Uncle Brian and Aunt Erin!!!

My brother Mark and his wife Summer were joined by Lincoln Cole Walker on Sept. 18th. Mom, Dad, and baby are all doing fine. Erin and I will be visiting with our new nephew for the first time on Sept. 28th! (And I'm sure we'll have some pictures.)

One Week Behind the Mast or Boutons and the Sea Pt. 1

"You were in the Navy? What ship?" I served in the U.S. Navy, largely a maritime service, for five and a half years and had never been to sea which over the years has become a source of slight personal embarassment. After talking with Erin, we both decided it was time to remedy the situation by spending a week aboard a dual-masted schooner out of Boston to finally get this lubber some sea legs. The above pic shows the Westward which is a fine ship and brought us safely out to sea and back under the fine command of Captain Flansberg. (I hope I'm spelling his name correctly!)

Here is our captain, holding the chart, guiding us out into the harbor where we moored for the first evening. The captain was amazing, and we thoroughly enjoyed talking to him and hearing about his endlessly fascinating sea, and land, stories throughout the week. It was obvious the crew loved serving under him by how happily they went about their duties. The captain also had a great sense of humor and quite a nice singing voice as he entertained us with some sea chantys on our last evening aboard. To the right of him is 1st Mate Paolino who was equally wonderful and we learned quite a bit about the sailing life from hearing about his personal experiences.

According to the film "Captains Courageous", passengers are a "Jonah" (bad luck) aboard a proper sailing vessel so we were quickly to put to work as deckhands. Even as green as we were just coming aboard, all the teachers were giving a duty section and stood watches at the lookout, helm (me at the wheel above), running messages fore and aft, and doing boat checks at regular intervals. Depending on whether we were in port or at sea, the watches were on a 24-hour rotation and that included mid-watches. Standing at the helm was a lot of fun because you had to keep the ship on course by the compass in front of you and was challenging at times in strong winds. The downside was that nobody can speak to you while you are at the wheel and it's kind of lonely.

A cold sea and hot summer temperatures in New England creates a good thick fog. This ship coming out of the mist gave us a good scare, but it was anchored and no threat to us at all. Still, Mr. Pao sat up on the bowsprit sounding his conch shell (our foghorn was out) to warn any other vessels hiding out there.

After a fogbound trip through the Cape Cod Canal, we finally hit port in New Bedford, Mass to visit this former whaling town and to see the Whaling Museum. The above pic is of the Seamen's Bethel where sailiors go to pray for a safe voyage. It's also the chapel that Herman Melville prayed in before he went on his five-year whaling voyage in prepration for writing "Moby Dick." You can see the pew he sat in when you head inside.

This bow-shaped pulpit is inside the Seamen's Bethel and was built by popular demand after the Gregory Peck film version of "Moby Dick" had many tourists asking where it was. Melville included mention of the pulpit in his novel; however, it was his own invention and is a recent addition to the chapel.

This whale skeleton hangs from the ceiling of the New Bedford Whaling Museum. While the displays inside are wonderful and do great justice to the practice and history of whaling, we were quite sad after considering how many of these wonderful creatures were killed in the process.

(Above Picture) This is scrimshaw, or carved whale bones, that sailors used to make on long whaling voyages to pass the time. Some of them are quite beautiful but then you are reminded of the cost of this artwork in lost whales.

This is a shot of our big night out together in New Bedford at Freestone's. From left and clockwise: Dave, Eric, Kevin, Dr. Glenn, Liz, Patty, Lisa, Chris, Chip, and Erin. You really could not find a more fantastic group of people to be out to sea with for a week. We hope to keep in touch with everyone.

Our captain and the crew came out to the same restaurant to have dinner so we surprised them with a round of "Apple Jack" (apple juice) and Teddy Grahams off the salty sailor menu (kid's menu.) Life at sea is dangerous and little bear-shaped graham crackers and jungle-themed mug might mean the difference between life and death out there.

What do sailors do when they hit shore? Drink and get tattoos. Liz, one of our program coordinators, had the brilliant idea to bring pirate-themed stick-on tatoos and they were a huge hit with the crew. Pictured with me is Dave who turned out to be a fellow Floridian and a librarian at my old rival school, Berkeley Prep. Dave is a hoot, and Erin absolutely loved having him as a watchmate. We'll be catching up with Dave in September when we come home for Erin's high school reunion.

Pickin' Blueberries!

