Penn State Wedding

You know it's a Penn State wedding if...

you hear We Are... Penn State at the ceremony in Eisenhower Chapel

the Nittany Lion shows up to dance with the bride at the reception

the meteorologists arrange for stellar weather over State College

... and it's a big reunion at the wedding

EMS THON crew at the Lion Shrine with the Brewers

I brought my bff Sara along as my wedding date, and she fit right in with the Penn State crowd. We ate and drank our way through town, even taking in a Spikes game.

Sara, Eric, Armand, and Donati at the Spikes game

Congratulations to Joey and Kelly!!!

I love summer convection.

So, I'm a little behind in blogging my trips, but I have to post this photo. I was at the 79th Street Boat Basin in Manhattan last night, and a crazy thunderstorm came rolling through. It was raining so hard for several minutes that you couldn't see NJ across the Hudson. It was fun to watch (and fun to watch people get soaked by the wind-driven rain) while I was safely under a roof. Two hours after the storm cleared, as we were eating dinner, a (meteorology) friend pointed at the sky and said "Hey, those are mammatus clouds, right?" I've only seen them twice in person before, and I turned around to confirm and saw this:

Madrid

Madrid in June. Easy to see why the Spanish siesta, as the highs topped 90 everyday I was there. Also easy to see why they keep such late hours... dinner was never before 9, and sometimes lasted till midnight.

I wandered all around Madrid for 3 days with a friend, eating tapas and drinking plenty of cañas along the way. We stayed very close to Calle de Huertas, a nice little street giving good reason to keep up with Spain's very late hours. I got my fill of chorizo, tortillas, patatas bravas, and albóndigas, and paella.

Madrid is a very walkable city, and walk I did. The sights, in no particular order, included El Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor, El Prado, El Parque del Buen Retiro, Museo de Reina Sophia, Gran Vía, and the Jardín Botánico.

Monument to Alfonso XII in El Parque del Buen Retiro

Tigerlilies in Jardín Botánico

Laughing men statue at Museo de Reina Sofia

Palacio Real

Tower Bridge highlights

I was in London again for work; just a week this time around. I didn't do too much outside of work, but I did get some nice shots of Tower Bridge.

I was walking back to my hotel across Tower Bridge the first night I was there and just got across when they started raising the drawbridge to let a sailboat through.

Going up

Sorry car traffic, you're just going to have to wait for the Thames traffic

And, my last evening in town, the skies provided a nice backdrop for Tower Bridge.

High Point

I was home visiting family after running around Alaska, but I still had an itch to hike. Molly and I headed up to High Point State Park. High Point boasts the highest point in NJ: 1803 ft. If you go up to the top of the monument (which is almost always closed when I come to the park), you've breached the 2K mark: 2023 ft. Not quite Alaska elevations, but I'll take what I can get. I got freaked out when we stopped for a snack and heard a grunt and rustling up the trail. We turned right around after that. No signs of bears in Alaska, but I was reminded that north Jersey is BEAR COUNTRY.

Molly has conquered the red/green trail

Molly can jump over NY NJ and PA at the same time!

Clearing PA

Clearwater and muddy bottoms - Alaska Day 10

Don’t think there could be a more perfect last hurrah to my trip. After a 2-hr drive east to Delta, a group of 8 adults, 2 toddlers, and 3 canoes paddled down the Clearwater River, to the Tanana, and ended up in a pretty lake. Clearwater River? Definitely clear and pretty. Views in the trees were nice, and we all enjoyed lunch on a muddy river bed, especially the littlest naked one!


Most of the group ended up at a drive-in in Delta for dinner, where I got a buffalo burger and blueberry milkshake.

Oh yeah, and I saw the pipeline too

A Nice Reward - Alaska Day 9

A hike and a soak in the hot springs in the end sounds like a good start to the Memorial Day weekend, no? Katie, Julie, Ashlee and her dog Mo and I hiked the 9-mile Angel Rocks to Chena Hot Springs trail. Weather ranged from sweaty, humid, sunny hot to cool and breezy to a bit of a downpour along the way. I got to stomp in the mud and puddles with my new favorite footwear, waterproof hiking boots. The rain lasted maybe about 10 minutes and then it was sunny and beautiful again.

Mo taking a break on a leftover snow pile

By ruining the shot, Mo actually makes it more awesome

Sky's a little dark back there...

We got to the hot springs and had some drinks (including an Aurora Borealis martini, pretty and tasty) and dinner, caesar salad topped with smoked salmon. Then we soaked in the hot springs for about an hour. It was a perfect temperature for a soak after the hike. It's a pretty touristy spot, so you're basically sharing a big pool with strangers, but it was still nice and relaxing.