On the Road Again (part 2)

The chemistry symposium Tom attended started on Monday morning and ran for three days. While he was attending lectures, I hung out with my friend Sara, whose husband David was also attending the symposium. (They used to live in Cincinnati but now live in Battle Creek, Michigan, and we hadn't seen them in a long time. It was so nice to be able to spend time together.)

On Monday, Sara and I went to the Crate and Barrel outlet store. It seemed to take forever to get there. The navigation system on Sara's phone had us getting off and on the NJ turnpike three times. We would go a couple of miles, and it would have us get off, and then before we knew it we were getting back on the turnpike. I felt like we were going around in circles, and I even began to wonder if we were on Candid Camera. Once we finally got to the store, we both found some treasures. I used my phone to get us back to our hotel, and it had us on the turnpike only one time versus the three times we were on it before. 

That evening we had dinner at a fantastic Italian restaurant, Luca's. Here we are with David and Sara and Larry. David and Larry were speakers during Tom's award session. There were supposed to be four speakers (including Tom), but, sadly, one had to cancel due to illness.

Several years ago I discovered that Larry (seated next to Tom) and I are distantly related (8th cousins) through my mother's side of the family. Can you imagine my surprise to learn that I'm related to one of Tom's colleagues? It's truly a small world after all.

Look at Tom's yummy dinner. Those are figs on top of a very thick pork chop. I wish I had taken some more photos.

Tom's award session was Tuesday morning. Here he is with the plaque he was given. It's a good thing we drove, because it is quite heavy.

Several people have asked about the award. It was for his work in chemical separations. I think this article describes it the best.

After Tom's talk, Sara and I headed off for a day of antiquing in Lambertville. We found a huge antique shop!!

On Wednesday, Sara and I decided to take the train into NYC. We were each meeting friends for lunch at Grand Central Station. The train went only as far as Penn Station. We decided that since the weather was pretty nice and we wanted to see the city that we would walk from there to Grand Central Station.

Along the way, we stopped at a wonderful ribbon and trim shop. Although we saw lots of beautiful things, neither of us bought anything. I think we were both overwhelmed.

Then it was time to meet our friends for lunch. Sara was meeting a childhood friend. They were neighbors growing up in Virginia. I was meeting Margaret C., who many of you may know either in person or from her blog, Days of a Sampler Lover. Margaret and I have corresponded over the years, but we had never met in person until Wednesday. How much fun it was to meet her at long last!! (Thanks, Margaret, for coming into the city to have lunch with me. It was a thrill to meet you.)

After lunch, Sara and I went shopping. Little did we dream that we would be offered champagne at Lord and Taylor as were leaving to meet our husbands for dinner in the "Big Apple".

Thursday was our final day in the area, so the four of us went to the Morven Museum in Princeton to see the New Jersey sampler exhibit. I'll tell you about that in my next blog post....so until then...