After sharing New Year’s Eve with us, Craig
stayed over. We had our 2018 New Year’s
Day dinner with him instead of with Harry and Nancy. Due to the frigid cold, they didn’t want guests
to be outside while driving to their country house. I kept busy doing my usual first of the year
activities like updating my RMD (Required Minimum Distribution) Excel files and
setting up the automatic distributions for 2018. As part of my treasurer’s duties, I completed
and filed the 4th quarter Ethics Report for Muleskinners (Democratic luncheon
organization).
I was seeing more and more changes in
Diane’s behavior. For example, once a
gourmet cook, the food she served now tasted bland, lacking the flavor it used to
have. Sometimes it was undercooked and
other times it was overcooked. She
didn’t notice the difference, but I and others did. Now when we invited them to dinner, they
would suggest we all go out to eat. For
the past two years, I had been asking our primary caregiver to arrange for
Diane to be evaluated for dementia, so far with no success. I was beginning to realize that sooner or
later, I was going to have to make some changes, and I needed to research the
possibilities. In early January, I made
an appointment for Diane and I to tour a nearby facility that had both assisted
living and memory care units called Provision Living (later purchased by Cedarhurst). A week later we returned to hear a talk on
dementia by Dr. Shenker, a local neurologist. He was a warm and informed speaker. I felt like he was describing what was
happening to Diane and what our future might hold. Soon afterwards, we attended a preview party
for the True/False Film Fest, and then it was time for our first trip of 2018.
I had received information about a trip
to Baja, Mexico from the Planetary Society (of which I am a member). They were sponsoring it because there would be
a total lunar eclipse in the early morning hours of January 31st,
which was during the trip. I signed us
up and on January 16, we left for the trip with National Geographic entitled Baja
California and the Sea of Cortez: Among the Great Whales. Baja California is the northern- and western-most
state of Mexico.
Because of the difference in time zones and
plane schedules, Diane and I had to spend a night in Los Angeles (LA) both
coming and going. With some research, I determined
that the Hampton Inn LAX El Segundo provided a comfortable place to stay. They had a kitchen that served a limited menu
as well as wine.
After a night in LA, we flew to San
Jose del Cabo on the southernmost tip of the Baja Peninsula. Upon arrival we met our group, boarded a bus
and traveled first along the western shore with views of the Pacific. Then we
headed across the desert landscape of the peninsula to La Paz, which is on the eastern
coast. Here we met an old friend, the
Sea Bird, the ship we had traveled on before on the Columbia River. We boarded
the ship and prepared for our first few days on the Gulf of California, also
called the Sea of Cortez.
Map showing Baja Peninsula
Desert landscape with Pacific in distance
Sea Bird
Diane and I were very laid back on
this trip. We spent the first two days leisurely
watching the birds and wildlife as the ship explored the Sea of Cortez. We listened to descriptions of how this area
was important during early space exploration because of tracking equipment that
was installed around the Sea of Cortez.
We saw some fishing boats and thought about the calamari we had eaten
that may have come from these waters.
The ship spent one day at the smaller island of Los Islotes and its
larger neighbor Isla Espiritu Santo.
While we explored the shores by zodiac with a crew member telling us
about the geology of the islands and bird life, many others were more active,
preferring to swim, kayak, or hike on the island.
Fishing boat
Zodiac ride
Hikers on the horizon
Grey Heron atop a cliff
Eared Grebes, also known as Black-necked Grebes
The next morning, we left the Sea of
Cortez, cruising past Friars Rocks at Land’s End, and docked for a visit to the
historic town center of San José del Cabo.
We walked in the San José Estuary, a nature reserve with numerous bird
species. After reboarding the ship, we headed for the area of the Gorda Banks
seamount and watched many breaching humpback whales. We sailed to see the arch of Cabo San Lucas,
a distinctive rock formation at the southern tip of Cabo San Lucas, and a colorful
sunset.
Humpback Whale
Arch of Cabo San Lucas
Sunset
The next morning, the crew kept us
apprised of humpback whale sightings. Our
destination, the birthing place for baby gray whales, wasn’t that much further
north. Before long, we entered Magdalena
Bay, an immense system of protected coves, surrounded by a fringe of mangrove
channels at one edge of a large, windswept plain. As we progressed further, we could see vast
sand dunes between us and the Pacific Ocean.
The ship went far enough for us to have sightings of the somewhat smaller
grey whales that appeared to have white spots but which were actually barnacles
attached to the whales. Grey whales can
use these barnacles for defense against predators. They would also have whale lice which feed on
algae and skin debris. The lice are
highly specialized, often associating with only one or two species of whale.
Location of the protected coves of
Magdalena Bay
Dunes along the ocean and mangroves in
channel to the Bay
A sea eagle and cormorants in the mangrove
trees
Barnacles on a whale
Guests hiking on the dunes
Each winter, during their long migration,
grey whales travel south from their Arctic feeding grounds to breed and raise
their calves in these sheltered waters. In
the afternoon we observed these migrating whales from the ship. Then the ship backed off for the night. A picnic on the sand dunes was prepared for
the guests, but Diane and I, not liking sand, declined, just asking the cook to
send us up some food and a bottle of wine to enjoy at an outside table on the
deck. We were again too sleepy to get up
and watch the lunar eclipse of the super (blue) moon.
Picnic on the sand
Eclipse of the moon
The next two days our zodiacs took us up
close enough to float among the mother grey whales and their babies. This was the entire reason I wanted to take
this trip. Some of the mothers were very
friendly. A crew member identified one
of them, leaned over and kissed her to say “Hello.” In South Africa, I stroked the tongue of the
largest land mammal, an elephant. Now I
really wanted to stroke a whale, and at last, I succeeded! I leaned out of the zodiac, and, with the
mother’s watchful eye, I was able to pet her baby. What a thrill that was for me. After that, I was ready for the trip to be
over and be back home. I had achieved my
objective.
Mom and baby being friendly
Whale smiling (?) to show off its baleen
However, that departure would wait
awhile. We disembarked the ship in San
Carlos and drove across the peninsula to La Paz. We killed time in town and had lunch before
we could check into the CostaBaja Resort & Spa located on the Sea of
Cortez. We had free time in the
afternoon before our farewell dinner that night. Then it was back across the peninsula to the
San Jose del Cabo airport and the flight to Los Angeles. The next day we were finally able to fly to
St. Louis, via Denver, and take the shuttle to our front door. Even thought this trip was very sedentary, it
did explore a part of Mexico I hadn’t seen before, and I got to stroke a whale!
In the next few weeks, we engaged in our
usual activities. Joe and Karen from
Denver paid an early visit. This was an
election year, so we had candidate contributions to tend to. Earlene came a few days early for True/False
and was able to visit with some of our friends before the Based on a True Story
conference and the weekend of films. In
April there were several events we enjoyed.
The Unbound Book Festival took place on the Stephens campus. Our friend Chao-Min Hoe came for a
visit. She was retiring soon from Merck
and deciding where to live. The choices
were Columbia, where she had many friends, or Boston where her son worked but where
she had no friends. We researched and
took her to see many possible places where she could rent an apartment. It was also an education for us about how
expensive apartment rental is in Columbia.
Planned Parenthood had a Chocolates for Choice event, and at a
Progressive Women meeting we heard talks by many wonderful women, including
some running for office in the St. Louis area.
We were very happy to see that more women were running for political office
in Missouri.
On Monday May 14, we left on a three-week
driving trip through the deep South on our way to visit our relatives on the
East Coast. Diane and I were both raised
and educated in the Yankee tradition and certainly had our biases about our southern
neighbors. Even our friends in Columbia
were nervous about two lesbian non-religious women traveling by themselves in
the South. We hoped to prove their
concerns wrong.
