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Chapter 58 - Beach Trip

Evening was approaching and Tamara, Emma, and the others were eagerly waiting for the local TV evening news program to see how the press treated the energy cube’s introduction. But when the news program started, they were amazed that the event was actually covered as the day’s lead news story.

It opened with a quick shot of a robed Tamara appearing and waving her wand while the announcer, in a voice-over, intoned, “We had a bit of magic happen at a major energy company in Cambridge today. The company, EEC Energy Solutions, introduced a new device which, they claim, promises to revolutionize energy storage and distribution.” A photo of the device itself was displayed as the commentator briefly explained that units like these would soon be installed around the country to provide energy at a lower cost. Then there was a sound bite from Emma, who had been interviewed after the event.

Reporter: “Dame Dr Emma Clarke is the chairperson of EEC Energy Solutions and its chief scientist as well. Dr Clarke, in a nutshell, what does this device do that’s different to electric power distribution now?”

Emma: “Currently, energy is produced at sites very remote from most users and needs to be transmitted distances to the user. And usage typically is highest when most people are at their jobs, meaning that the producing facilities need to be able to provide enough power to accommodate those peak times. Our devices will be located close to the points of usage and will even out the times of peak and low demand. The ElectroPowerCube provides a reliable way of storing excess energy from the distribution grid; it will allow the generating facilities to operate more efficiently; and the device can collect and store energy, at a very high efficiency, for later peak-time use.”

Then the announcer came on again as the video of Tamara shaking her wand and the drape lifting off the unit was played as the announcer spoke, “This bit of magic was performed by Miss Tamara Alexandre, a physicist and engineer at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland in the U.S. Miss Alexandre was the inventor of the energy storage system used in these devices and she gave the group at the event an entertaining description of the magic of science and engineering. Here’s what she told the group in concluding her remarks.”

The video showed Tamara, still robed and holding the wand up, and saying, “... ‘Magic is just science that we don’t understand yet.’ So we definitely can say that EEC Energy Solutions is in the magic business.” Tamara waved the wand and laughter could be heard. “The magic of finding solutions to the world’s energy problems.”

The screen switched back to the announcer. “So there you have it; this was a unique and entertaining introduction to a new power storage device which the company says promises to revolutionize how energy is generated, stored, and distributed.”

“Wow. Just wow,” Andrew said as the program switched to other news. “I was there and saw it, but the news program made it so much more compelling.”

“Better than any advertising could possibly do for us...” Emma started but her mobile rang and she answered it, then listened for a bit.

“It most certainly was,” she said.

“...”

“I’ll tell her. ‘Bye.”

Emma looked at the others. “That was Henry Stafford. He saw the news and he’s delighted with the coverage. He...”

Her phone rang again.

“Emma Clarke...”

“...”

“Thanks. I agree.”

“...”

“Oops, gotta go. Another call waiting. ‘Bye, Greg. ... Emma Clarke.”

“...”

“Okay, possibly, we’ll see. Call the EEC Energy Public Relations Department on Monday with your details to see if we can get that organized.”

“...”

“...Right. ‘Bye.”

Emma put her mobile down. “I think I’ll let any others go to voice mail; the congrats are coming in now. Okay, Henry’s very happy about the piece. Tamara, he wants you to know that your little part was a publicity goldmine for us.”

Tamara blushed and nodded.

“The next call was Sir Gregory Hodges; he’s the vice chair of EEC Energy and takes the reins when I’m in the U.S. He wanted to say that he’s delighted with the coverage. But the last one? Tamara, you’re probably not going to be happy, but that was a producer from the ‘Conan McLoughlin Show’; Mr McLoughlin wants you and me to appear on his show.”

“What!” Tamara exclaimed. “What show is that?”

“A very popular evening talk show, with a format more or less similar to ‘The Tonight Show’ that’s still running in the States, if you know about that one. They get people in the news to talk with the show’s host.”

“I know the format. But who’s ... um, McLoughlin?”

“He’s an Irish comedian turned talk show host who does an informal chat with celebrities and other public figures that they invite to appear,” Emma told her. “When I was here on sabbatical, I saw the show a few times. The bloke’s pretty funny and he’s very good at making the guests feel comfortable. He gets four people on, he asks them a bit about their current activities, and then they just chat about whatever comes up.”

