Lunar Eclipse

Ack spent today at the CREST meeting at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. Anne worked on Arts Board tasks and wrote a bit on her book. The evening was spent with a nice dinner with Jeff Key and Paul Menzel. The Rincón Tropical restaurant is a short walk from the hotel. Its brightly colored walls and open patio feel (three walls only) let you know you're in Puerto Rico. The food is typical for the area and well-prepared; mofongo (mashed plantain), camarones (shrimp), asopao (rice soup), flan (egg custard with carmel sauce) and pina coladas (with or without rum) are some of the favorites.

After dinner, Ack and Jeff met to plan a presentation Jeff will make at the upcoming Satellite TestBed meeting. The last part of the evening was spent on the beach watching the lunar eclipse in front of us and listening to the surf pounding the shore behind us. Anne and Ack took the moon picture below with a small digital camera - during the total portion of the eclipse.

Puerto Rico!!

Anne and I are now in Puerto Rico for a few days. I'm attending an Advisory Board meeting of CREST. We came down a day early to get settled in. We are staying at the Rincon of the Seas. This is a hotel that I, Anne, Andy and Marianne would come and visit when we rented a house out here about 5 years ago. The beach looks familiar, though a little more narrow but that might be due to the tide. We'll see tomorrow when we go swimming! We started the day with a 4:40 am cab ride to the DC airport. Yellow Cab picked us up right on time. We ended the trip with a flight from San Juan to Mayaguez in a small (9 seater) Cessna flying mostly along the coastline. The little coqui frogs are chirping like crazy - very loud yet welcoming.

Sunday Brunch

This morning, Alana and friends (Phil, Mia, Andy, Jaclyn and Nate) joined Ack, Anne and Mike for brunch on O Str. Paddy Bowman also joined us for a broad buffet. Menu included scrambled eggs, bacon (thanks, Andy!), French toast from bread made by Mike, fried potatoes, special coffee cake from Ann Arbor, home baked chocolate chip cookies and cranberry scones, yogurt and granola, a variety of fruits, delicious cheeses from Paddy's neighborhood shop, Mimosas, Bloody-Marys and lots of coffee. Mike left around noon, unfortunately with a $30 ticket - apparently two-hour parking is enforced on Saturdays as well as weekdays. The 'kids' hung out for a few more hours - lots of conversation and relaxation. Mia, send us a photo to post!

Mike Visits

Mike Ackerman came to visit this weekend, arriving Friday afternoon, 2/15. After a little lunch we walked downtown and visited the National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum. We looked for the Colbert portrait (our second search) and once again failed, but walking through either place is never disappointing - their collections are wonderful. For an early dinner, we ate at Clyde's of Gallery Place, up on the second floor, which has Victorian decor with wood paneling and columns. Anne and Ack both had the rock fish; Mike had shrimp. The food was tasty and the prices not too high. None of us had oysters, which is one of their specialties. (Ask Ack to tell you the embarrassing story of the first time Anne had oysters; she won't tell it.)

On Saturday Ack cooked his famous egg sandwich for breakfast. The highlight for Anne was discovering that Ack learned how to cook it from his dad. This was a new nugget of information (which is rare after 33 years together). After shopping for our upcoming Sunday brunch with Alana and buddies, Mike and Ack took the Red Circulator bus downtown. The goal - a photoshoot of the monuments. Later, heading up Pennsylvania, they ran into Anne riding her bike, then connected with Alana in a nearby sports bar before she headed to work at her own sports bar. The weather was nice enough that we could sit outside. Then it was back to the Portrait Gallery to meet up with cousins Tom, Tim, Ryan, Emanuel and his girlfriend Karen. We ate lunch at Fado Irish Pub near Chinatown, a place that Anne rightly called 'fake Irish'. The beer was good and the food a notch up from typical pub fare with the addition of many lamb dishes.

