librarygrrrl.net » travels

34. Travel to one of the states I’ve never been to before

Megan — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:26:22 +0000

Flag of Oregon

Today I booked tickets to go to Oregon for my friend Mike’s wedding in July. I’ve known for several months about the timing of this wedding, but just needed to actually book the flights. Done! We’ve got a couple of days before and after the wedding to explore the western part of the state – looking forward to it and would love to hear your recommendations on things to do. I’m not the least bit upset that the travel itself won’t take place before I turn 40 (which is TODAY) – the spirit of the goal was to go someplace new, and it will be accomplished. Woo!

13. Go to 5 of the 125 Places to Have a Beer Before You Die

Megan — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:14:44 +0000

There is this great list of 125 places to have a beer before you die, courtesy of All About Beer. It was published way back in 2008, but is a delightfully relevant list 2 years later (which I suppose is a good recommendation for a list like this.)

Amy planned our summer vacation around the list. Isn’t she awesome?

In order of how we visited them on this trip (not their place on the list):

Great Lost Bear, Portland ME

Gritty McDuff’s, Portland ME

Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown NY

Clark’s Ale House, Syracuse NY

The Blue Tusk, Syracuse NY

F.X. Matt Brewery Tasting Room (aka Saranac Brewery), Utica NY

Besides these five, I’ve already been to these places on the list:

Monk’s Café, Philadelphia, PA
Hofbrauhaus, Munich, Germany
The Brickskeller, Washington, DC
French Quarter during Mardi Gras, New Orleans, LA
Andechs Monastery, Andechs, Germany
Goose Island Brewing, Chicago, IL
Cooter Brown’s, New Orleans, LA
Sunset Grille & Tap, Boston, MA

Other places we visited on our trip included:

Ithaca Brewery

Empire Brewery

Middle Ages Brewing

Beer is awesome.

A Summer in Photos

Megan — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:19:09 +0000

What I’ve Been Up To – February Edition

Megan — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 01:09:59 +0000

Playing with:

Amy and I received some money for Christmas and we’d been trying to figure out what to splurge on. One day I sent her an email asking, “Should we get a Wii?” I think you could have knocked her over with a feather she was so surprised. Needless to say, I’m not much into gaming and actually made her put her old-school Nintendo system out in the garage when we bought the house. But we got the Wii and so far I’m really enjoying our one game (the one that comes with it) with tennis, bowling, and baseball. In a few months we’ll probably splurge a little more and get the Wii Fit. I’ve heard such good things about it. Do you have any experience with it? Worth it?

Visting:

We went to Cabo San Lucas, Baja, Mexico with my parents and Amy’s parents! It was wonderfully fun and although I wasn’t sick of winter before we left, I sure am now. You can see all my photos at Flickr. A few of my favorite memories:

eating my body weight in guacamole
snorkeling at Chileno Bay where we saw all sorts of amazing fish including a moon wrasse and several king angelfish
whale watching from our patio
four flat tires at the airport

Photos courtesy Richard Ling (license) and laszlo-photo (license) on Flickr, under Creative Commons licenses.

Reading:

Neil Gaiman. How have I never read anything by him other than his collaborative Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett) before? He’s an amazing storyteller. On vacation I read Anansi Boys and The Graveyard Book.

Other Stuff:

I’ve been doing lots of other stuff too (hockey, soccer, LWD – living with dogs, and working) and will probably write about some of those things at some point. I’ve also got a post brewing about useful software products for undergraduates (or other folks) who want to stop using so much paper. It involves things like Zotero and Evernote, but oh so much more…. Stay tuned!

Sledding Party

Megan — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:46:36 +0000

For the first part of our vacation this year, we spent close to a week in Maine at Amy’s sister’s new house. There was a big snowstorm the day we drove up, so we all took advantage of the snow and went sledding over the next couple of days. Here are a few of my favorite photos.

Auntie Amy and Cameron go over the jump – Amy poses with the new house

Uncle Karl takes Cameron down – Amy B takes Amy S on her first-ever sledding run

Woo-hoooo!

Holly and Hannah catch air – Karl struggles to stay upright (he failed)

The rest of the set is at Flickr.

Per Hour

Megan — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:26:44 +0000

This short trip cost us $20 per hour, according to my mother’s calculations. Insane but ultimately worth the cost. We got to see my grama today on our way to the airport, always nice because we don’t spend Thanksgiving with her. Now we are in the airport at Milwaukee, the place of horrible food. Luckily we grabbed some lunch in Minneapolis – chicken and wild rice soup. Yummy! Unfortunately we still have no free Internet (boo MSP & Milwaukee airports) so this won’t get posted until we are home. Off to find a drink before our flight…

Still Around

Megan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:19:04 +0000

Even though I haven’t posted in over a month, I’m still around. My time has been taken up with: hockey (camp, games, and tryouts), a trip to Acadia National Park, and work.

To keep you entertained for a moment, here’s a macro of a lovely hydrangea in our yard during a respite in a big storm:

And here is a sailboat from when we were up in Acadia National Park. It’s the Helen Brooks, a Friendship Sloop owned and chartered by Amy’s brother Karl.

Until such time as I blog again, ta!

Road Trip!

Megan — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:37:57 +0000

Well, the car’s packed and we’re ready to go after we shower, eat, and say goodbye to family. It’s going to be a long trip, but if you all think it hard enough, it’ll be an easy one.

Off to make sure we can use the FastPass in the new car. Ta!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles – Adventures in Thanksgiving Travel

Megan — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 17:48:42 +0000

3:00 a.m. : Get out of bed.

3:25 a.m.: Leave house in car.

3:35 a.m.: Pick up student who needs ride to Airporter.

3:50 a.m.: Buy ticket for 4 a.m. Airporter (bus to airport).

4:00 a.m.: Airporter departs.

4:23 a.m.: Arrive at Logan International Airport.

5:20 a.m.: Board plane.

5:37 a.m.: Plane takes off.

7:05 a.m.: Plane lands in Philly.

7:45 a.m.: Board plane.

8:05 a.m.: Plane takes off.

10:02 a.m.: Planes lands 30 minutes early in Minneapolis.

10:23 a.m.: Plane arrives at gate.

10:45 a.m.: Bags get off carousel.

10:52 a.m.: Buy ticket for light-rail.

10:54 a.m.: Board light rail.

11: 18 a.m.: Disembark light rail and get into Dad’s car.

11:28 a.m.: Arrive folks house.

11:30 a.m.: Eat kringle and Swedish toast.

11:46 a.m.: Remember to blog!

12:00 p.m.: We’ll probably leave for Wisconsin – a 90-minute drive.

I’m so tired, but oh-so-thankful that we can actually spend this holiday with our family and friends. May your travels be as smooth as ours were this morning – and may they take significantly less time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation by Otter the Dog

Megan — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 02:53:57 +0000

Someone had quite the summer vacation!

Start with one big dog.

Add a lobster bake and some camping.

And an upset gastrointestinal tract.

Shake ever so slightly.

Pay the vet a lot of money.

End up with the same dog you started out with.

Priceless.