Sandy Point State Park

Well with the real beach being 2.5 hrs away, gas being so dang expensive, and with Jamie hating riding in cars, we decided to try the next best thing, Sandy Point State Park. It's in the shadow of the Bay Bridge and practically in our back yard so why not? Turns out it was a great place for a first trip to the beach. The waves at a whopping 12" high were pretty much perfect for a little guy! He loved it.

First he tested the waters:


Then, completely fearless, he marched right in! The waves were just big enough to knock him over but he didn't mind in the least. He'd just crawl out and then go right back in again.

Splash!


Momma got in on the act too! I think that wave may have taken her by surprise.


They even took a stroll down the beach together. (all together now, say Awwwwww!)


I took him out a little deeper and tried to get him to kick his legs a bit (and to wash the sand out of his pants). There's the bridge in the background.

New Orleans

I took a quick trip down to the big easy back in April to give a presentation at the annual American Chemical Society meeting. When I wasn't at the conference, I spent the rest of the time wandering aimlessly through the French Quarter checking out the sights and sounds. It's a pretty crazy place.

This little 30 second movie is pretty typical of what you find when walking down any street in the quarter.



My general impression is that the street musicians in New Orleans are a cut above the rest. In any other city, these kids would be packing a club to capacity. Here they are just one more band in the crowd.

Jamie's getting old enough to enjoy little trinkets from my trips so I hooked him up with some Mardi Gras beads. As you can see, he loves them!

Trip to TN to visit the Grandparents!

Well, I had a birthday this past week. I hit the big 35. Seems like a nice round number. Maybe it means I'm all grown up.... Naw, couldn't possibly. Well, for my birthday, my parents bought us round trip tickets to TN. So we loaded up the duffel bag with an impossible amount of crap and jumped on the 2 hour flight to Nashville. From there is was a 2 hour drive to the mountain. Much better than a 10 hour drive from Naptown. Jamie was a little angel for the flight and not too bad on the car ride.

One of the points of our visit was to get a four generation photograph with Jamie, Dad, Grandpa and great Grandpa, so on Friday we went to Sears to get our pictures taken. Jamie thought the photographer lady was crazy. She kept making obnoxious silly faces and loud noises, none of which Jamie much appreciated.





Yeah, that was about the best we could do. Pretty sad, huh?

Back home, Jamie was all smiles.

Here he is in his "Sunday, go to church" kilt:




with Ma's horses Cherokee "Cheeky" and Cino






Saturday, Christine and I did a nice long hike at Frozen Head State Park. No pictures, but here's a map:



Sunday Shawn came up for a visit and we hiked to the top of the mountain and descended via a new oil pipeline right of way. It was quite steep.

Monthly update

Seems like all I can manage these days is a monthly update of ye ol' blog. Alas! I've been super busy lately. First I went to a tribology (the study of friction) conference in San Diego, CA, then a funding review meeting in Gainesville, FL. It's always a major crunch to get a years worth of data analyzed, condensed, and thrown into a 30 minute PowerPoint presentation. After that was over, we packed up and went to TN to visit the grandparents. So basically, I've been going somewhere or getting ready to go somewhere nonstop for the last month. I did manage to take lots of pictures everywhere I went, so let the fun begin...

We'll start in San Diego: Due to a stroke of luck, I was there for the big fires. The city was filled with smoke and haze so thick that you couldn't breath and when you blew your nose, you were left with black boogers. Nice.

In no particular order, sights from San Diego:

Wrought Iron:


The old hotel on Coronado


The old hotel on Coronado


Panorama showing the smoke. (Click for Full Resolution version)


Night Skyline from Coronado



Now onto Gainesville: Okay I didn't actually take any pictures of Gainesville. As far as I could tell, it was a godforsaken place. But I did go to San Augustine, the oldest settlement in North America. I was a little disappointed in what I found there, like most everything in FL, it had been, for lack of a better word, Disneyfied. All the old buildings had been converted to shops selling the fudge, ice cream, and stupid hats so typical of a tourist town. You really had to look pretty close and peel back the layers to find any true old world charm. Here's what I came up with:













Some color, just 'cause:

Philly Cheese Steak!

This week, I attended the Society of Tribological and Lubrication Engineers annual meeting in Philadelphia and gave a presentation. Since Philly is so close, we decided to pack up the truck and make a family trip out of it. Christine and Jamie roamed the city while I was in meetings all day. From the sound of it, it seems like they had lots of fun. Jamie apparently really enjoyed seeing the Rodin Museum. We stayed right down town, one block from the state house. We were just a few blocks from Chinatown so we ate really really well stuffing ourselves with Vietnamese Pho, summer rolls, bubble tea and the occasional Philly Cheese Steak sandwich.

Here's the view from our hotel window (19 floors up). That's William Penn on the state house dome.



Philadelphia is the city of Brotherly Love and they play it up.

Here's Christine and Jamie in Love Park:



Even the graffiti artists feel the love (even if their grammar is atrocious):



Jamie loved the luxurious accommodations:



He has been so good all week. The last two nights, he has slept all the way through the night. 10 pm to 7 am. Wow! We did hear him wake up and start talking to himself in the middle of the night, but he puts himself back to sleep now. His latest thing is to make fart/raspberry noises (I taught him how myself) and he loves to practice. Spit flies everywhere. It's a laugh riot! He's a real trooper when it comes to getting pushed around in his stroller, too. It would be hard to ask for a better baby.

In front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art: