Travel

D.C. Go – Go

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Thanksgiving 2016 – Let’s visit Washington, D.C.

Richard and I put together a last minute trip that turned out great. (Almost as great as my Arts High School senior class trip from Newark to D.C. The girls dressed up and wore high-heeled shoes. Oh, I remember the pain of walking for hours in 3-inch heels.) These many years later, I still had an issue.  Since I didn’t bring my dog-walking shoes, my feet barked long and loud. On the plus side, our hotel was the right choice. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn and Suites on H Street, Chinatown – our appetite for sashimi, saki, and rainbow rolls was satisfied within a few easy blocks.

Our five days covered the Woodrow Wilson House, the Library of Congress, the Newseum (ticket is good for two days), and the Lincoln Memorial. We walked the Mall, watched squirrels scamper in the leaves, and took a 2-hour Sunday tour of Georgetown with Dwane Starlin. We spent hours the National Museum of the American Indian. We stood in line for ninety minutes to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture. (Good luck with that! See my comments on Trip Advisor.) On a rainy Tuesday we did the not-to-be-missed East Building of the National Gallery of Art. The building opened in September and added 12,250 sq. feet of new exhibition space. A movable walkway connects the new space with the West Building.

I took photos of the quirky, the creative, and the somber. The internet has a zillion pictures of D.C. places. My imagination tells me to consider the usual, but I’m more interested in the other.

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Courtyard – Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

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Santa Fe, NM — October 17, 2016       Early morning light in the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum courtyard created a geometry of abstractions — a perfect time to photo shadows and angles. I was grateful for Santa Fe’s ever-bright blue sky. As I took photos, I saw that each element worked in harmony. I knew that what I saw through my lens would change within minutes. For those few minutes I was in sync with light and camera. In my click-click, snap-snap world I totally enjoyed a Santa Fe experience. 

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Sand in My Shoes

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Cape May shines after Labor Day. When the beach vacation people fold their umbrellas and take the kids home, that’s a good time to head for the shore. In St. Mark’s Square tourists feed the pigeons. In Cape May tourists feed parking meters that could work until 10 p.m. Bring a bag of quarters or risk a $35 ticket. A line of parked cars, including our rental, were ticketed late one night next to Congress Hall. Parking meter money and  parking tickets bring in half of Cape May’s annual budget of $2 million. Happy to contribute to historic and ever-beautiful Cape May.

Richard and I flew in from Tucson to hang out with two cousins for a few days. We visited an alpaca farm (www.jerseyshorealpacas.com), the Cape May lighthouse, and the sunken concrete ship. We drove over to Villas to see my Aunt Dot’s old house and to walk on the bay-side beach. Memories of past summer trips came roaring back. Everything seemed perfectly in place — the dead horseshoe crabs, the men fishing, and the beach dotted with hundreds of shiny pebbles.

A Friday highlight – we attended the graduation ceremony at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center. Between college and grad school, Richard completed his training at Cape May and was assigned to Search & Rescue, Governors Island (N.Y.C.) Semper Paratus 1790.

 

When the trip was almost over, we drove north and stopped in Wildwood. A fireman’s convention packed the town and No Vacancy signs were everywhere. Ocean City was our destination for a final night at the shore. Another boardwalk with arcades, salt water taffy shops, and food stands. I had a yearning for one nostalgic treat, a waffle ice cream sandwich. Just the thought brought me back to teenage summers at Seaside Heights and the flavor of vanilla and the crunch of waffle. Now, I’m in Ocean City and the year is 2016. My eyes opened wide when the vendor asked for six dollars and seventy-five cents for a waffle ice cream sandwich. What??!!  Are you kidding me?  Nope, she wasn’t kidding.

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Society Islands

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In March I had a week of travel around French Polynesia’s Society Islands. I didn’t get into island or ship life, certainly not the way Capt. Cook or Marlon Brando did. More perplexing, I came up short on photo ops. Too many possibilities looked like calendar shots. That said, here are mine.

Joshua Tree Nat’l Park

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I visited Joshua Tree Nat’l Park last week for the first time. With 794,000 acres of “moonscape,” the park sits on the flyway to and from Los Angeles. Only 140 miles separate the two. The geography beckons hikers, rock climbers, birdwatchers, photographers, stargazers, and of course, the curious. The Mojave Desert covers the western half with elevations above 3,000 feet. Where mega boulders stand atop one another. Where the slow-growing Joshua tree lives into old age. Where rapellers get an adrenalin rush. And, where travelers like me are wowed by the vistas.

New England Farmstand

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Route 25 – The glory of October fires foliage into red, rust, and gold. Pumpkins and Indian corn signal the end of summer. East of the Farm-Way store, along Route 25,

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I spotted a building with a Red Sox sign. I had to get a photo. What about all those pumpkins? And the calves and the hens? I thank the place whose name I missed for being picture perfect on an October afternoon.