Farmers Markets

If you were being sent into exile, forced to live in a new location for the rest of your life, with no chance of ever leaving where are sent to live, where would you choose to go?  My answer is simple, across the street from the Central Market in Florence Italy.  I have always loved markets, Florence is one of the best I have ever seen.  

When we travel I am always looking for markets.  The picture above was taken in a small town in Germany, where we stopped for lunch and stumbled into the market on the square by the church.  We had a wonderful lunch along the side of the square.  

The market on Market Square in Alexandria runs year around, though in winter is kind of sparse.  There are a lot of new vendors this spring. The chicken man is back this spring, he raises free range birds in Maryland.  He provides loving care of his birds.  It shows in the quality of his eggs.  He has a contract to supply eggs through a local supermarket, I can buy his eggs cheaper at the supermarket, than I can from him on market square.  I prefer to buy them from him.  He makes a little more, I get to spend a minute encouraging him to keep up the good work.   

There are an increasing array of other seasonal markets in the area, including a group that requires that the vendors be the person who grew or produced the produce they sell.  

Do you go out of your way to visit markets? 

Platform 9 3/4

The secret to getting onto platform 9 3/4 was to act confidently and get a little bit of a running start.  A lot of things in life are like that, look and act like you belong and often you will go unnoticed.    

I have followed people into conferences, receptions and parties.  Just look and act like you belong here and no one will notice.  Fake it, don't let them know you are a fraud.  Underneath the facade many people fear being found out to be a fraud, but if they fake it, they make it.  

The picture above was taken with the somewhat crappy camera in an early smart phone (a blackberry.)  I had gone for a walk about, leaving Jay watching the bags, including the bag with my better camera in it, while we waited for our train.  Not a bad image for a phone faking it as a camera.  

Memorial Day

The start of the summer season, and a time to pause and reflect.  The name indicates a day set aside to commemorate the end of a couple of wars and to honor the men and women who risked and sacrificed life and limb. 

I fall into the fortunate gap in our population that was not at risk of war.  Vietnam ended before I finished high school, and the Gulf Wars didn't get started until I was nearing 30.  

Arlington National Cemetery overlooks Washington DC, the picture above is in the American Military Cemetery in Normandy in France.  

I think we should move the presidents house, and congress into the middle of a military cemetery.  Perhaps it would remind those who call the shots of the impact of their actions.  

I have to admit I am not as optimistic this year as I have been.  Too many mad men, who have never experienced the horrors of war are in control of armies around the world.  I will do my little bit today, to try to remind the world war is hell, war never proves who is right, only who is stronger, there are better ways of resolving differences, than war.  

Indy 500 Fast Five

It is Indy 500 weekend, one of the best weekends in American Sport.  So here are 5 fast questions! 

1: Have you ever driven over 100 miles per hour? 

2: Drag Racing (the kind done with cars), Like it, Hate It, Don't Understand it? 

3: Ever received a speeding ticket? 

4: Have you ever been to an auto race? 

5: NASCAR or Indy car? 

My Answers: 
1: Have you ever driven over 100 miles per hour? 
  Three times, twice on the autobahn in Germany - legally, once on one of the toll roads around Orlando in an almost new Honda Accord. 

2: Drag Racing (the kind done with cars), Like it, Hate It, Don't Understand it?  
   Drag racing never made sense to me, - why bother - 

3: Ever received a speeding ticket? 
    Nope, have I ever deserved one, see answer #1 above. 

4: Have you ever been to an auto race? 
     I have been to qualifying at Indianapolis twice, I have not been to the race - an adventure I would like to try.  

5: NASCAR or Indy car? 

     Indy car, really any open wheel racing.  

Your answers? 

Random Pictures

Western Maryland Scenic Railway is back running a full schedule and back with steam this year.

The sort of scaffolding is the rail for a round glass elevator to the top, it is quite a ride. 

Pike Place Market in Seattle. 

I wonder where he is going? 

