Category Archives: Travel

Convergence 2024 in Kansas – Day 4

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Look here for Day 3 of Convergence. I had not scheduled anything at Convergence for Saturday and looked forward to a day to choose to do anything or nothing. I decided to go to Botanica Wichita, a collection of botanical gardens on 18 acres, not too far from the hotel.

I started with the same route along the river I’d walked the first three days. I got side-tracked by flags along the way. The Wichita Flag Pavilion starts with a plaque about the first “flag”, probably a staff with eagle feathers carried by the Native Americans as a way for tribe members to follow their leader.

There are plaques for each of these later flags starting with the flag that flew over Christopher Columbus’ Santa Maria. There are photos of those plaques at this link.

The Flag Pavilion is at the edge of the Wichita Veterans Memorial Park where there are 21 memorials. I wandered through and found the Vietnam Memorial. I am just young enough that none of my friends were drafted, but I was in high school during the last years of the Vietnam war. I think that the Vietnam era is responsible for the culture in which I grew up. It was notable that the word “war” is not on any of these memorials.

From Britannica.com: “Congress authorized troop deployment in Vietnam, but, because it did not issue a declaration of war on North Vietnam or the Viet Cong, the Vietnam War is, technically speaking, not considered a war in the United States.” Maybe that is why there was such an impact on us. We sent our young men half way across the world to experience atrocities and die for what reason? We were not at risk, and this “conflict” had no bearing on our safety at home…but I digress.

After I left the Veteran’s Memorial Park I continued along the river path following the map in my phone until I saw the marker for the Wichita Gardens,

This marker was deceiving. It is at the edge of the gardens but as I walked along the path that bordered the gardens I found gates closed. The trail looked as though it was going farther away from the garden. I think eventually I would have found a street that brought me to the main entrance, but since I was on foot I wasn’t sure how far afield I should go. I stopped and called the number listed for Botanica. Amazingly, a person answered the phone. She told me I had walked too far, and I went back the way I had come, turning at the Art Museum and worked my way through a neighborhood to get to the main entrance.

To be continued…

Convergence 2024 in Kansas – Day 1

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When I Google “convergence” I find “an annual convention for fans of Science Fiction and Fantasy”, “a global network for blended finance”, and more, If you’re a weaver you probably know of Convergence as a gathering held every other year by the Handweavers Guild of America. This year it’s in Wichita, Kansas. It was a year ago that I applied to teach here and two of my proposed classes were accepted. I ended up teaching only one because too few people signed up for the other.

I flew to Wichita on Wednesday.

The conference is at the Hyatt Regency and the adjoining Convention Center. I spent the afternoon setting up my classroom for the next day’s workshop. Then I explored the nearby area.

Screenshot

I took a screenshot of the app I have on the phone to record workouts–although I don’t call this a workout. It’s a walk. There are paved paths along each side of the Arkansas River with plenty to see on both sides.

This unusual building is the Exploration Place. In the distance you can see a pedestrian bridge and the 44-foot tall Keeper of the Plains statue that rises on a rock promontory. It is at the confluence of the Arkansas and the Little Arkansas Rivers, as seen on the map above.

This monument is just off the path and is one of many in the adjoining Veterans Memorial Park

Exploration Place seen from the north.

Keeper of the Plains. The statue was erected in 1974 and was raised on a 30-foot promontory in 2006 so that it could be seen from farther away. In the adjoining plaza there are displays that describe the local tribes that used to inhabit the area. There is also a ring of fire pits that are lit nightly for 15 minutes.

As I walked back on the other side of the river I had another view of the Exploration Place. Right now the website advertises two nights of Superhero Sleepover (“Bam, Pow, Snooze”). This looks like a great place to visit with kids…probably adults too. I took this photo partly for my own kids who I think would be interested in or amused by the helicopter, the giant open mouth and the green object on the left. You probably can’t tell in the photo here but I could see from where I stood that it says Fart Chair. The building is large and I’m sure holds a full day’s worth of interesting activities.

This is a view of the Hyatt from the bridge where I crossed back over the river. Home for the next four days.

