Monday 31st December
Once again we invited ourselves to Washington DC for New Year celebrations and, as always, we had a great time. M scooted off on a boys night out to the local stadium to join 70,000 others to watch the Redskins vs the Dallas Cowboys football game. Apparently tickets to these events are harder to come by than ones to watch a Manchester United soccer match and this game was a qualifier for the super bowl playoffs so the stadium was full to the seams. On the night the right team won, but they didn't fair so well afterwards. Is it only in USA where folks would head off 4hrs ahead of the game in the dead of winter for a "tail gate" party, take beer in the cooler (to warm it up?) and think of taking a portable grill? Anyhow - this is what they did - I think when we think nothing of this we will be fully localised. Not yet I fear. Nor was M sufficiently well equipped with clothes - he has been on the hunt for thermally lined jeans ever since.
We also enjoyed a meander around Ellicott City Maryland (http://ellicottcity.net/index.html) - founded by 3 brothers in 1770ish, it is on the Patapsco river where they were able to grow wheat and then mill it later. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad runs through the town and whilst we were there we saw one of those 100+ wagonned trains wind slowly up the valley on its way cross country. They always remind me that this is BIG continent and I half expect Michael Palin to be hanging out the window. The town now is full of antique shops and cafes and made a very pleasant interlude.
Thanks very much for a fun few days. 2013 and yet more US adventures await - I am hoping that we will be better prepared for some of them this time around. Happy New Year!
Monday 31 December 2012
Tuesday 6 November 2012
Election Day
Tuesday 6th November
US election day has arrived - for the first time in a long while we are mere observers in an election rather than being able to participate. In fact that in itself is rather odd and has got us thinking about the importance of being able to cast one's opinion in national matters. However, for once, this post isn't supposed to be about us.
We have been fairly immune to the electoral campaign until the past few days. This is because we have yet to fully engage with US television and although Pennsylvania is a swing state, it is not one of the most critical. However, in the past few days, posters have popped up on all the highways and local gardens, radio adverts have come thick and fast and Mit Romney (and the BBC) have arrived in nearby Bucks County for a Republican rally.
Once again the children are much better informed than we are in matters relating to USA. They can tell us the qualifying requirements to stand for President, the main campaign points of the candidates, they have voted in a mock election but, most importantly, they can explain the Electoral College. So, for the baffled out there, here goes. Each state is awarded a number of votes in an electoral college roughly in proportion to its population. The largest number of votes are held by California (54) and several states have only a handful of electoral votes. The candidate wins by gaining 270 electoral votes. A state awards all of their votes to one candidate based on how the citizens of that state votes. Pennsylvania has 20 votes, and as I write, has called for Obama but the final results of the election will not be known until tomorrow after the close states of Florida, Ohio, Viriginia announce their results. The election today is not just for the President but also for the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as local state representatives, but we have yet to work out these more complicated aspects. The most interesting thing I learned today was about voting access. Following abolition of slavery many attempts were made to try to limit access to voting by introducing various hurdles eg educational requirements etc. Several Supreme Court decisions later and the upshot is that bureaucratic requirements associated with voting are absolutely minimised (unless of course you are a legal alien). We await the result with interest (via BBC World Service of course!).
US election day has arrived - for the first time in a long while we are mere observers in an election rather than being able to participate. In fact that in itself is rather odd and has got us thinking about the importance of being able to cast one's opinion in national matters. However, for once, this post isn't supposed to be about us.
We have been fairly immune to the electoral campaign until the past few days. This is because we have yet to fully engage with US television and although Pennsylvania is a swing state, it is not one of the most critical. However, in the past few days, posters have popped up on all the highways and local gardens, radio adverts have come thick and fast and Mit Romney (and the BBC) have arrived in nearby Bucks County for a Republican rally.
Once again the children are much better informed than we are in matters relating to USA. They can tell us the qualifying requirements to stand for President, the main campaign points of the candidates, they have voted in a mock election but, most importantly, they can explain the Electoral College. So, for the baffled out there, here goes. Each state is awarded a number of votes in an electoral college roughly in proportion to its population. The largest number of votes are held by California (54) and several states have only a handful of electoral votes. The candidate wins by gaining 270 electoral votes. A state awards all of their votes to one candidate based on how the citizens of that state votes. Pennsylvania has 20 votes, and as I write, has called for Obama but the final results of the election will not be known until tomorrow after the close states of Florida, Ohio, Viriginia announce their results. The election today is not just for the President but also for the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as local state representatives, but we have yet to work out these more complicated aspects. The most interesting thing I learned today was about voting access. Following abolition of slavery many attempts were made to try to limit access to voting by introducing various hurdles eg educational requirements etc. Several Supreme Court decisions later and the upshot is that bureaucratic requirements associated with voting are absolutely minimised (unless of course you are a legal alien). We await the result with interest (via BBC World Service of course!).
Sunday 4 November 2012
Remember, remember......
Sunday 4th November
We are determined to foist our British ways on the locals and bonfire night seemed a good start. We had had plans of holding a small party to get together with new found friends but, despite now having enough debris for many a bonfire, we were slightly foiled by our health and safety hazard of a fallen tree balancing on power lines in our garden and the local state laws on fireworks which make it illegal for a PA state resident to purchase or transport fireworks in PA (apparently you need to go to New Jersey). Instead we settled for a session with 1st grade on Friday telling them the story of the plot and teaching them to remember remember, and, this evening, hot chocolate, chocolate cake and sparklers with the closest neighbours around a small fire pit. The weather even obliged by cooling down to feel like the real McCoy! We can build up to something more akin to the real thing next year.
We are determined to foist our British ways on the locals and bonfire night seemed a good start. We had had plans of holding a small party to get together with new found friends but, despite now having enough debris for many a bonfire, we were slightly foiled by our health and safety hazard of a fallen tree balancing on power lines in our garden and the local state laws on fireworks which make it illegal for a PA state resident to purchase or transport fireworks in PA (apparently you need to go to New Jersey). Instead we settled for a session with 1st grade on Friday telling them the story of the plot and teaching them to remember remember, and, this evening, hot chocolate, chocolate cake and sparklers with the closest neighbours around a small fire pit. The weather even obliged by cooling down to feel like the real McCoy! We can build up to something more akin to the real thing next year.
Wednesday 31 October 2012
Halloween fun
Wednesday 31st October
It has been a tense couple of days if you are under 10 wondering if the adults around you will have recovered themselves enough for the long awaited Halloween. Fortunately, with life resuming a more normal ebb and flow (to the background hum of generators at least), Halloween was declared ON.
The fun began at school with a Halloween parade and parties all afternoon. The Summers were represented by a spooky witch and a vampire but local etiquette says anything goes - including a cheese ball! The party games were a success and seemed to include one which we have yet to try at home - race to dress a mummy.
As darkness fell, one now transformed skeleton and one vampire, joined one panda, one caterina, one rock chick, one spider man and one very tiny whale to trick and treat. Lantern lit and loot sacks in hand the children, accompanied by a few watchful adults (thank you guests R&G), toured from house to house in a mostly loud but otherwise not very scary fashion to collect candy, candy and more candy. The adults were fortified by a beverage or two along the way. We thought we had limited proceedings to a fairly manageable tour but that was before we took on the "haunted" house......
I fear that the occupant of the rather large house at the end of an even longer drive had not had the "pleasure" of trick and treaters for some many years. However, although surprised, she was determined to oblige. The English accent proved the first downfall and we were taken on tour of her artwork, Drury Lane original 18th century flyer, and Lady Hamilton original china (although it took several pairs of hands to rescue the plates as they fell domino style from the dresser). The children safely ushered back outside we were given a tour of the portraits of the US ancestors - again many pairs of hands were needed to catch the toppling easels. There followed a moment when she hid in the kitchen wing hoping we would disappear, and we wondered if we should, but ginger nut biscuits followed. A hasty retreat beaten, a sub-team were forced to return after recusing the escaped dog and G and g were then persuaded to fill individual sacks for the children with various traditional goodies. That is the last time I follow the locals on a mad cap scheme.
All in all though a fun and harmless holiday and, as expected, enough candy now in the house to last until Christmas.
It has been a tense couple of days if you are under 10 wondering if the adults around you will have recovered themselves enough for the long awaited Halloween. Fortunately, with life resuming a more normal ebb and flow (to the background hum of generators at least), Halloween was declared ON.
The fun began at school with a Halloween parade and parties all afternoon. The Summers were represented by a spooky witch and a vampire but local etiquette says anything goes - including a cheese ball! The party games were a success and seemed to include one which we have yet to try at home - race to dress a mummy.
As darkness fell, one now transformed skeleton and one vampire, joined one panda, one caterina, one rock chick, one spider man and one very tiny whale to trick and treat. Lantern lit and loot sacks in hand the children, accompanied by a few watchful adults (thank you guests R&G), toured from house to house in a mostly loud but otherwise not very scary fashion to collect candy, candy and more candy. The adults were fortified by a beverage or two along the way. We thought we had limited proceedings to a fairly manageable tour but that was before we took on the "haunted" house......
I fear that the occupant of the rather large house at the end of an even longer drive had not had the "pleasure" of trick and treaters for some many years. However, although surprised, she was determined to oblige. The English accent proved the first downfall and we were taken on tour of her artwork, Drury Lane original 18th century flyer, and Lady Hamilton original china (although it took several pairs of hands to rescue the plates as they fell domino style from the dresser). The children safely ushered back outside we were given a tour of the portraits of the US ancestors - again many pairs of hands were needed to catch the toppling easels. There followed a moment when she hid in the kitchen wing hoping we would disappear, and we wondered if we should, but ginger nut biscuits followed. A hasty retreat beaten, a sub-team were forced to return after recusing the escaped dog and G and g were then persuaded to fill individual sacks for the children with various traditional goodies. That is the last time I follow the locals on a mad cap scheme.
All in all though a fun and harmless holiday and, as expected, enough candy now in the house to last until Christmas.
Tuesday 30 October 2012
The day after the night before
Tuesday 30th October
Another first for the whole family. Today we have awoken (those of us that slept at least) to the aftermath of "Frankenstorm" - our first real experience of big continent weather and the wrath of the Gods. We had spent a frantic two days preparing - clearing our basement and putting the remainder of the things down there on bricks in case of flooding; clearing up all the fallen leaves and branches in the garden (why?); doing all the washing and ironing in anticipation of at least a few days without power; filling containers with water (who would buy a house with an electricity powered well?); packing the emergency bags in case we needed to walk out of the house in the middle of the night; and watching the weather forecast in minute detail. Whichever way up we held the map the eye of the storm was predicted to come pretty much over the top of us.
The weather was building up over the weekend and by Sunday evening school was shut for Monday and work was closed from lunchtime onwards. Monday dawned wet and windy, but not as wet and windy as it would get. By early afternoon the rain was fair lashing down and our pool was rapidly filling up with water (all in all 12" fell in 1 day). All started to look as though it might go horribly wrong when, at about 4pm, a check of our basement revealed that the water table had risen to such a height that the pressure was "popping" the plugs in the thirty year old termite treatment holes and water was bubbling in. Like a boy with a damn, M was down there quick as a flash eager to use his wet and dry vac and get some dowels hammered in to try to stem the flow - it worked a treat but it is strange to walk away and say we just need to leave it and hope.
We had decided to sleep on the ground floor to save us either from when the roof lifted off or a tree came crashing down. All was quite exciting (in a good way) as we settled down to watch "Up" before bed. Then about 7.30pm we lost power - it really is very very dark when that happens in our street. Fortunately it came back after a few minutes - but it was a sign - everyone to bed, quick sharp. The night was long, windy, wet, full of strange crashes and bangs and a mini fireworks display on the other side of the street as their electricity supply was cut off. But ...... most of the family slept very peacefully.
