A City Day

Today we got up very early (like 7 ish - unheard of on a beach vacation!!) and drove Katie and Stephen to the airport so they could return to Phoenix. Then we went on to New York city to help Meg move from an apartment on the west side to the east side. I am glad we went - the move went a lot smoother and faster than was expected and we still managed to have fun and we still got back to the beach around 10 p.m.

The movers weren't supposed to arrive until 2, so we wandered around the west side and up to Columbia University where Mike went to college. On the way, we saw this restaurant (recognize it from Seinfeld??!!)

Here are some pix of Columbia. It is a beautiful campus.

Check out this sundial - it was exactly an hour off - I guess it doesn't adjust for daylight savings time or something?

and Mike's fraternity house where he lived for 2 years. A rowhouse - so completely different from the frat houses at my college.

On the way back to Meg's apartment we saw this interesting childrens sculpture garden next to the Cathedral of St John the Divine. The large thing below is a little bizarre with heads of different creatures including a very large crab which made me feel right at home. Around that sculpture were many little ones done by children that were just charming. I could have spent an hour or more there just admiring their work.

Seaside Boardwalk

Guess what we did last night?!

Stephen tried on funny hats

and katie posed on the seahorse on the carousel even tho we road horses because the seahorse didn't go up and down.

and then guess who we saw AGAIN?!

The Seaside boardwalk is a lot like Ocean City, MD - lots of rides, lots of softserve ice cream, lots of candy, but OC has more retail shops (tshirts, bikinis, seashell junque) and Seaside has more bars. hmmmm

Local Music

After sleeping as long as we could (recovering from Cliffordpoollozza) we spent the rest of the day reading on the beach. I finished Atonement (really good!) and started a Carl Hiiason non-fiction book called Downhill Lie. Unlike Atonement, Downhill Lie is laugh out loud funny. I can't wait to get back to it.

Last night we went to Used-To-Be's a local bar/hangout to see Rich Meyer a one-man band who is very entertaining. He played in the middle of the bar (where the bartenders are) and had some sort of karaoke type computer that would play background music to whatever he wanted to play. He thrives on audience participation and if you don't participate he finds some amusing way to draw you in.

The internet connection is not very good today so I can't upload the photos that I want to. I will try again later.

Aha, the internet is now behaving and here are the photos from last night. This is Rich Meyer, in the middle of the bar area, playing harmonica and guitar and his fancy computer karaoke machine that seemed to take 3 1/2" disks.

And here is what he does when you request a song - he makes you sing along on a microphone! Here are the budding stars Stephen and Katie singing a Steve Miller tune.

Mike's request was of course Rosalita, a Bruce Springsteen song.

Cliffordpoollozza

Get it? "Cliffordpoollozza" like Lollapolooza (the big music festival, but spelled differently).

Sunday started off ominously with dark clouds looming in the distance. We tried to get an hour at the beach in the a.m. but it started to rain. This is the day of the big birthday bash that Mike's next younger brother, Jimmy, and his wife were celebrating their 50th birthdays at Giant's stadium with 100 of their closest relatives and friends to see Bruce Springsteen. And the chance for thunderstorms was around 100%. Giants stadium is open so if it rained or stormed at showtime, there was a chance the concert could be cancelled. It didn't look good on our drive up the parkway through constant hard rain - the you can't see the next car in front of you kind of rain. Anyway, it was not looking good for a tailgate party for 100 people. But Jimmy was set up with tents and tons of food and the party was going to go on rain or shine. It actually only rained for about 30 minutes and then stopped and the skies cleared. Truly amazing. My camera only had 1 bar left so I wanted to save it for inside the show. Here is one with the Clifford gang in Cliffordpoollozza shirts playing a game. Check out Meg's well-practiced game face designed to frighten her competitor into conceding even before the game starts! Next to Meg is her cousin Colleen, then Meg's friend Lacey, and Katie and then Stephen.

