Flashback Friday

 In 2012, this early iteration of the expanded Harrison family met up in New York City. It was in March. We were still living in Connecticut. Mary was in college so she must have been on spring break. John was a senior at Tufts, and this was the year Troy was living in New York. Peter would have trained up from DC.  Thirteen short years later, the family is a lot bigger and growing by the year.

Philly and Baltimore

We had a fantastic time last week visiting Peter and Jessa in Philadelphia, and Mary and Andy in Baltimore. Our first stop was Philly. On our first night (and on our second night too) Peter made a delicious dinner and Jessa outdid him with a double chocolate birthday cake for dessert. Peter showed me how much he liked the apron I made him for his birthday, and I showed him how he was wearing it inside out.

It's always a nice change of pace to get to run in a different place. I got to run in Philly twice and Baltimore twice. Peter ran with me on my first run in Philly, and then since he was running twice as far as I was, when I got done he turned around and did it all over again.

We ate a lot of tasty food in Philadelphia, including this pizza that we had for lunch in the part of town called Italian Market. Yum, the Italian food there was so delicious.

After pizza we had Italian pastries for dessert. Why? Because of course after eating a pizza as large as that one we definitely needed dessert.

Peter and Jessa had Monday off work and went to a place called Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, which is essentially one man's massive mosaic project. It was fun and whimsical and really, who doesn't love mosaic?

We spent the Monday holiday walking and eating all around town. Here we are across from Peter's favorite downtown used bookstore.

Peter and Jessa had work on Tuesday so Brad and I showed ourselves around. We rode the double decker bus to get the lay of the land. We saw a lot of the areas where we had walked over the weekend, and thensome. Then after the bus we did a lot more walking around downtown.

I can't finish our trip to Philly without thanking Lola and Peaches, otherwise known as the hostesses with the mostesses. They gamely gave up their favorite parts of their house for our visit, until on our last night they finally decided to join the party.

You'll never guess what we had for dinner on our first night in Baltimore. Yep, we had crab! (Actually, it was crabcakes.) I ate a lot of crab on our visit and it was all delicious. This restaurant is in Mary and Andy's neighborhood.

We ate at a lot of restaurants in their neighborhood. You can kind of (though not really) see in this picture that the neighborhood is festively decorated. It's great for walking, as is Peter and Jessa's neighborhood.

Mary, Brad, and I spent a day in a town called St. Michael's on the eastern shore of Maryland. It's about 90 minutes from Baltimore. And very picturesque. 

We took a water taxi across the harbor to have dinner in a part of town called Fell's Point.

Mary took me to Herring Run Park for one of my runs. She and Tikka played while I ran.

We walked down to the harbor a lot on this trip, as it's two blocks from Mary and Andy's house. This trip was to pick up sandwiches for lunch.

Mary (and Tikka) took us by her school. It's on the same street they live on, about a half mile away. She has a great commute.

Walk another half mile down the street and you get to Fort McHenry. If you don't remember your U.S. history, take a look at the name of Mary's school to get the hint as to what happened at Fort McHenry. 

And before we knew it, it was time to come home. (If memory serves me right, this was the Ohio River near Louisville.) We had a great trip and all that was missing was John and Troy. But, we're excited to be having everybody here for Christmas and it'll be terrific to be together.

 

Catching Up With Last Week!

 I am behind on my blogging! Last week we returned from our trip to the East Coast. As you can see, we started our trip in New York City. It was great to be there again.

A highlight of the trip was getting to see the current production of Cabaret. We loved it! And it made us realize how phenomenal the Shorewood High School production of it was - honestly and truly it was on par with Broadway!

Brad was in town for meetings so I amused myself with some nice walks, a bit of shopping, and some museum visits. At the Historical Society I saw two interesting exhibits. I also went to the American Folk Art Museum, which I'd always wanted to visit.

Brad and I and a couple of his colleagues went to the 9/11 Memorial. It was respectfully done, elegant, and close to perfect. There are two reflecting pools like this one, each covering the footprint of one of the Twin Towers. Each victim's name is on the Memorial, and on each person's birthday a white rose is placed in his/her name. There is a new museum on the site, but we weren't able to go as one needed to have purchased tickets ahead of time. But just seeing the Memorial was enough.

 This is the new World Trade Center.

We're in front of the only tree in the immediate vicinity that survived the attacks. It was nursed back to health and is now thriving.

Afterwards we walked the High Line, which is the elevated city park constructed from the abandoned elevated railways that used to deliver to the meat packing plants.

The purpose for the trip was to go to an event at Scholastic's headquarters (and bookstore) as Energizer and Scholastic have been partnering together. The event was great and the bookstore was too.

Scholastic's building has a rooftop patio on the 11th floor and the views were great! That's the new World Trade Center over Brad's shoulder.

After New York we spent some time in Woodbury. The colors were super pretty. It was past peak but still gorgeous. Though you really can't capture the scene with a camera.

