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New England News

When differing realities meet and clash then frustrations can be born. Can we just move on please and get back to the thread in hand.
 
Viv, your support is very much appreciated. We haven’t got to Marblehead yet but we’re planning it for the week to come. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
And now to get on with another one of my self-indulgent ramblings. Last Monday the weather was fair so we decided that now was the time to do the Mohawk Trail, while the sun was shining, and visit The Clark, an art museum situated in Williamstown where we had been with Claire but only had time for a quick visit before it closed.
The Mohawk Trail is a great road to view the changing foliage, with lots of views over rolling panoramas of the never-ending forests. The museum was a revelation to us. We hadn’t even heard of Williamstown until we came here, yet this art museum has examples of work from the finest artists the world has seen. I was amazed to see Goyas, Toulouse-Lautrecs, Monets, Renoirs, Gauguins, Van Goghs, Turners, Constables, Corots, Degas, and modern American artists like Remington. We had dinner that night at the Chinese restaurant that had so impressed us previously, and it was just as good on a second visit.
On Thursday we drove down to Newport, Rhode Island. We had reserved a room at a B&B on Spring Street. This turned out to be a lucky choice as it was a delightful place with cosy, comfortable rooms. We arrived in the town around midday and stopped off at a pub for lunch. It started to rain while we were eating and it just went on getting worse. We checked in at our B&B and then went for a cruise around Ocean Drive, where the mansions of the wealthiest people in America are situated. Many of them can be visited, and the more you choose to visit, the cheaper the tickets for each one becomes. Having driven around the coastal drive, we took a turn around the town, but the rain got heavier and heavier and finally drove us into Barnes and Noble, an enormous bookshop where we spent the rest of the afternoon browsing. A bit of a waste, really, as we’re not likely to return to Rhode Island again, but the weather didn’t give us much choice.
Pat, the hostess at our B&B, recommended a local restaurant for dinner so we freshened up, borrowed an umbrella, and set out in the rain. The restaurant wasn’t far and fortunately they had a free table for us. The restaurant was called Pronto, and they served a pretty good meal.
Afterwards, we returned to our room, watched TV for an hour or so, and then collapsed into bed.
Breakfast was great for a diabetic. There was fresh fruit, omelettes, sausage and some roasted potatoes, which I took rather than the toast and bagels that were also available.
We decided to take a tour of the town and one of the mansions. Newport is where the Americas Cup was so hotly contested for many years, until the Australians won it away from the Americans, so the sailing traditions are very strong here. The mansion we decided to visit was The Breakers, the residence of the Vanderbilt family. Nearby is the one owned by the Astors, another built by Doris Dukes, the Firestone family’s house is not far away and every other person on the Richest Family List is represented.
If you’ve ever wondered how the very rich live, The Breakers is just the place to answer all your questions. Photography is not permitted inside the house, so I can’t put up any pictures of the kind of sumptuousness that was part of the Vanderbilts’ everyday life. Enough to say it’s a real eye-opener.
The next day we detoured to New Bedford in Massachussetts to visit the whaling museum which had been highly recommended to us. New Bedford is where Herman Melville lived and where he set the opening scenes of his masterpiece, Moby ****. The town is no longer involved in the trade, but the museum is a fascinating view of the history of whaling and the life endured by the crews of the whaling ships. After that visit we took a leisurely drive back to Greenfield.
 
Glad to see that, although the eastern seaboard weather doesn't seem to be favouring you, you are still having a great time and making the most of your time in New England.

I know what you mean about some of the extravegant "cottages" on that stretch of coast. What stuck me though is that whilst they ARE opulent, they are also very beautiful.

Keep enjoying!
 