The Trail of Tears Missouri State Park was
our first stop. It was named after the
deadly route to Oklahoma which Native Americans were forced to travel after the
U.S. government evicted them from their ancestral lands in the Southeast. Our visit turned out to be a bust when we
discovered the visitor center was not open on Monday or Tuesday. It was very hot and sticky, so we sat in the
car with the air conditioning running to eat our lunch.
We continued through the very flat farmland
in southeast Missouri and the bootheel, through Arkansas and over the
Mississippi river to Memphis. We skirted
around downtown Memphis, and before long we were in Mississippi for the first
time in either of our lives. Remembering
the lyrics to the song, I was glad when we made it safely over the Tallahatchie
River bridge and into Batesville for our first night's stay. The desk clerk could not recommend the local
BBQ restaurant but did give us the name for a nice steakhouse. However, our GPS
took us to the wrong exit and town. We
went back to the Mexican restaurant he had also mentioned. It was good, and busy, even though it was the
only business still open in a deserted strip mall.
The next day we drove to Oxford and visited
Rowan Oak, the home of William Faulkner.
It has a beautiful setting in Bailey's Woods. We then visited the attractive, large campus
of Ole Miss. We found a place to park
and walked through the Overby School of Southern Journalism and Politics on the
way to the Barnard Observatory which houses the Center for the Study of
Southern Culture. We came upon a very
nice female faculty member who studied “foodways.” Her description sounded similar to what we
called farm to table.
Rowan Oak
Society of Professional Journalists
What is Southern Culture?
When it was time for lunch, we drove to the
downtown courthouse square. The City
Grocery was a white tablecloth restaurant.
We both had an entree. Diane had
spicy original Grit Girl grits with sautéed shrimp, garlic, mushrooms,
scallions, white wine, lemon juice, and big bad bacon. I had grilled trout, creamy barley risotto,
radish salad, broccoli rabe with charred onion vinaigrette. These dishes deserved a glass of Sauvignon
Blanc, Spy Valley, Marlborough, New Zealand.
After taking a few pictures we drove back to I-55 toward Jackson. As we approached the city, we drove by a huge
Nissan factory. After settling into our
room, we did not go back out, but instead ate an apple and an Uprise
apple/raisin muffin for our late afternoon meal.
Me in downtown Oxford
As we had often done before, we planned on
visiting the state capit0ls to learn the history of the states we passed
through. The legislature was not in
session, so we found free parking close to the Mississippi State Capitol. We were early for the guided tour. While we were waiting, a male state
Representative stopped by and offered to show us something that would not be on
the tour. It was a state Senators office
that was inside an old vault previously used by the state treasurer. He then took us to the House chamber to show
off his unusually small desk. It was
originally added for the first Black man elected to the legislature. Our guide still has it, even though he is
white. He took us back to the visitor
center and returned to give each of us a state seal. The official tour lasted about an hour. After taking pictures and walking to our car,
we drove around for half an hour, never saw a restaurant, but had a scenic tour
of downtown Jackson.
Mississippi State Capitol
We decided to proceed to the Civil Rights
Museum. We had a hot lunch at the Nissan
Café of chicken pot pie, green beans, whole kernel corn, and a muffin. We were then ready for the Toyota Gallery in
the museum. It was a great history
lesson focusing on the years 1945–1976 when Mississippi was ground zero for the
national Civil Rights Movement.
It was some special day in the state, so
they had given us two free tickets to both the Civil Rights and the state
history museum. We were pretty tired,
but at the state history museum we visited an exhibit about the earliest human
occupants in Mississippi, primarily the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians. This night we just had microwavable pizza, a
bottle of red wine, and an apple.
