Old Places, New Sights

Like most frequent travelers, there are destinations I visit more than others. Some seem to have a once-a-year minimum requirement. But even though these places have "must-dos" for every visit (after all there must be a reason I frequent them, right?), I always enjoy finding new things to see and do.

In each of the first two months of the year I have taken such trips. In fact, I would say both trips comprised of more new than old.

For January it was another trip to Disney World. I know, I know. Disney AGAIN. Yes, we really do love it! But this trip was quite a different visit. Being the marathon runner of the family, Evan had discovered the Disney Marathon weekend and decided to tackle the Goofy race: a half marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday! Of course we couldn't let him run without a cheer squad so the rest of us went along for the fun :)

Here's one of the places we found Evan along the race, entering Epcot through Great Britain. GO EVAN!!!

This was also our first visit since the new Fantasyland opened at the Magic Kingdom. Along with Gaston's Tavern and the Beast's Castle (with a ballroom dining option- booked through June!), there is also a new Ariel ride inside this fancy castle. Inside our clamshells, we rode along watching Ariel and her underwater friends. The ride is a similar concept to Peter Pan and other favorite rides but it is quite amazing how much anamotronics have improved. Some of the characters are very life-like.

Another new discovery was our lodging. This was our first trip to stay at the Cabins at Fort Wilderness. We loved it! With a full kitchen and lots of beds, it was the perfect place for all of us to stay. The cabins were surrounded by trees so we felt like we were out in the woods instead of at Disney. Quite a few extra perks here as well, like a ferry boat straight to the Magic Kingdom and a campfire sing-a-long with Chip and Dale and friends.

The February trip destination was one I had not visited as recently but where I've still been many times: Washington DC. Earlier in the month I discovered I had an old Rapid Rewards ticket expiring soon - confirmed seats! So I searched for a fun place that would give me the most bang for the free buck. Since neither Mom nor I had flown into DCA (Reagan National airport) since Southwest started flying there last year, we thought it was a great opportunity to mark another place on the SWA route map. Plus, in the cooler off season DC would be less humid and much less crowded than the peak season.

Even though our weekend was about seeing new sights, we actually started with one of our favorites: the Library of Congress. DC is full of beautiful buildings, but in my opinion none so much as this one.

Most of our fast DC weekend was spent here in the Newsuem; it's a museum about all things news and first amendment rights. If you can't read it, the first amendment is etched on the outside wall behind me.

It was a good thing our tickets were good for two days or we never would have seen it all. They have lots of artifacts documenting the history of news and important events in media and free speech. Just a few of the things we saw included these below: historic front pages, sections of the Berlin Wall, and one of Moms favorites - a Simpson humorous take on the first amendment.

This map was something else quite interesting. It represents the level of free press in each country, from the green free press countries to the red government controlled press.

Of course there is always more to do in DC than time will allow but I do highly recommend the Newsuem. Especially great for those who have already visited most of the Smithsonian museums and are looking for something new.

Speaking of the Smithsonian, although I have been in the Air and Space museum more times than I can count, there were still some new things to see amongst those free and very interesting museums.

First was the American Indian museum, a very uniquely designed building. We were only able to see the few items in the lobby area, as our focus here was lunch. Mom had read this was one of the best places to eat around the museums and I think they were right! Lots of unique choices from various American Indian regional cuisine. We settled on pulled buffalo sandwich with some fry bread for dessert.

Another "new" place that was top on my list was the American History museum. Okay, not exactly new but I had not been in a few years, since they completely remodeled the building. We happened to arrive just before a docent tour was beginning, so we joined the quick preview tour of the exhibits then walked back through to spend more time with our favorite items. Some things, like the First Ladies dresses and Dorothy's red slippers, are mainstays of the exhibits. But there were quite a few new items as well, like these Harry Potter robes and Julia Child's kitchen.  Mom even found the Girl Scout uniform and cookie box design from when she was a Girl Scout!

Our final "new" for this trip was another eating experience.  We had a some great food at Elephant and Castle, a British pub.  Even though I have stayed at a hotel around the corner from this restuarant on two separate occasions, I had not eaten here.  On a chilly and wet February evening, this comfort food of pot pie and fish & chips was just right!

