History Nerds blitz Philadelphia

From what I write here, you would think that work only sends me to interesting places, and that my adventures when not travelling for work are frequently nearly as interesting. It's a classic case of selection bias; if I don't think it was interesting, I don't write about it. When I am given an opportunity to explore someplace interesting... well, it ends up here. In January, I was sent to the center of old town Philadelphia. It was too much history and cool stuff to explore on my own, so Dad flew out half way through the week, and joined me!

End of 2019 travel...

I may have had a bit of a travel hangover after Scotland (not a real hangover, we did more sampling than drinking), but that didn't mean that I didn't travel a bunch. Here's an overview of where I went in the last 3 months of last year...

Sunset at home, looking at Mt Hood

Secret Cities (New Mexico Hikes)

I spent a week recently in New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, working in what was once a hidden city. Los Alamos is a town even smaller than my hometown, but with a few thousand more scientists! In fact, it would likely still be a small farm land if the US government hadn't set up its central nuclear research facility there! The statue of Mr Oppenheimer in the park downtown still overlooks a stream of researchers, machinists, technicians, etc. towards the bridge that takes them to the state-of-the-art facilities on the other side of the canyon. While I didn't actually get to see the research center, I did take advantage of the wonderful hiking that was so close to town! 

Moonrise at Sunset over a distant Santa Fe

New Mexico Wanderings

After my weekend in Boston, the next stop on my trip was Albuquerque. I wasn't sure what to expect from New Mexico, except maybe to see some folks from Calvin while I was there, enjoy some sunshine, and and eat some chili. Over meals with friends, I had green an red chili in several forms (each of their suggestions was delicious!) and finally got my time in the sun on my last day, before flying out. 

Sunrise on a red snake

a Preview of San Francisco

My current sunny coffee shop seat is sun warmed and the familiar sounds of steam foaming milk, mugs clinking into their saucers, humming conversation between the silent page turners and highlighters bent over texts. Since this will also be at least a 3-part trip, I had better get caught up... I'm only a month behind! So, today, here's my walk through San Francisco.

Minnesota Nice

I’ve been putting off writing this post, because I hardly know where to start. There’s a meme on the internet that describes Minnesota as “Nice.” What they mean is that there’s a tendency of Minnesotans to be agreeable, to not rock the boat, to step just a little out of their way to be friendly towards their neighbors. Normally, I’m not a fan of being “nice.” I much prefer “kind directness.” If I say I need to go, I need to go; don’t walk me through an hour of goodbyes that slowly move towards the door (also known as a “Minnesota goodbye”). As a kindness to each other, we can say one goodbye and simply leave! But it was a rough week on which I found myself in Minnesota, and a little niceness from old and new friends went a long way towards soothing my soul.

IMTS Chicago

After 3 years of not going to Chicago for work, I've had two trips in the past two months! This time, instead of being out at the very end of the orange "L" line, I was staying in downtown Chicago on the Magnificent Mile. We were just a block of Michigan Avenue, which is lined with department stores, gourmet food, and high-class boutiques. We were also a 15 minute walk from the famous Navy Pier, which juts into Lake Michigan and gives an amazing view back over the city skyline. 

Lancaster and York counties

Last week York sent me out to Pennsylvania for a a week of training. I looked up the area on Google Maps, and a couple of things kept popping up. First, it's the factory tour capitol of America. Harley Davidson and Snyder of Hanover pretzels, to name a few. The other thing that popped up was nearby Lancaster, seat of Lancaster County and a hub of Amish country. So, despite the tours all being over by the time I was off work, I decided to visit both. 

Amish country, sunset, hot air balloon

Wichita

After a couple hang-ups, work sent me out to Wichita to visit customers. The area has a surprising amount of aerospace companies, including Cessna, Spirit, their suppliers, McConnel Air Force Base... I visited one or two of those and explored Wichita for a day or two.

the Keeper of the Plains

I took the "L" downtown...

