Yesterday I returned from a wonderful weekend with Sally, visiting friends of hers at the Basin Harbor Club in Vergennes, Vermont. Our host was Mary Maloney, a classmate of Sally's at Stoneleigh-Burnham, whose family started the Basin Harbor Club ye
ars ago. It is now one of the most popular little family resorts on Lake Champlain. Sailing, boating, swimming, golf, tennis, bicycling, jacket and tie dinners in the beautiful lodge- it's got it all. Mary and John's house sits on the water at the far end of the golf course (we had to
literally drive right through the course every time we went to her house!). You're welcome to see pictures at
http://picasaweb.google.com/Hmixsell/VergennesVermontTrip709#
One of the things that made the weekend even more enjoyable was the fact that we were traveling in my new MINI,
which I picked up on Tuesday. It drives like a dream and has all kinds of cute bells and whistles to keep a gadget freak
like me happy for hours.
The week before, I was in Greenfield again, helping Sally to volunteer at the Green River festival, a mini Woodstock held on the grounds of the Greenfield Community College. It was lots of fun, full of great music and hundreds (thousands?) of people reliving their sixties. Old friends Margo (Ayres) and Tom Smith (himself an accomplished folk singer) drove from Boston to join us, which made the experience even more fun.
Those are the highlights of my summer so far, aside from working in the yard, painting the garage, and getting bids for siding the house. On rainy days I've gone into schoo
l to try and clean up my classroom (I got a warning from the head of maintenance at Hamden Hall that the fire warden was not pleased with the amount of "clutter" in my room.) Mexico's a no go- there was the media coverage of all the narco-trafficking wars along the border in the fall, the drop in the economy in the winter, and the swine flu in the spring; all of these left parents with trepidation about sending their sons and daughters south of the border (although neither the narcotrafficking nor the swine flu have effected anything in SMA. The economy HAS had an effect on tourism in general and San Miguel has not been immune from that). I pine daily about formy friends in San Miguel; I'm working on next year early this year.
Sally's arriving tonight with a colleague from Stoneleigh to spend the night before I drive them to Newark Airport tomorrow morning, on their way to Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and China! The trip will include visiting alumnae, meeting admissions counselors, meeting parents of present and past Stoneleigh students, and making a pitch for development. Sally found out yesterday that her visa into China was denied, so they're going to have to make a mad dash to the US Embassy in Japan as soon as they arrive. Hope they can get it settled, since they people in China are VERY excited about having Sally come to visit.
<-----(Here are Sally and Andy Patt at Newark on July 29th)
That's all for now. Will TRY to be more communicative with all the free time I have.