Tamara made a face. “Mmm, well, I don’t really like the idea... But when would this be? You know that I’m returning to the States on Monday. Then Peter and I are going to California with his sister and some of their cousins.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Emma said. “You did tell me about that. Okay, I’ll have our PR people see what the show producer wants to do.”

“Where in California?” Denise asked. “I’ve never been.”

“LA area down to San Diego. One of the cousins is considering studying oceanography so she wants to visit UCSD and Scripps Institute. Plus we’ll do the touristy stuff there,” Tamara said. “Also remember what I said about my visiting Caltech, Emma—I’ve got that invite to visit that group in physics there who’re doing work on correlated electron systems and their recent publications suggest a possible collaboration. And Peter’s interested in what they’re doing in their research on nanomechanical and nanoelectronic systems. We planned two days at Caltech while the cousins play.”

The group continued to discuss their summer plans; Denise taking her class and writing her thesis and Kevin being involved with the Coris Foundation’s getting settled in London. In August, Jeremy’s family would be going to the States to visit relatives in Colorado while Amelia would be on a business-pleasure trip to several southern Europe countries with her father and step-mother; as Coris Foundation representatives, they planned to talk to officials about the region’s African and Middle-Eastern migrant problems and do some vacationing as well.

Kevin and his group left for London in the morning after an emotional farewell and many promises to stay closely in touch. Emma and Tamara spent a working weekend with Tamara planning her doctoral research project activities for the fall. She had been keeping track of the cloud-storage site where a large amount of data on the coil force was being added virtually daily by Emma’s engineers at the APL, and Tamara and Emma had started to try to fit the experimental findings into mathematics which could describe the observed physical behavior.

While they worked, Peter and Andrew played. Andrew’s day job as a consulting econometrician allowed him to work from anywhere he could get an internet connection, but this weekend he took Peter around Cambridge and the local countryside and they visited many of the sights. Many of the buildings in central Cambridge were four hundred years old; some were even older.

Baltimore, Maryland: end of June

Back at home, Tamara had just enough time to catch her breath before she had to pack for her California trip. She and Peter would be going with Barbara and Terence, and they were chaperoning Eddie and Audrey Winsberg, Mike Gibson, and JoAnne and Frank Winsberg. They would be flying out from Baltimore-Washington International Airport on Thursday morning.

On Tuesday afternoon, Tamara got a call from Emma; it was evening in Cambridge.

“So that telly show’s producer called our PR people yesterday,” Emma told her. “She was quite unhappy that you ‘fled the country,’ as she put it. They really wanted you on and, get this, they wanted you to appear in that Harry Potter cloak.”

“Oh really? Well, they could just stuff that idea,” Tamara huffed. “I’m a scientist, not an entertainer. That would be undignified. At the device rollout, that was like a celebration and I was using a visual cue to emphasize an important idea.”

“Funny, that’s about what I told her.”

Tamara giggled, “See, I told you we spend too much time together. We’re starting to think alike.”

“Indeed we are. So the show’s format has the host doing a brief monologue leading up to the first guest’s introduction,” Emma told her. “Then the guest makes an entrance and the two go to a seating area and chat for maybe five minutes. Then he goes to center stage and monologues again, and has the second guest do the grand entrance routine, then a three-way chat. Rinse and repeat for a third and fourth guest.

“The show’s main dynamic is the interaction of the guests sitting together and all talking together with the host. So I asked the producer if they ever had a scientist or engineer on the show; ‘No we haven’t,’ she said, ‘we’ve had actors, musicians, politicians, sports figures, society people, restauranteurs, and a few business people...’”

“In short, mostly all entertainers,” Tamara interrupted.

“Just so. Then I asked who they were considering pairing us with, and there was silence for a few seconds. Then she said that they’d probably have an actor or two. I asked her then, ‘So what would we all talk about? I can talk knowledgeably about classical and quantum mechanics but not about which celebrity was seen with someone else’s girlfriend.’ Then I said, ‘Picture the scene where a scientist and an engineer-scientist are trying to have an entertaining conversation with a couple of actors, sports figures, or whomever. Is that the scene you’re looking for?’”

“Emma, you do keep up with current events, you know,” Tamara objected.

