Struggling With What To Do

September 11th... it is just a date.  Really, a day.  But the day has meaning... it is seared into so many of our memories.  I can recall just about every moment of that morning 10 years ago.  I remember riding the DC metro, and as the masses ascended the escalators, the cell phone and pagers that went off - it was just a symphony of sounds.  And as everyone answered, there were some gasps and some faces were stunned silent.  I made my way down the street to work and arrived to find offices empty.  People gathered around the public affairs TVs to watch the horror.  I immediately got on the phone to call family; yes, I was in DC, but at that point, nothing had happened here.  I was more concerned about my sister, who often worked in the city, my godfather who was a detective with the NY/NJ Port Authority, my step-mom's brother who worked in the area of the twin towers.  Doing the roll call of family that could be there hit hard - my family eat/slept and breathed NY/NJ.  Countless generations have called it home.  (I have been in DC for 11 years and NJ/NY is still home to me).  Family calls - couldn't get in touch with Louis, Uncle Tom was home, my sister had not gone in yet... then the Pentagon was hit.  Reports came in that the State Department was bombed, there was a fire on the Mall... and the phone lines went down.  We were told to evacuate... "Get the hell out."  I did not want to get on the metro and traffic was in a DC patented stand-still.  It was chaos.  Yet, nothing like the chaos that I saw on the TV moments earlier of home.  And as I traveled, many hours, to my apartment, I learned of the falling of the towers, the crash in Shanksville.  Shock - that is the only way to describe that day.

September 11th... it is just a date.  It is a hard date.  And every year I struggle with how to honor it.  Truthfully, the day makes me sad.  I vividly recall the confusion.  I remember the struggle to contact everyone.  I remember the relief of hearing news that family got out of the financial district.  And  I remember days later getting word that all of my friends did not make it out of the Pentagon.

September 11th... it is just a date.  Yet, it is a day to reflect.  I went to Ground Zero once, and never went back.  It was a hole.  It was horrible.  I visited the Pentagon Memorial twice.  It was less broken... but that was because it was finished.  That hole was just a horrible scar from the day.  Last year, I went to Mt Rushmore, the evening ceremony, thinking that it was a honorable tribute while I was site-seeing in the Black Hills. There, I was hurt by the cavalier attitude so many in attendance had... it was so bad that I ended up approaching someone talking on their phone and told them to exit the ceremony or get off the cell.  I was so angry.  It is just a date... but it is not just a day.  Life changed that day.  And we should remember that.  We should be respectful of that.

September 11th ... it was today.  DC and NYC were in high alert due to a new threat.  Earlier that week I had called out a few young "kids" on the train lamenting about the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry and proclaiming all would be better if NYC was bombed.  Yep - right there in the Metro.  Idiots.  And I called them out.  Why was I the only one?  And later that week, we were notified about the possible bomb plot in the city... so, really, can we please be more careful with our words?

September 11th.... this year, a weekend day, and not a day to sit at home.  You could sit home watching all the documentaries, but you would go numb.  I watched the memorial, and then donated money to the Shanksville Memorial (which is not fully funded yet - so, if you are not sure what to do, consider that an option.)  I had to force myself to turn off the TV.  It was hypnotic.  But due to that possible threat, many decided not to travel into DC or anywhere near people.  I really tried.  I couldn't.  This is a hard day.  I really hated to be alone... so, I made my way toward Alexandria to attend the art festival.  Old Towne Alexandria's historic King Street hosted the festival and it was a decent get-away from the relived horror on the television.  Wandering the streets, I found a few artists that I recognized from the West Palm Beach Arts Festival in January.  Wandering the booths, I found some of these old favorites  from January (lewk, stern, marin), some that I recognized from other festivals (holwerda) and found new ones to watch (hairy potter, markowitz).   Art can be theauputic for so many.  The outdoors is good for others.  Getting outside and wandering the festival was a good way to spend the day after the memorials that morning.

September 11th... it is just a day.  It is a day that we need to remember, but we also need to function during the course of the day.  There must be a way to balance that.  Ten years ago, that morning was beautiful; it was warm, the skies were blue.  Today was no different.  So, I needed to honor that day, but then force myself to do something that I love.  Just like in years past,  I have needed to make sure that I get out.  That I enjoy life.  Because, September 11th is a day... a day that reminds us that with people, we are stronger!

