Blog for adaysouting.com

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.

Connect with  A Day’s Outing on Facebook and Twitter!

This weekend my family traveled up DC to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, a fabulous exhibit on display now through March 31, 2010 at the National Geographic Museum.  As we talked about it, my husband realized he had a high school friend, Sadie Quarrrier, who worked there for the magazine.  When he contacted her she told us she would be happy to show us around the magazine.  I have read National Geographic from cover to cover virtually every month since we started getting a subscription when I was a kid.  I was thrilled.  Sadie is a photo editor and walked us through amazing photos from a story that ran in the November issue on the Stone Forest of Madagascar.  All of the photos were beautiful and I can only imagine how hard it is to decide on which photos can make it into the magazine.  Sadie also showed us how a story is brought to life from conception to publication, showing us upcoming issues that were currently being laid out and explaining some of the difficult decisions that come with each issue.  My kids carefully listened and now have a great appreciation for what it takes to bring National Geographic’s stories to life.  I know my youngest has been bitten by the photography bug, she used all of the batteries in her camera over the weekend.

On the way home I realized what a wonderful opportunity Sadie had given us and started to think about who else we might know.  I know my kids would love to tour a factory, visit a Navy ship, have a pilot or flight attendant show them the inside of a cockpit, see the inside of an operating room or even visit a bank vault.

Thank you so much Sadie!  Maybe one of my kids will grow up to be a writer, photographer or conservationist.

You can get a year of National Geographic for $15!

Connect with  A Day’s Outing on Facebook and Twitter!

This weekend we went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors at the National Geographic Museum in DC. The exhibit is on display there through March 31 and is the final venue of the exhibition’s four-city U.S. tour. Like everything that National Geographic does, the exhibit is amazing and beautifully done. The exhibition includes 15 terra cotta figures from the tomb of China’s First Emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, who ruled from 221 B.C. to 210 B.C.

“The First Emperor’s magnificent terra cotta army is one of the great wonders of the ancient world,” said Terry Garcia, National Geographic’s executive vice president for Mission Programs. “Visitors to the National Geographic Museum will have the rare opportunity to experience one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century as they stand face-to-face with the terra cotta warriors.”

I was sorry that I didn’t realize until later that there are free screenings of the film “The Real Dragon Emperor,” featuring the latest archaeological research and imaging techniques that take viewers inside the massive tomb of Qin Shihuangdi. They are shown in National Geographic’s Grosvenor Auditorium at 12 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays through the run of the exhibition. The hour-long film also will be screened on the following Saturdays: Jan. 30, Feb. 27 and March 27, at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. I think it would have given us, especially my kids, a better understanding of the enormity of the vault and the magnitude of the discovery that we couldn’t get when read about it. I did download the teacher’s guide and the exhibition e-guide which helped tremendously. Teacher’s guides are great resources that most museums provide that I try to use when we are taking our kids.

Tickets to see the exhibit are $12 for adults and $6 for children, weekends are currently sold out through January 23. I think this exhibit is a once in a lifetime opportunity for those who can’t travel to China.

*these pictures are courtesy of Elizabeth from when her family visited the exhibit, I took tons of photos with no memory card in my camera!

Connect with  A Day’s Outing on Facebook and Twitter!

Ever since I was a little girl I have wanted to see the Lipizzaner Stallions.  I found out they were coming to town from A Day’s Outing’s weekly outings guide, Go Floyd. Even with all the outings that I review each week, I hadn’t seen this one and I was thrilled that my own Go Floyd guide let me know they were coming.

We went on a Friday night with our children and their grandparents. The horses were amazing and the music was beautiful.  I especially liked that the announcer told us about the history of the horses, their Spanish ancestry and the story of the royal stud farm were they were first bred, Lipizza, dating back to 1562.  The audience was also told about the finer points of dressage and the training the stallions undergo to enhance their natural movements. My son said that it looked like the horses were doing ballet.  While my daughter thought it was more like tap dancing.

Before the performance, I knew very little about the Lipizzaner Stallions accept that they were beautiful.  After everything I learned during the show, I now appreciate them so much more.

Connect with  A Day’s Outing on Facebook and Twitter!

Elizabeth and I would like to thank everyone for making 2009 a wonderful year for A Day’s Outing.  Since going live in March, we have been so thrilled to see all of the wonderful destinations our users, their friends and family have found.  Thank you so much for telling us about the great outings you have taken, giving us honest feedback and helping our company grow and get off to a fabulous start.

