Thursday, January 13, 2022

October trip to TX & VT

After our Grand Canyon adventure, we had the chance to visit the parental units, yay!

First was a quick stop in Texas.  The only pictures I have involve John testing his new drone.  Hello, drone:


Practicing good control (in addition to the ability to send it quite a ways away before having it return "home"):


We flew up to Connecticut in order to take a train to Vermont - and somehow Kathy and Bob managed to find us!  What a crazy, wonderful surprise that none of us had planned.  Always great to see you two, even for just a short time!


Visions of fall foliage from the train window (Amtrak is so pleasant):


Chocolates on our pillow in Vermont - thank you, Billi Jo!


Our (well, John's) big project was installing a heat pump water heater for Mom.  How's it looking, John?


While he played around (serious play, of course) with water and wires (not both at once, of course), I found more pretty trees during my runs:


The reservoir was looking particularly photogenic:


That time our family got together for Christmas at the Grand Canyon (or, how we PhotoShop):


Mom got us all kinds of treats to try, including a yummy shandy (as John is on his way to do more good things):


Mom hung a new birdfeeder at the window where we watched chickadees collect sunflower seeds:


More running in beautiful places:


Welcome to Mom's basement, excellent and efficient new water heater!  Mom continues to electrify her life, way to go!


She was sorting through some of our old school stuff.  I vividly remember getting these awards every year, and Dad would always ask - "responsible for what?"


We went on a really nice hike up Mount Philo - great scenery from the top:


And smiling faces - thank you Mom for an excellent visit!


We drove down to Albany to see some friends (and fly out from there), and happily this time the Star Trek Set Tour was open for business.  You know we had to spend some time there.

Piloting the shuttle into the shuttle bay for boarding the ship (I'm an engineer with many talents, at least in a make-believe world):


A training session in the transporter room:


Beam us down, Scotty:


Our tour guide even looked the part, as he shows us around sickbay:


Memorabilia from the original series:


Grinning all the way to the outside of my mask  :)


I can almost hear the voices from the original cast, talking and walking down the corridor:


We were given permission to (pretend to) climb one of the access tubes:


Engineering and the fantastic warp core:


And of course, the highlight - the bridge of the starship Enterprise!  I was pretty comfortable at the science station:


Captain, I'd advise getting some additional crew:


The ship deposited us in the gift shop after the tour:


Hey, a couple familiar faces from our last cruise:


Fabulous experience, highly recommend!

Overall that was a super fun trip, thank you Mom and Jenny and Jerry!

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