Back in 2017, we travelled to Simpsonville, South Carolina to witness a total solar eclipse. It was awesome. It’s hard to plan for these things, given the vagaries of weather forecasting, but sometimes you just have to go for it. We went with friends who are simply amazing planners. The featured picture for this post is from that event, as is this one:
with all of us posing looking up at the sun with our eclipse glasses.
This time around, with kids fully grown and doing their own things, we were a smaller group:
This year, we drove west to Rochester, New York, to witness the eclipse. Weather was not on our side this time around, but we made a strategic decision on the morning of the eclipse, to head about an hour east to Syracuse. The weather prediction was slightly more favorable, and even though there would be less time in totality, the likelihood of experiencing any totality in a meaningful way meant the tradeoff was worth it.
In the end, the cloud cover stole much of the awe inspiring visible experience from us, but we still had a great time. From our vantage point, we were able to see the umbra moving from west to east, and it got much darker than we remembered from 2017. And then, the three hundred mile drive home went as smoothly as it possibly could, getting us home by 8:00 p.m. which was a blessing. We had friends who were in Burlington, Vermont, who headed home after the eclipse and who didn’t arrive home until 5:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. Yikes!
All in all, a great experience, and we would be inclined to do it again.
We only had one full day in Belfast, plus the half day after our arrival, and a half day preparing to leave. We walked around the city that first evening, taking in the City Hall
and Saint Anne’s Cathedral
The next day, we took a bus tour that took us to one of the major attractions that drew us to Belfast — the Giant’s Causeway. On the way, we got to see the ruins of Dunluce Castle
which was used (with some CGI enhancements) as Pyke Castle, home to the House of Greyjoy in Game of Thrones. And then we got to the Causeway. And wow was it breathtaking! I would have to say it was the most unique and interesting geological site I’ve been to. The notable feature is the collection of some 40,000+ hexagonal columns of basalt, which were formed by lava cooling very slowly and uniformly, which apparently caused fractures to form hexagonally.
The tour bus gave us a reasonable amount of time to explore, and the only challenge was that it was raining lightly much of the time, which left the surface of the rocks rather slippery. Our tour guide told us there were two stories about the formation of the structure, a “boring” one involving slowly cooling lava, and a more colorful one involving giants. The story with the giants did not in any way explain why there were hexagonal columns, so personally, I prefer the boring one.
On the way back, the bus stopped at another GoT filming site — the Dark Hedges, which is known in the series as the Kingsroad. That was striking and picturesque as well.
The last stop on the tour was the Titanic Experience museum, which documented the history of shipbuilding in Belfast, the design and construction of the Titanic and her sister ships, her launch, and the story behind the disaster. It was really well done and fascinating.
Completely coincidentally, we were in Belfast on the days leading up to The Twelfth, and saw one of the bonfires under construction just a few blocks from our hotel. Here are two photos, one from the evening of the 10th, and another about 12 hours later, on the morning of the 11th, when we were leaving.
Bonfires are lit on the night of the 11th. On the 12th itself, parades apparently make it very challenging to get around the city, so we were glad that our plans had us leaving the morning of the 11th.
From Belfast, we took a train to Dublin. It was just over a two hour ride, which was pleasant enough through the picturesque Irish countryside. I knew when I booked the tickets that there were reserved and unreserved seats on the train, and I (of course) purchased the less expensive unreserved. I was envisioning this manifesting as some cars having only reserved seats and others being completely unreserved, but that’s not how it works. Each seat has a status indicator indicating whether it is reserved or not (and for what part of the trip). This meant that you really want to arrive on the early side to ensure that you can find seats together, facing forwards (if that’s your preference) and with space for your luggage. It all worked out fine, but was a little more stressful than I had anticipated.
In Dublin, our schedule called for two full days, plus two half days for traveling. On our arrival day, we again did quite a bit of walking around, finding St. Stephen’s Green
near our hotel, which was reminiscent of Central Park, though at a very different scale, and browsing some of the many knitwear shops.
We visited famed Trinity College, where we were able to see the exhibit on the Book of Kells, which was also very well done, as well as the famous library,
which was in the early stages of major restoration work, and therefore devoid of most of its books. But Susan got to say hello to Rosalind Franklin there
and later, I got to have my first Guinness in its birth town.
On our first full day, we once again took a bus tour. This one took us from Dublin, on the eastern coast all the way west across the country to Galway, on the Atlantic coast. Our stop in Galway was really focussed on the very touristy section that was all about shopping and eating. Which was OK for such a brief visit, since we needed some lunch anyway.
On the way there, we got to stop at the (in?)famous Barack Obama Plaza truck stop, which was a little weird, but apparently his third great-grandfather lived in the area before emigrating to the U.S.
The next stop was the geological gem of the day — the Cliffs of Moher, which among other things is famous as the “Cliffs of Insanity” from The Princess Bride movie. There was a nicely developed walking trail safely set back from the edge, which we walked on for a stretch, but not the entire 18 km length! As in much of Ireland, the trail was directly adjacent to grazing lands for cattle and sheep.
When developing the site for tourism, they very cleverly built gift shops directly into the landscape, which was cool.
We subsequently had two stops in the area known as The Burren. The first was right along the coast, where we got to experience the terrain up close, which is largely exposed limestone.
Speaking to the barrenness of the area, it was famously stated that in The Burren, “there is not enough water to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury him.” The second stop was at Kilmacduagh monastery, a lovely collection of ruins.
Our second full day in Dublin coincided with our wedding anniversary, and we got the celebration off to a fine start with a walk to breakfast at a quaint little café called Two Pups, which included some appropriately decorated beverages.
From there, we walked to the Guinness brewery at St. James’s Gate and took their self-guided tour, which was quite extensive, educational, and fun. One of the little highlights was the nine thousand year lease that Arthur Guinness signed for the plot of land on which he built his brewery.
Others included some history of cooperage (barrel making), including a video that documented the process, and a fun intro to drumming on a Bodhrán,
even if any connection to Guinness was lost on me. Along the way, we did learn about brewing, about Arthur and his family, the history of the company, etc. We spent over three hours leisurely walking through the exhibits, which culminated with a lesson in beer tasting, and finally a “free” pint (or half pint, if preferred)
in the pub at the top of the building, which had lovely panoramic views of the city.
After that, we exited through the gift shop, and gleefully spent way too much money, for the privilege of advertising on behalf of Guinness.
After a quick “toastie” for lunch, we next made our way to the Irish Whiskey Museum, where a very opinionated and humorous guide instructed us in the history of Irish Whiskey and its superiority over all other Whiskies (especially Scotch). We then got to sample three (Susan) or four (me) different whiskies.
Well done, even if the guide was a little over the top.
The highlight of the day, though, was definitely attending a production of Fun Home, an autobiographical musical written by graphic novelist and creator of the unintentionally famous Bechdel test, Alison Bechdel. It was a powerful and tragic story of a young woman discovering her sexual identity, and subsequent learning about her father’s closeted gay identity. Heavy and moving material. We happened to walk past the theater the previous day, on our way to the bus tour pickup, and Susan noticed it was playing, and mentioned that it had been on her list. So we bought tickets on the spur of the moment, after vanquishing a recalcitrant website for ticket purchases.
The next morning was simply packing for the trip home and getting to the airport. Our travel went as smoothly as possible. The plane that was arriving in Dublin to fly us to Boston left New York almost three hours late, but there was enough slack in the schedule that we ended up taking off only about fifteen minutes late, eventually arriving fifteen minutes early and having to wait for a gate in Boston! We were able to clear customs in Dublin, which meant that we arrived as a domestic flight, and with only carry-on luggage, we were able to walk out of the terminal, and catch a Silver Line bus just as it was arriving. That took us to South Station, where a Red Line train was just arriving! The “big delay” came when we got to Harvard and had to wait about three minutes for the 77 bus to arrive. And that gave us an entire weekend to recover!
A great vacation, though obviously too short to get to know either of those cities meaningfully.
You may be sensing a theme here in my titles. This time, we have followed Clara to Merry Olde England to watch her play in the WFDF World Under-24 Championships in Nottingham. Each (interested) country fields up to three teams — a Women’s (W) team, a Mixed (X) team, and an Open (O) team. The Open teams are generally all male, but the division is Open to all.
I have endeavored to support my children on their journeys with sport to the best of my ability, and when the younger two hit upon Ultimate Frisbee, it was something of a revelation. There are three core values (that I see) that really differentiate Ultimate from other sports. First is Spirit of the Game, which is (I am not quoting chapter and verse here; just summarizing from a layperson’s perspective) all about sportspersonship and fairness — valuing spirited competition over the final W/L result. Players of both teams celebrate good play, regardless of side, as do fans. Well, at least players and fans who were brought up with the tradition. In general, it is an integral part of the coaching and training, but there are always outliers. I can remember attending one high school matchup where it felt like we were playing a hockey team that had just been given a disc and the rules of how to score. They were just bullies on the field, and their parents were just as vociferous and mean-spirited as the worst of youth sport parents. It felt exceptionally foreign and jarring, given my other experiences with the sport. In general, you would be very hard pressed to find a more collegial group of competitors.
The second value that I see displayed over and over, is inclusivity. The Open division is truly open to all, though honestly, after high school where there is often only one team, you see few non-male players on an open team. But there are plenty (never enough, to be sure) of women’s teams, and what’s unique in the sport (well, I confess, I am not much of an expert) is that they have a mixed division (ok, ok, mixed tennis doubles comes to mind, ice skating, ice dancing, etc, but can you name other large team sports?) In this tournament, there were 22 countries represented, with 14 sending Women’s teams, 15 sending Open teams, and 16 sending Mixed teams. 10 countries fielded teams for all three divisions, but nine countries sent just one team, and of those nine, six were playing in the mixed division only. In what other sport would you see that? Many of the sponsors are vocal supporters of diversity and inclusivity.
The final value that makes Ultimate special, is that it is almost exclusively self-refereed. Players call fouls on each other, and on themselves at times. When there is a dispute about a call, the players must work it out, and when they can’t, the disc goes back from whence it came, and play continues from there forward — a do-over of sorts. At some tournaments, there are now “observers,” who are there to assist the players working out disputes, and who may, if the players request, and if they had a good view of the incident, make a call. Watching players have to work things through is really pretty inspirational. You do not see tantrums, or hysterics. There is no “bad guy” (ref) to blame for bad calls. That aspect of play is simply absent. It is again something that is core to the values of Ultimate frisbee — fair play — and it is taught and encouraged at every level.
At the end of the tournament, the three US teams racked up a combined record of 27-0 and each came out on top of their respective divisions, which is honestly par for this particular course. But for the first time, a US team also won their division’s Spirit of the Game award — the mixed team! After each game, each team sits down and awards points to the other in five categories: Rules, Fouls, Fairness, Attitude, and Communication. Add those five categories up, and you get a spirit score, and average that score over the games played, and the team with the highest score wins the Spirit of the Game award, and this award is represented with a trophy and medals for the players, just like coming out on top of the competition.
But really, I came here to celebrate Clara and her team. As I mentioned in passing, the team didn’t lose a game, but not only that, they won with an average margin of victory of 10 points. That bests the Open team’s average margin (9) and the Women’s (8). So, for them to beat their competition so soundly, and still earn the Spirit of the Game medal is really pretty astounding.
Here’s another observation. If you were to look at the player stats for the championship bracket, which the US team clearly dominated, you won’t see a US player on the board until 11th place (Go Henry!!) To me, that points to a supremely well-rounded team, where everyone is contributing. And there are lots of reasons for this, of course. First, the US has a deep pool of exceptional Ultimate players to pull from. But equally important (at least!) was the coaching staff, who were simply outstanding. This team had one weekend together about four weeks before the tournament, and they came a week before the competition started to get some practice together. And in those 9ish days, the coaching staff molded three exceptionally cohesive lines of eight players, and they pretty much rotated those three lines. Since there are seven players on the field at a time, one of those players sits out. They did have to deal with injuries and illness (Covid strikes again!), but they kept with this system throughout the tournament, and it certainly seems to have paid off. They also emphasized love and family in their community. We could not have asked for better!
All in all, it was a glorious week of watching Clara and her teammates shine. Congratulations to them, and to the rest of Team USA!!