The Fountain of Old Age

How ironic that Juan Ponce de Leon came to Florida in search of the fountain of youth, what he found turned out to be the opposite, the place old people come to get older, waiting for an inevitable death - the waiting room for heaven or hell.  I was in Florida recently, checking on my terminally ill father, who moved there 35 years ago, figuring he'd be dead in 20 years, and to visit other assorted family and friends and hear about their assorted ailments and illnesses. Their illnesses and treatments are enough to make you think the state should be quarantined. I don't think there is a healthy person in the state.  There is one I am worried about, he is pissing blood and no one seems to know why.  He is concerned about the video camera they are going to use to "go in for a look see" and I am thinking I'd be more worried about what is coming out, than what is going in. The camera is only a couple of millimeters wide, the other three inches are just his fears.  

I went to dinner at Cracker Barrel, because it was withing easy walking distance of the hotel I was staying in, and sat there watching the walkers (walking frames), canes and wheelchairs roll in and out, filled with frail people, eating what might well be there last meal, at Cracker Barrel. Think about it, if you thought you might be dead in the morning, would you really want to order the frozen meatloaf and overcooked green beans (actually the beans are kind of tan the way they cook them) as your last meal?  Lobster and caviar should sell much better than they do in Florida.  

Don't get me wrong, I love the climate in Florida, I like 90 degrees, and 90% humidity, 9 months out of the year - well I liked not having snow - well I did get snowed on twice in my 20 years of living in Florida - but it didn't stick.  I grew to love the flora and fauna of Florida, I grew to appreciate the landscape and rhythm of the southern seasons. But seriously, all of these old people in Florida are on deaths' door. Don't move to Florida unless you are ready to die. 

Would you move to Florida? 

Blitz

I had never been too sure of dogs, before Blitz the wonder dog.  I never really trusted them, most are poorly behaved.  Some of the little ones are vicious.  Blitz is different, he is very well behaved.  He can be fun and funny.  The last thing that I heard my mother say that entirely made sense, was shouting at Blitz to be quiet, there was someone unfamiliar at the door.  

He is my sisters youngest child.  At 120 pounds the lightest of her kids.  

Is there a special dog in your life? 

Panhandlers

Part of the challenge of living and working in an urban environment is people asking for money.  If I gave a dollar to every person who asked, I'd need to get a second job.  You learn to ignore most of them, panhandlers say that people treat them like they are invisible, and that is really how city dwellers treat most of them.  

I will give a dollar or two to a musician, they don't even have to be good.  There is one, in DC who plays the ukulele, not very well, if I won the Power-Ball lottery, I'd give him a million-dollars if he would agree to never play in public again. I like the drummers on their 5-gallon-plastic-buckets or upturned garbage cans. There is a brass band here in DC, that plays on a corner in front of an office building filled with lawyers.  The law firm has offered the band a significant amount of money to move away, and the band has refused - I bet when that story ran in the Washington Post, money dropped in the bucket in front of the band went up.   

I passed a young guy sitting on the sidewalk with a sign asking for money, and a guitar case sitting closed next to him.  I was tempted to stop and tell him to take out the guitar and play some music, - but you learn to not engage street people - some of them a few bricks short of a balanced load.  

How to you respond to people asking for money? 

Hotel Adventures

I have kept a written record, sort of a travel log book, of all of the hotels I have stayed in since 2005.  I have spent 435 nights in hotels, since I started keeping track, 14.5 months.  

Most of them are forgettable.  A nice place to stay, but nothing that I will remember afterward.  A few stand out as particularly bad, a handful wonderfully good.  

You don't forget the hotel where you killed the bedbug, or had to haul your luggage over the roll of carpeting in the hallway, or the rooms that smell so strongly of smoke that they keep you awake. 

You also don't forget the room you arrived at late at night, and woke up the next morning to a spectacular view of a lake.  In Honolulu I had a balcony with a spectacular view of the Pacific.  Occasionally I end up with a stand out room, a large corner room in a high rise in Philly -  an apology from the front desk that lost track of the fact that I was waiting for a room to be cleaned and sat working on my laptop for almost 3-hours.  The Fairmont in San Francisco, the Langham in Chicago, the Pan Pacific in Seattle are rooms that stood out for being over the top elegant.  Occassionally something old and special like the Ferme de le Ranconniere in Crepon, France - in Normandy near the D-Day beaches - a converted farm and castle. Then there was the converted Monastery in western France. 

I tend to book brand names, newer hotels. Places that are very predictable - meaning hard to remember.  I need to remember to book the interesting smaller hotels when I can. 

Do you keep track of the hotels you stay in or otherwise keep a travel log?  

Glimpses of the Adventures

Paris at Christmas

Virginia underground 

Keeping the Classics Steaming 

Woodford County, Kentucky - what are the stories of the hands that have gripped that handle? 

Spring in DC

Each of these images has a story behind it, a place I have been, an adventure I have had, a quiet afternoon, a trip dreamed about and planned, or a spur of the moment wander.  

What do all five images have in common? 

Sunday Five - Food

1: Have you introduced anyone to a food they didn't think they liked, and they did like it? 

2: Strawberries, I was raised in a culture that ALWAYS sugared strawberries - Jay was not.  Sugar or no Sugar added to your strawberries? (The local berries are in season right now.)  

3: What food do people assume you like, because you will eat it, but in truth you only tolerate it? 

4: What is your favorite cookie (what you Brits call a biscuit?) 

5: Have you ever ordered room service in a hotel? 

My answers: 
1: Have you introduced anyone to a food they didn't think they liked, and they did like it? 
I few years ago I made potato salad one evening, Tim tried and liked it. He explained his mothers was always this funny orange color and he never had the nerve to try it, she was dusting it with paprika as a spice causing the odd color.  

2: Strawberries, I was raised in a culture that ALWAYS sugared strawberries - Jay was not.  Sugar or no Sugar added to your strawberries? (The local berries are in season right now.)  Sugar for me, my grandfather liked them mashed and sugared.  

3: What food do people assume you like, because you will eat it, but in truth you only tolerate it? 
Broccoli, I will eat - but I really don't understand why. 

4: What is your favorite cookie (what you Brits call a biscuit?) 
Chocolate chip, soft ones.  

5: Have you ever ordered room service in a hotel? 
I seldom do, but I have ordered pizza and beer a couple of times.  I know a lot of people who will order room service when traveling alone to avoid going out to dinner alone.  I sometimes grad take out and eat in my room (hence the Sushi above.) 

Changing Trains

I have changed trains at Slough twice. Slough is just about directly west of the center of London, out past Heathrow airport.  The first time I was inbound from Gatwick, and changed trains at Slough with luggage in tow.  The last time I was headed to Windsor - and changed trains here.  That last trip, Jay was headed to Oxford, we rode together as far as Slough, then went our separate ways.  As I recall on that trip, I went home 3 or 4 days before he did.  

I have changed trains at Slough, have I really been to Slough? Do I really want to see anymore of Slough? 

Wombats

We have a substantial collection of stuffed animals. Penguins, of course and sheep, but there are also a handful of exotics.  They make the ideal house pets for people who travel too much and are never sure what to do with living beings.  I am very tactile and enjoy holding them.  There is a resident sheep in my bedroom - Patrick and I have been through so much.    

We have a Dodo, from natural history museum at Oxford.  Dodos went extinct in the mid 1600's.  A lot of drawings and paintings exist, the last taxidermied specimen was tossed in a bonfire about 100 years ago by a museum employee who thought it was just another dusty mouth eaten old thing.  The charred remains are treasured by the museum, little more than a beak and feet.   

We have a life size California Condor chick, that my mother declared the "ugliest thing she had ever seen."  Jay has been pushing for psychotherapy for Fluffy for sometime.  

