THE HAT TRICK
Our weekend retreat in Easton, CT is a remodeled farmhouse dating back to the 18th century, with its original wooden beams intact. We hammered a bunch of nails into the beams in our bedroom area, and then hung from each nail a baseball cap acquired at places one or both of us had visited or otherwise representing something meaningful to us.
That first photo showed part of the collection, from which I’ve selected and photographed 100 or so caps for this blog entry. Let's start with some memorable places. One of my final stops during my legal career was in Sydney Australia, where I spent 40 days settling a big case through mediation. Bondi Beach is one of Sydney’s highlights.
My son Tom was married on a beach in Hawaii (Hualalai), and
Barbara and I enjoyed the trip.
Barbara and I also relished the first half of our honeymoon on the
Caribbean island of St. Maarten.
Other friendly junkets to the Caribbean included the islands of Barbados and the Bahamas.
One of my favorite cities, especially for snapping photos of the picturesque local scene, has long been San Francisco.
Two cities we visited that hold particularly warm memories are
New Orleans and Charleston, (S.Car.).
We’ve made New England visitations to Newport (R.I.), to Cape Cod and Nantucket, (Mass.), and to Kennebunkport (Maine).
We have a good friend from Omaha (Neb.), but I’m not sure we ever set foot in the state – even so, I still like the caps.
Here’s a cap from the state of New Mexico, and caps from three cities: Little Rock (Ark.) Annapolis (Md.) and East Hampton (L.I).
Many of our trips involved skiing. Courchevel in France was one of ski trips we made together outside the U.S.
We visited Grouse Mountain outside Vancouver (Canada) and Taos
(New Mex.), but in both cases, out of season, so unfortunately no skiing.
One of our favorite ski destination is located in Park City, Utah.
Park City has other ski areas, such as The Canyons, but our much preferred locale there was Deer Valley.
We went to Vail numerous times for my law firm’s annual outings, which in 1985 included the second half of our honeymoon.
Telluride is a special place, but the altitude is so high I had
to give up drinking for that week.
Jackson Hole provided excellent skiing, plus a peculiar inversion whereby
it was warmer at the top and colder at the bottom.
I took my sons for a memorable trip to Squaw Valley (Calif.), site of the
1960 Winter Olympics.
Snowbird is in Utah and Snowmass in Aspen (Colo.).
A final tribute to the state of Colorado and its Copper Mountain resort.
The “YC” stands for the Yellowstone Club, featuring a wonderful private mountain near Big Sky, Montana, with great trails, few skiers, and no lines.
That’s enough of ski areas. We took many summer vacations at the Meadowood complex in Napa Valley (Calif.).
Rancho La Puerta is a terrific fitness resort in Mexico; La Samanna is a fine beach destination on the Caribbean isle of St. Martin.
We stayed at the Four Seasons Resort in Hawaii the week that
Tom got married, and at the Montage Hotel in Deer Valley for our last few ski trips there.
We’re in the Florida Keys now – visiting our good friends, the Bachers, at Key Largo’s Ocean Reef Club, and staying at the Sonesta Beach Resort on Key Biscayne (where I was a speaker at a lawyer’s conference).
Hotel Del Coronado is in San Diego (Calif.); the Phoenician is in Phoenix (Ariz.); the Oxford Casino is in Maine; and the Canyon Ranch fitness regimen is in Massachusetts.
We enjoyed gambling at the Borgata hotel in Atlantic City and Wynn’s place in Las Vegas.
Here are three California destinations: Sonoma Mission Inn in Sonoma, the Ventana at Big Sur, and San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara.
As for wineries, these two are from Napa Valley – St. Clement, and the Miner Family Winery.
Four states are represented here: Bernardus Lodge in Carmel Valley, (Calif.); Grand View Lodge in Nisswa, (Minn.); Smyrna Yacht Club in
New Smyrna (Fla.) and Spray Cliff on the ocean in Marblehead (Mass.).
Switching now to institutions of higher learning, UNC is the University of North Carolina, which Barbara attended; C.U. is Colorado University from which Erik graduated; and my grandchild Ryan is currently an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins.
My brother-in-law, Joe Hilton, is a Brown graduate; his daughter Alexis, graduated from Colgate; and her daughter Kate is currently an undergraduate at Duke.
Alexis’s sister Alison graduated from Tulane, and subsequently taught at NYC’s Dalton School.
My high school was Horace Mann, and my law school
(in both the Latin and English versions) was Harvard.
But my heart belongs to Princeton. . . .
Here's a cap from my class ('56), then one with a fancy design from another class, and one bearing the name of my club, Cannon.
. . . and let’s not forget that Princeton tiger.
On to other things. “Truly Mellow” is the name of an engaging song my son Tom wrote and performs. Tom has been featured at
the Claremont Folk Festival in California.
“Get your Kicks on Route 66” has long been one of favorite tunes to sing and bang out on the piano.
One year I took my sons down to New Orleans
for its unforgettable Jazz Fest.
I’m big on photographing the residents of zoos, including the ones in
New Orleans and Nashville. (But “Zoom” is not a zoo – it’s Robert Redford’s restaurant in Park City, Utah.)
The New York Yankees (never my favorite team) did win the World Series in 2000.
I don’t know how I ended up with the Montana Grizzlies cap –
a football team I’ve never actually watched in action.
The Intrepid is the WWII aircraft carrier moored in the Hudson River on NYC’s West Side and open to the public. The USS Wisconsin is
a WW II battleship on which I spent a forgettable summer
during my stint in the NROTC.
“Jersey Boys” is a Broadway show; “Lucy’s” (the name of our unforgettable first dog), a NYC restaurant; the Daily News, a venerable NYC newspaper; and the “Operation Welcome Home” emblem refers to the mammoth 1991 ticker-tape parade for our troops who were victors in the Persian Gulf War, (I had a prime seat in the reviewing stand, and it was really thrilling.)
These caps refer to Barbara’s highly regarded real estate brokerage company, Fox Residential Group.
This is in honor of WOOF – the wonderful animal rescue organization that Barbara formed twenty years ago and which is still going strong.
Here’s a cap we had made for our 13th wedding anniversary in 1998.
Skadden Arps was my law firm.
Ocean Beach on N.Y.’s Fire Island was for many years the summer getaway when my sons were growing up.
For three years, I served on the Navy icebreaker USS Staten Island.
Here’s the cap I wear most of the time now, to send the message I want to communicate: “ndy”, which stands for “not done yet”.
A final salute to what’s always there over our heads in Easton (Conn.).