A Big "Little Flower"

Last weekend I got to sing with one of my choirs in a truly special space: the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower. This architectural jewel, built during the Depression, is on the near west side of San Antonio and is the center of an active parish as well as being a tourist destination. 

It was put on the National Register of Historic Places, and was awarded the status of a Minor Catholic Basilica in, 1998. (I know the former is a big deal, and, while not being Catholic, I assume the latter is, too!) It is also the first National Shrine dedicated to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the "Little Flower." You can read more about the building's purpose and history here, and more about Saint Thérèse here.

Isn't this a beautiful space? I was particularly taken with the light fixtures along the side aisles. Here's a closeup of one:

Another gorgeous feature is the dome above the equally amazing altar...

Here's another shot, taken just under the dome (during our Saturday rehearsal the church was pretty empty, so I could go wherever I needed to get the best angles):

maybe not as spectacular as that of St. Pauls, but...

And of course there are lovely stained glass windows...

...and even floor tile art! Both of these features, as long-time readers know, are favorites of mine when visiting houses of worship.

A great place to sing the Carols of Lessons and [ ], and a wonderful place to know is right in our home town!

Wordless Wednesday: feast for monarchs

 

Wordless Wednesday: both sides now

 

Wordless Wednesday: so clever!

 

Fall in Maine

After our quick trip to New Hampshire, we were back in beautiful Portland, where the colors were spotty, but still impressive to us.

As is often the case on our visits to this great city, some of the best scenery is just a few blocks away, at Evergreen Cemetery. Here are a couple of the best leaf-peeping views from this trip:

the monuments are impressive, too

But another great scenic spot, though rather unexpected, was this nice soccer complex in Grey, Maine, where eldest granddaughter's team was in a tournament. I mean, grass-covered fields (what a concept!) and autumn woods as a surrounding backdrop—what more could you ask for?

Because of the increased level of activities which take up more and more of the family's time, we didn't have a chance for the kind of extended day hikes we made when the kids were younger. But we did take time for a short visit to Jewell Falls, a lovely little bit of woods and rocks that's part of the Fore River Sanctuary. This waterway is an important part of Portland, forming the boundary between Portland proper and South Portland, as well as hosting all kinds of sea-going traffic.

However, upstream at Jewell it's much quieter. Although there wasn't much water coming over the falls, and there was some major refurbishment work going on with part of the trail. But it was still a nice interlude and place for grandchildren who are part mountain goat to do some climbing about:

blue jacket in upper left is one of the climbers

And of course a trip to Portland wouldn't be complete without at least a short excursion to one of its wonderful beaches. 

Higgins Beach at low tide

Some boogie-boarding was attempted, but it was a little chilly (!) so the brave surfers didn't last long. I only waded up to ankle depth. 

I'll close out with a shot of a couple of trees still (and one is always) green....even without the fall colors, the flora around here is always wonderful to see:

Bonus state on a New England trip

Everyone we talked to on our recent trip to New England, across two whole states(!), lamented the fact that a dry summer had led to a sub-par leaf-peeping season. But for us folks who hardly ever get any fall color, things still looked pretty good.

Although the "Maine" reason for our trip [get it ?  ] was to visit kids and grandkids, we took advantage of being that close to Henry's sister in New Hampshire to bop over there for a couple of days, too. (I don't think I'll ever get over the odd feeling I have when you can get to a whole other state in just an hour or so...)

The photo above was taken on our first NH evening at sunset. Colors from all kinds of nature!

While in the Granite State (always reminds me of the denouement of Breaking Bad) we checked in on one of their most famous landmarks: Mt. Washington. 

You can click on this image to enlarge and see the red lines pointing to a) the summit, and b) the line of the cog railway that can take you to the top. We didn't get any closer than this, but it's still cool to get a look at such an "ultra-prominent" topographic feature. (I'm not sure I agree with this description from Wikipedia, but it is famous, as you can read there, for its ferocious winter weather.)

Our knowledgeable hosts provided related information that I had not been aware of: Washington's not the only President featured in this range of mountains. There's a whole Presidential gallery! You can always tell Washington, though, even if viewed at an angle where its superior height isn't noticeable: there must be a ton of equipment on its summit, presumably for recording all that extreme weather.

We enjoyed these views of Washington and some of his fellows from the veranda of this most impressive building: the Omni Mount Washington Hotel...

There used to be many of these fancy watering holes in the area, but this one has a special claim to fame in addition to our visiting it (follow the link for the story—and consider making a contribution to Wikipedia for providing all of these wonderful, spot-on references). We certainly enjoyed having a snack and a drink in such luxurious surroundings. 

Here's what the back of the place looks like. You can see the enormous veranda that extends almost the whole length of the structure...and almost every seat was taken. They do know what views visitors want most to take in!

It would be super-cool to actually stay at this place sometime. In addition to wonderful views, you'd have access to this fabulous pool:

Of course there's also a golf course there, but our hosts said you can also use the walking path around it for gentle hikes. And in winter it's a perfect place for cross-country skiing—especially for beginners.

We enjoyed the relatively short drive from Portland to northern NH. And on the way back the colors had deepened just a bit, so the return journey was even more scenic. Here's a shot from along the highway:

Sub-standard, but still quite nice! Next up we'll return to Maine and see how the colors were developing there.

Happy Halloween!

 

Wordless Wednesday: so many shells!

