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Rüstem Pasha and Süleymaniye Mosques

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My favorite of the mosques was Rüstem Pasha Mosque, the smallest of those we visited, and rather unremarkable from the outside. Inside, however, it is simply gorgeous. Every wall is covered with a different design of Iznik tiles.

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The  Rüstem Pasha was built in the 1560’s and is a showpiece of Ottoman architecture and tilework.

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The Süleymaniye Mosque was the largest mosque we visited, and is visible on the hill from across the Golden Horn as well as from the Bosphorus. Construction began in 1550 and was completed in 1558. The famed architect, Mimar Sinan, was responsible for its design. It was commissioned by Suleiman I who was known as “The Magnificient,” and his mosque lives up to his name. 

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The interior is less elaborate than some, but beautifully decorated with painted designs.

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The colors here are just gorgeous.

The Süleymaniye Mosque is unusual because many of the original outbuildings have been retained and restored. The grounds and gardens are beautiful and well maintained.

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We visited both mosques on the same day we did the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar. No wonder we were tired!

Edited to add:  Some good news here. Mike squeezed Karen’s hand on command yesterday afternoon, and by-pass/valve replacement surgery is scheduled for early tomorrow morning. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers—keep them coming!

 

 

 

 

Istanbul Bazaars and Markets

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Before we get to the travel post, I’d like to ask for your thoughts and prayers for one of our dearest friends. Mike was riding his bike to meet a friend last Sunday when his heart suddenly stopped. Fortunately, a young man and two nurses happened by and he received immediate CPR. He’s been in the cardiac ICU all week. On Monday, the odds were very poor, but each day he’s made progress, and everyone is now optimistic that there can be a full recovery. It’s still too early to be sure, and there is by-pass/valve replacement surgery yet to come. We’ve spent part of each day at the hospital with Karen, Keri, and Jim. We would all definitely appreicate your prayers.

Our first day in Istanbul, we visited the Arasta Bazaar adjacent to the Blue Mosque. According to Turkey Travel Planner, an arasta is a series of shops built near a mosque whose shops provide income for the upkeep of the mosque. It’s an open air bazaar, and my favorite of the three we visited. The quality of the goods and the prices were both better than those in the Grand Bazaar. If I had had the opportunity, I would have returned to make some more purchases. As it was, I bought a few gifts and two scarves for myself.

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We visited both the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar on the same day. If we had to do it over again, we’d do them on separate days. It was truly overload, and we visited two mosques as well that day.

The Spice Market is the smaller of the two, and the streets surrounding it are filled with shops as well. I had a hard time telling where the Spice Market began and ended.

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There’s candy:

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Olives:

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Spices:

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Tea:

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Tracy later had some Turkish Apple Tea, and loved it. I really enjoyed the Turkish tea and loved the tiny tulip glasses in which they served it. 

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On our last morning in Istanbul I purchased two lovely tulip glasses to bring home.

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Then there was Turkish Delight:

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They were giving out samples of the Turkish Delight at the Spice Market, but I held off buying any since I’d read in several books that the very best Turkish Delight came from Haci Bekir, a store near the Spice Market. 

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We bought two boxes, pistachio and hazelnut. Rachel and Juan agreed it was the best Turkish Delight they’d tasted. Delish!

The Grand Bazaar was overwhelming. The bazaar was originally built by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1461, but grew and grew. Some guide books say there are as many as 4,000 shops all under one roof (actually many roofs linked together).

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I did purchase some scarves, all of which I gave to friends.

 
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You can shop, eat, and drink in the Grand Bazaar.

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I doubt I’ll ever get an opportunity to return to Istanbul, but if I did, I would buy some Turkish red pepper flakes and some sumac in the Spice Market, some small dishes with Iznik tile designs and a pillow cover at the Arasta Bazaar, and just one thing as a keepsake from the Grand Bazaar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Istanbul: Part 2

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We did a lot of reading and planning for our days in Istanbul. Shortly before we left, Real Simple had a column about best travel tips. One of them was to create a spreadsheet with a list of the places you wanted to visit, the fees, the address, and the hours it was open. We made one, and it really helped us plan our days. Fortunately many of the top sites in Sultanahmet are very close to one another.

Visiting the Aya Sofya was top on our list. 

