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What ride threatens to make you sick at the fair?  Is it the Tilt-a-Whirl?  Maybe it is the Flying Pirate Ship that may at any moment dump you out of your seat.  For me it is the cute green dragons.

Those dragons seem innocent enough with their pretty colors and smiling faces, but beware!  Unknown to me was the fact that they each spin individually, while simultaneously being hurled around in a circle.  Really, I can’t think of any carnival ride more torturous for an adult.  Of course, my two small children thought it was the best ride they have ever been on.  They grabbed the wheel in the middle of the dragon and spun it around and around making us go faster and faster.  To survive, I had to look out the door and try and focus on a light or building, anything to keep my dizzy head from getting the best of me.

When the ride was finally over, I stumbled outside and safely away from the grinning dragon.  The kids handed the man two more tickets and jumped back on.  My lesson…. let the kids ride the spinning dragons.  I’m happy to wait by the fence with some kettle corn.

Dogwood Festival,   Coshocton, OH

April 30th – May 8th

Vashon Island Strawberry Festival,  Vashon, WA

July 17th - July 18th

Virginia Beach Neptune Festival, Virginia Beach, VA

September 24th - 26th

Norfolk Harborfest, Norfolk, VA

July 3rd - 5th

Anyone with children or grandchildren knows that visiting the gift shop is one of the exciting parts of a trip for little kids.  I am of mixed minds when it comes to the gift shop. I know that my two children can become a bit fixated on the gift shop and make me crazy by asking if we are going to stop by the shop.  But, I do like to visit the gift shops of museums because I know they raise money from the gift shops to help support the exhibits that we go to enjoy.

On a recent drive to see my mom, we decided to take a side trip to the Toy Museum in Natural Bridge, VA along the way.  This was a last minute decision and we pulled off the road at 3:45.  The kids were excited as we walked down the stairs to the museum, but as we approached the window to buy tickets I saw that the museum closed at 4:00.  The tickets weren’t cheap, so 15 minutes of walking around to see the toys was out of the question.  So, what was I going to do?   I decided my only way out was to say, “Do you guys want to visit the gift shop?”

Two scoops of ice cream later, we were back in the car and I was thanking my lucky stars there was a gift shop to save me.

I don’t often travel by myself.  I’m usually with my children, my husband and many times with my mom as well.  We take a whole lot of multi-generational trips, and we love it.  However, I recently found myself alone in Baltimore on a business trip for A Day’s Outing.  I arrived at my hotel at 4:00 p.m. and had plenty of time left in the day for an outing.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.  I had been to Baltimore’s well known Inner Harbor on one of our big family trips, but I wanted to do something different.  I decided on the Baltimore Museum of Art.  Since I was by myself I would be able to walk around the museum at my own pace – no big group pulling me from room to room too quickly, and I didn’t have any children needing to go to the bathroom in remote parts of the museum. It was just me, and I could enjoy the museum at my own pace.

And what a museum it is. I was truly blown away by the collections I saw.  Each room had it’s own treasures: The Thinker, by August Rodin, a mobile by Alexander Calder, a painting by Georgia O’Keeffe and other art I have learned to love from my parents, African and Pre-Columbian art.  My favorite pieces were the 23 Colima figures. They made me stop in my tracks.  There was a quilt exhibit that was amazing. To round out my tour of the museum, I visited the contemporary art wing. There were pieces by Andy Warhol and also dynamic installations by up and coming artists.  I’m not really sure, but I believe the art I saw at the Baltimore Museum of Art spanned 3000 years.

Now that I have spent a few hours of a business trip on something so amazing and relaxing as a tour of a museum, I know I will certainly take an outing like this again in the future.

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I told you guys I would let you know how the snowboarding progressed.  Late last week we had yet another snow day and I took the kids up to our closest resort, Wintergreen.  Earlier we had purchased the learn-to-ski/snowboard package.  It included three days of lift tickets, rentals and lessons.  This was our second trip up and it was great.  The weather was again perfect and we were one of the only counties who had a snow day, so there were very few people there.  The kids had there own private instructor, made incredible strides and loved their cool instructor.  Most importantly, he was able to teach my youngest, who is not very tall, how to get off the lift when she has to jump off and he taught the oldest a few tricks and he now feels like he can keep up with his friends.  I think for the third lesson, I will plan to pull the kids out of school one afternoon and hope they can have private lessons again.  I was also wonderful that there were so few people there that I wasn’t concerned about the kids being skied into.