This morning we are know we have been very lucky. We still have power (although the other side of the street don't); our house and drive are untouched (apart from the small puddle downstairs); and we have only lost one tall tree (although it is now resting rather precariously on the power lines at the back of our property but at least it did not flatten next door's chickens). School and work are both closed for today as well - lucky because we can't leave the house anyway due to fallen trees in the roads around - but today we can spend some time clearing up - there are a lot of leaves and fallen branches to clear (?!?) and maybe carve some pumpkins. We know those in surrounding states were not so lucky though so we wish them well. Also, will R & G make it out of NYC to us? This was a hairy part of the adventure!
Another first for the whole family. Today we have awoken (those of us that slept at least) to the aftermath of "Frankenstorm" - our first real experience of big continent weather and the wrath of the Gods. We had spent a frantic two days preparing - clearing our basement and putting the remainder of the things down there on bricks in case of flooding; clearing up all the fallen leaves and branches in the garden (why?); doing all the washing and ironing in anticipation of at least a few days without power; filling containers with water (who would buy a house with an electricity powered well?); packing the emergency bags in case we needed to walk out of the house in the middle of the night; and watching the weather forecast in minute detail. Whichever way up we held the map the eye of the storm was predicted to come pretty much over the top of us.
The weather was building up over the weekend and by Sunday evening school was shut for Monday and work was closed from lunchtime onwards. Monday dawned wet and windy, but not as wet and windy as it would get. By early afternoon the rain was fair lashing down and our pool was rapidly filling up with water (all in all 12" fell in 1 day). All started to look as though it might go horribly wrong when, at about 4pm, a check of our basement revealed that the water table had risen to such a height that the pressure was "popping" the plugs in the thirty year old termite treatment holes and water was bubbling in. Like a boy with a damn, M was down there quick as a flash eager to use his wet and dry vac and get some dowels hammered in to try to stem the flow - it worked a treat but it is strange to walk away and say we just need to leave it and hope.
We had decided to sleep on the ground floor to save us either from when the roof lifted off or a tree came crashing down. All was quite exciting (in a good way) as we settled down to watch "Up" before bed. Then about 7.30pm we lost power - it really is very very dark when that happens in our street. Fortunately it came back after a few minutes - but it was a sign - everyone to bed, quick sharp. The night was long, windy, wet, full of strange crashes and bangs and a mini fireworks display on the other side of the street as their electricity supply was cut off. But ...... most of the family slept very peacefully.
This morning we are know we have been very lucky. We still have power (although the other side of the street don't); our house and drive are untouched (apart from the small puddle downstairs); and we have only lost one tall tree (although it is now resting rather precariously on the power lines at the back of our property but at least it did not flatten next door's chickens). School and work are both closed for today as well - lucky because we can't leave the house anyway due to fallen trees in the roads around - but today we can spend some time clearing up - there are a lot of leaves and fallen branches to clear (?!?) and maybe carve some pumpkins. We know those in surrounding states were not so lucky though so we wish them well. Also, will R & G make it out of NYC to us? This was a hairy part of the adventure!
Saturday 27 October 2012
The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra
Saturday 27th October
Today I had the pleasure of accompanying G and two of her friends into Philadelphia for a family performance of the Philadelphia Symphony orchestra. By chance I had stumbled upon the event when idly searching for local things to do - a series of 5 family concerts in a year - certainly our sort of thing. First up was the music of American composer Aaron Copland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Copland) and a concert on the theme of cowboys and callaberos.
The concert was held at the Kimmel centre (http://www.kimmelcenter.org/) in downtown Philly and even the train ride was an adventure for these girls. The orchestral concert hall itself is built in the shape of a cello and that is pretty interesting to see. The orchestra and audience were clearly ready for fun with many dressed for the part. The event was introduced by the orchestra's new musical director (Yannick Nezet-Seguin) - he didn't seem quite so prepared for the fun appearing somewhat apologetically on stage with what appeared to be some half hitched props. The concert itself was hosted by Jamie Bernstein - daughter of Leonard Bernstein. She skilfully guided us through excerpts from "Billy the Kid" and "Rodeo" nicely setting the scene for the audience and introducing the different instruments, tempos and musical mood from enormous prairies through one horse towns to Mexican villages. She even got us all singing by teaching us a couple of traditional cowboy tunes - poor "Old Painter".
We all had a fun day out rounded off by takeout chicken and FRIES (I will gloss over the scuffle that broke out in the restaurant between the staff and a lady "acquiring"something to drink as we were waiting - I don't think the children will be mentally scarred). A quick round of Happy Families on the return journey to round off a pleasant trip.
Today I had the pleasure of accompanying G and two of her friends into Philadelphia for a family performance of the Philadelphia Symphony orchestra. By chance I had stumbled upon the event when idly searching for local things to do - a series of 5 family concerts in a year - certainly our sort of thing. First up was the music of American composer Aaron Copland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Copland) and a concert on the theme of cowboys and callaberos.
The concert was held at the Kimmel centre (http://www.kimmelcenter.org/) in downtown Philly and even the train ride was an adventure for these girls. The orchestral concert hall itself is built in the shape of a cello and that is pretty interesting to see. The orchestra and audience were clearly ready for fun with many dressed for the part. The event was introduced by the orchestra's new musical director (Yannick Nezet-Seguin) - he didn't seem quite so prepared for the fun appearing somewhat apologetically on stage with what appeared to be some half hitched props. The concert itself was hosted by Jamie Bernstein - daughter of Leonard Bernstein. She skilfully guided us through excerpts from "Billy the Kid" and "Rodeo" nicely setting the scene for the audience and introducing the different instruments, tempos and musical mood from enormous prairies through one horse towns to Mexican villages. She even got us all singing by teaching us a couple of traditional cowboy tunes - poor "Old Painter".
We all had a fun day out rounded off by takeout chicken and FRIES (I will gloss over the scuffle that broke out in the restaurant between the staff and a lady "acquiring"something to drink as we were waiting - I don't think the children will be mentally scarred). A quick round of Happy Families on the return journey to round off a pleasant trip.
Sunday 21 October 2012
The pumpkin patch
Sunday 21st October
Call us naive, but we thought that pumpkins were pretty much pumpkins and that there were bigger ones for carving and marginally smaller ones for eating. How very wrong we were! The season of Fall, which will culminate with Thanksgiving, has seen a positive proliferation of gourds of all shapes and sizes springing up wherever you look. There are huge ones balanced on hay bales at the end of drives. There are carved ones springing up along drives. There are towers of them balanced around doorways like bay trees to welcome you. There are gooseneck ones artfully curving around mail boxes and fences. There are green ones, white ones, orange ones, knobby ones, smooth ones, small ones, large ones, stripy ones, spotty ones - in fact it is fair to say - it is gourd - tastic.
Eager to join in the gourd fun, we headed to the attractively named Milky Way farm (http://www.milkywayfarm.com/) to visit their pumpkin patch and choose our own. The farm is set in rolling countryside which was all very reminiscent of the home counties. We started with a foray into the maize maze and spent a pleasant half an hour lost among the tall stalks entertained by the farming quiz. A short stroll across fields to the pumpkin patch, and we were in gourd heaven selecting from hundreds of pumpkins. A lot of discussion - not one which was bruised, not one which was too elongated, not one which was too scarred - finally two suitable carvers were chosen and a novelty "peanut" pumpkin for the mantelpiece. We loaded our pumpkins into the hay wagon and headed back to the farm. Much drier than last time we visited a pumpkin patch 3 years ago!
The day was topped off by ice-cram from the creamery. In my opinion it is the best ice-cream so far on this side of the Atlantic although the grown ups were marginally let down by choosing the seasonal pumpkin (which of course really meant cinnamon). Delicious peanut butter caramel, rocky road and coconut though (what is it with the children and coconut flavoured ice-cream?). We will definitely be back for that again.
I am still not sure how I feel about the environmental impact of all these gourds - surely the land could / should have been used for growing food? I can't deny though that the houses do all look great.
Call us naive, but we thought that pumpkins were pretty much pumpkins and that there were bigger ones for carving and marginally smaller ones for eating. How very wrong we were! The season of Fall, which will culminate with Thanksgiving, has seen a positive proliferation of gourds of all shapes and sizes springing up wherever you look. There are huge ones balanced on hay bales at the end of drives. There are carved ones springing up along drives. There are towers of them balanced around doorways like bay trees to welcome you. There are gooseneck ones artfully curving around mail boxes and fences. There are green ones, white ones, orange ones, knobby ones, smooth ones, small ones, large ones, stripy ones, spotty ones - in fact it is fair to say - it is gourd - tastic.
Eager to join in the gourd fun, we headed to the attractively named Milky Way farm (http://www.milkywayfarm.com/) to visit their pumpkin patch and choose our own. The farm is set in rolling countryside which was all very reminiscent of the home counties. We started with a foray into the maize maze and spent a pleasant half an hour lost among the tall stalks entertained by the farming quiz. A short stroll across fields to the pumpkin patch, and we were in gourd heaven selecting from hundreds of pumpkins. A lot of discussion - not one which was bruised, not one which was too elongated, not one which was too scarred - finally two suitable carvers were chosen and a novelty "peanut" pumpkin for the mantelpiece. We loaded our pumpkins into the hay wagon and headed back to the farm. Much drier than last time we visited a pumpkin patch 3 years ago!
The day was topped off by ice-cram from the creamery. In my opinion it is the best ice-cream so far on this side of the Atlantic although the grown ups were marginally let down by choosing the seasonal pumpkin (which of course really meant cinnamon). Delicious peanut butter caramel, rocky road and coconut though (what is it with the children and coconut flavoured ice-cream?). We will definitely be back for that again.
I am still not sure how I feel about the environmental impact of all these gourds - surely the land could / should have been used for growing food? I can't deny though that the houses do all look great.
Thursday 6 September 2012
Ice-cream social
Thursday 6th September
Well - everyone back to school for the new school year. There has actually been something quite comforting about the return- mostly because it is, at least in part, familiar and a reminder that life does not continue to be one constant assult of change. It was good to see friends again and there are plenty of new ones to be made as the school muddles all the children each year. Whole thing is kicked off by an ice-cream social evening - still warm enough for shorts and T-shirts (and even the insects seem to have died down although the cicadas are still chirping away). It is very nice to have friends at the bus stop now (our previous stop was a little lonely) even if our Cape Cod whale did not quite make it to school in one piece.
Well - everyone back to school for the new school year. There has actually been something quite comforting about the return- mostly because it is, at least in part, familiar and a reminder that life does not continue to be one constant assult of change. It was good to see friends again and there are plenty of new ones to be made as the school muddles all the children each year. Whole thing is kicked off by an ice-cream social evening - still warm enough for shorts and T-shirts (and even the insects seem to have died down although the cicadas are still chirping away). It is very nice to have friends at the bus stop now (our previous stop was a little lonely) even if our Cape Cod whale did not quite make it to school in one piece.
Sunday 26 August 2012
Zippidy do dah........it was a wonderful day
Sunday 26th August
Another special girl's birthday today - she awoke to find out that the mysterious new washing line in the garden was not really a new washing line at all - but her new zip line - well large garden, even larger trees - it had to be done. First user - obviously the constuctor and G&C were not allowed near for quite some time, but eventually it was up and running. Only dissenting voice so far is the neighbours dog (but mostly because of the running around and screaming I think).
Party - crazy bowling with friends - full medal ceremony followed - all taken in good spirts except C who didn't like her prize for the slowest ball bowled.
Thanks to Grandma for joining us.
