New Beginnings Again

This past week brought about a new school year, and for some of a tender age, the entry into the most German of American educational experiences – Kindergarten.

This is our daughter’s ninth year in Kindergarten. Of course, the first time (see picture) was a couple of dozen years ago, when she was facing the teacher along with a bunch of other 5 year olds. Whatever happened that year apparently resonated with her—enough to grow up with the desire – and now with 8 years of experience – to be the one facing an ever increasing number of kids in her classroom. The current count is 22, but others are expected to show up after Labor Day when their “traditional” parent(s) think that’s when school really starts. [Side thought: I know there will be those who might argue with me, but I really think Labor Day exists primarily to recognize our nation’s teachers return to their livelihood.]

I’ve been observing the preparation/tension that precedes the start of each school year for awhile now and can say, honestly, the time frame for foreboding shortens with each passing year – but is no less intense in the final week. In the beginning, my BBL initially volunteered to help prepare the classroom. While I think that characterization still “officially” applies, lately for some reason, it seems more like she’s been drafted!

My arm length involvement is sooo much longer than her mother’s, but my respect and pride of her daily endeavors takes a backseat to no one. There is no doubt that I could NOT do her job -- even if I had two Aggie degrees in Education. And I challenge any school administrator or public official involved in setting teacher compensation to try it for a year. And I know I would fail at the most rudimentary of her tasks – like remembering the kids’ names. Seems like these days most of their first names are distilled from a brew of alphabet soup spiked with vowels. I’m not saying that’s bad (our surname certainly contains a hefty surplus of consonants); just that it’s an indication of my memory limitations.

Along those lines, I regret to admit I don’t remember my own Kindergarten teacher’s name, but I suspect my mother would. Just like the cashier today at our local PETCO store did of her kid’s. I had provided my credit card to her to pay an exorbitant price for some food to feed the Koi (fancy carp) in our pond. The cashier asked if I was related to a certain Kindergarten teacher. After I responded in the affirmative, she told me her daughter had been in my daughter’s class three years ago and had loved the experience.

That absolutely made my day.

The Walking Hub City of the Universe

After a brief stop in Big D to allow my BBL a day at work (somebody has to keep a job in this household), we were off to Boston via AA along with everybody else who could fit in the 757. This was the maiden visit to this fair city for my maiden, although I had visited the area once over 35 years ago. It's funny the impressions of a place that stay with you--lingering in my subconscious was what terrible drivers I had seen, maybe on a par with those in Puerto Rico. First time I had ever seen both freeway shoulders regularly used as passing lanes! Anyway, I had no desire to see if 3 ½ decades of driver education had had any positive impact on the area drivers, so you can imagine how my my interest peaked when we learned that Logan Airport is serviced by water taxis: $20 and 10 minutes later we arrived downtown only a half block from our hotel with both a new experience and several restaurant suggestions from our driver/captain. We took this as a very good omen about the time we were about to spend here.

One of Boston's nicknames is "The Walking City" and as soon as we deposited our luggage at the Marriott Long Wharf, we were (mostly) on our feet for the rest of our stay. It’s probably called “The Walking City” because available parking spaces are extremely rare and expensive.

Boston welcomes tourists with a “Freedom Trail” that winds all through the city and neighboring Charlestown. The Trail is (usually) clearly marked by either a broad red line painted on the pavement--or by a much classier double width red brick line embedded in the sidewalk. We followed this "line" everywhere and it took us past more historic sites than we’ve ever seen. And it's amazing how you want to keep your feet in contact with that line (which shrinks the width of the sidewalk considerably when encountering tourists going the opposite direction)!

The Freedom Trail line took us a few days to complete. It led us by Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market where you are free to indulge in 50x50 different ways to snack/eat/shop. It took us by the Boston Massacre that apparently occurred on a small traffic island in a street intersection (hard to miss . . . there was usually a tour group standing on it). Of course, any intersection in this city has the potential to continue the massacre of pedestrians with automobiles in the constant daily struggle for right-of-way.

We saw lots of churches with their attendant steeples and cemeteries, most squeezed by modern office skyscrapers and buildings. Busy narrow streets were populated by the competition of the expected number of Starbucks and a surprising number of Dunkin’ Donuts -- separated by lots of local bagel outlets and a few haberdasheries. We stumbled across several open air markets offering fruit and flower bargains that we would have loved to take full advantage of, but obviously couldn’t.

Speaking of open air, we took the opportunity to get back on the water for a couple of cruises: a delightful dinner cruise around Boston Harbor where we caught a beautiful sunset behind the city’s skyline; and a whale watching adventure that provided an astounding amount of whale sightings/activity once the crew found their feeding area (about 90 minutes on a fast catamaran from our hotel).

