Camp visits

Our dear friends the Sussmans left today after a week here. They sure got lucky about the week as we've enjoyed sunny 80 degree days with minimal humidity for the most part. As a result, the lake is down four feet from our arrival and has probably warmed up ten degrees. It's truly a pleasure when the sun is out. It was an active week on all fronts. The loons had their chick last Thursday and announced to great fanfare the event. After a couple of days staying close to the cove, last night we all watched them out front feeding with the little one between them. A great experience for children and adults alike. The Coaticook ice cream factory was visited with much enthusiasm, as was the gorge. And a visit to April's Maple, Serge and Donna's new venture, proved to be a valuable source of ice cream cones with special maple add ons. Two dinners at Quimby's -- the lobster bake at the rock and then Sunday prime rib were everything they could be. Tasty, good company and someone else preparing and cleaning up after dinner! Saturday the girls went riding over near Stewartstown and got to ride Lippit Morgans, who were just beautiful. Add in lots of swimming, kayaking, and canoeing and it rounds out a great week.

A week of firsts

It's been a week of firsts -- mostly for Dinah but also for us. Since arriving Friday afternoon, D has had her first swim (did fine), her first kayak ride (ditto), and today her first speedboat ride in the Boston Whaler (mine, too). Also today she jumped off the dock to swim out to us of her own accord! This from lady who didn't want to dip her toes in the water on Friday. Big steps for the little dachshund that could.

And now D is exploring another first -- cleaning off the top of the picnic table from lunch. She has taken to being tied up in the front yard with great enjoyment and runs about chasing balls and exploring. Well on her way to being a country dog. We knew she had it in her. I've also found some dachshund raincoats and parkas from a company called Noodle that look promising to help her acclimate. One thing she doesn't appreciate about the north country are the omnipresent flies who have bitten up her belly. They have focused on my feet but I share her sentiments.

In addition to sleeping nine hours a night, I've had a nap each day and it's beginning to have its effect. The nightmare of the past month is beginning to recede. Alan and Anil went to Chambly on Sunday to have lunch at the Unibroue restaurant (another first), which is almost as far as Montreal, so that was quite a drive. And then yesterday Alan took Anil to the Manchester airport and that was an all day affair as well. As a result, this is his first nap day. The lake is lapping so likely tomorrow will be an inside day; glad we took advantage of today's sun for a swim and a boat ride.

Lake still quite high and they aren't releasing any more water. We need it to go down another two inches to have a beach. More rain will take us the other way. But the lake is warming, definitely. Sometimes you take what mother nature gives you. :-)

Leaving Atlanta

Greetings from rainy Vermont. After a harrowing month of packing, selling, and saying goodbye, we finally hit the road Tuesday, July 2nd. Alan drove the Mountaineer pulling a U-Haul and Anil and I traded shifts in the Subaru. Our final days in Atlanta were so filled with details of things to be accomplished that I didn't even really feel much emotion pulling away from 1245 Briar Hills Dr. Now that we're safely at Camp, it's starting to hit me though...

But I am moving ahead of myself. Last days in Atlanta we cleaned, we packed, we threw out, we conquered. Our going away party was June 14th, the yard sale June 15th, AKF came June 17th, our final house party was June 22nd, the movers came June 24th, the movers delivered in New Hampshire June 25th, the junk guys came June 25th to cart of all of the outside debris, Kudzu antiques came the 26th to take the barrister's bookcase, the card table, the marble topped dresser, and the jigsaw table. We moved to Barb's the 24th-26th and then stayed at Anil's for the duration, leaving a confused LB home to guard the house. Had our final "haven't they moved yet?!" party at the Purple Corkscrew on the 28th, final clean out of the attic and basement on the 29th, spent the 30th attempting to rent a U-Haul which involved electrical work on the car (Chamblee-Tucker....again). Spent the 1st getting all of the last items out of the house and into said U-Haul. Again, we couldn't have done it without our friends.

And finally at about 11am on the 2nd, we pulled out of dodge. Phew. Did I mention we were tired? It was almost a relief to simply have to drive -- no decisions, just drive. Quickly discovered that the electrical work on the car wasn't done right and the trailer had no right turn signal. And it was just about the oldest model of U-Haul that I've ever seen.

{pause} yay, first hummingbird of the year just drank from the feeder I put up this afternoon!{/pause}

Stopped for lunch somewhere in South Carolina and just after lunch, the rain began. And it poured. I mean, really poured. The water was just gushing off the overpasses. The road was full of traffic, including trucks and it was just not pleasant. I had made a reservation in Roanoke, thinking that it wasn't far enough but we barely made it there. Coasted into the parking lot on fumes....Fortunately, it turned out to be a really nice hotel. Clean, spacious rooms and friendly staff. Great dog walk area and on-site restaurant with a bar. Food was ok, too. All in all I would recommend the Holiday Inn Valley Views.

