no more bedhead

Our last full day in Vermont started with Ellen and me heading down into Waterbury on a Heady Topper quest. Actually, I was looking for the Craft Beer Cellar, which I hoped would have Heady, but at least would have a good selection of craft brews.

Our plan was temporarily thwarted by Waterbury's "Not quite Independence Day" parade.  The parade was going right down Rt. 100 past the store, so we couldn't get there. We did find a side street place to park, and walked a couple of blocks to the store, though. Even though we missed the parade, we got there in time to see the fire truck with the giant American flag that was hanging over the route. Ellen took a picture of it and posted it on Facebook.  The kids saw it and now think we went to a parade without them!

The Craft Beer Cellar did have Heady, with a one four-pack per person limit, so we got two, and a couple of other things that looked interesting. Definitely a place to check out earlier in the week next time.

The afternoon saw the cousins come over and they took the kids fishing in the little brook by the house.  Everyone caught fish and threw them back in, but a couple of them were too badly damaged to return to the water, so those came home.

John taught Iain how to clean a fish, then Liam fried them up for a tasty dinner.

Cleaning the fish

Plated

 It was a nice, relaxing end to our Vermont vacation.  Sunday saw us back on the highway to Connecticut to spend the night (and one more time at Village Pizza), then back to Ohio on Monday.

On Friday we were going to go to Texas Falls, but all the people who had to drive didn't want to drive that long.  So, we called an audible and went to Shelburne Farms instead.  It was a lot of fun.

Main barn and grounds from the trailhead

We toured the main barn area and the kids got to see the cows, goats, and chickens in the barn. We also went to the outdoor area where those animals roam (relatively) freely.

A chicken crossing the road. I asked 'why?', and he said 'BRAAWWK'.

We hiked one of the trails on the grounds that led to a spectacular view of Lake Champlain.



My favorite place was the cheesemaking area.  We went back there several times throughout the day to watch them making, well, cheese.  It's an interesting process that takes all day, but makes a very large amount of cheese - they make about 140,000 pounds per year.  And, of course, they had samples.  Very tasty.  I enjoyed the 2-Year cheese very much.

Zack making the cheese. The cheese has been cut into "fingers" and he's "salting" it to stop the process

As Iain and I were intrigued by the process, we bought a book with recipes and tips for making your own cheese at home. Can't wait!!

As we were leaving - by way of tractor-pulled cart - I noticed the bread shop/bakery. I've been to Shelburne Farms twice, and neither time did I go to the bakery. I don't know why, but I have to remember to make that the first stop next time I go. Unless there's something interesting in the cheese making.

The weather was gorgeous for a Sunday drive from Connecticut to Vermont.  Travel was easy, everyone was excited, but the best part was the motorcycles. It was the last day of Laconia (NH) Motorcycle Week, and people were starting to head home. The southbound lanes of I-91 had a lot of extra motorcycle traffic, and I was filled with a mix of joy (at seeing the different bikes) and jealousy (at not being out there).

We got to Stowe in pretty good time and got settled in to "Stowe Haus".  Ellen's brother-in-law John's brother is a retired colonel from the army, but he's been hired as a consultant to do whatever it was he was doing when he was active duty.  This means that he is still "stationed" in Germany. He has a house in Stowe so that he and his family will have a place to go when they come back to the states, and I think it will be a place to live upon permanent return.  In the meantime, the house gets rented out, and we are beneficiaries of that largesse.

Laura and Liam and Maggie were there to greet us upon our arrival, and Liam and I ended up sitting around watching the USA-Portugal World Cup match.  It was a thrilling game, that ended in a tie as Portugal scored just before the end of extra time in the second half.  Now the US has to beat or tie Germany on Thursday to move on to the elimination round.

Monday saw us head in to Laura's house in Colchester. We had decided to go to Burlington and to the Church Street Marketplace to do some shopping and visit our niece Libby, who works at Ben & Jerry's (score!!).  We wandered around, visiting shops we usually frequent, like Earthbound (clothes, but also incense, cool Buddhist/Hindu statuary, and other eclectic stuff), Frog Hollow (locally made art pieces) and stores we've recently discovered, like Saratoga Olive Oil Company (this year we bought two vinegars - fig and coconut - and some spice rubs - Adobo and Kentucky something.

