No, not on the Amtrak -- but I HAVE been traveling several weekends in a row, can you tell? Here's a roundup post of all our adventures!

Before heading down to Philadelphia for my 15th reunion at Penn, M. and I went to Bar Rosso in Stamford for dinner on "opening" night. Glad they finally got everything worked out. Enjoyed the food and the view of the pizza oven from the second floor:



The next morning, we headed down to PA. Our first stop was the Northern Liberties neighborhood, to check out the interesting shops and eateries. We stopped for a hot drink at the perfectly decorated One Shot Coffee:



When we got to campus, I vainly attempted to sketch -- but the reunion tents had invaded! It was hard to get a good view of anything.

Here's a rather abstract view of College Green, with trees, tents and Ben:



Saturday morning we went to a flea market in West Philly's Clark Park, where some characters were hanging out and talking about the benefits of exercise and cranberry juice. Wasn't terribly happy with the sketch so I turned this one into more of an abstract compositional exercise.



This past weekend, M. spoke at the Gaithersburg Book Festival in Maryland. On Friday I toured the fabulous Baltimore Watercolor Society 2011 Mid-Atlantic Regional Exhibition at the Strathmore Mansion in Rockville and then took the Metro down to D.C. to see the Phillips Collection. After all that inspiration, I just had to draw -- so I parked myself in Dupont Circle near the fountain.



Saturday was gloriously sunny -- we went for an early morning ride on the hiker-biker trail at Rock Creek Regional Park, and then I sat at the playground and sketched various people at the Gaithersburg Book Festival. My use of a dip pen attracted a lot of curious attention!



We ended the evening with a swing dance at the Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo Park -- such fun!

Was all set to draw and paint cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin in Washington this past weekend, but the mercurial weather made a hash of those plans.

Nonetheless, I did get a bit of sketching in. Drew this one quite rapidly with a refilled Pilot Varsity pen while we were waiting to have breakfast with our congressman, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn. I'm calling it "The Constituents." The private Capitol tour following breakfast was a highlight of our weekend.

As we sat in Himes' office in the Cannon building, we heard our elected officials (on a small television screen) loudly and dramatically debating the merits of shutting down the government.



In between the sudden showers and gawks at stately architecture, I did manage to meet an artist friend in Old Town Alexandria. There was an interesting group of gentlemen sitting on a bench at the docks, but I chose to paint just the guy in the middle, who was relaxing with a cigar. I had to rush because I had to make it back to Arlington for a dinner reservation; in my haste the watercolor got a bit gouache-y and opaque. Touching it up with more paint later didn't really help!