The Cayman Islands: Day 3

The third day of our trip was on Monday, April 28th. We went to the Queen Elizabeth Botanic Park and to Rum Point, the most beautiful beach I've ever visited.

We went to the Botanic Park in the morning, but it was already pretty hot that day. I didn't deal well with the heat and quickly got a stomachache, which I walked around with until I almost fell down dead towards the end of the walk through the park. But at least the scenery was nice.

That is one big iguana!

Conch is popular here (pronounced "conk"). This is what the shell looks like. Instead of clamcakes and clam chowder, they have conch fritters and conch chowder. Yummy!

An iguana wandering around (this one is real!).

After that we drove over to Rum Point, so named because of the numerous barrels of rum that once washed ashore there from a shipwreck. It's on the northernmost tip of the island. It was the beach of my dreams and I loved it there. We had a really fun time and the water was the most comfortable temperature. (I took the Rum Point pictures with my Canon Digital Rebel SLR, which I got a year ago and finally used for the first, and so far only, time here. I'm still getting the hang of it!)

First we had a refreshing lunch at this outdoor place right on the beach. This is where we tried conch fritters. I liked them a lot; Peter wasn't as crazy about them.


I love a tree-lined beach. It is so picturesque and perfect.

The beautiful beach (the pictures are nice, but they cannot do it full justice).

Peter and my mom with John.
Look at that clear water and white sand. This easily beats the beaches of my beloved Cape Cod!

Checking out the view.

Isn't this what vacation is all about?...

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is such a sweet thing to celebrate, isn't it? A friend of mine recently sent me the following. I'd seen it before, and I really like the message it gives. Very inspiring about the ever-important job of "mom."

Invisible Mother
It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, "Can't you see I'm on the phone?"

Obviously not. No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: "Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this?"

Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, "What time is it?" I'm a satellite guide to answer, "What number is the Disney Channel?" I'm a car to order, "Right around 5:30, please." I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package and said, "I brought you this." It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: "To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees."

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected
no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it." And the workman replied, "Because God sees."

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, "I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become."

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, "My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table." That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come
home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, "You're gonna love it there."

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

The Cayman Islands: Days 1 & 2

Day 1 of our vacation was Saturday, April 26th, when we left the U.S. and flew to the beautiful island of Grand Cayman, which lies south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica in the sparkling turquoise waters of the Caribbean. Heaven on earth!

John was excited to go for his first plane ride. Bye-bye Boston, hello Caribbean!
Me and my cute flying buddy.

The view of the island from the airplane.
Most of this day was spent traveling, checking into our resort, and unpacking. But in the early evening we walked out to the beach just in time for the sunset. Lovely!



My mom and John.

Day 2, Sunday, April 27th. We went to church. Yeah! We went to Sacrament Meeting at the one branch on the island. It was small but full of people; about half were visitors like us and half were full-time island residents. We drove around in our rental car and saw more of the island, went swimming at the pool, relaxed, and went to a Butterfly Farm. At night Peter and I went for a moonlit walk along the beach. I don't recall ever seeing the stars shine in such a huge expanse of uninterrupted sky as they did here.

Instead of saying "Yield," the signs here say "Give way." My mom got a kick out of that.

At the Butterfly Farm. It was so pretty there.

Hunting the Ghost Hunters!

This evening I got to meet two of the people from one of my favorite shows, Ghost Hunters. I still can't believe I've actually met them in person now after having seen them on TV so many times. It was so cool! Here's how it went down...

My friend Alyson called me at around 5:00 this evening to tell me that her husband, Russ, was driving home from work when he passed Pettibone's Tavern and saw a TAPS van out front! (TAPS stands for The Atlantic Paranormal Society. They conduct actual technological ghost hunts and they've caught some of the coolest things ever in a number of their investigations. They've also been able to de-bunk a lot of things.) Pettibone's Tavern is in Simsbury, just a few miles from here, and is rumored to be haunted. When we were house-hunting two years ago, our real estate agent pointed it out to us and told us about its historic haunted reputation. I've been wanting to eat there ever since! Here's the Tavern's website; it has a link about the haunting on it. http://www.pettibonetavern.com/

So anyway, Russ ended up pulling in to the parking lot to conduct a little investigation of his own, and he found Jason and Grant, the two main guys on the show, out back with Kris Williams, a newer girl on the show. He got to meet them and take his picture with them! I am very impressed at his bravery in doing this. He said they were really nice about it all. He also let Grant know in a subtle way that he was a fellow Mormon, which Grant seemed to appreciate. (Russ apparently used Peter's name as an "in" to do this, since we think Peter and Grant are probably from the same ward in Rhode Island.)

Jason, Russ, and Grant.

Grant, Kris, and Jason. They seem like such normal people, but they're pretty famous among us ghost hunter wanna-be's.

So after that we just had to go for ourselves and check it out. Peter was surprisingly cooperative about doing this, so he, John, and I met Alyson and her daughter Brooke at a Starbucks parking lot in Simsbury and we drove over to the Tavern together. When we were pulling up I saw a TAPS van and a TAPS pick-up truck out front, and I saw Tango! He's one of my favorite guys on the show (he's good-looking, sweet, funny, and from New Jersey, just a few towns away from where we used to live...I know that now after talking to him about it tonight!). Then I saw Kris too. Once we had parked, Alyson and I kind of froze and got really nervous and couldn't leave the car. I was afraid of looking like a dork or getting tongue-tied or being told to go away.

But Peter, ever the fearless one, got right out of the car and walked up to the crew and asked if it was okay if we could come over and meet them. It was really nice of him to do that on our behalf. They were very friendly and said to come on over. So, we did! I got to meet Tango and shake his hand and it was great to be able to tell him how much I enjoy the show. I liked that Alyson asked him about doing the Analysis, because he's always good about doing that when it looks like such a cumbersome, difficult thing to do. He was very friendly to us and I was so impressed with him.

Then Kris came over and one of the crew members took a picture of the group of us in front of the TAPS van. It was so cool! As we were leaving, one of the crew thanked us for watching the show, which I thought was a gracious thing to say. The whole thing took less than five minutes. We didn't get to meet Jason and Grant and Steve (I think they were filming inside the tavern at the time), but I'm thrilled to have met Tango and Kris. Besides, we've got the Rhode Island-Mormon connection with Grant that is still waiting to be pursued, so our experiences with TAPS may not be over yet. (Sorry, TAPS!)

Here's my new favorite picture! From left to right: Tango, Alyson (don't they look like buds?), Peter, John, me, Brooke, and Kris. I'm going to frame this picture!

So now I am an even bigger fan of the show. Not only does it have a fascinating concept behind it, but the team and the crew are genuinely nice people. It was very exciting to meet them, and it's a thrill that they're investigating just a few miles away. They're probably conducting their nighttime investigation of the Tavern right now as I type, in fact. I'm looking forward to seeing the episode when it airs, probably sometime this fall. What a totally awesome experience this was!

April Flowers

(I started writing this before I left on my trip but didn't post it because I didn't have time to edit it. Here it is in its edited, publishable form...)

I am convinced that few things are more beautiful than New England in the spring and summer. I drive down the streets in the areas in which I live and can't believe I get to live here! I've lived out West, down South, and in various places along the East Coast, and I think this area of Connecticut is the most lovely place I've ever lived. I'm thankful that I get to call this place home!

This is a bush in our backyard that sprouts these lovely light purple flowers every spring. They only last a few weeks, but they're worth it!

The budding yellow flowers on the tree behind the flower bush are nice too.

Tulips are one of my favorite flowers. For now I just get them in bouquets, but I want to start planting them in my yard. They are just so pretty.
Drinking in the sunshine.

Springtime in Philadelphia.


Today we returned home from our trip in the Cayman Islands, and I was amazed at how much had bloomed in a week's time. The beauty of blossoming spring has therefore softened the blow of the end of our vacation. And I have to say that as beautiful as the island was, I missed the towering woods of home. Maybe I'm just too used to living surrounded by trees, but I find that, long-term, I prefer it to almost any other setting. I'll definitely be taking a lot more pictures of nature's beauty in the days and weeks to come. It's one of my favorite things to do!

A Farewell to Horse Racing

As some of you know, I am an animal lover. I love the sweet innocence and the keen intelligence that so many different species of animals have. I donate regularly to several different animal charities and I of course have my own beloved dog and two cats. For years I've enjoyed watching the three Triple Crown horse races, held each May and June. I love the beauty and magnificence of these horses and it's exciting to watch them race each other around the track. But I am no longer going to watch these or any other horse races, as it is something that I feel I can no longer support.

Yesterday was the Kentucky Derby, and the horse who came in second was euthanized right there on the track after she broke her two front ankles. What a heart-breaking situation. I'm so glad that I didn't see it happen. I've read before that these races are really tough on the horses. Back in 2004, Smarty Jones just barely lost the Triple Crown, which some sports enthusiasts say is the most elusive trophy in the whole world of sports. I was so disappointed about it for days afterwards. At least he wasn't injured in any of the races and as far as I know he's still alive and well.