A few great events in 2010 to look forward to are-

East Coast Canoe & Kayak Festival 4/16-18 Charleston, SC

Ohio State Fair 7/28-8/8 Columbus, OH

South Carolina State Fair 10/13-10/24 Columbia, SC

Travel and Transportation in Early Maryland 1/28-3/31  Johns Hopkins University Museum, Baltimore, MD

Afternoon Tea at the Maymont Mansion 3/14-6/21 Richmond, VA

Fourth of July at Mount Vernon 7/4  Mount Vernon, VA

We wish you and your family a year filled with happiness in 2010!

*Update- Here is a podcast with Elizabeth discussing Christmas visits to downtown areas small towns broadcast on XM radio Hidden America!

It’s the time of year when I am thrilled to get out and go shopping. It sounds crazy, but I enjoy the cold air and all the decorations. There are presents to buy, goodies to make and holiday meals to prepare for. With big shopping malls everywhere, it can be easy to overlook the local shops that line the Main Streets in small towns, but those shops can offer so much.

Here is Charlottesville, VA we have a vibrant downtown area. There are art galleries which feature regional artists, small bookstores that carry the newest writers, as well as hidden literary treasures, family owned pizzerias that make the best slices and an ice skating rink that’s open year round.

There are also many small towns around us with their own quaint and welcoming Main Streets. Culpeper, VA has shop after shop after shop. I love to have lunch at It’s About Thyme and then head down the block to one of several antique shops to hunt for a treasure or two. Staunton, VA, in the Shenandoah Valley, is a town with a rich architectural history and a downtown area with a great local diner and fun gift shops.

When you’re thinking about your holiday shopping keep in mind the wonderful local shops that are all around you.  You can take a quick drive to a nearby town or make a day trip out of it and really get to know a new Main Street near you.

Connect with  A Day’s Outing on Facebook and Twitter!

Every year since I was very little I have LOVED making sugar cookie cut outs for the holidays. I mix the little decorated cookies in with other traditional holiday cookies and deliver them to my neighbors. The only ones I ever get comments on are the little decorated gems. As the years have gone on I have tried to get fancier and fancier, adding in gold and silver dragees, and taking more and more time to decorate them. I have never been able to find a sugar cookie recipe that rolls really well and an icing recipe that dries hard and tastes good. I think this year I figured it out and the recipes are below. This year my daughter and a few of her eight-year-old friends also came over and helped. It was so cute to see how serious and slightly competitive they were.

I also bought a decorating kit by Kuhn Rikon that uses squeeze bottles instead of bags. It made decorating really easy, especially with kids. To get the icing easily into the bottles, spatula the icing into ziplocs by color, snip the very tip of the bag, and pipe it into the bottles.  The plastic containers you get at any grocery store salad bar also work great for kids to take their cookies home in.  You need to wait about an hour to let the icing dry and then you can set a paper towel in between the layers if you need to.

Sugar Cookie Cut Outs
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter
3 oz cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 Tbs. vanilla

Have all ingredients at room temperature.

Sift together flour and salt, set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the cream cheese and continue beating until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar, increase the speed to medium high and beat until fluffy and pale yellow, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg yolk, then add the vanilla.

Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in 3 additions, beating in each addition before adding more. Beat just until combined, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough out on a floured surface. Using floured hands, form the dough into a smooth mound and divide into 2 portions. Shape each into a disk and wrap separately with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 2 days.

Remove 1 dough disk at a time from the refrigerator and let stand for 10 minutes. Place the dough on a floured work surface and roll out to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut out with cookie cutter of your choice and place on baking sheet. If you are having a hard time rolling out the cookies try making them thicker or allowing the dough to chill in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake until golden on edges, 10 to 14 minutes.

Royal Icing
1 pound confectioners’ sugar
5 Tbs meringue powder
1-2 tsp. of almond or lemon extract
1-2 tsp. of imitation butter extract (I didn’t even know there was such a thing)
1 tsp. of good vanilla
about a ½ cup water

Combine the sugar and meringue powder in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Add 1 teaspoon and lemon or almond extract and 1 teaspoon of the butter extract and a quarter cup of water. Mix on low speed until you have reached the desired consistency and taste, about 7 minutes. If icing is too thick, add more water; if too thin, beat icing 2 to 3 minutes more. Add more extract or vanilla as you feel needed. The icing should form stiff peaks.

