Parenting 101

December 6th, our sons embarked on a glorious trip Down Under with one way tickets and one year work visas.   They've been gone one month and five days and, so far, they're having the time of their lives.

This trip is the culmination of a lifetime of  them talking, hoping and finally working to save the money and go.  Growing up, we encouraged them to explore the world, get to know and understand other people and cultures, learn to cope in new situations, discover who they are and what they want to become.  In other words, we raised them to believe happiness is a goal more important than money, prestige, the accumulation of "things" and climbing the never-ending ladder. 

Success is being happy with who you are not what you have.  

College Educated & Happy to Have a Job

My almost 25 year old son came home last night with good news: he's landed a summer job as a barista at a popular coffee cafe in our resort mountain town. This is after months of looking somewhat fruitlessly at similar, less appealing positions. This is what many college educated kids are doing in this recession; not to mention living at home.

My son is an outdoor person.  He graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies.  He spent six years living in Utah, camping, hiking, river rafting/kayaking, snowboarding, skateboarding and taking on every new outdoor adventure come his way.  He's trying to figure out what to do for the rest of his life.

He and his brother are planning a trip to Australia in late Fall.  They're hoping to have enough money to travel, find jobs and stay a while.  I hope they get there and have a huge adventure.  I want them to experience the world, life, new situations, challenges.  My younger son's GF is just back from 2 months in India, BY HERSELF.  It has been life-changing.

While the current economic situation is not something I want to see prolonged, I'm anxious to see the way my sons react and adjust.  It's their first test of really being on their own and having to struggle.  Yes, they've been out of the house before and making their own way.  But it's different now.  They need to be on their own permanently.  They know it.  We know it.

Resolutions: 14 Years to Fruition

When my husband and I left the West Coast for the East Coast, we promised ourselves we'd see the sites, visit the cities we'd never or rarely visited and take advantage of the close proximity of everything "eastern",  so opposite the wide open spaces of what we considered "western".  

Fourteen years, two sons, three dogs, one cat, one MIL, 3 homes and several jobs later, we are finally fulfilling our resolutions.  

For the first time in my career, I have 4 weeks vacation.  My husband is pursuing his passion, fine art photography and no longer has the 2 1/2 hour commute to work along with the 4 nights sleeping elsewhere, that accompanied his last high-stress job.  Our sons are independent (even if they have moved home for the time being) and they take care of the 2 remaining dogs when we're away.  The MIL is still independent so we're not yet at the point of assistance to her needs (fingers crossed).

Our last trip of 2011 was a quick overnight to Boston.  We thought it would be fun to celebrate the night before New Years Eve.  And it was!  

Boston Public Library  next to our hotel

Copley Square  & Trinity Church, Prudential Bldg to right in background

Close up Trinity Church with Prudential Bldg to right rear

Entrance to JFK Library on Columbus Point @ UMass Boston campus

Interior shot of bay from I.M. Pei designed JFK Library

(photos by yours truly)

East Coast Travelin'

September has been a surprising month of travel for us. I say "surprising" because we didn't plan it this way...it just happened, making it all the more fun.

We visited The Balsams in Dixville Notch, N.H., famous as the "first in the nation" location for each presidential election.  We attended a wedding in the mountains nearby.  The resort, one of the oldest in the country, opened its doors in 1866 as a small roadside stop for travelers.

photograph from thebalsams.com

Five days later, we left for New York.  It was go, go, go the only thing you can do in the city.  I covered that trip in this post.

After New York, we were home four days then off to the Coast of Maine near Boothbay Harbor to an island called Southport.  We stayed in an old time resort, the Newagen Seaside Inn on the tip of the island.  

Their gardens, sweeping lawns and 240 degree views of the water were joyous.  Fall garden decor is big in New England.

No beach but a typical, rocky Maine shore.  The ocean is too darn cold for swimming. 

So we relaxed.

By the way, these are my photos with my new camera bought for me by my husband for my upcoming trip to New Orleans in October. (I think he's tired of my asking him to upload his photos to the web so I can use them  :o)

Road Trip Pics Part Deux

I've taken much too long to post more pics from the great road trip.  So here goes a few more:

Back in the Everglades with Bryan enroute to see his brother Fletcher.  I like this photo because he wasn't posing and my husband created it in sepia tones.  You can compare it to the photo in the first post.   

