Larkin Reed's Blog, page 4

RESEARCH TRIP

We drove from Medford, Oregon to Annapolis, Maryland -- if you Google the route, that amounts to 2,846 miles, which ideally, one could manage in 47 hours.  We did it in 42.  Which means, we didn't stop once unless to get gas or food, and someone, without naming names, disregarded the speed limit on the Ohio Turnpike.  And sped through most of Nevada.  And Wyoming.

Here's the weird thing about traveling: once you get to wherever you wanted to go, all you really want to do is sleep. Or is that just us? Our first day in Annapolis, we had to drag ourselves out of bed to explore. And it was rainy and muggy.


The Maryland Inn, built in 1772, was reminiscent of the Flatiron Building in Manhattan.

We drove to Saint Mary's Church, which was where our grandmother, Lori Pike, married our grandfather, Commander Lundi Moore, when he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1949.

And it's evidently still a popular spot for knot-tying: we showed up just as a wedding party was departing for its reception. Once we got inside, a nice old lady, who assumed we were parishioners, asked if we would be willing to distribute pamphlets in the pews for the impending service. (We were willing.) When she realized we were from out of town, she gave us a tour of the parish in thanks.

The ceiling is painted with a starry night sky, complete with gently-waning moon.

At the bottom of the hill the church sits upon, Annapolis verges the Chesapeake Bay. We were pointed in the direction of the Annapolis Yacht Club. The stroll gave us an opportunity to admire the Chesapeake area's fall colors.

The Annapolis Yacht Club sits against Spa Creek. It was founded in 1883.

For dinner, we had pizza at the local Westin, before running back to our car positively soaked.

The next day, we explored Baltimore. On our list of places to visit were Johns Hopkins Hospital and Fells Point, the harbor where Frederick Douglass worked as a young boy.
The main building of Johns Hopkins Hospital, designed by John Shaw Billings, John Rudolph Niernsee and Edward Clarke Cabot, was erected in 1889.

We also explored Johns Hopkins' campus. Lots of beautiful neoclassical brick buildings and brightly-colored fall trees.

Then, back to Annapolis the next day for some more sight-seeing, and to keep an appointment we'd had booked for a while.


The sun finally came out. There were boats in the harbor, tourists in all the shops.
We headed over to the Statehouse, the original capitol of the United States and the oldest government building still in use (and where Richard's father Robert works as a senator).

In the park outside the Statehouse.




We found this cute little alley leading from the statehouse to Main Street.

After getting ice cream at Kilwin's sweet shop (might we suggest the "Superman" sorbet?), we drove across town to our previously-mentioned appointment: a boat charter to explore the Chesapeake Bay and Severn River.








A white-clapboard house on a bluff overlooking the Severn.






After we got stuck in the shallows.


Getting started again.


Riverbanks, in all their fall glory.


For even more photos from our trip, check out our "Research Trip" album on the trilogy's official Facebook page.

Almost three years ago now, we drove cross-country -- fro...

Almost three years ago now, we drove cross-country -- from the Pacific Northwest to the Chesapeake Bay -- to see Maryland in the fall. It was a research trip for AMBER HOUSE, and we snapped hundreds of photos along the way. We've started going back through them now that we have this blog, and might post some selections soon.

This one reminded us of a favorite poem by J.R.R. Tolkien, Bilbo's "Old Walking Song" from THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began,

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then?  I cannot say.

Tolkien penned quite a bit of poetry, which you can brush up on here.  Another favorite of ours is "The Little House of Lost Play."

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW.

There is an Indonesian tribal belief that everything a person uses is invested with a "soul" -- that even the most common, everyday object is given a life by those who use and cherish it.  And we agree.

There is something magical about the things that come to us from the past.   One can almost hear the echoes of all those others -- the little boy who loved an old stuffed bear, for example, or the grandmother who rocked her grandchildren in a favorite rocking chair.

This blog is a celebration of how the past interacts with the present -- the things that we love that are new, and the things that we love that are old.   We will share places to go, things to collect, styles to follow that are all part of a non-disposable and cyclical experience, where everything a person surrounds herself with is part of the art of living.

This space will also chronicle anything and everything having to do with our upcoming series, AMBER HOUSE, out this fall from Scholastic's Arthur A. Levine Books. The book is inspired by our own family history, and follows eleven generations of women, from the 1600s to the present.

This first post is dedicated to the lovely and talented Nicole Jaffe, who helped us design and craft this new blog, and to our grandmother, Lori Moore, who encouraged us to try in the first place.