Had a week's vacation the second week of August, and we ended up staying a bit
closer to home than we often do.
I had Friday off, so we went to visit friends in the DC area for an overnight
stay, then drove to Philadelphia to visit Gardner Dozois and Sue Casper in their
new apartment -- I think we were their first visitors. Thence to NYC, where
we stayed in our Brooklyn apartment (yeah, we still have it) and met a new roommate
who just moved in in May. We also got a visit from Lucie Chin and talked about
mutual friends and former tenants of the apartment building -- a lot of whom
had sfnal connections.
We sort of bonked around the old neighborhood until Tuesday, when we went into
the city to the Asimov's offices -- which are now down on Wall Street -- and
visited Sheila Williams and had lunch with my book review editor, Emily Hockaday.
First time we'd met Emily, who's really nice and high-energy -- good to get
to know her.
And then we drove up the Hudson valley, ending up in Hyde Park, where we spent
most of the next few days exploring the FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt properties.
The FDR museum is very inspiring, and the rangers doing the guided tours were
all great -- especially for the visit to Top Cottage, where FDR entertained
Winston Churchill and other dignitaries. Valkill, Eleanor's home, is also inspiring.
For non-Roosevelt breaks, we went to the Vanderbilt mansion, a true Gilded Age
monstrosity, and to the Rhinebeck Aerodrome for an air show featuring a lot
of WWI and earlier planes -- with a mock dogfight between a Spad and a Fokker
triplane as the highlight.
A different kind of vacation for us, but a very rewarding one. And when I got
back, I blew out a couple of news stories, two of which ended up taking up most
of the front page of the paper. Nothing like a little rest to revive the engine...
closer to home than we often do.
I had Friday off, so we went to visit friends in the DC area for an overnight
stay, then drove to Philadelphia to visit Gardner Dozois and Sue Casper in their
new apartment -- I think we were their first visitors. Thence to NYC, where
we stayed in our Brooklyn apartment (yeah, we still have it) and met a new roommate
who just moved in in May. We also got a visit from Lucie Chin and talked about
mutual friends and former tenants of the apartment building -- a lot of whom
had sfnal connections.
We sort of bonked around the old neighborhood until Tuesday, when we went into
the city to the Asimov's offices -- which are now down on Wall Street -- and
visited Sheila Williams and had lunch with my book review editor, Emily Hockaday.
First time we'd met Emily, who's really nice and high-energy -- good to get
to know her.
And then we drove up the Hudson valley, ending up in Hyde Park, where we spent
most of the next few days exploring the FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt properties.
The FDR museum is very inspiring, and the rangers doing the guided tours were
all great -- especially for the visit to Top Cottage, where FDR entertained
Winston Churchill and other dignitaries. Valkill, Eleanor's home, is also inspiring.
For non-Roosevelt breaks, we went to the Vanderbilt mansion, a true Gilded Age
monstrosity, and to the Rhinebeck Aerodrome for an air show featuring a lot
of WWI and earlier planes -- with a mock dogfight between a Spad and a Fokker
triplane as the highlight.
A different kind of vacation for us, but a very rewarding one. And when I got
back, I blew out a couple of news stories, two of which ended up taking up most
of the front page of the paper. Nothing like a little rest to revive the engine...
