Christmastime in Boston & NYC

Family Christmastimes in the City:

Boston & NYC

♫City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style.♫

          We haven’t had any big city Christmas experiences in a while, so it’s nice to have some opportunities to take in the sights of Boston & New York with family. Our pre-Christmas jaunts begin Friday 12/9 with a drive to Boston on a brisk clear AM. WMHT treats us to an hour of musical satirist Tom Lehrer (on his 88^th birthday!), including the classic ♫Poisoning Pigeons in the Park♫. 

           Marjorie’s sister Mary and hubbie Jeff are generously sharing their Marriott Vacation Club time-share at the historic Custom House. The Custom House was established in the 17th century and stood near the waterfront in several locations thru the years. The current building dates to 1847, adding a tower in 1915, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s not the Riverside in NYC (an inside joke), but it’ll do very nicely: a pretty Christmas tree in the lobby beneath a high colorful rotunda, we share a 2-room suite. A great location, view of Old North Church from our room, Faneuil Hall & Quincy Market a block away. I head up to the 26^th-floor observation deck for photos of harbor and city; peregrine falcons reside up here. 

Fall in Virginia & North Carolina

Leaf-Peeping in the Smokies

October 2016

          It’s been a busy Fall for traveling: Midwest visits w/ family & friends around Labor Day, Marjorie then off for 2 weeks visiting her sister Mary in KC and friend Diane in Santa Fe, back for 2 weeks and now we’re both headin’ south to catch Fall colors. One of our 1^st trips together was to the Smokies in Spring 1973 when we were still living in Wisconsin: Mammoth Cave KY, thru Tennessee and The Hermitage, Asheville, Great Smoky Mountains Nat’l Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, back to WI thru West Virginia. Flowers in the mountains & gorges were beautiful, and we’ve wanted to get back in the Fall. Not such a wide-ranging trip this time, focusing on the Blue Ridge Parkway and Smokies. 

Joined by good friend Marlene, whose daughter Lisa lives in Charlotte where we’ve planned a stop to see friends Carl & Betty (forgot to check on their gendered bathroom policy; hopefully we won’t have to boycott like other events in NC). Marlene has successfully recuperated from a knee injury; we’ve assured her we’ll stop if she sees things of interest to her: “If you see something, say something.” 

Midwest Connections & Icons

Midwest Connections & Icons

Labor Day 2016

Tues., 8/30:

          Early in the summer John Delamater, my dissertation advisor at Wisconsin, sent a “save the date” e-mail about his upcoming retirement and dinner to mark the occasion. We initially sent regrets that we would not be able to attend. But John’s reply  ̶  noting that I had been only his 3^rd doctoral student (we both arrived at UW in 1969) and one of his most accomplished (very nice of him to say!)  ̶  made me feel quite the ungrateful wretch. Plus: John has been a good friend as long as Marjorie and I have been married; and he seemed somewhat at odds about retiring, maybe needing some counseling from a social gerontologist who has been retired now for a year. So we refigured our schedule, cashed in United flyer miles, and arranged to combine John’s bash with visits to family & friends.

Philadelphia

Philly Phun

August 2016

 

          Haven’t been to a wedding in a while. So we were delighted to be invited to the wedding of friend/colleague/coauthor Glenn and former student Kelly in Philadelphia, which we’ve visited only briefly. And our 1^st experience with honeyfund.com, a registry website for making gifts to support honeymoon stuff; e.g. for G & K: cruise shore excursions and special dining, train trips and tours in Italy, etc. It’s a nice way to feel like part of their planning. 

Initially expected to drive down, instead we join friend/colleague/coauthor Glenna and hubbie Paul on the train  ̶  a good and relaxing choice. Friday 8/5 on-time sunny ride along the Hudson to NYC, the usual pretty scenery: a couple of little mid-river lighthouses, views of the Catskills, Bannerman Castle on a small island, West Point, ongoing construction work on the Tappan Zee, plus a white whale float next to a building onshore (must be a parade leftover).

New England Outings

New England Outing

May 2016

          We’re finally getting around to visiting Alice & Rick (friends from my undergrad days at the U of Rochester) in their new digs in Pelham NH. Tho a mainly social visit, can’t help but do some trip planning. Pelham itself doesn’t seem too promising; TripAdvisor list only 2 “Things to Do”: Pinball Wizard Arcade, Chunky’s Cinema. But I did find a few interesting spots for our drive to & fro thru Vermont and New Hampshire.

          Up early on Wed. 5/25. We’ve been busy around the yard trimming shrubs and Marjorie has the garden already in good shape. Lots of yard bags and bundles to the street for pickup. A sunny AM, headed to the 80s today, appropriate for the Memorial Day weekend unofficial start of summer. A pretty drive to Bennington VT, past our 1^st Moose Crossing sign. 