Party - crazy bowling with friends - full medal ceremony followed - all taken in good spirts except C who didn't like her prize for the slowest ball bowled.
Thanks to Grandma for joining us.
Saturday 25 August 2012
On the trail of the Pilgrim Fathers in Cape Cod
Sunday 19th - Friday 24th August
Most people remember that the Pilgrim Fathers landed in Plymouth Massachusetts after their epic transatlantic crossing on the Mayflower (commissioned in Canterbury Kent), but in actual fact history records that they first came ashore in America at what is now Province Town at the very tip of Cape Cod. The 100ish Sepratists had left Plymouth Devon in September 1820 and after 8ish weeks at sea arrived in Cape Cod bay in early November 1620. First job to write and sign the Mayflower Compact (the first government document to be written in USA - full text can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower_Compact), in which the settlers promise to support each other to ensure survival and, interestingly, even though they were fleeing religious persecution, swears on-going allegence to the King (King James I). Whilst anchored here they also undertook 3 forrays ashore to find firewood, fresh water, and investigate the land for crop growing potential. Ashore they found evidence of the Native Americans who were living there at the time (although the locals fled on sight of the Europeans) and proceeded to ransack their stores of grain to plant themselves (not a great first step in diplomatic relations but likely necessary for survival). After 5 weeks the Pilgrims decided that the Cape and its sandy soil and dunes was not for them and so set off again to the land mass that they could see vaguely on the horizon, ultimately landing on that famous rock and establishing their settlement.
The Cape though makes a wonderful holiday destination and so we headed here for a few nights camping. It is one of the biggest barrier islands in the world (forming part of USA National Seashore) and its hooked shape is well known. It was disconnected from the mainland in 1916 when an entrepreneaur built Cape Cod canal across the isthmus. It consists of huge dunes and long white sandy beaches on the Atlantic Shore which protect the mainland from Atlantic storms (but at great expense to local erosion - it is about 1000ft narrower now than when those Pilgrims arrived here) and it has grassy inlets and calm harbours on the inside of the hook. Dotted across the island are fresh water ponds for kyaking and swimming and chocolate box villages New England style of clapper board cottages and tall steppled churches intringuingly named after small towns in UK (Sandwich being a crowd pleaser). The colours are all creams, lime greems and turquoise blues that you expect and it is of course holiday destination of choice for many rich and famous including the Kennedy's. This is the sort of place for me.
The Cape is also famous for its lighthouses. A map of the shipwrecks off the coastline rivals the Cornish coast and so in 1797 George Washington himself as President authorised the building of the first ligthhouse at Highland Point. Two more followed shortly and, bless those nineteenth century Americans, they decided to shun the British ways of distinguishing one light from another using different flashing patterns, and do it their own way - building two lighthouses on the second site and then three on the third. Even they realised eventually that this couldn't go on but it does make for some interesting buildings all these years later. The Cape of course is also where the first Marconi radio signal was received, and where the transatlantic telephone cables come ashore - awash with interesting things to visit and links to UK.
Like our other trips this year, the days were filled with good and interesting experiences - cycling down the old railway line (until one of us went flying and we needed to turn around), fish and chips on the beach whilst nuturing our family of hermit crabs that we had caught on the receeding tide, wandering around Province town and viewing the various memorials to the Pilgrims, lighthouse tours of the 3 sisters with a Park Ranger, sunset on Nauset Light beach watching the seals frolicing in the waves and best of all a trip whale watching where we saw humpback whales, minke whales, flukes and blow holes by the dozen. Oh - and did I mention that the girls completed another Junior Ranger badge - the collection is growing.
Even the 6 state (Massechusets, Rhode Island, Conneticut, New York, New Jersey and finally Pennsylvania) 6 hour return car journey back home held some interest - well for the first 30minutes at least. Another good holiday to round off the summer vacation - back to school and work imminently for everyone.
Most people remember that the Pilgrim Fathers landed in Plymouth Massachusetts after their epic transatlantic crossing on the Mayflower (commissioned in Canterbury Kent), but in actual fact history records that they first came ashore in America at what is now Province Town at the very tip of Cape Cod. The 100ish Sepratists had left Plymouth Devon in September 1820 and after 8ish weeks at sea arrived in Cape Cod bay in early November 1620. First job to write and sign the Mayflower Compact (the first government document to be written in USA - full text can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower_Compact), in which the settlers promise to support each other to ensure survival and, interestingly, even though they were fleeing religious persecution, swears on-going allegence to the King (King James I). Whilst anchored here they also undertook 3 forrays ashore to find firewood, fresh water, and investigate the land for crop growing potential. Ashore they found evidence of the Native Americans who were living there at the time (although the locals fled on sight of the Europeans) and proceeded to ransack their stores of grain to plant themselves (not a great first step in diplomatic relations but likely necessary for survival). After 5 weeks the Pilgrims decided that the Cape and its sandy soil and dunes was not for them and so set off again to the land mass that they could see vaguely on the horizon, ultimately landing on that famous rock and establishing their settlement.
The Cape though makes a wonderful holiday destination and so we headed here for a few nights camping. It is one of the biggest barrier islands in the world (forming part of USA National Seashore) and its hooked shape is well known. It was disconnected from the mainland in 1916 when an entrepreneaur built Cape Cod canal across the isthmus. It consists of huge dunes and long white sandy beaches on the Atlantic Shore which protect the mainland from Atlantic storms (but at great expense to local erosion - it is about 1000ft narrower now than when those Pilgrims arrived here) and it has grassy inlets and calm harbours on the inside of the hook. Dotted across the island are fresh water ponds for kyaking and swimming and chocolate box villages New England style of clapper board cottages and tall steppled churches intringuingly named after small towns in UK (Sandwich being a crowd pleaser). The colours are all creams, lime greems and turquoise blues that you expect and it is of course holiday destination of choice for many rich and famous including the Kennedy's. This is the sort of place for me.
The Cape is also famous for its lighthouses. A map of the shipwrecks off the coastline rivals the Cornish coast and so in 1797 George Washington himself as President authorised the building of the first ligthhouse at Highland Point. Two more followed shortly and, bless those nineteenth century Americans, they decided to shun the British ways of distinguishing one light from another using different flashing patterns, and do it their own way - building two lighthouses on the second site and then three on the third. Even they realised eventually that this couldn't go on but it does make for some interesting buildings all these years later. The Cape of course is also where the first Marconi radio signal was received, and where the transatlantic telephone cables come ashore - awash with interesting things to visit and links to UK.
Like our other trips this year, the days were filled with good and interesting experiences - cycling down the old railway line (until one of us went flying and we needed to turn around), fish and chips on the beach whilst nuturing our family of hermit crabs that we had caught on the receeding tide, wandering around Province town and viewing the various memorials to the Pilgrims, lighthouse tours of the 3 sisters with a Park Ranger, sunset on Nauset Light beach watching the seals frolicing in the waves and best of all a trip whale watching where we saw humpback whales, minke whales, flukes and blow holes by the dozen. Oh - and did I mention that the girls completed another Junior Ranger badge - the collection is growing.
Sunday 19 August 2012
On the trail of the Revolutionaries in Boston
Friday 17th - Sunday 19th August
Where to go for our family summer holiday was something that puzzled us for a while - east and it gets a bit wet and we had already done some exploring there; south - no way, we couldn't stand the thought of hotter and stickier than where we are now; west - we had left it too late and didn't have quite enough time to justify a 6hr flight; so only 1 option left - north. We decided to impinge upon the hospitality of some former Sandwich colleagues and take the opportunity to explore Boston and then Cape Cod (see next post).
Boston was founded in 1630 by some Puritan colonists from England (not the Pilgrim Father's themselves but settlers who followed close on their heels) and has many links to the parts of American history that we are growing familiar with from Philadelphia. It was of course the site of some of the famous events in the run up to the Revolutionary war (more about that later) and also the birth place of Benjamin Franklin (who went on to be a significant member of the Philadelphia community after moving south following a fall out with his brother). Today it is one of the largest cities on the East Coast, capital of Massachusets, gateway to New England, and home to the Boston Red Sox (baseball team), the Cheers bar (from the sitcom) and Harvard University just across the Charles river in Cambridge. We were all excited to be going to explore.
Boston is a very beautiful city - it has much more of the European historical city about it than downtown sky scrapers (although it has a few of those too). Boston Common and the public gardens next door could be a park in England, weeping willows trailing in the water made good hiding places for hide and seek and the boats in the lake were very serene. Beacon Hill is the area of the city
famous for nineteenth century red brick town houses with beautiful windows reminiscent of houses in Bath and cobbled streets. And it all runs along the banks of the Charles river which was filled with sailing dinghys tacking to and fro whilst we were there. We spent a pleasant few hours wandering around enjoying the "sidewalks" and had the most amazing coconut and chocolate ice - creams - the only disappointment was that there was not enough time for more mozying in the designer shops (the like of which we do not really see in Paoli).
The tourists though (including us) have all come to follow "the freedom trail" (www.thefreedomtrail.org), a walk which guides you past the buildings significant in the run up to the War of Independence (known locally as the Revolutionary War). It follows in the footsteps of the revolutionaries who through their actions, propaganda and media campaigns ensured
the "taxation without representation" was stopped once and for all.
Since not all of the party has the same appetite for city trails and local history we split the trail into two days. Part 1 - Old South Meeting House where Sam Adams gave the cry to throw the tea into the sea in 1773; the Old State House where a speech by James Otis on 1761 was said to have initiated the cause of independence; the site of the Boston Massacre where, in 1770, British sailors fired on a
rioting mob killing several locals and sparking a media campaign of outrage; Faneuil Hall where Samuel Adams and James Otis lectured and debated on the cause of independence; the home of Paul Revere who on the night of 18th April 1775 rode from Charlestown to Lexington and Concord to warn the militia, and especailly Samuel Adams and John Hancock (first signatory of the declaration of independence) of the marching of British troops; and the Old North church upon which steeple church sexton Robert Newman hung two lanterns to signal to Revere the troops movements. This ride is immortalised in Henry Longfellow's poem "Midnight Ride" (http://www.legallanguage.com/resources/poems/midnightride/).
Day 2 was less walking but just as much history in Charlestown Naval base. Main attraction for us was the Bunker Hill monument - which commenmorates the spot where, in June 1775, the British troops had one of their first encounters with the Revolutionaries. The Revolutionary Army, although at that stage nothing more than a motley bunch of 1,200 farmers from the various colonies, had taken the high ground a day earlier under the leadership of William Prescott. They faced the full force of the British army who arrived well equipped and marched up the hill to meet them. Although the vitory was ultimately for the British, it took three assaults and the British suffered large casulaties. The scurmish both spurred the Revoluntionaries to unite into one Army and also gave them hope that, if better organised and equipped, they would be able to ultimately win (which of course they did!).
Now - we had visited everything - seen and learnt lots, but I was still a bit purturbed - something was missing. Just where was that tea thrown into the harbour? We sought it out eventually - but - in case you ever visit - it isn't on the freedom trail at all.......(and the gift shop sells the most expensive tea I have ever seen!).
Where to go for our family summer holiday was something that puzzled us for a while - east and it gets a bit wet and we had already done some exploring there; south - no way, we couldn't stand the thought of hotter and stickier than where we are now; west - we had left it too late and didn't have quite enough time to justify a 6hr flight; so only 1 option left - north. We decided to impinge upon the hospitality of some former Sandwich colleagues and take the opportunity to explore Boston and then Cape Cod (see next post).