“Ah, you haven’t seen where the guests’ conversation gets to, have you. Plenty of inside stories get revealed to the audience, and they just eat up that stuff. Don’t get me wrong; it’s actually very funny, innit. But I don’t do that kind of banter. Back to her comments then; she responded with ‘That’s the reason we want Tamara to wear the magic cloak,’ and she went on about how you’d talk about magic and possibly about how the magic in Harry Potter could be done with technology.”

“It’s good that she spoke to you, then. If she had told me that’s what they wanted, I would have tore her a new asshole,” Tamara growled.

“Blimey, girl, what’s that from?” Emma asked.

“Ha, my dad. Marine. I picked up some bad habits and worse language.”

“The worse language I know. What bad habits?”

“Go for the kill. Give no quarter. Don’t let them get a second chance. Make the first shot count. All his aggressive comments; I grew up hearing them and the philosophy behind those comments rules how I do stuff.”

“Oh yes, of course,” Emma said, “I can see it in how you approach problems. You confront the issue head-on and with single-minded intensity, don’t you. All right then; appearing on that show’s not a good fit for you and as well it’s not for me—I agree. I told the woman that I would be open to an informal interview but the topics that I’d discuss would be limited to my company, its technology, and to the science, engineering, and economics of power generation and distribution. If Mr McLoughlin wanted to have a little chat which includes me, like he does with the typical group of four guests he features, then the other three would all have to be knowledgeable about those topics. I also told her that I would be returning to the States on Monday next and wouldn’t be able to appear live after that. She said that she’d discuss the matter with Mr McLoughlin and the show’s writers and let me know.”

“Okay; good,” Tamara said. “I’ll be back from the trip in the middle of July. I’ve got some preliminary calcs done on the coil force problem, so I hope to have a lot to show you when we get together.”

“Excellent, Tamara. Enjoy yourself and don’t work too hard at Caltech—I should say, don’t work them too hard,” she laughed. “Good-bye; till a few weeks, then.”

