Lydia Rose

Morgan

Morgan is starting a year long teachers program at the Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks. Sharon, Jack and I had her and Bridget for dinner. Sharon made chicken cordon bleu.

Philadelphia

After dinner on the first day of the East Coast College Tour, Sharon and I wandered by this waymark exploring the area around Penn Square and city hall.

Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Historical Marker
See this location on Yahoo Maps in Flickr
See this location on Google Maps
This marker is located at North Broad Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard, just north of City Hall, Pennsylvania. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 39° 57.210 W 075° 09.810.

You can log your visit to this landmark at waymark.com.

Founded by William Penn. Laid out in 1682. Chartered a city, 1701. Pennsylvania's capital until 1799; the nation's to 1800. County was one of Pennsylvania's original three, formed 1682 and consolidated with city in 1854. Name means "City of Brotherly Love."

Frame Family Function

With Erin and Dylan moving to Southern California for Dylan to start college, the Frames got together for dinner at Pete's Restaurant and Brewhouse in Midtown. The group included Tom, Kevin, Eric, Tim, Kathy, Eileen, Will, Erin, Dylan, Jack, Sharon and I.

Chinaman's Chance by Ross Thomas

I finished reading Chinaman's Chance by Ross Thomas. I bought the book after hearing Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald mention the book on their Grantland Hollywood Prospectus Podcast. They were previewing the second season of True Detective.

Set in Southern California, the plot of the book includes the fiction town of Pelican Bay which has some similarities to the True Detective Season 2 town of Vinci. Like True Detective season two, the book also includes the murder of a politician. One side note, Sharon and I stopped watching the second season of True Detective after episode three. I am not sure that we will ever pick it back up and finish the last five episodes.

I don't know where to start to talk about Chinaman's Chance. Set in the 1970s, the principal characters are two orphans; one of the orphans is a pretender to the Imperial throne of China. By the way, this pretender to the Imperial throne of China is married to a descendant of the Scottish kings?!? The plot includes everything but the kitchen sink. There is a millionaire, a female folk group from the Ozarks, money hidden during the Vietnam War, some kind of secret spy agency and the Mafia. This is just a start of the list of the plot elements.

Initially, I kind of enjoyed the book. As I got further into the story, I liked it less. The plot is such a mishmash of stuff that it felt outlandish. I didn't dislike the book. I just don't' recommend it. I rated three stars out of five in Goodreads.

Future Stars

Jack, Sharon and I spent an hour at Future Stars with Scott Hamilton. Future Stars is a college counseling center designed to guide families through the college admissions process. In addition to a parent admission forum, this is our sixth session [9/9/2013, 1/14/2014, 9/24/2014, 1/25/2015, 3/23/2015].

The focus on the meeting was finalizing the college list and walking through the calendar for this fall. The next four months are where this investment is really going to pay off. Scott will be working directly with Jack on reviewing the essays. Additionally, Jack will completing and submitting the applications while working with Scott a couple of times a month in small groups.

Twelve States plus Washington DC

Talking during our east coast college tour, we realized that Jack is going to visit twelve states plus Washington DC this summer.

As part of his immersion, he visited Kansas and Missouri.

During the Wharton Sports Business Academy, he visited Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

On the east coast college trip, we added Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Washington DC.

We are going to finish the summer with a trip to Washington state for Nate's wedding.

Although Sharon wouldn't let us count them, Jack changed planes in airports in Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina!

Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week - Metamorphabet

The complete list of Starbucks iTunes picks of the week is here!



Code Expiration: November 3, 2015

College Tours

At this point, we have done college tours of 15 schools, including:

1. UCLA
2. Stanford
3. Notre Dame
4. Northwestern
5. University of Chicago
6. Loyola University of Chicago
7. University of Pennsylvania
8. Villanova
9. Georgetown
10. George Washington
11. New York University
12. Boston University
13. Boston College
14. Northeastern
15. Tufts

I think that we will probably visit USC and revisit UCLA this fall.

You can find the posts for all of the college visits here.

2015 East Coast College Tour Day 10

Up at 5 am, we packed up the room, got the car and headed to the airport. One of the odd things about booking the trip was that it was a lot cheaper to pick up the rental car in downtown Philadelphia than it was to pick it up at the airport. It cost about 45% of what we were quoted for getting the car at the Philly airport.

We got a 7:40 am United flight from Boston to Denver. Changing planes, we had a 11:30 am flight from Denver to Sacramento. We were back in Sacramento by 1:00 pm and home by 2:00 pm. It was a series of uneventful flights home.

We have a meeting with Future Stars on Wednesday night to work on the list of colleges where Jack will be applying.

2015 East Coast College Tour Day 9

While Jack watched Tottenham play the first game of the Premier League Season, Sharon and I walked to Starbucks for some breakfast. The plan for the day was to walk the Freedom Trail in downtown Boston.

From the hotel, we walked up to the Visitor Center in the Boston Commons. The trail is actually marked on the sidewalk. We made a number of stops including: Massachusetts State House; Shaw Memorial; Granary Burying Ground; King's Chapel; Ben Franklin Statue; Old Corner Book Store; Faneuil Hall; Paul Revere House; Old North Church; and, Bunker Hill.

