A Very Late and Massive Update

Well, we've been in Rhode Island for going-on 6 months now and we have been reveling in the seasonal change. For the first time in a long, long time, Halloween was actually chilly and Christmas has a chance of being white. Now that the semester has come to an end it is time to update the blog...here we go!

At the tail end of July we headed to Newport for the tall ships festival. I think there were 8 altogether, including the HMS Bounty.  The line to get on the Bounty was something like 2 hours long because every kid who was into Pirates of the Caribbean wanted to go on board (they even had costumed pirates wondering around).  We decided to opt out of the Bounty and head to the other ships. In retrospect we should have waited out the line....3 months later the Bounty sunk as it tried to outrace Hurricane Sandy.

Here are some of the ones we did see....truly awesome sight!

Ship's Bell

Captain's Quarters

Voyage map for Pride of Baltimore

Rigging

H.M.S. Bounty

Newport Harbor

Heading out to sea

Lobster and crab pots ready to go. Reminds me of Deadliest Catch.

Home port is Houston

I also spent August settling in to campus life at Rhode Island College. The school is small, about 7000 or so students. Unlike U.T. you can actually get from one side of campus to the other in under 5 minutes. You can't see much from the ring road around campus, just the backs of the buildings. Everything faces in toward the quad.

360 Pano of campus from center of quad. 

My office on the day I moved in

Looking north into the Quad

Go Anchormen! No football on campus, but basketball is a big deal.

All moved in.

My new friend Charlie. He belongs to one of our administrative assistants and occasionally visits the department.

In September the history department at RIC sponsored a symposium on the Civil War. High school students were invited and my pre-service teachers got to act as guides for the living history portion of the day. 

Flyer for the Symposium

Civil War Re-enactors demonstrate life as a soldier.

Civil War Photography

The students had the opportunity to hear an expert on Civil War photography. They also watched re-enactors and participated in military drill. My students got the chance to see what herding teen-agers on a field trip is all about. Lot's learning went on that day!

The highlight of October was finally getting contractors out of our house, and none to soon. The upstairs floors were done on Monday and the counters in the kitchen were done on Tuesday, just in time for the arrival of Loyd's parents. The weekend before their arrival saw the unpacking of the last of the boxes as well.

The almost finished kitchen. Still waiting on the new sink and counters, but the appliances and new light fixture are in.

This is the guest bedroom the weekend before Joye & Charles arrived. The rest of the house was pretty much the same way, with the exception of the kitchen. On top of that we were still waiting on the replacement floors for the two offices, and the kitchen was out of order while the new counters, sink and light fixtures were going in. It was a loooong week.

The working side of my office...the flooring on the other side was finished just in the nick of time. While working on the last bit of organizing I found a lot of stuff I had forgotten I owned.

1970s Era Science Poster

Still good advice

Disneyland (castle, obviously), San Francisco (seal), Plymouth Rock (Mayflower) , Cape Canaveral (that's a rocket) and the St. Louis Arch.

And speaking of rockets....Article from My Weekly Reader about Apollo 13.

Only the number has changed....and of course rotary dial phones.

We were finally ready for the big visit. Unfortunately a plague hitched a ride from Texas and all four of us ended up house-bound for pretty much their entire visit. The one day we did get to go out we stopped to take some pictures of Providence from our side of the river, overlooking Watchemoket Cove.

We managed to see a little fall color, but of course, things didn't really hit their peak until after they had left.  This were taken in our neighborhood in East Providence, just a few days before Hurricane Sandy hit.

We were very lucky in that we never lost power, although that is something of a small miracle. Very few high lines are buried. We watched the wind from Sandy whip the high lines around like someone was jumping double dutch. When we ventured out the next day we found relatively little damage in our neighborhood. We got mostly wind, so there were a lot of leaves and limbs down. We only saw two downed trees.  The worst of the damage in RI was along the East Bay coast--Bristol, Newport etc. They were without power for about a week. RIC ended up canceling classes for two days.

This was two blocks from our house.

This was followed a week and a half later by the first N'orEaster of the year. We got a couple of inches worth of snow, enough to build a tiny snowman on Loyd's car....

November found me flying out to Seattle, Washington for the College and University Faculty Association/National Council for the Social Studies Conference. Presentations went well and I got to do a little sightseeing on Saturday before I left.

First stop, Pike's Peak Market and lunch:

It looks small on the outside, but it is actually several stories.

The pig out front

What's wrong with this picture?

The World's Tallest Man is painted life sized for the Giant Shoe Museum

Ferris Wheel as seen from  Pike's Peak Market.

     

Next stop: Space Needle:

Views from the viewing platform

It was really windy up there. You were fine as long as you stayed on the land side of the platform; but walk around to the sea side and you had to hold on for dear life!