One really cool store that wasn't there last year is Blu-Bin.  They do 3-D printing on site. You can purchase items that have been printed, or you can bring them your own files and they will print them.  They also will scan something you bring in, and create the file for printing.  I thought Iain's head was going to pop off when he discovered this store.  When we got back to Stowe Haus, we had to scour the internet for 3-D printing plans that he could take in.  We found a spaceship from one of the video games he plays, and a Ganesha. Blu-bin's website is "under construction", but here's an article from Burlington's Seven Days newspaper about the store.

As we were wandering around, we got a text from Libby that Ben & Jerry's was pretty slow and that would be a good time to come in.  I had a cone of Coconut Seven Layer Bar.  It was yummy.  Here's all of us enjoying our tasty treats:


Tuesday turned out to be a low-key kind of day. We stayed on the Stowe side of the mountains that separate Stowe from Burlington, and we visited the Danforth Pewter Store, the Lake Champlain Chocolates Store, and the Cabot Cheese outlet. (They are all in the same complex, so easy to do all at once.)

The chocolate store has some interesting things, including a chocolate filled with cider from Citizen Cider.  Laura got some for us to try and it was very tasty.  They also have a wall of "seconds", so I got a Sea Salt and Caramel chocolate bar off of that wall that was a-mah-zing!!  (Love the crunchy bits of salt!)

The Cabot store is a hard one to get out of without lightening your wallet.  They have samples of what seems to be all their cheeses, so you can just continue to walk around the table filling up.  All those cheeses are then available for sale in the cooler. Along with butter and yogurt, and local beer, and syrups.  The syrups also have a tasting station. I especially loved the "hot" infused syrups - Sweet Heat, Sweet Chai, and Sweet Ginger especially.

Dinner at Dave's
I had touched base with Dave just prior to coming to Connecticut, and we arranged to get our families together at his house on Friday night for burgers and swimming. Shortly before it was time to leave, Dave called me to let me know his wife was sick and he needed to cancel.  Sadly, that meant that we wouldn't see each other this trip.  But, hopefully, it wasn't anything serious and Colleen is okay.

Seeing Nicole
Speaking of people I wasn't going to see, I thought I wasn't going to get to see my niece Nicole.  She was supposed to come to Marilyn's for dinner on Monday, but something happened and she couldn't make it. She had to work the rest of the week and I figured we wouldn't see her, but fortunately she was able to come over on Saturday for a little while.  At least long enough for a selfie:


Hartt School of Music
Iain is interested in studying music composition in college. During dinner with Nancy, she mentioned Hartt School of Music. I had a 'duh' moment. I grew up here, hearing all about Hartt, and totally forgot about it when Iain expressed his interest.

On Friday, we were planning to go to Elizabeth Park, so we stopped a UHa (or as Iain calls it, Uhhhhh....) to check out the campus and facilities. I took the other three kids and we explored the campus while Iain and Ellen bopped around the Hartt School, visited Admissions, and explored on their own.  We all met up at the bookstore where Iain bought a very cool Hartt school t-shirt.  Naturally I don't have a picture of it - teenage boy and all - but it says "The Hartt School - music/dance/theatre".  It's pretty slick. [Update - found a link where you can buy them, so at least you can see what the t-shirt looks like.]

Oh, and he liked the campus and what he could find out about the school. He's going to visit St. Michael's College while we're in Vermont, too.

Lego Store/Lush
On Tuesday we had to go to the Lego store in Westfarms Mall to get a copy of the Lego Movie on it's release date.  Jamie was super excited!!  Mission accomplished, and Granny got each of the kids a cup-full of Legos from the bulk Lego wall, so that was kind of cool.  I got a Lego Batman minifig for my backpack.