Ironman 70.3 at Coeur d’Alene Idaho – Day 1

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I think we’ve made it to all the Ironman events for Chris and Matt. When I search the blog I used from 2019 through early 2023 I found 11 posts about our Ironman experiences. The earlier WordPress blog (which is what I’m using now) had Chris’ first Ironman in 2013 and the second one in 2016. Do you see the purpose of these blog posts? Like I’ve said before, they replace the old scrapbooks. And now, to have the best of both worlds, Matt has made real books out of many of them (see this post).

Chris had to fit this Ironman in before fire season. Chris and Meryl live in Boise and Chris works out of McCall, so it seemed that Coeur d’Alene was doable. For us it was a 13 hour drive. This post is all about the drive on the first day.

Idaho map book on dashboard of card.

We left at 5:45 a.m. on Friday, only 45 minutes behind schedule. The event was on Sunday so this would give us a day to check out the course, check in the bike, and visit with Chris and Meryl.

It was good to see that Shasta Lake is full.

I always look forward to seeing Mt. Shasta.

We veered off I-5 at Weed to take Hwy. 97 into Oregon. I interned for a summer in the mid 1970’s (or was it two?) in Siskiyou County for the USFS. This is the station where I reported and I lived in a tent at a campground about 10 (?) miles away. I have forgotten a lot of details. I wouldn’t mind going back there to see it, but this wasn’t the trip for getting side-tracked. There were lots of memories driving through this area though.

Once in Oregon we were struck by the mountain peaks rising so far above everything else. I’m used to our area where you see a whole range of mountains when the sky is clear enough. Here it’s interesting to see individual mountains that rise above all the rest. This one is Mt. Jefferson (I think), 10,502′ at the peak.

I have lots of landscape photos but I can’t put them all here. I don’t know if I’ve driven this stretch through Oregon. The main feature along this part of the route was the grassland. In fact over 173,000 acres are designated Crooked River National Grassland

I’m skipping ahead. We’re still in Oregon but with a view of Mt. Adams in Washington.

This is crossing the Columbia River at Biggs Junction, entering Washington.

This is the view from the north side of the Columbia River.

There is an interesting structure on the north bank of the river. This is known as Stonehenge and it was constructed in 1918 to memorialize the men who fought in WWI. See the whole story here.

John Day Dam is not far from where we crossed the river. Construction started in 1958 and it was first used in 1971. I am fascinated by the lock structure that lifts a maximum of 113 feet, seen on the left in this photo.

View crossing the river at Kennewick.

Knowing that Dan would want to do most of the driving, I brought a ridiculous amount of projects and unread magazines with me. I spent the first few hours working on the article I’m writing for Handwoven that was due soon. Once we got into the Northern California mountains and then through Oregon and Washington I wanted to see the scenery. I didn’t get anything out until the last bit when I pulled out this inkle loom to thread it.

It was still daylight when we got to our motel. We met up with Chris and Meryl briefly but everyone needed to get some sleep. To be continued.

Visiting Boise

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Between Lambtown in early October and Rhinebeck, New York two weeks ago I made a quick trip to Boise. My son got a ride here from Idaho to attend a wedding but then needed to get back home. I’d never had a chance to see the house he and Meryl bought over a year ago so this was a good chance, besides the opportunity to visit with them.

As I sorted through photos for this post I determined that this is a FAIL for photos of my family as it is mostly landscape and road trip type photos. That’s OK I guess, because even though I use this blog as my personal scrapbook, maybe I should be more reserved about sharing family photos. That’s my excuse, but it turns out that I didn’t take any, unless photos of dogs and cats count.

I was glad to let Chris drive. We had lots of conversation and I amused myself with a few landscape photos.

We drove to Boise on Tuesday. The next day we did two errands that were business related for me. We delivered salted sheepskins to the business that had tanned some for me a couple of years ago but then relocated. They are just starting up again and I we met in Boise to transfer the salted pelts from my car to her truck–a very convenient transfer for me. I look forward to getting these back. Then we drove to Lunatic Fringe at a location not far from Boise.

