travel | dual personalities

March 11, 2016

“We must away ere break of day Over the wood and mountain tall”*

by chuckofish

Today I am heading east to visit daughters #1 and #2 in College Park.

We will cheer on daughter #1 on as she runs in the Rock ‘n Roll half marathon in D.C. Then we are heading to the Brandywine Valley in Pennsylvania for some museum and garden-going.

We will get our fill of N.C. Wyeth et al…

If you are looking for a good movie to watch in the meantime, I recommend Alleghany Uprising (1939) with a young John Wayne and Claire Trevor. I watched it this past week and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a highly politically-incorrect telling of a little-known piece of American history–

wherein a group of settlers in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Valley struggle to try and persuade the British authorities to ban the trading of alcohol and arms with the marauding Indians.

Some of the character actors are priceless–such as Wilfred Lawson as the Scotsman MacDougall, who really steals the show. A very young George Sanders is appropriately uppity as the British captain who doesn’t have a clue. I would put this film in the they-don’t-make-’em-like-this-anymore category, i.e. good entertainment with an excellent story and characters.

So remember, I will be off the internet through next Thursday. Maybe my dual personality will check in. I hope so!

*J.R.R. Tolkien

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March 10, 2016

My bags are packed

by chuckofish

“Here today, up and off to somewhere else tomorrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that’s always changing!”

–Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

I lied. My bags are not packed! I haven’t done a thing to get ready for my trip tomorrow! Oh brother, I have a lot to do tonight…like try to pack clothes I can actually wear on my trip. And what’s the weather going to be like back east anyway? Zut alors! I guess I need to do some laundry…

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September 15, 2015

Postcards from New York: I whistle a happy tune edition

by chuckofish

I had a lovely, fun-filled time visiting with daughter #1 in her tiny UWS third-floor studio apartment. Basically we were only there to sleep and grab an occasional Diet Coke. Oh, yes, we did shower and change, but in typical fashion I had done a miserable job packing, so my clothing options were limited. Daughter #1 always looked impeccable.

We were on the go from the time I dropped my bags there (after getting up at 3:30 a.m. to catch the 5:55 to LaGuardia) until I hopped in an Uber to head back to the airport.

It was rainy when I arrived, so we headed over to the Met to see the John Singer Sargent exhibit.

It was a terrific show with lots of great portraits. I liked the Edwin Booth portrait, but, of course, they didn’t have a postcard. They always pick the weirdest things for postcards, have you noticed? C’est la vie.

We also checked some of our favorites in the American Wing.

We went to Lincoln Center to see The King and I which was fabulous,

although the King was not Yul Brynner. His ghost is always there, arms akimbo.

We walked ALL OVER Central Park, but I did not have my phone with me (!) so I didn’t take any pictures of my favorite schist. We took the uptown bus to see the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which I have always wanted to do.

It was a divine space but rather godless. Not that I was really surprised, but oh well. I liked the poets’ corner with all my favorites.

We also took the subway all the way up to 190th to go to the Cloisters, another place on my bucket list.

It was very cool. (I bought a book about how it all came to be and read it on the plane ride home. Thank you, John D. Rockefeller, Jr.) Afterwards we rode the subway back down and conked out. Then we got up and made ready for our evening out with some of daughter #1’s college (and one highschool) friends.

Oh my–super fun!

By the time Sunday rolled around I was incapable of leaving the UWS and we opted to stay put and meander around, ending up on a park bench in Riverside Park, watching the world rollerblade or bicycle (training wheels optional) or jog by.

While I was visiting we ate at a wide variety of wonderful restaurants and made one notable and tipsy stop at Zabar’s.

Now I am home and back at the salt mine. Last night I planted myself in front of Dancing With the Stars in full recovery mode.

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March 23, 2015

We wait in faith, and turn our face…

by chuckofish

…to where the daylight springs, till thou shalt come our gloom to chase, with healing in thy wings.*

Quelle busy week! It always is like that after a long weekend trip and a few days off from work–so much catching up to do!

