Category Archives: Museums

Art Bus

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I’ve been wanting to try the Art Bus for ages and Thursday was the day. Dear daughter and I were delighted to be able to hop on the sold out bus. The Art Bus runs every third Thursday and each time there are different venues.The website to get in on this exciting opportunity is http://www.theangelajossy.com/artbus.htm or here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tacoma-ART-BUS/151270941559625

For our September Art Bus we went to Job Carr Cabin Museum (the log cabin), 253 Collective (birds and turds),Tacoma Glass Blowing Studio (the glass pumpkin), Hotel Murano’s new gift shop (the glowing canoe), Brick House Gallery (the neon sign) , Rampart / Brownie Morrison (the manikin) and Catwalk (the showroom). At Catwalk dear daughter purchase a groovy retro tie that she was enthused about. And we were treated to pizza from Puget Sound Pizza (yum!).

Granbury Train Depot

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Tacoma Nature Center

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The Tacoma Nature Center at 1919 South Tyler was a hopping place this lovely summer day. There was a guy taking photos, a jogger, a couple taking a stroll, an entire group at summer camp and me. The weather was perfect as I walked the mile loop around the 17 mile Snake Lake and its associated wetland. It’s been a while since my last visit and I noticed some updates to the 71 acre nature preserve. The bridges looked better then I remembered and there is now a Discovery Pond play area for the kids (oh, and there were some moms with kids there, almost forgot them!)

http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/tacomanaturecenter/

Croke Stadium

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I wasn’t excited about going to a sports stadium, but it turns out that Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland was one of my favorite things to do! We had time to do interactive sports and then a wonderful tour guide showed us around. We went way up in the bleachers to take this picture.

This park is the site of the 1920 Bloody Sunday in which 14 civilians (fans and players) were killed when authorities stormed a Gaelic football match. This was done in retaliation against 14 assassinations early in the day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281920%29

http://www.crokepark.ie/

Warwick Castle

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We had a great time at Warwick Castle in Warwickshire.

http://www.warwick-castle.com/

Roman Baths

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We I learned that we were visiting the Roman Baths, I initially pictured ruins in the countryside. But the opposite is true. The Baths are restored for the most part and situated in the middle of a vibrant city, Bath.

For more information, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Baths_%28Bath%29

and http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/

Tower of London

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The Tower of London, more formally known as Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress, is a World Heritage Site. I loved walking the hallways, climbing the circular stairs and seeing the crown jewels! The website is here http://www.hrp.org.uk/toweroflondon/

It’s a Car, It’s a Plane

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Everybody in my family except me had been to the Museum of Flight at 9404 East Marginal Way S. Seattle, WA 98108-4097. My dear daughter thought it was a good idea to take me here for mother’s day and a couple of weeks later here we are. The picture about shows a car that turns into a plane (or a plane that turns into a car).

The museum’s website states “The Museum of Flight’s fundamental goals are: to acquire and preserve a wide array of materials and artifacts relating to aviation and space history and to provide a center for the scholarly research of these materials and artifacts. The Museum holds one of the largest and most comprehensive air and space collections in the United States, containing millions of rare photographs and negatives, a world-class library, tens of thousands of artifacts, and over 150 rare aircraft and space vehicles.”

http://www.museumofflight.org/

USS PAMPANITO

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We were visiting San Francisco with my dad to attend a reunion of the submariners that served on the Triton Submarine. My dad was on the first submarine to circumnavigate the world submerged, the USS Triton SSRN/SSN-586. This submarine is not his. The keynote speakers of the reunion have worked tremendously hard to restore this sub, the WWII USS Pampanito on Fisherman’s Wharf. It was kind of cool that because we had our reunion badges on, we were allowed to tour for free! And to make it even better, the Bless of the Ships was happening in the harbor, so there were all kinds of water craft circling around. And it was 70 degrees and sunny! Really, I had a moment 🙂

While touring the USS Pampanito, I couldn’t help but to wonder what life must have been like for the men out at sea. There is practically no private area except the head! One of the keynote speaker told the tale of rescuing 73 mostly Australian sailors that were lost at sea. Really, I can’t get my mind around where they put an extra 73 men!

http://www.maritime.org/pamphome.htm

 

 

Musee Mecanique

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San Francisco’s Musee Mecanique at Pier 45 at Fisherman’s Wharf is “one of the world’s largest privately owned collections of mechanically operated musical instruments and antique arcade machines.” It is fascinating and free. We happily whiled away the better part of an hour playing games and watching amusements from our youth and earlier.

http://www.museemechanique.org/