That night, Mike, Anne & Ack joined Leslie Prosterman and for a fun night at Chick Hall's Surf Club in Bladensburg, MD. The blues band, Smokin' PoleCats, was really good, especially when vocalists Mary Shaver and Marianna Previti performed. Both with their own distinct singing style, they 'completed' the band. If you want a fun night of dancing to good music on a nice wooden floor, get out there soon. They close in 10 days.

Birthday and Baltimore

Happy Birthday Alana! The morning began with a rare view of a double rainbow, rare because large raindrops along with a low sun are much more common in the afternoon than morning. Anne went to Mass at St. Theresa of Avila in Anacostia, the church we'd visited on Fat Tuesday. The liturgical dance was powerful, the congregation very welcoming.

After a late pancake breakfast, we headed to Chinatown to see the New Year's festivities. We wore red clothes to ward off evil spirits/bring auspicious good luck. The weather was cold and very windy. The fireworks, which we missed as we were supping in a warm Irish bar, were supposed to be lit from a crane but had to be lowered because of the wind and blew away. The best part of the parade were the lion dancers which Alana is trying to see a close up of through her camera. Ack and Anne stopped by the Portrait Gallery for a quick tour of the Kathryn Hepburn exhibit on our way home.

On the day before, Saturday, Feb 9, Anne and Ack joined Ryan and Victor for a visit to Tom and Tim's in Baltimore. Our hosts treated us to a tasty lunch and a tour of their wonderfully restored house. On our way to the Walters Art Museum, we walked through the Bolton Hill neighborhood, past lots of outdoor sculptures by MICA art students (Maryland Institute College of Art, which is just down the block from Tom and Tim). One highlight of the Walters' collections is the "Chamber of Wonders," a Dutch cabinet-of-curiosities room filled with an fabulous collection of disparate treasures. Another highlight is an amazing collection of Chinese vases. I'm not usually excited about vases, but these were wonderful. I think it was a combination of the varieties of vases and how they were displayed - not crowded, in nice cabinets, and in a room that reflected one's home.

After the Walters, we stopped at the Baltimore Basilica - America's First Cathedral, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A long name with many badges: a National Shrine, Marian Shrine, National Historic Landmark, and Co-Cathedral of Baltimore.

Shrove Tuesday

Ack's NOAA colleague Ingrid and her husband Ian took us to their church in Anacostia for a Fat Tuesday pancake supper. St. Theresa of Avila is a lively African-American parish; upstairs we met eight women who were rehearsing for their liturgical dance. Downstairs the Junior Ushers were cooking the meal and getting ready to serve it. The food was fantastic: all-you-could-eat turkey sausage patties, pork sausage links, long strips of bacon, slices of ham, and the main attraction - thick fluffy pancakes with ladles of warm melted butter and maple syrup for toppings. There was orange juice and coffee to drink. The children and youths did a great job giving blessings, grace, a scriptural reading and the history of the pancakes on Shrove Tuesday tradition (it's the last chance to use up all the luxurious fats in the cupboard before the privation of Lent). St. Theresa's was one of the most welcoming Catholic churches we've ever visited (and I've visited a lot!). We highly recommend that any of you Catholics in the area check it out.
Very sorry we missed the annual Pancake Day race at the National Cathedral! Only found out about it the following day.

Orchids and Botanic Garden

Happy Ground Hog Day! We had a relaxed morning with coffee from the new coffee maker from Alana, Ack hanging out and Anne working on her book - both of us waiting for the mailman. It was a sunny day with highs in the mid-50s. We walked down to the Botanic Garden to enjoy an orchid exhibit that opened today. Beautiful orchids but neither of us really liked the A-Z display. The Botanic Garden itself displays a variety of ecosystems and deserves a visit. If you go, don't miss the fuzzy lazy rat tail desert plant. After the garden, we went shopping and both came away with long winter coats at hugely discounted prices. In the evening we strolled to the Tabard Inn for dinner. The food was good and moderately priced (about $25 for entrees). The service started great; Anne was too warm so they moved us to a cooler room. But the time between courses was long. Great for conversation except that the noise in the room was very high making it difficult to hold a conversation unless you spoke loudly. I learned that the large fellow two tables away couldn't watch 'scary movies.'