Boston was founded in 1630 by some Puritan colonists from England (not the Pilgrim Father's themselves but settlers who followed close on their heels) and has many links to the parts of American history that we are growing familiar with from Philadelphia. It was of course the site of some of the famous events in the run up to the Revolutionary war (more about that later) and also the birth place of Benjamin Franklin (who went on to be a significant member of the Philadelphia community after moving south following a fall out with his brother). Today it is one of the largest cities on the East Coast, capital of Massachusets, gateway to New England, and home to the Boston Red Sox (baseball team), the Cheers bar (from the sitcom) and Harvard University just across the Charles river in Cambridge. We were all excited to be going to explore.
Boston is a very beautiful city - it has much more of the European historical city about it than downtown sky scrapers (although it has a few of those too). Boston Common and the public gardens next door could be a park in England, weeping willows trailing in the water made good hiding places for hide and seek and the boats in the lake were very serene. Beacon Hill is the area of the city
famous for nineteenth century red brick town houses with beautiful windows reminiscent of houses in Bath and cobbled streets. And it all runs along the banks of the Charles river which was filled with sailing dinghys tacking to and fro whilst we were there. We spent a pleasant few hours wandering around enjoying the "sidewalks" and had the most amazing coconut and chocolate ice - creams - the only disappointment was that there was not enough time for more mozying in the designer shops (the like of which we do not really see in Paoli).
The tourists though (including us) have all come to follow "the freedom trail" (www.thefreedomtrail.org), a walk which guides you past the buildings significant in the run up to the War of Independence (known locally as the Revolutionary War). It follows in the footsteps of the revolutionaries who through their actions, propaganda and media campaigns ensured
the "taxation without representation" was stopped once and for all.
Since not all of the party has the same appetite for city trails and local history we split the trail into two days. Part 1 - Old South Meeting House where Sam Adams gave the cry to throw the tea into the sea in 1773; the Old State House where a speech by James Otis on 1761 was said to have initiated the cause of independence; the site of the Boston Massacre where, in 1770, British sailors fired on a
rioting mob killing several locals and sparking a media campaign of outrage; Faneuil Hall where Samuel Adams and James Otis lectured and debated on the cause of independence; the home of Paul Revere who on the night of 18th April 1775 rode from Charlestown to Lexington and Concord to warn the militia, and especailly Samuel Adams and John Hancock (first signatory of the declaration of independence) of the marching of British troops; and the Old North church upon which steeple church sexton Robert Newman hung two lanterns to signal to Revere the troops movements. This ride is immortalised in Henry Longfellow's poem "Midnight Ride" (http://www.legallanguage.com/resources/poems/midnightride/).
Day 2 was less walking but just as much history in Charlestown Naval base. Main attraction for us was the Bunker Hill monument - which commenmorates the spot where, in June 1775, the British troops had one of their first encounters with the Revolutionaries. The Revolutionary Army, although at that stage nothing more than a motley bunch of 1,200 farmers from the various colonies, had taken the high ground a day earlier under the leadership of William Prescott. They faced the full force of the British army who arrived well equipped and marched up the hill to meet them. Although the vitory was ultimately for the British, it took three assaults and the British suffered large casulaties. The scurmish both spurred the Revoluntionaries to unite into one Army and also gave them hope that, if better organised and equipped, they would be able to ultimately win (which of course they did!).
Now - we had visited everything - seen and learnt lots, but I was still a bit purturbed - something was missing. Just where was that tea thrown into the harbour? We sought it out eventually - but - in case you ever visit - it isn't on the freedom trail at all.......(and the gift shop sells the most expensive tea I have ever seen!).
Tuesday 14 August 2012
Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia
Tuesday 14th August
Philadelphia still has many attractions that we have yet to explore and so we went down town today to check out 2 more of them. First up today, encouraged by the "foodies" in the party, Reading Terminal Market. This market is entirely reminiscent of the Covered Market in Oxford (even down to the cookie shop in the corner) although it is an American sized version (clearly!). It was lovely pottering around the stalls of the different traders and seeing the freshly made produce. I think that it is the closest we have all come to REAL cheese and artisan bread since living in USA. Unfortiunately the market is not accessible for shopping for us but it has onsoired me to head to our local Armish Farmers market to see what they have to offer.
Philadelphia, also known as the City of Brotherly Love (due to the ancient Greek name - according to Wiki at least), is also home to Robert Indiana's famous LOVE monument. It was put up in JFK plaza in 1976 to commenmorate the USA bicentennial, removed briefly in 1978 before being returned due to popular demand. The statue frames one end of Benjamin Franklin Parkway which flies a flag from every country in the world. The plaza's single shoot tall water fountain also proved very fleshing on this hot hot day. It is as iconic in the flesh as the images.
The trip down-town was rounded off nicely with a family first - Philly Cheesesteak - a local speciality consisting of griddled steak, chopped, cooked with - you guessed it - cheese and served in a hoagie - which translates as an enormous hot dog roll for the British readers. Not for every day we think!
Philadelphia still has many attractions that we have yet to explore and so we went down town today to check out 2 more of them. First up today, encouraged by the "foodies" in the party, Reading Terminal Market. This market is entirely reminiscent of the Covered Market in Oxford (even down to the cookie shop in the corner) although it is an American sized version (clearly!). It was lovely pottering around the stalls of the different traders and seeing the freshly made produce. I think that it is the closest we have all come to REAL cheese and artisan bread since living in USA. Unfortiunately the market is not accessible for shopping for us but it has onsoired me to head to our local Armish Farmers market to see what they have to offer.
Philadelphia, also known as the City of Brotherly Love (due to the ancient Greek name - according to Wiki at least), is also home to Robert Indiana's famous LOVE monument. It was put up in JFK plaza in 1976 to commenmorate the USA bicentennial, removed briefly in 1978 before being returned due to popular demand. The statue frames one end of Benjamin Franklin Parkway which flies a flag from every country in the world. The plaza's single shoot tall water fountain also proved very fleshing on this hot hot day. It is as iconic in the flesh as the images.
The trip down-town was rounded off nicely with a family first - Philly Cheesesteak - a local speciality consisting of griddled steak, chopped, cooked with - you guessed it - cheese and served in a hoagie - which translates as an enormous hot dog roll for the British readers. Not for every day we think!
Monday 13 August 2012
Dutch Wonderland
Monday 13th August
This is a post by guest blogger C.
We went with our friends Pumpkin to Dutch Wonderland ( http://www.dutchwonderland.com/). It is a park which is quite a long drive from our house (well for a 6 year old at least). We went on the roller coasters - I liked the big one because it was really fast and fun. We also went in a turtle which swirled around really fast - I screamed a lot. We watched a show called The Frog Prince - the frogs were doing lots of diving tricks including diving off the very top of the castle. It made a giant splash and I got wet! At the end we went on a great big water slide in a float. I hope that we can go there again another day! Thank you Pumpkin for a very good idea.
This is a post by guest blogger C.
We went with our friends Pumpkin to Dutch Wonderland ( http://www.dutchwonderland.com/). It is a park which is quite a long drive from our house (well for a 6 year old at least). We went on the roller coasters - I liked the big one because it was really fast and fun. We also went in a turtle which swirled around really fast - I screamed a lot. We watched a show called The Frog Prince - the frogs were doing lots of diving tricks including diving off the very top of the castle. It made a giant splash and I got wet! At the end we went on a great big water slide in a float. I hope that we can go there again another day! Thank you Pumpkin for a very good idea.
Saturday 11 August 2012
Tree house adventure
Saturday 10th August
This is a guest blog by Pumpkin junior who is staying with us this week enjoying some of the hot weather. In G and C's garden there are lots of tall trees so they thought it would be fun to go and see some tree house possibilities at a tree house festival. The festival was at Tyler arboretum about 20mins drive. We went in about 10 different tree houses. My favourite was one which was up on a platform and decorated with really amazing coloured stones. I liked it because it was pretty and I like pretty things. The grown ups liked the one which had curved supports and a see through platform but that might be a bit difficult to build. There was also a competition for a garden chair design - we liked playing on the one like the hungry caterpillar because we could balance on the caterpillar body. We also visited the butterfly house and saw more monarchs and we also played some games to guess what everyday objects came from trees and also finding out about different bird beaks. I liked the hawk beak and using it to dig up a mouse. It was very hot so we went back for a splash in the pool.
Friday 10 August 2012
Was the summer of ........ 2012
School was out for 12 whole weeks - should we consider this a childcare nightmare or an opportunity for an education of a different kind? One thing is for sure - it is far too hot and sticky to contemplate going to school and for us the option of decamping to the beach for 3 months is not a reality. So summer camp it was.
In January I had attended a summer camp fair at the local High School to find out what the options were. It rivalled my recollection of Fresher's fair as stall after stall vied for parental attention and money. There is nothing that can't be done - crash courses in the 3R's, languages, sports, adventure, day camp, residential camps, nature camps, religious camps, Eco camps, save the world camps - the list was endless. We plumped for 3 different camps - and this is what they thought.......
The first camp we did was day camp. It was the best camp because we did a mix of everything and we had to try to catch Carly Quickhands who was a cowboy who had stolen money from the bank. The reward was 100 popsicles. My favourite thing was drama - we learnt lots of new dances and played musical statues. "I threw a wish in the well....." was my best song. I was camper of the week.
The second camp we did was half a day of nature and half of tennis. I liked nature camp because we went fishing and caught lots of minnows. We went canoeing as well. Tennis camp was hard work - we had to run around a lot even though it was hot. C was camper of the week.
The last camp was art camp. I did 4 classes - drawing, mud works, puppet making and Cassatt to Seurat. My favourite lesson was puppet making. I made a puppet cake and ginger bread man and some shadow puppets. At the end we put on a show for the parents.
Next year I would like to do a theatre summer camp.
In January I had attended a summer camp fair at the local High School to find out what the options were. It rivalled my recollection of Fresher's fair as stall after stall vied for parental attention and money. There is nothing that can't be done - crash courses in the 3R's, languages, sports, adventure, day camp, residential camps, nature camps, religious camps, Eco camps, save the world camps - the list was endless. We plumped for 3 different camps - and this is what they thought.......
The first camp we did was day camp. It was the best camp because we did a mix of everything and we had to try to catch Carly Quickhands who was a cowboy who had stolen money from the bank. The reward was 100 popsicles. My favourite thing was drama - we learnt lots of new dances and played musical statues. "I threw a wish in the well....." was my best song. I was camper of the week.
The second camp we did was half a day of nature and half of tennis. I liked nature camp because we went fishing and caught lots of minnows. We went canoeing as well. Tennis camp was hard work - we had to run around a lot even though it was hot. C was camper of the week.
The last camp was art camp. I did 4 classes - drawing, mud works, puppet making and Cassatt to Seurat. My favourite lesson was puppet making. I made a puppet cake and ginger bread man and some shadow puppets. At the end we put on a show for the parents.
Next year I would like to do a theatre summer camp.
Monday 6 August 2012
Citizens Bank Park
Monday 6th August
Guests from UK was the spur we needed to finally get tickets to see the Phillies play at their stadium - Citizens Bank Park. We joined 41665 others who were out on a Monday evening to watch them play the Atlanta Braves. We had seats behind the plate but were up very high - one advantage of that is being able to see William Penn's statue and the other sky scrapers of Philadelphia in the background. The pitch was quite a bit bigger than the one we are used to seeing for T-ball and softball (especially the out-field). The most exciting part of the match was that the Phillies got one home run - it was celebrated with lots of music and a flashing Liberty bell. Unfortunately though they didn't win because the other team got 6, or maybe even 7, runs by the end of the 9th innings. One was very controversial for the home crowd as it was scored from a seemingly foul ball. We were amaze at how good the players were at catching. V now knows who Ryan Howard is and that her tennis coach saying she hits like him is not a good thing....... We liked the cotton candy and the still lemonade and watching the team mascot and his antics on the pitch between innings. We will be back.
Guests from UK was the spur we needed to finally get tickets to see the Phillies play at their stadium - Citizens Bank Park. We joined 41665 others who were out on a Monday evening to watch them play the Atlanta Braves. We had seats behind the plate but were up very high - one advantage of that is being able to see William Penn's statue and the other sky scrapers of Philadelphia in the background. The pitch was quite a bit bigger than the one we are used to seeing for T-ball and softball (especially the out-field). The most exciting part of the match was that the Phillies got one home run - it was celebrated with lots of music and a flashing Liberty bell. Unfortunately though they didn't win because the other team got 6, or maybe even 7, runs by the end of the 9th innings. One was very controversial for the home crowd as it was scored from a seemingly foul ball. We were amaze at how good the players were at catching. V now knows who Ryan Howard is and that her tennis coach saying she hits like him is not a good thing....... We liked the cotton candy and the still lemonade and watching the team mascot and his antics on the pitch between innings. We will be back.
Sunday 29 July 2012
The Adventure Aquarium
Sunday 29th July
Time for another family outing and it is C's turn to choose where. She chose the aquarium in Camden New Jersey, on the opposite banks of the Delaware river from down town Philadelphia. She had been there on a field trip from day camp (more about US summer camps later) and it was really fun so she wanted us all to go too. It was also too hot, sticky and thundery (the weather does lead to some amazing electrical storms) to consider anything outside so it seemed like a good idea. One favourite thing from each of us - C's was the African penguins, G's the touch pools with sting rays, sharks, blue lobster and horse shoe crabs, M's the poison dart bright blue frogs (is he hatching some plan?) and mine learning that hippopotami don't really swim but actually walk on the bottom of the river bank - watching them being fed from the underwater viewing room was a bit like some strange slow motion scene involving Gloria from Madagascar (go and see the movie if you haven't - it is good fun). We all like the hammerhead sharks, sawfish and turtles in the shark tunnel. A few too many people for our liking - but it was another aquarium notched up in our world tour and the flash-light fish and sea dragons were new ones on us.
Time for another family outing and it is C's turn to choose where. She chose the aquarium in Camden New Jersey, on the opposite banks of the Delaware river from down town Philadelphia. She had been there on a field trip from day camp (more about US summer camps later) and it was really fun so she wanted us all to go too. It was also too hot, sticky and thundery (the weather does lead to some amazing electrical storms) to consider anything outside so it seemed like a good idea. One favourite thing from each of us - C's was the African penguins, G's the touch pools with sting rays, sharks, blue lobster and horse shoe crabs, M's the poison dart bright blue frogs (is he hatching some plan?) and mine learning that hippopotami don't really swim but actually walk on the bottom of the river bank - watching them being fed from the underwater viewing room was a bit like some strange slow motion scene involving Gloria from Madagascar (go and see the movie if you haven't - it is good fun). We all like the hammerhead sharks, sawfish and turtles in the shark tunnel. A few too many people for our liking - but it was another aquarium notched up in our world tour and the flash-light fish and sea dragons were new ones on us.
Sunday 22 July 2012
What happened to us?
JULY
In case you were wondering what had happened to us in July - we were doing lots of this......
...... and enjoying this........
In fact it was far too hot for anything else (daily weather readings - temperatures consistently 35C +++).
In case you were wondering what had happened to us in July - we were doing lots of this......
...... and enjoying this........
In fact it was far too hot for anything else (daily weather readings - temperatures consistently 35C +++).
Friday 6 July 2012
And they were all ......... well lots and lots of colours actually
Friday 6th July
Thanks to an inspired birthday present for M we had tickets today to see Coldplay at the Wells Fargo (yes that name again) Centre Philadelphia where they were playing two nights on their Mylo Xyloto World Tour. Warm up acts were the British band Wolfgang and the Swedish singer Robyn who both got the audience going but by 9pm the stadium was full of 16000 hopeful fans. We were expecting great music and lots of big rock showmanship from Chris Martin but, as well as that, we were completely wowed by the special effects which rivalled those of Take That in Wembly last year (not sure Coldplay would be happy with that comparison - clearly the music is no comparison). Just before the band entered the stage the arena went completely dark and then was lit simultaneously by 16000 shimmering coloured lights as everyone's wrist band, which we had been given on entry, lit up automatically controlled by a remote radio signal - ohhhhh the wonders of modern technology but it is hard to capture the spectacle and excitement it generated. The whole crowd was on their feet for the full two hours - personal favourites were Mylo Xyloto, Us against the world (played from a small stage high in the corner of the stadium), Fix You and Yellow (of course) - full set list recorded here (http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/coldplay/2012/wells-fargo-center-philadelphia-pa-4bdf5f4e.html). Favourite effects - well much harder - but the coloured lights probably came out on top. Chris Martin is a truely talented singer song writer and performer and the rest of the band give their fair dues too. I am wondering if we grafitti the piano, have it spin on wheels and appear through the floor as needed it might inspire some more practice from little people? A fantastic fantastic concert.
Wednesday 4 July 2012
Independence Day
Wednesday 4th July
This public holiday celebrates the publication of the Declaration of Independence on 4th July 1776 which marked the independence of these colonies from British government and the tyranny of being ruled by a remote King (George III as it happens). The Declaration was written, published and signed in Philadelphia by the founding fathers of USA which included polymath Benjamin Fanklin and future presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The text is well known to all American school children (reproduced here with a list of the signatories for your edification http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/) but it remains surprisingly relevant today and the principles it enshrines have guided the development of this nation - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.". So, in annual celebration, out come the flags, the banners, the pool parties and the watermelon (we are learning the joys of that on a hot hot day). We spent the day decorating, dipping in our pool and then off to the local township park for the band and fireworks (not quite London jubilee standards but pretty impressive for a small township). C rushed off to get her coat before leaving - she had remembered she is always cold at fireworks - not these we explained as this isn't Novemeber in UK. It was nice to bump into a couple of families from soft ball there - reckon we are slowly getting to know some guys (as the children would say).
Saturday 30 June 2012
Sitting on the dock of the bay............
Saturday June 23rd to Saturday June 30th
Our closest beaches are now over 1hr away at the infamous Jersey shore - too far for me but not much we can do about it at present. Next best thing to being able to pop to the beach regularly was to go on "vacation". G&G being in town provided the perfect excuse so we headed off to a condo we had booked on the highly recommended 7-mile island. Not the greatest fan of change in holiday destinations (bit unfortunate in the given circumstances), I was sceptacle - how could it ever compare to the beauty of Whitstable, Minnis Bay, St Maragret's at Cliff, Seaview, Priory bay, Branscombe, Lulworth cove, Sennen Cove, Porthmeor, Porthminster, Fistral beach, Watergate Bay, the beaches of northern France and the Netherlands.............? I was glad to be proved very wrong - apparently there are beautiful beaches all over the world. 7 mile island is a barrier island on the east coast, 4 blocks wide on which are the resorts of Avalon and Stone Harbour. The island is bordered by sand dunes and amazingly long white sandy beaches with rolling waves on the Atlantic side and a beautiful wetlands bay, home to lots of interesting wild-life, on the west side. We had a wonderfully relaxing week building sand castles (there is a different standard here), watching the diamond back turtles laying their eggs, kayaking in Sea Isle City, watching ospreys and gribes in the wetlands, crabbing, visiting Cape May and their light house and World War II look out tower (not quite sure it was as useful as the ones in Kent.........), body boarding in the surf, jumping in the waves and swinging our legs with our Jersey version of fish and chips (breaded flounder with sweet potato or old bay fries) watching the sunset over the dock of the bay. Even M managed to join us for a couple of nights after he had shouldered the brunt of the moving. Congratulations to V for winning the crazy golf championship but G for coming a very close runner up. Didn't knowingly bump into the stars of the show (since I have never seen it not sure how I would know even if I had......). Very much looking forward to returning to The Shore for many reasons including that it is much less sticky than PA - need to come up with some clever ruse. Avalon really is cooler by a mile.
Monday 18 June 2012
A Hot June Night
Monday 18th June
One of the most famous concerts of all time is Neil Diamond's Hot August Night Love at the Greek Performance in Los Angeles nearly 20 years ago. Now - when these famous performers come ones way, the opportunity to see them live should not be easily passed up - especially when their family member fan club is in town. The last time this duo (me and G senior) saw the man himself was June 2008 at the Rosebowl in Southampton. That night - far from balmy - is etched in our memories for traffic flow, watching elderly ladies scramble up the M27 embankment and muddy car park exits - not that the music wasn't good. We hoped that the Wells Fargo (that really is a bank and not a made up name) arena on the outskirts of Philadelphia would surpass those memories and we were not disappointed. The arena was packed to the rafters with a good cross section - the fan club in the front row along with the "You are my Light" banners. The night opened with Soolaimon and a great African drum crescendo. The hits flowed - Beautiful Noise, Forever in Blue Jeans, Red Red Wine, I'm a believer and Sweet Caroline with several encores (full set list recorded here for posterity http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/neil-diamond/2012/wells-fargo-center-philadelphia-pa-13df21cd.html). The encore itself included America - written in memory of his grandmother who, at the age of 12, travelled by herself on a train from Russia to Holland and then by boat to USA over 100 years ago - incredible. The star was only booed by the crowd when he talked about his recent marriage - clearly some disappointed followers there. Good band, good backing singers, great lighting effects, well natured enthusiastic crowd and good company. Cracking night out.
Sunday 17 June 2012
Father's Day
Sunday 17th June
Hot on the heals of Mother's Day, Father's Day dawned sunny and not too hot at all. We had the pleasure of being able to spend it with two fathers - the resident one and G of G&G, who are in town to enjoy some summer holidays. As an added bonus we had a visitor from far flung Singapore as well. Picnics and out door activities being our thing (some might say cheap and cheerful) we headed off to another county park this time Springton Manor Farm (http://www.chesco.org/ccparks/cwp/view.asp?a=1550&q=616437). The butterfly house was very pleasant and we enjoyed seeing monarchs with their jade green crysallises and lots of other types that have passed me by. Well - that is to say we were enjoying looking until the ranger mentioned that it would help to try to spot the wood frog who had been enjoying the butterflies as tasty snacks and discarding the wings, so we were unable to resist seeking him out and then using a picnic tub to capture him - I am sure that the undergrowth will recover and at least neither of the two fathers ended up in the pond. After releasing the frog in a far away pond and a picnic watching ground hogs playing in the fields we headed to the farm to see the new piglets but instead were entranced by the swifts (chimney swifts?) darting in and out feeding their multiple squarking chicks in the tiny nests nestled in the rafters. The day was rounded off by a swim in our newly acquired swimming pool - well everyone dived in apart from the Singapore resident who said it was too cold...........thank you very much Kim for coming to visit - it was a great pleasure to catch up with you and compare experiences of international relocation.
Friday 15 June 2012
Settlement Day and the 6 month milestone
Friday 15th June
6 months of living in USA has now scooted past and we marked the milestone by finally spending some of that money from our house sale in UK (although slightly more than we bargained for by bringing it to USA just as the exchange rate hot rock bottom). We have now become property (part)owners again. Settlement was at 3pm and, unlike in UK, everyone fronts up together to meet the notary, sign all the paperwork and exchange checks (as they are called locally). After some confusion about who should actually be named as the new owner due to a msimatch of paperwork, the whole deal was done and dusted only 6 short weeks after we first viewed the house. Much like before we have purchased a doer upper but it has a lovely garden (yard) backing onto conservation land. Unlike before we now have a swimming pool - I am thinking positively and hoping that this will distract me from not having a kitchen or functioning bathrooms shortly - we will wait to see if this pans out. I will miss my weekly slots with the relator house hunting. I am hoping that the architect will step in as a new found friend.
