Tag Archives: photos

Photos from New Orleans

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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

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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

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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, Gesú 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).

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

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I’ve posted photos as well.

Kyle at Antietam National BattlefieldKyle 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.

John Brown's Fort at Harpers Ferry National Historic SiteAs 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.

Kyle in Devils Den at Gettysburg National BattlefieldMonday 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.

Washington's Headquarters at Valley Forge National Historic ParkOn 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.

 

At Observation Tower at Gettysburg National Battlefield

Trip Report and Photos from Rocky Mountain National Park

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At the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park

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.

At Lava Cliffs in Rocky Mountain National ParkOn 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.

Flattop Mountain Hike in Rocky Mountain National Park

Photos from Florida

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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.

Kyle and Paul at Kennedy Space CenterKyle at Disney Springs

Kyle swimming at Fran's in Beverly HillsMom and Kyle at Three Sisters Spring in Crystal River

Trip to Kinshasa, Dem Rep of the Congo

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At the University of Kinshasa

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

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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.

In Old Town San Diego In Old Town San Diego

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.

Golden Gate Bridge from in the Presidio in San FranciscoIn Chinatown in San Francisco