Easter in Charleston!

Once more I was on the road (or rather, in the sky), this time to visit my sister Cate and her boyfriend Tom in lovely Charleston, SC.  I'd never been to Charleston before, and very few other southern cities, so it was quite the experience.

First, we wandered the battery (basically a walk along an ocean wall) and though it was warm and sunny, it was very windy.  We also wandered through the incredibly posh houses or, rather, mansions that line the streets around this area and I was blown away by the opulence and charm.

Trying not to be blown away

 Cate, testing her oft admir'd Bean Boots

I had arrived on a Wednesday and Cate had managed to get Thursday and Friday off!  So we were prepared for some adventures.  Here's Cate pointing out one such adventure in Charles Town Landing:

 

 Charles Town Landing is a lovely park/preserve/zoo/animal rehabilitation center/museum/archaeological dig/reenactment place/plantation.  It was chock full of history and lovely nature scenes, as well as animals like bison, a lynx, and red wolves.  Plus, it was a gorgeous day.

 

 Cate made me do it.

We also climbed to the center of the Ravenel Bridge this day, which gave us some really nice views of Cooper River and the many boats passing beneath the bridge (including one of Cate's Coast Guard boats!).  We later decided to let all that history and culture sink in by lying/reading/napping by the pool.

The next day was rather overcast and calling for rain, but we managed to fit in yet more sightseeing despite this.  We visited the famous Angel Oak (named, as the signs said, not only for the angelic aura around the tree . . . but also because a family with the last name of Angel owned the land at one point).  It was quite impressive and stately.

That's me in front of it.

 And we also visited Fresh City Market . . . or maybe it was Strawberry Fields Village . . . Market on the Fields?  I could never remember what it was called.  ANYWAY, it was a quaint little touristy market and we found some delicious lunch there to eat by the water.  Then, deciding we would tour the Provost's Dungeon in downtown Charleston, we found only a horde of tourists just off the boat (the cruise boat) and absolutely no parking spots.  Quickly revising our plans, we eventually made it out of downtown (those horse-drawn carriages are real road-hogs) and back to the apartment for some R&R before later seeing Casablanca in an old movie theater!  This was a real treat for me, and now Cate can say she's seen it all the way through.  That night it rained buckets.

Tom made it back from his work trip that night, so the next day we three traveled back downtown to King Street (famous center of shopping and fun) and though the farmer's market was rained out (despite the rain having finally stopped), we made a point to visit a delicious gourmet doughnut shop called Glazed and treated ourselves.  I'm afraid I was boring and got chocolate glazed with sprinkles, but Cate got maple bacon and was kind enough to give me a taste.  Bacon really goes well on anything, I tell you.

That afternoon . . . well, I'll just show you.

 Cate with the .45

Me with the .22

So that happened.  Thanks to Tom for teaching me! Though we're not entirely sure whose is whose here, I'm fairly confident at least the two I've circled were mine (or partially mine, I think Cate got the green cap, too).

That night we went to a groovy pizza place called the Mellow Mushroom (delicious) and finally on Sunday we spent an easy day cooking and enjoying our delicious Easter meal before I had to head home to New Hampshire.

 

 Charleston is a lovely city and I was so happy to see my sister!  We had loads of fun, and I can't wait to go back.  Be warned, Cate and Tom, be warned.  Also, next time I need to try some hushpuppies; put it on the list.

National Book Festival, 2013

Another successful trip to DC!  My goals in going this time were, first, to visit my sister Michelle and brother-in-law Ryan (of course), and, second, to attend the National Book Festival!  Very exciting!  There were some amazing authors speaking, including Tamora Pierce, a favorite from my youth (and today), and the chance to be among so many like-minded people was irresistible! Other authors included Linda Ronstadt, Margaret Atwood, Jon Scieszka, Mario Livio, and Khaled Hosseini.  It was amazing to be in the same tent with them and by and large they were smart, interesting, and really, really funny.

So Michelle and Ryan acted the tour guides and we saw many of the DC sites that I missed on my first trip.

National Portrait Gallery

Patent Office Exhibit

 

National Archives

(Where we viewed the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights)

 

We saw them setting up for the Book Festival

 

 

A Nationals Game!  They won!

Cupcakes in Georgetown . . . at two different places.

This is the magic that happens when you're out with Michelle and Ryan

 

 

Library of Congress!

Gorgeous building, amazing institution.

 

 

Capitol Building tour: the most touristy thing I'll ever do,

but interesting stuff and another amazing building.

 

Lots of walking this day, but lovely weather!

Sunset over the Lincoln Memorial

(World War II Memorial in the foreground)

Air and Space Museum

We went to an after-hours, VIP viewing of the Da Vinci Codex !!!

So amazing.

 

Sah-WEEEET!

All the fans waiting in line for Tamora Pierce.

This even after we had waited an hour; we started on the grass beyond the path.

Made it to the front!  She's super sarcastic and witty, just my kind of person.



