Category Archives: city

city, travel, UK

Rebus & the Ta-too

Leave a comment

This must be about my fifth or sixth day in Edinburgh by now & I am pleased to report that yesterday it didn’t rain once! It’s a little like Auckland in that it seems to try & rain at least once a day – not much & often only drizzle, but precipitation all the same. It’s also decidedly cool – but I expected as much & have found it pleasant. Thomas’ flat is about twenty-five minutes walk from the centre of the city, so I’ve been doing the return trip once or twice a day in a bid keep some semblance of fitness – at least that’s the excuse I give for the big sleep-ins (doesn’t make much sense as I write it).

The first day in town was a very domestic day, with a walk in to town to have a look around & get orientated – masses of people around of course for all the festivals & street performers tend to attract large crowds of course. The last few days have been a mixture of wandering around checking out this wonderful city, its architecture,

windy cobbled streets & closes, street performers,

a bit of stand-up & some Rebus walking tours. I have a new appreciation of just how hard stand-up can be after seeing four acts in one day – only one of them really made me laugh. And that was probably because I’m a geek – it was called “Control Alt Delete” & was pretty much about computers & being a computer nerd. Admittedly, I only learnt to write in one language (C in case anyone is interested) & not the eighteen that the comedian had learnt in his previous life – so can’t really claim to be a computer nerd, but I’m still enough of a geek to have found the show funny.

I love how Edinburgh Castle can suddenly come in to view when you are wandering around the city – you see it down a skinny alley way, over the top of a building & so on. This photo taken from the top of the National Museum of Scotland.

I then went to see a Kiwi comedian, just to hear the accent really – the title, “Life after Divorce”, didn’t do much for me; it was nice to hear the accent, but it was a real struggle for the guy. There were only six in the audience, he paced a lot over a small spot (I hate this) & was sweating when he couldn’t get much out of us; I think it would have been better titled “How crap life was when I was married”, as he talked a lot more about this than post-divorce. The best part of the whole act was a young guy in the audience spoke up in a broad Scottish accent – “is it always this bad?”. That was pretty funny, we then got in to a discussion of why it wasn’t working & how unfunny it was – very bizarre. Also popped along & saw Raybon Kan (because I had heard of him) – he had a better audience, with a fair smattering of Kiwis, in a small sauna of a room; he was much better, but like the previous guy seemed to like beating up on people. I’ve had a few days off comedy, but tonight off to one that should be better.

As I was half through the Rebus novel I picked up for three quid in Cornwall, yesterday I went & did a couple of Rebus walking tours (didn’t have time to do them last year). As these novels sparked my love of Edinburgh & its history I was pleased to be able to be shown around some of many places described & pick up other snippets of history. I crammed two tours into the same day as it was a beautiful sunny day & I didn’t know if this would happen again. After four hours of walking around, I was a little sick of it – but got home to cook a nice steak up & prepare for the tattoo (which really just meant put on as much Icebreaker & other warm clothes I’d bothered to bring up from London).

The Tattoo had sold out many months ago when I started thinking of coming to Edinburgh for the end of August. So I was particularly pleased, stoked in fact, to get a return ticket for the late Saturday night show (this one has fireworks too) in a good seat at the end. I went along thinking that this would be one thing to cross off the list (it’s a figurative list) & not go again; I left thinking that I would love to come back & see it again another year – it was fantastic. The rain stayed away, the castle is a wonderful back drop (the light show & animation projected on to the castle ramparts was impressive, I thought) & music & choreography of all the different performers was incredible. The compère did a good job of getting the crowd warmed up (my NZ cheer was rather pathetic compared to all the Americans behind me) & he quaintly pronounced ‘tattoo’ as ‘ta-too’ (& on a trivial note, welcomed the guest of honour – General Petraeus of US Central Command). The show started off with ten different Highland bands strutting their stuff (one of the bands was from the Auckland Police) & it was great. The groups from Tonga & then China were obviously quite different, great. The two consecutive Swiss groups were one of the highlights of the night. The first was a band from the Swiss Army (conscription must really help the recruiting for band members) & they were well choreographed, had brass instruments as well & played a pretty cool part of “Hey Jude” that had everyone singing along. The second group for Switzerland was the Top Secret Drum Corps from Basel – a group of about twenty drummers & flag-bearers. Their drumming was like nothing I had seen before – the climax of it (coming after twelve or so had stood in a line beating each others’ drums & swapping drumsticks by throwing them at each other, all the while keeping a magnificent beat going) was when the lights dimmed & the drummers some how ended up with flaming drumsticks – the visual side to this part of the performance was quite something to add to the audial experience; I was conscious that my mouth was wide open in wonder for much of their performance. As is so often the case, my words don’t really do justice to the whole event. The show closed with all the performers on stage & pretty good fireworks display.

And I’ve forgotten to put the photos in the text, so here is a bunch from the last few days (yes, I could go & put them in the text, but I can’t be bothered).

city, friends, history, USA, vehicles

A roundabout route to DC

Leave a comment

Currently, I’m sitting on my first (& probably last for some time) Amtrak train returning to Philadelphia after my small trip over the last week. The trip to San Diego was really just an exercise in medium distance travel – almost two hours of train travelling to PHL & eight hours of flying & stopovers & I arrived in San Diego & back to the heat (thankfully not the 106 that it was in Phoenix when I changed planes). Kindly, Beverley picked me up from the airport & it was back to La Jolla. Nice to catch up with the Turners that were home – Anna-Marie had returned from a month or so in Europe the previous day. As the Turners had a foreign student staying for a while & both girls home, I was relegated to sleeping on the couch in the lounge – just as I was going to bed Andrea wandered in from opening day at the races, so that necissated a catch up & talk about tomorrow’s testimony. After all that travelling, I thought I would sleep, but it wasn’t really the case; I must have had two or three hours of sleep. Up at six, as it was light & Beverley was up, & ready for our date in court at eight o’clock.

After Andrea handing & me studying my summons, the three of us (Anna-Marie was persuaded that she should get up & come too) were off to court. It was of course a big anti-climax – we sat in a waiting room while our case was assigned a courtroom & judge; it was quite annoying that I had my iPod in my pocket, but no earphones – so I had to settle for staring at the walls & reading year old magazines for the best part of two hours. Eventually we had a courtroom & we walked a very long way through the building & then through the next one to find it & the DA & detective met us there. After all that, the three defendants saw the writing on the wall (as the DA had managed to get five witnesses & countless police testimonies together) and they all pleaded guilty. It took a bit more waiting in a corridor for this to be confirmed & the paper work done. So in some ways I had travelled all the way across the States to sit & wait for three hours, just to go home. On the other hand, it was a good to get a result & it’s one less thing for us to think about & hopefully Andrea will be able to go back to plan one & go to Costa Rica to live. After leaving the courthouse, the girls took me down to the SDPC HQ & I got my stolen money back (finally) – the lost/recovered property & evidence room in the basement of the headquarters was massive (I think it covered an entire city block). It’s a short drive from downtown to SAN, so the girls dropped me off at the airport & I was off again cross-country.

The trip was uneventful, but from Vegas to DC I was stuck between the window of a 737 & one of those wonderful people who are intent on sharing your seat with you & spill over the armrest – just as well I have no discernible upper body presence. Due to a change of planes in Vegas, we were well late getting in to Dulles – but Adam & Jen (the friends I stayed with in DC – Adam is a Te Puke friend from way back) faithfully met me & they only live ten or fifteen minutes from Dulles – so in bed by two in the morning, fantastic (at least I was back in the same time zone as I had been thirty-six hours before).

Wonderfully, I didn’t get up until 10.30 & proceeded to do not a lot the rest of the morning. After lunch, Adam & I decided to go back to Dulles as the National Air & Space Museum (a Smithsonian museum) has another site out there (the main one is on The Mall in DC). This site consisted of a huge hangar filled with all sorts of aircraft & a sizeable tower that you could go up to get a great view of the airport & the surrounding area.

Also there was a air traffic control exhibit on the floor below the observation deck – as well as the display, an interesting part was the live audio & radar feed from Newark airport. Of course there were all sorts of planes & other aircraft – the highlights were a Air France Concorde (it fitted across the width of the hangar),

Enterprise space shuttle,

SR-71 Blackbird (it once flew from LA to DC in sixty-four minutes & then promptly was transferred to the museum)

& the Enola Gay (the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima).

