Summer’s winding down, but we managed to squeeze in one more family trip before school starts. This one was a 9.5-hour drive (each way) to Cooperstown, New York, to see a friend play the first couple of games of a youth baseball tournament, to see the Baseball Hall of Fame, and to check out whatever other sites there were in the area (as it turns out, there are quite a few!). I’m going to add up the miles our minivan traveled from spring break through the end of the summer at some point, but the fact that the kids weren’t even remotely fazed by 19 hours in the car from a Thursday to a Monday says something about their conditioning!
Julie — born a half a generation too late to really catch her calling as a travel agent — wound up scoring us a spot at a campground near town. It wasn’t camping, exactly, as we stayed in a camper that was situated on-site, but it was fun and convenient!
The baseball: 104 teams from across the country. It kicked off with an opening ceremony followed by a skills competition on Saturday night, then 3 days of 2-games-a-day play for tournament seeding, followed by a single-elimination tournament. The Austin Bats went 4-2 in the seeding, so they wound up as the no. 36 seeded team. They then won their first two games in the tournament before losing to the no. 4 seed, which went on to ultimately lose to the no. 1 seed to just miss being in the championship game. Not a bad showing at all!
Saturday Evening at Dreams Park (HDR-Enhanced)
The Parking Lot of Dreams Park (the fields are down below in the background)
On something of a lark, I flew down to New Orleans for a long weekend a couple of weeks ago to meet up with some industry peers whom I mostly know through Twitter and blogs, but most of whom I’d met in person at least once. It turned out to be a pretty interesting trip. I snapped a few pictures that seemed worth sharing:
A heavily HDR-enhanced photo down a row of above-ground tombs in Lafayette Cemetery:
A sculpture behind Cafe du Monde:
A house sparrow behind Cafe du Monde:
And…this just made me laugh. It’s a sign on the gate to the police station in the French Quarter. You might be a tourist area if the police department not only sells T-shirts, but advertises that fact:
I wasn’t along for this leg of the trip, but it appears that Julie took a couple of photos, so I’m posting them and describing as best I can. En route back from Maine to Columbus, Julie stopped off for the weekend at the Hallacs’ in Armonk, New York. Allegedly, Trice and Jimmy were there (owners of the house and parents of the three girls who live there), as were Paul and Patty (parents of Markus, who live in Brooklyn and drove out for a visit), but no photo evidence of their presence was captured.
Benton told me that he spent so much time in the Hallacs’ pool at one point that he had large chunks of skin coming off of his feet (lovely image, that):
Some sort of posed photos with 5 of the 7 kids captured (the twins were apparently off to bed or elsewhere):
There are minimal humans in this post recalling our summer trip to Canada and Maine and points in between. But, I got a few shots that seemed worth sharing of critters and such.
Some ducks near the shore of Rangeley Lake:
A ring-billed gull flying overhead near the shore of the lake near downtown Rangeley:
Carson spent time snorkeling in Maine and grabbed this crayfish:
A butterfly on a trail around the Rangeley golf course:
An unidentified (common…but unidentified — I looked!) orange flower in Maine:
Hmmm…nothing like writing Part 1 of our summer trip and then not following up with Part 2 until two weeks later! Since that first post, I’ve made trips to New Orleans and to Austin, which, when shoehorned in amongst work, has kept me pretty busy. Better late than never, though, right?
After leaving Julie’s aunt and uncle’s place in Angliers, Quebec, we drove 13.5 hours east to my parent’s cabin on Rangeley Lake in eastern Maine. Several weeks later, the single photo of our entire trip that continues to spring to my mind is this one of Carson jumping off the end of their dock:
Benton got to try out my dad’s scythe, which is a left-handed job (as Benton and my dad both are), and which they’d discussed previously, so Benton was curious to get his hands on it when we arrived:
He also got a lesson in sharpening the blade:
A view from the cabin driveway looking out through the trees to lake (multiple images combined and then enhanced for this effect):
Lounging on the deck — Alana and Carson engrossed in needlepoint while J reads to them (A.A. Milne, I believe, but I may be mistaken on that):
Benton and I kayaked 2 miles into town one afternoon:
On another morning, Julie and I canoed into town while Benton kayaked, and we had breakfast at Mooseley Bagels. The view from our table:
My parents then brought Carson and Alana to town, and Julie, Alana, and I paddled back, with Carson kayaking.
Carson’s paddling time was pretty brief before ran out of gas. We tied him to the back of the canoe and towed him the last 1.75 miles into an increasingly strong headwind. At the same time, Alana took occasional turns paddling…with Julie’s paddle (we’d forgotten to grab a 3rd paddle for her to use)…from the middle of the boat. THAT was the longest 2 miles I think I’ve ever paddled.
