Travel

Family / Travel — 1 Comment
11
Oct 10

New England Foliage with Fiala Folks

Happy Columbus Day!

We took a weekend trip to Maine and New Hampshire with Josh’s folks to do some leaf peeping, antiquing, brewery hunting, and euchre playing. We had such a fun trip and loved exploring NH’s White Mountains – especially Franconia Notch – with them.

We spent our first night in Maine and found plenty of local brews to try while getting in a few rounds of Euchre. It was a great way to end a good day of antiquing and a nice dinner at the Portsmouth Brewery in New Hampshire!

We saw great colors early and often!

Josh found the Yellow Lady and had to try a round at lunch.

One of many cute covered bridges we saw

We did short hikes to a few pretty falls

The place we stayed had a whole block of houses and a brewery!  It was great!

The cuteness where we stayed

Indian Head

Franconia Notch

Where the Man in Mountain was before he fell down

We finally found shuffleboard in New England!  Though this is all the way in New Hampshire! Girls win!

Family / San Francisco / Travel / Weddings — No Comments
9
Aug 10

Lis & Philip Celebration!

We went to San Francisco to celebrate the marriage of our great friends Philip and Alisa! We had an amazing weekend, saw good friends, did a super fun Anchor Steam brewery tour, and got to spend our last day with Shannu and John! And the wedding itself was gorgeous with a party that was an absolute blast afterward!

Moblog / Travel — No Comments
18
Jul 10

Wayfinding in VT, NY, NH & Mass

We went on a little weekend trip to do some data collection on campus wayfinding. We hit up Mount Holyoke, Skidmore College and Middlebury. We had a great time seeing some cute little college towns. Also, neither of us had been to Saratoga Springs before and we loved the atmosphere there. We saw some Shakespeare in the park and took some time to walk the main streets after documenting Skidmore. We got ourselves in a bit of a bind finding a place to stay because of the Beer Festival going on in VT, but it all worked out and we ended up in Montpelier for the night. We enjoyed good local brews, but no open breweries (darn festival) this trip.


For Raina:

Yum!

Closed :(

South Africa / Travel — 2 Comments
5
Jul 10

Jo’Burg Day 4: Cradle of Humankind, Pretoria: Sterkfontein Caves

Monday, July 5

Johannesburg and Pretoria, RSA

After the museum, we headed over to the Sterkfontein Caves where the fossils of hominids were found.  It is an active dig site.  We thought it was pretty darn cool!  After exploring the caves on a tour, we were pretty tuckered out.  We figured we were done exploring and to call it a trip.  Lance drove us back to the airport.  We were really early, but this ended up being a good thing because we ended up having to stand in 4 lines (one line 2 times) before we could get in the right one to get checked in to our flight at the super crowded airport.  After that was all sorted out, we were still plenty early (we had a midnight flight departure).  We did some final airport shopping and found a nice airport restaurant with a great view for dinner and drinks.  We watched some boys play soccer in the terminal and Jeannette even ran into one of her MIT students in an airport shop!  Then it was time to head to Amsterdam for a super short layover, and before we knew it, we were home and back in our desks at work!


The hole we descended into:

It got a little tight at times:

I think that is Sterkfontein:

The hole we ascended from:

The sky was doing amazing things our last day in Africa:

In the caves you could look up and see this holes and cracks – it was the only light inside in some parts:

This is where they found something important… and are still actively excavating:

It was a beautiful last day – it matched our melancholy moods:

We hope to return to Africa someday.  It is beautiful.

South Africa / Travel — No Comments
5
Jul 10

Jo’Burg Day 4: Cradle of Humankind, Pretoria: Maropeng Museum

Monday, July 5

Johannesburg and Pretoria, RSA

Our driver, Lance, took us straight from Jo’Burg to the Cradle of Humankind, near Pretoria.  It was about an hour and a half away.  We started with the Maropeng Museum.  It was geared more for kids, with a fun mist ride and a crazy, fun house-style vortex you had to walk through.  There was an educational, save-the-world agenda pushed.  We had a relaxing time meandering through.  It was a nice, low-key last day in Africa – especially since we were feeling sad about leaving; we didn’t have a lot of energy.

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