Photos from New Orleans

August 18, 2017 by Paul

Photos are at May & Jun 2017: New Orleans.

Back in late May/early June, I headed down to New Orleans for the 2017 American Crystallographic Association (ACA) meeting. The meeting went well (even considering I had to run a workshop on my own due to some colleagues flight from London being canceled). The meeting ran Friday through Tuesday. I stuck around until Friday to see some of the city as I had never been. On Wednesday, I moved hotels from downtown (right next to the Superdome) down into the edge of the French Quarter, specifically Maison Dupuy. This was a great hotel a close to Bourbon Street but far enough to have a calmer feel. After checking in, I wandered through the French Quarter, had some beignets at the famous Cafe du Monde, and visited the Old Mint and the French Market. I also visited the Katrina exhibit at the Louisiana State Museum which was excellent.

On Thursday, I spent the day at the phenomenally good National WWII Museum. This was one of the main reasons for me staying longer and I wasn’t disappointed. (You may ask why there’s a WWII museum in New Orleans – two reasons: 1) Stephen Ambrose, who was truly one of the leading WWII historians, lived and taught in NoLa and 2) the Higgins Boat landing craft, made famous during the D-Day landings, were invented and manufactured in NoLa. The museum was excellent and I can’t recommended it highly enough. That evening I was able to catch some decent Blues at one of the bars on Bourbon St.

I had a couple of hours on Friday before my flight home so I poked around the French Quarter some more before heading to the airport. New Orleans was kind of cool and I’m glad I visited. I don’t feel a pressing desire to return but wouldn’t turn down a trip.

Photos from my trip to Japan

August 14, 2017 by Paul

Last month, I ended up going to Japan two and a half weeks, one for work and the rest to do some touring. I had always wanted to go to Asia so this was my chance. I spent a total of 10 days in Tokyo, 5 in Kyoto, and then a final three in Tokyo. I had a great time and would highly recommend going given the chance.

Yasaka-jinja Shrine in Kyoto

Photos and report from our trip to Rome

March 4, 2017 by Paul

Over Christmas, we spent a wonderful two weeks in Italy. We spent eight nights in Rome, two nights in Naples (to visit Pompeii), and then the final two nights in Rome. This was our third trip and the longest one yet. (Our first was only three full days.) We saw a ton of things, some we had seen before and some that were new (including Trajan’s Market, San Giovanni in Laterno, GesÃº church). We enjoyed Naples, but did find it grittier than Rome, and loved Pompeii. The weather was really quite good aside from a couple of so-so days. Of course, I took a ton of photos (a bit over 5000).

(Finally) Some photos of Kyle from 2016

December 4, 2016 by Paul

I have finally posted some photos of Kyle from 2016. Most of these are posted in various trips, but there’s a few new ones. Here are a few of them.

Report and Photos from my trip to MÃ©rida, Mexico

November 27, 2016 by Paul

Posted photos as well.

A few weeks back, I headed to Mérida, Mexico (on the Yucatan peninsula) to attend the Latin American Crystallographic Association (LACA) meeting along with a colleague. We flew down Friday, arriving in town around 9pm. We had originally planned to attend the whole meeting, leaving the following Friday. However, due to some things going on at work, we ended up changing our plans a week or so before and headed back to the US on Tuesday morning. It was a short trip, but I really enjoyed it. I had only been to Mexico once before, and that was when I was four and was to Tijuana. For this trip, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Mérida, which was the conference hotel. This was a very nice hotel, especially the very large breakfast buffet. We ended up eating at the hotel’s buffet dinner Friday and Saturday night.

On Saturday, we headed to CINVESTAV (something akin to a national research lab) for a short opening ceremony, to check out the room for our Sunday workshop, and to get a tour of some of the labs. It was quite a nice place and decently equipped. After finishing and waiting a long time for a taxi, we headed to the center of town and Plaza Grande. We walked around a bit, visited the cathedral, and found somewhere to make the printouts we needed for Sunday. After lunch at Los 2 Toros Yucatecos for some very good regional cuisine, we walked some more, including a visit to the Mercato Portales, before making the trek back to the hotel. We spent a good chunk of the evening in the lounge with some other conference attendees. For dinner, we headed to the hotel’s buffet with some other attendees.

Sunday was our workshop day. We boarded the bus back to CINVESTAV, got set up, and got right to it. The workshop went really well. We finished a bit after noon when ICDD took over for their part. For lunch, we headed to Galierias M?rida (a local mall) all as a group and ended up at San Cerdito. Once the workshops were done, we boarded the bus back to the hotel and hit La Exquina for some excellent tacos. It was a good, but long day.

Monday was the first day at the conference. Some of the talks were good but many were in Spanish which made it not really possible to follow. For lunch, we headed out to Trattoria La Pasta for a change of pace from tacos. After I presented my poster in the evening, which also went well, we headed to Cubaro. We had tried to find this Sunday night but went the wrong way from the hotel. (Actually, Google or Yelp had it in the wrong location on the map.) This was an excellent meal and it was great to sit on the second floor deck overlooking the Mayan monument. Tuesday morning, we headed back to the airport for our flight back to NJ.

