Marshfield

July 4, 2007

Marshfield





The Kilroy home in Marshfield was a buzz of activity this week with family and friends arriving from around the Country for the Fourth of July holiday. In addition to our trip from Key West, my mother Marta flew in from Winston Salem for her first official visit to New England and Chris, Kari, Sophie & James arrived from Colorado Springs.

The Kilroy home is beautiful, located in a beautiful wooded area right on the Marsh which gives Marshfield its name. The property runs right down to the Marsh and South River with the Atlantic Ocean and private beach just across the river.

Marta & Michael

The creek and river make an excellent and popular spot for swimming and the beach is beautiful and the base for all the July 4th activities. Many hours have already been spent swimming and playing in the creek; it is especially popular with the kids and our dog India who seems to have found a fountain of youth with each visit to Marshfield. We spent much of our time visiting the creek; it’s a daily happening at the least. The kids and dog spend hours playing in the mudflats, complete with mud fights and swimming.



India



We picked Marta up at Logan in Boston on Monday morning and went immediately to one of the places that she had wanted to visit in Boston, The John F. Kennedy Presidential library. The library, designed by architect I.M. Pei is a beautiful building that looks out over Boston harbor. Inside is an excellent collection of memorabilia from the Kennedy Presidency. It is very well done and quite interesting and was well worth a trip. It certainly exposes the vast differences in emphasis between the JFK administration which put a premium on culture and the arts and more recent administrations. It is easy to understand the Camelot analogy used on the JFK years.

Boston

Marta, Jim & Kathy

JFK Library

We had a huge lobster feast on Monday evening, Kathy’s sister Julie came down from Brookline to join the festivities and her aunt Kathy and uncle Al came by from nearby Situate. It was a magnificent New England lobster feast complete with a few fireworks after dinner as a prelude to the big fireworks display on Tuesday.

On The Road Again...

July 2, 2007






Summer is here and in full swing and with summer comes of course, summer vacation and this year we are hitting the road again. Not the massive trip around the country, just the relatively short jaunt from Key West to Boston to spend the Fourth of July with family.

Before our departure, we went to the last “Walk on White” art gallery walk. Held once a month on the third Thursday, the walk is a popular opportunity to mingle at the many galleries and businesses along White Street. The addition of the wonderful new Studios of Key West artist colony has added a nice new dimension to the event. Due to the slack summer crowds, we were able to bring along India which was fun. There were a number of other dogs there as well which made it fun, but the highlight was as always the delicious chocolate fountain at the White Street Deli.

Chocolate Fountain



Kathy, Bonnie, Lauren & Gae

Our trip began early Friday morning, the 1700 mile trip through 12 states which took us two and a half days. We might have made it faster, but we stopped a lot, whether eating at places like the Choo Choo Barbeque in Georgia or at one of the many roadside stores in South Carolina selling illegal fireworks. Kathy was like the proverbial kid in a candy store at each of the many fireworks stores we visited. She immediately headed to the section with a large sign stating, “Banned in 20 States” and we bought a plethora of large expensive hopefully highly explosive devices.



Fireworks!

We also made a stop at the infamous “South of the Border” tourist trap located just on the border of North and South Carolina border. This garish tourist trap is advertised on massive billboards for miles in either direction, but neither Kathy or I had ever actually stopped. It’s about what you would expect, kitschy junk and all sorts of gimmicky stuff designed to relieve tourists of a few bucks.

The drive was relatively smooth; we hit a couple of traffic snags due to accidents and made a stop at the Richmond International Speedway where the Indy Car race was going on. Another win for Dario Franchitti. We stopped twice, once in South Carolina and once in Wilmington, Delaware and made it to the Kilroy homestead in Marshfield early Sunday afternoon. It’s going to be a week of family, fireworks and fun.



Richmond