4th of July Weekend

Mandie's brother Joey flew into Boston on Friday the 3rd. We picked him up and headed over to Nate's work at the Broad Institute. He took us around the lobby, showed us all the fancy high tech stuff they had. And then we got to go up to the laboratory. Nate was in his element. Lucky for him Mandie and Joey were fascinated by it all. Nate just gets too into it for me...explaining all the sciencey stuff. I appreciate what he's doing, cancer research and all, but I don't need to know exactly what he's doing. Science doesn't do it for me. But I did get to see robots this time. Big robot arms that do a bunch of tests at one time.
Anway, we made it back to Nate's apartment after several wrong turns. Don't soley rely on GPS...sometimes it goes a little screwy, especially in Boston apparently. We just hung out that night.

Here's Nate soaking up the sun. It had been rainy for about all of June.

Nate's place is made up of about 3 levels. Mandie got this great shot.

Saturday we went and got Dim Sum, a Chinese brunch type thing. Nate's friends call it a crazy Chinese food circus...or something like that. Cuz they wheel around carts and ask you what you want. So that was fun. We then went around to different shops, trying to get dressy clothes. So Mandie and I HAD to go look at shoes and bags. We made our way back to the apartment and hung around until it was time to make it over to the Charles River for FIREWORKS!!
We managed to get a good spot, even though we showed up 5 minutes before it started. Everyone and their dog (yes, there were a lot of dogs out) were making their way to the river. It was like one of those movies were the zombies are on the streets being called to a central meeting place. Freaky.
Here is a video of fireworks. We were on the Cambridge side of the river, so we couldn't hear the music on the other side, from the Esplande where the big concert and Pops concert was. I found out later that Neil Diamond was performing. Dang it! I missed him!


When we got back, Chris and his girlfriend Amy were there! We stayed up super late playing a game...what was it called? Something like Loaded Questions or something. All I remember is the tag line was: Expose yourself. I made several jokes about that...It was one of those games where you all answer the same question, and then one person reads 'em to another, and that person has to guess whose answer is whose. That was fun, we got to get to know each other better.

Sunday was Peter Mead's wedding, the reason we were all together. We got all ready, and we looked good, and drove up to Kittery, Maine. I underestimated the time it would take to get there...so we got there 30 minutes late...but so did the bride! So we got there just in time for the I Do's.

And the reception was really nice, laid back. It gave everyone a chance to catch up with people they hadn't seen for years.Nate and Joey chattin' it up with Jeff Mead

Paul Kelly took some pictures of the event

our design we made from the stuff for the centerpieces

Nate playing with Mandie's bracelets

We are the champions...or in the City of Champions...

I took over driving later at a rest stop in Ohio. I got to drive through the rest of the state, then got gas in West Virginia and finally made it to my friend's place. She and her husband live right outside of Pittsburgh. They have a cute little house in a really nice neighborhood. We hung out here with them once they got home from church. My friend Jon Harbuck and his wife also stopped by and visited with us also.

I didn't know Pittsburgh is now considered the city of champions. I guess they are cuz their football team won something big and so did their hockey team. Yeah, you can tell I don't follow any of this at all…but I'm glad Pittsburgers are happy about it.

Today we had a nice chill, relaxed morning. We finally were all ready for the day at about 11:30 or so. Our plan was to go check out some of the thrift stores. Alyona loves them and has found some really cute clothes and shoes at some of them. We decided to investigate for ourselves. At the first store Mandie and I found skirt and dress respectively. So we were happy. At the second store, we weren't really into buying anything else, so we had fun with some nice blazers…hello shoulder pads!



We took Alyona out to lunch at Boston Market (Mmmm, their cornbread is sooo good) and then have been chillin' at the house since then. Matt, Alyona's husband, suggested going mini-golfing tonight. We ended up at a nice, Christian mini golf place. They had nice Bible quotes all over.

Luckily none of us got too into the game, so we didn't have to take this scripture to heart.

Alas, I came in dead last. Mandie and Alyona tied for first. Matt was in a close second. He was our dilligent score keeper. It didn't rain, though you can see from the sky that it was gettin' close. But we had a good time. Matt and Alyona are serious golfers. I'm more of a point and go, with minimal thought and planning. Maybe that's why I came in last...'eh! We had a fun time.

The Journey-Don't Stop Believin'

So from St. Joseph Saturday, we decided to take a route that cut right across the state, rather than go all the way back down to I-70. The route we were on ended in Hannibal, MO, right along the Mississippi. According to our atlas, it said Mark Twain's boyhood home was there. Since we had left St. Joe about 2.30 and Pittsburgh was about 14 hours away, we decided to stop.



Wow, I was quite surprised at how big of a deal this was. All of downtown Hannibal has something to do with Mark Twain and his stories (mainly Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer). I guess it was there that Mark Twain, then Sam Clemens, got his inspiration for those stories. He had a crush on the girl across the street, Becky Thatcher, who was in the book. There was a tall plank wood fence in front of his house, which gave him the idea for the part where Tom Sawyer convinces that group of boys to whitewash it for him.


Yeah, all kinds of stuff like that. The river wasn't too far from the house. I guess there's also a cave nearby, now called Mark Twain Caves, but that also found a way into his stories.


