Following the president

So I followed the President around the country today. This morning Mary
and I went on a tour of the White House with some people Mary works with
and a family from Germany. The tour was fun. There was quite a lot
involved with getting into the white house. Including not having any bags
or cameras. And there was a surprisingly few number of rooms available to
see. But the self guided tour was interesting and definitely worth the
short amount of time that it took.

So as we were exiting the Whitehouse we watched Marine 1 take off. A few
of the people in our group saw GW actually boarding the chopper. Sort of
interesting to see but really nothing too exciting.

until of course I land in Nashville and find out that just before I touched
down the airspace had been closed due to the President landing.....

I sure hope he isn't headed to Philly tomorrow night because then I'm sure
my name would make it to the top of all kinds of watch lists :-)

Curling at the Dykes

So this past weekend I gathered a couple of guys frm the club together (well really Eric did the gathering) and went up to the Francis Dykes Men's 5 & Under Bonspiel. We didn't go up with high expectations. Our plan was simple:

1. Have Fun!
2. Try and stay close in every game
3. Get some experience under our belts
4. Win a game if we could

I have to say we were fairly successful in all of our endeavors. Of course we had fun. Of the 3 Philly teams in attendance we were the least experienced so we had the least to loose. Also for many on the team it was teh first away event so we were just looking to meet people and have a good time. Item number one... done.

I felt like we held our own in every game we palyed. The first team we played was very good, and ended up running away with the game, but we really didn't give up very big ends and while the score was high by the end of the game we all curled well. The game would have been much different if I could have made a few keys shots. But I just couldn't execute, which was a shame, but we didn't want to compete in the first event anyhow :-)

The second game was a game we could have won. The other team was good, but I made the mistake of underestimating the team's ability based on their front end. That lead us to not put up some guards early on. Our opponents vice was very good a take outs and seemed to hit every stone near exactly where he needed to. That combined with my continued inability to make a few key shots saw us off to an early deficit. Towards the middle of the match we were down 5-1 and our opponents were sitting 4. Ends like this (especially at our level are tough to come back from. We can generally take a point or two, but getting 3 or 4 especially late in the game is difficult. To make things even more interesting the front was well guarded. There was only really one shot for me to make. I just had to wing a stone down and hopefully knock one or two out and maybe out count a few more.

So I slid down to the hack and lined up for the shot. I let the stone go and just hopped I didn't get caught up on one of the front guards. Amazingly I cleared all of the guards and hit everything in just the right order (fortunately we had the hammer). Suddenly I instead of being down 9-1 we were only down 5-2 and with a few ends left we had time to mount a comeback. We stole one in the next end and suddenly we were only down by 2. The details of the rest of the game are a bit fuzzy. But we kept it close. We ended up eking out a defeat, but were all very happy with our performance.

Finally we arrive at Saturday morning. Thins seemed like they were falling into place. We had curled well the night before (especially in the last half of the game) we were curling in Albany, which our club is modeled after, which makes it feel like home. So we started out really well. We kept winning end after end. We had a very good lead built up going into the 5th end. Then I got a little off the game plan and fouled some things up. That combined with another missed shot by yours truly left out opponents sitting 5. In this end the gaurded up the front well and had some points counting. I just needed to draw and cut them down to maybe 2 points, if I was lucky (or good, but lets face it I'm not good yet) I could have out drew them and maybe even come away with a point. But instead I was wide and ended up one of their guards. Unfortunately my weight was perfect and I ended up knocking another of their stones into the rings. So now instead of being up by 7 we were only up by 2. It was a very bad feeling. But I had to make sure that we didn't let it get to us. We still had a game to pull out.

It came down to the last end and we were up by 2 or 3 points. We had a nice house set up. The middle was open and we had 2 guarded stones on either side of the 4 foot about the T-Line depth. It would be very hard for our opponents to come away with enough points for a victory. The opposing vice managed to sneak a stone onto the button and I was ready to call a guard to conceded the end in favor of winning the game. Then our vice reminded me that if I successfully removed this stone the other team would not have enough stones to win. The down side didn't seem to bad either. At worst I would hang up on a guard of ours and block the whole maybe tap some stuff around. But it would still be hard for the other team to get 3. Again things fell into place and I managed to take the stone out leaving us sitting 3 and making it near impossible for the opponent to win. The skip conceded the game and we had walked away with our first victory (and my first victory outside Philadelphia).

I would love to be able to report that we won our next four games (which we would have had to 2 to win the 3rd event. But alas out winning streak stopped at one.

In the end it is safe to say we all had a great time and we accomplished all of our goals. I hope the team wants to get back together next year. We should have an even better time.

Happy 10th Anniversary!!!

The Original title of this post was going to be "Vegas Baby!" But after a week there that specific phrase seems over used. Mary and I went to Las Vegas to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Mary's Cousin Bob and his wife. Coincidentally Mary and I met the same summer that Bob and Sandy were married so it also happens to the the 10 year anniversary of Mary and I meeting!

So 1. I can't believe Mary and I have known each other for 10 years!! Wow!!! and 2. do you really need an excuse to visit the entertainment capital of the world?