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Built as a Byzantine church by Emperor Justinian in 537, it was converted to a mosque in 1453 by Mehmet the Conqueror, and turned into a museum by Ataturk in 1935. Walking into the Aya Sofya, you are first struck by its immensity. How was it possible to construct such a place in 537? The light in the Aya Sofya is so dim that capturing good photos without a tripod was nearly impossible.

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The Byzantine church was noted for it’s beautiful mosaics which were plastered over when it became a mosque. Fortunately, many have been partially recovered.

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After lunch, we visited the Basilica Cistern, the largest surviving cistern built by the Byzantines in 532. There are 336 columns, many of which the Byzantines salvaged from ruined temples. The water was delivered from a series of aqueducts from a reservoir near the Black Sea. (More amazing feats of construction!)

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Two of the most interesting columns feature Medusa as a base. There are a variety of myths and stories around these, but one holds that the face was placed sideways to negate the effect of the gaze.

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Our next stop was the Blue Mosque, seen here from the plaza separating it from the Aya Sofya.

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Like all the mosques we visited, the Blue Mosque is a functioning mosque. Tourists enter by a separate door. You must remove your shoes, and your head, knees, and shoulders must be covered. 

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The Blue Mosque was built by Sutan Ahmet 1 who hoped that it would rival or surpass the beauty of the Aya Sofya. The mosque is named for the fabulous blue Iznik tiles that adorn the interior. 

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From the Blue Mosque, we walked to the Hippodrome. The views of the Blue Mosque from here were wonderful.

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The Hippodrome is even older than the Aya Sofya. Built in 203 and renovated in the 320’s, it was used as a venue for chariot racing and sporting events. It’s also been the site of protests, massacres, and the downfall of several sultans.

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Sarah and Matt gave me an Olloclip for my iPhone before we left. I didn’t have an opportunity to play with it very often, but I love this fisheye view of the Hippodrome.

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We also visited a bazaar and had a fabulous meal at Hayat’s with Rachel and Juan, but I’ll save those for another day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Istanbul: Part 1

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Istanbul is the most fascinating city I’ve ever visited. I spent eleven weeks in Europe following college graduation and was lucky enough to visit many wonderful cities, but Istanbul is the most colorful, vibrant, frenetic, crowded, historic place I’ve ever been. We loved it!

The first day we walked over ten miles, starting at Rachel and Juan’s apartment and walking to Taskim Square, now the site of the ongoing protests. The pedestrian mall, İstiklâl Caddesi, begins at Taskim Square.

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From there we walked past the Galata Tower . . .

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(I had hoped to return to the Galata Tower and get some panoramic photos of Istanbul, but the timing for good photos was never right.)

. . . and along the streets of shops to the shore of the Golden Horn. The Galata Bridge stretches across the Golden Horn from Beyoğlu to Sultanahmet, the area of many of the significant monuments and museums.

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The bridge is crowded with fishermen all day long, and even at night. We came out of a restaurant around midnight in Sultanahment, and there were still many fishermen casting their rods at that late hour.

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You can buy fish at many open air shops to cook at home,

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0r already cooked from a street vendor.

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Ferries are constantly moving up and down the Golden Horn (as well as the Bosphorus). Here you can see Topkapi Palace in the distance.

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We ate a late lunch at a cafe under the Galata Bridge. We chose the fish to be grilled. It was excellent and beautifully presented, but very overpriced. 

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After walking across the Galata Bridge, we walked north along the Bosphorus, a channel that connects the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea. The Bosphorus is an incredibly busy waterway. We learned later that freighters wanting to travel the length of the waterway may only go from north to south during one 12 hour period, and then from south to north during the next 12 hour period. Otherwise the smaller boats and ferries transporting workers and tourists from the European side of Istanbul to the Asian side would be overwhelmed by the huge freighters.

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One of the places I wanted to visit was the Istanbul Modern Museum. It reportedly has a fabulous view of the Bosphorus from its cafe, but every day we were there that fabulous view was blocked by the largest cruise ships I’ve ever seen. It took a panorama with my iPhone to get the whole ship in one photo. I was too tired to enjoy an art museum by that time of the day, so we passed it by and sadly, never returned.

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We walked alongside the Dolmabahçe Palace, another place we never found time to visit.

