Boston

After a day at sea, our first port on the cruise is Boston.

Now named after Boston, England where many of the original settling families came from, an early name of the area was Trimountaine, or 3 mountains. The area at the time resembled a large hill with three peaks. Two of the peaks were destroyed in the project to fill the back bay. The remaining hill is today's Beacon Hill neighborhood.

If you are a Big Bang Theory fan (or maybe just because you are smart) you know that Fig Newtons were named after a Boston suburb.

Happy Hours have been illegal in Boston since 1984. Two years after Cheers went on the air. Don't show your displeasure at that by spitting on the sidewalk, because that is illegal too. It is also against the law to keep a mule on the second story UNLESS there is more than one exit available.

Many have heard about the Great Boston Fire of 1872. Actually, I'm not one of the many but I have since learned that this "Great" Fire occurred one year after the Great Fire of Chicago in ...wait for it... 1871. But what intrigues me more than the fire is the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. How often do you think of the word Molasses and Flood in the same sentence let along the same title. An aging storage tank, newly filled with molasses, burst sending a 15 foot wall of molasses down the street at 35 miles per hour. 35!! The owners of the tank, when sued for allowing the tank to decay to that point, claimed that 'the tank had been intentionally blown up by “evilly disposed persons.”'

I am left wondering about the possible (?) overuse of the word great to describe natural and man-made disasters.

Keep smiling and keep moving
-Paula

Baltimore

When I was younger (which leaves lots of room for interpretation) I put my love of looking things up to drive my family crazy with tidbits about our vacation. I only remember doing it once but it must have left an impression (or perhaps irreversible damage) because it has been brought up more than once over the years.

Well, later this summer, my husband, sister and brother in law are going on a cruise. Baltimore to New England and Canada and back. So here I go again. "When I was younger" I didn't have the Internet to use for research or to write a blog. This could be fun. (evil laugh).

Keep in mind that the point of this game is to find truly useless trivia. Trivia that won't even win you a final Jeopardy question but might make you laugh if you let it. Also remember that whether or not a statement rises (or sinks) to the level of trivia depends on who is observing it. My game, my trivia. :)

Our start and end point is Baltimore. Did you know ...

• That Baltimore has more public public statues and monuments than any other city in the U.S
• That it is home to some of the earliest places on the National Register of Historic Distircts
• Baltimore is an Anglicization of an Irish Name "Baile an ti Mohr" which means Town of Big Houses. 
• Baltimore is home to the first umbrella factory. It was opened by a German immigrant named Francis L. Beehler in 1828. Although Beehler was first, it is the Gans brother who came later that developed the slogan "Born in Baltimore, Raised Everywhere". By 1922, Baltimore was producing 2 million umbrellas per year. 
• On a related note, according to Maryland Weather, "Average annual precipitation: 40.76 inches. Peaks in July and August when thunderstorms average once every five days. Since 1871, Baltimore's recorded precipitation has averaged 41.94 inches a year, with the highest amount falling in 2003, when 62.66 inches fell."
• Baltimore was the site of the first successful manned balloon launch. I'm guessing it was not raining that day. 
• BWI Marhsall Airport is the first and only US Airport to have a dedicated trail for hiking and biking. (and yes I am wondering how or if that can be worked into our vacation) 
• Baltimore is named after Lord Calvert, the 2nd Lord Baltimore.

And there you have it. 7 things about Baltimore. I probably should have made it 9 since it's a 9 day cruise but I got sidetracked by Cecil Calvert. I couldn't help wondering who the 1st Lord Baltimore was and why he didn't get a city named after him.