Below is a sunset photo off the balcony of Fletcher's new apartment.  My husband calls the building "a tear down with a million dollar view".

All I can say is "I'M impressed!"

 Fletcher and his girlfriend out on the beach in front of the apartment.  Tough life huh?



After my husband left southern Florida, he headed up the coast to the Panhandle.  This was taken on Route 300 showing the old and new roads to St. George Island.  He was enroute to Apalachicola and I'll have to check my spelling of that. 

Road Trip Pics

My husband and our first born, Bryan, went on a road trip to visit our second born now living in Florida.  Enroute, they made some wonderful stops. 

Bryan in front of our Richmond, VA home where both boys were born.  It's a 1906 Edwardian brick town home in an historic district known as The Fan.  My husband completely renovated it top to bottom.  We lived there ten years.  He was happy to see the place in beautiful condition just as we left it.

In the Everglades.  My husband took the Alligator Alley route from east to west to show Bryan where his great uncle once lived, built and rented air boats back in the 60's & 70's.  My husband's uncle was once the Florida state pistol champion.  He was a character out of a movie:  hard drinkin', loud, into doing "man"ly things like moonshining, hunting, shooting, etc.  I met him once.  He really was a character.

Son #2, Fletcher, snapped by his girlfriend and taken from Facebook.  He's moved into what my husband calls "a tear down with a million dollar view".  He lives in a little apartment on the water in Naples.  He is fifty feet from the beach and has a second floor balcony view to die for.  The building may be hurricane damaged or similar but he's happy as hell.  

The men in my life, happy, bonding, sharing the love. 

Trip to Maine Part 2

The first night of our recent trip, we drove to the beautiful city of Portsmouth, N.H. staying at a restored 19th century hotel, Wentworth by the Sea.  As with all great hotels, it has substantial history.   In 1905, the Hotel Wentworth as it was then called, housed the delegations from Russia and Japan to conclude an end to the Russo-Japanese War known as the Treaty of Portsmouth.   Before and after that, it was a summer retreat for the well-to-do.

  

Advertisement Scribner's Magazine 1915

The hotel closed in 1982, fell into disrepair, was rescued from demolition in 1997, renovated and reopened in 2003. It is so lovely, even in Winter, you have a sense of what it must have been like in days gone by. It's also one of the grand old wooden ladies, i.e. wood structures, from the Gilded Age. There are three in New Hampshire, the Wentworth in New Castle, the Mt. Washington Hotel at Bretton Woods and the Mountain View Grand in Whitefield.

 1906 post card of the Hotel Wentworth

We had a lovely room with a view of the lagoon.  The hotel sits on a spit of land, up on a hill, with a view of the ocean to one side and an inlet lagoon on the other.   There is a marina on the bay side, still tying up boats after more than a hundred years.  The golf course too is vintage, opened in 1897 and enlarged by Donald Ross in 1921.                                                                                 

                                                                           Wentworth by the Sea 2010

After the Wentworth, we made our way up the Maine coast into Camden.  One of the first sites we stopped for was a beautiful point out on the water, overlooking Penobscot Bay.

 

On a point between Camden and Rockland overlooking Penobscot Bay

Trip to Maine Part I

My husband and I took a trip to the coast of Maine last week. It was Winter Break in Massachusetts and we wanted to get out of here because the White Mountains are filled with wall-to-wall skiiers, snowboarders and tourists. Normally, a trip to Maine in February is probably not a great choice but we discovered we could stay in some very nice places at reasonable rates and receive perks in the way of gourmet meals, spa treatments, etc.  We went on a photography excursion almost every day and I'll post them as he completes his work.

These are three versions of one image, Camden Harbor:

 

 

Back in the Fold

Son #2 surprised us last night by coming home two days early from Europe.  I was restless and unable to sleep, having stayed up til Midnight watching the World Series.  I heard a car in the driveway at 1AM and wondered who the heck was driving up my dark road into my back yard in the middle of the night for cryin' out loud?

I went to the window, looked down on the back yard, saw shapes in the moonlight (full moon last night), one with a backpack.  It still didn't register.  I went downstairs, to the back door and opened it and there he stood, big as life, skinny as all get out, with a scraggly but somehow becoming beard and a shit eatin' grin.

