Category: Travel

An Outside Museum, You Say?

An Outside Museum, You Say?

Tony Cragg’s “Bent of Mind” greets the visitor at the entrance.

It’s a museum. It’s a garden. It’s both. And it’s awesome.

It’s the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park

… in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

If you’ve been to “normal” museums, you’ve seen sculptures mostly inside the museums. You know—Dégas, Michelangelo, Rodin, Warhol, etc. However, part of the Rodin Museum in Paris is outside, and be assured, some of the sculptures at this park are inside, too!

When you first arrive, you might find that the Frederik Meijer outdoor sculpture park is best viewed from the docent-led tram ride. (We were glad we did.) You’ll learn about how Frederik Meijer (billionaire chairman of the Meijer hypermarket chain) donated a large portion of the land for the park, and you’ll hear about the sculptures and artists. You can then visit any area that particularly interests you and explore the inner beauty of each of the glorious sections at your leisure.

Is it really that good?

Well, this park was voted “Best Sculpture Park in the United States by readers of USA Today in 2023 & 2024.” I’d put it in a bucket list category.

One of the highlights is the 24-foot-tall “The American Horse” statue—there are only two in the world.

The American Horse

A monument to creativity, The American Horse was created by famed animalier or animal sculptor Nina Akamu. The work is inspired in part by a work created by Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci for the Duke of Milan in the late 15th century. Fred Meijer championed the project in the late 1990s, resulting in two casts of the 24-foot monument: one for Meijer Gardens and one for the city of Milan, Italy. In addition to inspiration from Leonardo, Akamu was inspired by the history of equine imagery and the study of horses. Source: Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park’s Website.

Nina Akamu’s “The American Horse”

I took the photo on the left in 2024. The next one gives you an idea of the relative size. That was me “holding up” its front foot in 2017. It was big then, and it’s big now!

“The American Horse” and Me

The place is huge. It’s 158 acres, which doesn’t sound that big until you realize an American football field is about 1.32 acres, so the park’s area is about 120 football fields.

Massive and Small Sculptures in Exquisite Gardens

The gardens elevated the artwork, and vice versa. It was clear the groundskeepers had lots of help! These critters must surely sneak out at night to weed, clean, and clip. 

 

 

 

 

 

This guy was supposed to oversee their work, but he’s definitely taking a break.

Sean Henry’s “Lying Man”

I’d love to tell you all the facts and figures about this wonderful, do-not-miss-it Midwest visiting destination, but I think you’ll find a lot more (evergreen) information on the website. 

Here’s why. As I try to write about the coolness of this unique spot, I find I’ve missed the fact that there are many gardens within the garden. The Children’s Garden invites young people to play, learn, and explore. The relatively new (2015) Japanese Garden takes tranquility, simplicity, and beauty to an exquisite height. You can check out all the gardens here. 

In all, there are five indoor theme gardens, outdoor gardens, nature trails, and a boardwalk; sculpture galleries; and a permanent sculpture collection. The website is temptingly lovely. But there’s nothing like visiting in person. It’s definitely a United States of America bucket list item worthy of Going on An Adventure.

If You Go

If you go, you might try to hit it before a famous midwest winter storm chases the sculptures inside. 🙂

Click HERE for ticket information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WE LOVE LIGHTHOUSES!

WE LOVE LIGHTHOUSES!

What is it about lighthouses? They are a throwback to a quieter time when we had less to worry about and less control over it. But wait. Wouldn’t being dashed to unseen river rocks be a considerable worry?

Enter Fort Gratiot Light. Pronounced Fort grǎ’-chit, this quintessentially iconic lighthouse is the oldest in Michigan (constructed in 1825) that is still in active service.

It stands in the southern portion of Michigan’s Thumb and marks the entrance to the Saint Clair River from Lake Huron.

We visited it on a beautiful day in June and took an hour-long guided tour, which allowed us to climb the 94 (!) steps to the top of the tower.

Can you imagine running up and down these stairs several times daily as a lighthouse keeper? Those days are long gone—modern technology has replaced all the glamorous tasks of the courageous, stalwart keeper.

Bummer.

I like that the light is still in service, though.