Well, we finally did it. Susan and I managed to get to watch Clara play in this year’s USA Ultimate Collegiate Championships. Her Northeastern University team, the Valkyries, have played at nationals 3 of the 5 years she’s been there, and of course, there were no nationals (or much of anything else) in 2020 and 2021. Clara’s team nominated her for a Callahan Award, and the best part of that is that they put together a highlight reel for voters to watch to assist in their evaluation of the candidates. All the videos are amazing, of course, but Clara’s is superb! This year, the tournament took place in Ohio, which seemed like a manageable drive. After we both were done with work on Thursday afternoon, a little before 3:00 p.m. we got in our car and headed west. We drove as far as Rochester, NY, getting off the road at around 10:00 p.m. We awoke the next morning at 5:00 and were back on the road by 5:30. We drove straight thru, with one fuel stop, to Mason, OH, just outside Cincinnati, and arrived minutes before the 1:00 p.m. opening pull in their game against Virginia. Just enough time to get our folding chairs, and a cooler full of Gatorade (and pickles!) for the team, out to the field.
In this first game, Northeastern was seeded higher, and they did win with a final score of 9-8, which tells you it was a hard fought game that ended due to hitting the hard cap, rather than one team reaching 15 points.
In their second game, against Georgia, the Northeastern Valkyries did not fare so well, eventually losing to the lower-seeded team, 9-14. That was a tough loss for the Valks, and they were not feeling great afterwards.
On Saturday, after a night’s rest, they first faced higher seeded Stanford, and played a good game that ended with the Valks on the losing end of an 8–15 score. Not especially close, but the Valks played well, and felt good afterwards. That led up to their final game of pool play, which was against #2 seed Colorado.
It was another well played game, and by half time, the Valks were down 6-8. In the second half, they managed to fight back to a 10-10 tie, then take the lead at 11-10. They pretty much traded points after that, and came away with the W in a nail-biter at Universe Point (15-14 final). That victory earned them a spot in the pre-quarters, and knocked Virginia out of contention (which Georgia somehow felt the need to Tweet about bitterly!).
In their pre-quarter game against Carleton, the Valks started out in a 0-2 hole, but dug themselves out and went into the half ahead 8-6. But the second half ended up being more Carleton than Northeastern, and the Valks finished their season with a 10-15 loss. But they seemed quite pleased, as well they should, with it being their first visit to pre-quarters since 2008. Colorado, by the way, went on to play in the finals against North Carolina. The game is available on Ultiworld if you have a subscription.
The game against Stanford was on the field that they were streaming from, so the game is available on YouTube if you care to watch. Watch the point starting at 1:11 for a lovely highlight.
We also got to watch some of the later championship games and hang out a bit with Clara
The athlete and her proud parents
And Susan got to work on her vert:
Disc was at about ten feet — impressive, no?
The weekend involved driving a little over 1,800 miles spread over 4 days. It did not go well for the bugs who insisted on getting in our way.
This past weekend, Susan and I drove to the northwest corner of Massachusetts, to a town named North Adams,
as a last chance vacation before school begins. This year, only one of us is actually going back to school, Susan, to teach eighth grade science again. Even Clara, who is still in school at NU, is on co-op this semester. And Susan will in fact be teaching from home. But before things begin in earnest (classes don’t begin until 21 September!) there is all kinds of teacher training and stuff to prepare everyone for the most bizarre fall in living memory. So we wanted to get away, even if it was only for two days, and still in state (to follow quarantine guidelines!)
We drove out late Saturday morning, stopping at Herrick’s Tavern for a nice, outdoor lunch. Herrick’s has been one of our favorite stops on the way home from frisbee tournaments, back when that was a thing.
See? I told you it was Herrick’s
When we arrived in North Adams, our AirBnB host greeted us warmly, and over the next half hour we learned most of his life story, some interesting tidbits about the town (where almost all his story took place), and precious little about the apartment. We unpacked the van, and then went walking around the center of town, and did a bit of grocery shopping. After putting away groceries, we headed out to the local brewery, Bright Ideas, for some beer and BBQ from A-OK Barbecue. Good beer and tasty food!
On Sunday, after a home breakfast, we ventured out on our bikes! First, we headed back east, and rode out to Natural Bridge State Park, where we enjoyed learning about and seeing the after effects of marble mining. The marble from there is not terribly fine, and apparently much of it, especially in later years, was simply ground up into calcium carbonate powder for all kinds of uses. But the park was lovely, and the natural bridge was certainly something to see. Most importantly, Susan got to scratch her geological itch a bit, and hug a rock.
I love you. You are my rock.
