Diane's Travels: August 2021

This entry is about touring with Scott King from August 16, 2021 to August 30, 2021. We first went to Virginia (Williamsburg & Norfolk), then to Washington DC, and later to Massachusetts (Cape Cod (Falmouth), Martha's Vineyard & Chebacco Lake)).

Williamsburg and Norfolk, Virginia

Monday (16th), we took an Amtrak train ride from New York City (Moynihan Train Hall, see photo below) to Washington DC on Acela (Amtrak's flagship high speed service) which was very nice.

Above: Diane (with mask) at Moynihan Train Hall in New York City

We had a 1.5 hour wait at Washington Union Station which was long but cool. The train ride to Williamsburg was awful as it was stop-and-go in a regular seat with not-so-great air conditioning, we arrived late so most of the restaurants were closed. But we found a student pub, called Brickhouse Tavern, which serves a Lulu Burger that was distinguished by how many slices of jalapeno peppers they could put on. Too many for me, but it was still tasty when I took a bunch off. There were no Ubers available so we had to walk back in the dark to the place we were staying, about one mile, but we made it.

On Tuesday (17th) we toured historic Williamsburg, VA. It really is pretty amazing, the building structures are very well kept or rebuilt. We had official tours of the Capitol Building and the Governor’s Palace and saw a performance by an amazing actor who played the Marquis de Lafayette, who helped George Washington win the American Revolutionary War. We learned a lot about freeholders and slavery. See below for photos from this tour.

Above: Diane at the Capitol Building in Williamsburg, VA on Tuesday.

Above: Diane and the actor that played General Lafayette on Tuesday.

Above: Governor's Palace in Williamsburg, VA on Tuesday.

There was a road by the Capitol that was called Waller Street. I asked about it and was told it was named after Benjamin Waller (1716-1786), a powerful guy in the church and politics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Waller).

We walked down the street with the various (shops) craft houses, some of which were open and staffed. Each was different and the staff in each were so knowledgeable it blew my mind. I loved the millinery shop, the shoemaker and the cooper the most. Being the shy retired person that I am, the question box in me made our visits to several shops longer than the allotted time as the attendance was limited to 7 to 10 people in most of them. It seemed like the shopkeepers liked being asked less obvious questions so I learned a lot of stuff. The main one being how much was imported from England. And how raw materials were sent to England to be made into whatever and shipped back, tobacco being a major one.

After the shops and the performance we went to the courthouse to learn about trial by jury and then to the Governor's Palace which reminded me of a mini Palace of Versailles.

On the way back to the Williamsburg Lodge to be picked up by our friends Janie and Ed, we stopped at the art museum. WOW!!! I asked to see the folk art exhibits. It was truly amazing. The quilts which I knew something about were so beautiful they took my breath away, the pottery was of course interesting and the paintings were good, but predictable. At La Mano Pottery in New York City, paintings of Dave the Slave are exhibited. The story about him is very moving. He had one of his legs amputated and still made over 40,000 pots. Many of them are inscribed with couplets and Bible phrases. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Drake_(potter)) I got to see one of his pots at the museum, that was very neat.

We had to leave quickly because our ride arrived at our hotel. We discovered it was raining so we ran to the hotel in the rain and headed toward Newport News, VA. We had She-crab Soup. Not the red or white kind, but pink. Tasty.

Wednesday, our friends that we are visiting in Norfolk, Va live in the Ghent area of the Hague area of Norfolk. We are going exploring today, so I'll send photos and maybe more info later.

Wednesday (18th) and Thursday (19th) we were in Norfolk, Va visiting friends Jane and Ed Stein, and I have a few photos to share from those days.

The following two photos are from Wednesday in downtown Norfolk at the Saint Paul's Episcopal Church. The first photo is a view of 2 the church. The second photo shows a cannonball in the church wall, the plaque reads “Fired by Lord Dunmore, Jan 1 1776.” You will need to zoom in to read it. This refers to the last royal governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, who in an act of desperation and anger, during the Revolutionary War, attacked Norfolk as he fled Virginia. Much of the city was destroyed in the carnage except for Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church.

Above: St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

Above: Cannonball in wall of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

The following photo was Thursday at Jane and Ed’s home in Norfolk, in the photo are Jane and Ed Stein, Scott King and yours truly.

