New England Trip - Mystic!

Mystic is a pretty little seaport town in Connecticut.  We loved the church steeple on the hill and the ship weather vane on the Ancient Mariner.

We arrived in this pictuesque town early one morning, eager to spend the day at sea on a three-masted schooner.  We walked around until it was time to meet the crew and fellow guests at the dock. 

 Soon we were on board -- here's our very capable captain at the wheel.

We passed Captain's Row, where gentlemen sailors once waited in their stately homes for a call to captain a ship.

We passed other schooners and boats,

 some with crews busy at work.

 

As it would happen, the Charles W. Morgan had just been launched the previous week 

so we got to see her in the Mystic River!  She is a 172 year old whaling ship.  

You can read more about her history by clicking here.

Finally we were ready to pass through the bascule bridge and out into the Fisher Island Sound.  You know that saying, "You learn something new every day?"  We all assumed it was a regular old draw bridge, though I did notice the large weights when we walked across it earlier.  If you really want to know more about what makes it a bascule bridge, you can read more about it here.  

Lowering back down...

There was also a train track running across the water and as I watched an Amtrak train go over it, I wondered how that bridge worked!  

 

 It swivels!

Out in the sound, we saw islands

 and lighthouses

 and houses on the water...

 And then the wind picked up and the water began moving!

 It was time to raise the sails!

 

Then we just enjoyed the views -- like these three houses once owned by three monks.  The house on the very end has no electricity or plumbing and is little more than a shack.  It recently sold for $640,000, we're told!  Location, location, location.

We had packed a picnic lunch and kicked back! 

It was a little overcast, but that kept us a bit cooler than if the sun had been beating down.

We sailed around Fisher Island, crossing into New York waters and back again, and all too soon it was time to return back to the Mystic Harbor and through the bridges.  Back on land, we walked through a couple of antique stores, stopped for ice cream, and drove over to Stonington, Connecticut.

This post is getting quite long, so stay tuned for the rest of our day at Mystic!

Home Organnization - Zee Garage and Studio

While it's been great reliving my New England vacation thanks to blogger land, the majority of my past week has been spent on that home organization project. 

Thanks to Toni at A Bowl Full of Lemons there is a blueprint to follow.  Check out her Blog Series called Home Organization 101.  I'm skipping around on the sequence she suggested as I needed to tackle the garage first while the weather is cooperative to an open door and hauling things out on the driveway or into the trunk for the Goodwill.  The other big area is my studio -- it has become a second storage area and is just as overwhelming as the garage.  So I'm tackling BOTH of them.  Glutton for punishment here.

Did you know that four banker boxes of paper fluffs up and E-X-P-A-N-D-S  to 10 large trash bags of shredding?  My trunk, back seat and front seat were filled to the max as I left for the county recycle center yesterday!

 

Glad that's over!  Another trunk full of old printers and miscellaneous stuff was donated to the Goodwill (second trip in the last week).  Feels so good to get all that stuff outta here!  And I am making headway -- look at the freshly polished computer desk sans stacks of file folders which were on each side of the keyboard.

Seeing a nicely organized and cleaned area is so motivating to carry on.

New England Trip - USS Constitution

Back to Boston!  Once on the hop-on-hop-off trolley we rode past the field where the Great Molasses Disaster (aka the Great Molasses Flood) happened.  This disaster occurred in 1919, in the North End of Boston.  A large molasses storage tank burst and molasses poured through the streets at an estimated 35 mph, killing 21 people and injuring 150 more. Legend has it that on a hot summer day the area still smells of molasses.  

We hopped off the trolley at the USS Constitution.  What a glorious old ship! 

 

 

 

On board we explored all three decks, climbing up and down narrow, steep stairways or ladders.  We saw where they made the ammunition.  Each cannon had a name such as Liberty or Victory.

 

Down another deck we found where the men slept -- 

hammocks like cocoons hung waiting for weary bodies. 

 

 The captain's quarters were much nicer!

Apparently Old Ironsides was used as a model for the movie "Master and Commander" 

and I could envision her on the open seas.

 A little history....

 

After leaving the ship we walked over to the USS Constitution Museum, 

passing this dry dock where they built ships.

The museum was wonderful -- great displays and a fabulous gift shop where we purchased several postcards and souvenirs.

From there we hopped back on the next trolley and finished our tour of Boston.  I just had to snap this picture of the steaming tea kettle.  You can't see the steam in this photo, but there was steam coming from it!  The kettle was built in 1873 for the Oriental Tea Company.  (Lucky Starbucks for securing that location!)

So ended our day in Boston.  It was a great start to our vacation! 

Next stop -- Mystic, Connecticut!

A Trip to New England ~ Boston!

Every year my sisters and I get together -- a pact we made when our mom died 17years ago.  When dad was still with us, we would take turns having everyone to our houses.  Now we have decided to start exploring other destinations -- this year it was New England. I took the red eye to Providence, Rhode Island, arriving around noon on a Saturday.  Funny story -- I was the first to arrive and headed for the ladies' room.  I opened my stall door and who should be next in line to enter but my sister Chris!  Haha!  We did the "fancy meeting you here" line, and then headed down to meet our sister Linda.  Coming from three completely different parts of the country we all arrived in Providence within an hour of each other and with our gates right next to each other.

We made Providence our home base as it was easy to get to various places we wanted to see from there.  Boston was one of the first places on our list, so we headed there Sunday morning.

