This post represents the last, partial album that Barb didn’t quite complete before Allie was born. After this point, posts come from the raw photos we have from year to year.
In the late spring of 1994, we invested in some new landscaping for our backyard. Our yard was actually a steep hill that had one small flat terrace halfway up. It was hard to mow, though I managed to more or less keep it under control with a push mower, some years better than others. We were happy with the landscaping, which we helped design, including the stacked rock wall and the stepping stones. It was a motif we would repeat later at Pfefferkorn.
Barb and Patti’s friend Carol had a small shower at Fair Oaks Mall for Patti and her new baby to be, Christine.
Also on the baby front, Shelly and Marcus welcomed a new Christ, Spencer.
Babies were a recurring theme among our cohort, in case you didn’t notice. Sometime amidst all this fecundity, Barb and I decided it was time to try for our own child. We were both reasonably well established in our careers, we could afford to have a child, we were both in our mid-30s and Barb’s biological clock was ticking away. I’d had some anxieties in my 20s about having kids and found it rather pleasant to have the freedom to do what we wanted, when. Sometime in my 30s I became less anxious about not wanting kids and more open to the idea. It really came down to whether and when Barb felt it was time. I can’t pinpoint a specific big heavy duty day of discussion, it was more of a mutual decision to roll the genealogical dice.
At some point in the spring or early summer, Barb and I took a weekend to explore the Brandywine Valley, including the estates of Winterthur and Longwood Gardens. I can’t remember which bed and breakfast we stayed at, but I remember the whole weekend was pleasant and the food in the area was good. I remember also visiting the Mushroom Museum in Kennett Square, but I’m not sure it’s there anymore.
I earned a reputation at work as being something of a bed and breakfast expert; others would ask me for recommendations. Barb and I spent quite a few weekends over these years at various B&B’s around the region. We don’t necessarily have photos from all of them and a number of the properties have disappeared, but I remember quite a few, including:
- Historic Inns of Annapolis, one of the first places we stayed as a young couple was the Maryland Inn which included a great dinner at the Treaty of Paris restaurant in its weekend package. In later years we returned to stay at several of the other buildings in this cluster of inns, and had a few great Sunday brunches at the Treaty of Paris. They used to (but sadly, no longer) serve a buffet that included excellent shrimp and roast beef.
- The Ashby Inn, in Paris, VA, near Sky Meadows Park had a nice restaurant as well. We returned several times with various friends, including Betsy and Joe, and Patti and Lee (or maybe they just came for dinner).
- The Hillbrook Inn, Charles Town, WVA, used to be run by a retired Foreign Service couple. It had a pretty, slightly ramshackle layout that bumped down a hillside and a nice restaurant. It looks to have grown and incorporated some other properties…may be worth another try.
- The Brampton Inn in Chestertown where we stayed relatively recently (early 2000’s) with Laurie and Allie.
- Inn at Perry Cabin, St. Michael’s, where we stayed a number of times, particularly in its early years when it was a Laura Ashley hotel.
- There were a couple of private homes on the Eastern Shore near Cambridge that no longer seem to be inns. One had a nice pool that Barb liked, another was right on the Bay which I enjoyed.
- We stayed in Gettysburg with Patti and Lee one weekend, but I can’t recall which inn.
- There were several others in Pennsylvania Dutch Country (and outlet shopping) that we tried but none stand out.
Honestly, these homes away from home were more appealing in the days when we were both working and before we built our own home on Pfefferkorn. Now that our own house has pretty much all the stuff and amenities that we want, I find it’s harder to make the excuse to go somewhere else. It’s an interesting shift in priorities over time.
While I’m reminiscing on this front, it was also through these years at Davidge that we would regularly explore restaurants in the area. The Harders would often lead us to new places in Baltimore, while Barb’s colleague and quasi-mentor Tom Hoyer and his wife Maureen would be regular dinner buddies around Howard County. Tom and Maureen helped us find the Cafe de Paris when it originally opened in Laurel. It became our favorite steak frites place, and we were delighted when the owner, Eric, moved the restaurant to Columbia. We became regulars there and were pleased to be recognized by Eric, though he seemed to recognize nearly everyone. We were sad when it closed in 2014 (so maybe it didn’t actually open in Laurel until 1998).
In August, 1994, we took a jaunt to Nemacolin Woodlands, a newish resort in the Laurel Highlands of western Pennsylvania. Nemacolin was an ambitious, interesting resort with a quirky personality; it was developed by the Joe Hardy, the owner of 84 Lumber, and very much reflected his personal tastes and obsessions. There were oddball sculptures and paintings in the public areas, a terrific new golf course, a couple of good restaurants, an equestrian center, and lots of spacious grounds and lodging options.
Gerard and I played golf several times while Barb and Chris tried out the pools and took a horse ride. Chris was the more accomplished equestrian.
