There's no help for it. We're going to have to come back here someday. There are just too many things to see. We never made it to the museum at Fort Monroe, or the Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, or took a schooner ride on the York River. Never finished up at Jamestown or Yorktown. Missed half the shops in Williamsburg because of the school groups and James' foot.

But this morning we went to another essential museum for the area, the Mariner's Museum. We'd talked about going to Jamestown this morning and then having lunch at the Carrot Tree, finishing at the National Park portion of Yorktown, and then hitting a couple of stores in the Williamsburg area, including their gift shop again, before coming back to the hotel. However, it was overcast due to the approach of Hurricane Sandy, and we both wondered if they were already battening down the hatches on the shoreline areas.

On the way out this morning, we solved the mystery of the GPS unit and Tidewater Road. When James initially programmed the GPS unit, he told it to automatically avoid bad traffic. This explains why it has taken us off the freeway several times and put us on surface roads or alternate routes. It just does it automatically and doesn't explain itself.

Of course that doesn't explain why on earth it took us to the Mariner's Museum the way we did. We arrived at the intersection across which you could see the entrance to the museum. All we had to do was wait for the light, cross the road, and then turn left into the entrance. Instead it made us turn left at the intersection, go down a mile, and enter the park that surrounds the museum, taking us in through the back! Again, it wasn't a bad ride, the first part through an old neighborhood dotted with homes decorated for fall and Hallowe'en., and the rest through a gorgeous wooded park.

Besides, how could we miss the the main draw at the Mariner's Museum, which is a exhibit about the Battle of Hampton Roads, otherwise known as the conflict between the two famous ironclads, the "Monitor" and the "Virginia." (Most schools still teach that the ship was called "Merrimac"—correctly "Merrimack"—and several of her crew still called her that, but it was renamed after refitting as an ironclad.) The Mariner's Museum has recovered portions and memorabilia from the "Monitor" (she sank in a gale off Cape Hatteras on New Year's Eve, 1862), discovered in 1973, and is carrying out extensive preservation of the ship portions they have brought to the surface.  You can even see the big tanks in which the ship parts are being soaked, in the hope that in ten or fifteen more years they may be stable enough to display.

This gallery tells of the earliest attempts to armor ships, showing a Korean vessel that looked like a turtle, and following, the story of the two ships, the Union's "Floating Coffin" and the Confederate's ship made from a Union vessel which had burned to the waterline. There are reproductions of the captain's two-room cabin and those of the executive officer, ship's surgeon (who bored everyone by reading them letters from his sweetheart!), and engineer, and the story of the man who designed the ship. A "lifesize" exhibit chronicles the conversion from "Merrimack" to "Virginia." Finally the battle is chronicled, and then the sad, frightening story of "Monitor's" sinking at the end of 1862. Preserved is the lantern they frantically signaled with. Amazingly, many of her sailors, including the captain, still survived.

You can even step outside on a concrete "deck" that is the top of an exact replica of the USS "Monitor" (well, not the inside, just the shell). It has a ship's bell and, of course I couldn't resist ringing it.

Then into another gallery, which was all about exploration of the seas. There were paintings of the noted explorers, including a rare portrait of Ferdinand Magellan, a huge one of Columbus, and one of Bartholomew Diaz. There were also navigational aids, maps and books on cartography, weapons, ship decorations and arms, ships' decorations, and other unique or beautiful items. This gallery segued into an exhibit about Admiral Horatio Nelson, with oil portraits, busts, commemorative pieces from the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of the Nile—even a bust of Napoleon! It was called "The Nelson Touch."

The remainder of the gallery was a history of United States maritime service, from the colonial days to the Navy astronauts. Saw another photo of the "Yeomanettes," young woman who were permitted to serve as clerks in the Navy during the first World War.

One big gallery was called "The Age of Steam," and was about...ta-da...steamships. There was a corner devoted to "Titanic," and beautiful models of everything from paddle-wheelers to the big twentieth century cruise ships. Gorgeously painted figureheads lined the walls, and there were also ships' name boards peppered among them, including from a ship from the Fall River Line. Another walk-through exhibit was the story of people who had survived shipwrecks, or stories about shipwrecks. Here was a watch and a life jacket from a "Titanic" passenger.

A favorite gallery for me was an A to Z collection of some of the items owned by the museum, from an ancient Greek amphora to...well, I forgot what the "Z" stood for. But there was a miniature horse-drawn fire pumper, movie posters, a yellowing calliope keyboard, a wartime target kite...from all eras and all countries.

There was an exhibit of a model builder who does models of ships from different eras, back to the Egyptians. They had a gallery of his stuff, each model, from a foot to several feet long, each in a glass case with a spotlight over each, as if they were little jewels, but they truly were: galleys and warships, galleons, sailing ships all finely strung and sailed...really gorgeous!

They also had a building with nothing but small boats from kayaks to cabin cruisers, and from all different countries. Thee was a sampan from Asia, several boats from the Philippines, the oldest known Chris-Craft from 1923, a bathysphere, a Welsh coracle, an Eskimo hunting boat made of walrus skin, a genuine 19th-century Venetian gondola, an ice boat, a craft that looked like the "African Queen," sailboats, canoes, and two extraordinary crafts: a tiny aluminum boat with a lawn-mower engine that was used by a Cuban husband and wife in 1966 to escape from Castro's Cuba, and "the April Fool," a boat the size of a kitchen cabinet with a sail on it that a man sailed from Casablanca in Morocco to Florida!

We had one more gallery to see, but it was after noon, so we broke for lunch at the museum cafe. I had lobster bisque, astonishingly with no pepper in it, and a grilled cheese sandwich and James had two chili dogs. Afterwards we did the Chesapeake Bay gallery, which was the entire experience of life along the water: lighthouses, fishermen, duck hunters, shipbuilding, buoys, the ubiquitous excursion boats, rowing boats (including ones made for taking your lady courting, with a rowing seat on one side and a wicker seat for the young lady next to it; the one we saw had room for six couples!), and early outboard motors.

What a really, really neat museum!

It had been cloudy when we left the hotel this morning, but it was even more cloudy and chillier when we left. As we departed, it began "mizzling" on the car's windshield. We were headed back up to Williamsburg, where I wanted to do one specific bit of shopping. I have heard for several years now the ladies on my Christmas group talking about a chain Christmas store called "The Christmas Mouse." There was one in the shopping area surrounding Williamsburg, and I just wanted to see one. So we did. This is on a long stretch of motels, shops, restaurants—including more pancake houses in one place than I have ever seen in my life; Williamsburg must be the city of pancake houses as we saw at least a dozen!— amusements like a Ripley's Museum, and more.

It's a cute little shop. I went in there just to look and was seduced by several small things, including two jeweled airplanes for James' airplane tree. They have a good selection of ornaments, including many seashore-themed ones, and a variety of model trees, including a peppermint tree, a gingerbread tree, a Victorian glass tree, an icicle and snow tree (with LED icicles like running lights), a wine tree, a children's interest tree, a bird tree, and a sports tree. So I did come out with a small bag, and James predicts that Willow will have to ride with a bag this year like she did with the Bronner's bag last year. I hope not!

Neither of us were interested in any outlet shopping, so we headed back to the Colonial Williamsburg bookstore and gift shop. I had seen a book here on Sunday that I should have picked up then, one about solely American holidays like Thanksgiving and Columbus Day. I'd seen it sitting on the bargain table, and sure enough, it was still there.

And so were other books. Yes, I was seduced again, but they were all bargain books except for one, which is a history of Christmas celebrations in Virginia. Many of the books had no relation to Williamsburg or American history at all, but that was okay. LOL. James bought a King's Arms T-shirt and also a couple of the bargain books.

Now it was time for two treats! We were going to drive back up the lovely, tree-lined Colonial Parkway to Yorktown, and we were planning to have supper at the Carrot Tree, since we missed lunch there. I was already salivating thinking about the mint melon yogurt dressing for the salad. Well, the Colonial Parkway ride was marvelous. I would love to drive this road every day, especially in the fall, with the trees changing colors around me and going from the shoreline of the James to the shoreline of the York with those delightful brick bridges in between.

But when we got to the Carrot Tree, it turned out they had a huge group coming in, 46 people! Now, this is a tiny cottage, and it was going to be filled. So they asked if we could come back at seven. It was 5:45 and James couldn't wait that long to eat.

We should have gone back to Huzzah!, which was the colonial-themed casual restaurant outside of Williamsburg, but we were both a bit aggravated. We thought the Texas Roadhouse near our hotel might be a good choice, but when we got there it was clogged with people, with a line outside the door. So we just went back to the "main drag" on Jefferson Street and ate at Golden Corral again. We were both a bit dispirited by this time, knowing it was time for us to become landlubbers again.

So it was back to the hotel, starting to pack a bit, watching the last of the lousy channels they have here. (Yeah, I remember when I was a kid we were lucky if the rabbit ears on the television at our motel pulled in four channels! Spoiled, I tell you.)

Labels: autumn, books, Christmas, food, history, museums, shopping, travel

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:44:00 PM

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The usual ablutions this morning along with breakfast, and just in case, I ate cheese. I hate cheese, but some things just have to be done.

Schuyler kept kissing as we left the room. I always feel guilty when she does that. Since the television in the "living room" shuts itself off once an hour for no reason (I checked it the first time it happened, since it acts like a sleep timer, but the sleep timer is off), I have been leaving her in our bedroom where the television stays on. I guess she is lonesome for Willow.

This morning we were off to Norfolk to visit Nauticus, which is where the USS Wisconsin, Iowa-class battleship, is berthed. (It is mostly an inside display, and this was supposed to be the warmest day this week, so we figured it would be a good day for it.) It is a neat combination of history museum (part of it is the Hampton Roads Military Museum) and display devoted to the history, commerce, and ecology of the area, three stories, with the downstairs devoted to a gift shop and a cafe. Parking, we learned only once we drove on the grounds, is across the street, but we soon had that sorted out and were back inside.