Another of Boston’s nicknames is “The Hub City” which supposedly morphed from a Oliver Wendell Holmes statement that Boston was ”the Hub of the Solar System”-- later toned down to the humble “Hub of the Universe” [and they think Texans exaggerate?!]. But it is definitely the liberal land of Kennedy, Kerry and Barney Frank all of whom helped stimulate Boston with the “Big Dig,” originally a $2.8 billion project (in 1986 dollars) to reposition underground some of the downtown’s Interstate--which ended up costing $22 billion with a five year delay. But the resulting downtown city parks atop the buried road are beautiful and it’s our opinion that every taxpayer should experience them (otherwise it would have been a waste of money). Comforting to know that we still have this kind of expertise in Congress.

A few other memories we took away:
· There are 294 steps up the inside of the Bunker Hill Monument. And there is a much easier route to get panoramic views which is riding the elevator to the 50th floor of the Prudential Building;
· A Sir Speedy Print Shop resides at the Birthplace of Benjamin Franklin, who was a printer (among many other things) himself;
· Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe has the best breakfast/lunch, but no restrooms;
· Norm is still at Cheers! (as a cardboard cutout character);
· The pews at Paul Revere’s Old North Church are in “boxes” that were rented annually to families and designed to keep them warm(er) in Winter;
· The many parks and statutes—particularly Boston Marathon’s “The Tortoise and the Hare” and the Public Garden’s “Make Way For Ducklings” (which was always mobbed by kids);
· One Italian restaurant after another in the North End;
· My BBL’s first encounter with a Lobster Roll (that will be $25 please!);
· Lunch with a friend who was a colleague of mine when we started our careers a lifetime ago.

If you get the chance, do go experience the city yourself. You won’t regret it.

This link takes you to a video slideshow (with music). I prefer watching it in “full screen” mode, even though it makes the pictures a bit “fuzzier”. Or this link will take you to a silent site where the individual pictures are posted, although not in the same sequence as the video.

From Snowmass to Boston Mass

My BBL has been chiding me about my lack of blogging lately. But things have been pleasantly busy this summer. Since the last entry there have been personal (and ambassadorial) excursions to Chicagoland, both major cities in Oklahoma (and the 101 miles that separate them), N’awleans, The Magic City, The Alamo City, Amarillo & Denver.

All of these destinations (and the folks seen there) have a couple of things in common: 1) if the weather is nice, I always enjoy going there, and 2) I’ve been there more than once—in fact, collectively, I’ve been there scores (if not hundreds) of times! While it’s a “rut” I’m comfortable to stay in, we did recently add some diversity – five days each in Snowmass (CO) and Boston (MA)—made all the more interesting by doing it within two consecutive weeks!

Denver is now the hometown of our son, a Chartered Financial Analyst, who is doing his best to save the economy in spite of government programs. But truthfully, Colorado has always been a favorite destination (in the summer) despite the added attraction of his presence. This circumstance has developed into an excuse for planning an annual family vacation to the mountains. Breckenridge and Steamboat Springs have turned into newly-formed “traditional” favorites – enough so to whet our collective appetite to try someplace different. Internet searches helped us to select a 3-bedroom condo in Top of the Village Resort at Snowmass Village.

This turned out to be a good “bet” (maybe we should have gone to Vegas?). Our only hiccup was #1 daughter’s cancelled Frontier flight from Big D that, oh darn, “made us” extend our stay another day. This created the opportunity to experence a FREE Ryan Shaw concert (one of her favorite artists, but previously unknown by my BBL or me). Nothing like good music performed with a mountainous backdrop to add delight to your vacation. Experiencing it with your kids – priceless!

We did some relatively easy hikes which our son saw the need to improve by repeatedly running them back and forth until he caught up to our progress (and this is a highly educated person!). Perhaps the most difficult “hike” was the trek from the Snowmass Village shops/restaurants back to our condo . Only about ¼ mile, but 500’ in elevation gain. This provided us incentive to prepare more meals in the condo. . . .

Our location afforded a day visit to Aspen, another new experience for us. Aspen, as our son informed us, has the distinction as the place where the billionaires forced the millionaires to go to Vail! But all the money in the world couldn’t buy us a day without rain at the top of Maroon Bells. At least there’s a reason to go back. :)

11 minute video of our pictures (music by Shaw--I prefer Full Screen mode even though it’s a bit fuzzier)

Next stop: Boston