Block Island Redux

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Steve Hanley

I love summer! Last week, we had a stretch of beautiful weather and my wife said “Hey, let’s go to Block Island overnight.” What a great idea!

We got a last minute room at our favorite hotel, the 1661 House, named for the year in which the first settlers came to the island. It has a spectacular view out over the salt marshes to the ocean beyond. They also offer the best breakfast on the island featuring home style corned beef hash just like my old Irish grandmother used to make. Ummm..yummm. Scrumptious.

We took our bikes along so we could pedal down to Fred Benson Beach on Crescent Cove, which features enough surf to be interesting and miles of sand for barefoot treks. One industrious dad brought his shovel along and dug an enormous earthwork at the high tide line. It was such fun to see all the children splashing and giggling as the tide filled up the hole behind the sand. Of course, eventually the ocean won out, as it always does, even though the kids did everything they could to hold it back.

We capped off our Block Island mini-vacation by sharing a cold lobster salad followed by an apple tart a la mode drizzled with native honey on the deck of the National Hotel. It was a great get-away for not a lot of money. The quick trip to The Block had become a part of our summer routine. Can’t wait to do it again!

Below are some pictures of out brief island adventure. Enjoy!

Posted in Adventures, Holidays | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Idyllic Long Beach Island

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Steve Hanley

I can’t believe I lived on the Jersey shore at one point in my life and never heard of Long Beach Island. I mean, it’s hard to overlook a 22 mile long island! But when we got an opportunity to do a home exchange with some folks on LBI, we looked it up on Google Maps and there it was.

Barnegat Light

Turns out, it’s a half mile wide strip of sand that forms the eastern side of Barnegat Bay, one of the world’s premier protected harbors. There are 10 towns on the island. But best of all are the 22 uninterrupted miles of white sand beaches facing the Atlantic Ocean.

Here in New England, when we go to the beach, we drive to a large parking lot, unload the car and drag all the stuff down to the sand. On Long Beach Island, there isn’t any beach parking.  If  you have a place to stay, you simply walk out the door, go to a nearby public access ramp and choose your spot in the sand.

Our home away from home was sparkling and bright, with lots of decks for eating outdoors or just kicking back with a good book. But since the nearest public beach access just a few steps away, the beach is where we spent most of our time. We wait all winter for good summer weather. We weren’t about to waste a single moment of it.

Our hosts had cruiser bikes available and we rode almost everywhere we went for shopping, dining or getting a hot fudge brownie sundae with whipped cream and nuts. Yummm….scrumptious! We would definitely welcome another trip to Long Beach Island in the near future.

Please enjoy our photos from the trip.

 

Posted in Adventures, Home Exchange | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Weekend At Lime Rock

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Steve Hanley

Lime Rock Park

Lime Rock Park is one of America’s oldest race tracks. Nestled in the Litchfield Hills in northwestern Connecticut, it offers fans a chance to see racing up close from many different vantage points.

The late John Fitch was one of the track’s founding fathers. Paul Newman lived a short helicopter ride away and raced at Lime Rock often, as did Sam Posey. Today it is owned by Skip Barber. I attended a driving school there 10 years ago and did an HPDE event there in 2011.

Over Memorial Day weekend, Carolyn and I did a home exchange with a couple who own a house about 30 minutes away. We spent the weekend at the track, watching historic and IMSA races and checking out an historic car show on Sunday.

Here are some of the photos from the racing on Saturday.

There were cool cars everywhere we looked on Sunday including a Stutz Black Hawk and a nicely restored Hudson Hornet.

On the way to the track on Sunday, we stopped for breakfast in the tiny hamlet of Cornwall Bridge on the New York border. The blueberry pancakes were superb!

What a great way to kick off the summer!

Posted in Adventures, Home Exchange | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The Great Kitchen Makeover – Part II

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Steve Hanley

Gosh, it has been a long time since the last update. That’s because we have been working constantly on our project and haven’t had time to post. Our goal was to have it done in time for our first home exchange of the year on Memorial Day weekend and we made it. With mere hours to spare!

Every project has three parts: getting ready to do, doing, and cleaning up afterwards. Which means only 1/3 of the time are you actually getting something done. Planning, getting all the pieces together, having all the tools handy, and disposing of construction debris all take far more time than you would ever think possible.

First we had to do all the rewiring while the walls were out, then put up new walls. We used cement board for the places where tile will go later. It was exciting to see our new island take shape. But in the middle of all this, we realized that the old wooden ceiling had to go. We hadn’t planned on doing that but it was necessary in order to make provision for the ceiling fan  and lights we wanted.

So the old ceiling came down. Carolyn and I went to Home Depot, rented a sheetrock lift and installed the new ceiling ourselves in a day. A very busy day, but a productive one. And now, the ceiling is the same in the kitchen and dining room. It looks terrific and we were glad we did it in the end, but it added about a week to our timeline.

???????????????????????????????

One of our goals was to always have a functioning stove, sink and refrigerator throughout the project. Yes, the fridge lived in front of the slider for a while and we had to do without the ice maker. And yes, the old kitchen sink was set in a piece of surplus plywood and yes the stove got disconnected, moved about and reconnected as needed. But we were able to prepare our meals like (more or less) normal people and not get take-out every night. Having the temporary sink allowed me to do all the plumbing necessary to get the hot and cold water feeds in place, do the new drain pipe and make provision for the ice maker and dishwasher water supplies.

Next it was time to box in the chimney. The last time around, we took the walls down around the chimney and left it exposed. But that was then. This is now. Exposed brick was no longer part of the plan. So we boxed the chimney in again. But first, provisions had to be made for placing the TV on the wall when we are done. Running coax cable and electrical wire is best done before the finish walls go up.

DSC00016

After the wall cabinets were installed, it was time to run the duct work for the range hood. Which meant cutting a hole in the side of the house and installing a weatherproof vent outside. I’m not handy with sheet metal. That job took the best part of a day.

And then finally the base cabinets went in, the refrigerator moved to its permanent home and our new stove arrived. Ta Dah! It’s starting to look like a real kitchen.

DSC00017

And then the granite we had selected back in January finally arrived. Oh, happy day!

DSC00023

In a few  hours, it was done and our new kitchen was nearly complete, including our fancy new composite granite sink and oh so trendy faucet.

DSC00033

???????????????????????????????

The new stove not only looks terrific, it cooks really, really fast. The oven heats up in minutes and the burners have to be kept on low to avoid overcooking. We love it. The stove came with a matching 2 drawer dishwasher. We haven’t used it yet. Frankly, we are a little intimidated by it. It is so much more complex than our trusty old KitchenAid!

And so, the end of our project is near. We have our dining room back:

DSC00172

And the kitchen is done, too, save for small details like putting up the tile on the wall behind the stove and deciding where the paper towels and pot holders should go. Once we have all the bases covered, you are all invited to come over and ogle our creation. We are pretty darn pleased with it!

DSC00173

Posted in Family Life, Personal | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

The Great Kitchen Makeover – Part One

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Steve Hanley

It all started when we went to Home Depot in the Fall of 2012 to get a gallon of paint. While there, we saw a refrigerator we really liked. It wasn’t just that it was stainless steel and it wasn’t just that it had the freezer at the bottom.

No, what really appealed to us was that it had a third section, a pull-out drawer for fruits and vegetables. Even better, it was on sale, so we bought it. The only problem is, it’s about 30% larger than a normal fridge and doesn’t really fit in the space where our old refrigerator lived.

When we first got this house, our kitchen was a disaster. It was built from reclaimed materials and featured cabinets with sliding wood paneling instead of doors. The ceiling was a fiberboard product from the 50’s and the floor featured honest to gosh linoleum.

We ripped that old kitchen out and built our dream country kitchen. With the help of a neighbor who was a carpenter, I made the cabinets and doors and counter tops myself and we were pretty proud of it when it was done.

DSC00032

But that was 20 years ago. What looked oh so sweet back then was beginning to look a bit dated in 2014. Besides, we have this big new refrigerator that needs a permanent home and the only place it actually fits is where the sink is right now. Sadly, our beautiful pine floor did not survive the ravages of time very well and looked shabby. So we decided to rip it all out and start over. Again.

The first thing we agreed on was that we wanted granite counter tops this time. We spent the next several months visiting every granite company between Portland and Poughkeepsie. Ultimately, we found a slab we liked just a mile from where Carolyn works. Right now, it is sitting inside, waiting for us whenever we are ready.

002

But the granite is the last step in the process. Before we ever get to that point, we need to select the tile for the floor, settle on a kitchen design we like, do the electrical and 1,000 other things. We sketched out a design we thought was just what we wanted and sat down with Mike, a kitchen designer at Home Depot. Mike was very skillful and patient with us. Occasionally, he would look at our plan and say things like, “That’s very nice. But do you realize that you will never be able to get the refrigerator out if you ever need to replace it?” Or “That’s very nice. But do you realize you will not be able to stand in front of the oven with the door open and will have to slide your turkey in standing sideways?” He saved us from making several embarrassing mistakes. Thanks, Mike.

