Heading south through the fire areas

A picture of Mickey for Hildie!

Today is Thursday, August 16. Since leaving Eugene on Tuesday we have not done much except drive south on Highway 5 and 99. When we got to Grants Pass on Tuesday we started noticing the smoke smell and hazy sky. The sun was really red just before sunset. There were many signs on buildings and hanging from the overpasses thanking the firemen and first responders for their efforts in fighting the fires. We really saw very little evidence of burned land and trees. I think it was all to the west of where we were. I picked up a map of the Taylor Creek and the Klondike Fires.They were both started by lightning on July 15 - a month later they are still less than 50% contained. Between the two fires there were about 1500 people fighting it. Since 2002 there have been 4 other major fires in this area.

I was worried about going through Redding because that was also in the middle of the Ranch Fire a couple weeks ago. However, once we got south of Medford the sky cleared and we saw no more evidence of fire. We even saw a sign that Yosemite was now open, so thank heavens for our fire fighters. Although I know the fires are not over yet.

One of the nights I wanted to stay in a National Forest camp site (we have given up on State Parks). However, it turns out they have established a policy of only selling sites by reservation. You can pick one out, but you still have to have Internet access to go to the Web site, reserve the spot, and pay by credit card. We decided that was too complicated and went to a private campground instead! Tonight we are in another private campground in Fresno.

Looking forward to getting home

Into Oregon

Along the Oregon Coast

On Sunday, August 12, we left the Redwoods behind and crossed the border into Oregon. 101 becomes the Pacific Coast Scenic Trail and it definitely fulfills that title. We could see the rugged coast line from many spots. We were traveling through pine forests which had probably been logged over at least twice. The towns were mainly supported by logging, fishing, and tourism. At one point we were supposed to see cranberry bogs - they seemed to be missing! We did stop in Bandon to buy cranberry candy at a store called Cranberry Sweets.

We spent the night in Coos Bay, dry camping at the Mill Casino. On Monday we found the Pancake Mill across from the Mill Casino. The line was long, and the food was good! We continued the drive along the coast going north. The main feature here is Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. We stopped to look at the dunes, but decided they were too hard to climb. Micky did enjoy running in the sand! When we got to Florence we decided it was time to think about heading south. We drove highway 126 to Eugene and found a camping spot in a beautiful County Park (Armitage CP). We have noticed that many county parks have wonderful camp grounds - clean, camping spots not too close together, reasonably priced, lots of flora and fauna.

All about the Redwoods

Suzanne admires the sculptural tree roots of a fallen tree

Thursday afternoon we started to drive the Avenue of the Giants Scenic Drive. This is a windy two lane road paralleling Highway 101, going through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The road wends its way through forests of these giant trees (taller than Sequoias, but not as massive). There were many places to stop and walk among the trees, enjoying the cooler temperatures, the sculptural root systems of the fallen trees, the stumps left from logging, the 362 foot tall Dyerville Redwood which fell in 1991 and still provides nutrients and living to the other plants and animals, the splintered log of another fallen tree, learning about burls which are actually a cluster of buds which may sprout to grow a new tree.

It's hard to take a picture of the whole tree!

About half way we stopped at Burlington Campground to spend the night. The next day we finished the drive and rejoined 101 to continue north. We got to Eureka and ate at the famous Cookhouse Restaurant. It is on the Register of Historic Places because it was formerly a cookhouse for the Samoan workers. It serves one menu, family style. People sit at long tables and you never know who your neighbor might be!

Since we had no trouble camping last night I thought tonight would also be easy! Not so! The state beach campgrounds were full, so we ended up at a private campground, Emerald Forest.

Don and the burned out tree

By Saturday, I was tired of camping among the redwoods. In spite of their beauty and uniqueness, they make for a dark and sometimes damp campground. Our drive was still through the forests until we got to Crescent City (named for the crescent shape of the bay). We gave up looking for campgrounds and stayed in the WalMart parking lot!

We reached the ocean

Wednesday at the beach

On Wednesday, we left the wine country and headed for the coast on Highway 20. When we got to Highway 1 we started to look for a campsite. I couldn't believe they were still all full - in the middle of the week! We tried Russian Gulch and were directed to Van Damme State Park where we were gifted with a spot in the parking lot right on the beach. Well, that was pretty exciting - watching the waves and all the people in their boats, kayaks, and canoes enjoying the water. It was quite an afternoon.