Absolutely, Viv, they are very attractive buildings and the fixtures and fittings are mostly very tasteful.
The weather took a turn for the better last Monday. We woke up to bright blue skies and sunshine so we decided to take a drive through the back roads of New Hampshire, taking some shots of the foliage, which is changing from day to day now.
We drove along, no fixed destination in mind, just following roads that were marked as picturesque on the map. From time to time we came across scenes which we just had to stop for, giving our cameras a good workout. It had been cold and rainy the day before and the higher we drove, the colder it got. At one point we passed through an area where the rain had turned to snow and it was still lying. It melted where the sun was shining on it, but in the shadows it was a half-inch deep.
We kept discovering new sights – a pond with mist rising, a hillside of blazing colours or a distant mountain topped with snow.
Tuesday we drove over to Hadley to buy some odds and ends and on Wednesday Jackie went to the hairdresser as she was complaining bitterly at the unmanageability of her mane.
We had originally decided to visit Salem and Marblehead (thanks for the tip, Viv) on consecutive days out, but when I looked at the map I discovered they were only a few miles apart, so we opted for a two day trip. We looked up bed and breakfasts in Salem and found an attractive one on Washington Square, right next to the witches’ museum. We had a good drive there, thanks to Tom Tom, parked the car next to the Visitor Centre and went for some lunch before buying tickets for a bus tour of Salem. To fill in the time before the tour we took a walk along to the Witches’ Museum and went in for a presentation of the history of the tragic events that ensued from the public hysteria of witchcraft, not unlike the current global warming hysteria.
The tour of the town was very informative on the history of the area and the colonisation by mostly British settlers. Nathanial Hawthorne, the American writer, also lived there, working as a customs official.
What struck me as distinctly phony was the vast number of psychics, mediums, palm and tarot readers touting their trade and the hullabaloo about the upcoming Halloween. All this has been built up on the false impression that the town was a hotbed of witchcraft when in fact it was hotbed of false accusations. Our B&B was comfortable and we had a good night’s sleep, but the breakfast was a disappointment, especially for a diabetic. There was cereal, all the ones loaded with sugar, some kind of cake, and fruit. I took some melon, a small slice of the cake and an apple. We checked out and drove around the inlet to Marblehead, situated on a peninsula reached by a bridge from Salem, and which boasts that it is the capital of sailing in the US. We parked and took a stroll around the little harbour, coming across a small cafe offering breakfast, so we went in and had omelette with ham and tomato – it did my bg a power of good. Unfortunately, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and it started off overcast with a cold breeze. We drove around the residential areas, then took a brisk walk around the various harbours. By then the cold drove us onto the road back, but decided to stop off at Concord where the first shots in the American revolution were fired. The weather improved considerably and we were impressed with the neatness and cleanliness of this small town.
Later that evening, after arriving back and unpacking, we went to the excellent local Chinese restaurant. When we came out, an hour and a half later, it was raining torrentially and continued all night. It has continued all day today, so apart from a short excursion to the supermarket we’ve stayed at home and worked on our photos in Photoshop.
 
This has been a period of firsts for us since we got here. I’d never seen a chipmunk before but there’s one who lives close to the house and he comes out regularly to forage for seeds and nuts. I’d never realized how pretty they are (even though I’d seen the occasional Disney cartoon of Chip ’n’ Dale). I’d never seen a skunk before, either, but we passed one flattened in the road a couple of weeks ago. Then today we passed another one, flattened, though this must have been a pretty fresh kill because the smell filled the car and we hadn’t driven within a yard of it. It took about ten miles driving before the car interior smelled normal. I pity the poor so-and-so who’d actually killed it. I’ve been told that the smell lingers for months.
On the food front I had the chance to try shark in Salem. Never having eaten it before I decided to give it a go when I saw it on the menu. Grilled mako shark, I found, is pleasantly flavoured without the oily taste that puts me off herring or mackerel. If you’ve tried rock salmon (dogfish) then you’ll have a good idea of what mako shark tastes like.
Dunkin’ Doughnuts is a chain of snack bars which offer excellent coffee and the most delicious jelly doughnuts in the world. This is the first time we’ve been on the East Coast since I was diagnosed T2 and when I saw a branch just around the corner from where we’re staying I promised myself I’d have one while we’re here. Last week I did. I kept my carbs deliberately low at breakfast and around 11 a.m. we went in for a mid-morning coffee. That doughnut was so delicious – in fact, I still salivate every time I think about it. But now I’m getting tough with myself. That was the only one I’ll be having on this trip. And when we go to California they don’t have Dunkin’ Doughnuts, so I’m safe from temptation for a good while.
I’d never seen signs warning drivers that moose might be crossing the road in the vicinity. And talking of moose, I’d never seen a 1700lb chocolate moose before (no, not mousse) and, come to think of it, I’d never seen a 500lb chocolate bear, but it was standing next to the moose.
I saw my first snow of the year a couple of days ago, first on a mountaintop and then, as the road climbed higher, there was snow at the side of the road.
A couple of days ago we went to Sturbridge Old Village with relatives of our friend Claire. The day before we had torrential rain, but our friends assured us that it would be fine on Thursday and we woke to fantastically good weather – blue skies and brilliant sunshine.
Sturbridge Old Village is an open air museum of an entire village preserved as it was in the late 1700s, a short time after the War of Independence. The museum’s docents dress in clothing of the period and are experts on their exhibits. As a former printer I had a chat with the docent in the print shop, who was also of the same industrial background as I was. Equally interesting were the sawmill, the metalwork shop, the blacksmith and the pottery. Ironically, the sheets of tin used in the metalworkinging shop were imported from England – there’s no tin mining in the US.
There are two churches in the complex – a Quaker meeting house and a Presbyterian church. Both are beautifully preserved.
The general store has typical stock of the period – and you get an explanation of how the economy worked in those days: often it would be exchanges of goods rather than cash.
Now our time here is almost at an end. Tomorrow we’re packing and on Monday we’ll be driving to Boston where we’ll spend a few days sightseeing before flying home on Thursday evening.
The foliage is now past its peak and many leaves are falling; those that remain are a deep, rich copper colour. I’m happy I don’t have to sweep up – I’ve never seen so many leaves on the ground.
It won’t be long now before it begins to snow: they’ve already begun placing the indicator posts at the side of the road so that drivers can see where the edges of the road are when buried under thick snow. Glad I won’t be here when that happens.
 

