Acadia National Park, Maine, Boston, Leo's 21st!

Our summer vacation this year was visiting Leo on the east coast. We picked him up in Boston and drove to Acadia National Park. On the way, we stopped in Portland at ISF Trading's company cafeteria to grab a delightful make-your-own-sushi meal of ikura, amaebi and local uni. We had like a 1/4 lb of ikura and 1/4 lb of uni and it was cheap! 

In Acadia, we camped, even in the rain. The park has a lot of private property on it and is interspersed with towns that have restaurants, shops, etc. Bar Harbor is the most famous town and was pretty clogged with tourists. We stayed at Seawall which was a lot quieter. We did a LOT of hiking. The hikes are short but fun, with a lot of bouldering and iron rungs to hang off of. And ladders. This was trail from the summit of Cadillac Road down to Bubble Pond. Super sketchy and very steep:

We did the very popular Beehive hike which has a lot of iron rungs and scampering. Super fun. Super fast. Great view of the ocean. We did this late in the day to avoid crowds and it worked out well.

This was one of our favorite hikes - Cadillac Cliffs. It's a side hike and the rock formations are gorgeous and fun!

We had to climb 4 ladders to get to Beech cliffs. Had great views of Echo Lake.

We had brought a limited amount of camping gear to Boston via airplane so we had to eat at restaurants in the towns (Southwest Harbor, Bass Harbor, Bar Harbor). My goal for the week was to be sick of lobster. Here we are eating 2 lb lobsters (which Leo and I easily accomplished). At Archie's this 2 lb lobster dinner was $34/person!

We spent a couple days in Ogunquit, checking out the very cute little shops and the stellar beaches. There's a nice walk along the coast:

And we had fun trying the local oysters:

Leo showed us around us favorite haunts which include Wireless Club, where he houses his different versions of Tesla coils:

And we got to see his modular synth - a project still in progress. The frame is 3D printed.

We had ice cream daily in Boston. This is at Toscanini's with Leo's girlfriend.

Got to see my old junior lab partner Henry and his wife for dinner. Henry had given the MIT Nerd kits to Leo's Wireless Club a couple years ago for the kids' individual electronic projects. 

And we got to see my old officemate Sivan and his wife:

One of the reasons for the trip was to celebrate Leo's 21st birthday!

We celebrated in style with a visit to the Wink and Nod speakeasy where we tasted a variety of peaty scotches:

Paris May 2026

I had an IEA wind and solar integration task meeting in Paris and it happened to be Leo's one week between spring and summer semester so we went to Paris together! Paul was out camping. Rich was in Boulder and we had breakfast before my flight at the French Cafe:

We arrived on a gorgeous sunny spring day and all of Paris was out. This is the Luxembourg Gardens. Few people were on their phones. They were mostly talking, sunning themselves, reading - old-school.

There was some mess on the street where I'm guessing some gay guys broke up and one tossed ALL of the other's stuff onto the street including a massive dildo collection:

We ate really well of course! Escargots:

Our hotel was close to the Notre Dame:

Leo drinking a $10 coffee:

Eiffel tower from top of Arc du Triomphe:

Perrine and Chris were in town visiting Celeste who had just started an internship in Paris:

Leo and I discovered a part of Paris that I'd never been to before, Marais. Rue du Pont Louis-Philippe! So cute and boutique-y with wonderful restaurants and shops and art and just an old homey feel. I could live there! Here's a shop that we would like to go back to - they have all different types of olives and preserved seafood.

Leo with the gourmand dessert which is 3 mini desserts and espresso. 

Our walk back to the hotel from Marais:

One of the several beef tartares over the week. Again, in Marais!

This was one of my favorite Renoir paintings as a kid. At the Musee d'Orsay. We did a quick visit after I finished my IEA meetings.

Took Friday off to train to the Loire valley, recreating the same trip that Tim and I did in 1988:

Turned out that it was a national holiday and it seemed like all of Paris had gone to Blois to the Chateau de Chambord grounds for a giant flea market. We were lucky we didn't drive and park. But the restaurants were full and the place was a zoo:

It is a gorgeous chateau, however! 

Made it back in time to miss much of the rain and get the bikes returned. Only restaurant open was the Congolese place and the owners spent 45 min chatting with a friend before we realized no one was cooking and we'd need to get our food cooked and wrapped to take on to the train home. Yeah, I ate a whole grilled fish out of a plastic bag on the train. The train had problems and we got home a good hour late.

 

We celebrated making it home by getting gelato at one of those late night gelaterias:

Spent Sat at the Louvre seeing the Sphinx, Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa, the Hammurabi code:

I was starving so I made Leo do the bourgeoisie thing and eat at the cafe inside the Louvre.

Turns out the 'best pastry chef in the world' makes their desserts so we had 

Entremets chocolat praline noisette, badiane:

Saint Honore vanille bouton de cannelier:

Then we experienced real bourgeois - the Napoleon apartments:

Had to see Rodin in the afternoon:

Also got to hang with Peter a bunch:

And we all hit the nearby little bar/club on the last night out: