After the opening ceremony Maya meets her bunk mates and counselors. If there is an opposite to separation anxiety Maya would be the poster child for it. She adjusts so well to new situations and makes friends very easily. After unpacking her bags and making up her bed (top bunk, naturally) she was ready to give her dad a big hug goodbye and he soaked up every last bit of it.

Maya and I travelled to southern New Hampshire this afternoon where she will be spending a week at camp Wildwood on Lake Hubbard. Run by the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the camp has a strong focus on understanding and appreciating the natural world. This will be her second year here and she was so anxious to arrive that she coerced me into leaving two hours earlier than necessary. We had a very nice lunch date at the Main Street Cafe in Groton and I scouted potential kayaking venues along our route to consume the extra time.

Before heading back to the ferry, Maya discovered these dancing water fountains and can’t resist a quick transit through the randomly timed blast of water. Fortunately she avoided a direct hit and was only moderately soaked. Click on the photo and see if you can find her right in the center of the action.

After lunch, we enjoyed watching this street entertainer whose grand finale involved juggling three very sharp machetes with a spinning plate supported by his teeth while balancing one legged on a rope tenuously supported by members of the audience.

After touring the Tall Ships, we hop an inter-harbor ferry for Long Wharf and then walk to Quincy Market at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, where we enjoy a relaxing lunch. It was constructed 1824–1826 and named in honor of Mayor Josiah Quincy.

We enjoyed perfect weather and Maya paused to cool down in this water park just off one of the shipyard piers. It is something of a jungle gym for aquatic monkeys and just far enough off the beaten path that many casual visitors are not aware of its existence.

Here we stand in line before boarding the Bluenose II out of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, acknowledged to have the largest working mainsail in the world. It measures 4,150 square feet. The total sail area measures over 11,000 square feet and is 143 feet in length. Since 1937, an image of the original Bluenose has graced the Canadian dime. That ship, the undefeated racing champion among North American fishing schooners, reigned as Queen of the North Atlantic until it foundered on a Haitian reef in 1946. Her daughter, Bluenose II, was launched in 1963, built to original plans by many of the same workers.

 
Maya and I head over to the Charleston Navy Shipyard to take in the visiting Tall Ships. This week long annual event feature some of the most beautiful antique sailing vessels in the world as well as many modern naval ships.

 
This morning Maya and I dropped Nicolai off at the Boston airport for his trip to Minnesota. When asked to pose with his sister as we bid him farewell, Nico seems to be setting a double chicken wing. This, I suppose, should come as little surprise after he spent the last week in wrestling camp. I cannot begin to imagine how he is going to great his cousins when he sees them this evening. Nico was very pleased with his camp experience which included three 2-hour wrestling sessions per day. He feels he made significant improvements to his technique and returned with arm muscles that would put a gorilla to shame.

 
Nicolai’s wrestling camp culminates in a tournament today where he placed 2nd to the New Hampshire state champ winning two of his three matches. Tomorrow he leaves for Minneapolis where he will spend a week with my brother’s family. Before he left for wrestling camp he completed this set of croquet mallets as a gift for his cousins. The heads were made from the trunk of a cherry tree we harvested from our property. I rough cut the blanks and Nicolai did everything else including the finishing. Kyle suggested making a chipper club for situations where you need to jump an opponents ball. We combined that concept with a shorter mallet head which comes in handy in other situations.

This morning I found these two girls on the couch. To say that Maya loves Nala would not really capture the full measure of their bond. Jeanine and Kyle left this afternoon for a 10-day adventure in Transylvania. Jeanine is one of the chaperons travelling with our church youth group to visit with our sister church in Romania. Most Americans associate Transylvania with stories about Dracula, the rest of the world regards this part of Central Europe as a scenic region nestled below the Carpathian Mountains.

Today I flew from LAX to Boston and this particular route covers some of the most spectacular landscapes in the country. My window was clean, the air was crisp and I captured dozens of really nice images. I like this one for the color palette (you will need to enlarge it to appreciate it fully). I did a shorter than normal trip to California so I could see Nicolai on his birthday. He is attending wrestling camp this week on the campus of Boston University. I found him in the cafeteria having diner with his buddies who were not aware it was his birthday. By the time his Happy Birthday song was done I would say several hundred people in the cafeteria were pitching in at full volume. We had a chance to catch up on his camp experience to date and then he had to ready himself for his third training session of the day.

 
I believe that Michael Jackson had some serious psychological issues but there is no denying that he was one of the most talented and iconic entertainers of our time. We were born in the same year and I grew up dancing to his music. His death shocked me and caused me to reflect on my own life at the fifty year mark. Had I not had to work today I would have probably taken the time to witness his memorial service at this satellite venue in Santa Barbara.

Work takes me to Santa Barbara again, where the weather is simply delightful. I made a ten-minute pit stop at the beach before arriving at the office. I need to spend a weekend here on one of my visits and take some time to enjoy more of the beauty that is everywhere.