We managed to cover most of the hangar in detail, before having to leave to meet Jen & some of her workmates for Friday happy hour. It was at some Italian restaurant that had great pizza & twenty buck carafes of sangria – I rated the pizza, but the sangria went down pretty well (at least judging by how quickly some of the glasses were emptied) too. It was a great group of people & conversation & the couple of hours passed quickly.

Afterwards we had a few options when some of the group dissipated – five of use went around to Dave’s & tried our hands & voices at Guitar Hero World Tour. On the way, I had my first ride in an American muscle car in America – Dave’s Corvette, of course we had to put the top down. I had never played Guitar Hero before & it showed – as well as my complete lack of timing & musical ability. I was able to play the guitar to some level eventually & sing a little bit – but the drums completely evaded me. That may have been something to do with the red I was drinking – I found later in the night, that it wasn’t just me that though it tasted bad (beef jerky apparently) – but after two, who can tell & who cares? Somehow it was two o’clock before we got home & I went to bed – nevermind, a great evening & I learnt some new songs.

Another big sleep in on Saturday – I don’t recall doing too much for most of the day or perhaps I recall doing not much for most of the day. The last few days’ travelling & late nights had caught up with me & it was nice to sit around on the couch watching TV or Blackadder & napping. Plus it was very hot & humid outside so the chilled townhouse was a pleasant alternative to that. Did get my first visit to Trader Joe’s – a great variety of food there, a pity all the NZ wines were big names & for some reason the only NZ cheese on offer was some no name cheddar (it’s the single most popular cheese in the world!) – if you are going to import NZ cheese, why would you choose cheddar?! A big thunderstorm came from somewhere late in the afternoon – but that didn’t change our plans of heading to see the monuments after dinner (I’m told that they are better by night). When we got in to town it was still raining, but jackets & umbrellas were more than enough to ward off the moisture – the rain had the added bonus of scaring some of the tourists away. Saw most of the monuments – Lincoln,

Vietnam, WWII,

Washington (the two red navigation lights on top remind me of The Blackadder – Witchsmeller Pursuivant) , Korean

& Jefferson. It seems a bit strange picking favourites, but the WWII & Korean were mine.

Sunday was another good sleep in – we just had to get up in time for brunch in Reston town centre with another couple of Adam & Jen’s friends – Eric & Amy. Eric & Amy being long time locals, they know all the best places. For thirty five bucks we got a huge buffet & were supposed to fit a entre off the menu in somewhere. Of course we ate too much of buffet (the desserts were fantastic; I managed to get kiwifruit, boysenberries & blueberries to make the full Willingale Orchard complement), so by the time we tactfully ordered our entrees, we were too full to fit them in & just took them home for dinner. Another nice nap & we were off to check out the Marines Corps/Iwo Jima monument

– another pretty good one & then a nice walk to burn some of the brunch through Arlington Cemetery.

Saw JFK & family’s graves & the Tomb of the Unknowns.

The changing of the guard (that we managed to stumble on at the correct time) was pretty good – quite simple & with lot of clicking/banging of heels. Back home for my paella & then it was Transformers on DVD – a favourite of Adam & Jen’s but I hadn’t seen it. Was pleasantly surprised by the humour & action (I’m easily pleased). Also balanced the bearded lizard on my shoulder.

Six-thirty was a bit of a shock to get up on Monday morning to head in to DC to check out a few of the other sights. I think I was in town before nine & wandered from the Metro to check out the White House. Good to finally see it in the flesh, but funnily enough no real surprises – I knew it would be small. It appeared a lot smaller than it would have if the turf in front was managed properly.

We had hardly had any rain over the weekend & the park in front was sodden – very poor drainage. I was not much more impressed by The Mall – the grass & patches of dirt were a mess. After walking around the Washington Monument (flags at half mast everywhere – apparently the anniversary of the end of the Korean War),

it was off to the Holocaust Museum. Much as I expected – well done & quite sobering, plenty of artefacts from Germany & Poland & Czechoslovakia to help illustrate the awful truth.

