Chicago Union station and DC landmarks, April 2024

For the trip from Bloomington to DC we took the train.

Chicago's Union Station is fully refurbished.

The skylights got covered for WWII and left for decades.  So happy to see it in a rejuvenated state.

The lounges had historical information, modern art, a cocktail cart, and good people watching.

I cross stitched a train on the train!

Yup, most of the midwest looks like this from the train.

DC!  We stayed with a friend and spent much of the time seeing the sites.

Just the end of the cherry blossom festival

Sami's hot dog cart!  We needed lunch and DC is filled with food trucks. But they are all kind of the same and they fill the mall. We found Sami's hot dog cart with over 1,000 reviews, all 5 star.  The hot dogs, chili dogs and pretzels are good but what sets it apart is the variety of unusual drinks and snacks.  Just the right blend of what you expect and specialty items.  Sami is a locals place that also welcomes visitors.  So worth it!

Classic DC monuments

An off the beaten path park honors the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Just a small bridge and island

with each signature given its own stone.

Books and Auckland Botanical Gardens, July - August, 2024

 

These are the last photos of the botanical garden visit.

Cute cat on obelisk!?!

-by Amor Towles

A Gentleman in Moscow:  A 'follow the life' story.  Post-revolution Russia and I was initially concerned that I wouldn't be able to follow people/events.  No worries!  The author is writing to me.  Feels a bit like Fredrik Backman books.  So good they turned it into a movie.

-by Daniel O'Malley

The Rook:  This world is full of humans with supernatural abilities.  There is a supernatural MI5 that is secret and full of characters.  One of these wakes up with amnesia and has to relearn her life from letters written by earlier self and being thrown into the deep end of crazy supernatural messes.  Great fun and the first in a series!

This was at the center with entrances to the different gardens.

-by Book Riot

Lit Stitch:  Cross stitch designs for book lovers!  Super cute and easy to do.

-by Kate Atkinson

Life After Life:  One woman has multiple possible lives.  What if this one thing happened differently?  Set in WWII England.  Not as griping as I had hoped, but finished it anyway.

Skimmed

-by Joel Friel

Fast After 50:  Not quite what I expected, this is aimed at almost professional athletes.  Turns out to have the same info as Outlive.  Use It or Lose It, more protein as you age because it is harder to build muscle, be more cautious about injury, but not to the point of giving up.

-by Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack

The Index Card:  Financial advice simplified.  Great for inexperienced folks.

Graphic Novels

-by Jeremy Holt and Felipe Cunha

Gatsby:  I love a retelling!  This one is pretty good, but felt short.  It is brought forward in time to today and has a few gender/ethnicity swaps that add interest.  I would have liked to see more of the lavish lifestyle of Gatsby and the callous indifference of the Daisy character.  I guess that it is a good sign that I want more.

Kids books-We've been hitting the library with our 4th grade niece and I'm picking all sorts of fun randomness.

A couple of Ivy and Bean books, a couple of Nancy Drew Clue books, an I Survived, one Kate DeCamillo

DNF

-by  Michael Kinsley

Old Age:  Journalist memoir/thoughts.  It was ok, but nothing new, so I put it down.

-by Gabrielle Zevin

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow:  Not bad, just didn't finish it before the loan ended.  May pick it up again.

-by Elizabeth Barber

Women's Work:  Looking at the history of weaving, clothes making, embroidery, etc.  Academic style and written about 20 years ago, so not super interesting

-by Claire Hunter

Threads of Life:  Also the history of weaving, clothes making, embroidery.  But more conversational and interesting.  But not quite as interesting as mysteries.

DNF

-by Emily Kimelman

Unleashed:  The writing is not great.  I am getting really tired of the young woman who doesn't know what to do with her life, drinks too much, makes poor dating choices, does something impulsive (gets an interesting dog) that barely shows up later in the book, and then stumbles into solving murders. 

-by Madeline Miller

The Song of Achilles:  I started it, and it is good, but didn't finish before it went back to the electronic library.  So I put it back on hold and have deferred it for over a year.  Time to let it go!

-by Iris Murdoch

A Severed Head:  I've heard great things about her, so tried this book.  I read about 10%, but it down for a week.  Could not remember a single thing.  This author may not be for me!

We visit the A's stadium, Point Sur lighthouse and Laguna Seca, June 2024

 

Cousin Steve is in town and we planned a bunch of great stuff!

The A's are moving, so we watched A's play the Twins in the coliseum for the last time.

Sunday was a tribute to the historic team that won the World series in the early 70s

They rode in on vintage cars

and had a special ceremony

The fans loved it.  We ate an order of the baseball hat nachos, which maybe was a mistake.

On the Monterey coast is the Calla Lily Valley.  The flowers were mostly gone, but the fog was rolling in.

Other wildflowers were having a lovely showing.

The Point Sur Lighthouse is a historic landmark run by extremely dedicated volunteers. 

They need to finish some seismic retrofitting before bringing back the original Fresnel lens.

But many of the other parts are in place. 

The tour is chock full of historical information and items.

  There is a whale jaw bone and baleen.

We did the monthly full moon tour.  It was a great tour, but the moon was totally fogged over.  I asked if there is any month/season where you have a better chance of seeing the moon.  Nope!  It seems like you have to be a docent to have any chance of visiting on a full moon.

The hike up to the lighthouse is steep and not as short as you hope.  But you get a top down view of a kelp forest!

Impressed by the flowers along the way that stand up to the intense wind.  We went on the cat walk around the light and no one on the tour could go completely around.  The wind came through so strong it would have dumped you on the ground if not for the railing.  Truly scary.

A trip to Laguna Seca!

A new spot for all of us.

Learned a bit about Indy car racing.

We only saw practice runs, but that was just the right price and time point for us.  

The tortilla chip folks make race car shaped chips!!