And we were so silly to realize Canada is just across from Michigan now. As West Coasters, we haven’t studied our country’s middling geography very well. The bridge you see in the background in this photo from the top of the lighthouse goes from the U.S. to Canada. We felt like we had witnessed the second coming or something!

In closing, I have to tell you this story. One Christmas, maybe thirty or so years ago, my husband and I gave each other the same lighthouse calendar! So, it was a foregone conclusion. We had to drive over an hour to see this lighthouse. And, it was an excellent adventure!

Peonies in Bloom in June

Peonies in Bloom in June

I wondered if people would consider a uniquely colored peony worthy of a travel blog. But then, one person’s peony is another person’s mountain top.  We (my husband and I) planned a few weeks in Michican’s Lake Whitmore to be with the grandkids… but we had time some days to do a little sightseeing. We discovered that peonies were on their way out of their short-lived bloom period, and we didn’t want to miss it. Off to the University of Michigan arboretum we went.

While there were literally dozens (who knew?) of peony varieties, I had to choose one that caught my eye. Isn’t that the way? Whenever you’re traveling, you have to make choices. Where do we go today? Where do we eat? Do we want to drive a lot or walk a lot?

Then, when you get there, do you just see stuff, or do you have to photograph every little thing? Are you really there when you’re snapping the photo, or are you saving the now for a future time when you can relive the experience you missed because you were taking the photo? It’s the perennial travel question. (Wait, are peonies perennials? Yes… actually, they are. Sorry about that.)

For me, a photograph does pull me from the moment, and it lets me save the moment, too. Sigh. Travel is about seeing yourself as much as it is about seeing the world. Isn’t that cool??

A note about timing while we’re here. If we’d been a few days later in our stay, we would have missed the bloom!  In fact, we were told they were on their way down from the height of their beauty. A few of the petals had begun to fall, but many flowers still held that breathtaking “peony-ness.”) Travel timing is another whole post, but I couldn’t ignore the thought of it here.

So, let’s leave it at peonies and the perennial question of photography versus being in the moment.

Sigh.

 

Enjoying the DIA in No-Way…Detroit???

Enjoying the DIA in No-Way…Detroit???

Travelers love to find gems in unexpected places. The DIA, Detroit Institute of the Arts, is one of those.

According to this website, there are 35,000 museums in the United States. They listed the top 30, one of which is the DIA (#13). Yes, it’s in Detroit, Michigan.

A famous installation is that of the Detroit Industry Murals (1932–1933) by Diego Rivera. They are permanent as they were painted directly onto the walls.

I’m looking at one of the smaller frescos, and my husband and I are standing in front of an entire wall of one of the murals.

Rivera’s murals here… “create a tribute to industry and workers. These murals reveal Rivera’s fascination with industrial processes — and his critique of the political and social realities of capitalist enterprise.” (Source: DIA information piece about the murals.)

Tiff Massey

The exhibit (on view through May 2025) that tickled me the most was that of Tiff Massey. I had never heard of her, which is why we go to museums, right?  From her website, we learn “…She was the first Black woman to earn an MFA in metal smithing from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. She draws on 1980s hip-hop culture and her experiences as a Detroit native to examine the concept of adornment as an examination of the African diaspora and contemporary issues of race, class, and popular culture.”

I like her work because she makes statements about the connection of community, jewelry, and large works of art that put her “art in a context” — a theme of the DIA, according to our docent.

I’d like to put all her work here, but a better idea is for you to go to Detroit before May 2025 and see this exciting, inspirational installation. You’ll love it.

By the way, I’m making a general statement here that I hope to repeat as my travel blog grows.

“Always take a guided tour of any place you can when traveling. It helps you know what you want to see and see what you’d like to know.” — Kathryn Atkins, Blogger, “Gone on an Adventure

And speaking of curation (we weren’t but I wanted to see if you were paying attention), the museum houses 65,000 separate pieces of artwork. At any one time, they exhibit about 10% of them, sometimes because the artwork is too fragile to the light and other times because the featured work does have to be rotated so we get to see it all eventually. As in, “keep coming back!”

We will. 🙂

Going on an Architectural Adventure

Going on an Architectural Adventure

 

Just last week, we took off to Pasadena—a mere twenty-seven miles from home yet worlds apart. We go fairly often to appreciate the architecture whenever we get the chance, but our favorite season is the Heritage Weekend in October, when we tour the craftsman homes built by architects Greene and Greene between 1894 and 1922. Brothers Charles Sumner Greene and Charles Sumner Greene brought their degrees from MIT and apprenticeships from Boston to California to define a new style and a new word. “Bungalows” were not little shacks where Hollywood stars changed into their bathing clothes. No “Bungalows à la Greene and Greene were specific and of various sizes. In fact, the popular and famous Gamble House, completed in 1909 for David and Mary Gamble (of the Proctor and Gamble family), is an 8,000-square-foot home that is defined architecturally as a bungalow.

The Pasadena Showcase House of Design was built in 1902 and remodeled in 1922. At 7,300 square feet, it is slightly smaller than the Gamble house but in a totally different style now. The remodel was redesigned as a Tudor revival-style home, but architect Joseph J. Blick originally thought created it as a craftsman home for Gertrude Potter Daniels, who paid $15,000 to build it. It’s hard to believe!

Oh… that’s the bathtub in one of the redesigned rooms for the Showcase. It was amazing!

The Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts committee that sponsors the event contributes to arts and music nonprofits in Southern California and appreciates the 25,000 or so visitors to the Showcase every year. It’s a treat. You should go. It’s a fundraiser!

Information is here, and after 59 years of doing it, they have it down to a lovely and elegant science.

Enjoy!

TIPPING AND TRAVELING

We piled out of our tour bus at the Medina in Marrakesh, Morocco. Waiting there with huge hats and bigger smiler were several brightly clothed men who offered to have our pictures taken with them. Why, sure! That would be fun to see when we get home. Snap. Snap.

We began to walk away when our tour guide said, “Um, you’re supposed to tip them.” We knew that, I guess, but the question is…how much? And how much do they make in a day smiling and getting pictures taken? Does it feed their family? Are there people all over the city doing the same thing? On the other hand, aren’t there lots of families who would like that “prime” spot where the tour buses unload? Is there a lottery or something? Do they take turns? What about the guys with the snakes? How do they get their spot? By the way, we don’t know what our guide tipped this nice man with the snake. She took care of it, which was perfect. And no, my husband did not get bitten. Nor was the snake poisonous in the first place. At least, we don’t THINK so!

What happens when it rains? What happens in the off-season? How much does the tip buy, and do we need to know if these people are legitimately “poor” or not? What a cynical question, you say. Of course they are. On the other hand, I think I heard that a panhandler in San Francisco could make $60,000 a year. This may not sound like a lot, but if they don’t pay taxes, it’s quite a bit more. And $60,000 for just standing and asking for money?

Let’s be nicer. Let’s assume that people in underdeveloped countries are relying on tips to feed their families. Tourism is an industry. People need income, and maybe standing with a hat is all they can do. I’m done for now. Let’s just say that if we have the money to travel with a tour group, then we have enough to help people who aren’t as lucky as we are in the U.S. I’ll also mention that going with a tour group, we are able to ask the group leader, “How much should we tip these people for this service?” A good guide will know exactly.

That’s why we like going with tour groups at our age. In my 20s, I hitchhiked through Europe. That was then. This is now. Times change. We change. It’s all good.

TIpping and traveling go hand in hand. Going forward, I’m going to pay more attention to the “rules” of tipping. For now, this is a good place to start: with Rick Steves, who knows a lot about traveling…and, in this case, tipping. Traveling helps us be better people because we learn about our world in new ways. Tipping helps the people who live in foreign countries, and that makes us better human beings.

 

With or Without

With or Without

In the past, we have used travel agents, then gone without them, then added them back, and finally, we went with a tour company for our last two trips—until recently.

Just last month, we surrendered, tail between our legs, and went backward in travel time. The airline gods would not bless us with a passage from point A to point B, no matter how we tried and how many airlines, travel routes, multiple cities, and layover combinations we searched online. After two hours, we gave up.

“Honey, we have to see a travel agent.”

