porch makes a great place to read and relax

Molly is very interested in photography and wants a new SLR camera. She and Ken discussed the features of his Canon SX110, which has more features than most people would ever use. Ken is very happy with it.

Terri had made Mt. Ranier White Chili for us, so we had a delicious dinner.
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USS Constitution

This morning during breakfast we had the treat of watching a lone doe feeding outside our window. She stayed in sight for a long time, and Ken managed to get some good shots even through the window.


We learned something new about paying for transit this morning: we could add a specific amount to our Charlie Card (not just multiples of $5), so we added $2.20, enough for both of us to get downtown and back. We ended up spending $27.20 for four trips in town (plus parking at the station). We could have bought week passes for $15 each and then been able to hop on and off of buses too. What a bargain, and the Charlie Cards are free and easy to use.

View of new bridge cables

The Big Dig plaza

We got off the green line at North Station and then walked .9 miles across the bridge to the Charlestown Navy Yard to visit Old Ironsides. We had only a brief wait before our group was given a quick safety orientation and led onto the ship, which is owned and operated by the Navy. Sailors get duty postings to be tour guides aboard the ship, wearing uniforms similar to those worn in 1812. They were enthusiastic and informative about the construction of the ship and life aboard ship for officers and men. (Much better to be an officer.)

Old Ironsides

Sailor in period uniform points to grog barrel

The upper (spar) deck is undergoing renovations, but we got to visit the gun deck and the berth deck. The ship is not actually made of iron, but its white pine and live oak sides repelled British cannonballs, leading a sailor to exclaim, "Huzzah, its sides are made of iron!"

Heavy cannons

Officer's quarters

We also walked through the Constitution Museum and viewed the exhibits in the Visitor Center, both of which were interesting. We learned about the Barbary corsairs (pirates) and the origin of the phrase "to the shores of Tripoli" which I had heard my Marine dad sing when I was a kid.

This is the closest we got to Bunker Hill

We spent our last night at the campground quietly, enjoying the peace and the chirping crickets and katydids.
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Harvard Square and Boston by Night

We got up early today to visit Harvard Square. We took the red line train and arrived just in time for the 10:30 a.m. tour of the Longfellow House. We had a great guide and a small tour group, so we learned a lot. Our guide was very knowledgeable and impassioned about the house. George Washington used the house for his headquarters during the siege of Boston, which is one of the reasons Longfellow bought it, since he admired Washington so much. Longfellow lived in the home with his wife Fanny and his two children, Charley and Alice. Longfellow loved Japan, and the house contained a number of Japanese artifacts, including temple vases by the fireplaces. Art is everywhere, including a marble bust of Washington and several paintings by Charley. Alice went to great lengths to preserve the house for posterity.

Longfellow House

Longfellow loved Japan and collected these temple vases and many Japanese screens.

Afterward we walked to Harvard Yard, where we found a profusion of chairs in various colors scattered about. We sat down and ate our lunch while watching the passing students and others walking through. Then we tried to visit Widener Library, only to find that it is restricted to holders of current Harvard IDs.

Harvard Yard

Lee approaching Widener (only to be turned away at the door)

Next we walked to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. I especially wanted to see the glass flowers. I had first heard about them when I studied a poem by Marianne Moore in high school, entitled Silence:

My father used to say,
"Superior people never make long visits,
have to be shown Longfellow's grave,
or the glass flowers at Harvard."

The flowers were amazing--every detail is made of glass, and there are thousands. And the exhibits just went on and on. One large exhibit focused on evolution and included fossils from dinosaurs and early amphibians and mammals, showing the relationships among species. Rooms were filled with lifelike stuffed animals from every corner of the globe. A vast room exhibited minerals and gems and meteorites, including a meteorite from Mars. We could have spent days and not seen everything. The name Louis Agassiz, a Swiss naturalist and Harvard professor, showed up everywhere, as he had a profound impact on the development of the museum's collections.

Rare glass rhododendron

Rare working phone booth!

Admission to the Museum of Natural History includes the adjacent Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology. We barely had time to run through it, but we did see an extensive collection of Pacific Islands artifacts.

Gail Dorey, my best friend, Carol's, sister, lives in Watertown and agreed to act as our tour guide for Boston by Night. She picked us up outside the museum and drove us to the Mount Auburn Cemetery, where we climbed the tower for a panoramic view of Boston and Cambridge and Watertown. We admired the many trees and shrubs which give the cemetery a reputation as an arboretum and drove past the impressive Mary Baker Eddy memorial.

Gail and Lee atop the tower at Mount Auburn

Then Gail drove us to Lexington, where we had dinner at the Lemon Grass Thai restaurant--good food and good company--before embarking on her "Boston by Night" tour. We had great views of the lights of the city laid out along the Charles River and drove across the grand new bridge, the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, named for a civil rights activist and for the colonists who fought at Bunker Hill. Thanks, Gail!