As we were getting ready to leave, we stopped in to Lush, a Body Shop-type store that I had never heard of before, but looked (and smelled) like a place that Ellen would like very much. (Turns out it was started by the people who supplied Body Shop with the bulk of their products early on.  Some disagreements about the direction of the company led them to branch out on their own.) The have lots of soaps, shampoos, lotions, etc.  Ironically, it was me who walked out of the store with the big order!  I got:

• Shaving cream - Dirty, which smells amazing and is great on my face and head.  I would like to try Prince at some point, too.  It's a lot thicker.
• Deodorant - Aromaco, which is all-natural, and on me causes no irritation, and keeps me dry and smelling good all day long. Seriously.
• "Toothy tabs" - little tablets that you crush in your mouth and then run a wet tootbrush around. Leaves your teeth feeling fresh and clean.  We got Ultrablast (my favorite), and Sparkle.  The salesman gave us a sample of Atomic, which is cinnamon/clove flavor.

The closest store to us is about an hour away, but they do mail-order, so it's all good.

Ferry Ride
Of course, no trip to Wethersfield would be right without a ride on the Rocky Hill-Glastonbury Ferry.  Started in 1655, it is the oldest continuously operated ferry in the US. (Fun Fact I did not know until researching this post - it's in Billy Joel's video "River of Dreams" - FF to 1:40 - which was shot in Middletown.)

Heading toward Glastonbury

New Motorcycle
My sister and brother-in-law, Bill, bought a 2014 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy.  Same as me, except 3 years newer and 103ci engine (versus 96ci).  I didn't get to ride it, but I did get to sit on it. It's really nice. I can't wait to have my bike here so we can go out riding.

Of course, we give my brother a hard time for being the only one of the siblings without a Harley, and without a tattoo!

Me and their bike. It looks like I'm up to no good.

Capsized Boat
We were sitting at Village Pizza when the volunteer fire department horn sounded. A short time later, the rescue units headed down toward the Cove.  There was an 'inflatable' boat, followed by a 'real' boat, followed by Glastonbury's boat.  Obviously, something was up. Just then, the ambulance crew stopped in to Village and we asked what was happening. They said a boat had supposedly capsized in the river, but they hadn't been spotted yet. So the rescue crew was going out to investigate.

Since we were basically done with dinner, we headed to the Cove, and that was indeed what was happening. We watched them for a while until they 'cleared' over the radio without having found any evidence of a boat/boater in distress.

Being at the Cove at that time of night allowed me to get this picture of the Cove at twilight after the kids had been plunking rocks into it. I think it came out pretty well.

Last year we tried to go to Elizabeth Park. Made it there for about 5 minutes when the heavens opened up in a torrential thunderstorm.  Had to drive home through downtown Hartford in it, and it was not pleasant.

This year we decided to try again, and we got a beautiful day!  We still only wandered around the Rose Garden and didn't make it to the other gardens, but it was a blast.  We've decided that next year we are going to pack a picnic lunch and spend a little more time there (providing it doesn't rain!).

Nancy and I go back to college. We ran in the same circle of friends, were both involved in the theatre, and were both from Connecticut. Naturally, we became friends.  Like most friends from early on in life, we kind of lost touch over the years.  Fortunately we reconnected a couple of years ago, and last year when we came through town we got together for a visit.

Her husband, David, is also from her hometown and went to college with us, but he got there right as I was transitioning back from one college to another, and I don't remember him as part of the group I was running with at the time.  Turns out he's a pretty cool guy. We bonded over Rush, and he showed me Rush's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech. Blah, blah, blah.

Nancy and David have two kids - one of whom is about Iain's age, and the other is Kate's age.  When we got together last year it was if they were all long-lost friends!  I think we were at Nancy's house for about 5 minutes before all the kids disappeared, leaving the adults in their wake.

When we visited last year, Nancy and David were just getting ready to move from Avon to Hartford.  This year part of our "reconnecting" was finding out where they currently live.

