The F-No

Yesterday I flew into Fresno (or as Lacey calls it, the F-No) to be with my family for Christmas. I'm sure I'll take lots of interesting pictures while I'm here. :)

My dad took me to the Fresno State game against Stanford last night. Now, because I went to a Division III school (which was smaller than my high school), I kind of missed out on the big college experience. So it was fun to be in a big arena with tons of students and so much energy filling the stadium. It was an exciting game, and the Bulldogs made an impressive comeback, but they lost it in the end.

Oh, and there were dog races during halftime. I didn't have my camera with me, so I snapped a picture with my phone.

Mount Vernon

This past weekend, Laurel and I went to Mount Vernon for several reasons: to see the Christmas decorations (which consisted of a few garlands, and that's about it); to see the third floor, which is only open to the public in December; and to see the new education center. The place was lovely, as usual.

I love the fact that I live in George Washington's hometown, because he is my favorite historical figure of all time. (Read His Excellency by Joseph Ellis to find out why he was so great.) But I think Laurel and I were more excited about critiquing the education center and the tour guides than anything else (that's what working in the museum field will do to you). I could write a whole paper on this, but I'll keep my points to a minimum.

1) The orientation film was crap (even though it had Pat Sajack in it, whom I love.) It was confusing and didn't give the visitor an overall idea of who Washington was and why he was so important. 2) The tour guides kept referring to him as "General Washington," which I found a bit odd, considering his greatest achievement was establishing the office of the Presidency. 3) The house tour gave almost no insight on who Washington was as a person. It was more about domestic life during the 18th century. 4) The new education center and museum were a vast improvement to what was there before, but I still had problems with its interpretation and design.

Lastly, I'd like to say that sometimes we get frustrated with museums "dumbing things down" for visitors. But then you go on a tour with people who ask questions such as: Did they have showers? Where did they go to the bathroom? Did Martha Washington go up and down the stairs after she moved her bedroom to the 3rd floor? (That was probably the worst question of the tour.)

Ok, that's enough of my rant for now.

Christmas at the Navy Yard

The Navy Yard is quite lovely at Christmastime. They have an official Christmas tree in front of the Officers Quarters:
The Commandant's former residence (now his offices) is all decked out. (Ok, so they just put wreaths up, but it looks nice!)
Even the USS Barry has colorful Christmas lights! And you can't tell in the dark, but there's also a wreath on the ship's bow.

Fun at the office

This is what happens when the office manager goes on vacation.

Celebrity sighting!

Last night I saw James Carville at Chipotle (he lives in my neighborhood; this is the second time I've seen him). He was very nice - he was chatting with everyone. He even asked me where the straws were when we were getting our drinks. I took a picture with my phone while standing in line. I know it's not a good one, but I was trying to be discreet.

Full Moon at the Navy Yard

The only good thing about leaving work when it's dark is that the Navy Yard is quite lovely at night. I stopped in my tracks when I saw this full moon the other night. I know it's hard to tell, but those are cannons in the foreground.

Eastern Market

This weekend I went to one of my favorite spots in DC: Eastern Market. Located on Capitol Hill, the building is a public market that has been operating since 1873. On the weekend there is a farmers' market outside, as well as a flea market across the street. It's fun just to wander around; you always find something interesting.

Even on a cold December day, the place was packed.

I love getting my produce at the farmers' market during the summer. (The West Virginia peaches are deeeelicious!) At this time of year, however, they are selling Christmas trees and wreaths, and the smell was heavenly.

The inside of the market. The bakery is amazing.

The flea market.

Then I went down into the metro station and the lights had gone out. Fun!

The Day After

The day after Thanksgiving, I didn't leave my house at all. In fact, I didn't even change out of my pajamas. (Hey, there was a Saved by the Bell marathon on tv!) I did, however, put up my Christmas tree.

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. And I love that I got four and a half days off of work without having to take leave! I felt like I was on school vacation. For the third year in a row, Heather hosted all of us homeless DC dwellers for Thanksgiving dinner. There were lots of friends, lots of good food, and a few shenanigans.

Mmmm....turkey.

The post-dinner stupor.

But there's always room for dessert!

And then Marc drank turkey fat in exchange for a whopping $5.

It was a good holiday, even though I was not able to be with my family. Many thanks to Heather for all her hard work and hospitality!!!

Road Trip: Day 4

After two weeks, I'm FINALLY posting the last of my Cooperstown pictures. (That's what happens when you don't have your home computer in working order.)

Our last day in Cooperstown was fairly uneventful. (Also, cold and rainy.) After being turned away from the early movie at the film festival, we decided to take one final walk around town.

Geese!

Main Street, featuring the town's only traffic light.

And that's the end of the trip! We didn't really stop anywhere on the way back, except for lunch in Allentown (which was a little sketchy, by the way. The rest stop, not Allentown). And we were stuck in Delaware for about 45 minutes, during which time we played the license plate game. Good times!

Road Trip: Day 3

Saturday morning we decided to take a stroll around the village. It was a beautiful fall morning and a good day for walking. We walked down to Lake Otsego, which is very tranquil and serene at this time of year. I imagine there's lots of lake activity during the summer. There were Canadian geese everywhere. It was fun just to sit and watch them for a while. (You can see a few of them swimming in this first picture.)

This statue overlooks the lake. It's called "The Indian Scout."

We then walked to the Otesaga Resort, which is also on the lakefront. It's one of these really old "Grand Dame" resorts that were so popular in the Northeast. (It was originally built in the 19th century as a girls' boarding school and became a hotel in 1909.) I can just picture Edwardian society ladies walking around in their big hats and sipping tea on the veranda.

View from the back of the hotel.

We then walked to Doubleday Field, the "birthplace of baseball." According to legend, this is where baseball was invented.

And I learned that the current structure was a WPA project!

It had the smallest dugouts ever. I think the ones at my high school were bigger than this. Seriously, how do they fit a whole team in there?

Here are a few more pictures from our walk:

In the afternoon, we headed to Brewery Ommegang, a Belgian-style brewery just outside of Cooperstown village. We got a tour of the facility and had a beer tasting. Our tour guide was amazing...amazingly hilarious! Among the facts he shared with us: he thinks using corks in beer bottles is "classy," he pours beer over his ice cream, and he enjoys drinking beer on Christmas morning. In fact, I think he might've been a little bit drunk during the tour. Anywho, here are a few pictures from that:

After the brewery, we drove around the lake and ended up at Glimmerglass State Park.

Hi Laurel!

This is what they call a "beach." FYI - the sidewalk is about two feet behind me.

The sky was quickly turning dark, and a few raindrops were starting to fall, so we headed back to town. Later that night we went back to the Hall of Fame, where a baseball film festival was going on. We saw a movie called "Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey" about former Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee. It was a documentary about Lee playing baseball in Cuba. I really enjoyed it.

I'd also like to mention that one of the filmmakers was staying in our bed and breakfast. She was really nice and her film sounded great, but unfortunately it was showing on Sunday afternoon, so we weren't able to see it. Her film, Toots, is based on her grandfather, who was a saloon owner in New York in the 1940s and 50s. Everyone in the Yankees organization would hang out at his bar, so he got to know all the players and bigwigs. I'm sorry I missed the film, and I hope to catch it when it plays here in Washington.

On my way into the theater, I stopped to look at some baseball sculptures.

Whew! That was a busy day! Almost done!