Bye to summer

It's coming up to Labor Day and the end of an idyllic summer of friends, sun and swimming. The "Jessy effect"-- the help of our great nanny-- allowed Anselm to knock off full-time daycare/preschool for the first time in his life and enjoy both some proper vacation and the amazing variety of summer camp experiences in Seattle: rocketry, Spanish, electronics, the science of music, a zoo/drama camp, soccer/baseball/basketball, music classes and swim lessons. He is starting kindergarten at our local public school, Stevens, next week and is feeling pretty happy and relaxed. Both Laurie and Uncle Tom came to visit in July, and we spent as much time as possible with Blaine, Jessica, Lucinda and Arno before they took off for their bigger adventure in Japan. Anselm also got in lots of playtime with our adorable neighbour, 5 year old Chris.

We've also done some trips. Nothing abroad as there are a few overseas trips looming in the next year or so (Hawaii, Mexico, Italy, and hopefully Japan). The theme was beaches. We went twice to the stunning Olympic Peninsula and stayed at Kalaloch Beach, one of the most beautiful stretches of sand anywhere. It features piles of sun-bleached driftwood logs that form a warren for climbing and forts: boy heaven. Once we camped, to the delight of both kids, and once we stayed at the lodge when Laurie came to visit. On that wonderful trip we returned via the north coast and rowed on Lake Crescent and hiked amid incredible evening views of snowy peaks at Hurricane Ridge.

A hectic work trip schedule for me allowed a weekend stopover for the whole family in Dana Point, south of LA, where we caught up with Ania, and then in Santa Barbara where Ben and Harrigan hosted us and Kristine for a fabulous Californian slouchy beachhouse weekend. Anselm hit the waves with Ben on his sea kayak and we got the best of Ben's latte skills.

Finally for the REAL vacation we went East. We stayed with Sam and Becca in Princeton and met the new baby Wang, Vita, who seems to be causing reasonably little perturbation to an apparently very calm household-- parenthood with aplomb. We hung out and swapped stories with Jake, Ellen and Sophia who came up from Philadelphia. Two days in Manhattan in the upper West Side, a short walk from the park and from the Natural History Museum, allowed for lots of gallery going without killing the kids. Then to Woods Hole with Michael to scope out the scene and start planning for the next five years of Methods in Computational Neuroscience. We are very excited about the course and the Woods Hole summers to come. Both kids were very satisfied with the Woods Hole beach and the perfect conditions for swim practice, but were blown away (and almost swept away) by the beautiful National Seashore further up the Cape. I cannot tell a lie, though: we were very sad about the demise of two Woods Hole favourites since last visit in 2002. No more Food Buoy and their magnificent muffins, and no more waffles at the cafeteria. Sic transit gloria mundi. Seems that we will have to bring our own waffle iron.

Finally we stopped through Boston for Blaise to visit at Harvard with Jeff Lichtman. We had a great tapas dinner for Blaise's birthday at Dali, and Anselm scaled some trees in Harvard Yard. He and Eliot and I explored the glass flowers at the Peabody and the endless cases of stuffed animals, the whale skeletons and a cool birds' nest exhibit at Harvard's Natural History Museum while Blaise had a blast talking about real science for a whole day.