Winston-Salem

We are visiting Winston-Salem, in North Carolina. Christina is auditioning today for a summer ballet program. Tomorrow we tour Wake Forest University.

Driving North

We took a week and drove north to Highgate Springs, in Vermont, by way of Boston. We were on our way to visit Colleen, who is working this summer at the Tyler Place resort. We stopped in Boston on the way to tour Boston University and Emerson College with Christina.


View New England Trip, Summer 2012 in a larger map

A full photographic collection from this trip is on my flickr account. There are a few photos also posted on instagram.

Walking Up A Pair of Waterfall-Filled Gorges

I had a day to kill in Ithaca, New York, this weekend. Daughter #1 had a day of training scheduled the day after pick-up from Villanova. We drove straight from Radnor in PA to Ithaca on Friday and I spent Saturday wandering around two of New York's Waterfall-themed state parks.

First up was Taughannock Falls State Park, north of Ithaca and above Cayuga Lake.


Just south of Ithaca, and distressingly close to a Home Depot and other big-box retail, is Buttermilk Falls State Park.

A Visit to Savannah

a long branch
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie

Karen and I are in Savannah, Georgia, for a long weekend. We're here partly in celebration of her birthday and partly just as a get-away. We both have election day off, and we both took Monday as well.

We're very much in low-key, chill mode. This is a great place for that. Savannah is, quiet simply, a lovely city. It is historic and southern and quiet yet hip and hopping with a strong college-town feel. The buildings are fascinating and the city layout is graceful, comfortable and a delight to walk about.

We've eaten at the Paula Deen restaurant (The Lady and Sons). That was somewhat by accident; we were looking for lunch after arriving about noon from the airport and that's the first place we came to. We've also eaten at a wonderful place called The Olde Pink House.

At one place, we looked over to the next table and saw a polo shirt with "Sussex County" written on it. I recognized Russ Archut, a retiree from the Sussex government in Delaware. We chatted over old times. The next morning, we found our carriage diver/tour guide had lived for a short time near Lewes, as a child. And our Olde Pink House waiter turned out to be a recent transplant from Annapolis whose vacation spot as a child was always Bethany Beach.

It's that sort of a place. like southern Delaware, in fact; a great place to visit that many people decide to stay in.

We've another day of wandering around with a camera ahead. We'll be back in time to vote on Tuesday.

I Went Back to Ohio...

...or, more specifically, to Cleveland. I had been there some 12 years back for a conference of the Census State Data Center network.

This time (from last Sunday through Thursday) I was there for the annual conference of the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC). This is the national GIS coordination group that I am part of and for which, until this past week, I served on the Board of Directors. My second term ended with this conference and I chose to step aside and let some younger folks join the leadership; I'm still chair of the communications committee, so I'll keep a hand in things.

We had a lively conference with many and varied presentations and discussions on topics ranging from governance of public data to the new social media tools that are starting (finally) to be used by state and federal agencies. We tried some experimentation with twitter as part of the conference, encouraging attendees (and some who followed along from home) to continue discussions on-line using the hash-tag "#nsgic2009."

I was traveling on a federal grant, rather than state funds, and I chose to drive out to Cleveland to save money and be able to bring others from Delaware along. It gave us a chance to visit the "Point of Beginning," on the Pennsylvania/Ohio border west of Pittsburgh. There is a monument that commemorates the starting point for the Public Lands survey System which was used from Ohio west to lay out the rectangular township and range subdivisions of the "new" lands in the United States.

This is where state shapes started trending towards the square.

While at the conference, I was not able to get out much. NSGIC packs as much into these events as possible. We met from eight in the morning until past nine many evenings. We were never bored, but we were pretty tired-out.

I did have a chance to visit the rock and Roll Hall of Fame, though. We had our off-site social there one evening and it was great fun. There are others among the GIS group who share with me a love of both punk rock and the Grateful Dead, so we made small pilgrimages together to different parts of the museum. The Hall features a Bruce Springsteen collection just now.; that also brought me back to my childhood.

And we found just a sliver of time for golf. But of that, more later.

Bi-Coastal Reflections

A Californian photo-a-day blogger is vacationing in South Bethany, a few miles down the coast from us here in Lewes. He's posted a very nice photo of a sunrise over the Atlantic (Sunset in Reverse - South Bethany beach, Delaware), with commentary about how odd it is to see the sun come up over the ocean, as opposed to watching it go down.

This is my very first East Coast sunrise at a beach - a thrilling experience to see the sun coming up from the ocean and not at all too early to see (6:13 am). I wonder if there is a green flash right before the sun comes up.

It reminded me of my feelings watching sunsets in Hawaii, and thinking it odd that the sun should disappear into the water like that.

Why I Am So Zombie-Like Today

This is in no way a plea for pity, because I deserve none, but I wanted to take a moment to outline the travails of traveling the width of the nation. We are in our recovery day after a red-eye return from Hawaii. Here is what that actually amounted to...

We had a late-night flight from Kona International Airport, leaving at 10:59 p.m. on Wednesday. That meant that we had to find a way to kill the hours between a mid-day hotel check out and the 8 p.m. check-in at the airport. We stayed in our room as late as we could and then had a longish lunch. We shopped and drove around a bit and finally had a late supper before heading to the airport.

As it was, we had to wait a bit before even starting the check-in process. That involved having the USDA check our checked bags for contraband plant life, a long wait to check-in with the airline, a fairly quick TSA security check, and returning to the USDA for a check of our carry-on bags.

When we finally boarded the flight, things went fairly smoothly. I ended up seated away from Karen and the girls. We were together but decided I should trade seats with a woman traveling with a child who otherwise would have had to be seated far from the kid. That put me next to a gent who was born and raised in Honolulu (a haole) who had lived and worked in Florida before moving to Kona. He had worked as a tour bus driver, so we compared notes -- I explained what we had seen and done and he told me what we should have seen and done.

We dozed away what turned out to be about a five and a half-hour flight to Phoenix, arriving there at about 7:30 am. After a brisk walk to our next gate, we breakfasted on muffins from Starbucks and waited a short time to board the next plane.

It was 7:30 am in Phoenix, but about 4:30 am Hawaiian time. Our bodies were on Hawaiian time. When we boarded the next flight, we immediately dozed off. Karen and I woke up for the take-off and then nodded off again. The girls slept through take-off and woke up on and off during the rest of the flight.

We arrived at BWI in Baltimore at about 4 pm Eastern time, or around 10 am Hawaiian. After retrieving our bags, and our car, we headed east across the Chesapeake and made it back to Lewes around 8, or just after lunch by our internal clocks.

So there we were, unpacking at the end of what felt like a long day, but was actually part of two. We'd gotten up early on Wednesday to squeeze-in the last bit of sunshine and pool time before leaving. We spent a long last day in Hawaii and the most of the next day sitting in planes and airport waiting lounges. Before we knew it it was midnight Eastern (dinner time in Hawaii) and we tried to head to bed.

Now it is the next day and we're attempting to return to east-coast time. That's why today seems such an odd sort of day.

Monday at JMU

We took a quick trip out to Harrisonburg, Virginia, for a campus tour of James Madison University this weekend.

We started with a family visit on Easter Sunday in Montgomery Village, west of Washington DC. My sister Margaret and her husband Lou host an Easter party most years at their home. We get to see most of not all of my family and lots of Lou's family as well. After loads of food and a great deal of conversation, we drove south to Manassas, Virginia, where we holed up in a Holiday Inn for the night.

Monday morning, we headed west on I-66 and south on I-81 to Harrisonburg and James Madison University.

JMU is a pretty cool school. It is a slightly sprawling campus; certainly walkable but spreading 100 years of architectural history across a series of hills. A young man from Karen's church is a freshman there and he joined us for lunch and gave us his own tour after we took the official tour.

Nice place. It might be worth an application for Colleen. If she wants.

I took a scenic detour on the ride home. JMU is in the Shenandoah Valley, between a pair of mountain ranges. It was just a short hop east off of I-81 to reach Skyline Drive, which follows the tops of the mountains through Shenandoah National Park. We got to drive the northern quarter of the park. It was late afternoon on a cloudy day, but worth the extra 45 minutes or so to it added to the drive home.

I am drawn to both mountains and water. I live near the ocean, but miss mountains. So I was happy to drive in even the low mountains of western Virginia.

Three Days, Four States, Three Universities: 866 Miles

Karen, Colleen and I took a road trip this weekend and visited universities in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. Christina stayed with a school chum with whom she was completing a project.

Karen had a half-day in-service on Friday. I took a half-day of vacation and she drove from Lewes to Dover (39.3 miles) to pick me up after lunch. We then drove to Wilmington Friends School for Colleen's lacrosse game. We had to detour around a traffic mess on I-95; 295 had had to be closed for emergency repairs and that backed-up 95 and parts of SR 1. Luckily I was able to call my friend Kim, who lives up there. She navigated us around the mess, but it added to the drive (56.6 miles).

We got to meet the head of the Wilmington Friends Upper School. Rob Lake is a very nice young man, knowledgeable about lacrosse and popular with his students. We enjoyed our short chat.

It was a great game. The Sussex Tech girls led for much of the game, but Friends came back late and won it 11 to 10. It was a tough loss, but I think the team learned a lot.

After the game, we headed south on I-95 through Baltimore, past Washington DC and Richmond to Colonial Heights, Virginia (243 miles). It was a tough drive. it rained from south of Washington all the way down Virginia. Quite hard, at times. We reached our hotel in Colonial Heights at about midnight and crashed.

We were up early Saturday morning and headed south on I-85 to Durham, North Carolina (138 miles). We reached Duke University in plenty of time before a 10:00 a.m. information session. We followed that with a campus tour.

Duke is a cool school. We spent most of our time on the side of campus with Gothic architecture. Another part is Georgian. It's a beautiful place, even on a grey, wet day. We were particularly impressed with the chapel at the center of things; it is impressive outside and in, and surrounded by charming walks. I liked Duke. If Colleen wants to apply there, that would be fine.

Saturday afternoon, we drove down to a Holiday Inn near the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill (9.9 miles). This morning we drove around the UNC campus. It was a quiet time; I assume most students were either at church or sleeping off their Saturday nights. We drove across to Raleigh (25.8 miles) where we also drove around the campus of North Carolina State.

From Raleigh, we drove back to Lewes by way of Norfolk, Virginia, the Bay Bridge Tunnel, and long empty stretches of Virginia and Maryland (354 miles).

It was a long weekend, but fun in its own way. And we got to see a few more campuses and think about where Colleen might go to school.

...That Couldn't be Beat

We went to Bethesda, Maryland, for a Thanksgiving Dinner with my family. We alternate where we eat turkey each year, but always manage to spend time with my clan and with Karen's.

My folks hosted all seven of their kids, their seven sons- and daughters-in-law, fifteen of their seventeen grand-kids, and my brother Matt's in-laws. That's thirty-three people, including my Mom and Dad.

Everyone brings something. We had two turkeys, white potatoes mashed and sweet potatoes too. There were two kinds of stuffing. There were veggies and gravies and many, many desserts.

We had a tub of sodas and a tub of beer. I took responsibility for bringing the beer; I started with a mixed case of Dogfish Head beers and added another mixed case of other non-mainstream beers.

We arrived early and had a chance to admire the old family dining room (seen here backwards) before it filled with people. There were several different tables set up, from the long dining table of my childhood, to the round gate-leg table in the sun-room.

Soon the family started to filter in. My nieces and nephews range in age from their mid-thirties down to first grade. We have golden-haired little princesses and cow-licked rambunctious boys. We have dancers and swimmers and ball-players. We have aspiring writers, musicians, actors, and activists.

Among my siblings and their spouses are lawyers, librarians, and managers; teachers, writers, artists, accountants and librarians. We are all readers and talkers. It is never quiet when the Mahaffies gather.

We ate. We talked. We laughed and we shared. Eventually, we started to disperse. As we did, teams of kids gathered and stowed the folding chairs. We paired-up to move tables back into place. A brother started a first-load in the dish-washer. By bed-time the old family home was put back together and tolerably clean.

As the only out-of-state guests, we spent the night at Mom and Dad's. After a pleasantly quiet breakfast, we drove to Karen's sister's house where we ate left-overs with her parents and some of that side of our family. We watched our great-nephew and his half-brother play video games and wrestle good-naturedly. We got to play scrabble with my Mother-in-Law; she is the Michael Jordan of scrabble.

As dusk fell, we were headed back east across the Bay Bridge. Back to our cats. It was a fine Thanksgiving holiday.

A Cool Water Park

water park active pool 1
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie

There's a cool water park at one end of Main Street in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. The Water Garden, as it is properly called, was put in in the 1970s and it has that "70s Cement Architecture" look, but is pretty fascinating. It has many levels and different types of water features.

The NSGIC retreat group wandered down there on Tuesday evening and walked down the steps to the Active Pool, which was fairly disorienting in the dark. There are cement steps of varying shapes and sizes, surrounded by the sound of rushing water; add deep shadows and a dark sky and it is otherworldly.

Will Craig and I went back just after sunrise this morning. The steps are still daunting, but not as frightening, in the day.

There's also a quiet pool, surrounded by Cypress trees and walls of gently falling water. While we were there, the aerated water pool was closed for maintenance.

So, if you find yourself in Fort Worth, take a moment to check this place out.

In Fort Worth

fort worth morning
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie

I'm in Fort Worth, Texas, for a few days, for a leadership retreat of the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC). We're here for just two nights, with meetings for an afternoon and evening, a whole full day, and a morning, before flying back home.

There's not much time to look around, but I stepped out this morning and again just before the sun sank to grab a few photos of the downtown. I hope to get out again tomorrow morning. Fort Worth seems to have a compact and walkable downtown, but it has been quiet when I've been out.

My trip to this Fort Worth Hilton was a minor odyssey. I managed to get on the wrong "SuperShuttle" van at Dallas/Fort Worth International and got a bonus tour of downtown Dallas before catching the right van into Fort Worth. Next time I won't trust the fellow in the yellow windbreaker, with the clip-board, at the shuttle stop to make sure I don't get on the wrong van.

Eighth Golf Game of 2008

I should probably call this "game 7.5 of 2008." I had a chance to play 9 holes yesterday afternoon after a long day of meetings at the NSGIC Conference. A group of us set out to try to get 9 holes in before the sun sank too far down past the mountains for us to see anything.

It was a lovely evening. To the south, the view was of clear skies and a few puffy clouds. To the west, there were angry clouds backed up against high mountains.

We played a scramble format, in two-person teams. My partner and I did not win. It was not his fault. But we had fun and saw some great sights.

We were on the Keystone Ranch Course, which sits in a high mountain valley (about 9,000 feet). It features some remarkable changes in altitude, including a hole towards which you seem to be hitting off the edge of the world.

By the time we reached the eighth hole, it was almost too dark to play. On the approach to an elevated green, I hit what may have been the most solid 9-iron shot of my life. I couldn't see it, but it felt and sounded perfect. And it would have been, too, except for the extra distance you get when you play at altitude. I know that I flew over the green only because of the clear "ping" of the ball hitting the cart path and ricocheting off into the wild-west brush.

The ninth hole at Keystone Ranch is a long drive across a lake. It was almost full dark, so we pulled out a set of glow-in-the-dark balls that one of the fellows had brought. On being struck, the balls light up red and look like tracer rounds flying down-range. I hit a solid three-wood but aimed it wrong; I went for the green over the wide part of the lake and not the shorter lay-up over less water. My ball almost made it, but hit the water once, bounced, and sank.

After we drove around the water, we all four walked down to the water's edge to watch my red, glowing ball light up about a foot of clear mountain water just over an iron's length off shore. It was as if the moon had sunk back down into the lake.

In Colorado

I'm in Colorado, at a place called Keystone, for the week-long annual NSGIC Conference. NSGIC -- the National States Geographic Information Council -- is a national organization of people who, like me, work to try to facilitate the use and sharing of geospatial data (the stuff behind Google Maps and Earth) in the 50 states. We have state representatives, private sector partners, and federal partners and each fall we come together for an over-stuffed week of meetings and discussion and planning. I've been blogging these meetings for several years.

I flew in on Saturday morning, landing at about noon, local time, at Denver International. That's the main terminal in the picture at right. A very cool building. We had set up a simple Google Docs spreadsheet to track who was going to have a rental car. Those of us without cars used that to try to find rides out to Keystone, an hour or so west of Denver. I met up with my ride, a gent from Georgia, and several other sets of drivers and riders and we caravanned through the mountain passes together.

The Keystone lodge itself is quite lovely, but it is at about 9,200 feet. I live about 20 feet above sea level, so I'm taking things a bit easy to try to acclimate myself. The main recommendation we hear is to drink plenty of water. I bought a liter bottle on the ride out and have dutifully emptied and refilled it several times.

I expect to get some interesting pictures here, I'll add them to my now thin Colorado set over the week. NSGIC is famous for marathon meetings (we start, in fact, with a Board meeting in a little bit), but I will need to step out and stretch my legs from time to time. I also hope to sneak-in nine holes of golf at some point. Otherwise, we start with breakfast meetings and carry through to evening committee meetings -- sometimes until 11 at night.

I've said it before: these people are nuts. But I'm glad to have been a part of this community for the past ten years and I am proud to serve on the NSGIC Board of Directors.

It's almost 9:00 a.m. Sunday. We start in an hour. I'd best get my Board agenda out and get to work.

Visiting the Temples of Learning

I guess that title is a bit overstated, but it works with the picture. This is a reading room in one of the libraries at Boston College. We visited BC and Boston University last week with Colleen, who is entering her junior year at high school this fall and should start thinking about colleges soon.

We made a quick trip to Boston to visit campuses and spend some time with friends from the Tyler Place who live south of Boston. We drove up on Wednesday and came back Sunday.

The summer college visit set-up seems to be a meeting in a lecture room where a large group of parents and kids hear from an admissions officer and a student (or a panel of students) about the school. There's a chance to ask questions and then campus tours in smaller groups led by students tour-guides.

I notice that the prospective students don't ask as many questions as they should; parents ask quite a few. In some cases, perhaps they should sit back and let their kids do the asking. The student guides, on the other hand, are not shy at all; they can't be and also have that job. They are generally outgoing and impressive kids who represent their schools well.

There is a cynical part of me that finds these young men and women just a tad too high on their schools, but I keep that part hidden. These are nice kids.

BC and BU are lovely schools, if rather different from each other. BU is much larger and more urban. BC is a smaller suburban school, set off by itself. I could see my daughter at either; but the choice is hers and there are many more schools to consider. The cool thing is that we have started the process that will lead eventually to her selecting a college or a university.

It's another step taken.

In Mahaffey, PA

We spent only about an hour in Mahaffey, Pennsylvania; we had a long drive back to Delaware. But I'm glad we stopped.

We found our way (with thanks to directions from my cousin Don Mahaffey Weaver) to the Borough of Mahaffey graveyard. There's a monument to Robert Mahaffey in the center of the graveyard. It is surrounded by several sets of Mahaffey family plots. There's a lot of history here.

The town of Mahaffey, the Borough, is quite small. The downtown, such as it is, is next to a bridge across the upper reaches of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. There is a restaurant, a gun shop, a funeral home and a few churches.

There is a town park, Scout Community Park, according to Google, though I saw references to a Mahaffey Park which was to host a fireworks show that evening. Scout Park includes a ball field, always a good sign in a small town.

I'm glad we had a chance to visit Mahaffey. It's a part of the history of a distant branch of my family, but I've been studying family history for a while now and I was excited to see the place.

Looking Out Over Johnstown

We made a flying visit to central Pennsylvania this past weekend. We were there for a family event in Karen's family and took the opportunity for just a small amount of looking around.

We drove out on Friday. Interstate 70 in western Maryland was packed and reduced to a crawl. After ghosting over one mountain at 10 mph behind a truck, we abandoned the interstate system and hooked up with the old National highway -- US 40. We took that through Hagarstown and then took back-roads out to Breezewood and on to Johnstown.

On Saturday, we had a family lunch at the City View Restaurant, overlooking Johnstown. The restaurant is next to the Incline Plane which carries people and cars up and down a substantial hill. We took the ride down; then back up. For a flat-lander, like me, this sort of elevation play is great fun.

Sunday, we took a quick ride up north from Johnstown to visit Mahaffey, the Borough founded by a second cousin of my great-great-grandfather. It's a visit I've been thinking about. I'll have a few photos from there later.

I will say that it was very interesting, and it was fun. And it was a great excuse to do more driving on two-lane highways in the hill country.

Seen From a Train

I took the train to Albany, New York, this afternoon for a two-day USGS-sponsored meeting of State GIS coordinators. The train was no more expensive than flying and it was easier and more comfortable to take the train from Wilmington than to drive to BWI or Philly and deal with the full airport drill.

The second part of the trip was a ride up the east side of the Hudson River. It was late afternoon and I had a nice view of the river and the many bridges that cross it between New York City and Albany.

Despite the dirtiness of the window I was next to, I decided to spend the trip grabbing what photos I could. There was a series of bridges, there were boats, a castle, and views of the river.

It was a very pleasant few hours.

Fourth Golf Game of 2008

I played an early morning round of golf on the Sunday of my Boston visit. It was another very hot day, so I was glad to start my round at 6:40 a.m.

I had done a Google search of the Newton area on Saturday and found a few courses. I chose Newton Commonwealth because it was quite nearby and looked like an inexpensive public municipal course.

Newton Commonwealth started in the late 1890s as a 9-hole course. by the 1920s, it was an 18-hole course and had been redesigned by the golf architect Donald Ross. In the 1970s, as the Chestnut Hill Country Club, the course got into financial trouble and was bought by the City of Newton to keep the land from development.


View Larger Map

The course is a par-70 that straddles a valley with a small stream running across it. The 18 holes take you up-hill, across the stream, through several undulations and along the edges of a hill then back down again before repeating the same twice on the second nine holes. There are several short but very tricky par-3 holes that feature steep drops to small greens. The distance is easy; the risks, though, are great.

I played with a young man named Jason, his brother Brad, and their friend Brit. Jason is a New Yorker who met and married a local girl and settled in Newton to raise a family. Brad and Brit still live in New York City and were up for a visit. They were nice young men and fun to play with.

I started the round with my usual self-deprecation and an appeal to their sense of humor. And, of course, immediately sent a modest but straight drive up the center of the fairway, pitched onto the green and two-putted for par. That undercut my warnings about the state of my play. So when I then played hole number two poorly, it made me feel that much worse.

In the end, I carded a 104. I had a few pars and a few modest blow-ups. It was great fun to play a brand new (to me) course. The courses around here are mostly quite flat; any hills must be added. So it is great fun to play a hilly course. And I enjoy meeting new people.

A Hot Day in Boston

I took a long, hot walk through Boston on the Saturday of my stay in Massachusetts. I wanted to see a bit of the Freedom Trail and wander around Boston Common.

I was staying in a hotel that straddled the Mass Pike (I-90) in Newton. The nearest T (subway) station was about 2.5 miles away in Newton Center. The hotel staff recommended a $10 cab ride, but I had a whole day to kill, so I decided to hoof-it. I had a nice walk up through a very respectable residential area, past a private school or two, and into a nifty little downtown area.

The T is comfortable and fast and takes you right into the center or Boston. I got off at the municipal building (featuring a big "Beat LA"
banner in support of the Celtics) and walked along parts of the Freedom Trail. This winds through Boston, old and new, past many of the places where the United States of America was born. There are historic taverns, and statues, and several very old graveyards hosting American heroes and ancient enigmas.

I followed trail to Boston Common, a 50-acre park in the center of the city that dates from the 1630s. It is the oldest city park in the US and fronts the Massachusetts State House, which also proudly wore Celtics green. The Common was filled with picnickers and tourists, Tai Chi'ers and free-speech activists, and an old-format religious group singing and preaching to a crowd that included listeners and ignorers in about equal measure.

A part of Boston Common is the Public Garden, added in the 1800s and featuring a 4-acre pond with ducks and swans. The pond is bridged by what is said to be the world's smallest suspension bridge. On this day, it was host to an accordionist busker. At the far end is an equestrian statue of George Washington.

There was a watercolor painting workshop under way in the Garden. I kept wandering past painters hard at work and wise enough to stay in the shade.

The loveliest thing I saw was a pair of swans nesting next to the pond. I'd never seen swans nesting before. The nest was carefully fenced-off and folks watched from a respectful distance.

Leaving the Public Garden, I headed down Boylston Street to Copley Square where an older building was admiring its reflection in a newer neighbor. And there was a fountain in which families were cooling themselves and a group on a self-advertised field trip provided the music.

I caught the T back out to Newton Center and strolled back down the hill to my hotel, a float in the hotel's tiny pool, a light supper and so to bed.