We have started to consider buying a family season pass for next year and with that, we have started to look at buying equipment.  So far we did buy the youngest a helmet that fits her very well.  I got some great advice from my Vail snowboarding friend on buying equipment for kids.  He suggested buying them a used board from a local shop and buying cool stickers to put on them.  Small boards aren’t going to have lots of riding time on them, you can get the board a good tune and you should be all set.  Kids outgrow their equipment and also don’t think it’s cool after a season or two.  Sizing is also important, they need to have a board they are comfortable with and can turn.  It’s hard to buy a board they can grow into.  On helmets, you just want something that fits well, protects their head and keeps them warm.  Try going to a local shop and ask what they have, a used helmet is fine and again that’s what stickers are for.  The fit is the most important part of the helmet.  It can’t come off during a collision, that defeats the purpose.  Many shops will also rent equipment for a season and you can usually rent much nicer equipment than you would ever want to buy.

Wish us luck, so far it’s been a ton of fun!

I wanted to highlight three more amazing artists from the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show. I have a brochure from the show on my desk and I love picking it up again and again remembering what amazing talent there was at the show. Again, the variety of art in the show makes it a great trip to take with friends and the restaurants in Philadelphia are some of the best in the country.

Genevieve Yang – Genevieve is a third generation goldsmith and she creates individually handcrafted jewelry from various karats and colors of gold and silver. She then carefully selects each stone that goes into her pieces. She incorporates colorless diamonds, fancy diamonds and precious stones. She was also a delight to talk to during the show, her own enthusiasm and confidence in her work really shines through.

Martha Fieber – Martha is a former engineer and you can see her background in the intense attention to detail and planning in her work. She creates amazing landscape pieces that from a distance look as though they could be an oil painting. Only as you begin to walk up closer to them do you realize that her pieces are comprised of thousands of intricate stitches that allow for incredible depth and perspective. She works with only four types of stitches using single strand silk, rayon, metallic and/or hand dyed cotton threads on linen and silk backgrounds.

Jerry & Deborah Kermode – Jerry and Deborah have a love affair with trees and its shows in their wood turned creations. I made a small purchase from them and bought a beautiful pepper grinder that proudly sits on my kitchen island. Jerry hand carves each piece on a lathe, using the grain of the wood and its character traits as his guides. The vessel is rough turned to 1/2″ thick, allowed to dry for many months and then finish turned to a thickness appropriate to the design. Finally it is sanded to a 1200 grit finish and Danish oiled. Deborah administers the final finish: the piece is steel wooled and waxed. Jerry also offers classes at his studio in beautiful Sebastopol, CA and will share his gift with you.

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As I wrote in a previous blog post, I am relying on my daughter’s photos to help me write about a long weekend we took to DC. I decided with this one that I should also have her help me write up her own review of the butterfly exhibit titled Butterflies & Plants: Partners in Evolution.

She said that honestly what she remembers most is that is was VERY hot and humid in there and we were really bundled up because of the extremely cold weather going on outside. She really enjoyed that the butterflies would come right up and land on you, so that you could really get a close look at them. She also liked that butterflies hold still long enough that you can take good pictures of them. When we were there we were also fortunate enough to be able to watch a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis and fly away.

Unlike the rest of the Natural History Museum, the exhibit is ticketed. Tickets are $6 for adults and $5 for children 2-12. Tuesdays the exhibit is free, but you do need to pick timed-entry tickets.

Here’s a few of her photos-

We spent a long weekend up in DC a few weeks ago and had an amazing time. I admit I was happy to be able to see so many of the museums with the kids and that I would be coming home with lots of material to write about here on the blog. Well, unfortunately my very nice camera will still allow you to take pictures with no memory card and so my hundreds of pictures are gone. I know, I know what many of you are thinking…user error.

Fortunately, my eight year-old had her camera along and took many photos in the Natural History Museum. It was really interesting for me to see what she photographed and what was important to her. When she found something she liked, she also photographed the placard with the item’s description.