By the time we got home we were exhausted and decided to sleep in tomorrow.
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Adams Family

Today we returned to the Adams National Historical Park to take the tour of the homes in which Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams were born and Peacefields, the Old House which sheltered four generations of the Adams family. What a remarkable family! We were fascinated at what we learned about the major role members of the family played at critical points in American history, from the founding of the republic to the Civil War.

Peacefield

Stone Library and Garden

The two birth homes are in their original locations and furnished with period furniture. The real gem is Peacefield, which passed directly from the Adams family to the National Park Service, with all its contents intact. The furnishings and artifacts in the house are from all four generations who lived there. Among the most impressive were the desks at which important historic documents were drafted and John and Abigail's bed (the one in which she died of typhus). Outside a lovely formal garden includes a rose tree planted by Abigail in 1788. The Stone Library, built in 1870 is by some accounts the first presidential library. It contains 14,000 volumes collected by John and John Quincy Adams for their own study rather than being the official documents of their administrations.

After the tour we walked to the Fours Restaurant & Sports Bar for a bowl of clam chowder and a Samuel Adams. My cousin Beth used to work in Quincy and recommended Fours for the best chowder she had ever eaten. We agreed.

Cheers

Classy address

Afterwards we took the train to the Boston Commons and walked around a bit. We strolled past the Cheers Bar and watched other tourists having their pictures taken by the sign. Then we walked over to Trinity Church on Clarendon Street (the one we missed touring on Sunday). One the way we passed a couple of other historic churches (you can't walk around Boston without tripping over history).

Trinity Church and Farmers' Market

Boston Public Library, Copley Square

On the square in front of Trinity was a great Farmers' Market, where I couldn't resist picking up some fresh veggies. Then across the street is the Copley branch of the Boston Public Library, a really wonderful temple to the arts and sciences and an oasis in the midst of the bustling city. An interior courtyard surrounds a lovely fountain.

Peaceful fountain in courtyard

The marble and columns and artwork made the library feel like a state house or art gallery. We saw murals painted by John Singer Sargent. One room was filled with an exhibit of hand-bound books that were among the top entries in an international competition. Here's the winning binding:


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Work Day

We decided to take a break from immersing ourselves in Boston history and get some chores done. First we took the truck to the Sunoco station where the owner, Bill, installed the fuel filter for us. It turned out that we had neglected to remove one of the old gaskets, so we were trying to jam two gaskets together (not a good move). The good news is that next time we'll be experts at this job.

While we were waiting, we noticed that the adjacent shopping center had an REI, so we went to check it out. Ken got a shirt and I got a pair of shorts.

When we got home we ate lunch and then tackled the job of emptying the tanks, filling up on fresh water, and trying to find our slideout leak. We think we have determined the general area of the leak, and when we dump Friday we'll try to pin it down even more.

I had a flash of insight while we were working on all this--an aha! moment. I've been trying to bathe Sweetie in a low basin, which doesn't work too well. She hates water and wriggles out. I realized that I could use the plastic tub we have our hoses stored in as a doggie bathtub. It worked great. Well, Sweetie didn't think so, but at least she's a bit cleaner.

While we were at it we also removed all the furnace registers and cleaned under them and vacuumed, etc.

For dinner we had roast chicken breast and butternut squash soup. It's the first time I've made squash soup, and it came out delicious.
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The Freedom Trail

We set out this morning with high hopes of possibly attending the 11:15 service and then joining a 12:15 tour of Trinity Church, near Boston Commons. We drove to Quincy Adams transit station and parked. Our first adventure was folding and stuffing the $5 and two $1 bills in a little slot in the parking pay station corresponding to the stall we were parked in.

Then we headed inside, only to find that the trains were not running today because of track repairs. The lady at the booth told us we would need to get on the train and go one stop to Quincy Center, then board a shuttle bus to the UMASS/JFK station, and then get on the red line train. Needless to say, that meant a substantial delay.

By the time we were standing on the platform waiting for a train to the Copley station, we realized that we had missed the tour, so we shifted gears and took a train to Government Center instead. We walked past City Hall to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market and browsed around. Then we walked over to the National Park Service Visitor Center and waited around to sign up for the 2 p.m. ranger led tour. Unfortunately the tour leader was an older guy, hard to understand and rambling, so we cut out on that and walked the Freedom Trail by ourselves.

Faneuil Hall

Old State House

It's relatively easy to do, because there's a red line in the sidewalk/pavement marking the way (sometimes brick lines), and we had a brochure from the park service. Highlights of the part of the tour we did today were the Old North Church and Paul Revere's home.

Revere home

North End!

We stopped at one of the many Italian restaurants in the North End for dinner (chicken marsala and ziti). The narrow streets, tables along the sidewalk, window boxes with flowers, and architecture reminded us of Italy, not surprisingly.

One if by land and two if by sea...

Old North Church is chock a block with history

Tomorrow we'll try again to get the fuel filter installed in the truck and then head to the Adams National Historical Park to tour the birthplace of John Adams and John Quincy Adams.
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