Year: 2021

Let’s go to Philly…

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Philadelphia – shots taken at Fairmount Park in Philadelphia (Photo credit: Temitope Idowu

Time goes by so fast, and our Bucket list keeps getting longer. Fortunately, 08/07 saw us tick an item off the bucket list and that was our trip to Philadelphia – the birthplace of America’s independence.

After weeks of meticulous planning and researching by our darling Emily, she came up with a long list of places we could visit during a one-day visit to Philadelphia from nearby Newark, Delaware.

August 07, 2021

It’s a beautiful Saturday morning!

Our trip started with all four of us – Manoj, Emily, Gopika, and I -, converging at the bus station in Newark. Our itinerary started with us taking a bus to Wilmington, DE, and a train from Wilmington to Philadelphia. The train ticket was surprisingly cheap at $7:00 from Wilmington to Philadelphia.

We arrived at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia early enough and our tour around the city started from there. The train station itself bore the marks of the pre to post-colonial era with impressive works of art on the interior walls of the station. We proceeded into the city and stopped by any and every place that caught our fancy. It didn’t take long before we realized that if we continued that way, we would end up not visiting the major places before it would be time to return home. The whole idea was to experience the vibe of this beautiful city and bask in the knowledge of its rich past. Eventually, we were able to cover places such as the Liberty Bell Center, the Signer, Independence Hall, Franklin Square, Carpenters’ hall, a quick detour to the Museum of the American Revolution’s entrance, and a couple of other places.

Of all the places we visited, Capenters’ Hall stood out the most for me. Carpenters’ hall, dubbed the birthplace of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was a pivotal meeting place for freedom strategists in the push for independence from the British colony in the late 18th century. The detailed inscriptions and artifacts in every corner of the building took us down memory lane, of heroes’ past, of sacrifices, of blood and sweat. I was particularly marveled by the fact that the societal change and liberation needed at the time came from private citizens, skilled men, and women who deployed their services for the common good of the society. The house was a regular meeting place for the various strategic meetings which also contributed to the gaining of Independence in 1776.

What is a Philly trip without its famed Cheesesteaks? We also took time to enjoy the steaks on one of the famous streets.

Finally, we found our way to the Philadelphia Museum of Art where the Rocky steps and statue are located. It was quite fun recreating the famous scene of Rocky Balboa running up the 72 steps in the Rocky III movie.

If there is a major lesson from this trip, it would be that a day does not suffice to explore all that Philadelphia has to offer. We couldn’t cover a quarter of the destinations in our itinerary. We will definitely make a couple more trips to this city. By the time we were leaving for our trip back to Newark DE, our only regret was we wished we had more time. Our exhausted limbs said otherwise though. After all, there was only so much we could do in one day.  One thing is certain though. Philly! We will be back!!!

Streets of Philly
Gopika, Manoj, Temitope
Emily, Gopika, Temitope
Philly cheesesteak burger
Rocky Balboa statue
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Oh Philly
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Streets of Philadelphia
William H. Gray III 30th Street Station
National Liberty Museum

Pea patch Island experience

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I love research! I love adventure, nature and history! How cool is that when you get to combine these experiences? Super cool!!!

That was the case during our visits to Pea patch Island for the installation of a living-shoreline as part of an ongoing research by two of my colleagues in our research group. Our major objective was to help convey and install coir logs as a prototype living shoreline, and different sensors for measuring the response of the shoreline to boat wakes.

Fort Delaware, pea-patch island

Pea patch island is a tourist destination whose history dates as far back as the 17th century. It is a 1.6 km long Island located in Delaware bay. According to folklore, pea patch island earned its name from a serendipitous occurrence where a ship full of peas was said to have run aground on the shore and spilled its contents, thereby leading to massive growth of pea plants on the Island. In present day, the main attraction on the Island is Fort Delaware – a former harbor defense facility active during the American Civil war. The facility was also pivotal during the World War I and II.

Declared superfluous by the federal government, the state of Delaware acquired the Fort in 1947 and converted it into what we have today – Fort Delaware State Park encompassing both the Fort and the entire Island. The park is open to tourists and general public at certain times of the year.