Next day dawned cloudy and misty. We hit the road about 9:30am and drove uneventfully to Mt. Airy, PA, where we stayed at the Poconos Comfort Inn. OK room, although they perfumed the pet rooms most unpleasantly and even in Anil's room, there was a periodic misting that kept him up wondering what it was. I stayed with the guys while Alan and Anil got dinner (Dinah whines when left alone we discovered). All in all, I was proud of them, LB in particular. He stayed quiet in the car and adjusted to the hotel rooms quite nicely.

July 4th dawned sunny, hot, and humid. The first part of the drive through PA was lovely and easy -- little traffic and gorgeous rolling hills. But some fast, fast drivers -- easily doing 100 mph. That continued throughout the day which we thought was weird since we were expecting a heavy police presence on the holiday. I will have to say that only in VA did we see many cops. Connecticut was hard driving. Heavy traffic and older roads. It was a relief to get on I-91 and head north into MA. Stopped for a bite in Deerfield and then continued on. At the I-91-89 split, Alan and Anil headed to Wilder to the storage unit to unload the trailer and I went up to Lyme, NH where LB was scheduled to stay for the summer at Tiger Tail Lodge, a special boarding operation for cats only. TTL lived up to its reputation and he was soon ensconced into his own cat cubicle with four levels and a view down the mountain. It was hard to leave him but I think it will be much less stressful than moving four times in two months. And I almost immediately felt the relief of only having one animal to care for.

Miss Dinah D and I then checked into our last hotel, the Chieftain Motor Inn. The boys successfully returned the U-Haul and then picked up rotisserie chicken at the Coop and we spent the 4th watching fireworks over the Connecticut River. Very civilized. Up the next morning, we scooted up I-91, stopping only in West Glover for a Parker Pie lunch. Two hours later we were pulling up to Papelousu just in time for Suzy's birthday dinner. The lake is *high* -- no beach whatsoever.

Tried using Picasa to upload a picture set but it didn't seem to have a bulk upload. So, Flickr to the rescue. Really like what they are doing there.

Carole and Alan's Big Adventure

For Our Emory Family:

When Carole and Alan's Adventures started six year's ago, we wanted to create a blog for our family. You see, the two of us are in Atlanta and most of our family are in New York or Boston or Key West, so they have a hard time keeping track of us. Carole and Alan's Adventures was meant to share the journey, elaborate on the trip, have fun along the way, all the time keeping in touch with the people who are so important in our lives.

So today, we have news of an adventure--Carole and Alan's Big Adventure--and we are sharing it with you because we want to recognize you as our family and friends for over twenty years now, and that's a long time. Today we let Brett and Rich and Robin know that we are leaving Emory, our wonderful home for these many years, and planning to return North to be closer to our brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. Starting August 1st, Alan will assume the role of Associate CIO for Teaching and Research at Dartmouth College while Carole will be lead architect for designing Dartmouth's Institutional Repository. Carole will have her last day at Emory some time in May while Alan will work through mid-June.

There has been no harder decision making process for the two of us than the last few days as we tried to decide what to do. Atlanta has been a great home to us and those of you at Emory the finest friends that the two of us could possibly want to have. All of us have seen each other through some incredible times, and as professionals, we have worked on behalf of/with the incredible faculty and students of Emory to create something special. All of us know it as a team achievement.

Leaving Emory is leaving our home. It is also leave taking of the most incredible group of people that anyone would want to work with. Why would we consider it? Simply, we have nine nieces and nephews between the age of two and ten who we want to make a closer part of our life and we can't do that here. In New Hampshire, we'll no doubt ask them to go pick berries this summer, and this fall, maybe pick apples. As the holidays approach, it'll be time to wander into the woods to cut our own Christmas trees. We won't even start talking about the fishing.

We share this message with you here, and thank you for making us feel like family these many years. Beers at Melton's, Trolley Barn Escapades, Singing at the Carter Center (and being charged for water), Christmas Tunes from Lamb-y, way too many Thrashers tickets, how many Wings, Trivia with Tony--the memories are too numerous to even conjure. Yet the spirit is true--playful, imaginative, hardworking, inspired--true to the family you are.

