Scholar or Colossus?

So very early in the morning we boarded an island hopper to go from

Dolphin sculpture at the harbor

Athens to Rhodes. We were all sad that Constantine and/or Harry were not going to be there to meet us and drive for us, but new adventures awaited. The principal city on the island of Rhodes is Rhodes – not at all confusing. In long ages gone by there was supposed to be a giant statue that guarded the harbor: the Colossus. There is nothing on the island that overtly points to any ruins of this bygone wonder and although I knew we wouldn’t see it, I was vaguely disappointed.

Having Basil in Basel, Switzerland

For several weeks I’ve been writing about the history of small towns in

Boy and Fish Fountain

Texas. The next few blogs concern the much older cities we visited on our trip from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Netherlands. Basel is in northwestern Switzerland on the Rhine River. We arrived a couple of days early to allow for jet lag and do some sightseeing on our own. Our first surprise was that the EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg is actually in France, and if you go out the wrong door, you end up with taxis that only go to France. However, the cabbies are used to confused tourists and kindly helped us get to the Swiss transportation. Basel, essentially, is located at the nexus of Switzerland, France and Germany with suburbs in each country. It’s not surprising that although the official language is the Swiss variety of standard German, many people speak French and English as a matter of course.

Around the Island (Γύρω από το νησί)

House in Margarites

On our last day in Crete we hopped on a tour bus for a trip around the island. Again, I saw scenery I hadn’t expected on this island and heard mythology I was completely unfamiliar with – I didn’t know that Hera was the second wife of Zeus. It’s great to learn new things! If I could do this trip, again, I’d do it in reverse order – this tour first, then Knossos, then time spent exploring Chania – I think it would help to put things in a more historical perspective and allow me to more closely investigate this unique part of the world.

Weaving to Weaverville

Main Street in Weaverville

Although I’ve been to the Asheville area several times, I haven’t ventured far from that city. However, this year Linnea and I heard about an art festival in Weaverville. This is a town with a population of about 3000 people just to the north of Asheville. It’s going to be worth another visit whether there is an art festival or not!

Inside the Amon G Carter Museum of American Art

Museum Entrance

Dave enjoys the art of Thomas Hart Benton and there was an exhibition of his works at The Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth. Since I’m pretty much up for any adventure, off we went. It was a bright day, but the wind was blowing a gale, so rather than wander through the park-like areas surrounding the museum, we hurried inside. One of the nice things about the Amon Carter is that it’s free all of the time – and the traveling exhibitions are free, as well. I hadn’t been to this museum in probably ten years, but I remembered it as a collection of western art. That is no longer the case.

Rockin’ to Rockport

Aransas Bay

It’s been a warm winter in Texas, but we needed a couple of days out of town so we headed for one of our favorite places on the coast, Rockport. This little city is on Live Oak Peninsula between Copano and Aransas bays. It got its name from the rock ledge beneath its shore and has spent most of its history as a commercial seaport. Founded just after the Civil War and incorporated as a city in 1871, it originally supported beef packing plants, but with the withdrawing of rail service to move these products, companies failed leaving only the fishing industry to support the population. However, boatbuilding, fishing and tourism, once rail service returned to the area, developed as important industries in Rockport. In the late 1800s, residents began investigations into the feasibility of a deep-water harbor that required a channel through the sand bar at Aransas Pass. This plan didn’t come to fruition until 1922 with the harbor finally completed in 1926. Rockport, the seat of Aransas County finally completed the courthouse, designed by James Riely Gordon, in 1889. Downtown Rockport still has some of the buildings from the early days; most of these house art galleries and shops. The owners are friendly and helpful, even if you don’t buy anything. Since we’d come down for the Rockport Clay Expo and Bountiful Bowl Pottery Fair, we also spent some time wandering the shops looking for treasures. The pottery fair benefits the local Meals on Wheels Program and happily Cindy the Potter as one of the exhibitors. Not only do I like her work, but it’s good to be able to support the Meals on Wheels Program.

Cruisin’ in Keller

Life has conspired to keep us in town for many days, but that hasn’t stopped the Near-

Sharp-shinned hawk in oak

Normal Travelers from visiting some of the local parks and eateries. We’d seen, from posts on Next Door, that some folks in our neighborhood didn’t know about the plethora of good restaurants in the area, so this inspired the topic of this blog. Of course, the majority of places to eat are Tex-Mex, but there are several other options available. Before we actually moved to Keller, all I knew was that it was a rural town that had schools with good athletic programs; they beat our school in baseball, football, and basketball, regularly. Keller, located fifteen miles north of Fort Worth, is in the western edge of the Eastern Cross Timbers ecosystem.

Where in the world will I go next?

