Archive for the 'Travel' Category

Sightseeing Sunday

July 6, 2008 | Summer, Travel, Vermont

crossposted to New England Mamas

This week, SciFi Sunday is pre-empted. Instead we bring you Sightseeing Sunday

Yesterday was my birthday, and to celebrate we drove over to Burlington — about 80 minutes from the house in Barnard — to see the Mary Cassat: Friends and Family exhibit at Shelburne Museum. For dinner, we boarded the Spirit of Ethan Allen III for a dinner cruise on Lake Champlain.  Then today, we went on the “Hidden Spaces, Unique Places” tour at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller mansion in Woodstock. Last summer, Douglas, my mom and I had toured the mansion, but it always bugged Doug that we couldn’t see the 3rd floor. This tour resolved that dilemma. Plus Dave didn’t come last year so he’d never seen the mansion.

In order of events

I always enjoy Shelburne Museum because it has such a great mix of things that appeal to adults and children. This visit was no exception. Douglas patiently (mostly) waited while we enjoyed the Cassat paintings and then he had the opportunity to act as tour guide for his Dad on the Ticonderoga paddlewheeler.

Cassat was an exceptional artist. Possibly the best known American Impressionist painter and best known woman Impressionist, Whistler and Berthe Morisot notwithstanding. But what made this exhibit so exceptional was the way it highlighted the personal friendship between Cassat and Louisine Havemeyer, the mother of Electra Havemayer Webb, founder of Shelburne Museum.

The exhibit will be at Shelburne through October 26th and then at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC from November 21 through January 25, 2009. If you are near either place and you like Impressionist art, I urge you to check it out.

The dinner cruise on the Spirit of Ethan Allen III was fun. The food was perhaps just a notch above typical buffet food, although I would suggest having at least one fish entree that isn’t sauced, but the service was excellent. And the atmosphere — Lake Champlain at sunset — cannot be beat.  I got a special treat as well. Douglas plotted with the DJ and sang Happy Birthday to me — microphone and all — during dessert. I imagine more than a few mums envied me for that brief moment –  that my kid would do that for me. I had a few tears in my eyes.

Then today, we went on the Hidden Place, Unique Spaces tour of the Marsh-Billings Rockefeller mansion. They offer this tour about once a week, give or take, during the summer, and it is well worth it, although the regular tour is excellent as well.

On the Hidden Places tour, you see the third floor of the mansion, the servants’ quarters, a room in the Belvedere (basically the pool house, but what a pool house!) and the Bungalow, a cottage on the property, none of which are included in the regular house tour. I’d recommend either tour.

I do have pictures from all of the above, but the connection here is slower than at home so I’ll try to get them up tomorrow on Flickr.

Technorati Tags: Mary Cassat, Shelburne Museum, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Park, Spirit of Ethan Allen III, Burlington, Vermont, Woodstock

Up up and away

June 17, 2008 | Summer, Travel, Vermont

Last weekend we went to the Quechee Balloon Festival. The Festival runs from Friday evening through Sunday, and the balloons are scheduled to go up at 6pm and 6am every day. We went Saturday but the ascension was rained out so we decided to stay in Vermont and go Sunday evening.

Meant getting up at oh dark:30 on Monday to get Douglas to school on time but it was so worth it. Dave and I had been about 12 years ago, but I had forgotten how amazing it was to see so many balloons going up at once.

Here are some favorite pictures from the weekend. More on Flickr.

Technorati Tags: balloon festival, Quechee, Vermont, hot air balloon

My telephoto lens

May 6, 2008 | Animals, Equipment, Travel

I’ve alluded to it here and written about it a little on New England Mamas but today, I am going to tell you all about my new love: my Tamron telephoto lens.

For Christmas, my wonderful family (husband, son, mom and brother) gave me the Canon Digital Rebel xTi that I craved. It came with a very acceptable 18-55mm lens, and I’ve been enjoying messing around with the camera since the holidays.

My brother also recently got his first DSLR, a Nikon. We’ve always geeked out about stuff together — from Star Trek in the 60s til now and Web 2.0, so we’ve been talking cameras a lot lately. He even contributes here from time to time. He got a telephoto lens about 6 weeks ago, and from the moment I saw his, I was jonesing for my own. But trying to be fiscally responsible and all.

Then we went to San Diego on vacation. And while I wished for more proximity while watching the pandas,

it was at the beach watching Doug play in the surf that I realized I didn’t just want a telephoto lens, I absolutely needed one.

Because I am just WAY too far away.

I had to go north on business mid-week during the vacation, but when I got back, God bless my husband, he found a photo shop near Balboa Park in the Yellow Pages (remember those), George’s Camera, and we went there to talk telephoto.

While I am a big believer in online shopping, I am sooo glad we went to a good photo store for this purchase. They showed me a number of mid-price options, including official Canon lenses, but the Tamron prevailed. And not just on price, though at less than $200, it was much less expensive than either of the Canon options. What sold me? The macro function. I had it on the lens on my old Pentax film SLR, and I really like being able to shoot close-ups of flowers.

Like this one I shot on Coronado Island:

Or this one at the San Diego Wild Animal Park:

So now I can get close up on David and Douglas, when they are not paying attention to me with the camera, as well as get close-up shots of birds and animals.

Doug, Coronado

Doug and Dave, La Jolla

Doug and Dave, at the William Heath Davis House in the Gaslamp District

San Diego Wild Animal Park - Cheetah

Elephants

A one-day old giraffe and his mother

And seals, La Jolla

Worth every cent.

Technorati Tags: Tamron, telephoto lens, San Diego, La Jolla, seals, San Diego Wild Animal Park, panda, cheetah, elephant

SciFi Sunday: Short Subject

April 27, 2008 | Science Fiction, Travel

Still getting over the jetlag from the trip back from California, so SciFi Sunday tonight is going to be a short comment that I was disappointed with last Friday’s Battlestar Galactica. Let’s call it the Cylon adjustment episode — the focus was mainly on the three of the frakked four who are still with the Fleet. I don’t dislike Tory or Chief, but I just wasn’t that interested in their turmoil, or not, at Cally’s death. Tigh, on the other hand, was more interesting but I thought they drew the device of Ellen/Six out way too long. Not enough Lee, Kara, Roslin or Adama.

Back to our regularly scheduled sci fi conversation next week. In the meantime, enjoy this picture of Douglas feeding Pewani, a 9-10 year old giraffe, at San Diego Wild Animal Park.

More photos from our vacation on Flickr.

Technorati Tags: San Diego Wild Animal Park, Battlestar Galactica

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my: our visit to the San Diego Zoo

April 22, 2008 | Animals, Douglas, Holiday, Travel

Zhen Zhen, 8 month old panda bear

Today, I am sitting in my hotel room in Santa Rosa while Douglas and David continue to enjoy San Diego and the Lawrence Welk Resort (tiny bubbles…) in Escondido. I’m up here for two days for New Comm Forum, flying back south tomorrow evening.

Sunday we spent the day at Legoland followed by dinner in Oceanside.

Monday, as the title of this post suggests, we went to the San Diego Zoo and had Mexican food for dinner in Old Town San Diego.

Technorati Tags: San Diego Zoo, Legoland, panda, legos

SciFi Sunday: Pre-empted by vacation

April 20, 2008 | Douglas, Holiday, Science Fiction, Travel

SciFi Sunday is pre-empted this week by our family vacation. I’d much rather spend time exploring the environs of San Diego California than waxing poetic about science fiction and fantasy.

Although I will say that Battlestar Galactica rocked last week. I didn’t even mind that there was so much Cally in it for once

Regularly scheduled rantings and ravings about science fiction will be back next week. In the meantime, please enjoy the pictures of our first day in California.

And don’t be confused by the picture of the dog and the cat, or our family room at home. They were on the same card as the CA pictures and I have a small person who wants to do Webkinz hanging on me, so no time to create multiple sets.

Technorati Tags: La Brea Tarpits, Lawrence Welk Resort, pillow fort

New pictures: Snowshoeing, skiing and a rainbow

March 2, 2008 | Douglas, Family, Travel, Vermont, Winter

February vacation was a bit bittersweet because of the dog, but we managed to have a little fun too. I’ve finally put up a bunch of pictures on Flickr from a 2 hour snowshoe hike we did on Mount Tom. There are also some new pictures of the ridge, including a great one that Dave shot with my camera of an early morning rainbow, and some pictures from this afternoon’s backyard skiing lesson.

Aren’t they cute?

The only editing I did on this picture was to increase the saturation a tad, to pop the blue and the rainbow a bit.