Training last week was in one of the suburbs of Chicago. I was staying next to the end of the Orange Line, so after work one day I jumped on the "L" and headed downtown. The familiar rustle of public transportation made the new city seem comfortable. Passing train yards, warehouses, up-and-coming lofts, and finally the towering downtown blocks... It was a cross-section of the city. 

Flatlands Road Trip

Work sent me to Kansas... I arrived early enough to do a little sight seeing in the history-rich area around Kansas City, largely based on 1838 Missouri Mormon War sites. Then the road trip to central Kansas started... with stopovers in Topeka and Salina. 

Change at the Year's End

There has been so much going on in the past few weeks and months, and not many pictures to show for it. Here's the bullet list, in no particular order:

• Loki didn't work out. He had an aggressive streak that an expert rainer could have handled, but expert trainers we are not. 
• We bought a house
• Flew to Quebec and back
• Started a business
• Quit a job
• Got lasik eye surgery
• Had Thanksgiving in Canada
• Flew to Quebec and back
• Started a half-marathon training program
• ...

After the disappointment of Loki, it has been hard to pick this up again and want to post... but since so much has happened and there is another trip coming up, here are some Quebec photos to start out the new year. 

 

 And a few photos from the beginning-of-January trip...

So Cal Beaches

In the past two months, I have been sent to southern California twice for work. The first was to Costa Mesa for some update training, the second was to Long Beach for a standard training. Of course, while there I unwound a little after long training days at the nearby beaches: Huntington, Newport, and Long.

Back to the desert

Immediately after our road trip, I was off and at it again for work. It was a trip over a sun scorched plateau in in the center of the American west. This time, I was going a little faster than the 70 mph we averaged coming home from Utah... and it was even hotter when I landed at Sky Harbor airport!

There were thunderstorms nightly. You could see them coming for miles.

L’été à les fortifications

June means another trip to Quebec! A significant amount of work has been done on the fortifications in the past year, and I spent a warm, sunny afternoon checking them out. 

Montréal, rapidement

Normally in June I post about Quebec City, since we have annual update training sometime in the early summer. I almost always stop in Montreal en route to Quebec City, since there are no direct flights from Vancouver, but I rarely leave the airport. This time, I came up with a way to squeeze a visit in without extending my trip past 6 days. A friend from college had recently moved to the city with her husband, and offered to share their couch. I flew out a day early for the meetings, caught the bus to their neighborhood, and spent the day that the rest of my co-workers traveled exploring a new city! 

the Basilica

a Hike in Southern WA

My last class was scheduled the week before Memorial Day weekend 200 miles south of home just off I-5. Looking at the option of driving vs flying, I realized I could get there lickety-split on a turboprop from Bellingham directly to Portland. So I did!

Mt St Helens peeking above Iron Bridge

Bishop Arts District (Dallas, TX)

The week after my Quebec trip, I immediately had another trip scheduled for a training in Dallas. Oofda. Nevertheless, I headed south in search of sunshine and coffee. While it turned out that Dallas is a coffee wasteland, there was sunshine and chaco weather!

Everything's bigger in Texas? 

Second Quebec weekend (more snowshoeing!)

I've run into a bit of a bind. Mumsy took nearly all of the photos on her birthday, since I spent the morning "ice canoeing." Mumsy hasn't shared her photos yet, so I'm going to break the time sequence of my posts and jump to the end of the week.

Two of my co-workers, who are about my age and started at our company about the same time as me, invited me to go snowshoeing with them after our week of training. Of course I said yes! So Friday, while most of my American teammates were flying home, LC and I loaded our gear into JD's car and headed down the St Lawrence. (After a quick stop at Tim Hortons, of course!)

Morning sun in Petite-Rivière-Saint-François

Mumsy Arrives in Quebec City

Mumsy came with me to Quebec this past week. I have three days of training here, she had a birthday to celebrate and very much enjoys the city. It seemed like a perfect plan! Flying in on Friday, we immediately launched into a weekend of food, history, food, outdoor adventure, and more food.

We found the costume closet...