We the People

I read a disturbing opinion piece, which suggested the United States in on the verge of another Civil War.  The piece alternatively angered and terrified me.  Have we really forgotten the bitter lessons learned during the Civil War?  War, especially one which tears a country apart, is horrible even for the best of reasons. 

We were looking at a Civil War monument in one of the towns around here last week, and we calculated the town had 25% of its young men killed during the Civil War.  25%.  And, that doesn't count the ones wounded.  Can you even imagine what that kind of loss does to a community?  In 1865 that meant at the very least 1 in 4 young women wouldn't be able to find husbands.  In a time when women married for economic support, well, what were they supposed to do?  The labor market was decimated.  Old people had no one to care for them in their old age.  Land had no heirs.  Entire towns withered.  And, it was worse in the South for everybody.  The economic system based on the enslavement of people was smashed, sort of.  Even though actual slavery ended, and some historians say it took a war to make that happen; virtual slavery arose which lasted another 100 years.

Second, I find it very frustrating when we collectively decide to forget our own history.  I'm in my late 60's, and in the prime of my great-grandparents' time, they were struggling with an astonishing communication revolution, increasing mechanization of labor, the population shift to cities, an exploding urban manufacturing economy, and the change in the demographics of the population. 

The chaos caused by swift change and societal pressures were so overwhelming; fear ruled us:  We had a corrupt political system drowning in special interest money, racial and cultural fear and distrust, labor/management clashes, and the Anarchists, don't forget those idiots - think 19th and early 20th century terrorists - setting bombs to explode indiscriminately across the country). 

My point is this:  We've survived an economic revolution before.  We've survived a political system going off the rails.  We ALL come from somewhere else unless your ancestry is pure Native American, and even you came from somewhere else - just farther back than the rest of us.  As a country, we are still a unique experiment of a society based on ideas instead of blood lines.  We are:

       
We believe:  You don't have to agree with me, but you must be civil when you don't. 

We know:  Bring us your customs, your food, your values, your religion, and even your language, but our public education system will change your children into Americans. 

We should remember:  We have nothing to fear except fear itself. 

We are ALL Americans because we are 'we the people'.  All of us.  Smart, stupid, no matter what color, or who we worship, or how wrongheaded we appear to someone else. 

Happy Fourth of July.  It's more than a day off work for beer, BBQ, and fireworks. 

Hyde House and Museum, Glens Falls, New York

Occasionally as we've toured around the country, something unexpected pops up.  When it happens, it's always so delightful.  This week we stumbled onto an attraction which I was already interested in, but only mildly. A historic house with art hits a lot of my sweet spots.  I didn't expect my jaw to be dropping in every room.

Mrs. Hyde's bedroom

Wealthy people who turn their personal residences into museums usually have more $$ than taste.  You wind up with a copy of a European style house (Italian villa in this case)

stuffed with second rate paintings and sculptures scattered around some decorative arts.  Much of the art seems to be bought on a whim, or to fit a requirement.   Philbrook in Tulsa fits this bill.  This was the house of the founder of the Phillips Oil Company, and the grounds are gorgeous, but the art, (in my opinion) not so much.

Therefore, I didn't have any high expectations for the Hyde House and Museum in Glens Falls, New York.  This town is small and without the tourist recognition quotient of Saratoga Springs or Bar Harbor.  So who were the "Hydes"?  First, no relation to the Roosevelts.  They were a New England family named Pruyn whose fortunes were the result of owning a paper processing plant which turned New England logs into paper for about 100 years.  The Pyrun founder had three daughters, the oldest, Charlotte, managed to marry a Harvard lawyer (Louis Hyde) and eventually bring him home to Glens Falls to take over running the paper mill for his father-in-law.  They were the town's largest employer, and the big movers and shakers of this tiny town.  Well, he must have run the paper mill well, because  Charlotte established a museum of her house and art in 1952, and guided it for 11 years.  When she died at the age of 90, her self-perpetuating museum was and still is funded by her personal fortune.  It is a gem.  They claim, and I believe it, that there aren't ten museums in the country in this class.