About Pea-Patch Island

First Trip (8 June 2021)

My first trip to the Island was as exciting as it could get. The research team was divided into three groups. Group one’s role was to convey the coir logs, sensors and installation items from our coastal lab on campus to the Ferry dock. The second group was stationed at the ferry dock and their role was to load up the items into the boat headed for the Island. The third group was stationed on the Island where the coir logs would be installed, and their role was to receive and offload the items from the boat, and carry them further inland. Fortunately, I was in group three. The boat ride from the dock to the Island and back was awesome, but our experience on the Island was a repeated case of bursts of actions followed by moments of inactivity when we had to wait for the boat to return with more items. Perhaps the major highlight of that particular day was the angry cries of giant birds a member of the team tagged “baby dinosaurs.” They were probably pissed by our intrusion into their territory. Further enquiries reveal the baby dinosaurs were different species of herons. Pea patch Island is home to the largest colony of herons in the United States, North of Florida. So, if you’re interested in seeing massive and scary herons, pea patch island is the place to be.

Second Trip round (17 – 18 June 2021)

The first day was characterized by much fanfare because we were a single group.

On arriving at the docking facility on the Island, we worked collectively to move all our research-related items including grasses to be planted, waders, heavy driving tools. Using Kubota ATV quad trucks (some on foot), we made our way from the dock, past the Fort Delaware, to the heronry part of the Island where the living shoreline would be installed. The arduous task of lifting heavy items, drilling wood into the ground, rolling around coir logs under sweltering heat and insane humidity levels was exciting as well as exhausting.

That’s where our Principal Investigator (PI) shines through- tireless, witty, down-to-earth and highly considerate. A man of words and action, galvanizing us every step of the way and leading by example. He was down with the troops, working through every hard task with the strength of a sprinter and the endurance of a marathoner. We also had some moments of respite.

Coolest PI ever…
The best

The second day was more exciting as we were conveyed to the Island in a cool yacht. We arrived at the Battery Park dock before 9am, so there was ample time to take a walk around and read the historical inscriptions all over the dock. At exactly 9am, we were asked to go onboard. Guess what? It was a mini-yacht and could even pass for a luxury yacht, except of course, no exotic wines, smiling chefs and pretty sommeliers in sight. To cap it up, the scenery was breathtaking all the way to the Island.

The activity of the day was a continuation of where we left off yesterday. Today, we focused more on completing the installation of the living shoreline and planting the grasses.

At the end of the two days, we had successfully transported and installed materials several tons in weight. The beauty of the whole exercise was the teamwork on display. It was evident that a lot is achieved in a little while when people come together to achieve a common goal in one spirit.

In the words of our principal investigator, indeed, “Team work makes the dream work”

Living shoreline
Living shoreline prototype

I don’t Know (IDK)

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I qualified for a Covid-19 vaccine in the State of Delaware earlier in the week under the group b1 priority list. So I decided to travel down south to Dover with an administrative staff member. On our way back, I branched to get a few things at the mall. And here is what happens next;

I DON’T KNOW!!!

After shopping and while waiting outside the mall, an elderly man (probably in his 70s) turned to me with a smiling face, a basic phone in hand – those phones only used for exchanging texts, and making and receiving calls- and asked “Hey buddy, I’m new to texting and terminologies used these days. Please, what is I-D-K?”

Was this some sort of joke? I thought. Of course I replied with “I Don’t Know!!!” He looked intently at me half smiling and sighed as he walked into the mall complaining out loud, Nobody ever knows!!!

I love old men with a great sense of humor!

Wait a minute? Could he be serious? He’d better be kidding.

Quick visit to Lancaster : Who are the Amish people?

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Lancaster PA
Country side enroute Lancaster from Newark,DE

It’s a beautiful Saturday characterized by sunny bright weather, confirming spring is indeed here and days of sub-zero winter temperatures are over. We decided to travel west from Newark, DE to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This gave us an ample opportunity to enjoy the scenic views of the countryside and for me in particular, I saw and experienced for the first time, the reclusive community of the Amish.