So, Mike got so lucky and scored tickets in the "pit" - the general admission area RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE STAGE! Somehow 4 tickets came available Friday night when he happened to be looking at ticketmaster and they were for sale for face value ($95). We looked a minute later and there was one left for sale for $2100. He grabbed them and really wanted his birthday brother to have them. After many conversations we ended up with them - Mike, Stephen, Katie and me. Mike has only ever been in the pit one other time. The rest of us had never been that close at a Bruce concert. Jimmy had acquired tickets for everyone but in different sections around the stadium. It was so cool looking around the stadium and seeing blocks of 6-8 people in green "Cliffordpoollozza" shirts and they could see us in the pit.

I managed to get my camera into the stadium but couldn't take many pictures because you weren't supposed to be using a camera and these big burly security guards kept coming around threatening anyone caught taking pictures. Anyway, I got a few. Here is one I think is very cool because it is Bruce caught in between the clapping hands of the guy in front of me.

Bruce on the catwalk in front of us. Yes, we were close!!

This is the view of the stadium behind us.

Here is Bruce and the whole band (except Max and Clarence) on the catwalk. Bruce is leaning back & being supported by the crowd!

People kept getting in front of us so by the end we were further back, but still had a great view.

Did I mention we had 6 people in a Ford Focus? It was just a little cramped in the back. Here we are at about 2 a.m. all singing different songs (except Stephen who was pretending to be asleep).

By the time we got back to the beach house at 2:35 a.m., Meg and the others were STARVING so she made eggs sandwiches Stephen and Lacey waited patiently while Meg cooked...

What a great day. Most of us are awake enough now to go to the beach and fall asleep.

How Many Days?

could you sit on the beach like this and just basically do nothing? That was the question of the day yesterday because it was a perfect beach day. What could be better than sitting by the ocean reading, swimming and just listening to the surf? Hmmm, I'm thinking about 90?We have been sitting at the Kerr Street beach because Mike's family is closer to that street and the other brother & sister who are here will only be down here until today. I don't mind the Kerr Street beach at all because the scenery is pretty good (if you know what I mean).

All 3 of Mike's kids are here now, plus Maureen's 4, and Brian's 2. Their ages range from 7 to 25 and it is fun to watch them play so well together. The undertoad (ref. World According to Garp) wasn't as bad today so the kids were allowed to boogie board today. I never caught them on camera actually riding a wave in, but you can use your imagination.

Here is Mike and his brother Brian.

At the end of the day we went to Mike's parent's bay-side house to watch the sunset and eat a delicious dinner of king crab legs, steak, corn, sausage and salad. Looking across the by, this is the sunset from their house.

Today at noon we will leave for Giant's stadium to begin the pre-Springsteen concert tailgate party to celebrate Jimmy's and his wife's 50th birthdays. The forecast isn't so good - 60% chance of T-storms pretty much all day.

A Beach Day

Just got off the beach about an hour ago. It was wall-to-wall sunshine for most of the day today. Just a few clouds showed up around mid-afternoon and the breeze started to come in from the ocean cooling things down significantly. Too bad there was a strong undertoad that meant you couldn't go in the ocean past your waist. Everyone still got in the water though. That is Mike's sister Maureen and sister-in-law Ann (Brian's wife) in the pic above. I am sworn to take no more pictures of them on the beach! I could make up funny things about this picture of Mike, but he and his nephews were playing catch in the water. There will probably be some revenge for me posting this picture. :)

Due to our travel adventures on Weds I finished my first book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" before we landed on Thursday. Loved it as much as, or actually maybe more than, I enjoyed the Kite Runner. It is so hard to understand what living in Afghanistan is like just based on the war coverage on TV, but the author of these books makes it very real with the characters he develops. Today I started "Atonement." Haven't seen the movie yet, but Steffi wrote an essay comparing the movie to the book and I enjoyed her essay so I decided to read the book. So far so good.

Travel adventures!

Wednesday Mike and I left Austin for the Jersey shore. (See I didn't say "beach" because these northerners call it the "shore" which is alien to me, but I am trying to fit in.) Our original flight left around noon and was to go through Raleigh-Durham and then on to Newark. We were supposed to get in around 7:30 p.m. However we got to the airport in time to catch a flight through Chicago instead. We thought this was a better bet for two reasons: 1, there was a huge storm system moving up through the Carolinas all the way up into New England and Chicago had clear weather and 2, the Chicago flight to Newark would arrive 1 1/2 hours earlier. In the end it wouldn't have mattered what flight we took because Newark was closed to all incoming flights from Chicago and Raleigh.

So we ended up with this view from the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Ohare at the end of day 1 of vacation:

In the a.m. we caught a 6:25 A.M. flight. We saw a beautiful sunrise from the airport and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day in Chicago. We taxied out to the runway and then the pilot announced that the ground crew noticed something dripping from the plane, so we had to go back. Oh no! Were we due for more travel adventures today?? Fortunately it was just condensation from the AC so it was just a short delay and then we were off.

Because of all the other travelers stranded in Chicago who wanted to go to Newark we wouldn't have been able to get seats on a flight there until the afternoon so we chose to fly into Westchester County airport, about an hour from Newark. It was a cute little airport with about 4 gates.

It was unlikely we would be able to get any beach time today so Mike drove us though the Bronx to show me where he lived. This was the house he lived in from age 2

and then they moved across the street when he was 12 or 13


here is his elementary school.

It continued to rain on and off on our way to the beach but by the time we stopped from groceries, it started to clear and we were hopeful to get some beach time. We stopped by his parents' house to say hello and then went to his house on New Brunswick Ave, unpacked and went to the beach. It ended up being a wonderful late afternoon on the beach. We went in the ocean and although the lifeguard chair said it was 61 (they have a chalkboard with all the tide & temp info on every lifeguard chair. We have to guess at "my beach" in OC MD), I think it was closer to 70 degrees in the water. (You know I won't go in if it is too cold!). We played in the waves with Mike's nieces & nephews and his brother Brian for a hour or so. That night we went to the Crab's Claw, one of the only restaurants in Lavellette for dinner and then an ice cream at Salty's.

Here is the front of his house. This house was built in 18something so it is over a hundred years old.

there is a "back" house too


The house is about halfway between the bay and the ocean. From the front, here is the view toward the ocean


and the view toward the bay

It is a beautiful sunny day today and we will arm ourselves with sunscreen and bugspray (biting flies here) be headed out to the beach soon!

Stinko Hot!

I think I read that June was the 3rd hottest in Austin history. July started off rather cool and rainy, but things have gotten back to H.O.T. this past week. In fact, so hot, that I had to take a picture of the temp while I was driving (stopped in traffic, of course) to Leslie's to pick up a book this evening. It actually got all the way up to this while I was creeping along in traffic:

The blogger wouldn't let me upload photos taken from my phone even if I saved them in another format. So I had to call up the photo on my computer and then take a picture of it and then re-upload it to my computer from my camera.

More birthday stuff

Saturday was the continuation of birthday stuff for Duncan, including his 3rd cake:

With several helpers putting the bday candles on the cake, I really wasn't sure if we got 17 or 27 on there. It sure looks like a lot though! The nice shirt is a gift from his grandmother. He wore it: a) because he knew I would be taking pictures and wanted to look nice or b) because it was the only clean shirt in his closet. I think b. But he does like it. Bet he is even wearing it to work today.

Saturday was also Mike's birthday, which we celebrated by going to see Todd Rundgren at Antones. We were supposed to meet up with some other friends there but once inside there was no way we could find them, it was so crowded. I haven't been to Antones with such a large crowd - ever. Mike said he had. Anyway, Todd put on a really good show. It was extremely warm inside and all the band members were completely drenched in sweat by the end. I was shocked that he has no visible tattoos. Most other rockers (think Tommy Lee) are covered with them. It was kind of nice.

I tried to post a video, but it was taking too long, so I probably need to edit it before posting.