Boston (10/27/05)

I took a trip back east to visit some friends. First stop was in Boston, to see Brian and Sherry Haus, who are overworking themselves as a succefful doctor and lawyer, respectively. They took me our for drinks at the oldest bar in America, or something equally historical and important. Instead of revolutionary-types it was full of loud techno. Brian looks awfully cheerful despite having only 2 hours of sleep in the last 2 days.

They have a very grown-up type apartment downtown with a doorman and everything. The view from their living room is amazing. You can see the Charles River and Boston Common (see below).
Also visible from their living room, but not in the picture above, is the Garden, where the Bruins play. That's Boston's hockey team, for those of you who don't follow the 4th major league sport (that's right, I'm not counting soccer). As it happened, David Kuszmar happened to be in town about the same time, and we caught a hockey game together. The Bruins played the Toronto Maple Leafs, whose fans were well represented in the cheap seats near us, some wearing Toronto towels as capes. Crazy Canadians. They'd squeak out a pitiful "go leafs go!" between the roar of "LET'S GO BRU-INS." It was kind of cute. They got creamed. We noted many foam bear parts for sale including heads and paws. Will alert PETA. And of course the best part was the dueling zambonis: Amstel Light in red vs. Heinekin in green.


In addition to soaking in the local dialect at the game, David and I did a nod to the tourist circuit with a trip on a harbor tour boat. Here we are ignoring the informative narrative while sipping warm beverages on the bow.

The tour disembarked at the U.S.S. Constitution to let us tour the historic ship. A trip on the Boston tourist circuit really makes you realize how much you've forgotton from high school U.S. History class. We were quite mistaken about the place of "old Ironsides" in our history. I won't beat you over the head with the details, but as it turns out, it isn't made of iron, but of some super tough southern oak. Cannon balls bounce right off it, which is how its still in service after serving in battles 100 years ago.

Anyhoo, this was much more exciting than the ferry boat harbor cruise. I've been reading the Patrick O'Brien series about Lucky Jack Aubrey's exploits on big wooden sailing ships during the Napoleanic wars (think: Master and Commander starring Russel Crowe). Its easier to visualize the scenes after being on one of the ships of that era in person. And, they let you pull on ropes and fire cannons and everything! Ok, actually we were asked to leave soon after these pictures were taken. I think the navy guys were already a little insulted when David insinuated that no one actually know how to run the ship, what with all those ropes running all over the place. Turns out they do still know which ropes to pull on , and they take it out for a sail a couple of times a year. Still, I think, a pretty cush comission.

I'm looking forward to my next trip to Boston, as Sherry has promised to geek out with me on the Freedom Trail, and revel in some revolutionary history. Good times for patriots. The classical kind, not the "you're with us or you're with the terrorist" kind.

The Cardwells of Eugene (9-25-05)

After my stop at Crater Lake, I drove up to Eugene, OR, to visit my good friend from college, Amy, and her family. She and her husband Mike had recently bought a house in the outskirts of Eugene, and are enjoying their escape from Minnesota with their two kids. Caulder (age 3) likes telling stories and showing off the chickens in the backyard. It took Emily (age 2) a little while to figure out the whole we've-got-the-same-name--that's-weird thing. Actually it took me a while, too, and I kept telling Amy that I didn't want juice in a sippy cup, realizing too late she wasn't talking to me.

Amy has been telling me about these Contra Dances that she goes to for years, and I finally got to go with her to one. It was a lot of fun, and finally answered my question of, "What is a contra dance?" Its better to experiene it, but in a nutshell: Contra Dancing is a form of American folk dance in which the dancers form a set of two parallel lines which run the length of the hall. Each dance consists of a sequence of moves that ends with couples having progressed one position up or down the set. As the sequence is repeated, a couple will eventually dance with every other couple in the set. Contra Dancing was all the rage in 1800. Here are a couple of neat pictures that I couldn't include here due to copywright restrictions. There was a live band at the dance, and most of the sweaty guys brought multiple fresh shirts, so that was good. By the end of it I was enjoying the spins rather than gimping through them, and had met some nice folks, and I plan to do it again sometime. Thanks, Amy.

The next day, we took the kids on what Mike thought would be an easy hike in a park down the street from their house. Pretty flat, maybe a mile. It started out well. Avioded the poison oak, saw some dogs, everyone got a walking stick or two. I don't really understand kids' fascination with walking sticks, though I do remember a strong desire to tote a stick along when I was a foot or two shorter. After a while we realized that the part of the trail that Mike hadn't actually walked was quite a bit longer and steeper than anticipated. The kids were troopers, scrambling up slopes on their hands and knees until we decided we should call it quits, and go back to the car. I went ahead to get to my car on the other end (we were doing a shuttle -- seemed like a good idea at the time). After a surprisingly long vertical scramble I emerged at the top of what turned out to be Spencer's Butte. From there the whole valley was visible quite a ways below. All the more striking because it was so unexpected.

When I got back to where they had parked, the kids were exhausted. Emily had run about a mile back to the car. Really. When we got back to the house she said, "I want a really big burrito," in a very cute little kid voice. My sentiments exactly. Except maybe that I wanted a beer instead of juice in a sippy cup to wash it down.

Although Amy was worried that I wouldn't be able to handle a few days with young children, but I found the kids to be highly tolerable. That doesn't sound like much of a compliment, but it is a lot more genuine than "adorable," which, at many times, they also were. No doubt due to fine parenting.