On Thursday we took a walk in the park's pygmy forest. This is a hard pan area with poor drainage so the soil has become very acidic. Consequently, anything that grows here is very stunted. There are 60 year old cypress trees that are only a few feet tall and the trunks are 1/2 inch in diameter!

Don at the Pygmy Forest

We drove along the rugged coast through old logging towns. This area was the home of the Pomos until the arrival of Russian fur trappers in the early 1800's. It was covered with trees until the brig, Frolic, sank and the salvagers noticed all the trees. So, that started the logging industry. Now, the area is really fueled by tourism. The town of Mendocino is a registered historic district. The homes are still in their original state, including 3 story water towers and outhouses (turned into small dwellings or flower gardens). We headed for the redwoods in the afternoon.

Why State Parks

Model of Apple's new "Spaceship" facility in Cupertino CA

Well, back to square one with my State Parks plan. After driving back to Santa Rosa for breakfast on Tuesday, we headed for Clear Lake State Park. This is a park on the largest natural lake entirely in the state of California. However, when we got there we found it was closed because of the Ranch Fire (the largest ever in the state of California). So, we headed back towards the coast, away from the smoke and ended up in Ukiah. We stayed at the Fairgrounds RV Park.

Ukiah was rather disappointing. We have a map of the spots in California that Huell Howser has visited and this city was on the map. However, it turns out we HAVE been here before and already seen the spots he talked about.

One of my reasons for deciding to support state parks this trip is because it wasn't too long ago that Governor Brown put over 70 park closures in his budget in order to balance it. Due to much hue and outcry. to many citizens groups stepping up to mantain some of the parks, and to raising the rates considerably I think all the parks were saved. When I looked at the list of those he wanted to close, I saw those we had already visited or passed by because they were full including Jack London and Sugarloaf. So, it is very important for all of us to keep supporting these pieces of California's beauty and history.

I also must confess that after passing by so many vineyards and wineries in this part of California (Napa Valley and Sonoma County), we did buy a bottle of wine to enjoy before settling in for the night.

Hanging around Santa Rosa CA

The first night of our trip was Thursday, August 2 (Dad's birthday). We left Santa Monica in the afternoon and drove to Pismo Beach. I had checked the Internet and all the State Parks in this area were full, so we tried a county park that we have stayed at in the past. We lucked out and got the last space at Oceano Beach County Park.

The next 2 days and nights were spent at my Colonial Dames conference in Santa Clara. We remembered that Chris used to live here and that we never had found a camp ground that we really liked. So we just did our usual and stayed in the Wal-Mart parking lot! So, much for my state parks plan!

Suzanne at Santa Clara Mission

On Sunday we went to mass at the Santa Clara Mission which is on the grounds of the Jesuit Santa Clara University. They have a beautiful campus with old mission style buildings and lots of gardens.
This church is the third time they have built the mission church. We also drove through San Francisco and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge.We ended up in Santa Rosa, home of Luther Burbank and lots of old historic buildings. We stayed in Spring Lake Park campground which is on a reservoir and still not a state park!

Finally on Monday, August 5 we hit the jackpot, we found 2 state parks! First we drove to Jack London State Historic Park near Glen Ellen. This is the place where Jack London lived with his wife, Charmiane, and wrote many of his books. However, he found that he really loved farming and experimenting with new ways of growing plants. He took an old, used up piece of land, nurtured it using many techniques from the Chinese and ended up with a vineyard and winery, pigs, horses, and a beautiful green paradise. His tragedy came when the modern home they were building burned (that was Wolf House) and he never quite recovered from that.

Jack London's home

We then drove up to Sugarloaf Ridge State Park to camp. They had several spots left, so we got to choose the best one for us. Sugarloaf was named because there is a volcanic ridge that looks like the sugarloaf cone of crystallized sugar which is how they used to sell sugar. The park also has an observatory, which is only open on weekends.

North on Highway 101

Visiting Museums

     Our last two days in New York turned out to be museum days. Because of the heat we really needed to find indoor activities.

