Graduation Weekend - Part I

Saturday, May 15, 2010:

On Saturday, May 15, 2010, my nephew, Nick, was presented with his diploma from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. We attended a very nice diploma ceremony in the afternoon and enjoyed walking through the "mall" area of the campus.

Carnegie Mellon University is located in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh -- not far from the University of Pittsburgh. The campus is fairly compact, but still very pretty. The nicest area is a wide open space surrounding on all sides by academic buildings. There's also some neat outdoor sculpture.

Carnegie Mellon may be considered the academic jewel of Pittsburgh. It is a very prestigious university and is particularly known for its schools of computer science and engineering. CMU is regularly the recipient of government grants to study robotics and other high tech projects. And

in recent years, it was gifted with funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which were used to build a new computer sciences facility.

A Day at the Carnegie Museum

Saturday, May 15, 2010:

My nephew Nick graduated from Carnegie Mellon University on May 16, 2010. To celebrate the occasion, our family congregated in Pittsburgh. We attended the festivities at the school, we had a couple of great dinners together, we toasted Nick, and we did some sightseeing in and around Pittsburgh. One of our stops, on Saturday morning, was The Carnegie Museum in Oakland.

We spent most of our time in the dinosaur exhibit and the gem exhibit, but we started out in a room off the main reception area, walking through a very interesting piece of installation art. It consisted of a series of structures, erected to create walkways through them, and each section of the exhibit was constructed of "tiles" of aluminum all in the same pattern and about 12 inches square. They were hung and strung together with chains. There were openings made to look and feel like windows, and the entire structure was surrounded by mirrored walls, which gave the appearance of its being even bigger than it already was. We were thoroughly entertained by this really cool piece of art.

Our goal this day, however, was the dinosaur exhibit. The Carnegie Museum has always had a world-class dinosaur exhibit but several years ago they completely overhauled and redid this area of the museum. The result is truly amazing. In addition to the usual fossils assembled to reflect the skeletons of these massive beasts, the exhibits are supplemented by all sorts of computer screens and graphics. We had a grand time roaming these rooms and marveling at these mysterious creatures.

The Orchids at Phipps Conservatory

May 2010: One of my favorite places in Pittsburgh (I've mentioned this before) is Phipps Conservatory. It is located on the edge of Schenley Park in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, and it's an easy 25 minute drive from our house.

On a Saturday in May, I joined a group of ladies from our Church and we made a trip to Phipps. We spent a wonderful couple hours roaming the conservatory. I found the flowers so beautiful and it was inevitable that I would take a lot of pictures.

The orchids at Phipps are particularly wonderful. They are such

an intricate flower, and there are so many varieties. Here are just a few of the many pictures I took on this day.

Our Final Night in Vienna

Saturday, April 10, 2010 (Part 5)

On our last night in this beautiful city, we decided to try to get a dinner reservation at one of the nicer restaurants that was written up in our guidebook. It was called Do & Co. and we were successful in getting a reservation.

This restaurant sits on the 6th and 7th floors of a surprisingly modern (all glass) building on the square directly across from Stephensdom. Because we were willing to take an early time slot, we got a really good table sitting along the windows directly facing the church.

We each dined on classic Viennese dishes. I had weiner schnitzel (a long time personal

favorite) and Katherine tried some sort of veal meatballs. It was very nice "farewell" dinner. We toasted a wonderful week together, and we talked about returning to Vienna some day to see the many things that we were unable to see on this trip.

And so, this is my last entry regarding our April 2010 vacation through Denmark, the Czech Republic and Austria. If you could not already tell from these blog entries, we had a thoroughly wonderful time.

Schonbrunn Palace - Apple Struedel

Saturday, April 10, 2010 (Part 4)

We had one more stop to make at the Palace before heading back to the city. And that was the bakery! But we had to walk through the gardens to get there and, on the way, it started to pour again. And to make things even more interesting, it also started to hail. We were running and laughing our way through the gardens, and the hail was bouncing off our jackets!

We finally got to the bakery. But this was no ordinary bakery. Here, they provide a demonstration about how to make apple strudel, and they perform the demonstration

in a kitchen that is several hundred years old. We bought our tickets and received a small piece of strudel. We were early, so we managed to get ring-side seats. This turned out to be a lot of fun. A young girl was the instructor. She spoke first in German and then in English. She explained the ingredients and she rolled out the dough and constructed the strudel.

The most amazing part of the process is the dough. it is paper thin, but it seems to be quite durable. This must come from the fact that the dough rests (sits) in a bowl of sunflower oil for 30 minutes before rolling. After rolling out the dough, it is further stretched by tossing it in the air (like pizza dough).

Once fully stretched, the dough is spread over a linen towel. The filling (already mixed) is then dumped into the center of the dough and shaped by hand into an 18-inch log. Then the dough is folded over the filling and rolled. The ends are twisted into knots and the top is basted with butter.

The sample was very tasty indeed!

Schonbrunn Palace - The Conservatory

Saturday, April 10, 2010 (Part 3)

As I mentioned before, Schonbrunn is not far from Vienna -- no more than 10 miles. And we were very proud of ourselves that we got to the Palace by subway. Katherine has a lot of experience with the trains and buses in Copenhagen, so I let her take the lead. In hindsight, it was all very easy and very fast. This was definitely the best way to travel. What made it so easy and stress-free was that everything was exceptionally well marked. The signage was excellent and it was everywhere. There was constant reinforcement that we were headed in the right direc

tion.

Following our lunch at the Gloriette, we consulted our map and made our way to

the conservatory -- called the Palm Court. Inside, we enjoyed a walk through some lovely displays of azaleas and rhododendrens (and palm trees, of course) as well as a large variety of orchids in one particularly hot hothouse. There were also a number of unusual flowers (unusual to me anyway), and Katherine had fun taking a lot of pictures of the many beautiful

flowers.

Schonbrunn Palace - The Royal Apartments

Saturday, April 10, 2010 (Part 2)

Inside the Schonbrunn Palace, we picked up audio guides and toured 40 rooms! This tour took us through several state rooms, Maria Theresa's apartments and Franz Joseph's and Elizabeth's apartments. This was very interesting. Through a discussion of the rooms' decor, furnishings and paintings, we again got a view into the lives of these royal families. Some of these rooms were quite beautiful, but what makes Schonbrunn so special are the grounds, and that's where we spent most of our time while here.

After touring the Palace, we walked straight through the central avenue of the gardens. [The rain had stopped while we were inside.] A statue of

Neptune and his entourage holds court

over a central fountain. From this fountain, we hiked up a moderately steep hill to a further monument, with viewing platform, called the Gloriette. We also climbed the stairs to the viewing platform, from which we had a great view over the gardens and palace and even to the city of Vienna beyond.

At the Gloriette, there was a cafe and this turned out to be the perfect stopping point for us to have lunch. Katherine had an open faced sandwich with salad toppings and feta cheese. Ihad a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.