It was a long drive the following
morning. We finished the book on CDs we
had been listening to, The Man Who Would Be Washington about Robert E
Lee, and started Liar Temptress Soldier Spy about four women who were undercover
during the Civil War. The first third of
the drive was on an interstate through rural Mississippi. After we crossed the border into Alabama, we left
interstates behind. The next third was
still easy with a divided highway. We
drove by a catfish feed mill and then by several catfish ponds. We also saw many logging trucks before we got
to the two-lane road and encountered lots of road work. We were running late and getting hungry. Finally, in Autaugaville, AL, we found Chef
Lee's small restaurant run by a black family.
We ordered the meat, two veggies, and cornbread which was served up
cafeteria style. The meat was fried
chicken of course! Diane had black eyed
peas and mac/cheese. I had lima beans
and squash.
Soon we were in Montgomery, Alabama at The
Legacy Museum. It covered some of the
same story as the museum in Mississippi but told it in a different way. There was more recorded personal
storytelling. The past practices of
slavery and lynching were compared to the present practice of mass
incarceration. This museum accomplished
a lot with a much smaller space. They
had an interactive map showing where there had been one or more lynchings, and
it showed two in Boone County, Missouri.
We then went to the National Memorial for
Peace and Justice. It was outdoors and featured
sculpture, art, literature and design. There
we saw a powerful piece of art depicting enslaved people in chains by the Ghanaian artist Kwame Akoto-Bamf. It was dedicated to the memory of the victims
of the transatlantic slave trade. There
was also a bronze sculpture “Raise Up” by Hank Willis Thomas inspired by a 1960s photograph by Ernest
Cole of 13 South African miners as they underwent a humiliating group medical
examination in the nude. There is a
memorial square with 805 hanging steel rectangles representing each of the U.S.
counties where a documented lynching took place. We could not find the one for Boone County. We were hot and tired, so we did not do a
tour of the State Capitol. We drove by
and took a few pictures.
The "Nkyinkyim" sculpture
“Raise Up” sculpture
Memorial squares of counties
Alabama State Capitol
We drove to Atlanta, Georgia the next
morning. Not all went as planned, but we
adapted. We arrived in Atlanta late as
there was heavy traffic and road work on I-285.
But we made it and were able to check into our motel early. After
unloading we drove the short distance to the Perimeter Mall. We parked, went up two levels of stairs, over
a walking bridge and saw a Macy’s furniture store. Two obviously (at least to us) gay guys were coming
out, and we asked them for a dining recommendation. They directed us around the corner to a
wonderful Italian restaurant, Maggiano's Little Italy. We had a spinach salad and the
"light" fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and asparagus.
We noticed that the sidewalk from our motel
to the Metro station was closed because of a new commercial building. Instead of going downtown to the State
Capitol, we stayed in and did laundry. It
turned out to be a relaxing afternoon with full bellies.
The next morning was Saturday, and we went
to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
It is located on lovely grounds and the displays were arranged in a nice
sequence from his childhood to his work after serving in office. We then drove to the Atlanta History Center. It presented the story of the city from an
Indian village to the present day. While
there, we visited the Swan House named after the swan motif that appears
throughout the 1928 mansion. We ate
lunch at the museum, having a cup of turkey chili and splitting a turkey and
cheese sandwich. We hoped to never drive
in Atlanta again. After driving to our
motel, we did not want to get back out, eating an apple and banana in our room
while watching four Netflix shows.
On Sunday morning, we made our way out of
Atlanta and drove to Athens. We had
lunch at the home of our friends Betty & Sarah. Betty lived in Columbia until moving to
Athens in 2012. They are both writers
and poets. Betty drove us around Athens
and the huge grounds of the University of Georgia. After checking into our B&B and resting a
bit, we returned to their very private house on Red Fox Run for a glass of wine
before going to dinner at their favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant. It was a very enjoyable day with old friends.
We spent the night as the only guest at the
B&B. Our breakfast was very nice,
starting with coffee, a dollop of yogurt, a small bowl of mixed fresh fruit and
a croissant with marmalade. Then we had
a blueberry pancake with whipped cream, maple syrup and two link sausages. Our host regaled us with stories of southern
history. He was Flemish, born in
Antwerp. He had been a diplomat serving
with the United Nations Security Council and was now a U.S. citizen.
