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November 04, 2006

Keeping Up with the Westbrooks

It was cold this morning. We were expecting guests, so we had to get out of bed. Last night we threw a bunch of ingredients in the crock pot in hopes of yielding chili. We had no idea what had happened to the chili during the night, how it had fared, whether or not it was now chili or something else entirely. Whether the contents of the pot had boiled away to nothing. Whether there was a huge mess that needed to be cleaned up. One of us had to go see. It was so cold. We drew straws. Robbi lost. But, really, she was in no shape to get out of bed.

I reached down deep. I got up. The chili was fine. It was still too watery and needed to boil off some more. Eight more hours would do the trick, we came to find out. The house was cold. Apparently, temperatures in the night had dipped below freezing. A big question has been whether we will be able to keep this space warm once real winter comes. We turned on the baseboard heaters for the first time and crossed our fingers. Two things happened. 1) The air inside the barn got pleasantly warm in a very short time. 2) The heaters, being new, put out a smell like burning rubber. This forced us to open the windows to air out the smell, which also caused all of our newly produced warm air to exit the premises. We seemed stuck with the choice of either foul air or cold air for our visitors. We chose cold air. Robbi is really sensitive to bad smells. Which makes it no small miracle that we're still married.

The day's visitors were our good friends the Wesbtrooks. Matt, the patriarch of the clan was our colleague when we worked at the North Charles Street Design Organization. Matt is a stellar fellow. In addition to being an outstanding writer, freakishly thorough proofreader, and skilled dartslinger, Matt is one of the finest fathers I've ever known. He and Barbara have done such a great job with their kids, Kira and Jennifer. They are models for us. When we have children, we will try and do what they do. Should we ever choose to have children. Which seems increasingly unlikely. Children are so loud.

This weekend is the annual Chestertown downrigging, which means that a bunch of tall ships with masts and sails converged on the port to join Chestertown's own Schooner Sultanta in a celebration of all things nautical. We've been wanting Matt and the family Westbrook to see the finished barn, and the downrigging seemed like a good excuse for a visit.

The downrigging poster:

The Westbrooks arrive. Westbrooks = Matt, Barbara, Kira, Jennifer.

Before they even came inside, we headed down to the waterfront, where each of the ships was taking on passengers for the first of two cruises of the day. We hung out by the largest of the ships, the Kalmar Nyckel. It is a recreation, made in 1991, I believe, of a 16th century Swedish ship. It's really big and grand. I wish I could give you interesting details that did the ship justice. I can't. But here are some nice pictures.

In dock:

On the water:

There were 11 ships total, three of which were really large. "Really large" is an actual nautical classification.

You might be tempted to believe that these three are the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.

You would be wrong.

So we looked at the boats for a while. Then we headed back to the barn for a tour. Matt hadn't seen the place since the day he and Robbi made the cabinet doors together. It was the first visit to C-town for Barbara and the girls. I get a sense that they liked the place. After the tour we headed to the farmer's market and took a swing through town. Due to allergies, the family Westbrook cannot have pets. And so the girls take particular delight in opportunities to enjoy the pets of others. Jennifer did a fine job of shepherding Iggy through the treacherous streets of Chestertown.

We stopped at Vicco's woodworking shop. His stuff is incredibly beautiful and incredibly pricey. It's a good place to go visit and wish that you had a lot more money.

We went to the Old Mill for lunch. The food was delicious, but the girl behind the counter was wearing a ridiculous shirt. It was very distracting. I had difficulty ordering my food.

Once we got the food, we enjoyed it. It was tasty. We took a picture of the Wesbtrooks. Have a look. I want you to notice something.

It's a nice picture, right? Indeed. But notice how all of them are smiling. And genuinely so. No sulking, no attitude. The Westbrooks don't have time for that sort of thing. They enjoy their lives and aren't afraid to let the pearly whites show.

On the way back from lunch we looked at the sky. We saw a number of contrails, perfectly parallel, at seemingly similar altitudes. It was beautiful and surprising. I don't recall seeing any contrails over Chestertown previously, let alone seven at once.

As a housewarming gift the Westbrooks brought a bunch of apples, a tub of caramel, and a device that makes the slicing and coring (or is it de-coring?) of apples quite easy. See below.

And a closeup.

While we ate apples drenched in caramel, Iggy rested in the sunlight.

Matt and Jennifer made music with my hollow wooden treefrogs from Kuala Lampur.

Then Jen painted with water and wrestled with the ontological implications of impermenance as the water dried and her image faded.

She seemed to weather the potentially crippling angst with cheerful aplomb. A sign of good parenting to be sure.

We watched Wallace and Gromit shorts, did Sudoko, talked, rested, etc. Eventually the contents of the crock pot looked and smelled enough like chili to put it in bowls and call it dinner. From start to finish, the meal was about 20 hours in the making. As the winter sets in, we imagine that crock pot cooking would contribute in some way to the ongoing task of heating this space. No one was quite hungry yet, so we took Iggy and Tanker over to the college to run around like mad. We enjoyed the dogs' antics, threw the football and frisbee, walked on the new grass on the far end of the field, watched the sun set.

By then we were hungry.

Bob joined us for dinner. He regaled the girls with his stories. Bob's life has been full and interesting and he is always good for a story or several. It's always nice to be with him in the presence of new people because it gives me a chance to hear new stories or favorite old stories for a second time.

After dinner, we headed down to the water to see the ships again. By this time it was dark, but the ships were being lit by spotlights.

Very dramatic.

We talked with a few of the guys on the crew of the Kalmar Nyckel. Apparently they are all volunteers, but still have to do a tremendous amount of training and testing to be selected for the position. We learned about the mind-boggling weight of the horizontal mast that holds the top edge of the big square sails. Apparently it takes 50 men to carry it on and off the ship. After the downrigging weekend, the Kalmar Nyckel is going back to winter in Wilmington. The boat will remain in the water, but all of the masts and rigging will be removed and restored over the winter. The boat itself will be covered in shrink wrap for safekeeping.

Eventually Jennifer got cold, so I loaned her my Carhart jacket. It wasn't really her size, but I think it did the trick.

We came back to warm up with hot chocolate, tea, and brownies. Eventually the long fun day had to end. The girls were yawning. The Westbrooks had a long drive back to Baltimore ahead of them. We lined them up for a final picture and, for a lark, asked them not to smile. Just to see if they were capable of it.

We framed the shot. Took the picture.

Nope. Couldn't do it. Matt did a passable job, but Barbara and the girls either didn't understand the word "frown" (entirely possible), or don't actually know how to produce a frown because they've never done it before.

We tried again.

Again, failure. This time Barbara got a little closer. Kira succeeded in sort of frowning for just a moment as I framed the shot, but as my finger pressed the button, her face snapped back again into the beaming smile that is her mainstay. And Jennifer is hopeless. Doesn't know a thing in the world but smiles. We decided not to fight it. Gave hugs all around and sent them on their way.

We had a really wonderful day. It might sound mushy, but it's good to have friends. It's nice when they visit. It's great when the chili turns out. When the insulation you spent hours hanging seems to keep the big room warm all day. The Westbrooks are great folks and we're glad to know them.

And three cheers for big ships.

Posted by bogenamp at November 4, 2006 10:36 PM