Weekend in Ma.

blogger upload, a set on Flickr.

Pictures say it all

The nine months of waiting concluded with a call from Ellie last Tuesday night announcing the birth of  Charlotte Sophia Provan.   David hopped on an early morning flight to meet the newest addition to the clan.

Sarah looked great but most eyes were on Charlotte - all 7lb 15oz and 21 inches of her. 

Hospital and nurses were very impressive

                                              As were the parents:

On the way back it became clear just how early I  left.  The Syracuse guys just laughed.  The Madison security team kept taking them on and off the belt and rescanning.  They couldn't quite believe it.

Catch our breath

It's been a wild ride since we returned from Africa and I feel like today is the first day we've been able to catch our breath. After breakfast I canoed over to our neighbor to the south who captured our wayward raft last month. He rigged up a new anchor system and we paddled the raft out and tossed it overboard. The cable is about three times thicker than my last effort and he put a 6 foot length of chain between the 100 lb cement anchor and the cable. Last anchor lasted two years maybe this setup will last 6.

We went into Tully for the annual festival. Bought some used books, checked out the offerings and headed out to the orchards for some apple tastings. Once home Melanie caught some rays, we grilled some fish for dinner and kicked back. A nice day.

Since we got back a lot has happened. We had a visit from Gabby and her family








then it was off to Madison to see Max and his crew: Then of course there was Boston with Eva and Noah and the gang > Next up were Dylan an Ollie but wait..... It turned out we met them in NYC for Z & A's wedding:

And to finish out the month can you believe Dylan turned 5? She's started Kindergarten! Bring on September! - Posted from the ipad

Location:Tully, Ny,United States

Amsterdam - ok, we've been home for a week , but we're still catching up.

To end up the vacation I always dreamed about we visited Nils and Debra in Amsterdam. It was a perfect ending. Debra (you are the woman of my heart) requested Chinese food for lunch.  The concierge suggested a restaurant that was also a house boat. After wondering aimlessly for awhile Nils looked up and said maybe it’s that Asian boat. It had a pagoda top.  Hurray, Nils. While the food was wonderful the waitress did not become my BFF. She was pretty critical. She made it clear we ordered too much food. And then I asked for sugar for my tea. Well, I didn’t mean to be culturally inappropriate.  She was adamant sugar wasn't to be used. So I drank bitter tea. 

 To get a lay of the land we went on a canal tour. I was the only one who liked it but to be honest I fell asleep as soon as the boat started. Amsterdam is a great place to walk and walk we did. A beautiful city. As an American it is wondrous to see building so old.

 Next day, we walked all over and had a fun shopping spree, yes David excused himself and left us. David’s credit card wouldn't incur the ridiculous extra charges of using it out of the country, so I borrowed David’s card. We had a brief moment of angst when the saleswoman looked at the card and said the signatures aren’t the same. I was using a felt pen so I said that was the reason and she accepted it. The real reason was IT WAS DAVID'S CARD WITH HIS NAME ON IT NOT MINE. Interesting that she noticed the signatures were different but that I probably wasn't “David Zimet” but, oh well.

We went the the Van Gogh museum one morning.  It was interesting to view his work in a historical perspective and see how it changed. And what a treat to see some of our favorites in person.  What was particularly striking was just how much more powerful the actual works were than their copies.

The works jumped out a grabbed you.  Lots of art, lots of walking, and thank goodness for the tram system!.  We took a brief stop at the flower market before grabbing lunch and heading back to the hotel for a siesta. The flower markets sold cannabis starter kits and I thought, a better gift for the kids than t shirts but David nixed the idea. Something about customs. 

That evening we went to the Anne Frank house.  The visit is not something I can ever describe. It was of course in a word, powerful.  What I want to mention is right after the visit just when we were all depleted and grasping for positives we look up and there was a clown riding by on a bicycle.  We have no idea why he was there or what he was doing but I want to thank him for helping me to see there is fun left in the world.