By now it was noon & after another disappointing hotdog from a street vendor conveniently placed to sucker tourists like me I checked out the science & transport parts of the Museum of American History. Some good parts, but mostly didn’t really do much for me. Then off to the Air & Space Museum – ultra popular & crowded. The place was in desperate need of the exhibits, more the explanations, having a makeover. The crowds were too much for me – but a very good exhibit on the Wilbur & Orville Wright and all the experiments they went through with gliders & windtunnels & aeronautical engineering; also got to go in a 747 cockpit (it was really old). As there was not as much space in this facility as at Dulles, there were not nearly as cool exhibits. I was quite impressed by the Capitol building,

walked around it to see the Supreme Court

& then was amazed by the Library of Congress (Jefferson Building) – had to go in the largest library in the world of course. A tiring day on the feet, but very cool over the last few days to see so many places that I have read about in thrillers, seen on TV & in movies. Back home on the Metro (which is very clean & well signposted – pity about the crash on the Red Line a few weeks ago) & Adam & I decided to go & see Transformers 2. The movie was better than I was expecting (but who takes infants to a movie at 8pm? In a small, almost empty cinema they were so annoying & the parents next to useless) & I was quite pleased to see sights in NYC that I just been to the top of or walked across, then shots across the The Mall & low & behold a whole scene in the Air & Space Museum at Dulles. It was – “I saw that plane, & that plane, & that plane too, walked along there, walked up those stairs, saw that plane & that one too” – very fun; a shame our schedule (or is that sked-ule?) did not fit seeing the film at the Imax at the museum – that would have been quite a coincidence.

Tuesday morning was pack up, say goodbye & thanks a bunch to Adam & Jen, on the Metro & in to DC. Had a few hours to kill before my train, so went around the International Spy Museum & enjoyed it immensely.

city, engineering, travel, USA

The rest of NYC

Leave a comment

Sunday morning it was off downtown to catch a tour of Brooklyn – still didn’t get to go over the Brooklyn Bridge as it is so old it can only take cars, pedestrians & bikes.

Another gorgeous day, with temperatures in the mid-seventies & none of the humidity I had been warned about. Brooklyn (would be the third largest city in the States if it was a city in its own right) was OK – but as it wasn’t a hop-on, hop-off bus it was hard to see much behind the main streets.

Back over the East River & walked a bit around downtown with the aim of getting up to Chinatown to find the three regular Flight of the Conchords outdoor locations. On the way wandered past Bodies: The Exhibition, that the tour guide had recommended – decided I might as well go in. The exhibit was really well done – basically it was quite a lot of (dozens) of cadavers dissected & preserved in numerous different ways (& quite a few posed in different actions – as opposed to just standing) to exhibit all the different systems in the human body (muscular, nervous, digestive, bones, circulatory, all organs & so on). The placards were really good at explaining how it all worked & while about half-way through it got a little stomach churning, it was well done & it was staggering just how complex our bodies are (I always knew they were, but this hit it home). Fortunately or unfortunately, there was no photography allowed (probably fortunately) – the weirdest thing was none of the bodies had skin, but they all still had finger & toenails. So quite the different thing for me to do – can’t say I’ve ever held a human brain or liver before – but well worthwhile.

It was a bit more a walk up to Chinatown & as I wandered off the main streets looking for Bret & Jermaine’s apartment building, I quickly realised I was the only white face around – it definitely did feel like the biggest Chinatown in America.

Just had to wander in to one of the supermarkets & marvel at all the live fish & seafood & all sorts of other strange & exotic fruits & vegetable (& some quite normal ones). Found the apartment building & also the pawnshop – but being Sunday it wasn’t open. The Consulate building on East Broadway was deserted & quite a dump – but at least there was no one pulling the fingers outside our consulate, alas I couldn’t say hi to tech support girl.

From here it was a short walk to Little Italy, which as been crowded out & shrunk by Chinatown – it’s just a touristy street or two full of Italian restaurants & souvenir shops & tourists. Being one of the said tourists, I couldn’t really resist a bowl of cheesy pasta (not nearly as cheesy as the four-cheeses in Devonport – oh, you of little Faith). Hopped on a bus to take me back to midtown (after buying a couple of t-shirts from a young artists’ market – I think that’s as close to a souvenir I have come to buying so far). Next it was off to the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Centre), at about eight-something floors up, for some stunning views of Manhattan & over to New Jersey & the other four boroughs.