We had a very good time. Vegas is deffinatly a wonderful place for a group vacation. All in all there were about 20 people who made it out for the trip. We arrived on a Wednesday, spent afternoon cleaning up from traveling, unpacking and doing the normal new hotel stuff. We grabbed lunch and met the Wednesday group for "free" craps lessons at the Imperial Palace Casino. Now I say "free" because nothing in Vegas is free., but at the same time everythign is free. Obviously ofering free lessons is a benefot to the casion because it luers people over to a game people are unfamiliar with and will contribute to the guest spendsing lots of money.

Craps also happens to be a pretty fun game, and is a lot less mindless then sitting at a slot machine punching a button like a mindless slug :-) So we learned the game and then headed next door to Casino Royal to try our luck at the $3 craps table. We didn't do to bad. This started a fairly good craps streak that lasted us almost our entire visit (yeah almost, I will explain the almost part later). We would spend a few hours at a table and generally leave with a bit more money than we entered the game with. Then of course in true Vegas style we would spend all of our winnings on beer, or slot machines, proving that the Casino's really have a wonderful business model, there is no way in hell you are leaving a casino with more than you entered. Well they let a few people out with more, but really this is just an advertising scheme so that more people will come in.

Some people had booked shows Wednesday night so we all split up with plans to meet at 10 when all the shows and dinner were done. Being that we were all on east coast time. none of us made it to the 10 PM meeting. We all gathered again at Casino Royal for some more craps! again we had a fairly profitable morning. Then we went to O'Shey's for beer pong. What a great concept for a bar. They basically had a number of custom beer pong tables and all you needed to buy were 2 pitchers of beer. The cups, ball and tables were free. We grabbed a table and spend a few hours throwing ping pong balls into beer cups. Since the group had grown to 8 we had enough to alternate between playing and just hanging out. When we got to the tables the bar was pretty empty. By the time we left for dinner business had picked up. every table was full and there were some people waiting to get on. We all went back to the Excalibur (our hotel) for a late dinner.

After dinner Mary, myself, and Rob and Becky (Bob & Sandy's friends) walked up to the Bellagio to watch the fountain show. We then waled over to Paris to look around the casino, we tried out luck at the "wheel of death" as we called it. This is a straight odds wheel usually divided into 40 or so sections. Each section is labeled. Usually 1 section with the highest pay out(number of sections to 1). Then lessening payouts down to even money. You win if the number you picked get selected on the next spin. You have a pretty good chance at winning a dollar at a time if you keep playing the even money payout. But how upset would you be if you were at the wheel when the 40-1 payout was spun and you didn't play it? This is what the casino hopes too, so you almost have to play a higher payout and will almost never get paid on the odds. We walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

Friday there was obviously more gambling, but the big even was the Anniversary party. So we all met at he Monte Carlo Brew pub around 9PM to celebrate the anniversary. The Brew Pub here is known for selling bear by the yard, basically a tall 3' or 5' test tube of beer with a gravity fed tap. The 3' looked daunting, until we poured a few glasses, then all of a sudden we started ordering the 5 footers. We spent the evening ordering beer by the foot and catching up with cousins from all over the country.

Saturday Mary and I caught up with some of Mary's co-workers who happened to be in Vegas for the weekend to celebrate a birthday. We met at the bar out side the Crazy Horse theater in the MGM. We moseyed onto the bar in the center of the MGM and ended at NYU NY for Pizza.

The rest of the weekend consisted of more of the same. Our craps luck continued, Mary and I even ended up at a $10 table for a little while. We hadn't initially intended on approaching a 10$ table, we just didn't look at the sign close enough and didn't realize it until after we had already bought in. We actually did well. We played for a few ours and both ended up walking away up (Mary was up $100 and I was up about $80). The casino was just baiting us for the end of our trip. We would meet up with cousins and walk around in between gambling sessions touring teh different casinos and seeing the sights. People started leaving Saturday and by Sunday night it was Mary and I and Bob and Sandy. We decided to round out our tour of the seedy casinos of visiting the Slots A Fun casino next to Circus Circus. This end of the strip is much older and probably a poster child for the dank rundown image that anti gambling people have. We all tried our hand at the $2 craps table a really enjoyed our selves. The dealers weren't the best. There were a few times they paid us incorrectly, or had to discuss the correct payout. There was even one time when the pit boss fought with the whole table about who the shooter was.

There was this one poor guy at the table who contently betting against the shooters and he just seemed to be a very negative person. Wasn't really doing well and kept buying in for more chips. Finally Mary ended up with the dice and rolled a couple of 5 during her turn. The guy kept putting his money on no 5 and kept loosing. Well finally he put all his money (about $200, remember we were at the $2 table) on no 5... and the very next number Mary rolled was a 5. Well Mr. Negative left in a hurry and didn't seem to happy. The rest of the night was uneventful. By the end of the night we all left up just a bit. We returned to the hotel after a long bus ride and headed to bed.

Monday Mary and I had the day to ourselves. We had tried to get into a craps game Sunday night, but the tables were packed. we walked around to all of the casinos in out area looking for a $5 table butt he Excalibur had the only one (and it was packed) we called it quits and decided to try out luck in the AM....

