A Few Extra Miles

     Although we had been up since 4:00 EDT, and had gone through all the rigors that traveling can bestow on you, when we got to Santa Cruz(where our hotel was located), it was only mid-afternoon PDT.  Another 30 miles or so would get us to Monterey and, having fond memories of taking the 17-Mile Drive around the peninsula, we pushed on.  Thank goodness we had brought our Garmen GPS(this is not a paid endorsement) with us because finding the entry point for the Drive was more difficult than I remembered.  It was well worth the time and effort however.
     The sea was particularly active the first day of our trip and the rocky coast of the peninsula was a welcome recipient of its fury.  Of course as a golfer it was fun to drive through and around some of the most famous courses in the world.  The Inn at Spanish Bay was the first course we saw.

     Right across the street were parking areas to view Spanish Bay.  It was close to this spot in 1769 that Spanish explorer Don Gaspar de Portola camped while searching for Monterey Bay.  Along this section of rocky shoreline are Point Joe, which mariners often mistook for the entrance to Monterey Bay and wound up on the rocks, and China Rock, where Chinese fisherman built lean-tos for their houses in the late 1800s.
      

     Bird Rock is home to shorebirds and groups of harbor seals and sea lions. As we stood on the shore, we could hear the barking of the seals over the crashing sound of the surf.

     From Cypress Point Lookout you get a great view of the Pacific coastline and we were able to observe some sea otters floating and eating on their backs, which is now they enjoy their meals.

     Probably the most famous image from the 17-Mile Drive is the Lone Cypress, which is said to be 250 years old.  If you look closely at the picture below you may see the little help it is now getting to remain on its perch.

Going West

     One of the benefits of being associated(by marriage) with a major research institute of higher learning is that  the university actually encourages their professors to continue their research while teaching.  To this end, we were able to plan a trip to California to visit archives and museums associated with several of the actresses that Nan is writing about.  Since a couple of them began their careers in the mining towns of eastern and northern California during the Gold Rush, we headed to San Francisco.  Part of the trip was to include a visit to Yosemite, but thanks to the government shut down it was closed.  Fortunately, we had enough time to adjust our plans, and found several other places to visit. We found that California has quite a few state parks that feature a diversity of terrain and vegetation.  They actually contain thing we would normally have missed if we had just gone to Yosemite.
     We first headed down the coast highway toward Monterey making a number of stops along the way to take in the beauty.

    
                                                            The Headlands by Pacifica

                                                       
                                                                      Half Moon Bay

                                      An "Entertaining" Vista just past Half Moon Bay

     We stopped at Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park to see the tallest lighthouse on the west coast.  At 115 feet it has been in operation since November 15, 1872.  The point was originally called Whale Point inspired by the gray whales that migrate past it.  However in June 1853 a Boston-based ship named the Carrier Pigeon wrecked off the point.  It has been called Pigeon Point ever since.

      We stopped at a funky roadside stand that featured a variety of homemade jams, pies, other bake goods and organic veggies.  It was interesting to see acreage along the ocean used for agricultural purposes.  It appeared that the crops varied with brussel sprouts and strawberries being primary.
    

Ten Years Already?

     On September 26, 2003, Nan and I were married.  It doesn't seem possible that ten years have gone by.  Of course it doesn't seem possible that I'm retired and living in Durham, NC either.  But we're here and loving it and each other.  We were looking for something special to do to celebrate our tenth and out-of-the-blue Nan's sister and brother-in-law gave us a weekend at their time-share at the Harbour Town Yacht Club on Hilton Head Island, SC.

    It was our first time to Hilton Head, and we had a great time.  We played tennis every day, went to the beach, ate at some fine restaurants, and Nan took a long bike ride while I played golf at Harbour Town Golf Links.  It was the most expensive round of golf I ever played, but in retrospect well worth it.  The Heritage Golf Tournament is played on the course and it is beautiful.  I played with a father and son from Kentucky, both of whom were pretty good golfers.  We were accompanied by a fore caddy(actually I don't know whether it's "four" because he serves the entire foursome or "Fore"  because that what he had to shout on most of my drives).  The caddy's job was to give us yardage to the green, read our putts, and in my case locate my wayward shots.  His name was Spike(which I thought was a nice coincidence as that's my son-in-laws name) and was a "Chatty Caddy", but fun. He helped me relax and appreciate the beautiful seaside course I was playing.

     It was a nice way to spend a special weekend.  We spent our last evening watching a glorious sunset and realizing how lucky we are.

     As if the sunset wasn't enough, we could look the other way and see a rainbow - almost a double!

    Happy Anniversary, indeed!

Back into a Routine

     There are certain patterns that we have developed as part of our life here in Durham.  It seems that we attend a lot more college functions than we ever did living in AP.  Of course we're only 5 minutes from campus which makes a difference.  The area has very diverse cultural offerings that aren't limited to the colleges and we've tried to take advantage of these as well.  I also have taken advantage of the sporting events both on campus and off, attending not only Duke contests but also the Durham Bulls, Carolina Hurricanes, and Carolina Railhawks.
     This year marks the 50th anniversary of the integration of Duke and there have been many functions celebrating the fact.  We attended a concert featuring Billy Childs and Dianne Reeves at the newly renovated Baldwin Auditorium.  It was our first trip to Baldwin since the renovation have been completed, and it is beautiful.   The concert featured a work commissioned by Duke and written by Mr. Childs entitled Enlightened Souls. As explained by Mr. Childs in the program notes, he chose three poems that explored the issue of integration and put them to music.  "the first poem, "The White House" by Claude McKay, deals with the issue of exclusion, the feeling of being exempted from privilege because of being black.  The second poem, written by Diane di Prima "Revolutionary Letter #20", talks about the desire for equality,  . . . . The third poem, untitled by Walter Benton, concludes there is so much pain and injustice in the world, the need for love is more pressing than ever."
      The concert was performed by an interesting combination of musicians, which in addition to regular jazz instruments(bass, drums, sax, piano, and guitar) included a harp, and string quartet.  It was very interesting mix of sounds and a very impressive presentation.  The first half of the program featured four numbers written by Mr. Childs and it was outstanding.
      It is always interesting to be present for the debut of a new work, and there were parts of Enlightened Souls that soared and others that just didn't seem to work as well for me.  Overall, it was a great experience.  Several Afro-Americans who were part of the integrating class were present, which gave special meaning to the evening.  Ms. Reeves and Mr. Childs did an encore which brought down the house.  These two old friends were very comfortable together as they "played" their way through an old jazz standard - Ms. Reeves scatting in response to Mr. Childs's piano riffs.  Ms. Reeves seemed much more comfortable during the encore than during Enlightened Souls.
      Exploring themes around integration was featured in another cultural event we attended.  Playmakers Rep in Chapel Hill presented a play entitled  The Mountaintop, by Katuri Hall, which takes a look at the last night in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tn.  This two person play proceed fairly conventionally until it takes a metaphysical twist about half way through, and explores some interesting issues regarding life and death and redemption.  Well-acted and staged, we made the mistake of staying or the audience talk-back.  I don't know why we always chose to stay as we can almost always predict the questions - "How did you learn all those lines?"  " You seemed so real up their, how did you do it?"  IT'S CALLED ACTING!!!  I ACTUALLY TRAINED FOR YEARS TO DO THIS!!!  Of course, neither actor responded that way.  But I think the talk-back would have been more fun if they had.
     Other parts of our Durham routines have resurfaced as well - volunteering at the dog shelter, singing with the ERUUF choir, and attending Duke sporting events.  More on these later.

North Again

     As the turmoil of settling into the new house ebbed, I took the opportunity to head north to handle a couple of business related issues.  There are no direct flights from Durham to Albany.  I usually take a flight that stops in D.C. and then on to Albany.  This time I wound up going to Charlotte first, then boarded a plane to Albany.  It always seems a little strange to go south to get north, but it was a beautiful day, had no seat mates, and managed to get the picture below of West Sand Lake.

