January 2021

Happy 2021!

Since I lead the Pandemic team at work, I was eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine and I was thrilled to sign up!  I got my first round, and will get my second next week.

2021 started out on a negative note because I tripped over the wooden threshold going out to our garage and landed on concrete, breaking 3 teeth, fracturing a small bone in my hand, and causes a bunch of bruises that still aren't healed.  An awesome dentist got me fixed up right away and my hand is now healed.  What a way to start a promising new year!

Brennan moved back to his dorm on his 19th birthday, but Thomas came home the night before so we could have a proper celebration!  We went out to dinner and had a fun night celebrating Brennan.

Our podcast, RomCom Love, had a live taping!  We watched "Bridesmaids" and then recorded our latest episode.  Brittany and I had a ball and we appreciated 20+ friends for making it out to our local independent theater for a fun night!

4 of my super fun friends came dressed in Bridesmaids dresses.  It was such a great night!

Bailey turned 7!  Bailey and I are the same age for a couple of weeks (49 in people years).  We had a little photo shoot to commemorate the big day.

Too sleepy to pose any more

Remy was game

Bailey finally woke up between my meetings

I completed a virtual challenge, walking and exercising my way around the Ring of Kerry in Ireland.  Maybe I'll get to drive it in person one day soon!  

And two more photos of sweet puppies.  We don't get out much and work most of the time :)

Ending Our "101 Places to See"

Well, now that we've all reached 12 in this family, I think it's a fitting time to put the well-worn "101 Places" book away and call it a triumph.

We have visited 85 places since we found this book in February 2010.  It's informed the majority of our vacations and weekend excursions over the last 4 years.  Here is a link to the first blog post where I wrote about this book. 

You can see all 85 of our adventures here.

As the boys and I talked about wrapping up this adventure, I asked them if they had a favorite 101 thing.  They both took the book and flipped through it where we had written the location we visited on each page.

I'm imaging #10 - A Faraway Island when we went to Hawaii.

Or maybe #19 - A Rock Art Site in Moab, Utah.

Or #12 - An Old Growth Forest when we visited Yosemite and Muir Woods in California.

Or #30 - A Marvel of Engineering - the Empire State Building in NYC.

Surprisingly, the boys said:

Thomas - Our Local Courthouse or A Farmer's Market

Brennan - Your Parents' Workplaces

Who knew?

This little book has traveled with us all over the US - Hawaii, California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, DC, Virginia, Missouri, Illinois, Texas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Louisiana, and Ohio.

I learned about places that I probably would not have thought to visit when we were traveling, like

A Peace Garden

(The Korean Bell of Friendship in San Pedro, CA)

Or, a U.S. Mint when we traveled to New Orleans

Or to trace our steps on Route 66 as we traveled through CA and AZ as part of "An Endangered Place".

The book has given us a lot of great memories!

Here are the places that we haven't made time to visit.  

Maybe we'll get to some one of these days, who knows?

A Working Farm (we have several right down the road)

A Swimming Hole (does a lake count?)

A Kooky Capital

A Crazy Dream House

A Geyser or Natural Hot Springs

A Wetlands (I hear there's one nearby)

A Pigpen (Brennan says no thanks)

A Sensory Garden

A Living History Museum (Thomas has been, Brennan hasn't)

A First-Rate Secondhand Store  (We have Second-Rate ones)

A Hall of Fame

An Artist's Inspiration

A School That's Different From Your Own

A Weather Spot

A Recording Studio

It's been an awesome ride, thank you!

101 Places to See Before You're 12 - A Landfill

 

A Landfill

 

Brennan and I spent part of our first weekday of summer break running errands.  We had a bunch of stuff to go to the "dump" - including some stray pieces of gutter cover the gutter guys left, the keyboard drawers for the boys' desks (I think in the future desks won't be made with keyboard drawers!), and other odds and ends that we wanted to get rid of, but not in our regular garbage.

 

So, off to the dump.  Both boys have already had a FULL tour of the Landfill through field trips at school.  Our Recycling Center also does a great tour, including a nature path on their site with really cool sculptures.  Here's my favorite.

