Boston

 We picked Molli up from the ferry yesterday and took her to Boston. Meanwhile, we returned the car to New Hampshire. How to do all that? Barbara to the rescue. She lent us her car (a lovely Volvo with extras that I covet, like dual temperature controls, so Ray can be cooler than me). I drove to Rhode Island to get Molli and Adrian, while Ray drove to Manchester to return the car. He took a shuttle to the Boston airport and then the trolley to meet us. We drove to Boston College, where Molli and Adrian walked around and picked up some materials. We picked up Ray and drove to Boston University. It was lovely, sunny and breezy, and Ray and I enjoyed walking and sitting in a park and admiring the buildings.

At 5:30, we headed for my cousin's home in Brookline, where she and her sister (also my cousin) served us a lovely dinner, reminiscent of my aunt and grandmother--chicken salad, sliced tomatoes. She has a few pieces of furniture that are familiar to me. We talked about our parents and other relatives and our shared childhood memories. It made me a little sad. It was great to see them and have Molli and Adrian get to talk to them.

My cousin Ellen was preparing to take Molli and Adrian where they were going, to a friend's in Sommerville, when Ray and I left. We were so tired and sleepy. I slept most of the way home. Every now and then I would wake up and ask him if he was okay. He's still asleep.

We ate and talked to people, went to the grocery store, and made oat-nut-chocolate squares. Had a nice dinner at Barbara's house, eating mini-lasagnas she made in muffin tins. The recipe was from pinterest. It was rainy and cool all day. We watched a lot of Olympics too.

Safely arrived on Cape Cod, where they had heavy rain last night that they very much needed. Have you heard there is drought and heat all over?

Molli's hotel

for amelia

We spent a few hours on Block Island, where we had never been, after picking Molli and Adrian up at the Boston airport and driving them there.
















 

Block Island north lighthouse

St. Johnsbury building

Before that, we were about 36 hours in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, visiting my 93-year-old aunt El in a nursing home. She is forgetful and repeats herself. She is confined to a wheelchair. Otherwise, she is fine. She enjoyed the company very much. How can we improve the quality of life for people like her? and like we will be?

downtown St. Johnsbury

the "camp" wing

Tom is working on the roof of the old train station, cum welcome center.

view from Tom's house

pond Tom built

My cousin Tom is an amazing genius. He has built a magnificent stone house on the top of a hill. It has a wonderful view of mountains and fields. When we were getting ready to go yesterday morning, we could see three wild turkeys and they have many stories of watching wildlife from their living room. They said they were watching a bear the day before, which made me a tiny bit nervous. He has recently added a giant pond, with stone edging and a diving jetty. It's amazing. They are having a wedding there in three weeks--his wife's youngest daughter, and they seem to host lots of gatherings there. Tom works like an automaton. He is a roofer and drives all over the state. Has been for about 30 years, has a great reputation, worked on the state Capitol building, making copper and standing-seam metal roofs as well as the easy kind. He has no need for computers for the most part, or other technology. The "camp" we stayed in, remade in stone from the one his father had there years ago, still has an outhouse (see bear above). Diane, on the other hand, has her own businesss as an accountant, working from home sometimes, as well as traveling to clients.

Of course, the pond includes a zip line.

you can't believe the scale of this thing

I am amazed at the stone work.

view from the Tower Bar

Ray and Tom S. enjoy Bailiwick's

On Thursday, we took a very early flight from Albuquerque and arrived in Manchester in the late afternoon. We rented a car there and drove north to St. Johnsbury, past very beautiful New Hampshire mountains. Aunt El has been very politically active in St. J. and she was one of the people who helped keep Walmart out of their town. We enjoyed the small downtown stores very much and bought a couple things. When I showed her the photos from Molli's wedding, she asked about the big red flowers and said she had never seen a Gerber daisy. We were able to buy her one and take it to her, so that was fun.

Wednesday morning, Bonney and Hank and Nick drove us to Albuquerque and we left our things at a motel near the airport. We met Chris for lunch at a fun place called Flying Star (I think). Then they took us to the Museum of Natural History. We spent a few hours there and Ray was as happy as a pig in shit...as you can see. It is a great museum and I enjoyed it too. Plus it was cooler than outside. 

I never saw such a bright rainbow.

Just of few things Ray had to buy for his class.

We took a couple of buses back to the hotel and had a swim in the pool before the storm came.

It seemed like forever until the four of us were ready to go yesterday. Nicky wasn't even here, so I can't blame it on him. Had breakfast, got dressed, worked on my computer...

