What's Wrong With Their Home?

December 27, 2017

That's the question people might ask if they took a look at our travel schedule in 2017! Luckily, we love our home...but we also like to explore the world. We especially love to explore it with people we love and meet new friends all over the globe. Travel is all about connecting with people all over the world, and we feel very fortunate to have met and traveled with so many incredible people. We are grateful to all the people who followed our adventures and those who shared their corner of the world with us! We especially want to thank the folks who shared THEIR trips with us in our GoSeeIt People interviews. (You can find the interviews here) We love hearing about your travels too! THANK YOU! We hope you have many safe travels in 2018 and wish the very best in the coming year!

Over the last year here are some of the places we've been able to explore. Click on any link to see more photos in our posts and learn more about each destination! (Next week, we will share where we are headed next!)

What A Year!

Shanghai, China

Savannah

Florida

Spring Break Cruise to Honduras, Belize and Cozumel

Some of the most fun we had all year, was acting like kids with the college kids aboard Rhapsody of the Seas. After years of hearing how grownups should avoid "Spring Break", we went tubing, zip lining, and dancing with the Spring Breakers and had a great time!

The rest of our posts from Honduras and Belize, including our Pack for a Purpose school supplies delivery to Roatan click here!

Vermont

NY Finger Lakes Region

Statuary in the Orchid House at the Sonnenberg Gardens

NYC

A trip to visit our daughter in NYC took us to some of the less visited places in NYC...Flatbush, Harlem, DUMBO. See our trip report here! And about the more popular places in NYC here and here.

White Mountains in New Hampshire

Venice

Slovenia

This small country offers environment from coastal to alpine, as is seen here at Lake Bled, as well as one of the prettiest little European capitals, Ljubljana.

Croatia

Montenegro

Corfu

Malta

A Maltese balcony on Republic Street flies the EU and Matlese flags.

Sicily/Mt Etna

An incredible day hike up Mt Etna with 3 mountaineers, wine and homemamde parmigiana!

Amalfi

Rome

Montreal

According to one couple, there is only ONE WAY to experience museums!

"Well, We Have Museums in New York!"

August 11, 2017

We met a couple from NYC in the middle of London in 1988. We spent a few minutes comparing touring notes, and asked them if they'd been to any of the terrific London art and history museums we had been visiting over the last few days. We were astounded when, without a bit of shame or hesitation, the wife replied, "oh, no, we have museums in New York". We walked away from this street interaction feeling both a little embarrassed to be fellow Americans and a bit sorry for them, that they would miss some of the best museums in the world in London (or any place else on the globe, I suppose!) Well, for years to come, Jeff and I would often use the phrase "We have museums in New York", to summarize any behaviors we noticed that seemed dismissive of local culture. It became one of our little travel joke as we explored amazing places, including museums, all over the world for the next 30 years!

The Tower of London has several museums within it's walls.

A couple of weeks ago we went to NYC to visit our daughter, and made some plans to spend time visiting those "museums in New York". It occurred to us that maybe that couple in London were not wrong, New York does have some amazing museums! We've been to some of the famous ones before, Museum of Natural History, with its whooly mammoth, The MET, The MOMA, and of course they were all excellent! We decided to visit a few based on our interests during this trip. What we discovered is that there is a reason for the New Yorker's pride in their museums- Even the less heralded ones are terrific. They really do have "museums in New York" to rival anywhere else in the world!

I've included a trip report and some photos about a few of the excellent museums we enjoyed in NYC.

Cooper Hewitt

We started our "Museums in NY" visit with our oldest daughter in mind. Recently graduated with a BFA in Industrial Design, The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum https://www.cooperhewitt.org/ was high on her list of "must visit" museums. Located in the old Andrew Carnegie Mansion on 5 Th Ave in Manhattan, it's part of the Museum Mile. Don't be caught off guard by the "Smithsonian" in the title, unlike Washington DC Smithsonians, there is a charge for this one! However, we found the price of admission well worth it! The courtyard is free and open to the public, with pleasant benches and chairs to relax. There is free outdoor art to enjoy, and a take out cafe as well as a gelato cart tucked into the quiet courtyard.

The building itself is stunning, with early 20th century architectural details and grand decorative fixtures. Displayed within that context are some of the most modern design ideas displayed alongside decorative arts from nearly every period, with an especially large collection of Jazz Age artifacts.

We began our visit with a stop in the "Process Lab". This decorative room of historic woodwork is set up to walk people through the process of design. Our newly minted designer described it as "four years of design school distilled into one room!". I see it as a hands on way for visitors to see design as the process of solving problems. It was amazing to watch a school group work their way through the exercises and came up with incredible solutions to challenges in their own community. These are hung on the walls for future visitors to examine. It was also wonderful way for non designers to start their visit to the museum by gaining an understanding of how the design process works, and having that inform your experience of the design, new and old in the rest of the museum.

