Driving North

We took a week and drove north to Highgate Springs, in Vermont, by way of Boston. We were on our way to visit Colleen, who is working this summer at the Tyler Place resort. We stopped in Boston on the way to tour Boston University and Emerson College with Christina.


View New England Trip, Summer 2012 in a larger map

A full photographic collection from this trip is on my flickr account. There are a few photos also posted on instagram.

A Visit to the College of William and Mary

We're in Williamsburg, Virginia, for a few days of spring break. We wanted a get-away and we've taken advantage of the visit to start Christina's college search process with a tour of the College of William and Mary.

William and Mary is a tough place to start, I expect. It's such a lovely campus and seems a desirable place to go to school. I worry it might spoil the game for the other schools.

We Bid a Fond Farewell to Sanibel Island

We're sitting in the airport at Fort Myers, Florida, waiting for a flight back to Philadelphia and home. We've just spent a pleasant four days on Sanibel Island, just west of here.

We stayed at an older beachfront resort called The Island Inn. It's a small and very laid back sort of place. The main activity here was none at all. We sat on the beach, we collected seashells, and did some very minor shopping. I threw in one exploratory bike ride out to the east end of the island to Lighthouse Point.

A word about seashells and beach-combing. Sanibel Island, and its neighbor Captiva, are awash in shells. I imagine they formed from shoals of shells deposited by currents unique to the area.

Sanibel is a quiet spot. The beach was not crowded and many of the homes, rentals and resorts seemed slightly populated. The Island Inn folks told us they were full, however, and said that the weeks around Easter are often the last big push of their tourist season.

Soon it will get too warm here and most of the folks who winter in Sanibel will head north. Probably some of them will be in Lewes this summer.

The Sun Sets on Our Hawaiian Adventure

We finished our vacation with a sunset sail on a catamaran sailing from Anaehoomalu Bay. We had a perfect sunset, just enough clouds to make it interesting, but a clear horizon line for the sun to sink through.

The boat, the Sea Smoke, was formerly a speed-sailing catamaran owned by James Arness of the TV show Gunsmoke. It has been reconfigured for whale-watching, snorkel cruises, and sunset cruises. It had a crew of four, Shane at the helm and three others hoisting sales, handing out drinks, popping champagne corks and generally acting the gracious hosts.

Heading out, we had great views of Mauna Kea, including a segment of rainbow. As we got further out, we could see Maui in the distance, surrounded by clouds.

We ate, drank, chatted and enjoyed the ocean air. Shane took my picture at the helm, and we had a family picture taken at the rail.

And then the sun hit the horizon and, 180 seconds later, it was gone. The crew had popped champagne; we toasted the sky and headed back to shore.

We were watching carefully for the green flash. I didn't see it, but Christina thinks she did, just as the last of the sun went down.

Visit to a Volcano

We got up early one morning and made the long drive around the Big Island to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

We drove around the north end of the Big Island, but cut up and across the shoulder of Mauna Kea and through the small town of Waimea before heading south along the east coast to Hilo.

It was a fascinating drive -- about 100 miles around half of a large island and covering several different sorts of landscape.

The northern part of the Kona coast is arid and mostly lava that has been colonized by grasses. As you head upland, however, there's more and more moisture until you reach Waimea, which was fog bound and looked to be damp ranch country. The drive along the coast to Hilo was full-on tropical with jungle-clad, steep hills falling away onto a blue ocean.

Hilo is an older-looking town. We only brushed past it, along the waterfront, before starting up the slopes of Mauna Loa to reach the Park and the vast caldera of Kilauea.

We did not really have enough time to properly explore the park. I had planned to drive the Crater Rim drive around the Caldera but about half was closed due to sulphur-laden gases venting out of the Halema'uma'u crater that dominates the western part of the caldera. That's the great big hole with gases coming out in the photo above. It was impossible for me to capture the whole of the Caldera, it is really quite large.

