Megan Visits, Sunday - Thursday, Oct. 1 - 5, 2017

Megan's last day at work in Ketchikan was Saturday, Sept. 30.  On Sunday, she flew to Seattle and on to Phoenix, arriving around 6:00.  Patty had made a wonderful home cooked meal of salad, pasta and homemade sauce with meatballs and ground turkey.

Monday, among other things, we went to the afternoon showing of "Stronger" the story of Jeff Bauman, a spectator near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  Jeff lost both legs from the first of the two bomb explosions at the the Boston Marathon.

After the movie, we met Anne and Shawn at Seasons 52 for a delightful dinner.

Tuesday morning, we went to the Desert Botanical Garden.  Patty and Megan went to the 10:00 "Behind the Scenes" tour of the new education center, propagation center, green houses, and more.  Then they went to the new Butterfly Pavilion to see the Monarch display.  Meanwhile, I did two hours of docent duty at the cactus station near Stardust Plaza.  The new artist this season is Jun Kaneko - they had just finished installing those on Stardust Plaza, and they kept bringing more of his artwork past my station to where they were installing them in other parts of the garden.

For lunch, we went to Gertrude's Restaurant.  We started by sharing a platter of morsels of cheeses, dried fruit, cauliflower and more.  For entrees, Megan had sliders with bacon, greens and caramelized onions, and pickles on top; Patty had risotto with mushrooms; and I had smoked salmon salad.

After lunch, we went to the Samsonite store at Arizona Mills in Tempe and got Megan new duffle bags to replace the ones she had been using for the past ten plus years of international travel.  We then returned home for another home cooked meal of salad, grilled pork chops and grilled asparagus.

While in Ketchikan, Megan had told us that she wanted to see some movies as there were few chances to see any new movies in Ketchikan, both because of the limited number of movie theaters and because of her busy schedule.  So Wednesday afternoon, we met Anne, had drinks before the movie and then watched "Victoria and Abdul."

After the movie, Megan bade goodbye to Anne and the three of us went to Bluewater Grill for a sea food dinner.  We started by sharing a seafood platter that had oysters, king crab, large shrimp and more.

For entrees, Megan and Patty shared their platters of paella Valenciano and pasta with shrimp and scallops.  I had skewers of grilled shrimp and scallops with sauteed spinach and jasmine rice.  Then we shared desserts of key lime pie and warm chocolate lava cake with vanilla bean ice cream.

Thursday morning included one last shopping trip to get Megan a new watch and to replace batteries on a couple of Patty's watches.  After lunch at home, we then took Megan to the airport for a bittersweet goodbye as she set off for another season in Antarctica.  Bon voyage and safe travels, darling daughter - we miss you and look forward to hearing about your adventures.

Another trip to Vermont, Wednesday to Saturday, Sept. 27 - 30, 2016

Wednesday afternoon (after our hike in the Prescott Granite Dells), I finished packing and then Patty drove me to the Arizona Shuttle terminal.  I caught the 7:00 p.m. shuttle as planned and slept for most of the ride to the Phoenix Airport.  I had some soup and a Blue Moon in the United Club and did a little work online before catching the 11:25.p.m. flight to Chicago.  At O'Hare airport in Chicago, there is construction going on in the United Concourses (including some of the United Clubs), so I had a longer walk than expected getting to one of the clubs that had already been renovated - it is quite nice.  I had yogurt, granola and fruit for breakfast and some more online work before catching the 6:15 a.m. flight to Burlington.  I got my rental car and coffee, and drove to Johnson State where I worked in my office before and after lunch, preparing for class on Friday. 

Then I drove back to Smugglers Notch Inn in Jeffersonville and went out for walk before dinner.  When I was there three weeks before, I had driven by the construction site where they were removing and replacing the bridge that connects the Cambridge Greenway with the Rail Trail.  So I set out to explore the construction site.  The bridge goes over the Brewster River just before it connects with the Lamoille River.  The path I took came in from the south, following the Brewster River where it goes under Vermont Route 15 and the new bridge will be parallel to and about 50 feet north of Route 15.

That pile of rocks blocks the Cambridge Greenway trail.

Because of the construction, I could not go any further, so I returned and detoured through the space where they have the weekly Jeffersonville Farmers Market and live music during the summer.

As I looped back by Cambridge Elementary School, I saw that the school had been built in 1920.  And since it was Thursday, there were kids out playing soccer - I have many fond memories of the years I organized summer soccer in Westford.

As the sun was setting, the evening sky was colorful.

On the section of Vermont Route 108 which is Main Street, the town has planters on both sides of the street, and they are all well tended with lots of colorful annual flowers. There are at least 15 on each side of the street and they are about 100 feet apart - it makes the street very picturesque.

Then it was back to the hotel for the night and adjusting to the three hour time zone change from Arizona to Vermont.  Friday morning, my early walk took me to and through Jeffersonville cemetery, opened in 1919.

With all the recent controversy needlessly stoked by our President, I noticed the many grave markers with flags for the veterans.  None of the graves showed dates of death during any war, but rather that they had served in one of America's many wars and then went on to be good citizens for many years after their military service.  It was easy to see that for my generation and those before me, military service was a common experience - unlike today with our all volunteer force where only a very small number of Americans bear the brunt of our ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other hotspots around the world.

Class went well on Friday - all the technology worked so the connection between the classrooms in Johnson and Lyndon allowed us to have six hours of productive class time.  Friday evening, I walked to the start of the Cambridge Greenway trail which follows the Lamoille River north to the junction with the Brewster River.  The trail goes under both Vermont Routes 15 and 108.

The Route 108 bridge is newer and was built with the Greenway in mind so the passage under the bridge is much nicer than the passage under the Route 15 bridge above - in that case, the bridge was built and the trail was developed several years after bridge construction.

About a hundred yards before reaching the construction site for the new bridge over the Brewster River, there is a nice bench to sit under the trees and watch the rivers flow by.

 
I went beyond the barrier to see the bridge construction form this direction.  I was told that the bridge was supposed to be completed by the end of October, so I will have to check it out when I am back for class again at the end of October.

 The trail also passes by Vermont Canoe and Kayak company's facility - I love their sign about tips.

Friday evening and Saturday morning were spent working on classes, and then class went well from 9:30 to 1:30.  Then I drove into Burlington and visited Jonathan at Waterfront Diving Center, and paid the remainder of the cost for our trip to Roatan in November.  I caught the 5:00 p.m. flight to Chicago and got upgraded to First Class on the 8:00 p.m. flight from Chicago to Phoenix.  Patty had checked out of our September rental in Prescott Saturday morning and was back in Phoenix, and met me at the airport at 10:00 p.m. Another trip and class were successfully completed in time to prepare for Megan's visiting from Alaska.