Overall, it was a really good trip. Our workshop, talk, and poster went over very well. I would have loved to see more of the area, the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza are only 45 minutes away, but it was not to be this trip. I’m kind of glad we decided to head home early as I’m not sure I would have gotten much out of many of the talks given that many were in Spanish. It was also amazing how inexpensive food was. Our most expensive meal (Cubaro – steak, shrimp, beer, and tequila) was only the equivalent of $45 dollars for two. Most meals were much less. Perhaps I’ll make it back at some point for work or for a personal trip.

Trip Report and Photos for our trip to Antietam and Gettysburg National Battlefields

November 25, 2016 by Paul

I’ve posted photos as well.

Kyle had the first couple of days of October off from school for Rosh Hashanah. We had been wanting to go to Gettysburg, a bit over three hours away, for awhile and decided this was a good time to go. As we had four full days, we also added a visit to Antietam, another hour past Gettysburg. We left Saturday morning and headed down to Hagerstown and Antietam National Battlefield. After arriving a bit after an early lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the battlefield. I had only a vague knowledge of the battle but did a quick read of Stephen Sears’ Landscape Turned Red the week before. This was an excellent history of the battle and well worth the read. (His Gettysburg, which I read before our trip there in 2004, is also excellent.) It really is amazing and sobering to visit the site of the deadliest day in American History (around 23,000 soldiers killed or wounded on Sept 17, 1862).

For dinner that night, we had made reservations at the Schmankerl Stube Bavarian restaurant in Hagerstown. I had called ahead to reserve the schweinshaxe (roast pork shank) as well and am glad I did as it was incredibly delicious. Even Kyle loved it. After dinner, we simply headed back to the hotel (the perfectly adequate Sleep Inn) and called it a night.

As we had seen all of Antietam, for Sunday we decided to head to Harpers Ferry National Historic Park as it’s only 40 or so minutes from Hagerstown. This is the site of John Brown’s raid on the US Armory in 1859 and played a significant role in the lead up to the Battle of Antietam. We hadn’t realized that the park had reconstructued/preserved the main town and it was a wonderful surprise. After an enjoyable morning and lunch at one of the cafes in town, we headed back to our car and out to Gettysburg. As it was on the way, we did stop at Catoctin Mountain Park for a short hike. Catoctin is a lesser known park but is the site of the Camp David presidential retreat.

After checking into our hotel in Gettysburg (the Comfort Suites near Gettysburg Battlefield) we headed to the visitors center for Kyle to get his Junior Ranger book. (We could get the others online but not Gettysburg). We weren’t sure we were going to do the museum and cyclorama but were very glad we did. The cyclorama is really quite something to see and even Kyle enjoyed it. We hadn’t seen it in 2004 as it was undergoing renovation. It’s really amazing that something like this was created 125 years ago. After an excellent dinner at Food 101, we walked around town a bit before stopping for ice cream and heading back to the hotel.

Monday was our day to tour the battlefield. We started at the visitors center and went through the excellent museum before doing the driving tour around the park. Kyle liked seeing the park but it is a bit hard to wrap your head around what was happening during the battle as it’s fairly large and was a three day battle. On this trip, we actually made it to Culp’s Hill, which has a nice observation tower, which we hadn’t before. Our visit took up the whole day to the point that we were worried we might not make it back to the visitors center in time for Kyle to get his Junior Ranger badge (third of the trip) but we did make it. (We could have gone back the next day anyway.) We did also visit the national cemetery, where Abraham Lincoln delivered the famous Gettysburg Address during the dedication of the cemetery in November 1863. Back in downtown Gettysburg, we had dinner at Mamma Ventura and stopped for ice cream.

On Tuesday, we headed back home. As it wasn’t that far out the way and we had been wanted to go for a while, we stopped by Valley Forge National Historic Park. (If you’re counting, that made five National Park Service sites in four days.) We watched the movie and spent a couple of hours visiting the park before grabbing some lunch and heading back home. We did a fair amount of driving but saw a lot of American history in a short time and had a wonderful weekend.

Trip Report and Photos from northern Vermont, NH and a bit of Massachusetts

November 20, 2016 by Paul

Posted photos as well.

As I had a lot of extra vacation time and Kyle was short a week of camp before school started, we decided he and I would spend a week in northern Vermont and New Hampshire. I wanted to visit some of the places I grew up visiting and we were also able to spend a few days with my dad and Sharon. We made the six hour drive up to Burlington on Saturday morning, spending Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night with my dad. It turns out that the Wings over Vermont air show was going on that weekend so we headed down to the waterfront on Sunday. It was great to see some cool planes and have a nice lunch on a pier along the harbor front.

On Monday, we headed over to Smugglers Notch to do the hike to Sterling Pond. This was a decent hike and we had a nice time. Afterward, we headed back to Burlington. Tuesday was kind of a dreary day so we spent a couple of hours at the movie theater watching Star Trek Beyond before driving the couple of hours to Littleton to have dinner with Lucy and Bob and Denise. (Ken came home later.) After visiting for a bit, we continued the drive to Lincoln, NH where we checked into Express Inn for three nights.

