Block Island

Last weekend Ethan, Amy and I decided to drive down to RI and take the ferry out to Block Island for the day. We decided that we would bring our bikes, since it's a pretty bike-friendly island, so we strapped them onto Amy's car and headed our around 7:20am Sat morning for the drive down.

 More traffic than I would have expected-- we actually wound up cutting it a bit close when it came to getting onto the ferry. Towards the end of the drive both Amy and I were basically yelling at Ethan to drive more aggressively so that we would get there in time (not even remotely setting a good example for the learner in the family).  I don't think we were the very last people onto the ferry, but we did not exactly leave a lot of extra time.

Nice weather -- slightly overcast but still mostly sunny. Full ferry; many people looked as though they were basically going to head to the beach and just plan themselves there for the day; there were a few families that had more baggage/belongings for a longer stay.

On the ferry:

We arrived at the dock, grabbed a couple of maps, then headed to the southern end of the island to check out the lighthouse. The island is surprisingly hilly-- way more up and down than Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. Steep drop-off on the southern end of the island with big cliffs. We clambered down a big set of stairs and explored for a bit, the decided to make our way back.
Out and about:

South coast of the island:

Lunch in the center of town at a restaurant that Ethan had scoped out ahead of time (fishes sandwiches; not bad). In the afternoon we did a more extensive bike tour, then parked our bikes and did some of the hiking trails. The trails were in fact not all that interesting; they looked good on the map but turned out to be sort of featureless paths running through dense underbrush. After that we decided to hit the beach: we biked over to the east end of the island to the big town beach and settled in for some swimming. There were a lot of people there, but the beach was big enough that it didn't feel all that crowded.  I rented a boogie board and Ethan spent a couple of hours surfing with it. The ocean was very cool but not freezing, so we were able to stay in a while.

At around 4 it started to get more overcast and we felt a couple of raindrops, so we packed up and caught the early ferry. On the way home we dropped Ethan off at Regis College in Weston-- he was meeting up with friends to see a show at the youth theater there ("Two Gentlemen from Verona", a musical).

Long day, but a nice outing.

Liverpool vs A.S. Roma

Amy gave me a couple of soccer tickets for my birthday: Liverpool vs AS Roma, playing at Fenway Park of all places. I took Ethan to go see it -- Amy was not interested and Lydia was away at summer camp. Ethan drove us in to Boston; we decided to park at the Prudential and walk from there. Very warm; the weather forecast was for thunderstorms that evening, so I brought jackets, but in fact we didn't need them.

Fenway is a weird place to take in a soccer game-- you look up and think "Baseball park" and then look down and there are a bunch of guys running around kicking a soccer ball. Takes a while to get used to.

Skrtl getting ready to make a pass:

The selfie (photobombed by Ethan of course):

Nil nil -- of course...

Very low-key game; pretty much all of the starters for Liverpool were on the bench, including Gerrard, Johnson, Sturridge, Sterling, Reina, and a bunch of others. Luis Suarez was of course not there, having been traded to Barcelona. The only big-name players I recognized were Coutinho (who put on a good show) and Skrtl. A couple of the second-tier Brits played very well (Ibe). Still, it was a spirited game, with nice passing and some good attacking play, mainly on the part of Roma. The crowd was very heavily in the Liverpool camp; lots of red jerseys, only a few visible Roma supporters. Fun stuff!

Tyringham weekend

Amy organized a weekend at my dad's place with a bunch of my friends from Brown over the fourth of July holiday to celebrate my 50th birthday; it was fun to get-together. Especially nice to see all of the kids, many of whom I have not seen since they were tiny (or never seen at all). We were able to entice Cheryl to come up from New York (not an easy thing to do!); Dave & Kirsten + offspring drove up from CT and John came over from Colgate (a long haul) with his two kids. Amy Ethan Lydia & I drove up early Friday morning; Rustin also came for the weekend. The Brown grads:

The weather Friday was essentially hurricane "leftovers" -- very heavy rain, lots of wind. We didn't spend a lot of time outside, but there were plenty of indoor entertainments. Amy and Dave in the kitchen:

John:

Cheryl and Dave:

Here are the kids playing "Telestrations":

Before dinner:

We also piled into the bedroom upstairs and watched the world cup soccer semifinals; nail-biting stuff.

We had some wonderful meals; Amy had organized the food down to the last detail, with some things brought from Lexington, some things cooked on the spot, and a few things ordered ahead from Guido's. Thebirthday cake she made was fantastic (very complicated and tricky to prepare; not sure I would have attempted it) -- Swiss Broyage layers, pastry cream filling, ganache topping, with a dusting of nuts on the sides. Yum.

Lasers and sparklers after dinner:

Saturday we strapped the canoe to the top of my dad's car and headed up to the pond for a canoeing/swimming expedition-- weather was really nice (clear and sunny, not too hot). When we arrived at the pond there was a garter snake who had taken up residence on the top of the raft, and didn't seem to want to be disturbed. The kids waved their arms and made threatening motions, but it didn't budge. We eventually convinced it to vacate by spraying it with water.

Hey-- toss me that canoe paddle!

Fooling around on the raft:

Canoeing:

More canoeing:

More birthday nonsense-- Ethan and Lydia created a music video: a take-off of a Katy Perry song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHPGDEMEoNA

Hope the link works (if not let me know). Dave/John/Cheryl put together a slide show of ancient photos from Brown (most of which I am not posting to the blog-- maybe some other time :-). Here is one of my doing my best Patrick Swayze impression:

Heh. Other assorted members of the gang (taken in Cheryl's apartment):

It was a nice weekend... I think everyone had a good time.

Driving in Cars with Teenagers

Ethan has been learning how to drive this summer. We signed him up for a "driver's ed" course earlier this spring and he went to get his learner's permit around the point where he was finishing up school. At first he wasn't really all that interested in driving, but after only a couple of sessions behind the wheel his outlook changed and he is now enthusiastic about the prospect of getting his license. Picture:

So far he's been doing well; there have only been a few yelps/shrieks/gasps from the parent sitting beside him. He keeps an eye on the family driving and always volunteers to drive when we're about to head out somewhere. When you are rummaging around in the kitchen looking for grocery bags and trying to add the last few items to the list, he will often pop up out of nowhere and ask "May I drive?". Not quite sure yet when he will take the actual exam; we will have to figure out if he has a weekend free this fall when he can fit it in.