07/22/2018

ON THE GO   2011

Brita Tate visited Mary in Naples in January 2011 while Don was playing bridge.  But, where is their chardonnay?

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Our granddaughter, Sara Whitney, is a Sophomore at the University of Vermont.  She is studying to be a mahout and hopes to work at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota.  She is spending a month in Thailand getting her certificate in mahouting. She is pioneering the use of hand signals rather than using a Thotti, a sharp metal hook, to control the elephant.

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On Sunday February 6, 2011 we had lunch with Don's twin cousins at their country club, The Lexington, in Ft Meyers.  Here we are after some bridge:

On Saturday March 5, 2011 David and Rita joined us on a 4 hour Nature Boat Trip from Chokoloskee Island, south of Everglades City, with Captain Judy.

The highlights were seeing a Bald Eagle pair with two young, one of which has fledged, and an osprey with a fish.  We also saw a Royal Tern.

Read the article about the Peregrine Falcon in Florida.

On  March 12,.2011 we had an excellent  dinner at the Veranda in Ft Myers, FL. FL.                     See Mary below and the Royal Tern.

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On Monday April 25, 2011 we had dinner at Bonefish Grill in Naples.  Alan and Ilse Stone also live in Naples, but we have not seen our good friends Harriet and Stan Joseph in three or four years who were visiting Alan and Ilse.

On Saturday evening, April 30, 2011 we headed north from Naples and spent the night in Ocala, FL.  The next day we drove to Savannah and had lunch at Paula Deen's restaurant "The Lady and Sons".  http://theladyandsons.com/  We then drove to Charleston, SC and stayed at Middleton Inn. http://www.theinnatmiddletonplace.com/  We took a tour of the Middleton house at Middleton Place and had dinner there.  http://www.middletonplace.org/?gclid=COq57ufb0KgCFd8D5QodQ0sogw . The next morning we drove into beautiful Charleston and took a 1.5 hour Historic City Tour and had a nice lunch at Magnolia's.  We left the city around 2 pm and drove as far as Dunn, NC (Dump Truck capital of the US) and spent the night. 

The next morning we drove to Richmond, VA and had lunch at the beautiful Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and toured the Gardens.  http://www.lewisginter.org/ . Patrick Dougherty, the artist in residence, http://www.stickwork.net/installations2.php ,has some "stickwork" in Middlebury, VT. http://community.middlebury.edu/~sticks/   http://www.lewisginter.org/events/event_detail.php?event_id=509 , http://www.stickwork.net/news.php , http://www.middlebury.edu/arts/campus/artexhib/patrick_dougherty_so_inclined

After leaving the botanical gardens in Richmond, we toured Agecroft Hall.  It is a Tudor Estate, built in England in the 15th century and moved to Richmond in 1925.  We then checked into the beautiful Jefferson Hotel near Virginia Commonwealth University (home of the Cinderella team that made the NCAA Final Four in March) and had a terrific dinner.    In the morning we took a super private three hour Historical City Tour of Richmond with Frank Williamson.  We then had lunch in Fredericksburg, MD and spent the night in Wilmington, DE.

On Thursday morning, May 5, 2011, we toured Winterthur. http://www.winterthur.org/  We then went to Longwood Gardens for a terrific lunch.  http://www.longwoodgardens.org/  Mary rented a scooter to zip around the gardens.

We stayed in West Chester, PA and had dinner at the Dilworthtown Inn.  http://www.dilworthtown.com/  When General Howe defeated Washington at the Battle of Brandywine, Howe took over this Inn and damaged it.  The owner then sent the Crown a bill for damages, but was not repaid. The next morning we drove to Allentown, PA, then thru the Delaware River Watergap ( a 40 mile cut thru a mountain ridge) to I-84 in Port Jervis. We arrived at Amy's at 3:30 pm.  The next day Eric invited his parents and siblings to a cookout in Canton, CT.   Amy and Karla and their families came, and Karen drove down from Massachusetts. (Duncan and Caitlin were at a regatta).

The next day was Mother's Day and we had brunch at Flemings in West Hartford, with Amy, Tom, Aleksey, Karla  and Erin.

.Don built his version of an Inuksuk below.

We flew to SF at the end of May 2011  for ten days to see David's son Owen graduate with Honors from HS. Owen will be a freshman at the U of Vancouver this fall.. Here is the proud graduate.

We also took a day trip to Napa Valley with David and Rita.  We then spent 3 days in Yosemite.

Here are a few pictures from Yosemite. 

On June 11, 2011 Mary celebrated her 77th birthday.  A bald eagle brought a bass to her and ate it outside her bedroom window.  We then went to Sudbury, MA to visit Karen, see the new college grad (Ryan from the U of Denver before he starts work in Boulder, CO).

On June 12, 2011, we had dinner with Stan and Harriet Joseph at The Queeche Inn at Marshland Farm in Queeche, VT.  The building was built in 1793 by Colonel Joseph Marsh, who was the first Lieutenant Governor of Vermont.

In September 2011, Don had his second history book printed. . The new book, "History of Sudbury Vermont" was written this summer. Here is the Front Cover (Sudbury Meeting House)  Back Cover (Hill School) and the Book. His "History of Hubbardton Vermont" was published in 2005. 

On September 22, 2011 we had dinner with Karen and spent the night in Sudbury, MA with Karen, Caitlin, and Duncan. The next day we drove to Bremen and stayed with Mary's brother John Towne and wife Connie.  Their son Nathan was there and the grandkids.  On Saturday Don played in  a benefit tennis tournament for the YMCA in Damariscotta.  Don made the finals but declined to play and let the locals play. Allison & Chris picked up the grandkids on Sunday as they were on vacation in Canada.  We visited the lovely Maine Botanical Garden with Connie. On Monday we stayed with Evelyn Towne in Waterville and had dinner with John and Connie and Evelyn before driving the northern route back to Vermont on Tuesday.

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         Evelyn & Mary in Waterville.                     John & Connie's home on Muscongus Bay

In November we had dinner at Amy's in West Hartford, CT

We had Thanksgiving at Beebe Pond in Vermont.

Gray is happy in Vermont.

We had lunch with Arnold & Mildred Abelson at the Storm Cafe in Middlebury on December 15.

Below are a bunch of Christmas 2011 pictures.