Hunting Island Lighthouse Roger and Janice drove us to Hunting Island today to visit the lighthouse, one of only two build of cast iron plates. The lighthouse had to be moved in 1888 as it was threatened by beach erosion and would have been moved again if the state had not pumped tons and tons of sand to rebuild the beach. The lighthouse is in a beautiful setting, surrounded by trees. The foundations of lighthouse keeper's house as well as that of his assistant are still there. The duplex burned some years ago leaving only the foundations. The Lighthouse We climbed the 275 steps to the top where we were greeted with a beautiful view of the ocean and the surrounding island. While still a functioning lighthouse, 50 pounds of oil were carried up the steps ... read more

Mistakes can really help a person have a good time. While Bill was still in Prague during December, I had a sudden impulse to give a more generous than normal donation to our local PBS television program. The donation had a real bonus attached. Along with an annual membership I got two tickets to a live performance at the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore, Maryland of the group “Celtic Women”. Bill’s sister introduced us about 3 years ago to the TV broadcasts of the concerts by these lovely young woman and the musicians who accompany them. They are not our ‘favorite’ singing group but they are quite good and we always enjoy their PBS performances. I thought it would be a good late Christmas gift for both of us since we were not spending Christmas together in ... read more

Actually teaching is not that much fun. You have to study a lot yourself to be sure you know the content REALLY well and then you have to prepare lesson plans and figure out how to explain the content in such a way as to engage students with the material so it is as interesting as possible. You have to hope you are creative enough to give homework that will give the students practice in what you are trying to teach and of course you have to check the homework to find out where you failed to make something clear. Then you have to reteach those things where you weren't very clear in the first place, add new material and keep going this way for months on end. It can be a dreadful grind if you ... read more

The very large Jan Huss memorial sits on the East side of Old Town Square. You can't miss it! I had often looked at the monument, but had never looked at it closely. One evening we were in Old Town Square looking at the Christmas booths and listening to Christmas music being sung by groups on the temporary stage when we saw that people were standing on the lower step of the monument. Normally you cannot stand on the step, but the crowd was huge and no one seemed to mind. Nancy and I walked across the five foot flower bed and stepped up on the monument where we got a better view of the performers on the stage. After watching for about five minutes I decided to get a close-up look at the monument by ... read more

Just in front of the big National Museum at the upper end of Wenceslas Square there is a small memorial placed in the sidewalk. I am sure it is not noticed by many tourists, as it is not on the side where most tourists walk. However, the Czechs know it is there and each time I have viewed the memorial there have been two fresh flowers resting on the memorial in memory of two young men who died in protest of the Communist government and Soviet occupation of the Czech Republic. At the time of his death one was a student at Charles University and the university placed a memorial to him on one of their buildings that is near the Charles Bridge. Note in the photo the flowers behind his head. Here is the story ... read more