Little Travels -- November 2011

Can I count it as travel when I went to Austin with Suze and Jessica when Susannah picked out THE wedding dress? Of course, she liked the more expensive store and dress. Sigh. (Truthfully it was the best dress)

Early November (9th to 12th) I went to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Portland, Oregon.

Click here to see all Hopper pics

Phil and I drove to Georgia for Thanksgiving at the cabin (November 17-27) and at Gwyneth's in Decatur where we had a huge dinner for Gwyneth, Rob , Camille and Chloe plus the senior Buteras, Barb's brother Jim and his wife Marty and daughter Suzi with her family Stuart and Sanna and one of Barb's former students, Samantha.

Click to see Thanksgiving Pics

Once again we all (including my borther Jim) went to Tuba Christmas at Light Up Blue Ridge where I played my horn.

Little Travels -- October 2011

Thanks to a great colleague I was able to combine Fall Break at the cabin with a SIGCSE Board meeting in Charlotte.

Click here to see all pics

We were able to go to the Blue Ridge Fall Arts in the Park as well as the Corn Maize in Benton Tennessee

Phil and I were able to help Gwyneth and her family with their move from Pine Lake to a condo in Decatur.

Click here to see all pics

Little Travels -- August - September 2011

Lots of small trips.

Spent early August at the cabin in North Georgia trying to stay away from the heat of an extraordinarily hot Texas summer.

First off to California for a visit with Susannah and Luis from Sept. 1-6.

Slideshow

The next weekend was a trip to Denver for an ACM Ed Council meeting from September 15-18. Gwyneth and the girls were in Georgetown for ACL staying with Phil while I was in New York.

Two Kiwis (Alison and Julia) and me Click here for slideshow to see all pics

Finally I was New York City for a Sig Governing Board meeting near Grand Central Station from September 22-24. I had a chance to go to the opening of the IBM Think exhibit at Lincoln Center.

My dinner plans the last evening were canceled so my friends the Murphys showed me a great time in Garden City.

Celeste andLarry

Click to see all pics

LittleTravels -- July

I arrived in Houston from Germany on the 4th of July -- seeing the end of the Georgetown fireworks from the highway as I drove home. I spent the 5th unpacking and packing.

Phil and I headed to the Georgia cabin on the 6th with a full car and the cats. The big rush was to get to the cabin to unload the cats and then make it to Atlanta for Chloe's 9th birthday. I took Chloe to gymnastics. While she was there, I went to look for a geocache in a neighborhood that had been on HGTV. When she was done then took the girls and their friends to Kroger to get a cake. Supper with friends at Harmony Restaurant. Back to Pine lake for cake and gifts. WE spent the night and returned to the cabin and the cats.

Gwyneth and the girls came up on the weekend and we headed for Chattanooga, stopping to see if we could spot Rob who was leading a rafting trip -- but we couldn't.

Our goal was a a Lunch Money concert. Gwyneth had made reservations for us to stay in a railroad car at the Chattanooga ChooChoo Hotel.

Gwyneth at her Choo Choo office!

The next day we headed out for Ruby Falls tour of the cave.

At the cabin Phil spent a lot of time sawing up the tree that fell during the spring storms. We both enjoyed hiking and looking for geocaches.

Toward the end of the month, I went to DC for an NSF panel, followed by my water aerobics conference -- Atlanta Mania, and Phil headed to Carver for family and the Old Home Day Bake.

Little Travels in 2011 Part II May - June

Continuing to update my smaller trips in 2011, Phil and I returned from our New Zealand and Australia adventure on May 20. I was able to see Gwyneth, Rob and the girls for a few hours when they stopped at the start of their marathon road trip out west. I managed to stay in Texas until May 23 - 25 when I went to New York City for an NCWIT meeting which was held on the NYU campus. I shared a hotel room in Chelsea with Renee, my replacement as SIGCSE chair.


Jane and Barb with Washington Square Park in background

Then Phil and I went to visit Susannah and Luis in Palo Alto, California from June 16-20. Great fun, great weather and lots of good walks!


Luis, Duncan, Phil and Suze at Baylands

Little Travels in 2011 Part I January - March

I realized that this is my travel blog, but I have omitted lots of the smaller trips that I have made so far this year. I thought I would recap them with a few pictures.