So what have been the highlights? We are enjoying the wildlife - chip munks, ground hogs, and deer are regular visitors to our garden (along with squirrels and rabbits). The birds are also all very colourful with cardinals and blue wood peckers popping in and out of the bird feeder. The mini adventures to explore PA, New York and other local states have been exciting and the skiing (although now seems a distant memory) was great fun. Local league softball also brought lots of new friends. And of course we have enjoyed seeing those of you who have ventured to visit us. We have even managed to eventually to persuade a bank to give us a credit card. We are looking forward to getting settled in our new house, a front loading washing machine and more adventures to come, but I still am not sure about those supermarkets or stop signs.
6 months of living in USA has now scooted past and we marked the milestone by finally spending some of that money from our house sale in UK (although slightly more than we bargained for by bringing it to USA just as the exchange rate hot rock bottom). We have now become property (part)owners again. Settlement was at 3pm and, unlike in UK, everyone fronts up together to meet the notary, sign all the paperwork and exchange checks (as they are called locally). After some confusion about who should actually be named as the new owner due to a msimatch of paperwork, the whole deal was done and dusted only 6 short weeks after we first viewed the house. Much like before we have purchased a doer upper but it has a lovely garden (yard) backing onto conservation land. Unlike before we now have a swimming pool - I am thinking positively and hoping that this will distract me from not having a kitchen or functioning bathrooms shortly - we will wait to see if this pans out. I will miss my weekly slots with the relator house hunting. I am hoping that the architect will step in as a new found friend.
So what have been the highlights? We are enjoying the wildlife - chip munks, ground hogs, and deer are regular visitors to our garden (along with squirrels and rabbits). The birds are also all very colourful with cardinals and blue wood peckers popping in and out of the bird feeder. The mini adventures to explore PA, New York and other local states have been exciting and the skiing (although now seems a distant memory) was great fun. Local league softball also brought lots of new friends. And of course we have enjoyed seeing those of you who have ventured to visit us. We have even managed to eventually to persuade a bank to give us a credit card. We are looking forward to getting settled in our new house, a front loading washing machine and more adventures to come, but I still am not sure about those supermarkets or stop signs.
Tuesday 12 June 2012
School is out for summer - but that means no more clubs
This is a post by guest blogger G.
A really good thing about living in America is that the summer holidays start really really early. We have 12 whole weeks off school. Hooray! We have all sorts of things planned. We are going to the beach. We are moving house. We are going to build a weather station. We are going to summer camp. And we are also looking forward to friends and family from England coming - it will be fantastic.
I wanted to tell you about some of the school clubs that we have been doing.
My favourite club was dance club. At dance club we learnt dances to different songs - Cowboy Joe, Dynamite and Party in the USA. For the last few dance clubs we went to the gym and played lots of fun games like cat and rat and polar bears and penguins. The children who went to dance club got to stand in front of the whole school and lead everyone dancing together for ACES day - a day to remind everyone the importance of keeping fit. I was a bit nervous.
Another club which I have joined at school is Brownies. We did lots of things together like going to a karate centre as part of our sports badge and we made bags and T-shirts. At the end of the year every girl scout gets together for the "Bridging Ceremony" where the older Daisys become Brownies and the older Brownies become Junior Girl Scouts. All the groups did a different show for the audience. My group did a performance where we all said what we liked about Brownies and it spelt "Brownies".
Both C and I have also joined chess club. The worst thing about chess club is that it is before school on a Monday morning. - yikes. The best thing was the tournament at the end where we played with all different sweets instead of chess pieces and even got to eat them when they were knocked off the board. I like playing with all the different children who come.
Sunday 10 June 2012
Build it and they will come
Sunday 10th June
This weekend marked the culmination of the little league softball and T-ball. Both girls have thoroughly enjoyed themselves and, with approaching 50 sessions of practice and / or matches in 10 short weeks, have had even more sport than Mr Riley could have rustled up. I am torn between joy at recovering our time to spend as we please and a sense of loss since we will no longer be chatting to the parents, coaches and children that we have got to know so well. For G the season ended with an all grade match with the national anthem (we still need to learn the words!) and with tannoyed announcements of each player as they stepped up to the plate (personal season statistics aside). Both were very pleased with their end of season trophies. We have no idea how either the Gators or the Marlins faired at the end of play but we know for sure that if it was judged by third innings performance alone then the Gators would be in with a fighting chance - why could they only ever get 5 runs and 3 outs in that single innings? The spirit of the whole league is captured really well in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MDYvzfwst0I.
We look forward to returning next season and roll on the field hockey in the autumn.
This weekend marked the culmination of the little league softball and T-ball. Both girls have thoroughly enjoyed themselves and, with approaching 50 sessions of practice and / or matches in 10 short weeks, have had even more sport than Mr Riley could have rustled up. I am torn between joy at recovering our time to spend as we please and a sense of loss since we will no longer be chatting to the parents, coaches and children that we have got to know so well. For G the season ended with an all grade match with the national anthem (we still need to learn the words!) and with tannoyed announcements of each player as they stepped up to the plate (personal season statistics aside). Both were very pleased with their end of season trophies. We have no idea how either the Gators or the Marlins faired at the end of play but we know for sure that if it was judged by third innings performance alone then the Gators would be in with a fighting chance - why could they only ever get 5 runs and 3 outs in that single innings? The spirit of the whole league is captured really well in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MDYvzfwst0I.
We look forward to returning next season and roll on the field hockey in the autumn.
Sunday 3 June 2012
We can taste the jam
Sunday 3rd June
It is a well worn phrase in our family that the jam is just around the corner but, today, we found it lock, stock and barrel. We decided to investigate pick your own Pennsylvania style. We plumped for the fairly local Highland Orchards http://www.highlandorchards.net/HOInc/Welcome.ohtml. I think that Guy Watson would still find some opportunity in this farm - it certainly has some way to go before becoming Riverford organics - but the strawberries were magnificent and we had a full 10lb tray of ruby red scorchers picked in under 20 minutes (none of the namby pamby 2lb baskets for this market!). We topped up with some rhubarb and the trip was rounded off by a sighting of a real live ground hog (they really do exist!). Where is a camera when you need it? Those strawberries which are not in C's tummy are now preserved in jars as delicious jam - bring on the toast. We will return for blueberries later in the season.
Further investigations about jam have identified that one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites is in fact the Minaret of Jam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minaret_of_Jam), a 1000 year old brick built tower in a mountain pass in Afghanistan. If it wasn't for the fact the G recently wrote in a school project that she wishes to travel to all countries in the world apart from Afghanistan we would be off to investigate - he ho, another one to save for the empty nester years.
Enjoy your Jubilee weekend!!
Monday 28 May 2012
Memorial Day Weekend
Friday 25 - Monday 28th May
The end of May and Memorial Day - the weekend which, coupled with Labour Day at the start of September, seems to define summer. We were really looking forward to this long weekend as, the absence of a long weekend at the start of May had left us feeling in need of a break (it is surprising how the ebb and flow of public holidays gets into your pyschy and how a different schedule gets things all awry).
To continue our exploration of national parks, we headed camping in The Delaware River Gap (http://www.nps.gov/dewa/index.htm). This park spans the Delaware river as it crosses from New York state to New Jersey. It is particularly famous for the "Gap" - a gorge formed over squillions of years as water erosion has split the Kittatinny Ridge (on the Appalachian trail) into two - Mt Minsi on the Pennsylvania side and Mt Tammany on the New Jersey side. We arrived kitted out with our new hot weather tent (no need for outers designed to keep heat in and water out here - although we did end up pitching the tent in a thunder storm and fortunately did not get wet .......). We also had our newly washed and rewashed sleeping bags so that no bears were tempted to snack on us during the night.
We camped at Dingman's Ferry - crossing point of the ENORMOUS Delaware river and enjoyed some rather ecletic music at the campsite "festival" on the first night - although I think that the atmosphere might not have been as hoped due to rain.
On the second day we walked from the camp ground on a 4 mile round trip through the Eastern hemlock forests to see firstly Silverthread falls (80ft single thread drop & a good warm up) and then the main attraction - Dingman's falls - a 130ft drop of several falls cascading down the hill side. The falls were great but we hadn't quite bargained on the tropical like heat and humditiy (I like to think that this was the reason for a long face) and the uphill trek didn't really help. By the end of the day, when there was no sign of another thunder storm to clear the air, we decided to break camp early and head home and so we didn't actually see the Gap (or any bears for that matter) at all - next time.
The end of May and Memorial Day - the weekend which, coupled with Labour Day at the start of September, seems to define summer. We were really looking forward to this long weekend as, the absence of a long weekend at the start of May had left us feeling in need of a break (it is surprising how the ebb and flow of public holidays gets into your pyschy and how a different schedule gets things all awry).
To continue our exploration of national parks, we headed camping in The Delaware River Gap (http://www.nps.gov/dewa/index.htm). This park spans the Delaware river as it crosses from New York state to New Jersey. It is particularly famous for the "Gap" - a gorge formed over squillions of years as water erosion has split the Kittatinny Ridge (on the Appalachian trail) into two - Mt Minsi on the Pennsylvania side and Mt Tammany on the New Jersey side. We arrived kitted out with our new hot weather tent (no need for outers designed to keep heat in and water out here - although we did end up pitching the tent in a thunder storm and fortunately did not get wet .......). We also had our newly washed and rewashed sleeping bags so that no bears were tempted to snack on us during the night.
We camped at Dingman's Ferry - crossing point of the ENORMOUS Delaware river and enjoyed some rather ecletic music at the campsite "festival" on the first night - although I think that the atmosphere might not have been as hoped due to rain.
On the second day we walked from the camp ground on a 4 mile round trip through the Eastern hemlock forests to see firstly Silverthread falls (80ft single thread drop & a good warm up) and then the main attraction - Dingman's falls - a 130ft drop of several falls cascading down the hill side. The falls were great but we hadn't quite bargained on the tropical like heat and humditiy (I like to think that this was the reason for a long face) and the uphill trek didn't really help. By the end of the day, when there was no sign of another thunder storm to clear the air, we decided to break camp early and head home and so we didn't actually see the Gap (or any bears for that matter) at all - next time.
Thursday 24 May 2012
Immigration Day
Thursday 24th May
The whole of 2nd grade joined together today to experience what it was like to be an early 20th century immigrant with immigration day. I dressed up in a tartan dress, a head shawl to keep me warm and a satchel to carry my things. Even my teacher had dressed up with a peaked cap and braces. All of us were bundled up together in one classroom to remember how crowded it was on the boats. When we disembarked we had to complete a written test and we were given a passport. We then had to visit the immigration officers - one for legal test who checked our names and what we were going to do on admission, one for mental test who checked we could think straight and the last one was a medical check. The doctors checked our eyes, throat, hair for lice and listened to our chests. My doctor (in fact my Mummy.....) was really mean and I failed the test and had to go to quarantine until I was healthy. Once our passports were fully stamped we could enter USA. We then got to try food from all the different countries people have come from in my class. I liked the chocolate croissant from France. I think I am glad that we emigrated in 21st century on an aeroplane.
The whole of 2nd grade joined together today to experience what it was like to be an early 20th century immigrant with immigration day. I dressed up in a tartan dress, a head shawl to keep me warm and a satchel to carry my things. Even my teacher had dressed up with a peaked cap and braces. All of us were bundled up together in one classroom to remember how crowded it was on the boats. When we disembarked we had to complete a written test and we were given a passport. We then had to visit the immigration officers - one for legal test who checked our names and what we were going to do on admission, one for mental test who checked we could think straight and the last one was a medical check. The doctors checked our eyes, throat, hair for lice and listened to our chests. My doctor (in fact my Mummy.....) was really mean and I failed the test and had to go to quarantine until I was healthy. Once our passports were fully stamped we could enter USA. We then got to try food from all the different countries people have come from in my class. I liked the chocolate croissant from France. I think I am glad that we emigrated in 21st century on an aeroplane.