The boy was in New York visiting daughter #1 this weekend, so Instagram was on fire with great pictures of his visit all weekend.

From snow to blue skies to the Nightline set and lots of cool places in between.

Also daughter #2 was in Savannah, Georgia with the BF, so there was more Instagramming from down south. They found St. John’s Episcopal Church where my parents were married in 1950

and where General Sherman attended services when he set up his headquarters there.

Meanwhile, I puttered around the yard which is starting to come alive.

On Saturday I went to an estate sale and bought a small vintage chest which I lugged home myself and carried upstairs and into my office.

I think it is pretty great.

I repotted some plants and carried a whole bunch back out to the Florida room which I had cleaned up. Then I took a break.

My back doesn’t hurt too much.

*John Mason Neale, hymn #672

7 Comments

March 18, 2015

History is the open Bible

by chuckofish

History is the open Bible: we historians are not priests to expound it infallibly: our function is to teach people to read it and to reflect upon it for themselves.

(George Macaulay Trevelyan)

I had a wonderful time back east visiting daughter #2 in College Park, Maryland and driving all over the tri-state area. As planned we visited the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. It is awesome.

We started our visit by viewing “A New Birth of Freedom,” narrated by (of course) Morgan Freeman, and the restored Gettysburg Cyclorama, which depicts Pickett’s Charge. The film features wonderful graphics, which, for the first time, really gave me an idea of what was happening in the battle. There was also a lot of artillery noise and that made me think of the poor people who lived in the town of Gettysburg back in 1863 and how horrific it must have been for them. It would have been panic attack city for me locked in a basement or root cellar somewhere. Anyway, after that emotional experience we trekked up to the Cyclorama, originally painted in the 1880s. It is really something to see.

We toured the park by car stopping frequently to check out particular spots.

Daughter #2, not really a history person like her mother, was very indulgent. I think she enjoyed it all too.

It was not at all crowded, but I can imagine in the summer it is. Spring break seems like a perfect time to visit.

The town of Gettysburg was very picturesque–lots of old buildings and a nice town square (which is now a circle/roundabout.) There is the college to see and also the Lutheran Seminary, which is part of the Gettysburg Battlefield’s “hallowed ground”–Seminary Ridge. We stayed at the Gettysburg Hotel on the circle (square), which I think is owned by the college and very nice.

The next day it was rainy so we drove to Frederick, Maryland, another lovely old town and had great luck at an antique mall where daughter #2 scored a great piece of vintage furniture. We had lunch in Frederick and then drove to Harper’s Ferry, another historic site and National Park, passing from Maryland to Virginia and West Virginia in a matter of minutes. It was thrilling to see the old town at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers–very dramatic scenery and lots of greenschist metamorphic rock formations. My favorite!

Harper’s Ferry, c. 1865

Seeing the site of John Brown’s raid on the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, put me in the mood to watch Santa Fe Trail (1940) with Errol Flynn as Jeb Stuart and Raymond Massey as Brown. Of course, it is a highly fictionalized account of events, but very enjoyable fiction, and Raymond Massey is excellent as the zealous Brown. Maybe this weekend.

On Sunday we drove up to Baltimore with Nate to go to the Baltimore Art Museum which has a wonderful collection of American art and decorative arts, including some lovely export china.

All right up my alley.

We ate at the museum restaurant which was yummo. Nate drove me around Roland Park, which I have always wanted to do–I am after all a big Ann Tyler fan–and we saw a lot of Johns Hopkins and plenty of row houses. As Pigtown Design is always saying, “There is much more to Baltimore than The Wire!” We had forgotten that it was the St. Patrick’s Day weekend (curses) and the city was jammed with green-clad revelers, but we dealt.

So you can see my weekend included all the ingredients of a good time: historical sites, antique malls, college/university tours. And lunches at good restaurants. I had crab cakes twice!

For me the only downer was the stressful driving on congested east-coast highways, but daughter #2 has learned to be an aggressive, confident auto racer, so it was all okay.

