farlands | traveling near and far

The trip was definitely winding down. Despite getting plenty of sleep in an excellent hotel bed, I woke up and was just...done. Done with walking and sightseeing. I had hit my travel wall. My feet weren't particularly sore, nor was any part of me in distress. It was more of a mental state and I was more generally overwhelmed by everything we had taken in but I had not been able to process. Although I was not surprised, the timing wasn't great, because we had to be out of the hotel by late that morning and we would then be out and about until our plane left....in the evening. As I mentioned before and what I know from experience but seem to to have still not learned the lesson, is this: if I don't schedule down time while traveling, there comes a bad day. Not only for me, but for the others with whom I am traveling. However, with such a short time in NYC and so much we definitely wanted to do, it is not clear what I would have changed. But I will firmly say this - I know...

This was the day we ate around the world!  We headed out to Queens (I believe we ended up in Jackson Heights) on the subway, and ended up finding Jeff's brother and his girlfriend on the very platform we were waiting on for a transfer. The morning started off with a light, sweet breakfast at a Colombian cafe (actually, I think I found it,  La Nueva Bakery on Yelp and the reviews reference that it is Uruguayan). I even used my very rusty Spanish (just a word here & there) to order say thank you I wish I had taken a photo of the cakes, as this place was primarily a bakery, with amazing cakes and tortes, although we did have savory empanadas and I adored them. I loved looking into the drink cooler and seeing all sorts of brands I had not seen before. A woman asked me to help her get a straw into a milk drink. It was crowded, delicious and a very fun way to start the day. Not soon after breakfast, we popped into an Indian restaurant down the road a couple of blocks, and t...

Day 2: Midtown Central Park - Our hotel was close to the park, so we walked up there. The last time we had been there as a family we didn't give ourselves nearly enough time, so this was an open-ended experience. The guys threw a frisbee around while I people-watched and admired the skyline. Soon John found some of the big rocks jutting up and we spent some time sitting and taking pictures.  Central selfie We then rented bikes and rode around a little half of the park, which was a great way to get a sense of the scale and to see numerous different parts of the park. Rest stop MoMA  - There was an exhibition that I had read about in Time  and later in this  Village Voice article  and it was definitely a delight. What wasn't a delight was the constant jackhammer going on installing a new floor in an exhibition hall - but my handy earplugs dampened it somewhat. Also, the number of people in the museum was surprisingly full to me - any other muse...

In a whirlwind 4 day, 3-night trip to New York City, Jeff, John and I saw, did and ate more than we ever expected. Here is an overview of our family vacation, bullet-point style: Day 1:  Lower East Side and Financial District Flight from MSN to LGA - this is one of the easier and direct flights out of our local airport. For this trip, we flew out early in the morning, and by 10:30 a.m., we were in Manhattan, having dropped our bags at the hotel and we were ready to go! TKTS - This discount booth for Broadway tickets has an outlet near the Staten Island Ferry that opens earlier than the Times Square location. Online reviews had indicated it could be a long wait in line, but we waited all of 5 minutes, and there were so many choices it was hard to decide (we weren't the only ones hemming and hawing). We went with Avenue Q, which I had seen before but the boys hadn't. Tenement Museum  -a real treat on the Lower East Side. Much of the building itself was still decrepit with...

Last year we took a truly wonderful cruise of the Baltic Sea. It was a work-related trip for me as I was in a hosting role, and happily, Jeff was able travel with me. I have to say Jeff and I both fell in love with Copenhagen. The slightly gritty yet architecturally interesting look of the city fit with what we enjoy, and I think the fact that we got everywhere by bike or on foot made it that much more special. My favorite spot of all was  Tivoli Gardens . Of course, I adore amusement parks so I was already primed to like the place. However, it ended up being much more of a beautiful experience than I expected. We went in the late afternoon of a warm but soon-to-be rainy day, and decided to get a few rides in while we could. At the entrance, I saw a restaurant with a variation of the word I recognized for 'cake', and made a mental note to come back. Captivating The rides ranged from older and quaint to quite modern, and getting a glimpse of Copenhagen from the ta...

Over the past two weeks, I have spent more time in the Chicago suburbs than in any time of my life. As such, I found some of the preconceived notions to be true (never ending, cookie-cutter, etc.). On the other hand, there were pockets of beauty, bounty and unusual artificiality so I felt compelled to write about it. To begin, I looked into where and what a suburb is, relative to Chicago. Here is one take on it, from station WGN in Chicago in a July 18, 2018 article on the station's website: We asked Josh Ellis at the Metropolitan Planning Council to help us figure this out. His answer: it's complicated... "I think of a suburb primarily as a residential community where during the day the majority of that working population leaves the community to go somewhere else to work," Ellis said. "Historically that somewhere else would have been the heart of the downtown of some city... but these days you can work in so many places in our region." So a s...