Turns out they live in a gorgeous 1916 house about a block away from Elizabeth Park. It has two pantries (although they are going to remodel one away), a carriage entrance (where the door into the house is actually at carriage height, and opens into their dining room), and three full floors.  The third floor was originally the servants quarters, and they're talking about turning it into a rental unit. (Although Nancy joked that after the kids go off to school, she and David could live there and rent the rest of the house!) Oak woodwork everywhere, except the third floor - pine. It's on a beautiful tree-lined street, and there was virtually no "city noise" as we enjoyed their backyard hospitality.  So, I'm very jealous of their house.

It was great seeing them again. The kids went off to watch "The Lego Movie" and the adults gabbed in the backyard until it was too dark to see each other! We talked a lot of theatre, and Nancy suggested that we get tickets to Cleveland Playhouse, as they are a LORT theatre (as is Nancy's employer - Goodspeed Opera House) which produces their own productions - rather than a "touring" theatre like Playhouse Square, which brings in the touring companies.  She has a good point - support the local community - and we'll have to see what they're doing this year.

Like last year, the evening wound down with us watching the DVR'd recording of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies. This year we watched Peter Gabriel (am-ah-zing!!), Linda Ronstadt and Cat Stevens.  We didn't make it to Nirvana or the E Street Band as it was getting late.

When we were driving home last year I realized that, although it had been probably 20 years since we had last seen each other, it felt like we had always been together and it was just our weekly get-together at Nancy's house.  Consequently, no one had thought to take a picture.  This year, I remembered.  Pictures were taken.  However, my phone's camera flash was set to "auto" and for some reason decided that there was plenty of light inside Nancy's house and didn't need to go off.  So, I ended up with the stereotypical "crappy cell phone photos" of the evening.  Oh well, there's always next year.

The best photo of the bunch. At full size, it looks like I've played with the artistic filters too much!

Our annual trek east was somewhat up in the air due to some of Ellen's school obligations, so I was unable to give people the exact dates until about a week or so before we were ready to head out, resulting in my referring to this, tongue-in-cheek, as the "Last Minute Tour of New England". I think it may have worked out to our advantage as I was able to do some rapid scheduling without over-thinking things, and it turned out to be a very pleasant, restful week.

We arrived in Connecticut on Saturday evening, and within the hour I was at Village Pizza. (Had to get my "half roast beef grinder with mayo, cold, with everything".)  That out of the way, we settled in at mom's house.

Sunday saw us heading down to the Wethersfield Cove to see the Cove Warehouse.  Growing up a few houses away (I could actually see the warehouse from my bedroom window), I am intimately familiar with it. But my kids are not, and Kate really wanted to see it.  It was broken into over the winter, and through community donations has been rebuilt and reopened as an interactive display of commerce of early Wethersfield specifically, and the nascent nation in general.  The hours are limited to weekend days from 1:00-4:00, so we took advantage of our first day there to visit.

Cove Warehouse selfie

Wethersfield Cove panorama shot from window of Cove Warehouse

When I was a kid the warehouse was open frequently. I remember playing inside, and being stung by a boat-load (hive-load?) of bees once.  Then I guess funding dried up and it was closed for the rest of my time at home. It was fun to get back inside again after all these years.

After the nostalgia trip, we went over to my cousin Liz's house for a pool-party/family get-together.  She usually has us come over when we're in town, and unfortunately she was one of the people that I had not contacted. Nonetheless, she heard we were coming and invited us all over for pizza. Always a good time.

This time was special-er (is that a word?) because I got to visit with my cousin Michael, who I haven't seen in a few years as he's been unable to attend these get-togethers. He was wearing an awesome t-shirt featuring the old Hartford Whalers "Pucky the Whale" logo.  I was telling him about my jersey (from the later team years), and we were laughing that we were referring to the "new" logo for a team that ceased to exist in 1979!

We also got to visit with Liz's husband, Tom, who has been out of town on work-related trips the previous times we've done this. Turns out that Tom went to college in Vermont, so we talked about the places that we go during the second week of our vacation, and the Vermont micro-brew industry. He requested that we bring back a case of The Alchemist Brewery's Heady Topper (which I think is the best beer - ever) for him. I'm hoping we can manage that.