DSC00055Eventually, a final design was agreed to, the cabinetry was ordered and we went home to start construction. Or deconstruction, to be more accurate. First, we had to rip up the pine floor that we put down to cover the old linoleum. Then the linoleum had to come up. Except there wasn’t just one layer of linoleum; there were two. And they were installed using some kind of heavy tar-like substance that had bonded itself to the old finish floor below. We tried scraping. We tried a heat gun. We tried a blow torch. Nothing worked. Finally we gave up and ripped up the old finish floor, only to discover yet another layer of old linoleum beneath that. I began to think we should open a linoleum museum!

Once the old floor was up, it was time to put down plywood as a base for the new tile. We elected to use a membrane between the tile and the plywood. Why? Because we saw it done that way on Holmes On Homes and if it’s good enough for Mike Holmes, it’s good enough for us! The plywood has to be fastened with screws ever 6″. That’s 153 screws per sheet of plywood times 8 sheets = 1,224 screws. We hired some local kids to help us with that part.

DSC00054

After the plywood was down, and the membrane installed, we could actually begin putting the tile down. It looks terrific!

DSC00058

You may notice that the tile begins in the dining room. That’s because there simply was not enough room in the kitchen area alone to meet our design requirements, which include a central island. So we added a set of cabinets in the dining room and made it all one big cooking/dining area.

We spent the last couple weeks finishing the tile work, stripping the old wall paper off the walls and painting the walls to match the new cabinets. Then all the trim work had to be re-installed.

DSC00001

On Friday, the cabinets arrived. There sure are a lot of them!

DSC00002

We got them all unpacked and organized and then started installing them on Sunday, beginning with the wall and base cabinets for the dining area. Now our new French Provincial dream kitchen is actually starting to take shape.

???????????????????????????????

There is much work yet to do and we don’t expect to be finished until early May. But we are pleased with the progress so far and excited to see what it will look like when it is finally complete.

The piece de resistance in the whole kitchen redo rigamorole is the range we have picked out to complete the project.

We will post an update on the project as we get closer to completion. And then you will all be invited to what the TV shows like to call the “reveal”. Can’t wait!

Posted in Cooking, Family Life, Food, Personal | Tagged | 5 Comments

Club Med Turks & Caicos

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Steve Hanley

DSC00092

The beach at Club Med is rated one of the 10 best in the world.

Carolyn and I have just returned from our annual mid-winter break. The destination this year was Club Med Turquoise located on Providenciales, one of the islands of Turks and Caicos. And where is Turks and Caicos, you ask? Well, it’s north of the Dominican Republic and west of Puerto Rico. In other words, it offers all the sparkling water, warm breezes and sunshine that the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands are famous for without as many of those pesky tourists lurking about!

Club Med is the original all inclusive resort. Once you arrive, all your earthly needs are taken care of – food, beverages, sports equipment, beach chairs and entertainment are all provided. We chose this Club because it is the only one in North America reserved for adults. Now, don’t misunderstand. We love the grandkids. In fact, they are spending next weekend with us. But there are times when it is nice to get away just the two of us and socialize with other adults.

Hobie Cats ready for another day on the water.

The amazing thing about Club Med is the extent and variety of activities that are available for guests. There is a fleet of Hobie Cats, wind surfers, kayaks and stand up paddle boards waiting for you at the edge of the ocean. If you don’t know how to use them, the staff are happy to teach you. Do you prefer tennis, snorkeling, soccer, volleyball, water aerobics, water polo, volleyball or the trampoline? Those are also available along with free instruction if you so desire.

On Tuesday, we participated in the weekly regatta. Club Med rules always emphasize fun first and so the races started from the beach. The surf was high that day, which made getting the boat into the water and underway a challenge. We came in third, which was good enough to earn us an official Club Med medal. It was Carolyn’s first experience with competitive sailing and judging by her big grin every time we passed yet another boat, she thoroughly enjoyed it! 

Later in the week, we went out on one of the bigger Hobie Cats with a much larger mainsail and a jib. I have sailed a time or two and raced high performance boats for a number of years, but I have never traveled faster on the water than we did in that big catamaran. We took another couple along with us who were novice sailors and they had a grand time as we lofted the windward hull into the air and let the leeward hull burrow through the rollers, drenching us all with geysers of warm ocean water. Such fun!

