Pittsburgh and San Francisco

I made my quasi-semi-annual migration to the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco two weeks ago.  Aunt Megan and Uncle Brian gave Claire and Benjamin some frequent flier miles so they could travel to Pittsburgh to visit while I was gone.  Benjamin got to hang with his cousin Marcus.  They had a rockin' jam session on the piano.

It was a "p-jam" jam session (Get it?  P-jam?  As in p-jammies?  Never mind.)

They made a trip to the museum to see some dinosaur bones.  Now Benjamin refers to all pictures of dinosaurs, including those with flesh, as "disaur bones."

A little bit of Pittsburgh wintertime.

He recently discovered that you can see your breath when it's cold!  A couple of weeks ago, he stopped talking in mid-babble when he first noticed this phenomenon.

Meanwhile, I was hanging out with 18,000 (really) geoscientists in San Francisco at AGU.  Presenting my student's and my research projects and finding out what other folks are up to.  There are waaayy to many people at AGU, but it's a great way to meet future collaborators and see what other folks are doing, research-wise.  I met old friends, colleagues, teachers, and the occasional evil arch-enemy ("So, we meet again Chadwick. This time you will not escape my wrath with your trickery!  Doom upon you!  Doom upo-- cough cough cough."). 

After the conference, San Francisco is a great place to wander around.  This is Union Square, all decked out for the holidays.

I also found a great crepe shop in my wanderings. Strawberries, kiwi, and banana with ice cream and strawberry sauce.

 

Wandering around the city is fine, but you don't want to wander too far away from the touristy areas...