The majority of her pictures were in the Gems and Minerals. She definitely gets her interest in this from her dad, who has a pretty nice collection.

She also took many pictures of the giant sloth fossil. She remembered years ago her brother bolted from that room in the museum because he thought it was the Wampa who captured Luke in the Empire Strikes Back. I wouldn’t be surprised if George Lucas based the Wampa on this Ice Age fossil.  She had a lot of fun teasing the now middle schooler about it.

I don’t know that I would normally take the time to look through each of her pictures and be able to see through her eyes what is important to her in a huge museum where there are so many subjects. I love that we were able to pass down our old digital camera to her and that she is capturing her favorites.

*Shortly after writing this, my son read it and informed me that I had incorrectly called the sloth a dinosaur, that he was just a fossil.  After looking up dinosaur on Wiki, I am still not sure.  Does anyone know?

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I went to visit the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA.  No, it is not where torpedos are being made, but they used to be.  Now it is an art center that showcases the work of regional, national and international artists on three floors in a great old building down on the waterfront.

The Torpedo Factory Art Center really offers something for everyone’s taste and price range.  There are galleries showcasing huge oil painting of landscapes and a fiber gallery with felted hats and woven scarves.  We left with two beautiful clay ornaments for next year’s Christmas tree.  There are dozens of galleries in the art center, so there is a lot to do. And, if you really do want to see a torpedo and learn a bit about their history, look for a display of a torpedo on the first floor.

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As promised, Elizabeth and I wanted to try to highlight all of the artists we loved from this year’s Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show. Here are three more artists we loved-

Lucy Dierks - Lucy’s ability to capture birds in her ceramic work is captivating. The detail she shows in her tiny subjects, right down to the way their claws grip the branches, is amazing. Lucy also captures natural textures, including lichen, stones and tree bark, beautifully in ceramic. I was thrilled when I realized Lucy is a fellow Virginian and I look forward to going to the Quirk Gallery in Richmond and seeing more of her work.

Mike Libby – Mike’s unusual work was one of the reasons I loved the Philadelphia Show so much. Mike borrows from science fiction and fact, his Insect Lab customizes real insect specimens with antique watch parts and other tech components. The adorned creatures are a “unique celebration of the contradictions and confluences between nature and technology”. We also loved hearing from Mike the process by which he was chosen to be part of Neiman Marcus’s Christmas Catalog.

Chris Roberts-Antieau – Chris’ work brought out the kid in me. I loved her piece “If I Had A Monkey”. I laughed and laughed, because I used to really want to actually have a monkey. Chris works with “fabric pictures” or “textile appliqué”. She uses swatches of fabric and hand stitched embroidery to create her whimsical works. They are then presented under glass in hand painted frames which are designed for each piece. Thank you so much Chris for your wonderful sense of humor.

I cannot wait to go back next year!

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If you have a chance to visit Roanoke, Virginia on a trek through the Blue Ridge Mountains, make sure you add the Taubman Museum of Art to your itinerary. The museum is in the historic market area and near the wonderful Center in the Square.

I was in Roanoke with my family recently and we headed to the Taubman Museum of Art to find out what their current exhibits might be. With the kids happily in tow, we entered our fist exhibit and saw floor to ceiling woodcut prints by Mike Houston and Martin Mazorra.  In addition to the dozens of black and white prints, there is also an installation on the gallery floor of 17 camping tents displayed as a “tent city” that have images printed on them of homeless men, women and children. In the adjacent gallery, the famous beggars in Rembrandt van Rijn’s etching from the mid-1600’s were on display. This exhibit might be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see this private collection of Rembrandt’s work that is on tour.  The juxtaposition of the modern images of Houston and Mazorra’s “beggars” and Rembrandt’s images was incredible.

As we moved through the museum, I realized that the kids were most impressed with the contemporary art. They walked with us through the galleries showing American and European art, but they were truly engaged when the art was by modern artists. Russell Richards, and his creative “Inaccurate Maps” and Devorah Sperber, with her amazing sculpture of spools of thread that are transformed into Andy Warhol’s can of Tomato soup when viewed through a glass sphere, captivated our eight and ten year old kids. It was great to learn that our children really do enjoy visiting museums, especially when the art is contemporary.

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