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!

Hoodoo You Think Hiked in Bryce???

What can you really say about one of the most breath-taking hikes you have ever taken?  I have struggled to write about to trip to Bryce because I am still in awe of what I was able to take in.   Granted, we only saw a portion of the park... you really need more than one day at Bryce, and I will have to make sure that I get that... but the priority was to see and experience.  To do that, my friend and I hiked from both rim and valley. It was the best way to marvel at the hoodoos, rims, fins and other geologic structures.  From above and below, they were a sight to see!!!



Hoodoos!!!

 Hoodoo became my new word of the trip... honestly, I do not remember that from geology class or lab.  I have never seen these types of structures on the east coast, but the park was smart to point out that you can see hoodoos in places all over the world - the difference is, nothing is this vast, colorful, deep and spectacular as Bryce.   If you look the right way, you can understand the native american story that woodoos are really people that have been turned to stone by the god/trickster - Coyote.  In reality, they are the result of constant weathering and erosion.  Hoodoos were rock mounds, sculpted into fins, that broke into individual pilliars.  In Bryce there are rows that look like a consistent series, cut from the same cloth; there are section upon section that look like that paper trick you do as a child - the one where you cut one  doll and create a series of linked ones.  It kinda boggles your mind to think that weathering processes created something so similiar.  And then, you turn your head, and you have another forest of hoodoos, that looks different and yet similar to each other.

One Night in Vegas.... Again!!!

Three Times might not be a charm at the tables (or maybe it is - who knows, I don't bet)... but for Vegas and I this year, it works.  Used Vegas as a launching point for my quick trip through the some of the most famous national parks of the southwest.  In all my times in Vegas, I have never used it as a launching point to the big ones, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion.    My very first trip to Vegas, I got out of town to see Hoover Dam, and this past January's trip took me to the Valley of Fire.  I never left Nevada.  I never took advantage of the proximity to these sights.  I do not usually attribute trips to Vegas was loads of hiking.  This trip was different - I was going for the parks, not for the glitz and glamour.  But before I could hit the trail, my friend and I had one day/night in Vegas.

I arrived in Vegas right around noon in a mood that told me that I needed to avoid shopping at all costs.  The advertisements in the airport let me know that the Bellagio Art Museum had a new exhibit, so I knew where i needed to go.  Named "A Sense of Place: Landscapes from Monet to Hockney", this very small showing showcased different movements and types of artistic expression that illustrate concepts of landscapes.  Two of the most exciting pieces in the exhibit were an ocean front seascape from Roy Lichtenstein (known as the comic style paintings - dot colored) and contemporary country side by David Hockney (known for vibrant color and a bit of pop flare).  Yes, they had Monet, as I would expect at an exhibit of Landscapes - honestly, how could you not... he is like the granddaddy of landscape paintings.  Interesting though that this exhibit focused on many forms of art - paint, sketch, video, sculpture, photo, and they included the obvious of Monet for painting and failed to include the obvious choice for photography - Ansel Adams. (even though they had an Adams showing a few years ago, his exclusion has no excuse).  Instead, for photography, we were shown a series of 6 photos of a human form's outline in the surf, in various states of destruction by the water.  These photos would haunt me a week later in Chicago where I found an entire wall of them (and could not remember, right then, where I had seen them before).

Utah's South West Corner

Bryce Canyon

I owe you a post on the parks visited before Grand Canyon... Zion, Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks national monument.  Visiting all those parks so fast created lots of pictures...  and I am not done going through them... so hold on, it is coming... until then, here is one pic of each beautiful place... enjoy!

Zion

Cedar Breaks

Trips Cancelled - Good or Bad

In September, I had been planning to make a trip through the bayou... to some of towns in Southern Louisiana and Texas.  I had two weeks to visit locations in the Gulf... this trip has been planned since July.  Today, I found out that it has to be pushed back.   Honestly, I am not sure how I feel about this since I was ready to hit the road again.  Yet, I just got home and I have not made it to the beach yet.  I was ready to see my friends in New Orleans, and I am also ready to take it easy for a week or two.  This has honestly been a hectic summer.  Since May, I have been to Alaska, Oklahoma, Texas (2x), Colorado(3x), New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and home.  Well, sort of home... I have been hopping around a lot.  So maybe sticking around for a few weeks is not so bad.

I do have a trip at the very end of the month to Wyoming for a few days.  Not my typical trip since I will really not have time to get out and see anything there.  I have never been to Southwestern Wyoming... so even the drive and the short trip is bound to show me something new.

Until then, maybe I can get away for myself for a weekend and relax... we'll see.

Finally Made It To the Grand Canyon!

For someone that loves the National Parks, like I do, it has been a black-eye on my excursions that I have never made it to the Grand Daddy of the National Park system.  If you think about the big ones, Grand Canyon ranks up there... high up there.  Now, finally, I can say that I have seen it with my own two eyes.   While this was only a day trip - I definitely saw a lot at the South Rim - took in a hike, two ranger talks, took lots of pictures, watched the inspirational film at the Visitor Center, climbed the Watchtower, and oogled jewelry at the Hopi House.

View during Sunset at Mohave Point

I learned at the park that 8 people have died so far this year falling off the ledges.  This is where I laminate about stupid people... do you believe in the Darwin theory?  The strongest survive... well, for tourists, Darwin is about the stupid weening themselves out of the gene pool.  You see signs and are warned by rangers and fences to not go out on the rock ledges.  But do people listen?  NO!  Rangers have noted that men typically ages 20-35 tend to cross fences onto ledges.  From my short day there, I can say that is exactly what I saw.  I really don't understand it - you can get fantastic pictures from the look out points and along the fences.  The ledges really do not look that stable.  In fact, you can hear rocks falling every once and a while... so why go out there?  To tempt fate?  To prove a point?  Because you think you are indestructible?  Well, good luck - it is a long way down...

How to See Chicago in a Few Days

Chicago - Navy Pier, Hancock Building

Just how much of the Second City do you think you can stuff into a 3 1/2 days, and where 2 1/2 of them are filled with work... well, I really tried as see as much as possible.  While I did not see all that I wanted, I made sure to hit some of the main sights, get off the beaten path, see some "must see"s and enjoy a truly wonderful architectural city.

I had a lot on my "to do" list.  I thought I was going to have more time than I did.  And I did not anticipate several features (Art Institute and Shedd Aquarium) to be sooooo big that they, in and of themselves, would require a full day's attention.  It was hard to leave - Chicago deserves more time.  Of course I said that the other time I went, but in all honesty that was just for 2 days (and I do not count airport time as trips).  Really, Chicago seems like a place that I need a week, at least to fully explore.  I already have stuff in my mind about my next trip... but before I get ahead of myself, I want to talk about this one.

So, what did I pack into my few days in the Second City - well, a city walking tour that included Miracle Mile (sadly, or gratefully, with no shopping stops), a trip up Willis (aka Sears) Tower and into the Skybox, Shedd Aquarium, Navy Pier, a waterfront tour, a ghost tour, Millinium Park, the Art Institute, deep dish Pizza, a dinner in Little Italy, and listening to a local musician at the Hard Rock... I can say with a straight face that my feet still hurt.  Maybe walking almost 5 miles in strappy sandals was a bad idea!  Who knew?