It’s all downhill from here…

Technorati Tags: skiing, Mount Tom, Vermont, rainbow

Seven things I learned at Sundance and one thing I left

January 28, 2008 | Travel

cross posted from Marketing Roadmaps

You’ll have to go to film sites like Movie City News and Cinematical for reviews of the films, and Entertainment Weekly or E!Online for the star sightings and gossip. I was only in Park City for a few days, and mostly involved in work for my client’s party. Saw only one film, CSNY Déjà Vu, and only a handful of celebrities. But I did learn a few things that I thought you’d appreciate which is why I am cross-posting this from Marketing Roadmaps.

1. Do not park in front of 7-11, buy a few things and then go have lunch. Even though it’s not marked a Tow Zone, you are very likely to get towed. The person driving our car (not me) was understandably upset, but it could happen to anyone. And probably did. Apparently towing is big business in Park City during Sundance due to the extreme lack of parking.

2. Sundance Film Festival merchandise goes on sale the last full day of the Festival. I could have saved $10 on the ball caps I bought the day before.

3. Films start on time. Events at Harry O’s generally do not. From my experience, you can add an hour to the stated time that doors will open. So, for example if you are planning to eat at the ChefDance dinner, which “starts” at 8pm, and get hungry around 5pm, you can safely have a good-sized snack because you won’t see the first course until 9ish and the entree at 10, 10:15 pm.

4. UGGS are lovely but if you are limited on suitcase space, pack your waterproof boots instead. Luckily, I knew that one going in and had mine.

5. The walk from the Eccles Theatre to downtown is about 2.5 miles on a lovely walking trail. If it is warm enough (30 degrees was fine), it’s worth it for the lovely views of the mountains. You’ll also see a local landmark, a tree chock full of shoes, that’s been there for at least 20 years according to a resident I met on the path.

6. In addition to being extraordinarily talented, the folks in the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band are absolutely delightful and down-to-earth. If you like the blues, I highly recommend Shepherd’s recent documentary and album, 10 Days Out: Blues From The Backroads. It was nominated for two Grammys and when you watch/listen, you’ll know why.

7. CSNY Déjà Vu is a superb film. If you like the band, even just a little bit, and do not like our current president, you’ll probably enjoy the movie. If you think Bush has done a great job in Iraq, on the other hand, you probably won’t, even if you normally like the band. I loved the film. Draw your own conclusions.

Oh, and the thing I left? My voice. I came home with a cold that nearly qualifies as laryngitis.

Tags: Sundance, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, CSNY Deja Vu

Brief Sundance Report

January 26, 2008 | Travel

Tomorrow I am homeward bound. It’s been a good trip and I will write more about Sundance later this week. In the meantime, but here’s a brief look at the pictures from the past three days. More on Flickr.

Sunrise this morning:

Soundcheck before the Electrified party at Harry O’s last night. Visible on stage, left to right: Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Hubert Sumlin, Chris Layton (partially obscured), Noah Hunt and Scott Nelson.

Magpie in a tree, seen on my 2.5 mile walk this morning from the Eccles Theater where I saw CSNY Déjà Vu to downtown Park City.

Tags: Sundance, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Electrified

Notes of the Urban Blues

January 23, 2008 | General, Travel

cross posted to Marketing Roadmaps

I haven’t been posting here too much because I have been jamming to bring up two new client blogs, a podcast and doing media & blogger outreach for Electrified: The Story of the Maxwell Street Urban Blues. Hopefully after Sundance, things will settle down a little bit and I can get back to posting more regularly. I may even have some cool pictures from Sundance to share with you all.

In the meantime, if you’d like to follow the action at Sundance and the big Electrifed party at Harry O’s on Friday with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Hubert Sumlin, you’ll find me over at the film’s new blog, Notes of the Urban Blues. Friday, I’ll be interviewing Phil Ranstrom, writer/director/producer of Electrified at the HP Broadcast Studio, and during the party Friday night (and into the wee hours Saturday morning), we’ll try to get some clips up in near real-time. I’ll also be live-tweeting so please feel free to follow me at twitter.com/sgetgood. And don’t worry, I won’t be hurt if you follow me just for the weekend and then unfollow

Notes of the Urban Blues was designed by the very talented Leslie Doherty of Swank Web Style.

Tags: Sundance, urban blues, Maxwell Street, Phil Ranstrom, Electrified