The moral of this travel post, visit new places. Whether they be in new destinations or old haunts!

January Reading

In an effort to blog more (I know, first post of the year), I thought I would try writing about the books I've read each month.  While the January post is a little late, my reading was right on time this month!  I finished five books (of my seven reading categories) and started the two books for the other categories, which are allotted two months to read.

In summary, all of these five books were enjoyable.  I would highly recommend all but one to any reader.  The other one, Pillars of the Earth, might be right for a certain audience.  I will explain below why this was the most disappointing of the books I've read thus far in 2013.


Dead End in Norvelt

The 2012 Newbery Award winner.  My mother gives Jacinda and I a copy of the most recent winner for Christmas each year, and it is usually my January Children/Young Adult reading selection.  The past few years have all been great reads (there was a stretch of quite boring winners so the reversal has been welcome) and I was glad to see the streak continue with this book.  The setting is Norvelt, a tiny New Deal resettlement town, which is in decline post WWII as the "original residents" are dying off and their descendants are moving away.    The narrator is the young boy Jack, who spends most of his summer vacation grounded for simultaneously disobeying his mother and obeying his father (a tractor and his father's Japanese WWII rifle are involved).  His only escape comes from impromptu work as assistant to Miss Volker, his feisty next-door neighbor, an original resident herself and the town's medical examiner/historian.  As each of the original residents die, the duo writes the obituary along with what Miss Volker determines to be important American history which children are not being taught in school.  When some interesting new residents come to town just as the original residents start dying at a rapid pace, a mystery is afoot.

Along with an exposure to a new view of American history (myself I had never heard of these resettlement towns; there were close to 100 of them and were a pet project of Eleanor Roosevelt), this book is laugh out loud funny!           


The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Book Club selection for January. A nonfiction book about how cancer cells taken from an African American woman in the '50s transformed the cell research world.  With the true story suppressed for decades, her family (and the world) finally learn the truth about what happened to the mother they lost, through the help of this author who spent more than a decade uncovering the facts.  A fascinating read, the author makes understanding science and research field easy for laymen, like most of us.   This case made a huge impact not only in the realm of research practices but the privacy laws which have come about since then.




Kisses From Katie

This was actually the book club selection for December, but since I was unable to read it then and it is a devotional type book, I decided to make it my January devotional/spiritual selection.   Although it was published a couple years ago, it seems to be gaining a lot of attention right now; or maybe I'm just paying attention more now that I've heard about it :)

An inspirational read as Katie, in her early twenties, dictates the path that led her to forgo college, move to Uganda and start a non-profit providing food and schooling, and adopt a number of the young girls.  I especially enjoyed how she reinforced that although her path was moving halfway around the world, God has a way to use each of us, although they will not look the same for us all.


Outliers

Nonfiction selection.  I had previously read  Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, and selected this one to enjoy more of his interesting writing.  I am not sure if there is an official genre for his typical topics, but I would describe it as social + statistical nonfiction.  Which probably sounds a little boring, but it is really fascinating.  The subtitle for this is The Story of Success and in it, he is evaluating the different reasons some good people have become great.  He talks about how a person's birth month can help or hurt them in certain sports and musical careers.  He compares why Bill Gates was able to become such a success, while the man with the highest recorded IQ was not.  And on a more "everyday people" level, he presents findings of how social differences can effect educational benefits (the reasons aren't what you might expect) and true to the book's title, presents people who were able to "overcome" what might be seen as educational disadvantages. I'm a lover of nonfiction, but I think anyone would enjoy this one.  And as nonfiction goes, it is a relatively short read as well.




Pillars of the Earth
Fiction selection.  In comparison to the last point about the above book, this one is not short...at all.  The total page count sans appendix slides in just under 1000 pages.  Along with being thick, it is just a big book in all dimensions, so lots of words.  And about 600 pages in, I would have been ready to convince you all to overlook the book's vastness, that you would not even notice its length because of how swift moving was the story; I read those first 600 pages over just one weekend.  However, somewhere after this point in the book is where my opinion drastically changed and I would now say you would be much better off to read the equally long, but much, much better Les Miserables. (Okay, I will admit I would have said that regardless, since it is one of my favorite books.)