Barb and I went back to Nemacolin a few more times over the years, some on our own and some with Betsy and Joe; it’s been interesting to see it grow but also a bit sad to see it become ever more upscale and expensive. For a while it felt like a secret mountain hideaway. In later years it became more grandiose, pretentious and “Republican”. It no longer seems like a comfortable getaway.
We took an afternoon to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, not far from the resort, our first visit to this architectural gem. It lived up to its reputation as one of the most innovative, breathtaking homes we’d ever seen. It at once looks like the future and nestles into its woodland stream setting like part of nature. A remarkable achievement, especially for the 1930s. Almost as impressive as the home itself was the trail down through a forest of rhododendron. They weren’t in bloom but were still very peaceful and lovely. It was an excellent afternoon.
Meanwhile, down in Florida, Mom and Dad were visited by Sue and her girls as well as Scott and his son, Alexander. I don’t think we were there, but Mom sent photos…so here they are.
At the end of August, Barb and I took a 4-day getaway to Aruba, though I’m not exactly sure what dictated that timing (maybe the excuse was for Barb to get a tan ahead of the impending wedding for Leila’s daughter?). It was my first return to Aruba since I’d left in 1966. We stayed at La Cabana Beach Resort, though I think it may was a different set of buildings than what is there now. We don’t seem to have any photos of the resort.
We rented a car and explored around the island. I looked for our old house on L.G. Smith Boulevard in Oranjestad; I’m not convinced the one pictured below was it, but it looked somewhat similar, with a big front porch and a fence with a railing that Dmitri would walk on. The beach in front of the house looked scragglier than I remembered, but it was more or less the same, with the little island on the left side of the lagoon. In years since, the airport expanded and wiped out this area.
The rest of the island looked fairly familiar, rather desolate and not terribly built up from when we lived there nearly 30 years before. One of the few distinct memories I have was finding a decent bagel shop started by a Brooklyn refugee. Other than that, I remember having a good time while we there for this short trip but we didn’t feel much urge to return again for another couple of decades.
We were happy to be invited guests at the wedding of Leila’s daughter, Laura, in September. The event was at the historic Antrim 1844 Inn in Taneytown, Maryland where we stayed the night, even though it was not all that far away. Leila had been long-divorced from her husband, Bert, but their family had a truce and came together for the day. It was actually quite a lovely event.
The reception was held in a tent at the Inn. The meal was very nice — it’s a renowned restaurant. There was much drinking and even some dancing by me, but no photos, thankfully.
Some random shots from late 1994. Barb visited the Holocaust Museum in DC, which had opened the year before. The fridge with all the pictures, mostly of Sara, was at Betsy’s house in Countryside.
We attended Christine’s christening ceremony at the Bowman’s house, staying for Jimmy’s birthday party as well.
Fred sent us a school essay in November from one of Fran’s granddaughters, Meaghan, who interviewed Fred about his World War II experience. He didn’t talk a whole lot about his war experience, though I imagine he would have offered more detail if we had asked. This essay is as much as we have written down.
To expand a bit more from what I remember, Fred was a late addition to Patton’s forces at an early stage of what became the Battle of the Bulge. He wasn’t on the ground in Europe very long before he was injured. It was a shrapnel injury in his foot that I think became worse from frostbite. In later years, we came to know that he had no feeling in one of his feet and took some pride in the fact it didn’t sweat and therefore didn’t stink (though perhaps I’m mis-remembering that bit…Barb will have to correct me sometime).
Fred later carried a very healthy disdain for the futility and stupidity of war, but it was balanced by a great respect for those that served and died. Barb has many stories of visiting American cemeteries across Europe during the time the family was posted in Germany and Italy, sometimes finding names of soldiers Fred knew.
While Fred was convalescing in a hospital back in the States (near Detroit?) he met a nurse named Louise Bogdanski who had divorced from her first husband. I’m not sure how much longer it was before Fred went to college at Wayne State University and he and Louise got married. [Note: I clearly need to have a more complete accounting of Barb’s family history; I’m waiting for a time when Barb can participate more fully.]
Shifting gears, Sara paid a visit to Santa, Christmas 1994.
Sara got into the Christmas groove…her last before she had to share it with anyone. By this point, Betsy had another sibling on its way but I’m not sure how widely known that fact was. Coincidentally, Ashley and Larry Harder (mostly Ashley) also became pregnant with their first child, Maddie. Something was in the air.
We celebrated Christmas at Betsy and Joe’s. Barb checked out her Power Rangers gloves for special powers…or maybe they were Sara’s. Definitely not Joe’s. Also included in the theme, a Wonderbra.
We had Christmas Dinner at Betsy’s with Joe’s parents and the Babcocks. We did our best to extend traditions, with roast beef and fixings and the Babcocks, even though Fred was in Montana was with Fran and I’m guessing Ann and Harry were with Harry’s family.
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