Papa Travels Solo!

Wishing we could have jumped in the luggage!  John is in Australia for a couple of weeks.  Here is the first view of Brisbane.  Melbourne and Sydney are on his itinerary.  Hopefully he will dispatch some of our sneaky cards so we can track them to far-flung places!  http://sneakycards.com/

Gloucester at its best

Labor Day weekend brings the much anticipated annual schooner festival to Gloucester. There is something magical about seeing the harbor filled with sails. This year John and I were kayaking sans kids so we were on the water the whole morning. We saw the schooners lining up as they came out of the inner harbor for the Parade of Sails. Above you see two schooners which sail out of Gloucester:  the Adventure,  which is a former Grand Banks fishing schooner and the Ardelle, a pinky schooner built in Essex. We paddled very close to the other large schooner with the three masts-- the Mystic out of...Newport, RI! Yes, the RI connection is neat but we were more interested in those on board! Isaac and his friend Miles are off to the races on the Mystic. The Maritime Center offers teens to go out for free during the Mayor's Race. What an opportunity! They were all smiles and I am sure they will have tales to tell when they return to land.

Last hurrah

At White Lake State Park in NH! What a gem of a place. The camp sites are large and the lake is beautiful.  We had a full weekend. A contingent of our 2-family group bagged three more 4000 footers in the White Mountains:  Willey, Field, and Tom. The kayakers in the crowd were treated to a group of six loons this year! At times we got up close and personal with loons popping up in front of us or even doing an interesting flying-paddle maneuver right by us. And the lake antics! Yes it takes skill to actually sit on an inflatable intertube but even more skill to stand on one!  Yet the youngest member nailed it. 9.7!! Then there was the hammock. A well appreciated Christmas gift put to good use. It was never idle and even was slept in overnight. The weekend was capped off by mini golf at Smitty's, a new location. No frills but good enough. Of course the best part of the weekend was the good eats by the campfire and the wonderful friends. Thanks Wendy, Miles, and Mike for another treasured memory.

Home again!

Thanks for the warm welcome home M,W,and M!

Signs That You Might Be England

Greetings from Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian!

We tubed over to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich for a brief visit.  We were off to find the 0 degree longitude line! We paid our admission and during our whirlwind tour of the museum picked up a few interesting facts.

In the courtyard was a queue for photo ops on the Prime Meridian. We started to wait in line but then realized we could get just as good a photo opposite the traditional photo spot.  But we really had a good chuckle upon exiting!  There in the back of the museum was a cobblestone line not at all centered with the door from whence it came but in alignment with that popular photo spot inside the museum premises!

The Meeting at St. Pancras

Crossed through the Chunnel today. Looked all over St. Pancreas station for the cart halfway in the wall on Platform 9 and 3/4 but we couldn't find a thing!  Instead we found the 30 foot bronze statue of the The Meeting. Along it's base was a series of detailed 3 dimensional friezes representing the history of the Tube. Incredible!!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Day_(sculptor)