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We stopped for a cold drink and then headed back to Rachel and Juan’s. Had I know how long and steep a climb we’d have to make, I might have insisted on a taxi. The advantage of walking was that by the time the first day ended, we had a good sense of how Istanbul was laid out, and had seen quite a bit of it! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

52/20 Catch-up

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Almost all the photos I took on our holiday were taken with my new 18-270mm Tamron zoom or my iPhone. But I did take my 50mm with me, and once a week put it on the camera for enough shots to keep up with my 52/50 project. 

Here are the last five weeks of photos for the project:

Week 20: Most of my shots for this week were taken in the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar. There were two other contenders for this week, but I finally settled on the spices.

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One of the guide books recommended buying Turkish red pepper to bring back. I didn’t, and I wished I had, along with some sumac which is an ingredient I’m finding in many Turkish recipes. But Saturday I found a great Turkish market right here in Rochester, and was able to purchase both spices and some other ingredients I wanted. We loved the Turkish and Greek foods, and I’ve made several dishes from The Sultan’s Kitchen since we’ve returned–all of them delicious. 

Week 21: Each morning in Santorini our breakfast was delivered to our room. If it wasn’t too windy, we ate on our patio. We had quite a nice menu to choose from, and the food was great. We ate lunch at the hotel a couple of times, as well as dinner. One of my best meals of the trip was here—lamb on roasted white eggplant puree. (I’d love to get that recipe!)

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Week 22: This photo was taken from a museum looking up at a restaurant. I loved the bright green umbrellas against the clear blue sky. Matt couldn’t get over the blues in the photos from Santorini. None of the colors in my photos are enhanced. It really was that blue! We ended up eating lunch at this restaurant later in the day.

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Week 23: When we arrived home, our peonies were in bloom. I always enjoy taking photos of them.

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Week 24:  Saturday we took our annual spring road trip to Ithaca to go to the Farmer’s Market. On our way home we stopped to have lunch at Tracy’s cousin’s home in Interlaken. Mike had trimmed the bushes around their entrance way the day before, and discovered this tiny nest. The morning of our visit, this baby bird hatched. His eyes are still closed.

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Just Wonderful

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We’ve been back from our trip for about ten days now. Aside from difficulty sleeping, jet lag hasn’t affected us much. It’s a good thing because there has been so much to do. Since we’ve been back, I’ve served on jury duty (luckily only one day required); we’ve planted vegetables in our plot at the Community Garden; we’ve cleaned and refreshed the perennial bed, and potted the plants for the patio; we’ve replaced the patio table after the glass top shattered in high winds last weekend; and I’ve edited and purged (about half) of the some 1200 photographs I took on the trip. (I’ve yet to go through some of my iPhone photographs, or any of Tracy’s!) Getting back into the swing of blogging and creating has proven much more difficult than I imagined. I think this is the longest break from blogland I’ve ever taken. It was certainly a good choice for the trip as we didn’t have very consistent internet access.  I’ve caught up with some of your blogs, but not quite all of them, and I’m trying to stay current. 

So how was the trip? In one word: WONDERFUL! We were lucky in so many ways, and all our pre-trip planning meant we saw nearly everything we hoped to see in all three destinations. Here’s a sneak preview of some posts to come.

We loved Istanbul, and are so sorry that such civil unrest has erupted there since we left. Our friends, Rachel and Juan, are safe and can travel back and forth to their jobs, but the demonstrations certainly would have impacted our time there. The hospitality extended to us by Rachel and Juan, and all the Turks we met was fabulous. Everywhere we went, people went out of their way to be helpful and friendly. Istanbul hasn’t lost its old-world feel despite the crowded streets and insane traffic. Hearing the call to prayer from the mosques several times a day was a frequent reminder that I was in a different culture.

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We loved walking the streets of Istanbul (and we did a LOT of walking). 

We managed to see all but a few of the major historical sites. This is one of the many ferries transporting people from Asia to Europe (and back) across the Bosphorus and up the Golden Horn. In the background is Topkapi Palace. 

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From Istanbul we traveled to Athens and spent a day and a half there before leaving for Santorini. We also snagged another half day and evening there before heading home. We were awed by the architecture in Istanbul, some of it dating back to the early 500’s. Nothing in Athens is as preserved as the Aya Sofya (completed in 537) in Istanbul, but one forgets how very far back the ruins of the Parthenon and the Agora date.

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Here’s one of the few photos of the two of us we actually managed to get while we were traveling.

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The island of Santorini has been on my bucket list for many years. It did not disappoint. We were in need of some rest when we got there, and although we were busier than we expected to be on the island, the first day we just hung out at our beautiful hotel overlooking the Caldera.