We drove up to Ghost Ranch, north of here, where Georgia O'Keeffe lived and worked most of her life. Not because we are interested in her and her work, but because they have been digging up dinosaur bones there for awhile. Ray had a great time. It was a little museum with no attendants, where you can get really close to the exhibits. Bonney has been asking Ray questions since we got here--about the geology around here and everything else. She is a much better audience than I have ever been.

Then we stopped at Abuqui Lake for a quick dip. It was thundering and we could see lightning a ways away so we didn't stay long. There was a big family playing in the water that didn't seem worried.

We drove home again, stopping at a store that didn't have cream of tartar, and made tacos for supper. Also leftover steak and sauteed leeks with snow peas that we brought from Polly's. They keep amazingly well, apparently. Games and ice cream after cleanup.

Woke up early.

Ray and I got up at 5:30, ate breakfast, showered and dressed. Bonney took us to the Rail Runner, the train that runs between Santa Fe and Albuquerque (not sure if it goes further south after that). It was $8. Such a nice ride, with the views--we sat upstairs. I sure wish we could get one in Georgia!

When we got to ABQ, we asked about buses to Old Town. A nice young man at Customer Service told us which bus to get and where to get it. We went out there, bur realized we had given our ones away to the conductor on the train, who was asking for them. We went back inside to try to get exact change for the bus, but Customer Service doesn't give change, you can't get it on the bus, and the coffee shop won't give it unless you buy something. About this point, we realized we had enough quarters to pay, so went back to the bus stop and got on. Not the prettiest part of town.

We passed a post office right before our stop, so we walked back to it. Ray wanted to mail his absentee ballot, but it didn't open until 10! Really, the post office wasn't open yet. Then we walked to the plaza, Old Town. Santa Fe is much nicer and more crowded. This was mainly shops, although we did go in an old church. And we enjoyed sitting in the shade some. We decided to walk to the Art and History museum, even though it was getting hot. Surprise! it is closed on Mondays. Some nice sculptures we could look at and admire though.

Walked back to the plaza, found an open post office (didn't open til 11!). Decided we needed a cool beverage, picked a restaurant in an old house and had bunuelo and a muffin, as well as cold tea. Did a little shopping. Met Bonney, Hank, Nick and decided it was time for lunch. Went back to the same restaurant and had a salad.

We drove about an hour and a half west of ABQ to a Pueblo called Sky City, where the Acoma tribe lives. They have lived there since the 1100s, the oldest continuously-inhabited settlement in North America. There are only 13 families who live there year-round now. No electricity or running water. It is on a mesa, but they can drive up now. Many families live somewhere else but still have a family home there.

A young man (a student at KU) gave us an extensive tour and told us the sad history of Spanish massacre and enslavement, although they have retained a small amount of Catholicism. They celebrate St. Stephen's Day with feasting and dancing--he said there will be about 600 there for it in September. They have an old mission church built by the Spanish using slave labor. Many people in their cemetary have Spanish or English surnames: Chino, Hernandez, Edwards, even though they are also Acoma. The beams for the church were carried many miles from a nearby mountain. 40 feet long and straight. They could not touch the ground after they were cut, so were carried by relay teams. The roof is 30 feet up, so it would be hard to figure out how they go them there hundreds of years ago. They built the mud walls up to 6 feet high and then gradually raised first one side then the other.

We had to have a camera permit to take pictures. Bonney took them and will share them, I hope. There were some things we could not photograph, like the inside of the church.

Many native Americans did not have the right to vote until the 1970s, even though they were nominally US citizens. I did not know that.

There were two young Russian women, who I spoke to a few times. I would have liked to ask how they came to be at Acoma all the way from Russia. The others on our tour were Americans, mostly from New Mexico, as far as I could tell.

They sold beautiful and reasonably priced pots and jewelry.

We rode a shuttle bus up but walked/climbed down the old stairway. It was pretty hairy, but fun. I leaned on Nicky.

But that was not all the fun we had yesterday. We drove back to ABQ through some rain and took the tram up Sandia Mountain. Chris met us there and we had dinner in a restaurant at the top. It was gorgeous, even though very overcast. While we ate, the lights came on in the city below and we went back down in the dark. I was more terrified going up than coming down, but it was exhiliarating too. Ray and others got up and went outside to look often, but I stayed in. It was cozy and beautiful. Ray and I shared a rum and fruit juice drink called a Sandia Sunset. yum. I had shrimp scampi that was tasty.

I slept most of the way home and went right to bed. Someone called my cell phone at 4:30 (6:30 Georgia time) and woke me up! He was looking for Leon but did not hang up when I told him he had the wrong number. "The early bird catches the worm," he said...