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99U & NYC

Looking forward to visiting NYC for the  99U conference in about a month!

I'll probably do some live sketches of some of the talks as I've done at past conferences.

Summer Recap, Part One

It's well past Labor Day and into the school year but since it's 90 degrees out today I think I can still get in some updates about summer under the wire before it's officially fall.

We got an early start this year as Zoe was out of school just a week before she headed off for a camp adventure at Camp Jordan near Bar Harbor, Maine. This was Zoe's first sleep-away camp and there were many camp experiences to choose from. Of course, she was going to choose one with some degree of adventure:

She had a full week of camping with rock climbing, a ropes course, boating, cooking over open fires and even some thunderstorms. 

Since we had to go up near Bar Harbor to pick her up, we decided to make a long weekend of it and spend some time in town and in Acadia National Park. We'd camped there a couple of times, but it had been a while since our last visit:

Of course, the problem with planning a visit in advance with hotel reservations and everything is that you are then at the mercy of the weather. So it was a bit more foggy than we would have liked. 

But still we managed to have a great time, explore the park and enjoy Bar Harbor. The hotel had a pool and we got some swimming in during a brief period of sunshine. Here are some more pictures.

I took my bike along with the idea of getting up early and enjoying some long rides through Acadia's loop road and carriage roads before the crowds got there. The cold foggy mornings somehow failed to entice me out of bed but since I had dragged my bike all the way there I was determined to get at least one ride in so I set out early one morning. As I biked through the first half of the park it got even foggier. Since it was not going to be very scenic on the scenic road, I thought why not at least make it a challenging ride and bike up Cadillac Mountain instead.

Why Not

It turns out there were several good reasons not to do this, but unfortunately they only became obvious as I was already climbing up the mountain.

1. As I climbed the mountain the weather changed from heavy fog to heavy fog plus wind plus rain. At some point I'm pretty sure I biked directly through some low-lying clouds.
2. Somewhat relatedly it also got a lot colder.
3. Gravity: 
   
   

 I mean, I knew it was a mountain and all but since I hadn't checked in advance I didn't really know what I was getting into, especially combined with the weather. But I wanted a challenge and I got one - and eventually made it to the top!

 

At which point I realized yet another miscalculation: since I could barely see three feet in front of me, the trip down would not be the invigorating swift easy coast it should have been. Better adjectives would be "nerve-wracking", "brake-clutching", "hand-cramping" and "bone-chilling".

All in all though it was a fun weekend with family and lots of good food!

July 4th

We took another long-weekend road trip at the beginning of July to see some family and attend a surprise birthday party. This was in the party of NY people from outside NY call "upstate" but in reality it's just a bit north up the Hudson River and NYers from actual upstate NY consider it just an extended borough. It was a good low-key weekend, with family, friends, swimming and barbecue. Plus if you ever need a nesting doll, just let me know:

I met a lot of in-laws whose names I can't keep track of but they all have cute kids:

 

We smuggled out a few dozen bagels for my freezer and my co-workers and were on our way. No major traffic on the ride home, and only a few weeks until my next vacation week. Tune in next time for the life aquatic.