Ok, it is only across the state line to Massachusetts, town of Bernardston. Also, it is really only 15 miles south of where we lived in Brattleboro, but it has many perks - while still being a short commute with no traffic to work:
- Better car and renters insurance rates. We literally saved $100's of dollars, and we didn't even switch to Geico (though, we did already have Geico). I think this is attributed to the fact that in Brattleboro, at least in some areas, crime is high relative to the population. Also, the population in Vermont, in general, is low compared to what it is "actually". You see, "real" Vermonters (not yuppies from Boston, NYC, or another populace that use VT as vacation land) are very conservative, private people. Unlike Midwesterners, "real" Vermonters don't go out of their way to say hi, and generally are a little less pesky into other people's lives - not better or worse, just different. The point I am trying to eventually get to is that it is well known that Vermonters DO NOT return the census. So even if it says there are 621,760 people in Vermont, likely a much lower number returned the census because of privacy concerns. Another reason not to return it is because they think it doesn't matter for Vermont... they aren't going to gain any representation in Washington, D.C., as one example.To back up my theory (which was basically driven into me by other Midwestern-turned-Vermonter residents) the 2010 Census participation rate for VT was 67%, about 37th, beating out MT, MS, NY, Ar, AZ, HI, OK, ME, WV, LA, NM, and AK - down to 62%... not really much difference there. Wisconsin on the other hand, is ranked first at 81%, followed by MN - 80%, IA - 78%, IN - 78%, MI - 77%, NE - 76%, OH - 76%, and PA - 76%. Hmm, that looks a lot like the Big 10/Big11/BigTenwelve states, because it is. Where is Illinois? Just three spots down at 75%. Who says Big10 academics don't have their advantages?
- We're closer to the airport. This may not seem like a huge deal, but when you come back late at night or, more likely, leave early in the morning, the extra 15 minutes of sleep is really nice.
- We picked up a female house mate for the move - well, not a hitchhiker, we did plan this out. This means when I'm gone Alise has a friend, and when the house mate is gone (she travels too), we can guard her stuff.
- More everything! The consolidation with another person means a bigger house, a big yard (having a yard in the first place would have been enough), and more of everything. Dollars go farther, things are cleaned faster, and everyone as a little more efficiency built into their lives.
- Most importantly, a lack of shared walls and more privacy. Yes, we have another person living with us, but we awake to birds chirping and not people recycling their bottles or domestic disputes on the other side of the condominium complex. Life is good!
I am half a month late on this post, but between the move, frustrations with Comcast, and the general pace of life it has been hard to sit down in front of the computer. Sitting down in front of the TV is easy!
Our first weekend in August allowed us to welcome relatives back to New England. Alise's sister and brother-in-law were in Portsmouth, NH, on business, and the conference was kind enough to welcome us as guests for an evening.
So, Alise and I took advantage and dipped our feet in the Atlantic for the first time since being east. The water was COLD, but what do you expect on the under-appreciated ocean beaches of New Hampshire. I'm sure some out there don't realize New Hampshire touches the ocean, but as I said earlier, New England residents don't go out of their way to make sure their states are promoted for tourism.
We started our beautiful 65-degree Saturday with a lunch at Newcastle Commons park, with a nice ocean view and hungry seagulls. We grilled bacon cheeseburgers and sweet corn. I was able to capture my three favorite things in one picture:
Then we headed south towards Rye, NH. Along the coast there are plenty of places to pull off and park if you don't mind wet sand (in the below picture, I think they built a protective dike on what would have otherwise been the dry sand). If you know what you're doing, there are some nice spots with dry white sand, but either way, the water is FREEZING.
Later in the day we had a nice dinner with the conference attendees... but don't have any pictures of being all dressed up, shucks!
"Business" was done at that point for our relatives, so on Sunday we headed to Weathervane Seafood, which is on a Maine-owned island in-between NH and ME (my first time to Maine, I'm now up to . We had fresh raw oysters (left) and raw tuna (right), which were both terrific.
We also had my new personal favorite, clams. The steamed clams tasted just like crab meat to me, while the fried ones taste like calamari or chicken fingers. Times with family and great food is soooooo so so good.
The very next weekend we headed down to our friend's place in Rhode Island. There we got to experience WARM Atlantic water on another perfect weekend. First on the agenda was going to the coolest park I have ever been to - it is only accessible via boat. As you can see on a Google map (click here), to the south of this beach is civilization; a high-class country club and a state park. The high-class club basically prevents the general public from being able to access the beach, unless it is by boat.
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| We brought our kayaks, and rented two more. Although we fought hard against the current, we made it to paradise. Narragansett Beach: the below is not an advertisement, but an actual picture I took with our camera. |
The water was about 70 degrees, and the waves were huge. Alise is a big fan of wave-jumping, so she was back in elementary school recess; not a care in the world.
Deep sea night-fishing for stripped bass was next on the docket. It was fun, but could have been a lot more fun had there been some fish to catch. We caught two bluefish between the four of us, but they aren't worth keeping as they taste pretty "fishy". We were caught in changing tides and stagnant water, so basically it was a horrible time to go.
But here's my fish... we thought we were going to catch more as this was 5 minutes in, but we didn't. Alise took the picture and my sleeve is on the left. The guy holding my line worked on the boat. The thing next to his hand was the weight, which was a weight if I have ever seen one.
This is me baiting one of our kind eels. Notice that it wrapped round my hand twice as I am shoving the hook up its throat through the top of its head. No worries though, these things have like 15 lives. As we would pull up to check our bait fish would work from tail-to-head to eat the eel bit by bit. They kept swimming until 2 or less inches of their 15-inch length was gone.
After a weekend of nothing to do but errands (imagine that!) Alise headed out to Seattle, WA, for a volunteer trip to the American Cheese Society Festival/Conference/Extravaganza. She seems to have had a load of fun, but you'll have to ask her or check out her blog (a4kinit.blogspot.com) for details.
Pike's Place Fish Market
Cruising Puget Sound
And CHEESE! (supposedly she had to work part of the time)
During that week, I made it to Fenway Park - twice! The first night was a rainout, so we re-did the two-hour drive plus traffic and parking the next night. Such a great stadium. We were lucky to get "bad" seats under the cover, because it sprinkled all night.
The Red Sox lost to the Mariners (Seattle while Alise was in Seattle.. pretty ironic), but who cares?!
In the meantime, two co-workers, the new housemate, and myself spent 5 hours on Friday night moving our entire collection of worldly possessions the 10 miles they needed to go. Besides some back-breaking stairs and plenty of soreness on Saturday and Sunday, it went pretty well. Here's one last look at the old place, including Alise's many many plants to make it look good. They have all been transported, and most survived the huge change in climate.
Well, here's to a great September. Bring on the sweatshirt weather and Twins playoffs wins, Vikings wins (yet to be seen) and Gophers football wins (... no comment).
Cheers, cheese and love,
Lucas & Alise