Charlotte and her husband were both very interested in art, particularly the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo eras.

A French tapestry from the 1600's

  They made buying trips to Europe, sailing over on the Cunard line. She filled the house, using the art advice of the man who eventually became the curator of the Detroit Institute of Art, with first rate paintings and decorative arts.  Their collection includes Rembrandt, El Greco, Rubens, Titian, Tintoretto, and many others.  The decorative arts are just as impressive with tapestries, medieval chests, and Rococo furniture.  The collection has grown since Charlotte's death to include more modern artists including Renoir,

One of two Renoir's

Eakins, Picasso, Hassam, along with some lovely modern sculptures.

In addition to the 'rooms' of the original house, there are two additional 'built on' art galleries which have rotating exhibitions.  This entire place just blew off the top of my head.  It felt like a 'warm up' to our Italian trip.  As always, I took pictures.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3K3nePsJpVF8TVMC8

Investigating Iconic Saratoga Springs

We are finally, finally settled.  We headed out to investigate one of the iconic areas of Saratoga Springs – Congress Park which is smack dab in the middle of town.

  It’s also the site of the city’s historical museum.  Naturally, it was in an old building (1870) – about one hundred years after the town had one European resident.  The 'Hard Rock Spring' attracted a British officer in  who had been wounded.  The Iroquis led him to the spring, and his wounds improved.  Shortly thereafter, an inn was built on the site, and Saratoga Springs (not so named at the time) was born.  We had dinner at the Old Bryan Inn which is the oldest building in town.  The history was better than the food as is so often the case.   

As you know, it’s sometimes the small stuff which decides whether one city is a big deal while one 10 miles down the road is just sort of sad and struggling.  Well, one deciding point for Saratoga Springs was the ‘springs’ of which there were over 20 in 1870,  People flooded up here from New York City via the railroad to stay in a resort hotel for a couple of weeks in the summer to ‘take the water’.  The second chance happening which rewarded Saratoga Springs was John Morrisey – a New York prize fighter turned gambling entrepreneur.  He chose Saratoga Springs as the town where he built a casino (building where the historical society museum is today),

and he also built a horse racing track.  Now, husbands could gamble, drink liquor, and race/bet on horses while the wives ‘took the waters’. (Here’s the building.)

After WWI when people had cars, they went farther afield on vacation, and the ‘waters’ trade dropped like a stone.  It was gambling that propped up Saratoga Springs until the Keefaufer Commision in the 1950’s outlawed gambling in New York in an attempt to get control over the Mafia.  And there was definitely organized crime in ‘the Springs’ including Myer Lansky and Lucky Luciano.     

   The powers that be in town reinvented the tourist trade using horse racing as well as the ‘outdoors’ to lure people back. They built a performing arts center and attracted top NYC classical entertainment to come to town throughout the summer.  Something must be working.  This town is so prosperous, cute, and friendly, it could be Beaver Cleaver’s hometown.  By contrast, Glens Falls/Queensbury just 20 minutes down the Interstate looks old, tired, and struggling. 

   The reason I know is we went to the annual art festival there yesterday.  It was really more of a crafts festival crossed with revolting fair/carnival food.  We did sniff out the ‘Strawberry Festival’ shortcake local dessert, and that was delish.  I skipped the crab cake sandwich, the clam roll, the Texas cheeseburger, the sausages, the fried dough, the cotton candy in a bag, etc. 

   I did get a new piece of jewelry – a great looking agate set in sterling silver.  This woman had a real feel for stone.

To sum up our early days, this is going to be a fun town.  Drinking the spring water isn't going to be part of the fun, though.  As always, if you want to see some MORE PICTURES, well, just click the link.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bAtEuRcUwzStThFr6       

Thank Heaven the trip wasn't by Covered Wagon

We've traveled across the continent, so I felt like we should have been using a covered wagon.  However, if we had, we would only be  outside of Grants, New Mexico, assuming we made about 20 miles a day - which would have been the covered wagon equivalent of flying down the highway at 90 mph.  Instead we took sixteen days on the road with a week prior to leaving Arizona to get ready to go and a week after arriving in New York to get set up.  We drove a bit over 3000 miles during that sixteen days, and we stopped for two day pauses three times.

I will never, ever complain again about the 'new' Jeep which replaced our Aviator after the terrible wreck. Thanks to the factory installed tow/haul feature, and better torque (whatever that is), Drake was able to use cruise control for about 80% of the trip.  He certainly found the drive to be less arduous than he feared.

Our two day pauses were built in for family reasons, as well as a cushion in case of some type of trouble on the road.  We had no trouble other than having to get a windshield repaired (while still in Arizona) due to a kicked up rock outside of Winslow which started a star crack.  Easy/peasy in terms of road trouble.  These types of problems make our hand held computers invaluable.

What we did do on our two day pauses was go to art museums - big surprise, right?  The first was Crystal Bridges in Bentonville, Arkansas.  I've been reading about this place for a few years now, and I've really wanted to see it.  This is the museum Alice Walton has assembled using the Walmart fortune she inherited from her Daddy, Sam.  First, and foremost, it's a museum of American art from native American times forward.  She's scoured the country and purchased some surprising paintings and sculptures.  The initial gallery is called:

This is a piece of art comprised of all different types of shoe laces.  The artist is Narl Ward who uses found objects to create sculpture. 

Here's a section of the above sculpture

Included in the initial exhibition are paintings and sculptures which are representative of all citizens of the country across our history.

George Washington by Gilbert Stuart; circa 1795. This was a surprise.
Who's able to score a Stuart portrait of Washington?
 Alice Walton, apparently

Jaren by Jordan Casteel

In addition to collecting amazing artworks, she commissioned and paid for a world class building to house the art.

If the art and the building aren't enough, the setting which has walking trails and outdoor sculpture is open from dawn to dusk.  This museum is interactive on so many levels - not just inside the museum, but with the community.  There's a musical performance space as well as yoga classes, art classes, kid classes, astronomy and nature offerings.

The 'guards' are called 'protectors', and one of their main jobs is to interact with the people at the museum asking what they like, where they are from, and how can they be helped to make their experience with the museum better.  The museum is also free, yes, free.  And, if you bring a classroom of kids, well, the museum pays for the bus and the gas.  The people coming here don't look like 'museum' people.  They look like the McDonald's crowd.  Kids are excited.  They talk and ask and point and tug on clothes to show their significant adult what they've discovered.

And this place isn't standing still.  There's an enormous additional museum planned for working artists to create pieces on site.  Ground will be broken for that within the  next couple of years.  People will be encouraged to talk to the artists.  This is an interesting place.  It's obvious Alice Walton's mission is to have a world class museum which attracts everybody because the art is great, nobody is 'priced out', and it's fun to come.  Don't miss it.

After driving through Indiana AGAIN after we promised ourselves we would never do that, we arrived at Detroit.  (Indiana doesn't maintain their roads, and the interstate is filled with potholes.  Driving the interstate in Indiana is like playing reverse whack-a-mole.  Drake was tense the entire length of the state dodging major potholes while driving 70 mph)   Anyway, we stayed at the Dearborn Inn outside of Detroit in Dearborn.  The hotel built by Henry Ford in 1931.  It's a grand old hotel, which is technically a Marriott, but not really.  This place is immaculate with impeccable service, and it's close to the Detroit Institute of Art, and the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation.  The Henry Ford has the greatest collection of cars I've seen.  It was a walk down the history of the automobile.  There were also several other interesting exhibitions besides autos. 

1956 Chevy Convertible in front of a working diner
under an original McDonald's neon sign

The Detroit Institute of Art is owned by the City of Detroit.  Because of the enormous amount of $$ which flowed through this town for about 100 years, there's some amazing art here.  My favorite was the Diego Rivera fresco - painted on wet plaster - there're no 'do overs' when you use this technique.  Imagine an atrium surrounded by 20 foot walls, and those walls were Rivera's 'canvas'.  It was painted in 1931, and it shows industrial production at the time, and specifically the Ford auto plant.  Here's a sample:

There was a great docent who helped us look at this fresco - and remember, this is only ONE SIDE OF FOUR.  We spent about an hour looking at this piece.  It was difficult to photograph, and I could write a lot more about it.  I hope my pictures will help you grasp this enormous work of art.  Here's one of his most controversial panels.   People were outraged he included 'the nativity' in the fresco, and put it in a modern, scientific setting when he represented it.    