Above: Jane, Ed, Scott and Diane.

The following photo shows the entryway to the historic Ghent neighborhood in Norfolk, VA.

Above: Entryway to the historic Ghent neighborhood in Norfolk, VA.

Photo 5 shows The Hague, the body of water that sort of defines Ghent and ultimately feeds into the Elizabeth River and I think the Chesapeake Bay. This photo was taken from the Hague Walking Bridge (formerly called the Botetourt Foot Bridge).

Above: The Hague.

The following three photo show several houses in Ghent overlooking The Hague.

Above: House in Ghent.

The next photo shows a Sycamore tree that got so hot it sweated off its bark. A phenomenon I just heard about. Happens in New York City also.

Above: Sycamore tree.

The following photo shows a vast expanse of sand at North End Beaches, Virginia Beach, VA. Pretty, but not as pretty as my hometown beach in Dunedin Florida with its sugar white sand.

Above: North End Beaches, Virginia Beach, VA.

Washington DC

Friday (August 20th)The genesis of our trip to Washington DC was vanity. I had been asked to do a video recording of 4 speeches for Planet Word Museum, a new museum that opened in October of 2020. A friend is a project manager for a company that does video installations for museums. I did this project a few months before this trip.

The 2 photos below are from outside Planet Word. The “tree” outside is a metal sculpture titled “Speaking Willow,” It has speakers hanging from the branches and as people approach the tree, the speakers are activated to murmur various languages from around the world.

Above: Diane outside Planet Word in Washington, DC

Above: Diane outside Planet Word with the Speaking Willow tree.

The video recording was quite a production. They did hair and make-up and a teleprompter. I had to say the speeches exactly the way they were delivered. It isn't easy speaking in someone else’s cadence. I did 4 speeches. Denzel Washington from "Remember the Titans" sports film, an Oprah graduation speech, Mufasa talking to Simba in the “The Lion King" and the Queen Elizabeth I Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, 1588 . I like the Denzel Washington one the most, but the two they chose were the Mufasa and the Queen Elizabeth I speeches.

You can see the screen of the famous person and me in a smaller screen in the two photos below. That museum is wonderful. They said to plan on 90 minutes and it is especially designed to teach kids about language. Scott and I stayed 2 hours. Great time, learned stuff too.

Above: Diane speaking as Mufasa.

Above: Diane speaking as Queen Elizabeth I.

Then we headed out to the National Gallery of Art with a stop at the United States Navy Memorial. The National Gallery did not disappoint. Saw many of my old friends. (now dead of course); Rembrandt, Titian, etc. The highlights were: a Leonardo da Vinci and three Vermeers paintings. Really exceptional. The Navy Memorial was quite moving with Bas Relief images of the various functions of the Navy and a giant map of the world on the ground. I liked the Navy Memorial statue of The Lone Sailor shown in the photo below.

Above: Diane and the Lone Sailor statue.

Walking along the National Mall was lovely, hot but nice and it felt so nice to see the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Vietnam Memorial and the WWII Memorial. Scott remembered there was a statue of an Albert Einstein statue nearby, so we Google Mapped it. The statue is so neat. The three photos below show the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the statue of Einstein. In the photo of Einstein I'm trying to sit the way he is.

Above: Lincoln Memorial.

Above: Washington Monument.

Above: Diane and the Einstein Statue.

Then to the hotel to watch the sunset from the roof and a burger at none other than P.J. Clarke’s. How ironic.

Saturday (21st) was a travel day after our Friday tour in Washington, DC, we packed up, did our COVID-19 pre check for the train and headed out for Lafayette Square, to the St. John's Episcopal Church. We walked around the park and took a picture of my new favorite guy, the Marquis de Lafayette (See photo below). I tried to pose like the semi naked lady at the base of his statue. Scott said, I'd have to take my top off to do it right. I decided to spare the other tourists from that display of pulchritude (NOT!).

Above: Diane and the statue of the Marquis de Lafayette.

