Family and friend time back east

Beavertail State Park, RI

The end of September and the beginning of October was time for us to reconnect with so many dear old friends and to see our families back east. Our friends Erik and Britton's wedding in Vermont was the reason for the timing and we were thrilled to be in Vermont at the start of fall foliage. All of our trips back east are too short even with just family visits, so it can be hard to sneak in time with friends we care deeply about. But not this trip - this trip was fantastic because we got loads of time with our friends and our families.

 Old URI friends....Christine, Julie Fidler?, Julie Barber?, and Lance

 

Jay, Julie, Julie, Caroline, Tom, and Timmy. The last time we saw Julie Fidler and Tom, Caroline was an infant!

Allison and Jay on the beach in West Falmouth - yes - we swam right at the end of September and it was lovely!

We even managed to sneak in an entire day with our dear friend Tim around Hyannis. We left him at his car dealer to pick up his car at the end of the day where this photo was taken, I promise we did not spend the day at a car dealer. We went to the beach and swam! We ate great food! We sipped lovely cocktails! We spent precious time together catching up on life...... every minute was worth it.

 West Falmouth sunsets are the best sunsets

There is always so much to celebrate at the White household!

We somehow managed to visit Christina, Sara, Henry, and Jackson without getting a single photo of Christina or Sara. =( But we did get a shot of Jay pulling off some serious air guitar on the trampoline with Henry and Jackson.

Things got serious when I was challenged to a game of chess by Henry, who eventually lost interest (I was too slow for him) and Jackson took over. I love the lecture I appear to be getting from Jackson here.

 Jackson, Julie, Henry, and Jay - nephews with their new Slow Loris shirts!

 Boat time on the Hudson with my awesome parents

 The mighty Hudson

 

We finally made it to the popular newish bar in Valatie with my parents. We have only been hearing about this joint for a few years now! They had good beer on tap and it was a cute set-up for little ol' Valatie. I can't get over how Valatie is getting cooler and cooler stuff in town, while historic old Kinderhook has empty storefronts because of a crazy landlord who charges his tenants too much, resulting in empty stores. I hope someday that will change because sweet Kinderhook is such an awesome old town.

And now we are in Vermont crushing apples to make cider for Erik and Britton's wedding.

  Rochester, VT and the view from Erik and Britton's wedding barn

 Old friends - Jane and Jay

We (J&J with the Bradleys) rented a hilarious old house stuck in the late 70s with amazing views and wonderful roads all around. The morning of the wedding saw us playing with our friend's kiddos (memory games that they could beat us at) and going on walks around the wonderful town and property of the rental house.

 Erik and Britton pulled out all the stops....this barn was gorgeous and ready for a party!

 The wonderful couple

 Rhode Island friends

 Prim and proper: J&J, Mike, and Eric

 Better representation of our friendships

 Sad to leave our friends and New England in fall..... but we loved the brunch in a gorgeous area of VT.

 Anacortes beer festival (poor Jay had an awful cold and stayed home).....but Jake, Kat, Liz, and I had fun

Fun with friends continued! Mike D. came to visit from AK and we got to take him on a local walk with our favorite pooch, Denali. This was a pretty funny walk.....I was the gimp with the bad knee, Mike was recovering from the Anacortes beer festival, and Jay had a cold. We didn't make it too far but we had fun!

September photos: https://goo.gl/photos/Ywtz9d1isjSSDkv7A

October photos: https://goo.gl/photos/rAvBYvSVAZkLjTmNA

Apple cider and pink Cadillac golf carts

I spent the first weekend of November visiting my family in MA and NY. I flew into MA and was greeted by my sister at the airport (and an awesome take-out dinner of a falafel pita). The plan was to spend the weekend with Christina's family and Monday-Wednesday with my parents before flying back to WA. Even  though we were all together in August, it just didn't feel like we spent much time together - so this weekend was needed and just wonderful.

 Jackson and Henry leading the way up Mt. Sugarloaf

 Quintessential New England right at the end of the peak colors

Christina and Sara had Sara's parents babysit Henry and Jackson one evening so the three of us could eat out on the town. We went to Hope and Olive, a favorite restaurant of theirs I've been hearing about for YEARS. Finally, I was able to go! I wish Jay could have been there too! The fried brussel sprouts really are the best thing ever and I ordered a cocktail called "FeelTheBern" and they donated $1 to Bernie's campaign. That is my kind of cocktail!

Christina and I spent one morning together exploring the fun of the Franklin County, MA CiderDays. We went to Clarkdale Fruit Farms for a cooking demo and cheese tastings. I ended up buying pear cider, two different cheeses, and making apple pickles when I made it back to WA as a result of this awesome hour in my life.

 Cider sisters

 Worshiping squash and apples in the fall 

Christina's turn!

Those crazy awesome nephews of mine finally dragged me out on their trampoline. I never advanced beyond the up and down jump - but you can see they have no problem with crazy flips and moves.

On Monday we met up with my parents at the Smith College Fall Chrysanthemum Show. It was like walking into The Lorax - awesome! 

Such a rare and wonderful treat to have all four of us together...and it looks like we are in the tropics! Ha! Fooled yah! Just western Massachusetts.

My parents in our lovely town of Kinderhook with the old school (that my sister went to) which is now converted into an art gallery.

While I was visiting my family back east, Jay took off for Carrie Bow Caye in Belize - a Smithsonian research station he has been conducting research at (for other projects) for over a decade. It was pretty neat for all of us to know that he was there, after all these years, to do his own research for his PhD! Woohoo! This is a rare, rare, rare photo of Jay at work in Belize sorting corals into different bags for, I think, transportation back to the States. He made a video of the work he has been doing there, I posted it here if you want to see it.....

While Jay was in Belize our friends Scott and Nadine paid me a visit in Anacortes. Boy, I like to spoil guests rotten when they visit.....but Scott and Nadine flipped that switch and spoiled me rotten! Great wine, great restaurants, great food, great farmer's market, great hikes, great beaches.....shoot. You name it and it was great!

Wow! Talk about a big change in scenery! Now I'm in Florida! Jay and I met in Miami at the airport (after a terrifying flight from Seattle for me) and drove up to Vero Beach to spend Thanksgiving with his father and stepmom. Only in FL do you find pink Cadillac golf carts.

 Charlotte wanted one.

While we spent more time at the pool in the neighborhood they live in, we were thrilled to get in one beach day!

The boyz going for a swim in the big surf. It was way bigger than it looks, I promise. I joined them and it took some time to get out into the water without getting smooshed first.

 

 Gopher tortoise! Cool! 

 The girls enjoying their time in the sun! 

 Jay and I went for a jog down Vero Beach and hung out with this rockin' ghost crab for a bit.

I also dragged him on a buggy hike in the FL scrub forests. Is that what they are called? They are awesome. I love habitats I know nothing about - I still have much to learn in this life.

Photos from November are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/November2015?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJzQ8fHF1cKHugE&feat=directlink

Stay tuned! The next blog will be about our vacation in Indonesia Papua! Leaving on Wednesday!

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