We drove to the farthest-along overlook still open and then came back by way of the steaming bluffs, where cracks and crevasses leak steam from the great heat below. From there we hiked a trail part-way down into the caldera through a broken landscape that looks llike it was formed when a part of the caldera wall slumped-in. This trail became progressively more tropical as it descended, past plants we'd never seen, through rocks and past cliffs, until it rose again to a completely different sort of arid plain.

We also took some time to walk through the Thurston Lava Tube before having a light lunch at the Volcano House, an inn that sits on the edge of caldera wall.

We took the southern route back to Waikoloa, completing a circling of the Big Island. This is a slightly longer drive, but took even longer still as it slowed drastically to wind around along the south Kona coast. This route also features a long descent from Kilauea through a completely empty landscape of lava fields. I knew we were in an empty place as, one by one, the radio stations faded away and there were none.

So we made a circle around the island, which I'll admit I'd been thinking about. It was a long drive, though.

At the Beach With Honu

There's a sand beach at Waikoloa on the Big Island. It fronts Anaehoomalu Bay and includes an open stretch of sand, portions shaded by palms, and a series of sandy coves separated by small volcanic rock peninsulas; some filled to the waterline by complex trees.

We spent a quiet afternoon swimming and sunning. At one point, we took a walk away from the populated part of the beach and came upon a group of green sea turtles -- Honu in Hawaiian -- sunning themselves on a shelf of volcanic pebbles hidden behind a lava peninsula.

We didn't want to disturb them, so we kept back a respectful distance and just snapped a few pictures.

There were also several turtles hanging around in the lagoon at the Hilton where we stayed. Several times, we took kayaks out and visited them. There's nothing better than drifting quietly while watching one of these lovely animals flying around beneath you.

Fourteenth Golf Game of 2009

Well, of course I played golf while we were in Hawaii.

I played the beach course at Waikoloa one morning with an older gent and his son-in-law. They were from California. The starter matched me with them. It was that or play with a trio of Japanese tourists and I don't think they had any English.

It's a challenging course. The holes are surrounded by mounds and hillocks of lava. There are lava traps in place of sand traps. If you're not hitting over water, you are hitting over fields of broken volcanic rock. I was wondering what happens if you hit one into that lava.

I had a pretty good round, all things -- rented clubs, playing in sneakers, etc. -- considered. I finished with a 109. My play was up and down. I had a par on the sixth, for example, but followed that with a triple bogey on the a par-5 seventh.

The seventh was also where I learned what happens when you hit it into the lava field. I had had a good drive and second shot and had just a 9-iron shot left to the green. Instead of hitting it clean and getting on in regulation, I hit it low and slicing into the lava on the right. It bounced almost back to where I was standing but on the other side of the fairway. I was lucky to make an eight.

On the other hand, the scenery is great. On some holes you are looking at a mountain. On others, you overlook the Pacific Ocean. The sun is bright, the foliage is rich and green, and the trade winds blow steadily and keep you a bit cool.

I liked it.

And Then We Went to the Big Island

The thing that surprised me when we arrived at Kona International airport on the Big Island, was the vastly different landscape.

The coast there is arid, lacking the rich foliage of places like Honolulu. And the coast includes wide swaths of dark brown and black, broken and crumbling lava.

It looked to me, as we drove north from the airport, like the lava had flowed sometime in the last 10 to 20 years. I learned, though, that the lava we drove through -- imagine a two-lane ribbon through broken black rocks -- flowed down the mountain and into the sea in the middle of the 19th century. It was in 1850 or some time around then.

But we stayed in a created oasis amid all that lava. Someone had ground up acres of the ineral-rich rock, added topsoil, and created a lovely green spot at Waikoloa. We were in the huge Hilton portion of Waikoloa, which includes at least two other hotels, two shopping malls, two golf courses, condos and villas.

Later in the week, we drove around the Big Island and found other landscapes, volcanoes, tropical forest, and mountains.

We had an active time. We swam, we saw sea turtles, we snorkeled, we hiked, we ate well and I got to play some golf. But those are future blog posts...

