The Great Escape

After three solid weeks of rain, anyone would be in the doldrums. But for Rohan and Chandreyee who really love to be outside it was especially hard. It felt like summer would never get to Boston. So we had to hit the road and find summer for ourselves. The first stop was in Wellsboro, home of the grand canyon of Pennsylvania and also to Uncle Nathan, Aunt Susan and cousins Madeline and Olivia. Here Rohan is playing with Olivia's Duplo blocks. Maybe I should get some for him for his birthday which is just around the corner. Anyway, we were successful at finding Mr. Sun. It was a beautiful warm day on Saturday for the Mansfield 4th of July parade and some swimming in ice cold water. Well, only Mike and Madeline were brave enough to get into the pool freshly filled with well water. We had a great visit and Rohan is starting to like to play with his cousins instead of just playing near them.

Next up on our travels was a visit to Clarion PA, which in addition to hosting ALF (the Autumn Leaf Festival not the lovable sarcastic alien from the 80's sitcom era) is home to Grandma Kay, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Jim, Jen Derrick and Dylan, Jeremy, and Eric. It was another beautiful day we spent in the pool, relaxing on the porch and watching the new classic movie "Napolean Dynamite". Rohan really took to his great-grandma Kay and really liked to play with her walker. And I think that Aunt Kathy has set a record for the person able to hold Rohan while he is awake for the longest time with out him squirming around. Cousin Dylan is such a wonderful boy and very tolerant of his younger cousin Rohan. It was fun to see them playing together and I'm looking forward to seeing them get together when they are older.

We then took a small detour from visiting family and spent a night in Cook Forest State Park. Here is the little camper sleeping off a bit of a rough night. He had fun in the tent, too much fun as you can see in the video below and didn't get to sleep until about 10pm when it got dark. And then he kept scooting himself off his sleeping pad until eventually he slept inside daddy's sleeping bag with blankets on top. In the morning, I awoke to see that Rohan had appropriated all of the covers for himself. Strong little boy.

The last stop on our trip was also the longest and in Bloomsburg, the only TOWN in PA and home of among other things The Bloomsburg Fair and whoohoo the anual Monster Truck Rally (it was actually going on while we were there, but we didn't attend any of the competitions). Nana and Papa were very happy to see little Rohan and I think he wore them out a bit with all of his antics. We went to World's End State Park and hiked along the river, had a wonderful time at Knobel's Grove amusement park, and visited with some of Chandreyee's family who were able to come up and see him. Rohan loved the merry-go-round and splashing in Nana's pool. After a long day at the park and a wonderful meal at Nana's house, Rohan spent some quality time playing with Aunt Jayatri and Uncle Steve. Then Uncle Steve was able to calm Rohan down with some stories after getting very excited playing with Dimoni. The next day was spent playing in kidsburg in the town park before a meal at Kristy and Russell's where a couple seated next to us was kind enough to take our picture. Then it was off back to Boston. We were hoping that summer had decided to come to beantown while we were away and thankfully it had. While it was nice to get back to work, I really miss the fun week we had in PA chasing the endless summer.

For anyone who would like to see more pictures, you can check them out on our website. Thanks to everyone who made this trip so much fun.

Greetings from Paradise

Rohan's first vacation in the sunny Florida Keys. We planned our escape from the cold winter of Boston and were on our way. We actually had some trouble finding a spot for our car in the economy lot at Logan airport that wasn't full of snow. Just one more reason to get out of town for a week. We made it through security fine in this direction and Rohan made an uneventful first flight. He slept through most of it and then we relaxed for a day in Fort Lauderdale, taking in the sun and walking along the beach. The drive down to the Keys couldn't have been nicer and this was just a foreshadowing of the week to come (70F nights/80F days the whole week with no rain). Rohan loved the sun and more importantly what that meant for him, fewer clothes.

We tried him out on a swing and slide and he liked those, but he absolutely loved being in the pool. Rohan was kicking away furiously to try and propel himself around the pool. It's a good thing he has been practicing kicking for the past 15 months or so. He loved watching the showboat kids doing funny jumps into the pool for whatever audience would watch them. I guess their parents tired of this long ago. Rohan was also a hit with the major demographic in the area where we stayed: grandmothers. He suffered the cheek pinching and lavish praise well.

Most of our time in Florida was spent doing the normal touristy things like walking along the beach, swimming, visiting the dolphin research center, and just plain relaxing and enjoying the warmth. But for as long as I have known Chandreyee, she has had a penchant for the unusual. One of the scheduled activities was a trip to Key West to go to a pirate museum, an aquarium, and something a bit off the usual track. Chandreyee entered (and won) a conch shell blowing contest. Contestants were judged on length of the note, purity of tone, loudness, and novelty of the blow. Not having a conch of her own, she borrowed one from a guy dressed up as a pirate and this "good conch" was a key to her victory. The winning man blew a song from Frank Sinatra on his conch and the winning group ("the Conchestra" from Boca Chica FL) dressed up as flappers and other wild costumes and performed a rendition of Jimmy Buffet's classic "I don't know where I'm a gonna go when the hurricane blows". It has really been a while since I have seen something so odd. You can see Chandreyee's TV interview on the web if you are so inclined ( fast forward to about minute 20-21 or so to see Chandreyee, the entire conch blowing spot starts at 17'15" if you want more background).


As if that wasn't odd enough, we walked to the Key Colony Beach fair and looked at the baubles that people were selling and they also had a few games of chance including barracuda races where you bet on the winning fish. We were most excited about the funnel cake however. We split one and some arepas and a gyro for lunch. We definitely enjoyed the food while we were on vacation, especially dessert. In our week in Florida, the two of us were able to eat half a chocolate cake, half a pecan pie, 2 pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, the funnel cake and two cones of frozen custard. I really need to start biking again to work off all the yummy food.

Another fun this that we did was to rent a fishing pole and try to catch dinner one night. Chandreyee caught her first fish on this trip and he was yummy. Chandreyee used the web browser on my phone to learn how to clean a fresh fish and then she fried up this little guy for an appetizer one night. Eventually we had to return to Boston and leave all the warmth and fun of south Florida behind. The last interesting thing that happened to us was when we went though security on the way back. We were prepared to have to answer questions about the big metal object in our carry on luggage (conch trophy), so it was with little surprise that when Chandreyee's bag went through the scanner, the lady shouted that she needed a "CIC". After waiting about 10 minutes, and holding up the entire security line for that time with a row of increasingly nervous and grouchy looking fliers, the bag was inspected and the offending article was not the huge trophy, but a bag of corn meal that we decided to take back with us. I guess CIC stands for "Corn meal Inspection Crew". Another good flight for Rohan and I was pleasantly surprised to find that our car was not covered with snow or ice when we got back to Boston.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time and next vacation we are thinking of expanding it to include other members of our family and renting a bigger place. Thanks for reading my long-winded tale of our Florida adventure.

Mike, Chandreyee, and Rohan