On the way back, we noticed that the Black Lives Matter Plaza was all torn up. As we approached "I” Street we noticed workmen were smoothing concrete in the letter "A" and began a conversation with a woman taking photos, Antionette. 16th Street from "K" Street to Lafayette Park is being redone with letters that go all the way across the street that say “BLACK LIVES MATTER”. The photo below is a picture of the letter "A” in the word “MATTER." All the 50-foot-tall letters will be treated with a yellow substance to stand out and the in-between will be white pavers. A 2-block section of 16th Street between H and K Streets is closed to vehicle traffic, the sidewalks will remain open to pedestrians So the plaza is a new monument. Cool, eh?

Above: The letter "A" in the word "MATTER."

The next photo is just a street sign showing “Black Lives Matter Plaza."

Above: Street sign showing Black Lives Matter Plaza.

Then to the train and the onslaught of Hurricane Henri, not much going on when we got back to New York and we slept through the rain. Monday we leave for the Cape. Lots of unpacking and repacking.

Massachusetts-Cape Cod/Martha's Vineyard

After we left New York City Monday (23rd) we went to visit friends in Falmouth, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. Since arriving we have mostly been talking, eating and sleeping.

Tuesday (24th) we drove across the island to Sandwich, MA, the oldest town on Cape Cod. We went to the Sandwich Glass Museum for a special exhibit of contemporary women working in glass titled In Her Voice: Influential Women in Glass, and it was sensational! The three photos below are a few examples of their work.

Above: By Elizabeth Crawford.

Above: By Randi Solin

Above: By Toots Zynsky.

On a side note, for a follow-up project after I return to New York, I have a few ideas to try in clay with underglaze which will not have the same translucency as the above glass examples, and may not even be possible. The green one all folded on itself will be curious as it has to be pretty wet to fold and then dry to stay where you want it. The splashes of red one will no doubt lose something in translation, but we'll see. And the earthy irregular bowl shouldn't be hard to shape for me since most of my stuff is irregular from the get go.

After the glass exhibit and having the best pizza for lunch I've ever eaten we went to the boardwalk to the beach. In the two photos below I've included a shot of the Sandwich Boardwalk that goes to the beach and a closer view of marshes that the Sandwich Boardwalk goes over. Funny, I grew up almost on the beach in Dunedin, Florida and didn't go much because I sunburned easily. And for you kayakers out there reading this, if you zoom in on the marsh photo (second photo below) you’ll see what appears to be two kayakers.

Above: Sandwich, MA Boardwalk.

Above: Sandwich, MA marshes.

Wednesday (25th) we went to the island of Martha's Vineyard by ferry, the Falmouth-to-Oaks Bluff-Ferry The first photo below is a scene taken from the ferry as we left Falmouth. The second photo below is of the East Chop Lighthouse as we came into Oaks Bluff on Martha’s Vineyard, one of 4 lighthouses on Martha’s Vineyard.

Above: View leaving Falmouth, MA

Above: East Chop Lighthouse.

While there we had an errand to go to a gallery, I loved that and of course we had to go to the surrounding galleries as well.

After the galleries we went to Edgartown (about 6 miles south of Oaks Bluff) on Martha’s Vineyard. It’s a lovely town with lots of well preserved, restored and presented 18th & 19th century homes with picket fences and beautiful hydrangea flowers. We had lunch overlooking the very active harbor with all kinds of boats, both luxury and working. The following four photos were all taken at the harbor in Edgartown.

Above: Photo from Edgartown harbor.

It was super hot, so we took the ferry back to Falmouth and had a walk on yet another beach that was a short hike from where we were staying with friends. The photo below is from that walk on the beach, a very nice walk and a very nice beach.

Above: From our walk on the beach in Falmouth.

Last days at Cape Cod: Thursday and Friday were pretty much just hanging with our friends, but I have attached a few photos from those days.

Thursday (26th): The photo below is of yours truly in the backyard, working on my computer on my never ending story that now has 110 episodes about an artist in New York City finding herself and her voice in her art, with a few side adventures of crime and love. I had an inspiration and started writing and couldn't stop until I had a headache and a whole new chapter.

Above: Diane working on her story in Famouth.

The next photo is of the St. Barnabas Memorial Church. This English village-style church was built in 1890, and is about one mile from our friend’s house.

Above: St. Barnabas Memorial Church in Falmouth, MA.

