Read more »

I just got back from a conference in Big Sky, Montana. The conference hotel was up in the mountains at a ski resort, and although they were starting to get their first snow of the season, the slopes weren’t quite ready yet. The scenery was quit breathtaking (especially for someone from New Jersey), but unfortunately I only got to walk around and take pictures during one of the cloudy days. The conference itself was quite interesting. It was much busier than any of the others I’ve been to. I met a number of new interesting people, and got to see a few other familiar faces which was nice.

Megan and I went down to Cape Cod for the 4th of July weekend along with our friends Bobby and Stefan.  It was right after my proposal defense, so I had a wonderful time just relaxing and forgetting about work for a few days. We’ve been having about a month of steady rain and clouds, but amazingly the sun broke through during our first full day there. After that we had beautiful weather, a lot of fun, and good seafood. For the first time it finally felt like summer to me, as I sat outside in the sun, enjoying my fish tacos.

We spent our days relaxing on the beach, and our nights at Sweetwater Forest Campground, which had decent size camp sites that were reasonably separated. One afternoon Bobby fished in the pond near our campsite, and caught us two small sunfish… better than the guy near us who only pulled in weeds. On the Fourth we made our way through the crowds of men in muscle shirts to see the fireworks in Provincetown. Megan and I spent part of our last day biking along the Cape Cod Rail Trail, which was a very nice ride. We also zipped through some of the more hilly trails in Nickerson State Park, before returning to the more leisurely CCRT.

For Christmas, Megan and I got each other snowshoes. We had used them before on a cabining trip up in NH and had a great time, so we both (independently) thought it would be fun to have some of our own. We’ve been having a nice snowy winter the last few weeks, and we finally got a chance to give our new shoes a try last week.  We took a walk down along the Cushman Brook near our house. We’ve had about a foot of snow in the last two weeks, and it has stayed cool, keeping the snow very soft and powdery.

I just moved back to New Jersey for an internship at AT&T Research (more about that another day). As a New Jersey native, I have every right to make fun of my home state. On the other hand, sometimes ol’ jersey can surprise you with some unexpected beauty. I went for a walk early this morning around the Loantaka Brook Park right down the street from my apartment and managed to see some very pretty sights: several deer, some beautiful folliage, millions of geese (more noisy than pretty), a pair of swans, and an amazing great blue heron.

Megan and I took a trip to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, Maine last week.

It is a beautiful island with an amazing variety of terrain ranging from rocky coasts to pristine lakes to the highest mountains on the North Atlantic seaboard.

It didn’t rain on us too much, but it was very cloudy and gray. I’ll add some more of the pictures that Megan and I took later.

Here are some pictures I took of the Amherst 4th of July Fireworks.

I love how some of them come out looking like nebula filled starscapes.

On July 4th, Megan, Gal and I had a picnic lunch at the top of Mt. Holyoke. Unfortunately the weather was quite cloudy, so the views weren’t as nice as normal, but at least it didn’t rain on us. At the top of the mountain is an old hotel which used to be quite the hot spot, hosting guests like Abe Lincoln and some famous opera singer whose name I forget. The state turned the area into a park in the 40s, and it is now a small museum. We toured the hotel, had some sandwiches, and wandered along the ridge for a bit, enjoying the scenery. Read more »

In late may Megan and I headed down south for her cousin’s wedding in South Carolina. Along the way we made a few stops, the first one in New Jersey to visit my family. My dad gave us a tour of his vegetable patch in the community gardens at Barclay Farms. I didn’t see any popcorn sprouts (they grows in small, microwavable bags, right?), but lots of other things were starting to come up.

In the last week, Spring has finally arrived in Amherst. The season suddenly changed from cold and gray to incredibly warm and sunny. We’ve had several days in the high 70s now, and it looks like the forecast will remain that way for the time being. I was very ready for winter to end this year, and even though I am very busy working on a paper which is due in a few weeks, life just seems so much more pleasant now that I can sit by an open window and feel the warm sun on me.