Summer Holiday ~ USA

by Kate

This is the second half of What We Did on Our Summer Vacation. Part one can be found here.

Boston

The Seeleys have landed.

On July 14th we crossed our final border at Logan International Airport and arrived in the States. We spent the next two nights with Grandma and Grandpa Seeley at Karl's childhood home in Newton, Massachusetts, which allowed for a brief visit with Karl's parents, his sisters Mara and Lauren, and Lauren's family. Then we headed off to Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire for a family reunion with my mother's clan. My whole family (parents, my two brothers and their families) were in attendance. Which means within 48 hours of landing in the US, we had a chance to spend time with both sets of grandparents and almost all of the aunts, uncles, and cousins. (And by early August, we finally got to see Karl's brother, Joe, and his family.)

Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire

The weekend included lots of eating and family time punctuated with swimming and boating. Here are Ben and Garrett with their cousin Nora demonstrating their slipknot skills while tying my cousin to a dock chair.

A knotty situation for David

Karl and Tom, another cousin and David's brother, return from a paddle along the shoreline.

Finally, on the 19th, we headed for Oneonta. Home.

Oneonta, New York

Yup, the place looked the same. If a little spartan without our furniture and rugs. And pictures on the wall. And clutter.

A major reason we wanted to get home when we did was so Ben could celebrate his birthday, July 23rd, with Nate and Alex, his best buddies. And he had a great time. Right up until the trip to the ER.

Ben will always remember his 9th birthday party.

But one finger-slamming door brought the birthday sleepover to a painful end for Ben. Fortunately it was morning, and we'd already had the pancakes.

As I mentioned (in the previous post), re-entry to our real life was pretty tough. It was strange to be back in a familiar setting that now seemed distant. It was awful to confront the empty house across the street, the house of our neighbors Stan and Marti and Alex. Stan and Alex were on the west coast visiting family. They would be home at the end of the month. But Marti passed away in June. She wouldn't be coming home again.

Sleep during these days was fitful. I knew I was getting depressed. Finally the dam burst, and I had several good, hard crying jags. The release was immense, and I was able to sleep. Still, I was relieved when we left Oneonta after ten days to hit the road for our usual summer travel.

Ferry Beach, Maine

Sunrise on the boardwalk to the beach.

For the last three years, we've attended a family camp on the coast of Maine at the Ferry Beach Park Association, a Unitarian Universalist affiliated camp. We all love it. The families and folks that attend are warm and talented and fascinating. The week is chock full of activities, perhaps too full. But that's our problem. Who wants to prioritize and choose a discrete number of events? We want to do it all!

On top of being full, the days are long, especially for little guys (and their dad) who decide to participate in the 7am polar bear dunks.

Polar bears line up and roar as they galumph into the "arctic" waters together.

Brrrr!

Some of us prefer to watch from a distance.

The boys attend morning programs with kids their age. Each year I've participated in a writing group workshop (that culminates with a public reading event at the end of the week that feels both scary and powerful). Karl's mixed things up a bit -- the first year he joined a cycling group for morning rides, last year he helped lead one of the kids' programs, and this year he opted to use the mornings to get to some of his own work.

We try to build in downtime each day after lunch as the afternoons are busy as well. Tie dying, walks at the tidal pools with the park ecologist, U-Ulympics ... there's always something going on. Wednesday is the sand castle contest. The creations are judged by none other than the Sea God and Goddess themselves.

The deities acknowledge their devotees.

Our team of boys built King Kong Castle, which included a deep ditch dubbed King Kong's grave. Their entry captured the Circle of Life award, as the Gods noted the cradle-to-grave theme.

All teams that participated won awards (coupons for ice cream cones). It's a UU camp -- what did you expect?

Karl toots his own horn at the Thursday night talent show.

Meredith, New Hampshire

From Ferry Beach we returned to New Hampshire, this time near Lake Winnepesaukee where Karl's parents and his sister's family have vacation homes. Grandma and Grandpa Seeley's house on Randlett Pond has no television or wireless connection, so activities are strictly of a low-tech nature: swimming and canoeing on the pond, reading, napping, playing board games, blueberry picking ... in short, it's heaven.

Garrett, Lucas, Jake and Ben with blueberry booty.

Auntie Lauren and Uncle Blaise's place has high-tech connectivity, plus low-tech diversions: a swimming pool, frog pond for kayaking and catching critters, a fire pit (to ignite every boy's pyro tendencies). It's all good.

Kayak cousin battle teams

New York, take two

Our time in New England helped ease us back to our real life, the summer joys we treasure Stateside: relaxed time with our families, renewing our appreciation for the northeast's coastal and inland landscape, deepening connections with camp friends in Maine, movies in English (no small thing!). We returned to Oneonta, this time refreshed from our summer travel rather than overwhelmed by our year away. It helped that before we left we were able to get the house more or less unpacked and reconfigured as our home.

And we still had several weeks of summer to enjoy. What's a family to do in rural upstate New York during the dog days of August?

Delaware County Fair

Relish the simple pleasures of a county fair, such as ...

Admiring the livestock ~

A 4H-er prepares his wooly friend for her close-up.

Andréa is clearly impressed with this blue ribbon Light Brahma chicken.

Sasha, Garrett, and Ben review the rabbits.

A farmer catches a few zzz's on Bessie.

Wilbur?

Learning a little about animal husbandry ~

Eating fried dough and enjoying the carnival rides ~

Bumper car buddies

Andréa and Isabelle go for a spin.

Hoedown in the Blow Down

Revel in a homegrown music festival ~

For more than ten years, our friends Randy and Karen have hosted what started as an informal weekend of music in late August. And while it certainly has provided a great venue for Randy's band, The Horseshoe Lounge Playboys, the Hoedown in the Blow Down has grown to become a highly anticipated summer event on the Oneonta music calendar. They now charge a reasonable cover fee for adults which allows them to book local and regional acts. The music starts Friday afternoon and lasts well into Sunday morning.

Randy (in the hat) joins Wayne and Rebecca on vocals.

Randy built this stage on the edge of his property. Neighbors Shannon and Jim open up their field for camping, horseshoes, and general frolicking.

Our buddies Rich, Chris and Rich.

Rich and Rich are two-thirds of Tumbledown Shack, a Grateful Dead cover band that kicked off the Saturday lineup at 11am. Which, unfortunately, was a little too early for us. I always enjoy hearing them, even if they seem a little flustered by my incessant requests for "Franklin's Tower."

Best seat in the woods!

Kids and camping are free and encouraged. We bring the kids, but we don't camp. I enjoy my sleep too much.

Rob and Liz on the horseshoe court.

Beer stand for horseshoe contestants.

We started attending the Hoedown four years ago, and frankly it's one of my favorite things about Oneonta.

Homegrown fun

All weekend long

Pie in the Sky

Upstate New York boasts some pretty sweet farmstands, but none can beat our local haunt, Pie in the Sky in Otego.

The friendly folks here carry whatever fruit and vegetable is in season, maple and honey products, homemade ice cream, and, of course, pie.

You can settle down at a table to play chess or checkers, or work on a jigsaw puzzle over a bowl of chili. Kids love checking out the indoor (glassed-in) beehive which bees access through a pipe from outside.

PITS also carries some vintage second-hand books and country-kitschy crafts. Looking for that hard-to-find VHS tape? Chances are they've got it at Pie in the Sky. Just don't expect to find any DVDs. Nevermind Blu-ray.

Ben, Garrett, and Maddy enjoy Pie in the Sky's fabulous homemade ice cream.

 
Dan Zanes

Oneonta's music scene burst wide open right about the time we left for Prague. Suddenly Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Ani DiFranco, and Judy Collins were playing here. (Actually, Lyle Lovett was just north of here at the Ommegang Brewery near Cooperstown, but close enough.) Two venues have attracted national acts to town, The Oneonta Theater and Foothills Performing Arts Center.

So when I saw that Dan Zanes was playing at Foothills, I thought we should go. We have a bunch of Dan Zanes' family CDs. Ben and Garrett grew up listening to traditional Americana and world music as interpreted by Zanes and friends.

The concert mostly attracted a set younger than our boys, but they didn't seem to notice. It was a fun evening. I'm glad the boys indulged us.

Balloon Spotting

The 4th Annual Susquehanna Balloon Festival was held over Labor Day weekend. This a new enough event that it's still a surprise to look up and see a hot air balloon suspended over the house.

Natural Disasters

This isn't usually on our docket of notable summer events, but when you have an earthquake, a hurricane, and a tropical storm all befall you within the span of two weeks, you start keeping an eye out for locusts.

The earthquake was just a passing rumble. Karl felt it at work, but I didn't even sense a hiccup. The storms were a different issue for our regional neighbors. The deluge from Hurricane Irene was devastating to Delaware County (south of us) and Schoharie County (east of us). Bridges, stores, and Main Streets washed away. Many communities are still trying to clean up and get back on their feet. 

Tropical Storm Lee left its mark from Louisiana to New York. The storm itself dissipated by September 5th, but the residual rainfall made its way to us on September 7th, the first day of school for all of us. The public schools were released early. The mayor declared a state of emergency which meant Karl was also sent home, and all non-essential vehicles were banned from the streets until the 9th.

Here's what mild-mannered Oneonta creek looks like on a typical fall day (today, in fact):

From the Spruce Street bridge

But on the afternoon of September 7th:

Another shot taken this morning:

Center Street bridge

And on the 7th:

Center Street bridge

This is all about one-quarter mile from us on the western edge of Wilber Park. If you walk north through the park you can get to the middle school and high school. Or at least, most days you can. Here are a couple of shots on the 7th from the footpath toward the drive to the upper schools:

The water overwhelmed this grassy open area and caused a lot of erosion in the creek's bank.

From the same vantage point, here's how it looks today:

The high water in the creek was pretty impressive, but it turned out to be artificially higher than the rainfall would have brought. The mayor and some town engineers chose to allow a controlled release of water from the reservoir rather than wait for the dam to be dangerously overpowered.

We were lucky. Oneonta really didn't suffer from flooding the way cities and towns further down the Susquehanna did. Much of upstate New York is rural farmland, and the county coffers are never very flush. Even with federal assistance, communities in our area will be feeling the effects of these storms for a long time.

That wraps up our summer. It's unfortunate to go out on a somber note, but perhaps it's apropos. The chaotic weather aptly reflected our inner discombobulation. Once the creek calmed down and things dried up, once school got underway and fall's rhythm established a purposeful pace for us, I began to find my balance.

And I started to feel like Oneonta was home once again.