Nate Chenette's Blog: New York, Chicago

This post is a little catch-up to cover the first half of August… (I also had a pretty amazing adventure last weekend, and a description of that will appear in my next post!)

I went home for most of the two weeks separating summer semester and fall semester. And by "home," I mean my new home, in Poughkeepsie, NY! Also, for the few days before classes started, I went to Chicago to attend Heather's cousin Erica's wedding and hang out with the extended Schalliol family.

Instead of going into details, I just want to share some photos and captions from my time in NY and Chicago.

Here's the Dean's house!

A few notes about the house:
- It's right across the street from Vassar, off the main road on a little driveway called "Dean's Lane." The house is surrounded by leafy trees!
- It's owned by the college, and my parents will be hosting various official gatherings there occasionally. However, such events will be organized and operated by the college—so Mom and Dad get to be hosts without having to do any of the tedious hosting chores! ;-)
- Since it's an official college building, Vassar administers the upkeep or maintenance of the house (e.g., utilities, mowing the lawn, gardening, painting, repairing things.) Kinda nice!
- There are a few downgrades from the Grinnell house (most glaringly, a less convenient/less beautiful kitchen), but there are also some things that are different and exciting.

Some things have not changed at all from life in Grinnell.

Cousin Jeffrey Megraw, who lives and works in NYC, came up on the commuter train to have dinner with us the first night we were all together. Here we are, all set for dinner, on our nice screened-in porch.

Here are some Hudson River Valley shots. I think I took these from the Roosevelt mansion, just outside Poughkeepsie.

The first weekend I was there, we took a hike to the highest point in the Catskills. The views weren't really spectacular (by our spoiled Western U.S. standards), but it was nice to be surrounded with such pretty nature.

Claire's boyfriend Jake (who also resides in NYC) came along with us. Here we are at the summit.

After the hike, we had a yearning to see a waterfall. So, since we had a little time to kill in the Catskills, I used our extensive map to direct us along some very scenic roads to where there apparently existed a waterfall. After some mix-up with parking, we found ourselves descending into a ravine where we found the following cute ~15-ft drop:

I initially thought this was the waterfall we were supposed to see—a nice waterfall, but like the nearby mountains, not up to the standards of the Western U.S. However, after a little investigation, we found that the water kept dropping…

…and suddenly flung itself over a massive cliff! Now, THIS was impressive!

Some day later that week, after Tim had left us, I was looking for a place to go running. I stumbled across a nearby route whose title seemed to indicate it was the route for a 5K trail race. Curious, I checked out when the race happens. "Whoa, that's today!" "Whoa, that's 2 hours from now!" So yes, I ended up doing the 5K. But not only me—surprisingly, when I mentioned the race to Mom, she suggested that she might do it, as well. (Keep in mind that Mom has never run a race before.) And she said to ask Dad if he wanted to join in, too. (Dad has run maybe 1 race before.) Dad had a meeting to go to, but it should be done in time to make it.

So we all went down to the race, at the Samuel B. Morse Historic Site on the Hudson River—Mom, Dad, and me as participants, and Claire in a supporting (and photographing) role. Here we are before the race.

I neglected to mention what might have been the selling point of the race for Mom and Dad: the top 3 finishers in each age group received a basket of fresh organic vegetables from the Morse Historic Site's heirloom garden! I finished 3rd overall in the race, and 2nd in my age group, so I received a basket!

But I was not the only one bringing home the beets that day. Mom, in her debut race, placed 3rd in her age group! Here are the bounteous spoils of war. (Dad's strong effort failed to garner a third basket only because of the depth of the M50-59 age group—I think he placed 4th.)

Delicious prizes aside, the race was also very fun and scenic, on the riverside dirt trails around the Morse estate. It was a blast—I think Claire may have even enjoyed herself. :-)

During my second and last weekend in New York, my good CMS XC/T&F friends Danny Hayman and Asaf Bernstein came upriver from where they live and work in NYC to visit us in Poughkeepsie. With Mom and Dad, we went on an excellent hike in the nearby Shawangunks. Here's Asaf in his customary glamour pose.

At Sam's Point.

The trail was far from strenuous, but it took us all afternoon to hike, mainly because we stopped so often to eat and gather wild blueberries that would line the trail almost constantly in some areas.

Here, it looks like Danny and Asaf are simply playing an idle game of snack-toss. But in fact, the game had a practical purpose: Danny had just taken care of some backcountry business, and thus for Danny to eat in the conventional way (i.e., by using his hands) would have represented a serious neglect of sanitation standards.

The layered rocks in the Shawangunk range make the area one of the world's best climbing destinations.

Another cool waterfall: Verkeerderkill Falls.

Those are most of my good pictures from Poughkeepsie. I was flying out of JFK on my way to Chicago, so I did spend a day returning the favor by visiting Danny and Asaf in NYC. Danny and I had quite a day of street food, museum visiting, running, frisbee with random little kids at a park, running, ultimate frisbee with a random group at Central Park, running, street food, running, and trivia night at a bar with some of Danny's friends. It was excellent.

Here's a shot of the skyline from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's rooftop terrace.

Then, to Chicago! I won't go through all the details of the lead-up to the wedding, the wedding, the party afterwards, and the next-day hanging out with family…but suffice to say that it was an extremely fun and exciting weekend. So many friendly and fun-loving people, all celebrating such a joyous occasion (both the groom and bride were really getting a good mate!)…and for me to be treated with the same high level of familiarity as everyone else present, I felt both honored and happy to be there. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of many of the weekend events, but here are some shots from the wedding itself and the post-wedding party.

Heather (violin) and Aunt Chris (oboe) offered their musical talents to contribute to the ceremony.