Schuetz Family

We’ve had our baby!

At 11:32 pm, on Monday, June 20, 2005, Dominic Andrew Schuetz was born. At birth, he weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces (he’s since dropped to 7 lb 4.5 oz), and was 20.5 inches long. He’s doing really well, though being born so close to midnight seems to have put him on a schedule counter to ours. He’s awake non-stop from midnight through 5 each morning, and we’re getting kind of, well, tired. Still, when he’s curled up in your arms, opens his eyes, and looks at you, well, it makes it worthwhile. Even if you can’t see him clearly because it’s 2:00 am. <!–break–>

We had a LONG day that Monday. We arrived at the hospital at about 6:30 am, registered, and went upstairs where we were placed in Labor and Delivery Room 1. The hospital (Inova Fair Oaks) has really nice labor / delivery rooms, with fold-out chairs for the hubby to sleep on, baby monitors, klieg lights, etc. At about 8:00 (we think, it’s kind of blurry), Andrea was induced (that is, they started feeding Pitocin into her IV drip). The Doctor ruptured her membranes at 2:30, and that’s when all hell started to break loose. The contractions that Andrea had been feeling before, that were all “okay, I can handle this” suddenly became “Oh, ****! That hurts!!” After about a half hour of this, she cried Uncle, and the angel — er, anaestesiologist — gave her an epidural at about 3:30. At this point, things got really exciting, as her blood pressure dropped (not really sure why), the baby’s heart rate dropped, and the nurse scrambled for an oxygen mask while the angel (I’m not typing anest-whatever again) pumped some ephedrine into her IV. Problem was, the nurse couldn’t find an oxygen mask, so she hit the emergency button, and in about 5 seconds three other nurses ran in. (I’m standing in the corner, trying to stay out of the way). Anyway, the oxygen came on, the drugs took hold, her pressure stabalized, and everything was fine.

So, crises averted (Andrea refers to it as a “drill” she pulled on the staff. They passed.) We kept on waiting, enduring contractions (Andrea), enduring hospital food (David), and generally trying not to look at the clock. Finally, about 9:00, she was almost completely dilated, and at 9:30, what had been an exercise in breathing became, well, I’ve no words to describe it (and, honestly, I hope never to find those words.) After about 90 minutes of active pushing, the epidural ran out, but at that point they didn’t want to give her any more because it would interfere with the pushing. Problem was, Dominic simply didn’t want to come out — he was quite happy where he was. Finally, at about 11:20, the Doctor offered three choices: Keep pushing, try with forceps, or go to a ceasarean. Andrea looked at me, and I punted (hell, it’s her body, whatever recovery method she wants to do, I’m just there to help). She asked the Doctor for his recommendation, and he suggested that we try forceps, since he’s “old school” and quite comfortable with them. Just 10 minutes later, well, we had a baby.

At this point it really gets blurry. I think they held him up, offered to let her hold him, and we both said “just take him over there and do whatever you need” because (a) we’d gotten the impression they wanted to start tests ASAP, and (b) we’d already agreed that we’d rather hold a clean baby. They did the basic bunch of tests, wiped him clean, put tags on him (and, at some point, matching tags on us), and clamped the umbilical cord with, of all things, an RFID device (just like at the mall — it sounds the alarm if we try to leave the ward with the baby). It took a little while to get Andrea all patched up, after which they put Dominic, all wrapped up, in her arms and I took the picture of Mommy and son.

So now we were coherent enough to make a couple of calls. Of course, it’s also after midnight. We called my mom, talked a few minutes, and told her “yes, we have a name, but we want to wait to tell anyone. We’re not really, well, thinking clearly, and we want to be sure it’s the name we want.” Then we called Andrea’s mom, told her the same song-and-dance about the name, and ordered some Taco Bell (the only place still open). Finally, we tried Andrea’s dad, but I had some trouble with our phone card (and also, apparently, I had the wrong number written down !!) Fortunately, Andrea’s mom called him later that morning so he knew pretty quickly, too.

They finally moved us down the hall to a recovery room about 2:00 in the morning. As we were getting settled, they took some foot prints of the baby (on scrapbook paper for Andrea), I pulled out a chair/bed to sleep on, and we took a long, deep breath. We also called the Conners in England, thinking, well, it’s 7:00 there, and he can get an email out to all our work friends. Again, with the name. Then, to sleep. At 4:00. Awake at 5:00. Out the door at 6:00, compose an email to everyone with the picture, forget to actually send it, sleep for three hours, wake up, shower, correct the snafu with the email, send more detailed info to close friends and family (with hospital phone, etc.), and back to the hospital to see Dominic (and Andrea).

Oh, yeah, the name. We’d been kicking around names for some time, and had a few we liked. Then at some point, Dominic got into our subconcious (it was my Father’s middle name, and also his grandfather’s name). The more we narrowed our list, the more we liked it, and finallly we’d pretty much settled on it. But we wanted to wait until we saw him (don’t want to call him Dominic if he looks like a Jim). And then we wanted to be sure we weren’t just drugged and tired. But the next morning, we still really liked it. It just felt…right. It’s also nice because it’s different (I doubt there’ll be 5 Dominics in his kindergarten class, the way there were 5 Davids in mine). But it’s not “weird” — it’s different, but still classic. And having a family connection (especially to my dad) was a nice bonus. The middle name was just a name we liked, and had wanted to use, but didn’t want as his first name because it’s so similar to Andrea.

Anyway, that’s how Dominic came into our lives. We’ve been turned upside-down ever since, but generally are doing well. Both moms are in the area, and have visited and offered to help. We saw Andrea’s grandmother and uncle today, have talked to most everyone from her office, received lots of emails from people, and even showed him off to a couple of neighbors. We’ve had our first dinner out (lunch, really, at California Pizza Kitchen, yesterday after his first checkup). We’ve gone shopping with him, and even taken him on a brief stroller ride. So, I guess you could say, we’re all doing just fine.

Naturally, everyone’s clamoring for photos. So here are a bunch — enjoy!! (If you want to print any, use the “orig” link below each photo to save the image locally, and then you can do whatever you normally do to print pictures…hopefully that’ll work for everyone.)

Well, we’re just about ready to have the baby, and we finally got hold of the pictures from the Baby Shower. So even though I should be downstairs trying to get the house clean, I’m up here on the Mac writing a quick story for the webpage. Mostly ’cause I think some of these are great pictures and I’d love to get them published. Read more…

We’ve finally made some progress on the nursery. This past weekend, we hosted a “Mother’s Day Brunch and Painting Party” to get us moving. Read more…

Google Maps has been getting a lot of customization lately. I'm beginning to wonder if a more organized approach is going to be needed, before this spirals out of control (or grinds to a halt under its own weight). Here are some ideas that I hope will get people thinking and, maybe, working, to build a better, more extensible, more usable system of custom maps and data overlays. Of course, if we go too far down this path, we'll simply be creating a custom GIS tool, but there are worse things, right?<!–break–>

There are now a lot of custom maps being interfaced with the Google Maps system. Here's a quick list of the maps I've seen so far:

Custom Maps with Custom Servers

• Chicago Transit Authority
• Boston's MBTA

Integrating Other Map Systems

• TerraServer – Topographic and Satellite

Overlaying Markers on Regular Map

• New York City Subway
• Washington, DC Metro System

Other Overlays (Data Displays, not really Maps)

• Mag 2.5+ Earthquakes
• Craigslist Housing Map

Drop me a note if you see others that aren't on the list, and I'll try to keep this up-to-date!

My Google Maps page is rapidly getting cluttered with all kinds of alternate map sources, some of which are only useful in very specific circumstances (Subway maps, for example). It doesn't make much sense for all kinds of map options to be visible where they're not useful, for one thing, and for another, we're shortly going to have all kinds of people running their own image tile servers. What we need is a central clearinghouse for this data and the scripts that describe getting to it. So, in no particular order, some thoughts about what'd be great to see done, by the community and Google:

1. Build a central server to provide map referrals – Basically, just a list of map types and the Javascript routines to implement them. Maybe with some additional information, ala an Extension Room sort of thing. Maybe at sourceforge or mygmaps.com, or even at Google.
2. Modify Google viewer to automatically search for appropriate maps – Perhaps the first time the Google Maps viewer initializes (from here out I'm just gonna say “GMaps,” okay?), it asks the server for a list of maps relevant to the current display. If you're looking, for example, at the entire US, it'll ask for any maps that provide coverage for maybe more than half of the country. As you move downwards, it'll re-ask periodically, maybe every other zoom level or whenever you've moved too far away from your last source. Or maybe it can just grab the entire list at the beginning of the session and be done with it (unless we end up with thousands of map services).
3. Improve the interface to handle lots of map types – Perhaps only “official” Google maps should be listed in the top of the map window (where all the map types currently appear), and other, local, 3rd party maps could be accessed in a pull-down menu. Maybe people with GMail accounts (and thus Google.com customizations) could even select some maps to always ignore, etc.
4. Develop better overlay maps – The CTA and MBTA maps are way cool, but lack some of the detail present in the regular maps. And sometimes it helps to be able to see what's around a station, in the satellite photo. On the other hand, the DC and NYC subway maps give you all that detail, but you lose the subway lines connecting all the stations together. What's needed is a better way to overlay more complicated graphics on the Google map. Perhaps some kind of SVG support could be used, though I suspect that'd be browser dependent. The “polyline” format used for the driving directions has been decoded, but I haven't seen anyone working with it. Using that, with different colors and such, to connect subway stations using non-Google markers, would give a very useful overlay, viewable at all zoom levels.
5. Support for different markers – GMaps is currently hard-coded to use the standard Google marker. We've been able to force a way around that, but it's not easy and still requires the same size image. It'd be good to create other markers (like the numbered circles used on the CTA map) that don't have “clickable” area around them and don't cast shadows.
6. Live, bounded data retrieval – Currently, GMaps fetches all the points to be displayed at once. I'm not sure how it then handles the points but it does seem that when I plot a few hundred of them, my map gets very slow. It'd be nice if the system could periodically fetch points from a server, giving the server the map's current boundaries and zoom level. The server could then respond with a list of only those points on the current map, and even, taking into account the zoom level, combine some points into single (perhaps larger) marker types.
7. Support for local site customization – Finally, it'd be great if one could simply include the GMaps widget, with an immediate application of a custom map or overlay, without having to go through the hoops that the gmaps-standalone system requires. This would be great for very specialized local maps or overlays, such as the earthquake map or a city tourism site.

Some of these would be fairly easy to do. Some would be harder, and would require extensive modifications to the GMaps code. But I really think that it'd leave us with an incredibly powerful system, even if it has to eventually be divorced from Google proper. Sort of a fork. Of course, the Google code isn't public domain, and so we can only take this hacking so far. But if we're able to come up with some great applications on our own, especially open methods of communicating maps and overlays, then maybe it'll get integrated into the official Google system eventually. (or, more likely, reimplemented by Google faster and better).

I can think of some possible uses for this technology that I haven't seen done yet:

• Better subway maps, overlaid on all map types at all zoom levels (showing actual transit lines, not just stations)
• Park maps, hiking trails, bike trails
• Property maps (probably best as an overlay)
• Educational annotation – imagine an overlay on, say, Cape Canaveral giving history for each of the launch pads
• Environmental, climate, and weather map overlays
• Political and other overlays – voting districts, census data, etc.

So am I just being over-idealistic, or is this a good idea? Where do we start?

There’s no doubt about it — Google Maps is cool. It’s not providing much more in terms of information than other, competing map services, but it more than makes up for that in terms of user interface. It’s the easiest, most intuitive way to look at maps.

Of course, it’s limited to whatever maps Google wants to provide. Some very good maps, certainly, but not always everything people might want. Almost from the start, I’d wanted to see additional map types added to Google, and in recent weeks they’ve added some of their Keyhole images (down to about 1 meter resolution or so). But I’d wanted to see better resolution (we have USGS Urban area photography available to almost 1/4 meter), and also topographic maps. Read more…

We recently surfed into the Sci-Fi Channel's remake of Battlestar Galactica, and got hooked. We really didn't want to add another TV show to our weekly schedule, but then again, Alias is pretty bad this year, so maybe there's no net change. Anyway, we got to thinking the other day, about older TV shows we used to like when we were kids. It was sort of fun to try to remember what we'd watched, so here's a list, that I'll update as I remember more shows.<!–break–>

I also figure this might be good background information for when we have the inevitable “When I was your age I didn't watch this kind of crap!” conversations we should be having in a few years….

