JD's Visit

October 22 - 26

Just a couple of days after we got back from Cleveland, Jon David came up for a visit. The original purpose of the visit was to visit the baby of course, but also to go to the AU-WVU game in Morgantown, only a few hours drive from here. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I got very sick and couldn't go. We watched as much as we could stomach on tv. I think watching the game made me more sick. We suck. That's enough about the game.

We had a wonderful time with JD. I couldn't really miss work, JD, Sarah, and Jackson came up to Trenton to see where I work on Thursday. I walked them around the 2 or 3 blocks in Trenton that constitute the entire nice portion of the city, including the Museum. I had to back to work after lunch, so they walked back and toured the Old Barracks, which I've never gone to. They said it was great.

The Old Barracks Museum in downtown Trenton. This is the barracks that George Washington attacked in the famous story of him crossing the Delaware River on Christmas Eve, 1776.

That night we went to a great Cuban / Colombian Restaurant in downtown Philly, called Mixto. We were worried about it being packed, but there weren't many people there because they don't have tv's and the World Series was on tv.

The next morning I drove JD to 30th Street Station in Philly so that he could take a train to see a friend of his in NYC, and I went to one of our fossil sites in southern NJ with a friend to continue excavating a huge crocodile that we keep finding pieces of. That crocodile is called Thoracosaurus neocesariensis and looks like this:

Anyway, Jon David came back on Saturday morning and we went apple picking at our favorite orchard. We were a little late in the season, so they didn't have too many kinds left. It had been raining of and on all day, so I didn't think much about bringing a rain coat. Of course, as soon as we get out there, it starts to rain constantly with driving wind. Sarah and the baby stayed in the car, while JD picked apples in the rain for what must have been more than an hour. We were completely soaked and cold, but we got a ton of apples - granny smiths, staymans, and golden delicious. We also stuffed ourselves sick with apples we pulled off the trees.

That evening JD and Sarah had an apple pie baking contest. This was really just my way of scamming them into making me 2 apples pies. We caught JD trying to steel Sarah's secret recipe. Regardless, I, as an impartial judge, determined both to be equally delicious.

We were up to some ungodly hour that night baking and having fun. Jackson couldn't hang:

On Sunday we went into the city. We went to Little John's on 22nd and Arch for what I think are the best cheesesteaks in the city. There we met up with a friend of his from high school that goes to the University of Pennsylvania now. There was time to walk around the area:

We had a great visit with JD. It was over to fast, but we'll get to see him again soon in AL for Thanksgiving.