[Photo credit: Tom Barrett, Unsplash]

We sat across from our local travel agent—the flesh and blood kind—with another person from our foursome. They, too, had surrendered and agreed to pay a little extra for peace of mind. The travel agent cracked an indulgent smile, cracked her knuckles, and began the same search we had attempted. Her smile yielded to pursed lips, then a full-out frown. Then, the muttering started. Sweat all but gleamed on her forehead.

Two hours later, we (she) finally had an itinerary that worked. “It may be tight,” our stalwart travel agent announced. “You have a 45-minute connection between flights in the Madrid airport to achieve your final destination.” She hesitated. Then she looked at each of us individually to gauge our reactions as she said the five magic words: “It is a legal connection.”

I was game. I pulled out the airport’s map and airline gates for each of the flights we’d be taking. “It’s the same airline, for goodness sake, and the gates are in the same terminal,” I told my husband, who always fears the worst. (That would be his nickname, and I would, of course, be Tigger.) Besides, what are the best travel stories ever? They’re the ones when something goes wrong, and you have to sleep standing up in a doorway or something.

You’ve been there. You’re at a party. The conversation dims and slows, and the refrigerator hum becomes the loudest noise in the room. Finally, some brilliant soul begins talking about their latest trip. Then, before you know it, each person engages in travel one-upmanship, vying for the prize of the most outrageous (and memorable) story in the room.

What’s yours???

We travel to see the world, but we also want to find ourselves in the world. Traveling tests our resilience and resourcefulness. If we go to the gym and the library on Tuesdays and Thursdays at home every week, we don’t get to learn how fun it is to “nearly miss our train” (we did that in Pisa) or “take the wrong boat” (which we did in Venice more than once). Traveling is a battle. It’s a puzzle. It’s a joy. It’s sickness sometimes. But there are stories in those times, too!

Traveling is a test—a wonderful, expensive (usually but not always), exciting journey. And with or without travel agents, tour guides, travel companions, or itineraries, travel is always an adventure.

Besides, our travel agent was happy she had redeemed herself and protected her profession. But it was a close one. Whew!

 

Travel Writing — It Wasn’t the Truth

Perhaps I’ve traveled too far. Perhaps not enough.

Perhaps traveling is not about geography but traversing the soul.

What I believed was the truth bore me down the river

With rocks and rapids until

the falsity turned the river into a stream and then

a dry trickle.

I missed the truth because what I thought was important

–the white spiral-bound book I’d written–

still lay on the shelf

as 75,000 words of blood squeezed

dry of white lies.

 

A Deep Dive into US History in Boston

A Deep Dive into US History in Boston

I often feel like I should be paid for how much I “advertise” for Road Scholar. Like similar travel companies, the company has created the best of both worlds for people of a certain age and income. That is, they set about making traveling easy and educational at reasonable prices for experiences (three for us so far) that will remain in our hearts and minds as we travel this thing called life.

I need to talk about their six-day Boston trip in particular because it was all about the founding of our great country, the United States of America. Every morning, our group would listen to a lecture by Charles Bahne, a noted historian specializing in the American Revolution, that detailed different aspects of the times, the people, and even the buildings in place during our march to independence!

What I got out of the lectures was exactly how much of our country’s founding relied on lots of luck (besides the blood and fighting, of course.) That these particular men lived in this part of our country at exactly that time was a star-crossed, magical intertwining of events that defies imagination. What chances did these scruffy, determined misfits and miscreants have against an established world conqueror like England? The scrappy colonists were, at the same time, highly-regarded members of the 1760s society and sly, under-the-table, blackened-faced tea hurlers who were the Boston Tea Party celebrants. During that Tea Party morning lecture, we were there with the colonists, slinging tea. And we were all but “sitting with them” the next morning, happy as heck with innocent inside smiles hidden beneath quiet smugness. “We got ‘em.”

Stupid England

The English puffed themselves up in their stuffy egotistic Red Coats, blinded to the quest for freedom that gave our United States ruffians the power to overcome mighty England. And King George? Ha. He was a puffball of the highest order. Remember the play Hamilton? The song runs through my head now as it does yours if you’ve seen the musical. Dah da da dah dah, da da da da da da da, dah da dah. All right, then. It’s stuck in your mind now, isn’t it?

Bricks!

I am not sure anything says bricks like Boston. We saw bricks here, there, and everywhere,

Bricks and Barrels

Brick-y patterns define walls, walkways, and courtyards on campuses and around homes, government buildings, and parks.