Canandaigua: Springtime Christmas

AprYule

April 16-17, 2016

          It’s been something of a family tradition to have belated Christmas celebrations in response to bad weather or family schedules that prevent getting everyone together in late December. This year will be particularly late for various reasons, but mid-April seems a quite agreeable time to have a family gathering. We’ve selected Canandaigua as a central meeting site: Marjorie & I coming from Albany, my brother Doug & sister-in-law Ann coming the farthest from Midland MI, stepsister Mar from Fort Erie Ontario, cousins Marcia & Bob from closer-by Ithaca & Geneva. Since we were away in Vietnam in March, we left it to Doug to pick a place to rendezvous. He seemed a bit apologetic about his choice of the Miami Motel: less expensive but maybe a bit too kitschy w/ pink flamingos and other such adornments. But it was well-reviewed in TripAdvisor. And the combo of Christmas in April (christened “AprYule” by Mar) in the Finger Lakes with a Floridian ambience seems appropriately quirky . . . and, as noted below, his choice will get thumbs-up from the whole gang! 

Vietnam

Visiting Vietnam

March 2016

Vietnam? Really? That’s a common response to our trip. What led us to travel to Vietnam? The Socialist Republic of Vietnam has a complicated history for Americans, considering the war and anti-war protests during our own youth. During my 1^st year of graduate school at Wisconsin, in the midst of anti-war protests (I remember the National Guard marching down Johnson St. in Madison lobbing tear gas!), I was fortunate to get a high “score” on the draft lottery. So I didn’t personally face the difficult decisions and experiences of many of my peers. Many years later, images of Vietnam are much different.  And it offers a beautiful & exotic opportunity to visit a very different culture. We’ve been to Asia geographically, 2 trips to Turkey crossed the Bosporus into “Asia Minor,” but that didn’t seem a truly Asian experience. Travel to China raises concerns both political and environmental. So we were attracted by a “12 Day Classic Vietnam” tour offered by Gate1, a company with which we’ve had excellent travel experiences both independent & escorted (5 previous Gate1 for me, 4 for Marjorie). The itinerary looked excellent, though some of the history noted above was reflected in a cautionary note that some might be uncomfortable doing an optional tour thru a tunnel network built by the Viet Cong; we skipped it. Vietnam seems a popular and welcoming destination: friends Don & Lyla recently returned w/ some tips on sights, shopping, and restaurants; my student I-Hsin has also traveled in the area; and we’ve heard good things from others. Son Matt gave us Traveler & Fodor’s books for help w/ planning.

Saratoga & Glens Falls with Grandsons

Presidents’ Week with the Boys

February 2016

          We thought school vacation during Presidents’ Week would be a good time to have grandsons William & Miles up for a visit. Matt & Anthea agreed, given their complicated schedules. Sat. 2/15 we rendezvous with Matt & the boys at our favorite half-way New Paltz diner for dinner. The fun starts that evening with a rousing UNO game, made more so when UNO hustler William keeps trying to insert his “school rules” (he plays regularly at the after-school program  ̶  hope he’s not gambling his lunch money). We ruled them out of order, but promised to use them later in their stay when we all know what they are. His variations do prove to spice things up a bit and move the game along faster. We also manage to work in an Aggravation game during their visit. 

          A “polar vortex” comes thru during the night, and we awake Sunday to -13°F, wind chill of  -30°! NYC Central Park is below 0 for the 1^st time since 1994, so this is surely the coldest the boys have experienced. But such weather is not unfamiliar to those of us who’ve lived in Wisconsin, and we’re undaunted for our busy Valentine’s Day. Grandma has put goodies on the kitchen table for the boys (Grandpa included). While I’m singing with the choir William & Miles make colorful Valentine posters that are sent via phone to Mom & Dad in Queens. I return and we all head up the Northway about 30 miles to Saratoga.  

Saratoga Mid-Winter Interlude

Saratoga Interlude

Winter 2016

           For Christmas I gave Marjorie a LivingSocial voucher as a “Post-Holidays Decompression Kit”: overnight at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Spa State Park plus discount for the Roosevelt Baths & Spa and tickets to either the Automobile Museum or National Museum of Dance (we decide to save the latter for grandson Miles, the dancer in the family). M supplemented this with vouchers for wine-tasting & dinner. Since we don’t get going until the end of January, it seems we should call it a “Mid-Winter Interlude.”

Holidays

Holidays

          This sampling of photos from selected holidays, like my previous “Seasons” post, departs from the explicit travel focus of most of my posts on this blog. But as with “Seasons,” many of the photos here entailed some travel. And besides, it’s my blog so I guess I can do what I want! I’ll focus primarily on Halloween & Christmas, the most colorful & decorated holidays.

Halloween

          I began the “Seasons” post with fall, so it seems appropriate to begin here with Halloween. Halloween can be spooky. 

 

But mostly it just seems fun.