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As in Istanbul, everyone we met in Santorini (Greeks and fellow tourists) were warm, friendly, and helpful. We had extended conversations with people throughout the whole trip from all over the world. It’s interesting to me how easy that seemed on this trip, but that it almost never happens when we’re traveling in the States.

This is another view from the hotel, looking up to the nearest town, Imerovigli. It’s at the very tip of the point in the photograph. We walked up there for dinner the first night, and to pick up some wine another day.

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Santorini is known for its white and blue architecture. It’s truly stunning against the clear blue skies.

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There’ll be lots more to come about the trip once I get all the photos and notes organized enough to write some blog posts. Thanks for all the welcome home messages, and your good thoughts while we were away.

Oregon Day Trips

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It’s still cold and snowy in western New York, but we’ve had fabulous weather in southern Oregon. Sarah, Tracy, and I visited Harry and David’s flagship store in Medford on Friday and took the factory tour. 

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We had a wonderful tour guide. The production line moves so quickly it’s hard to believe how fast some of the basket packers can work! We loved watching them make Moose Munch and arrived just as the caramel mixture reached the right temperature for adding the popcorn and nuts.

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We came home with three different kinds of Moose Munch along with quite a few other goodies.

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I loved their old pick-up on display. Harry and David (and the Medford region) are renowned for their pears which they used as a decoration on the truck rails.

While we were on the tour, the guide asked me what we had been doing while we were visiting here. I mentioned that I’d love to have gone to Crater Lake, but that it wasn’t a particularly great time to visit. She said she’d talked to several folks that had been there that week, and that it was wonderful. We checked the weather, and discovered the temperature for Crater Lake on Saturday was supposed to be in the 50’s, so after breakfast at The Breadboard in Ashland, Sarah, Tracy, Caleb and I took off for Crater Lake. Adam opted to stay at home and get some quiet time. The drive from Ashland to Crater Lake is wonderful. Despite the warm temperatures, there is still a LOT of snow at Crater Lake. The annual snowfall there is 44 ft. (the equivalent of over an inch of snow falling every single day!)

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After some time at the visitor center, we headed up to the Rim. Crater Lake is reputedly the cleanest water in the world. Crater Lake gets no water from rivers or streams, so all the water comes from the sky. According to the newsletter, it’s cleaner than the water that comes from your faucet at home.

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I love this panorama taken with my iPhone!

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Thanks to a kind offer from another visitor we have a nice family photo from the event. 

You’ll find my social media and email links on the sidebar now, and here’s the signature. Jessica’s class was well worth the money not only for the design, but for the confidence in knowing how to refresh the blog!

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2012 Summer Scavenger Hunt

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It’s the official end of summer today, and thus the end of the summer scavenger hunt hosted by Rinda. You can see her post here. This year I managed to find all 21 items and posted about them here, here, here, here, and here.

My first find for the border item was the international border between Canada and the United States. As Tracy and I traveled this summer we tried to capture all the border signs for the states we traveled through. We never saw a border or welcome sign in Kansas (coming or going), and although I’m quite sure we took photos of the welcome signs in Ohio and New York, neither show up in my Lightroom folder for the trip. But here are 16 more border signs:

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I loved hunting for the items on Rinda’s list and am already looking forward to next summer’s edition.

Just Playing

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Our drive from Atlanta to Denver included stops in Birmingham, AL, and Little Rock and Bentonville, AK. I’ll be back in a week or so with some vacation posts and some photos of what we did and saw along the way. For the last four days we’ve been in Colorado. Saturday afternoon to Monday night, Matt, Tracy, and I enjoyed Boulder, CO and the Rocky Mountain National Park. The park is simply spectacular, and we had perfect weather for hiking and driving the Trail Ridge Road. Today we’re relaxing at our friends’ house in Denver. Tonight we’ll have our last meal here with Dan, Nikki, Matt, and Stevie and head out for New York tomorrow morning. Dan and Stevie’s parents were also here for most of our stay so we’ve really had a great time.

We’re anticipating a four-day drive home with stops in Amana, Iowa and Lancaster and Amanda, Ohio (where I grew up.) But we can decide along the way if there are other things we’d like to see or do, or if we’d just asoon drive a little further and get home earlier. So nice to have the time to decide. Here are two cards I made before I left. I have to say, I’m itching to get back to the craft table, and have a few new projects I want to tackle this fall.