Through the Arkansas woods

A question that I often hear when I talk about going to far-flung parts of the world is about safety. I used to say that I don’t go anywhere that isn’t safe. However, the threats from terrorist groups have raised concerns about traveling to third world countries.  After thinking about my options, I’ve decided that fear of what might happen is not going to prevent me from traveling to the places I really want to go. My biggest concern has always been keeping track of my travel documents, and it still is. My second worry, and it’s just slightly less chilling than losing a passport, is how to keep the images I take secure. So what can you do to make sure that your documents and images are protected?

The Best of 2015 – Activities

Cynthia and Dave on a rainy day in Hawaii

This is part two of the year-end round-up and has to do with the activities we thought were fun, exciting, interesting, and so forth. For information about my rating system, see Reading the Reviews. If you'd like to see the blogs that describe these undertakings, just follow the links at the end of each short description.

Retreating in San Diego and Reviews

Dome of new San Diego Public Library

In the 1990s I spent several summers teaching hands-on science to elementary teachers in San Diego, California. It was also in this lovely city that I acquired my obsession with tiny glass beads and my passion for making beaded jewelry. So when the opportunity arose to come back to one of my favorite places and to indulge my appetite for beady creations, I didn’t hesitate. On all of my previous visits, the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wildlife Park were on my list of things to do, but this time I decided to forego these two favorites for the exploration of some places I hadn’t seen. Each earlier visit had also required that I rent a car, but on this occasion I decided to use other methods of transportation to get around the city; this turned out to be a good idea.

Pausing in Paris

Bridge over Seine River

Paris is one of my all-time favorite cities! Perhaps the only thing I don’t like is the number of tourists. As we wandered the streets, renewing old acquaintances with landmarks and eateries, it dawned on me that I’ve never been to Paris without a jacket and without needing a raincoat. This trip was no exception; we got damp and chilly, but it didn’t dull our enthusiasm. I was surprised, however, at the increase in the number of people who spoke to us in English. This doesn’t mean that you don’t need any French to travel in France. Having a few phrases (please, thank you, where is, I would like, what does it cost, etc.) are always helpful, particularly if the person with whom you are dealing has the same level of English as you do of French. And being polite goes a long way toward getting folks to communicate with you. Although the French have a reputation for being surly and rude, I have not found this to be the case; rude people are everywhere and there are no more in France than in the US. As a population, they are more likely to speak more than one language and are much more tolerant of poorly spoken French than Americans are of poorly spoken English.

Two Sides of Southlake and Restaurant Review

Large house in Southlake

When I think of the Southlake area I generally think of grand homes and upscale shopping complexes. However, there is another side to this fashionable community. Although not incorporated until 1956, Southlake was first settled in the 1840s. It was part of a group of small settlements that included Dove, Jellico, Union Church and Whites Chapel.

Known for the growing of cotton and melons, the Dove Community began in the 1870s. The addition of a store, post office and Lonesome Dove School helped solidify the town, as did the Lonesome Dove Baptist Church and Cemetery. The construction of Lake Grapevine caused some families to relocate and the annexation by Southlake put an end to the Dove Community, but remnants of it still exist. Another small town, Jellico, was established in the late 1880s. It consisted of a post office, a cotton gin,

Top: Log house
Bottom: Barn at Bob Jones Environmental Center

blacksmith shop, grist mill, syrup press, and school. With the waning of cotton prices, the town failed. Union Church probably had the same history as these other tiny towns, but it seems to have faded into history ~ or at least I can’t find anything about it. White's Chapel was actually not a town but a Methodist Church with its community that grew up around it. It began as a log meetinghouse and was the first Methodist church in this area. Eventually a school and a cemetery were built. While Dove, Jellico, Union, and White’s Chapel schools all served this area, the school that led to the development of the Southlake-Carroll school system was the Carroll school. In 1919 the school had three teachers to instruct 97 students in nine grades in a wooden building. It continued to serve as an elementary school until 1970.

Arkansas Art and Reviews

Yellow wildflowers

I’d heard about the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and since it's spring I thought it would be nice to drive up to the northwestern corner of Arkansas. I’d expected lots of wild flowers and was a bit disappointed that they hadn’t made their appearance yet, but the vistas were still lovely in their shades of new spring green. One of my favorite places to go in either the fall or the spring is Queen Wilhelmina State park. Getting to the museum and back was surely going to consume more than one day, so an overnight at the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge seemed like a great idea. Just like the late-blooming flowers, the lodge was a late-bloomer, opening this summer after extensive renovations. Oh well, the views from the Talimena Scenic Drive were lovely.