We like clinker bricks, too!! We loved those rascally, uneven, wavy, and often blackened bricks that give chimneys and walls even more character.

On many tours, the spirits of Paul Revere, George Washington, Sam Adams, and Ben Franklin all but walked among us. We went to the churches, battlefields, and homes where history dripped off the walls or reached out from balconies and balustrades, farmhouses, and bridges. We closed our eyes to “hear” fevered speeches that started our patriotic blood stirring. Don’t you just love the United States? Well, if you don’t, you’re probably not an American. If you love America, you’d love the Boston story. It’s a good one, and I believe traveling in the United States can be just as exciting as other countries across the seas. Maybe more so.

 

Deep-Dive Traveling

You know, we’ve been on many of the types of tours that say, “If this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium.” Those are fun too, for you get to see a lot of countries and cities in a one- or two-week span. However, six days in one city touches all your senses — the smell of the harbor, the feel of the bricks beneath your feet, the sights of battles and buildings, the taste of real Boston clam chowder, and the sounds of the wind rustling in trees that may well have been tiny saplings at the very spot you’re standing. Isn’t that cool?

If You Go

Don’t forget the cannoli! These sweet, filled pastries have people lined up around the block. It’s a good thing we walked a lot on the trip! And do try to catch a guided tour for part of your stay—even if you don’t go with a tour company. You’ll learn so much!

 

 

 

End of the Track, Start of a Story

How did we end up here?

Promontory Summit marks the spot where the Union Pacific (starting in the east) and the Central Pacific (starting in the west) railroad companies finally connected hundreds of miles of train tracks that eventually became the Transcontinental Railroad. The work began in 1863 and was finalized with the “Golden Spike” Ceremony on May 10, 1869 at this very site.

The huge undertaking was momentous and costly in terms of money, lives, and resources. It was a magnet for greed, graft, and corruption, and an engineering and human accomplishment that rivals the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids in scope.

 

So, you’d think there would be a huge freeway sign or a wide, six-lane highway leading to what is now the Golden Spike National Historic Park. You might want search lights or a water park or something. But no. Like many National Parks, the entrance seems at once anticlimactic and low tech. But then, that’s what makes this park visit-worthy and thought provoking. Here’s the thing: They didn’t have telephones much less mobile phones back then. They accomplished this feat with the aid of the telegraph, invented in 1838 not long before the Transcontinental Railroad (TCRR), with the Transcontinental Telegraph (1861) being an integral part of the Civil War and later the TCRR. The Pony Express was no longer needed. And as with many historical landmarks, there are acres of historical facts hidden in this off-the-beaten-path locale. This short video offers a quick introduction.

How’d We End Up Here? 

We went to Promontory Summit because we were visiting my brother and his wife in Utah, but it wasn’t on our touring radar at all. Guess what? It ended up being one of my very favorite places to visit because it sparked my interest in how the railroad got started, how it was finished, and how they overcame all the challenges in between.

“Traveling” can be a hard core launch into planning, hotels, meals, touring, and spending. Oh, yes, spending! Or it can be a spontaneous, serendipitous, didn’t-spend-any-money-except-the-gas kind of  trip down the highway that leads you to learning about any country–in this case, the United States.

I took the railroads for granted! And yet building the TCRR was a part of our history–for better or for worse–that I would not have been excited about but for this car ride to the historic site. It’s terrible to hear the stories about slavery, the unimaginably bad weather, hundreds of deaths, and unconscionable hardships that made this one of the most difficult undertakings. But it also demonstrates how humans with big dreams overcome many nightmares in the name of progress.

Soaking It In

Travel in your neighborhood or across the world! Be curious. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn and discover. As the kids say, “It’s dope. It’s sick.” I say, “It’s amazing.” From this end of the track visit, I started and finished a novel. It’s almost as big an undertaking (okay, I said almost) as the Transcontinental Railroad, so inspired was I by the story of it.

How about you? Can you find something in your travels that will inspire you? Maybe you write music. Or you paint. Or you’re writing your memoirs or a blog. Go traveling and start your story. Even if your travels are in your own town. There’s so much to see and do wherever you live.