 

 

 

But, on to the Landfill.

There are several areas so we had to know what we had.

We decided to leave our old mailbox at the Freecycle area.  I had to pull Brennan away because there was some furniture and toys that he wanted to peruse - but we weren't shopping.

 

In the other parts of the landfill area, kids under 16 aren't supposed to be out of the vehicle the signs told us, but Brennan helped me put everything in the right places quickly.

 

From the Book:

#2 - A Landfill

What weighs as much as a rhinoceros and never disappears?  Give up?  It's the amount of garbage you personally generate every year:  4 pounds every day.  Combine that with garbage created by everyone else in the country, and you've got 210 million tons of trash - enough to cover the entire state of Rhode Island, 6 feet deep.  So where does it all go?  Most of it ends up in a landfill, and you should make a point to visit it.  It may not be the prettiest (or most fragrant place) you'll see in your travels, but when you see it, it will really hit you:  Hey!  I need to recycle!



101 Places to See Before You're 12 - A Greenhouse

A Greenhouse

 

Truth be told, the boys have been to plenty of greenhouses over the years - but apparently never when I've had a camera with me, or thought to snap a photo.  I remember the impressive one at Epcot that we rode through. 

 

I wanted to get some flowers for a pot on the front porch so we stopped by one of our local nurseries & greenhouses yesterday after school/running at the gym/errands.

 

This is not one of the largest greenhouses in our area, but they have great plants and produce, and they use it all year long, growing plants from seed.

 

My sweet helpers

I got a bunch of different blues and greens for my front porch.

Brennan chose peaches and a grapefruit to make a fruit salad tonight.

 

Yes, they have other shirts, they just wear these two all.the.time.

From the Book:

#99 - A Greenhouse

Outside the weather is cloudy and cold, the trees are bare, and there's not a speck of green to be seen.  But step inside the doors of a greenhouse, and a rush of warm tropical air and a riot of colors greet you.  You've been transported, not just through space, but also through time; it's another season in here.  Greenhouses can expertly re-create the climate of a place that may be very far away, indeed: the Amazonian rain forest, an arid desert, or a plant bog.  You can see rare orchids, spiny cacti, and even carnivorous plants as bright topical frogs leap over your path and macaws squawk in the trees above you.  When your visit is over, you probably won't want to go back outside into your own environment.  But you can always return for a little blast of summer when you've got the winter blues.



101 Places to See Before You're 12 - A Migration Path

A Migration Path

 

As we get closer to the end of our 101 Places adventures, I shared with the boys and David that there are some we just probably won't see - like A Migration Path.

 

The book shares lots of examples like Stinkpot Turtles migrating at the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois in the fall, Mexican Free-Tailed Bats migrating in Texas in the spring, Manatees in Florida for several months in the winter, and Garter Snacks in Manitoba in the fall and spring. 

 

Then David reminded me that we were right in the middle of a migration here in Indiana - Canadian Geese.  Oh, right.  How could I not have put two and two together.  The Canadian Geese are everywhere!

 

The boys and I were talking about this in the car one day as two geese slowly made their way across a main thoroughfare in our city.  Headed to a little pond behind a bank.

 

And they had their babies with them!

 

The geese are sort of a joke in our area because they don't appear to be the brightest of animals, and have no fear of humans whatsoever.

 

Our friends that live on lakes in town remark that they used to make a pit stop in our community on their way to more northern points this time of year, but there's something about all the lakes and rivers in our area.  They now nest here, and apparently make big messes out at the lakes.

 

 

All I know is that this time of year, they are serious driving hazards, but it's really fun when we can get up close and see them.

 

 

A few years ago I thought it would be fun to take old bread to the geese and have the boys feed them.  David just shook his head since these are not domesticated animals in any way.  They looked at me like I was crazy and completely ignored the bread we threw to them.

 

Here is a map that one of the science teachers at Brennan's school sent me. 

Apparently much of  the U.S. is on a Canadian Geese migration path!