Often I have a recipient in mind for a card, or I’m making a card for one of the challenge blogs. But before I left on our trip, I spent some time just playing with some products. I love this die from Memory Box, but have never used it. Once I finished the card, I remembered the sentiment from Papertrey’s “Love Lives Here” set, and thought it would make a good anniversary card. 

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And here’s yet another Lovely Layers card. I used the Gridlines paper from Papertrey to help organize the stamps to create the background. Until recently, it’s not a technique I’ve used often. I think next time, I’d use the smaller image to create the background, but I’m happy with this as I have been with just about every card I’ve made with this set. I don’t have anyone in mind for this one yet, but it’s always good to have a few birthday cards stashed away.

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Although I’ve kept up with some of your blog posts, I haven’t taken the time to comment as my internet time has been very limited. I’ll be back soon to catch up, and I’m looking forward to getting reconnected.

Ten on the Tenth: Summer Road Trip

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We’re leaving today for a three week road trip, so I thought I’d share 10 things I’m looking forward to seeing in August. I’ll be linking this up with Shimelle’s 10 Things later today when I get some wi-fi.

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So here are the 10 Things in the order that we’ll be seeing them. (Not necessarily in the order in which I’m excited about them.)

#1. Our good friends, Carol and Gordy. I have no recent photo of them although we’ve seen them both in 2011 and 2010. I’ll be sure to get good photos this time around. We’ll be staying with them two nights, and if the weather is good, will be enjoying Gordy’s boat on Lake Norman on Saturday.

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#2 Sarah, Adam and Caleb

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We’ll be meeting them in Atlanta on Sunday. On Monday and Tuesday, we’ll be babysitting while they participate in The Fund for Theological Education conference. We last saw them in early May, so we’re due for a good visit.

#3 The Atlanta Aquarium. It’s been a few years since we visited, but Caleb loves to look at new things, so we figured a trip to the aquarium might entertain him (and us) for a few hours on Monday.

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#4 Hilton Head Island

Following the FTE Conference, the five of us will be heading to Hilton Head for five days. We haven’t had a beach vacation in several years, so I’m looking forward to family time and some time on the beach. 

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#5 After we leave Sarah, Adam, and Caleb in Atlanta to travel home to Oregon, we’re headed to Birmingham, AL where we hope to visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

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#6 From there, we’re headed through Memphis, TN (not sure if we’ll have time to explore or not) to Little Rock, AR where I’m looking forward to visiting the National Historic Site at Central High School. Our neighbors highly recommended a stop at the visitor’s center there. They also recommended a stop at the Bill Clinton Library, but I’m not sure we’ll have time to do both.

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In preparation for the two civil rights stops, I’m reading Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock. It’s an excellent book, and since I was pretty young at the time these events took place, I don’t have any strong memories of them. I know I’ll get a lot more out of both stops because I’ve read the book.

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#7 Next on the agenda is a stop in Bentonville, AR to visit  Crystal Bridges, an art museum and park built by the Walmart heiress. Everything we’ve read about this place sounds wonderful!

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#8 Then we’re off to Denver, Co (via Wichita, KN) to spend some time with Matt. We last saw him in June, so it’s time for a good visit.

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#9 While we’re in Denver, we’re staying with our long-time friend, Dan, and his wife, Nikki. We haven’t seen them in over a year so it will be good to catch up with them.

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#10 One of the things we’ve always wanted to do in Colorado is visit Rocky Mountain National Park. Matt is taking the second part of a national landscape certification exam on Saturday. As soon as he’s finished, we’re headed to the national park for two days. Although he’s been in Denver for over a year now, he hasn’t had the time to visit the park either.

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Given that any month when I see both of my kids is a good month, and that I love road trips and new experiences, I’m really looking forward to this trip!

 

 

Coastal Oregon

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I haven’t given up on scrapping, but life is throwing a few curves right now and I’m busier than I expected. I’m hoping to get a few more pages done before the end of the month, but I’m happy with what’s gotten done. I don’t often do two-page layouts, but our trip up the Oregon coast was so fabulous, I wanted to include more than just one or two photos. Once I get more photos printed, I’ll put them in some divided page protectors behind this layout. That’s worked great in the past.

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Here’s a better look at each page separately.