Sitting around Liz and Tom's pool selfie

On Monday, we had dinner at Auntie Marilyn's house. This year the menu included something new - ham loaf.  It was tasty, and Marilyn made enough for us to bring back to Mom's house so we had ham loaf sandwiches later in the week. It's always fun to visit at Auntie's as it's a chance for my siblings and me to get together and bust on each other. (Love you guys!)

Today was a crazy day as far as the kids were concerned. Three kids needed to be at three events in three different parts of the county - at the same time.

Keke had a Math Team competition, and we were able to drop her off after arranging for a ride home with one of her friends. She competed in word problems, and she did all right.

Stewie had a regional Pinewood Derby event. As the overall winner of the Pack Derby, he got to compete at the regionals. He also did well. They only showed the results for the top three finishers in each class, and his name wasn't displayed, but his time was only .01 seconds off the third place finisher, so I figure he was right up there, too.

Beenie had his second Regional Spelling Bee competition. The winner of this competition goes to Washington DC, for the national competition. Ellen took Beenie to this round. The bee started off as last years did, with a number of people being knocked out, and the competition was quickly down to ten spellers. After that, the eliminations slowed, and several rounds passed before the winner was determined.

The words that was given to spell were:

predicate (practice word)
hydraulic
impetuous
(10 spellers left)
epiphany
patel
angstrom
(5 spellers left)
eureka
(4 spellers left)
bureaucracy
tachometer
(3 spellers left)
bezoar

Unfortunately, Beenie spelled the last word beezoar, and was eliminated. But, he did come in third in the region, and that is something to be very, very proud of! The kid who won was the kid who has won the regional bee in three out of the four years he's been involved, so the competition was tough.

Way to go Beenie, and Stewie, and Keke!!

It's the last year for Beenie to compete in the spelling bee.  Last year he followed up 2 years worth of second place by coming in first and moving on to the regional spelling bee. In a way that created less pressure as he's already been there. In a way it created more pressure - the pressure to repeat.

So, we were a little on edge last night as we sat down to watch the Middle School Spelling Bee.  26 entrants from grades 5-8 sat on stage, under the lights, and had to spell in front of an audience of parents and siblings. In each of the first five rounds, only a handful of kids got eliminated each time.

In the sixth round, all that changed, instantly.  The round started with five kids standing, and the first three each spelled their word incorrectly.  Then it was Beenie's turn.  He got "monstrosity" and spelled it correctly.  One kid followed, and he missed his word.  That left Beenie to spell one final "championship" word to win the whole thing.

The announcer said "herringbone", and Beenie got a sly little smile on his face. I could tell as he started h-e-r that he knew he had it, and he was just trying to slow himself down so as not to make a silly mistake.  r-r-i-n-g-b-o-n-e, and bam - he's the champion for the second year in a row!!!

I swore I was not going to get all worked up this year.  Since he did this last year, I was good with however he did.  I was wrong. When the kids started missing in round 6, my heart was pounding.  When I hit the stage, I wrapped him in a big bear hug (much to his chagrin, I'm sure).  So much for the cool, collected, dad.

Again, we're on to the regional bee, where the words are exponentially harder. We'll see what happens.

The (correctly spelled) words from this bee:

I tend to stress out at the thought of the Pinewood Derby.  I am not a woodworker, so I figure the chances of me messing something up permanently are pretty high. This is made worse with the knowledge that I'm messing up something that my kid is making.  That was the situation I found myself in earlier this week, as Stewie and I started working on his first Pinewood Derby car.

We talked about some simple designs he could use (that wouldn't require too much finesse on my part), and he told me exactly what he wanted. He wanted a car with a steep incline in the front, then a gradual slope from the top to the back of the car. Okay, I can do that. A little bit of sawing and Stewie doing some sanding, and we've got the basic shape.

Next comes the paint. Stewie wanted a red car with a pair of racing stripes down the middle.  So, we busted out the art kit and he got busy with the painting.  We ultimately decided on a silver racing stripe, and Stewie put it on as one full stripe, then I painted the thin red line down the middle that would separate it into two.  Came out looking pretty nice, I must say.