It was pretty neat to see…and we would've enjoyed it more if it hadn't been soooo stinkin' hot. When I say stinkin' hot, I mean it literally, it was soooo hot and muggy…we were sweatin' up a storm. It was the type of humid that the air feels heavy and it's a chore to breathe. Mandie said it was like walking around being covered in a big blanket. Gross.


We got there about 6 or so, so everything was pretty much closed. But it was fun to walk around and take pictures. I guess it gets pretty Mark Twain-ey during the day with impersonators walking the streets and horse drawn buggies…It was something I'd never seen or even heard of. I guess I'm not that much of a hard core Mark Twain fan. I have heard that he didn't like Mormons though…and he travelled a lot…that's all I know about the guy.



After our literary respite, we drove and drove and drove. I shouldn't say we, I should say Mandie drove and drove and drove. At about 8 or 9 or so, I hit the wall and didn't want to drive. I was willing to just pull over at a Rest Stop and sleep, but Mandie is the kind to keep going. And she did until about 3am in Ohio. She drove all through Illinois and the lightning storm, she drove through Indiana and then finally stopped in Ohio. This video is from somewhere inbetween Missouri and Ohio. We got to see some early fireworks while listening to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on cd. So you get to hear some of that while watching pretty fireworks!




Mandie said she had to force herself to stop and sleep for 3 whole hours. While I, on the other hand, slept about twice that. Mandie then woke up and then pressed on.

St. Joseph-where the west officially started getting wild

Our night at the Motel 6 was restful. It was nice to sleep in big, comfy beds and watch The Tonight Show. In the morning we waited way too long for breakfast at Denny's, and then made our way to the Glore Psychiatric Museum. I was all pumped about this museum since realizing that I had already seen part of a show about it on the History Channel or on Discovery or something. The museum shows all the different ways mental illness has been treated throughout the years, namely the St. Joseph Lunatic Asylum No.2. Like I said, I was all pumped. I've been to weird, slightly creepy museums before (Mutter Museum for an example) but after 20 minutes in Glore, and especially after seeing this display…

So in the early days they used physical force, and all kinds of crazy contraptions...when nowadays we get better results with itty bitty pills...needless to say, I had had enough. It's just so depressing to me that we treated people that poorly. There were numerous boxes and cages and wheels and chairs…blah.



Part of the museum was cool though, where they showed all the artwork and different projects the patients had done. Those were neat, slightly more positive. Sorry, no pictures of those. You can read more about the museum and see other pictures here.

So we left there, slightly more depressed, at least I did. I had a major case of the grumpies. But then we found our way over to the Pony Express Museum, and my mood improved.


That was a fun, well put together museum. We got to see a lot of life size models? I'm not sure what you would call it, but there was a guy on a horse and stuff, it looked like he was ready to leave the stable for a mail delivering adventure.

Then we got to swap mochilas from one saddle to another. Mochilas are the leather thing that goes over the saddle that holds about 20 pounds of mail. Overall there was a lot of art, a lot of maps…I enjoyed it, it was fun.

Me and Russell. Yes, I'm wearing my Pony Express shirt I got last summer in Nebraska


My focus on Russell is mainly for my aunt who lives on Russell Road, in a neighborhood with streets Majors and Waddel. together these guys were the super team that created the Pony Express

I liked this cuz of the part saying they won't use profane language and they won't quarrel or fight

Kansas-Carry on my wayward son...

Mandie and I started out driving Friday morning. We drove all through scenic Eastern Colorado with its green, rolling hills…it was really pretty. Then we got into Kansas…it was pretty…and flat. Luckily we made a stop halfway through the state, which made the 9 hour drive seem a little shorter. The stop we made was in Hays. That's where the Sternberg Natural History Museum is.

They have all kinds of AWESOME fossils. Really cool, detailed ones. BIG ones too. They had some interesting cultural items from all over the world…

A giant turtle's gonna attack Mandie!

These guys, Morasaurs are super big and aquatic

Shocked by the goings on

Sternburg, the dude the museum is named after, is really famous for this fossil specifically

How cute and petite! What's the latin basis for Bambiraptor anyway?

A fictional baby deer? Nice, very scientific

Mandie, in Colorado 70 million years ago...yes, there's time travel in Kansas

Fun stencil-ey art projects...Mandie got a bit carried away

Mandie and I had fun looking around…we kinda got into it. The exhibit in the dome was cool.


There was this big T-Rex, and Mandie and I were walking my, taking pictures, when all of a sudden Mandie's running ahead of me, startled. I was confused and looked up and the T-Rex had turned it's head and roared at us. We didn't know it was on a motion sensor thing. Mandie thought it was falling on her. :)


When we were done, I looked at my cell phone for the time, and it was 4:30. We got there close to 2…I was floored that we spent that much time there. But when got to the car, we realized that our cell phones had already gone ahead an hour…so we were only in there for an hour and a half, not 2 and a half. There was a lot to see…but not 2 and a half hours worth.
But after the museum we kept on driving. Our destination was St. Joseph, Missouri. It was about 45 minutes north of Kansas City. We spent the night in a crummy Motel 6 to rest up for our next big adventure!