You take a moving ramp upward past newsreel footage of Norfolk to begin the tour on the third floor and work your way down through numerous displays. One is about the port of Norfolk itself and how much cargo goes through the area each year, another is a salute to the unsung hero of the port, the tugboat. Another exhibit showed you the daily life of a sailor over the years, and essential parts of a ship.  My favorite part of the display was about the Jamestown Exposition in 1907, celebrating the 300th anniversary of the landing in Virginia. The display opens with a beautiful wooden figurehead that was eventually to be a ships' tradition no more with the arrival of "the Steel Navy." After some exhibits about sailing life in 1907, the displays segues into memorabilia from the exposition, a World's Fair type exhibition with fair rides, contributions from other countries, daredevil stunts and animal acts, and more. It was after this event that "the Great White Fleet" made its world tour, and memorabilia given to the fleet from Australia, Japan, and other countries is also shown, including a huge moose head resulting from one of Theodore Roosevelt's hunting expeditions. The animal weighed nearly a ton!

Other exhibits had to do with the Wisconsin and ships in general, with some nifty World War I and II posters, plus exhibits having to do with NOAA and undersea exploration.

There is also a small exhibit about the sea itself, with small aquarium tanks of fish. One holds a huge green moray eel. Another had mixed tropical fish, and we found Nemo several times. An attendant pointed out a tiny eel and also a puffer fish that didn't look well. A second puffer fish looked like a puffy pickle, up to the point of being pale green. They had horseshoe crabs in a shallow pool, and also some small sharks in a tank, not much bigger than catfish. We said no to petting them, though. :-)

By the time we finished the third floor, it was lunchtime, so we went down to the cafe and had a sandwich each. At that time I reminded James there was a boat tour here as well as the one we wanted to take out of Hampton. We had not bought our tickets earlier, so we went back to the lobby and did so, discovering we would have to go down to the boarding area almost immediately. This meant we would probably not be able to explore Wisconsin, but then we could only take a "topside" tour anyway, since the tour of the interior was additional. However, the second floor area was smaller and we could finish that after the tour.

The dock where the ship "Victory Rover" sits is of particular interest. It is a memorial for those who have served and died in the military, represented by letters written home by soldiers just before they were killed, starting with Revolutionary War correspondence all the way through Desert Storm. The words written have been engraved onto thin metal plates which have been then "scattered" over the dock as if they were blown by the wind and then fastened in place. We walked from letter to letter reading most of them, including one from a young woman during the Revolutionary War who was posing as a man.

Soon it was boarding time and we went to the upper deck, under the sailcloth to have a modicum of shade. There was an enclosed cabin down below, but on a beautiful day like today, who would want to be inside?

The tour at first makes a circle around the area near the ship's berth. There are several Navy ships in drydock nearby (waves at General Dynamics), and also a paddle-wheel boat which acts as a ferry between Norfolk and Portsmouth across the river. We are technically on the Elizabeth River, which is part of the Intracoastal Waterway which runs down the Atlantic coast all the way down to Florida and beyond. The guide pointed out notable buildings, including the original Norfolk Naval Hospital, the piers for cruise ships, and new construction.

Then we headed toward the Naval base. On the way we passed container ship loading areas, one the largest in the world. One container ship came downriver as we chugged up, filled with multicolor containers so that it looked like a giant storage box of Lego bricks! There is a coal stoking station with two big tipples of coal that can service one huge ship or one tipple for one ship. One of the ships being coaled was called "d'Amico" and I wondered if it is Italian. A flock of little sailboats proved to be the sailing club at Old Dominion University. Little tugboats and cabin cruisers skittered about. One cabin cruiser crew took photos of us, so I took a picture of them.

Finally we were at the Norfolk Naval Base, cruising past the warships in dock, including the huge Abraham Lincoln, in port to get her nuclear fuel renewed, and several ships of the "Arleigh Burke" class, trim new vessels with clean lines. Of note were the San Antonio-class LPDs, which can be recognized by the big six-sided "pyramid" structures on their decks. There were also civilian ships that are painted in red-white-and-blue markings on their stacks signifying that they are doing work for the government. There was one ship called the "Cape May" that I noticed because of Emma. This was a cargo carrier.

We cruised to the end of the Naval Base property then turned around and returned to port. The entire Navy pier complex was then on our left and I made a nice film of our cruise by it. And then, just as we passed the warships, some dark shapes began leaping out of the water at the port side of the boat. Dolphins! It was a pod of at least five dolphins! I never got any photos, but we did see them frolicking in front of the boat!

When we got back we had just enough time to circle the second floor quickly to see the history of the Hampton Roads area, from before the Revolutionary War—ah, there's Lord Dunmore again!—to modern day. There were more pieces of memorabilia from the Jamestown Exposition; wish there was a book about that!

We even had about eight minutes to go out to the deck of Wisconsin, just to say we'd been aboard. Peeked into the wardroom, and it looks a lot like USS Salem anyway. :-) A much larger ship, however, and this one, since it was used at the beginning of the Iraq War, has a cell phone tower at the top of its tallest mast! We chatted a bit with the docents, then walked through the Wisconsin exhibit. Finally took the elevator down to the gift shop, bought a few magnets for the fridge and a T-shirt for James and two postcards (only of the Wisconsin, none of the museum!).

This morning the GPS had routed us through, despite the fact the freeway was clear, side roads once we got across the bridge to the Virginia Beach/Norfolk area. We had passed through some very nice, but inexplicably on our route neighborhoods. Well, it routed us back that way as well, even though the freeway was pretty much clear. (What passes for rush hour around here, as far as I can see, would just be regular traffic in Atlanta.) Soon we were back at Staybridge, and since the "Sundowner" meal tonight was hamburgers, we just ate here.

I hoped we could go out a little tonight, so we weren't stuck in the room again, but James was sneezing and changed his clothes immediately. Instead we watched Big Bang Theory and "The Magic of Snowy Owls" on Nature.

Labels: birds, history, museums, television, vacation

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:03:00 PM

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It wasn't an auspicious morning: grey, foggy and misty. By the time we were dressed and ready for breakfast, it was time for the rain—Georgia Monsoon Season strikes.

Luckily there are covered walkways. We had a leisurely breakfast—the buffet is quite good— made more leisurely by the fact that there was a cycling club and another group having breakfast. At one point the checkout line was about 20 people long.

The rain slowed enough, and we cut through the lodge to get to the car, where, of course, we'd left our hats. :-)

We didn't have any plans for today, and had a nice time. First we stopped at the Mt. Yonah Book Exchange, which is run by a nice lady and a cat named Daisy. There was a car with a little dog in it near the entrance; it looked so much like Willow except for being mostly white and grey rather than brown that it could have been her sister. I got two books, commentary on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and a book about word origins.

We also stopped at the Country Bake Shop, which is a Mennonite bakery. James got a couple of small sandwich cookies for a snack and homemade dog biscuits for Willow.

Then we went on into Cleveland, where James wanted to go into the Stony River Trading Company. I figured I would wander around. Well, in the middle of Cleveland there is what used to be the county courthouse. I noticed a sign on it saying "Open." Okay, let's see what's open.

Turned out it's a little museum of White County/Cleveland now, and a sweet elderly lady offered to give me a tour. I waited for James and we had a nice time wandering around looking at all the memorabilia. Each of the old offices, like the Tax Assessors office and the Sheriff's office were filled with artifacts: farm implements, clothing implements, sadirons, a mule collar made out of corn shucks, a loom, spinning wheels, an old doctor's cabinet, soaps, food, an old hand printing press as well as the type tray, etc. Oh, yeah, and a Duncan Phyfe sofa that had been nibbled by rats but which had been reupholstered with pretty, Monet's Garden type colors. The woman remembered using a lot of the items, like the school desks. They even had a treadle sewing machine like the one that used to be in the basement of my Papa's house.

The ladies recommended the drugstore and soda fountain across the street, so we went there. It had not only stopped raining, but the sky had cleared and it was humid. They still use the old soda fountain and grill for lunches, but the rest of the drugstore is mainly a gift shop. We sat at the lunch counter and James had a burger for lunch, and I had a hot dog, and we had ice cream for a chaser. We looked around the gift shop and were convulsed by two signs: "I'd love to help you out. Which way did you come in?" and "Ahhhh, I see the screw-up fairy has visited us again."

On the way back we stopped at the Hansel & Gretel candy store. Trader Joe's cheated me out of almond bark at Christmas and I wanted some. I also bought some peanut brittle. Yes, it's real Gertie peanut brittle. :-)

We also stopped at a place we'd gone by briefly yesterday, Goats on the Roof. It's a little gift shop/snack shop/goodies shop, and yes, there is grass on the roof, and little bridges connecting each of the store buildings, and there are goats on the roof, at least half a dozen, including one that is spotted. At one point someone came out with some goat feed and cranked it up to the roof via a Rube-Goldbergish device, and two goats ran up to get a treat!

As we were leaving a 1930s-early 40s black sedan drove past the place. We have seen about four Corvairs this weekend already, including a Corvair station wagon, which James says is very rare. There must be an old car rally around somewhere.

Folks clustered in the common area when we return. Off to chat—ta-ta.

Later: We decided to go to a new German restaurant with the Boros clan, Juanita and David, and the Spiveys. Surprise! The Lawsons were there. Jerry and Sue and Aaron were sharing a sampler platter so yummy-looking that both James and I and Juanita and David did the same. Oh, boy, talk about full to exploding. It had several different beef items, but the pork ones were the best: a smoked "chop" (ham), baked pork with a mushroom sauce, and pork schnitzel, which was so lightly breaded even I didn't mind it.

The lodge was quiet tonight. We usually play some type of game on Saturday night, but everyone was more into just relaxing and reading and talking, while the Baskin girls had one of those flying gadgets you can control with a remote; this one looked like a clown fish. Despite that, we were up until 2 a.m.!

Labels: food, friends, museums, shopping, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 5:23:00 PM

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First of all, I hate high heels.

I wasn't wearing them, I was hearing them. At 7 a.m.

Again, this is a suite: living room separated from bedroom by bathroom and "hall" with tile floor. Also, to move the air from the window air-conditioned bedroom to the living room, there is a vent above the hall. Big empty space, perfect as an echo chamber. Apparently whomever was in the suite upstairs was getting ready for a business meeting this morning and spent at least 20 minutes trotting around the bathroom tile in high heels, which you could hear, tap by infuriating tap, downstairs in our room. Arrrgh.

Both of us were therefore very tired today.

After breakfast we drove back into Dearborn to "the Henry Ford," this time to visit the museum building. Ironically, we are touring the place at the time the entire automotive exhibit is being remodeled, so we did not see many of the cars. Some of them were at the edges of the automotive exhibit, and there were also cars in the transportation exhibit, but we probably missed 80 percent of them. We could see some, covered in plastic, and see the bits of the new exhibit they are working on, including the improvement of overnight shelter during road trips (from self-carried tents to motor courts to the Holiday Inn), and also an exhibit on diners and fast food—James says he read the diner will eventually serve road food; heh...maybe Jane and Michael Stern will eventually eat there.

The museum is divided into several sections. We started at the agricultural implements, from a primitive colonial plow to one with a steel plowshare all the way through McCormick reapers, corn shuckers, and finally, modern, huge combines. There was also a home arts exhibit comparing four different kitchens: colonial, early republic (1830), Victorian and 1940s, and a set of elaborate dollhouses once owned by wealthy girls, from a four-room colonial to a more elaborate twelve-room home to a set of townhouses.

We did walk through the Wizard of Oz exhibit, which was intended for small children and was mostly based on the film. We had to check out the toys, which included poseable dolls based on the characters, books from the original novel to Gregory McGuire's Wicked, to other little items like a stuffed Toto sticking his head out of a basket and Oz costumes for your American Girl dolls!

A unique exhibit was the only surviving Dymaxion House designed by Buckminster Fuller. This was a house conceived to solve the housing problems that occurred after World War II. It was an aluminum, doughnut-shaped structure supported on a central pole, complete with two bathrooms (tiny ones, to be sure!), two bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room, complete with air conditioning, which was nearly unheard of in a private home in those days. The closet and other storage areas were on rotating shelves to save space: no dressers or bureaus were needed for clothes or linen. Only one was ever sold, to a family who lived in it for 20 years, and extended it conventionally. Instead, more conventional projects, like Levittown, went through. The Henry Ford people bought the Dymaxion House from that family and reconstructed it here, although the closets are locked shut.

"Your Place in Time" is a timeline for anyone born in the 20th century, from the progressive generation (my mom and dad's) to Y2K, with a radio broadcasting "War of the Worlds," a classroom where the teacher is instructing the kids in a late 1950s civil defense drill, an exhibit of music from 1950s radio to eight-track tapes, a tribute to Hollywood and movie magazines, cases of memorabilia from each era, and an exhibit of the future as envisioned by SF magazines and books, including an evidently humorous book called Mr. Adam, about the only man left in the world who can father children.

Between this last exhibit and the factory exhibit was a small exhibit of firearms going back to wheel-lock pistols and rifles, including the original Pennsylvania rifles used by Daniel Boone and his compatriots. I looked for a Melchior Fordney like Levi Zendt in Centennial had, but they didn't have one of those. :-)

A very large exhibit was "Made in America." The first half is "power," and is almost more generators and working engines than you ever wanted to see. :-) The oldest engine had pumped water out of a mine in England from the early 1800s through the early 1900s! There were examples of water wheels and turbines, Edison generators, steam powered and gasoline powered equipment, and even a big Corliss engine, made in Providence, RI, like the one which powered all the machinery at the Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. (There were several pieces of machinery made in Providence, the Corliss pieces and also equipment made by Brown & Sharpe.) As each engine grew more powerful, this power was illustrated by how many 40-watt lightbulbs could be lit by the engine.

There is a small exhibit of different types of furniture over the years, from Jacobean chairs and chests that came over with the Pilgrims to plastic bucket chairs. In between was a classic wooden high chair like we remember from childhood, a plush Victorian chair once owned by Mary Todd Lincoln and one of the old, ornate desks and benches from the House of Representatives, decorated Pennsylvania Dutch cupboards and dressers, a Chippendale chair, tables, bureaus, seating, storage, fine furniture and rude benches, stained items and painted ones.

We saw one more exhibit before heading to the Michigan Cafe for Lunch: "With Liberty and Justice for All." This was a combination of four themes: the American Revolution (with a very rare copy of the Declaration of Independence from the 1820s, and a special exhibit on George Washington, including Washington memorabilia), the Civil War with special emphasis on Abraham Lincoln (the museum has on display the rocker in which President Lincoln was sitting when he was assassinated; you could still see bloodstains...it was quite chilling), the Women's Suffrage movement, and finally the Civil Rights movement. This latter exhibit has the bus on which Rosa Parks refused to move to the rear; you can walk right on it and sit in the seat she was sitting on that day.

We then walked over to the Michigan cafè for lunch. The menu was about the same as at the cafeteria in Greenfield Village. James had a beef pasty which he found less than thrilling, and since he had the last one, I had chicken breast. Also less than thrilling. Real mashed potatoes, though; Clay would have loved them. The dessert, a chocolate "wave cake," was delicious.

We then went back to the aviation exhibit, which was what James was waiting to see. I must admit this was probably the best of the exhibits. The centerpiece is a reproduction of the Wright Flyer, and other pieces surround it: a DC3 that, at the time it was installed in the museum, was the plane that had the most miles on it (another DC3 has since taken the honor); a "flivver," a small airplane Ford conceived so that people could own airplanes the way they owned automobiles; a Lockheed Vega like the one Amelia Earhart flew; a Stinson-Detroiter that almost flew around the world, a reproduction of The Spirit of St. Louis used for the movie with Jimmy Stewart (Stewart bought it after the film wrapped and then donated it to the museum) along with Lindbergh memorabilia like sheet music, souvenir pillows, games, toys, etc.; two airplanes used for barnstorming (a "Jenny" and another older plane, a Laird biplane, flown by "the flying schoolgirl," Katherine Stinson, who took chances many men would not) in a super setup depicting an air show at a county fair; a racing plane ahead of its time (single wing with contouring and landing gear in the 1920s); and, best of all—oh, my ears and whiskers!—the Ford Trimotor used by Admiral Byrd to fly over the South Pole, and the Fokker with Wright "Whirlwind" engines that Byrd used on one of his expeditions! I was sorely tempted to reach over and just touch the tip of the tail of the Trimotor, but I didn't. They also had memorabilia from Byrd's Antarctic camp "Little America" and film from the era.

We then visited the smaller portion of "Made in America," which was small hand machines like lathes and borers, braiding machines, spinning units, etc. The highlight of this exhibit was the actual workshop of a cobbler who assembled leather pieces sent to him by a central jobber, which he would then send to shoe stores to be sold.

In walking down to the cafeè, we had passed the Museum's collection of Presidential limosines: one used in the Reagan era, the limo in which Kennedy was riding when he was shot (later retrofitted with bulletproof everything), Eisenhower's limo, and Roosevelt's big touring car, the "Sunshine Special." There was also a brougham used by Theodore Roosevelt. We passed them once again as we walked down to the train exhibit, and also saw tantalizing glimpses of what would have been on display in the automotive section, including an experimental "safety car," the earliest Chevy Suburban, the first Plymouth Voyager, and some older cars and horse-drawn equipment like a buggy.

The railroad exhibit is small but solid: a reproduction of the first U.S. locomotive, the "Dewitt-Clinton"; three stagecoaches that transported people from railroad stations to hotels, a combination car (baggage and passengers), the "Fairlane Special," which looked like Ford's private railroad car (unfortunately, due to the auto exhibit being closed, we couldn't read the placard on it); a steam locomotive that resembled the "Cannonball" from Petticoat Junction; a huge Canadian snowplow locomotive; a 1925 caboose put back in mint order; and "the Allegheny," the last of the huge steam engines that were produced before diesel replaced them. This is the only one left in existence; the others were all scrapped. This locomotive was huge, as long as a house and immensely tall. You had to climb a stairway of at least 15 steps (it may have been more) just to get into the engineer's compartment. And it was coupled to a combination coal and water car that made it nearly twice as long.

Next to the train equipment was a small exhibit of other transportation, mostly automobiles, from a tiny 1940s Crosley to a huge Bugatti that looked a lot like Cruella DeVil's car (I believe her car was based on a similar vintage Bugatti). There was a Cord roadster, a beautiful Thomas Flyer, the very first Mustang off the line, a slick but icky-colored classic Corvette, and a Chevrolet BelAir the same vintage as myself. There was also a horse drawn vehicle called a "chariot." We had seen this name on the toll bridge fare placard in Greenfield Village and wondered what on earth it was. I rounded the corner, saw it, and said, "It looks like a pumpkin coach for Cinderella!" Really, what it was was a half-sized coach for two people, with a driver up front and a platform in the back (for a footman or manservant, I guess), and it did kinda look like the pumpkin coach in Disney's Cinderella (not in orange, though).

We walked out for the day through two exhibits, jewelry (which included mourning jewelry, a Masonic pin from 1880, colonial pieces—two from the early 1700s—and even a piece of costume jewelry by Coro, where my mom used to work!) and clocks that went back to the units that once made Connecticut the clockmaking center of the U.S. Let me tell you, when you owned a "shelf" clock in the days preceding spring-driven clocks, you had better have had a big, strong shelf!

We were tired and missed the short silver and pewter exhibit, but did take a brief nip into the gift shop, where we got a refrigerator magnet, mug, and some recipe cards.

Well, by this time it was almost 4:30 and Detroit rush hour was well into full swing. On our route home (I-94 to I-75 northbound) there were already three accidents. However, on the way in we had passed a shopping center. The outside sign only advertised the stores, but we figured there must be some restaurants in the milieu as well, and we were right. We had supper at Panera Bread, chicken soup with a baguette and a grilled cheese sandwich for me, wild rice soup with an Alpine steak sandwich for James, until the traffic had let up a little. We still got stuck in stop-and-go, especially on I-94, but there were no accidents. Before we came upstairs, we bought gas for tomorrow. This is not a good stretch of road for gasoline; we had to go several miles before we found a gas station!

Homeward bound tomorrow...

Labels: books, history, museums

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:40:00 PM

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Remember in a previous post I talked about wishing to go to a store called Bronners someday?

Today was that someday.

No, I won't give you a play-by-play about wandering about the world's largest Christmas store. Let's say we got there at 10:30 and finally came up for air about 3:00 (with a half-hour for lunch). I'll probably chat more about it some time in Holiday Harbour. I will give you the particulars: Bronners is located in Frankenmuth, about 71 miles north of where we are staying at the moment. The road to Frankenmuth is lined with rural landscape, except when you pass through Flint, and when you get off the freeway you are surrounded by harvested fields and other rural, small town amenities. Bronners is located on 25 Christmas Lane, which is a smile all in itself. The founder, Wally Bronner, started out as a sign maker, and eventually got into selling Christmas decorations as part of the business. The store is 5.5 acres and sells Christmas material from all over the world. Most of the stock is decorations (tree and otherwise), but they also have lights, Christmas trees, a few books and music products, an area of fall, Hallowe'en and Thanksgiving decorations (me being me, the first things I bought were fall things), and a room that tells the Bronner story with displays of Nativities from all over the world (there are also collections of what must be every single Hummel and Precious Moments figurine ever sold).

After visiting Bronners, I walked over to see the Silent Night Memorial Chapel. The original church, St. Nicholas, in which "Silent Night" was first performed, had to be demolished early in the 20th century because of dangerous structural damage. On the site, the Austrians built a chapel to memorialize the birthplace of the song. Wally Bronner obtained permission from the Austrians to build an exact copy of the chapel on the grounds of Bronners. It's a lovely, tall circular structure, with two beautiful stained glass windows, an altar and pews, some lovely artwork, and bulletin boards with the story of the song, its authors, and the chapel. Outside is a simple white Nativity scene. "Silent Night" as sung by different singers is played continuously over loudspeakers lining the walk to the chapel. Lovely.

Not a quarter mile down the road from Bronners is Michigan's Own Miltary Museum. I had offered this to James as someplace to go if he got bored with wandering around in Christmas-land, but he stuck with me (at checkout we suggested they should have another T-short besides the one that says "I got lost at Bronners": this one should read "I followed my wife all the way through Bronners"...LOL). So since we had 90 minutes until they closed, we walked through it together.

This is just a neat little place, the only one like it in any of the 50 states. It honors military from Michigan (except one guy from New York...later) with their uniforms and other memorabilia. There are a few men from the Civil War, one from the Spanish-American War, and then one whole gallery of World War I veterans, followed by World War II, etc. There was a special corner of the World War I gallery for "the Polar Bears," otherwise known as the North Russia Expeditionary Force, troops dispatched by Woodrow Wilson to Siberia to battle the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution. 90 percent of the men who served were from Michigan, most of them from Detroit. This is a fascinating piece of military history about which I know little; I've just heard it mentioned briefly.

Each display case has exhibits from one man (or woman). Four cases cover the five Michigan governors who had military careers, including one gentleman who lost both his legs at age 19 in World War II. All of the World War II and later display cases are changed out regularly, because they have more memorabilia than display cases. If the curator—a man who started collecting World War II memorabilia in 1945 when he was twelve years old—has advance warning of someone who is coming to the museum whose display is not up, he can put that memorabilia on display so his or her family can see it. He had just finished a display for a World War II vet who is visiting tomorrow.

There are also cases for Medal of Honor winners and other servicemen who won awards, and a gallery in the rear for Michigan's participants in the space program, including Jim McDivitt and Roger Chaffee.

There are two cases holding German and Japanese memorabilia that soldiers brought home. The owner is very intense, and told us the showcases are deliberately disordered, with items just tossed in, because the regimes of those countries were evil at that time, and he does not want to give people the idea he is honoring the ideals of those regimes. He also has photos from concentration camps and prisoner-of-war camps and says he has to be careful which ones he puts out, so not to scare children.

Each case holds different things, depending on what the person or their family saved. The memorabilia from the Spanish-American War veteran, for example, had all his braided epaulets and his sword. Several men were survivors of the "Hanoi Hilton" and the rubber sandals and striped prison costume were part of the display...chilling when combined with a placard telling of their ordeals. One man's exhibit had the toy soldiers he used to play with as a boy. The "Polar Bear" men had fur boots and other clothing to keep out the cold. One soldier's letters home, on lined paper done in pencil, were lined up so you could read. The astronaut memorabilia included bits of space suits. If the person has passed away, there was usually a booklet from his memorial service. There were medals and service pins, a portable communion kit for a chaplain killed in battle, rifles and helmets, tin cups and canteens, small personal items, photographs of family.

The story of the man from New York: this was an African-American man who won both a Purple Heart and other medals for bravery. For one reason or the other, his family sold his medals after his death. The medals were bought by a military collector in Michigan. So since there was no display like this for servicemen in New York, the Michigan museum displays his medals.

Brrrr was it cold by now. It had been bad enough when I walked out to the Silent Night chapel—it was about 49°F with a sharp 15 mph wind; Weather Channel said the wind chill made it 39. At five when the museum closed the clouds were lower than ever and it was damp. We drove back to the Drury Inn, and confounded the critters by immediately turning around and going back out to supper at a local place called "Recipes." James had a shrimp mac and cheese while I had pad thai.

And then we were back, so Willow could prowl the living room and Schuyler could chirble at me.

Labels: Christmas, history, museums, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:27:00 PM

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I can't remember how old I was the first time I heard about the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. It may have been on one of the Evening/PM Magazine shows, or some documentary on television. All I do know is that I said "I want to go there someday."

Today we took care of half of that.

We left a bit late to skip Detroit rush hour, and ended up arriving at "The Henry Ford" (which is what they call it) about ten. We parked on the museum side, unfortunately, so had to cross through the entire building, with its tantalizing tidbits of exhibits, to get to the Greenfield Village portion. The entire complex is a paean to American life, Henry Ford style; in fact, as you approach the village complex, a statue of the boss greets you.

Greenfield Village is like Sturbridge, or Plymouth, or Mystic, or any other recreated village in that you walk around to different historical buildings, manned either by docents dressed in a tourguide uniform or in the costume of the period of the house. It is more like Strawbery Banke in that all the homes are not from the same era. However, these homes and buildings are not native to the area, as those at Strawbery Banke. Instead, Henry Ford bought up historic buildings and moved them to this little parklike area with paved streets and curbstones, peppered with the occasional restroom or a food stand, dotted with benches for sore feet. It's like Disneyland in a way as it is girded by a railroad track and you can get rides on old-fashioned steam trains which have several stations around the complex. For history buffs like me, it is Disneyland.

The buildings range from those of the famous—Thomas Edison is very prominently featured—to those of the ordinary—a two-room cabin with a tacked-on kitchen taken from a little town near Savannah. They have been having Hallowe'en weekends for a couple of weeks now, so the place is decorated prettily for autumn with pumpkins and cornstalks, with some Hallowe'en touches near the Wright Brothers' home. I can't possibly tell you everything in order, especially since we interrupted our walk through the village some time after noon to have lunch at the cafeteria, but I'll hit the highlights.

• Thomas Edison's Menlo Park, New Jersey, complex, moved here piece by piece. This is where he and his team of workers invented the long-lasting light bulb, the phonograph, and so many other items. There are several buildings, but of course the laboratory is the showpiece. There are duplicates of his inventions inside, besides the phonograph, the electric pen (an early duplication invention made obsolete by the typewriter and carbon paper), the automatic vote tally, and, strung all over the laboratory, reproductions of Edison's light bulbs, which they have hand-blown. This was particularly memorable because the woman they had working as a docent was an unabashed Edison fan and just rattled on story after story after story about Edison, including the one about the chair that is nailed in the middle of the floor of the workshop upstairs.

Henry Ford and Edison were good friends; they even had homes in Fort Myers together. Ford had the Menlo Park lab installed in Greenfield Village before Edison's death, and, on the 50th anniversary of the light bulb, he had Edison there at Greenfield, in the lab, with notables like President Hoover, Marie Curie, Will Rogers, etc. Edison was in his 80s at that time and asked to sit down, so a workshop chair was brought over for him to sit on. After the crowd left, Ford commemorated the occasion by nailing the chair to the floor where Edison sat in it in tribute to him. And so that's where it sits [chair appears in this pic]!

There is also a reproduction of Edison's dynamo plant and Edison's Fort Myers factory (a smaller building that shows that he wanted to work even when he was relaxing).

• The Wright Cycle Shop. As the park ranger in Dayton pointed out on Sunday, the Wrights had several cycle shops, and this was just one of them. However, it's the cycle shop for most aviation buffs because this is where they worked on the Wright Flyer and the problems of aerodynamics. This bicycle shop has the airplane shed out back.

Next door is the Wright family home, which was actually donated to the museum while Orville Wright (Wilbur died in 1912) was still alive. He used to come to the museum to make sure the house looked exactly as it did in 1903, complete with his own childhood books and the carved staircase newel post and rails and bannisters he made from cherrywood. The house was the usual Victorian wallpaper/carpeting, but very cozy. We spent some time here talking with the young docent, who asked us how we started visiting historical sites, and we recommended places for her to go!