We seem to have settled into a nice pattern of repeating the cycles of our respective youths, in that the “lengthy summer road trip” is becoming an annual event.
This year, we started off with a 14-hour drive to Angliers, Quebec, Canada, where Julie’s aunt and uncle have had a cabin on Lac des Quinze for the past 40 years (that’s 40 years of steady expansion and improvement in support of a large family — easily qualifying as a “resort” without even factoring in the warm and entertaining hosts!). After 3 full days there, we loaded up the family again and drove 13.5 hours to my folks’ cabin on Rangeley Lake in Maine (“funny” story: up until the day before we left on the first leg of the trip, Julie thought that the second leg was going to be 4.5 hours; it turns out that Googling directions from “Quebec” to Rangeley, ME, is sort of like googling directions from “Texas” to New Orleans, LA — it’s a big province!).
We did manage to leave my suitcase behind in Canada, which, luckily, turned out to be pretty minor blip in the trip. I’ll get those clothes back at some point!
One thing we learned this summer is that our kids have become seasoned road-trippers. We initially planned on a 6:00 AM departure for the first leg of the trip, and we expected that leg to take two days. The kids took turns lobbying for an earlier departure (!), and we wound up “compromising” on 5:00 AM…and then managed to be on the road at 4:45! AND, the kids eschewed breaks to stretch their legs so much that we completed the trip in a single day. We repeated the exercise for the second leg of the trip (not leaving until 4:50 AM…we were on vacation, after all, so should be forgiven the 5-minute slippage!).
After a couple of days there, Julie drove me down to the airport in Portland, ME, to fly back to Columbus. She then stuck around with the kids for the week in Maine before driving to New York to see friends and relatives for the next weekend, and then on back to Columbus.
<whew!>
Kicking off with a few pictures from the first leg of the trip:
View from the Cabin (Carson on the Dock)
The Cabin
Trolling with Uncle Bill
Setting Unrealistic Expectations for How Many Walleye Can Be Caught in 1.5 Hours
Carson Could Hardly Wait to Eat Them!
It Wasn’t All About Fishing, Though
Aunt Elaine Got “The Look” When She Questioned the Dungeonmaster
Oh, Yeah, Did I Mention They Have Four Laying Hens?
I culled down the photos as best I could…but still wound up with a few more than are posted here. You can check the full set out (44 pictures) on Flickr.
Last week/weekend, we had a round of company culminating on Saturday night with overnight human guests from northern Virginia, Colorado, and Austin, and an overnight canine guest from Akron. Getting the kids outside as much as we could led to a recreation of the yellow brick road using chalk in our driveway. That then led to costumes and an hour or so of The Wizard of Oz (the fact that none of the kids involved had seen more than snippets of the movie left it fairly open for interpretation).
Travelling the Yellow Brick Road:
Carson switched roles a few times; his preferred role was as an apple-hurling tree:
Dorothy’s Companion fled from the tree:
The Wicked Witch of the West captured Dorothy:
Ultimately, The Wicked Witch was melted by a bucket of imaginary water:
“Toto” took it all in:
Once they were sufficiently tuckered out, the whole crew headed inside to watch the original movie.
Benton has taken up golf more formally this year, playing in a league that plays nine holes at a different local public course every Sunday afternoon. Since this runs concurrently with baseball, we’re hoping he learns to shift between swinging the two different types of sticks. Parents are welcome to tag along, which I did last weekend (the first weekend where Benton and his friend, Jack, didn’t have to cut short the round to race off to a makeup baseball game).
The full foursome (L-R: Benton, Ian, Jack, Ben):
Benton teeing off (if the video isn’t showing up below you can view it on YouTube.
Fairway iron:
Teeing off at a par 3:
Putting:
Hitching a ride to the next tee:
The hot air balloon that came over mid-round:
On the driving range before the round, Benton adhered to one of his traditions, which is to take a few swings “Happy Gilmore”-style (if you haven’t seen the Adam Sandler movie, I don’t recommend wasting your time by tracking it down). He is consistently successful, so it’s only a matter of time before he tries this on the course (again, if you don’t see the video below, you can watch it on YouTube).
If you’re a Love and feel the need to see more pictures, you can check out more in this Picasa album.
Friday evening, as I was sacked out face down on the bed after an excruciatingly long week, our front yard became the spot of a spontaneous cheerleading clinic led by The Dedie.
The Dedie Walks Annie, Alana, Gabriela, and Charlotte through Some Routines
Annie, Gabriela, and Alana Show Off What They’ve Learned
More Demonstrations by Annie, Gabriela, Alana, and Charlotte
Some “On the Ground” Moves, with Natalie Joining in the Fun
August 18, 2011 
Posted in Alana, Benton, Carson, Julie 
3 Comments » 
