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One more photo from Montreal, graffiti/street art (forgot I took this):

And a triple-decker of the furballs trying to beat the heat (thanks to Adrienne for capturing this):

Favorite Photos:

Ibrihim Maalouf

Nikki Yanofsky

Daniel Mille

Marco Benevento

Red Baraat

Neil Cowley

Favorite Performances include all the above EXCEPT Nikki Yanofsky and add in Sonny Rollins’ performance (so check these bands out, good stuff). And that’s all the Montreal stuff I’ll bug you with this year!

This weekend is one of the few free days you can get access to some national parks, so Adrienne and I headed over to the one closest to us – the Thomas Edison National Historic Park. Thomas Edison called West Orange, NJ home, just a town over from us. A museum is there along with remnants of his industrial complex, which once employed 10,000 workers. And just up the block, in America’s first planned community, is his home and estate. Tonight an authentic ragtime orchestra played an outdoor concert on the grounds, so we went and checked it out.

And just down the street is a place where some say you can get the best pizza in New Jersey. David had been wanting to check it out, and this was the perfect opportunity. Pizza was good, classic tavern pizza. All in all, a nice night.

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We learned every little town has their own (little) Memorial Day Parade, so we walked the couple blocks (just the other side of the college) to check it out. David kinda wishes the towns would consolidate so we could get a better parade going, but we’ll take what we can get. Click on photos for bigger version and commentary.

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A year ago, Adrienne and I first traversed out to Bloomfield to check out some houses. We were on our bikes, so we explored the neighborhood just a bit, and found a small carnival being held in the parking lot of one of the local grocery stores. Turns out to be a yearly occurrence, so we went back this year just to check it out. Because of the small space, it gets very crowded, and as Adrienne says, is filled with hooligans. Stayed just long enough to grab a couple photos.

I’ve spent the last 5 days in Vegas for two conferences. We had one day off, so a colleague and I drove the 45 minutes to Hoover Dam and took the detailed tour. Photos:

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And here are a couple photos. This is a morning shot outside of my hotel window (at the Riviera). The weather was very nice the entire time.

You can see the mountains from the convention center:

And here’s one for Adrienne, a sign in the airport:

Roosevelt Island is a 2-mile long, 800-feet wide island off the eastern “coast” of Manhattan – that is, in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. It has a long history, from its purchase from the Indians, to Dutch hog farming, to prison and hospital locations to now – a community of about 12-thousand, complete with school system, church, hospitals and more. And — you can’t drive to it from Manhattan. The island is only accessible via subway and aerial tramway (cars can use a bridge from Queens, though the island’s master plan forbids use – you park you car at a garage and walk or ride the bus). I recently saw the tram was going to be shut down for several months for repair, so I thought it’d be a good idea to get over for a visit – to ride a skycar to an island off New York City. Pics of our visit below:

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And here’s a panorama from the southern tip of the island (click for biggie version):

Photos from our ~5 mile round-trip rainy hike to Falcon Cape at Oswald State Park today, as well as stopping by Haystack Rock right here in Cannon Beach where we’re staying.

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My phone rang at 3:15 this morning (thank you time difference for making that early-morning phone call that much more excruciating), so I was up and since I’m still feeling like I’m on Eastern time, I was fairly awake. So here are some photos from our first full day.

A not-so-quick synopsis: our flight Tuesday night was trouble-free and got in early, which means we finished the drive to the Oregon coast by about 12:30am or so. We picked up our keys from the pickup box, and followed the instructions to the Falcon House, though we thought we were just getting a small room. We find it and crash. Later find out they’re remodeling all the rooms, so they decided to put us in the cabin instead. Cool! Wednesday morning we hung out in Cannon Beach, having breakfast and just walking up and down the strip. In the afternoon we drove about an hour south to Tillamook to check out the cheese factory. Then drove around a bit, finding Oceanside and viewing the last bits of sunset. Then we drove back north, having dinner at Mo’s (“what’s a trip to the coast without eating at Mo’s?” Adrienne asks) – always good chowder and eats. Then back to the cabin for some TV watching, internetting and reading before we crash.

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Check out the captions for details.

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