Stoneview » Travel

Wish you were here

Julie — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 16:14:02 +0000

We’ve had a lovely 4-day vacation on Cape Cod this week. We rented a tandem bike and flew kites to our heart’s content. We had loads of wonderful seafood and will go home very relaxed indeed. There’s a full set of photos over on Flickr here.

Plum Island

Julie — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:13:45 +0000

We also had a little trip to Plum Island this week. The refuge beach is about an hour away and as long as you arrive early it isn’t usually crowded. They do block off a good bit of it while the plovers are nesting but we don’t mind. We always stop at Bob Lobster on the way home for a delicious lunch. The greenhead flies were out early according to the refuge guy who sold us a can of spray.

America’s Stonehenge

Julie — Wed, 12 May 2010 12:59:57 +0000

MmePurl and I plan our visits months in advance. One of the places I suggested we go was America’s Stonehenge which I’d been to as a chaperone for one of Daniel’s field trips some years ago. After going back to a much less wet S&W festival Sunday morning, we grabbed lunch and then headed down to America’s Stonehenge for a little poke around the grounds. The stone circle and some of the man-made stone constructs are dated back to 4000 years ago though there are also some newer things built by colonists and others. It’s a really interesting site and it was nice to have a chance for a closer look without a passle of 8-year-olds to chase about. If you’re in the area, it’s worth a looksee though it’ll only take you a few hours at most.

Many more photos in the big set here.

NYC day 2

Julie — Mon, 10 May 2010 12:01:09 +0000

We spent day 2 at the American Museum of Natural History and really had a blast. We’d purchased tickets ahead with a timed entry for the much anticipated Silk Road exhibit but when we got there and discovered a live butterfly conservatory we had to upgrade our tickets and add that as well. It was quite a sauna in there but so delightful. I was thankful I had a spare camera battery with me so I could take numerous photos in hopes of getting a few with adequate lighting and focus.

In search of the whale we ran across these two kitties, one snuggly and one not so much. Mme Purl said the second one is the one Roy ran into. Sadly, this is the best view of the whale we got due to set up for a concert.

I was excited to see a glass model of Ceratium, familiar to me from my old lab rat days. I still have photos tucked away somewhere of these guys in the middle of cell division. Then we saw something that made us think of Kathy (sorry Kathy, we know you hate beavers but really, we had to have a picture of him). And of course we saw all sorts of bones.

We had been underwhelmed by the Silk Road exhibit, having expected to see more artifacts and fewer staged dioramas but in particular we thought we’d see the spider silk tapestry there. We were delighted when we accidentally stumbled across it as we made our way to the gems and minerals, our last stop of the day.

Diehards can find a full set of photos here.

NYC day 1

Julie — Sun, 09 May 2010 11:30:57 +0000

Madamepurl came for a bit longer visit this time which allowed us to do some really fun things. We drove down to stay with my sister (Thanks Heather!) in Jersey and took the train from there to NYC. The first day we had some shopping planned. We visited Art Brown where I bought some of the inks from my wishlist. The night before we left I’d seen this post by Julia which didn’t really change our plans to visit PurlSoho but it did prompt me to investigate Kinokuniya to see if it was near any of our planned stops and indeed it was. I think we could have stayed at the bookstore all evening. Several times I had to put something back in favor of something else. I do believe I’d have come home with a suitcase full of books if it had been in my budget. At Purl Soho I was quite excited to find the “Dear Jane” quilting book that has been on my wishlist for awhile as well as Invisible Threads in Knitting which was lurking among the knitting books. There was a copy of Everyday Knitting as well but I was already a bit over budget so I passed that off to MmePurl.

Diehards can find a full set of photos here.

A wee vacation

Julie — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:41:34 +0000

Jason and I just took a quick trip down to Florida to visit his folks. We enjoyed the sandhill cranes and their young, a nice walk on the beach (despite many washed up man of war jellies) and grilling on the patio. We visited the Flagler Museum and the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and in general had a lovely time. Diehards can find a plethora of pictures over on Flickr here.

Canceled

Julie — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:57:24 +0000

We really enjoy visiting national parks when we vacation and usually look for them wherever we are traveling. In 2006 we bought the National Parks Passport book because it’s a fun way to record where we’ve been. We were pleased to add a stamp and cancellations for Muir Woods this trip.We also got a little surprise on Sunday when Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jim dropped us off at the hotel. They handed us a bag from the aquarium shop which contained this lovely fish dish we’d been admiring. I can’t wait for our fish delivery next week so I can break it in with something yummy.

And there was shopping

Julie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:26:40 +0000

I did mention shopping didn’t I? On Cannery Row at Om Rhythyms I was really excited to find singing bowls. Jason and I struck each and every one to find the nicest tone. At the aquarium I picked up a nice little sea dragon print. I was also thrilled to finally have a chance to test out a Pilot Vanishing Point fountain pen which Jason urged me to get being more than a little tired of hearing about it. The lady at Bittner was great. She pulled out all the fine points until we found the one with the smoothest writing action. She also threw in some lovely royal blue Namiki ink when I said I preferred bottled ink over cartridges. A full set of photos is on Flickr here. I wasn’t brave enough to take photos at dinner last night but we had a really exceptional meal at the Plumed Horse.

The wheels on the car go round and round

Julie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:07:54 +0000

Yesterday we had day two of whirlwind touring. We started off at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, wandered around Cannery row and had a fabulous dungeness crab salad. After that we drove along the coast for a lovely drive ending with Pebble Beach golf course. Uncle Jim knows all the places to stop to find seals, birds, ground squirrels and more. We came out in Carmel and had fun poking into a few of the shops there. We ended with a lovely dinner at Passionfish.

San Fran speed tour

Julie — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:51:02 +0000

On Friday we flew out to San Francisco. Jason had to be in Sunnyvale for Monday and Tuesday so we made a long weekend of it and have been visiting with his Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jim. Yesterday they gave us a whirlwind tour of San Francisco complete with a cable car ride, the “crookedest” street, Coit tower, dim sum, countless views of the Golden Gate bridge, Muir Woods, the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate park, and a fantastic dinner at Zarzuela’s. It was great fun!