At Pearl Harbor

We didn't want to be in Honolulu and not visit Pearl Harbor. So we joined a small bus full of tourists that left very early one morning. The goal was to get there first thing; the USS Arizona Memorial features long lines and waits.

While we waited our turn, the girls had their picture taken with a Pearl Harbor survivor. A number of these gentlemen volunteer at the memorial and are eager to sign autographs, pose for pictures and share their stories. That morning, the man signing autographs was Alfred Benjamin Kame'eiamoku Rodrigues, a Pearl Harbor survivor. he was born and raised in Hawaii and in the Navy at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941.

There's a museum, a museum shop, and an introductory film before the boat takes you out to the site of the Arizona Memorial. The Memorial itself is small and intense and moving. There's not much to say except that it touches you.

Afterwards, we toured the USS Missouri, now anchored next to the Memorial as a Museum. This is a fascinating ship to visit. She served in both World War II and the first Gulf War and includes examples of naval warfare technology and living from several generations.

I was in picture-taking heaven. There were red phones, alarms, compasses, and lots of other cool things.

Pearl Harbor is well worth a visit. It is an important part of our history and fascinating to a history buff. But get there early.

If You Go to Hawaii, You Have to Go to a Luau

So, we did. We went to Germaine's Luau, which is held on a beach at Barber's Point, at the southwest corner of Oahu. The first thing you see on arrival is this lighthouse, which I though was pretty cool.

Like many activities in Hawaii, the Luau starts with a bus-ride. The buses collect tourists from all the major hotels and take them for an hour-long ride out to the Point. When you get there, they take your picture. There's no obligation to buy, but they are trying to sell it to you. This was a common feature, particularly on Oahu.

The Luau is a dinner and show. The traditional in-ground roasting of a pig, and other fine foods, adult beverages and not, and a long show featuring a review of traditional Polynesian dancing and music (including stereotypical "Hawaiian" music of the Don Ho variety). Members of the audience are invited up to try the Hula. And, of course, there is a fire dance.

It was tacky, but fun.

One of the great things about the experience, for us, was the tour guide who ran out bus -- Alika. His job was to check us in, tell us what was happening and when, and entertain us on the long bus rides to and from the Luau.

On the ride out, Alika wen through the bus, back to front, and introduced himself to every passenger. But more than that, he introduced the passengers to each other, row by row and seat by seat until he seems to have learned every one of us and something about us.

On the ride back, he broke out his ukulele and proved to be a talented picker and singer, creating Polynesian rap and covering a range of pop songs. keep an ear out for this kid. He's good.

At Waikiki

Our Hawaiian vacation started in Honolulu, where we had a four-night stay at a hotel just two blocks from the beach at Waikiki. The trip was born last summer when Karen bid on the four nights in a silent auction to benefit Epworth United Methodist Church. Honolulu wouldn't have been our first choice, but we knew we needed something like that to force us to plan the rest of the trip.

We arrived in the afternoon, and managed to fill enough time looking at the beach and finding dinner to get us into the evening and to bed at a reasonably late hour to start working on adjusting our internal clocks to Hawaiian time. We hit the beach the next day and promptly got various levels of sunburn.

We attended a Luau and visited Pearl Harbor and the girls took a surfing lesson. Each of these events will have their own blog posts before too long. This one is meant to convey a general impression.

Honolulu is a big city and our hotel room, 14 floors up, echoed with the sounds of trucks and buses and police and fire vehicles. We awoke one morning to find that a water main had blown-out in the street below. We watched the day-long effort to fix it and patch the street.

One evening we watched from our balcony as the police subdued and arrested a man on the sidewalk in front of the hotel. I was reading while waiting for the girls to shower for dinner when I heard shouting. I looked down to see police cars pulled up and officers pointing handguns at a man. He eventually dropped whatever weapon he threatened with and was taken into custody, but not before an officer tried pepper spray (which went astray and was blown into a fellow officer's eyes).

And it seems like everyone in Waikiki who is not a tourist is trying to sell to tourists. They take your picture (no obligation to buy?), they hand out discount coupons, they panhandle, and they hawk their wares. We were surprised to see prostitutes on the sidewalks near the hotel when we returned from restuarants in the evening.