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The journaling reads: 

You would think we would have been better prepared for the beautiful Oregon coast since we’ve driven up much of California’s coast. But we were truly amazed by the stunning Oregon coast. Sunny, blue skies, and relatively warm temperatures made for perfect sightseeing. We started in Bandon on Tuesday afternoon and drove as far as Cannon Beach for lunch on Thursday. Seen here the lighthouses at Yaquina Bay, Yaquina Head, and Hecata Head (covered in mesh for repairs,) crashing waves along the coast near Yachats, the view from Cape Perpetua Information Center, fog lifting outside Reedsport, and the beach at Bandon.

I used some old (but still favorite) grid papers from Scenic Route, two journaling circles from Studio Calico, and two stickers from an old Deja View Travel Sticker sheet. The alpha is a gray Studio Calico which I just love. This is probably as CAS a layout as there is!

Washington, D.C.: Part 2

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Saturday night we ended up in Georgetown. It was extremely crowded . . .

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(the line at DC Cupcakes)

and we were tired so we opted out of any shopping, and had a lovely dinner alongside the C&O canal.

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After dinner we walked along the Potomac and across the Key Bridge back to Rossyln, VA where we were staying.

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On Sunday, we met our good friends and spent the morning at the National Museum of the American Indian. It is a beautiful building that was designed after long conversations with many Native American groups. You can read about its design here.

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We spent the afternoon at the American Art Museum. I was particularly interested in the Annie Leibovitz exhibit, “Pilgramage,” but also enjoyed a wonderful exhibit of models built in the early 1900’s that were a requirement of the patent application at that time.

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After Susan and Eric left, we walked back to The Mall since we had not yet visited the World War II Memorial which had been built since we were last in Washington.

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We walked over to the Washington Monument as well. 

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By this time we were more than tired, but managed to get ourselves back to the Metro to return to our hotel. We had dinner in Arlington, and then drove to the Pentagon Memorial which was one of the most moving experiences of the trip. Each bench is named for a victim of the 9/11 disaster. If the victim was on the plane, the bench faces the Pentagon. If the victim was in the Pentagon, their bench faces outward. The benches are arranged by the age of the victims starting with the youngest (three years of age) and ending with the oldest victim (seventy-one). All the benches are illuminated at night.

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I’m still working on some photos from our last day of this trip. We spent several hours in Frederick, MD and had a wonderful time. But we’re leaving tomorrow for two weeks in Oregon. I’m hoping to do a bit of blogging from there, but most of my reading of blogs will be on my iPad, so my comments may not be as frequent. I expect to spend a great deal of time holding a baby! 

Washington, D.C.

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It’s been two weeks since we returned from a four day weekend in Washington, D.C. and Frederick, MD. It’s taken me that long to go through the several hundred photos I took, and get them edited. I love Lightroom and how easy it is to keyword and organize all the photos. The editing tools are also great, although I know I am just skimming the surface in the way I can use them now. Nonetheless, editing photos in a new program took me quite a bit longer. I’m sure that will change when it becomes more automatic. I ended up with 54 photos from the Washington, D.C. part of the trip that I will print, and thought I would share a few of them here; some today, and some tomorrow so you won’t be on overload!

We got about an hour out of Rochester on Friday when our van started making a strange whining noise. After a bit of discussion, we decided to come home and switch cars. The van seems to be fine now, but it wasn’t worth the chance of being stranded in some unknown town with a car that didn’t work. The end result was we got to Washington much later than we expected so we had dinner in Alexandria, and went to the Container Store and called it a night.

Saturday we spent most of the day touring the memorials. We skipped a few we remembered well from our earlier trips, but made sure to see the new ones that have been built since we were last there. On our way from the Metro to the Mall we passed by the beautiful Memorial Bridge. Next time we go I hope to get a chance to take some photographs of the bridge from the Virginia side of the Potomac River.

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Our first stop was at the Lincoln Memorial. It was really crowded with tourists but I managed to get a good shot of the remarkable statue without any one else in it. I also captured a few for our album with all the tourists as well.

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The first new memorial we visited was the Martin Luther King Memorial. It, the FDR Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial all overlook the Tidal Basin and there’s a lovely walking path from one to the next.

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Martin Luther King Memorial

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial is one of the larger memorials with four “rooms,” each representing one term of his time in office. Each room has a beautiful waterfall, and there are many statues and art work. One of the most fascinating was a wall of carvings. Each image represents a facet of the time when FDR was president.