     On Monday, July 2 we headed for the Museum of the City of New York. This is not to be confused with the New York Historical Society Museum and Library which we have toured in the past.The Museum of the City of NY requires a subway ride up Lexington Ave. to 103^rd Street and a walk through a bit of Harlem to the museum on 5^th Avenue. It turned out to be a really interesting museum and one we had not been to before. This is a museum which celebrates and interprets the city. We especially enjoyed the ½ hour movie on the history of New York City from its founding by the Dutch as New Amsterdam to becoming the nation’s largest, most densely populated, most diverse, and most influential city. There was an exhibit on the architecture of Rosario Candela who designed many of the classical apartment buildings which replaced the elegant old mansions on 5^th Avenue and nearby streets. There was also an interesting exhibit on the photographs of Stanley Kubrick when he was a photographer for “Life” magazine before he became a film maker.

    

Don at the Guggenheim

Monday we also visited the Guggenheim Museum which is also on 5 ^th Avenue. They were featuring the sculptures and paintings of Giacometti.

Exhibition of Thomas Bayrle at the New Museum

     Tuesday we headed for the New Museum in The Bowery. It was built in 1977 as an alternative to the Whitney. They both exclusively show case contemporary art. However, the Whitney specializes in American art, while the New Museum specializes in art from all countries. I can’t say we were too impressed by the “art”, but we did enjoy looking around and being someplace cool!

     We finished up the day by wending our way to the China Institute Gallery which is next to the 9/11 Memorial. We had to go through some security to get up to the second floor of the building and look at some beautiful, interesting photographs from various mountain regions in China. I am glad we made the effort to get there.

Cloud shrouded mountain in China 

     And now it is time to get ready to go home tomorrow.

Going to the ballet

     Saturday and Sunday turned out to be days for the ballet. The weather is hot and humid (in the 90’s), so walking around is not fun! Indoors sounds much better!

     On Saturday we got tickets for the American Ballet’s production of “Don Quixote” which was performed at Lincoln Center. It turns out that neither of us has ever seen a live ballet performance and we were quite surprised at how much we enjoyed it. It is the typical story of Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, and the search for his ideal woman, Dulcinea. But it is really a love story between Kitri and Basilio, who must dance and stay together in spite of her father’s wanting to marry her off to the comic character of Gamache, a foppish nobleman. There were lots of beautiful costumes, fantastic leaps and twirls, and a general feeling of beauty, love, and joy throughout the performance. Needless to say the lovers managed to stay together and Don Quixote went on with his search.

     On Sunday we had plans to meet Hildie and Marion for dinner and a show! We went to the Joyce Theater on 8^th Avenue and 18^th Street. We have always loved going to that theater to see dance programs since Don’s cousin turned us on to it years ago. They are having a ballet festival with a different ballet company every few days. The company performing was called BalletX. They are headquartered in Philadelphia, so we have come full circle again! They do contemporary ballet and were quite talented and energetic.

Working on my bucket list

     On Thursday, June 28, it was rainy so we decided to visit the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. It was just a short ride on the subway from our hotel. The museum’s core exhibits explore how moving images throughout history are made, marketed, and shown. It goes from flip books to movies, TV, and digital. There is also a whole section on Jim Henson’s career which brought back many memories of Sesame Street and the Muppet Show. We enjoyed watching the movie on Jim Henson behind the Seams (how muppets are made) and one of the Muppet shows featuring Bob Hope.

     Friday was another day to make a dent in my bucket list of NYC activities. We started out by visiting the Church of the Ascension on 5^th Avenue. It is a National Historic Site, but it was closed and no sign of a visitor center or a National Parks Passport Stamp!

"Delirious Matter" in Madison Square Park

     Our next stop was the Museum of Math at Madison Square Park. This is a 5 year old museum and looks like a lot of fun playing with math. It would be worth a visit when we have more time. We walked through Madison Square Park and looked at the art installation, six sculptures by Diana Al-Hadid, called "Delirious Matter."

     At Washington Square we stopped in the Grey Art Gallery, one of many sponsored by NYU. I loved the brass painted “weeds” that one of the artists had “growing” along the floor and some of the walls.

