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This is the new benchmark of houses in New Canaan CT

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:54:55 +0200

When we stayed in Connecticut, we could not believe the conspicuous consumption. This house, not untypical of the newer houses that we saw when we visited. Most often these are built on the sites of older homes half or less their size. Fully air conditioned and heated, with pools and garages for 3 or more cars (usually SUV’s) the carbon footprint of these monster houses is huge (besides the cost of maintaining and running its systems). A footnote - this nearly 10,000 square foot home is owned by a couple with no children.

Street Fair

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:51:20 +0200

We went to the Street fair in Brook’s old home town. We wandered around and looked at the stalls. The fire department had an antique engine parked nearby as a photo op, so we took a picture of Erin sitting in it. Eli decided he didn’t want to sit in it. There was an inflatable maze up the street that he was far more interested in. He went through it several times (until he went against traffic, thats when it was time to go).

Country Club Camp

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:42:26 +0200

With Emma away for almost 4 weeks, we put Eli and Erin into the country club camp for 3 weeks. They swam, played tennis, and even learned a little golf. This gave us a chance to go into New York one day and take care of some unfinished business from our time in Uruguay. Once that was done, we met old friend Jane Carr for lunch. It was very nice to see her again, but I was happy to get out of New York. It’s interesting but there are too many people for me.

Camp, day one.

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:30:04 +0200

On Sunday, Brook took the little kids to Connecticut with Mimi and Dave. They had camp there starting monday. Emma and I drove to Portland Maine and stayed in the Howard Johnston. We went down to the Portland water front and had some chowder, and then went for a swim in the HoJo pool. The next morning, we took off early for camp. We got there way too early, even with our breakfast stop. So we drove around the area and looked around. At 9:30, we couldn’t stand it anymore, we checked in and got Emma’s gear sorted out and organized in her cabin. Then Emma showed me around, and looked at the schedule to see what she was going to be doing next (swimming). Then she kind of looked at me with this “are we done?” look. I had been dismissed! I said goodbye and drove to Connecticut.

Everyone relaxed for this picture.......

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:20:41 +0200

We decided this year that it would be easier for us, and nicer for Brook’s family if we stayed in New England while Emma was at camp. So we started by spending a couple of nights at Betsy’s house. That encouraged Mimi to get someone to take some picture. Lots of the pictures ended up being nice, but after an hour of that, everyone was ready to be goofy, and thats how we ended up with this picture.

We had a great time at Betsy’s and it was really nice to see everyone. Emma, Eli and Erin met Charlie’s kids Drew and Ally for the first time, they had a great time and played really well together.