Silly 1-hour action / adventure / drama / reality:

• Battlestar Galactica / Galactica 1980
• BJ and the Bear
• Simon and Simon
• The A-Team
• CHiPs
• Emergency
• The Fall Guy
• The Six Million Dollar Man
• The Bionic Woman
• Wonder Woman
• Spiderman (live action)
• The Greatest American Hero
• The Hardy Boys
• Quincy
• Knight Rider
• The Dukes of Hazard
• The Incredible Hulk
• Murder, She Wrote
• Remington Steele
• Moonlighting
• Buck Rogers
• Little House on the Prarie
• Real People
• That's Incredible!
• Believe It or Not!

Half-hour comedies and such:

• Happy Days
• The Muppet Show
• M*A*S*H
• Benson
• The Cosby Show
• Family Ties
• Cheers
• Night Court
• Quark
• Mork and Mindy
• Barney Miller
• Newhart (the one with larry, daryl, and daryl)
• Welcome Back, Kotter
• WKRP In Cincinnati

Shows we were too young to see live, but watched in endless after-school and weekend syndication:

• Spiderman (cartoon)
• Superman
• Hogan's Heros
• Get Smart
• Star Trek
• I Love Lucy
• Space: 1999
• Andy Griffith
• Bewitched

Stupid afternoon TV shows that only kids can stomach:

• The Brady Bunch
• Anything by Kroft (Land of the Lost, etc.)
• Gilligan's Island
• Battle of the Planets
• Starblazers
• Batman
• The Jetsons
• The Flintstones

And shows we've watched since High School / College and into “Adulthood”:

• Early 90's Kids WB lineup: Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, Earthworm Jim
• Star Trek: TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise
• Spin City
• Nothing Sacred
• Family Guy
• Seinfeld
• Simpsons
• Soap (another TV Land show for me)
• The Prisoner
• Sports Night
• Lois and Clark
• The West Wing
• The X-Files
• Alias
• Lost
• Battlestar Galactica
• Law and Order (plus SVU and CI)
• Home Improvement
• The Sopranos
• The Shield
• Dead Like Me
• The Critic
• Twin Peaks
• ER (we gave up on this a few years back, tho)
• The New Yankee Workshop
• This Old House
• Mythbusters
• Northern Exposure

Sometime later, I'll have to go through and add dates to these, so they can be in a more reasonable order…

Well, I finally finished the write up for the England trip. We've been a lot busier over the last six months than I'd expected, and I wasn't really able to spend as much time on it as I probably should have. I've also spent a lot of time working on my other website (for our community), and at least what I'm learning over there I can reapply over here. So hopefully, I'll get some more stuff posted soon. 'Cause there's so much to talk about…

Day 13 – May 27 (Thursday)

Now it’s time for us to do some travelling with our hosts. We had our usual breakfast (sausage rolls and yum-yums), and walked over to the train station. Turns out the train’s late. Twelve minutes late. They gave us a “pass” to use at York, that’ll get us onto another train, in case we miss our connection, but we ended up not needing that, as we just barely made it in York (thankfully the Edinburgh train was on the same platform as ours). Once in our seats, we relaxed, did some journaling, and tried to add some cache information to the GPS. After a couple hours of very beautiful countryside and ocean views (fortunately, we were on the east side of the train), we pulled into Edinburgh, and found our way to the hotel.

After checking in (and determining that it’s not nearly as nice as the London hotel was), we walked to the castle. First, though, we stopped into an old cemetery, looking for a cache, but gave up as we think we ended up in the wrong spot. Still, it was quite an impressive visit, and didn’t really take us out of our way. We trudged up and around the castle, which is perched on the end of a high ridge. It turns out we arrived just in time for a half-hour tour, which was terrific. The castle is incredible, built on volcanic slag, and sort of winds higher and higher. At the highest level of the castle are the Scottish Crown Jewels, ruins of a much older tower, old prison spaces, and a massive cannon known as “Mons Meg.” The cannon was to be used for sieges, but it was so heavy that it was almost impossible to drag to battle (plus, it was pretty easy for your enemy to spot you way off). It was only actually fired once, at which point the barrel cracked. After exploring (and searching for a very well hidden cache we never did find), we ate lunch at the Red Coat Cafe. This was especially amusing for us, since almost exactly a year before we were walking Boston’s Freedom Trail!

After the castle, we walked on down the Royal Mile, and ended up at a hilltop park with a greek temple, an observatory, and one of England’s countless monuments to Nelson. In the rocks below the monument was a micro-cache that we all spent some time searching for (after a bit, Lauren and Andrea went off to enjoy the park). Then, it was back to the hotel to change and get some jackets, as it was starting to get cold. We walked about a while, trying to find a good place to eat, and ended up at a pub called Milne’s. It had a Lord of the Rings themed slot machine &emdash; very odd. Anyway, dinner was great, but we still weren’t done for the day.

We’d heard about “Ghost Tours,” and headed back to the Royal Mile to pick one up. At this point, perhaps I should remind the reader that the castle was located on the end of a high ridge. I haven’t mentioned that the hotel (and the pub) is on another ridge. So we went down, across, and back up. Again. There are a lot of hills in Edinburgh. Fortunately, we found a shortcut. Unfortunately, it was up about a thousand stairs.

Once we got back to the top, we hung out near St. Giles Kirk, and waited for it to get dark. And waited. And when we were tired of waiting, we waited some more. Ever the geek, David pulled out his Palm and fired up an astronomy program, which told him that, in Edinburg, sunrise for May 27 was at 4:40 in the morning, and sunset at 9:39 in the evening. A 17-hour day. And that’s not even counting twilight! Civil twilight (when you can still see the horizon and a few of the brightest stars have come out) stretches until 10:35 (and begins again at 3:45 in the morning). Nautical twilight (you can still see general outlines of things on the ground) goes until 12:23 the next day and begins again at 2:00 in the morning. There is no Astronomical twilight (the point at which the sky is absolutely free of even the faintest sunlight). What all this tells us (aside from that David needs a new hobby) is that it doesn’t really get dark until after 10:30, and even then it isn’t very dark until after midnight. (By contrast, back home in Chantilly for May 27, twilight times are at 8:52, 9:30, and 10:13, so really we were about 3 hours beyond when it would have been really dark at home.)

Anyway, this gave us all something to talk about while we waited for the tour to begin. Finally, it was dark enough, and they took us around to various locations telling great ghost stories and such. The best place was in a series of underground vaults. At one point, one of the major bridges that climbed the side of the ridge had buildings tucked into its arches. Over time, all these buildings were buried as land was filled in to “smooth” out the side of the ridge. Eventually, the buildings were completely buried and used by squatters, kidnappers, and other sorts of unsavory characters.

Eventually, we found ourselves in a graveyard, wondering where we could pick up a cab back to the hotel, where we all desperately wanted to be.

Day 14 – May 28 (Friday)

We woke up and headed across the street for breakfast (included in our hotel fee) at a place called “Rick’s.” Didn’t really like it. Food was passable, service was slow, and generally it wasn’t worth it. Then, we had to find an internet cafe (so Matt could fill out his timesheet). We didn’t know where one was, but Matt did know that there was a cafe “around the corner” from a webcam cache and, naturally, David had that mapped on his palm. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find either. Eventually, we gave up, asked for directions, and were pointed towards an internet cafe several blocks away.

So Matt filled out his timesheet, we checked email, and looked for information on “Scottish Nights” dinner / theater shows. We also searched for information on busses to Roslin, but couldn’t get much. So we wandered back to the tourist information center near the train station, fought with the crowds, broke up to visit restrooms in the neighboring mall, finally figured out where the bus stops, deciphered which schedule to look at (multiple bus companies, and two routes with very similar designations), and finally got on the bus, which was a bit cramped in the upstairs front seat. All in all, we arrived in Roslin feeling a little, well, cranky. We figured the best remedy for that was, naturally, food, and got burgers (with stilton cheese &emdash; yum!) at a pub next to the bus stop.