Then in 2006, the great horse Barbaro broke down during the second race of the Crown and was eventually put to sleep. Now this happened to Eight Belles yesterday. I can't take it anymore! My heart is too tender to handle it. I just can't watch the races any longer and risk the sadness it may engender, because my empathy and love for animals runs too deep. I hope the professional horse-racing community will do something to make these races easier on the horses. Apparently they also need to improve their breeding practices, which may be a significant factor in why these injuries have been happening. In any case, these beautiful horses are pretty much at the mercy of humans, and we have to do better by them.

We're Back :(

As our plane landed at about 5:00 p.m. today, the flight attendant said something along these lines: "Welcome to Boston. The temperature is 45 degrees. Your vacation is officially over." And everyone on the plane groaned, since we'd all just come from 85 degree warm, sunny weather all week. What a bummer!

It was a wonderful trip and even though I'm glad to be back, I wish we were still there. I'm eager to get home to Connecticut tomorrow and unpack and get back to normal life, but I suspect I'll be a little melancholy all week thinking about what we were doing last week. I guess I'll get over it soon enough. I plan on posting pictures sometime next week, so stay tuned!

A Caribbean Hello to You!

Well, the third full day of our vacation here in the Cayman Islands is winding down...three more to go! The time is passing by surprisingly slowly, which is a good thing when you're on vacation. Everything is so relaxed and laid-back here on "island time." We're having a great time in this tropical paradise!

The Cayman Islands are made up of three islands, and we're staying on the main one, Grand Cayman, located south of Cuba. This is one of the most beautiful, clean, crime-free islands in the Caribbean. The beach sands are white and the water is turquoise and vivid shades of the most beautiful blue. There are coconut trees everywhere, which John loves, and instead of squirrels there are little lizards and iguanas running around.

The plane ride here on Saturday morning went quite well. It was easier than I thought it would be. Just before the plane took off, John started crying loudly, so I held him in my lap with him facing me. I was worried that the flight attendant would make him sit in his seat, but it wasn't a problem, so he was able to rest peacefully on me during take-off and then he fell asleep for two hours, which was half of the flight. The only mishap was that he peed all over his jeans (and therefore some on mine too) just before he fell asleep, which was gross, but it dried pretty quickly. Sorry to include that little detail! Everything else went very well after that.

Some of the things we've done so far: went to the beach (duh), which is right by our resort; Peter and I went for a starlit walk along the beach on Sunday night; went to a nice Butterfly Farm; went to the Queen Elizabeth Botanical Park, where I almost died from heat exhaustion and stomachache (it was fiercely hot here yesterday, too hot for a walk in the park!); went to Rum Point, the most beautiful beach I have EVER been to; we've eaten dinner at some great restaurants; went to Sacrament Meeting at the LDS Branch here; went to a Turtle Farm where we got to see the hugest sea turtles and hold some smaller adorable ones; went to Hell (I'm serious! Wait till you see the pictures of Hell!); got some famous Tortuga Rum Cakes (dee-lish!); and just in general relaxed, gone swimming, read, taken bubble baths, gotten caught up on sleep, etc.

Tomorrow we're going to the Pirate's Caves, to some historical places, and we'll go shopping in George Town, the capital here. Before leaving the island we hope to be able to get in a trip to Stingray City, a sandbar in the ocean where you can swim with (gentle) stingrays, and we want to go for a submarine ride to see the ocean life underwater. We might go snorkeling too, which would be cool.

One of my only worries is that John has eaten very little for the past two days. He's drinking a lot and his behavior is fine (he's happy and has been behaving amazingly well), he just isn't interested in eating. He's also had two bouts of diarreah (sorry for this other gross little detail). So I hope he's okay. My other worry is how am I going to fit all of the things I've been buying here in our luggage when it's time to go? There is so much cute stuff available, some of it touristy souvenir things, and some truly beautiful things. I may be in trouble when it comes time to pack my bags and head home!

I'm Afraid, Very Afraid...

...because this Saturday morning we'll be taking John on his first airplane trip, and I'm worried that he'll hate it and we'll be stuck in a small confined space way up in the air for hours with an angry, upset child on our hands. He has a hard time sitting still in one place for very long, so how is he going to sit for four hours straight? (The flight is from Boston to the island of Grand Cayman). I'm hoping he'll fall asleep since we have to get up and leave for the airport early.

