Meeting the Mettenburgs

The last time we saw the Joe, Cate and the kids was last summer in Italy - since we no longer travel to Pittsburgh in the winter (having gotten stuck in their driveway two too many times), spring and summer are our only options and both sets of families have been busy. Still, in between Allen's trip to Iowa and the rest of the family's trip to Iowa we managed to squeeze in a quick visit with the Mettenburgs (though Gigi and Hugh left the morning after we arrived... for Iowa).

We got to their house around seven on Friday evening, just in time to enjoy tacos and their newly deer-fenced and professionally landscaped backyard (compete with a fire pit, a boardwalk that Joe built himself, and a lot of artistically placed boulders) which we failed to document completely. The next morning, after bidding Gigi and Hugh safe travels, we headed to downtown Pittsburgh to tour the University of Pittsburgh (the kids were not impressed by the Cathedral of Learning) and Carnegie Mellon University (the kids were impressed by their lawn chairs), before meeting up with the Pearsons for lunch. Afterwards, we enjoyed yard games, cocktails and a delicious dinner.

Sunday morning we had waffles for breakfast followed by a hike (where we got to see where Mr. Rogers's house used to be), before we grabbed lunch and headed home. It was brief visit, but one that was good to get in before the rest of our summer travels.

(To see all the pictures, click here.)

Direct to Iowa!

With dad no longer in shape for a 14 hour drive to Iowa, we decided to take advantage of the brand new direct flight from DCA to Cedar Rapids, and I flew with him out to Iowa to get him set up at Martha's for the month. It really was amazing to take off at 8:30 on Saturday morning and be at Martha's by 11am - too early for lunch! 

It was a quick trip as I was flying back on Monday morning, but I fit in a nice visit with Grandma & Grandpa Z, an afternoon at the Pond with the Cottingham's - including Carrol's family visiting from Oregon and Kentner's family visiting from New Zealand, a luau at the Pond for a friend of Ken & Helen's with dancing, music, and a fire eater (the advantages of Friends in the West Branch Quaker Church having members with Samoan roots!), nice visits with Leanna and Kent, a barbeque dinner at Wildwood, and even a facetime visit with Thomas and family! 

I also got some nice pictures of the old cottonwood tree on the lane up to the Pond that lost some major limbs in the last big storm. My grandpa Floyd used to tell stories about how big that tree was when he was a boy back in the 1910's - meaning that it was probably an original tree on the prairie before it was turned into farmland. It's always been one of my favorites, so it was a little sad to see it wracked by storm damage... 

Looking forward to a longer visit when the whole family drives back out in a few weeks!  

On Broadway

A few months ago, Dave and Kara mentioned that they had a wedding in New Jersey in July and wondered if we would want to meet up with them in New York. Intrigued with the prospect of seeing family and possibly a musical, we started researching and lobbying until we convinced Dave and Kara to join us for a matinee of Hadestown and whatever else we managed to fit in over two days.

We fit in a lot. We took the train up from DC and after a subway ride and a 10 block walk met up with Dave and Kara at our hotel where they had already checked in (membership has it's privileges). We dropped our stuff in their room and headed out for lunch followed by a quick stop at the waterfront before we could finally check into our room. While most of us were pretty exhausted from the heat and the travel, Allen was restless and managed to convince the rest of us to check out the MoMa. Allen was so inspired that he became a member (because membership has its privileges); meanwhile the kids were a bit more critical of the exhibits with the exception of what they interpreted as an homage to the Doctor Who "Snowman" episode.

After the MoMa, we headed out for a lovely dinner followed by a trek to get fancy gelato just off Broadway, which was deemed worth the extra steps (which totaled 21k for the day).

The next mornings the boys woke early in order to meet Dave and Kara and the hotel breakfast while Nora and I lingered (Nora wasn't a fan of Allen's snoring). After climbing 17 flights to collect us (and bring me coffee) we decided is was wiser to let sleeping Noras lie while the rest explored Central Park before I doubled back to get Nora and meet everyone for brunch. 

Brunch was a delicious albeit loud affair which involved Fruity Pebble pancakes for Dave and a mojito mocktail for Nora. Afterwards we killed time at the M&M store before heading to the Walter Kerr Theater for the Sunday matinee.

While we had seen Hadestown at the Kennedy Center, the Broadway version was something else entirely, Ms Hermes was played by Tony award winner Lillias White, the original Broadway Eurydice (who announced she was leaving the production the day after we saw it) Eva Noblezada performed, and Orpheus was played by Tom Hewitt who as Owen mentioned repeatedly, both originated and survived the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. The staging was also pretty amazing with the cast descending into Hadestown onstage instead of walking off to get there. The performances were incredible and Dave and Kara loved it too.

Afterwards, we convinced Dave and Kara to take the subway to the Little Island at Pier 55 in order to catch a free concert with cellist/guitarist and Beatles coverer, Agustin Uriburu. It started to sprinkle so we grabbed dinner and then took the High Line (and several additional midtown blocks) to finally make it to Kara's preferred destination, Milk Bar, where she was finally able to compare how her high altitude cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow cookie compared to the original (spoiler alert: they were very, very different). Having hit 23k steps that day, Dave and Kara opted to say their goodbyes and take an Uber back to the hotel while we forged ahead with the subway. This was a mistake: the heavens opened up while we were underground and we had to walk the 10 blocks back to the hotel via tsunami. All clothes (and more importantly, shoes) were soaked.

The next morning, Dave and Kara headed to the airport, I desperately tried to dry out everyone's footwear using the hotel hairdryer and Allen grabbed sustenance at the hotel breakfast bar. We then headed back to Central Park for some more bouldering and some lunch, before grabbing our stuff at the hotel and making our way back to Penn Station and eventually, DC.

(To see all of our New York pictures, click here.)

Snowmass

 

One of my favorite conferences has always been the Snowmass workshop that brings together a small group climate people for a week of deep dives and fascinating discussions around the nexus of climate, energy, water, land, socio-economics, and policy all in the beautiful setting of Aspen. This year was the first time the conference has been held in person since 2019, and it was wonderful to be back in the mountains at Top of the Village again (the same place we stayed when skiing in Snowmass back in February of 2020!). Things were a little different - the pandemic caused a boom in summer travel to the mountains, so the conference's usual late July time slot wasn't available, but they were able to fit us in in late June instead, and the earlier date meant there was still a bit of snow on the ground and we didn't have the regular late afternoon storms. That all worked out well for me in one sense as the old slot often conflicted with Cornfest, but did mean that the first week was off the table since Elaine and I already had plans for our 20th Anniversary!

The best part of this year's workshop was that we had afternoon breakout sessions where we could often continue our discussions on a hike instead of sitting around a room. That meant I was able to do the hike around the lake at Maroon Bells for the first time! It really was as amazing as everyone says. Two majestic 14ers looming over an alpine lake with wildflowers all around. I was also able to do a 10 mile afternoon hike from Top of the Village, over on the ditch trail to the Campground lift, then up the mountain and across on the expresso trail all the way to the Elk Camp gondola. Luckily I made it the gondola right before it closed and was able to catch a ride down in time for dinner. On the last day I rode the gondola up and then went up the Elk Camp lift to see the summer view from the top, and hiked all the way back down to the village.

The only hiccup on the trip was my flight back home. I had a layover in Chicago, and due to some problems with the flight computer on our plane I was delayed overnight. Luckily, Steve & Becky were willing to put me up for the night and I had a lovely evening chatting with them and Olivia (though Maura was working and out until 3am, and Sam was out of town). All told, it was a lovely and refreshing trip.

(click here for all the pictures)