Yet, Waikiki is a beautiful spot. The beach is lovely and the men selling surfing lessons, canoe rides, catamaran sailings, food, umbrellas, chairs and other things are only a minor irritant. Early morning and late evenings find Honolulu locals on the beach for a surf or a swim. Many sit comfortably among the homeless enjoying the evening breezes.

There are many high-end stores and restaurants. We are not immune to shopping and the girls are developing a taste for haut cuisine. We ate one evening at Roy's (he had appeared on Top Chef Masters and the girls are fans). I amused myself by recording our meal via cellphone photos. 

Another evening we ate at Tanaka of Tokyo, a Hibachi-style Japanese steak and seafood restaurant recommended to us by a local. We are fans of Hibachi restaurants and were very pleased with Tanaka. We shared our table with two Japanese ladies on vacation from somewhere near Sasebo. They had little to no English and we spoke no Japanese. Our Hawaiian chef, Jared, helped with some translation but he admitted that, despite his Japanese heritage, he spoke only enough to sustain his chef-ly patter. Still, they were lovely ladies and we had a pleasant, friendly meal.

So. We enjoyed Honolulu and Waikiki, but we were glad to move on to the Big Island to continue our Hawaiian visit in a somewhat quieter environment.

Why I Am So Zombie-Like Today

This is in no way a plea for pity, because I deserve none, but I wanted to take a moment to outline the travails of traveling the width of the nation. We are in our recovery day after a red-eye return from Hawaii. Here is what that actually amounted to...

We had a late-night flight from Kona International Airport, leaving at 10:59 p.m. on Wednesday. That meant that we had to find a way to kill the hours between a mid-day hotel check out and the 8 p.m. check-in at the airport. We stayed in our room as late as we could and then had a longish lunch. We shopped and drove around a bit and finally had a late supper before heading to the airport.

As it was, we had to wait a bit before even starting the check-in process. That involved having the USDA check our checked bags for contraband plant life, a long wait to check-in with the airline, a fairly quick TSA security check, and returning to the USDA for a check of our carry-on bags.

When we finally boarded the flight, things went fairly smoothly. I ended up seated away from Karen and the girls. We were together but decided I should trade seats with a woman traveling with a child who otherwise would have had to be seated far from the kid. That put me next to a gent who was born and raised in Honolulu (a haole) who had lived and worked in Florida before moving to Kona. He had worked as a tour bus driver, so we compared notes -- I explained what we had seen and done and he told me what we should have seen and done.

We dozed away what turned out to be about a five and a half-hour flight to Phoenix, arriving there at about 7:30 am. After a brisk walk to our next gate, we breakfasted on muffins from Starbucks and waited a short time to board the next plane.

It was 7:30 am in Phoenix, but about 4:30 am Hawaiian time. Our bodies were on Hawaiian time. When we boarded the next flight, we immediately dozed off. Karen and I woke up for the take-off and then nodded off again. The girls slept through take-off and woke up on and off during the rest of the flight.

We arrived at BWI in Baltimore at about 4 pm Eastern time, or around 10 am Hawaiian. After retrieving our bags, and our car, we headed east across the Chesapeake and made it back to Lewes around 8, or just after lunch by our internal clocks.

So there we were, unpacking at the end of what felt like a long day, but was actually part of two. We'd gotten up early on Wednesday to squeeze-in the last bit of sunshine and pool time before leaving. We spent a long last day in Hawaii and the most of the next day sitting in planes and airport waiting lounges. Before we knew it it was midnight Eastern (dinner time in Hawaii) and we tried to head to bed.

Now it is the next day and we're attempting to return to east-coast time. That's why today seems such an odd sort of day.

OK....We're Back

Well. Yesterday and today have been a long day... sorta.

We're back home in Lewes after a red-eye return flight from Hawaii. We're doing laundry, checking in with the cats, and generally trying to recover.