We left Athens on country roads driving
through rolling hills. It was so scenic
we decided to avoid interstates the rest of the way to Columbia, SC. We stopped for lunch at the Hwy 378 Bar and
Grill near Lake Murray. We watched
couples shooting pool and various sporting events on all the TVs. It was too early for the live music.
We drove to the South Carolina State
House. As we walked toward it, we
noticed a lot of uniformed police scattered around and then discovered
why. There was a demonstration with
music about respecting poor people and giving everyone a voice. There was a voter registration table.
Musical demonstration in South Carolina
We went inside for our guided tour. There were four other adults and 20+ third
graders with their teachers. We first
watched a movie about the State House and grounds and then met our guide. Previously she was a school teacher, so she
worked well with the students. We
learned about the early history of South Carolina. Some of the English traditions were still
kept such as the use of the mace and the sword. They are traditional due to their
long-standing roles as both effective, specialized combat weapons and symbols
of authority, status, and justice. In
the House of Representatives, the mace was placed on a special rack on the
rostrum in front of the Speaker daily.
In the Senate, the sword rested in a cradle on the Senate rostrum during
sessions. Our guide pointed out that few
women were in elected office and encouraged the young girls. After the students left the tour, she talked
more with the adults. Her explanations
of the Civil War were typically Southern, i.e., it was all about state’s
rights, not slavery.
South Carolina House of Representatives
mace
Ceremony bringing in the South Carolina
sword
The next day was spent driving on Interstates. At first the drive was enjoyable, but then
some speed demon in a little car zoomed by us in the passing lane. It hit a piece of a big truck tire that
flipped into our lane. It couldn’t be
avoided. We ran over it! Pretty soon we were hearing a click, click,
click. We worried that it might be a flat
tire and pulled over, but the tires looked okay. We were just a couple of miles from an exit where
there was a big truck plaza. We drove
into a garage that looked like it had a lift.
They seemed to recognize the symptoms, reached under the front bumper
and found the problem. There was a big
hard rubber/metal piece below the radiator that had come loose. Taking it off was the immediate
solution. The boss lady had the older
man get a pair of pliers and a wrench. He
laid down on the ground and started working on the bolts. He got a big piece of it loose but warned us
he did not get it all. Back on the
interstate, we drove through some rain with quieter clicking. We finally reached the state capitol area in
Raleigh, North Carolina. We both enjoyed
lunch at Centro, a very busy, loud, upper end Mexican restaurant.
We walked to the State Capitol and tagged
along with some eighth graders on their tour.
After the first Capitol was destroyed by fire in 1831, they built this
one. From 1940 to 1961, the legislature
met there. In 1963, it moved a block away to a very modern State Legislative
Building. This was a big contrast to the
traditional atmosphere in South Carolina (SC).
Shortly after we passed Security, we encountered a crowd outside a room
where a press conference was being held.
It was attended by activists and union people in support of raising the
minimum wage. Upstairs, we heard the
gavel and saw people leaving the public gallery. We noticed that the doors to both chambers
and their public galleries were locked tight when not in session. This was the first time on this trip we
encountered this level of security.
North Carolina State Capitol
Activists at the press conference
Leaving North Carolina the next day, we
entered our 9th state, the Commonwealth of Virginia. Reaching Richmond, we parked in the garage that
the American Civil War Museum shared with the University Medical Center. We had a half hour before a guided tour to
see the "rationale" for the Civil War and displays on the major
battles. Both of the books we were
listening to spoke about this "White House." Our guided tour was of that house in which
Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America, and his
family lived during the war.