We rode back home, and had a home lunch, and then got right back on our saddles and headed west to hike the Cascade Trail. It is a modest trail, mostly following alongside a brook, and leading up to a lovely waterfall. It being the dry season, the falls were hardly dramatic, but still picturesque:
Not much water, but enough to cause falls
After hiking back down to the elementary school where we parked our bikes, and riding back to our AirBnB, we cleaned up and headed out for dinner. We had planned to walk over to the nice Italian restaurant in town, but they are apparently only open Wednesday through Saturday, so we had to find an alternative. OpenTable suggested the Freight Yard Pub, and we called and made a quick reservation, as we were uncertain how crowded it might be. When we arrived (by car, and the only use of the car in town until then) about 15 minutes later, we were able to get a table on the patio right away (would have been fine even without a reservation). Susan’s steak tips were very good, and even the mixed vegetables accompanying the tips were notably flavorful. I enjoyed the fajitas I ordered, though something disagreed with my tummy later in the evening.
The next morning, Monday, we went out for breakfast to Renee’s, which Scott had recommended. It was a lovely restaurant, with recently expanded outdoor seating, and we enjoyed a nice relaxed breakfast, before packing up and heading home. Really home.
North Adams was a lovely, scenic little town in the Berkshires. We enjoyed the two days we spent there. The downtown area was rather depressed though. A non-scientific survey suggests about half the storefronts are closed. How much of that is due to the Covid-19 pandemic I don’t know. I only know it can’t have helped.
My friend MikeD is an avid hiker, and tries to get me and others out hiking on occasion. Often, we will do a long group hike when a bunch of us have taken a week long vacation together. Those vacations are generally up in northern New England, so hiking is a convenient activity.
On many of our group vacations, there have been two large group hikes: the “family” hike which is traditionally “kid-friendly” and the Mike Hike, so named because 3 of the core group of hikers are named Alan. I mean Mike. In recent years, as our group of children has gotten older and stronger, some have pushed to be included in the Mike Hike. And of course, they can sprint up the mountains, and when/if they fall, they can generally bounce back up. But they are still children, and have yet to develop a certain amount of character, so they are quick to let us know when they are tired, hungry, cold, hurt, thirsty, bored, etc. But that’s OK — it will come.
This year, our traditional group vacation did not happen (it has been getting harder to schedule), but MikeD did invite the hikers of the bunch to go up to NH with him this weekend for a couple of hikes, and a bike ride between (over 3 days). In the end, it was MikeD and myself on Friday, and on Saturday, MikeV drove up to join us. Even before we had finalized plans, the weather forecast for Sunday was pretty iffy.
Even so, we packed up our bikes in the back of MikeD’s minivan, along with our hiking gear, and headed up to Pinkham Notch. We got started around 10:15 a.m. after the long drive, and hiked up the Nineteen Mile Brook Trail to the Carter Notch Trail, up Carter Notch to the Carter Notch Hut where we stopped briefly and had our “lunch.” We then continued on the Carter-Moriah Trail up to Carter Dome, then down the Carter Dome Trail with a brief excursion to Mt. Hight. Carter Dome didn’t offer much for views, but Mt. Hight had an excellent 360 degree view. A short while before we arrived, it started to drizzle, so we didn’t stay long, but instead got our rain gear on and continued on. The rain didn’t last too long, thankfully, and we continued on to Zeta Pass where we had to decide whether to continue on and attempt the South and Middle Carter summits after about 5 hours of hiking and some uncertainty about the weather. We elected to wimp out and head back to the car, which still took us 2 more hours of hiking down Carter Dome Trail, and back along Nineteen Mile Brook Trail. It was probably the prudent choice, as we finished up around 5:30.
After the hike, we drove a short way to Jackson where we found a hotel room, showered, then had a moderately disappointing dinner at the Red Parka Steak House, which was surprisingly crowded for a mediocre restaurant. The staff were friendly, though.
Then, after a tired hiker’s sleep, we had a big, leisurely hotel buffet breakfast, and eventually drove back up to Pinkham Notch to meet up with MikeV. Well, needless to say (though we had failed to factor it in), it was significantly more crowded on Saturday than Friday, and there was no parking in the lot. We managed to see MikeV as he was parking along the side of the road (good thing, because mobile phone service was quite spotty! Curiously, my ATT&T was doing better around there than Verizon, who almost always has better service in rural areas). We parked MikeV’s car at the Nineteen Mile parking area, where we intended to finish our hike for the day, and drove back in MikeD’s van to the visitors’ center, where we were starting for the day. It’s about a 4 mile gap.
