Sequestration Day #3

Today we learned the ailing person we had come in contact with tested negative for Covid-19, so there’s at least one person we know out there who does not have it.

Books retrieved

But maybe we won’t lighten up much in our quarantine procedures. The only one of us who went out was Nadia, and she needed to get a few books from school. Remote learning starts tomorrow.

Well, I also made my newspaper delivery to Grampy, but besides that, it was a lot of sequestration for all of us.

Around the house today:

Time to prune the peach tree

Their process looked a little unorthodox, but the girls succeeded in giving Daisy a bath.

Smallworld

And coloring

Facetime with Grammy

I opened a new hot sauce from my set that;s wrapped up like dynomite.

Zoe celebrated a second-place finish in hearts. It’s not important who came in first.

Sequestration Day #2

Leave a reply

Today was Tuesday, we had to remind ourselves. We encountered a somewhat illicit box of Lucky Charms (I went to Hannaford, didn’t get near anyone, and used the self-checkout with the back of my knuckle, but I had to get Grampy a newspaper anyway), and we recreated the famous Irish Rock A-Z anthology that Jen brought back home from Ireland in 1993. It’s now a spotify playlist. Also, it’s possible that Leo Moran of the Saw Doctors saw my facebook post to Uncle George. He has yet to comment on it.

Chores

It may have been the best St. Patrick’s Day ever.

Here are some highlights:

Workin’

Conserving bandwidth

Skype violin lesson with Ms. Louise

NCIS

More dog training

Pasta with Ceci for dinner

Aerial dance practice

Ebby came home from the vet, but she’s still not eating much.

Sequestration day #1

Leave a reply

Here we are at home. All day. For a while. With the rest of the nation.

Our case is slighly more fraught than most other people. We’re actually awaiting the results of a Covid-19 test (not performed on any of us) to see — among other things — if we really, really have to quarantine ourselves. (We don’t think that’s the case, but until we know for sure, we have to be cautious. That’s why I’m not at the teacher workshop today.)

In fact, though, today some of us did go out:

Lanie took the Dais for a long walk.

Send good thoughts towards Ebby’s digestive tract.

Zoe and I dropped little Ebby at the veterinary hospital to see why she keeps throwing up and hiding under the bed. (Ebby’s throwing up and hiding, not Zoe.)

Zoe went for a run.

I visited Grammy and Krissy and dropped off our tax information to the greatest sister in the world. (I have two sisters; Karin’s great, too.)

I borrowed Kevin’s wheelbarrow, maintaining a safe, six-foot social distance all the while.

Here are some other highlights of our first day sequestered:

Dog Training

Mosiac coloring

Baking

‘gramming

Tonight’s game, Puerto Rico, was preceded by a lively “La Vida Loca” dance. (Ricky Martin is from Puerto Rico, of course so it all fits together.)

We finished off what looks like the last of this year’s maple production. We ended up with almost 10 cups of syrup and a few batches of maple sugar cand

Other things that took place here today: reading, raking, Dutch Blitz, correspondence, logging, music practice (guitar, violin, cello, and piano, though not all together) and watching two episodes of The Great British Baking Show. Also, Jen managed to work all day with us buzzing around.

Nadia is here, too. She rejected any attemps at picture taking. We’ll try to capture that elusive one sometime soon.

Revisiting Jay Peak

Leave a reply

Can a family have too many ski buddies?

No way.

Great weather! We finally made it to the summit!

New resarch has shown that the main problem with last year’s trip to Jay Peak in Northern Vermont wasn’t the frigid cold wind and sleet. We just didn’t have enough families along.

This year, we added a half dozen or so friends to our roster and had a hoot of a time. It didn’t hurt that the weather was beautiful, all lifts were running and we could actually get to the top of the mountain.

Hanging out in our pals’ room, with snacks

Other improvements over last year’s trip (which itself was really fun, as is evident in the fact that we wanted to go back): we brought lots of food, because we knew we’d have a kitchen in our room, almost all our friends were on the same floor as us, and we give the kids lots more freedom to visit the waterpark whenever they wished.