Fort Sumter display at the American Civil
War Museum
We walked to another museum's restaurant
and, after lunch, went on to the State Capitol, designed by Thomas Jefferson to
look like a temple on the hill. There
was no external dome but there was an internal one. More space was needed, so in the 1990s they
excavated on the side of the hill below the front of the original building and
added an underground structure. We
entered the grounds on the top of the hill and had to walk down many steps to
get to the one public entrance at the bottom of the hill. We passed a large contingent of officers in
the Department of Conservation and were pleased to speak with two women in
uniform. We took a guided tour of both
the old and new parts of the Capitol and saw a famous standing statue of George
Washington. Our guide had a key that let
us enter the House chamber where they bring in a mace to start a session. Fortunately, there were elevators and a
public exit at the top of the hill which let us out near another statue of
Washington on a horse surrounded by statues of other famous Virginians.
Virginia State Capitol with Conservation
Officers in front
Dome inside Capitol
George Washington Standing
George Washington on Horseback
The next morning, we headed for Monticello,
the home of Thomas Jefferson, our third President and author of the Declaration
of Independence. Coincidently, his
gravestone is in Columbia, MO. The grave marker and accompanying marble
epitaph were originally erected at Monticello seven years after Jefferson’s
death in 1826. But in 1883, Jefferson’s
descendants donated the tombstone (which at this point was in desperate need of
repair thanks to visitors’ proclivity for chipping off parts of it for
souvenirs) to the university in Columbia, Missouri. To this day the reason for the choice is not
entirely clear, but not completely random either. Missouri was the first university founded
within the territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase during Jefferson’s
tenure as president.
Thomas Jefferson tombstone on the University
of Missouri campus
We paid extra so we could tour not only the
first floor of the home, but also the 2nd and 3rd floors. We learned so much, not just about the
architectural features that Jefferson specified but also the extended family (three
generations lived in the house). After
this two-hour tour, we went back to the Visitors Center for lunch (pulled pork
sandwiches and coleslaw). We saw the introductory
film about Jefferson’s ideas and accomplishments then went back to the hilltop
for a tour about slavery at the plantation.
The tour guide made no secret about Jefferson's views that blacks were
inferior in both body and mind, but she tried to put it in the context of the
times in which he lived. His children
with Sally Hemming were 7/8 white, and he promised their mother that he would
not pursue them if they ran away after they were 21. Although they could "pass," to do
so they would have to leave their families.
After these two tours, we left for our next lodging in Charlottesville,
Virginia.
Slave cabin
The next day started with the drive to
Annapolis, Maryland. We encountered a
funeral procession on I-95 for a female county officer killed while responding
to a burglary call. We were northbound
and the miles long procession of police cars from all over Maryland was southbound,
but our line of traffic was still stop and go for miles and miles.
Originally, we planned on a tour of the
Naval Academy. I called their visitors
center and discovered it was graduation day, so we cancelled that idea. We drove to the circle drive around the
Capitol building and lucked into a 2-hour spot.
As we went through security, we found out that President Trump was
giving the keynote address, so we were very glad we skipped the academy
tour. The Capitol tour was
self-guided. The dome was very large,
inspired by one in Germany, and topped by a lightning rod approved by Benjamin
Franklin. We could enter their House and
Senate chambers. We went upstairs to take
pictures from the public galleries, but a guard said no. She was sitting at a desk listening to Trump
on her tablet but was more than willing to tell us a great place to get the
best Maryland crab cakes. We walked
there and were not disappointed.
Maryland State House
Dome in State House
Next, we drove to Rumson, NJ in heavy
traffic with only a couple of wrong turns. Diane’s cousin Bonnie and her husband Richard
were surprised we made it so fast as usually on a holiday Friday the traffic
heading to the Jersey shore was worse.
We were soon joined by cousin Dick and his wife, Lori, the widow of
cousin Glen, Barbara, and Bonnie’s daughter Kelly. Their other daughter, Stacy, lived in
Manhattan and worked for a startup called Giphy that produced and cataloged GIFs. We did not understand how it made money. After a meal of crab cake sandwiches, slaw
and deserts, we drove away from the shore and closer to the metro area,
spending the night at a Hampton Inn in Woodbridge, NJ.