After lunch, we walked a block or two down a country lane to Rosslyn Chapel. It’s a relatvely small chapel, built in the 1400s, but is famous for two things. It’s home to incredibly detailed and rich decorations, and it’s a key location in The da Vinci Code, which we’d all read and enjoyed (prior to coming to believe it’s all a lot of bunk). When we arrived, we found a large hangar-like structure built around and above the chapel, as major roof work is underway. Still, that didn’t stop the visit, and we all went in to see what all the fuss was about. We really can’t describe it well &emdash; an incredible amount of carvings, but all so old as to be difficult to really see. Outside, on the catwalks around the roof, you could see the buttresses and finials up close, but they too were very worn. Which is all about what you’d expect for a 600-year-old structure, but still

The bus trip back to the city was much better (the front seats had more legroom). After getting back, we visited Jenners for an hour or so (Jenners is a big, fancy department store, sort of Edinburgh’s answer to Harrods), and then back to the hotel for a nap. We were so tired that Matt had to call on the hotel phone to wake us up for dinner. After some meandering, we ended up at a place called “Brown’s.” It was a little modern and euro-trendy, but had very good food. After that, there was nothing to do but sleep.

Day 15 – May 29 (Saturday)

Our last morning in Edinburgh. Up at 7:30, packed, cleaned, and to the bakery (for, you guessed it, sausage rolls. And beef pastie. Just to be different.) We walked down into the big park between Princes Street and the castle, and found a nice place to sit and eat (where we wouldn’t get wet, since it just started to rain a bit). Then, we split up for some shopping. Andrea and I ended up in a bookstore, and bought a couple of Scottish children’s books like “A Moose in the Hoose” (about a “Mouse in the House,” naturally). Then back to the hotel for our bags, walk to the train station, and figure out where the platform is (we ended up going up an elevator, only to find a more informative sign that sent us right back where we’d started. Great beginning.)

After returning to Harrogate and unpacking, Matt dropped us off at a train store on the other side of town. But they didn’t sell any O-Gauge cars, either. On our way walking back, we dropped into a baby store (their strollers seemed different than ours), and popped by Betty’s for some chocolate.

Dinner was difficult, too, since there was a convention in town and all the good pubs were booked solid. We wound up at the Hogs Head, which was bad for conversation but was kind of cool to see a real English sports bar, with rugby on all the TVs. Later, we burned all our pictures to DVD (over a gig!), and watched some Kingdom Hospital. After that, we played some Flux, drank a bit, and when we were done David, slightly drunk, went back upstairs to fight with a puzzle cache (“Resistance is Futile”) some more. The alcohol must’ve helped, because he finally figured out the trick (turns out it’s got nothing to do with either the Borg or Microsoft), sent off his answer, and so bagged his third tough puzzle cache for the trip.

Then, time for bed. Our trip is over, we gotta go home. *sob*

Day 16 – May 30 (Sunday)

Breakfast. No, no sausage rolls, yum-yums, or pasties. We had oatmeal. And it was actually kinda nice. It also turned out that we’re going home with more than we came over, so we had to borrow a suitcase from Matt. Hopefully, we’ll remember to give it back to him when he next comes to the States. It’s another long drive to Manchester, and though we’re sad to be leaving, it’ll be nice to get home. If only there weren’t that long plane flight in the middle…

In the airport, security seems much easier than at home. We’re not sure how to take that, but given how much of a pain Dulles was on our way out, it’s a relief. We find some lunch (Andrea’s caprese sandwich was horribly lacking), mailed ourselves a postcard, and got on the plane. The flight was uneventful, though it might have been nicer to get some sleep (David spent most of the flight reading and watching movies). We got back to the house, spent some time unwinding with our cats (who seemed very happy to see us), and crashed. Fortunately, the next day was a holiday, so we had plenty of time to sleep in and relax.

All in all, we had an incredible time. We’d definitely go back in a heartbeat. Hell, we’d even consider moving there for a couple years (on the Conner plan), if we could both find work and if we could afford to keep our house here. England was quiet and beautiful, the food was fantastic, the people were friendly, and the sights were astounding. If you have a chance to spend a couple of weeks there, we highly recommend it!

