Sugar Hill, White Mountains, New Hampshire

Teressa and the kids slept in on Saturday morning – Rocky roused me out of bed at the normal 6:30 AM “walk” time. Brian and Laura did a little homework and then we hit the road at 1:00, traveling north along the Connecticut River which divides Vermont and New Hampshire. The leaves are moving rapidly towards peak fall color, which according to the locals is early this year. We aren’t complaining. As we entered the White Mountains in New Hampshire the forests were ablaze with reds and yellows for as far as the eye could see. Unfortunately the cloud cover prohibited us from seeing any of the mountain peaks, but the views were spectacular none the less.

About 5 miles before our RV park in the small town of Twin Mountain, a black bear and her two cubs sprinted across the road in front of our car. The owner of the RV park indicated we were lucky to see them, since bear season started September 1st. She said they had a huge black bear eating out of their dumpster most of the summer. Nothing they tried to secure the dumpster's lid worked, but when September 1st rolled around, the bear mysteriously went into hiding. I’m guessing he found a copy of the hunting season regulations in the dumpster!

After setting up camp we headed for Sugar Hill to visit a maple syrup and candy store. We arrived a few minutes before it closed, and the kids bought postcards while Teressa and I loaded up on maple products and smoked cheese. Theoretically these are intended as holiday gifts, but I doubt most will last the week! From the store we drove through Franconia to Robert Frost’s house. It is located in a secluded wooded setting part way up a hill. With the stunning fall colors, the kids convinced themselves even they could create beautiful poetry here. It was another one of those magical evenings where we were the only ones there and the light and clouds created an almost mystical atmosphere.

We left the Frost house and took back roads to Bethlehem, where we found a nice restaurant for dinner. Brian was especially happy as he got another couple of hours driving in a new state. At Laura’s request we watched two episodes of Seinfeld when we returned to the RV.

While the rains subsided for most of the drive up from Dartmouth and the trip to Sugar Hill, they returned Saturday night and lasted for the entirety of our stay. In spite of the weather, we decided to spend an extra day here, as the forecast for Bar Harbor was for 2 inches of rain accompanied by 35 – 50 mph winds. They were catching the brunt of hurricane Kyle moving up the east coast, but the White Mountains just caught the edge.

It rained off and on the entire second day. We did laundry at the campground in the morning, and then drove to Polly’s Pancake Parlor in Sugar Hill for a late lunch. The restaurant is written up in Teressa’s “1000 Places to See Before You Die” book, so we had to give it a try. They offer five different types of pancakes – plain, cornmeal, oatmeal, buckwheat, and whole wheat. You also have the option to add “extras” to any pancake such as walnuts, Maine blueberries, chocolate chips, etc. And of course everything has the potential of being smothered with maple syrup! My favorites were the cornmeal and oatmeal (with chocolate chips)! It was a little expensive for breakfast food, but a fun experience.

From the restaurant we headed south towards Franconia Notch State Park. The clouds continued to cover the peaks of the White Mountains, but we enjoyed the vibrant fall colors (see the picture of the kids above, taken in the park). We went on a walk to view “The Old Man on the Mountain”, a rock outcropping similar to the sleeping giant in Montana. He too was obscured by the clouds, and we got caught in sudden downpour. The kids thought it was fun to play in the rain, and as you can see from the picture, they got soaked. They were nice though to hike back to the car and get umbrellas for Teressa and me! We found out later last night that the “Old Man” came crashing down from the mountain in 2003, so even if the clouds had parted, we still wouldn’t have seen him!

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

The falls rains have finally descended on New England, and don’t appear to be ending anytime soon. We have been extremely fortunate on the trip so far – the only rainy days we encountered in three months were hurricane Hannah in Connecticut, a rainy morning in Chicago, and a few nighttime thunderstorms in Helena. It appears we are poised to double that total in the next week.

We left our campground in Burlington at 9:30 yesterday morning. Our first stop was the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury, Vermont. The facility offers tours and ice cream tasting. It was fun to hear the story of two high school buddies who dropped out of college and created one of the best known brands in America. The presentation and tour spawned interesting discussions with the kids about product differentiation, branding and community involvement of corporations. We were able to sample a new flavor that won’t be released until next year – triple caramel chunk. Yum.

From Waterbury we traveled east past the capital city of Montpelier, and then southeast to our campground in East Thetford, Vermont, just north of Hanover, NH. The fall colors are really starting to kick in, and we continue to be impressed by the vastness of the forests in the northeast. After dropping the trailer at the RV park and filling the truck with diesel, we drove to Hanover and met Sandy and Jane Fitchet at Dartmouth college. Jane worked for Click for a couple of years doing sales on the east coast, and her husband Sandy is a Dartmouth alumni and runs his own small software company. Their daughter, Margaret, graduated valedictorian from Dartmouth last year and is currently taking a year off teaching English in Japan before she starts medical school.

It was pouring when we arrived at the Hanover Inn next to the college, so we bought a few umbrellas and toured the campus with Jane and Sandy. An Ivy League School, Dartmouth’s 4000 students enjoy a beautiful campus nestled in the mountains by the Connecticut River. The college is located in the town of Hanover, which has a population of around 15,000. If money were no object, this would be high on my list of places to attend college. Apparently when president Eisenhower visited Dartmouth and stepped off the bus almost exactly where we parked the truck, he remarked “this is what a college is supposed to look like!” It was fun to have such knowledgeable tour guides. Sandy’s father also attended Dartmouth, and a portion of the library is dedicated to him. He worked for RR Donnelly in Chicago, and was also an avid collector of books and old maps.

After touring the hockey rink with Sandy, we followed him to their house for dinner. Their home sits on 20 acres in the forest above Hanover. It was built by his father in the 70s and contains some amazing antiques. They have several old maps dating back 400 years, a flint lock rifle from the American revolution, and a letter signed by George Washington. For dinner Jane fixed fresh Maine lobsters, corn on the cob, and homemade apple pie. It was outstanding!

We finished the evening with a movie – Animal House! Apparently the writer attended Dartmouth and did a piece for National Lampoon on fraternity life at Dartmouth. It was so successful they created a movie, but used a fictitious college named Faber. While the movie was filmed at the University of Oregon, the content for the story came from Dartmouth. It has been 30 years since Teressa and I watched the movie – it is a college classic. Sandy provided color commentary during the movie, as he knows almost every line and all the stories behind the story! It was an incredible evening.

Burlington, Vermont

We enjoyed a quiet day in Burlington today. The kids worked on homework all morning and part of the afternoon. It was a beautiful Indian summer day with sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s. At 3:00 we put on our swim suits and headed down to the beach connected to the campground on Lake Champlain. Apparently the Adirondacks are one of the oldest mountain ranges around – 500 million to a billion years old. All those years of erosion have produced some great sand beaches on Lake Champlain. As you can see from the picture, the beach is very shallow and even 200 feet offshore the water was only waist deep. Although the swim was brisk, it felt great on a warm end of summer afternoon.

We rinsed off and headed into Burlington to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate and do some people watching. With three colleges in town and a vibrant “downtown” area, things were hopping. The kids bought postcards for their collections before we made our way back to the campground to barbecue chicken. Teressa and I went for a half hour bike ride before dinner along the lake. Burlington has over 15 miles of dedicated bike paths along the shore of Lake Champlain, making for a very relaxing ride. Given the nice weather, there were all kinds of people running and biking.

Our campground neighbors from New Hampshire provided us a four page list of things to do along the east coast before they checked out yesterday. They tend to like the same types of places we do, so it will be very helpful. We also ran into another motor home with Montana plates, this time from Helena. I went over to talk with them, but they are actually from Colorado. Everywhere we go there are motor homes registered in Missoula or Helena. Apparently someone has a business that legally allows out of state people to register their vehicles in Montana. It must save money, which seems ironic since my uncle always used to register his RV outside Montana because the state taxes were so high. My how the world changes!

Lake Placid, New York

Everyone was up by 7:00 so we could get the trailer to the RV dealer for repairs. We arrived at Pete’s RV in South Burlington slightly before 8 AM. The main issue with the trailer has been tires, but we also wanted them to look at the slide and a few minor things. Luckily the slide stuck in the out position when the service manager tested it (the odds of that happening were about 1 in 20 based upon past experiences!).

We left the dealership, filled the truck with diesel, and headed for a fast food restaurant for breakfast. Against my better judgment, we selected Burger King. Even though there were lights on inside, no cars were parked outside, so we weren’t sure it was open. When we walked inside the four employees were chatting at a table. They prepared our food and then returned to gossiping. The food wasn’t great – the hash browns tasted like the oil hadn’t been changed for weeks. On the plus side, Teressa impressed us with her mastery of the English language when she sprang the word “slovenly” on us to describe the appearance of the employees. We weren’t sure it was even a word, but it fit perfectly, and Teressa verified it was legitimate when we got home. The kids learned an important lesson today – even if a restaurant is open, if there aren’t any cars in the parking lot, that should tell you something about the quality of the food!