And so goes the casino luck spirits.... We started the day off with a good feeling. We had done well in craps all week. we almost always walked away with more than we started and the few times we walked away with less we hand and by the end of Monday we had pretty much returned to the casinos everything we had taken earlier. We capped off the day by making the 3-4 mile trek up to Treasure Island. Mary and I hadn't seen the Volcano at the Mirage or the Siren's of TI at TI. We watched the Volcano which was really interesting, but we just missed the TI show. Unfortunately it began to sprinkle around 10:45 or so. The 11:30 TI show was canceled. I guess we will have to make a trip back later to see the show.

So Mary and I had a great week in Las Vegas. We got to catch up with family and spend some time touring around The Strip. We didn't end up winning lots (or any really) of money. But we didn't spend a whole lot of money either. I think if you can keep everything in perspective and go with the intention of being entertained you can really enjoy your self.

I'm Sailing

Mary and I were invited on a sailing adventure Memorial Day weekend with a good friend of mine for the early Sun days. I have been on a number of different boats in my life. Even a number of small sail boats. But I have never spent the night on a boat. I was a little nervous about motion sickness. I have only gotten motion sickness once on a boat. Mary and I were taking the ferry from Bridgeport, CT to Port Jefferson, NY and a strong storm blew in while we were under way. There was lots of rocking and rolling and it really hit me hard. I didn't get sick, but I really didn't feel right all weekend after that trip. I was a little nervous that I would feel the effects more in a smaller boat.

Mary and I got up early Saturday and headed to Baltimore to meet Kevin, Jessie and the rest of the sailing party for the weekend. We got to the sailing club around 10AM went shopping for provisions and hit the water. The boat was beautiful. We were on the Miss Ann a Beneteau 343 35' Sail boat. She is a wonderful boat.

The trip plan was to head south to Rock Hall for the evening and head to Waterman's Crab House for dinner. Watremans has the "amazing" crab dip which was Jessie's favorite place to go. I will admit the food was very good. I haven't had seafood that good in a while. I ordered some steamed clams for an appetizer and the Baked Crab Imperial for dinner. Both were amazing and very fresh. The steamers were so good even Mary had one or two of them.

We spent the night at a marina in Rock Hall. The people around us were very friendly. Many of them were older, probably retired. I was sort of prepared for the cold shoulder based on the fact that we were so young. However, he reaction seemed to be quite the opposite. Everyone around us was very friendly and seemed to be excited that "younger" people interested in sailing. Everyone was quick to introduce them selves and chat for a while.

The next morning we got up and cooed breakfast. Eggs and bacon mostly, but we had picked up some other stuff as well. The plan was to head to the western bay to anchor for the night and try our hand at crabbing. The wind wasn't as favorable so we didn't get much speed but we had 7 hours to make a 3 hour trip so we were not in a super rush. Around 4 PM the wind died and we decided to drop sails and motor the rest of the way to our destination.

We got to the Magathe river around 5ish and had an interesting time getting our anchor down. Once we were anchored we decided it would be a good time to try crabbing. We got our turkey necks (chicken necks weren't available) out tied them to some string and chucked them overboard. We had been taking bets on how long it would take us to catch a crab. The first time window of 30 minutes came and passed fairly quickly. We were quickly approaching the hour mark when a storm started to blow in. We left our turkey necks in the water and went below for the storm.

The wind picked up quickly and, while we were watching out the back, we noticed that our anchor had broken free and we were drifting toward a sail boat anchored near by. The men rushed into action Kevin started the engine and got us away from the boat we were approaching. Brian and I grabbed our danforth and sunk a second anchor. We were again solidly anchored in the cove. We went back below slightly moistened by the rain to wait out the storm.

Once the storm had ended we decided to cook dinner and check on our crabbing bounty. Needless to say we had caught nothing. The general consensus was that it was way to early in the season and we were a bit up the river so the water may have been a bit too fresh. The rest of the evening went with out incident. We stayed below deck because it was sprinkling out. Played cards and drank beer. A few of us still hoping to catch something left our necks in the water overnight to see if we would catch anything.

We had breakfast, cast away our turkey necks pulled up our anchors and headed home. Unfortunately the wind was not cooperating with us on Monday. We saw a few other sail boats out in the bay but sails up and they were going no where. We decided to just motor back to the marina.

So our first sailing adventure was great! Mary and I really enjoyed ourselves. The weather was great, even with a brief thunderstorm. It really was a great weekend and we hopefully will be able to make a few more sailing trips in the future. We are also considering making Kevin's international New Years trip next year. Lets hope they pick somewhere exciting.

Berlin Day 2

The remainder of our trip was just as exciting as the first day. Our plan was to see as much as possible in as short a time a possible. A few of the books we had read suggested that we visit sections of the city in a day. Berlin is quite large (remember it used to be 2 cities) and traveling from one spot to another could be very time consuming.

We woke up Saturday and cooked breakfast (one of the benefits of renting an apartment). Our plan was to meet Colin and Maria in the morning at a flea market/farmers market then visit Mitte which is the central borough of Berlin. We read that the line to the Reichstag grows quite long in the afternoon so our plan was to start there and continue on.

