Philadelphia, and an update on mom & dad

For Labor Day weekend, Rob and I went to Philadelphia. I had been there before once but I was there for work so I didn't wander around very much. It's only 2.5 hours from the DC area so it was a great pick for a weekend trip.

Our first stop was Eastern State Penitentiary. Built in the 1820s, it was one of the first large prisons in the US. It was intended by its founders to be an all solitary-confinement prison but that did not last into the 20th century. It closed in 1970 and reopened as a historic site in 1994. When I visited briefly five years ago, I still had to wear a hard hat to go inside. No more hard hats and it's a bit more polished now, which I must admit is a bit of a bummer. The prison has a fascinating history which I won't go into here, but if you live in within a few hours drive it's definitely worth a drive!

The first picture shows how the city grew up around the penitentiary. In the middle is the original guard tower, on the right is a newer tower built in the 60s, and in the background is the skyline of Philadelphia. The bottom picture was taken from a catwalk on one of the cell blocks. They do not plan on completely restoring any of the prison, but I love to imagine what it would have looked like.

One of the neat things about Philadelphia is all of the public art. The picture on the left is a statue is called "Government of the People". Rob thought it looked like a bunch of people holding up a giant pile of feces and I can't say I disagree. I wonder if the sculptor was inspired by that thought. On the right is Philadelphia's city hall, also a delightful building. I heard that the best view in the city is from atop city hall.

Philadelphia is just about as saturated with history as the DC area. The picture below is a memorial to all of the soldiers buried in unmarked graves in this public square. The main inscription reads "Freedom is a light for which many men have died in darkness".

Update on my parents . . . they both spent a week in the hospital following their motorcycle accident. They both will need months to be back to normal, and I'm going home in a few days to give my sisters a break and spend the week helping them out. My mom has a broken right ankle which required surgery (no driving for weeks) and my dad has both cracked ribs and vertebrae and a broken right shoulder blade. He has to wear a tight brace around his torso when he is not lying down. I'm very glad that they are going to be okay! Thank you to everyone for the well-wishes.

Looking back on the Michigan trip

A few more pictures from my trip back to Michigan last week, starting with the reason for the trip: the wedding of my friends, Kris and Kevin.

A panorama of the Straits of Mackinac...

... and a few random shots that I like. From left to right and top to bottom:
1, 1: My mom and I went to the farmer's market in Gaylord on Saturday morning, and came back to the car to find an almost identical one parked behind us. In a town of 3,600 people, we were pretty surprised.

1, 2: This was on the van of someone attending the wedding. I've seen this sticker a few times and it always makes me laugh despite not being a big meat-eater.

2, 1: Pat & Bud's grocery store in Elmira was a way-point on my commute to Petoskey that told me I either was almost home or still had a long way to go.

2, 2: This sign was in the Mackinac Bridge History Museum in Mackinac City. You might have to click and see a larger version to get the message of the sign. I'm not sure if it was a joke or not -- I don't know if they had porta-johns when the bridge was being built.

3, 1: This is the site of the house that my family lived in until I was about 12. It burned down a couple of years ago and now the lot looks much, much smaller than I remember. We have a lot of old pictures taken in front of that birch tree.

3, 3: This is the pond at Michaywe' where Kris and Kevin got married.

Another perfect day

I didn't have any plans for my last day here, so I wandered over to Petoskey and then up to visit the Bridge. It was a perfect day, just a tad breezy and in the low 70s. Picknickers were by the shore and boaters were sailing on the straits.

Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam, circumspice.

We drove all of the way out to the tip of the peninsula to see the old lighthouse. I walked barefoot in the warm sand that was just a tad sharp from broken seashells. Plenty of kids were wading in the water, including this one wearing a sweatshirt. I'm sure I did that at least once when I was a kid. I didn't stick a toe in, but I bet that water was cold!

The temperature was perfect for being outside! I have had to adjust somewhat to the heat in Virginia in order to be able to do things outdoors, but I can't say that I like it. This is the kind of weather that I like! It was about 70 degrees and I was confortable in a t-shirt in jeans.

Michigan Wine Country

After my sister Susan and I had lunch, we headed to the Old Mission Peninsula. It separates the two halves of Grand Traverse Bay. Our first stop was at Black Star Farms for wine tasting, then we went to Chateau Grand Traverse. CGT makes a yummy Late Harvest Riesling which is my favorite wine. We had a tour there so we saw where all of the magic happens.

There are rose bushes planted at the end of every row of grapes and we couldn't figure out why. On the tour we found out -- and it makes perfect sense. Rose bushes are slightly more delicate than the grapevines, so if the rose bush at the end of a row is not very healthy, they still have a chance to save the grapevines.

After that, we went to Chateau Chantal. It is the highest point on the peninsula so the view was amazing.

Saginaw Bay from the air

This was the view on my flight from Detroit to Traverse City. It took a few seconds, but I finally convinced myself that it was indeed Saginaw Bay! It's easy for me to forget how high up I really am.

Off to Connecticut for the weekend.

Last weekend I took the train to Connecticut to visit my youngest sister, Kim (a.k.a. Number 5). She's studying at Yale Divinity School right now.

We took a train to Hartford on Saturday with no particular plans other than to see the fireworks that night. We ended up spending a few hours at the Connecticut Science Center. Other than that, there was the Connecticut State Capitol (isn't it grand?), a hungry squirrel, and a library named for Noah Webster.

We did see the fireworks, too. We sat in front of the capitol building and watched them, even though they were shooting off from the river. This isn't a very good picture, but you can see how lovely the capitol looked at night.

The next day we walked around Yale for a bit on our way to the train station. There were gorgeous old buildings everywhere!

High Museum

And now, after a great delay, some pictures from my vacation last March.

These are from the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

Some craft items ... The picture on the left is a quilt from 1875. Its maker must have been well-off, since this doesn't seem to have been made from scraps. On the right is an example of tramp art, made from discarded crates and boxes.

Very colorful discarded plastic! This was a fascinating piece.