Chihuly Gallery was right next door. I was amazed at how well the pictures came out.  Really enjoyed this part of the day. The gallery itself isn't very large, but it also has outside exhibits in addition to the gallery.

Two close-ups of a piece meant to represent the sea. It is about 20 ft high all told with various sea creatures embedded throughout.

 

Same gallery, sea turtle.

Skylight in the next gallery of the next gallery. Clear glass with the art glass layered over it. In the picture below you can see how the sun creates colorful and textured patterns on the white walls and floor.

 

Panorama of what I came to think of as the Jungle gallery. Close-ups in the following pictures.

Close-ups of Boat

Chandelier Room. Both of these were hanging from the ceiling.

 

Lighted vessels. I tend to think of these as "lamps" since you see this kind of thing all over the place at the design centers. But these are huge! The interior lighting brings out all the colors and patterns of each piece.

The Atrium. This gallery designed to feel like you are in a atrium garden with flowering vines or  trees everywhere. This was one of my favorite stops.

The atrium gallery includes the autograph of the man himself!

The Space Needle overlooks the Chihuly Garden. This tree is all glass.

What is real and what is glass?

Reminds me of dancing fountains. 

A giant glass cacti!

Black & White

Another view of the Space Needle, this time with the red glass tree.

This one and the pics that follow were from an exhibit in one of the conference hotels.

For my birthday in December we headed to Newport to check out the mansions and the cliff walk. When we left East Providence the day was sunny, clear, a little chilly, but otherwise a perfect day. By the time we arrived in Newport half an hour later the clouds had started rolling in. It made the cliff walk very Bronte-esque. We skipped the "paid" cliff walk and instead headed down the free walk maintained by Regina Salve college (a private Catholic college). Despite the brisk wind it was a nice walk. I'll definitely want to go back once it gets a wee bit warmer!  I also want to see what it looks like in full bloom.

Narragansett Bay from the  Cliff Walk. 

There were even some crazy surfers out and about!

 I was originally set to see The Breakers with Joye when she was up in October. Unfortunately the plague did not allow us to make the trip. Knowing that Loyd's tolerance for historical touristy type trips is about 2 hours, I decided that The Breakers would be the perfect birthday trip.

The gates festooned for the holidays.

Panorama of the front entrance (apparently the middle got taken twice; there is really only one statue and entrance).

This is what it really looks like.

Guests drove their carriages right up to the front door.

The Grand Entrance Hall (filled with kids and parents waiting to see Santa!)

The house is covered in gild. This parlor has the various muses painted on the walls all around the room. The one you see here is Clio (History). Most of the leaf around the house is gold or silver, however the staff noticed that the silver leaf on these murals never tarnished. A few tests later they found out it didn't tarnish because it is platinum.

Fireplace in the room with the platinum gilding

Formal sitting room.

Close-up of inlay on the walls. You can see it in context along the fireplace below.

Mr. Vanderbilt's bedroom. All the bedrooms are connected by hidden doors. The family could move around from room to room without going into the public spaces.

Mrs. Vanderbilt's bedroom. Notice the call buttons next to the phone on the bedside table below. 

Grand staircase in the entrance hall as seen from second floor balcony.

View of the bay from the sun room.

The kitchen is huge and separated from the rest of the house. The original "cottage" burned to the ground and when its replacement was built Mr. Vanderbilt decreed it would be all of stone and the kitchen would be away from the living quarters.

Cast iron sink and cutting board.

Marble pastry room. This was a small room off of the main kitchen that was cool enough for pastry and bread to be made.

Central Island in the kitchen. Stone top.

And the ovens and stove. The stove does not have individual burners, rather it has a single piece of cast iron across the top of the entire stove.

Close-up of the oven.

Gardens off the side porch.

Terrazo floor in the smoking room. I'm pretty sure that they didn't have the nice little pre-made designs that you can just put down in one piece!

 I also finished Holly's t-shirt quilt and got it to her in time for the beginning of the fall semester (just barely, as usual, and several months late, also, as usual). She had so many t-shirts I ended having enough to do both sides. I also forgot to take pictures before I maile it. Thanks to Holly for providing the proof!

Gray's quilt is also finished (also late by 10 months......) but he hasn't seen it yet so pics will have to wait until after the Texas trip.

Farmer's Markets have also become a part of our regular routine. We are a part of several co-ops including one for fresh seafood and one for veggies. When the crops are in we get a share. We recently picked up our first share from the veggie place. Mostly different grains, but we also got popcorn dried on the cob. Haven't gotten to try it yet as it is still drying out, but hope to report back on it soon.

360 Pano of the commune we get our grain shares from.

And that pretty much sums up the last few months for us. 

Two wooden boats filled with glass. Love the reflection on the marble floor.