Now that it is the middle of July, I am tending to my 'year end'  post tradition  that I started at the end of 2016. I don't know why I didn't do a year end recap this time around, although my sense is that it was a busy fall and winter and it took a while to adjust. 2017 was very full on the community theater front. There was the summer musical of  The Little Mermaid,  a fall musical with  Sister Act,  and then I rolled out for an unexpected delight late in the year and early into 2018 with  The Hunchback of Notre Dame . Ah, now as I write that I am clearer as to why 2017 was a blur. Me, Gail and Jen backstage for 'Sister Act' And, because Jeff and I had the wonderful opportunity to host an alumni trip to the Baltic Sea in August of 2017 (many blog posts forthcoming), that was two weeks overseas as well. Say 'Aaahhhh' in Lithuania 2017 felt full and abundant, and frankly a bit overwhelming. I find I tend to get a good set of activit...

As you probably know by now, one of my favorite things to do when traveling is to visit art museums. Although I have a low tolerance for the amount of time I spend in a museum, I usually go for about two hours and let my feet be my guide, leaving the museum map behind after getting a cursory sense of the layout. I mentioned in an earlier post how the hostel I was staying in was close to absolutely everything.That was also true for my museum fix, as the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) was only a five-minute walk away. This was my second museum in a row that featured giant animals that typically inspire fear in humans even at a small size. In this case, the artist was working in the context of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. On the other hand, I love (pet) rats, so I had a more positive reaction to this sculpture than most, probably. Mann und Mouse , Katarina Fritsch During my visit, there was also a tour group of teenagers in the museum, which made the experience a bit louder an...

As a first-timer staying in a hostel, I wondered who I would meet and talk to. There was one woman from Southeast Asia who checked in about the same time and was in and out the door right away.  I too wasn't long for hanging out in the room because the  Seattle Art Museum was just a few blocks away and there were only a few hours left when it was open. Room with a view After visiting the museum , I came back quite worn out, which museums always do to me.  Upon entering the room, there was a woman sitting on her bed, who greeted me with an extremely cheery "Hello!" when I stepped inside.  I made polite conversation and indicated that I needed to take a nap before going out to dinner with friends.  I felt a little bad, but I was tired and grumpy. I wasn't sure how this was going to work out. Common area I got back from dinner and found that the common area was full of people and there was a keg that had been depleted.  It started to feel t...

Two weeks prior to my trip to Seattle, I was in New Orleans and stayed over for the weekend. As I'll mention in an upcoming blog post, that hotel room was particularly nice, and I kept the room over my weekend personal trip. In Seattle, I stayed in another lovely hotel during the time of a conference. I decided I would like to stay over that weekend too, but after finding that all the hotels were very expensive, as were the Air B&B's, I decided to do something that I had only read about on all the travel blogs: stay in a hostel. The  Green Tortise popped immediately with good online reviews, and the location couldn't be beat: kitty-corner to the Pike Place Market ! The only other component that was better was the price. For two nights, I spent exactly $83.00 USD. For two nights, plus a locker rental. Compared to the $285.00 a night I was finding in the city center, I think that was a screamin' deal. I left the fancy Sheraton and walked with my roller ...

This is my first post tackling something not rosy about travel.  Many places I go, including my home city, have people who are who are homeless.  Sometimes it's subtle, other times, you can't miss it. Shortly after I arrived in Seattle, I saw the tents. I was in the cab heading into town from their airport, and my first thought was "that's kind of a strange place to go camping."  However, it quickly became apparent that what I was seeing was row after row of a tent city. While I was glad people had decent tents for shelter, I was also surprised and depressed.  There were just .... so many.....!  Or perhaps in this case it was more in the open and easier to see. Downtown that weekend, I saw a panhandler get treated rudely by a more affluent resident, and I felt bad for the panhandler.  By the end of the weekend, I must admit I felt some of that rudeness toward panhandlers on every corner myself.  I felt like I couldn't walk one block without being a...

It started off as a conversation last Thanksgiving.  My cousin Beth (actually, my husband's cousin) mentioned she was going to be in New Orleans for a conference.  It had been a while since I myself had been to the area, for either work or travel. Even though the schedule was getting pretty full for that month already, I decided to take the plunge and go on a short work trip, and stay over the weekend. My traveling companion Beth in front of Jackson Square Even though the work results were less than stellar, the weekend vacation was wonderful.  Beth booked a bike tour though buzz nola , and the resulting 3-hour bike tour was informative, and to my surprise, relaxing. The weather cooperated and as the tour group wove our way in and out of neighborhoods I would have never gone to on my own around the city, I was in a stage of happy delight.  Late into the tour we stopped at City Park and shared mini muffuletta sandwiches and a mango freeze near some gorgeous old o...

Food in New Orleans is consistently some of the best I've enjoyed anywhere. The mission for this visit was for oysters, and all four evenings hit the mark. We started with charbroiled oysters in a fair amount of (yay!) butter and Parmesan at  Drago's with Jeff's cousin Beth and Aunt Peggy Ann. It was the first night in town and everybody was hungry and happy to dive in. Round 1: charbroiled.  Photo credit to Passionate Eater The next night was the fried oyster appetizer at  Mr. B's Bistro  in the French Quarter, shared with my work-related dining companions who made the recommendation. There was a light lemony sauce, which we scooped up with pieces of pillowy French bread housed in white paper sleeves. Tender with a bit of crunch.  Photo credit to Mr. B's The following night I introduced Beth to  Cochon's oysters in chili butter. Strangely, these were not quite to the level that I have enjoyed them in the past - I think the oysters ...