Other strategies: I'm bringing some toys and books, new ones he won't see until then and some old favorites of his. We'll also bring a portable DVD player with a few videos. (You have to wear headphones with that, right? What if Johnny won't wear them? Can we still use it or would it disturb the nearby passengers?). Also, snacks and drinks will be essential (although I can't bring juice boxes or any of his favorite drinks from home since they can't go through security--darn it!). I think we'll put him in the seat between us instead of right next to the window...or would putting him by the window be better so that he can look out more easily?

If anyone has any good tips for traveling by plane with young kids, I'm all ears!

I happened to see this article about traveling with children on msnbc.com's front page a few minutes ago. What good timing! I found it to be very helpful, so I'm going to post it here for easy access. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24240009/

Clinton or Obama?

Speaking of Philadelphia...who do you think will win the Pennsylvania primary today? I think it's going to be Hillary. It's got to be Hillary in order for her to be able to stay in the race. I think she's going to win it by at least 8-10 points. I'm pretty sure Obama will win in Philadelphia, but I think Hillary will get much of the rest of the state. But I may be wrong; some of my predictions so far have been incorrect. Who do you think will win today?

Philadelphia Fun

We LOVE the City of Brotherly Love! We had a great little trip down to Philadelphia last weekend. It was short; we left on Sunday afternoon to drive down there and drove back home on Monday afternoon. But it was really nice, and I'm so glad that we brought John. It was a "full-circle moment" type of experience to be back in Philadelphia and at Penn with John and Peter, all of us together in the place where Peter and I met and fell in love. We'll probably be back in the fall again for another lecture that Peter is scheduled to give, so I'm looking forward to returning again later this year!

We went over to my friend Katie's house on Sunday night and spent a few hours there just talking and hanging out and having fun. It was entertaining to watch John and Josh, her and Andy's 1-year-old son, play together. If they'd had a little bit more time with us, who knows, they may have convinced me to become an Obama fan. Not likely, but possible!
Peter getting ready on Monday morning to go to class and give his lecture. He's totally lost in thought.
John wanted to get on this motorcycle, but Mommy said no. It was great to be back on campus in the springtime. It brought back so many memories. I was feeling very nostalgic that day. Sigh!

Benjamin Franklin founded Penn (formal name: the University of Pennsylvania) in the 1700s. He's one of my favorite people from history. John got to meet Ben while at Penn, courtesy of the Ben Franklin bench. I like how the sun is shining down in this picture...it looks like a golden seat just for John, as if Mr. Franklin is inviting him to sit there next to him and have a little chat. Perhaps John will someday follow in our footsteps and go to school there. That would be awesome!

This is College Hall, Penn's biggest and grandest building. You know the old show "The Addams Family"? The Addams family mansion is said to be modeled after College Hall (Charles Addams, the creator of the show, was a student at Penn).
Each year the graduating class leaves an "Ivy Day Stone" somewhere on campus. Here's one from 1907 (I love the turn-of-the-century time period) and another from 1990 on College Hall.

Here's John playing on the Button. For years I saw kids playing on this as I walked up and down Locust Walk. Now my son was one of those kids. The story behind the button has something to do with Ben Franklin saying that wherever a button next popped off his jacket was where he'd build his university. That might be a myth, but that's the story they tell.
These three pictures could be a Dr. Suess book...On the button, in the button, under the button.

Johnny wanted to slide down the side of this sculpture, but Mommy said no to that, too.
The blossoming trees of spring are lovely.
Statue of the big man on campus in front of College Hall.
John had a lot of fun running around everywhere. People thought he was so cute (children are somewhat rare on campus, so they stand out more than usual there). He was comfortable and at home there. Maybe it's just in his blood.
Mem'ries...
Playing in the greenery behind College Hall.
John's two favorite things about the trip: riding the elevators at the hotel and climbing on the LOVE statue. He's still talking about climbing on these letters a week later, and he now knows how to spell "love."
I had to hurry and snap this picture. I was worried that he'd fall off the L!
Hugging Ben Franklin. I love this picture! That settles it, this kid is destined to go to this school someday.
This picture would be perfect if Peter were in it, but he was gone for most of the morning. I was thinking about it and realized that ten years ago, in April of 1998, my father took a picture of me sitting on this bench. I was a high-school senior and was visiting Penn after I'd been accepted, trying to decide between it and Georgetown University in D.C. I'm so glad I chose Penn! Ten years later, there I am on the same bench with my beloved little boy, whose father I met at the school I decided to go to.
This is part of the view from our hotel window, overlooking some of the campus. The red brick building in the center with the rectangular and square windows is Hill House, where Peter and I met during my freshman year. We lived on the same floor and he totally had the hots for me!