There must have been a bit of time left in the day so I thought I’d pop in to Madame Tussaud’s as it was one of the things close to the hostel that was still open & covered by my New York pass. At $35 admission, it was the most expensive entry of all the things I’d been to & by far the most overpriced – I would have been severely peeved if I had forked out to get in there & look at models of celebrities & some people with accomplishments to their names. Still it wasn’t all bad, just not worth that amount of money. The long days of sightseeing were starting to take their toll, so it was back to the hostel for an earlier night & catch up on world happenings & sorting photos.

Monday morning started out at the NBC Studio tour (Rockefeller Center) – it was quite interesting to see the some of the studios, but as I wasn’t familiar with the news & sports programs that the ones we went in were dedicated to, it wasn’t spectacular – the Saturday Night Live set was marginally more enjoyable; it was however amusing to watch a couple of kids in our group volunteer to be a newsreader & weather presenter. From there I went to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Some neat sculptures outside, & I had my height, name & the date recorded on a whitewalled room along with thousands of other visitors – it had a neat effect (the whole artwork, not just my name).

Naturally there was a lot of other works – some I was quite impressed by,

but most were just plain weird in that it didn’t really look deserving of being in such a museum. A whole room was filled with items that an artist’s mother (in China somewhere, possibly Hong Kong) had hoarded over many years, so as to be able to keep something just in case it could be refashioned or reused. It was astonishing just how many used everyday items were there dating back twenty or thirty years. After too many more unfulfilled architectural hopes & dreams, I was out of there for some lunch before wandering down to the Empire State Building to go up to have a look at NYC from the observation deck. While the ESB is taller than the Top of the Rock, the latter was much more preferable – I’m not sure if this was due to the view being slightly different or the much larger crowds as the ESB or something else (don’t pay for the Skyride simulator at the ESB – ok, but not worth it in a similar way to Madame Tussaud’s).

From the ESB I decided I would walk all the way down to the Hudson (near to where that plane ditched after birdstrike earlier in the year) & see if I get myself on a evening river cruise. On the way, I found a replacement pair of Merrels for the ones I’ve been wearing for close to three years (I’m not that hard on shoes) & not wanting to carry the old ones back to Philly or have the spare luggage capacity, I went all Jack Reacher & threw them in the first trash bin I could find. Managed to get a ticket on a 6.30 cruise that would go down the Hudson, across to the Statue of Liberty & up the East River before returning past downtown. Had a delightful Thai meal while wandering & waiting for the boat to board. The cruise was a very pleasant way to take a load off my feet & see Manhattan, New Jersey, Brooklyn & Queens from the water & the commentary was informative, but light.

For my last day in NYC I decided to visit spend a little more time in the boroughs outside of Manhattan. So it was on the subway uptown early in the morning to walk around the Bronx. From the train I wandered the streets & then found myself walking up Bronx Park & went in to the NY Botanical Gardens. Such a peaceful retreat from the city (although there is little escaping overhead planes) & I happily strolled around the rambling grounds – I think I preferred this area to Central Park as it was less groomed, more wild & you could walk for quarter of an hour & not see another soul. The rose garden was a bit of a disappointment (I have vivid memories of the one in the Esplanade in Palmy for some reason to compare it to), but I was still enjoying the quiet. From the gardens I wandered down the edge of Bronx Park & found myself at having to get across the park to the subway line – with this in mind I used my NY Pass to get in to the Bronx Zoo amongst a lot of kids on summer camps (one of the hazards of being a tourist in the States during summer holidays). After being spoilt rotten in San Diego, the zoo didn’t do much for me – although the polar bear was in a rather playful mood, so that was interesting. Beating a hasty escape & walking a few more blocks I found the subway line overhead & wandered around the town centre for a while, grabbed some white pizza (I’m still unsure what was actually on it – creamed cheese perhaps) for lunch & then road the train down to Brooklyn.

The main reason for going back to Brooklyn was to walk back over its bridge, but there was also the transit museum to check out. This was housed in a disused subway station, consequently it had a lot of historic subway cars on the lower levels. I found the place pretty interesting – especially the train & subway part – the bit about building roads & bridges was pretty ho-hum. Useless fact – the MTA (they run the public transport in NYC) is the biggest user of dollar coins. Another quick rush around what I had left of the museum, as it closed at four & it was out in to daylight again to join all the other tourists walking across the Brooklyn bridge taking pictures like these. Ducking off the bridge earlier than most, I was off downtown via any route I could find (not difficult) to catch the free ferry to Staten Island. I had planned, once on Staten Island, to take the train half way down the line & get off & have a look around at whatever was there. But after five days of pounding sidewalks, my feet were starting to protest so I walked a little around the waterfront & then settled down for a great dinner that was probably two or three days’ worth of food spending – but the NZ lamb was great & it was almost still alive – mmmmm. Nice setting sun on the trip back to Manhattan.