After breakfast we headed northwest across several islands on Lake Champlain to catch one of the ferries to New York. It was the first car ferry experience for the kids, and although it was just 15 minutes across the lake, we all enjoyed it. Back on land again, we made our way into the Adirondacks headed for Lake Placid. The leaves are really starting to change colors now, especially at the higher elevations. The challenging part is that the Adirondacks are almost completely forested, so you don’t get many opportunities for wide open vistas. Our neighbors in the campground indicated that the White Mountains in New Hampshire and the mountains in Maine have more rock outcroppings and meadows, and that folks from "out west" will enjoy the views!

We arrived in Lake Placid around noon and checked out the Olympic Training Center (see picture above). We also went by the ski jumping competition site (those people are certifiably insane!) and then up to Whiteface Mountain where all the ski events were held. Unfortunately the gondola wasn’t running yesterday, but we had the opportunity to look around the facility. We were surprised with the lack of infrastructure at an Olympic venue – the parking lots were small (and gravel), there were no lodging accommodations at the ski area, and there aren’t any sizable towns for miles around. As our neighbor mentioned last night, there is no way they would be able to hold an Olympics there now!

We drove down the hill to the small town of Wilmington before finding a restaurant for lunch – Mel’s diner. The food was good and the waitress friendly – you have to love small towns! We ate and navigated to another ferry terminal on Lake Champlain. This was an hour ferry ride, but delivered us directly to Burlington. We drove to the RV dealer and picked up the trailer. They replaced the two rear tires and slide motor. We are back in business!

Fort Ticonderoga, New York

The kids did homework till 10:30 while I dumped the RV and prepared for travel. We left the campsite just after 11, making a stop for lunch and shopping in Lake George at the factory outlets. We were back on the road by 2:00 headed for Fort Ticonderoga.

The fort sits at a strategic point on Lake Champlain, providing a control point for shipping to and from Montreal, Canada. It was the scene of one of the deadliest battles (percentage wise) in North American history (Antietam later became the worst), when the British attacked the French in 1758. The French repelled a superior force, thanks to some quick thinking and advanced strategies. The British took the fort a year later without firing a shot, but not before the French blew up the ammunition's depot and most of the fort.

In 1775, just three weeks after the battles of Lexington and Concord, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold led a raid on the fort and successfully captured cannons which helped George Washington end the British siege on Boston (we heard the other half of the story last week on our Boston tour). The fort is now owned by the historical society, and has been restored to specifications of the original French and English forts.

Upon leaving Fort Ticonderoga we crossed the bridge into Vermont and drove to our campground in Burlington. The campground is owned by the city of Burlington, and sits on the shore of Lake Champlain as a city park. It's not fancy, but the views are impressive.

Lake George, Adirondacks, New York

From Boston we headed northwest to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. Traffic was heavy on the Mass Pike leaving Massachusetts, but thinned out as we headed north from Albany. We arrived at our campground near Lake George just before 5:00 on Sunday afternoon.

The kids spent Monday morning working on homework from 9 to noon. Teressa and I took Rocky for a long walk around the campground. There are two ponds on site – one for kayaking which is closed for the winter, and one for fishing. Paved bike paths connect both ponds with the main campground. Rocky enjoyed chasing chipmunks, but they get the last laugh as they “chirp” at him incessantly from six feet up the tree. He continues to practice his tree climbing skills, but only has “pitch paws” to show for it! ;-)

In the afternoon we ventured out to explore Lake George. I found discount coupons on-line for a 2 and ½ hour boat ride on a three deck ship called the Mohican (the book The Last of the Mohican's was written about an incident that happened nearby). It was a beautiful fall day with temperatures in the low 60s when we arrived at the dock at 2:15. Thomas Jefferson called Lake George the Queen of American Lakes, and it is easy to see why. It lies in a beautiful valley on the edge of the Adirondack mountains. Primarily spring fed, the lake is crystal clear and supports a number of fish species including lake trout, bass, pike, freshwater salmon and pan fish. The lower half of the lake (about 17 miles) is completely surrounded by homes and hotels. The most prestigious is The Sagamore, which has a rich history dating back over 100 years (see the photo above). Offering a stark contrast, the upper half of the lake is surrounded by state parks and has no homes. Dotted with a multitude of small islands, it offers picnicking and camping in a setting that looks as close to Hungry Horse (one of our favorite spots in Montana) as I think we will find on the east coast. Overall it was a great way to spend the afternoon and learn a little bit about the history of the area.