Prior to reading it, I understood the premise of the book was a fictional history of the building of Europe's great cathedrals in the middle ages.  A little while into the book, I discovered it was really about the building of one great cathedral in the 12th century.  Always interesting in any architectural type reading, this was fine with me and I was very interested in the details of how the cathedral was to be built.  With a book of this length, it was not surprising that there was a lot of set up before we reach the point of any building occurring.  The backgrounds of the prior (head monk in an abbot), the master builder, and prominent landowners were discussed in length.  Very interesting viewing the 12th century through the varying lenses.

However, just over halfway through the book there was a major shift in focus characters, even setting, and the book went off in an unnecessary tangent (in my opinion).  I'm sure this could be described as character development, the problem was they were developing characters I didn't really care for, while ignoring those characters who had been the focus and steering too far away from the building of the cathedral (the part I in which was really interested).  This is where the book began to feel long for me, and I was mostly finishing it because I had already invested so much into the lengthy novel.

I'm sure those who love this book (I've been told there are a lot of people who do) will be disappointed in my perspective.  I will admit the book is very well written, and some parts were quite fascinating.  I do think my expectations were chiefly the problem, as the cathedral seemed to take a further backseat in the story than I would have liked.


Since this post is so late, I will confess February reading was not as successful, but I will try to post about the few books I was able to read.     

End of Year Reading Recap

One of my favorite things about a new year approaching is setting up my reading goals and the admittedly ambitious long list of books to read during the year.  Of course, this also starts with a review of what I did and did not manage to read in the last year.  2009 was my most successful reading year, when I came very close to reading 100 books.  Since then the reading count has been roughly half that per year, but that exercise did expand my reading horizons to new genres and authors.  Over the past couple of years my reading goals have consisted of a set number of books per genre/category I have established (usually one per month or one per quarter depending on the typical book length).

For 2012, I read 40 books and 12,500 pages (yes, I keep track of the pages and yes, I know that is nerdy).  The books/series I read (and kept track of, there is always something I just pick up and read quickly and forget to add to the list) are listed below by category.  I also noted the annual goal for each category.  The Others category is really just anything I pick up and read during the year, but wasn't on the original list or fit into a category (sometimes I do make substitutions during the year).  Not surprising, two of the three this year are ones I read at least once each year.

WorkRelated: 4

Naked Airport: A Cultural History of the World's Most RevolutionaryStructure

Classics: 4

Lady Susan

Children’sLiterature: 12 books/series

Moon Over Manifest

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Hunger Games series

Little House on the Prairie series

Long Way From Chicago
Rent a Third Grader

Fiction: 12 
The Eyre Affair

The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

A Room with a View

The Family Fang

The Art of Racing in the Rain

Snobs

Non-Fiction: 6

In the Garden of Beasts

The Chocolate Wars

Angela's Ashes

Imperfect

BookClub: 12

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

The House of Sand and Fog

The Hunger Games

North and South

Unbroken

To Kill a Mockingbird

Crocodile on the Sandbank

Evolving in Monkey Town

Sarah's Key

Devotional: 4

Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World

Others

Witch of Blackbird Pond

Persuasion 
Book Thief

One thing I found interesting was the categories which are typically my favorites (Classic and Children's Literature) were the ones in which I completed the lowest percentage of the goal.  Just one Classic and it was the shortest novel on the list!  I suppose accountability serves well even for tasks you enjoy completing, because I was most compliant with my book club list: 9 of 12 read and I am about to start a 10th book, for which I attended the meeting but didn't have time to get/read the book in time. Nonfiction books are also becoming more of a favorite; those are the ones I am most likely to add to the stack when I go to the library for just one book.