Most mornings, we played tennis or went for a long walk on the beach before breakfast. Grace Bay on Providenciales is rated one of the 10 best beaches in the world. With its pure white sand and warm ocean waters, it’s easy to see why it is so highly regarded.

DSC00111

We had started dieting on New Year’s Day to slim down enough to fit into our bathing suits, but when we got to Club Med Turquoise we were suddenly adrift in a sea of culinary delights. The food was tasty and plentiful and the desserts extraordinary. I became inordinately fond of fresh baked white chocolate bread and Napoleons. The scale says I gained 10 pounds during the week, even though I was far more physically active than usual. It’s hard to watch your weight when you are offered bountiful buffets three times a day.

Dessert buffet at Club Med Turquoise

During the week, we made friends with many other guests. There was a large contingent from Canada looking to escape winter’s icy blasts. On our last night at the village, we shared a table at dinner with a family from Geneva. We struggled with our high school French and they struggled with their English, but we managed to carry on an enjoyable conversation anyway.

When the week was over, we had to agree this was one of our best vacations ever. We met several people who have visited this particular Club Med multiple times. Now that we are home again and the temperature outside is in the single digits, we can’t wait to go back again ourselves.

Posted in Adventures, Food, Travel, Vacations | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Hot Stove Day

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Steve Hanley

Traditionally, the period between the end of the World Series and the start of Spring training is referred to by old time baseball people as The Hot Stove League. It’s that time of year when fans, players and management all like to sit around a warm fire to ward off winter’s chill and commiserate about what went wrong last season and what the home town team should do to guarantee success in the season to come.

Every year in January, the Pawtucket Red Sox host a Hot Stove Day. They throw open the offices, locker rooms and training facilities beneath McCoy Stadium to the public, hand out free hot dogs and soda and let the fans meet members of the team in person.

In the hallways below the stadium, the walls are festooned with hundreds of photos, news stories, score cards, signed baseballs and other memorabilia about the PawSox franchise. There is the box score for the longest baseball game ever played, which happened at McCoy in 1981. I was there for that game, at least the first 17 innings. And an original score card from the epic Mark Fydrich/Dave Righetti pitching duel in 1982 when an overflow crowd roared with delight as Fydrich bested Righetti for the win. I was there for that one too. Some of the biggest names in baseball history have appeared at McCoy on their way to the big leagues. A special section is dedicated to photos of those players. 

Don Henley calls baseball players “the boys of summer” because they play their games during the warm weather months. With rules that have changed little since the 1880’s, baseball has become America’s most iconic sport. During World War II, American sentries would ask “Who won the “39 World Series?” Anyone who didn’t know the correct answer was presumed to be a Nazi spy.

Baseball is Mom,  hot dogs and apple pie all rolled into one. As each season ends, it is always followed by a new one, filled with hope and promise. According to John Fogarty, when baseball returns to the cities and towns of America, “We’re born again. There’s new grass on the field.”

The 2014 season began this week with Truck Day at Fenway Park. That’s when a tractor trailer loaded with uniforms, bats, gloves, hats and other assorted baseball paraphernalia leaves Boston on its way to the Red Sox spring training facility in Ft. Myers, Florida. Pitchers and catchers report this Saturday. Those of us left behind look at the frozen landscape outside our windows and dream of when the “boys of summer” return to Beantown. Then we will know for certain that warm weather is on its way.

As much as we here in New England adore our Red Sox, going to a game at Fenway can be expensive and difficult. Parking? What parking? And getting home through traffic after the game can take hours. A family of four should plan on spending upwards of $500 for the privilege of watching a Red Sox home game.

 

Yet just an hour down the road, fans can park free within a block or two of McCoy Stadium and enjoy real baseball for as little as $8.00. The concessions even offer real Fenway Franks and bags of salted in the shell peanuts. Being allowed to throw your peanut shells on the ground without your mother yelling at you is one of life’s great pleasures!

McCoy Stadium has a history of its own. It is built on what was once a landfill owned by local businessman, James McCoy. When McCoy became mayor of Pawtucket, he donated the land to the city for an athletic facility, thereby absolving himself of any financial liability for cleaning up the mess he created. For generations, tickets cost only a few dollars, but the stands were seldom more than half full. During the years when Tom Yawkey owned the Red Sox, little attention was paid to the team in Pawtucket. The stadium became a dingy, dirty hulk. There was even talk of tearing it down and moving the team to another city.