For Wednesday, we headed up to Franconia Notch, starting with The Flume. The weather was so-so but we figured we’d give it a show. Luckily, it was only foggy and drizzly so was okay. After finishing up, we headed into North Woodstock for lunch at the Landmark II followed by a stop at the candy shop and Fadden’s General Store. Next up was a visit to Lost River Gorge where Kyle had a great time crawling thought the caves. As it was later in the afternoon, we popped back to Lincoln for some make your own sundae at Udderly Delicious. For dinner, we hit El Greco’s Pizza a bit later and then popped up to the Kancamagus Highway from some sunset photography.

We had made plans to meet Carol, Mike, and the kids on Thursday at Clark’s Trading Post. Before heading over, we made the trip up the Cannon Mountain Tramway. Again, the weather looked iffy but turned out to be great. Heading back to Clark’s, we met Carol, Mike, and Courtney as Carley had to work. I remember Clark’s being quite small but I hadn’t been there in probably 30+ years. We ended up spending the entire day from around 11am on. Kyle enjoyed the train ride, the bear show, and, of course, the make your own sundae. Once done there, we headed back to Lincoln and had dinner at Black Mountain Burger Company, stopping for a frappe at Ice Cream Delights.

Normally, we would have stayed one more night in NH, but I had to head to Philadelphia Saturday evening to be there first thing Sunday morning to give my talk at the American Chemical Society meeting. To break up the eight hour drive, we decided to spend a night near Lexington and Concord, Mass to visit Minute Man National Historic Site. We had a nice time there and Kyle was quite patient at the Wayside House tour which turned out to be a bit long and dry. (It was where Nathaniel Hawthorne and Louisa May Alcott lived at various times.) He did get to be “part” of the militia at the Hartwell Tavern musket demonstration.

On Saturday, we headed home, arriving a bit before lunch time. I had a few hours to repack before heading out to the train station to catch the 1 hour ride to Philly. Both of us had an excellent time throughout the week. It was cool to show Kyle some of the stuff I grew up seeing and to see a bunch of my NH relatives.

Trip Report and Photos from Rocky Mountain National Park

November 13, 2016 by Paul

Many more photos.

The American Crystallographic Association (ACA) 2016 meeting was in Denver last summer. As I was attending and it ended on Tuesday evening, I decided to spend a few days visiting Rocky Mountain National Park, a couple of hours drive from Denver. I rented a car in downtown Denver and drove up, arriving in Estes Park around 11AM. Being a huge Stephen King fan, I had to splurge and spend one night at The Stanley Hotel. This is the hotel he was staying while writing and provided the inspiration for The Overlook Hotel in the Shining. In fact, it was used to film the 1997 TV miniseries (though not the 1980 movie with Jack Nicholson). After stopping by, my room was not ready, I grabbed lunch at Pepper’s Mexican Grill just down the hill before heading to the park. I spent the rest of the day driving the Trail Ridge drive all the way through the park to Grand Lake and back with a few stop along the way.

On Thursday morning, I was up early to check out of the hotel, stop at the supermarket for breakfast and lunch, and then back into the park to hike Deer Mountain (6.2 miles round trip and 1210 feet elevation gain). I then drove the Old Fall River Road up to the Alpine Visitors Center (at 11,800 feet). After lunch and Huffers Hill, I drove back to Estes Park to poke around town before checking in for two nights at The Maxwell Inn.

On Friday I decided to up the hike a bit and do Flattop Mountain (8.9 miles round trip and 2850 feet elevation gain to 12,300 feet). This was quite a hike and took me a total of about 6 hours. While it was a workout, it was definitely worth it. For the rest of the evening, I poked around Estes Park. On Saturday I drove back to Denver, dropped off the car, and checked into yet another hotel for the evening. I had originally planned to fly home Saturday but ended up daisy chaining another work trip to California right after so I stuck around for the night to fly to San Francisco on Sunday.

Overall, RMNP was quite nice. Unless you plan to do a lot of hiking, it was pretty easy to see in a couple of days. It was also quite busy, especially at the major stops and visitors centers.

Photos from Yellowstone

November 8, 2016 by Paul

I have finally managed to go through and post some photos from our trip to Yellowstone. There’s still way too many, but at least I didn’t post all 5100. 🙂

Photos from Florida

August 13, 2016 by Paul

While I know it’s been a bit, I finally managed to post some photos of our Kyle’s and my trip to Florida to visit my mom back in March/April (over Easter break). We were down there for most of a week. On Wednesday, we took what was going to be a day trip to Kennedy Space Center (a bit over two hours from my mom’s) and had a great time. We decided to stay the night in Orlando to break up the trip. We had a nice dinner out and did some swimming. We spent Thursday morning poking around Disney Springs (what was Downtown Disney) before heading back to Beverly Hills. Friday we did a walk around a local spring. It was a really nice week.

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