Here are some highlights:

Riding on the lift with Eliza…

…and on the Tram with the Sullivans

Late-ish mornings, because we stayed right at the mountain

Late-ish evenings because even the German restaurant we went to wasn’t far from the hotel at all

Which ones are our kids? We could never ski fast enough to catch up and find out.

Getting ready for the potluck dinner on night 3.

The second day of skiing was not as brilliantly sunny, but an extra lift was running and it allowed us access to the most appreciated run on the whole mountain. Some of us went on Derek’s Hot Shot five times. It was steep, but not bumpy and there was plenty of snow to keep us in control. (Ed. — Last year Derek’s H

A gray day two sky hovering over Jen and the summit

ot Shot was very bumpy and pretty icy, too. This year’s iteration was much, much better.)

Taking off down Derek’s Hot shot — it’s steeper than it looks here.

Even though several of us went in early because of tired legs, some of us — the ones with the oldest and most tired legs — kept on skiing until the lifts stopped running at 4. Then we walked, stiff-legged, to the outdoor hot tub for a little therapy.

It’s 3:20, can we make it down to the Flier lift before it closes for the day? (We made it. And Chris Hall did, too, after taking our picture.)

Legs not to tired to walk all the way down to the end of the longest candy counter in the world

Then to top it all off, we stopped in Littleton, NH, on the way home for some Thai food and a singular treat. We visited Chutter’s, a store that boasts the longest candy counter in the world.

Stomach vs. mouse

Leave a reply

The decision to eat in Disney World is the decision to pay too much for mediocre quality or small amounts. We saw this rule in effect this week and we also uncovered a few exceptions.

Big Italian dinner/late lunch

Our big family dinner in a Hollywood Studios Italian restaurant was steep, and generally pretty good, but the pasta was overcooked to the point of mushyness. That’s sometihng you’d think an Italian resturant could get right.

Kiosk dining at Epcot

Our foray into the Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT was big on variety. We got a burger, Latin American food, Chinese dumplings, Carribean, Australian, African. We realized later that we could visit so many of these kiosks in the World Showcase becase it was lightly raining and the lines were subdued. When we went back the next day just to walk around the crowds and lines were repressively long.

Given that the payoff for these lines was a small plate that amounted to a few bites if you were sharing with someone, we ouldn’t figure out why so many people were doing it. It would be a perpetual lunch, eating while standing in line for your next mouthful. At least we had time in between kiosks to explore a little and walk freely instead of stumbling through lines. We were lucky.

A slight mist kept the lines short, saving us from starvation.

Of course, we had to visit so many stalls because that’s what you have to do if you’re planning to have a meal at the Food and Wine Festival. Two plates does not a dinner make, even at $4.50-$8 a plate.

So it would seem that we here in this corner of Central FLorida are captive to the cuisine and pricing scheme of Disney, which is largely the case. EXCEPT, Jen learned that Amazon will deliver food to your hotal here – -for free delieverry if your order was big enough She took an order from the troops before we left for breakfast and lunch.

This worked reasonably well, except that we we ate through our loaf of bread rather quickly and found ourselves with an assorment of nut butters with nothing to spread them on. It would seem that a loaf of bread would not be too difficult to source in such a densely populated area, but we do not have a car to drive off Disney property; the only resources open ot us were resort options. Where to look?

No bread? No problem. Tough to make a sandwich with this, though

Multiple counter-service places had bagels and croissnats — for $3.50 apiece, and they looked like they had been sitting around since Walt himself put them there. Not a great option.

There are bakeries dotting the landscape here — one in the France pavilion, for instance — which offered bagels and croissants (but not baguettes, unfortuntately) for about half of what the counter service places were charging, but that still didn’t do it.

Eventually,we unearthed a “General Store” at the Boardwalk section of the EPCOT resorts that looked through the window to have some staples, like milk and frozen pizzas. It’s possible they had sliced loaves in there, but it’s more likely that this area is a sandwich bread desert.

Gallery of nut butters

Our solution was to place another order with Amazon and suck up the $5 delivery fee for orders under $50. Let the sun nut butter flow freely again.

All of this obscures the fact the we have managed to find a refreshing inconsistency in the Disney dining universe. It’s all about popcorn.

Park guests can purchase — for $8 to $27 depending on which one you choose — a souvenir bucket filled with popcorn. They can then refill that bucket with popcorn for $2 any time they want for the length of their stay. With so many mathmaticians in the family it was a quick leap to realize that the price per unit of the popcorn would go down the more refills we got.

What’s more, we’ve heard there are different flavors of popcorn scattered in different parts of the park that you quilify for the refill deal. We’ve only managed to find one such location, in a little traveled part of EPCOT that had three flavors (sour cream and chive, cheddar, and buffalo/blue cheese). This, I think, might be a concession for the sad, and hopefully temporary, closure of Club Cool, which offer free soda samples from all over the world.

One container, many refills

We did get our money’s worth out of the popcorn, even if most of it was butter flavored. Imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon bins with green popcorn and red and white popcorn at the new Galaxy’s Edge section of Hollywood Studios. It was just about the only way this Star Wars-themed area could get any better.

Another exception to the rule is when people send a gift basket to your room. Thanks, Kelly and Dom!

Except that this area is so unbelievable popular that not only did we wait an hour to go on the big Smugglers’ Run ride, we also had to suffer the indignity of being turned down for popcorn refills. They only sell their own bags (and no refils of those either).

Disney is clearly in league with the Empire, and the Empire’s dining plan stinks, too.

WDW Scorecard

Leave a reply

Expedition Everest — look closely for Zoe and Lanie

Expedition Everest: J(2) Bo(2) Z (4) E (4) N ( ) Br( )

Splash Mountain: J(2) Bo(2) Z (3) E (3) N ( ) Br(1)

Space Mountain: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N ( ) Br( )

Great Thunder Mountain: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N ( ) Br(1)

*Seven Dwarves Mine Train: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N ( ) Br( )

Goofy’s Barnstormer: J( ) Bo( ) Z (1) E (1) N ( ) Br( )

*Slinky Dog Dash: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N ( ) Br( )

*Nav’i River Journey: J(1 ) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N ( ) Br( )

*Avatar Flight of Passage: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N (1) Br(1)

Star Tours: J( ) Bo( ) Z (1) E (1) N ( ) Br( )

Tower of Terror: J(2) Bo(1) Z (3) E (3) N ( ) Br( )

Tower of Terror — the key is to know when they’re going to take the picture.

Kali River Rapids

Rock’n Rollercoaster: J(2) Bo(2) Z (2) E (2) N ( ) Br( )

Kali River Rapids: J( 2) Bo(1) Z (2) E (2) N (4) Br(4)

*Millennium Falcon: Smugglers’ Run: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N ( ) Br( )

Smuggle some free popcorn into this place.

Mission Space: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N (1) Br(1)

The Seas with Nemo: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N (1) Br(1)

Test Track: J( ) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N ( ) Br( )

Living with the Land: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N (1) Br(1)

Spaceship Earth: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N (1) Br(1)

Mexico Pavilion ride: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N ( ) Br( )

Kilimanjaro Safari

Kilimanjaro Safari: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N (1) Br(1)

Spaceship Earth: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N (1) Br(1)

Flight of Peter Pan: J(1 ) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N ( 1) Br (1 )

Toy Story Mania is a winne with these guys!

Toy Story Mania: J(2) Bo(2) Z (2) E (2) N (3) Br(3)

Pirates of the Carribean: J(1) B( 1) Z ( 1) E ( 1) N ( 4) Br (4 )

Little Mermaid: J(1 ) Bo(1) Z ( 1) E (1) N (1) Br (1)

Haunted Mansion: J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N (1) Br (1)

Astro Orbiter

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin J(1) Bo(1) Z (1) E (1) N (1) Br(1)

People Mover: J( ) Bo( ) Z ( ) E ( ) N (4 ) Br (4 )

Astro Orbiters: J( ) Bo( ) Z (1 ) E (1 ) N ( ) Br ( )

= New ride for everyone

Zoe’s weekend, day 1 — The Force was with us (even as the traffic was against us)

Leave a reply

Zoe’s Family Weekend plans allowed many of us to cross visiting Tanglewood off our bucket lists, and it provided a true brush with greatness.

