So for the first leg of our vacation, we stayed at Julie and Scott’s place in Swampscott. Amy’s sister is always the best host, and her two sons Austin and Mason are the best playmates for Sam ever! He loves chasing them around, which takes plenty of pressure off Mom and Dad. Highlights included simply hanging around and chilling, a fabulous backyard lobstah fest (from the Barnacle, of course), time spent at the pool at Kernwood, as well as a great outing to Devereux Beach in Marblehead with my brother Seth and his boys Caleb, Gabe and Zach. See the full slideshow here.
All posts by jetrotz
The Police @ Fenway Park
So visiting Boston last week I was enjoying my morning coffee on Friday reading the Globe. Lo and behold, I learned 
that my favorite band from high school (yes, I’m that old) was playing two dates at Fenway Park over the weekend and yes, tickets were available. I had already given up on going to the November show here in Atlanta since Baby 2.0 would have just arrived. With a quick confirmation from Sam’s grandmother that she could babysit and a big ding to my credit card, we were all set for a trip to Fenway to claim our field seats for Saturday’s show. It was amazing! Although I’d heard their early shows were weak (Sting was heard to say they sucked), they had hit their stride by this time. All of them showed great musicianship – and it was great to see Sting’s battered bass guitar that he’d surely had since their heyday. More photos (taken with the iPhone and Curve due to ticket restrictions) are here. Their only misstep in my mind was their languid extended rendition of Roxanne. That was more than made up by great versions of Synchronicity II, Invisible Sun and Walking in Your Footsteps. And it was fitting to hear them end with the first song from their first album, Outlandos d’Amour.
Here was the full set list (captured one-by-one on my iPhone notes):
Message in a Bottle
Synchronicity II
Walking On The Moon
Voices Inside My Head
When The World Is Running Down
Don’t Stand So Close To Me
Driven To Tears
Truth Hits Everybody
Bed’s Too Big Without You
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking In Your Footsteps
Can’t Stand Losing You
Roxanne
Encore #1
King Of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take
Encore #2
Next To You
Mom’s 80th
Rita recently marked a significant milestone – her 80th birthday. The actual day was during the last week of June when I was in the midst of the CNN.com relaunch. We did manage to head down to Savannah to celebrate with a kiddush at my mom’s synagogue, Mickve Israel a few weeks back. The picture at right is by my brother Jerry, and catches us as we head into the kiddush. More photos are here.
Soul Train
A few weeks back we were in Savannah to visit Sam’s grandma, and the highlight of the trip for the little guy was the visit to the Roundhouse Railroad Museum. Only a few hundred yards from where my dad’s store Thrifty was located, this spot was always off-limites and behind tall fences when I was a kid. Abandoned from active use back in 1960s, I often picked blackberries in the adjacent fields as a kid, and recall vividly taking photos with my Canon AT-1 as the Ranger batallion from Hunter Army Airfield practiced urban combat in the abandoned buildings in the early 80s. Anyway, it’s now a wonderful museum of train history, with at least a dozen old engines and cars, including the restored switching engine pictured above. One of Sam’s favorite books these days is The Little Engine that Could (sam loves this version the most), so seeing the tiny (not blue) engine pull the much larger full-size steam locomotive was a highlight of the trip. The ash that covered us was an unexpected memento of the visit requiring a good shower afterward, but seeing the little engine belching steam was pretty darn cool. These demos take place twice a day on weekends and are well worth checking out. For more photos, see the full gallery here.