Connect with  A Day’s Outing on Facebook and Twitter!

A Poinsettia says the holidays like no other flower, but just what is a poinsettia?

Euphorbia pulcherrima, commonly called a poinsettia, is a tropical plant indigenous to Mexico and Guatemala. What most people think of as the flower petals on the poinsettia are actually colored leaves called bracts. Really, the flowers are the small yellow petals found in the very center of each leaf bunch. The “poinsettia” was named in honor of Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States Minister to Mexico, who introduced the plant into the United States in 1828. Since then, poinsettia varieties have been introduced in a wide range leaf patterns and colors from deep red, to pink, white and marbled.

Contrary to popular belief, poinsettia plants aren’t truly poisonous. Apparently, an adult would have to eat dozens of leaves to be ill. If a child eats the leaves or stems of a poinsettia plant, they may develop a mild stomachache, but severe symptoms are unlikely. Still, you might want to keep the plants out of the reach of children and away from the mouths of crazy pets.

And what do you do with the plant after the holidays? Since poinsettia won’t grow outside in Virginia, I simply add the plant to my compost pile. Some people do try and get them to rebloom the following year, but this takes a greenhouse and a lot of patience. In Oakland, CA I once saw a 10 foot poinsettia plant growing beside an old warehouse.  I can imagine that one year someone simply stuck the poinsettia in the ground in January and somehow the plant thought it was happily living in Mexico.

Connect with  A Day’s Outing on Facebook and Twitter!

I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show recently with Cathy, my partner in crime at A Day’s Outing.  The show was so amazing that I don’t think the term “Craft” is sufficient. It should be something like the, “Philadelphia Museum of Art Show of Extraordinary Artists that make you Want Everything they Make”.  Cathy and I were so excited about the art we saw that we are going to highlight the work of a handful of artists over the coming months.  Here are two to get us started….

Laura Breitman - The first time I saw Laura’s work, I thought I was looking at a black and white photograph of a tree.   As I walked closer, I realized the “photograph” was really a collage of finely cut pieces of material.  I found myself backing up to see it appear as a photo and then coming closer to see all the fabric pieces. It’s hard to express just how breathtaking Laura’s work is and how much it really fools your eyes into thinking you are seeing a photograph.   You really have to see her work in person to understand just how amazing it is!

Carolyn Morris Bach - It was a treat to see Carolyn’s jewelry for the first time at the craft show.  In her jewelry there are hand carved faces of owls, birds and bears that have been wrapped in gold and adorned with stones.  In Carolyn’s work there is a spiritual aspect that draws you in.  No two pieces of jewelry are the same and the individual personalities of each piece truly shows through.

If you can get the chance to attend, the show is annually the second weekend in November.  The work displayed there by all the artists is awe-inspiring.

Connect with  A Day’s Outing on Facebook and Twitter!

Here’s a guest blog post from a A Day’s Outing Fan, Pam Connolly -

We traveled from Richmond to Roanoke to stay with great friends this Thanksgiving.  Of course Thanksgiving with friends, family and food is special, but another event begins the day after Thanksgiving.  At Center in the Square in downtown Roanoke, the fabulous jolly old elf awaits.  As we headed from the country to the city, snow flakes swirled around, just as Santa was arriving…. that certainly set the tone for our visit.

Visiting Santa at the History Museum of Western Virginia was magical.  At the first showing Santa greets us with handshakes and hugs, gushing over how big everyone is getting and how good it is to see us.  We all gathered around Santa’s story telling room, it was like a cozy living room with a fireplace, with The Christmas Chair.  Santa picks up his guitar and starts to sing.

Oh, yes, Santa is a very talented musician!  We sing some favorites and talk about how remembering  holiday traditions is so important.  Santa reads a story and sings a song about Rudolph and the rest of the reindeer including Holly (Rudolph’s sister and Buck who has been trying to be on Santa’s team for a while).  Another fun part was Santa’s Good and Bad list. Santa lets the children and adults check for their name in the books.  We all had a great time with this. Wrapping up our time, were pictures and hugs with Santa, sending us off with happiness into the Museum and the wonderful downtown market.

Connect with  A Day’s Outing on Facebook and Twitter!

Great Roanoke Restaurant Reviews!