Philly weekender

Last month B and I drove up to Philadelphia to visit our friends Mike and Sara. It was a wonderful weekend get-away filled with excellent food, historical sites and a little bit of culture. We took a stroll inside the 9th Street Italian Market, ate a super beer-filled dinner at the Belgian Cafe on N 21st Street, and enjoyed the view of the Eastern State Penitentiary (former "residence" of Al Capone, now a museum) from Mugshots Coffeehouse.

Brando in front of Independence Hall

Of course no trip to Philly would be complete without a visit to Independence Hall. For me the coolest part was sitting in the original House of Representatives and hearing the story about the transfer of the presidency from George Washington to John Adams that happened in that very room. The weight of our tour guide's words was such that I got a little choked up! She really was an amazing speaker and brought to light all the major events encapsulated by Independence Hall and our young nation.

House of Representatives

Where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Washington's "rising sun" chair in the back

Beautiful "Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier" memorial in Washington Square

On our last day we paid a visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. What an amazing place!

Beautiful downtown...Adrian! (Yes, Rocky ran up these steps)

Sara and Mike strike a cute pose

One of Van Gogh's four "Sunflowers" paintings. Even more stunning in person

Duchamp's (in)famous installation including "Fountain" (the urinal)

You can see the rest of our pictures here.

Fall Colors

Fall is definitely upon us!  We snapped off a few shots from the little copse near our place.  Being west coast kids it's pretty amazing seeing the vibrant colors all the leaves turn out here.  It's gorgeous!

Gettysburg Visit

A few weeks ago the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so B and I decided to skip town for a little day trip. "To the beach!" I said, only to realize that from our present location the beach (I mean the real beach along the ocean) is a 3 hour drive. Groan. (Sidenote: I have never lived this far from the ocean and it saddens me.). Instead we set a driving limit of 2 hours. What can we reach in 2 hours or less? Well, we've "done" Fauquier County, the wineries, the orchards, so what else? Richmond didn't intrigue us. Downtown is played out and Baltimore has been visited enough. So that left only one direction: due north and straight on to Gettysburg for a day of history and Civil War battleground!

Abe and Cat: best friends

The drive was exceedingly pleasant and we even found a parking spot close to a picnic table (to be used later) and the visitor center. We decided to splurge and "do it all" so we bought tickets for the museum, 20 minute film "A New Birth of Freedom" (narrated by Morgan Freeman), the Gettysburg Cyclorama, and a 2-hour guided bus tour.

Section of the Gettysburg Cyclorama depicting Pickett's Charge

The cyclorama was especially cool. It is an 1884 oil-on-canvass painting by Paul Dominique Philippoteaux depicting "Pickett's Charge," the climactic moment of the Gettysburg battle on July 3, 1865. The painting is huge, measuring in at 359 feet long and 27 feet high that wraps around you for a 360 degree view.

After the film and cyclorama, B and I had a light picnic lunch then hopped on the bus for our 2-hour tour. Our tour guide was amazing at painting a vivid picture of the battle for us non-Civil War buffs. We hit all the major spots: Culps Hill, Seminary Ridge (the Confederate front line), The Peach Orchard, Little Round Top, and finally Cemetery Ridge and The Angle where Confederate troops broke the Union line only to be slaughtered and essentially end the battle.

The Angle: the only place where the Confederates broke the Union line at the culmination of Pickett's Charge

There was something surreal and somber about standing on that place where so many Americans died. You could feel their spirits there. As an archaeologist I was also struck by the sheer amount of monuments dotting the landscape. A thousand years from now a team excavating Gettysburg will have an interesting time piecing together what force motivated people to mark these fields in such a permanent way. Will the battle have meaning for those archaeologists the way it does for us currently only 150 years separated from the event?

After our battlefield tour, B and I went in to the town of Gettysburg to stroll along the shops, eat some yummy pub food, and spy the bullet holes still marking the sides of several historic buildings. We even ventured by the David Wills House where Abraham Lincoln stayed the night before his famous Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery.

Check out the rest of our Gettysburg pictures here.

4th Anniversary!

