In the Northeast - 2017

July 3, 2017 - Sunday

Rain in the morning. Slept in. Left at 2:15 for the sity. Walked a mile to the Metro, near the University of Maryland. Change at L'Enfant to Smithsonian. Arrived around 4 pm.  went to the castle then to the Basque Festival. Listened to music, ate crab burgers, which were surprisingly good, we had seconds, watched dancing, while dancing between rain drops.

Walked to Lincoln Memorial.

On the way, we gave money to a VietNam vet, by the wall.
We also visited the WWII Memorial and the Korean Memorial.

A visit to the Lincoln Memorial is always emotional.

On the way back, we walked by the Martin Luther King Memorial and had a view of the Jefferson Memorial.








Look dear, we spotted a spotted deer on the way back to our camp.

We were back at out camp site by 8 pm after a lovely afternoon on the National Mall.

July 4 - Monday

We drove to John and Suzie's house for dinner, with plans to go back to the mall for fireworks. We arrived at 2 pm. We chatted, ate and watched the movie Race, about Jessie Owens.

Rain was forecast all day and night, with a possibility that the fireworks would be delayed for a day.

We headed to town a little before 8. We were a little late to the fireworks. The low cloud ceiling obstructed the view. We had dessert at a Hard Rock Cafe. BIG DESSERTS!

We slept upstairs in the guest room at the house.

July 5 - Tuesday

Slept well and late. Showers in the morning, the breakfast. John was doing yoga until 11 or so. We left by 12:30.

We stopped at Whole Foods on the way out of DC. We bought gas nearby. It was difficult to find the entrance to the store and the entrance back to the highway. As we neared Lewes, we stopped at an Ace Hardware. We were looking for another fix for the awning crank. They never heard of the goo we bought at the other Ace. The local town is quaint.

The campground is like the one in Banff. Everyone parks on the side of the road and camps next to the vehicle. Tim played music on the picnic table, while Bobbi read. The bugs attacked as the neighbors arrived. Tim talked with the neighbor for a bit and then retreated to the van. Another neighbor asked how to get to the beach and we gave our best guess. We don't know if they ever found it. Earlier, we walked along the bike path, but did not find the beach.

July 6 - Wednesday 

We drive to the point where an old bunker, missile launching site and sub monitoring site was turned into a park in 1983.

We walked down the bluff to a nice beach. Bobbi thought about putting on a bathing suit and going swimming, until she put a foot in the water.

We parked outside Lewes on the beach. We thought the town was close, so we has a 3/4 mile walk. Lewes is small.  We walked along the main street. Then bought a puzzle and Bobbi bought Tate's coconut cookies.

We were caught in a downpour on the way back. We hid under an awning of a restaurant. Tim solved the puzzle. We finally made it back to the van, but the sidewalks were flooded.

We drove to NJ and arrived at 5:30. We walked investigated the house until Nagisa and Oscar arrived.


They live on a four acre farm that they are farming organically by contract. They have two dogs. Nagisa cooked a delicious meal with fresh veggies, tuna, and lobster tail. We sat in the living room until it was time for bed. A ticking noise woke Tim at two in the morning. He had to turn on white noise to get back to sleep.




July 7 - Thursday

Nagisa was up early to take Oscar to work. We heard her in the kitchen making breakfast. We ate frittata with Swiss chard. Yum. Drove to Simply Yoga toward Princeton, shopped at Landau. Tim bought two t-shirts, Bobbi bought socks. We were given an apple each.

It rained, so we helped Nagisa with shopping and plant watering at her Mother's. We drove around Princeton a bit.

Back at the house, we debated a walk, but Bobbi found out about a plumbing problem at her yoga school. Time until dinner was occupied with that. Dinner was soybean and corn in soy sauce, a salad with crab meat and avocado. The main course was pasta with crab meat. Zucchini flowers for appetizer. We sat around in the living room until time for bed. Bobbi packed for LA. Oscar tried to change the pick up time for the limo, but had no luck.

July 8 - Friday

Bobbi left at 6 am. Everyone was up to see her off. Oscar left for work after breakfast of steel-cut oats and an egg. Tim hung out until 10:30 and then hit the road.

Tim drove the Taconic Parkway to Copake Falls. The rain started a little when he got to Mt. Washington HQ. The old HQ is a work shed. The old garage is now the HQ. The parking lot has more trees. The old house is gone, but the memories remain.

Tim drove to Mt. Everett. The rain came down hard as Tim got ready for a ride. The rain let up and Tim rode up the road. About half way up, the rain started getting heavy. Tim was already wet, so he kept going. The beaver damn is avoided with a black culvert. The old house and latrines are gone. The road from the lake to the top is closed to cars. Time walked most of the way to the top. Some kids were in the shelter, they had walked from the parking lot by the lake.

Tim started up the fire road to the tower, but the trail was rocky and washed out and thunder started rolling in. The ride down took less than 10 minutes.

Tim had a salad and a burger for dinner.

July 9 - Saturday

Tim walked to Bash Bish from the Copake Falls parking lot in NY. The falls were crowded. Tim took pictures of all the old spots, from above, from below, from the pool, from across the pool. More memories. Many years have passed over the falls since he worked here.




















Drove to Beartown State Park. Missed the campground and drove to Lee, over a very nasty road for the van. Came back around and found the campground, just a bit of lawn next to the road. Ate, left the bikes and headed to Tanglewood.


Parked in the West lot by the exit. Wandered the grounds in a drizzle. Listened to the prelude from outside. Talked to a nice lady who was glad I was next to her, not in front of her. The concert was grand: Debussey, "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn"; Ravle, "Dophin et Chloe"; Orff, "Carmina Burana". The soprano Nadine Sierra was good, the baritone Stephen Powell was excellent. Tim did not enjoy the tenor Jean-Frances Monvoisin.

Drove back on 183 to Rt 7 above Great Barrington. More memories of driving those roads with Doug, Jay and Jimmy.