Like Juan Valdez and his coffee beans, we took our burro (the Subaru) up into the mountains to load it up with blueberries which make awful coffee but a great topping for your morning cereal and can be used in at least a dozen recipes according to a book we purchased at the farm pictured above. I had never picked fruit off the vine before this so it was quite an experience to dodge the bees and wasps that also compete for the berries. Still, you can tell from the bucket above how delicious they are and so good to just pop into your mouth as a tasty treat. We left with two full buckets and came home to make blueberry hamburgers. Blueberry hamburgers? that's right. Take a hamburger patty and put bluberries in the center and grill until done. We also had blueberry pancakes with NH maple syrup which should probably be illegal it's so good. (I also bought a strawberry rhubarb pie while we were there which has nothing to do with blueberries, or this story really, but I thought you might like to know it's my favorite pie if you ever happen to entertain us in your home.) Erin went back to pick another bucket less than a week later since we were already running out. Apples are in season next month so we'll have more picking adventure pics up soon.

(Click on each of these pics to see the enlarged version.)

The Boutons in Chi-Town

We're sorry about the recent lack of posts, but we had a terrible time trying to get Verizon (one of the worst companies ever) to bring our Internet back up after our recent move, but here we are again and we have a backlog of good stuff to share. Erin left Morgan and I in Dublin to go visit relatives in Florida and Oregon, and we eventually met up in my my Mother's new home, Chicago, in early August to celebrate her birthday. She's been asking us when she would make the blog so here's her debut on Granite State Strangers!

It wouldn't be a visit to Chicago with Mom unless we visited her "church", Marshall Field's, to do some shopping. (I know it's Macy's now according to reality, but I don't call the Ice Palace the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, either.)

Here is Mom in her glory at the jewelry counter. :)

We bought tickets to "Wicked" for Mom's birthday present and the pic above and several below are of our evening out at the theater. It was our second time seeing the show in Chicago since Mom and Dick bought us tickets as a honeymoon present a little over a year ago.

This is a wonderful shot of Mom and Dick outside of his school, Columbia College. Dick is in charge of their incredible music department, and we've had the great pleasure of seeing some of his amazing faculty and students perform in that very building. Dick is a great guy and an even greater host when we're in town because he kindly puts up with hearing Mom and I tell the same family stories over and over.

Ok. Chicago is a great city and it boasts some of the most amazing museums, food, music, entertainment, and shopping in the world. Still, Chicago is host to one of the worst dolphin shows I've ever seen in my life. You can see the Shedd Aquarium in the background of the above picture where we witnessed this travesty. Did you know that dolphins won't save drowning humans? Did you know dolphins can hold their breath longer than we can? Those are just a few of the amazing factoids we picked up while sitting on an uncomfortable stone bench watching dolphins literally swim from one end of a tank to the other. Did you know dolphins can swim faster than Olympic swimmers? It's true! We witnessed it. I know Mayor Daley is busy putting flowers on every street corner, but he needs to get down to the aquarium and teach those dolphins to jump through a hoop or bounce a ball on their nose and they might get the show up to the level of the '76 Marineland dolphin show in Miami.

Here I sit broken hearted after seeing the worst dolphin show ever... :)

After a successful summer at the Dublin Lake Club, I figure I'm ready to run this place next! I can never get over how beautiful the waterfront is in Chicago or how blue the water is.

This is the beautiful walkway to Mom and Dick's place (their house is on the left and up a couple doors)...

...and this is Mom's adorable bunny that she loves even though it tries to eat her flowers. :)

Erin really wanted to see Wrigley Field, so we took the train out there on game day to see what all the excitement was about. I won't say it's as cool as the Green Monster, but it is still pretty cool. Still, I couldn't get that excited about wearing a cub on my t-shirt. Red socks are much more manly! Go Sox! (And not the faded white ones.)
This is the guy that Will Ferrell impersonated on SNL. (End of history lesson.) :)

Dublin Lake Club: The Daily Grind

I'm now about a month into my sailing instructor position at the Dublin Lake Club, across the street from our school, and everything is going quite well. Starting off, I didn't know my broad reach from my close-hauled, now I know how to rig a 420 and an Opti, sail both of them, and I can give some limited instruction to people who know less than I do. I work with two really nice individuals, Brenna and Andrew, who both know far more about the fine art of seamanship than I do, but they are quite patient in showing me the ropes, or lines, literally. Sailing brings out the best in people, and I've found that most sailors are quick to help and friendly with their advice. They try to initiate as many people into the sport as possible and it's about as inclusive as you could desire.

