Martin's 17th Birthday

We are in Montreal for Martin's birthday. We have been spending the day with Robert and Andrea, who are the friends I go to see on Pine Cay.

We went to a very nice restaurant called "Thursday's." A Montreal institution. I had a half roast duck with olive sauce that was the best duck I have ever had. Martin got steak tar tar. When we went to the bathroom later Martin told me that when he read "tar tar" he heard "fillet Mignon" in his head. He ate half of it. If you don't know what tar tar is you will have to google it. But if you ask Martin he would say, "it tasted better than I thought it would, but every time I put it in my mouth I gagged a little." What a great birthday dinner.

Today we ate at another local institution, Schwartz's. This is a smoked meat deli. The best smoked meat deli in Canada. We waited in line outside for 30 minutes. You can order one thing, a smoked meat sandwich and fries. This was Martin's kind of restaurant. I was looking for a word to describe where I thought Martin would like to eat for his birthday. Gritty. That's the word I was looking for. Schwartz's was "gritty." It was perfect. And it was the perfect place to eat for a birthday lunch.

Mark and Katherine

Today we stopped in to see Mark and Katherine. Mark and I were at the Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University together. Mark is now teaching in the architecture department at Cornell University. I have not seen Mark since moving to the Turks and Caicos.

When I was in graduate school the studio projects I worked on were mostly designs for museums. I designed an addition for the Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, and worked on competitions for the National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Jordan. I worked with Mark on all these projects. In a way, he is a large part of why I entered the museum field.

Martin flew from Columbus to Ithaca today as well. I wanted him to see the school of architecture here. After a great visit, we have left to run up to Montreal.

Martin turns seventeen tomorrow. I have missed everyone's birthday this year except Martin. I am excited that this next day is working out.

Video Luging

Lake Placid

I don't know why I have crazy children. But I do. This week we dropped Lucas off at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center. He was invited to the USA Luge screening camp. He is crazy. I think he was hoping that we were going to drop him off and leave him. But instead we are going to stick around for a couple days.


Update:

A couple days! Well we only packed for two days and it is COLD up here. We went to Kohls and bought some underwear and sweaters. We are going to go see Mark and Katherine who live a hundred miles south. Then we are going a hundred miles north to Montreal.

How many Marine Biologist does it take to fit in a bathing suit

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All of them.

Yesterday I arrived at the Provo marina to pick up a boat at 7:30 am to Pine Cay. I had breakfast at the Meridian Club and then took a small charter plane to South Caicos to visit the South Caicos School for Field Studies.

The field school is an experiential study program focused on marine ecosystem research. This quarter there are 31 students and I think 7 instructors. Half the day is spent in the classroom. Half the day is spent in the water.

The reality looks like 31 twenty year olds hanging out in bathing suits. Must be a great quarter. They are here from all over the US. There are many universities who partner with the field school to offer basically what amounts to a semester abroad program.

I met staff, ate lunch, measured two cannons. This was a fund-raising trip from Pine Cay. I just tagged along.

I am also going to try and start lecturing here.