Looking back at the past few months, I've had the pleasure of doing quite a bit of traveling, everything from cross-country flights to simple afternoon visits to Cincinnati. Like any good Asian, I tried taking plenty of pictures and was also excited to figure out the panorama feature on my iPhone. Here's a summary of what to expect below:
- Boston (September)
- Ohio Renaissance Festival (September)
- Stanford 5th Reunion (October)
- Afternoon drive to Cincinnati (October)
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Boston
Walked the freedom trail with Steph before we attended a wedding. Along the trail, we found many references that certain friends of ours could appreciate, and even met a lady from Ann Arbor who played "The Victors" for us on a replica of Ben Franklin's glass harmonica! (I unfortunately did not have the sense to record a video of the performance.)
[1. Massachusetts State House, a.k.a. big shiny building; 2. For Dr. Daron Watts (psychiatry residency classmate and Commander in the Coast Guard); 3. Paul Revere's grave (kind of an important guy); 4. Samuel Adams's grave (also an important guy who I think was known for his beer); 5. A Benjamin Franklin statue; 6. A history lesson on political mascots; 7. For Dr. Brandon Smith; 8. Steph outside the Old State House and the site of the Boston Massacre; 9. A Samuel Adams statue; 10. Quick stop at Mike's Pastry shop; 11. My first attempt at a panoramic shot (with subsequent weird people-distortions); 12. Nomnomnomnomnom; 13. A Paul Revere statue (fun fact: the statue was purposely positioned with the horse facing the historically-incorrect direction in order to prevent congregants of the church across the street from being greeted with the horse's rear-end at the end of services; also, totally did not catch the tour guides inadvertent[?] photo bomb); 14. A panoramic of our lodging for the weekend, courtesy of Airbnb.]
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Ohio Renaissance Festival
My first ever visit to days of yore. Steph and I enjoyed bouts of jousting, a magic show, and pirates trying to perform Shakespeare. I've already marked my calendar for next year's festival!
[1. A glass craftsman making a butterfly; 2. Giant turkey leg noms; 3. Parade of villagers; 4. Our jouster, Sir Robert (not of the House Baratheon, unfortunately); 5. Real-life, unscripted jousting contest (alas, Sir Robert was not fated to win); 6. A human chess game (that was scripted); 7. The end of a long day of whimsical adventure.]
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Stanford 5th Reunion
I'm going to phone this one in and direct readers to my Facebook albums for most of the photos: Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3. However, there were highlights from the weekend.
- Day 1: touring Stanford Stadium, attending "LSJUMB 101" to kick off the 50th-year celebration of the modern Stanford Band, Dinner on the Quad.
- Day 2: LSJUMB 50th Reunion field rehearsal, Phi Kappa Psi homecoming dinner, LSJUMB Bandquet
- Day 3: Gameday with the Band, night in downtown Palo Alto
[Day 1: 1. Tour of Stanford Stadium; 2. Panoramic shot of Stanford Stadium from the lower deck; 3. Proudly showing off the open-ceiling design of the bathrooms; 4. Underneath the HD scoreboard; 5. Making our way to the press box; 6. My first (and hoping it's not my last) time sitting in a cushioned press box seat; 7. The view from the press box; 8. Go Card!; 9. Showing off the pre-modern Stanford Band uniform, which would subsequently lead to a demonstration of the high-step marching style of the pre-modern Stanford Band; 10. Recounting the history of the Tree (the official Band mascot and the unofficial university mascot); 11. Pics from the unveiling of the first Tree; 12. The second-ever Tree costume (because the first one had apparently been burned or similarly unceremoniously disposed of); 13. Recounting "The Play" of 1982 and how THE KNEE WAS DOWN; 14. And of course, an appearance by the LSJUMB; 15. Phi Psi roommates reunite at Dinner on the Quad.]
[Day 2: 1. A line of LSJUMB Old Fartz eagerly waiting to check in for reunion; 2. Field rehearsal; 3. Panoramic shot of half of Phi Kappa Psi homecoming dinner, with the other half of the house to the left of the photo!; 4. Sophomore year Phi Psi composite!; 5. Methline (a.k.a. members of the Stanford Band who were Class of 2008) at Bandquet, 5 years older and (theoretically) 5 years wiser.]
[Day 3: 1. The rehearsal hall in the Band Shak before the wee morning hour field rehearsal; 2. Group photo after field rehearsal! (I think I'm somewhere in the top right corner...); 3. Rallying the football team at The Walk; 4. Starting to cadence down the street and into the stadium!; 5. Made it into the stadium; 6. Kickoff...; 7. ...and victory! (With a game in between); 8. "Play with your feet!"; 9. Band post-game rallying into the late hours of the night; 10. Catching up with old friends before flying out the next morning (and yes, I did have friends of other ethnicities, not just South Asian).]
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Afternoon drive to Cincinnati
It was a Friday and I was scheduled to start a series of three night shifts that weekend. Heck if I'm going to let that stop me from doing something fun. A quick search on Yelp for lunch ideas with a quick search for "Things to do in Cincinnati" on Google and I was off!
[1. Court Street Marketplace, home to Le's Pho and Sandwiches; 2. Beef pho with Vietnamese iced coffee; 3. A quick jaunt through Washington Park; 4. A great shot of the Cincinnati Music Hall (placed on future to-do list); 5. Carew Tower, with access to its 49th-floor observation deck for only $2; 6. North side of Cincy; 7. East side of Cincy; 8. South side of Cincy (with Kentucky across the river); 9. West side of Cincy; 10. Something else to place on my future to-do list; 11. Vertical panoramic shot of Carew Tower, all 49 stories; 12. A sampling of the great collection of building art in Cincy; 13. Apparently, Cincinnati was named after an ancient Roman, Cincinnatus. (Learn something new everyday.)]
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Can't wait to see what the next few months have in store!