  

Grey Art Gallery at NYU

Merchant's House Museum

     The Merchant’s House Museum on 4^th Street was built in 1832 as a home for the Tredwell family. It is a 5 story brownstone and is still filled with the family’s original furnishings. It is basically one room wide. I managed to struggle up the stairs to see everything except the servant’s quarters on the top floor.

      Our final stop was the Judd Foundation on Spring Street and Mercer. This is in a 5 story cast iron building where the artist Donald Judd had his home, office, and studio. It is open for tours, but we only spent time looking at the installation of 12 extruded aluminum works in 12 anodized colors on the ground floor - slightly under whelming!

     We finished our day with a ride on the free Staten Island ferry to Staten Island and back.

Using our Metro Pass

     I have a long list of things to do in New York City, so on our second day, June 26, we decided to make a dent in that list! We started the day by buying our 7 day metro pass. It is still a bargain at $16 for seniors and usable on the bus and subway. 

     We headed north on Lexington to 77^th Street. We walked over to 5^th Avenue to find a bookstore I had read about. It was in a beautiful old mansion now being used for the French Cultural Institute. 5^th Avenue is filled with these old mansions converted to hotels, consulates, museums and other utilitarian buildings. The bookstore was closed!

     Our next stop was the Carlyle Hotel on 76^th Street near Park Avenue. This is another venerable old building built in the 1920’s with a very classic bar completely decorated with murals painted by Ludwig Bemelmans, the author of the Madeline children’s books. It was quite delightful to look at.

Wind Sculpture (SG)1

     From there we took the bus on 5^th Avenue alongside Central Park to the Arsenal Building. This was built before the park as a storage place for ammunition. It has always been owned by the city and has had many uses. Now it is surrounded by the zoo and houses the park offices. There is a gallery on the third floor and we looked at a special photography exhibit.

The hostas at Mt. Vernon Hotel & Gardens

     From Central Park we wended our way to the Mt. Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden at 421 E. 61^st Street. It was built in 1799 as a carriage house, converted into a hotel in 1826 for New Yorkers to escape the crowded city below 14^th St, and has been preserved as a museum. We enjoyed the hosta filled gardens, but decided not to take the tour of the hotel. The Queens Bridge now looms over the building – what must it have been like in the 1800’s?

Don, Suzanne, Marion & Hildie at the theatre

     That was it for Tuesday and on Wednesday we spent time with my friend, Hildie and her friend Marion. We met at the Greek restaurant, Dafni on 42^nd Street. From there we walked to the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater to see the play “The Iceman Cometh.” I enjoyed the intricacies of the story and the characters, Don wasn’t so thrilled! Before we met Hildie we had looked for the New York Genealogical Society (they moved), visited the Art Student's League to see the new paintings for sale, and checked out the Museum of Arts and Design on Columbus Circle (worth a future visit).

First Days in New York City

     On Sunday, June 24 we left from Reagan Airport in DC to fly to Kennedy Airport in New York City. We have taken the train from DC to NYC several times in the past and decided to try the plane for a change. Even though it takes less than an hour on the plane and closer to 4 hours on the train, I still think the train is better. We seemed to have a lot of walking in the airport and then, when we landed, it took a couple of hours to wend our way via the air train and subway to our hotel on 48^th and Lexington.

     We have a large room with king size bed and kitchenette on the 9^th floor of the Marriott Residence Inn. This is the same area called Turtle Bay where we stayed when we first started to come to New York in the 1990’s. By the time we got to the hotel on Sunday we were exhausted and didn’t do much besides settle in and look for a place for dinner.

     So, on our first full day we were ready to look around and see what was available for fun things to do. Don studied the bus routes and planned our itinerary for the day. After carrying the map all day yesterday he decided that putting the app on his phone with all the maps was a wonderful idea and we have suddenly entered the smart phone age!

A floating flower on Fifth Avenue

     We have breakfast included with our hotel, so we started with that. Then we headed off  to Lincoln Center to see what was new. We thought we might try the American Ballet and check out the Asian film Festival later in the week. Across the street is the David Rubenstein Atrium which has air conditioned public seating, rest rooms, and a TKS box office to buy discount tickets. They also have free concerts on Thursday evening. We will be back.