This shot above is the view from our sailing dock of the Club's beach. As you can tell by the glassy quality of the lake, we had no wind on this day, and I had a lot of time to take pics as nobody wanted to take out boats.

This is the sailing cabin that we spend a great deal of time in each day. Lessons are held inside for beginners, ages around 5-9, and intermediates, ages around 10-13, three days a week. We use the white board to demonstrate technique and then spend the better part of two hours letting the kids sail on the lake under our supervision. The little ones sail in Optis that are about impossible to capsize since they're largely bathtubs with sails.

This boat is a 420 and we use them for the intermediate program and for checking out to adult members of the club. The take both a jib (forward sail) and a main sheet and take about 10 minutes to rig if you know what you are doing. It's exciting to me that I knew nothing about putting sails on it about 4 weeks ago, and now I can rig one in my sleep and take it out to sail. I can't believe I get paid for this! I'll have some action sailing shots once we return in August, and most exciting---I get to take Erin out for our first sail together. I can't wait.

Our Blessed New Arrival

While Erin is off playing in Florida and Oregon, what was I supposed to do left all alone in Dublin? I had no choice to buy a new television. What you can't see---the rabbit ears off to the left where we are able to pick up one channel, ABC, in HD. Ugly Betty is even uglier in HD. You don't often see rabbit ears on a rig like this. (We're going to hook the cable up again when we get home in August---but it reminds me of a funny gag where a family was so poor that they bought their son a football for Christmas and promised to save up for the air the next year.)Most people convert to HD for sporting events, I was sold when I found out you can watch "Planet Earth" in HD where a cameraman trails a humpback whale underneath. That's like the Superbowl of nature programs!

Mr Asaro Comes To Dublin

Steve, my best friend, took time from his beautiful wife, Jen, and child, Allison, to come up and see where we've laid down roots. As you can tell, we had him go to Kimballs' for ice cream like my brother; however, he figured out the big ice cream trick and opted for a child size which he still couldn't finish. I also took him over to Fat Frank's to sample one of their fine dogs. I love the woman in the back. It's almost as if she's describing the size of the links. We had a hard time finishing our lunch after I also took him to the Peterboro Diner for pancakes. I know it sounds like we torture our guests by forcing one meal on them after another, but we really do more than eat. I swear.

Steve had never been to New Hampshire, Vermont, or Maine, so we too day trips across two borders so he could check them off on his state quarters binder. :) This is a shot of us standing at a Revolutionary War era fort in Portsmouth Harbor and on the Maine side of the Piscataqua.

Eating a lobster in Maine was on my summer to-do list and Steve was more than happy to help me mark it off. We headed up the coast until we found this little resort town with a general store that sells lobster, steamers, and clams to tourists. The reason we picked this spot was an incredibly strong Noreaster blew in while we were driving on the coast with dual lightning strikes at time and we thought, "Um, maybe we should stop." I think we overpaid, but looking at the pictures, do you think it mattered? I think that was the 3rd lobster I've ever eaten out of the shell, and I do love; however, it's not something you want to do at lunchtime since your hands, your face, your breath and everything smells like the sea afterward. I've also found that a glass of wine helps drop my standards of how picky I am in looking for meat. One glass of wine and I'll bite the head open.
How can two of the biggest fans of our 41st president go to Maine and not visit Kennebunkport? Well, we did. This is the town that Soviet leader Putin ate lobsters with George W. for a week or so earlier this summer. We didn't run into Poppa Bush while we were driving through, but can you imagine the excitement if we did? He was my Commander-in-Chief in the Persian Gulf War! I'd pop a smart salute.
Steve used to sail in college at UF, so I took him out sailing on one of our 420s at the Dublin Lake Club. We switched off at the helm and had a fine tour of the lake. Steve mentioned that he was impressed by my summer office. Two salty sailors like ourselves were able to bring the boat out and back like pros and it really was quite a dream to go sailing together. I never would have imagined that as a possibility living in Tampa. Now I'm a sailing instructor and he's a dad. Life is good. This is a shot of Steve standing on our dining hall balcony at Dublin School. He was quite impressed with the local views and the abundance of nature, and said he can't wait to bring his wife and daughter up to see the sights. We can't wait to have them. It was a fantastic trip and so much fun to have Steve up here to visit and see our new life.