We left last Monday for four nights at Waikiki on Oahu and five at the Waikoloa resort area on the Big Island.

I had brought the laptop along, with plans to post updates along the way, but the damn thing died after a few posts of pictures from Waikiki. I used a flickr/twitter application from my cellphone to post a few more photos to the start of a set. But most of what I snapped will have to wait...

...as will posts on, among other things, Pearl Harbor, surfing, swimming, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, snorkeling, golfing, and lots of lava.

A Bit More on the Red Clover Inn

We're home from our week of wandering north of here and I have had a chance to yank photos from the trip off my camera. Many are of the Red Clover Inn, which we felt we helped pioneer this past week with our friends Andy and Lynn and our collections of daughters.

That's the main Inn building to the right there. Andy and Lynn and their girls had rooms in the main building. Karen and I stayed in a large room in a separate carriage house. Colleen and Christina were in the carriage house as well. Their room was above a dedicated room where our old friend Andrea, a massage therapist we visited for years at The Tyler Place, has begun to create a new spa.

The Red Clover Inn is an old Inn that was built on an even older farm. It served vacationers for many years and developed a strong reputation. The owners turned their Inn over to new managers and retired some years ago and the place seems to have declined. In the last year, the owners sold the property to the Tyler family who spent eight months fixing and mending and redecorating; they created a lovely new/old Inn which reopened just a few weeks ago.

A major attraction of the Inn is a wonderful restaurant that integrates gently into the main building. The Tylers found a great chef and he has put together a tasty menu that features local ingredients and sustainable foods. The restaurant seems to do a steady business beyond the Inn guests; that's a good thing.

There is also a comfortable lounge, with a fireplace and sofas and chairs and games and windows overlooking the property. A comfortable spot after a day of skiing or hiking or golfing or which-ever of the attractions of this part of Vermont you choose to enjoy.

The guest rooms vary from spacious and elegant to small and cozy. Several have fireplaces. Some feature hot-tubs (fabulous for aching old-guy muscles that hadn't been on skis in 30 years).

Am I gushing? yes, I am. But with good reason. The Tyler family are great inn-keepers and they find and support high-level employees. We've spent the last decade getting to know these folks. They give us vacations to celebrate and I think it is only right that I pass on to you information about those vacation opportunities.

Visiting the Temples of Learning

I guess that title is a bit overstated, but it works with the picture. This is a reading room in one of the libraries at Boston College. We visited BC and Boston University last week with Colleen, who is entering her junior year at high school this fall and should start thinking about colleges soon.

We made a quick trip to Boston to visit campuses and spend some time with friends from the Tyler Place who live south of Boston. We drove up on Wednesday and came back Sunday.

The summer college visit set-up seems to be a meeting in a lecture room where a large group of parents and kids hear from an admissions officer and a student (or a panel of students) about the school. There's a chance to ask questions and then campus tours in smaller groups led by students tour-guides.

I notice that the prospective students don't ask as many questions as they should; parents ask quite a few. In some cases, perhaps they should sit back and let their kids do the asking. The student guides, on the other hand, are not shy at all; they can't be and also have that job. They are generally outgoing and impressive kids who represent their schools well.

There is a cynical part of me that finds these young men and women just a tad too high on their schools, but I keep that part hidden. These are nice kids.

BC and BU are lovely schools, if rather different from each other. BU is much larger and more urban. BC is a smaller suburban school, set off by itself. I could see my daughter at either; but the choice is hers and there are many more schools to consider. The cool thing is that we have started the process that will lead eventually to her selecting a college or a university.

It's another step taken.

What Are You Looking For?

I have a few different ways to track visitors to this site. I'm not too obsessive about it, but I enjoy knowing what's brought people here.

Over the long term, I find I get a steady stream of people looking for information on getting rid of a blood clot. Installing satellite radio in a Prius is also popular as are Delaware's boundary monuments.

And I see seasonal patterns as well.

