Kelsey took this from a new vantage point, exposed by evening light.
It’s not possible for me to go back and count how many times I’ve hiked Old Rag. At this point, I’m probably approaching 100 climbs. Yet, almost all of them have followed the same script: arrive early morning, climb the front, and descend the back to complete the loop. It’s a WONDERFUL hike but obviously not the only option.
Early on I tried various ascent and decent combinations but quickly settled into my current pattern. A few times I hiked in the middle of the day but often found it hot, crowded, and less pleasant. Recently Kelsey and I have hiked the loop in the dark which is really quite an adventure and very likely to be repeated. However, not until today had we hiked Old Rag in the evening and it was a pleasure.
The vantage point from where Kelsey took the picture of me.
It was a day for wearing white and orange it seems. And why not? We were on vacation!
My wife is smart. After years of planning vacations she’s become really good at finding the right vacation destinations. In this case it was a Caribbean island which was conveniently a part of the U.S., had all the beach resort amenities that my ladies enjoy and lots of outdoor activities which I prefer.
The U.S. Virgin Islands is two thirds National Park! It has dramatically beautiful beaches, tremendous hiking trails, great undersea coral gardens, historic ruins and all on a compact island. Seriously, there was plenty to keep me busy while they baked in the sun. Of the 20 official hiking trails within the park I hiked almost two thirds of them. One took Kelsey and me to the sea where we swam to cool off before returning to our mountain starting point.
We had a great time and may be where we head with grandkids … some day.
My little girl grows up and graduates from Holton-Arms high school!
An empty nest doesn’t usually happen in an instant. They leave and they return to the nest for what feel like moments of “how it used to be”. Regardless of this truism, there are moments which feel more like jolts, lurching the family dynamic in the direction and today was such a day.
There were many things of note today. Christine Legarde, the President of the IMF and first woman to ever hold that post, gave the commencement address. Big Sis Courtney was there and family came to participate from as far away as Connecticut. The day was spectacular, the setting gorgeous, and the benches hard. Oh well, it was nearly perfect. 🙂
We’re very, very proud of Kelsey. Congrats, girl!!!
The lights are bright on Broadway at Times Square!
A month ago Kelsey asked if I’d take her and Kristen to Manhattan. Having given whirlwind tours of The City on several occasions I agreed and these past couple of days were when I had to come through. The raw stats: 10 hours to and fro, 29 hours on the island of which seven were spent sleeping. That already sounds ambitious but that’s only the beginning.
We started with a walk up Broadway from 34th to 59th. We toured the south half of Central Park then caught a train back to 42nd Street to catch our Circleline boat tour around the island. When we got back we hung out in Times Square after dark then went to the Empire State Building to look out over The City at night. When we finally crashed at our hostel, sleep was not an issue.
The following morning we started in Rockefeller Center, took in a street fair along 10 blocks of Sixth Avenue, and walked over to catch the tram to Roosevelt Island where we meandered about. The subway got us first to Grand Central Station where we explored its cavernous interior and then to downtown where we visited Ground Zero, Wall Street, and Battery Park. Feeling plumb tuckered out we next caught a ride back to where we started.
As tours go, the pace of ours was fairly unrelenting. However, Kelsey had wanted to give Kristen the experience of a lifetime and I did my best to help her achieve that. As to whether we were successful I guess only Kristen can say. As for me, I had a wonderful time but am happy to now be sitting idle and typing this post. 😉
Highlights of our trip can be seen after the link.
I have a dozen pictures of Kelsey at this spot, the first plateau of the Old Rag ascent. Today, we got one with Kristin too. Nice shot of two good friends during a wonderful hike on a smashingly good day.
It was wonderful to be reminded today how special Old Rag is through the eyes of Kristen, a friend of Kelsey’s from their month hiking in Alaska last year. The contrasts we heard to Texas are what drew Old Rag’s special nature to the surface. “There are so many trees! It’s so green!” True but not remembered. “The hills are so big! There are so many and they’re beautiful!” Why, yes! We’d forgotten. “From up here you can see so far!” True enough and worth being reminded of.
Kristen is here in D.C for an action-filled week. Kelsey is running her ragged and they’re having a blast. Friday morning we head to NYC to extend the experience to Manhattan. On Saturday we return. On Sunday Kristen flies back to Houston. Sunday night I collapse.