Another modern innovation that takes the Cooper Hewitt to another level in the museum world was the addition of touch pens shared with every visitor. If you see an exhibit or work of art that interests you, you can simply touch the pen to the icon on the display and all of the things you tag will be instantly saved on the web to an account you can access with your ticket number later. This way you can revisit things you liked, explore them further, or share them with "friends" on social media. It's an incredibly simple, but "new" way of experiencing a museum! (we saw 70 yos participating alongside digital native teens!)

From the Models and Prototypes Room, a mini staircase.

In addition to a special exhibit, DE volve , by performing and visual artist Esperanza Spalding, we visited a The Jazz Age exhibit and the Immersion Room, where you can make your own digital designs and have them projected on every surface of the room!

The National September 11 Memorial and Museum

We have children that are just a bit too young to remember much about 9/11. Being small children, and being from the Boston area where two of the flights originated, our daughters were good friends with the children of an AA pilot, who was only spared that day because it was not his week to fly flight 11. Nearly every neighbor lost someone that day, and our friend the pilot lost several colleagues,. We felt it best to protect them from live news at the time to ensure his children weren't traumatized by intrusive questions from friends. So it seemed that nearly 20 years later that they should fully understand what happened that day, and how it changed the course of so many individuals lives, but also the course of our country forever.

The 9/11 Memorial https://www.911memorial.org/museum is located at the former World Trade Buildings that were destroyed in the attack. Today, they are granite "walls" on which the name of every victim is inscribed. Inside the low walls is a huge waterfall flowing into a black pit. It's a somber reminder of the falling towers and even on a beautiful sunny days is so dark, it's impossible to see the bottom. This memorial is free and easily visited from the street.

The 9/11 Museum https://www.911memorial.org/museum is built underground. There is an admission charge and it requires buying timed entry tickets. This is usually best done online well in advance of a visit, although we were able to buy tickets the day before, probably because many other people avoid going to NYC during a July heat wave!

The main exhibit is a time line that takes visitors through the events of September 11, minute by minute, with videos, artifacts and audio recordings of the phone calls heroes made to warn others before crashing. It's a pretty intense experience and photos are not allowed. Other parts of the museum feature uplifting messages and art work that arrived from all over the world after the attacks. Much of the museum is also artifacts from the wreckage and showcasing the basement of the original buildings that were on the site. Expect to wait before entering, even with a timed ticket, for security and general crowd control. Touring the exhibits themselves could take anywhere from 2 - 4 hours depending how thoroughly you choose to examine them.

The Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian

A current exhibit of modern Native American Fashion; exploring heritage through modern clothing designs such as this take on a ceremonial dress.

Our final museum of NYC (for this trip!) was the Smithsonian National Museum of the Native American Indian. http://www.nmai.si.edu/ This Smithsonian has branches in NYC and Washington DC, and is free of charge. Housed in the old Alexander Hamilton Customs House in Lower Manhattan, this museum has on display thousands of artifacts collected by George Gustav Heye at the turn of the 20th century. Since becoming part of the Smithsonian, efforts have been made to bring context to collections by marrying them with history from indigenous people. Additionally, the NYC Museum includes the DIker Pavilion for Native Arts and Cultures, a space for exhibition and performance.

The historic Alexander Hamilton Customs House is home to the museum and is a National Historic Landmark

The museum's home is interesting itself, as a National Historic Landmark building and the rotunda is filled with interesting trompe l'loeil "statues" and murals painted around the ceiling.

The rotunda of the Customs House is left open as a site for rest or reflection.

The galleries do a good job of educating visitors about the general geographic areas where people lived and how the geography created different cultures and nomadic clans that are not easily catagorized. Artifacts are displayed along with the maps.

The Peace Medal from the King Phillips War

During our visit, a Native Fashion Now was on display (until early Sept). This exhibition of contemporary fashion designed by Native Americans and influenced by Native American culture. http://www.nmai.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item/?id=954

Our visit took us to three very different museums, although each was presented in engaging and thoughtful ways. We left NYC truly feeling that New York City does in fact " have museums" and they aare among the best the world has to offer. It won't keep me from visiting museums in other parts of the world, but it will get me back to NYC to explore more museums in the future!

What To Do with Two Gammy's and a Graduate on an Epic Road Trip?

June 14, 2017

Day Trip in the Finger Lakes

Story and Photos by Kathy Klofft

Ok, maybe not THAT epic, but when you pack your septuagenarian mother and octogenarian mother in law into a van along with a 20 year old college student and a newly minted college graduate for a day trip in the Finger Lakes District of upstate NY, you have the what sounds like the trailer of bad buddy movie! Fortunately for us, it had a happy ending, and we were treated to a beautiful May day in the Finger Lakes! Here's our itinerary and some ideas for things to do in this "gorges" area!

The Finger Lakes are actually a series of 11 lakes in narrow, deep gorges created by the glaciers, and they are also "gorgeous"! (That's the end of my geology puns, I promise!) With vineyards along the steep slopes of the pristine lakes, the views are breathtaking at every turn. Because my family was in town for a busy weekend of graduation activities, we had only one day to explore the area, so we stayed close to the college, and visited the western shore of Canandaigua Lake. Even just visiting a small area and during the quiet spring season, it was easy to see why this region is popular with tourists!

We started our day early with a visit to the Sonnenburg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park. The park is located in Canandaigua, NY, not far from the NY Throughway, and makes a nice start to a day exploring the Finger Lakes. One could easily spend a whole day here. There are 50 acres of gardens and green houses on the property, in addition to the beautifully restored mansion built in 1887 for Frederick Ferris and Mary Clark Thompson.

At the admission booth, you'll get a map of the property and can plan your visit. We decided to start in the Green House Conservatory Complex with the orchid house. The Nectarine House was filled with orchids, succulents and cactus. Incredible statuary is mixed in among the plants, and there is a fun scavenger hunt for the children, to look for "faces" among the artwrok in both the gardens and in the mansion!

The Nectarine House with Sonnenburg Garden's collection of prizewinning orchids

Garden statues are tucked among the lush foliage in the orchid green house.

If you are visiting with anyone mobility challenges, or just want to save some energy, with you can take a complimentary golf cart shuttle from place to place. I recommend taking the shuttle to the mansion at the top of the hill and then meandering downhill through all the gardens. If you start in the green houses at the beginning, cooler part of the day, you'll enjoy them more!

The mansion is very well preserved. Docents offer tours or you can wander around on your own. In addition to the spectacular distant views to the lakes , the Victorian era furnishings and antiques are beautiful. Unlike some historic homes open to the public, you truly feel as though you have stepped inside the Thompson's home as a guest and that they still live there and might step out to great you at any moment!

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Be sure to ask your docent to explain the significance of this poster...it seems the homeowners caught a lucky break when they canceled their passage on the Titanic to tend their gardens!!

We left behind the Sonnenburg mansion and gardens long before we could explore everything they had to offer, including an enticing outdoor cafe, and a gift shop. We will need to return to see more of the gardens, and one could visit several times in a single summer and see different things blooming!

The lake views beckoned so we skipped visiting the town of Canandaigua, which has plenty of shops, and lake front restaurants to offer. We took a drive along Route 16 and enjoyed views of Canandaigua Lake to the east. The lake banks in many places were terraced with grape arbors and we saw lots of places offering wine tastings and tours!

It was too cold for a swim, so we decided to take in some of the recommendations we had crowd sourced from the parent Face Book page at our daughters university. Our first stop was Roots Cafe. A popular farm to table restaurant set in a roadside home hard by the Inspire Moore vineyard.

We chose a table on the porch, and perused the menu of locally sourced specialties, including three unique daily salad, mac and cheese and soup specials offered. Not being able to narrow our choices we ordered nearly one of everything offered on the menu and shared!

Bright colors, real flowers and a real vineyard next door add ambiance to the excellent food.

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Despite the tempting offerings, we skipped dessert because we had been advised to check out Monica's Pies for dessert. Beginning our trip back north from Naples to Canandaigua we stopped at Monica's Pies, which came highly recommended by everyone we spoke to about the area. This famous pie shop doesn't offer a spot to dine, but you can pick up pies and other yummies for the road!

In addition to delicious pies, and other sweet treats, Monica's offers some grape related gifts.

While Monica's grape pie is the claim to fame, I can attest that the strawberry rhubarb and caramel apple pies were also delicious. I should have taken a photo of the pies, but they simply didn't last long enough for photography!

After a wonderful lunch at Roots Cafe and some goodies from Monica's Pies, we made our way back to campus via route 64, which gave us some lovely distant views above the lake and offered more tempting wineries to visit. Additionally, had our group been more fleet of foot and less tempted by all the foodie delights the area had to offer, we could have hiked several of the lovely trails and parks in this area. Next time we will plan to stop at Honeoye Wildlife Management Area. We would also have liked to see the beautiful falls at Grimes Glen. And we visited New York's Wine Country and never even got to do any wine tasting!

Whoever is in the cast of your road tripping buddy movie in upstate NY, there is something fun for everyone to do along the shores of Canandaigua Lake!

What A Year!

Shanghai, China

Savannah

Florida

Spring Break Cruise to Honduras, Belize and Cozumel

Vermont

NY Finger Lakes Region

NYC

White Mountains in New Hampshire

Venice

Slovenia

Croatia

Montenegro

Corfu

Malta

Sicily/Mt Etna

Amalfi

Rome

Montreal

Cooper Hewitt

The National September 11 Memorial and Museum

The Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian

Day Trip in the Finger Lakes

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