 

 

  These are just a sampling of all that we did, not including the amazing food we ate at such fabulous restaurants as Shake Shack, Zaytinya, and Founding Farmers.  Delicious!  It was a great weekend and I'm looking forward to my next trip!  Thanks to Michelle and Ryan for touring me around and putting up with all my book babbling.  Also, thanks to Pam and Doug for giving me a room and bringing me along to the baseball game and the Da Vinci exhibition -- I had a wonderful time!

Inauguration 2013 and The District

Once more I have been traveling!  And what fun I've had.  I'll admit, I'd forgotten what walking all day does to the feet, but if I soon was forcibly reminded of this, I also quickly remembered that it's always worth it in the end.  This time I was off to DC and it's environs for 4 fun-filled days as a tourist.  As you may have figured out, this was during President Obama's second Inauguration and yes! I did attend-- my plethora of pictures (and my aching everything) can attest to that fact.

This long Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend happened because of several fortuitous circumstances.  First, my elder sister Michelle and her husband Ryan now live in Arlington, VA and had been hounding (yes! hounding!) me to visit.  Second, the long weekend meant I had most of the four days off, and the schedulers at my jobs very kindly gave me the rest.  And finally, my younger sister Cate, as a cadet at the Coast Guard Academy, had been selected to march in the Inaugural parade.  All good reasons to hop on a plane and go south, so I did!

Saturday I flew in early and explored the Mall as well as several other landmarks.  Preparations for the Inauguration were already well underway, and we had a preview of the crowds of people who would be attending on Monday.  The white stuff we're standing on is interlocking plastic platforms which protect the grass from trampling feet (the last Inauguration devastated the Mall lawn) while allowing water and sun through.  It was very comfortable to walk on, too.

On the Mall, facing the Capitol Building

 





The Capitol Reflecting Pool and Capitol Building

 

Reveling in front of the Library of Congress

 

The best view of the White House I could manage with

all the fencing and the large viewing booth in the way.

 

 

Sunday was especially fun as we drove over to Annapolis to meet up with my sister Cate and her boyfriend Tom, who were staying at the Naval Academy until they marched in the Parade.  Annapolis is a lovely and tourist-friendly port city and the Academy can only be described as impressive and stately.  We had a lovely day walking around and some delicious food along the way.

 



Fun with statues.  You may note that Ryan had some fun

and placed his phone in the statue's hand.

 

Best group around.

 

 

 

Monday morning was a trial.  4am wake-up, then in the District (as people in the know say) by 5 am.

 



Arriving at the security tent to enter the streets around the parade route.

 

We watched the sky lighten and the crowds grow minute by minute, and of course this was the coldest day of my whole trip-- it didn't get much above 40 degrees the whole day.  The crowd started out in a loose line, but eventually everyone was huddling together to preserve heat, like penguins.  The security tent was supposed to open by 6:30am, but we weren't allowed through until 8am.

Our view behind us after a couple hours of waiting in "line."

 

Finally we did get through, though, and managed to find a prime spot on the barricade right at the corner of Pennsylvania and 15th where the parade turns right toward the White House.  Perfect, we thought, now we just have to wait . . . another 5 1/2 hours.  I'll skip over the cold, the boredom, the general uncomfortableness of the day and get to the good stuff.  We saw the President go by on his way from the White House to the Capitol (which was a surprise), then waited another 4 hours before the parade's delayed start.  We were there for two things: President Obama (who was at the beginning of the parade), and Cate, who was at the end of the parade.  Due to delays it was well past dark when Cate finally went by, but we made it-- and the thrill of seeing my little sister marching in the Inaugural parade was worth the wait!  Here are some videos of these two events that aren't great, due to (1) the darkly tinted windows of the president's car, and (2) the lack of light when the Coast Guard Academy went by.  Enjoy anyway!

 

 



You can kind of see him through the window!  Sorry for the screaming, that was the woman next to me who nearly fainted from excitement.

Cate is the third row (with rifles) from the back and fourth from the right.  Best view is at 00:30.

Her boyfriend Tom is second row (with rifles) from the front, second from the left.

So there it is!  My fun-filled weekend in the capital. Pretty exciting stuff.  Thanks to my hosts for the trip, Doug and Pam, and to my wonderful tour guides, Michelle and Ryan, who I miss already!  I'm looking forward to my next visit!



Picturing London

Please enjoy my last assignment: a photo book of my time in London!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Visit Shutterfly.com to create your own personalized photobook.

Home Again

    The toilets in Ireland are the worst.  There are two kinds: those that flush, then take about 10 minutes to refill the tank, and those that don’t flush.  Besides the notorious roads, this is really all I can complain about in Ireland.  While I preferred the countryside, the cities we passed through were fairly clean and friendly.  Plus, the ancient castles were amazing; the weather was beautiful (this amazed our tour guides); the countryside was gorgeous; and the sheep were fairly well behaved.  We started and finished in Dublin, and along the way we stopped in Cong (where John Wayne filmed “The Quiet Man”), Kylemore Abbey, Galway, Cliffs of Moher, Dunguaire Castle, Annascaul, Dingle, Kilarney, Cork, Blarney (as in the Blarney Stone), Cahir, then back to Dublin, and all the beautiful landscape in between.