• Henry Ford's birth home. It was still in the family after his sister died, but had been empty for about fifteen years. It was moved to Greenfield and reproduced from Henry's memories. He was very thorough about the whole thing: for instance, he couldn't quite remember the china pattern they had when he was a child. So he had a garbage pit dug up to find the fragments of the china. Again, a very Victorian home, but cozy. Nearby is the barn, which is surrounded by a field which appears to be kept farmed during the year. Right now it is lined with corn stooks and dotted with pumpkins.

There is also a reproduction of his first Model T factory, before the assembly line. The docent said it would take about a day to assemble one car. This building holds the last Model T which was produced in 1927.

• A reproduction of George Washington Carver's birth cabin. This had a particularly nice touch: each of the fifty states were asked to supply a board to panel the interior of the cabin, and each sent a native piece of wood: red maple from Rhode Island, live oak from Georgia, pine from Maine, etc. It was actually a larger cabin than the one next door to it, the birth place of William McGuffey, of the famous McGuffey readers. His cabin was about the size of the living room we have back at the hotel! Next door to the McGuffey cabin is the McGuffey school, also a log cabin and crowded with benches and desks.

• The Firestone farm—Ford was also good friends with Harvey Firestone of tire fame. We actually didn't make it out to the farm, although I got a nice picture, with its lovely patterned roof. We did ride by it on the train and saw several flocks of Merino sheep (grey rather than white); they also have shorthorn cattle and other heritage breeds.

• Robert Frost's home. This was a home he lived in while he was in residence at the University of Michigan, and the house was actually fixed up in the style of the original owners in the 19th century, although a recording of Frost reciting "The Road Less Traveled" is playing in the home.

• Noah Webster's home, with a very large exhibit of Webster's books (he didn't just do a dictionary!) upstairs. I was surprised by the bright color of the front parlor, a vivid green. The docent said they did find notes that Webster ordered the room painted "apple green." She also noted that most folks had wallpaper back then, because it was cheaper than paint (!!!), so Webster was quite well off to have painted rooms.

• The Logan County courthouse. This was brought from Illinois and was where Abraham Lincoln would have practiced law during his years as a a circuit judge. Ford was so reverent of this building that he even had the plaster of the ceiling broken up, numbered, and then reinstalled. It was so awesome sitting in a building Lincoln had worked in.

• Charles Steinmetz' cabin. This was a tiny place, with only a porch lined with windows and a sleeping room with a hammock. Steinmetz was handicapped with a spinal curvature and was only in less pain sleeping in a hammock, not a bed.

The oldest building on the property is out on the furthest boundary, a windmill from Cape Cod built in the 17th century. One home over from the windmill is the Plympton house, which is a colonial dating from the early 1700s, but the bricks in the chimney, from an older house, date from the 1600s!

We enjoyed visits to some other neat shops. One was a millinery shop having belonged to a widow and her daughters, full of actual vintage hats in glass cases and reproduction hats on stands. They also sold men's clothing supplies (suspenders, buttons, etc.) and children's hats. Another was the tintype shop. The tintype artist had, when photographs became popular, given up his art to work in the Ford factory. He was finally the last tintype artist living, and when Ford found out, he installed him at Greenfield, doing tintypes of guests, including famous folk like Walt Disney. We walked through the Smith's Creek Depot, a railroad station that was on the route Thomas Edison traveled when he was a "news butcher" as a kid. They don't know that Edison ever stepped into the station, but he could have. Surprisingly, to me, anyway, the station master kept his home in the station itself. I don't think I'd ever seen that before, although it makes sense.

One home mentioned Stephen Foster, but did not say it was Foster's home. This contained a small exhibit of American music, with displays of instruments, and plaques about how music was used at social gatherings like singing schools and band concerts for people to get together (and young folks to court!). The Georgia home previously mentioned belonged to the Mattoxes, an African-American family. A grape arbor where the family ate and cooled off in the hot summer months was meticulously replanted there, and a chicken coop out back held the same number of hens and one rooster as the Mattoxes owned. The house is notable for being decorated in Depression-era magazine pages, and the ceiling is lined with brown corrugated cardboard. We chatted with three ladies eating their noon meal in the Daggett farmhouse, which is 19th century, and also two ladies quilting in the kitchen of the Susquehanna Plantation, dressed in Civil War-era memorabilia. One of the ladies was from Atlanta.

We visited a wagon shop, a jewelry shop where they also sold watches and silver serving pieces, the Sarah Jordan boarding house where Edison's workmen stayed—the owner and her daughter and the long-suffering Irish servant on one side of the house, the men on the other, two tiny brick slave cabins (and these being solid they were better than most quarters than those enslaved had), and an entire stone English cottage, barn, tower, and blacksmith's forge imported from the Cotswolds. This last was lovely, with vines crawling up the side of the cottage, and a bursting full English cottage garden to its left. We were entertained by the chipmunks that were scampering about under the plants.

There was also a doctor's office; he was a homeopathic doctor, and had some plants I had never heard of as part of his pharmeocopia. We visited the General Store at the same time as some kids working on a school assignment; the docent was giving them gentle hints about which items in the store had been manufactured in the city. We peeked in the little house of John Chapman, who was Henry Ford's favorite teacher. In fact, we thought we got almost every place except for a machine shop and the farm, and now that I am looking at the map, we missed the saw mill, the potter's shop, the glassblower, the printing office, the carding mill, a weaving shop, a gristmill, and another school! Oh, well. We can't get back in without buying another ticket. I saw what I really wanted to see, too: the Wrights and the Edison stuff.

As I said, we took a ride in a Model T, a fun, top-down, brisk ride. It had started out chilly this morning, but was clearing up as we took the ride. The driver told us about the car as we drove, and I made a little film of it (interrupted by a dead battery) as we rode. Later we rode the train around the perimeter, which includes the oxbow of a part of the river separated from its main course by the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Henry Ford Academy (a charter high school). The doors were open at the school and we waved to a bunch of the kids as we went by!

We were out of there right at closing time, and expected a nice 40-minute ride home via I-94 and I-75. Instead, the dippy GPS routed us through an alternate road that was fine until it became uncontrolled access with traffic lights every other block. Two out of three lanes on part of the road were closed even though no work was being done on it, and traffic crawled. It took us an hour to get back. Bleah.

I was so disappointed: I brought back a cup of milk from the breakfast buffet this morning to enjoy with my supper (leftovers and some pretzels and things from the evening hot snack). Well, it was frozen solid because the little fridge is set so high! In fact, here it is 10 p.m. and it's just thawed!

Labels: history, museums, travel

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:10:00 PM

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Breakfast didn't end until ten today, so we slept until 8:30 this morning, then went downstairs. The breakfast area was mobbed, almost as noisy as last night. We were right, there was some type of soccer tournament in the area. The people sitting next to us were talking to someone else about having lost to another team.

Since the Armstrong Air & Space Museum didn't open until noon today, we made a minor stop at the WalMart across the street (James needed 81mg aspirin), then went back to the bookstore at the Air Force Museum, since it had been so crowded yesterday when we were shopping. I found a discount book about the selling of War Bonds, plus bought two CDs, the Air Force Band and the Singing Sergeants singing "Songs to Fly By" and also a collection of Christmas performances. By then it was about eleven and we headed up to Wapokoneta, listening to last week's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me."

The road is rather bland, farms (mostly growing corn; the stalks appear to have been harvested, but are still erect—perhaps for a corn maze, sale, or later to be harrowed under to enrich the soil?) interrupted by exits with stores and gas stations. Again, the fall color is rather muted except for occasional patches of bright leaves, usually the smaller trees and brush in front of a grove. We also saw one of the "barn quilts" that are so popular in this area. Instead of hex signs on the barns here, they paint a quilt pattern, and there are guides to them.

After an hour we reached the little museum, which is a domed and angled structure behind a Bob Evans. There were only a few other cars in the parking lot; I supposed the place doesn't get much business this time of year.

This is just a neat little museum that you can go through and read everything in about two hours (this includes sitting down to watch the 30-minute film about the Apollo 11 mission), chiefly to do with Neil Armstrong's career. There is personal memorabilia like family photos and his school yearbook; his service uniforms, keys to the city and other awards given at the time of the moon mission, his backup Apollo space suit and his Gemini suit, etc, and also some dandy things like the Gemini VIII space capsule that almost killed Armstrong and David Scott (one of the thrusters jammed, sending the capsule into a continual spin), a moon rock, Gene Cernan's jump suit and Jim Lovell's longjohns, and other space memorabilia, going all the way through the space shuttle era. There were also neat things that people had sent Armstrong, including a ... well, James said almost a mosaic: it was a portrayal of the command and service modules and the LM, made of beads, clips, fasteners, and other everyday items...fascinating! Portraits, too, and a bust of Armstrong...all sorts of cool things, including a collection of newspapers chronicling the mission. My favorite was the local newspaper's headline: "Neil Lands on the Moon," like he was everyone's kid.

As I mentioned, there's a film about the moon landing in a little planetarium-like theatre. As you walk in there, there's a small entry corridor that is some combination of lights and reflective mirrors that makes it look like you are floating among the stars. Too cool. Just a tiny touch, but it works.

You finally exit through the gift shop, which is small but has a variety of neat things, including men's ties, one with mission patches on it. Bought a couple of postcards and a gift, and we signed the guest book, then went outside to take photos of the jet out front. James tells me it is a very rare experimental plane that Neil Armstrong had test flown; only four were built and three of them were scrapped, so this is the only one left.

We had lunch at the Bob Evans, where I partook of the turkey dinner and James had meatloaf. We had pumpkin bread as our side!

