Spring Rolls In...

The cherry blossoms are from outside the Japanese Embassy in DC. There were hanging around on my camera.

The real excitement of the morning is we found a Cooper's hawk nest in the neighborhood. This one is three blocks away (and my picture looks like I was about that far away).

Finally, the Northern Flicker let us get close. It had the longest bill I have every seen. Usually these guys are spooky and take off early, but I was able to get close and really get a good look at this bad boy. Quite the bill, Dude.

Spring at Fort Snelling

You can barely see this, but as logs float down the Minnesota River, a duck is parked in the top side of a tree, watching the whole business.


Next we have a sparrow. I have to look this bad boy up.






Here is a Barred Owl from early this winter. Karyl found this one.

DC Tour

Our tour of Georgetown is over and we are trying to rally our spirits. Grace is reluctant for the father/daughter picture and she gets dusted up.

Maura had hoped to call it a day and take the Metro home, but there were not stops on the way. Sigh. The line of the day when Maura asks, "Why are going to see some dumb rock? Nothing historical happened there." Even the cabbie laughs at this.

All four of us made this shot. Notice the characteristic BC footwork.

Feeding a squirrel. Maura was deeply touched by this. I thought the girl feeding the squirrel was deeply touched.

Washington Monument, Capitol, and Dave and Grace are reflected in the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial.

Cherry blossoms outside the Japanese Embassy on the final leg of the trip back to Dad's.

Monday at Georgetown

After salad and sandwiches at Balducci's we cab it to Georgetown. The sun is out and the temperature is rising.

We arrive early, so what better thing to do than collect a little vitamin D. Grace is inside making sure we are registered.

The information session cast a funk on the troops after the woman flashed the SAT/ACT scores up on the screen. The best part of the session was the girl in the U Penn sweatshirt getting yelled at.

Beautiful campus, but spirits were low. Sigh.

Saturday Afternoon in NYC....Yahoo

So, post-Columbia we head to NYU. Here we are cruising on the One. Do we look like "flat -landers"?

At NYU Dave takes the lead and has an extended chat with the woman in the Admissions office. Lots of kids from both coasts, but not so many from the midwest. Hmm. Interesting.

This was on the way to NYU from the subway.

The chairs to the left where in an NYU window on the way to the bookstore. No product was purchased at this juncture.

Rolling with Daisy

Here the action really picks up. We visited "The Strand" bookstore where I picked up a copy of Red, White, and Black, for a mean $7.50. With Daisy (Grace's cousin) we walk down to Soho, and then its the subway back to the Eastview Terrace (a great value) for the end of the Missouri vs. ? basketball game. Unfortunately, Missouri comes up short. Sorry Clayton.



Gaylord and Jon and later Shiho and Winston show up and then we are off looking for dinner for eleven. Good luck with that.

After being given the bum's rush at Risotteria Jon finds us an outstanding pizza place and Grace has her first fresh za. Jon rocks. Among the other events were a glass of Jamison, and at the end of the evening a dirty mother for Jon. All in all, an outstanding evening. It just doesn't get any better than this.

This picture shows Gaylord, Jon, Clayton, and Jana.

Columbia - No Tour - Way to go B...

So, we step out of the cab and walk across the street to begin our visit to Columbia and Maura spots a hawk in the trees. Somehow this strikes my twisted mind as good luck.



I don't think this bad boy is a red-tail. Time to head for the bird book and dig.


Long story short, there are no tours at Columbia on Saturday, except for the second Saturday of the month. I am a boob. Time to shift to plan B. There is some kind of public service event, with Columbia students at tables. We find a table with three nice students and we as them about their experiences at Columbia. High marks all around. One girl looked at me a bit funny when I asked if housing was for all four years and she said that given NYC prices, why would anyone consider living off campus. Oh, yeah.


Here Grace and Shmee ham it up with the main quad in the background. Shmee's footwork is a copy of the Admissions guy from BC who did the toe up 42 times during the information session. Maura and Grace with the count on that one.

So we toured ourselves.









The girls stroll past the Philosophy building.

Monday at American University

Here we are on our tour of American University in DC. It was cold and windy, on its way to a warm day, but it wasn't there yet. Probably a great school, but nobody on my team was biting. So the big event then became, to whom is Dave chatting up now?



This guy is from Kentucky. Their basketball coach had just been fired, so that was a topic of conversation.




The next guy was the former Harvard Goalie (he beat the Gophers in the finals). This man now takes kids to ivy league colleges and shows them around. Apparently there are two guys who will get your kid into an ivy for 25 big.











Here is what we are supposed to be looking at while Dave is finding out about how the goalie
makes a living.



Here is Grace in Dave's Ray Bans.