Back to school back to work

As September started, we couldn't just go cold turkey with our junior ranger badge collecting. A couple of nearby sites were within reach. First, JFK's boyhood home in Brookline.

 

and then Washington's headquarters / Longfellow's house in Cambridge. I must have passed this marker on the Cambridge common dozens of times without reading it

 

and the plaque showing Washington taking command

 

During our recent road trips I started thinking about how much valuable park-hopping time is eaten up by finding and consuming food. There has to be a better way. Enter Soylent, the brainchild of life hacker techies who are too busy to eat. Amazon even sells version 1.0 and it's the ultimate protein shake, formulated for complete nutrition, as you can see.

 

Here's what the one-day supply looked like. It tasted kind of oatmealy, with an awful thick texture, and a weird grainy smell. You're supposed to sip it down gradually over the course of the day. Halfway through, however, my body must have figured out that it was under experimentation and rebelled, because I became more and more nauseous and could not finish it. But this may not be the end. Soylent version 2.0 is supposedly much more palatable and may yet be our solution to the fast food drive-thru. 

 

First day of school for our 3rd grader and 1st grader

 

and first day of work in the Shire for Dad

 

 It was Erin's turn to accompany Mom on the trip to Atlanta to see Grandma Lu

 

 Their big outing was to the Georgia Aquarium

 

While Dad was on his own with Tessie, one night she made her way upstairs and put herself down alone

 

 At daycare Tessie's bestie is Lukie, and they will run around for hours on the playground

 

 As a treat the older girls went to the Ringling Brothers circus

 

 September was warm and beautiful for picnics

 

 and our annual trip to Portsmouth for the fairy house festival

 

 This year's blue ribbon winner was not very impressive, in our opinion

 

 but we were proud of our construction

 

 Apple picking

 

 Erin loves her honeycrisps

 

 After a few weeks at home Dad was back in Tessie's good graces 

 

 One weekend the older girls were given free rein to create their own "this n that"

 

Beanie boo village

 

Props to Erin for designing her own quest and spirograph prizes

 

And props to Mom for finishing the Bowman 5K adventure run

 

 

Tessie's tatoes

 

Polly want a cracker

 

Beach running

 

Croaky Tessie

 

Dancing Erin

 

Sweet Caroline (thankfully they didn't act out "warm touching warm")



4th of July in DC

The day after school ended we kayaked around the Concord River

 

then Dave, Caroline, and Erin flew to Maryland to spend 2 weeks visiting sisters. At Boxwood Farm there is always great grilling

and while I worked during the day, Charlie and Erin delivered me lunch. (I actually read that 1884 1st edition of US Grant's memoirs. Quite a general was Grant and one of those great American stories of a kid from Ohio earning an education and rising to the highest levels)

We dog-sat for tenants of a house even older than Boxwood Farm. Sudley house dates from the 1720s and had huuuge fireplaces in the great hall and bedrooms. 

General Bobblehead George, you have come to the end of the road. You've seen your birthplace, Fort Necessity where you led your men into a massacre, the Cambridge common where you received command of the Continental Army, your winter headquarters at Morristown and Valley Forge, Yorktown, Federal Hall, the C&O canal, Fort Washington, and now your beloved home plantation of Mount Vernon.

All the cousins except Charlie made the trip

That is flax drying so its fibers can be harvested and spun into linen. Among the 3 natural fibers used for centuries in clothing, we'd seen cotton and wool demonstrations, but this was the first time seeing flax. It takes a lot of work to process the stalks into thread, but the interpreters who wore all-linen outfits loved the durability and softness.

Those are the fireworks for the DC celebration being loaded on a barge. I would guess that George's ghost approves of his docks use to commemorate an event from his lifetime.

And there is the original tomb and final resting place of GW

At Claire's we were treated to delicious meals and played many games

and the kids created a quest for me. In this one we had to direct the model to recreate famous paintings. Watch those arm and leg positions, Erin, you're a pre-Raphaelite.

The finale was a disarming of the "poisoned" soda bottle using Mentos

We knocked off the remaining unvisited NPS sites in DC. Here are the beautiful, ahem, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens on the Anacostia River. At least they were very green.

and there are always new monuments going up. This is the Dwight D. Eisenhower memorial shoehorned next to the Dept of Education and across from the Erin Space Museum.

and when Tessie and Heather flew into DCA, why wouldn't we brave the heat and humidity to see the Jefferson Memorial?

Dinner at Jerry's house was much better

Katy had a bumper crop of honey from her bees. She's streamlined the harvesting operation, which entails cutting off the caps of the boxes, spinning out the honey, filtering it, and then pouring it into bottles to give to friends and family.