Car is lookin' good!

The day of the derby we got there, got signed in and inspected and decided to add some weight to the car. Six nickels seemed to bring it to the right weight, and Stewie set off for his den heat. He finished second, losing by a hair to one of the other boys, but it was enough to get him to the finals.

The finals featured a number of really fast cars, and they were winning every race. When it came time for Stewie to go up against them I was surprised when he beat every car except one.  Pretty amazing!!  When the race was over, the Pinewood Derby Committee gathered behind closed doors and emerged a few minutes later, declaring the one car that Stewie lost to disqualified (they moved the axles to the ends of the car - a no-no).  That meant that Stewie won the first Pinewood Derby he ever was in!!!  The best part - using a design that he created.

Next stop - the district Pinewood Derby.  (Which actually had Stewie a little upset because all he wanted to do was to go home and play with his car.)

Wow!!!! That was totally amazing!!!

When I was working right after college I was able to head to New York City on several (borderline many) occasions.  I would always pick up a copy of the Village Voice while I was there, just to get a feel for what was going on in the city and maybe find something fun to do.  One thing that I saw often was advertisements for Blue Man Group. Unfortunately, whenever I was there I didn't have the time or the means to go see the show.  Except for one time, when everything fell into place - that time, naturally, Blue Man Group wasn't performing.

The upshot is - I've never seen them, despite having had the means, motive, and opportunity.

Fast forward, ahem, 20 years or so, to last night.  As a birthday present to Beenie (who is as into the Blue Men as I am, and also hasn't seen them live) we went to see Blue Man Group in Cleveland.  It was, as I mentioned above, totally amazing!!!  The sights, the sounds, music, action, humor, and social commentary. I couldn't have asked for anything more.  Probably the two things that I first saw the BMG perform on tv/video was the Drumbbone and the Paint Drums. To give you an idea of the show, I'm adding a video that shows both of those pieces. The other thing you will notice in the video, that I was unaware of, is that they are accompanied by a live band. The band is behind what appears to be a metal scrim so you can't really see them unless they are lit properly.  However, they perform under blacklight, and their costumes and instruments are covered in fluorescent paint, so that they look like cartoon/stick figures.


But...the best part of the evening was after the show was over. Beenie and I had already left the theatre, when he informed me that he had to make a pit stop before the hour long drive home. We turned around and headed back to the theatre, and were able to re-enter.What did we discover but the Blue Men milling about in the lobby, greeting patrons.  Beenie was able to get in and have his picture taken with a Blue Man, who then wiped some greasepaint off his head, and made a thumbprint on Beenie's cheek.  Way too cool!

I've had a passing interest in archery for a while.  I even was shooting with a club in Cleveland for a couple of years.  I'm not very good, but I have fun, and maybe my techniques are improving a little bit over time.  So, when the local Rec Center sent flyers out to the schools announcing that they would be offering an archery class, I was very excited.  So were Beenie and Keke.  Beenie had shot before - up at the club in Cleveland for a while, but Keke was very excited to learn to shoot.

So, we've been doing this since the fall, in a series of classes that run for about five or six weeks at a time.  For this past session John, our instructor, decided that the kids would be shooting for the prize of a gold, silver, or bronze arrow.  (As I am the only adult in the class regularly, John lets me just shoot, but works with me on my technique when I ask him.  The focus of the class really is the kids.)

The idea was this, John would keep track each week of how many arrows each kid shot into the gold circle(s) in the target.  Each kid would get one point per gold, and he would make a note if the shot landed in the middle 'x' ring.  The person with the most golds would get the gold arrow, the second most would get the silver, and the third most the bronze.

Long story short: at the end of the course session John totaled up the scores and Keke came in third!!  She actually tied with someone, but she had more 'x' shots which John used as the tiebreaker.  She won an actual arrow (bronze in color) that hangs from a signed framed certificate she can hang in her room.  She is very excited!!


Nice job, Keke!

