August 2003

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We took a week long vacation to Massachusetts during the first half of August.  Our first stop was in Whitinsville, which is about an hour southwest of Boston to see Joane and Dave and their daughters, Logan and Erin.  Three month old Erin isn't too happy in the left photo.  We had a great time catching up and the kids played well together.  Our next stop was near the tip of Cape Cod to stay at Betsi's future step father's cottage.

What do you do when you want to carry more rocks, but the bucket is full?  You carry them in your swim suit of course!

Here are some of the rocks found on the beach.  They are pretty, but hard to walk on with bare feet.

Ryan shows off his new toy, an alligator squirt gun, in front of the Highland Lighthouse in Truro, Massachusetts.  The lighthouse was constructed in 1857 and has a signature blink every 5 seconds rather than a sweeping beam of light.  Modern technology replaced the Fresnel lens with a special kind of 100 watt light bulb and plastic lens that can be seen for 20 miles.  Learn more from Ann Shelton or Lighthouse Ratings.com.

On the 14th, we joined about 100 other people for whale watching.  It was amazing to see them so close.  About 30-40 Baleen whales and 25-35 Humpback whales were recorded this summer.  The Humpbacks are easy to identify by the white pattern on the bottom of their fluke (whale tail).  The abundant supply of krill attract the whales to the area and the steep drop off of the Cape make them easy to see so close to land.  On the map above (green is land and white is water), we spotted whales near the bottom of the blue area, which is several miles from shore.

We traveled with the Dolphin Fleet that is directly connected to the Center for Coastal Studies.  On each trip, members record whale sightings and collect other data.

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Betsi and her Mom on the whale watching tour.

The Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown commemorates the Pilgrim's landing in the new world in November 1620 before sailing to Plymouth.  It's the tallest all-granite structure in the United States and stands about 252 feet tall.  The photo on the left was taken from the top of the monument.

Smile!

We had some time to join Penny and Bill at their home in Lake Forest outside of Chicago.  We got to see their sons Tucker (5.5 years old) and Griffin (4 years old). Betsi and Penny share the same great grandparents.  It's neat to see the 4th generation (Betsi) and 5th generation (our kids) of families still having regular communication with each other.  Betsi's Mom's family has a lot of history in Chicago.

We went up to the 95th and 96th floor of the Hancock Building in downtown Chicago for some drinks and a look at the view in the The Signature Room.  This is the second tallest building in Chicago next to the Sears Tower.  In front of the building is a water logged state flag barely able to fly in the breeze.  To see some better pictures, see the official John Hancock web site or a panoramic view of the city.  In the panoramic view, the Sears Tower is the black building on the left and the Hancock building is the black one on the right with the Navy pier in the middle.  It was odd to drive up a cork screw ramp to the 5th floor to reach the lowest level of the parking garage.  We parked on the 7th floor.

Here are some views from the top.  The yellow residential building in the left photo includes a penthouse.  There were several buildings that had swimming pools on the top floor if you didn't mind an audience.  The right photo shows the Sears Tower in the background.

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