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| The Proud Family |
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| Tyler With HIs Mom |
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| Proud Parents |
Well, I am sitting in Hampton Inn, in the bustling town of Middletown, NY, about an hour and a half from New York City (66 miles), six hours from home. It looks like a lovely but very warm day with the temperatures in the mid 80's at the lake.
Yesterday we had a difficult morning, not only getting up early for us but also packing up everything from our buddy Mac's house before driving to Hanover, home of Dartmouth College, for a 9:00 graduation. We stopped again at the Woodstock Farmer's Market so I could get an egg sandwich on a Portuguese roll. We knew parking would be a problem so as we were driving into town on the main street, a guy was standing in his yard, with a sign for parking. He wanted 35 but we got him down to 22 bucks, pulled in his yard and left the car there until mid afternoon.
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| Marisa, Dartmouth Class of 2025 |
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| Mitch, Straight Out Of GQ |
Graduation turned out to be not as warm as expected but it was still warm. It took place on their vast green so anyone who wanted could attend. I would guess a couple of thousand kids graduated from the various colleges and with speeches and processional, it was not over until after 12:00. The kids saved us seats way in the back but I soon rose, walked across the street and set up a blanket under a tree with a fine view of the TV screen, the way most except those in the very front watched graduation. I walked around quite a bit as did many people and eventually everyone in the family joined me under the tree. Our grandson Tyler was one of the first to get his Engineering diploma although we were so far away we could hardly see him. And we did not realize that he received a second diploma, a Bachelor of Arts and we missed him again. So we sat for a couple of hours, waiting for the speaker, Jake Tapper, from CNN, a 1991 Dartmouth graduate and he did not disappoint.
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| Jake Tapper, Commencement Speaker |
He was funny, knowledgeable, well spoken, loud and clear and the audience gave him a standing ovation. It was one of the better if not the best graduation speeches I have heard, just a good as the one yesterday at the Engineering graduation. It would be worth any graduates time to watch it on YouTube or read it on the following link: https://news.dartmouth.edu/news/2017/06/2017-commencement-address-jake-tapper-91
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| Siblings And Dad |
Afterward, it was the typical milling around for family and graduates, with no clear plan but lots of photographs as the grads met up with fellow grads near the library, on the green, next to the chapel. Once again we took pictures of Tyler and his family as well as his closest friends. It was both an exciting but also sad day for Tyler and he moves forward in his life but also may never see many of his friends again. He heads off to the beach for a week with his girlfriends family, then has a summer and fall internship in Boston. Rami took him to Boston last night, left the car with him and he and Mitch should be in the air at the moment, flying back to Dallas.
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| Tyler With His Girlfriend, Hellen |
Things settled down yesterday around 2:30, so we put Beth and Marisa's luggage in the car, said our goodbyes to Tyler, Mitch and Rami and drove four hours south to Darien, CT, where both lived for six years. They are staying at a good friend house for a couple of nights, so Marisa can see her friends from middle school. And they will head back to the lake on Wednesday with another of Beth's friends who will drive them, with her daughter and spend a few days at the lake as well.
We left Darien around 6:45 and drove an hour and a half to Middletown, where we typically jump on Rt. 17 which takes us west to Chautauqua. We quickly checked into our Hampton Inn, drove a 100 yards to a TGIF and had dinner. Evie had a Caesar salad, I had a chicken quesadilla and they were both quite good. We were both very tired from our weekend so we quickly went to bed and fell asleep by 10:30.
Jake Tapper gave some humorous advice to the Dartmouth grads so I have added it below but I would suggest reading the entire text from the above address:
So, what tangible advice do I have to share, having departed from this campus 26 years ago?
First, let me offer the quick and easy stuff. OK?
Always write thank-you notes.
Be a big tipper.
Always split Aces and Eights.
Floss.
Call your folks.
Invest in a good mattress.
Shine your shoes.
Don’t tweet, post, Instagram, or email anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable seeing on the front page of The New York Times.
Be nice to seniors.
Be nice to children.
Remember birthdays.
Never miss an opportunity to charge an electronic device.
Use two-step verification.
Shake it off. Shake it off.
Stretch before exercising.
Stretch after exercising.
Exercise.
Never play keno.
Never drink airplane coffee.
Never pay $200 for a pair of jeans.
Never wear jean shorts; and
No one has ever had fun on a paddleboat.
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