Tonight was the Regional Spelling Bee.  This bee covered the four counties in our neck of the woods, and the participants were the winners of the school spelling bees from the area.  As I mentioned earlier, Beenie was one of those participants.

Sixty-nine spellers started the tournament, and Beenie was number 45, so we had to wait a while for him to spell.  In the first round, he spelled:

• metagnomy

which was pretty funny, as none of us had ever heard of that word before.  He did a fantastic job of asking for pronunciation, origin of word, sentence use, etc., and actually used those clues to determine how to spell the word.  I was impressed.

At the end of the first round, 48 spellers had been eliminated, so they started round two with 21 spellers.

Beenie's word was:

• liquefacient

another word I had never heard of.  Again, he used his questions wisely and figured out the ending correctly.  However, he didn't quite get the beginning of the word, substituting an 'i' for the 'e'.  In both the school bee and tonight, I was writing down the words as he was asked them, and I wrote down this one exactly the way he spelled it, so I would have been out, too.  It was a tricky one - do you go with "liquid" or "liquefy"?  Oh, well.

He said before the bee that his goals were to have fun, and to get through round one.  He succeeded on both counts!

So, after the second round, there were seven spellers left.  The first one spelled her word correctly, then all six others missed.  When she went to spell her "championship" word, she missed, too, so all seven spellers were brought back and the round done again.

Again, six spellers missed, and one got it correct.  When he tried the championship word, he missed.
In the next round, six spellers missed, and one got it correct.  Then he missed the championship word.
Once again, six spellers missed their words, and one got it correct.  This time, he spelled the championship word correctly and was named the winner.  The other six were declared co-runners up.

So, I say that Beenie made it to the penultimate round of the tournament, because everyone else left standing at the end of the round in which he was eliminated were named winners.

It was a great experience for Beenie, and for us.  It was a lot of fun to see it in action, and the difference in difficulty of words between the school level and regional level was noticeable.

Edit 3/7: Beenie just pointed out that I spelled a word incorrectly in this blog post.  Good start for next year!  (I fixed it.)

After coming in second two years in a row (link), Beenie finally won the middle school spelling bee!!!!  I'm so excited and happy for him - especially because this means that he gets to compete in the Regional Spelling Bee, the winner of which gets to go to Washington, DC, for the big Scripps Spelling Bee finals!!!

However, that doesn't mean that I didn't have heart failure along the way.  Here's what happened:

The words he spelled:

• calibration
• examine
• consonant
• denominator
• scruple
• oblige
• patience
• palatable

At this point, it was down to a final group of three.  The other two spellers missed their words, and Beenie spelled (correctly):

• enfranchise

Now, by the rules of the spelling bee, he had to spell one more "championship" word to win.  His word was:

•  circuitous

and, he missed it. So, what that means is that all the spellers from the previous round come back, and we do it again.  The two others missed their words, and Beenie spelled (correctly):

•  omniscient

Then, for the championship word:

• analgesia

And, he missed it again. So, we did it one more time. The other two missed their words, and Beenie spelled (correctly):

• vengeance

Then for the championship word:

• photosynthesis

And, he got it!!!  I was an absolute nervous wreck during the championship word rounds.  I'm sure I was more nervous than he was - or at least than he appeared to be.

So, he got a big honkin' trophy, and he's on his way to the regionals in a month!

Why, when I am trying to edit audio, do the kids feel the need to break out the maracas?

Must I leave Flagstaff? :-(

We hit every ride in Adventureland. Tarzan's Treehouse is here. The kids went in it a couple of times and had a blast. Back in the day it used to be the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Nobody knows the Swiss Family Robinson story anymore, so they updated it. Well, they updated the name anyway. Now it's tied into the Tarzan franchise.


The Jungle Cruise was a hoot, with the water animals spraying, splashing, and “attacking” the boat. The guide had to use his cap gun to scare them off. The resounding “pop” from the gun wouldn't have scared the fly on the elephant's butt, but still...


