Vermont
Stafford - The Hannon's
8/24/02 - 8/25/02 (Cem) Until our visit to the Hannon's, I would easily have said that the prettiest of all States that we visited were Montana and Wyoming. Now I realize the beauty of New England. The hills and forests of Vermont are as pretty as anything we've seen so far on this trip. To top that off, the Hannon's, who also own a cabin in Montana, have moved into a property/house that has be one of the most beautiful and quaint places in the state. In front of their charming house, while modest in size, is a small lake and the property is located on about 20 acres of remote, National Forest land next to a wildlife refuge. However, they are only about five minutes away from the closest, and cutest town and twenty minutes away from Dartmouth College, which provides them the intellectual and cultural stimulation they still desire in their retirement. John fills his days with projects (such as making Japanese-inspired rock ponds, waterfalls, etc. and building the heavy construction machinery he needs for his projects!) in and around the house. Gretchen seems to be focused on local cultural activities and on a business consulting firm her and their daughter Kim have started. All in all, this was a very relaxing and enjoyable stop on our trip. Than again, that's always been the case anytime I'd visited the Hannon's throughout the last ten years.
Massachusets
Boston
8/25/02 - 8/27/02 (Cem) Tam and I went to Boston both with the intention to see one of the most important cities in the U.S. Revolution and to see if this would be a city either one of us would consider living in. The weather was nice (surprising given our recent luck), and we discovered Boston by doing an extended walking tour for about seven hours. The Boston tourism center has laid out a walking circuit in the city called the Freedom Trail, which is a three mile tour in the city that takes visitors from Paul Revere's house to the townhalls where many of the rallies and meetings leading to the revolution were held. Many of these old buildings have been well-preserved and create an interesting contrast to the rest of the skyscraper skyline. The city is large, and seems to consist of large ethnic communities, mainly Italian and Irish Americans (randomly walking down the street, we also saw two Turkish restaurants). Our only disappoint was that, our attempt to go to Fenway Park to watch a Red Sox game was prevented by new security measures prohibiting fans from bringing in backpacks into Ballparks. I think we both walked away from Boston feeling that indeed, this could be a city to live in when we come back. That is of course, if we are able to get jobs that can support the sky high rents in the city. Than again, I guess that's not that different from San Francisco.
Cape Cod
8/27/02 - 8/29/02 (Cem) The sole reason I added Cape Cod on our trip was a family trip that we took when I was about eight years old. As a kid, I remembered the beautiful beaches and the heavy waves on the shores. This may have been the first time I had ever played in the waves. Naturally, I felt that at twenty seven this would have to be an experience I had to repeat. We camped (the first time since we left New Mexico almost a month ago) at a state park and used the money that we saved on lodging to eat Lobster dinners both nights. About $9.50 a pound at a local restaurant, it was too unbearable not to! But unfortunately, the bad weather caught up with us in the end again and we left early on Thursday to meet up with my friend Mark Miller, another UVA friend, in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvannia, New York
Stroudsburg, New York City
8/29/02 - 9/1/02 (Cem) It was fun visiting Mark Miller in his hometown. Mark had arranged for us to stay at his Mom's (Sharon) 19th century house (old school house) that until recently she had run as a small bed and breakfast. As they approach their retirement, the place has become too big for Sharon and Vic, Mark's stepfather. They will move out in a couple of weeks to live in a smaller house while they build their dream bungalow house. So in essence, we were probably the last few non-family persons staying in their B&B.
Stroudsborg is also only about an hour and a half away from New York City. So in our second night there we (Mark included) made an excursion into the city. We used my Hilton Points and stayed in the Embassy Suites downtown (literally spitting distance from Ground Zero). Our hotel had an open bar for guests for two hours, but after we had checked in, only about an hour remained. We made the most of it; I think we got pretty tipsy. So around 8:30 we met up with Hester and Jason Alambra (other UVA friends) and were later joined by Burce and Murat (Turkish friends from UVA). Later on in the evening, we also ran into some old Salomon training buddies (Jason Hardy, Ramon Gonzalez, & Jamil Tahir). It ended up being quite a night.
We spent one more night in Stroudsburg when we came back from New York. I think we were all pretty exhausted from the night before and decided to fill our day with more low key events, such as the Stroudsburg Garlic Festival and the West End Fair (county fair).
Virginia
Charlottesville
9/1/02 - 9/5/02 (Cem) Last stop before Turkey. We have somehow survived this trip together. To come in a future date.
9/18/02(Cem) Recent email I got regarding the Charletesville entry:
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 10:27:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: "jonas kessler" Subject: What?
"So, I just got a glance at your and Tam's webpage...MAN! I must say I'm a bit dissapointed at your lack of any description of your brief visit to
the Ville! Seems like Mark Miller and other got front-page reviews while our lowly outing to St. Martin's never even made the editorial section!..."C'Ville, well we survived, and that's all I'll say!". Cancel X-Mas pal!" Well, Jonas does have a point. But its not because I am dissing "the Ville." We both had a great time there. Its just that since things were a little rushed (we did have to do our final preparations for the international part of the trip), neither one of us had time to write about Charlottesville while we were there. And now as I sit in the Turkish beach town of Bodrum, its not as fresh in my mind to write about in detail anymore. First Day of School. One of the best parts of our stop in Charlottesville was getting to know little Grace, John and Lydia's 2+ year old baby. Our stop concided with Grace's first day of pre-school. When I last saw Grace about a year ago, she was immobile and mostly quite. Now she talks up a storm and runs around the house in circles. John and Lydia definitely have their hands fill with her now. Its a great thing though to witness some of the changes. Even if its only every other year. St. Marteen's, Jonas, Basak and Filiz. Finally had the opportunity, after three years, to eat wings at St. Marteen's again. Was able to spend some quality time with Jonas as well, although not enough to convince him to leave Charlottesville and pursue a career elsewhere. Had a couple of Beer's at Mike's Bistro with Basak and coffee with Filiz. For whatever reasons, Filiz and I had actually lost touch the last couple of years. So it was good to chat and catch up. Other things we did: drive around UVA/Charlottesville, visit Monticello, nearly ten hours worth of packing (for stuff we were leaving at John's and for stuff we were taking with us), etc. Well, I know this entry is going to less than satisfy Jonas, but there you have it.
