True Colors

Fall represents a very special time of the year. The lands bounty is being harvested. The temperatures begin to feel cool maybe even crisp. But nothing says fall more than the changing colors of autumn leaves. Did you know that the season we call “fall” is the only season with two names? The word 'autumn' is derived from the French word "automne", and became popular in usage for the season since the 16th century. The North American name for the season, 'fall', probably derived as a contraction of the phrase "fall of the leaves", has since become interchangeable with autumn.

Leaf Peeping – With the first day of autumn this past Sunday behind us, Tuesday morning found us following our noses (ok our GPS mapping program) on a drive to upper New Hampshire and Vermont. As we drove into woods, we could not help but let out a little gasp as the colors of the foliage season enveloped us. Mother Nature’s fashion show is featuring some of the most vibrant colors in several years or so says the locals. Red is very big and under a clear blue sky, it absolutely pops out and makes you just pause for a moment. Although the weather has a certain feel of summer to it (it’s over 80 degrees), the air is clear and the sky, aside from a few wispy clouds, is a deep blue. We can’t tell you precisely when peak foliage will be, but we can tell you we found the fall colors awe inspiring this last week of September. In reality they say there is no precise definition of “peak fall foliage”. For us we feel the most beauty is when there is still some green mixed in with the reds and oranges. So this last trip into northern New Hampshire and Vermont was a wonderful experience and did not disappoint.

Lost in the Woods? – I let the GPS plot our trip and well I think it had a somewhat “senior moment” or something. The road became narrow then turned to gravel and finally turned into a one lane dirt road before the “Posted, No Trespassing” sign was blocking our way. Mellie was not pleased but for me this is what you call a bonus scenic side trip. It took us an hour or so to backtrack out of the farm and back to “normal highways” but boy what a tour of the Vermont farmland!

Ben & Jerry’s – To create a sort of purpose to our wanderings through upper Vermont we decided to visit the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory. Ok so it was because of the free samples, at any rate the visit was quite interesting. The beautiful weather, actually rather hot, made for a perfect day to enjoy a little ice cream and have a picnic lunch on the factory grounds. The free samples for the day were mint chocolate chunk (mint ice cream made with all natural peppermint extract & fudge chunks) but after our picnic lunch we purchased our selected favorites at the scoop shop. Mine was a new flavor, cinnamon buns (caramel ice cream with cinnamon bun dough & a caramel cinnamon streusel swirl) and Mellie selected Crème Brûlée (sweet custard ice cream with a caramelized sugar swirl). So can you blame us? With concoctions like that who could resist?

Road revelation #18 – Don’t be afraid to take a country road. Sometimes life sends us down a path that seems confusing or maybe even a bit scary. But don’t live life so safely that you never take a risk or challenge. You never know what may be at the end of the road even if it is only a “do not trespass” sign. You will at least be able to say I’ve done that/ been there!

It's All About ME

Maine that is (for those of you who don’t know ME is the abbreviation for Maine). Maine is an interesting place to visit, not at all like what I expected. But then, those of us from California have a rather biased point of view. I expected cold, it was actually in the 80’s. I expected rocky unwelcoming beaches. Although we saw these, I was surprised by the many nice sandy beaches for swimming. And the people were actually very friendly.


A Maine Icon, LL Bean – You just can’t visit Maine without doing a little shopping at the LL Bean flagship store in Freeport. This place is amazing! It is huge with three levels, departments for men’s wear, women’s wear, kid’s wear, footwear, outdoor gear, luggage, home and gifts department. It’s is so full of stuff that they had to open separate stores for hunting & fishing supplies and a bike, boat & ski store. To top it off the place is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Now that’s retail savvy. Founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean, the company has grown from a one-man operation to a global organization with annual sales of $1.5 billion. A good example of Maine stick-to-it-ness.

The Atlantic – Having been way from the ocean for many, many weeks (except for the brief visit to Cape Cod) it was great to be on the Atlantic coast. We enjoyed the smell of the sea air and the sounds of the surf. In the evenings we took long walks on the beach for our exercise. The air was warm and it felt so good. Somehow we managed to arrive here in the mist of a record breaking heat wave, in late September no less. To make it even more enjoyable there was a harvest moon this week so even when the sun went down it was still light outside.







