Northeast Travels

On July 25 I began a journey to Cambridge and Chautauqua, places dear to my heart, to see family and friends I love. Lilli and Violet surprised me with tickets to Circus Smirkus, a troupe of thirty well-trained and eager-to-please acrobats, gymnasts, high wire walkers, and jugglers, all under 19. They presented a fabulous show in a marvelous tent. It was good to share the fun with Lilli’s good friends, Arlene and Gabrielle and their kids, too.

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In addition to the circus, the Boston Science and Children’s Museums, and the Danehy Park Jazz Festival, I especially enjoyed connecting with young Lucia Rosen of Santa Fe NM. On Sunday, her free day from a three-week dance camp, we had lunch at the top of the Prudential Center.

We could see across the Charles River to MIT, Harvard, and Peabody Terrace, where Steve and I lived half a century ago, and to the Science Museum, which Violet and I visited the day before.

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Violet celebrated her ninth birthday party on August 1 at home. While the adults dined and chatted around the patio table, the kids played “win it in a minute” games (such as unwrapping a package of gum with gloves on). They took their pizza to the large tree house next-door. I had the chance to get better acquainted with Deborah Peterson, who often takes care of Violet. They read books together. I gave Deborah one for herself, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, which I had just finished. Violet’s favorite gift was earmuffs!

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After Lilli and Violet departed Friday evening for Cape Cod, Cleta Booth (Rice ’65), took me to see the Beatles’ movie, Yellow Submarine, in Harvard Square. It was the perfect set-up for the next day’s adventure. On Saturday morning my friend Marjo, driving from Dayton, met me at the Cleveland airport and took me to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the Lake Erie waterfront. Saturday crowds were dense, so we escaped into a theater showing a full-screen video of a 2016 concert. I loved seeing and hearing Simon & Garfunkel singing Sounds of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Water. The Hall of Fame inspired me to sign up for Part 2 of the History of Rock and Roll course I took online last fall.

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From Cleveland we drove to Erie for the Maritime Museum and an early dinner on the lakefront. Then on to Chautauqua. What a pleasure it was to introduce my dear friend Marjo to my dear friends Peg and Jack and to see that they got along famously! Marjo and I soon eased into a compatible rhythm, attending most events together, but also choosing individual pursuits. We have traveled together for 65 years.

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Chautauqua’s Week 7 featured Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. I had heard this group at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2002 and have been listening to their music ever since. No, I didn’t get to meet Yo Yo again; he was there only briefly and fairly tightly insulated from ardent fans. But I did get to chat with three old friends who were visiting Chautauqua then: Nancy Davis, whom I knew at Rice; Dottie Salvatierra, whose sons I taught in Arlington; and Jan Yauch, who splits her time between Houston and Dewittville NY, across the Lake.

The Silk Road Ensemble presented several special classes; I attended five of them and learned a lot about their instruments, their goals, and their peripatetic lifestyles. Their final concert with Yo Yo Ma electrified an audience of over 5,000. Yo Yo’s lecture, which I am still pondering, may have answered Charles Ives’ and Leonard Bernstein’s Unanswered Questions: where does music come from and where is it going? Expect a post on this topic soon.

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August 11 – 12, a calvacade of travel modes: Marjo’s car from Chautauqua to Cleveland; JetBlue to Boston; taxi from Logan airport to the Dance Theater; MTA back to the airport; Aer Lingus to Dublin; Stobart Air to Edinburgh; ScotRail to Inverness. Then my dear husband drove me to Dornoch for our next adventures.