 

Wordless Wednesday: this is *real* Austin

 

Wordless Wednesday: Colorado skies

 

A Stopover Worth the Time

You've probably had this experience on your travels: you're on a road trip you've taken the same way many times, and there's this intriguing site somewhere along the way that you've always thought about stopping and checking out. Nope, not this time, you say, I'm in too much of a hurry to get where I'm going.

Well, it might just be worth your time to stop...if the site is as wonderful as the National WASP WWII Museum, just outside of Sweetwater, TX. (They were smart to add "WWII," so you wouldn't make the mistake of expecting an insectarium! WASP=Women's Airforce Service Pilots) I finally insisted that we make the time to look in here on our way home from Colorado last month, and we're very glad we did!

The museum is squeaky clean (even the restrooms!), full of fascinating and well-presented information, and loaded with really cool artifacts. The photo above shows the interior of Hangar #1 very well, where you can find most of the textual information about this amazing site. Yes, they have 2 Hangars! The second one is sort of like the Air & Space Annex, where they have a bunch of planes:

The planes aren't just impressive to look at, you can actually—sort of—test them out!

They have replicas of some of the training craft that you can climb into...which, of course, we did:

But you might have the same question I did before visiting this informative and historical site: Why here, in Sweetwater, of all places? This question gets answered almost right away when you start reading the informational panels in Hangar #1. 

cute statue outside
the hangars

Before WWII even started for us, some forward-thinking folks in the government thought it might be a good idea to expand some of the nation's airports, since if we were to get involved in the conflict, we might need to have places to train a bunch of new pilots. Sweetwater's Avenger Field was one of the small airports that was made bigger for this purpose. The facilities were actually used to train RAF pilots from Great Britain for a while, before becoming a WASP training facility.

The women who trained here were already pilots—the program was highly selective. And when they graduated, they went on to do all kinds of jobs for the Army Air Force (as it was then called) such as flying planes from factories to airfields, towing targets for anti-aircraft practice (!), and transporting personnel to different bases. They even assisted in training male pilots who would eventually fly in combat. The women didn't see combat, but 38 of them died either in training incidents or while performing their post-graduate duties: it was not a cushy job.

However, for many of the women who trained here and went on to serve their country, it was the experience of a lifetime. There are several testimonials on display at the museum, as well as some artifacts like this trainee's trunk (which had a very interesting history; click to enlarge so you can read its story):

Many former WASPs have been feted at the museum since its opening, and some have even asked that their ashes be spread on the runway. It was a life highlight for many of them.

So...if you're ever on IH 20 just outside of Sweetwater, and you can afford to stop for a couple of hours, you won't regret a visit to this museum!

New tricks under the sun...for an old dog

Here I am, at 76 (!) and experiencing stuff that I'd refused to do before! Two new things fall into this category just this year—I must not be dead yet.

The adventures I'm referring to are two which I'd previously considered 1) too expensive and 2) too cheesy. But I'm not too big to admit I was wrong!

First up, on our trip to the UK a few months ago, was the London Eye (see my blog post about that day's adventures here). When I was there in 2008, we shunned this souped-up ferris wheel, but now, with grandchildren, we thought it would be worth a go.

And was it ever fun! The great views of London—changing so slowly as you rotate—were just spectacular. Of course, we were fortunate this day as most of our days on that vacation, to have fabulous weather. So the Eye is expensive, but well worth it, I now believe.

Next up was an attraction somewhat closer to home. On a road trip to Colorado with daughter and granddaughters, we spent two nights in Santa Fe to allow a visit to the original Meow Wolf—again, a place I had just thought was not for me.

Was I ever wrong again! It was a blast! All those oddly interconnected rooms, the super-clever art embedded everywhere, the corridors leading to unexpected glorious weirdness—it was so much fun!

This was my favorite room: all the walls are covered in found objects of trash. You can't really see the best examples here (I should have taken more pictures!). But there were old toothbrushes, old cassette tapes, about a billion bottle caps, and so much more.

How long it took the incredibly creative artists to do all this, I can't even imagine! Another example of the amazing Meow Wolf art is at the top of this post.

And here is a shot of a room the kiddos particularly enjoyed...

"Under the Sea"...sort of

We didn't even get into the mystery story that's supposedly embedded in the "house" you wander through. I guess that will have to wait for my next visit. And there are Meow Wolfs in different cities...must sees for me now!

Of course there was lots of other fun to be had in Santa Fe. I particularly enjoyed these pieces of rocky public art:

And monkey grandkids couldn't resist climbing on this one:

This wasn't exactly "public" art, but I was very impressed with this carved doorway in our Airbnb. Isn't it lovely?

I guess the old saw about grandchildren keeping you young is a truism. If they can get me to spend $$ and embark on adventures I had thought were not for me—and end up thoroughly enjoying them. I am for sure one very lucky Gramma!

Wordless Wednesday: no words

 

Wordless Wednesday: is it Nessie?

Heathrow: farewell to the UK

I knew Heathrow is a ginormous airport, but I still was blown away when I looked at this Terminal 5 departure board. Yikes! Where can't you go from here?! You can get to Austin, for sure (see our flight in the red box). But apparently not Reykjavík, since the kids' Iceland Air flight left from Terminal 4. That meant we couldn't hang out with them. But since we had to check out of the hotel long before our flight, we still had plenty of time to enjoy Terminal 5's amenities. Including...

Henry was able to pound out his usual six or seven notes of Rachmaninoff; fortunately the area wasn't too crowded so only a few travelers were disturbed by this  .

All too soon we were leaving the land of bangers and mash. Hope we can come back someday!