    You can see Crystal Lake just above the engine, Reichards Lake on the left edge in front of the engine, and the village of West Sand Lake.  The brownish-white area below Reichards Lake is the Bonded Concrete operation.  From the air you can get a pretty good idea of the extent of their gravel mining operation and the scar it has left on the land.
    After taking care of business, David and I got a chance to play a round of golf over at Skyline Country Club in Lanesboro, Ma.  I hadn't played the course in probably 30 years, and it has grown up(well the saplings that lined the fairways back then are now mature trees anyway).  It still has great views of Pontoosuc Lake in Pittsfield and the Berkshires in the distance.

      David and I also got a chance to go to a Tri-City Valley Cats play-off baseball game.  Although they lost the game, they went on to win the NY-Penn League Championship.  Sitting behind us was Pat Valiquette and his son.  Pat and I served together on the  All-Tournament Team Selection Committee when RPI used to host a holiday hockey tournament.  It was good to see him and chat about our lives.  His son just completed law school and is waiting for the results of the bar exam to be released.  You take the bar exam in July and don't get the results until December.  It's tough to be in limbo that long.  David bought a Valley-Cats hat and coordinated his golfing outfit around it.

     The trip north ended on a high note as I attended the Actors Equity Association 100th anniversary celebration at Cap Rep in Albany.  It was great to see a number of people I've worked with over the years and share a drink, food, and some good conversation.  The party also featured the best decorated cake I've ever seen.

 
     Yes, that is a cake.  Amazing isn't it.

Settling Back In

     There are always issues surrounding getting back in the swing of things as we go from our summer home up north to Nan's working down here.  As indicated in my previous post, having a new place to live presented some stressful challenges which I won't discuss here.  The house is very large and allows us each to have our own work space.  In addition to the new dwelling, Nan is teaching a new course.  It's a service-learning course in which the students are required to provide a certain number of community service hours in addition to their regular scholarly efforts.  Since we both volunteer at the Durham Animal Shelter, Nan decided to pair her course with APS(Animal Protective Society) of Durham.  Duke also has a canine cognition center, and she has been able to get their cooperation as well.  It's been a lot of work, as getting the students to and from the shelter has been a problem.  I take a carload over and back twice a week and have met some pretty neat kids(oops excuse me, young adults) 
      Anyway,  one of the first APS events we were involved in was the annual dog wash fund raiser.  It was held at the Durham Car Wash.  Before you get a picture of dogs being put through an actual car wash, let me say just say it was all hands-on.

    We always try and do something out-of-doors for Nan's birthday at the end of August.  This year we went to Jordan Lake recreation area, which is just south of Durham.  We found a nice six mile hike through the woods and along the shore of the lake and Nan went swimming.

      As far as cultural events were concerned, we went down to Chapel Hill to the Forest Theater and saw a presentation entitled Invisible Earth performed by the Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Dylan Alexzander Turner is a member of the troupe.  Dylan played my son several years ago at Oldcastle and I've know him since he was born.  I did at least five show with his mom, who is a special lady.  Dylan sat with us during the performance(he had stepped on a nail and was recovering) and explained the mechanics of some of the huge puppets.

     If you're interested in seeing more of this group's great work, you can visit their website at paperhand.org.
     Our first month back wouldn't have been complete without a trip to see the Durham Bulls in action.  They made the International league playoffs and we went to see them with our friends Jeff and Jane.  They won this series and went on to win the AAA World Series.

It's Been Awhile

   First, let me apologize to my legion of readers(that's Krista and Nan, sometimes I think) for not entering a post since July.  We had a busy last few weeks of summer, with a trip to Rhodes Island for a visit with Karen, Jack and Lena.

In addition to seeing them, we were able to reach the highest point in Rhodes Island.

Then a trip to Maine to visit Tom and Dag. On the way, we undertook a slightly more arduous climb up Mt. Ascutney in Vermont.

    Managed to get up to my sister and brother-in-law's camp for an overnight.

     We also met them for Shakespeare in the Park in Saratoga (a production which featured our friends Brenny, Yvonne, and David)

     We came back to Durham early because we were moving into a new house.  The apartment had gotten small and we wanted something larger with a fenced back yard, as taking the dogs up and down 3 flights first thing in the morning and last thing at night was getting old.  We had quite a stressful time with the move and getting the house livable.  Anyway, that was the rest of our summer.  We're back and I'll continue to get everyone(both of you) caught up in subsequent posts.