Photos from June/July trips to Cambridge and London

001S4_20150618_174706_expI 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.

Ely Cathedral
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

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.

Kyle and Lucy at our house in FanwoodKyle at the 2015 Coles science fair

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.

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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.)

Kyle, Suzanne, and Paul hiking along the Aberglaslyn GorgeKyle with Beefeater at the Tower of London

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.

Kyle on his first day of 4th gradeKyle and Firetruck Santa at our house in Fanwood

New Mexico

In Santa FeLast 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.)

In Carlsbad CavernsOf 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.)

El Capitan, Guadalupe Mtns NPOn 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

In OxfordI 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.

King's College in CambridgeSuzanne, 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

Big Ben in LondonI 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.
Tower of London while cruising down the Thames in London

Wales Photos

Caernarfon CastleI 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.

View of Snowdon Horseshoe

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

An update and some photos

I know it’s been a while since I’ve done and update or published a batch of photos, so here they are. We hope things have been well with you in the meantime.

Here are links to the new photos of Kyle:

  • Jan & Feb: Some new photos from Kyle’s birthday party
  • Mar & Apr: USS Intrepid, Philly Brickfest, and Easter
  • May & Aug: Camporee and American Museum of Natural History

We have had a fairly busy few months. In late January, Kyle placed third in his group at the Pack 98’s Pinewood Derby. He was very excited as it meant he got to go on to the district race later in March. In early February we had a very nice birthday party for Kyle at the Trailside Nature Center in Watchung Reservation. We had some live turtles and snakes. Later in the month, Suzanne started a new job at Baron Environmental. She actually had two offers at the same time. While the other paid better, this job was more what she wanted and was only six miles from home. (The other would have been a 60+ minute commute.) Obviously our plans to move to Boston had shifted a bit. (More on that later.)

Kyle playing at Coles School

At Kyle's 8th Birthday Party at Trailside Nature Center in Watchung Reservation

 

The first weekend in March we had a wonderful overnight with Cub Scouts at the Philadelphia Zoo. We slept inside but did a nighttime tour, a talk by a snake handler, and a tour in the morning. I took some time off during Kyle’s spring break and we visited the USS Intrepid which Kyle had been wanting to do for some time. Seeing the space shuttle Enterprise was a real highlight. We spent a quiet Easter here at a home.

Kyle and the Space Shuttle Enterprise at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in New York City

Kyle doing an Easter egg hunt at our house in Fanwood

 

In early April, we headed down near Philly for the Lego Brickfest. Kyle absolutely loved seeing all the Lego creations and getting some special custom Lego stuff, including a Star Wars stormtrooper. In mid May, it was time for the Spring Cub Scout Camporee. They brought in a couple of vehicles from the Army National Guard which Kyle loved being able to climb in. It was also nice to camp again and we had good weather. The next weekend, we headed to NYC to visit the American Museum of Natural History, especially to see the dinosaurs. Suzanne and I had visited in 2004 (a friend’s wife worked there at the time, so we got the whole package for free), but Kyle had never been. He really liked it, especially the meteorites and other rocks and gems.

Kyle at Philly Brickfest 2014 in Oaks, PA

Kyle At the Spring Cub Scout Camporee at Winnebego Scout Reservation in Rockaway

 

Our big and absolutely great news came in late May. I was offered a position with the relatively newly opened (January of this year) NJ office of the Cambridge Crystallographic Centre (CCDC). They’re located on the Rutgers campus in Piscataway only 11 miles from our house, so I moved back to NJ in late June. (It’s quite close to where Suzanne used to work for her previous job before they moved her office.) CCDC, a registered charity based in Cambridge, UK, provides scientific data and software centered on small molecule crystallography. I’m providing a mix of software technical support, some scientific support, some development, and a bit of IT. Our office is only five people (just added our fifth this week), but there are plans to grow here. I actually had a lot of contact with CCDC when I was a post-doc in Marburg as they were a partner in the consortium I was involved in. The person I worked most closely with is now their deputy director. I was over there for a week a couple of weeks back and it was great to see Jason again and meet the new people I’ll be working with. Plans are for me to visit the home office two or three times a year.