After we got to the Old North Church, we looped back to the Union Oyster House for lunch. The Union Oyster House started serving in 1826. It is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the US. The building dates from 1742.

At Bunker Hill, Jack and I climbed 300 steps to the top of the monument. From there, we walked back to the hotel. My Withings iPhone app showed that we walked 23,400 steps and 11.2 miles.

Once we got back to the hotel, I took off to explore the wharf and then headed to the Quincy Market. Sharon eventually caught up with me at a restaurant called Cheers.

We finished the night with a late dinner at Strega Ristorante. I had one of the specials: Zuppa di Mare. It was very good. In fact, I was so focused on my dinner that I have not idea what Sharon or Jack had for dinner. Afterwards, we stopped along Hannover Street for some gelato.

2015 East Coast College Tour Day 8

After breakfast in the concierge lounge at the hotel, we grabbed the car. We have our last two college tours of the trip. The first stop of the day was Northeastern. I was surprisingly impressed by this school. They have an intern program that they call Co-op that mixes traditional classes with work experience. I was more than a little appalled that their slideshow was cut off on both sides of the screen...



We had an interesting lunch at Summer Shack. Sharon and I split oyster and lobster sandwiches.

We spent the afternoon at Tufts College. For the informational part of the program, Tufts had one person speak for almost an hour. While he was well-spoken, an hour is a long time; I had trouble staying awake. It is a nice campus, but I don't think that it is the right place for Jack. It is probably the only college that we visited this week where I wouldn't even encourage to apply.



While not quite as bad as Thursday night driving back from Boston College, it probably took us 45 minutes to drive 6 miles back to the hotel. I just can't believe the amount of traffic.

We finished the night with a late dinner at Mama Maria in the North End. I had lobster pasta, while Sharon and Jack had rabbit pasta.

I was amazed at the amount of people on the streets in the North End. All of the bars and restaurants were packed!

2015 East Coast College Tour Day 7

After breakfast at the concierge lounge at the hotel, we got the car. We have four college tours in and around Boston over the next two days.

The first stop for the day was Boston University. BU had a very nice visitor center near the Charles River. At least for me, they had a unique presentation. They had an admittance counselor and a student. After a video, they tagged teamed the presentation back and forth. Sharon said that one of the schools on their Chicago trip used the same approach.

BU is an urban campus stretched out over a mile along the Charles River. It didn't feel quite as urban as George Washington or NYU.



After the BU tour, we drove to Boston College and parked on the campus. We walked over a mile to Chesnut Hill for some lunch at Aquitaine. Back on the campus after lunch, we bought some BC swag.

The BC presentation was also a little different. It included a panel of five students answering questions for about 30 minutes. BC has a very nice campus. It is much more a traditional college campus compared with GW, BU and NYU. I was surprised how much the students talked about going to the football games!



It took us over an hour to drive 5 miles back to the hotel after the BC tour. The traffic is making me more than a little crazy.

Over the course of the day, we decided to go to Mission Impossible at the IMAX. After getting a snack at the concierge lounge, we walked more than a mile to the theater near the Boston Commons.

We finished the evening with a late light dinner at the hotel bar.

2015 East Coast College Tour Day 6

We had breakfast in the concierge lounge at the Eastside Marriott. After getting packed, we got the car about 9:30 am and headed north. I had explored visiting Cornell or Colgate, but neither offered tours and were 4 plus hours out of the way.

The roads in New York are horrible. Once we got to Connecticut, the roads improved markedly.

I suggested that we drive to Boston via Providence. I had made a very quick trip to Providence in February. I thought it would make a great stop for lunch. This turned out to be a fiasco. Traffic was backed up trying to get into the downtown. Once we parked and started to walk around, the downtown seemed full of empty storefronts. We eventually found a restaurant [Circe] for lunch and Sharon's salad had a long hair in it.

We finally got to Boston about 3:30 pm. We will be spending four nights at the Long Wharf Marriott.

After getting into the room and unpacked, we walked into the downtown and along part of the Freedom Trail. We are planning to explore the trail more fully on Saturday.

We finished the evening with dinner at Legal Seafood. I had crab cakes, Sharon had haddock and Jack had pasta.

2015 East Coast College Tour Day 5

Up before 6 am, it was a long day. We left the hotel about 7:30 pm and headed north to New York. It took about an hour to crawl 30 miles out of Washington DC. Above Baltimore, we got on the New Jersey Turnpike and made good time. About 30 miles from New York city, the traffic completely stopped. It turned out that a truck and trailer had crashed and caught fire. They ended turning the traffic around on the freeway and heading it back the wrong way to an off-ramp. With the turn pike closed, we had to figure out a way to get into Manhattan. It ended up taking us more than 6 hours to drive the 234 miles from Washington DC to Manhattan. We rolled up to the hotel about 1:30 pm. As Sharon pointed out, I am losing my patience with traffic…

We will be spending one night at the Eastside Marriot. We spent a couple of nights there in 2013 with the Gainsleys. After getting checked in, we jumped in a cab and headed to NYU. Starting at 2:30 pm, we had an hour presentation and a hour tour. NYU is a very urban campus. While there are clearly some unique opportunities, including some new international campuses, it would take the right kind of person to start at NYU as a freshman.