You all have great things ahead of you. We know it. And it is hard knowing we won't be part of the team that will help the campus learn about the Collaboration tools, what can happen with analytics, the adventure of Echo 360, or the movement of content online to venues like Coursera. It will happen without us, and it will happen because of you, and it will be amazing.

Meanwhile, we'll be a thousand miles away, though we hope the distance won't keep those of you who want from keeping in touch. And we'll have our own Adventures, and I hope great things are ahead of us as well. We'll sign off here, where we began, saying that Carole and Alan's Adventures was about keeping in touch with family. And you all definitely belong here. Thanks for helping make the great adventure we have shared these past years. It has been the ride of our life.

Carole and Alan

Last Day in Zug

At the start of this trip, I was getting up at 4am, working for a couple of hours, and then going back to bed. Over a couple of days that evolved to getting up between 5-6am and just staying up. Saturday, I woke up, worked for an hour, and then noticed the day was looking mighty fine as the sun started to rise. Checked the Zug harbor webcam and saw that you could see the Rigi and the Pilatus and the lake was crystal calm. Clearly, it was time to investigate! Alan was waking so we threw on clothes, left Nan a note, and headed down towards the lake.

It was a beautiful morning, clear and calm, with the sun just starting to reflect on the alps. No one was up as we meandered around the lakeshore, watching the cormorants and herons hunting. As we walked towards the station, we saw the Saturday farmer's market starting to get set up and the street cleaner driving his mad vehicle around (seriously, I thought he might end up in the lake). After watching the morning evolve, we decided to head for a bakery for warm croissants for breakfast and ended up at Speck (where we also saw a delicious Bailey's cake).

Back at the apartment, Alan came up with the idea of taking the new train that stops right out back of Nan's apartment just down the lake to enjoy the views in the sunshine. Nan hadn't even taken this train so it was a new adventure for all of us. We simply rode down the lake, got off, and then headed back to the PostPlatz station where we got off and headed down to the Widder for a cheese fondue. Yes, we do a lot of eating in Switzerland!

Zug and Zugerberg

Finally, the sun came out for the first time since we got here. Yay! Zug is wonderful in any weather but the spirits do rise when sunshine is streaming through the curtains. To celebrate, we decided we could get an important errand done before the weekend crowds at the store -- the chocolate purchase. And while we didn't come close to the record of 14 pounds of chocolate returning to Atlanta, it was a sizable dent in my credit card. I guess I could login to AmEx to see what I actually spent but I think I'd rather leave it in nebulous swiss francs. After the critical things were handled, we walked back along the lake enjoying the morning.

After lunch of -- you guessed it, turkey sandwiches -- we decided to take advantage of the fine weather and go up to the Zugerberg. I hadn't been since the first time I came to Switzerland of maybe ten years ago. That visit was in the spring, so there was snow on the ground up on the mountain. No snow today, just miles of walking trails that were being enjoyed by couples, friends, and families. It takes about 20 minutes to get up there, so I imagine it's a regular occurrence for the locals (I know if would be for me). Beautiful views.

Finished the day out with a visit to the restaurant at the Hotel-Ochsen. Usually, we have the dining room to ourselves in the evening but it being Friday night, it was packed. We all had the seasonal local dish of "rotel" fish, which they translate as a char but I would more characterize as a white fish. In any event, we had it three ways -- poached, sauteed in butter and herbs, and fried. The last was supposed to come with a green curry sauce and asian vegetables but it didn't. In any event, it was delicious and light and the Ochsen's hospitality cannot be beat.

Turkey 2012

A few notes while I can recall. This year's Aklin turkey was the largest ever, clocking in at 5.5 kilos. That's 12 lbs for you American types. Aklin's birds are local, never frozen, and beautiful -- but you take what they can get from their local sources. In any event, when I took the bird out today it was lovely -- beautiful, plump legs and thighs (mmm...dark meat) and reasonable breast size, unlike the butterball's back home. They had done an excellent job of plucking the bird, so little was required of me other than slathering it up with butter, thyme, sage, and pepper. After perusing a number of recipes -- and doing a lot of metric conversion -- I finally basically followed Alton Brown's recipe minus the brining. The big difference is no basting. Instead, you put the turkey in at a high temperature to brown and then lower the temperature without opening the oven. The concept is to maintain an even open temperature without the ups and downs associated with opening the oven door. Given that Nan's oven is small and not quick to heat, I thought this method might prove appropriate and it was. I put the turkey in at 500 F for half an hour, then lowered the temp to 350 for two more hours. Took it out and it was very good -- dark meat perfect, white nice, too. This will definitely be my method of choice from now on! Here are some photos.