We started from the visitors’ center up the Lost Pond Trail (which we found for them — you’re welcome!) which meets the Wildcat Ridge Trail. This climbs up to Wildcats E-A in reverse alphabetical order. The two that “count” are Wildcat D and Wildcat A. When we were near the D summit, we encountered a group of hikers, one of whom was in flip-flops. We were simultaneously impressed and horrified that someone would climb a mountain in flip flops. A short while later, we began to hear the humming of machinery, and more human activity, and all of a sudden we came out of the woods at the top of the Wildcat Gondola, and we were then simultaneously relieved and understanding about the woman in flip-flops. Wildcat D has a short tower you can climb to get better views, which we did, and we broke out our various lunches to eat there.
After lunch, we continued on through C, B, and A, and there wasn’t much for views along this ridgeline. The surprising thing was just how much the ridge dipped between peaks. We know that if it were more than 200′, it would be another “official” 4000 footer, so we mustn’t have dipped that far, but it was still a lot. Although the views from these peaks left something to be desired, the views on the way up to E were excellent. When we got to A there was a large group there, and they appeared to be in no hurry to leave. So we didn’t stay long, and barely got to see the “Vista” advertised by a sign along the trail.
The way down was steep, but the trail was quite well maintained. Rocks had been placed along the way to make it effectively a staircase going down. We were glad to be going in the direction we were. The stairs would have been fine to climb up, but the steep trail up to E had us scrambling over lots of boulders, which we all agreed was easier on the way up than it would have been on the way down. Eventually, we met back up with our friend, the Nineteen Mile Brook Trail, and hiked along that for the third time in two days to get back out to Rt. 16 where MikeV’s car was parked.
After the hike, we drove in MikeV’s car back to where MikeD’s car was parked, stopped briefly at the visitor’s center, and started back towards home, stopping at the Moat Mountain Brewery where we had an excellent, and surprisingly inexpensive meal/beer for a great way to end the weekend.
Friday and today (Saturday) have been/will be travel days. Friday, we drove back to Centennial from Breckenridge. It was a nice trip along I-70, though we first went over the Dillon Dam road, which was beautiful, and had an awesome looking bike path along side. In fact, that was one of the most notable things about Breckenridge and many of the mountain towns out here — lots of bike trails. Of course, it’s easier to include them when there’s just so much open space, but regardless of why, it does make it very inviting to cyclists.
After arriving back at the Rowell Ranch, we had lunch, ran some errands, and tried to go swimming again, but there was thunder within earshot, so the pool remained closed for the duration of the afternoon. We had a lovely taco dinner together, thanks to Donna (and Emma), and then the Stewarts went off to visit Susan’s high school friend, Nina. We visited with her and her family for a bit, got to meet their dog, Ruby, and cat, Oreo, and play on their trampoline.
Today is an easy day of packing up, then a late afternoon flight through Chicago that gets us home (well, to Logan) after midnight. Then church awaits, bright and early Sunday morning!
This was our big celebration day, and we started off with a scenic gondola ride from town up the mountain to the small amusement park there. We got to hike up a short way to touch snow in July, then we took a chair lift up to the alpine slide and slid back down! Fun! We walked around town a bit more before heading back for lunch at the house. We spent a quiet afternoon there, then went out for dinner to celebrate Grammie’s birthday, then back for cake and games.
We enjoyed a lively Independence Day in “Breck” today. We went into town to watch the beginning of a bike race, and had 800 bikers pass us by, after which the parade went by, which lasted nearly an hour and a half. Lots of fun entries but only one band. After the parade we walked around the town and visited many of the little shops, and had a quick lunch of hamburgers before heading back to our rental house.
Mid-afternoon, grampa took a group to see the railroad museum nearby, where there were a couple of snow clearing cars. I walked home after a brief excursion back into town.
We have arrived safe and sound in Breckinridge. We have a lovely half of a duplex a little ways out if town. After unpacking the van, we drove back into town to find our favorite pastime, ice cream!
