Ride around Princeton

 Return of the bike rides! Well, in directions we didn't go with mask restrictions. Now that it's "cool" to go without a mask, we got a good day and set out  towards Princeton. Of course we got some pictures to share.

All those things you remembered doing? Add one year to that. I don't really feel like doing the math right now, but it's been quite a while since we've gone this way, since the State Park required masks and all.

Oddly enough, there were still a few people wearing masks... Maybe 15%-ish. Hello, bridge! Good to see you're still hanging around here.

Thought I'd take a picture of the D&R Canal trail, but I can't think of anything clever to say about it. We have to pass through it a bit to get up to Princeton.

Riding up the road, we look over and notice this one house with a cool roof-patio. It has one of those covered stairways leading up there, too. Looks comfy, and it's an example of seeing things you may not have noticed before. 

We call this stretch "Torture Road" because it's such a long and steep incline. We tried, for a minute, to find some kind of topographical elevation map online to see what kind of angle we are dealing with, but couldn't find it. Anyway, since it had been such a long time, we had to walk up it for a little bit. No need to push our limits the first time out here in a while, it's that steep.

I thought this Springsteen statue disappeared for a while, looks like it's back along with a... boxer? Google told me it is Clarence Clemons, but it shows a different statute, so this might be either a different guy or a different statue of that guy.

Weeeee! It's Princeton! We've been over here a few times during the mask-wearing, for shopping... but not on the bike. So we didn't wander around the college campus, like we are about to do. Very few people wearing masks over here now.

I bet the smart people at Princeton would get you an Ivy League-quality vaccine shot! Maybe I could sneak in there just to check out the insides of one of these cool old buildings?

Hello, Church! If you didn't know, you can freely walk into that and get impressed with awesome architecture stuff. We can't bring the bike in there, can we?

Boom! When did we get to Ancient Greece? Nah, this is still Princeton.

Wow! That spot is named in honor of a guy who went to this college 273 years ago! Does every spot have a name? Shouldn't they have ran out of spots to name by now? Looks like a relatively new bench, so it's nice they are keeping it fresh, for whatever he did to earn it.

It's fun to see all of the marvelous old buildings and then the contrast with the quickly spray painted sign on the construction to repair these steps. Did we expect to see a finely-painted wooden gate, or something else fancy? That might be equally silly.

Ooooh! Biked ourselves into a corner! Do we carry it down the stairs, or turn around? Eh, it wasn't so bad, we carried the bike down the stairs. They are usually good with ramps around here but sometimes you'll hit these.

Found a campus store, if you can see it through that cool lens flare. We almost parked the bike to check it out, but we thought if we bought something, it might be awkward to carry it around the rest of the day.

Sometimes you have to just pause and admire that you are surrounded by all of this amazing stuff. Any direction you look, like you are in some kind of fairy tale. Feels like it could be a theme park... Where's the roller coasters around here?

Ponder. That's an ad for the Princeton Univerisity Art Museum but it could be for like... the whole place.

More cool stuff to look at. I wonder if you can walk around up there... maybe patrol that bridge?

Hmmm... Not sure if this picture shows off how "green" those roof tiles were. I wonder if these were normal-looking buildings when they were built, or if even way back then, they were fancier and cooler-looking? They are certainly nicer than modern building right now, no offense, modern buildings.

How many ads are going to use the phrase "misses you" this year? You think we will get tired of it?

Can we see a show? Yet? Is there complicated mask-wearing-time-math to do here? Well, if they can practice without the masks, how many weeks until they can put on a good show... Do you think they still remember last year's show they had to stop on?

Just in case you can't see it, there IS water running around that whole thing. This is using the "technology" that those new storm drain gutters on houses use, where the water tends to stick to the curved surface and not fall straight down when it gets to the side.

Yes, the hideous heads-on-poles Chinese Zodiac statues are still here. Looks like nobody made giant paper masks for them, or if they did, they've since been taken off. Do you think anybody did that? Or would that have been considered horrible vandalism?

Can I make a jokey comment on the giant cock head on a pole? Eh, you can make up your own joke, I guess.

If you zoom in up there, you can see there are three girls using the reflection in the window wall to practice choreographed dance moves. Cute.

That orange glass was giving off an orange shadow. Neat! Is there a science reason for that, or does it do it just to look neat?

Would it be cool if that metal tower was filled with nacho cheese? Is that where Princeton stores all of the cheese? Off in the distance, we can see some kind of construction project peeking up over there. Of course we had to go check that out.

On our way to check out the construction, we run into this Solar Panel project. Now the sun light during the day can power the light bulbs during the night. What a bright idea!