We took the U-Bahn to Colin and Maria's apartment met them and walked to the market. This was a very interesting place. Apparently this is a weekly event and there are all sorts of vendors set up in this square. From florists and fresh produce to jewelry and crafts and prepared food. I assume that many of the apartments in Berlin are about the same size as ours and kitchen space is pretty limited. This means that appliances, like refrigerators, are small. It seems that people rely on fresh produce picked up a couple times a week rather than our habit of trying to make it to the store once a week or so to get food for a while.

The market was filled with people and each stand had something interesting to look at. We all decided to try a local sausage which was a foot long thin sausage served on a very small bun that was essentially a handle. I tried some fresh OJ which was very good. Kate, in an attempt to reconnect with her roots, tried an Alsatian flat bread with cheese on top. It is similar to a pizza. We were getting ready to leave when a jewelry vendor caught Mary's eye. We stopped there for a few minutes and ended up with a very nice necklace with a black pendant. It was a great beginning to day 2 and it was still early!

Colin walked us to over to the Zoo and we hopped on the 100 Bus which is a great way to see the city. This bus route stops at a lot of the major attractions and really gives you a great feel of the city. Unlike riding a subway you get an idea of where things are in relation to each other. We hopped off at the Reichstag and got in line. The line wasn't too long, but there was a wait. Fortunately we had lots of entertainment while we waited. First a group of mime/puppeteers performed for us. There were about 6 of them and they were moving this stick figure human character thing. They would make the character dance and interact with the line. It was interesting to watch. At some point they moved on to another location.

As we got closer to the steps we saw something pretty interesting. A group of people stormed the steps and posted a whole bunch of banners on the pillars of the Reichstag. Of course they were speaking in German and their fliers were in German so we really had no idea what was going on. But it was pretty moving to see an act of democratic free speech in a different country. The "disruption" was over pretty quickly and everything returned to normal. The short wait in line was worth the view from the top.

There is a glass dome one top with a spiral ramp that goes to the top of the dome. The entire structure is beautiful and fun to be inside. There are great views of the city both as you circle up the dome and from the roof deck of the Reistag. You can really see from this vantage point the Berlin is a growing city as there were a lot of construction sites visible.

We left the Reichstag and continued onto the Brandenburg Gate which was originally built as an entrance to the city but now pretty much sits right in the middle of the Berlin. The gate became an icon during the years of the Berlin wall because it was right in the middle on "no mans land". Not much exists of the wall, but in parts of Berlin there is a brick path that traces out the old footprint of the wall. It is easiest to find on the street between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate.

From the Brandenburg Gate our plan was to walk along Unter der Linden and over to Bebelplatz which was the site of the book burning. On our way to Unter der Linden we passed the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The memorial was pretty amazing and it is fairly large. The site takes up a city block and it is an arrangement of stone pillars which look like a cemetery. The pillars are not all level or true so it give the appearance of an older cemetery. At the edge of the monument the pillars are rather short, towards the middle the pillars get taller and you are completely surrounded. It is a very interesting place. Beneath the monument is a museum which is dedicated to telling the stories of different Jewish families who were deported during WW II. In the last room in the museum the names of the Jews who perished are projected on the wall and read allowed. It is a very moving exhibit.

We left the museum and it was getting late. We decided to grab lunch (although he sun was setting) and continue on our way. We walked along Unter Der Linden for a while stopping at a few trinket shops and just taking in the street. We finally came across Bebelplatz and we hit it about the right time. The monument here is a room below street level. The room is a "library" with empty book shelves that are painted white. The entire room is lit brightly. You look down into the library from street level through a window in the square. We continued on to Check Point Charlie and out last stop for the evening.

Checkpoint Charlie was an interesting place. As with many location where the wall once was there is an interesting mixture of construction, ultra modern building and older buildings. The checkpoint itself is completely gone. A replica of the American shed is in the middle of the street at the checkpoint location. There are a lot of trinket shops nearby. There is also a Checkpoint Charlie museum which I had mixed feeling about. I think the idea of the museum is great and the collection of items that were there were interesting. However it seems as if this museum was created without much thought to the layout or perhaps the "curator" never received any formal training. There seemed to be a number of repetitive exhibits throughout the museum and the layout and flow was rather confusing. At one point I had gotten totally lost and couldn't figure out if I had been in this room before. I then went to Find the rest of the group and I found myself in a completely different part of the museum which I may have missed if I were by myself. Maybe over time this museum will be refined or redesigned. The exhibits are worth while as they are it just doesn't have a coherent flow.

Well it was getting late and we needed to have dinner. The Sony Center is located in east Berlin neighborhood of Potzdammer Platz. It is a very new area which contains an outdoor mall/entertainment center. We decided to head over there for dinner. We ended up at the Hofbräuhaus which was an excellent choice. We tried some "authentic" authentic German chain restaurant food and had 1 liter beers. We even got a pin for ordering the "medium" size. Of course I immediately regretted not ordering the large, only because I wondered what bauble I missed out on. Alas after a liter of beer I was not ready to have any more. So after a very long day we headed back to the apartment. For another viewpoint to this days activites check out Troy's Blog.

