Graduation

 

We flew to PA

and arrived in time to have A's deviled eggs at a potluck with classmates and their families.

It was our first time on campus since A's first year

We were happy to see where he lived his sophomore and senior year.

It was different for D. to be on this side of graduation.

After the ceremony we socialized before doing some packing. 

We took a scenic walk through campus

to the Haverford train station
(not to be confused with the light rail station).

It was great to walk through Philadelphia to get to the restaurant. We enjoyed tapas with A's cycling friends and dinner with A's elementary school friends.

Then it was back to Haverford, this time on light rail. Packing and cleaning was almost done

and then is was time to prepare for the start of the coast-to-coast and border-to-border cycling trip.

December '24 Leftovers

 

Soaking up these sweet moments

A petting zoo came to campus before final
and we visited even though we had no exams.

Someone put crystal dreidels in our little library.

In the puzzle library someone left an envelope with a found puzzle piece

glad I didn't ride my bicycle today

SYCAMORE 💛

Special gift - D. printed a tandem for our minifigs

Another GOBA Post

 A few more pictures, mostly things not seen at home

Ugh

Lots of covered bridges, including this one in a park

Dog warden's office

"See you at the pork festival
2nd full weekend of September"

Guess which state we crossed into?

Hamilton's Lane Library

where Robert McCloskey (Make Way for Ducklings) hung out as a kid.

I could have done a whole blog post about water towers.

I had totally forgotten about these.
Did I get them from a vending machine?
I have no idea, but I used to eat them.

This is how people charged lights, bike computers, phones, and everything else.

no ebike, so solar power, just human-powered

No mountains, barely any cars

Birthday Trip, final part

In some newspaper I read about a new donut place in Redlands, which serves an unusual selection (e.g., orange blossom, miso caramel banana). I was tempted by the carrot cake donut

In the end I had my favorite, an old fashioned, and D. had vanilla.

From there we cycled the same route. It was less drizzly but still hard to get good views. After showering and packing up we drove to campus to walk around. 

We enjoyed walking around, but did wonder if students cycle, walk, or use transit to get to town. Or maybe they just stay on campus?

We did not take a tour of the most famous house in town, 

"time takes all but memories"

but thoroughly explored the grounds.

We drove by a few more houses on the way to lunch. We were too late for the orange season but bought some local avocados.

There was a pop-up bakery serving a hot lunch and there were three little libraries to explore while waiting for our lunch.

I am not sure why I chose this, but it made me smile.

The whole weekend made me smile! I love taking tiny vacations that are not too far from home.

New-to-me Libray

Just before Christmas we stayed at a friend's house not far from Santa Barbara. The library branch was just a couple blocks away and went each day before it closed for the holiday.

The Friends of the Library store was great to browse (only a teeny tiny bit shown) and they had just what I wanted (cards for sale because I forgot to bring one to mail to a friend with an end-of-the-year birthday).

They had a collection of non-book things that could be checked out, like a keyboard, tools, and cake pans.

The children's room was spacious and had areas to both read and play. Off of that area was a smaller room for even younger children.

"Honor Books. These paperbacks have NO DUE DATE and do not need to be checked out. Please return when finished." There were honor books in each section of the library, which meant I could take a book to read without having a card. I dropped it off in the return bin before we drove home.

The outdoor areas were nice, too, but it was too chilly for me to enjoy them.

November Leftovers

At the start of a group bike ride

Taken from their social media account -
it made me smile to see that royalty take selfies like the rest of us 

sunbathing at the botanic garden

A friend took an opposite sabbatical leave and instead of staying one place they moved every week, more or less. She gave a talk and part of the show-and-tell included the luggage she used for the year. I wonder if I could have done the same.

experimenting with my new minifig photography book

new dishes from a neighbor's yard sale