It's hard to believe, but Catherine and I recently celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary.  The time has definitely flown!  Each year we try to do something fun to commemorate the event and this year was no different.

A couple of months back I came upon a Living Social coupon for a 2 night stay at the Blackthorne Inn.  The deal included a 2 night stay, 2 complimentary breakfasts, a $25 gift certificate to their pub, a free tasting at a nearby winery, and lastly a bottle of wine plus cheese and crackers in your room upon arrival.  All for around $200!

We drove out in the early evening on September 16th.  We got to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the Shenandoah Valley as we drove westward.  We arrived and checked into our room that used to be part of the old stables on the grounds back when the land was deeded to George Washington.  The main house has since been converted into their restaurant and pub.  The pub was cozy and filled with patrons. A trio of musicians provided live entertainment.  After some beers and fish and chips we were quite content!

The pond and gazebo on the grounds.

On Saturday we ventured further west toward the town of Front Royal.  Near there we explored a walking trail around an old civil war camp and battle site.  The lunettes where the cannons were stationed were still along the ridge of the hill, albeit all overgrown now.  There were also some natural caves along the trail which were marked with plenty of "Keep Out" signage and warnings about the natural hazards that can be found within (bears, snakes, bats, fun stuff like that).

If Ansel had taken a trip down below.

The highlight of the day though was from our visit to Skyline Caverns.  A vast network of caves discovered in 1937 has since been opened up as a tourist destination.  Along with all the natural mineral formations you expect to find within caves systems like that, the big geological claim to fame is the anthodite clusters.  These ultra-rare formations have only been noted in a couple other places in the entire world.  Apparently the section of cave in which they were found was naturally vacuum sealed.  When the excavating geologist put his spade into the mud at the mouth of that particular cave section, it wouldn't come back out.  When a stronger workman finally extricated it, a loud rush of air enveloped them all and much of their equipment was sucked inside!  The anthodite look like crystalline sea anemones.  The tour took about an hour altogether and was pretty amazing.

Mineral Formations.

An Underground Pond.

Anothodite Clusters.

More Anthodite.

That evening we dined at the Hunter's Head Tavern.  It's an English style tavern that uses all locally grown and raised ingredients in their dishes.  Everything was very tasty!

Carefully considering my options.

On Sunday we checked out and went in search of apples!  We found Stribling Orchard nearby.  We spent the late morning picking half a bushel of various types including red delicious, golden delicious, jonathan, grimes golden, and empire apples.  To spoil our lunch we had some fresh pressed apple juice and some apple turnovers from their little shop on the orchard grounds.  So delicious!

Cat blends in quite nicely.

We had lunch then made our way to Barrel Oak Winery (BOW for short), which was the free tasting provided by our Living Social deal.  We thought the abbreviation was cute, but didn't realize the full extent to which it applied!  As we drove up we saw families with their dogs all over a large grassy areas with picnic benches and umbrellas.  Inside the tasting room was the same scene.  Folks with their leashed dogs sidled up to the tasting bar.  The imprint on the top of all the wine bottles is even a doggie paw print.  We had a great pourer who was very knowledgeable about their wines and the region in general. The wine was tasty too, imagine that!  Cat and I had to obsess over the couple of bottles we ended up getting, otherwise we could have easily spent waaaay too much.

All-in-all a very fun/relaxing trip!  I'd say the only bummer were the constant stink bugs we had to eject from our room.  Guess there are a lot of them out there this time of year.  They weren't dangerous or anything, more of a nuisance.

If you want to see all the pictures from our trip, you can see them here.

Through Our Eyes

Brandon and I have been extremely busy for the past month or so getting a new media exhibition together for the Iraqi Cultural Center in downtown DC. The exhibition, Through Our Eyes, opened on Thursday, August 4 with nearly 200 people in attendance at the reception. This was a collaborative effort with my co-curator (and long time friend) Jon Vidar, Executive Director of The Tiziano Project. To give you a sense of what the exhibition is about, here is our opening panel, some pictures and a lovely video:

The real Iraq is not what you see on the nightly news. It is the gardener lovingly tending his plants, the young woman driving to school each day, and the factory owner bringing industry back to his hometown. This other Iraq used to be hidden in the shadow of sensationalist international media or worse, ignored by local newspapers—until now.  