When we got back to the campground we took Rocky for another walk, and then all four of us went swimming in the heated indoor pool. Brian and Laura spent a little time in the video arcade, where Brian managed to win a Nintendo DS (value over $100) while spending less than $5 in quarters! I’m afraid he thinks this special “talent” will carry over when we visit in Las Vegas this winter! ;-0

Boston, Massachusetts

We spent the past week at the Normandy Farms RV Park in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Normandy Farms is definitely the nicest facility we have stayed in to date – four pools (two heated, one outdoor, one indoor), restrooms with granite counter tops, a one acre enclosed dog run, world class softball field, Frisbee golf course, and space for 400 campers. It has won awards the last few years as one of the top RV parks in the nation, and is about the same price as the campground we just left in Jamestown (~$40/night). The view of the ocean at Jamestown was outstanding, but the facilities here are ten times better. We feel fortunate to have found both!

We toured Boston two separate days this week, and Brian celebrated his 16th birthday in Boston on Monday the 15th. We left the campground around 10 and drove to the Riverside subway station in Newton. From there it was a 45 minute ride into Government Center in downtown Boston. When we excited the subway we headed for the North End for an Italian lunch. I was able to find Artu’, the restaurant that some of our Boston friends introduced me to a few years back. The food was great as usual – Brian had Tortellini Alfredo for his birthday meal.

After lunch we walked by Paul Revere’s house and down to the trolley stop on Commonwealth Avenue. We boarded the next trolley and spent a little over two hours touring the sights of Boston – the Old North Church, Bunker Hill, USS Constitution (Old Ironsides), Boston Public Gardens, Cheers Bar, Copley Square, Newbury Street, Fenway Park, MIT, and the Berklee School of Music. When we were done we walked up to Faneuil Hall and explored the shops before catching the subway back to our truck.

We made it back to the RV around 6:30. Rocky had been walked earlier in the day by one of the staff at the RV park, but was still ready to get outside and explore. We took him up to the one acre enclosed dog park and let him run around. They have a cutout board for taking pictures of dogs – that’s the picture attached. They also have a water fountain with three bowls at different heights – one for adults, one for kids, and one for dogs! I have never seen anything like this dog run!

The kids and I went swimming at the outdoor pool while Teressa prepared dinner. Laura and Teressa baked a birthday cake which we enjoyed after dinner while Brian opened his presents. We finished the evening by watching a couple more old episodes of Seinfeld.

We spent the next two days focused on homework and running errands. I think the kids are actually enjoying home schooling – they don’t spend near as many hours a day doing school work, but are getting just as much out of it. It really helps when we can augment with field trips and DVDs. Both kids are studying the American Revolution now, and we just started the mini-series John Adams. It is excellent and we recognized many of the places we toured in Boston. We stop the DVD at certain points and discuss why things happened the way they did – it is great! We are all learning things.

Teressa got her hair cut this week by Janet Wells, one of our good Sequent friends, and mother of the bride last weekend. She gave Teressa a cute short hairstyle – the whole family likes it! She looks 10 years younger and it takes less time to fix in the morning! It doesn’t get any better than that!

I bought Teressa a new laptop yesterday morning. Her old one died a couple of weeks ago. I had a hard time finding something decent, but finally got a great deal on a Dell laptop at Best Buy ($450!). I had to drive to three different Best Buy stores, but finally found one that had it in inventory.

We enjoyed another history lesson in Boston the second day we toured this week. After a 40 minute drive and 45 minute subway ride we arrived in downtown Boston. Our first stop was the Freedom Walk, where we toured several of the old cemeteries and visited Paul Revere’s, John Hancock’s and Samuel Adam’s graves. From there we walked into the North End and visited the Old North Church (see the picture above). We had lunch in another fantastic Italian café, and were lucky to have a window seat looking out over the neighborhood (see the photo above). Brian fell in love with the waitress and has decided an Italian wife might have serious culinary benefits!