P.S. Daughter #2 posted on our weekend and she covered everything and has better pictures than I, so check it out!

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February 5, 2015

Give the devil his due*

by chuckofish

Have you ever heard of this clapper bridge, Tarr Steps, over the River Barle in Exmoor? I first came upon it here. (There are many more good pictures, so check it out.)

This is so cool! I mean the bridge may date to around 1000 BC! (Its age is unknown–several theories claim that Tarr Steps dates from the Bronze Age, but others date it from around 1400 AD.) A clapper bridge, you will recall, is an ancient form of bridge found on the moors of Devon (Dartmoor and Exmoor) and in other upland areas of the United Kingdom.

The stone slabs weigh up to 1-2 tons apiece. How were they moved? According to local legend, they were placed by the devil to win a bet. The bridge is 180 feet (55 m) long and has 17 spans. Half of this bridge was washed away by the river during heavy rains in December 2012. Thankfully the bridge has now been re-assembled.

The aforementioned myth has it that the Devil built the bridge at Tarr Steps and still has sunbathing rights on its stones. Supposedly the devil swore he would kill anyone who tried to cross his bridge. The terrified locals got the parson to face him. A cat was sent over the Bridge but was vaporised in a puff of smoke. The parson then set off and met the Devil midway. The Devil swore and intimidated him but the parson reciprocated equally and finally the Devil conceded to let people pass except when he wants to sunbathe.

These photos were taken in 1953 by John Gay. You can see more here.

I’ve no doubt that my dual personality has probably been to Tarr Steps, but this provincial girl has not. If I ever get back to merry old England, I will definitely try to check out Exmoor’s National Park!

Wonderful.

*English proverb

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November 10, 2014

“As if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear”*

by chuckofish

Are you prepared for the day of the Lord? For whom would it be good news? (Matthew 25: 1-13) These were the questions asked in our sermon yesterday. They are good ones to ask yourself. My rector was not terribly helpful in answering them, but that’s par for the course. You have to work out your own salvation anyway, so c’est la vie. I’m still stuck on old Amos’ imagery from the OT reading anyway (see above).

Well, the highlight of my weekend was an after-church jaunt to the Missouri History Museum with the OM. I had not been in years, but I had heard that the “250 in 250: A Yearlong Exhibit Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the Founding of St. Louis” was not to be missed.

This turned out to be an over-statement. “Through the stories of 50 People, 50 Places, 50 Images, 50 Moments, and 50 Objects we were invited to learn all about St. Louis.” This kind of display is not really my cup of tea, but it was okay.

Across the hall, however, was a very cool exhibit–“The Louisiana Purchase: Making St. Louis, Remaking America”.

You will recall that in 1803 the United States agreed to pay France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory—828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River. The United States doubled its size, expanding the nation westward. Beyond the geographic expansion, The Louisiana Purchase remade St. Louis into an American city—”and reshaped and redefined what it meant to be an American.” Featuring loans from the National Archives and documents and artifacts from the Missouri History Museum’s collections, the exhibition explores the complex negotiations related to The Louisiana Purchase and its after-effect on St. Louis. A highlight of the exhibition is the Treaty of Cession (in French), better known as The Louisiana Purchase Treaty. The Treaty was first drafted in French and then translated into English, so it can be said that the French text is the “original original.”

Anyway, the Museum has changed quite a lot since the days when we would visit with our mother. Nowhere in sight is the riverboat wheelhouse which was a favorite of mine and my dual personality’s as wee children. Also the gun collection, which made up a good part of the second floor exhibition space, is nowhere to be seen. Thankfully in moth balls is all the Veiled Prophet knick-knack-iture that also took up a lot of space in days gone by. Yes, it is all very 21st century and up-to-the-minute PC-wise, but I do miss the old-fashioned dusty taxidermy and Mark Twainia of the olden days.

Well, I’ve been there and done that now, but it is a good and mindful thing to be reminded of the wonderful and important part Missouri played in our national history.