 

 

From the Book:

#4 - A Migration Path

It's kind of like an invisible superhighway for animals.  No one knows how they know when to start and where to go, but millions of animals return all together to these paths at the same time every year as they journey from their winter to summer homes and back again.  If you're in the right place at the right time, in one day you can see more birds, butterflies, bats, frogs, and even snakes than you've ever seen in your whole life!  The animals load up on food, conduct elaborate mating rituals, make big piles of guano, then go on their way.  Being outnumbered by animals 10,000 to one is an awesome experience!

 

101 Places to See Before You're 12 - An Amazing Science Site

An Amazing Science Site

 

This is one of those examples of a place that didn't quite work out the way I had planned, but my 3 men insist we count it anyway.

In DC I really wanted to take the boys to the National Academy of Sciences which apparently has a little museum inside and you can see scientists at work (one description made it sound like a zoo - "scientists in their native habitat".)  And, the Einstein monument was listed as a "hidden gem" not to be missed.

We decided to walk to it from the Smithsonian buildings, not looking that far on the GPS on my phone.  David rather politely questioned by sanity because it was drizzling raining and he was cold.

Seriously, I really did feel like it was more of a fine mist when we set out.

Good sport

While wet, the walk was beautiful!

 

 We're still across the street but the sign lets us know we've finally made it to the National Academy of Sciences.

 

It's a beautiful stone building.  See the man at the front door?  He's LOCKING up!  We just missed being able to step inside.

We tried to decipher some of the Greek right at the top of the beautiful building.

 

Thomas flipped for this door.

 

And while we didn't get to step inside, I'm so glad we hiked in the pouring rain fine mist, because I love this photo of 4 geniuses!

While we didn't get to tour THIS Amazing Science Site, the boys pointed out these other locations that we have visited and felt they more than counted - Science and Technology Museum in Chicago, the Air & Space Museum in DC, countless Wind Farms in Indiana, Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah, the Insectarium in New Orleans, the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin, the Rocket Center in Huntsville, and the Medical Museum in Indy.  OK, fine.  Let's put a sticker on this page and call it done.

 

From the Book:

#94 - An Amazing Science Site
If science were sports, the scientists who work in these labs would be the major league players.  We would follow their every move as they researched subatomic particles, and go nuts when they knocked one out of the park with a really great advancement in physics.  In reality, these science superstars achieve great feats without much cheering and not a single endorsement from an athletic shoe company.  But that doesn't make what they do, such as develop new sources of energy, map the human genome, and basically unlock the secrets of the universe, any less amazing.  Because what scientists do is so sensitive (and in some cases top secret), you can't just walk in and ask to look around.  But you can prearrange a tour (often with a school group) or attend an open house - it's like getting a ticket to the world series of science.

101 Places to See Before You're 12 - A Stargazing Spot

A Stargazing Spot

One of the things that we really wanted to do in DC was return to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.  This was Brennan's favorite museum last time, and one of David's all time favorite museums.  We took time to go to the Planetarium while we were there, and saw observatory equipment.
 

 

 

We have visited Planetariums and Observatories before - Salt Lake City and the one in Indianapolis come to mind. There is even a small one at one of our local high schools that the boys and I went to a laser light show at a few years ago! But this one was pretty impressive (and we have some photos).



 

Here we are, ready for the show on Solar Systems and Undiscovered Worlds to start in the Planetarium.

From the Book:
#64 - A Stargazing Spot
Through all of human history, they've always been there, twinkling in the sky, constant and unwavering, no matter what happens down here on Earth.  They're beautiful and mysterious, challenging us to try to reach them. always beyond our grasp.  Stars inspire us, give us hope somehow, and make us feel like we're not alone in the vast universe.  See these captivating sky-dwellers up close (well, as close as you can, really) through a high-power telescope at a planetarium or an observatory.  Check out the giant telescopes that can see light years away and dishes that can hear into deep space.  No matter how much you find out about stars, there will always be more to learn, and there will always be new mysteries to discover.