I do not think there are any of these books which I would discourage anyone from reading, although The Family Fang is quite strange and definitely not for everyone.  These are my favorite discoveries this year and ones I would highly recommend:

1. Moon Over Manifest - the 2011 Newbery Award winner.  In addition to just being well written, the author utilizes flashbacks and mystery very well as a young girl discovers the history of the small and colorful town where she is sent to live during a year of the Depression.
2. In the Garden of Beasts – If you think you do not like non-fiction, I would highly encourage you to try an Erik Larson book; they read more like novels than non-fiction.   Devil in the White City was the first of his books I read and I enjoyed this one just as much.  Essentially a biography of the American ambassador to Germany in the 1930’s, this gives an interesting view of Germany during Hitler’s early days in power and events which lead to the beginning of WWII.
3. North and South – While the initial setting is similar in time, place, and situation to a typical Jane Austen era novel, shortly into this book everything relocates to a manufacturing town with very different characters…or maybe they are not so different after all.  The heroine is initially prejudiced to her new situation but discovers some unpolished jewels of humanity which leave her debating between which is better… North or South.  
4. Book Thief - A view of a typical small German town during WWII from the eyes of a preteen orphaned girl, but told by an unusual narrator, “Death”. Despite some unorthodox storytelling, like giving away the ending very early, and weightiness of the story, it really is a page turner. 

I suppose the favorites still hold true after all - two of these are classified as Children's/Young Adult (although I might argue that point on Book Thief), one Classic, and two are set in Germany before/during WWII.

Now onto 2013 reading goals...what is everyone else reading?

Santa Hustle

5K & Half Marathon in Galveston, Texas. Evan ran the half and Jacinda and I "ran" the 5K. Candy and cookies at the water stations. Fun start to the Christmas weekend!

Decorations Refresh

As I’ve documented on this blog before, my work decorations tend to be more seasonal/holiday than personal themed.  They can also be a bit over the top at times, so some of them take a bit of time to create and thus are often seen again the next year or so.  However, this fall I decided two of my holiday themes needed a break.  Both the Haunted Mansion (Halloween) and Gingerbread House (Christmas) had made three annual appearances.  Here’s their replacements for this year: Columbus Day (October) and Snowflakes (December).

Along with the pictures, a little background on each.

Columbus Day – The cute little Columbus on the outside wall was something I made for my mom’s classroom a long time ago…15 years at least.  Thanks to good storage and the wonders of lamination, he survived pretty well and served as the centerpiece and inspiration. 

If it is not very legible in the picture, the map is labeled with Spain and “Asia” aka. The New World.  Hanging in front of the map are the three ships, and yes, the Pinta was taking on water and on her side most of the time.

 

Snowflakes – Since snowflake decorations have long been a favorite of mine, choosing the theme was a no-brainer.  I found the perfect snowflake print wrapping paper at Walmart (great price for the amount, takes a bit to cover all of the walls inside and out).  The “snow” batting and white string lights were leftovers from previous decoration. 

While that total coverage makes an impact, my smaller outside wall space has created a need for always having something hanging from the ceiling.  A little internet searching found a science/cooking experiment that worked perfectly!  Check out the close ups of the two snowflakes. Here’s the simple steps to create these cool crystallized decorations:

1. Bend chenille stems (aka. pipecleaners) into the desired shape.  Mine were snowflakes, but you could make candy canes, wreaths, etc.
2. Tie a string to one end and tie the other end of the string to a pencil/pen.
3. In a large mouth jar, mix boiling water and a liberal amount of borax.  I probably used ¾ to 1 cup of Borax for a quart of water. 
4. Submerge the snowflake into the water solution, balancing the pencil/pen across the opening so the snowflake is fully submerged but ideally doesn’t touch the bottom or sides.*
5. Leave for several hours, overnight for best results.
6. Remove from jar and marvel at the cool creation!

*Note: If it is touching the bottom/sides, the snowflake get stuck to the jar.  I had a couple do this and it really wasn’t a problem to pull them loose.  So don’t let the size of your jar limit the snowflake size too much.  I used an assortment of mason jars, large candy jars, and large yogurt containers and each worked well. 

One interesting observation I made about these.  I had two basic snowflake designs: one with just a six point formation (snowflake 1) and another with the six points plus “Vs” added to each point (snowflake 2).  I noticed the first design came out solidly covered with small crystals, about the size of typical sugar, while the others grew much larger crystals akin to a rock candy look.  Although I like the second one better, the contrast is interesting.  

The tree is the same, with this year’s SWA ornament added to the mix.  Notice Tink fits in quite well with the theme also!