 Bicycles, everyone rides around on bikes and God help you if you wandered  into the bike lane. We took a taxi and the taxi driver was a hoot. David asked how it was to drive in this city. He said difficult with so much traffic, bikes, and strange streets. Plus, he said, everyone’s stoned.

Nils, again the hero, found a wonderful gluten free Dutch restaurant.  Also the waitress didn’t harass me so that was a plus.  Thanks, Debra and Nils for a great time.

This and that

This and that

Zebras in the water were fascinating. They are like schools of fish only louder. They would all be quietly drinking and without any signal we could discern they would lift their heads and turn directions en masse. As if they were spooked. But three minutes later it would happen again. I got it on video but it doesn't have the impact of seeing it in person. David said researchers are studying this behavior. I'd love to read what they say about herd mentality.

Some of you (well at least one of you) might be wondering about the food. 4 of the 5 hotels we stayed at are in the Serena chain which is owned by a Indian Prince- the Aga Kahn. So when we had "Africa night" at one of the hotels Melanie's comment was "I guess African food means Indian food. Actually all of the hotels had a variant on a typical English breakfast. There would be a buffet of fresh fruit, cheese, smoked beef, bread, cereals and porridge as well as a selection of juices. orange, watermelon, passion fruit, mango, paw-paw, tamarind, pineapple and sometimes apple. Eggs were cooked per request and a few of the hotels offered eggs Benedict and such. the eggs were different from western eggs if you can believe it. The yolks were extremely pale almost serous in color. Why? Is it because we doctor the eggs or because of the difference in chicken feed? All sausage and we think all the bacon was beef. We were thinking this was because of Moslem travelers but then we saw pork chops on the menu one night. Tea and coffee and champagne were on the list of included drinks. At most restaurants you had to buy water by the bottle. There were also pastries and bread although non of those were spectacular.

We had most of our lunches on the road so the hotel would pack box lunches for us to have while we were out. There was a lot of food but not of much character or taste. There would be a cucumber sandwich, a smoked beef sandwich (both sandwiches feature a lot of butter and a couple of small half dollar pieces). Then there would be a piece of chicken, bottle of water, piece of cheese, crackers, chocolate bar.

The first night spent at the Tanguire River Camp. This was not part of the chain and the food was really good. More in the next installment


- Posted from the ipad

Location:Kilimanjaro Airport Rd,,Tanzania

Last game drive

We're at the Ngornogoro. crater. Believe it or not I'm cold. Till now the nights have been in the mid 70's and the days have been in the 80's and low 90's. Our hotel is over a mile high. I'll just mention a couple of high points because I'm beginning to lose it. And we're sad that we finished the game drives. The drive from the Serengeti to here was incredibly dusty. We had to have the vans lights on because it was such a dust storm. Saw many animals. We'll show pictures.

Today we drove into the crater. The drive down is like the drive to Joan and Abbotts old house for the Blumkin clan. Only it's a dirt road wide enough for one car. It's easier to see animals because it's an enclosed place so that was great. Plus we got to see the last member of the big five. That would be the rhino. First we saw a mom and baby. Then later two rhinos hanging out. Very cool. Also got to see some baby hippos a ton more lions including a few that came close enough to pet and... Well david will label the photos when they go up. Melanie/I took a video of the lion but then it walked up to our car and I dropped the camera. The lion was so close i could see he had goop in his eye a d just like when the kids were young or with Snuffy i wanted to reach down and clean it out. Plus I took a perfect video for my brother of an elephant pooping. All sorts of mammals and birds.

Debra, I found the perfect pet for you. It's called a serval cat. I hadn't heard of it before. It's the size of a house cat with leopard spots on it's tawny body and striped leggings on it's legs. Cute little black ears with White markings. Your dad had to stop me from opening the door and scooping him up for you.

I should mention that male animals aren't usually hanging with the others. And as for the lions it's the females that hunt and kill and bring the bacon home. Maybe Disney can redo the lion king as the lion queen. The males depend on the females for food and when he's too old he's kicked out by the younger males.