Berlin Part 1

I created this image from one of my Berlin Pictures. What is amazing is the guy on the bench isn't even visible in the original jpeg. I really liked the way this turned out.

Now onto the Adventure.... We loaded up the family wagon and headed to Newark Airport to get our cheap flights to Berlin. The trip had been a few months in the making. Troy and Christa had heard through the grapevine that cheap tickets were available to fly directly from Newark to Berlin and it just so happened that Christa's cousin was going to be in Berlin too so it seemed like a really good idea to go. We started by looking into places to stay in Berlin.

Shortly after Kate was added to the attendee list and the total traveling group would be 5. I quickly realized that we would need at least 2 hotel rooms and that the cost of such an endeavor would we rather high. I, at some point, stumbled on a business week article regarding renting vacation apartments. I realized that if the cost was right then this would probably be cheaper than 2 rooms for a week. A bonus is that we would have we would have more room and a kitchen to cook if we wanted. So we settled on a site and an apartment we were all set of our trip.

Back to traveling day.... Which was pretty uneventful we made it to the airport with time to spare. I had never been to Newark before and quickly realized why the flights out of there were so cheap. You have to drive half of the way to your final destination just to get to the long term parking lot! Well obviously not really but you get off the highway south of the airport and have to drive around the entire airport to get to long term parking. When you finally get to long term parking lot you are almost right next to the exit ramp. So we check-in eat and board the plane. Land in Berlin after a fairly long flight.

Upon exiting the airport our adventure begins. Problem 1.... none of us speak German. Problem 2.... it is really hard to fit 5 people in a regular cab (4 would fit without luggage). So we wander over to the taxi island and stand around like silly Americans not really knowing what the correct way to hale a cab, and not really seeing a cab that could accommodate our party. After a few minutes a van drops some people off and we manage to flag him down. The good news for the cab driver is that he got to circumvent the taxi line which was full of smaller cars. We get in and get to the apartment very quickly.

Now I will admit that this was my first experience renting an apartment and I was a little stressed about being the one responsible for booking the apartment. We also had to pay cash when we got there. I have visions of us walking into a dirty dingy apartment that looked nothing like the pictures on-line and finding the landlord to be some smarmy guy who was going to demand the full rent plus a few fees for things like running water. But all of my fears were assuaged when we arrived at the apartment. First off it was right on the Spree and the neighborhood was wonderful. Full of residential flats with restaurants and shops at street level.

We rung the bell and the owner answered right away. Then came my first surprise. I had assumed that there would be no elevator and I knew we were on a high floor. I was prepared to make a few trips up and down with the luggage. But right in the lobby was a small elevator which let us get to the top without effort.

We got the the apartment and the place was amazing.

A breif commericial intruption.... if you are looking for an apartment in Berlin check out this place. I'm not getting any money for this ad. But the apartment is great and the owner is very nice.

It was 2 bedrooms with a living room/bedroom a dining room and a kitchen. Plus the view from the balcony was just as advertised! It was truly an amazing place. The owner was very friendly and lived right upstairs so we would be close should we need anything. We quickly got settled in and started to plan our first day out. We knew from advise and experience that taking a nap now (even though it was like 4 or 5 AM back home) would be a bad idea. We we headed out. Our first stop was shopping for breakfast food. Upon our return we decided to take the bus to the Hard Rock Cafe to ease into the German cuisine and get our required souvenirs The bus rid was a great way to see the city. The one down side to traveling by subway is that you get no relation to where this are. The buss allowed us to get a good introduction to the city and allowed is to view some places that interested us.

We made it the the HRC for lunch and some shopping. Then walked around a bit. We had plans to meet Christa's cousin for dinner so we wanted to make sure we got back and dropped our stuff off at the apartment and cleaned up. We had been up for almost 24 hours now and we were deffinalty feeling it. We left the apartment for a 3rd time to locate Christa's cousin at their apartment. It was actually fairly easy to find them. We were already getting fairly good at navigating the public transit system. We hung out with Maria and Colin for a while then headed to this African restaurant Masai. I wouldn't call myself and adventurous eater, but I am willing to at least go to strange restaurants and try and find something. I was not disappointed here. I think I ordered chicken (they did have Ostrich and some other beasties that sounded tempting, but I chickened out (pun intended).

We then walked around the neighborhood (near Viktoria-Luise Platz) for a while. and learned a great deal from Colin and Maria who had been living in Berlin for a few month already. While walking around we toured a neighborhood project that probably isn't listed in any tour book. This neighborhood has posted on street lights a number of signs. The signs contain different laws that were passed by the Nazi party that restricted the rights of the Jewish people in the community. It was interesting and moving to stroll around the neighborhood and read some of the laws that were enacted.

We ended our evening in the Nollendorf Platz which Mary and I had a small connection to since we are theater people and the musical Cabaret takes place at least partially in this neighborhood. We sat out side on a perfectly marvelous evening and ate Ice Cream. It was getting late and we were all fading fast we made it back to our apartment and all fell quickly asleep. We planned to meet Colin and maria the next morning at a farmers market to walk around and see what there was to see.