Kennebunkport - To me, the Kennebunks (there is Kennebunk the town and Kennebunkport the port…duh) represent the best that the Maine coast has to offer. There is architectural treasure of historic sea captains' homes, a working fishing port combined with modern pleasure boats docked between cruises to the ocean, plus a thriving, diverse artists' community. On the edge of the port, on Walker Point is the Bush compound or summer residence. The Bush compound, firstly Walker's Point, is the summer home of 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush. The property has been a family retreat for more than a century. The estate was first purchased by St. Louis banker George H. Walker in the late 19th century; he built the mansion in 1903. The estate was later sold to his daughter Dorothy Walker Bush and her husband Prescott Bush ( George senior’s parents) and has remained in the Bush family since.

The Lighthouse - The Cape Neddick Lighthouse stands on Nubble Island about 200 yards off Cape Neddick Point. The lighthouse is commonly known as Nubble Light or simply, The Nubble. Cape Neddick Point is at the north end of Long Beach in the village of York Beach. Nubble Light is a famous American icon and a classic example of a lighthouse. We were so impressed with this lighthouse that we decided to visit it twice. The second time was in the evening so we could enjoy it by the light of the harvest moon.

Road Revelation #17 – Don’t believe everything you hear. My views on Maine and New England in general were biased and stereotypical. I often times feel offended when people do the same with their views of California. Keep an open mind and you just might be surprised.

Parlez-vous Francais?

Our wanderings this past week took us through the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the beautiful hills of Vermont, and even out of the country to a very foreign land, Quebec Canada. Even though officially fall does not start until the upcoming weekend, it felt very “fallish” outside. The trees must have felt the same way because many have begun to change their colors already. There was enough to cause more than one oooh or aaahh as we traveled through this beautiful countryside of New England.

New Hampshire White Mountains - From old carriage roads to timeless paths over the high peaks of the Presidential Range, the New Hampshire White Mountains have it all. Nowhere is autumn more enjoyable than here off the beaten path on a glorious fall day with the roads blaze with rich colors. This use to be home of the famous “Man of the Mountain” a rock formation on Cannon Mountain that resembled the craggy profile of a man until it fell in May 2003. . It must have been devastating to the locals seeing this rock formation crumble and fall. What to do with the thousands of Old Man of the Mountain trinkets ordered from China? No problem they still sell them in the stores and shops…. Whatever, it remains the state symbol of New Hampshire.

The Flume Gorge - A flume is a deep and narrow chute that is used to divert water from streams to transport logs down steep mountains or sometimes power mills. When this occurs naturally it is often referred to as a gorge. Instead of the deep chasm being formed with wooden planks they are formed with rock walls. This particular Flume is naturally occurring but was used as a log transport and power resource. It is called The Flume because those that found it were used to seeing the artificial flumes and thus referred to this natural wonder by the name they were familiar with. This was a beautiful 2 hour walk through the forest next to water falls, huge rock formations and amazing vistas of the surrounding mountains.

Vermont - Nearly a million and a half acres of Vermont land are in agriculture, sustaining the pastoral landscape that has made Vermont famous. Dairying is the primary farm industry in Vermont, producing approximately half the milk consumed in New England and home to companies like Ben & Jerry’s (makers of that famous ice cream). Vermont is America's largest producer of maple syrup and also produces substantial crops of Macintosh apples, potatoes, eggs, honey, vegetables, Christmas trees, lumber, pulp wood, and green house nursery products. If that isn’t enough it has down right beautiful scenery. As we drove though the state, it became clear that we would have to come back to this beautiful place.

Quebec, Oh Canada… After driving though Vermont we thought it would be fun to go over the US/ Canadian border into Quebec. At least that is what we thought. Oh the border crossing went smoothly (you know we have done this drill before). But instantly we are in a foreign land where we not only cannot understand what anyone is saying but to our horror all of the signs are in French, only French! The landscape was not much different from Vermont and New Hampshire and the trees are at about the same fall colors so after having a picnic lunch we turned the truck around and headed back to the good ole US. It was so nice to hear the US Customs official respond when we told him we had only been out of the US for a couple of hours “well, welcome home!”. Thanks we needed that.

