July 2024 Update

Posted 7 months ago by Chris

This will be quite a packed post and likely the last one until we’re on the other side of our trip to Dallas and Canadian vacation in August. Delayna has been in Dallas for over two weeks, and Aaron just got back from his orchestra camp at the New England Conservatory. The same day Virginia departed for Dallas, two of my co-workers arrived for a week-long stay to escape the Texas heat and visit New England for the first time. To say we’re using this week to catch our breath is an understatement. Here we go…

Miriam’s friend Liv joined us for a game night on the July 4th weekend. She proved quite adept at Pit, the yelly stock market game.

OTTO

For our last meal as a quartet for a while, we stopped at OTTO Pizza in Boston (a Portland, Maine-based New England chain). The pizza was excellent (though my seasonal Elotes pizza needed to lean harder into the quirkiness) and we had fun with the menus.

They had a beer from the Von Trapp (yes, them) farm and brewery in Vermont so I had to try it. Our hope is to make it up there in September.
Delayna said the GF pizza crust (in front) was great and it definitely could have passed for the real thing visually.

Newport, Rhode Island

After Delayna and Aaron departed, I asked Miriam and Virginia what sounded fun to do; they liked the idea of visiting a beach. After a bit of research I determined Newport would be a potentially good destination. Miriam drove the whole way there and back, clocking 3 hours on her Driver’s Ed time log. We stopped at a cafe for a later lunch and then I hung out at a coffee shop continuing my work day until they closed at 5 and I drove the girls to the beach.

My entree was a special (seems to be my pattern these days) – house-made crab cakes benedict on multi-grain toast. Absolutely delicious, though a challenge to assemble each bite with all the available components.
Thames St. in downtown Newport – the main drag of shopping, restaurants, etc. It had a great feel and despite the heat back in Mass. it stayed in the low 80s the whole day.
For Miriam’s half birthday we went out for Vietnamese food and then to a mini-golf course for a pleasant evening game.

PeopleFun: Shrewsbury

A married couple I work with named Ted and Emily came and visited for a week. I planned an itinerary of various activities which included attending Aaron’s mid-camp concert (which was amazing and they loved) in Boston, some Freedom Trail highlights, a day spent in Providence (feat. the Flea and RISD), checking out video game demos by the students at a summer course in Worcester, and blueberry picking at Touga’s, just to name a few.

The Providence Flea was a bit underwhelming, but I suspect maybe it was smaller due to it being the middle of summer vacation and quite hot.
The Providence River, being enjoyed by the slowest jet-skiers ever.
Providence is a *really* pretty city.
Some great downtown mural action.
The RISD art museum was pretty astounding in its scope and (on Sundays) totally free. I enjoyed it thoroughly and it allowed us to escape the heat.
Miriam was at driver’s ed this week, so it was just the three of us out picking berries.
Ripe berries were plentiful and we ate our fill while we picked.
Our haul. We also got a phenomenal blueberry coffee cake for breakfast the next morning.

New England Conservatory’s Summer Orchestra Institute

Aaron participated in the first session (2 weeks) of a month long orchestra camp. All the students stay in the dorms normally occupied by college students and maintain a pretty rigorous schedule of playing 6-7 hours a day. He made lots of friends (including his roommate from Portland, OR), had multiple one-on-one sessions with professional bassists (including the 2nd chair of the Boston Pops and the principal bassist of the Boston Festival Orchestra, and as one of only two basses in the program (the other was a 15-year-old from LA) he got a lot of attention and they were grateful he was there. They had an ambitious slate of music (including one piece that got cut for time after it was too much for everyone to prepare) that they performed across two concerts. I’m not exaggerating when I say that these were probably the most impressive student orchestra performances I’ve ever heard. I’m working on securing the professional recordings of both of them and will subsequently post them – they’re absolutely worth watching. The highlight has to be their performance of Holst’s The Planets in the final concert – it earned every minute of the standing ovation it received. I suspect Aaron will return to the camp next year.

Aaron with the conductor and clinician. She was fabulous.
Two of Aaron’s new friends, Jules (his roommate) and Anna.

To wrap up this post, here are a couple of flower pictures. The only thing I’ve planted this year are some tomatoes that are finally starting to ripen. We keep being surprised by flowers the previous owner planted and which recovered post-winter. The last couple of weeks have featured our crazy blue hydrangeas (which have had a banner year everywhere, especially Newport) and some day-lilies.

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