After our snowed in adventure at the cabin in January, the small trips began. The first one was the side trip on the way back to Texas to celebrate Gwyneth's birthday with her and her family in Pine Lake.

January 19
A little over 10 days later , I flew to New Orleans for an NSF sponsored meeting on new funding opportunities. Since Rob had a meeting in New Orleans that overlapped my meeting, Gwyneth and the girls drove from Georgia to spend time with both of us. We enjoyed a great meal at Green Goddess. Because of weather in both New Orleans and in Dallas, my flight home got cancelled and I spent an afternoon with my Atlanta family going to the Insectarium and with Gwyneth and the girls; and then out for an oyster po' boy at Mother's with Rob. (January 30-February 2)


At Green Goddess
Barely time to unpack and re-pack before my February 5-8 meeting of the ACM Ed Council in Miami, interesting discussions, good food, good friends and lovely weather.


Miami Beach February 7
Another trip to the airport came two days later, but it was Suze who traveled from California whom we picked up for a long weekend visit.


Suze and Phil at ABIA February10
February 22-28 Phil and I flew to Massachusetts to visit his sister Belle in Carver. We engaged in a lot of ice chopping and snow shoveling.


Ice chopping and wearing black and red in support of Christchurch Earthquake

On March 6 I flew to New York City for an ACM SGB meeting near Times Square. I arrived in a downpour and when I left the plane was delayed because it came from heavy snow in Vermont so I got home at 3 am on March 8.


Times Square in the rain

Later in the day on March I, I drove to Dallas for the SIGCSE Board meeting followed by the Symposium. I had a great room -- a suite, really. I even got to meet up with my Southwestern colleagues, since I never seem to be in Georgetown!


CS Department -- me, Sue Barbara A and Rick

t the close of the meeting, I drove on to Blue Ridge to oversee some plumbing repairs at the cabin and to go to Atlanta to attend a Ralph's World concert with Gwyneth and the girls (March 13-18 in Georgia)


Ralph Covert with Gwyneth, Chloe and Camille at Mall of Georgia

No more trips until April 16 when Phil and I headed to Australia. But we did have visits from our missionary friends, the Herrins (March 19-21), and a birthday/Capital 10,000 visit from Gwyneth and the girls (March 26-29) and from Suze and Luis (March 25-28).



Luis, Susannah and Chloe at a geocaching event at an Austin area ghost town

Post ITiCSE Day 4 Winningen to Darmstadt

Click to see complete slideshow

We went down for another big breakfast – eggs, sausage, multigrain roll, muesli, yogurt and an orange. We walked to the train station to find the times – the hotel clerk was unbelievable unhelpful. We finally asked a villager if we could take our bikes on the train to Koblenz and they were free because it was the weekend.

We went back to the hotel and set off for a geocache at the site of witches’ executions in the 1600’s. We asked a local for directions to Hexenhugel and with no English he was much more help than the innkeeper. We walked on paths up through wonderful vineyards and great views. At the top there was even an airfield! We came to a woods path where we saw the Hexenhugel monument and Judy spotted the cache!

Back to the hotel, where we checked out and walked our bikes to a café where Judy had coffee and tried the local red wine. We walked our bikes to the train and took off for Koblenz.

Luckily Judy checked in at the staffed visitor center where she found out we had to take the earlier local train in order for our bikes to be allowed, so we didn’t get to tour Koblenz but hd a slice of pizza

The train ride to Mainz was almost too fast to follow Rick Steve’s commentary but it was fun to read about what we had ridden by. We took our bikes to the shop. While I was in the train station (ran into Dennis Bouvier and Raven) the bike guy came – perfect. We had some time to spend, so we had a coffee and a cherry strudel. The train to Darmstadt was 20 minutes late so we got to the hotel just at 5 when the reception opened!

We retrieved our bags from Stefanie’s room and checked email etc. in our own rooms which were the same ones we had been in before! We then headed into town for the festival which was unbelievable. So many rides, food and people – Wauseon homecoming times 50!

Judy and I ate at the Biergarten I had eaten at the previous Sunday. She order Frankfurter green sauce which turned out not to be a sausage but eggs – the name Frankfurter modified the sauce! I got another fish salad, and this time the fish was fried but good. We walked a good portion of the carnival but not all.

Back at the hotel we talked to Stefanie. We talked more before going to our rooms. I showered and went to bed about 11.