As I said, I was in the UK for work, so I added a few nights in London over the adjoining weekends. I don’t have any photos posted yet (I did take ~1000), but I had a great time. I was in London most of Saturday after arriving at my hotel around 9:30 AM through Sunday about 3:15 when I grabbed the train to Cambridge (a bit under an hour) and then again Friday evening through very early Sunday morning the next weekend. During that time, I visited the area of Westminster, Big Ben, and Whitehall; visited the Churchill War Rooms; strolled around Piccadilly and Soho; did some shopping on Oxford and Regent Streets; hit the British Museum and the British Library (all Sat & Sun before Cambridge); toured St. Paul’s Cathedral; walked around the City, Covent Garden, and Hyde Park (Sat after). I also hit a few pubs here and there and had several evenings to walk around Cambridge. It was really jam-packed but really enjoyable. Our plans are to go as a family next year, perhaps daisy-chaining with a work trip.

Parliament and Big Ben from Westminster Bridge in London

Westminster in London

Kings College In Cambridge

Kings College Chapel in Cambridge

 

As for upcoming things, we have a few minor events here and there. Jack and Mary Lou will be up in a few weeks as Kyle’s camps, which he thoroughly enjoyed, especially Cub Scout Day Camp, end a week before school starts. Our big plans are a vacation to Washington, DC later in the fall.

Update and Photos

We hope everyone had a good holiday and start to the new year.

Latest Kyle photos:

I also posted the trip report and photos from our Disney trip:

We have done a few things over the past few months. For Thanksgiving, Suzanne and Kyle came up to Boston on Wednesday and we headed up to Burlington, VT to visit with my dad and step-mom for the holiday. My aunt Lucy and uncle Ken came over as well. We had a very nice time. On the day after, we did Christmas early so they could get to see Kyle open his presents. We headed back to Boston on Saturday so Kyle and Suzanne could catch the late morning train back to NJ on Sunday. While they did a lot of traveling (4 hours by train each way to Boston and 3 1/2 hours each way from Boston to Burlington), we all had a nice time.
Kyle & GrandpaKyle & Nana

Of course, after that, was Christmas. We had the holiday at our house a couple of weekends before, so that was nice. On the Saturday before Christmas, we packed up the car and headed down to South Carolina. We had a wonderful time down there seeing everyone, though Kyle and Suzanne had just been down a bit over a month before. Ally has grown so much in the last year. (Of course, 6-18 months is a huge change.) On Christmas morning, Kyle and Ally opened their presents first thing in the morning while the rest of ended up doing so after breakfast. Santa brought Kyle a Wii which he loves. The rest of our time there was pretty quiet. We decided to head back home on Friday to have some time to ourselves as I was off through Jan 1st (Wednesday).
Kyle & Ally with Grandpa

First thing in January was my and Kyle’s birthday. I ended up driving to Boston on Wednesday Jan 1 only to have the university close early on Thursday and be closed Friday due to a serious snowstorm. It ended up being okay Friday afternoon, so, after stopping at a client site in Framingham, about 30 minutes west of Boston and on my way home, I made it home easily. Normally I wouldn’t spend only two days in Boston, but wanted to be home for our birthdays, which I did by working from home on Monday and taking Tuesday off to travel back. While we didn’t do much, aside from going out to dinner, it was nice to be there.
BirthdayPlaying Wii

Since then, nothing too exciting has happened. Kyle’s Cub Scout pack had their Pinewood Derby. Kyle came in 3rd (out of 10-12) in the Bear group and 6th in the “grand finale” round (all the cars that were in the top 3 in each of the four groups), so he was excited. He even gets to compete in the district race in March.
Pinewood DerbyKyle & Cicero

We do have a few things in the next little bit. Kyle’s having his birthday party at the Trailside Nature Center in a couple of weeks. They’re going to do a Reptile of NJ show, so that should be exciting. A bit after that, we got tickets for Kyle and I to see the Harlem Globetrotters play in Newark, so that should be fun. (As an aside, a member of the team used to be a parent at Kyle’s school.) In early March, Kyle’s pack is doing an overnight (indoor) camping trip to the Philadelphia Zoo, which should be very cool. I think that’s it for now.