We still had a bit of afternoon left, so we drove back to Dayton past the hotel and to the Aviation Heritage Trail to the Wright Bicycle Shop and the Visitor Center. Alas, we'd tarried too long at lunch and only had 40 minutes for both, but the park rangers were nice: we were taken directly over to the bicycle shop, and then we wandered around the exhibit, basically where I read a few things but took a lot of photos.

This is not the bicycle shop, the one where the Wright Brothers worked on the airplane. What you see is the third bicycle shop they owned; the fourth, where the Wright Flyer was born, was around the corner on another block. That building, as well as the Wright homestead, was taken up and moved to Greenfield Village in Michigan, as part of the Henry Ford Museum. The third bicycle shop was, in fact, only rediscovered recently; the brothers had a total of five different shops, each one larger than the next. Number three is fitted out as it would have been at the turn of the century, and there are several bicycles (mostly reproductions) illustrating the type of cycle they would have sold, plus the part shelves, and the workshop in the back where they could straighten frames or spokes.

The Visitor's Center honors not only the Wright Brothers, but Paul Laurence Dunbar, the African-American poet, who grew up in the same neighborhood as the Wrights. Sadly, we were not there long enough to see his home. From our walk-through of the exhibits, we saw the steps in which the Wrights worked on making a heavier-than-air craft fly (including some bad initial structural design) and also their jobs previous to becoming involved in the lucrative bicycle business, which included a printing concern. People today rarely think of what a great transportation breakthrough the bicycle was: for many people it's only a kid's toy, or for exercise junkies. The bicycle actually was a factor in the woman's suffrage movement, as dozens of young women took up bicycle riding ("immodest!" cried many) and therefore had to wear less restrictive clothing to do so.

Finally it was five and we headed back to the hotel to take Wil for her walk. About seven we walked over to Panera and got some soup for supper. Been casting about the television all night for something to watch and finally settled on Holmes Inspection.

Labels: food, history, museums, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:12:00 PM

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Will you tell me why I am so blankety-blank hard to unwind? I have never been a "type A" personality, yet the only time I seem to relax any more is when I am reading; otherwise I'm strung tighter than a bow. Last night we had a comfy bed and comfy pillows in a nice cool room after a great shower. The blackout curtains really worked (and a good thing, too, because there's a spotlight that shines right toward our window). We went to bed and had eight solid hours of nice sleep ahead of us, from 11:30 to 7:30.

I woke up at 6 and never could get back to sleep. My mind was racing about the glass of milk I stupidly left in the refrigerator; I was supposed to drink it yesterday before we left. Now it's going to sour in there. Left a cup of yogurt behind, too. I can't sleep because I am thinking about having to clean the refrigerator. Is this idiotic or what?

So we were up at 7:30 to dress. I got a rude surprise: the last pair of GV jeans I bought at Costco didn't fit. Although they were marked my size, they were at least one size too small. Phooey! James walked the dog and then we went down to breakfast. I hate to be disloyal to Drury, but I think I like the Staybridge breakfasts better. Their oatmeal was in packets and didn't have a metallic taste. They also had mixed fruit instead of just apples and bananas. And there was toast.

So this morning we were headed to the Air Force Museum. We were here eleven years ago, having stopped in Dayton a day early before going on to Columbus for the "WENNvention" [gathering of Remember WENN fans] [that account is here]. There was a new hangar of experimental planes James wanted to see, and some of the planes formerly on the flightline were now inside. Plus we had had to rush through the post-World War II galleries very quickly last time. So since we were heading for "points north," it made sense one of the points was here.

The first thing we did was spend a half hour in line to get registered for the bus to the hangars where the Presidential planes and the experimental Air Force planes were. Both of us skipped out of line to take a couple of pics. After that we started walking through the galleries we had examined in detail last time: early aviation (starting with balloon ascents and the efforts of non-Americans—there's an actual Bleriot, which will mean something to anyone who loved the British seies Flambards) through World War II. The exhibits segue logically one into the next along a curved pathway that makes the experience more interesting, as you turn a corner and see a new vista of aircraft, or come upon a little alcove where you might have a small exhibit about spying or prisoners of war. You walk out from the World War II gallery into a short, but very effective display about the Holocaust. There is also a display for Bob Hope's involvement with entertaining the troops, a small exhibit about service flags, and a huge, beautiful hanging quilt paying tribute to Air Force installations, as well as a mosaic reproduction of the famous photo of the Wright brothers' flight.

At this point we decided to break for lunch, so went upstairs to the cafè, where they have hot dogs, hamburgers, some ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit, drinks, milk, chips, and desserts. It has been busy here all day, and we shared company with what sounded back down on the exhibit floor like veterans visiting for the day, plus a plethora of Boy Scouts. After lunch there wasn't much time before we needed to be on the bus, so we just wandered around the gift shop until it was time to gather in the auditorium.

For reasons that I'd rather not go into, I ended up not going to the experimental hangar. James enjoyed the excursion very much and took about a gajillion pictures, to the point where he ran down my spare battery down on his camara. He had already run down his own in the first gallery! By that time I was slightly better and wandered after him through the remaining two galleries: Vietnam and Korea, and the Cold War, which also included the missile gallery and the few spacecraft exhibits (including the Apollo 15 capsules, Gemini and Mercury capsules, and a moonrock). All those names from Vietnam bring back such bad memories. We watched it night after night on television. My cousin Jimmy went to Vietnam and came home so changed and emotionally fragile. My friend Penny's dad went as well. I remember going to her house one night to watch her Dad appear on the news. And we never saw the actual carnage...just indistinct bodies and wounded men wrapped in bandages.

Vietnam was part of my childhood, but it's funny how the World War II gallery also always resonates with me, as it was my parents' war. But then it was as alive in our house when I was a kid as it had been to them twenty years earlier. I would ask my mother to tell me the story about what happened to her the day of Pearl Harbor, and even today I can't hear John Charles Daly's Pearl Harbor announcement or FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech without getting gooseflesh.

While waiting for James to finish taking pictures in the last gallery, I sat down near a young mom discreetly nursing a baby under an afghan; she had another tiny little girl with her. Very soon dad and slightly older brother turned up. I'd say she was three and he was about five. She was sitting in the stroller and would push him away and he would pretend to get pushed backward, then come back for more. Then she slipped out of the stroller and they were trotting around the stroller. So cute!

So, very close to closing time, we ended up back in the gift shop. They have a great selection of military and aviation books, and I could have bought a lot more than I did, including a illustrated book of World War II memorabilia (games, ration cards, greeting cards, etc.), several space books, and others I can't recall. I did get a book called A Ball, a Monkey and a Dog, about the early days of the space program, and a book chronicling girls' serial/series stories about aviation (The Girl Aviators, The Aeroplane Girls, etc.), plus the souvenir booklet. By the time we walked out it was 4:55 and they closed at five.

We had supper mostly at the Drury evening meal setup. This time they had hot dogs, mac and cheese, baked potatoes, salad greens, pretzels and chips, and chili. I had to have some mac and cheese (if you get my drift) and also had a baked potato with cheese sauce, and some bread. It was terribly noisy in the dining area; apparently there was a little girls' soccer competition in the area. This explains the three little girls on the elevator yesterday, as we ran into one of them on the elevator again tonight—she said, "I remember you; you're the ones with the parrot." Schuyler gladly accepts the compliment!

We finally fled from the tumult and walked across the parking lot to the Panera Bread to buy some of their chicken soup, and two cookies, and brought it back to the room. Willow fixed her eyes on the bowls for the entire time we ate, those big liquid brown eyes that try to persuade you that she's starving to death with a bowl of kibble not a foot away. We finally mixed her dog food with two spoonfuls of the broth and she scarfed it down.

Wandered about the television dial tonight, ending up finally watching the second half of The Fugitive on "Spike," and most of an America's Funniest Home Videos. Did some checking; the Neil Armstrong museum doesn't open tomorrow until noon, so we have a quiet morning tomorrow.

Labels: museums, travel, vacation

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:44:00 PM

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We have had a full day!

It started at 8 a.m., when we got up and ready to go to the Farmer's Market. It was a bit warm already, but we could still ride downtown with the windows down. Bought some veggies for next week's supper, chicken salad and jalapeno cheese for James, garlic cookies for Willow, and samples from each of the booths, including beef pot pie, salmon, sun goat pesto, and others. We also got a loaf of apple bread and of peach bread to take to Hair Day.

Drove to the Butlers via "the back way" (Polk Street to Whitlock to Villa Rica Road). Once we got away from the big housing developments we went past the little farms with horses and cows, a peaceful setting on a busy Saturday morning.

Everyone welcomed Jen and asked her questions about her enlistment and future. Neil left for Savannah and college just after we arrived. The peach and apple bread seemed to be a hit. We had "cheesy chicken" with rice, noodles, and salad for lunch, and, of course, talked and talked.

We left about 12:30, brought the veggies home, then went to the hobby shop for a little while. Corley was regaling Jen about his short naval career, and he and James were telling service stories.

We stayed a bit too long, since when we finally arrived at the Atlanta History Center we discovered it was going to close at 5:30. So we only had three hours of looking around and never did get to the farm/smithy outside. We first went to the special exhibition of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia. There was an astonishing amount of handwritten material, including the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's letter accepting the Republican nomination, Stephen Douglas inviting him to debate, and so many more. They even had the exchange of letters between Lincoln and Grace Bedell, the little girl who wrote to him suggesting that he should grow a beard because his face was so thin. Lincoln actually visited her after he "grew whiskers."

Another case held the contents of Lincoln's pockets the night of the assassination (including two pairs of glasses and a stray button), and they also had his silver inkstand.

We then took Jen through the history of Atlanta gallery, from Indian arrowheads to the interstates. This includes an original log cabin and a shotgun house that were taken off their original properties and put into the museum, a brougham (horse-drawn carriage) made in Atlanta, and also an early motorcar called a "Hanson."

Walked through another temp exhibit that compared what Atlanta looked like during the Civil War and what the places look like today. This had some artifacts as well, such as rifles and bayonets, but was mostly photographs and maps. One little gallery was projecting original stereopticon photos that had been made into 3D slides that you viewed with the red and blue glasses. The depth was amazing—there were landscape shots and it really seemed as if you could walk into the photo itself.

But boy, did that give me a headache. I don't see how anyone could sit through Avatar or any of the other 3D films.

We had only enough time to partially go through the permanent Civil War gallery—outstanding, full of memorabilia collected by a father and son, firearms, medical supplies, clothing, furniture, ordnance, and more—before the museum closed.

For supper we went to the Colonnade.

Of course I had the turkey!

On the way home we came by Barnes & Noble. Juanita had given James a gift card for his birthday, and there was a new book out that he couldn't find at Borders. I found Jane Brockett's The Gentle Art of Domesticity in the remainder rack. I wish I could find her Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer, which is about the cool foods written about in English children's books.

We emerged from B&N to find a thunderstorm about to explode, and explode it did as we moved out of the parking lot! It was truly Georgia Monsoon Season, with the wind whipping through the trees and leaves scattering everywhere, the sky lit by lightning (the whole sky, not just lightning bolts), and the thunder roaring in unison with the lightning.

It petered out by the time we arrived home, and spent the rest of the evening watching more of From the Earth to the Moon.

I completely forgot to put the big flag out today. I feel bad.

Labels: family, food, friends, museums, shopping, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:31:00 PM

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I let James sleep a bit later this morning because he was sounding a bit hoarse last night, and it seemed to have helped. He consumed more orange juice with his breakfast and soon we were southbound and then westbound.

Much of our route today was on US-30, part of which is the original two-lane Lincoln Highway, and was more what I was expecting yesterday: some homes, and nice expanses of farms and fields. We passed several interesting looking places on the way, and the one place I was looking forward to seeing, the National Christmas Center, accompanied by eau de bovine (trust me, I'd rather smell cows than diesel exhaust).

Just as we were wondering if we had overshot our turn (we had), we stopped at a little outlet mall to use the facilities and discovered the road it was next to directly headed to our destination: the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. This is a huge building with different train engines, cars, tenders and even cabooses end to end on rails. (It's a huge cavern of a building indeed. When you leave, a sign informs you that you have walked two miles and burned 200 calories.)

None of the locomotives or cars is open, but on some of them you can climb up a stair next to the windows and look inside. There is a reproduction of the earliest steam engine as well as one of the "John Bull" locomotive, and the others are authentic rail cars and engines, with both steam locomotives and diesel ones, boxcars, passenger cars from the original wooden one to the luxurious Pullman, and even a "business car," the one the owner of the railroad rode in. There were small displays of locomotive lights and bells, rail repair tools, the contents of boxcars, and also a station office from about 1880, complete with timetable rack, baggage cart, telegraph, and other accoutrements. There was a special display about "refer" [refrigerator] cars accompanied by a circa 1950 newsreel, and also a simulator where you could "drive" a train into the station. James tried it out, but braked too soon and did not make it into the station in time. Much better than allowing it to go out of control.

We even "met" Thomas the Tank Engine's American cousin. :-)

We also went outside to the "yard" to check out the other trains awaiting restoration, including a couple of cabooses. It was a good day for walking outside, cloudy and not too warm. Before we left, I just had to go out back and take some photos of the lovely farms spread out behind the complex: barns, silos, horses grazing, harvested fields harrowed for the winter.

We finished up about 2:10 and, hungry, went across the street to the Strasburg Rail Road (that's what it's called) to a little cafè onsite, but it was closed. Worst, we had missed by ten minutes the last ride of the day.

The last time I was in PennDutch country, in 1974, we were on a Collette bus tour. The bus driver took the older kids, myself (age 18) and three other girls on a bike ride around the area. We were out pretty late, after dark, and that's where I saw my very first fireflies, over a growing cornfield. Our parents were furious. Anyway, one of the things we saw was a parked rail car that had appeared in Funny Girl, from the Strasburg Rail Road. This was a former working line that was turned into a tourist attraction, a short-line route that offers a steam locomotive ride through the Pennsylvania countryside. They've moved a Victorian-era station there, and there's a restaurant, a train store, and even an attraction that features Thomas the Tank Engine.

Unfortunately the trains only run three or four times a day.

Instead, we had lunch at Bob Evans, then decided we did have enough time to see the National Christmas Center.

Wow.

If you love Christmas, you have to see this place. They lure you in with three lobby exhibits even before you pay: a World War II scene with a serviceman decorating a tree with WWII vintage clear glass ornaments, with Bing Crosby playing on the radio and showcases of V-mail, WWII Christmas cards, paper houses, waffle trees, and more; an exhibit of Nativities; and a Santa Claus with a tree strung with even more vintage ornaments.

Their web site lists their exhibits, but I was really interested in seeing their Woolworths exhibit, a room featuring Woolworths Christmas ornaments and toys from the 1950s, using original display cases and shelves (although one corner is devoted to other Woolworths merchandise, complete with a salesman). Completely overwhelming: tin toys, dolls, stuffed animals, ornaments, Nativity figures, Christmas trees, and more. James sat outside while I immersed myself in Woolworth-anea and memories.

There is also a gallery of "Christmas in Other Countries"; a corridor filled with nothing but figurines, toys, and magazine and book covers of Santa Claus; a gallery of old-fashioned Christmas memorabilia including vintage kugels and dresdens [1800s Christmas tree decorations], plates, cookie cutters, tree stands, etc, including a display case showing how glass ornaments were first made in Lauscha, Germany; a depiction of Santa's workshop, complete with a huge quilted Santa profile, animated reindeer, and a workshop containing hundreds of vintage toys; Tudor Towne, a storybook Christmas tale about anthropormophic animals celebrating Christmas for the first time; a room decorated like Virginia O'Hanlon's 1908 parlor at Christmas, with a copy of her "Is There a Santa Claus?" letter; a 1950s Christmas exhibition based on a film; a train setup that looked like a huge tiered wedding cake, with an upside down tree as a "roof" hung with Christmas ornaments; a 1950s storefront walk, complete with Salvation Army lass; exhibits about different Pennsylvania Christmas customs; a collection of Nativity sets from around the world; and finally "a walk through Bethlehem," which illustrates how Mary and Joseph would have lived, how the announcement of the census would have been announced, of the dangers they faced on the way to Bethlehem, and finally to the Nativity itself, where you exit back into that tempting lobby.

And the gift shop, of course. It's a State Law.

I found a whole wall of bird ornaments, including clip on ones, and found two small budgies, one green and one blue, and also a plain chickadee ornament, a St. Nicholas, two autumn leaf ornaments, and a Belsnickel that's really a place card holder, but it was quite cute. Also bought a couple of postcards.

By the time we were done it was dark and so we headed "home." The ride back seemed much shorter.

The hotel offers these "meet and greet" things on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and we were in time for James to get some chili. I don't eat the stuff, so I had English muffins for supper, along with an apple, and we watched Wheel of Fortune and, because nothing else was on, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader and Top Gun.

I did do a search on "Pennsylvania" and "electric candles" and it does appear to be a year-round custom. Apparently it's a sign of welcome. Very pretty.

Labels: Christmas, museums, shopping, travel

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:00:00 PM

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We rose at the leisurely hour of 7:30 (well, for a weekday, since we are usually up at six), to the good news that the SEPTA strike has been resolved, so we can take commuter rail into Philadelphia if we want to. Yay.

They had corn flakes on the breakfast bar this morning, and bacon. I had my usual three slices, the corn flakes, oatmeal, two slices of whole wheat toast, fruit (cantaloupe and oranges), and two pints of milk.

This morning we drove out to the Reading Regional Airport to go to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum. This is a small (one tiny hangar stuffed with aircraft, and a static display on the runway of about a dozen planes, plus about a dozen display cases) air museum, which is, sadly, what the Quonset Point Air Museum should at least be, if someone would bother giving the poor sods financial aid. The "MAAM" came complete with a tour guide named Fred, who is a World War II buff, who first took us out to the static line. This included several civil aircraft, including an old Eastern Airlines passenger plane from the late 1950s-early 60s (back when airplanes still had curtains and their dinner came with china and silverware), and some helicopters, a Coast Guard craft, and a Navy plane which was the equivalent of a DC-3. I initially handed the camera to James, but he was having such a good back-and-forth with Fred—occasionally disputing facts with each other!—that I just took it back and took photos of the planes the way I see him do it, sometimes several angles to one craft.

Also took some photos of the landscape in the distance: it was a chill morning, with a low haze lying over the trees and the fields. The chill eventually burned off, although it never did become as warm as they predicted, as high cloud cover crept in throughout the day.

Anyway, inside the hangar are more aircraft, including aerobatic planes hung on the walls, a B-25 bomber, a Texan aircraft like James flew in on his 40th birthday, two trainers (the one used by neophyte military fliers and then the aircraft they graduated to), a superbly kept Beechcraft, and others. The "crown" in the collection is a P-61 "Black Widow" they are restoring. This is a World War II aircraft, and only four of them are left: one at the Smithsonian, one at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, and one in China, and this one here. It's in pieces right now, and will probably be several more years in restoration.

Several display cases included airline memorabilia and military mementos, and there were also two cars. The first one looked a lot like the HHR Chevrolet, and there was also a 1925 Pierce Arrow roadster with huge running boards and a rumble seat. I've always wanted a roadster like Nancy Drew drove in the early books, and this came close enough. And of course Pierce Arrow was the manufacturer of "Foolish Carriage," the Gilbreth family car in Cheaper by the Dozen, although their car was many years older (and larger...LOL). I had James take a photo of me with it.