Beenie and I went on the Indiana Jones Adventure, where we were in a jeep-type car that careened around the forest and the ruins in an attempt to rescue Indy (I think that was the premise). It was a lot of fun hanging on to the car to keep from falling out! Another cool part was the line itself. It weaved (“snaked”?) its way through ruins with idols carved into the walls, and flickering bare light bulbs. It was the best “themed” wait in the park.

But the highlight of Adventureland was the Enchanted Tiki Room. It was always a favorite of Ellen's when she was little, and it hasn't changed at all. The thunderstorm at the end had the little ones somewhat concerned, but they loved watching the birds and the fountain, and listening to the songs. Which they have been singing ever since. Great. (Everybody - “In the tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki room, oh, the tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki room.”)

We never actually did anything in Frontierland. Sadly, there was a roller coaster there – Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – and we never got on it. Beenie, Keke, Stewie, and I passed through there on the way to Splash Mountain, but that's as close as we got.

On an unrelated note, it seems that the designated “smoker's corner” for Disneyland is in Frontierland. On a back path. Behind a rock.

Critter Country is the area of the park where, if I remember correctly, the Country Bear Jamboree used to be located. It's not there anymore. Nor is it anywhere, it's just gone. That is too bad, as I bet the kids would have really liked it. Now, in Critter Country, is The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It is another one of those rides like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride where you are in a car and you go through a twisty, turny ride while looking at Day-Glo cutouts that illustrate the stories from Winnie the Pooh. Particularly fun was the psychedelic “Heffalumps and Woozles” section. Crazy, man!


Also in this area are Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger characters. We naturally got in line to see both. When visiting with Pooh, Stewie was so excited that he wouldn't turn around for a photo op. Ellen yelled, “Turn around!” Stewie didn't move, but Pooh turned around so his back was to us. Ellen had to clarify, “Not you, Pooh!”, at which Pooh turned around again and if it's possible for a character to have a sheepish look, he had one. It was classic!


In the meantime, Tigger was bounce-bounce-bounce-bounce-bouncing all over the place. He would even leave the area when kids were visiting, bounce over to Pooh, and then bounce back to the kids who were waiting for him. They (and the crowd) loved it!


Critter Country also has a restaurant where we ate lunch a couple of days. I expected the food and other amenities inside the park to be outrageously expensive, but I was pleasantly surprised. We ate at the Hungry Bear Restaurant for about $50 for a family of six. That's about right. We spent that much at the IHOP outside the park, and that was with 3 kids meals for free. And, the ambience! We sat on the patio, overlooking the “lagoon” where the boat rides were. As we ate, we were passed by the Mark Twain Riverboat, the Sailing Ship Columbia, and the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes. Also, the guys in flak jackets who were setting up the evening spectacular laser light show.

After lunch, the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes looked like so much fun that we decided to give it a try. We all climbed into these large canoes, and we had to paddle ourselves around the “river”, staying ahead of the riverboats, of course. I shared a seat with Munchkin, who was not so adept at paddling. Ahead of me was Stewie, and we kept getting our paddles tangled. Behind me was a kid not much older that Munchkin, who couldn't seem to get his paddle in the water without soaking me! I didn't mind so much, but as I was holding the paddle with both hands, and then when Munchkin gave up (about 4/5 of the way through) I was holding two paddles, I really couldn't protect the camera. Fortunately, it didn't get too wet, and we all had a lot of fun.

Critter Country also has what I believe is the newest ride – Splash Mountain. It was the one with the longest line every day we were there. On the good days, the line was 45 minutes. On the bad day it was 90. Again, FastPass to the rescue. I got a FastPass for it and Beenie, Keke, Stewie, and I got to jump the line and go on the ride. It was fun, but I don't get why it is so popular. The ride is a boat that floats through a flume, and all around is the Song of the South story. It's calm and tranquil, except for a couple of short hills that the boat slides down. Right near the end of the ride there is a huge drop down toward the Briar Patch, that culminates in a big splashdown where everyone gets soaked. And then it's over. The ride was fun, everyone had a blast, but I don't get the appeal – definitely not worth an hour and a half wait.