In 1977, a fellow by the name of Ben Mondor bought the team. He cleaned up the stadium, fixed the broken windows and painted the old park from top to bottom. Then he started programs to attract local youngsters and the kids brought their parents along with them. Mondor convinced the management of the parent Boston Red Sox to invest in the Pawtucket team, which brought better players to McCoy. After a decade of hard work and  creative sterwardship, Mondor turned the PawSox into one of the most successful minor league teams in baseball. Home games are now sold out weeks in advance, even though ticket prices have jumped to $8.00!

Baseball is more intimate at McCoy. The stands are built close to the field with the dugouts and clubhouses underneath. Local kids bring a plastic pail with them to the park. Before the game starts, they put a program or baseball or hat into the pail and lower it on a string to the dugout below, hoping to get an autograph.

There is something poignant about all those faces and all those stories we see arrayed along the corridors at McCoy Stadium on Hot Stove Day. In a world where change seems to happen hourly, baseball is a constant in our lives, a talisman that connects us to our past and gives us hope for the future. 

Sign up at pawsox.com to get your e-mail announcement for Hot Stove Day, 2015.

Posted in Baseball, Family Life, Sports | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Is Treme The Best Show On Television?

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Steve Hanley

Just when you think television is a vast wasteland of reality shows or “dramas” that feature puddles of blood from gunshot wounds oozing across the screen, along comes an HBO show like Treme that disrupts the paridigm – a show that educates as well as entertains and does it with class and style. From the same producers who created The Wire, Treme examines in exquisite detail the lives of a disparate group of New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina wreaked its havoc on the city. It is a story of greed and ignorance, corruption and racism and it is a powerful argument for why New Orleans matters.

Map of The Treme

Treme is the nickname for the neighborhood across St. Charles Street from the storied French Quarter. It’s a place most tourists never see. It’s where the ordinary residents of New Orleans live according to the rhythms and traditions that have defined this place on the banks of the Mississippi River for more than 400 years.

New Orleans is a silly place to have a city, actually. Much of it is below sea level and thus subject to catastrophic flooding on a regular basis. It is unbearably hot and humid much of the year. It is infested with a thousand kinds of insects and other pests, not to mention alligators in the bayous that surround it. It is no wonder this is the place the English chose when they expelled French settlers from Nova Scotia. They believed, with some reason, that human beings could not possibly live in this inhospitable location.

Seafood gumboSince the 1600’s, New Oleans has been the crossroads of the Caribbean, a pastiche of cultural influences from Spain, France, Africa, England, the Netherlands, Trinidad, Tobago, and every place in between. Just down the Mississippi and past the delta is the Gulf of Mexico with its wealth of fresh seafood. Some say the region’s famous andouille sausage is made from alligator meat. With all those influences, it is no wonder the food of the region is spectacularly delicious!

And then, on August 29, 2005, the most powerful hurricane ever to hit the United States brought unimaginable destruction to New Orleans. Tens of thousands were trapped by the flood waters. Whole sections of the city were inundated. Neighborhoods were wiped out. The economy of the region was destroyed. And all across America, the prevailing attitude was “Serves ’em right for being stupid enough to live there.” A racist nation saw all those black faces huddled in misery inside the SuperDome and was unmoved by their suffering. There was much talk of saving taxpayer dollars by simply abandoning New Orleans and rebuilding it someplace else that was more habitable – like Peoria.

Hurricane Katrina damage

Over the course of 4 seasons,  the producers of Treme introduced us to the soul of New Orleans by exposing us to its post-Katrina anguish and pain. We hear the vox populii of real people struggling to rebuild their shattered lives against a background of government incompetence, police brutality, political corruption and economic opportunism by outsiders looking to make a quick buck from the devastation. Yet the factor that unites all the characters and allows viewers to identify with them is the music. The show’s soundtrack is the very best I have ever heard. It is not all Dixieland from Preservation Hall but an amalgam of modern jazz, alternative jazz, blues, Cajun and even bounce, all mixed together and stirred up like a fine New Orleans gumbo. The music illuminates the soul of New Orleans culture and makes us pray for its survival.

The show is unflinching in its examination of the troubles that beset the city after Katrina. Yet it is also a love song for the cultural crosscurrents that create the richness of life in New Orleans. It shows us why America should care about the city, its people and its culture. There’s no way Peoria could ever be like this!

French Quarter

Posted in New Orleans, Television | Tagged | Leave a comment

Remembering Phil Everly

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Steve Hanley

Main Street USA

Back in the 50’s, American music was in transition. The Mills Brothers and the Andrews Sisters were being replaced by the pulsating rhythms of black culture, thanks to Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley.  Not everyone was happy about the change. I remember one local DJ who played the latest Presley record,  then smashed it into bits and vowed never to play a song by Elvis again. My parents cheered. The station fired him.

As a pre-teenager, I was passionate about the new music. I never missed the weekly Top 40 show from WBZ in Boston and often scanned the airwaves at night in search of new songs from far off stations like WABC in New York, WLS in Chicago and WAPE in Jacksonville.

Everly Brothers

Once a month, I rode my trusty Raleigh bicycle to the record store to buy a new 45 with my allowance money. There I could choose a song from the Drifters, Frankie Valli, or Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon. But my first choice was always the very latest record from The Everly Brothers. I couldn’t wait to buy it, get it home and listen to it on the hi-fi!

Many dismissed the Everlys as hillbillies, which they were. As boys, they learned from their father, an itinerant musician from Appalachia who sang the Scots-Irish ballads of his ancestors as he drifted from town to town. Those same “hillbilly” songs later formed the basis for bluegrass and country music, both of which have had an enormous influence on American music over the decades.
Wake Up Little Susie

The lyrics of Everly Brothers songs had a way of speaking directly to me, as if they understood the turmoil associated with coming of age. They sang “Love is like a stove – burns you when it’s hot.” They asked plaintively “When will I be loved?” They pleaded with one apocryphal young lady to “Let it be me.” They even had the temerity to suggest that falling asleep at the drive-in could land young lovers in deep trouble. Although Wake Up Little Susie never said those teens were anything but chaste as they slumbered, the song was banned in Boston anyway.

In an age when sexuality and romance were whispered about rather than discussed openly, the music of the Everly Brothers was as close as I could get to a guide through the hormonal upheavals I was experiencing. My very first girlfriend was named Kathy and when Kathy’s Clown hit the airwaves, I felt Phil and Don must know everything that was in my heart.

Phil EverlyTheir music was unique. It featured close, two part harmonies in a way never heard before on the airwaves. That style came to influence Simon and Garfunkel and later The Beatles. In time, they became American music legends.  When I read that Phil Everly died last week, it was like I had lost a personal friend, someone who helped guide me through my formative years.

What great memories you and your brother gave me. Phil. Thank you. 

Posted in Family Life, Music | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Possibilities

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Steve Hanley

I follow a blog entitled Where’s My Backpack?, written by a person who is an inveterate traveler. In today’s post, the author has this to say about the promise of a new year:

The beginning of a new year fills me with a sense of boundless possibility; of places yet to be explored, people to encounter, experiences waiting to be uncovered.

Look up in the top right corner of this page. There you will see the words of Charles Kuralt, who also relished adventure and who inspired my incurable wanderlust: “I see the road ahead is turning. I wonder what’s around the bend?”

Right now, it is 8 degrees outside my window and is supposed to drop another 20 degrees by sunrise tomorrow. Today is the perfect day to think ahead to the adventures that 2014 will bring, the beaches we will discover, the friends we will make and the scenic vistas yet to be found.

Carolyn and I are now old hands at the home exchange. We have done a dozen of them and each one has introduced us to places and people we would not have encountered otherwise. Exchanging our home allows us to travel to more places and do more things because we do not have to spend money for lodgings while we are away.

In the past few months, folks in Barcelona, Provence, Holland, Tuscany and Paris have inquired about doing a home exchange with us. But they all want to exchange for a month or more in the summer. We jealously guard our summer activities here in New England. Thoughts of lying on a beach in Newport or sailing on Narragansett Bay are what keep us going when the weather is bitterly cold and snowy outside, as it is today. Since we are not retired, long term exchanges during the rest of the year are simply not possible. Yet….

snowy day

The loosening of our ties to the workaday world is just a year or two away now. And so we have begun to contemplate what we want to do with our time once we no longer have to set the alarm at night. That’s when Barcelona, Provence, Holland, Tuscany and Paris will become real possibilities. Not to mention the 3 months in Australia and New Zealand we have planned. For this year, exchanges within 300 miles of home are in order, as long as they have a beach nearby. Cape May, Lake Champlain, Montreal and coastal Maine are all on our radar.

world map

It is these possibilities that sustain us as we look forward to 2014. Where will you go this year?

Posted in Adventures, Home Exchange, Travel | Tagged , | 2 Comments