We visited lots of friends but I spared them my camera. It was a busy visit but so great to see everyone. I headed home after three days in Woodbury, and Brad spent a day at his old office in Shelton, then continued back to New York City for two more days of meetings. Now we're home with no plans to do any traveling in the near term - but we're excited for lots of company over the holidays!

Shakedown in Times Square

Brad and I were walking through Times Square on Sunday, noticing that there seemed to be more children's characters than usual. Elmo, Woody, Cookie Monster, Mickey Mouse, the Tin Man, Hello Kitty, Minnie Mouse, Cat Woman, Smurfs ..... you name the character and I bet you can find it in Times Square. We were trying to figure out why there were so many of them. My naive assumption was that it was a Chamber of Commerce type of thing, you know, trying to make Times Square more family friendly. Brad thought it could be commercially driven, with the characters sponsored by whomever can make money off of them (Disney, etc.). So that's how our thinking was evolving when all of a sudden I was approached by a very enthusiastic Cookie Monster and he asked me if I wanted my picture taken with him. Before I knew it Minnie Mouse was on my other side, and then Hello Kitty (she actually looks more like an imposter than the real Hello Kitty) joined in. Fun! A picture with all these characters! Was I game? Of course - it's New York, we're enjoying the day, and it's so festive! "Brad! Here's the camera!" "One, two, three, cheese!" Fun! I'm even standing next to Cookie Monster - John will appreciate this! " Ok, let's go." Not so fast. In a New York nano second I was quickly surrounded by all three characters, but I couldn't understand what they were saying to me. "Tip for the picture." What? "C'mon Brad, let's go." I'm still surrounded and the characters are holding out their open coin bags. "Tip for the picture!" I can sometimes be slow to figure things out, but this one didn't take me long to get to the aha moment. Each character is wearing a little purse and each little purse is open, waiting for the tip. So Brad obliged them and we went on our way. This experience - obviously - solved the mystery of why the characters are out in such great numbers. And so we (and now you, too) are wiser for the experience (though a few dollars poorer), and should a character approach us in the future offering to be in our picture, we'll be fully aware of what that offer implies.

Sightings in New York

The Empire State Building on a crystal clear fall morning.

 A small Catholic Church in Midtown amid all the tall buildings and skyscrapers.

Enough said.

 Just so ya know.

 Spinach pie at a street fair. So tempting.

Chocolate covered you-name-it at a street fair. Also tempting.

Nerd Alert: 3-D Printer

On Saturday while in New York, my friend Priscilla and I visited the MakerBot store at 298 Mulberry Street. MakerBot makes a product called the Replicator 2, which is a 3-D printer. A what? If you think of it as a model maker* it makes more sense, because that's what it does: it actually makes models, parts, and other actual 3-D objects.  Priscilla and I had each read an article about the 3-D printer in Wired and were curious to find out what it's all about. The result was a fascinating learning experience that I am excited to share with you! (*Thank you Bonnie for that explanation!)

This is the front window to the MakerBot store, which is as much an educational center as it is a retail store. (They sell about three printers each day in the store, and about another 100 online.) Each part of this contraption was made on the Replicator 2. How does the 3-D printer work? We were dying to know.

This is what the printer looks like. It's basically a big hollow box with openings on the front and sides. Inside an arm "prints" onto a board that starts high in the machine and is lowered as the item inside gets "taller" with each successive revolution of the arm. The arm revolves around and around, adding layer after layer of print medium onto the board until the product is completed.

This is a close-up of the arm "printing" a bracelet.

An even closer shot of the bracelet bring "printed."

A finished bracelet.

In the case of the Replicator 2, the substance used to "print" the objects is melted plastic that comes off one of these spools. A spool sits behind the printer and little by little it is fed into a "pen" that "writes" onto the board of the machine, creating the layers that ultimately become the object. Here are some examples of objects created by the printer:

The above objects are "printed" in one piece. Here are examples of items that were printed in separate parts, then assembled:

And here you can see Priscilla wearing her new 3-D printed bracelet. (I got one too!) While we were wowed, let's be real. This is a plastic bracelet. No big deal, right? So we asked about the practical applications of the printer. Some examples of what can be made (and are currently being made) with this type of technology are:  prototypes for engineering; architectural models; product mockups for marketers and advertisers; visual aids for teachers; models for doctors; crowns, bridges, models, and orthodontic appliances for dentists; and replicas for archaeologists and paleontologists.  Think of the possibilities beyond these:  a part can be printed in a short time even for stuff as seemingly as mundane as a button, a part to an appliance, a drawer pull, or any anything else you can think of. The possibilities are endless. I feel like a total nerd for being so excited by this, but it feels to me like if it's already at the retail level (in other words, down to my level of understanding) then it isn't far from becoming part of all of our lives. (The 3-D printers cost under $2500 and a spool of that plastic costs $48.) No, I don't want to buy one (yet) but I think it's excessively interesting. Okay, I'm almost done, but first here's another article about 3-D printing from The Economist.  Okay, I'm all done now! (Thank you for letting me vent my excitement.)