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.

A loss and two new additions

May 15, 2016 by Paul

As some off you know, we lost our pet rat Katie a bit ago. She had been a bit listless for a week or so. At the same time, we found a couple of growths on Lucy (very common in rats) so off to the vet both went. While Lucy underwent surgery, the vet didn’t find any problems with Katie. However, a few days later we started to see blood. The vet thought it might be an infection but she kept getting worse despite antibiotics, passing only a couple of days later. The vet thinks it was likely uterine cancer and too far to do surgery. Kyle was quite upset and still misses her.

Kaite

As rats are quite social, we decided it would be best to get new companions for Lucy. As Empty Cages, from whom we had gotten Lucy and Katie, just had a batch of rats arrive, we adopted two sisters from them, Luna (not sure if hooded or “down under”) and Ginger (“Ginny”, a very pretty ever so slightly tinted grey called “beige”). So far, they’re doing well. The only issue we’re having is that Luna and Lucy are not getting along very well. We have Lucy and Ginger in the big cage and Luna in a borrowed hamster cage sitting right next to it. We’re hoping they start getting along soon.

Ginger

Luna

Lucy

Lucy, Luna, and Ginger

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.

A much belated update and some new photos of Kyle

December 19, 2015 by Paul

I guess I haven’t done any real update throughout the year so here is the year in brief.

Photos of Kyle:

January – April: 9th birthday party, Liberty Science Center, science fair, Rutgers Day
May – December: Beach, Wales, London, apple picking, Halloween, Christmas

We’ve done a bunch of things with Kyle’s Cub Scout pack including the Pinewood Derby in January (didn’t make district this year), an overnight at the Liberty Science Center in February, a campout in Watchung Reservation in June, and the fall camporee on a cold night in October. Over the summer, Kyle had another good year at Watchung Cub Scout day camp with a few weeks at the YMCA day camp to round out the time.

Over the summer, Suzanne and I spent a long weekend, flew out Wednesday night and came back Sunday, in England to attend the black tie social event commemorating the 50th anniversary of my organization’s reason for being, the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD50). I then flew back the next Saturday for a week to attend the three day scientific symposium. We also managed to head out to Sandy Hook for a day at the beach in early August.

Travel picked up for me in mid-August, starting with most of a week in Boston for the American Chemical Society fall meeting followed almost immediately, two nights at home between, with three weeks in the UK. Two weeks were vacation after which Suzanne, Kyle, and my dad flew back while I stuck around for another week in the Cambridge office. The first week was in Snowdownia, Wales while the second was in London. We all had a really nice time. (See the posts below for more.)

Just after our trip, Kyle started 4th grade, his last year at Coles as he moves to Terrill Middle School for 5th. I ended up doing a bunch of traveling for work later in the fall, doing a workshop at UMass-Dartmouth (near Fall River/New Bedford), doing a workshop and having some meetings in Santa Fe, New Mexico with an add-on to visit our good friend Paul Murphy in Carslbad, and then another week in Cambridge, UK just after Thanksgiving.

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.

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