From the North End we took the trolley across the bridge to the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides). It has been beautifully restored considering that it is a combat vessel over 200 years old. They emphasized the fact that the Constitution is the oldest military ship in the world still in service (there is an older one in the UK, but it is in dry dock). Apparently the average height of sailors 200 years ago was 5’ 4”. Brian and I had a difficult time navigating the lower decks. Another gentleman told Brian he would have had to go into the army! ;-)

Laura really wanted to climb to the top of the Bunker Hill monument, so we walked along the Freedom Walk to the top of Bunker Hill and climbed the almost 300 steps to the top of the monument. It was a spectacular view on a clear day, and the burn in our thighs soon disappeared. When we exited Bunker Hill we caught a cab to the Galleria Mall in Cambridge next to MIT. We found the Apple store which appears to have the only new iPod Touch players in Massachusetts! We gave Brian a gift certificate for a 16GB iPod on his 16th birthday, but couldn’t find one before his actual birthday. He is thrilled, and I doubt he will forget his 16th birthday present, or where he got it.

We took the subway back into Boston and had dinner at the food court at Quincy Market (Laura had pizza, Brian had clam chowder, Teressa had tacos, and I had Thai food). We made it back to the trailer at 8:30 to a very affectionate dog (even though the dog sitter walked him at 3:30).

The kids are doing pretty well in their foreign language class. This week they are studying Bostonian. You pretty much just need to change any word with an “r” in the middle or end to an “h”. For example, Brian likes to “pahk the cah”. The “r” mysteriously reappears for words that end in “a”. My wife is now called “Teresser”. It is a little confusing, but we are getting the hang of it. The only thing that bothers the kids is when they have to tell people they are from OrEgone! ;-)

Battleship Cove, Fall River, MA

Yesterday we visited the largest historic naval ship exhibit in the world – Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts. Here is Teressa’s journal entry for the day:

Brian and Laura slept in a little today. After a light breakfast, we drove to Fall River to see Battleship Cove where they have PT boats, the Battleship USS Massachusetts (which fired the last American 16” projectile in WWII), the destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy, and the submarine USS Lionfish on display. We walked all through the battleship and were amazed at how short the beds were. They were stacked four-high and suspended by chains or cords. Brian’s feet jutted off the end of the bed by at least a foot. My least favorite part of the ship was the engine room down in the bowels of the ship. The air was dank, and it was hard to know exactly how to get out. It was much nicer to get back up on the main deck where you could feel the fresh air. Gary and the kids went on the submarine, and again my two tall boys were cramped on several occasions!

It was fun to see the Bailey kids (they were 3 and 1 when their parents, Colin and Diane, left Sequent in Portland to move back to Boston). John is a junior. Claire is 14 and a half and a freshman. Nice kids. After seeing the ships we used the GPS to try to find a restaurant. We chose Fall River Grill in Fall River. Fall River is a Portuguese community. It is old, lower on the socio-economic scale, and has an ethnic feel to it. Laura and I were interested in the houses which were all fairly narrow but built 3 stories tall. Many of the storefront signs were in Spanish or Portuguese. So it’s no surprise that the Fall River Grill turned out to be a Portuguese restaurant, and the menu was in Portuguese and English. All the kids had burgers, but the rest of us tried some of the other entrees including a pulled pork sandwich, and a spiced shish kabob. The food was pleasant, but a bit on the bland side.

Our great friends, Rich and Janet Wells, have a beach home at Mattapoisett which is just southwest of Cape Cod. We were only 15 minutes away from Mattapoisett so decided to drop in. It is a cute, New England cottage and the area is beautiful and peaceful. We walked to the beach and the lighthouse. I was surprised at how course the sand is here in New England compared to ours on the west coast. But to compensate for that, the water is warm -- something I’ve never said about the Oregon coast! Mattapoisett has a lot of history from the whaling days. Mike Wells and fiancé, Ellie, joined us and we all had dinner at the Kinsale Inn, which is the oldest working seaside inn in the country. Their food is Irish, so we all ate things like Shepherd’s pie and stew. Brian got a chocolate mousse in honor of his birthday. He also drove the 40 miles back home.