Day 11 – May 25 (Tuesday)

Today was tourista day. While Matt was off at work, Lauren drove us around Yorkshire. We started at Ripley Castle. It’s a nearby manor home with deer park, formal gardens, and 900+ years of family history. They have a great tour, showing off about half the formal rooms of the house, including an incredible armorial window (filled with a stained-glass coats-of-arms family tree). One of the best rooms was the Armory, where they recently found a priest hole hidden behind one of the wooden wall panels. One of the family ancestors was a Catholic priest, back when it wasn’t such a hot idea to be so in England, and this was where he’d hidden while troops searched the house. There was also a room where Cromwell (“may he rot in hell forever, yada yada yada,” as Andrea likes to say) was once a “guest” of the house. The story was that Cromwell and his army came to spend the night while on a march, and the mistress of the house, being a royalist, agreed to let him stay, but she spent the night watching over him with pistols in hand. There are still bullet holes in some of the walls where troops carried out executions. The gardens were quite extensive, and featured genuine California Sequoia trees (which, though “only” a hundred years old were still quite massive). The family still lives in the house, though they pretty much keep to the top floor of the house (which is still a fairly big flat).

Then, time for our ritual stop at a McDonald’s. Ritual, that is, in that we had to stop at one at least once (we tried it in Germany and weren’t too impressed, though the beer was nice). It was actually quite good &emdash; perhaps having fresh ingredients makes a difference. After that, we drove a good distance to Whitby. Whitby is a seaside town on the northeast coast. It’s best known, perhaps, as the setting for Bram Stoker’s Dracula (the book, not the movie). Also, Captain Cook sailed from there, and it was a whaling town for some time. The town is built in a narrow cleft between two cliffs, one of which is the site of abbey ruins (we didn’t climb the steps to the ruins, though). We took in some of the sites, shopped a bit, and walked along the beach looking for jet. Jet, which we didn’t know before we got to Whitby, is a semi-precious stone that’s basically fossilized coal. When cut and polished, it’s a deep, glossy black. It’s also very soft, and quite light &emdash; doesn’t feel like a rock at all. Anyway, almost all jet is mined right near Whitby, and it washes up on shore from time to time.

On the way back, we took a detour northwards to a town that David had found on a map. See, David’s family’s last name wasn’t always Schuetz &emdash; when his great grandfather Albert came over from Germany in the mid 1800’s, he changed his name to Schuetz from something else. We think that his old name was Loftus (and that his father was “Count John of Germany” in Alsace-Lorraine, married to Elizabeth), but we’re not really sure. Anyway, we noticed this town of Loftus on the map, so we drove through it on the extremely remote chance that it might have been founded by his ancestors (or at least cousins of theirs). It turns out that the name Loftus dates back in York to the Norman Conquest. Still, it was a fun drive. We made a quick stop a little later for some food, had tacos back at the house, watched some West Wing, and went to bed.

Day 12 – May 26 (Wednesday)

Another tourist day by ourselves in York. We got up late, and ran to catch the train, which (fortunately) was late. Upon arrival in York, we searched far and wide for a nice little spot to eat breakfast, and finally settled on a bakery/coffee chain. Not great, but we were hungry.

We found our way to the Guildhall, one of the oldest and best preserved guild halls in England. It’s really old, and pretty much the same as it was originally, with uneven floors, painted ceiling, and a basement that’s had its floor “raised” a few feet due to a rising water table. It’s also one of very few guild halls that’s got its own chapel.

After that, we went to see Clifford’s Tower. That’s the last remnant of the old York Castle, and it stands alone on a hill (or, really, just a very small and incredibly steep mound). The castle was sort of odd, in that the “keep” of the castle was at normal ground level, and the tower, well, towered above it. Anyway, the tower was built in a “quatrafoil” pattern (four overlapping circles, it almost looks like a clover in cross-section). All the wood (floors and roof) is gone, but you can walk around the top wall, where you get some great views of the city.

We then returned to the old town center, to have lunch at one of the oldest pubs in the city. After that, we were a little tired, and didn’t really want to do much more sight-seeing. So we went back to Monk’s Bar, and instead of turning left, we turned right, and finished the walk around the entire city passing through all the remaining gates. By the rail station was the York Railway Museum, which bills itself as the largest railway museum in the world (and it looks it). We spent about an hour looking at all the massive locomotives, and really enjoyed seeing the various Royal cars on exhibit. Then it was a mad dash back to the train station so we could get back in time for a nice dinner at Mario’s in Knaresborough. This town is just one train stop west of Harrogate, and the restaurant is one of Matt and Lauren’s favorites. After dinner, we drove up to the hill overlooking the town to check out the ruins (lots of ruins in this country), but it was getting late and was actually fairly cold. So we went back to the house, finished up our laundry, and packed for the next big trip.