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Hi Bill,
Boy, but that skunk bought back memories, infact i can almost smell it now!! We smelt a road kill when we were driving up to San Francisco from California. They certainly linger, though my two boys thought it hilarious, typical boys and awful smells, though after 10mins they didn't think it quite as funny, and felt slightly sick!
Lovely photos, and enjoying your posts as always.
Suzi x
 
Thank you, Suti. I've sent you a belated PM.
 
We passed the last couple of days in Greenfield driving through the local countryside, photographing the changes in the foliage and the landscape in general. Claire, our Californian friend, had arranged with her aunt to drive us to Boston for the three days we were going to spend there before flying out on 5 November.Our trusty TomTom delivered us right to the doors of the Hotel Radisson where we had reserved a room. We had a pleasant lunch with Terry, our driver, and her friend, Dottie. We enjoyed Terry and Dottie’s company on a couple of occasions and they were riotously down-to-earth in the restaurant. We waved them goodbye afterwards and settled into our room before going out to scope out the surrounding district. Just a hundred yards from the hotel, and within sight of our window, we found the site of the Cocoanut Grove fire, one of the worst nightclub fires in American history – almost 500 people dead in less than an hour. The spot is now a car park and there’s no plaque or memorial to mark the place where this tragedy happened.
We were in easy walking distance of Boston Common and took a stroll in that direction. On the far side of the common lies Beacon Hill, one of those names that practically everybody’s heard of and where the state capitol is situated.
That evening we took a walk to Sel de la Terre (thanks, Viv, that was a good recommendation) for dinner. Their oysters are really fresh, with the tang of the sea lingering in the mouth afterwards.
The next morning we bought tickets for the hop-on, hop-off trolleys and took a tour of the city. So much American history began in Boston that it would take more time than we had to see all the places that we’ve all heard of. The Battle of Bunker Hill is commemorated with an obelisk, although the dock where the Boston Tea Party took place is now quite a distance inland due to the landfill activities that allowed the city to expand seawards.
We saw the exterior of the pub that was used in the TV series Cheers (the interiors were filmed in a studio) and many of the buildings where the Declaration of Independence was drawn up and subsequently signed. Boston was a hotbed of unrest that led up to the American Revolution so everywhere you turn you’ll find something that leads back to those days. We found the cemetery where Paul Revere is buried, close to the site where Benjamin Franklin’s parents have their grave and close to the grave of John Hancock, the first to sign the Declaration of Independence.
The next day we took the subway, known as the T, to the harbour area as we wanted to visit the aquarium. When we bought our tickets we found that they were offering a discount on the Imax cinema across the way, so we bought a couple of those as well. We’d been to an Imax cinema before but never to one that was showing 3-D films. The show that we selected was on whales and dolphins which we found to be absorbing and informative.
Thursday we were flying out at 8:20, so we packed our bags, paid our bill and left our luggage at the hotel for us to pick up later. We walked along the side of the Common for a way and then turned in the direction of the harbour. We stopped off at Borders, the big book store and bought a couple of items that would serve as Christmas gifts, before arriving at Quincey Market and Feneuil Hall. After lunch, we went for a harbour cruise. The weather was gorgeous, with a clear blue sky, but the temperature was telling us that winter was on the horizon. We passed the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship in America. You may have heard it referred to as ‘Old Ironsides’
Soon, the light started to fade from the sky and it was time to make our way back to the hotel, pick up our luggage and take a taxi to the airport.
Our flight home was quick – five and a half hours with the help of strong tail winds. Just enough time for a couple of hours’ sleep before breakfast was served. Our driver was on time at Heathrow and the drive to Gatwick was also fast. We arrived in Luxembourg in the late afternoon with just enough time to grab a quick shower and drive to our local Italian restaurant to meet our son and daughter-in-law for dinner and regale them with stories of our time in New England.
 