Old Time O’ahu

L to R: Tantalus Drive, Tantalus Park, Song bird

Granted, winter in Texas generally isn’t too bad, but the forecasters were calling for freezing rain, sleet, and ice. We wanted to go where it was warm, so it was off to Hawai’i! The most inexpensive place to land is ‘The Gathering Place’, O’ahu; so three Near-Normal Travelers (along with another 100 thousand or so tourists) arrived to visit about 900,000 of our closest friends. Locals (any resident of Hawai’i) don’t use directions when navigating this rhomboid-shaped island; ‘ewa’ is toward the western tip of the island, ‘Diamond Head’ is to the eastern tip, ‘mauka’ is in the direction of the mountains and ‘makai’ is headed for the sea. The island is divided into five or six sections, depending on who you are talking to: ‘Town side’ (roughly Halawa to just below Diamond Head), ‘West Oʻahu’ (Pearl Harbor to Kapolei and Ewa),  ‘North Shore’ (all of the northwestern coast), ‘Windward Side’ (all the northeastern coast); ‘East Side’ (the eastern part of the island, overlapping ‘Windward Side’ and east Diamond Head), and ‘The Valley’ (Pearl Harbor northwest to Haleiwa). One of the drives we try to take early on to get oriented to the island is the road up and around Tantalus crater. This is a wonderfully scenic drive that immerses you into ferns, palm trees, giant philodendrons and other Hawaiian plants you’re expecting to see. Stopping along the way let us look out on different parts of O’ahu and begin to make our plans for what we want to see and in what order. Of course, plans change as opportunities arise. This time we were determined to see some areas we had not visited before.

Domes, Domes and More Domes

Gospodnya

Probably one of the biggest changes that resulted from Khrushchev leaving office was the re-emergence of religious practices. This also opened opportunities for the restoration and reconstruction of historical places of worship, monasteries, convents, and rectories. And Orthodox churches are among the most beautiful, both inside and out. One of the questions that arises when visiting these sites is, ‘What is the difference between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church?’ There are literally hundreds of websites that talk about the differences in belief associated with Catholicism and with Orthodoxy, some with truly heated debates of the issues. The DifferenceBetween.net provides a rather succinct list without assigning value to either side. There isn’t quite as much vitriol about how the church governances are structured: the Catholic Church is headed by the Pope in Rome, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) is headed by the Patriarch in St Petersburg (Leningrad). Although the Russian government has been accused as making the Russian Orthodoxy the ‘official religion’, we

Mountains of Art

Seven years ago I was lucky enough to attend the Bead Retreat created by Carol Wilcox Wells, an extremely talented bead weaving artist. Each year since then I’ve journeyed to

YMCA grounds, lodge, and beading projects

North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Parkway area to learn new beading techniques and to be inspired by the natural beauty of the Smoky Mountains and the artistic people in our group.  We stay at what I originally thought was an unlikely spot, the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly near Black Mountain. This is a lovely, peaceful expanse in tall trees, and near a trickling stream; it is home to bears, turkeys, and other assorted wildlife. From the front porch rockers you can see the mountains and the clear blue skies. It’s no wonder that we can’t wait to be back together each year. The location is also appealing because we can easily go into town for retail therapy and outstanding food.

Two of my favorite towns near the Blue Ridge Parkway are Black Mountain and Asheville. These artists’ colonies are alive with weavers, painters, jewelers, glass makers and other

Art, time after time

Karlovy Vary park sculpture

There is no excuse in either Germany or Czech Republic to be late because no matter where you look there’s a clock tower. These lovely towers are part of the art that abounds in Bohemia. Most of what I saw was architecture and sculpture. I only visited one museum, which was surprising since I am such a museum addict.

While clocks are on many buildings, towers, and street corners, they represent different periods in history. Some, such as the one advertising Mercedes Benz, is modern while

Clocks in Stuttgart, Strasbourg, and Prague

the sundial on the side of the church and the two astrological clocks are substantially older. The Strasbourg astronomical clock, in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame of Strasbourg, Alsace, France is the third clock located here, dating from 1843. The first clock was built in the 14th century and the second in the 16th century. The clock has a computus (perpetual calendar), an orrery (planetary dial), the current position of the sun and moon, including solar and lunar eclipses, and a rooster that crows three times at noon. At 12:30PM Christ and the Apostles march out of one door and into the other at the top of the clock. In Prague, the Orloj, installed in 1410, is the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working. This is particularly impressive since it is on the southern wall of Old Town City Hall in the Old Town Square. Again, there is a computes, an orrery, and the current position of the sun and moon. Each hour the figure of Death, a skeleton, strikes the time the Apostles parade past two open doors, but don’t venture outside.

Odds and Ends

Tower Bridge

There are always odd and unrelated occurrences on trips. This blog is composed of images that I didn’t fit in anywhere else. For instance, we saw the Tower Bridge and once again did not make the stroll across. We did, however, walk across the new Millennium Bridge from the Tate Gallery of Modern Art to St. Paul’s Cathedral.