meanwhile...

 ... as Sam and I went east for spring break, Hamp went west to make good use of his ski pass in Palisades Tahoe!

in the city

Campus tours aside - I just have to say 2 things:

1) I love exploring a great city

2) I especially love exploring a great city with Hamp & Sam

So, I feel pretty grateful that Sam wanted to spend his Spring Break this year wandering through the cool buildings, museums, parks, and neighborhoods with me in a couple of really great cities. We had good food, saw some amazing artwork, learned a lot, enjoyed the train and subway and trolley systems, and walked over 40 miles in 5 days! And yet, perhaps the highlight of Sam's spring break this year was the last night when he was invited to play open gym volleyball at Boston University's Rec Center!

These are a few of his photos from the trip - clearly he loves exploring the city as well!

The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia

Boston University Center for Data Science

Engineering Research Complex at Northeastern

images from the WNDR Museum in Boston:

Boston

And for the last 2 days on the Spring Break tour - Boston!

No doubt there are plenty of secondary education opportunities in this city... but Sam picked Northeastern University, Boston University, and MIT as ones that he wanted to check out.

The tours were all amazing and for being urban campuses, each one had a feeling of inclusion that surprised me. Sam loved them all... which might make it difficult to narrow down his applications next fall, but certainly gave us a great reason to go exploring!

NJ

Next stop on the Spring Break tour - New Brunswick, New Jersey!

Not your typical tourist destination, New Brunswick is the home of Rutgers University and this campus tour did not disappoint. 

Again, we did not have much time in the city as we had a train to catch!

We found the best way to get from city to city is the regional Amtrak, which took us from Philadelphia's Gray Station all the way up to Boston - with stops in New Brunswick, and NYC's Penn Station.

Philly

First stop on our Spring Break tour of the Northeast - Philadelphia!

Sam & I enjoyed our scheduled campus tours at University of Pennsylvania and Temple University...

... but more importantly we enjoyed exploring the city.

There is so much public art and incredible architecture that you can see just by walking, but we did go into the Ben Franklin Institute for a special exhibit by Nathan Sawaya, lego brick artist - which was so cool! We were only in town for a day and a half, most of which was taken up with campus touring, but some city highlights include walking along the river trail, the Rodin museum, dinner at Ralph's (the oldest Italian restaurant in the US!), a little Putt Shack mini-golf for fun, and dim sum in Chinatown.

Boulder

Spring Break this year is dedicated to Sam's future... it all started last month with a quick trip to Atlanta, and now we continue our adventures with a full week of travel.

Of course, we started with the obvious first stop - CU Boulder!

Not Sam's first trip to campus, and likely not the last... but we couldn't pass up a chance to check in on Hamp, walk around campus in all it's late winter glory, and splurge on a little Top Golf for dinnertime fun with the boys!

ATL

As Sam enters the second half of his Junior year in high school he is already looking ahead at what/where he wants to be after graduation (yes, quite the driven one this guy!)

He recently had the brilliant realization that he should focus on being in the right place first, then figuring out the right course of study would follow. So he has started to focus on larger universities in urban areas with plenty of engineering options... so naturally we thought of: Georgia Tech! (Go Jackets!!!)

Of course we had to go visit...

It was a super-quick trip so that neither of us would miss much work/school... but we crammed as much into 24 hours as possible! We experienced an information session with the Aerospace Engineering Program, a self-guided tour of campus, and a meet up with a friend-of-a-friend's super cool daughter/Tech student who was so gracious to meet us and talk to Sam about the school:

We even squeezed in a quick visit to the zoo to see the pandas!!!!🐼

No doubt it was a great introduction to what life after high school has to offer - including incredible programming, fun mascots and interesting people, and of course all the entertainment and dining options that come with living in a big city.

And of course, I always love to go explore a fun city - especially when it's my old stomping ground. I definitely need to get back soon and see some friends... until then I'll keep taking Sam wherever he wants to go tour!