There is a fancy restaurant in the museum, but we headed over to the Wildflower Cafe in the CWE for some eggs benedict. Yum.

How was your weekend?

*Amos 5:18 (Not Abraham Lincoln like you thought)

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November 3, 2014

Here in Missouri

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? The OM and I had an adventure–a roadtrip on Saturday over to Fulton in the rolling green hills of central Missouri to visit the Winston Churchill Memorial on the campus of Westminster College.

You will recall that in 1946 it was at Westminster College that Winston Churchill delivered one of the most significant speeches of his long and illustrious career–the “Iron Curtain” speech. In the 1960s Westminster College set out to mark what would be the 20th anniversary of Churchill’s visit. After due consideration of traditional modes of commemoration, Westminster College settled on the rather more ambitious notion of moving a Christopher Wren designed Church from London. This Church, St. Mary the Virgin Aldermanbury, had stood in London since 1677 when it replaced an earlier structure that had sat on the same site since the 12th century until it was destroyed in the great fire of 1666. This magnificent building, badly damaged during the London Blitz, was moved stone by stone to Westminster’s campus and rebuilt to Wren’s original specifications.

What an incredible undertaking! I had not been there since 1969 when it was dedicated. It is breathtaking.

It is a popular venue for weddings, as you can imagine, and there was one about to take place when we ducked in, so this postcard view will have to suffice. It is my favorite type of church, reflecting the puritan branch of the Anglican church. I love those clear glass windows and brass chandeliers and the Ten Commandments behind the altar.

A needlepoint kneeler in the museum downstairs

The National Churchill Museum which opened in 2006 is downstairs under the church. I was quite impressed.

ANC III would have approved of these toy soldiers.

Indeed, ANC would have liked the museum as it illustrates the life and career of W.C.

Iron Curtain Speech sculpture

Anyway, it is well-worth the trip to Fulton which is a nice college town, not unlike Greencastle, Indiana which we visited many times over the years when daughter #1 was a student at DePauw University. I like college towns and am always up for visiting one.

Sunday was All Saints Sunday and we had three baptisms in church. All three children, who ranged in age from infant to toddler, wailed for dear life. (Bill Baker who baptized daughter #1 and the boy always said that that was the devil leaving the child and not to worry.) Well, I always enjoy renouncing “Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God”, including “the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God”--especially a few days before an election.

Don’t forget to vote tomorrow!

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September 10, 2014

For the wonder state we’ll sing a song*

by chuckofish

On Sunday Daughter #1 and I drove down to Bentonville, Arkansas

Love those Missouri rest stops.

and visited the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

The museum, founded by Alice Walton and designed by Moshe Safdie, officially opened on November 11, 2011. I had heard rave reviews of it from several people so I have been anxious to go. And I like road trips–even when I am the driver.

Bentonville is, indeed, a lovely town, built around a square in the southern tradition, with a monument to Confederate Soldiers in the center.

The town appears to be thriving–supported by copious amounts of Wal-Mart money–but it is a real town, not a Disney immitation. It is lushly landscaped and full of friendly locals who say hello and smile.

The Museum itself is impressive.

An “official” photo of the museum at night when it looks best.

Another professional photo–but here the murky water cannot be hidden.

My photo.

The design is “cool” but the concrete is not aging well–it never does. I am not a fan of the “brutalist” look. I mean, three years old and it looks terrible! Oh well. The inside is beautiful and full of an impressive art collection. We saw many wonderful American paintings–many famous ones that it was a thrill to see up close.

“Kindred Spirits” by Asher B. Durand

Daughter #1 and I had a marvelous time driving, talking, eating, drinking, looking at art, buying postcards, walking on the lovely nature trails. And that’s what the trip was really all about.

*”The Arkansas Traveler”

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September 9, 2014

Tout va bien

by chuckofish

So I am back from adventuring in Arkansas with daughter #1. But you will have to wait til tomorrow to hear about it I’m afraid. Suffice it to say, we had a super fun time. And I drove the whole way–363 miles, 5 hours each way!

Yay me.

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Tag: travel

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