What else to babble about? Did we mention when we were at the Serengeti a mother warthog and her babe lived under our tent and that was all the sniffing? So we got close to the warthog more often then I cared to. They are both very ugly and very smelly. It seems to me that one should either pull the ugly card or the smelly card but it's unfair to pull both. Of course if one was very bright it wouldn't matter if one was smelly and ugly. I don't think that's true of the warthog. Josh let's put this on the top of our list of things to argue about.

Sarah, elephants gestation is two years a d giraffes 15 months. Being human seems better and better doesn't it? We saw a pregnant giraffe.

We've just returned from dinner and housekeeping left two filled hot war bottles in the bed. Melanie's a happy camper!

Tomorrow back to Kilimanjaro where we catch an overnight plane to Amsterdam and Debra and Nils. Don't count on us blogging in Amsterdam


- Posted from the ipad

Location:Ngornogoro Crater, Tanzania

Guess who's birthday?

July 7th
Guess who's birthday? Happy birthday Joy and me.

I had a fine night since I'm now taking benedryl so I can sleep with all the noise outside the tent. Apparently there was quite a commotion last night with snorting and then galloping. Turns out there was a wildebeest killed by a lion right outside camp. As any of my kids can tell you I have no sense of direction. I asked David if that was near our tent and he assured me it was in a galaxy far far away so I calmed down. Then I was talking to the staff about it and they said it was really near our tent. oy vay!

thanks for all the birthday greetings. Internet in the western Serengeti is spotty to say the least. David delivered a wonderful card from his folks and managed to keep hidden till today a Great birthday card from Josh and Laura and a beautiful finger painting from Gabby plus a great bday video from the Bleisenbergs. Later on I got to talk to all the boys and their kids and Rachel Noah and Eva. Sorry Debra Skype isn't working to Sweden for some reason. Missed talking to Sarah too but we spoke to her a few days ago. So many of the staff ask how many children we have and I say 6. I don't feel I have to go into details, they all said wasn't that difficult and I say no. Then when they leave David says that's because they were brought up in 2 different houses with other spouses to help. (no he doesn't-he doesnt even open his mouth on the subject)

Now that I am putting in my two cents you should know that beside being called Melon, the staff is calling her "Mama". As in "where is Mama?" or "we wait for "mama!"

The iPad was a big hit with the staff. It is the first they have ever seen or heard of it. Watching Melanie FaceTime and Skype drew lots of interest.


Saw2 leopards. A mom and 2 cubs just sitting under a tree. Didn't like us there so left and we followed them. Got some great pix.

Then we came upon lions bunches of them eating a zebra. We were able to park right next to them. We could hear the crunching of the zebra bones. Yum. One guy had his head completely in the zebra. They apparently start at the back end and eat it all except the ribs, even the head. You could tell they were eating the intestines, just pulling out this long rope. Then the lion with his head in the zebra pulled out an intact liver. That ad the heart are apparently the prize parts.

So I think of myself as a big picture person and certainly not a details person. When we were with the lions and they were literally next to the car John kept saying close the window. I was so intent on the lions I didn't close the window. David closed it. It wasn't until we were back in the hotel that I said to david was I supposed to close the window because of a danger factor. He looked astounded and said yes they could jump in. Oh. Josh we can argue when I get back if that's a detail or bog picture

We had a very special birthday Dinner. First they brought a bottle of champagne to our tent courtesy of the boys. We drank a glass and brought the rest of the bottle to the lobby. They took it to put it on ice after taking another glass. When we got to dinner they misplaced the bottle so they gave us a second bottle. For once I was a bit prudent but the guy I'm with finished the rest. We did look happy. Of course when I say I was prudent at some point I tried to say Hakuna Matata and it just wasn't coming out correctly. After dinner the entire staff came out with a birthday cake and sang a number of African birthday songs and throughly embarrassed me. Thanks again Blumkin boys! In fact when we got to this hotel today (July 8) a guest from yesterday was here and came to us and said how was your birthday?

So David and I were talking and I should say I'm not in the least scared and am really into the animals. I can just look at them for hours as evidenced by my watching the lions for 45 minutes.


- Posted from the ipad

Location:Western Serengeti