Well it seems that I have only made it through the first day here and were in Berlin for an entire week! I guess I will have a lot for writing to do and you fellow reader will have a lot of reading :-) Fortunately while the next few days were exciting to us, they consisted of mainly touristy things so I won't need to provide much detail.

European Adventure

A bunch of us went to Europe last week of a little vacation. I will provide more details in some later posts. I was not the official people picture photographer so I will leave you with a taste of one of the places we visited.

The rest of my pictures can be found on my picasa site

CPK win streak stops a 2

So CPK as officially entered another slump. Well, slump is probably not the right term. We managed to pull off another win during our novice league game just over a week ago (You can read Troy's Blog for the gory details). But the 2 wins in the novice league were just enough to get out confidence up for the Schenectady 100th anniversary Bonspiel we attended list past weekend.

The Bonspiel was great. The team had a good time, we got to visit with family (M's) and see a bit of snow. We even got to curl. The only unfortunate thing about the weekend was the condensed draw times. Since this was the 100 year event they had a very nice party at a near by country club. In order to ensure that every one could attend the last game was at 3:15 on Saturday. This meant that our first game would be at 10 PM Thursday night and if we didn't win any games we would be done curling by 5ish on Friday (less than 24 hours after we had arrived!) Of course that is about how the weekend played out. We lost Thursday night to a very good team from Canada. We played well, but they just played better. Then we dropped our second game to a mixed team from Canada/Schenectady. I will have to say that while I don't think we would have actually won that game either I feel we played well. We lost or final game to an Albany team which also was close (aside from a few bad ends).

The curling weekend also almost ended in tragedy for CPK. During the last end of the last game we almost gave up all 8 points. A feet that I could most closely associate to getting a hole in one in golf or shooting the moon in the card game Hearts. Although I get the feeling that an 8-ender occurs less than either of these 2 events. Fortunately 2 things happened to prevent this. One, the other team missed a double takeout which left us with one stone in the house. All we (and by we I mean Troy) had to do was to draw down to the 4 foot to cut them from 6 or 7 points to 3 or 4. We had already lost the game so giving up the points didn't really matter, but we needed to make this shot so the people viewing the gallery didn't get too rowdy. Our only real danger was being wide off the broom and heavy (something I did 2 stones earlier to promote one of their stones into the house). Fortunately Troy made his shot and we recovered rather well from what could have been a pretty bad end.

More important than whether we won or lost games was the number of people we met and acquaintances we made. Curlers in general are very friendly and welcoming, one of the best things about the sport(at least the non-competitive leagues) is that it is very social. We meet a girl from Colorado who gets to curl a few times a year (she came dressed to the decade party very similarly to M and Christa {80's}). We also had a great time with the teams we did play against.

So this was slated to be our last Bonspiel for the season, but it is possible that we will make an attempt at one or possibly even two more before the ice melts away. We do feel as if we are getting better with each game and it would be ashame to loose forget everything during the summer.

Lets hope we can win a few novice games before the end of the season!

Since we were done curling by Friday afternoon we got a chance to spend some time Saturday with M's family. Troy and Christa got to meet all of M's Uncles as well has her grandparents. I gave Troy and Christa the cold weather (15th street) tour of RPI. And we got to take it easy a bit. The one downside to actually winning games is you have to play more. Not that this wouldn't be fun, because that is what we were in town to do. But, we are getting trough our 3 and out Bonspiels. We will have to work up our stamina to play the 5 to 8 games required to win the 1st event.

Nuvi Saves the Day

So we were in Boston for New Years, which I have stated already. Of course the one bad thing about going to Boston (or any where for that matter) for a holiday is that you have to come home (with everyone else in the world who went where you did). Usually we can time things so that we don't get stuck in too much traffic, but there is almost always some traffic.

I have to say that the Nuvi performed wonderfully again for this trip. We hit a little bit of traffic at the I-90/I-84 Interchange where there is usually traffic on heavy holiday travels. This is due mainly to the number of people without EZ-Pass or Fast Lane. On a side note it amazes me that people still don't have EZ-Pass or Fast Lane or what ever. No I can understand people who live in places out side the system, but if you have MA, NY, NJ, or PA Plates and no EZ-Pass you should be forced to drive backwards to your destination on secondary roads. It really doesn't matter how infrequently you use it, it just makes everything easier. As this traffic wasn't too bad and I can blow by almost everyone because I DO have EZ-Pass there was really no need to explore an alternate option.

The rest of it was pretty smooth sailing until the dreaded merge. For those of you unfamiliar with the merge just think of two 3-4 lane highways coming together into one 3 lane road. This almost always spells disaster whenever there is heavy volume. This is compounded a bit by the fact that maybe a mile after the merge there is a rest area so people try to get from the far left to the right to exit for the rest area.

At the first rest stop on the Garden State Parkway I decided to finally enter in my traffic subscription. I had the number but entering the code is laborious task, perfect for taking up time at a full service station in NJ. Am I glad I entered the number. I will admit that Nuvi didn't tell me anything I couldn't already have guessed, but it was good to know to expect it.