Jamestown and Newport, RI

After the wedding we moved to a campground in Jamestown, about 10 miles from where we stayed in Newport. The campground wasn’t easy to find. Fort Getty is a state campground that allows many of the sites to be rented for the entire summer. There are 20 of the 100 sites that are available for daily rentals, but there are no signs on any of the roads that indicate there is a campground in the area. The campground sits on a hill overlooking the ocean. A typical east coast campground, the sites are close together (all back ins) on grass with water and electricity, but no sewer. The facilities are a bit rustic, but you can’t beat the view. We can look right out our window at Narragansett Bay – what a treat. The above picture was taken on the road right in front of our trailer.

We spent the week getting the kids started in earnest on their BYU home school classes in the mornings, and visiting the Newport mansions in the afternoons. In the evenings we watched movies and documentaries. On Tuesday night we watched the movie “Dances with Wolves”, the Kevin Costner movie that won seven Oscars including “Best Picture” in 1990. Given our recent experiences with the badlands and the Lakota Sioux, we thought it would be a great way to pull it all together. It had been a long time since Teressa and I first watched the movie, but we remembered it better than most. The cinematography is beautiful, even though many of the scenes are gruesome (civil war and Indian battles). It is an emotional film, and the kids struggled to understand why there wasn’t a happy ending. It reminded me of when they realized there isn’t a Santa Claus – the end of the innocence. It is painful to make them understand that throughout history, humans (mostly men) have not always been kind to one another. Hopefully by looking at past mistakes, they can help avoid future ones.

The mansion tours of Newport were amazing. For those that are interested, here are the details: The best bargain we could find was a 5 mansion package essentially for less than the price of two. We started with “The Breakers”, the largest mansion in Newport (see attached photo). The Breakers was built back in the 1890s, by a grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt, the shipping and railroad tycoon from New York. The house’s 70 rooms cover 120,000 square feet. Many of the ceilings on the main floor are 30 to 40 feet high. All the original furniture is in place, and that is one of the most impressive things about the house – they are spectacular. The other is that the entire house was built in 2 years, although at one point there were over 2000 workers building it. Other interesting facts:

- All the bath tubs in the house are plumbed for both fresh water and sea water (they thought it was healthy to bath in salt water)
- The billiards room is completely made of marble (floor and ceiling tiles, slab walls and fireplace).
- Several of the rooms were originally built in Europe, disassembled, shipped to Newport, and reassembled there
- They have a tapestry hanging on the wall from the 1600s
- There was no electricity at the time in Newport, but the house had a generator and batteries, with gas backup piped into most of the lamps.
- There was no phone service in Newport either, but the house has a complete phone system so people could communicate from every room
- The staff slept in the 30 rooms on the 4th floor
- The kitchen has two dumbwaiters and French stoves (the French chefs were the highest paid staff members)
- Ice was cut from the ponds in the winter and put in an ice house for refrigeration
- Picture taking inside the mansion is not allowed for security reasons (given all the valuables)
- The house cost $4M to build, and another $4M to furnish. In today’s dollars that would be ~$300M.
- The Vanderbilt’s only used the house for six weeks in the summer. Their house in New York City was even larger!

After touring The Breakers we walked a portion of the Cliff Walk, a path that runs along the sea for 3.5 miles skirting many of the big mansions. The kids were hungry so we made a quick stop for ice cream before heading back to our campground. We grilled chicken and mixed it with pesto pasta for dinner. The sunset provided a spectacular end to the day (see attached photo).

The next day I got up early and took Rocky for a long walk in the morning down by the pier and around the bay at low tide. He likes to smell all the dead sea life that washes up on the shore from the previous day (crabs, clams, fish, birds, etc.) – a kind of beach potpourri. It’s not my idea of fragrant, but each to his own. Rocky’s leg is completely healed now, and he is eating like a horse. The rest of us aren’t doing too badly either! ;-)

Our first mansion of the second day was Rosecliff. The architect, Stanford White, modeled Rosecliff after the Grand Trianon, the garden retreat of French kings at Versailles. The house was built for Nevada silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs, whose father struck it rich on the Comstock sliver load in Nevada. When the house was finished in 1902, it witnessed some of the most lavish parties in Newport. Cole Porter was a frequent guest, playing the piano and composing music in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Terracotta dominates the architecture, giving the house a light and open feel. A number of movies have been filmed at Rosecliff including The Great Gatsby, True Lies, and 27 Dresses.

