Our Summer travels are coming to an end. We have been parked in Salem, Massachusetts now for more than two weeks while visiting with our sons and their families. We returned to Winter Island Park where we had come for the spring as well. It gave us an opportunity to return to some of our favorite spots. We took in a couple of exhibits at the Peabody Essex Museum and even became members. We saw the very end 
of the exhibit on maritime paintings by Joseph Turner and the beginning of the exhibit on the sculpture Calder. Plus we got to revisit some of the other exhibits in the museum in downtown Salem. We also got to go back to a few of the restaurants we enjoyed in our first time here. This time, we spent two days in the field and then two weeks on the water. There certainly are some fabulous views in Salem Harbor.
Of course the major reason for returning here is our Grandson, who is just turning one year old. Last year at this time, we came here for his birth and then stayed through the end of November to spend as much time as possible with him. Now he is 
walking and starting to imitate talking he hears and is doing a little sign language and understanding things you tell him. We got to sit with him once and to visit with him and his parents a few times. We went to the water park with him while the weather was still hot and he played in the water spray. Of course the highlight was celebrating his one year birthday. He certainly got a lot of gifts and his fill of chocolate cake. It was the most sugar he had consumed in his first year of life.
Tomorrow, after a lunch visit with Brian, Katherine and Oliver, we will move on. First stop is our friends David and Myra in Trumbull, CT and then we will make our way toward Elkins, WV. We have two states, West Virginia and Kentucky left on our camping map. We plan on staying in both of them and then we will have filled our states map by camping in each of the lower 48 and Alaska. We have also stayed in 7 of the Canadian Provinces. Our schedule is to be in our home in Sarasota, Florida by the end of September after spending the Jewish Holiday of Rosh Hashanah in Dothan, Alabama with our friends there. It was a great summer but autumn is upon us and we are looking forward to being back in our home.