It’s been a pleasure having her visit; Kelsey makes good friends.
There's the summit of Old Rag and then there's the extreme peak, atop the boulders on top of the summit. That's where these crazy young ladies could be found assuming Super Woman poses.by
Across two days there were four swim events: Clinic, 1 mile, 2 mile, and 5 kilometer. Hundreds of people participated and, again this year, I was one of them. Bravo!
Not a run nor a walk but a 5K swim. The equivalent of 3.1 miles this event was three times around a modified 1-mile circuit on Lake Audubon in Reston, VA where I live. While I have swum longer outdoor distances, it hasn’t been for a while so this felt big. However, in the end the water was perfect, the weather was great and the swim was quite manageable.
During this 25th anniversary of the Jim McDonnell Lake Swim almost the whole family played roles. Beth managed the registration area which required an evening of prep and two mornings of commitments that started at 6:00 AM. Kelsey was a life guard throughout the events; she watched over swimmers from her perch in a canoe. Courtney intended to come be a spectator but overslept … such is life post graduating from college.
For some insight on the event you can visit their website here.
A great achievement has happened. My eldest daughter has graduated from UVA with degrees in Economics and in Environmental Sciences. She wrangled a purple degree from a red and a blue and she’s about to go cash in on it. In july she begins her professional career at ICF International.
Only at a Maker Faire could you find this combination of a dynamic trio. They are Edward, Bart and Brook who each has a claim to fame that I wrote about this year. Bart is the creator of MakerSlide, a structural rail system that's great for CNC prototyping. Edward incorporated MakerSlide into his Shapeoko CNC mill. Brook's fame comes from his novel 3D printer design which was a home run on Kickstarter. As I said, a dynamic trio!
After a 365 day odyssey I’m back to where it all started. One year ago I attended my first Maker Faire in the Bay Area after having visited business incubators across the country. That mind-expanding experience led me down a path I couldn’t have foreseen, and it’s been remarkably gratifying. Today I closed the loop back where it all started.
After feeling all the energy, experiencing all the joy, and seeing all the enthusiasm for making, I became convinced something special was going on. This motivated me to learn more which lead to many activities. Subsequent Maker Faires in Detroit and NYC saw me as an attendee. I wove visits to 49 different maker spaces into my many road trips. Also, I co-founded a maker space in Norther Virginia called Nova Labs.
I also started writing about the theme for Make Magazine. Along with Dale Dougherty of I co-chaired a conference to bring the principles of the maker movement to corporate America. In the process of setting up the Hardware Innovation Workshop I got to know many of the leaders in the movement and become familiar with what makes them tick. All remarkably gratifying.
And so it is that I found myself back where it all started.
The big question is, “What’s next?”
We shall see …
This is “space” as in “makerspace” and is a federation focused on how to make them successful. Ongoing, makerspaces struggle with how to organize, how to find funding, how to get facilities, insurance, zoning, etc. Rarely are makerspace communities fully prepared to deal with such issues and they can inadvertently fall victims to violations, liabilities and organizational chaos. The Space Federation is organizing to address these issues and before Maker Faire they held a forum which I attended.
Among the many products innovations on display in our Showcase was the Ori foldable kayak. It's made of corrugated plastic, weighs less than 20 pounds. It folds to a tidy package for attaching to a backpack, carrying on a bike, or putting in your car's back seat. You can see above how light it is.
It was a thrill to be among the world’s most influential makers, delivering an important message to corporate America and doing so in an iconic setting: Xerox PARC. I was pleased to have had a role in pulling it off.
Our message was relatively simple: learn what’s happening and take advantage of it. The themes were: 1) open hardware is a powerful catalyst for innovation, 2) collaboration around design can yield tremendous results and 3) new fabrication technologies allow rapid and low cost prototyping. In addition we touched on new funding models (think Kickstarter and the Jobs ACT) and hardware incubation. Together these ingredients are fueling something we’ve almost forgotten about in the U.S.: hardware innovation.
Here are links to background and articles about the event.
Early on I tried various ascent and decent combinations but quickly settled into my current pattern. A few times I hiked in the middle of the day but often found it hot, crowded, and less pleasant. Recently Kelsey and I have hiked the loop in the dark which is really quite an adventure and very likely to be repeated. However, not until today had we hiked Old Rag in the evening and it was a pleasure.
by 