Amish community area – Lancaster, PA

Less than 20 mins into the journey, with the suburbs of Newark out of sight, we were treated to vast open agricultural fields mostly green. Very soon, we will start seeing members of the Amish community, my friend quipped. Who are the Amish people? I asked. They are a group of people with a shared belief system, who live almost off-grid and have little or no dependence on western technology for anything. They do not drive cars are use heavy machinery and their means of transport is the horse-drawn carts we would soon be seeing. You could always tell the married from the unmarried by the presence or absence of coverings on their carts.

True to his words, we started seeing the horse-drawn carts. Unfortunately, we couldn’t park the car to capture Instagram-worthy photos of the carts but the views had aroused enough interest for me to go online a read more about the Amish community on my return home to Newark, DE.

An Amish riding past. The cart is attached to the horse (Photo Credit: Temi Idowu)
An Amish riding past. The cart is attached to the horse in front (Photo Credit: Temi Idowu)

At Lancaster PA, I was astonished by the dominance of the Spanish language in the city. Unless you’re told, you could assume Lancaster is a city straight out of Puerto Rico.  We did a little grocery shopping, sightseeing and headed back East to Newark, DE.

Lancaster, PA (Photo Credit: Temi Idowu)

Back to the Amish community

Just as the saying goes “The experience is in the journey and not the final destination” Our trip was to Lancaster but the beauty of the trip was in the experiences en-route Lancaster and back.

And indeed, “to look for the beautiful is its own reward (Lost City of Z)”. Out of curiosity, I decided to read up more about the Amish community online and here are some quick facts;

  • The Amish are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins.
  • The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and hardly embrace modern technology.
  • The basic idea is technology should not stand in the way of family time or replace face-to-face conversations. Yuck!!! Instagram, Snap Chat, Facebook and what have you are big No! Nos!!
  • Their history can be traced back to a schism in Switzerland in the late 17th century.
  • Non-Amish people are generally referred to as “English”.
  •  Higher education is generally discouraged, as it can lead to social segregation and the unravelling of the community
  • Amish began migrating to Pennsylvania, then regarded favourably due to the lack of religious persecution and attractive land offers, in the early 18th Century as part of a larger migration from the Palatinate and neighbouring areas.
  • Amish cuisine is noted for its simplicity and traditional qualities.
  • Men wear solid-coloured shirts, broad-brimmed hats, and suits that signify similarity amongst one another. Amish men grow beards to symbolize manhood and marital status, as well as to promote humility. They are forbidden to grow moustaches because moustaches are seen by the Amish as being affiliated with the military, which they are strongly opposed to, due to their pacifist beliefs.
  • Their women wear calf-length dresses, muted colours along with bonnets and aprons. Prayer caps or bonnets are worn by the women because they are a visual representation of their religious beliefs and promote unity through the tradition of every woman wearing one.
  • The colour of the bonnet signifies whether a woman is single or married. Single women wear black bonnets and married women wear white. 
  • Amish life is governed by the “Ordnung,” a German word for order. The rules vary from community to community.
  • Most Amish groups forbid owning automobiles, tapping electricity from public utility lines, using self-propelled farm machinery, owning a television, radio, and computer, attending high school and college, joining the military, and initiating divorce.
  • Photos are banned in the Amish community because they might cultivate personal vanity, which runs against the church’s prohibition of “hochmut,” a word meaning pride, arrogance and/or haughtiness
  • The Amish are not a single unit. There are four main groups — the Old Order, the New Order, the Beachy Amish and Amish Mennonites — with many subgroups and different rules within these categories.
  • Ohio currently has the largest Amish population, followed by Pennsylvania and Indiana.

A beautiful day it was…

Two wanderers (Photo credit: Temi Idowu)
En route Lancaster PA (Phot Credit: Temi Idowu)

References

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/15/amish-ten-things-you-need-to-know/14111249/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish#:~:text=The%20Amish%20(%2F%CB%88%C9%91%CB%90m,closely%20related%20to%20Mennonite%20churches.

Extras

Amish woman and her kid (Source: Amy Sancetta-USToday)
Source: it:Immagine:Lancaster_County_Amish