John & Anne Wiley

2013/07/04

Where Were We?

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 22:47

Back on 6/23 I had reached the FL Keys in the series reviewing pix from our Islander Adventure. But if you’re among those who follow this blog, you may have been wondering why it’s taken so long for me to post again. Well, sometimes Life gets in the way of Art. But this time lack of internet was a big factor too. We just spent a week at Cabo San Lucas as I’ll share in coming posts, but before that we enjoyed another SB Solstice Playful People’s Parade.

0678 Solstice Memories

0678 Solstice Memories

We cherish memories from every annual parade since moving here 19 years ago, and the little girl at the right will probably have fond memories of the fuzzy float above. Looking the other way, up State, the merriment continues on to the parade’s turn toward the park with color and creativity everywhere.

0671 Creativity Alive

0671 Creativity Alive

In the park where everyone congregates after the parade, quieter accents magically mingle from the stately old park to join exhuberant music and dancing amid the parked floats next to art with food and crafts for sale.

0711 Wider Spectrum

0711 Wider Spectrum

Two days later we found a similar creativity at Venice Beach after (gasp!) driving there to catch our LAX commercial flight to Cabo the next morning.

1141 Venice Variety

1141 Venice Variety

Wish we’d stayed with Plan A and flown to Cabo in Tripp, but the flight was still beautiful and Alaska Airlines seems to keep their windows much cleaner than other airlines we’ve flown.

0790 Cabo Approach

0790 Cabo Approach

I had fun following along on Avare and got some fuzzy high altitude pix of places we might stop if we ever do take Tripp there. It’s a complex topic with many factors, but we’re still open to the notion of flying Baja in Spring when it’s cooler and greener. But this trip was for the wedding of our precious niece, and we didn’t want to take any chance of missing it due to weather. Turned out it would’ve been made difficult by those clouds from a distant hurricane. Arriving at the hotel we enjoyed a family beach volleyball game.

0809 Hurricane Volleyball

0809 Hurricane Volleyball

The winds were gentle, but those big waves got even bigger, eventually covering this beach and washing clear into the swimming pool behind me. Anyway, before getting back to the Islander Adventure review I’ll share more of Cabo in the next post.

2013/05/09

Going to Ground

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 06:07

After looking at weather and 3.2 zillion other factors a few days ago, we decided to take a break from flying and rent a car. Going to ground, so to speak. The ground we’re wandering now sure is beautiful!

0996 Clarion, PA Spring

0996 Clarion, PA Spring

As I discovered a few years ago, my father’s fathers are from this area and my last name’s actually Walley. So we’re going to the ground they walked, looking for landmarks on this 1865 map.

4834 Farmington Map

4834 Farmington Map

Some very kind and helpful folks at the Clarion Historical Society provided plenty of pointers and details that I can piece together and put into a genealogy once we’re back home.

4857 Life Preservers

4857 Life Preservers

Thanks to their tireless work preserving the memory of lives long past, I stood on the ground where my great, great, great grandfather rests.

4983 Ancestral Ground

4983 Ancestral Ground

Today we drove to Armstrong County beginning to search even further back, for the ground of my ancestor born about 1740. I wondered if he’d ever visited this, the oldest church in Western PA.

5102 St. Patrick Church

5102 St. Patrick Church

Wandering the large cemetery behind us in this pic, we half expected to see a Walley marker but weren’t surprised when we didn’t. At the top of the hill behind us, the riot of Life was exploding with the same fervor my apical paternal ancestor enjoyed 250 years ago on hills near here.

7536 Colorful Ground

7536 Colorful Ground

Over the river a rainbow erupted from this ground into the sky binding cloud to mountain, lest the world should fall.

5108 Unbroken Thread

5108 Unbroken Thread

2013/05/07

Clarion Call

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 04:01

After lots of “planning” (remember, we make plans and then weather or other factors often turn everything upside down), we met Uncle Ed for dessert at the City Hall Cafe in downtown Waterbury. Fun to sit and enjoy a last visit with him surrounded by photos and memorabilia going far back into the history of this town so prominent in family lore. Outside the dogwood was in bloom and Anne caught this one in the parking lot.

0971 Dogwood

0971 Dogwood

Then more planning and logistics, and we took to the air. Soon we climbed much higher than our usual touring altitude to get well above the scattered clouds, and found ourselves greatly enjoying this different perspective on the forests, farms, rivers and lakes of Connecticut as it merged imperceptibly into Pennsylvania.

7374 Wild Spaces

7374 Wild Spaces

On our first Big Adventure flying the Eastern U.S. we expected cities, houses and farms everywhere so it was surprising to see such vast tracts of wild spaces. Unlike further West many of the farms here are small, and even the large ones often rotate and mingle crops so it’s more fun to fly over them.

7432 Patchwork

7432 Patchwork

Before long we climbed even higher to fly among majestic monsters forming cloud canyons and mountains that look solid yet fluffy, sometimes gracefully swirling in slow motion as we pass.

7417 Translucent Giants

7417 Translucent Giants

As evening approached, we toured Crown, PA and then descended into Clarion. We enjoyed a long walk around town, and paused to admire this 1880-something building that my ancestors perhaps once visited.

0991 Changing Times

0991 Changing Times

It stood here when there were no cars. What could people have imagined those magically colorful flame-less traffic lights are for other than some repetitive entertainment? What would they think of a descendent seven generations hence casually flying over in miraculous Tripp to explore their region?

2013/05/06

Seven League Boots

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 04:34

Before starting our flight from Stow, MA to Waterbury, CT today, I put on some magic boots.

0957 Magic Boots

0957 Magic Boots

These charming boots are warm and giggly, and all I need do to put them on is stand still by the door. Especially if I have the suitcase by my side. When I want to take them off there are no laces, zippers or velcro to bother with. All I need do is make a motion as if to tickle them, and presto! They not only instantly are off my feet, they scamper away squealing with delight in opposite directions. 🙂

4764 Hartford

4764 Hartford

The whole family piled into the car with us and all our luggage, and we chatted merrily all the way to the airport. After our wonderful visit, we put on our other magic boots: Tripp. Like the old fables about magical Seven League Boots, she can take us quickly from place to place. Soon we were passing Hartford, and then minutes later we saw the ever more familiar Waterbury.

7369 Waterbury

7369 Waterbury

New England towns and cities boast many silent smokestacks and innumerable beautiful churches, surrounded by neat rows of tidy homes like these. From the surrounding area, family gathered to welcome the wandering Californians with a delicious dinner. One topic at the table was how Tripp makes such experiences possible by whisking us so quickly from place to place, friend to friend, and one family gathering to another. Such happy and enchanted “boots” we have enriching our days!

0963 Family Fun

0963 Family Fun

2013/05/03

More Bike

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 01:51

Today was another bike day, but quite a bit less ambitious. We had more time, and let’s just say we enjoyed taking frequent breaks from bike seats. Starting right in Oak Bluffs at the town square where we found this somewhat unusual war memorial.

4438 Honoring Opponents

4438 Honoring Opponents

We’ve seen plenty of statues around the country, but riding up to read this I was surprised at the inscription. Tonite I googled it and found this story. I’d snapped this square yesterday as we flew over, and that’s the monument at the bottom-right.

4387 Oak Bluffs Square

4387 Oak Bluffs Ocean Park

Surrounding the park are beautifully maintained homes, many with “widow’s walk” rooftop viewing platforms where wives of sea captains could watch for returning whaling ships.

4439 Watching Circle

4439 Watching Circle

One stood out from the rest, and I’d noticed it from the air yesterday so we paused to look in more detail.

4445 Glass House

4445 Glass House

In several places on this home are tastefully displayed signs letting tourists know this is a private home, and it got me wondering what it’s like to live there during peak tourist season when more than two passing cyclists stop to admire it. Then along the bike path with estuaries on one side and ocean on the other.

0888 Bike Path View

0888 Bike Path View

It’s very placid and relaxing when there are no cars and trucks going by on the nearby road, but I shudder to imagine what it’s like in peak tourist season. Happily there are a few places where the road isn’t next to the mostly separated path, and the views are so spectacular it’s easy to forget the vehicles and even what century you’re in.

0897 Quiet Moment

0897 Quiet Moment

Eventually we rolled into Edgartown where we paused to look at the more traditional war memorial.

0906 War & Flowers

0906 War & Flowers

Reading names of the fallen, I was reminded of a line from the old folk song, “Where have all the flowers gone.” Then the path abruptly ends and you’re admonished to not ride on the sidewalks, and to ride with traffic. We did neither, even though most local drivers are exceptionally courteous. Instead we walked the bikes for a block past a colorful yard that attracts both bees and passing women with cameras, to Green Ave. and took a left to get off the busy Main St.

0907 Admired Yard

0907 Admired Yard

Tonight our thoughts are turning toward our first steps on the journey Home. We’ve been planning to visit dear Zubair and family in the Boston outskirts, but then what? Well, here’s our current vision of the path.

Return Route - Plan A

Return Route – Plan A

Basically, a stop to see relatives in CT and then past ancestral ground in PA. Maybe an Erie jog up to fly past Detroit, possibly another dose of fascinating Chicago, and then more exploration in Iowa and Nebraska. Skirt the Rockies in CO, possibly pause in Santa Fe, up to Durango and over to Monument Valley (!) and Grand Canyon, then a day or two until our first night at home since this Islander Adventure began 3/17. I wonder what if any of this trip we Plan we’ll actually do, and even more fun is the certainty we’ll have many unexpected delights and discoveries along the trip we Take.

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