Summar Vacation Part 2

We left off on our way to another attempt at kite-flying, and that’s where we resume.

It’s not a great shot, but that’s her, and if you look closely you’ll see the kite did find its way into the air!

Monday was our big trip up to Madison. The plan was to pick up a rental car first thing in the morning, hurry up to the storage space, review all our belongings and separate the stuff that should be shipped to Denmark from the stuff that shouldn’t, make a little side trip to the nearby Walmart, bundle up good with the other stuff, and be on our way back to Chicago by five.

But we got a flat tire on the way up and then, on arrival, found out the place would close at 3:30. So in the end we had about an hour to deal with this:

It was kind of exciting to see belongings we hadn’t seen in five years.

Back in Chicago, I met Allison and a mutual friend of ours from Carnegie-Mellon, Richard Satterwhite, whom neither of us had seen since 1984. I was missing my 25th high school reunion during this trip, but at least we had our very, very scaled-down Carnegie-Mellon reunion.

The next morning we were off to the beach again. Molli Malou loved Lake Michigan!

Back at Moster Mette’s, Geoff and Austin came by, and Molli Malou was amazed by Geoff’s new iPhone…

It’s a little blurry, but this shot of us on the roof of Mette’s building is one of the nicest ones of the three of us we have from the trip. (On our own camera, anyway…)

In the Interesting Trivia category, Geoff and I went out for a night cap that evening and when we got to the bar we realized the All-Star game was on. It was already the sixth inning or something, and we were both kind of tired, so we agreed we’d only stay until the end of the game.

Go ahead and look up “Longest All-Star Game in Major League History…”

The next day we went to visit Millennium Park. Trine and I had never seen it before.

Molli Malou hadn’t either, obviously.

“When we were in Chicago there were giant red faces and if you stood there they would spit on you,” Molli Malou recalled the other night. I imagined her telling the story to friends or teachers.

“We have pictures,” I reminded her. “If anyone calls you a liar, you tell ’em we’ve got the pictures!”

(She’s being very brave in the picture above.)

It was so hot that we couldn’t bear to be outside any more. Running through our options, we decided to go to the nearby Shedd aquarium.

Segways seem to have replaced Trek mountain bikes as the preferred tourism transport vehicle along the lakefront. I kept meaning to try one, but we never had the chance. So behold: total strangers on Segways.

How beautiful is that town?

And how weird is this frog?

I have a lot of shots of the kimodo dragon and leaping dolphins and even a beluga or two, but I’ll skip over them.

Here’s Molli Malou with Allison outside Shedd.

It was our last night in Chicago. Molli Malou took some self portraits.

And next thing you know we’re back at O’Hare… and the seasoned traveller is ready for more!

Pam and Helen Nagan met us at the airport (along with Hannah and Nana returning from Seattle). Molli Malou got right back into the make-up biz.

Seafood dinner at last!

But I think Molli Malou liked the dessert at the Dairy Queen across the street better than she liked her fish and chips.

Another day, another swim:

Molli Malou did make amazing progress with her swimming. When we first got to America, she was still very reluctant to get her face wet, much less submerged, and was apprehensive of any waters deeper than, say, her knee-level. She got braver and braver over the course of the trip, spurred on by her aquatic cousins, to the extent that she would actually try and swim unaided in the Lambs’ pool.

And her photograpy continued to improve as well.

I have no idea what’s being said in the following picture, but I love the moment.

Finally, our big Denny’s breakfast! Molli Malou got pancakes in the shape of a happy face! (Or a monkey or something, I forget.)

Back to Chelmsford!

And a side-trip to Daddy’s home turf…

We were touring with Adam and Mary and their daughter Gracie. It had been Adam’s and my hope to get pictures of the girls at the scenes of our crimes.

I finally saw the charm of Old Town. The specialness of it. I mean I finally saw it as something other than the boring old part of my boring old stupid town that I was so determined to get out of.

And Molli Malou finally saw the charm of Crocker Park.

I was touched by the memorial to Bud Orne.

Here’s where the camera problems started, just as we got up to Old Burial Hill. The display went out. So the rest of the pictures were either taken using the viewfinder or by means of other people’s cameras.

Molli Malou climbed up one of the monuments on the top of the hill while we were all a distance below her and started shouting “I’m so high!” — words that have surely echoed many times across that graveyard.

Adam, Mary, and Grace had just moved into a beautiful new house right on Bass River in Beverly. We had a great day there, and the newlyweds Mike and Lynnette joined us later in the afternoon.

Doesn’t seem that long ago we were hanging out in each other’s basements and garages in Marblehead, but sometimes 30-odd years doesn’t make such a big difference.

The next day was Sophie’s birthday, so it was off to the spa!

The birthday princess!

First eyeshadow ever. (Probably the last for a while, too!)

Much later in the day now, I think, and we’re having dinner in Chelmsford.

And playing at Chuck E. Cheese’s. Molli Malou’s first experience of an American institution.

On the trip we learned that Chelmsford was the inspiration for a lot of the municipal structures in the Simpsons, on account of two of their principal set design and background artists being from Chelmsford. So here I am, at Chelmsford Public Library, also known as Springfield City Hall.

And finally some sad (and some silly) farewells…

And back to Deep River for a final cozy night…

And already it’s been a whole month! it’s the day of our departure!

Time to feed the ducks!

No! Wait… flashback! Random pictures appearing out of chronological order!

Ah… the Essex steam train ride with Nana!

And this looks like a family ready to go home.

Because they’ve obviously forgotten the home they’re heading to… remember?

So, apologies again for the delay. Apologies for the underrepresentation of grown up family members. No apologies whatsoever for the overrepresentation of three beautiful girls. Apologies for having skimped on the anecdotes, many of which were classics and will hopefully give me some filler to flesh out the Molliblog during the long, slow, banal winter while we await for the exuberance of January.

And remember… we’ve got room for guests now!