One final little story which has been suggested may be of interest here. I’ve already mentioned that Claire drove us to Shelburne Falls but haven’t mentioned that we went into an art gallery there which features a very fine glass artist named Josh Simpson. We were quite taken with his creations which are some of the most beautiful pieces of glass I have ever seen. The lady who runs the gallery mentioned that they were having the opening of their Josh Simpson exhibit and invited us to go along.
A couple of weeks later we went up to Williamstown to revisit The Clark museum and there I found on sale a book on Josh Simpson and his work. I bought it for Claire as she loves Simpson’s creations and we wanted to give her a gift in appreciation of all she had done for us.
A couple of weeks later Jackie began having problems with her computer so we took it along to Staples, a well-known chain store that repairs computers, among other things. They fixed it up and called to tell us it was ready, so we duly went to the store to pick it up. As we were paying we got into conversation with the man on the cash register and a lady standing behind us with her son. The lady was very pleasant and we were all chatting away (not many other customers, you can well imagine) when the man said that the lady behind us was an astronaut. I didn’t know whether to take him seriously or not so I asked her if it was true. She said it was, which made her the first astronaut I’d ever spoken to. Then I remembered that I had read that Josh Simpson was married to an astronaut and it turned out this was Mrs Simpson and their son. I told her about the book I had bought as our friend was a great admirer of her husband and she suggested that if we took it along to the gallery at Shelburne Falls we would probably be able to get it autographed.
The following Sunday we set out for the gallery. We explained to the man on duty that we were hoping to have the book signed by Josh Simpson. No problem, he said, Josh Simpson would be coming in later and if we left the book with him he’d get it signed. We thanked him and began looking around at the exhibits, fascinated by the globes, planets and vases in beautiful iridescent colours.
Within a couple of minutes the man on duty beckoned us over and introduced us to a man who had just come in - Josh Simpson himself. He was happy to sign the book and wrote a special inscription for Claire. We had quite a long chat with him, mentioning that we had met his wife a couple of days previously. He talked about life with a wife who’s an astronaut and told us that she was scheduled to fly with the shuttle next year to spend time at the international space station.
He left us impressed both with his talent and his friendly, soft-spoken personality and we ended up buying two of his vases in the Red New Mexico series.
Back home I looked his wife’s career up on the internet. She has flown two space missions and spent over 500 hours in space. She is in training for the flight to the ISS late next year. Look her up on Wikipedia – she uses her maiden name of Cady Coleman. We’ll be following that flight with extra attention.
We packed the book up and sent it by DHL to Claire in California. She was absolutely delighted with the gift, especially as it was dedicated to her.
 
Hi Bill,
Now thats what i call being in the right place at the right time, fate dealt you a fantastic hand that day and you are indeed a lucky man. Not many people can say they've met an astronaut whilst out shopping, which led to meeting a famous artist. Hope its not your final story and you return to posting Bill's life.
Take care,
Suzi x
 
Okay, Suzi, you've twisted my arm. I'll get right on it, as soon as I've washed my tights - I've got a ballet lesson tomorrow. :lol:
 
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