“Through Our Eyes” presents the journalistic efforts and personal accounts of Iraqis living in the Kurdish north alongside the stories of their professional multimedia journalism mentors. It is the culmination of an intensive, ten-week workshop for twelve Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian journalism students in Erbil during August 2010. The program was developed by The Tiziano Project, which provides new media tools and training to community members in conflict, post-conflict, and developing regions. The workshop included interviewing and reporting techniques, camerawork, video editing, blogging and publishing with social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. The students completed more than 50 pieces of work including articles, interactive timelines, multimedia photo essays, and short videos, all of which are available on 360.tizianoproject.org.  

New media is shifting journalism from the deeply entrenched party-backed newspapers directly into the hands of the community. With this new-found journalistic freedom, Iraqis are being empowered to produce firsthand narratives of their lives and to shape the world's perception of their culture and conditions. Local people with local stories provide a unique and wholly personal view of society and the world through the eyes of those who are living it.

Jon Vidar
The Tiziano Project 

Catherine P. Foster, Ph.D.
Ancient Middle East Education and Research Institute

Cat getting interviewed

Victoria Fine and Jon Vidar

Gratuitous crowd shot

There's Brandon!

Brandon with our good friends James Chang and Kat Lam (in center)

Because of Ramadan, we had an ifthar meal (the meal that breaks the daily fast in the evening)

It has been immensely satisfying to work with Jon again (see Hope and Reflection) and we are extremely happy with the results. We are also humbled and thankful that so many friends and family members supported us financially for this exhibition through our Pledgie page. Without them, this exhibition would not have been possible and we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts! Finally I want to thank Victoria and Brandon who worked tirelessly to prep and install the exhibition. Your dedication to this project was truly remarkable.

Several people have been asking where we will show this exhibit next (our run at the ICC ends on Sept 1). The answer right now is, "we don't know!" However, we are exploring options at the USC Annenberg School, Berkeley's J-School, and a few other places. My dream would be to land a spot at the Newseum.

Family Visit!

We just finished an absolutely wonderful 2-week visit by my parents and my 11-year-old nephew Seth. They had a great time seeing all the touristy sites including most of the museums and monuments on the Mall, along with spending some quality time with me and Brandon. Despite the hot and humid weather, we still got out and saw the U.S. Botanic Garden, Mount Vernon (George Washington's home and final resting place), Arlington National Cemetery (at last!), and Old Town Alexandria where we took a tour of Gadsby's Tavern where Washington frequented and Thomas Jefferson had his inaugural ball.

Apart from the historic stuff, we also ate some yummy dinners around town, crashed out on the couch for some movies, knit and crocheted a few things, and gave my Mom a tour of the office. On their last full day in town, we loaded up the car and headed for Hollins Farms where we spent a lovely afternoon picnicking and picking fruit (peaches, blackberries and apricots) before stopping at Three Fox Vineyards for some wine tasting on our way out of Fauquier County.

Mom, Dad and Seth-we miss you already! See you in September!

We took a TON of photos; here are some of my favorites. Check out the rest here.

Dad and George get cozy at Mount Vernon

Mom in front of the Mount Vernon back porch

National Museum of the American Indian

Arlington National Cemetery

Gadsby Tavern and Inn in Old Town Alexandria, VA

Seth picking blackberries

Inside the U.S. Botanic Garden

Amherst adventure

I recently returned from a conference in Amherst, MA where I finally got a chance to explore some real New England. Much to my surprise and delight, not only is Amherst home to the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts college system and Amherst College, but also the place where famous and eccentric poet Emily Dickinson was born, raised, lived and died. Not wanting to miss out on the chance, I made sure to visit her house, which is now a museum:

Emily's two bedroom windows are top left

Emily's bedroom was the upstairs corner

This enormous white oak is original to the property

The 45-minute guided tour was really a treat where I learned a lot more about Emily's creative process. For example, she had multiple drafts of poems that she would work and rework as she edited words and phrases. She would leave word choices for herself in the margins or as footnotes to later contemplate. For these poems with variants, she died before deciding on what word she wanted, leaving us modern readers to contemplate ourselves on what, eventually, she would chose.