The other 'famous' piece in the museum is by one of Drake's favorite artists.  It's called "The Wedding" by Pieter Bruegel, the Elder, and it was painted in 1566.

        

Can you find the bride?  Here she is:  the only woman without her hair covered, and she's wearing black.  "White" didn't become the Western Europe wedding color until Victoria wore it on her wedding day.

This museum has quite a few other great pictures which you can see by clicking on my photo link.  I loved the flower pictures.  Here's one by Jan Bruegel, the Younger painted in 1600.

When we were planning the cross country trek, Drake decided it would be prudent to built in a couple of days for emergencies.  That's why we spent two days in Buffalo, New York.  We didn't have any trouble, so Buffalo stayed on the itinerary.  However, when we arrived, we found another surprising art museum.  It turns out the fine art museum in Buffalo, New York, had a curator around the turn of the century who bought those new fangled Impressionists, and Expressionists (ie VanGogh), and the museum marched forward buying contemporary and modern art.  The Erie Canal and the resulting boom in trade and shipping made Buffalo a very rich and influential city in America for most of the 19th century.  In 1901 it hosted the Pan American Exposition, and this is where President McKinley was shot and died.  Roosevelt was sworn in here in a friend's house.  As for the art museum,  here's an example of what we saw: 

Van Gogh - The Old Mill - 1888

It sounds like we just museum hopped across the country, and I suppose we did.  However, we also spent an awful lot of days driving seven hours a day, checking in and out of hotels, and figuring out where we could do our laundry.  And, truthfully, the worst part was the food.  We had one decent meal in Dearborn, and that was about it.

We are settled into Saratoga Springs, and it's a really nice town.  I already have my library card, and we've toured a couple of places.  This weekend we attended an art festival in the next town over.  This is going to be a great place, and we are going to have such fun.  This coming weekend, we are kicking off our performance tickets by going to New York City to see the American Ballet Theater perform Swan Lake.  Oh, and we will be visiting our still in the oven grandson who is weighing in at about 13 ounces these days, and who will be arriving in the world in 136 days.

As always, here are the pictures.

Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, Arkansas 
https://photos.app.goo.gl/NtMTQvobYRgVby3s7

Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan
https://photos.app.goo.gl/e61R7Qbr88wNNeuDA

Theodore Roosevelt's Inauguration House
https://photos.app.goo.gl/f1tpKdtKDqZ1tAZE9

Buffalo Museum of Fine Art & Buffalo Historical Museum
https://photos.app.goo.gl/JQEgGH4dmNvTnNVS9

Theodore Roosevelt Inauguration House - 1901
https://photos.app.goo.gl/f1tpKdtKDqZ1tAZE9

Just in Time for Mother's Day

We have a navel orange tree which shades our back picture windows.  One branch swoops down to eye level, and we have a made to order nesting place.  For the past four years, some bird (usually mourning doves) build a nest on this branch.  It's hidden, however, only on three sides.  The 'peephole' side is four feet from our back window.

This year a robin took over the tenancy.  First, I was interested to note robins spend a lot of time and effort building the nest which is sturdy and deep.  (Mourning doves just slap a few sticks together - and as a result, a chick tumbled out last year and was pecked to death by thrashers.  Boy, was that grim.)  Here's the robin at nest completion already sitting on a clutch of eggs.  At this point, we have no idea how many eggs or how long it will take them to hatch.

After a really short time period, we noticed she was flying back and forth, but we couldn't see any beaks.  Obviously, she was feeding.  I learned new born robins are tiny, tiny, and featherless, with closed eyes, and skin so thin you can actually see the internal organs.  I didn't want to spook the mother by getting my step ladder out and peering into the nest, so I took the book's word for all this.  After about three days or so, here's what popped up:  There are two little wide open beaks - one is behind the leaf.