But we had to drive virtually the length of the Bay State during peak summer travel hours to get there.

Outing club

Actually, shoehorning Zoe’s weekend plans into this summer required significant special finagling. First, she needed to be retrieved at trail’s end from her ORHS Outing Club three-day trek along the spine of the White Mountains.

Then we needed to link up with the rest of the family at a centrally-located park-and-ride, as it would have been too time consuming to drive all the way back to Durham to pick everybody up. We really considered and planned this venture for quite some time, and realized it would take fairly split-second timing to pull everything off.

Unfortunately, the highways and byways of eastern and central Massachusetts did not facilitate split-second timing on this particular Friday afternoon. Jen, Nadia and Lanie got held up on 495 and were late to our rendezvous in Tyngsboro. Google Maps painted a gloomy picture of backups in Worcester and beyond, while routing us around much of the 495 congestion via winding secondary roads.

The main casualty of all this was Zoe’s shower, which she was supposed to nab during a quick visit to Grandma’s house on the way west — did I mention she had been hiking in the wilderness the previous three days? We would all have to sacrifice; there would be no visit to Grandma’s this evening if we were going to make the concert start time of 8 pm. (Don’t worry, Grandma fans, she factors into our plans later in the weekend.)

As we motored west, traffic eventually diminished, and we were treated to pleasant drive-throughs of a few pretty Berkshire towns, including Lee and Lenox. This region was definitely in its glory; summertime strollers were circulating in the downtowns, and the shops and cafes looked bright and eager for visitors. Still, we had to keep moving to make sure we got to our destination in good time.

You may be asking: Why all the rush? Why go nuts to get out to the Berkshires at the risk of health and hygeine?

In time for a nice picnic on the lawn — there’s the Shed in the background

Well, this wasn’t a typical Boston Pops performance. It was a performance of the Star Wars soundtrack in conjunction with a screening of the movie. It seemed like a worthwhile occasion to get ourselves to Tanglewood…

…And it did not disappoint. Upon arriving and jetisonning ourselves from our van (which we sometimes call the Milennium Falcon when we don’t call it Denty — fun fact) we were surrounded by peace and calm in a way that seldom happens in a field where thousands of cars are parked. It was a beautiful field with wonderful cars.

Also, it cost barely anything to get in. Jen and I paid $23 apiece and the kids were free (!). Less than 50 bucks for a evening’s entertainment is quite palatable. If we went to a movie at the local cineplex, it would have cost significantly more — and there wouldn’t be live accompaniment and there would have been just a regular parking lot, not a beautiful field with wonderful cars. So, Tanglewood is a pretty good deal.

As difficult as it is to believe, once you get inside the gates, there’s another field that is at least as nice — possibly nicer — than the one with the cars. It’s flat and laid out nicely around “the Shed,” a covered pavlion with three walls open to the collected riff-raff on the lawn.

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

We arrived, unshowered, at around seven. Many people were already settled in, perhaps serveral hours into their Tanglewood experience. Our arrival time still allowed us to find some green space, set up our blankets and chairs, and break into our picnic dinner. Surrounded by thousands of fellow picnicers, though not so close we felt smothered, we did the first leisurly thing of the day — enjoy a lovely summer evening. There was a gentle buzz of excited talk all around. Relaxed movement danced in our peripheral vision, and occasionally a swirling light saber or billowing Darth Vader cape would draw attention away from the cheese, tomato, and bread sandwiches on which we dined.

The sky gradually dimmed. the buzz picked up a little, and then a bell rang. Then it rang again. The show was about to start!