Lunatic Fringe is not open as a retail shop but I am one of their vendors and order cotton and hemp yarns and kits from them. It was fun to visit and be able to shop on-site instead of just on-line. Look at that selection!!

I was pleased to see this kit that they had just put together after I used their hemp in an article that was published in the most recent Little Looms magazine.

These are the bags I wove for the article.

This is the only photo I got of Chris and Meryl. At least they can’t accuse me of badgering them for family photos. We were walking on some trails in the hills north of Boise.

The view of the city from above.

I gave Chris and Meryl one of the cat baskets that I have been making. I think Luke is a little big for it, but I don’t expect these baskets to hold their shape once they are in use by the intended recipients.

This could be a scene from home but we don’t have any stoplights on our North Meridian.

On Thursday Chris and I went to the Idaho State Museum. It is an interesting museum and I’d go back to spend more time with some of the displays. We learned about parachuting beavers. (If you google beavers in Idaho you’ll find a few videos that explain what that’s about.)

I was amused to see this in the museum. My kids used to play a version although we didn’t have an Apple computer at the time.

Information about the number of sheep in Idaho and about women in Idaho ranching.

These are just a few many interesting displays at this museum. It would be easy to spend a few more hours there.

We drove downtown and parked so we could wander around the area.

Later we took the dogs for a ride and then a walk in natural area a friend told me about. That was an important part of my visit. I reconnected with a friend I had worked with in Utah around 1978. I last saw her when Chris was very young.

This prompted me to look back in the old photo albums to figure out when we had visited. I found this in the 1992 album. Those are my three kids in the middle, Matt, Katie, and Chris, and Joyce’s kids on the outside. Coincidentally they are named Dan and Katie, just to make things confusing. I hope to get to Boise again to visit Chris, 30 years older than in this photo, and Joyce too (maybe we’re only 15 years older?? I wish.)

I had to be home on Friday because there was a group of people coming on Saturday. So I took off Friday morning. I followed my phone’s directions to get out of Boise and for some reason ended up on the road to Elko instead of Winnemucca. That is the problem of not using real maps anymore. But it added only about an hour to the drive and I saw different country, although I don’t know where I took this photo.

This is probably Nevada. I think I got home at dark.

New York Adventure – Day 6

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If you read the first post in this series you know that I started Day 1 with our first full day here. There was a travel day before that one, as is Day 6. So this would really be our seventh day away from home…just maintaining some level of accuracy.

We took a group photo before we all left. The California contingent are the four of us on the left. Adrianne, on the right, stayed with us. We first met her in Maryland several years ago and have stayed in touch. She drove here from Ohio. Some of the best time on this trip was spent hanging out together in the living room and at the kitchen table.

Fall color on the way to the airport.

Our travel days were easy and without incident. they were just long.

Somewhere over the mid-west.

The Rockies.

Over Salt Lake, but it’s mostly under the plane.

More of the salt flats. Some of you fly all the time and you are used to seeing this. I don’t see this often and I like getting this perspective

Lake Tahoe and the Sierras. That means we’re almost home.

When we see the fields of the Central Valley it means we are home. Aren’t those beautiful patterns?

Those hills just under the sunset are “my hills”. Our farm is in the valley just east of the lower hills.

New York Adventure – Day 5

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This post is about Day 4 of our adventure, but Day 1 of the New York Sheep and Wool Festival. This was to be our last full day in New York and the second day of the festival. Even with spending all day Saturday at the festival I hadn’t seen it all.

I got in line right away to buy a t-shirt and the person behind me had a companion with her wearing his own Rhinebeck Sweater, knit by his friend. The t-shirt line was relatively short when I got there, and fortunately there was one 2023 t-shirt left and it fit me.

The camelid parade had turned into a goat parade on this day (with llamas in the back). They were announced by the trumpeter throughout the parade around the fairgrounds.

Back in the vendor halls there was no shortage of camelids, particularly alpacas. This booth had reproductions of several famous images and each included an alpaca.

Here was a stylish alpaca.

I had just sold four Jacob skulls at Lambtown, butfor a lot less than this one. However they weren’t nearly as clean, didn’t include the lower jawbone, and didn’t have a cool stand to hold them. You get what you pay for.