  

Within one more day, we could see a propped up head, no feathers, eyes still closed.  Just like human babies, it takes robinettes a bit of time to learn to hold up their heads.  The white 'fuzz' is down forming - the start of the feathers.

Their beaks were almost transparent at this point.

And, then, one day there were three beaks!  

Two chicks now have open eyes, but the third one's eyes (in the back) are still closed, and you can see the little feathers starting to form on the two oldest.

Mom (and Dad) are now doing tag team feeding, and it's almost non-stop.  One lands feeds, leaves, and the other is right behind with more food.  It's just like planes doing touch and go's on aircraft carriers.  This goes on from dawn until dark.

Then, one morning we open the curtain, and the chicks all have feathers.  It seemed to happen overnight.  Between the two heads is the third beak - the much smaller chick.

The parents are still feeding like mad, and we are into about the tenth day since beaks were visible above the deep nest.

It's now obvious, while there are three chicks, one is significantly bigger, the second is close behind, but the third is definitely smaller than the other two and is being crowded out when feeding happens.

One morning the biggest chick perched on the EDGE OF THE NEST.  I'm thinking repeat of last year when the dove chick fell out of the nest and died.  

This is a two week old robin sitting on the edge, flexing its wings in preparation to STEP OFF.  That's how robin chicks fledge:  They don't fly out, or hop to a branch.  They step off the edge of the nest.  Initial flight is about ten feet.

  

One chick is poised and ready to step off; the second followed within a few hours, but the smallest was still sitting deep into the nest.  I wondered if the parents would continue to feed it.

Here's the last chick in the nest, and the parents fed non-stop for an entire day before this one fledged. 

This is a previously fledged chick who tried to return to the nest.  It's about one foot from the nest and can't quite figure out how to work back over and into the nest.

It finally worked its way back to the nest edge and is calling for food, but I never saw either parent feed it.  They did continue to feed the one still in the nest while ignoring the one who left the nest and came back.

When didn't actually see any of the three leave the nest for the first time.  I was interested in this process, but I wouldn't sit at the window for hour upon hour.  This robin is one of the chicks and is a day or two out of the nest. They can fly about ten feet at a time the first day.  This one sat here for about an hour pretending to be invisible.  I crept up outside to take a picture, and this one (same bird) who can obviously see me didn't budge.

And here's the final fledgling.  The robin dad hangs around for a couple of days, but mom is already building another nest.  I was intrigued the very excellent old nest was not re-used.  I guess we will have to clean it out next winter to get a new nest built in our peek-a-boo spot.

  As always, there are more pictures.  I did whittle down over 300 pictures to 85 - probably about 50 too many.  Couldn't help myself.  This was a fascinating three weeks.  

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xQpqNPL6pKFTdnx39

As you can tell from the pictures, I had a very good time watching and filming the new birds.  How appropriate with Mother's Day arriving within the week.  

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day to our daughter on her first Mother's Day.  Our family's baby boy grandson is coming out of the nest around Halloween.  Here he is at about twelve weeks.  We can hardly wait!

California Coast

I didn't think there was any coastal area in California which wasn't overrun with people.  However, Drake and I managed to find an area.  First, we had to change our plans on the fly - nothing unusual for us in doing that.  We'd planned to leave Yosemite and drive 200 miles to Sequoia National Park and stay there a few days.  Personally, I love the 'big trees'.  If you haven't been to a grove of giant redwoods or sequoias, you can't imagine the pure oxygen rush you get along with the awe over the majesty of these trees.  So.....  When we discovered the weather was going to be horrible - blowing snow, below freezing weather, etc., even though I was disappointed, we started thinking about finding somewhere else to go. 

I first thought Death Valley National Park - a place I've wanted to see.  However even in mid April the temps are too fierce.  I turned west remembering the big rock in Morro Bay, and I also started thinking about the Hearst Castle.  We discovered Morro Bay as the final hurrah to our Big Sur trip of a few years ago.  The rock intrigued me.  In addition to Morro Bay, there was Los Osos which we hadn't seen.  Both are small coastal communities outside of San Luis Obispo. 

