Stretchy Pants

Jess left me alone with Logan.  So, in my efforts to entertain, I searched through Logan's wardrobe to find a Halloween Costume.  Jess thinks he will be cute as Tigger.  I think he would be much cuter as Nacho Libre.  But, since it started snowing here a couple days ago, I think the much warmer Tigger costume will win out. 

"Chancho. When you are a man, sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room. It's for fun." ~Nacho

On...Onward to Atlanta!

Our last stop on our vacation took us to Atlanta.  During a family reunion in July, we received news from our bro-in-law Matt that sometime in September our niece would be born and our nephew would be baptized.  I made the comment that we would be there.  I think Matt was skeptical, but the vacation was already in the works at that time, and hey, if we are already doing a multi-city trip, why not stop in Atlanta?  I wasn't particularly interested in any schools there (no offense to the most humid city ever), but I thought it would be great to see family.  And so on to Atlanta...

We stayed near a place called Stone Mountain Park.  So on Friday, being so close, we decided to take advantage of all this park had to offer.  The actual Stone Mountain is a granite outcropping rising above a lot of trees and lakes.  There is a tram to the top, as well as a hiking trail.  When we got out of our car to start the adventure, the heat and humidity hit me like a wall of tiredness and so we took the tram.

 

At the top, we explored around for a little while.  It was very bright and Jess was wise enough to wear sunglasses.

I tried to pose without sunglasses with little success.  The sun was was formidable.  Logan luckily had his fisherman hat pulled low over his eyes.

Stone Mountain is like the Mt. Rushmore of the south.  There is a carving in the granite of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis.  Quite impressive actually.  They have a laser show here in the evenings, but we were unable to attend.

We explored the park further and here are a few of the things we found.  Most of the stuff was closed, so I guess a Friday in September is not optimal for a visit.  First off, a steamboat.  I bet it moves pretty slow around the many lakes in the park.

We found a carillon (kind of like an organ with bells instead of pipes).  The carillon is the tower thing behind Jess.  They have live performance, but alas, not on the day we were there. I wonder what it takes to become the master carillonneur.

They used to quarry a ton of granite from this mountain, but stopped in 1973.  This is all that is left.

I found a display showing the type of job in mining I would apply for if I were to quarry granite.  Actually, come to think of it, I would probably be recruited since I fit the job title so well.

Jess crashed a wedding reception to get this shot of the waterfall.

The water turning this old grist mill actually came out of a modern looking PVC pipe.  I was a little disappointed.

It is good luck to kiss while under a covered bridge.  So of course we had to stop.

One other great thing going on in Stone Mountain while we were there was a Segway Convention.  Yes, an actual convention.  I don't know how we didn't get pictures of this.  They had a polo course set up and were playing polo while riding Segways.  Who needs horses anyways?  The Segway guys were riding all over the park.  I thought Brian would love to be a part of that.  Maybe next year, huh?

Back at our hotel, we had our first swimming adventure with Logan.  Turns out, he actually loves the water and swimming.  It helped that the hotel pool was heated up like a hot tub, (the hot tub was heated up like the sun and we stayed clear).

The next day was spent with family.  We actually started off the morning by hiking up to the top of Stone Mountain.  The insurmountable wall of heat and humidity was conquered, although we did get an earlier start.  The hike was actually quite nice.  In the photo below is Matt with his kids Calvin and Caleb, Jess' dad David, me, Logan, Jess, and Matt's daughter Sadie.

Matt got a head start down with the boys.  You can vaguely see Atlanta in the back ground.  Strangely enough, our trip to "Atlanta" didn't actually take us into Atlanta.

The sun was still formidable this morning.  Taking a lesson from my son, I came prepared with a hat.  Jess simply looked away.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with Matt and his family.  They have a really cute new baby girl named Liberty.  I somehow did not get any pictures of her.  We celebrated Calvin's birthday that night.  I competed against a bunch of primary kids in building a rocket.  I do think my rocket went the highest, but thinking of the song, "It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to," I wisely did not say anything (except to Jess later on.  "I'm so proud of you," she said to me).

Showing off my high flying rocket.

I don't know how we didn't get any more pictures of family or of the baptism on this trip, but I guess the camera ran out of battery.  The baby blessing, baptism, and time spent with family were all really nice.  We got to see where Matt and Rachel live and spend some really good time with them and their family.  Atlanta was a nice end to our trip.  We left for the airport shortly after all the events on Sunday were finished.

Thus, the sun set on our vacation.

Pittsburgh: America's Most Livable City

Pittsburgh was recently selected by Forbe's magazine as America's most livable city.  As many of you know, I have been considering moving to Pittsburgh to go to school.  Jess and I decided to check it out for ourselves to see just how livable Pittsburgh is.