I considered these yarns to finish up the projects for my upcoming Handwoven article. As much as I liked them, I couldn’t see them in that project. That’s when I went back to the Harrisville Design yarn (yesterday’s post) and ended up with that yarn.

This booth had felted and needle-work embellished artwork.

I had seen blankets in other booths that were woven using singles yarn and I noticed the same in this booth. I was thinking was about how different they look than what I weave. I think that each weaver has a style and these blankets looked like I had seen in other booths.

I talked to Peggy Hart, the weaver here, and she said that she had probably woven all those other blankets that I saw. She custom weaves for sheep owners who market their fiber and yarn, but don’t weave it themselves. I saw that she had also written a book about weaving and wool in America, and I bought a copy.

I had seen all the vendors and wandered over to some of the other buildings on the fairgrounds. This is the Bentley one-room schoolhouse, built in 1881, and relocated to the fairgrounds in 2003.

Many of the furnishings are original.

Teacher Code of Conduct.

There is also a Century Museum, a large building filled with lots of displays of old equipment. There is a club that staffs this building during events at the fairgrounds and many were on hand to talk about their various areas of interest.

I talked to the weaver here about the action of the counter-balanced loom. I was amused to see a newer copy of the old Davison book that we all use.

The sign on that blue treadmill on the left says Dog Power. There was another with a huge stuffed dog in it. Notice several other looms and an old treadle sewing machine on this level.

Back “home” we shared the day’s purchases.

One day left to this adventure, but it was a travel day.

New York Adventure – Day 3

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I talked about Day 2 here. Now that I’m numbering the days I see that I have it wrong. Day 1 was really a travel day. We left Sacramento on Tuesday at 11:45 and got to Albany well after dark. That’s why I didn’t count it. I’ll stick with the current numbering system that forgets the travel day.

Kathleen and I both entered handwoven items at the show and needed to deliver them on Friday. That was the first stop of the day.

After delivering our items we drove back to Hyde Park so we could tour the Vanderbilt Mansion. This family tree starts with Cornelius, born in 1794. At age 16 he bought a sailing barge using $100 borrowed from his parents. He started his own shipping business and eventually was involved in railroads. In 1871 he opened the largest strain station in North America, which would eventually be called Grand Central Station. The bulk of Cornelius’ estate went to the firstborn son, William. Wlliam doubled the Vanderbilt fortune and each of his 8 children built extravagant mansions, shown on the chart above. The estate on the far right is the one I toured last summer in Asheville, North Carolina, known as “America’s Largest Home”. Notice on the family tree there are no heirs for Frederick’s home, third from right.

Frederick and his wife, Louise, had no children. They left the estate to Louise’s niece but she didn’t need it, having plenty of her own money and a mansion, after marrying into another rich family. She tried to sell the property but there were no buyers. Her neighbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, suggested that she donate the estate to the National Park Service, and the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site opened in 1940.

The entrance hall was used for seating and conversation as well as having doorways into all the other first floor rooms. The green marble pilasters were imported from Italy. (From Wikipedia: “In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function.“) We were told that many of the home’s features and furniture were imported from Europe.

Reception Room. The National Historic Site website says: “Eighteenth-century-style French salons were a typical feature of Gilded Age mansions. Though infrequently occupied or used, they nonetheless were essential in the display of wealth and worldliness.“

I took this photo of the ceiling in one of the rooms. I think it was the Reception Room.

This is on the second floor where you can look down to the first …

…or up to the skylight.

Mrs. Vanderbilt’s bedroom modeled after those of 18th century French royalty. The railing around the bed was typical of royal bed chambers. I don’t remember if this was determined to be true, but the tour guide told us one theory that there may be observers when a Queen gives birth so there is no question about who is the true heir. I just found this on the National Historic Site website: “The railing around Mrs. Vanderbilt’s bed is an architectural convention borrowed from many European royal palaces. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it served both practical and symbolic purposes related to royal births and ceremonies that occured daily when the king or queen woke up. At Hyde Park, the railing serves no purpose other than to reference the architecture of Europe’s finest royal houses.”