In the last two weeks, for example, there has been interest in the Fourth of July in Bethany Beach. Since June 22, fifty-eight of Mike's Musings visits were generated by web searches for some combination of Bethany Beach, Fourth of July, fireworks, and parade. That's 23.6 percent of all searches that led to the blog. ("Bethany Beach Fireworks" is the champ.)

There has also been a steady stream of visitors looking for information about the Tyler Place, in Vermont. I've posted reports from there the last several summers, and they are being found by folks researching their own trips, it seems.

We've stopped visiting the Tyler Place, but not because we don't love it. After nine summers, Colleen has aged-out of the Tyler kids' programs. It was time to make room for these other folks. I hope our reports and pictures help them get ready. But we do miss it terribly.

At Fenway Park

I got a chance to see the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park last night. I'm killing time in the Boston area while Colleen plays bass at Berklee and I figured I might as well try to get a ticket to what turned out to be the 418th consecutive sell out of Fenway.

I'm an Orioles fan, but I do like the Red Sox. Besides, baseball is baseball, and we're talking about Fenway Park, one of the classic old ball parks.

I had pretty good seats (not as good as that picture would suggest; that was taken on my way to the men's room). I was in the grandstand on the first-base side and close to home plate. I was fairly far back, though, just a row in front of standing room.

I sometimes enjoy going solo to events like this. I've done several large rock concerts as a solo and now this ball game. There's a certain freedom to being an unknown.

The Red Sox lost this game, 8 to 0. They had had an emotionally active game the night before in completing a sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays, a good team. There were fights and outbursts and drama. The game I saw was against the Mariners, not one of the better teams, and the Red Sox looked a little flat and made a few errors.

Fishing and Birds

I found this Osprey hanging out on the rooftop of a small building about halfway out the Naples Fishing Pier, in Florida, last month. He(?) was hooked, with a fishing lure hanging from his beak. It didn't seem to have affected him too much, though he seemed very tame and was letting a few of the regulars feed him by tossing small bait fish out onto the deck for him to swoop down and grab. Otherwise, he flew around the pier a few times and then perched, watching things, on top of a fake owl.

There were plenty of gulls hanging around and a fair number of pelicans in the water below looking for fish as much as the retirees and tourists on the pier.

And there were birds that I didn't recognize. The fellow at right was swooping in close. I think he was after the fish that the anglers were offering to the Osprey.

Second Golf Game of 2008

I almost broke 100! I scored a 102 on the par-72 course at the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club in Florida. Had I not had a complete blow-up on the par-5 14th, I might have done it.

It turns out that using the 5-iron, which looks remarkably like the sand wedge when you are flustered (5 vs. S) , in a green-side bunker is a bad idea. When you've already hit a tree, the water hazard, and a half-submerged log that bounced your ball right back at you, on the same hole, these things happen.

I was playing in my walking sneakers and with rental clubs (very nice clubs), but had a wonderful time (except for the 15th) I played the first nine with a dad teaching his 15-year old the game. I played the second nine with an older gent who plays that course regularly and either his son or son-in-law. These guys were playing very well and they helped me raise my game a bit, I think.

The course was built in the late 1920s and has been redesigned a few times since. It is mature and tree-lined and, though flat, fairly challenging. And nice folks, too.

And... We're Back

We're back in Delaware after most of the last week at the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club, in Florida.

We flew down to Tampa early on Monday and drove down to Naples from there. We stayed in a vintage hotel on the beach in Naples. We swam, we sunned, and we burned a bit. We visited the zoo and the everglades. I golfed. Th e girls shopped. We ate at a variety of restaurants, from a classic burger joint to a relatively fancy place.

I took about 380 photos, and Colleen took a few more. So far, I've only posted a few from the Naples Zoo and the beach view from the Naples posted at right. I'll get through the rest and post more in the next few days.

I liked Naples, but it struck me as very like the Rehoboth area on steroids. They have very large developments in Florida and the sheer volume of shopping malls and restaurants on the main drag was daunting.

But the weather is so nice. And the Golf of Mexico shows many moods. And I got to spend five days disconnected from the world and with my wife and children. I like that.