Holiday shenanigans

I promise that I will eventually get around to posting about our trip to Panama. I haven't gone through all the photos yet and I'll admit that the photographs are a daunting task because there are so many hummingbird shots. So I thought I'd first post about our trip back east over the holidays - which means this post will probably only be interesting to family and a few friends. But read on if you are curious about our holiday shenanigans!

Just before we left to head back east, the new research vessel for Shannon Point Marine Center (where Jay works) was delivered. Jay is working on his PhD now, but he stayed on part-time at Shannon Point where he works as Captain Jay, among other duties. He is at the helm in this photo with his co-worker Nate on the deck - they motored right by my office which is on the channel in La Conner. Fancy new research toy eh?!

Tim, Julie, and Adam

We don't fly into Boston often, but this year we waited too long to book our flights back east and Boston was the only airport to fly into that we could afford. This made getting to our parents more difficult, but it also gave us a rare chance to see friends that we had not seen in a long, long, time. Tim picked us red-eyed zombies up at the airport and whisked us off to South Boston for an awesome breakfast at a real diner. If only we could have had more time.....but any time with dear friends is better than no time at all. Following breakfast and a quick visit with our friend Adam, Tim took us over to Randi and Jeff's house for lunch. Tim, Randi, and I all went to UNH (Randi later transferred to Cornell, but we will forgive her for that) - so these friendships are dating back almost 20 years now! Wow! Randi and Jeff had a new baby, Xander, for all of us to meet. I even held him - shocking! He was soooo damn tiny that he wasn't really doing much except sleeping, perfect for the happily-lacking-all-instincts-to-reproduce Julie.

Julie, Randi, Xander, Tim. Is Xander going to be part of the next UNH generation?

Jeff drove us back to South Boston so we could catch a bus to Cape Cod. We were running a bit late but never fear! We were out of the land of slow drivers in the left lane and back in Boston ya'll! Jeff whizzed us straight through traffic and we almost caught the bus. We didn't miss it because of Jeff though! We missed it because the bus driver refused to take cash (this shouldn't have been a problem) and he pulled away with me standing there glaring at him. Thankfully, there was another bus leaving for a different town near the Cape - so we jumped on that and tried to take a snooze while the Boston landscape flew by.

One of my favorite things to do when I'm back east is soak up the forests, the trees, the sun, and the history. I know I'm back in New England or New York when walks through the forest inevitably come across long rows of stone walls. Who built that wall? What were they clearing the land for? Do their ancestors still live on Cape Cod? Were they nice to the Indians - the rightful land "owners"? I love stone walls and all the questions they command.

Our first full day back on the Cape was a gorgeous one. We went for long walks in the woods that Jay used to play in as a kid and eventually popped out at this lovely cranberry bog.

 Cape Cod woods

 Yet another amazing dinner at Chez White

Jay and Lee present the unreal french chocolate torte they made to Matt (and the rest of us). Yum.

Chapoquoit Beach is always a beauty - but on Christmas Day it seemed especially lovely. It was warm and windy and Buzzard's Bay was producing enough blues and greens to make an artist sigh with content.

Best family photo ever? Jay, Allison, Lee, Jim, and Julie. Happy campers to all be together again...

We left Allison and Jim's house in the evening on Christmas Day and drove to my parent's house arriving just in time to go to bed. We knew that Boxing Day was going to be a busy one with the entire Barber-Just clan arriving for holiday fun. I swear that Henry and Jackson grow a foot every time we get see them. We gave Henry a cool math game that he can play on his own....he is quite the math whiz and we are hoping this game may find ways to stump him and teach him stuff too!

Jackson got a big magic set from us - he excels at performing and dancing (at least he does in front of us). We are hoping for some great shows from this set! If only we got to see them more often....

While visiting the local Senior Center, my mom scored on a wheel of the best cheese in the world from the Old Chatham Sheepherding Company. It is safe to say that we ate a ton of cheese over the holidays.

My dad was in charge of grilling a massive hunk of meat for the carnivores in the family. I made the goods for the veggos in the family (which is really just me).

Britton, Erik, Maria, Norman, Lance, Christine, Julie, and Jay

After a two great days with my family we headed to the Berkshires to meet up with friends. A few months ago I rented a house near Jiminy Peak for all of us and the grand plan had been to go skiing. Alas, mother nature decided to deliver all the snow to New England last week, not last month. So we all ended up hiking at Mount Greylock State Reservation. All I can say is that Jay and I really need to make the effort more often to see friends because it had been far too long since we had been together and we had such a blast. Maybe this summer in August peeps?? The rental house was a riot - thank goodness we all had a good sense of humor because the house had so much potential but a bit of a dead fly problem! Not to mention the rockin' wallpaper....

After two days with our friends we headed back to my parent's place for one more full day together. My other "parents", the Lockmans (my parent's best friends), came up and we spent some time wandering around freezing Old Kinderhook. We all get a kick out of the sculpture of Martin Van Buren, the 8th president of the USA who also happened to be from Kinderhook. Someone stuck sunglasses and a hat on him...he must have been a tiny dude.  =)

Historic homes in Kinderhook

Our last two days back east were spent with my sister and her family. We have a bit of a New Year's Eve tradition going on at this point!

Sisters!

We had a few hours before we had to go to the airport on New Year's Day, so we spent it in Plymouth with Allison and Jim. We had a lovely lunch and a freezing walk out to the lobster pot Christmas tree that I was determined to see. How awesome is that!?

What can I say - this is what always happens to us when we have been gone for a while. Darwin and Lester try to prove to us and each other who is top cat. Lester asserts his dominance by harassing Darwin and chasing him all of the house. Darwin humps Lester. Nuff said.

And to end where we started....Jay's lab got a new research vessel right before we left and my office at Swinomish Fisheries got a new research vessel right when we came back! The R/V T'ilus (pronounced "Tea-loose") is going to rock the geoduck survey dives! T'ilus is Lushootseed (the language spoken by the Coast Salish people) for small unidentified clam. Perfect for us bivalve dorks who know all our species well except for some of those tiny little buggers that require a dissecting microscope.

November and December photos are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/NovemberAndDecember2014?authkey=Gv1sRgCO32zoHF4YSsoQE