So that was pretty much my time in NYC – fantastic place with so much going on & so much to see & do.

city, travel, USA

NYC catch-up

Leave a comment

Happy Birthday Dave (it’s still the fifteenth here) – maybe the card arrived. Now that I’m sitting on a bus driving through New Jersey, I have a chance to catch up with the previous four days in NYC. As I got progressively more tired after each >12 hour day, I slept better & better at the hostel. It was nice to get in to a little routine – out the door by about half past eight, up 9th a couple of blocks for my standard bowl of hot cereal (porridge) with raisins & three pieces of cinnamon toast (I only realsied on about the third or fourth morning just how much sugar was on there – no wonder it tasted so good) & then off sightseeing.

Saturday I hopped on the uptown hop-on, hop-off bus to take a look at Harlem & Central Park. It was also a day of museums – first was the Natural History one. It was OK, but since I’d been to the fantastic San Diego Zoo & Sea World, all the stuffed animals didn’t really do a whole lot for me. Mind you, these bears were a little bigger than the one we saw when we were camping at Big Meadow.

The highlight of the museum was the mineral & gem display – I’m not much of a rock person, but colours were so brilliant & the structures so intricate it was hard not to be amazed.

After hopping on & off a couple of times, the Museum of New York was quite interesting, as it of course explained the history of New York. Following that I avoided the bus & strolled down Central Park admiring all the green & space & avoiding all those out riding, jogging or pushing strollers

– I managed to not walk past the Guggenheim. I think the building was the most spectacular part of the complex – there was a large architectural exhibit & while it started out interesting, there are only so many unrealised ideas, plans & models one can look at.

The art was pretty good, but as you couldn’t take photos, it can’t have been fantastic as I can’t remember anything specifically (or I am a Luddite).

Escaping the Guggenheim it was getting late in the afternoon, but riding past the Metropolitan Museum of Art I saw that it was open to nine o’clock that night. Why not? Backtracking through the park I snuck in for what I expected would be another hour or two. How wrong was I? The place was huge & full of heaps of really cool stuff. I started out spending quite a bit of time looking at a lot of the Greek, Roman & Etruscan statues & artefacts. Then there was a lot of Eygptian exhibits, included reconstructed tombs that had somehow made their way from Eygpt to NYC. The old American furniture & art display was good, as was all the weaponary & suits of armour. I was trying to make my way around the maze in some sort of orderly fashion, but the way it worked out I had to semi-rush around what was my favourite part of the museum – the European sculptures, portraits & paintings. I have seen enough “Portrait of a man” & “Portrait of a woman” signs to last me a little while. There was plenty of religious works displayed, as well as all the portraits – but I think my favourites were the landscapes that had people doing things, as opposed to sitting, posing for a painting. One such painting of a village fair in France had me staring at it for ages – the detail was great.

After the Met closed, it was time for the long walk back to the hostel. As it was Saturday night, there were plenty of people about (but that really goes for almost any time of the day in NYC). I spied a big Apple sign above a stairwell, so I crossed the road & headed in to the basement – my first Apple store.

Say what you will about Apple & their products (personally I quite like my MacBook), their marketing sure is something. It was ten o’clock on a Saturday night & the place was teeming with people. There is of course all the products & accessories shelved in a normal store, but there were benches & benches of every Apple product with scores, if not a couple of hundred, people trying them out. I had a brief play on a MacBook Pro, but as I already know what they are about, mostly contented myself with wandering, looking at the store that never closes & all the people packed inside it.

This was about an eighth of the store

Back home eventually to rest my weary legs.

The bus pulled in a few hours ago – it’s nice to be back in Doylestown & have a nice big afternoon nap (when in Rome…). We (the four Lindes & I) are off upstate for a nice long weekend in the Poconos – which promises to be a lot less hectic than NYC & a lot cooler, should be great. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up on the rest of the NYC stories & add some Poconos stories.