Stephen's Graduation - May 13th

I promised to share some of the events of March, April and early May and will start with the most recent BIG event. Sally's son Stephen graduated from Tulane Law School on May 13th. He was the top student in his class, an award presented at the Law School honors reception Friday night.

The main Tulane graduation ceremony was Saturday morning - speakers were Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush. It was held in the arena, across the street from the Superdome. It was a very different ceremony - no Pomp and Circumstance. The music was provided by a jazz band. The invocation was even musical - a version of Just a Closer Walk with Thee done in the traditional funeral format. The first section was a very soulful clarinet solo, followed by a rousing jaz version by the full jazz ensemble, including brass and saxophone.
At the end of the graduation, there was a surprise appearance by Ellen DeGeneres. She appeared in a white hotel-type terry robe saying that she heard everyone would be in robes. At the end, instead of a formal recessional, she and the university president led the students in a "second-line" dance carrying a parasol and waving a white handkerchief.
Stephen took us out for steaks at Dickie Brennan's after the Law School graduation ceremony. He started work Monday the 15th as a law clerk for Edith Brown Clement of the Fifth Circuit Federal Appeals Court.

Our picture

We finally did it!

We finally retired, got all our "stuff" sorted out and given away, and traveled to our location for the summer. The RV in the foreground of this picture and the truck pulling out are ours. We are located at Bethel Outdoor Adventures in Bethel, Maine, for the next few months.

The campground is on the banks of the Androscoggin river. BOA offers canoe and kayak rentals, guided fishing trips, tubing and a guided tour of an old mine - interesting to all rockhounds.

We are already exploring the area - we can see that this is going to be an exciting place to be. There is so much to do that we don't anticipate being bored at all. We are close to the Appalachian Trail and the White Mountains National Forest. There are so many trails there is no way to hike them all this summer (not to mention that some of them are so tough we are in no shape to tackle them yet!)

Just a note about our intent with this blog: The idea is to share with our friends where we are and what we are doing. It will probably not be updated daily - we'll see how often we can manage it.

Right now the blog is under initial construction so please be patient. We'll post later about our trip up here and what we have been doing since March, 2006.