Friday 18 May 2012
There was a party in the USA
Friday 18th May
To coin the phrase of the current Miley Cyrus house song, today there was a party in the USA. A little girl was 6 and decided to make it her personal mission to introduce Roger Hargreaves creation to the unsuspecting locals. With all the usual family party razzmatazz we had Mr Messy and his tangled silk game, Mr Muddle's confusing treasure hunt, Pin the arm on Mr Tickle and pass the parcel with Mr Men forfeits (this was an entirely new game on the locals). It was great fun and was rounded off nicely with a Little Miss Giggles cake. Happy birthday C.
Sunday 13 May 2012
Mother's Day
Sunday 13th May
Well for some unfathomable reason Mother's Day in USA is celebrated in May rather than in March like in UK which leaves those of us with a foot in both sides of the pond with 2 dates to remember. Nevertheless Mother's Day is always a treat whenever it comes and both small people arrived home from school with beautifully made crafts and gifts. Also what better day to choose to make a trip to the local Chanticleer gardens http://www.chanticleergarden.org/. Following a burst of enthusiasm about Canterbury's history before leaving UK, we know Chanticleer to be the proud cockerel on Chaucer's Nun Priest's tale who was tricked by the cunning fox, but, according to the garden blurb the gardens were named after Thackeray's Chanticleer in The Newcomes who was, apparently, "mortgaged up to the very castle windows". My literary knowledge is not good enough to be able to vouch for this but who are we to dispute the blurb. The gardens were formerly home to the Rosengarten family who owned one of the many local pharmaceutical companies and which was acquired by Merck in 1920's. The gardens were very beautiful with streams, pools, rockeries and dotted with Armish style deck chairs from which to enjoy the serenity. It was good for us to see that so many plants that we associate with gardens in UK thrive here as well - we were not sure if anything much would grow by way of flowering plants due to the heat. If we ever get a garden of our own it will provide lots of inspiration. We look forward to many more Sunday afternoon strolls.
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Accidental damage
Tuesday 8th May
I am sure many manage to move themselves cross continents without so much as a by your leave but, for us, the USA has brought more brushes with local healthcare than we have had in many a long year. This time it was my turn as, armed with a kitchen knife, I tried to cut one potato just too thinly chopping off part of my fingers instead. Straight to the local minor injuries clinic - the same medical team were on shift as for THE eye incident - so after the jovial pleasantries we were in and out in a flash of a stitching needle. I don't know who was more nervous - the doctor when I said I was an attorney or me when he said he charged by the stitch so had put in an extra couple, but it will take me some time to recover from the cross selling of the tetanus jab. At least we were assured that the invoice covered removing the stitches as well - it really is very different. Excuses, excuses but this does also explain in part why we are now having a MASSIVE blog catch up!
Monday 30 April 2012
The Field of Dreams
Monday 23 April 2012
Sight-seeing in NYC
Saturday 21st April
This weekend we decided to shun our domestic duties (and hang up our baseball boots) and head to NYC for a spot of sight seeing. The first piece of excitement is that to get to NYC from where we live we had to drive along the New Jersey Turnpike which prompted some Simon & Garfunkel sing-a-longs. Next piece of excitement was that 38th Street East New York is NOT the same place as 38th Street East Manhattan (according to our sat nav at least) but eventually we sorted that one out. One upside of the minor detour was that we arrived well after dark and so the views from the Pfizer Suites where we we staying in the 50th floor were pretty amazing - the Empire State Building at night makes a great view.
To fit in with G's school project on immigration, and being legal aliens ourselves, we headed to Ellis Island (http://www.nps.gov/elis/index.htm), an island in New York Harbour through which most immigrants had to pass at the turn of the last century. The ferry ride to get there first stops at Liberty Island, home to the famous statute, so we got some good views. Ellis Island itself is quite amazing. It acted as an immigration centre for USA from approximately 1895 to 1925 and during this time 12.5 million immigrants passed through its doors. A humbling statistic is that 44% of all US citizens today can trace an ancestor back to someone who came through here, and this also represented the biggest movement of people the world has ever seen. The immigrants who arrived had paid $25.00 for their round trip (in case they were refused entry) in steerage - anyone travelling in 1st or 2nd class did not have to go to Ellis Island as they were considered to have sufficient personal means to survive. On arrival they were subject to health checks and a legal test - if failing they were given a second chance but 1% of arrivals were never admitted often splitting up families who had to decide who would stay and who would return. It puts our day trip to the US Embassy in London in perspective. Our children were pleased (?!?) to complete the junior ranger quiz as we went around securing National Park badge number 4.
By Sunday the weather had turned to the grey drizzly stuff we remembered of old so we were all pleased to meet up with some friends for brunch (http://www.thesmithnyc.com/) - another US habit which we are very quickly getting accustomed to. We don't know what magic Monica wove but she can come out to eat with us again as G & C have never sat so still in a restaurant before. We spent a happy afternoon in the Children's Museum of the Arts (http://www.cmany.org/)- making the cartoons was particularly interesting and we all headed home with many new creations.
Sunday 15 April 2012
The Franklin Institute
Sunday 15th April
To recover for the disappointment of being outbid on the first house that we had out an offer in on, we decided to head into Philadelphia to visit the dinosaur exhibition which had been tempting us since arrival but which was ending today. The exhibition was held at The Franklin Institute (http://www2.fi.edu/), the city's science museum named after local polymath and founding father Benjamin Franklin.
As expected the exhibition was pretty spectacular with many skeletons and fossils from the Jurassic, Triassic and Cretaceous periods. We all learnt something when the curator showed us the dinosaur skull and compared it to a modern bird and reptile demonstrating how this is evidence that birds evolved from dinosaurs but that modern day reptiles had already evolved pre-dinosaurs. The children enjoyed getting hands on in the excavation pit.
You can never get enough science so we split up and headed off to see some of the permanent exhibitions. G and I visited the Heart and climbed through an enormous heart, learnt about different coloured blood of different species (and the metals responsible) and saw models of hearts from the tiniest bird to the largest blue whale. C & M ventured to Machines and had fun with levers, pulled and cogs.
With our new annual membership we look forward to more outings to come!
Monday 9 April 2012
The Easter bunny brought special visitors
Friday 6th April - Sunday 8th April
USA is a bit like France in its desire to keep all things state and religion separate from each other and so Easter weekend comes and goes without a single public holiday (Pfizer though do generously provide 2 days of "religious" holidays for each employee to take as and when it best suits them). We were lucky enough this year that Uncle J, Aunty A and cousin D decided to join us for the break following a short stint in NYC (it does work rather nicely so ...... come on the rest of you ........ where are you?).
So pleased were with our trip to Gettysburg earlier in the week and polishing off another national park Junior Ranger quiz, we entertained them with a trip to Philadelphia and a visit to the National Historic Park of Independence Hall (http://www.nps.gov/inde/index.htm). In this historic city park in the centre of the former capital, the founding of USA is there to see in all its glory. First up the old and dramatically cracked Liberty Bell, cast in Whitechapel Foundry London in 1751, to celebrate 50 years of William Penn's Charter of Priviledges of 1701 (he was the founder of Pennsylvania (Penn's sylvania) who was given the land by King Charles II to repay a debt owed to the family). The bell became an iconic symbol of liberty and freedom when it was rung in 1776 to call the people of Philadelphia to hear the first reading of the Declaration of Independence and was later used as a symbol of unity for the nation following the civil war. The most dramatic period of the bell's history was when it was removed from the city in October 1777 and hidden under the floor boards of a church in Allentown (about 30miles away) because it was thought that, if left in the city, the British soldiers would melt it down to make cannons. The Bell is enscribed with the words “Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants Thereof” and has made it a fitting symbol of the principles on which the founding of USA was (and is) based. Not only did we visit the bell but also Independence Hall where the declaration of independence was drafted and signed, Old City Hall which was the home of the US supreme court for many years and Benjamin Fanklin's printing press. It was a busy day of guided tours, quizzes and collecting trading cards but by the time our feet were ready for a rest we had polished off another Junior Ranger programme and had a badge safely tucked in our pockets. Uncle J's face at lunch when we told him the last thing we had had in our plastic containers were tadpoles from our pond dipping was a picture.
Saturday dawned bright and sunny (again!!) so off to another local state park to explore - French Creek (http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/findapark/frenchcreek/). I have been getting this inkling of an idea that I would like a kyack to explore the local waterways on the warm sunny days to come and I have only been partially put off by my sighting of water snakes - today's outing confirmed that it would be a fun thing to have - I shall put it on my birthday list. We had a great walk around the lake and saw yet more interesting wild-life - turtles sunning themselves on platforms on the water, evidence of beavers bringing down trees and building dams and also the amazingly butterfiles and dragonflies that busy themselves around the waters edge - these things certianly are bigger here.
We decided to take it easy on Sunday and test out the new water slide - I can't believe that it was warm enough already - anyway this definitely kept the little people cool. Thanks to Aunty A for encouraging us to church - the one just around the corner proved popular and pleasant. We also had an Easter egg hunt and the eggs didn't melt too much.
Thie recollecation of the weekend wouldn't be complete without mentioning the ice-cream sundae competition. Congratulations to D for making the winning sundae - keep it simple proved to be most effective and the slit stawberry ont he side of the glass very professional. C broke the first rule which was that whatever the creation you had to be able to eat it - funnily enough after adding in a whole pot of pink edible glitter even she couldn't manage to polish it off so disqualification for her.
Thanks so much for coming to see us and we look forward to seeing you soon.
USA is a bit like France in its desire to keep all things state and religion separate from each other and so Easter weekend comes and goes without a single public holiday (Pfizer though do generously provide 2 days of "religious" holidays for each employee to take as and when it best suits them). We were lucky enough this year that Uncle J, Aunty A and cousin D decided to join us for the break following a short stint in NYC (it does work rather nicely so ...... come on the rest of you ........ where are you?).
So pleased were with our trip to Gettysburg earlier in the week and polishing off another national park Junior Ranger quiz, we entertained them with a trip to Philadelphia and a visit to the National Historic Park of Independence Hall (http://www.nps.gov/inde/index.htm). In this historic city park in the centre of the former capital, the founding of USA is there to see in all its glory. First up the old and dramatically cracked Liberty Bell, cast in Whitechapel Foundry London in 1751, to celebrate 50 years of William Penn's Charter of Priviledges of 1701 (he was the founder of Pennsylvania (Penn's sylvania) who was given the land by King Charles II to repay a debt owed to the family). The bell became an iconic symbol of liberty and freedom when it was rung in 1776 to call the people of Philadelphia to hear the first reading of the Declaration of Independence and was later used as a symbol of unity for the nation following the civil war. The most dramatic period of the bell's history was when it was removed from the city in October 1777 and hidden under the floor boards of a church in Allentown (about 30miles away) because it was thought that, if left in the city, the British soldiers would melt it down to make cannons. The Bell is enscribed with the words “Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants Thereof” and has made it a fitting symbol of the principles on which the founding of USA was (and is) based. Not only did we visit the bell but also Independence Hall where the declaration of independence was drafted and signed, Old City Hall which was the home of the US supreme court for many years and Benjamin Fanklin's printing press. It was a busy day of guided tours, quizzes and collecting trading cards but by the time our feet were ready for a rest we had polished off another Junior Ranger programme and had a badge safely tucked in our pockets. Uncle J's face at lunch when we told him the last thing we had had in our plastic containers were tadpoles from our pond dipping was a picture.