Mom and Dad at Kylemore Abbey

  Halfway through we switched buses and drivers.  Martin was as excellent a guide as Barry, but the bus was even larger than our last, if it can be believed.  Scary stuff on those roads.  We joined another tour that was partway through a 6 day trip, and it was full of Aussies.  They weren’t even all together; there were at least 4 different groups of Australians on the one bus.  All excessively good-natured and ridiculously good-looking.  I’m afraid my parents and I were the fuddy-duddies of the group.  When we stopped each night and settled in to our lodgings we ate dinner then called it a night while everyone else headed out to the pub.

Our favorite B&B, Inspiration Lodge in Annascaul

I really think one can’t fully appreciate a tour through Ireland if one doesn’t enjoy drinking alcohol to excess.  Our guide, while introducing one small coastal town, called it “a wee drinking village with a fishing problem.”  All in good fun, of course.

A beautiful view at the Cliffs of Moher

  Overall, I think I enjoyed the beautiful views the most.  And even though I took many, many pictures, I don’t think I got any that did those views justice.  I guess you’ll all just have to visit Ireland yourselves to find out what I mean.

  It’s certainly been an adjustment being back in the US.  Not just the time difference, but being out in rural NH is a big change from central London.  Also, I’m afraid I keep thinking people are driving on the wrong side of the road, which is a problem.  I am glad to be back among my family and friends, and to get back into my routine.  But I hope you will all follow me on my blog again when I’m back in London someday.

Cheers!

Lions of London: A Prezi-tation

Though the "explore London" part of my summer is over, I'm still finishing up a few more assignments before the class portion is done.  Please enjoy my Prezi on the history of the lion in England, and the many places you might see it represented around the city of London.

(It's best to go through the Prezi using the right arrow at the bottom, not the autoplay.)

Lions of London on Prezi

Ireland: The Tour(ism) Begins

  Well, my friends, my adventure comes to a close.  I finally made it home on Monday night, tired but better for my travels, and then promptly did nothing on Tuesday.  Now I’m rested and ready to fill you in on my trip since I left London.

   After bidding a sorrowful goodbye to my flatmates, I caught the train from Euston Station to Holyhead Port, which is on the west coast of England.  From there I was herded onto a huge ferry, which was more like a cruise ship than what comes to mind when I hear “ferry.”  What surprised me was the lack of security.  Here I am expecting to go through the pre-flight gauntlet of checkpoints:  I’ve got my passport out, I’ve got two other forms of ID at the ready just in case, I’ve got shoes that are easy to take off to go through the scanner . . . but the officials wanted none of it.   Just my ticket, thank you very much, and what’s your name?  She didn’t even check any IDs.  My backpack had to go through a scanner, but I didn’t.  OK, I think, they’re just a bit more relaxed about this than I'm used to.   So I join a crowd of other people sitting in the waiting room and wait for them to call my ferry over the PA system.  Instead, a man in a reflective vest walks through the room and says “Would you all like to follow me now, please?”  then leads us all onto busses to be transported out to the ferry.  And no one checked my boarding pass.  It all went very smoothly and was very easy, but I’m afraid I’m a bit suspicious of too easy and it left me disoriented (or “disorientated” as one of our Irish hosts said).  Anyway, despite my misgivings we made it safely to port and I managed to get myself to Dublin centre where I found my parents, who had arrived earlier in the day.  It was a joyous reunion capped by a lovely dinner in the pub attached to the hotel.  O’Shea’s gave me a perfectly adequate room and I was expecting to sleep well that night after all the traveling.  But, alas, I found this a bit difficult for when I had just laid down mine head upon the pillow the live music started up just below me.  It was wonderful music, to be sure, but a bit loud for sleeping.  Ireland, whatcha gonna do?

    Well, we started off early the next morning on our Paddywagon bus tour with our driver/tour guide Barry. 

Our very discreet bus.

He was quite funny and really knew his Irish history, but are you aware of how narrow the roads are in Ireland?  Or of how close the vehicles pass each other on the road?  I’m here to tell you:  very narrow, and very close.  I am truly shocked that we didn’t scrape the side of the bus, at least, not to mention hit another car, careen off the side of a cliff, or hit any of the sheep that cross the country roads willy-nilly.  There were moments when I thought any or all of those would happen.  I had to keep reminding myself that the driver was very experienced at his job and that he didn’t want to die any more than I did. It was distressing but, after all, I am here to tell you the tale of our harrowing journey.  And for those of you who are acquainted with my mother, you’ll understand that if I was a bit nervy about the driving, she deserves a medal for not having a nervous breakdown.  Despite some scary moments on the roads, we had a great time and saw some gorgeous landscapes.

 So I’ll leave you for now with this little teaser, and will post again soon about the places we saw, the people we met, and (for my sister Michelle) the food that we ate.