From Rosecliff we proceeded to Marble House, another mansion funded by the Vanderbilt millions. The “summer cottage” was finished in 1892 for William K. Vanderbilt, another grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt. He gave it to his wife Alva on her 39th birthday. The house is amazing. Almost every surface is covered with marble. In fact, of the total $11M it took to build the house, $7M was spent on 500,000 cubic feet of marble! The dining room was absolutely stunning, a huge room completely encased in pink Numidian marble. Gold leaf accents almost every room in the house. Alva Vanderbilt turned out to be a huge champion for women’s rights. She was the first “high society” figure to divorce her husband, and hosted many rallies for women’s right to vote. Marble House was definitely the most ornate mansion we toured.

The last stop on our tour was Chateau-sur-Mer. Built 40 years before most of the other mansions in Newport, it is an excellent example of Victorian architecture. The house is dominated by rich woods and “Victorian clutter” – interesting artifacts left on almost every flat surface. It was one of the most stately mansions in Newport until the Vanderbilt houses arrived on the scene. We really enjoyed this peek into America’s Gilded Age, when rapid population growth and extravagant displays of wealth dominated the landscape.

We felt fortunate the kids didn’t implode through three successive mansion tours, so we decided to call it a day and headed back to the campground. We retired to a quiet evening in the RV on the shore of Narragansett Bay.

Megan Wells and Alex Ross Wedding, Newport, RI

Our push eastward the past few weeks has been focused on attending the wedding of Megan Wells and Alex Ross. Megan is the daughter of Rich and Janet Wells, our long-time Sequent friends from Boston. We felt fortunate that the wedding aligned with the general plan for our trip. We parked the trailer in Newport in front of a house that Rich and Janet rented for the wedding weekend. Other Sequent friends staying at the house included Gene and Shar Austin from Texas, and Colin and Diane Bailey from Boston. We also enjoyed meeting the groom's parents, Micky and Cheryl, and old friends of the Wells’, Mimi and Ken Walters from Florida. We were also able to spend quality time with the Campbells (Wade and Kathy) and McClurgs (Mike and Heather), more great Sequent friends from Arizona and Boston.

Rich and Janet through a party and bbq at the house on Friday night for all the out of town guests. Beth and Steve Levich (another set of Sequent friends), as well as many of their neighbors from Beaverton attended. I think we made it to bed by 1:00 AM that night.

Megan's and Alex’s wedding was held at Glen Manor, a mansion on the north end of Newport. The ceremony was held outside on a lush lawn surrounded by English gardens. It was elegant and one of the most stunning settings for a wedding we have ever witnessed. The Wells put on a beautiful affair with appetizers, wedding toasts, a white tablecloth sit-down dinner, and dancing. We visited with friends after the wedding at the Viking Inn before closing the evening at the house around 1 AM again. We wish Megan and Alex a lifetime of happieness, and the good fortune to enjoy great friendships like those we enjoy with the old Sequent gang!

American Idol Concert, Bridgeport, CT

We arrived in Rhode Island for the wedding a day ahead of schedule. Teressa and I purchased tickets as a "surprise" for the kids six months ago to the American Idol concert in Bridgeport, Connecticut, as it was the only location we could find that worked with our trip itinerary. We are huge "Idol" fans, and the kids have been to the concert the last three years. The challenge was hurricane Hanna! Here is Teressa's description of the day:

It rained last night and today was foggy/cloudy and occasionally rainy. The gang went into Newport for lunch. Some went on the cliff walk. Gary, Wade, Colin and Gene golfed before it rained too much. We left at 3 for Bridgeport, CT and the American Idol concert. Part way there it started to rain hard so Gary drove (Brian was driving up to that point). By the time we arrived at Bridgeport, it was raining about as hard as I have ever seen. We parked under the freeway so it was covered, but there was a waterfall pouring down at one point. We had to walk through the rain to the arena and GW had no rain coat. They wouldn’t let him enter with his camera so he had to go back to the car and return---all in torrential rain. We ate a quick hot dog and enjoyed the show. We especially liked David Archuletta and David Cook but also Carly Smithson, Jason Castro (I liked), Michael John did a great job, Sayesha. All the kids did well. This was our 4th year. Laura bought her poster for framing for her room. It took over 2.5 hours to drive home and we made it at 1:30 am. It was very stressful with the heavy rain and standing water. The trailer never looked so good!

