Trip to Kinshasa, Dem Rep of the Congo

May 15, 2016 by Paul

At the University of Kinshasa

As most of you likely know, I recently traveled to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (known as Zaire from 1971 – 1997 and being the former Belgian Congo). This trip was for work for provide the 4th (almost) annual CCDC workshop at the University of Kinshasa. While I was quite anxious about the trip, it was really an incredible experience and would go again in a second (assuming the country doesn’t destabilize significantly). It was amazing to see what the students and faculty make do with in terms of resources. The people were wonderful as well (though I wish I had learned more than my 10 words of French beforehand). I did post a (lengthy) Trip Report and a bunch of Photos.

Bonus Video #1:

Bonus video #2:

Photos from California

March 4, 2016 by Paul

A few weeks back, my group at work did a week long tour of the west coast. It was very hectic and busy, but I took an extra day or so on either end. I posted a couple of pages of photos. I flew into San Diego on Saturday afternoon, spending the night at the Hotel Cosmopolitan right in Old Town San Diego. This was an old stage coach hotel built in 1869 (as the second floor of a house built originally in 1827 by Juan Bandini). Back in both 1997 and 2002 when I visited, I ate here when it was Casa de Bandini. I ended up spending all afternoon and much of the next day right in Old Town, enjoying some great Mexican food, the history, and the warm sunshine. Sunday afternoon, a colleague picked me up for the drive out to the “burbs” for a workshop on Monday and a user meeting on Tuesday.

Wednesday morning, we had an early flight to San Francisco where we had some meetings on Wed followed by a user visit and workshop on Thursday at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and a meeting with a collaborator on Friday morning (also at LBNL). Finally, Friday afternoon I was done for the week, so headed back to San Francisco and spent a couple of nights at the Club Quarters hotel in the Financial District.

After checking in Friday, I did a bunch of walking around town, seeing Chinatown and Fisherman’s Wharf. On Saturday, I had hoped to visit Alcatraz, but tickets were sold out by the time I got around to thinking about buying them. Instead, I took a cable car ride up California Ave followed by the bus to the Presidio. Here, I walked a ton eventually reaching the Golden Gate Bridge, crossing it (and coming back of course), before heading back into the city after lunch. I then headed back to Fisherman’s Wharf, visiting the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and heading back Pier 39 and then the hotel. I had an excellent dinner at Sam Wo in Chinatown. I turned in early as I had a 6:30 AM flight the next day (involving a car pickup at 4AM). I ended walking around 14.5 miles over the two days. Even though I really only had a couple of free days total, it was nice to bookend the stress of the trip with some relaxation. I also enjoyed my first real visit to San Francisco.

Photos from June/July trips to Cambridge and London

January 3, 2016 by Paul

I just posted a few photos from our trip to Cambridge and London in June and July, mostly for events surrounding the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD50). Suzanne and I flew over Wednesday night, heading to Cambridge via car service Thursday morning. Normally, I take the train/tube/train, but there were three of us (a colleague was on the same flight — actually two and one’s wife, but they drove elsewhere first) so it made more sense for us to all get a car. We spent Thursday and Friday night in Cambridge, attending the black tie social event Friday night. Suzanne had been to Cambridge once before, but only back in 2002. We visited around town and hit the Fitzwilliam Museum, which I had never been to and was very nice. Saturday morning, we headed down to London for the night. While there, we hit the Courtald Museum, Covent Garden, the National Gallery, as well as doing some shopping on Regent Street and walking around Westminster. Our return flight was late Sunday afternoon. It was very nice for Suzanne and I to have a weekend away, even though it was a short trip with a long flight.

The next Saturday, I flew back for the three day scientific symposium event. This was very nice and included an excellent talk by the creator of the CSD, Dr. Olga Kennard (who is in her 90s). The following Saturday, I took the 15 minute train ride up to Ely. This was a very nice visit, especially the renowned Ely Cathedral. On Sunday, my colleague, who stayed the whole time, and I flew back home. It was a hectic but good couple of weeks.

New Mexico

December 17, 2015 by Paul

Last month, I had the pleasure of heading out to Santa Fe, New Mexico for a business trip. I have lots of photos. This was my first trip to NM (well … I was there when I was four with my family but I’m not sure that counts). I spent a couple of nights in Santa Fe, staying at the wonderful and reasonable Old Santa Fe Inn right in town, which was very nice. Given it was the “desert”, it was quite cool as it’s at 7000 feet. (They had had snow the day before.) Fortuitously, our very good friend Paul Murphy now lives “nearby” in Carlsbad. Friday morning, after dropping off a colleague at the Albuquerque airport, I took the four-and-half hour drive down to southeast NM. It was quite the rural drive with not much between the two. (I did drive around Roswell, site of Area 51 of UFO fame.)

Of course, being in Carlsbad, I had to visit Carlsbad Caverns. It turns out, the elevator which normally takes visitors from the visitors center down 750 ft to the main cavern was out. We had to walk down from the Natural Entrance. This was an excellent way to head in. The trek down wasn’t too bad, but the trek up was a bit tougher. We did do the King’s Palace tour which was excellent. At one point, the guide turns off the lights and it was dark. After spending several hours down below and trekking back up, we did lunch at the center, did a short walk up above, got locked in (they had locked the gate without realizing someone was still there), and stuck around for sunset. (Luckily, Paul, being a former NPS employee, has friends who work there that we could call.)

On Sunday, we did the 45 minute drive down to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, with a brief stop on the way at an abandoned potash mine. This was my first time in Texas which was cool. The park itself was very scenic. We spent a good chunk of the day doing the 4.2 mile (roundtrip) Devil’s Hall trail. This was a good walk and the end, Devil’s Hall itself, was definitely worth it. After a brief stop at Frijole Ranch, we headed back to Carlsbad, stopping at Rattlesnake Spring and the BLM Pecos River Recreation Area on the way.

Monday morning, we had breakfast at Denny’s before I headed back to Albuquerque for my noon-ish time flight back home. I got to see Paul M again after several years, saw some great natural scenery, ate some great New Mexican food, and put on a decent workshop (it was a work trip after all). All in all, a great trip.

Oxford and Cambridge Photos

December 13, 2015 by Paul

I just posted the last batch of photos from our trip to the UK this past August/September. These are from heading out of JFK, a brief stop at Cadbury World in Birmingham, a day trip to Oxford (Suzanne, Kyle and I) to visit a friend from my Marburg days, and my week alone in Cambridge.

We had planned to head to Cambridge for a day trip during our time in London. However, as Suzanne and I had just been in June and I had been going regularly, and was planning to continue to do so, we were considering Oxford instead, also only an hour by train from London. Over the summer, Armida, who is now in Oxford, and I happened to reconnect so we decided it would be the perfect time to visit with her and her family. We did a lot of walking through town and had a wonderful day. We especially liked the covered market and I had toad-in-the-hole for lunch. My dad decided to stay behind in London and visited Kensington Palace and Hyde Park, both of which we enjoyed.

Suzanne, Kyle, and my dad flew home Sunday morning, leaving the apartment quite early. I headed up to Cambridge, an hour from King’s Cross station which was about a 20 minute tube ride from the apartment. The week was pretty much a typical week in the UK office. I did try to see more of town, venturing north of the river and hitting a number of new pubs. Normally, I tack on a night or two in London after the week in Cambridge, but as I had just been there for a full week, I left Cambridge on Saturday morning direct to Heathrow airport. It’s a bit of a trek, about two hours by train and tube, but you only need to connect once at King’s Cross as the tube from there, the Piccadilly line, goes right to the airport.

London Photos

November 11, 2015 by Paul

I just posted the (way too many) photos from the London part of our trip. We had a very nice week, doing a ton of walking and hitting most of the major sites. Monday it rained a bit, but we were at the Imperial War Museum most of the day, so it didn’t matter so much. In the course of the week, we also walked around Westminster, seeing Big Ben, did the Churchill War Rooms, the Science Museum, a bit of the National Gallery, the Tower of London, Borough Market, St. Paul’s Cathedral, a boat ride to Greenwich, the National Maritime Museum, the British Museum, and the Museum of London. My dad and I also did Westminster Abbey Saturday morning. Suzanne, Kyle and I did a day trip to Oxford to visit a friend from Marburg and her family while my dad visited Kensington Palace and Hyde Park. It was a pretty full trip. We rented a the very nice Cheniston Gardens apartment in right near, less than five minutes walk from, the High Street Kensington Tube stop from Ivy Lettings. This was only a one bedroom as we had booked before my dad decided to join us. He stayed a few minutes walk away at the London Lodge Hotel.

Wales Photos

November 6, 2015 by Paul

I just posted (lots of) photos from Wales as the first batch our trip to the UK in August/September. We had a great time and really enjoyed Wales. The weather was even pretty decent aside from one day. This was our first full day there so we were taking it easy and only visiting Caernarfon Castle anyway. We saw quite a bit during the week including Caernarfon, Conwy, Beaumaris, and Harlech castles, did some hiking, and visiting the Llechwald Slate Mine and Sygun Copper Mine. My dad and I also spent a morning at Llechwald doing an underground Outward Bound-ish/ziplining course which was very cool. All told, we (I) did about 700 miles of driving. Driving a stick on the left side of the road wasn’t too bad, but the roads were really narrow so it was pretty stressful until I started getting used to it (maybe Wednesday). The first day, driving several hours from Manchester after our overnight flight, was a bit tough. We rented the great Gilfach-Y-Nant cottage from Dioni in Beddgelert, a small village in southwest Snowdonia and were really happy with the cottage itself and the town.

I still have to prune and process London and the others but hope to have at least some up next week.

Washington, DC

December 4, 2014 by Paul

We took advantage of “Jersey Week”, when Kyle had a half day on Tuesday for Election Day and Thursday and Friday off for the NJ Teachers’ Convention, to visit Washington, DC. We had wanted to take Kyle to see the museums and monuments of DC for a while. Now that he was old enough to appreciate it, we decided to head down there for a week. It was a great time and we saw a ton including the Air & Space (both the part in DC and the Udvar-Hazy Center out at Dulles Airport), Natural History, and American History museums of the Smithsonian Institution. We also hit (at least) six memorials/monuments, Ford’s Theater, Arlington National Cemetery, the Library of Congress, and, as bonuses, Manassas Battlefield and Fort McHenry.