After the tour, we headed to the Gramercy Tavern for a bit to eat. From there, we jumped into a cab back to the hotel. Getting cleaned up, we walked to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. I am always amazed at the number of people in and around Times Square. We saw Kinky Boots.



We finished the night with a late dinner at Joe Allen Restaurant. Sharon and I both had New York steaks, while Jack had pasta. We walked back to the hotel and crashed about midnight.

Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week - Camera+

The complete list of Starbucks iTunes picks of the week is here!




Code Expiration: October 27, 2015

2015 East Coast College Tour Day 4

After sleeping late and having breakfast at the hotel, we walked to Georgetown. The plan for the day was to visit Georgetown University and George Washington University. I was very impressed with the neighborhood that we walked through on the way to the Georgetown campus.

At Georgetown University, we sat through a 30 minute information presentation and then took a tour. The tour was longer than others that we have taken and lasted almost 1 1/2 hours. I was very impressed with the campus and the opportunities that are available in the Washington DC area.

With a 2:30 pm tour at George Washington, we walked back through the Georgetown University main gates and jumped in a cab to George Washington University. It is amazing how easy it was to find a cab. After lunch at Chipolte, we sat through another 30 minute presentation and took a hour tour. George Washingon has a very urban campus, but it is bounded within a specific area. While the urban campus has some drawbacks, the proximity in Foggy Bottom to the White House, State Building and other government buildings creates some very unique opportunities. I hadn't thought seriously about either of these schools, but was very intrigued by both of them.

After the George Washington tour, we walked down Pennsylvania Avenue to M Street and our hotel. Sharon and I had a drink in the bar and then got cleaned up.

We finished the night driving out to the Nooters in Arlington. Nooter barbecued some pork and chicken. Both Weston and Austin were at dinner. It was a very nice dinner. I appreciated being able to spend some more time with Nooter. Facing an early morning on Tuesday, we left about 10:00 pm and headed back to the hotel.

2015 East Coast College Tour Day 3

Wandering into Georgetown, we had breakfast at the Daily Grill.

After breakfast, we got Capitol Bikeshare bikes and rode along the Potomac River to the Lincoln Memorial. My priority for the morning was the Martin Lurther King Memorial. Jack and I had ridden by MLK Memorial just before it opened. From the Lincoln Memorial, we rode to the MLK Memorial, walked through the FDR Memorial (one of Jack's favorites) and continued to the Jefferson Memorial. After getting some waters and a gatorade, we rode back along the tide pool and across to the Washington Monument before heading back to the hotel. We probably covered 6 or 7 miles in a little over two hours.

Once we got back to the hotel, I did a walk about through the neighborhood and down to the waterfront. I toured the Old Stone House.

Sharon eventually had a hamburger in the bar. While she got ready, Jack and I had a pizza at Il Canale.

Shortly after Sharon caught a cab to see Mary Maloney, Barb dropped Nooter off at the hotel. Nooter and I spent a couple of hours on the roof of the hotel catching up. It was great to see him. Barb picked him up about 6:15 pm just before Mary and Sharon showed up.

Sharon, Mary, Jack and I finished the night having dinner at Fiola Mare.

2015 East Coast College Tour Day 2

After a restless nights sleep, Sharon and I had a solid breakfast in the hotel. After breakfast, we walked a long ways to UPenn to meet Jack. I had set a GPS point near his room in the dorms, but he was waiting in the front of the building. Finally connecting with Jack, we walked back across the campus and down Locust Walk. Walking up to Chesnut, we hailed a cab and headed back to the hotel.

Dumping Jack and Sharon at the hotel, I walked a couple of blocks to Enterprise. One of the oddities of the trip is that it was half as cheap to pick up a rental car downtown on Saturday than it was to pick it up at the airport on Friday; literally, half as expensive…

Picking Sharon and Jack at the hotel, we headed to Villanova. Although Villanova doesn't offer tours on Saturdays, we decided to make a stop there. Unlike UCLA, walking around campus was a success. We ended up at the business building. We were all impressed with the campus. Villanova might be one of Jack's safety schools.

We headed to Washigton, DC. I could complain about the traffic, but it would quickly become a broken record. With a longer than necessary stop at Subway for lunch, it took us about three hours to get to the hotel. We are going to spend three nights the Capella Hotel in Georgetown.

Somewhat unbelievably, the room was not ready at 4:15 pm. After an hour wait in the bar, we were finally in a very nice room.

After getting unpacked, Sharon and I headed to M Street. Sharon did some shopping and we ended up at ENO for a class of wine. We wandered down the C&O Canal and out to the river. I need to come back and visit the Stone House.

We finished the night with a late dinner at the hotel restaurant, The Grill Room. Sitting along C&O Canal, I had yellow fin tuna, Jack had veal and Sharon had guinea hen.

After dinner, Jack and I spilt a couple of games of chess in the library before finishing the night watching Treehouse Masters.

2015 Wharton Sports Business Academy Day 28