"Hello Mother!"

I was enfolded in his arms and he walked through the front door, newly changed from what sounds to be a fascinating trip. 

My son is home, safe and sound.  He has changed; he has grown.   I can't wait to hear the stories pour forth over the next few days.  More to come...

Letting Go Part IV: Next Stop, Barcelona

Blue Door - Spain Series by Carson Pritchard

Our son is headed for Barcelona.  He's been in London over a week and his money is running out.  His travel buddy met a girl there and fell madly in love.  Our son called yesterday to ask what to do.  We told him to discuss it and tell his bud he wants to leave.  If his friend wants to stay, they need to agree to disagree and go their separate ways.  No sense having hard feelings over circumstances. 

We received a quick email today.  He's booked a flight to Barcelona and leaves Wednesday, friend in tow. 
 
Previous trip posts: 
Letting Go Part III

Lettiing Go: Part III

Received my third message from Euro-Son.  I tried emailing him "Where are you?" via Facebook.  It worked!   Social networking is for Gen Ys.  Should have known.  I'm all over this now.  Here's his latest: Hey mom we are in zermatt swissland and its awesome. its where the matterhorn is. we climbed up a mountain 2800 meters today and it was breathtaking...its kinda expensive but nothing to bad. i would love to go to where nona is that would be great but ryan and i have no idea what town it is. im trying to get the details right now soo well see...but yea thatd be sweet cuz we need somwhere to go thats relativly inexpensive where we wouldnt have to spend alot of mooney. but yea everything is going well we met these cool spanish kids who we hiked with today and we are staying at a campground. octoberfest was crazy we met lots of ausies who we partyied with for a few nights, they party wayyy hard...kinda hard to keep up, but we still managed, haha. how is everything at home...dad doing ok and the animals, and obviously you. hope so let me know. i love you guys very much and will try to take care of myself and you do the same.

Euro Son & a close friend Feb 2009

It sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

References:  Letting Go
                    Letting Go  Part II

Letting Go: Part II

Country Lane by Laura Trevey

I share this as a thank you to all who've responded  positively with encouragement and love to my first post on the subject.

Date: Thursday, September 17, 2009, 5:40 AM

hey mom I made it to frankfurt, got a free bus ride to some wierd little town and now we´re at a campground recovering from jetlag. We met a nice guy named Ernst who is letting us use his computer and is an experienced truck driver giving us broken-english piece of mind on how to get to... well we´re figuring that out but i think we´ll start the trek to munich. have terry get us some contacts in neuremburg. I love you guys but i g2g. chow! 

Love the spelling!   I feel soooo much better and so does my girlfriend whose son is with him.  Now we wait for the next email.  CHOW!!

Theme Thursday Suitcase

Vintage Suitcase from dreamstime.com










Packing is an art. It requires foresight and hard decisions. What suitcase(s) do I take? Does my airline charge for more than one bag? What are the dimensions of the carry on for the airline I'm flying? As I discovered too late on this last trip, Jet Blue apparently has a more generous carry on size than United.

The only anxiety-provoking aspect of my recent vacation was packing. I did not want to take a large suitcase because my back is no longer very strong and I dreaded dragging one around. Also, how many clothes was I going to need on a beach vacation to Florida anyway? As it turns out, way less than I took and I thought I took very few! What amounted to five pair of shoes, two pair of shorts, two tees, two skirts, three cute tops and three bathings suits (plus underwear, makeup, curling iron, toiletries) SHOULD have been four tees, three pair of shorts, no skirts, two bathing suits and three pair of various colored flip flops. I coulda taken a duffel bag!

I forgot a hair dryer and decided to go without after we arrived. Guess what? Thanks to the salty air and relative humidity, my hair was wavy and piece-y and tousled and I loved it. I didn't need much makeup because a good tan conceals alot of blemishes. Yes, I know all about the sun, skin cancer, etc. But I figure once a year I'm going to get a tan. So, I could have taken half the make up I packed. Still my suitcase was reliable and easy to pick out on the baggage conveyer. It's a Kenneth Cole Reaction piece, part of a set I bought four years ago when my husband took me on a cruise for our 30th. I love it!