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This scupture of men waiting in a bread line during the Depression was particularly moving.

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The smallest of the waterfalls, but my favorite.

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Typically, the cherry blossoms would have been in bloom, but they had come and gone by the time we were there. The azaleas along the edge of the FDR Memorial were gorgeous.

On the far side of the Tidal Basin is the Jefferson Memorial. 

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From there we walked to the Korean War Memorial. There are two walls with etchings, and a group of statues of soldiers who appear to be coming out of a woods. 

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This image captures the etchings with the reflection of the soldiers who are across the walkway. I had to wait a while in order to get a shot without anyone walking along the wall.

After lunch we walked to Union Station, and then to the Capitol building. There was a long line to get tickets for a tour of the Capitol so we decided to wait until our next visit to do that.

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One of the places I wanted to visit was the Old Post Office Building. You can take an elevator to the top of the clock tower and I managed to get my little point and shoot camera inbetween the bars on the windows to get a couple of aerial shots of Washington.

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You can see that we had fabulous weather, warm (sometimes hot) and sunny the whole weekend. We walked about 10 miles both days so I was glad to have good weather. 

Road Trip Album

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Before we left for Alaska, I managed to complete the album I started after subscribing to Ali Edward’s “Scrapbook on the Road” class. I took a little bag of goodies with me on the trip, but didn’t find too many opportunities for working on the album while we were on the trip. Having constructed the basics before I left, however, motivated me to be more conscientious about picking up memorabilia that I might want to include in the album. Here are some shots of the album:

Cover

I followed Ali’s directions for making the cover; painting over letter stickers and the embellishments with acyrlic paint. I’m quite happy with the result. It took several coats.

Denver

A combination of memorabilia, stickers, chipboard, journaling, and photos. All the supplies for this album came from my stash. I have a 12X12 envelope with travel papers & stickers that I save for these projects.

Denver:NM

I love the different sized pages you can create with the Spellbinders Creative Book Pages dies. The right-hand side shows a smaller page with one of the larger ones peeking out behind.

TaliesinWest

Here I used a pocket on the right-hand page to hold a stack of photos from our visit to Taliesin West. I rarely cut a shape from a photo, but I did on the left page, and cut a section from one of the memorabilia pieces on the right.

DesertMuseum

Here I included the tickets to the museum and another envelope with photos. The Desert Museum was one of our favorites from this trip.

Tucson

On the left-hand page, I made a little pocket and stamped the silverware to hold business cards from some of the restaurants where we ate in Tucson.

PacificCoast

Here you can see three different sized pages with photos from our drive up the Pacific coast and our night in Morro Bay.

FinalPage

The End!

This represents a fraction of the pages. It ended up being quite thick, and I had to order the largest size ring for my Bind-it All. Although I knew I wouldn’t attempt anything like this for our Alaska trip, having completed this made me more aware of the kinds of things I might want to bring home with me from our most recent trip. I’m planning to made a photo book (we got a great deal on one through Groupon), and will probably do a one or two page layout for each of the major stops and events on our trip. Still haven’t finished editing our friends’ photos as I’ve had several other projects in the works as well. I’m always surprised by how long the editing process takes.

Summer Scavenger Hunt: Part 2

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While we were away, I kept my eye open for items on Rinda’s Summer Scavenger Hunt list. I was really hoping to find a pirate but aside from a boat named Pirate I didn’t see one, and I missed a shot of the one campfire we saw. I still have a unicycle, a beehive or ant farm, a festival, and a homemade roadside shrine to find. I know I can come up with at least two of these, and I’m hoping for a few others as well.

Here’s what I found on the trip:

Handlettered Sign:

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A tripod of handlettered signs in Talkeetna

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A museum:

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The stunning Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver on the UBC campus

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Another fabulous museum; in Fairbanks

Woman sketching a totem:

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Rain on the train:

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Graffiti Art near the Granville Island Market in Vancouver:

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A wooden bridge:

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At the Nitobe Memorial Garden in Vancouver

A forest:

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The train climbing to Klondike Summit outside Skagway

A building made of glass and steel:

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The Vancouver airport

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Downtown Vancouver

I promised to resize and crop all the photos our friends took. They bought their first digital camera for this trip, so aside from some gardening and a major crafting project, I expect to spend a few (or more) hours at the computer this weekend. Hope you have a good weekend!