Empty Nest

Amy and I dropped Oscar off at UVM this past weekend.  Left the dog at home; I am sure he would have enjoyed being included, but it would have made the logistics a lot more complicated, since we we were driving up the night before and then staying in a motel.

For Oscar the college experience kicked off with "Trek" -- an outdoor adventure program thing where you go hiking in a group of your fellow classmates. Some photos from the drop-off below. The first step is getting your hiking gear inspected to make sure you have enough of the right clothing etc (and are not bringing heavy stuff you won't need). You then deposit your pack at the table corresponding to the group you're going with (some of the group names were fairly entertaining). After that it's off to your dorm to pick up your key, dump your various belongings into your dorm room, do a little frantic setup, return your key, and then come back to the student center to rejoin your group.

Drop-off area:

Gear inspection for Oscar, which he passed with flying colors:

Trek group tables:

My favorite was "Justices of the Supreme Spork" :-).

Listening to the final blurbs:

Amy and I gave Oscar a hug, then made our way back to the car. Stopped for brunch in town after that, then again at a farmer's market, which was fun; Burlington seems to be a good place for that sort of thing. After that we hit the road back home...

Empty nest -- end of an era!

More July Happenings

A few more July photos.

From the Peabody-Essex Museum; Amy and I went to take in a visiting Rodin exhibit. They had a very interesting video showing the entire process used for casting a bronze piece from a plaster model -- I had no idea how complicated and labor-intensive it was. 

This was my first visit to the Peabody-Essex -- it's a much bigger museum than I had realized.

This past weekend I drove Lydia out to Amherst to drop her off at her NUTC frisbee camp (very hot! CT valley can be sweltering in the summer), then I decided to head on up and spend the night in Vermont visiting with my mom and brother. Also had dinner with Sue and Bob, who came over Sat night.

In the morning I spend some time working in the garden, staking and weeding the asparagus.

The garden got a very late start this year because of my mom's pneumonia (which really knocked her for a loop), but it was hard to tell judging from all of the green growing things. Fantastic broccoli this year, it really took off (also chard, peas, onions, potatoes, ...).

My brother came down for breakfast a bit later in the morning; Ma made her traditional sourdough pancake breakfast with bacon, also fresh peaches (yum).

Some photos from my brother's cabin. He has been doing emergency roof repairs, having discovered major leaks upon arriving for the visit.  I spend a couple of hours helping with the last little bit, mainly cleaning up the old shingles but also helping to lay the last shingles on the section that was being repaired. Roofing is a nasty business -- no matter how hard you try you always get covered with tar.

Kind of a short visit (less than 24 hours), but it was nice to see everyone.

Swimming at Buttermilk Falls

Visiting my mom in Vermont this weekend...

Yesterday morning around 9:30 or so we piled into the car and drove down to Buttermilk Falls, a swimming hole that I had heard about a while back but never tried to visit before. We picked up Sue along the way at the Tinmouth church (kidnapped her from the remainder of her rehearsal in fact) and then drove east through Wallingford and then south along rt 140 until we were almost in Ludlow (it is abiut a 45 min drive).

Buttermilk falls is a series of 3 smallish waterfalls on a small river near Okemo National Forest; the pools are not very deep (most of them) but the water is nice (definitely on the cool side). Photos:

Very nice swim. The last waterfall we visited had a place where you could swim up underneath the fall itself and let it "massage" your head and shoulders (kind of neat).

In the afternoon we went to see a performance of Guys and Dolls at the Weston playhouse -- it was a terrific show (great singing and dancing).

Fun weekend!