Ah the picture above.  A few years ago we were on a grand circle tour of Lake Erie.  We took a couple of the kids with us, a penguin or two, and our Rodney, our Wombat.  When we were checking into the hotel in Niagara Falls Rodney didn't want to stay in the car.  So I tucked him under my arm and away we went.  Doorman held the door open, did a double take and said, "this is Canada, your beaver is very welcome here!"  I pointed out the short fluffy tale and explained that Rodney was a wombat not a beaver.  I bet that doorman still remembers the guy with a wombat tucked under his arm.  

You don't have to be crazy to be us, but it would help.  

What is the oddest thing you have carried into a hotel? 

Things to Drop, things to keep

Things I should drop; my reluctance to go out in the evening, my fear of retirement, my politeness in silly traffic, my concern about offending someone, my reservedness on my political views, my fear of baking cakes, being overly politically correct, 

Things to keep; my sense of adventure, my love, music - I need more music in my life, my sense of humor,  blogging, travel, adventure, bikes - lots of bikes, cameras - I am planning to add another one, creativity, 

What should you drop and what should you keep? 

Seattle

Seattle, I didn't set out to plan a trip to Seattle back in 2008, I was planning an Alaskan inside passage cruise.  We had been to Europe a couple of times in the previous couple of years and had decided to stay closer to home in 2008.  My parents had always talked about going to Alaska, so when I started looking at cruises I looked at one's that would be easiest for them.  The thought was that the shorter flight to Seattle would be easier than flying into Anchorage, and would avoid any passport issues with Vancouver BC. So I decided on a round trip from Seattle.  I did everything that I could to persuade my parents to go, and in the end they were afraid of traveling and being that far away from civilization and medical care.  They waited to long for the adventure.  

I worry about being late, so I booked us to fly into Seattle a couple of days before the cruise left, and an extra couple of nights in Seattle on the way home.  It is a neat town, we visited the Space Needle and the surrounding parks, the Pike Place Market, toured underground Seattle, took a ferry out to Bainbridge Island, and met some dear blogging friends for a fun afternoon.  

Fun town, I would go back anytime.  

Have you been sleepless in Seattle? 

Slow Drive

One afternoon recently I was planning to attend a reception at the Gaylord National Hotel, at National Harbor.  According to the google map above, it is 4.2 miles from home to the hotel.  If I lived in the on the east side of one of the building on that side of the Condominium I could see the hotel from my terrace (I have a view of a parking lot!)  

The reception ran from 5:30 to 6:30 PM.  I left home at about 4:55 PM.  I figured 30 minutes would be enough time.  Boy was I wrong.  At 5:30 I had made it as far as Fort Hunt Road, in 35 minutes I had traveled less than 1.5 miles.  Even if I was driving the Lamborghini in the picture above, I still was not going to make it on time.  I turned right at Ft. Hunt Road and went home, it took me about 5 minutes to get home.  There are reasons I don't normally drive around here on weekdays. 

Have you ever given up on traffic and gone home?  

Airport Terminals

This the B terminal at Boston, home to American Airlines and United Airlines.  The architecture screams 1960's, with the sweeping ceiling and glass wall.  It is a nice space, nice seating, relatively comfortable.  Lots of walking.  

Boston is an older terminal, chopped up into lots of parts.  Atlanta has a modern terminal but the concourses are far to long to not have moving sidewalks or people movers.  O'Hare is huge, but the individual parts are fairly easy to move about (changing airlines can be difficult.) Minneapolis is a monster, far too spread out.  Denver and Detroit are new(er) the new Detroit terminal is nice. Orlando is nice, but starting to show it's age. The challenge at Denver is it's remote location and only one security check points. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is easy to get around, short concourses, four security check points.  The issue with National is the limitation on larger jets and long flight.  Memphis, St. Louis and Cincinnati all have terminals much larger than they need, closed airline hubs.  Washington Dulles, it is actually closer to West Virginia than it is to Washington DC.  LAX is an ugly maze, but baggage claim is easy to get to.  SFO- is huge, parts of it are very nice.  DFW - has a ton of terminals, a slow train and lots of walking.  San Diego has one of the prettiest locations - but the last time I was there it lacked a street car connection to the city.  Phoenix is huge, and well connected.  Las Vegas is modern, has slot machines and seemingly desperate people.  