Niagara Falls

When we left Ohio we backtracked a little to visit a Cougar dealer near Toledo. Our trailer tires are not wearing properly, but the dealer couldn't work on it this week so we bought two new tires at a tire store and proceeded eastward. We decided to drive up towards Detroit, and then cut across a portion of Ontario, Canada. Given the high cost of of cell phone service on our plan in Canada, we shut off our phones for 24 hours. And the RV park we stayed in on the north shore of Lake Erie in Ontario didn’t have Internet access, so we “went dark” for 24 hours. It was kind of nice!

The piece of Ontario we drove through was beautiful along the lake. It was foggy and the road is back from the lake a ways, so we only saw the lake once, but the yards and countryside were peaceful. When Teressa and I walked Rocky in the morning, several of the locals went out of their way to say “hello” – one even in her bathrobe! It reminded me of my father's place on Rainy Lake in Minnesota, complete with water pumps and squirrels.

We hit the road at 9:00 headed for Niagara Falls. There wasn’t much traffic around the lake, but when we got closer to Toronto things started picking up. We stopped at a visitor center just outside Niagara Falls to ask directions and make sure we could get out trailer parked somewhere by the falls. As it turns out, there is a great parking lot a couple of miles past the falls, and for $10 you can park your car and they provide a shuttle bus back and forth. We were even able to get a spot in the shade so Rocky could stay cool.

We toured the falls from the Canadian side, based upon recommendations from a number of our friends. It was more impressive than any of us expected – larger and more dramatic because you are so close to where the water plunges over the cliffs to the pools below. We didn’t have time to take the boat ride down on the river, but that looked like fun too. We grabbed a quick lunch and hit the road again, clearing customs after crossing the Rainbow Bridge, and then drove to the Finger Lakes region in upstate New York. Our campground is pleasant, but right off the freeway. We got in too late to make it to one of the state campgrounds 20 miles south on the lakes.

Cedar Point -- Sandusky, Ohio

Cedar Point has been ranked the top amusement park for the last 11 years by "Amusement Today". It was Brian's top "must see" destination for the trip, and it didn't disappoint -- we had an insanely fun day! The Park sits on an peninsula jutting out into Lake Erie. It was a beautiful late summer day, with temperatures in the mid 80s and moderate humidity. I purchased our tickets the night before on-line, opting for the four pack so Teressa could get in essentially for free. We arrived around 9:45, fifteen minutes before the park opened, and waited in line for a few minutes. The kids wanted to start with some smaller coasters to get warmed up, so we headed for Blue Streak. It probably wasn’t the best strategy.

Blue Streak is a classic wooden roller coaster, not too intense, but delivering the classic bumpy ride characteristic of wooden coasters. By the time we were done on Blue Streak, the lines were already starting to get long on some of the bigger attractions. We headed for Raptor, an inverted coaster where the cars hang below the track and your feet dangle down. It completely flips you upside down five different times during the ride – the day was heating up! We spent the next nine hours riding some of the biggest and fastest roller coasters on the planet.

The Top Thrill Dragster is currently the second tallest (over 400 feet) and second fastest (120 mph) roller coaster in the world. It uses a hydraulic launch to accelerate the cars from zero to 120 in four seconds. From there the track turns 90 degrees straight up into the sky to a height of 420 feet before turning 180 degrees and heading straight towards the ground. Another 90 degree turn and magnetic breaks bring you back to the station, 17 short seconds after the you left. It all happens so fast, it wasn’t our favorite ride of the day (especially after the 45 minute wait in line). Laura did comment after the ride, “If I can do that, I can do anything!” Sounds like a good life lesson to me.

Laura was getting overheated just before lunch, so she talked Brian and me into going on the Snake River Falls log ride with her. We got completely soaked, but it felt great. With the warm weather, there were many scantily clad young bodies in the park. Brian remarked, “Beautiful girls and roller coasters – this is the best day of my life!”.

Millenium Force is the other giga-coaster in the park. Its blue track dominates the landscape as it rises to over 300 feet and runs for over a mile around the park. Millenium Force is a traditional steel roller coaster, starting with a slow climb up the 300 foot hill, plunging down an 80 degree slope at 90 miles per hour, and then taking you through a series of twists and turns before returning to the station 90 seconds later. This was our favorite ride in the park, and we did it three times. After the last run I asked Brian if he had fun. He replied “That was great dad, I only blacked out twice!”.

We even managed to get Teressa on one of the milder roller coasters just before we left. She wasn’t crazy about it, but liked being with the family all day. Overall it was a fantastic day.