“‘Bye, Emma.”

~~~~

The group of cousins met Tamara and her friends at the airport to travel to Los Angeles; while they were waiting for their flight to board, Peter told Eddie and Audrey about meeting some of the original developers of the Avery Program in England.

“What were they doing in England?” Audrey wondered.

“The queen knighted them for bringing it to England; it replaced their own Naked in School Program and apparently by their adopting it instead, it saved the Brits a ton of money,” Peter said. “We met them at the ceremony where Emma and Tamara were knighted too.”

“Oooo, yeah; I forgot,” Audrey said, looking at Tamara with wonder. “So you’re a knight? Do we call you ‘sir’ or something, now?”

Tamara chuckled. “You still get to call me Tamara. No, only if you’re a Brit citizen, or I think in the commonwealth countries too, do the knighted guys get called ‘sir.’ The ladies are called ‘dame.’”

Peter continued, “So one of the people we met, Denise is her name and she goes to Avery University; she and her fiancé did some more work on developing the Avery Program in England and we told them that your school was starting to run it. They said that they’re gonna send the updated curriculum to your school.”

“Wow, a custom version,” Ernie laughed. “That’s cool.”

Los Angeles and San Diego, California: end of June

When the group got to Los Angeles, they spent the first three days visiting tourist sites. The ones they chose to see were the famed “Hollywood” sign, and they took the four-mile hiking tour to get a close-up look. Ripley’s Believe It or Not and Universal Studios Hollywood were also on their schedule.

Then they traveled to La Jolla to visit UCSD and Scripps Institute. Audrey was thinking of studying oceanography and the program UCSD ran at Scripps was highly regarded.

The next day, they had planned to visit the San Diego Zoo Safari Park but Mike thought he had a better idea.

“Hey guys, today’s gonna be hot and it’s a long ride out to that zoo place. Black’s Beach is right here, right down the cliffs. Let’s go there today.”

“That’s the famous nude beach? It’s here?” JoAnne asked.

“Yeah. Maybe a half-mile walk, then down the trail on the cliff there,” Mike said.

“Do we have stuff for a beach trip?” Barbara asked. “We don’t have any blankets and I doubt the hotel would appreciate our using the ones from the beds.”

“Maybe the gift shop has something,” Audrey suggested. “I like Mike’s idea.”

“Does everyone agree?” Peter asked. “You guys want a beach trip?”

Everyone agreed but Tamara and Terence were less enthusiastic and Peter and Barbara noticed. When the cousins were dispatched to see about locating the supplies for the beach, Peter spoke to them.

“Are you really okay with doing this?” he asked.

“Uh huh,” Tamara answered. “I did pack some beach stuff in case we decided to go to a beach, but I was figuring on Santa Monica Beach; that’s the famous one. I do have some reservations about a nude beach because beaches are uncontrolled areas. The resort has security and access is limited.”

Terence agreed and said, “Ah was thinkin’ of the gals’ safety too.”

“Let me check with the desk,” Peter replied and then made the call.

He was switched to the concierge and spoke for a while.

“Okay,” Peter told them when he disconnected. “It’s pretty safe. The beach is very popular and there are beach patrols but it’s not an easy beach to get to, he said. The trails down the cliffs are steep in places. He said to watch the warning signs because there are unstable areas and that good footwear is essential—no sandals going down or up. The upper entrance to the Saigon Trail is closest to us here but that trail’s very difficult and kinda long. The trail near the gliderport is easier; it’s only a little further away, and we can get packaged lunches at a restaurant at the gliderport. The hotel gift shop sells rolled-up bamboo mats and they’re inexpensive. We should pack light but bring sun protection, plenty of water, and any food we want because there are no services down there.”

“Let’s get what we need together,” Barbara said.

They got their backpacks out and started to fill them with supplies that they would need at the beach. Then the others returned.

“We looked in the gift shop and they have these mat things you can lie on,” Ernie began. “We also got a map of the trails to the beach.”

“They have bottled water in the shop too,” JoAnne told them.

When everyone had packed what they needed, the group visited the gift ship and bought mats, water, and snacks, and then set out on the hike. They walked to the gliderport, where they bought some packaged lunches at the restaurant, and then made for the close-by trail going down the cliff. It was a challenging hike but there were spectacular views and soon they got to the beach. It wasn’t busy yet, but the temperature was rising and it soon would be hot. There were a lot of surfers riding the waves and paragliders sailed overhead every so often. There were several dozen people on the beach in the vicinity of the trailhead and most were nude, although there were some women who were just topless.

“Oh, this is a nice beach, but look at those waves; looks pretty rough,” Audrey said as they walked toward a likely spot to get set up.

They were passing a blanket and umbrella where a couple in their 50s, nude, were sitting and the guy called out, “First time visiting here?”

“Yeah, it is,” Ernie answered. “That trip down the cliff was an experience.”

“Heard you say something about the waves,” the guy told them. “Don’t go in to swim unless you’re really a strong swimmer, and I mean strong swimmer. We’ve got some serious riptides here and bad currents when the surf’s up like it is now. And if you’re wading, watch for sting rays. You know the ‘sting-ray shuffle’?”

“Um, no,” Ernie answered.

“You don’t lift your foot off the sand, just slide it along. That way you don’t step down on top of a ray. They like to lie on the bottom and don’t like being stepped on. By the way, my name’s Seth and my wife’s is Wilma.”

Tamara’s group introduced themselves all around and Seth invited them to set up nearby. They unpacked and rolled out their bamboo mats. Tamara surprised them all when she pulled a two-foot-long, six-inch diameter string pouch out of her backpack, opened it, and began pulling rods and a large fabric rectangle out.

“It’s a folding beach shade,” she told them, “wind-powered to keep it open,” and she and Peter began setting it up while the others undressed.

In a few minutes the shade was set up so that all their mats fit into its shadow as it flapped in the breeze.

Wilma looked at the shade setup and said, “Nice. Interesting design; easy to carry.”

“It only weighs about four pounds too,” Tamara said.

Then they all went down to the water and waded in; after a few minutes, JoAnne let out a squeak and the others looked at her.

“Eep... it touched me again!” she yelped.

The others looked at where she was standing and saw three rays swimming around her feet; their “wings” seemed to be brushing against her legs.

Audrey shuffled over to her. “They’re feeding on stuff you stirred up when you passed by there, They won’t bother you; they’re busy eating. Just keep shuffling away.”

“That was so strange—it felt like sandpaper rubbing me,” JoAnne told her. “You know about stingrays then?”

“Sure. I read about that stuff lots,” Audrey replied. “Damn though, the water just a bit further out is crazy rough. Must be a really sharp dropoff just off the beach. Seth was right, it’s way too rough to swim without having a board or some other flotation here.”

Terence was close by and he called to them, “Ah really agree with y’all; it’s way too rough. An’ Ah don’t want’a get so friendly with the rays like JoAnne did.”

They all laughed and started back for the beach, while remembering to do the “sting-ray shuffle.”

When they returned to their spot, Seth commented, “Good choice, not swimming. That surf can be wicked.”

Terence told him, “That was good advice y’all gave us, Seth. Y’all must come here a lot.”

Seth grinned. “Grew up in San Diego and still live here. I used to go surfing on this beach all the time. Best surf in SoCal.”

“I made him stop,” Wilma told them. “After he wiped out and broke his shoulder on the rocks once. That was enough.”

“Oh yeah,” Terence agreed. “That would do it for me, too.”

“You look very athletic. Ever surf?” Seth asked.

“Naw; grew up in the middle o’ Texas and the nearest big water’s the Gulf. Supposed to be good surfing at South Padre Island, but that was way too far away. Ah played football and got my share of nasty hits, but the pads did their job.”

They traded stories with Seth and Wilma. He was an attorney with a maritime shipping company and she was an elementary school teacher. They told stories about the beach’s history and the visitors told a few about their nudist experiences at their family’s resort. A group of mid-twenty-year-olds had arrived nearby and began setting up a volleyball net. Barbara and Tamara perked up at seeing that and walked over to the volleyball group and the others joined them.

Soon they were playing and the regular players quickly saw their skill.

“Hey, we have a league here and the beach club organizes tournaments,” one of the regulars told Barbara. “Do you live nearby? We’d love to have you join.”

Barbara laughed, “So sorry. We’re visiting here from Maryland. Actually, Tamara and I are on a team that played in the Naked Volleyball Superbowl in Pennsylvania. Heard of that?”

“Oh sure,” he answered. “How’d your team do?”

“Second place in the ‘B’ level,” she told him and he whistled.

“I could see that you were good. That’s cool.”

Soon the whole group was talking together and sharing stories while playing. At about 2:30 p.m., however, the weather started to appear threatening and some of the volleyball people pulled out their mobiles. Then a few of them began packing up.

“Storm coming,” was the word getting passed around. “Time to leave.”

Seth came over to the volleyball group. “Heard on the weather; a severe thunderstorm is forming over the Laguna Mountains and may hit here in about 90 minutes. Unusual to get a storm in July.”

One of the volleyball group members commented, “Yeah, we’re gettin’ out. The trail’s bad if there’s a storm.”

“What’s the fastest way out?” Peter asked Seth.

“The way I saw you come down. The gliderport trail. It’s about a third to a half mile, I think, going up 300 feet or so. But hurry up, because the footing gets slippery when it rains.”

There wasn’t much to pack and within a few minutes they were on the trail heading up the cliff—the word of the storm’s approach had reached the other beachgoers and the trail was filled with climbers. Tamara’s little group was climbing the trail along with Seth and Wilma and were glad to see that the older couple had no problem keeping up.

Terence commented on that and Seth laughed. “Wilma and I make this climb almost every week, even on nice days in winter. We also run five miles every morning. Just because I gave up surfing doesn’t mean I became a couch potato.”

They parted ways at the parking lot and Tamara and the others hurried on to the hotel, just about a half-mile away. When they had almost reached it, the thunderstorm hit and they ran the last hundred yards but still got thoroughly soaked. It was raining seriously hard now.

JoAnne laughed as they got under shelter, “Well, we didn’t get wet swimming but we certainly got wet now. But going to that beach was quite an experience.”

“Well, I had read about that beach and how it was full of pervs,” Frank commented. “I didn’t see that at all; a few gawkers, maybe. Lots of single guys, but that’s common—we see that at the resort too. But that hike down and up? I got a serious thigh burn going.”

“You’re just out of shape, buddy,” Ernie joked.

On the following day they were to return to the LA area and Peter and Tamara would be visiting Caltech in Pasadena for two days while the others planned to go to more touristy sites including the California Science Center and Disneyland Park. Then it was time to return home.

Arundel Nature Society, Davidsonville, Maryland: four weeks later

Tamara spent the rest of the summer working on the coil force data, taking three-day weekends off to visit the nudist resort. She and Peter enjoyed taking long walks through the woods surrounding the resort, and in August, they found out that the property to the south had been put on the market. It was a sand and gravel quarry and the low sandy hills which made up most of the terrain on the east side of the river had been excavated to harvest the sand and gravel.

Resort owner Vicki Allerman told Tamara and Peter the news when they arrived at the resort on a Friday afternoon in mid-August.

“Got word they’re selling the quarry next door,” she told Tamara and Peter.

“Do they have a buyer?” Peter asked. “We’ve walked down that way and the land is kinda stripped bare, dug down to the water table in places.”

“I don’t think so,” she replied. “It’s pretty ugly. I’m hoping they don’t sell it to use for a landfill.”

Ron came in just then. “I was wondering about that very thing,” he said. “So I called the county. They won’t allow a landfill there; it’s too close to the river and the natural areas nearby. They are requiring that the property owners backfill the low spots to five feet above the water table, though. I doubt that a developer would want that land for housing and there’d be no return on reclaiming it for agriculture. The site work cost for either would be huge.”

Later that evening, Tamara was talking with Peter, Barbara, and Terence about that land.

“I’ve got this little thought nibbling at me,” Tamara told them. “How much land does the resort have?”

“Um, maybe a hundred acres?” Peter said and Barbara nodded.

“I’m guessing that the quarry property must be about that size too,” Tamara mused.

“You’re not thinking...?” Barbara started but Tamara raised her hand to stop her.

“When I get these thoughts, I’ve learned to pay attention,” Tamara said. “I’m sensing a big change sometime in the future and I may want to have land available. The work I’m doing will be changing a lot of things in the country...”

“You don’t mean putting a factory there, do you?” Peter asked.

“Not a factory—nothing commercial. Something ... ah ... service for community, like. It’s nothing definite. I just have this feeling. But it’s something long-term, so it would be smart to try to buy land now and I like this area. I’ll call my lawyer on Monday and have him look into it.”

“You don’t need a lawyer—Gramps is coming; ask him,” Peter said. “I’ll bet you forgot he’s got a real estate business.”

“Oh right, thanks, Peter; I did forget. Hey, tomorrow starts the volleyball clinics, guys. Barbara, you up for another trip to the Superbowl?”

“Sure, why not?” she answered. “Last year was fun...”

She was interrupted by voices from outside. More of Peter’s family had arrived. They were expecting the Gibsons from Frederick and the Winsbergs from Wilmington. Before they could get to the cabin door, Ernie and Audrey came roaring up to their porch.

“We’re here!” called Ernie as he ran up and Barbara opened the door. “The folks say to come up to the big house.”

“Sure. Need a hand unpacking?” Peter asked.

“Nope. The others got that covered. I see Gram and Gramps aren’t here yet,” Audrey said.

“They should be here any time now,” Barbara told her. “You guys gonna do the volleyball clinic tomorrow?”

“Yeah. It’s fun,” Ernie said. “Even if I’m nowhere as good as Barbara—or Tamara!”

When they got to the main house, they saw a flurry of activity, but then Shelly grabbed Tamara and Barbara.

“We need you to help getting dinner ready,” Shelly told them. “Mom and Dad will be here in about a half hour and we’d like to have the dinner started. Barbara’s parents are coming with them.”

“Any changes in who’ll be here this weekend?” Barbara asked. “Did Grandma and Grandpa Richardson and the Pennsylvania group say they can come?”

“Not this weekend,” Shelly said. “Next weekend.”

“I see Mike’s solo,” Tamara said. “Theresa’s not coming?”

“Her family’s not back from their trip yet. Mike’s been moping around because she’s gone. Just for two weeks!”

“Young love,” Barbara laughed.

In about twenty minutes, the guys called that the barbequed meats were almost ready; the sides and salads were finished, and the remaining Winsbergs had pulled in. After quick greetings, everyone began getting the food together and to the tables. Werner made an announcement as they sat to eat.

“Alright, no one ask any questions of our traveling family members about their trips till after supper when we can all participate. Now let’s give thanks for our being together and for this bountiful food set before us.”

Everyone set to their dinner and were soon finished.

“I’m done. What’s for dessert?” Mike asked, and everyone laughed.

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