We started at the Visitors Center on the Boston Commons to pick up maps and get the lay of the land.  We decided to take a guided tour along the Freedom Trail.  Our guide was dressed in complete colonial garb and knew her history and lots of stories!

The beautiful Massachusetts State House stands proudly on Beacon Hill (land once owned by John Hancock) -- and as our guide aptly pointed out, they built it and then planted a big tree right in front of it!  Ye gads! 

But we were able to see it from the other side of the tree later in the day...

As you can see, they are working on it, but the dome was originally made of wood.  After leaking, Paul Revere's company covered it in copper (which turned green) and then it was gilded with gold.  It's a pretty building, built in 1798.

We then walked past the historic Park Street Church...

...to the Granary Burying Ground (started in 1660) where our guide pointed out the graves and shared stories of people from our history books such as James Otis:

Paul Revere:

Samuel Adams:

and John Hancock:

As the morning wore on, the heat and humidity began getting to us and with a pub across the street we decided to cheat and sneak away from the tour a little before it was over.  Air conditioning, rest for tired feet, cold drinks and delicious food revived us, and by the time we left the pub we were ready to continue on the Freedom Trail on our own!

It took us past the Old City Hall:

The Old South Meeting House (from 1729) where Samuel Adams gave the signal to launch the Boston Tea Party:

 The Old State House -- the Boston Massacare occurred just in front of the building and the first reading for Bostonians of the Declaration of Independence was read from that balcony!

And the bustling Quincy Market place.

From there we walked a couple more blocks and picked up the hop-on-hop-off trolley to the USS Constitution.  That will be the next post!

Loved Boston, the history and spirit!

Three Glorious Weeks

Summer is in full bloom.  In Monterey, that means temps in the 60's and generally wonderful walking and working weather!   I spent four weeks at the beginning of summer providing summer school speech therapy.  Two of my colleagues and I job-shared two positions and ended up working half days on four day work weeks.  One of the best parts was sharing therapy ideas, materials and organizational tips, making us almost (note I said almost) look forward to starting the new school year. 

In July I flew down to Southern California for a weekend to join DAR friends at the State headquarters in order to plan for the new year.  We had a great time and they gave me the same room I had last year.  See the window under the chimney in the dormer room on the right?  That's the one!  It's a small bedroom with twin beds and a dresser, decorated with antique dolls, toys, and quilts. I can crank open the window at night and feel a cool breeze, so refreshing!  All 15 of us stay right in the headquarters -- an old Craftsman style house with many bedrooms and bathrooms and a large dining room where we can sit around the table, discuss and take notes.  At night we ate supper al fresco on the shady back patio.  For lunch we walked the two blocks to a cafe in the historic downtown.  My favorite "take five" place was that covered front porch where there is wicker furniture and soft cushions -- no one else seemed to go there so it was a nice quiet spot to be alone and think.  It was really a lovely weekend.

Now I have three glorious weeks left of summer vacation before heading back to the therapy room.  As always I have lots of projects to complete, including a top to bottom re-organizing of my house.  I tackled the kitchen earlier this week, taking every thing out of the cupboards, washing things, purging, reconfiguring spaces. Now three boxes of old mugs, vases, platters, and other such items are waiting for the Goodwill (making that trip today), one box is for my daughters' apartment, and the rest is so junky no one would want it so it's going in the trash.  Out with the old expired food, in with reorganizing the spices, meds/vitamins and food cupboards.  Even the junk drawer got an overhaul.  (Can you tell I like to organize?)

Then I decided I better venture into the garage.  Crikey!  My rule of thumb was that I needed to be able to park two cars in the garage, but when the girls moved out three years ago their car space began collecting an item here and an item there until -- yikes -- half of that space is a hodge-podge of clutter.  So much "stuff" has accumulated throughout the garage again that it's almost overwhelming to figure out where to begin.  So I decided to tackle it one section at a time, starting with the two large work benches.  Under one work bench was old paint -- some from 10 years ago!  I filled my entire trunk with old paint and pesticides and made the trek to the city hazardous waste center.  That opened up a tremendous amount of space!  Studying the work benches I realized that two shelves were filled with power tools that I will never use.  They were my husband's and if I haven't used them in ten years, I doubt I ever will -- plus some are starting to rust.  So I called my gardener and asked him if he wanted to stop by and he could have any of these tools he wanted.  He took them all, to my delight -- I love to see things go to a good home!  I stored the drill and bits in a plastic storage box, and of course kept the saws, hammers, screwdrivers, pliers, nails, etc., etc. that I do use regularly.  Work benches are done.  I reorganized the garden tools and other items in the open storage shelf section on that wall and called it a day.

I planned to dive back into the garage the next day, but the tendonitis in my left ankle has been bothering me all week and yesterday I could hardly walk on it.  Using the RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) method, I stayed off of it and did computer work for a day.  By the way, never underestimate the power of compression.  It wasn't until I wrapped my ankle with an elastic bandage that I really experienced a significant difference.  Today it is much better and I am going to gingerly move back into organizing the garage after I drop off at Goodwill and visit Target for some more good storage boxes.  I've got loads of old papers to shred, so if I need a break I can always sit down, rest my ankle, and shred away. 

This has not been a particularly fascinating post, but I do have something much more fun to report!  Toward the end of July I flew to New England for a vacation with my two sisters!  We had so much fun!  Watch for my posts about that!  

That's all for now!  Have a wonderful day!