The Academic Portion of our Trip:
As some of you know, I have this strange obsession with visiting as many college campuses as possible. I love seeing the different architecture, and of course the athletic facilities, but universities just have that vibe of being separate and somewhat disconnected from the city/town they're in, which I kind of love. With this in mind, we were able to visit five different schools on our trip. I will list them in order of when we visited them.
1. Penn State University-at this stop, I got to see one of my friends from grad school, Mickey, who now works in their ticket office. She was able to give us a tour of the stadium from the inside, which was pretty amazing, and definitely a unique experience. It was definitely interesting seeing everything post-Sandusky scandal, with Paterno's statue now missing, and other changes around the stadium. Other than that, we didn't have much time to spend on campus, so it's hard to evaluate my opinion of the campus as a whole.
2. Yale University was next, and was definitely old school architecture. The buildings were beautiful rock, and the New Haven Green looked like a very relaxing area. Not our favorite Ivy League school, but had some great areas.
3. Brown University was the second Ivy League school we visited, and we were very interested because Jeanna had almost applied there for the fall. We were disappointed with the campus as a whole, due to the extremely narrow streets, limited amount of parking, and the architecture not standing out much at all. It was good to see, but was our least favorite of the schools we saw.
4. Harvard University was the last Ivy League school to see, and was our favorite, closely edging out Harvard. We're not really sure why it was our favorite, but everything seemed a bit more welcoming and less austere, although still reeked of academia. The buildings were not uniform, which is uncommon, but somehow they all worked well together. The dorms also were facing the Charles River, which was a spectacular view.
5. My favorite campus, and the last one we saw, was Syracuse University. I had very few expectations, and this campus by far exceeded any I had. The buildings were so beautiful, with ivy growing along many, and I just wanted to stay for hours. One street had modern architecture on one side, and all older buildings on the other, which was very interesting. And of course the Carrier Dome is intimidating in size.
Awe-Inspiring Views:
Where do I begin? Everything from the road to our stays was absolutely beautiful. Our campgrounds in Connecticut and Maine were great, and the ocean views were fantastic. They were definitely contrasting, as Connecticut's waters were more placid and calm, with sandy shores and plenty swimmers, with Maine having the high waves, rocky shores, and extremely cold waters. Maine did have one sand beach, where we did get in one day and ride the waves. The water that day was around 50 degrees, maybe colder. It was an experience we won't forget, and we were extremely glad we did it.
The hills and trees in every state we drove through were incredible, particularly Pennsylvania and Vermont. The Green Mountain National Forest is a drive I'd recommend to anyone. Probably the other favorite view we had on the trip was the sunrise Jeanna and I experienced on Cadillac Mountain. We got up at 4 in the morning and drove for an hour to finally get to the top of the mountain, finding a place to sit 2 minutes before the sun came up. :-) This was totally worth it. As you can see from the picture, the fog was so thick that you wouldn't be able to see the sun rise anywhere else than from on the island.
We also had a great time walking through Boston, experiencing the Freedom Trail and the history surrounding the Revolutionary War. That time was spent with another friend from grad school, Kenny, whose company we all enjoyed, and who shared an incredible dinner with us in the North End at a local Italian restaurant. Great experiences with great people.
Last but not least, the Athletics:
This portion is not as long, simply because we only had one athletic event, but it's one of my favorites. Akron is host to the Bridgestone Invitational, a major golf tournament on the PGA tour that only the top 50 ranked players in the world are allowed to attend. I attended the event last year, and couldn't wait to come back. This time mom came with me, and we only went to the final day, championship Sunday. I got there first, and sat through 2 hours of rain and another hour delay until play resumed, then watched the leaders start off at the 1st tee as their names were announced until mom arrived. From there we walked around for a little bit, seeing different groups of players, including Tiger Woods, who birdied one of the holes we saw. Finally, we decided to head to the 18th to try and get a seat before the real action began. We got there early enough that we were able to grab 2nd row seats behind the 18th green, and watched a marvelous end to a great tournament. We definitely felt bad for Jim Furyk, who double bogeyed the final hole to let his 71-hole lead slip away and give the edge to Keegan Bradley. Whoever says golf is boring truly has not watched it seriously. My mom and I were both screaming when Keegan Bradley made his par shot to at least tie. Just another great time at the golf course.
So for now, that about sums up our trip. There were a few mishaps with the weather, but we dealt with them very well, and moved on to bigger and better things. I can't wait to hit the road again for wherever our next adventure takes us.
Awesome post! I loved the mountain photo
ReplyDelete