As we approached the NJ Turnpike Nuvi told us that the car lane (Nuvi usually recommends that we take the car lane) was backed up and I could avoid this. Now from experience I know that usually the car lane backs up a lot more than the Truck lane. I think this has to do with the fact that the Truck lane drops to 2 lanes before it enters the merge and then only one of those 2 lase actually merge. This allows trucks to sort of glide through the merge without having to actually merge. It also tends to keep the truck lane moving a bit.

We as almost always choose the truck lane no matter what the traffic situation is. Nuvi some times picks up on this (this time it did) and after a little bit Nuvi tells us that the truck lane has building volume as well. We have also discovered from experience that usually once traffic gets bunched at the merger it take a few miles for it to recover as well. so usually just about the time we are ready to get off at the PA turnpike traffic is moving well again. So we asked Nuvi to avoid the traffic.

Ass we approach the first wall of traffic Nuvi has us get off at the next exit (about 1/4 mile ahead. We take a NJ State highway (speed limit was 45-50 most of the way) with a few traffic lights but the stops weren't worse than what we probably would have experienced on the Turnpike. We end up on 195 headed to Trenton then, after a brief user error, ended up on route 1 South towards the PA turnpike. We were seated for dinner near our house by about 8 PM. Great Job Nuvi!

Of course I can't say this way was faster or slower but it felt faster, which is important. And I was not contributing to the traffic jam buy getting off the highway. I can't wait until we have smart vehicles that know where we are going and can correlate our destination with the destinations of the other cars on the road to pick the best route (heck I would even let it drive me there).

Sam Adams Brewery Tour

M, Troy, Christa and I decided to extend the 2nd annual New Years visit to Boston this year and take part in some of the winter activities. Noting says winter like staying in side and drinking beer. We journeyed out to the Samuel Adams Brewer to learn how the Best Beer in America is made.
Mary and Christa enjoying FREE BEER at the Samuel Adams Brewery

Troy contemplating the importance of Free Beer and what effect it has on our society. Or maybe he is just wondering if he likes the Cherry Wheat.

I would recommend the earliest tour possible. At 11 AM on a Saturday there weren't many people there. By the time we left out tour at 12:15 or so the lobby was packed with waiting tour goers. After the Brewery tour we went to the Cactus Club for lunch, which was surprisingly not crowded, but the food there is excellent. Then on the the Mary Baker Eddy Museum to see the Mapparium. This is a very interesting picture/map of the world around 1935. It is amazing to see what has and hasn't changed.

Having grown up in Boston it was amazing to me that I had never heard of this place. I had been to the Christian Scientist campus a number of times, but didn't know that this room existed. A truly amazing place to spend a few minutes of your day.

Happy New Year!!!!

-Edit 01/04/2007-
I should mention that the picture above is provided courtsy of Troy's Blog. Thanks Troy!
-End Edit-

We went up to Boston for New Years again. That offically makes this the second annual Boston New Years Trip. We didn't get snow this year, but the weather was good. Cold enough to remind us that it was winter, but warm enough that walking around wasn't a problem. This year despite our best efforts we caught the fireworks at midnight. They were interesting. As you can see for the picture Christa had her drinking hat (and glasses, and noise maker, and new years beads) on.

Aside from M and I, Troy and Christa, we were again joined by cousins Sara and Roy, with new additions of cousins Chrissy and Doug and My High School Friend Rachel and her husband Sudir (Last year they were off getting engaged, Happy Engageaversary). After last year we decided there was entirely too much walking so we headed straight to the Red Hat for the evening. On the way we made a pit stop at Hong Kong (the bar not the city) for some chicken on a stick and Scorpion Bowls (I refrained because I over indulged the night before).

This year the Red Hat hired a DJ, who in our opionion ran hot and cold. When we got there he was playing some great 80's music, he played a request or two from the group. But he quickly changed his format to hip hop, which bad but wasn't what we were in the mood for. He made up for it by closing the night (at least our night) with a splash back to the 80's for some AC/Dc, Def Lepord and Van Halen.

So Happy New Year to all! Maybe we will see you in Boston next year!

Curling at the mall

Ice skating and curling in the mall!

Below is a closer shot of 2 of the 4 Sheets

Malls in PA, at least around Philly, don't designate this much internal space for non-commercial use. Now I am sure that the rink gets rented out for lessons and events, but I can't imagine that this rink makes as much money as say a Super GAP, or a Cartier.

Mount Hood At Sun Rise

I was greeted this morning by an awesome site. The sun rising just to the south of Mount Hood in Portland. I was very glad to be on a east coast schedule or I may never have seen this amazing view. Too bad my phone only takes so so pictures. But for anyone who has seen the sun rise, use your imagination to fill in the detail.

As and update this was one of the only sunny mornings I encountered while in Portland so this was truly a rare event for me. The rest of the week was overcast and the clouds blocked the view of the entire mountain let alone the sun rise.