We flew from Chicago to Pittsburgh on a Saturday.  The flight went just fine for Logan.  When we got to Pittsburgh, we found out they left our bag in Chicago and it would be a few hours until it arrived, but the airline said they would deliver it to our hotel.  Once we got to our hotel, we all fell asleep.  Logan must have been pretty tired because he slept about 3 hours that afternoon.  I was more than happy to nap during that time.  I'm not sure what Jess did because I was sleeping.  We explored the area around our hotel, and again found a mall and shopping areas.  In our hotels on this trip, we booked suites with kitchens so we could do our own cooking and save on going out.

Sunday, day 2 in Pittsburgh, we attempted to find a church.  Google led us to one, and the church's website posted a starting time of 1 pm.  We of course chose the late start time.  Unfortunately, the ward website did not list stake conference dates.  When we got to the building, we noted how small the ward must be because there were only a few cars in the lot.  Turns out, stake conference ended an hour prior to our arrival.

So, we made a lunch and went into nearby park to enjoy the greenery.  Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas are very green with lots of trees.  It is very pretty.  And some trees had just started to change color.

Jess caught me eating lunch.  My peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwich was very good. 

Jess truly enjoying herself out in nature. 

Logan truly enjoying himself out in nature.

Where does the path to nowhere lead...

To a waterfall of course.

On Monday, day 3, we decided to go to the zoo.  Naturally, I was too busy plotting the most efficient path through the zoo to look up for this photo.  Turns out, the zoo did that for us already as there was only one path through the zoo.

Jess liked the lion.  Most lions I've seen in the zoo sit around, but this one got up for us and even roared.  The roar was actually very impressive and I can't imagine hearing that in the wild.

The elephants were gathering while Jess posed for this picture.

Whoa!  What a long fish.

The polar bear was my favorite.  They had an underwater viewing area and the polar bear was very active.  He kept playing with this blue ball.  He would take it onto land, throw the ball in the water, then jump in after it.  He definitely knew how to have a good time and woo the crowd.

This was actually the pool at our hotel.  We decided not to go for a swim.

After a long day at the zoo.  Jess and Logan both got tired of posing for pictures.

On our way out, the Tiger decided to give us a quick show and he paced around his pen.  It must have been feeding time.

 

We speculated that bus parking is reserved based on matching tree color.

Tuesday, day 4 in Pittsburgh, we stopped at Carnegie Mellon.  It is another university I am considering attending.  The campus is much more urban than Northwestern, but still a very cool campus.  They also have great museums there.

We naturally had to do our best dinosaur impressions.

This stegosaurus, along with many of the dinosaurs in this museum, were actually found in Utah. 

T-Rex is always impressive.

Just don't disturb them during dinner.

Jess admiring a Monet in the art museum.

This buffalo had a mohawk.  Turns out, he used the same hairdresser as Logan (see previous blog entry "The Golden Mohawk").

Wednesday, day 5: our visit to the botanical garden and conservatory.  Logan was excited as ever.

Gargoyles were on display that day.  

But Jess wouldn't let me keep one.

Jess by her favorite orchid.

As long as Logan was fed, he was pretty happy.  I think he was getting hungry in this shot.

This was one of four butterflies left from the hundreds that they had in the conservatory a few weeks earlier. 

Watch where you step!

Logan was happy to leave, but probably not related to his experience at the gardens.

On our way back that night, we drove around Pittsburgh for quite a while.  This area has a lot of hills and the usual trustworthy google maps does not portray that on a 2D map.  So, it tooks us quite a while to find the Grandview Park.  And when we got there, it was in a seemingly dodgy neighborhood, so Jess wasn't about to spend more than 5 minutes there.  But I did convince her to at least get out of the car to take some pictures.  No one tried to recruit us into their gang while we were there.  Whew, we were perfectly safe.

Logan getting a snack in before bedtime.

Our flight out of Pittsburgh was not until 5, so we decided to catch a Pirates game at PNC Park before we left.  We actually stood in line for tickets next to a guy who had coupons for free tickets, which he gave to us.  Thank you complete stranger.  We also got free Pirates shirts when we got in.  Turns out when the team isn't very good, there are a lot of incentives to go to the games.

 

So, here is the inning breakdown.  1st inning: Logan undecided on whether he likes baseball...

2nd inning: Still undecided...

 

3rd inning: Logan doesn't like baseball when he is hungry and tired, so Jess went to feed him.  I watched the game.

4th inning: Logan finally "enjoying" baseball...

5th inning: Still enjoying the game...

6th inning: The opposing team, the St. Louis Cardinals, hit a homerun.  The Cardinals ended up winning.

7th inning: Logan still really enjoying the game.  We couldn't stay longer because we wanted to beat traffic and get to the airport on time for our flight.  It was a fun game.

So, is Pittsburgh the most livable city?  I'd say it has a shot.  It is definitely livable.  We really enjoyed this city, the zoo, museums, gardens, the university, and the baseball game and made a lot of fun memories.