I don’t remember what this room is but looking at the map I think it is probably the Boudoir.

We took the stairway to the Servant’s Basement.

This is the view from below. There are four floors (including the basement), 54 rooms and 21 fireplaces. The third floor is closed to visitors and we were told that it is not as it originally was, being used to house Secret Service agents at some point in the history of Hyde Park. There is much more information to be found on the referenced website.

Change of scene… We stopped at the Eveready Diner in Hyde Park for lunch and met up with California friend, Siobhan, here. I didn’t drive during this whole trip and kept losing track of which town we were near. We stayed outside Tivoli, New York and drove to Rhinebeck, only 11 miles south. Hyde Park is only another 10 miles south of Rhinebeck. So we were back and forth on that same corridor for the whole trip.

On the way home (to our AirB&B) we took a side road to see some of the countryside.

Fall colors in evidence.

To be continued…

New York Adventure – Day 2

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I thought that It would be great to come home all caught up with my blog posts. That didn’t happen–partly because it’s not as easy to work on the iPad as on my computer and partly because I spent time with my friends every evening and didn’t focus on other things.

On the second day in New York we drove to Hyde Park where there are three National Historic Sites we intended to visit. We started at this one.

We signed up for a tour of FDR’s house. This is the stable where we gathered.

FDR was born in this house in 1882. After he was married and the family grew there were additions to the house There are also adaptations for wheelchair access since he was unable to walk unaided after contracting polio in 1921. I was surprised to learn the extent to which that fact was hidden from the public throughout his life.

There is a ramp to this room, but when Roosevelt was alive the ramp would be concealed once he was in the room and awaiting his guests.

I took this photo because that desk is almost identical to the one that I used while I was a kid and through high school. It belonged to my grandmother who had lived in New York. I always liked the “secret” cubbyholes that were those fancy columns on either side of the door at the center of the upright part. My granddaughter has this desk now.

We had started at the FDR Presidential Library but had only a half hour before our tour of the house. There was so much to see here that we came back. I thought that a Presidential LIbrary would be full of books, but this is a museum. It is very well presented and there is an overwhelming amount of information here. This is the first Presidential Library and I assume that maybe others are modeled after this one. This one opened in 1941, and of course it would have been very different than what it is today.

I knew the bare basics of this era but this exhibit pulls it all together in a very informative and organized way. The exhibits are all set up in order so that you move through Roosevelt’s story from before he became President to his death during his fourth term.

It starts with the Depression when Hoover was President.

When Roosevelt was elected he jumped right in and tackled the major problems facing the country.

I am of course familiar with all of these programs now because they are part of our way of life, but I have never thought about the time when they were developed.

Eleanor is included in this museum as well. There is another National Historic Site at her home but we didn’t have time to go there. This letter is of interest to me because she recognized, way back in 1939, that California’s redwood forests were worthy of protection (second paragraph). There was a lot here about Eleanor’s influence and political activist. The FBI had quite a large file on her activities!

This is a working office used by Roosevelt during his presidency as is told in the photo below.

There was so much to see at this library that I could easily go back if I ever get to this part of the country again.

We drove to the Vanderbilt home only a few miles away. We would have had to wait a couple of hours for space in a tour so we decided to come back the next day.

We wandered through the gardens before we left to go “home”.

I don’t have many photos of the AirB&B where we stayed. This is from the driveway.

I stayed in this bedroom.

The bathroom that was shared by two bedrooms. The third upstairs bedroom had it’s own bathroom in a totally different style. We figured out with Google and other clues in the home that the owner is an architect with an office in Brooklyn.

This living room and the kitchen are where we spent most of the time. As much as we looked forward to exploring this part of the country and going to the fiber show, some of the most enjoyable time was spent sitting here and around the kitchen table.

New York Adventure – Day 1

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For now I’m skipping over the time between Lambtown and the current adventure, but I may backtrack later.

Do you remember in 2019 when I had a major accident? This is the BlogPost about that. (I just reread that post and see all the typos—that was because my hand still wasn’t working very well and I didn’t catch all the mistakes.) In 2019 a group of friends and I had planned to go to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, New York. Until I talked to these friends a couple of days ago I didn’t realize that the accident was only two days before our planned trip. My skull was repaired in February 2020 but that was just before the pandemic started. So now in 2023 we resurrected that trip we missed in 2019. It’s the same group minus one.

Landing in Chicago where we changed planes.

Kathleen and Mary and me in the airport waiting for the next flight. We were going to meet up with Chris who had already been exploring NY for a week with her husband and other friends.

We landed in Albany around 10 p.m., picked up a rental car, and found the nearby hotel we had booked. The next morning we had breakfast with Chris and got on the road. Kathleen wanted to find an apple cider donut and an apple farm was our first stop.

This farm was near Vischer Ferry and had you-pick apples as well as a fully stocked gift shop and bakery. There were apples of all varieties.

We each chose apples of different varieties. I like that this one says “Very firm with a loud crunch”.

How about this one that says “monster crunch, two-napkin juicy”?

We continued on towards our AirBnB near the small town of Tivoli, but wanted to explore some of the country. We saw the Erie Canal on the map and decided to stop at the Erie Canalway Trail near Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve. According to signs the canal opened in 1825 to facilitate transportation between Buffalo and Albany and was enlarged in the 1840s. It was abandoned in 1917.

This is the canal today.

There was parking near this bridge which was originally over another part of the canal. It had been moved in 1917 to a private farm and in 1997 was brought to the canal where there had been a similar bridge.

Kathleen and I chose to walk the trail for awhile.

Kathleen was looking for birds while I kept getting sidetracked by all the plants that are different from what I’m used to. White berries on this one.

Yellow berries here.

Red berries here. I loaded this photo into a plant ID app on my phone and it was identified as winterberry holly.

Berries are the fruit of the tree or bush and contain the seeds. We saw lots of other interesting mechanisms of seed dispersal, but I don’t have ID on any of these plants.

Another unknown.

Gorgeous colors.

We could see the other side of the canal from the trail. I assume that this is the original rock wall. But I don’t really know enough about it.

It’s larger here—maybe part of an old bridge or where there was a lock??

We drove on to explore Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk River.

It was fascinating to see the original cotton mill buildings in the town and to read about how they were powered by the river water. Many of the old mill buildings are still here but have been converted into apartments.

Here is how it looks today.

This is the outlet of the fish transport pipe as described in the sign below.

To be continued….

Under the Golden Gate Bridge

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We decided to take Kirby to the beach and check out some of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. There is so much to see and it is so close to home, but I have never taken time to explore it.

We had some good advice from a friend who works in San Francisco and started at Ocean Beach.

After the 105+ days we’ve had at home, the overcast windy beach was a welcome change.

We chose the beach at Fort Funston for our second stopping point. Dan and Kirby are sitting on an old gun mount.

I was surprised at the old military structures that have fallen from eroded cliffs and are left in place. Usually I expect to see signs–either informational and educational signs (because this is part of the National Recreation Area) or warnings. But there is none of that–just remnants of what used to be there.

The hike up from the beach.

After a couple of hours at the beaches we drove to a parking lot between the Golden Gate entrance and Fort Point. We followed the trail that took us down to the Bay and to Fort Point.

The Fort itself is just under the bridge, but of course there was no bridge there when it was built in the 1850s.

That’s a huge cargo ship sailing to the Pacific.

I am fascinated by the history here and amazed that I’ve lived most of my life nearby (and was born in SF) and knew nothing about any of this.

According to the info on the NPS site a special arch was designed so that the bridge could be built without destroying Fort Point.

We climbed the spiral staircase to access the second and third floors.

Some of the rooms are open with historical displays.

The spiral staircase goes all the way to the top of the fort. It interesting to be right under the Golden Gate Bridge. It was also extremely windy and cold. (I thought about how we looked as grandparents supervising a child wearing shorts and flipflops.)

There was originally a lighthouse in use, but after the bridge was built it was no longer necessary.

View of the bridge on the way home. This was the first time since we’d been in San Francisco that the towers weren’t shrouded in fog.