There are also some display cases inside the main building of Pennsylvania boys who served. The most famous "Pennsylvania boy" was the fellow the airfield was named after, General Spaatz, from nearby Boyertown. [More info here.]

Fred apologized for talking so much, but he was fun to listen to. He talked a lot about the World War II re-enactment they hold here every year in June, about the declining industry in the area, his family, and hosts of facts about the airplanes. It was obvious he loves working there.

We didn't really know the museum size, so didn't have anything major planned for the afternoon in case it was extensive. If we finished in the afternoon I figured we could drive north to Roadside America, which is only a couple of hours to see at most. However, we got to the museum a little after they opened at 9:30 and left at 11:30. We first decided to get lunch. James punched a few buttons on the GPS and we picked an "Ozzie's Restaurant" out of the results.

However, on the way there, we saw another restaurant and decided to eat there instead. Terrific serendipity! This was the Crossroads Family Restaurant, and the food was yummy. I've been hankering for roast turkey and that's what I had. This came with a vegetable and the soup and salad bar. It was turkey breast, but very moist and flavorful. It was stuffed with a potato stuffing (!!!), but it had too much sage in it for my taste. Off the bar I had only applesauce (very nice!) and their chicken noodle soup, which was superb. I could have eaten lunch just on the soup.

Since it was so early (not even one), we decided to go out to Hershey and visit "Chocolate World." We drove there via Route 422, which we hoped might be a country road, but which was interrupted by little towns. I am quite interested by the houses here; a great majority of them are brick, or brick fronted, and many duplexes with small porches on the front. Some were well maintained, some not, but I was happy to notice how many of them had fall decorations! Especially near the farms, homes had corn stalks, scarecrows, pumpkins. Some just had Thanksgiving flags, and a few leftover Hallowe'en decorations.

Hershey was fun. Originally they did allow tours of the factory, but for years they have been at this "Chocolate World" visitor center. (And I do mean years: it was like that when I was last here in 1974.) You go on a Disney-like ride with moving cars that takes you through the chocolate process: from the jungle to how the beans are ripened, roasted, chopped, mixed, blended with milk, rolled, etc. until they become a chocolate bar, all narrated by three sassy cows and a bull.

I bought us tickets for the trolley ride, so after taking the ride we strolled about the gift shop [it's a state law...LOL] while we waited for the tour to start. This is huge: mostly chocolate, but also shirts, stuffed animals, Christmas ornaments, gifts, the usual things.

The trolley ride: another great tourguide! Two days and we've had three in that time. He introduced us to our motorman and called himself "your motormouth." He was great. The trolley basically begins at Milton Hershey's childhood home and traces his life, and the "chocolate empire" he built after failing multiple times as a caramel manufacturer due to the high price of sugar. His caramels were eventually a success in England, where they were enrobing them in chocolate. It was in this way he got interested in chocolate. Eventually he was worth millions, and had a wife he adored. Since they were destined to be childless, he founded a school for orphan boys [which is now a co-educational school for poor or abandoned children]. Sadly, his wife didn't live very long after he built her a lovely house. We saw the school, "Founders Hall," the home he built for his wife, the housing he built for his workers, the school building named for his wife, and the three factories (the original factory still makes the basic chocolates, a second does enrobed chocolates, and the third makes the Reese's peanut butter cups, which, ironically, Milton Hershey never liked, and now they are the best-selling chocolates of the bunch!).

We picked up a few things from the gift shop, then returned home, mostly in the dark, since it was now after five. We drove home via the same route, and I noticed more of the window candles. A couple of the homes did have further Christmas decorations, but most were just candles without any further holiday decoration. Maybe white candles only are a Christmas custom? I will have to ask on my Christmas group; I know there are some members from Pennsylvania.

Anyway, made supper in our tiny hotel kitchenette, watched Jeopardy and House, and just finished Castle.

Have to check out the weather report, but I believe we're going to the train museum tomorrow.

Labels: food, museums, travel

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:30:00 PM

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It was still warm at 2:30 a.m. when we finally wandered into bed, so I was in a sleep shirt under the regular sheet and cover, with the fan in the window. As we shut off the light, the shades began to sway back and forth.

I woke up at 3:30 to put an extra blanket over me, take the fan out of the window, and put on some socks!

As much as I hated to do it, I had the alarm clock set for 10:00 a.m. It was time for that long-delayed trip to Walmart before the churchgoers got there. The strategy worked—except wretched WallyWorld was out of my yogurt as well as Campbell's chicken broth. At least they had the tortillas!

So when we got done at Walmart we had to go to Kroger anyway. We stopped at Lowes first to get a bag of safflower seed for the "ravening flock" outside our back door and also bought more seed at Kroger along with some yogurt, lean ground pork, and a few other items. The chill meant we didn't have to rush between stores or going home.

We ate once we got home and put everything away, including dinner for Schuyler's wild cousins. A little after one we headed out to the Atlanta History Center in my car, since I needed to stop at Costco for gas.

This was fun, but, boy, I'm glad we had the coupons...I remember when the AHC admission used to be $8. We are really paying for that recent addition; it's now $15 to get in. This is okay if you haven't seen the museum before; the Civil War gallery, the history of Atlanta, the Bobby Jones exhibit, and the Native American display are all terrific. But for just two small exhibits, $30 is a bit much!

The Norman Rockwell "Home for the Holidays" exhibit was very simple: just framed Saturday Evening Post covers along the wall. Most of the themes were Christmas, but there were also a few Thanksgiving covers, some miscellaneous, like the "Happy Birthday" cover with the teacher and her class, and a couple of the infamous April Fools covers. Plaques at each end of the display briefly told Rockwell's story. I love Norman Rockwell and would love to go to the museum in Stockbridge (MA) someday.

The Jim Henson exhibit was really fun. It opened with the series that originally brought Henson to public attention, a children's show called Sam and Friends done in Washington, DC. The clip they showed from the series, about Visual Thinking, was very clever and funny. Some of these really need to be released on DVD, maybe a "best of." Who cares if it's black and white?

Of course the emphasis was on the Muppets, starting with their appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, then of course to Sesame Street and The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock, plus the two fantasy films Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, but they also showed clips from Henson's various commercials and also an original film that he did called Time Piece, one man's surreal journey of trying to escape his day-to-day life.

Dotted between the storyboards, artwork, and video presentations were showcases, most which included Muppets. Kermit met you as you walked into the exhibit; this was a second or third generation "Kermie," from the 1970s. The original Kermit, who had much larger and less froggy legs, was made from a ping-pong ball and Henson's mom's old spring coat! There was also an early Ernie and a decade-later Bert, a spray-can character from one of Henson's 1960s commercials, Rowlf the dog, and several others. The final exhibit was an 18-minute summary and tribute to Henson that made me sniffle. He died all too soon.

You had to exit through the gift shop (it's a State Law...LOL).

It had only been chilly when we left the house, but when we emerged from the History Center, it was downright raw; the wind had picked up again and had a steel edge to it. It was still overcast, and had there been more moisture in the clouds and it had been just slightly colder, I would not have been surprised to see snowflakes. As it was, the thermometer was standing at 38°F.

We stopped by Borders on the way home and I bought a fantasy novel that looked interesting. I haven't read much fantasy, except the Valdemar books, for years. They also had all their Christmas food items half price and I got a sizable (nine ounce) container of Sunny Seeds. Yum! I love Sunny Seeds.

For supper we had what is becoming our usual, thin-sliced turkey breast served in a salad. We get a pound of this at Trader Joe's, along with a bag of baby greens. James mixes the greens with two little cups of mandarin oranges, a couple of handfuls of slivered almonds, and a handful of Chinese noodles. (We also put friseè in it when we have some.) It's dressed with Kraft Light Asian Sesame dressing. Then he takes the turkey, slices it thin, and warms it up in a little teriyaki sauce. Served together, it's quite nice.

Since then we have been watching the news, and then What's My Line? and To Tell the Truth.

Labels: food, museums, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:20:00 PM

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We made it to Evansville without incident and went on the LST 325 tour. This craft was built in a Philadelphia shipyard during 1942 and initially ferried supplies to Sicily, and then to Salerno. It was transporting supplies and injured soldiers on the second day of the Normandy Invasion, and after a refit was on her way to the Pacific when the A-bomb ended the war. After a short period in mothballs, it was recommissioned in to take part in the Inchon landings in Korea, and was then used to haul equipment and supplies to build the Distant Early Warning radar (DEW) line during the mid fifties. The ship was then transferred to the Greek navy where she served another 30 years. A group of former LST crewmen then got permission to retrieve the ship make her seaworthy and sail her back to the US.

Evansville was chosen as her new homeport as several hundred LSTs were built there. This ship is unique as it is the only restored WWII vessel that can still run under her own power, and makes an annual cruise up and down the Ohio and Mississippi. This year's cruise will take place in a few months.

Part of the above was written by James, since I have been in the bathroom. The barbecue last night was great, but I think too rich for my system and I was interrupted several times during the night. However, I felt okay when I got up this morning and did fine touring the LST despite the sun. We also visited a small hobby shop. We intended to get back to Owensboro and perhaps try to hitch up with Rodney or Jen for lunch, but when we stopped back at the hotel to give Wil a walk and check on Schuyler (she's been chirping and quite lively today), I found myself trapped in the bathroom. It may have been that being in the sun. I don't do well in sunlight since the radioactive iodine treatment and it just gets worse as I get older.

We did go find our way to the theatre and had some lunch to be able to make it to supper, and found the other little gaming shop that we couldn't find yesterday. James found a game he could no longer find at home.

In the meantime, I've read about half of Mr. Monk in Outer Space, which is filled with rather bad fannish stereotypes (but then it wouldn't be humorous if real-life conventiongoers were portrayed).

Labels: books, museums, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 2:23:00 PM

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