Stood There

Has anyone else seen this? This website, called StoodThere, lists some of the "greatest places on earth." Users can vote for the places they think are the most worthy of a visit and add a picture of themselves there.

What caught my attention on this site (credit goes to Mom, she found it somewhere) , is the list The 100 Greatest Places to Stand in the United States. It does seem every 30 minutes or so somebody has yet another "Best of" or "Must See" list. I like that not only was this one dedicated solely to the USA (they do have lists for Europe and the world), but the places included are unique, somewhat noteworthy, and of general interest - I don't have to love golf or spas to appreciate them.

I was curious to see at how many of the locations I "have stood" and yes, made a spreadsheet of them. From my best recollection, I have been to 55 of the listed places, though I do not have a picture at each to prove it. For the 45 remaining (one of which I am ashamed to say is right here in Dallas), they will make great trip destinations. Mom and I went to two of the places last weekend, which I will blog about as soon as my missing camera cords appear :(

A quick glance and I have more pictures of these place than I thought. Enjoy:




Gateway Arch
St. Louis, Missouri







Glacier Bay
Alaska






Golden Gate Bridge
San Francisco, California







Kennedy Space Center
Cape Canaveral, Florida








Las Vegas strip
Las Vegas, Nevada









Liberty Bell & Independence Hall,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania







Niagara Falls
New York









Sears Tower (formerly)
Chicago, Illinois










Statue of Liberty
New York, New York










Times Square
New York, New York










Totem Heritage Center
Ketchikan, Alaska








USS Arizona Memorial
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Reading - 2nd Quarter

I suppose it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise I was short of the 25 book goal this quarter. With all of the house stuff going on, reading hasn't been at the top of the priority list. Here are the 18 books I did manage to read the last three months:


Looking over these books, I realized with the exception of the 7th Harry Potter book (read at the beginning of April) all of these are books I have never read. I tend to re-read books a lot - some favorites and some I just want to catch something I missed the first read - so quite different for me. This and the inclusion of more than usual "current" novels almost makes up for the shortfall. A few thoughts:

Recommend: The Greatest Generation - No surprise here. A very well researched and documented account, from everyday Joe's to the 41st President. I tend to gravitate towards anything from the WWII era; I especially enjoyed how Brokaw carried the stories forward to current day and displayed how the lessons learned from the Depression and the war were applied throughout the rest of these people's lives.

Not Recommended: Bee Season - Actually a fairly well written book, I enjoyed about the first half. But thereafter the quirky family became just plain weird and in a way not enhancing the story. I've read weird, lots of it and enjoyed most. But this came to an unrecoverable point, where I did not care about the ending, only that it would come swiftly.

Surprise: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - I'm not sure how I found this book, I think from a best seller list when I was looking for non-fiction. An autobiography poking fun at small town 1950s, it was a great first-hand view of this quintessential American "good 'ole days" decade. Plus, it has lots of laugh out loud moments.

Disappointment: The Reader - This book wasn't terrible and I'm not suggesting it isn't worthy of reading. But it did fall short of my expectations; very easy reading and not quite the depth I was expecting.

While I enjoyed a more even cross section of my reading categories (Young Adult - 5, Classics - 3, Fiction - 7, Non-Fiction - 3), when I picked up Madame Bovary after a long stretch of the "current stuff" I confirmed classic literature is still my oasis.

The Fourth in Philly

Fact you may or may not know: Independence Day (aka 4th of July) is my favorite holiday. Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of the rest of them - my family is pretty big on all holidays - but this summer commemoration is the one which I am the most excited to celebrate. The parades and festivities, fireworks, and the opportunity to celebrate our great country, what's not to love?

Therefore, the location in which to celebrate the 4th is obviously an important decision. This year, Jacinda and I decided to take a sisters trip and I had her pick the location. Her selection was Philadelphia, a great choice since in many ways it is the birthplace of the country. I love all of Philly's history and when I discovered we could be a part of the SWA float in the Independence Day Parade, I was really thrilled at her pick.

THE PARADE

The PHL Station really outdid themselves on this float. A mini-replica of Spirit One, with patriotically dressed TJ LUVs onboard. Some of the kids and a few Employees rode in the seats of the plane, while the rest of us marched beside it and handed out peanuts and red, white, and blue SWA stickers.

THE CITY

We were able to see most of the city's historical sites, including Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the outdoor portions of Franklin's Court, and watched some great videos at the Visitor's Center. Our favorite place was Elfreth's Alley, a block of 18th century houses, most of which are still inhabited today. They had free cellphone tours to which you could call and hear about the history of the street and its residents.

Unfortunately, the B. Free Franklin Post Office in Franklin Court was one of the few places closed for the holiday. Opened to honor Benjamin Franklin as the first US Postmaster, it not only has a lot of interesting historical items but any parcel mailed from there is hand stamped with a unique cancellation mark. I made an attempt to get the postcards mailed from here (thanks to a small gap under the back door); we'll see whether I was successful if anyone receives them!

THE FESTIVITIES

No pictures, but we did participate in some of the festivities of the weekend. Probably one of the best was the Super Scooper All-You-Can-Eat Ice Cream Festival (I know, how could it be bad?) It was actually a great idea. Benefiting a leukemia fund, everyone paid $5.00 to enter the circus size tent, which was lined with tables where volunteers were serving single scoop cups of ice cream. They had everything from the local "water ice" (we assumed it was a Philly thing, kind of snowcone-like) to Ben & Jerry's. It was very crowded, but considering the number of people everyone was relatively pleasant and polite. I'm sure the all-you-can-eat part of the deal played a part in everyone's attitude. We quickly discovered the spoon received at the door was the only one you were getting and held it tight as we went down the rows, trying every flavor and two of those we liked :)

Of course, it wouldn't be the 4th without fireworks and Philly's show didn't disappoint. After a performance by Sheryl Crow (and some local bands I didn't know), there was a 20-25 minute extravaganza over the Museum of Art. There seem to be fads in fireworks; a few years back the "crazy" bursts - the ones which had pieces spin out of control after the initial explosion. This year seems to be trending towards more multicolored. Most of this show had red, white, and blue in one firework or, one of my favorites, an initial white burst followed by a ring of another color. I did laugh a bit when I overheard someone comment about the number of "purple" fireworks (I guess the blue ones do have a purple tint).

Hope everyone else had a great 4th, too!

House Update - First Room

In between all of the travels and events during June, I have managed to do some work on my house. Mom and Kathy spent 3 days here mid-month; arranging furniture, shopping, and giving lots of great decorating ideas. By the time they left, I had a general idea for each room, but completing each is taking some time. Naturally, most of the furniture I wanted had to be ordered and then there's just finding the time to get it all made and put together.

Instead of making those of you who've bugged for house pictures wait, I decided I'd give a room-by-room update. The first room to completion: the guest room. As I mentioned in the last post, Jamie and Megan were my first guests, so their visit gave me some incentive to finish this room. Since I was using mostly my old bedroom stuff in here, it was just a matter of work. The most obvious change was painting all of the formerly white wicker furniture brown. Thanks to very little work on my part and lots of work and late hours by Mom, the furniture turned out great.




Stay tuned for the rest!

Where did June go?

I knew it had been awhile since I'd posted anything, but I let the whole month of June pass! It's been a busy one; here's a recap of the fun:

WEDDING BELLS - Early in the month, I took a quick trip down to Austin to attend the wedding of one of my good Dallas friends, Jessica. It was at a beautiful outdoor venue just outside of the city and they had a great sunset view for the ceremony. Not surprising, Jessica was a beautiful bride and the whole affair was perfect, down to the last piece of wedding cake. I got to see some of Jessica's family and friends I've met over the past few years and catch up with Amy, a college friend from LCU days, and meet her husband and adorable daughter.

I snagged this self-portrait picture of Laura and I from the wedding off her blog. There are some great pictures on Jessica's blog, too.

WHAT COLOR? - Since our whole family purchased houses within a month's time, it was given painting would have to be done somewhere. The lucky winner was Mom and Dad's newest dwelling, which has received a complete makeover. Not to be left out of the fun, I went to Abilene a couple of days for the trim work stage. This meant I unfortunately missed seeing the hot pink and lime green walls left by the former owners, but I preferred the detailed baseboard and window painting anyway. Hard work = good eats; this weekend was Mom's incredible eggrolls and wontons. Yum!

SOAKIN' UP RAYS - This year's annual summer girls trip was a Caribbean cruise - with stops in Jamaica, Cayman Islands, and Roatan, Honduras. It was everything a good cruise should be - an open agenda, lazy time on the deck, and incredible food. We did keep ourselves fairly busy at the three ports - climbing Dunn's River Falls in Jamacia, snorkeling in Cayman, and playing with monkeys and beach time in Roatan - but we did get in lots of relaxing, too. The girls did lots of people watching (behind large sunglasses, of course) and I was able to read all of the books I'd brought along.

For all of you Facebook folks, I've heard there are lots of pictures of the trip on there. Here are a couple of us at Dunn's River Falls:

GUESTS AND A GIFT - My first "official" house guests were Megan and Jamie, friends from the Lubbock days. We've all migrated East and decided a girls weekend was in order. Thankfully, the new guest bed arrived the day before they did, so I had a place for them to sleep! We had a great time: catching a viewing of "The Proposal," attempting to see fireworks over Lake Grapevine, getting pedicures, eating chocolate fondue, going to a Rangers game, and of course, lots of good eats.

The girls (and by proxy, Meg's husband Lucas) gave me a great housewarming gift: these super-cute ice cream glasses and ice cream scoop! They'll be perfect for the smoothies and malts my blender frequently mixes up. And thanks to Lucas for not skimping on the scoop - I really needed one!