We had a leisurely morning as we only needed
to drive a half hour for a family get together.
The lunch was at the house of Diane’s cousin Peter and his wife
Barbara. Also present was their daughter
Lisa, her partner Mike and son Michael (who would be a senior in mechanical
engineering the following year), Peter and Barbara’s daughter Jamie, her
husband Allen and their 3-year-old daughter Meera. We had salad antipasti and pizza followed
later by Jamie’s birthday cake made by her father, Peter, who learned how to
cook in the Navy. We drove to the Hilton
Garden Inn in Springfield, NJ to spend the night.
Jamie and Meera
We met Diane’s niece Tracy, her husband
Tim, and sons Jack (five) and Rhys (about six months) for an early breakfast in
Springfield, NJ. Then we headed north to
I-80, through the Delaware Water Gap to east Stroudsburg, PA and the home of
Diane’s sister Sue, her husband Joe, her daughter Kelly, husband Steve and
children Aubrey (nine) and Carter (five).
We were joined by Diane’s cousin Joyce and her husband Don. Kelly's family left for a relative’s house
warming. Diane, Sue and Joyce told
stories about events they shared while growing up. Joyce and Don left for a casino, and we went
to check in at our motel. We came back and
picked up Sue and Joe for dinner at Smuggler’s Cove.
Rhys and Jack
Joyce and Don
We started Memorial Day with a wonderful
breakfast at a local diner with Sue and Joe.
Sue then joined Diane and I for a fun viewing of the Star Wars movie Solo. We spent the rest of the day at niece Kelly’s
house. Sue and Joe’s son Joe (Jr.) lived
nearby. He and his two boys, Joey (nine)
and Josh (five) joined us at Kelly’s.
Joey, Josh, Aubrey and Carter played outside overseen by their fathers,
Joe and Steve. Diane and I had some more
quality time with Sue, Joe and Kelly.
Later we had pizza plus some bread pudding and a chocolate chip cookie
cake that cousin Joyce brought. Joe’s
wife Angie joined us in the late afternoon after getting off work at the Coach
store. Everybody was happy, including us,
and we said goodbye to Diane’s family.
Angie and Joe
The next morning, we drove past Allentown and
down the Bethlehem Pike to the Hibachi Grill & Buffet in order to have
lunch with our friend Chao-Min Hoe. Then
it was on to Avalon Bay in Princeton, NJ where my sister Earlene lived. We visited Earlene’s new friend Louise and
walked next door to what seemed like to me was a Mexican restaurant in name
only for dinner. We spent the night on
Earlene’s sofa bed.
The next day was a relaxing one. We had lunch in the Faculty Club at Princeton.
Earlene could do so as a Princeton Art
Museum docent. She then gave us a tour
of the current special exhibit. We went
back to the apartment, sat outside on Earlene’s balcony and listened to the CD
Julie Rosenfeld sent with us. We then
went for an early dinner at the local seafood restaurant Diane always wanted to
visit in Princeton.
We were up early the next day to take the
train to Penn Station in NYC and then the subway to Lincoln Center for a
rehearsal by the New York Philharmonic.
Afterward, we walked several blocks to catch the crosstown bus. We had lunch at the Asia Society and then
visited the Frick, an amazingly beautiful art museum. It was a rush via bus down 5th Ave. and over
to Penn Station to catch the next train back to Princeton. Diane and I managed to keep up with Earlene,
and we made the train. Back in
Princeton, we walked from Earlene's to a Greek restaurant where we had good
food and live music.
We left for home the next morning and 10
hours later arrived safely in West Columbus, Ohio. We only had a little rain in Ohio and one
serious downpour. After a good sleep, we
completed the drive home. During the
three weeks on the road, we learned so much about another part of our
country. But we were very happy to sleep
in our own bed.