Well it turns out that the 1st Lord Baltimore was, George, Cecil's dad. George was apparently a nice guy and both King James I and Charles I liked him. BUT in 1625 George announced he had become Catholic and that disqualified him from holding office or working in Parliament. But being well liked helps obviously because King James I made him the First Baron of Baltimore - a town on the Southern coast of Ireland - anyway. Now that he had money and land, George wanted to explore the New World. He asked for and received a grant to the "Colony of Avalon" in Newfoundland. But it was too cold for the English Settlers so George asked for a grant for land further south near the Chesapeake bay. Unfortunately, George died before the paperwork could be finished so his son Cecil took the plan and ran with it. (Most of this came from "Exploring Maryland's Roots")

Ok. You've been warned. Next stop Boston. You can skip my blog for a few weeks or read at the risk of learning something you'll never need again!

Keep smiling and keep moving
-Paula

Horse-Shoe Trail Charlestown Elementary School to French Creek Elementary School

This section covers the second part of Map 1 and the first part of Map 2. We did them in reverse order on Sat June 2 and Sun June 3. Two days that could not have been more different. The total mileage for the weekend was 17 - equal to the total mileage expected on our longest day hike June 23rd. We hope these back to back days are good preparation for that.

Saturday, June 2nd had been forecasted to be rainy. Heavy downpours and thunderstorms were predicted all week for Saturday. On Friday night, Cecily Tynan reported that the storms would likely hold off until after 5 p.m. They did. However, the humidity that would precipitate into the deluges to come was present all day. Add in the sun and it was one very soupy day. We were lucky to be in the woods for a good portion of the day but that only slightly diminished the effect of the conditions.

I chose to schedule the piece from Chantilly Lane to French Creek first - on Saturday - because it was longer (10-ish miles) and the elevation was higher. There is a section here that our trail running friends call Stegosaurus. Click here to remind yourself what this dinosaur looked like. No sooner do you get down the hill then you are going steeply up again. Many of the ups deceive the climber as it looks like you are done but nope around the bend it keeps up a little bit more. We kept each other occupied by remembering that our trail running friends RUN this portion in both directions in the same run. It was a challenge and we both felt pretty proud finishing it on this soupy, hot day.

I have finally managed (I hope) to get the straps on my back pack appropriately set. I had no shoulder or back issues after this hike. YAY! :) I was also pleased that I hydrated enough as well. We hiked for 5ish miles before stopping to refuel on a stone wall at a farm called Seventeen Acre Wood Farm. I had stopped at Wawa on the way to meet Sara and picked up a Sausage, Egg and Cheese Sizzli. I took it out of it's cardboard container and placed it in a sandwich Tupperware container in my back pack. At 'lunchtime' it was only warm but it still tasted as good and the combo of food in  it the spot and held me over nicely to the end of our hike. With that in mind I'll have to create my own hiking sandwiches in the future.

On day 1 of this hike, the only humans we encountered were on bikes. We had to make way for a gaggle of geese crossing the road as we shuttled from end spot to start spot in the early AM. And we hiked right next to a bevy of bovines.

One of them looked like she was going to follow us along the fence-line. The path here was overgrown and extremely swampy. We both were literally sucked into the mud several times. 

Day 2- Sunday - Charlestown Elementary School to Chantilly Lane.

Today we met at yesterday's starting point and drove back to Charlestown Elementary school. Part of the section is one we did with two others - Mike and Naomi - about 5 years ago. We were pleased to see that the HST conservancy folks have moved a lot of this portion off road now. About 3 of the 7 miles were on road but spread out enough that it wasn't annoying. I enjoy an urban hike but not in my hiking shoes. 

This section is - relative to yesterday - flat. The rains came last night and with them brought a front that lowered the temps abut 25 degrees. There was a noticeable breeze the entire time and significantly less humidity. What a difference all that makes on the experience. 

The deer that were likely hiding yesterday were everywhere today. No photos because they are too quick for me but we crossed paths with them many times throughout the day. We also saw a LOT of horses at Rainbows End Farm. I couldn't resist informing Sara that we were following the yellow blazed trail at the end of the rainbow. 

Next up - 15 miles along the Appalachian Trail. The elevation will be more than yesterday but not as much as our longest day hike coming up. 

Keep smiling and keep moving. 

-Paula