Strrrrrrrrrike THREE!!

Well, what ELSE is new?

The trip to New England was marvelous. Surrounded by the kids and their partners, smiled upon by my parents, and loved by Ms. Jillian, I graduated from Boston University on May 18. It was the highlight of a trip filled with highlights…

We scrambled off the airplane and hit the taxicabs for the Boston Pops Concert on Saturday night. Sunday was filled with commencement festivities, and more goosebumps than any of us anticipated. Get ready, you’ll hear it at some point, now that I’ve actually STOOD on the campus of BU…”Back when I was in grad school…” I can now say that I’ve met some of my professors, all of whom were so supportive of the journey…

Monday night, most of us hit Fenway Park. Billy & Liz missed out, because they had work responsibilities, but did get to tour the City on the Duckboats with us. No big game on the Red Sox schedule, just a random Monday nighter against the KC Royals. Then Jon Lester surprised us all with a no hitter, collecting the final out with a "K." Sports Illustrated reminded us that Roger Clemens, Steve Carlton and Greg Maddux have over 1,000 career victories and ZERO no hitters…so this was a special night, after all.

From Tuesday afternoon forward, Mom and Dad shared vacation time with Judy and me. We ventured to Salem and had a lovely B&B, toured Nantucket and learned how the trust-fund half lives. Every stop, whether the Kennedy Museum and Library—or lunch in Nantucket—was special in its own way. We couldn’t have asked for more interesting hosts at our bed & breakfasts, nor more fascinating history when Judy and I wandered the battlefield at Concord.

The North Bridge, site of the “shot heard ‘round the world” sits in the back yard of the Emerson home, called The Old Manse. One learns it is older than the Revolutionary War, and served as a home for not only the Emersons, but those skinflint Hawthornes, as well—Nathaniel and Sophia. Sophia, something of a writer herself, inscribed a description of an ice storm onto a window with her wedding diamond…and the glass still sits in the home, untouched by future ice storms, falling limbs or baseballs. (Baseball was invented some 40 years AFTER she saw the ice storm…pretty amazing!) Never restored, it is more solid than my home on A Street, and was built several years before the War….the skirmish that started in 1775!

We ate lots of lobster, more clam chowder than anyone deserves, but had time to chat with each other, too. I got acclimated to the driving and routes, and can now say that I’ve handled “the Big Dig.” Ted Williams Tunnel is far too small for traffic now, who knows what they’ll do in forty years?

If you’re headed to New England, holler for some ideas and suggestions. If you aren’t, put it on the list of “places to see” you keep hidden in your desk, because it is definitely worth the plane ride!!