Standing at the bottom of a waterfall

So I got distracted by my new toy and never got to write the last vacation article I had meant to. Before we went to the Volcano we decided that the Waipi'o Valley would be interesting place to check out. When we were at the Big Island for our Honeymoon we had flown through the valley in a Helicopter. The view from above was amazing. The place looked like something from Jurassic park, or any other jungle themed remote location.

M and I decided that we would drive over and check it out. The guide books all say driving to the bottom is a bad idea. We did have a 4x4 Jeep Wrangler and I am certain that the jeep would have made it down and up again. But we decided that the hike would be more worth while. I mean we are on vacation and didn't have anything else to do. So why not attempt to slow things down for a bit.

We get to the top of the Valley and the view from above is amazing! Around 900 feet below us is the incredible black sand beach that looks completely unpopulated. There are a number of small houses visible throughout the valley, but in general it is very unpopulated. The cliff walls are so steep it is almost as is if we have the same view from here as we did from our helicopter 2 years ago. At the top there is a small viewing area where people can just stop and take in the amazing view. It seems that there are a lot of locals driving down and a few ill advised tourists. Then there are the gawkers at the top who have no intention of going to the bottom.

We gather our gear and head down. The first thing we notice is that the guide books are right. We don't think we have ever seen a steeper road. We are used to steep roads along the Hudson Valley but these don't come close to the rode we are walking down. The road follows the edge of the cliff "straight" to the bottom of the valley. It is a 900 foot drop in about a mile. At the bottom you enter a very lush, dense Forrest. The setting is very peaceful, every once in a while you get passed by a 4x4, usually local, some times tourists. From the bottom of the road it is a short hike to the actual beach. Before you get to the beach you can see this amazing waterfall off to the right.

M and I decided to head over to the water fall before we went to the beach. the water coming off the cliff falls almost directly into the ocean. It is really an amazing place to be. You can see the falls behind in this picture.

After checking out the falls M and I decided lunch was in order. We headed over to the beach and grabbed a rock. Amazingly the beach was much larger than we expected. from above it looks like a rather small strip of sand, but being down there the beach is probably a mile to a mile and a half in length. And there were more people than we expected. From above you don't actually see the area where most people use the beach. There were families surfing and playing in the water and a few who had driven down just to sit in their cars.

Mary and I ate then spent a few minutes wading in the water and exploring the beach. After sitting for a few more minutes we decided to head back to the top. While we were enjoying the valley we had discussed how we were glad we hiked down to the bottom. It was much more fulfilling to be standing under the waterfall and waling along a beach that we had hiked down to. We would soon discover that we may have been wrong.

The hike out is, in a word, steep. I have done lots of hiking, much of it in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and I have come across some steep trails. This has to be one of the steepest. Not to mention since it is a rode on the side of a cliff it is very exposed to the Sun. The first hundred feet wasn't too bad because we were still excited about the wonderful valley we had just been in. The last 800 feet were a challenge. We passed a few people walking down with in flip-flops, with out water. We had to wonder how they planned on making it out. M and I had packed water and saved a quart for the hike out. But we quickly finished that and wished we had brought another. It seemed amazing that people were planning on spending time in the valley and getting out with out any hydration.

After about 300 feet or so we were offered a ride to the top from a nice local. We decided that we would be able to make it out no problem, we just needed to take it slow. We thanks the man and up he went. I guess that is how most people get out of the valley.

We finally arrived back at the car a little tired and without water. It turned out that the hike out wasn't as bad as I had imagined. It was steep and exposed, but at one point I told some people that they were almost at the bottom, believing we had made it about half way up. Only to have turned a corner and realized we were very close to the top. (Sorry guys)

When we finished we stopped at the top to look back on the valley one more time. We talked with a few people who were considering going to the bottom. Headed back to the car and downed the remaining quart of water we had saved for the ride home.

Standing on top of a Volcano

Mary and I just got back from vacation we had a great time. I will try and update all of the things we did here, but I will start with the most awe inspiring event first. We actually hiked to the back of an erupting volcano!

The above picture is a panoramic view of the Pu'u O'o Vent of The Kiluea Volcano on the Island of Hawaii. It was a truly amazing place to be. The hike is a 4.2 mile stroll through a sort of interesting rain forest. The trail is relatively flat and very wet. It isn't much different than a hike through a wet New Englad forest. While the vegetation is slightly different the ground cover is mostly dense fern type plants.

The thing I found most interesting about the hike was the lava we were walking over. Rather than the hard granite I am used to it was neat to see the relatively new lava flows beneath my feet. There were a few places where the lava looked like tree roots and I had to double take when I stepped on it.

The Back of the Vent was amazing. We didn't dare get much closer then the edge of the forest, which was maybe a mile away from the actual vent. From a distance the 500 foot vent looks rather small, but it was amazing to know that on the other side of a small rock wall was an active volcano.

Mary and I made to the edge of the forest for lunch and spent about an hour just watching the vent steam. We saw a few helicopter tours come by and at least one fixed wing aircraft fly by. We probably could have spent all day watching the vent just pour out clouds of gas.

We have, in the past, watched the lava flow into the ocean which is also an experience not to be missed. But being at the top of the volcano will hold a special place in my memory.