Last week Melanie and I joined her family for a week long vacation on Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire. Aside from no broadband Internet connection, the trip was perfect. The house we rented sits just a few feet from the water on 1 of 3 natural sandy beaches at Lake Sunapee.
The views are amazing and the water is crystal clear. Being from Memphis, the water was naturally a little cold for me but I was still able to get in the water. We rented a pontoon boat for a day to tour the entire lake, and we were able to view the ski slopes of Mount Sunapee from the water. I couldn't help but think how cool it would be to snow mobile across the lake in winter time to Mt Sunapee and snowboard for the day. Having a summer time house on Lake Sunapee would be awesome, but I imagine having a winter time house on the lake would be equally as awesome.
We didn't sit around the lake all day, every day. Melanie and I brought bikes with us and rode around. Some of the hills were killers to climb but the speed coming down was exhilarating. Our longest ride was one around the entire lake, which resulted in a 22 or 23 mile ride. In the beginning, we didn't think we could do it but next thing we knew we were back at the house.
I highly recommend Lake Sunapee for those looking for a New England vacation.
Salem, Mass
As many people already know, Melanie and I are considering leaving NYC. Our life style has changed since getting married and we want certain things in our life that are hard to obtain in New York unless you have millions in the bank, which we do not. We really like New England and will probably end up somewhere North of Boston. Salem, MA is one of the areas we are considering so we stopped by the town on our drive back to NYC from Lake Sunapee.
The day was hot, very hot. The temperature was around 95 degrees, which is way too hot for me. We had lunch at an Irish pub then walked around Salem Commons. Salem is definitely our favor place in the North of Boston area at the moment. We're planning more visits to the area this fall before making our final decision but the closeness to Vermont and New Hampshire, and the coolness of this water front town has us already dreaming of "Going from Rainbows to Witches."
DCI
Our vacation week ended with a stop to Gillett Stadium in Foxborough, MA, home of the New England Patriots, to see the DCI World Championships. This was my first DCI event in many years and Melanie's first DCI event ever. Blue Knights, Santa Clara Vanguard, and The Cavaliers were our favorites of the night. While The Cadets took home the championship with a score of 99.150, I personally believe The Cavaliers were far better. And granted I don't know the judging rules as well as I did 20 years ago but how can a corp score 99.150 when the drum major starts the show before the judges indicated that they were ready.
Short story short, The Cadet's drum major started the show before the announcer asked if the judges were ready, which is before the drum major is asked if he or she is ready, and is most definitely before the announcer tells the corp that they may take the field. But what do I know? Heck, I thought The Cavaliers were way better but they only scored a 97.625 putting them in second place for the night. posted by Kirby | 18-Aug-2005 11:03 PM | comments (5)
Holy Crap! I didn't know you like DCI. I marched with Garfield (now the Cadets) and go to the Allentown 2-day Show every year!
If you want to go with me next year, let me know! I just buy a ticket outside the gate.. always get a good seat.
About the Cadets start-of-show - When you come on the field, you have a certain amount of time to warm-up. Some corps do nothing, so do some chords/etc, and some (rarely) do marching and playing. This is what the Cadets were doing - that was their warmup period, but they left no break between that and the "judged" part of the show. The timing judge knows about it and signals up to the the top when to start judging, its just the announcer that didn't know what to do.
posted by Frank | August 25 08:28 AMIt wasn't a warm up. It appeared as if they started their show before judges were ready, but it's hard to tell from the stadium. I'm curious to see if there will be any comments about it on the ESPN 2 broadcast scheduled for September 6.
posted by Kirby Turner | August 25 08:33 AMI was thinking about it more. Maybe the Cadets transitioned from a silent, marching warm-up to the actual show. Hard for me to tell since I hadn't seen the show.
I still don't see how they scored so high, but that's why I'm not a judge.
It actually is a warm-up in terms of judging. Once they get on the field they start their show.. the 1st 30sec-min are during the "warmup" time so its not being judged.. they never stop, so the timing judge just give the signal to above when to start official judging.
posted by | August 29 11:00 AMAdd Your Comment