One such poem was on display at the museum, and for the life of me, I cannot remember which one! We did an exercise with the docent of inserting different words. Based on what words we chose, it changed the meaning and tone of the poem completely. If I can ever remember which poem it was, I will certainly add it here.

Dickinson was also an avid gardener. I think that endears her to me even more than her poetry. Harvard University Press has published a facsimile collection of her pressed flowers (Emily Dickinson's Herbarium); a volume I would love to add to my library.

The Emily Dickinson Museum has a lovely website if you want to learn more. There is also a nice little video that serves as the introduction to a longer program entitled "A Poet in Her Bedroom." Check it out:



And check out the rest of my pictures here, which includes more shots of the grounds (photography was not allowed in the house..boo), her grave, and other shots from around town in Amherst.

Virginia Wine Tasting!

Hello friends and family! Catherine and I have been busy trying to take in everything this Spring season has to offer from the Cherry Blossom Festival, to the blooming of just about everything that can grow, and exploring Virginia's wine country! It turns out there are many different valleys here in Virginia much like northern California, with each valley having a propensity for growing particular types of grapes. You can check out the Virginia Wine site for lots of details. We decided to explore the northern Virginia region (since it was the closest).

We drove out the day after some heavy rains, which left many of the local creeks pretty swelled. We were unable to visit the first winery we had picked out because their driveway was flooded! Unlike Napa and Sonoma which have long singular roads from which the many winers branch, the wineries in NOVA (Northern Virginia) are spread out all over the place. And just when you feel you've gone too far down a seemingly dead end 1 lane road, you find the place you're looking for.

Our first stop was Naked Mountain Winery and Vineyard.

The tasting room on the far right

The vineyards

We had arrived just as the tasting room opened, so we were the first customers of the day! Our server was very friendly, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic about the wine. The Virginia wine community is definitely a lot younger and well known than California's, so there's a definite scrappiness to them that is admirable. So you have the attitude of wine makers who are really striving to prove themselves without the pretentiousness you can get from some Napa or Sonoma wineries that are resting on their laurels. The result is an exuberant atmosphere and good wine! One wine in particular that I took a liking to was Cabernet Franc which grows well here. It has a peppery taste to it that I found really unique. We ended up buying a few bottles and set out for our next destination.

Along the way we passed an orchard that opens up for customers to pick their own fruit when the season is right. We will return!

Orchard entrance

The orchard (what we could see from the gate anyway)

Our next stop was the Philip Carter Winery of Virginia. We again appeared to be one of the first arrivals of the day. A few tastes in we discovered our pourer was originally from San Deigo! We keep running into folks out here who have lived where we have. We always seem to get polar opposites of opinions as well. Some love having moved out here from California, others hate it. She fell into the former camp, but still loved returning to San Diego to visit family. This winery had beautiful grounds that they encouraged their visitors to make the most of. Picnics can be set up and guests can walk through the vineyards as long as they take care not to disturb the vines and grapes. So again, good wine, great people, and a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere all around.

Admiring the view

The tasting room

Pond leading up to the tasting room

Our last stop for the day was the Fox Meadow Winery. This place was a little busier being later at the afternoon by this point. For our tasting we had the option to add a paired food to each wine we tasted. That sounded like a great idea since we hadn't stopped for lunch yet! It turned out to be a good decision as each morsel they chose to pair with the wine complemented it quite well. Our server recommended a local place called the Apple House for lunch so we snapped a couple of pictures and departed.

The grounds around the tasting room

In addition to tasty BBQ, the Apple House is best known for its homemade apple spice donuts. Hot damn these things were delicious right out of the fryer! We each had a pulled pork sandwich along with the aforementioned donuts for a dessert and made our way home.

Piggy above the entrance

So we have some great places scoped out for when we have visitors who want to explore Virginia's wine, and an even longer list of wineries left to experience!

Check out our web album for the rest of our wine tasting pics and other springtime shots around our neighborhood.