Saturday dawned bright and sunny (again!!) so off to another local state park to explore - French Creek (http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/findapark/frenchcreek/). I have been getting this inkling of an idea that I would like a kyack to explore the local waterways on the warm sunny days to come and I have only been partially put off by my sighting of water snakes - today's outing confirmed that it would be a fun thing to have - I shall put it on my birthday list. We had a great walk around the lake and saw yet more interesting wild-life - turtles sunning themselves on platforms on the water, evidence of beavers bringing down trees and building dams and also the amazingly butterfiles and dragonflies that busy themselves around the waters edge - these things certianly are bigger here.
We decided to take it easy on Sunday and test out the new water slide - I can't believe that it was warm enough already - anyway this definitely kept the little people cool. Thanks to Aunty A for encouraging us to church - the one just around the corner proved popular and pleasant. We also had an Easter egg hunt and the eggs didn't melt too much.
Thie recollecation of the weekend wouldn't be complete without mentioning the ice-cream sundae competition. Congratulations to D for making the winning sundae - keep it simple proved to be most effective and the slit stawberry ont he side of the glass very professional. C broke the first rule which was that whatever the creation you had to be able to eat it - funnily enough after adding in a whole pot of pink edible glitter even she couldn't manage to polish it off so disqualification for her.
Thanks so much for coming to see us and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Wednesday 4 April 2012
A Pennsylvania Road Trip
Friday 30th March - Tuesday 3rd April
Joy, oh joy - spring break arrived and we spent a well earned week of rest and relaxation together. Many possible options for the holiday crossed our minds but due to various inactions and competing priorities we finalised on an easy going road trip to explore a corner of our home state of Pennsylvania. The state itself, named after its founder William Penn who acquired the land from King Charles II as repayment for a debt owed, stretches all the way from the Delaware River to the great lakes in the north and is bordered by the neighbouring states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, west Virginia and Ohio. There is plenty to explore.
We decided to centre ourselves in what is known as Pennsylvania Dutch Country, home to Armish families and their communities (think Kelly McGillis and Harrison Ford in Witness and you are spot on). These communities, which have thrived for several hundred years living from the land and only slowly (if at all) allowing modern inventions into their lives, have greatly influenced the area. Intrigued by the place names alone we found a perfect hotel (http://www.amishviewinn.com/) between the villages of Bird in the Hand and Intercourse (yes - your eyes are not deceiving you) and we found ourselves, as expected, right in the heart of Dutch Country surrounded by fields and grain silos, ponies and traps, wide eyed children peeking out from under large brimmed straw hats, covered bridges and washing lines filled with muted black, green and purple clothes of the men and women (the closest thing we have seen to a uniform beyond the forces and services since arriving in USA). We enjoyed purchasing some Armish wares at the Lancaster (US capital for 1 day) Farmer's market and seeing first hand the houses and schools at http://theamishvillage.net/ (all very well until I saw the snakes and nest of babies in the village stream - yikes!). We can see much to commend the simple lifestyle but it is interesting to learn about their trade offs - electricity is forbidden but diesel powered air compressors with fridges and washing machines especially adapted to run from them are allowed. No motor transport or even bikes but dynamo-powered scooters are derigeur. They even have a special exemption to allow the children (brought up to be bi-lingual and all educated in a single room school from aged 5) to leave school at 13 and continue their education on a purely practical basis at home.
Beyond learning more about the Armish (and the break away group the Mennonites - or was it the other way around?) we also managed some important history with a trip to the state capital Harrisburg (not a place for stopping unless you are going to the Capitol building - http://www.pacapitol.com which gives St Peter's in Rome a run for its money in terms of size and opulence) and the civil war battle field of Gettysburg (http://www.nps.gov/gett/index). The displays brought the 3 day battle very much alive with both children "enjoying" (scared rigid by) the cyclorama re-enactment. The battle field, which is scattered with 1200 monuments remembering all the different battalions involved, is a day out all in its own right. We can all now recognise Abraham Lincoln thanks to the Junior Ranger quizzes (badge number 2 safely secured) and are getting word perfect on THAT speech. We even managed to understand how the Gettysburg events related to John Brown and the pre-war skirmish at Harpers Ferry (which we had visited several years ago).
Finally no trip to this part of PA would be complete without a trip to Hershey - home of the famous chocolate brand. Fortunately the theme park had not yet opened (!) but Chocolate World was enough all in itself (http://www.hersheys.com/) - we had to go around on the ride twice - all those Hershey Kisses! We also visited the Rail Road Museum in Strasburg (http://www.rrmuseumpa.org/) but I think, in all honesty, our trip to Strasburg is more likely to be remembered for the ice cream sundaes in the creamery where we had lunch.
All in all a very enjoyable few days off!
Tuesday 27 March 2012
Washington DC
Tuesday 27th March
Now in the UK I rarely ever ventured forth with work but here the opportunities have come thick and fast and today I scooted off to Washington DC for a 1 day conference on the most recent changes in US patent law - the America Invents Act. The capital is a mere 2hr train ride from Philadelphia and it goes past some very interesting scenery along Chesapeake Bay (I think that some local camping will be required to check that out). The conference itself was much as you would expect but Daivd Kappos, head of the US Patent and Trade Mark Office, was a dynamic speaker. Although there was little time to explore I was reminded what a truly majestic city DC is, even Union Street station central concourse is on a scale that only Russian stations can compete with. We will need to return to do the Smithsonian justice. I also don't know who was more surprised to see the other - me or my old boss who last year decided to move to pastures new - it was good to catch up with him though and I am glad that things are gong well.
Saturday 24 March 2012
The Waldorf Astoria NYC
Friday 23rd March
It is not often that an unexpected pleasure arises as result of work, but today one such perk materialised completely out of the blue. I was invited by the outside counsel that we work with in NYC to join them at the NY Intellectual Property Law Association 90th Annual Dinner in Honor of the Judicuary at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue http://www.waldorfnewyork.com/. The event is the largest hosted by the hotel in the year with approximately 2,500 professionals joining together for a black tie dinner held in function rooms throughout the building. The evening started with a cocktail reception on 18th floor laid on by my hosts - many of the major law firms were holding similar events throughout the hotel and I hadn't anticipated the queue for the lifts as all the smartly dressed glitterati manoeuvred themselves to the right networking session. For the meal of beet and mango salad, tournedos of beef and peach meringue tart I was seated at table 900 and something in the Starlight Roof Centre. The meal and speeches were followed by more networking as the law firms suites re-opened for dessert receptions and the gathered throng shimmied from one to another catching up into the early hours. Unfortunately the exterior of the hotel itself was being renovated but the interior architecture and 1930's design is amazing - great glass chandeliers, wooden panelled lifts with bell boys, a mirrored reception room with a gold painted ceiling and even beige marble and gold rimmed mirrors in the rest rooms. I enjoyed the company of our counsel, their interesting friends and some of my in- house colleagues and it was fun to get dressed up and participate in one of the legal social events of the year. Thank you very much - it was a special treat. On the way back to the train station the next morning, I caught up with the latest windows at Macy's - recently redesigned for their 2012 flower show on the theme of Brazil - great, but I do think they have something to learn from Nason's in Canterbury.
It is not often that an unexpected pleasure arises as result of work, but today one such perk materialised completely out of the blue. I was invited by the outside counsel that we work with in NYC to join them at the NY Intellectual Property Law Association 90th Annual Dinner in Honor of the Judicuary at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue http://www.waldorfnewyork.com/. The event is the largest hosted by the hotel in the year with approximately 2,500 professionals joining together for a black tie dinner held in function rooms throughout the building. The evening started with a cocktail reception on 18th floor laid on by my hosts - many of the major law firms were holding similar events throughout the hotel and I hadn't anticipated the queue for the lifts as all the smartly dressed glitterati manoeuvred themselves to the right networking session. For the meal of beet and mango salad, tournedos of beef and peach meringue tart I was seated at table 900 and something in the Starlight Roof Centre. The meal and speeches were followed by more networking as the law firms suites re-opened for dessert receptions and the gathered throng shimmied from one to another catching up into the early hours. Unfortunately the exterior of the hotel itself was being renovated but the interior architecture and 1930's design is amazing - great glass chandeliers, wooden panelled lifts with bell boys, a mirrored reception room with a gold painted ceiling and even beige marble and gold rimmed mirrors in the rest rooms. I enjoyed the company of our counsel, their interesting friends and some of my in- house colleagues and it was fun to get dressed up and participate in one of the legal social events of the year. Thank you very much - it was a special treat. On the way back to the train station the next morning, I caught up with the latest windows at Macy's - recently redesigned for their 2012 flower show on the theme of Brazil - great, but I do think they have something to learn from Nason's in Canterbury.
Tuesday 13 March 2012
Shamrocks and Leprichauns
Tuesday 13th March
We knew that there were many Irish people, or people of Irish decent, living down the East Coast of America, but we had failed to put two and two together to appreciate that this would mean that St Patrick's Day is big news. In our local neighbouhood the Valentine's wreaths (which had replaced the Christmas ones) were removed and up went greenery of all sorts, with Leprichauns's springing up in gardens and mail boxes being adorned with yet more seasonal flags. Our well informed Kindergartener returned from school full of stories about pots of gold, rainbows and the lucky four leafed clover. A naughty Leprichaun even visited their classroom during recess and muddled everything up. For us it was the opportunity to tick off one of the "must -dos" and see our favourite Irish band, who friends know we have been following for far to long, The Saw Doctors (http://www.sawdoctors.com/) play in down town Philly at the Theatre of the Living Arts (http://tlaphilly.com/venue-information) on South Street. We had a fun evening - the band knew better than to play their new stuff to these seasoned followers and so the crowd was rocking in the Dail as firm favourite followed firm favourite. Their songs relating to immigration rang a whole new chord. One of the best things about seeing the Saw Doctors is that although the band seems to be getting a bit older the demographic profile of the fans doesn't change (well to us at least) and it fair takes us back to our student days. Anthony Thistlethwaite's saxophone solo was a high-light. We don't believe our Irish landlord was among the fans, but maybe the labourer suing him was - at least the Sheriff has stopped trying to serve the court papers to our house now, but that is an entirely different story.
We knew that there were many Irish people, or people of Irish decent, living down the East Coast of America, but we had failed to put two and two together to appreciate that this would mean that St Patrick's Day is big news. In our local neighbouhood the Valentine's wreaths (which had replaced the Christmas ones) were removed and up went greenery of all sorts, with Leprichauns's springing up in gardens and mail boxes being adorned with yet more seasonal flags. Our well informed Kindergartener returned from school full of stories about pots of gold, rainbows and the lucky four leafed clover. A naughty Leprichaun even visited their classroom during recess and muddled everything up. For us it was the opportunity to tick off one of the "must -dos" and see our favourite Irish band, who friends know we have been following for far to long, The Saw Doctors (http://www.sawdoctors.com/) play in down town Philly at the Theatre of the Living Arts (http://tlaphilly.com/venue-information) on South Street. We had a fun evening - the band knew better than to play their new stuff to these seasoned followers and so the crowd was rocking in the Dail as firm favourite followed firm favourite. Their songs relating to immigration rang a whole new chord. One of the best things about seeing the Saw Doctors is that although the band seems to be getting a bit older the demographic profile of the fans doesn't change (well to us at least) and it fair takes us back to our student days. Anthony Thistlethwaite's saxophone solo was a high-light. We don't believe our Irish landlord was among the fans, but maybe the labourer suing him was - at least the Sheriff has stopped trying to serve the court papers to our house now, but that is an entirely different story.
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