Zoe, Lanie and Jen took some blankets and found space near the front of the lawn where it was easier to see the musicians. They settled in just in time to hear the first music of the night — not the opening chords of the Star Wars theme, but the snare drum leading to horns for the 20th Century Fox theme.

Then came the opening crawl and the iconic theme.

From my and Nadia’s vangate on the lawn, we could just make out conductor Keith Lockhart’s arms giving time and direction, but mostly our attention was on the screen high on the side of the Shed. It was A New Hope, the newest version, with the added scenes of Han Solo talking to Jabba, etc. The muisc was…well, if one weren’t looking at the performers, it was easy to forget they were there. The music was just as emotive as the original soundtrack, powerful at some points, tender at others. It was perfectly cued and seamlessly performed. I consider it a compliment to say the musicians did not stand out.

They did work, though. I did gather during the performance that there is a lot of music in this movie. The orchestra was much more likely to be playing than not. One note: the music during the Cantina scene was provided by the original soundtrack. I guess the Pops didn’t have a steel drummer on hand to give it a try.

We all reassembled during intermission (which came just as the Milennium Falcon was coming for a landing inside the Death Star) and we all watched the second half from our spot on the lawn. Just as the end credits started rolling, however, we packed up our stuff and headed to the front to catch a final glimpse of the performers. An interesting note about this screening of Star Wars was that the performance was not over when the movie ended. There was still a considerable amount of music to be played during the credits, and exciting music at that.

Spoiler alert: The Death Star blows up.

It definitely gives a different perspective to the music when you see the whole ensemble working away at it. It is a picture of motion and intensity, giving weight to what sounds light and effortless. It was beautiful to see and to hear. At this point everyone had been part of a few hours’ worth of music, and they finished strong. (At this point, remember, they had been [erforming for more than an hour.)

As a very special, added bonus, as the musicians took their third and fourth bows, Conductor Lockhard exited the pit and returned with legendary composer John Williams, himself, or someone we took to be John Williams. I admit I’m not sure what he’s supposed to look like, but this guy matched what I would have expected. Also, everyone clapped even harder when he came out.

Another spoiler alert: John Williams is Keith Lockhart’s father! Wait, we don’t learn that until next year’s The Empire Strikes Back concert.

This was particularly exciting for Zoe, who has been listening frequently to movie soundtracks, particularly those composed by John Williams, ever since we received a CD set of the Star Wars soundtrack from our friends the Palmers several years ago. I think she would have preferred to see Maestro Williams over any pop star out there today.

If you’d like a taste of how it looked and sounded, click on this link: See the big finale.

With a nice glow radiating around us — it might have had something to do with the Force — we trekked back across the lovely field, loaded our stuff into the van, and enjoyed the fruits of our relatively late arrival. We had parked about 50 feet from the exit and were able to pull out within seconds of starting the van. What wonderful cars for letting us in!

After that, we found our way to a nearby a motor lodge where we had two rooms reserved. Road weary and still hearing the strains of the Main Theme in our heads, we were all set to fall asleep — as soon as Zoe took her shower.

Lanie’s Day 2: Virtually Foolproof Vacation Planning

Leave a reply

In-town fancy breakfast

The second day of “Lanie Weekend” started off as a relaxing sleep-in morning; but as soon as we were ready, we packed up and checked out. We put our belongings in the car and walked to a local cafe to eat. After breakfast we headed to Attitash. Attitash is a ski moutain in the winter, but in the summer it has alipine slides, bungee trampolines, water features, and much more.

Not keeping her eye on the road

Our first stop was, of course, the alpine slide. You have to take a ski lift to get to the top, and then get little cart on wheels, which you controll with a lever in the middle: forward to accelarate, backwards to break. You roll on a long slide decending down the moutain. I ended up going slower then everyone else, because of how much lighter I am, but it was still fun.

Bungee flip

Next Zoe, Nadia, and I went on the bungee trampoilne (Mom and Dad declined). It’s basically a trampoline that you jump on, but you are fitted out in a harness and conected to 2 mechanical arms via bungee cords. The operater raises the mechanical arms, stretching the cords, therefore making it easiar to bounce. You go much higher than on a regular trampoline, so it’s easy to do flips.

