Busy, Busy (and me in a pirate costume)

As I sit here in Rosslyn -- a county in Arlington, VA that is something like a proof-of-concept for what a modern hobbit village would look like -- I reflect on the coming days, and the the last week. Traveling to my old home city of Arlington has been an interesting experience, partly because of my adventures on this particular trip, and partly because I deign to make the trip as rarely as possible outside of family events and holidays. But this particular story does not start there.

On Thursday of last week, the 23rd of September, I traveled from my studies in Nashua, NH to the airport in Manchester, NH... but not to begin my travels to Arlington. No, based temporarily at Manchester was a wing of old World War 2 era airplanes -- a B-17 Flying Fortress, a B-24 Liberator, a P-51 Mustang (training variant) and a T-6 trainer. I had, several weeks prior, booked a 30-minute flight on the B-17 in question, and after a brief walk around of the planes on display I entered said B-17 and took that flight. I will speak more on that adventure in a later post.

On Friday I returned to Manchester airport, this time with the intent to head for Arlington. Normally I make the hop from Manchester to Baltimore, MD, which then concludes with an hour long drive home (normally with one of my parents picking me up, so a two hour trip for them). This time, though, my flight was paid for by a third party, so I determined to fly into Reagan National Airport, which is mere minutes from my parents' home (it's so close that if I call my parents immediately after landing, they can get to the airport from home just as I exit the arrivals door). Having not flown into or out of Reagan in a long time I had forgotten how particularly unique that approach is. Depending on which side of the plane you're on you get either an excellent view of the monuments in DC and the Smithsonian, or a sobering view of the National Cemetery, crowned by the Lee House. Both sides of the plane are treated to an extreme closeup view of the Pentagon.

Saturday I ventured out to visit with my friend Bill Brooks, his wife and son, and his mother-in-law and sister-in-law. We departed from there to the Maryland Renaissance Festival, which was celebrating Pirate Weekend. We were all dressed up in pirate costumes, including Bill's two-year old son -- his stroller had a covering that made it look like a boat, with an included plush anchor, that was hand-designed by his mother-in-law... who also made most of the costumes (except her own, strangely enough). I shall saw, though, that it was NOT a good day to be wearing full-length sleeves and long pants... but my margin to complain is minimal since the women had it even worse. Nevertheless we braved the sweltering heat and had a merry time at the festival, with Bill's son winning second place in a children's costume contest.



Then on Monday I left Arlington for Gaithersburg, MD to meet up with a former classmate of mine and his boss, who were now part of the company that designed the radar simulation equipment that Daniel Webster uses for its air traffic control lab. That adventure is currently ongoing, culminating in a presentation before 30-odd members of Raytheon and the FAA tomorrow evening. I will write more about this later, though exactly what I'm allowed to reveal might be rather restricted.

After tomorrow's activities I will proceed back to Nashua for the foreseeable future, except for a stop in Boston on Saturday. The musical "Wicked" is currently touring in Boston, and though I've seen it in Chicago before, it is such an enjoyable musical that I have determined to watch it while it is relatively local. I plan to also enjoy the Boston Aquarium while I am there. I doubt I will post on it, but know that I am rather looking forward to the whole trip, despite taking place in Boston (I will be taking the train into town rather than attempting to drive through that cesspool of traffic jams).

And that is my past week in summary (excluding my frequent excursions to attempt to conquer the world in the newly-release "Civilization 5")