Looking Back on 2010

While 2010 was a tough year... on the travel front, I must admit that I was able to do a few things off my lists:

• My new state for the year - South Dakota
• New cities - Santa Barbara, Amarillo, TX (stretching "city" a little), Pensacola
• Art Towns - Bisbee and Tombstone AZ
• New national park areas - Badlands, Wind Cave, Gulf Shores National Seashore, in addition Columbia River Gorge & Multnomah Falls (national scenic area in OR)
• New Aquarium - World Aquarium in Dallas
• Funky Feature - Wall Drug in SD
• Iconic Sites - Mt Rushmore, inside the Rose Bowl (soccer game) [and by comparison but no where near as iconic - the Cotton Bowl]

Keeping up with my Birthday tradition of doing something new, I took a bit of time in June to head east from New Orleans and visit Pensacola for the first time.  Timing wise it could not have been more  iffy.  Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill was headed that way.  When I arrived the water had started to hit sections of the Gulf Shore Islands, but the Pensacola beach was clear - crystal clear.  I was lucky - oil was reported to the east and west of the area; so for that day I enjoyed the last of the gulf shores beauty.  For anyone that has not been to the Gulf Coast - the water is warm and and blueish green, the sand is crystal white.   I wanted to see what was happening in the area, so on my way back to Louisiana, I took time to stop by Orange Beach, Alabama; there you could see the oil coming in.  There the water was closed, and yet I saw people going in anyway (people never cease to amaze me).  Forever I will remember this quick trip for the young child running to his parents with a black ball in his hand, screaming, "Mommy, Daddy, I found a tar ball!"  It just was heart breaking.

Making it to Santa Barbara was a big deal.  Home of the TV show Psych, this city has been ohhhh-so-close yet so far away for years.  Through work, I have spent time in Ventura County and have never made the time to drive the 30 minutes north.  I have instead spent time taking the boat to Channel Islands or visited with friends in LA.  So, this year I had an opportunity to visit this sleepy city and the timing could not have been better - I was able to make it for the Old Spanish Days Fiesta.  I had no idea that smashing eggs on people's heads was a welcome greeting... but I guess it is okay if they are filled with confetti. 

After years of staring at a map and hearing how close South Dakota really was, I finally took the plunge and drove from Denver to the Black Hills.  Of course I was planning on visiting Mt Rushmore... that is what everyone does when they get to the Black Hills, but there is so much more to stuff into a trip.  I took the guided tours in the most interesting caves I have ever seen, awestruck at the beauty of Jewel Cave.  The whole area was nothing like what I pictured for SD; it was serene and soft.  That beauty was contrasted greatly with the stark bleakness of the Badlands about an hour and half away.  The greenery, rolling hills and meandering streams were gone - they were replaced with the complex formations of the eroding landscape.  This quick get-away was all about power touring... and if I recommend anything from that trip beyond the parks, it would be the Prairie Berry Winery and their Red Ass Rhubarb wine - it tastes like pie! Well the pie and a quick stop in Hill City to visit Teddy Bear town - you have not lived until you see thousands of bears stuffed into a tiny home.

2010 also seemed to be a Texas year for me...  I spent some quality time in Houston - finally able to see more that just the office, I was able to explore the museums and city sites. I saw my first shrunken head at the Science Museum (at the cannibals special exhibit) and I honestly will not be upset if I never see one again. That same trip included a road trip to Galveston; got there too late to tour the historic homes, but did get to the shoreline and ate some gulf shrimp from an east coast transplant.   I spent some time in Dallas, actually getting there 3x last year,  I  finally got to see the World Aquarium which is more of a rainforest than aquarium; still, it was beautiful.  Then there was Amarillo - can't say that I spent a lot of time there, but I have seen it, slept there, ate at a local hole-in-the-wall breakfast cafe... Yep, definitely a year to see Texas.

I was also able to visit some of my favorite places, while still managing to do something new in each:

• New Orleans - St Patrick's Day and the Italian-Irish parades
• New York City  - took in a game at the new Yankee Stadium
• Philadelphia - took my niece for her first trip to the Franklin Institute

And there were trips to other places - the weekend getaways to the beach, the repeated trips to Denver and the road trips through the Rocky Mountains, a short trips to Portland, Baltimore, Jacksonville, St Augustine and Tucson/Phoenix and return trips to a few great national parks, like Rocky Mountain and Saguaro.

Honestly, looking back, I can reflect on some fun road trips, relaxing weekends with friends and exciting new discoveries.  Guess that is why reflection is so important - sure there were challenges, but there was love and discovery, education and relaxation in there too.  Not a bad year after all.