This rock is MASSIVE and sits offshore in the ocean.  It turns out to be what's left of an extinct volcano, and it's one of nine in a chain.  They were blowing their tops 20 million years ago.  Once you know this, you can spot the other eight.  They are all on land, and are covered with a thin layer of top soil.   Bright green grass grows on them in the spring, and they have identical shapes to the Morro Bay rock. 

Even better, the coastline is beautiful and in the same vein as the Big Sur area.  

There's even a chain of small California State parks which are filled with coast line hugging hikes.  Here I am on the kind of hike I like - easy with great scenery.  

And it wouldn't be a hike without flowers.  In Montero de Oro State Park, the bright yellow poppies (the 'Oro' in the name) were just starting to bloom.  Some years they cover the worn down hills.

When you faced away from the ocean, here was the 'view'.  There were also hiking trails all over these hills up and down the coast.  You just have to be on the lookout for rattlers and those pesky ticks.  

By contrast, the Yosemite accommodations were barely adequate, and the food at Yosemite was completely lackluster, and for me downright poisonous.  On the California coast we stayed at a coastal bed/breakfast two room suite right across the street from a chef run small restaurant.  All his food was absolutely delish. It was a delightful couple of days, and a place we are contemplating going back to for a longer stay.   If you want to see more pictures, well I have them.  Just click on the link.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/u1BSco0jTxU7aZ3T2  

Yosemite Valley

Back to my travelogue ways in this entry.  We planned an excursion for our 47th to the iconic American National Park:  Yosemite.  I have to say right up front we were both disappointed.  Perhaps, the food poisoning I received as a lagnaippe from the swank INSIDE THE PARK meal has colored my perceptions.  Drake found the commercialization to have compromised the ultimate beauty of the park. 

First, let me say the waterfalls are spectacular.  As usual with our luck, we saw them at premiere peak.  In Yosemite, mother nature controls the flow of the falls, so the only time they are all gushing over the cliff tops is late spring and very early summer.  It didn't hurt our chances there was a big rain event two days before we arrived adding to the snow melt.  Here's Yosemite Falls which dries up by August.

Yosemite Falls with 'ice' on the sides

We stayed inside Yosemite Valley which is where Ansel Adams took most of his iconic pictures in the 20th century, and Albert Bierstadt painted in the 19th century.   John Muir, the California naturalist is the one who befriended Teddy Roosevelt, lured him to California and took him by horseback into the valley.  Roosevelt was so swept away with the beauty he set aside the land as America's first national park.  

I can only imagine what it must have looked like.  Now, the valley floor is a web of paved paths, paved short hiking trails to the base of any accessible water fall, hotel rooms, motel rooms, 'improved' camping sites, RV parking sites, and ribbons of roads to reach it all.  This park has been 'loved to death' by the public.  

On the positive side, the valley would be a great vacation if you have elementary school age children.  The bike paths which wind around everywhere are relatively flat, and children would love riding on them.  The hikes are doable by short legs.  And, to be fair, there's thousands of acres of wilderness to which the hardy (young adults) can backpack.  This place is also a rock climbing paradise.  

Just be sure to bring your own food.  Part of our disgruntled attitude was the lack of a single decent meal the entire time we were there.  I really did get food poisoning which ruined an entire day of the trip for both of us.   However, even before that, the $40 breakfast was a bad combination of airline food/fast food.  I've had a better free breakfast at the lowliest Best Western.  The hamburger was on par with one from a minor league ballpark.   Drake resorted to eating the ham salad I brought with us from home for breakfast one day.   

I did discover each of the five entrances into the park offer different sights and hikes, so if you are planning a visit and it's NOT waterfall season, skip the Yosemite Valley and choose somewhere else inside the park to visit.  It will be much less crowded, and this entire area of California is gorgeous.  

Of course, I took lots of pictures.  I also decided to channel Ansel Adams and took several black and white shots.  Click on the link to see both the B/W and the color shots of Yosemite Valley.  (Oh, and we did see several vintage cars leaving the valley as we were arriving, so we just missed a rally of early 20th century cars.)  

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HzT1JIEAHwyYwcuP2