I did this.

We did many other things that before lunch, including an air bag jump, were you jump on to an enormas inflatable cushion , the climbing wall, the mountain coaster, and, most memorably, the waterslides. There were 2 different stations of water slides. One you rode on mats down 3 different slides ( I somehow managed to flip myself around during one ride), and hit the 3 ft deep pool with a huge splash.

Hot day: good day for the water slide

The other you rode down one big slide in tubes for 1, 2, and 3 people. You could also ask the attendent to spin you, or send you down backwards ( I did both in turn). Both were a great way to cool off on the super hot day.

….and the other water slide

Lanie Leads the Way

1 Reply

Introduction

Since everyone was busy this summer, what with work, violin camp, field hocky and collage visits, we didn’t have the time for any big trips. Instead, Zoe, Nadia and I were given a $1,000 budget and the challange to plan a two- day outing for the whole family (ed. and to fit it into our complex summer schedule). I had alot of different ideas, including a hiking trip to the AMC huts, and a expodition to Boston, but this is finally what I decided on:

Day 1, The Great Outdoors

The day started in the same way all great traval days start, with an early wake-up call — for me especially, as I had to get up before my sisters to make a run to the store with Mom. The reason was to gather ingredients for each person in our family to form a trail mix to enjoy on the hikes to come. My trail mix was compiled of Goldfish, peanuts, dried apricots, chocolate covered pretzels, Swedish Fish, and watermelon candy. After everyone had made their trail mix, we set off, leaving Daisy to be picked up by our neighbors who would be taking care of her.

In about 2 hours, we had reached the trail head that would give us directions to the Cathedral LedgeTrail via another trail. After about 30 minuets of wandering around in the woods, owing to the fact that the sign that was supposed to tell us where to turn was not where it was supposed to be, we reached the start of the trail.

The path proved to be increasingly steep and hard to navigate, and we had to stop continually to rest and drink water. It was all worth it ,however, when we reached the summit. The veiw was beaudiful, and the top of the bluff was crowded with wild blueberry bushes. The way down was easiar yet more dangeres because of the steep slopes, but everyone made it down in one peice.

After that, we headed off to lunch.

After eating lunch at a local restaraunt, Delaney’s Hole-In-The Wall Tavern, we were on our way again.

Next stop: Diana’s Baths, a beaudiful state park right near where we were staying. It’s essintally a series of natral swimming holes, wading pools, and natrual water slides (if you know where to look and are brave enough to take the plunge).

Lanie takes the plunge

We all split up, going our seprate ways, exploring the baths. The water was cold, but not freezing, and very refreshing after the hot morning of hiking. After we had all had enough swimming, we went to our hotel, the Eastern Slopes Inn, to rest before dinner.

After dinner at the American Flatbread Company (right there off the lobby of our hotel!) and a good night’s sleep, we were ready to take on the new day.

The final curtain

1 Reply

Al comes out of his shell

Our last full day in China, and we’re not resting on our laurels here. We were up early to get ready for our final performance, at the Confucious institute. This was the group that helped bring us to China, and has served as our helpful and hospitable hosts while we’ve been here, so we were happy to visit their headquarters for one last show.

We’re mostly running like a well-oiled machine by now, but traffic delayed our progress this morning. Luckily this was a smaller and more informal concert, for employees and students at the institute, so it didn’t seem to cause many problems (though we did have to skip our planned visit to the Summer Palace afterward).

That’s me, Tom, and Dave, valiantly climbing this large flight of stairs.

The concert was another success, despite a few technical issues. This was Al’s last chance, and sadly he still proved to be superfluous. Tom decided he deserved to come out of his case one time, to get a chance to see Confucious. The rest of us got to spend a little time wandering through the institute’s mini-museum, containing arts and crafts as well as interactive exhibits about other facets of China’s cultural history.

After one last huge lunch, it was time to head out of the city to the Badaling section of the Great Wall, about an hour and a half outside the city. Once again, the weather was chilly and damp (though fortunately not actually raining), and once again many of our group had not dressed entirely appropriately. I was definitely regretting my bare legs, but figured I would eventually warm up from exertion.

Tom and Michael were a big hit with the elderly Chinese ladies

From where we started the wide expanse of wall stretched away as far as the eye could see (which, given the damp mist, was actually not all that far) in both directions, climbing up and down over the steeply rolling hills and winding through the rugged terrain. It was mind-boggling to contemplate how much effort must have been involved to build this huge edifice in such challenging surroundings. Our guide told us that the Great Wall is also considered the largest cemetary in China, because so many people died during construction and were buried alongside or within the wall itself.

Our set off at various paces — this time I was wise enough not to attempt to join the fastest group — and began our trek. I can’t imagine trying to do it in the rain, because the steepness of the grade at some points was quite a challenge even in dry weather. You definitely want good tread on your shoes. There are watchtowers spaced out along the wall, and paths that you can take that run alongside as well. Along the north side, you can see the holes left for archers to use. It’s hard to imagine someone thinking this was a good place for a battle.

After one last round of gift shops (these proved to be rather pricy) it was time for our last dinner. Our guides had been promising a “surprise” all day, and I think some in our group had allowed themselves to hope that it involved the Pizza Hut we’d passed earlier — but it was not to be. The surprise was the famed Peking Duck dish, which consisted of duck covered in crispy skin that you put into thin tortilla-like wraps with plum sauce, onions, and cucumbers — much like the moo shu pork that you would get in an American restaurant. It was actually delicious, even if it was not covered in cheese. There was plenty of other food as well, and the scallion pancakes proved an enormous hit.

Stasko family rocks the house

We were in the top section of our restaurant all by ourselves, and there was a large stage that of course could not go to waste. Our guides, who were very fun and entertaining, had been working valiantly to keep everyone from falling into an exhausted stupor on the buses, by encouraging singing performances and contributing some themselves. Now the kids were eager to show what they could do, and quite a few instruments made their way into the restaurant. The drummer in the group even went out to the bus and retrieved poor, neglected Al — who finally got his day in the sun. Turns out, when fully assembled, he turns into a fancy drum with a foot pedal. Tom was tearing up a bit, as he photographed “Al’s first recital”.

“Victoria” and “Christina” take their turn (that’s Al in the background).

The kids (and our guides) had a great time doing some final silly singing and dancing together, and it was the perfect way to wrap up the trip. There was a lot of laughing (and a few tears) as everyone got ready to say goodbye to their China families and return back to real life.

As we got ready for our final morning, initially we thought we’d get to sleep in a little (for the first time on the whole trip). Sadly, the political conference that’s happening has resulted in unpredictable road closings and traffic snarls — so it was 7am breakfast once again, even though

The start of the Urals

our flight didn’t leave until 2pm. No one wanted to contemplate the prospect of having our group of 70 people miss that flight.

As it turned out, we got to the airport with plenty of time, and go through all the various hurdles with no difficulty. The Palmer/Pavlik family was at the front of the line this time, which allowed us to snag some window seats. And it sure was worth it, as we flew north over the stunning Ural mountains. Their start looked like they’d been placed there by machinery — a straight line in the ground, with flat plains on one side and large mountains on the other. As we continued north, frozen rivers snaked among the peaks, which eventually became snow-covered as we approached the Arctic.

The windows on the plane didn’t have shades, but instead controls to darken them. Unfortunately, the powers that be on Hainan Airlines decided that it was bedtime (at 6pm) and darkened all the windows. It was very frustrating to see the beautiful views fade to black. But we were all thrilled to see Boston appear several hours later, and even happier to see that we hadn’t lost anyone when we got off the plane. Our yellow school buses transported us back to the middle school, where there were many joyous reunions. We chaperones were sad to see the trip end, but happy to hand our responsibilities back over to the parents!