Road Revelation #16 – Expect communication difficulties if you leave the home land. Now don’t get me wrong, I have traveled the world but was still taken aback by the lack of English in Quebec. I knew they spoke French but I thought it was Canadian law that everything was labeled in both French and English. Am I wrong? Or maybe that only applies to the other provinces and Quebec is immune to this law? Maybe my Canadian friends can help explain this “two faced, double standard” of theirs.

The Smell of Coffee

I love the smell of coffee on a cool fall morning. The nights are getting cooler, naw I think I can say cold! Last night it got down to 40 degrees but we are warm and cozy in our trailer. Over the past week we have seen summer days but fall nights are creeping up on us. But that’s ok because our mission right now is to do some serious leaf peeping. Leaf peeper is what the locals call those of us visiting to see the fall colors. So here we sit in the middle of a forest next to a stream near the White Mountains of New Hampshire. There are only a few hints of color so far so we will have to wait on that story in the next blog entry.

Gettysburg, Accidental Tourist – As we were moving through Pennsylvania towards Upstate New York, I was having difficulty contacting the selected RV park. Seems they would never answer their phone. So in a shift of plans we looked towards other areas and found a nice park just outside of Gettysburg. Gettysburg with its battle fields and cemeteries would be interesting enough I guess although after Washington DC and Arlington we were a bit worn out on stories of dead people. The Hershey factory in Hershey PA had sound much more entertaining, oh well maybe another time for that. We did end up enjoying our visit though and found Gettysburg a very interesting and friendly place. After all, how bad can it be when I was able to buy a fresh rhubarb pie from the nearby market? We bought some sweet corn too but it just does not compare to the Iowa corn.

I Love New York – at least that’s what they say. I think I can go along with that as long as you clarify that we are referring to Up State New York and not the city. We took a wide berth around the city just to make sure it stayed out of our way. Our primary target in New York was Niagara Falls. More than six million cubic feet of water fall over the crest line every minute in high flow, and almost 4 million cubic feet on average. It is the most powerful waterfall in North America. Which is probably why after parking our truck and walking a good distance to our first lookout over the falls looking down at this torrent of falling water I realized that I have to pee…really bad. Later after being fully relieved, we bought tickets to ride the imfamous Maid of the Mist boat. This boat takes you right up the to foot of the falls. They provide rain ponchos to help keep you dry but it didn’t work much for me anyway. I got soaked. Good thing it was still a warm day and I dried out quickly after our sorjourn to the falls. As you may know, the falls are on the US/ Canadian border and can be viewed from either country. We observed them from the US side and did not go over to the Canadian side although many say the best view is from there. They probably just say that as a way to make Canadians feel better (ha, ha just kidding my Canadian friends!).

Boston City of Good Taste – Would you believe it that a large US city can actually have great tasting tap water? It’s true. In Boston their water source is so pure that testing indicated that no filtering was necessary. A few years ago they switched their purification system from chlorine to ozone and the water tastes great! During our time near Boston we visited the Kennedy Presidential Library, Plymouth (home of the famous Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims) and had dinner on Cape Cod. There were so many things to see and do in this great city but we selected just these few so we could at least experience a small bit of Boston culture. It was well worth it. As we drove around, navigating round-abouts and narrow old city streets I mentioned to Mellie how different this feels compared to California with its wide streets and accommodating freeways. Maybe you get use to it but right now I miss California.

Road Revelation #15 – Consider an unanswered call for what it is and accommodate change. No sense wasting time trying to make plans that just refuse to be made. When things aren’t working out maybe its time to look in another direction. You never know what you might find.

A Walk Through Time

Our travels this week take us to Washington DC. Naturally we centered our visit on the National Mall and the Smithsonian. With over a dozen major museums and uncountable monuments, memorials and statues, there is no lack of things to see and do.

In 1826, James Smithson, a British scientist, drew up his last will and testament, naming his nephew as beneficiary. Smithson stipulated that, should the nephew die without heirs (as he would in 1835), the estate should go “to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” Bet you didn’t know that, I didn’t.

