Students Doing Great Things

 I absolutely love teaching the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and the Bill of Rights. And our Moot Court simulations at WHS are the very best around.

 This is the first round of two. It was a student expression case dealing with the I "heart" boobies bracelets.

 All of my students did a great job with the precedent cases and the application to the Constitution.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the many reasons I love going to work everyday. Life is good.
~MET

Chilly NYC Getaway

 M-S and I love going to NYC, and this getaway weekend was great fun - even though it was windy and cold. We took the Concord Plus from Portland again, and I'd recommend it to anyone. No stops, larger seats, wifi, movies, and it's very affordable. On Friday we walked around and had dinner at Cafe Centro, which is in the METLIFE Tower. 
 It's a very good French restaurant and we decided to go with three flights paired with wines. My escargot to start was delicious, and the duck and beets main course was outstanding:

 Our desserts were also great, and the sweet wine that they were paired with was delicious.

 Saturday morning we took a long walk on the High Line:

 It's a 1.5 mile trail that was built on an old elevated train track. You get views of the river and of the city from 30 feet up. It's very well done with LOTS of different trees and plants, and we'll certainly do it again when all is in bloom. I love how they have left parts of the old tracks:

 There are lots of works of art along the way:

 And a couple have soothing sounds coming from them:

 When we finished we walked to brunch and stopped at Macys to see the first holiday windows that have been completed:

 They made me think of my mom because she loved the Christmas windows in New York. We walked to Koreatown for brunch

 at Osamil. What a fun meal! Their version of a Bloody Mary is called a Murder on 31st - and it's made with soju rather than vodka.

 Wicked good. These are very spicy kimchi sausages:

 The best part of my meal was the pimento fries - again very spicy:

 M-S had Korean chicken and waffles:

 We also got to see parts of the Veteran's Day Parade on 5th Avenue a couple of times:

 Saturday afternoon we saw Wicked on Broadway. It was fantastic.

 For dinner we went to Pero and had really good Turkish food and wine.

It was a really good time. I took this picture on the way back to our hotel, which was close to Grand Central Station. I love traveling with my wife. Life is good.
~MET

Time in the Woods...

 ...after a busy weekend of campaign work. Running for MEA president can be stressful at times. I'm a little taken aback by some of the dishonesty and mean-spiritedness I've encountered, but luckily I'm surrounded by many outstanding supporters and advocates. It was good that I had a chance to get into the woods on North Whitefield and decompress. Nothing makes me happier than spending time with my wife and my dog.

 Whitefield has many trails, but I think the most interesting is the Marr's Ridge Trail. It brings you to the town's highest point (no views due to fog) and under hundreds of feet of sap lines:

 It was a pretty morning.

 There are also stone structures on the "top", and they keep adding to them.

 After the long walk we met Chris for a massive breakfast at Doc Hollandaise.

Sunday was a reminder that I need to get into the wilderness more often. Life is good.
~MET

Weekend in Boston

 M-S and I are just back from a great weekend in Boston. We are becoming hooked on AirBnB. This was our little apartment in Cambridge:

 It was very comfortable and we continue to be impressed with the places we stay. We walked the 1.8 miles across the Charles to Fenway Park to see Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor:

 The place was packed and the show was awesome. Fenway is a GREAT place to see a concert. Saturday we had a fantastic Irish brunch at a place in Cambridge. We sat outside and enjoyed a beautiful morning. We then took the T to the North End:

 We walked around the open markets and the booths at the Madonna Della Cava Festival.

 Chris joined us for dinner at Prezza. These were our cocktails:

Mine is on the left, and the garnish is a hot pepper stuffed with cheese and prosciutto. We had great weather and lots of fun. Life is good.
~MET

Cooperstown with Chris

 There's something really special about visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame with your son. Chris and I had a great weekend in Cooperstown. I posted a lot of pictures from the museum a couple of years ago, so there won't be a lot on this post. We stayed in a cheesy motel that was only about a 10 minute walk to downtown. We had great food, did a lot of shopping in the plethora of baseball shops, listened to baseball in adirondack chairs each night, and had some very good talks. I think Chris was very impressed with the Hall:

 Two years ago I took pictures of the plaques of my two favorite players when I was growing up, Chris' favs were side-by-side:

 We also did some tastings at a couple of the many craft breweries in the area:

Even the very long drive was entertaining. I'm really glad he was able to come along, and we talked about doing a baseball-themed weekend every summer. Next year we're thinking about seeing a couple of Vermont Lake Monsters minor league games and doing Burlington up right. Life is good.
~MET