The following photo is of yours truly looking at some books at a sidewalk sale at the Falmouth Public Library. The book I’m holding in this photo is Murder in the Napa Valley by David Osborn. Osborn has written two other fiction books in this series, Murder on Martha's Vineyard and Murder on the Chesapeake. The main character is a freelance photo-journalist by the name of Margaret Barlow from New York City, a widow in her late 50s, an amateur sleuth, whose hobby is hang-gliding. She’s in California for a hot-air ballooning vacation, she agrees to write a magazine piece on a Napa Valley winery—and is soon involved in another murder.

Above: Diane at Falmouth Public Library.

The next photo is again of yours truly, we had stopped at a roadside fruit and vegetable stand.

Above: Diane at fruit/vegetable stand in Falmouth, MA.

The following photo is once again of yours truly, throwing down a cold beer at the Quohog Republic Dive Bar. My friend Anne and I made a quick run to CVS Pharmacy and as we drove by the Quohog Republic Dive Bar, Anne commented that she had never been in. I sort of challenged her so we went in. It was a dive bar with many TV's, gambling games online, etc. She commented she could probably come there to find all the different kinds of workmen she needed to work on her house.

Above: Diane at Quobog Republi Dive Bar in Falmouth.

Friday: The next photo was taken at the Woods Hole Marine at Eel Pond. Woods Hole is a small village in the town of Falmouth on the very southwest tip of Cape Cod. We stopped there for breakfast before our arduous journey to the Knob, a nature area on a rocky hill overlooking Buzzards Bay.

Above: Woods Hole Marine

The photo below is of a few boats in Quissett Harbor which we passed on our way to the Knob.

Above: A few boats in Quissett Harbor.

Below is a photo of yours truly hiking on the Path to the Knob.

Above: Diane hiking the Knob.

The photo below was taken at another stop we made, Spohr Gardens, This is a photo of one of the anchors ostensibly from the HMS Bounty.

Above: Anchor at Spohr Gardens.

The next photo was also taken at Spohr Gardens, a 6-acre woodland garden with springtime flowers (tulips, azaleas, magnolias, flowering crab apples, rhododendrons, lilies, hydrangeas, and others), next to Cape Cod's Oyster Pond, and has winding paths & nautical artifacts. That’s me of course by the mill stone. Supposedly Spohr Gardens has a collection of 70+ mill stones and anchors.

Above: Diane and mill stone in Spohr Gardens.

And after Cape Cod/Martha's Vineyard, we go to Chebacco Lake, north of Boston. We will be visiting Scott's "sort of nephew."

Massachusetts-Chebacco Lake

We are currently in Essex, MA, visiting Scott's "sort of nephew,” on Chebacco Lake, which is about 30 miles north-east of Boston, MA. They have a lovely 3-bedroom house right on the lake with their own boat dock. Chebacco Lake is a 209-acre body of water and is a great spot for all water sports. The following photo is not one of mine but an Internet photo showing the lakeside view of where we are staying.

Above: Lake side of house where we stayed on Lake Chebacco (photo from the Internet).

We spent most of Sunday touring Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich, Massachusetts, which is about 7+ miles from where we are staying in Essex. Castle Hill on the Crane Estate is a National Historic Landmark, and the former summer estate of Chicago industrialist Richard T. Crane, Jr. and his family. The estate is located on a beautiful spot overlooking the Atlantic ocean, and has beautiful landscaped grounds with a rolling lawn that runs down to the shore. Below are a few photos.

Above: Castle Hill on the Crane Estate.

Above: View from Castle Hill looking toward the seashore, note the rolling hills.

Above: Diane and Castle Hill.

Above: Diane on the Crane Estate grounds.

Above: View of the seashore, taken from the rolling hills.

Back at Chebacco Lake where we are staying, this photo from their patio on the lake, you can see their boat dock in this photo.

Above: Chebacco Lake, from the patio where we are staying.

This last photo is of Essex Town Hall, about 2 miles from where we are staying on the lake, a beautiful historic building built in 1893 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, the only known Victorian Shingle Style municipal building in America.

Above: Essex Town Hall.

After this visit, Scott will be going back to his home in California, I'll be going back to my home in New York City. Later I'll leave for California on Thursday (9-2-21) for a road trip from California to Oregon with Scott, which will also include a visit with my niece and friends. The actual road trip is scheduled to start September 7, 2021 (Tuesday).

Diane's Travels

Monday, August 30, 2021

2021 Virginia, Washington DC & Massachusetts