East Coast Trip - Post #1 (Colleges)

For Henry's Spring Break, John and Henry flew to Boston and then took Amtrak down the East Coast, to see several colleges as well as fit in some sightseeing. Henry is very interested in going to college in an urban environment, so we focused on four cities: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. While no colleges are doing tours or any activities on campus, we were able to compare eight different campuses: Harvard, Boston University, Boston College, NYU, Columbia, Penn, George Washington, and Georgetown. 

The campuses were very different - some isolated campuses within a city, others blended into the city iteself; some on the fringes of a city, some in the more central parts.

Harvard

Boston University

Boston College

NYU (rainy day!)

Columbia University

Penn

George Washington University

Final stop - Georgetown!

Vaccine!

The pandemic has been going on for over a year now, and Mary Jo, since she is a healthcare worker, was vaccinated first in the family, in March. 

John took advantage of an opportunity to get a slot in Yakima, and drove 2 hrs each way in early April to get his first shot. There was a long line of cars, but it was a fairly efficient drive-through facility - great to be on the road to normalcy!

John Completes Soaring Eagle Mountain Biking Trails

John took a goal to bike the entire trail network in Soaring Eagle park. It's a well-marked trail system, with numbers at every intersection of trails, making it somwhat easy to plot out a course. It took six or seven trips before completing all the trails - getting to intersection #18 below was the final segment of trail to complete!

More Hiking in Cougar Mountain

John & Mary Jo continued their hiking in Cougar Mountain park and wrapped up the Harvey Manning portion of the park on a somewhat-spring like April weekend. Flowers are starting to bloom on the trails now, though it still is a bit on the chilly side.

Lookout over Lake Sammamish

Clay Pits - clay from here was used for some of the red brick buildings at UW

New Bike Bridge Opens at Factoria

After more than a year of construction, a bike bridge spanning Factoria Blvd opened at the end of March, and a few days later John and Henry rode across it to test it out. Construction continues on SE 36th Street to extend the trail further east.

Henry riding across the bridge