Air and Space Museum – One of my personal favorites, we spent quite a bit of time in this museum. I find all of the technical aspects of the displays fascinating (duh, I am an engineer). I think Mellie enjoyed it as well although I had to promise we would visit the Natural History Museum next, home of the Hope diamond and other bobbles, but back to the Air and Space. This place is full of history and explains quite eloquently, how flight, from the Wright brother to the flight to the moon, has really shaped what and who America is today.

Natural History Museum - The National Museum of Natural History is dedicated to understanding the natural world and our place in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah…which way to the precious stones? Second floor, to your right was the quick answer. The main building on the National Mall contains 1.5 million square feet of space overall and 325,000 square feet of exhibition and public space; altogether the Museum is the size of 18 football fields and has more than 125 million natural science specimens and cultural artifacts. Just to name a few of the museum holdings, the collections include 30 million insects carefully pinned into tiny boxes; 4½ million plants pressed onto sheets of paper in the Museum’s herbarium; 7 million fish in liquid-filled jars; and 2 million cultural artifacts, including 400,000 photographs housed in the National Anthropological Archives. So we skipped the stuffed animals and headed to the important stuff. Thankfully this jewelry store does not take Visa.

Monuments, memorials, oh my - It was a hot day and the walk was long but we just had to do it. The Washington Memorial is a world known icon of the American people. We passed on the climb to the top. The next stop was the World War II Memorial. It honors the 16 million who served in the armed forces of the U.S., the more than 400,000 who died, and all who supported the war effort from home. It was a touching memorial. I thought of my dad who served in the Pacific including the Philippines and Mellie thought of the stories told to her by her mother and the Japanese occupation. Toward the end of the mall we visited the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Veteran Memorial wall. Both are inspiring and thought provoking. If there is any negative thing to say about the National Mall is that you tend to become overloaded. There’s too much to see and absorb.

Road Revelation #14 – Always wear comfortable walking shoes. It would be a shame to miss out an opportunity to enjoy because you just had to wear “style” instead of “comfort”. Can you imagine we actually saw women on the Mall wearing high heels? For me a walk through time begs for nice sturdy tennis shoes.

The Land of Shenandoah

It’s September and we find ourselves in Virginia, nestled between the Blue Ridge and Massanutten Mountains in the fabled Shenandoah Valley. The weather is still hot as though it could be another one of those dog days of summer. But there is already a hint of fall colors in the leaves. Not much but it’s there none the less. Impressing on us the reality that we have no time to waste, we have to keep pushing on.

Shenandoah National Park – Breathtaking is the word that comes to mind. Gazing across the horizon from the peaks of Shenandoah National Park it’s hard to believe we are just 75 miles from the bustle of our nation’s capital, Washington DC. Skyline Drive takes us along the crest of the mountains through the woods and past spectacular vistas. Remember when driving was fun and relaxing? No? Well, a slow meander down Skyline Drive gives you a whole new driving experience. The Skyline Drive runs 105 miles north to south along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Shenandoah National Park.

Arlington National Cemetery - For the almost 4 million people who visit Arlington national Cemetery represents many differnt things. To me it reminds me of Honor, Valor and Loss. We spent the afternoon walking through the cemetery. JFK’s grave with Jacquelyn beside him was sobering. Bobby Kennedy’s grave is nearby, on a hill all by itself. It seems so sad, so alone. We continued on to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It stands atop a hill overlooking Washington, D.C. On March 4, 1921, Congress approved the burial of an unidentified American soldier from World War I in the plaza of the new Memorial Amphitheater. Later remains of unknowns from World War II , the Korean war and Vietnam war were put to rest here. Note: (The remains of the Vietnam Unknown were exhumed May 14, 1998. Based on mitochondrial DNA testing, DoD scientists identified the remains as those of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie, who was shot down near An Loc, Vietnam, in 1972. It has been decided that the crypt that contained the remains of the Vietnam Unknown will remain vacant.) I guess the Vietnam War will continue to baffle us.

Road Revelation #13 – Never forget the past. It is a sobering experience to walk through the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. To me it reminds me of my younger days being drafted to serve the country and how luck (or was it’s God’s grace) provided me with the opportunity to not be sent to Vietnam but instead to stay out of harm’s way. No, we must never forget the sacrifices of these brave souls, we must not forget the past but learn from it.