There are a ton of smaller airports across the country. I have flown in and out of more of them than I can count.  Most of them are quite comfortable, a handful are quite nice (Savannah, GA), a handful are real dumps (Fayetteville, NC.) 

What is your favorite airport terminal?  

Sunday Five

So you know that warning is there, because some idiot tried to eat the contents of this and got sick.  We all do stupid things from time to time, so here we are five questions about silly things.  

1: Have you ever ripped the tag off of a pillow, the one that says "UNDER PENALTY OF LAW THIS TAG NOT TO REMOVED EXCEPT BY THE CONSUMER"?  

2: Have you ever said, "hold my beer, your never going to believe this"? 

3: Have you ever ridden a motorcycle, without a helmet? 

4: Have you ever left on a car trip, without a map knowing how to get to where you are going? 

5: Have you ever accidentally crossed an international boarder? 

My answers: 
1: Have you ever ripped the tag off of a pillow, the one that says "UNDER PENALTY OF LAW THIS TAG NOT TO REMOVED EXCEPT BY THE CONSUMER"?  
Yes, it is legal to remove if you are the end user. 

2: Have you ever said, "hold my beer, your never going to believe this"? 
Nope, but I have held the beer, and helped stop the bleeding.  

3: Have you ever ridden a motorcycle, without a helmet? 
Yes, back when I had hair to blow in the wind. 

4: Have you ever left on a car trip, without a map, and not knowing how to get to where you are going? 
Oh yes, see my recent post about driving in London.  Then there was the time I left on vacation and had no idea where I was going.  I decided a couple of hundred miles up the road.  

5: Have you ever accidentally crossed an international boarder? 
I missed a turn in Germany, and drove into France for a minute.  

Your answers? 

Happy May 13th

Two years ago today, I had a tumor removed from my spine, a section of my spine rebuilt, and started the down the road to getting my life back.  May 13th is sort of my re-birthday. I will never be 100%, but I am so much better than I was, and so much better than I would have been if not for the care that I received when I received it. 

I am forever thankful for the talented health care providers who spent hours working on a few inches of my spine, the dedicated staff that kept me alive and pushed me onto recovery.  From time to time, I think how fortunate I am to have been where I was, when I was there, with good insurance.  I had access to the best people, and facilities, at a time when the science has advanced to the point that they were able to do a lot for me. 

If, I had waited a few weeks longer, the outcome would have been much different. A millimeter or so stood between me and a wheelchair.  As I mentioned last year on this day, I knew something was wrong for a long time before I went to see a doctor.  If I had put off seeing a doctor for a few more weeks, my level of recovery would have been much less, the permanent damage much more life changing.  

Please, if you, or someone you know, knows something is just not right, and you have been putting off seeing a doctor, call today and make an appointment.  Make a difference in your life and life of those who love you. 

Take a moment to thank the health care providers who have helped you along the way.  Miracle workers in scrubs.  

Favorite Seat

Here I am, seat 23-C,  aisle seat, on the left side the airplane (8 PM flight from Boston to DC.)  My right arm is unobstructed in the aisle.  I don't really care how far back I am on the plane, the whole plane gets there about the same time. 

On a train, I prefer a window seat, facing forward.  On a double deck train, I prefer the view from the upper level.  

On the metro subway trains, it is more complicated.  On the Yellow line, inbound, I prefer the fourth car from the front, middle of the car next to the seats that face the aisle, east side of the train, facing either way.  Outbound, the same seat on the first car of the train. The car placement gives me the easiest changes of trains.  The middle of the train, give me the most room because of inward facing seats near the door, the east side of the train give me the best view of the airport as we pass through.  When I first moved to DC, I would grab any car, any seat. Over time I have figured out what seat is most comfortable has the best view,  and gives me the easiest changes. 

Yes, I have spent time figuring this all out.  

Do you have a favorite seat?