moments from the week
digging together
A few moments from the past week.
kitchen hockey
butterfly window
the latest in beach vacations
This past weekend we enjoyed a getaway to Grandma and Grandpa Bernstein's house on Cape Cod. Lots of other people were headed that way too for Labor Day, but they live so far down the Cape that we escaped most of the crowds. There was certainly plenty of room on the beach to play with the new inflatable boat Grandma bought.
vacation boating
The second day there were a few other kids on the beach, which was nice. The boys traded a turn in the raft for a go on their paddle boards. Then later they all caught fish together—that day there was an amazing river of small fish swimming along the beach, just a couple feet from the shore, and by afternoon they were so concentrated you could just put your hands in and pull them up. We got maybe 30 or 40 in one bucket before I started feeling sorry for them and made the kids turn them loose.
like catching fish in a barrel
Our vacation time also included some adventuring a little further afield;
the expansive National Seashore
some quality resting time;
cozy
and, of course, some Pokemon practice.
anywhere and everywhere
It was a lovely few days; we liked it so much we're planning to go again in a couple weeks!
moments from the week
storm clouds over the pond
Moments from a very full week.
monkeys
first day of not school
roofers at work
there it goes!
swimming in September
getting serious about the card game
Yesterday Harvey and I went to our first competitive Pokemon tournament. He's been thinking about Pokemon for a while—I have too!—but only recently have we felt ready to take on serious players in anything more than a prerelease tournament. With traffic and parking troubles it was a stressful trip to downtown Salem, but eventually we managed to find somewhere to leave the car and made our way to the comic store where the event was being held. Once there we were directed to the basement dungeon, where we were welcomed into the company of all the other people who chose to spend a beautiful late summer Sunday afternoon playing a card game on folding tables under florescent lights.
For our first tournament we came in with goals. I actually achieved mine as soon as the event started, since all I wanted was to play! Harvey, a more ambitious soul, hoped to win a game and maybe even come in first. His goal didn't take him much longer; in a field of only two Juniors, he was guaranteed to place, and when he beat the only other Junior in the first game he was pretty much guaranteed first in his division. Maybe it was the lack of nerves that let him go undefeated for the rest of the event, finishing by taking two games from Seniors. He came away with four booster packs, a 1st-place promo card plus a couple other promos, and his first championship points. Those 15 points are enough to put him into a tie for 233rd in the US and Canada!
Embarrassingly, I also got some prizes and points, without winning a game. I brought a deck I just put together Saturday, and without much time to practice—and, unlike Harvey, dealing with lots of nerves!—I stumbled in both matches I played. But I did have a bye one round, which gave me an auto-win... leaving me in fourth place, ahead of the folks who apparently only tied or lost? I don't know. The fact that my 4th-place promo card is mistakenly in Spanish—and so not legal to play in US events—is a fair reflection of my actual performance.
Emerging blinking into the sunlight after everything wrapped up, we figured since we'd come so far we might as well take in the sights. According to the map (before my phone died) we were just a couple blocks from the ocean, plus Salem is kind of a tourist destination for all the witch business. But we didn't know which direction the ocean was, and the witchy atmosphere was actually a little weird. Plus we were hungry. So we went home. We're looking forward to the next tournament... and hoping it's somewhere with a parking lot.
Harvey: 15/???
Dada: 10/???
Pokemon tourism in Salem
welcome fall
All of a sudden it's fall. The morning air has taken on a chill, and even at mid day the adults watching the kids playing in the park are happy to have their sweatshirts on. The Northern Spy apples are ripe, and I made the first apple pie of the season. And right on cue for the equinox, the leaves started falling today. Of course, the gusty wind probably helped; the weather is definitely changing.
I'm totally ready, from a psychological standpoint: it's been so humid and gross the last couple weeks I haven't wanted to spend any time outside. The garden and the yard are a mess, and probably won't look good again until they have a good six inches of snow on top of them. But I also have lots of things I probably should do before the winter. Lots more apples to pick, for example. And I should probably fix the rotted-out spots on the porch before winter makes them even worse—not to mention more dangerous. And things like that. When I look at it that way, the changing season is kind of panic-inducing.
We were delighted a couple weeks ago to release our first successfully metamorphosized monarch butterfly. The second one is pupating now, which seems a little late to make it all the way to Mexico this year. And then today we found yet another caterpillar, munching audibly on the dried out milkweed left in the cage (I hadn't replaced it... I didn't think anyone wanted a fresh supply!). What will the weather be like in 3-4 weeks when that one is finally ready to fly?! I think I know how it feels.
Still, fall is lovely. We're very much looking forward to celebrating it tomorrow at Bedford Day, and then with lots more outings and adventures over the next month. Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures.