Another project finished

A friend of mine is having a baby in February, so I have been working on a baby sweater for her and I've just finished it:

Front

Close Up of the Design

Back

Chickies Rock, PA

To start the new year out, John and I thought we would go on a hike. Last year we had a goal of hiking 100 miles, we fell short by 2 miles. This year we are starting early, so we can be sure and get to 100.

In my Structural Geology class last semester, we were supposed to have taken a field trip to Chickies Rock in Pennsylvania, but it was cancelled due to weather. So I drug John out to visit the largest anticline on the East Coast: Chickies Rock. It was a nice day, the sun was shining and the temperature was about 36 degrees. We made it to the top of the formation and got a great view of the Susquehanna River.

Chopper had no problem negotiating the rock formation - I think he's part mountain goat.

We were planning to also hike along the river to view the rocks from below, but in Pennsylvania it is still hunting season and we didn't have any bright orange, so we decided to not hike further. One mile down and 99 to go!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year! We did not go out on New Year's Eve, just stayed in and watched Robbie Knievel jump over a fake volcano on a motorbike on tv. As you can see, Chopper was very impressed:

The New Year's Extravaganza in downtown Baltimore was postponed because of wind. Apparently the organizers did not want searing hot fireworks to fly into the crowd and cause irreparable harm. So, they had them on New Year's Day at 7 pm. We went to that. It was a great show.Watch a short video:

Thanksgiving Weekend

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! John and I roasted up a tofurkey and potatoes and cracked open a can of cranberries.

After we had recovered from our Thanksgiving feast we went to Washington, D.C. to visit the American History Museum that has been closed for three years for renovations. I did not see the old museum, but I was not impressed with the new one. Perhaps it was the massive amounts of people that were there and the disappointment of the First Lady exhibit not being open yet, but I did not really like the museum.

It was a very nice day out and we walked from the Capitol Building down to the Lincoln Memorial and back. That's about a 3 mile walk! It was very interesting because they were already getting ready for the Inaguration and building the stage and bleachers.

You can kind of see the stage on the very bottom of this picture.

We've been to D.C. many times, but we still haven't been to all of the monuments and places to see. This time we walked up to the Washington Monument and got a good look at that. The marble was pretty cool - I saw some pyrite in it.

Great Falls, Va and Md

On November 23, John and I went to Great Falls, Va and Md to have a memeorial to John's sister Tami. It was such a beautiful day. In the picture above, we are standing on the Virginia side of the Potomac. There were a bunch of kayakers going over the falls.

This is the flood levels of past years. As you can see in the background the river is very far off and low. I can't imagine the floods getting up to these points! As recently as 1996 the levels got quite high.

On the Maryland side, we crossed the falls over a bridge and tossed in the flowers. The bridge railings were a little wobbly, so it was quite exciting to lean over and watch the water rush by.

Close to Home

Last weekend, John and I decided to stay close to home and walk down to the Inner Harbor and stroll along the new promenade that opened up. That means that you can walk all the way around the Inner Harbor now, before you couldn't walk all the way around it because the promenade hadn't been built yet and then it was closed because of construction.

There was a Norweigian sailing ship that was in the harbor for a visit. Every autumn their navy takes the ship to various ports for training. We did not go on the ship, but they were offering free tours if you wanted to tour it.

So, we didn't end up doing too much, but got some nice pictures out of our weekend.

Vegas, baby!

Last week John went to Phoenix for a work conference. For the last two years, I went with him but this year since I have classes, I didn't get to go for the full week. On Wednesday evening I flew out to Las Vegas to meet John. We stayed in the Tropicana.

On the first night we wandered around and played a few slots. It has been a few years since we had been to Vegas and there have been a lot of changes. Right on the strip they are building a new complex of buildings that replaced the old Boardwalk Casino. It is an immense project.

On Thursday night we got all dressed up and went to AquaKnox for supper. It was a fancy seafood place in the Venetian. It was a lot of fun.

After supper we went downtown. I love downtown - we went to the Golden Nugget which has changed quite a bit. They made a shark tank in the pool area and a waterslide goes through the middle of it. They also made a bar that has a balcony that looks out over Freemont Street.

We went and played slot machines up and down Freemont Street. In Binion's I won $113.00 on a penny machine. It was on a Wizard of Oz machine, that was really fun!

On Friday we walked around the strip some more and covered most of the places we didn't see before. We walked through the Flamingo Casino and saw the flamingo habitat.

Later that night we dressed up: John as Hugh Hefner and Me as a tennis player. There were a lot of crazy costumes.

If you want to see more pictures, go to: http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r53/klub0002/Las%20Vegas/