     From there it was a short walk to Columbus Circle to stop in the Shops at Columbus Circle where you can find most of the high end stores. We looked around in Amazon Books – Amazon’s first endeavor into brick and mortar shopping. Whole Foods also has a presence, so we bought some cookies and ate our lunch there.

     After an abortive trip to TKS in Times Square which didn’t open until 3, we decided to head back to the hotel and call it a day.We had dinner around the corner at the Comfort Diner. It turns out we had eaten there in 1997 when we were staying in Don’s cousin Frank’s co-op apartment. We’ve come full circle!

A week in Washington DC

     I will try to cover our week in Washington DC with this blog. We were there to attend the 127^th DAR Continental Congress. It is held in Constitution Hall, which is in the neoclassical building owned and maintained by the National Society DAR. There are business meetings, workshops, luncheons, evening award ceremonies, and lots of socializing.

The All American DAR Chorus

     I sang with the All American DAR Chorus. My goddaughter, Samantha, joined me and it was a lot of fun sharing the trials and joys of singing together with 100 other voices during the Thursday evening ceremony.

     We attended one special luncheon called Units Overseas luncheon and shopping bazaar. DAR has about 15 units headquartered in various other countries and we are encouraged to join them as Associate Members. This luncheon was sponsored by them. They all brought merchandise representative of their country and we had an hour or so to shop and support them. It was fun to see all the different items they brought and spend some money!

Newly refurbished Constitution Hall

     My favorite activity is spending time in the magnificent DAR Library doing genealogy research. I was lucky this year and found quite a bit of information. They have installed 2 scanners and 2 copiers for saving information you want to keep. I learned the difference between copying and scanning and decided I still liked copying best!

     My husband and Holly’s husband got to spend the time bonding over household repairs, fixing computers, visiting the Cryptology Museum at Ft. Mead, and the Smithsonian complex in DC. We enjoyed several good meals including Pho, pizza, crab cakes, liver and onions, and Reuben sandwiches.

Philadelphia

     It has been over a week since we left home on Friday, June 14, 2018, so it is about time for me to start telling you about our trip!  It has developed into a 3-parter. For the first part we went to Philadelphia, the second part was in Washington DC, the third part is in New York City.

     For Philadelphia – we flew into Washington DC and our friends, the Shaffers, picked us up at the airport. We stayed at their daughter’s house in Alexandria and drove to Philadelphia on Saturday. Holly grew up here, so she was happy to give us a tour of her former haunts!

Washington Crossing the Delaware

     Our main stop was the new Museum of the American Revolution. I am not much for museums, so I did not really know what to expect. We had a tour guide who made history come alive for us and made the whole museum come alive. I learned so much about the Revolution and wish I could tell you everything. We learned that the Stamp Act was one of the first things to happen. Great Britain felt they needed some financial help from the colonies to help cover the debts from the French and Indian War. The Americans felt they had done enough! So, it was grounds for conflict no matter what. The stamp was made by a metal stamp which made an impression on the items to be taxed (not a postage stamp!).

     The first real battle was Lexington – Concord and the conflict went on from there. There were many battles and situations that helped the colonists defeat the British who were much better prepared for fighting. There were videos and displays showing these battles.

     One of my favorite things was the diorama of the Statue of King George which was pulled down after the Declaration of Independence. It was made of gilt paint over lead and they used the lead to make muskets balls to fight the British. Just recently they found a musket ball with some gold paint – one of the few left known to be made from the statue!

     Many artifacts are stored in the museum, but not normally on public view. One of these is Washington’s tent that he lived in for most of the time of the War. He believed in being where his soldiers were. We saw a video about this and then a scrim opened to show the actual tent set up on the stage. What a moving sight – the lighting and the changing background made you believe you were seeing it just as Washington would have when he was living in the tent. They only do this two times a year, so we were lucky to see the actual tent.

     After visiting the museum we had dinner at the City Tavern where Thomas Jefferson and other famous Philadelphians ate.

     

Samantha, Bob, Holly & Suzanne at Brandywine River Museum

On Sunday we headed back to Washington DC. We stopped at the Brandywine River Museum of Art. It is located along the beautiful Brandywine River (another Revolutionary War site). The museum features paintings by N.C. Wyeth and his son Andrew. There were many paintings by other members of his family and by painters whom he taught in his studio, which was located not too far away.