October 20, 2024

Instead of going to London again for Fall Break – I didn’t write about that but last October Michael and I spent 4 days in a lovely hotel in Kensington, had some great meals at fantastic restaurants, saw three wonderful West End shows, an amazing special exhibit at the V&A, and met with the folks at the Royal College of Music for Princeton Music Department business – this year we rented a dog friendly house in Brewster, near the beach on Cape Cod Bay. The weather was cool and windy but it was wonderful to walk on the beach a block away. We had many wonderful meals, including lots of oysters from the local oyster farms, and visited all our favorite places. I guess we haven’t been here since we spread my mom’s ashes in Blueberry Pond and at Nauset Beach ten years ago. Some things have changed a lot, like the parking lot and entrance to Nauset Beach, and the campus of the now gone Cape Cod Sea Camps, but many things look exactly the same, which is comforting in such a changing world. Our schedule was very relaxed which was good for Michael. We usually spent a quiet morning at the house, set off for a short outing in mid-day and then found a place to walk on the flats at low tide, which was at 3, 4 and 5pm this week. Then we would come home and relax before finding someplace for dinner. Very chill. 

Louie had injured his neck again in agility and was on two weeks of restricted activity. It was fine not to have an enclosed yard and was good to keep him in the car for a lot of the time and take him on short walks in his new harness. He seemed to be feeling good, and by the end of the week we did let him run on the beach with a long 30’ leach. He even made some new dog friends in the neighborhood. It was sweet to revisit the old familiar places, and lovely to make new memories, visiting the beach below the lighthouse in Chatham, Cotuit harbor and marsh in Dennis, the Grist Mill and Herring Run in Brewster. It was also good to break the routine of being at home and just be someplace different.

On the way home we stopped at the Battleship Massachusetts in Fall River.  Then on to Preston, CT to visit cousins Mike and Kathy Dickens at their farm. After a bit of grumpy barking and growling, Louie and Tessa had a nice reunion and enjoyed being together. Mike and Kathy were warm hosts and we shared delicious food and fun conversation to complete our lovely fall get-a-way.

June 11, 2023

We had this trip mostly planned for June of 2020 and my 60^th birthday, but COVID struck, and we cancelled it along with everything else. Luckily, we hadn’t bought plane tickets or paid any money to the tour organizer. Then, one January afternoon in Maui as I meditated on the hillside overlooking the sea and islands, the thought floated into my mind, “I think it is our 40^thanniversary this June…we should take that trip to Greece!”  It was very easy to reconstruct the itinerary with the incredibly helpful travel agent, Takis, who plans trips for the Hellenic Studies Department at PU. Prices were more expensive than they were in 2020, but still very reasonable compared to the rest of Europe. Traveling in early June we were also very lucky with the weather, which was cool and cloudy before the blistering heat of the summer set in.

After an uneventful direct flight from Newark to Athens, we arrived in Greece on June 11, our anniversary day. We were met at the airport and taken to our lovely hotel, the Herodion, only a short walk to the Acropolis Museum and charming Plaka district. We walked around a bit and rested in the afternoon before a delicious cocktail at the hotel’s rooftop bar, followed by a magnificent dinner at the famous Dionysis Restaurant overlooking the south face of the Acropolis – a suitably grand way to celebrate this major milestone in our relationship!