Hey Santa Shop Smart!

We don't take a lot of family photos together at the holidays anymore.  Maybe we should.  It's hard to get photos that don't look staged or don't irritate adult family members though - things were simpler when little children kept it all fun and light.

Cory, Katrina, me and Wayne at the tree farm in 1999

We had our family Christmas last weekend because Katrina and Charlie are going to the U.P. to spend the holiday with his family.  When my guests arrived Katrina had to help me wash my hair for the first time in four days thanks to my carpal tunnel surgery and Charlie managed to toss a few extra ornaments on the tree without the cats tearing them all off.

Katrina always organizes the gifts

The Human Rights Campaign puts out a shopping guide for those who want to show they care about workplace equality with their dollars.  Also available is a website that lists businesses that are fair trade or sweatshop-free.  Ben & Jerry's is on everybody's thumbs-up list.  Other companies that get the big thumbs-up is Amazon (what a relief!), Apple, Starbucks, Home Depot, Best Buy, JCPenney, Macy's (surprised there) and Target.

Paper from Target - grab it before it's all gone!

Chick-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby have been in the news for their bad policies for women's rights and other discrimination issues for awhile, not to mention Walmart's bad grade on how it treats its workers, but I was surprised to find Trader Joe's on the anti-LBGT list.  Trader Joe's??  They scored poorly for LGBT rights this year but are at the top of the list overall for how they pay and treat their workers. In 2014 they were on the list as LGBT friendly, so I'll keep an eye out there but won't cross them off my list hoping that the current discrimination issue is an isolated one.

Cory's haul at our family gathering

Other issues matter to you such as cruelty-free? (Look for the bunny like I do!)  Google your issue and most likely you will find a guide to help you not shop at companies whose ethics don't conflict with your own.

I like gifts that are thoughtful but inexpensive, and I got some nice ones this year including a Joby stand from Wayne to use with my iPhone which will be helpful on my upcoming trip since my DSLR will probably be too heavy while I continue healing.  The David's tea mug from Katrina with a snowflake infuser works and looks great and Cory got me a fun moose decoration for the holidays.  My co-worker got me a tea infuser as well, and while the kitten hanging in the cup is adorable the tea doesn't steep correctly (blocked holes) and I had to transfer to a different one.  I had the same problem with that adorable sheep infuser I got at Harry and David so my advice is stay away from those cute but not functional silicone infusers.  The camper cookie jar I bought for myself from World Market but it's not available online so you'll have to go to a store to find one before they are all gone.

While I didn't get any group photos, I did have Katrina snap a shot of Charlie and I working on the big New York Times crossword puzzle at their new apartment last night.  I forgot how fun those were and put a copy of The New York Times Light & Sweet Crosswords in my Amazon cart to keep me occupied this winter.  Luckily he is taking it with them so I wouldn't be tempted to finish it when I go over to tend to their cats!

Katrina and Cory just as I remember them!

Whether you do the shopping or leave it to Santa, I hope everyone is making some memories this holiday season.

Me and my cousins with Santa in 1979

Having trouble with those old photos in not so great condition?  I used Picasa's editing program to change this yellowed photo from the 70's.  I applied the pencil sketch feature and then increased the saturation reduced the amount of "pencil" to make this oldie a goodie again.  Whatever you celebrate this week enjoy your loved ones and travel safely!

A Father's Dedication

This is a flashback to the trip to Reno that I took with Cory in January, 2014.

This mural in Reno was done as a memorial by a father for his 20 year old son who passed away.  The inspiration is the Louis Armstrong song "What a Wonderful World" which was a favorite of his.  Today is Wayne's birthday and he's another father who would agree that no matter what hardships we face in this world it is full of wonder and that the joy of being a dad is worth all the hard work.

And speaking of winter trips, next week I am taking a 9 day trip with my daughter, Katrina.  We are motoring all the way down to Dallas, making "Presidential" stops along the way as well as checking out a few state Capitol buildings.  Can't wait!

Lake Michigan Circle Tour

This is a flashback post from a trip Wayne and I took in 2010.

In 2010 Wayne and I took a tour around Lake Michigan which included Little Sable Point Lighthouse located in Silver Lake State Park in Michigan.  It was built in 1874 and still looks much as it did 120 years ago. Open to the public seven days a week from 10am to 5pm with a small admission fee it has 139 steps and a Third Order Fresnel lens.  But walking the beach without mosquitoes is what I remember the most.

While in the area don't pass up a dune buggy tour, we rode with Mac Woods and enjoyed it immensely.

Another stop was Empire, where the state park was too full so we stayed at Indigo Bluffs RV Resort and would stay there again.  We rented a kayak and paddled out to Lake Michigan on the lower Platte River, other folks floated along on tubes, the water was shallow and smooth most of the way.

Nearby Glen Arbor was full of fun little shops including the yummy Cherry Republic.

We look so young!  

But sunset on the beach at Sleeping Bear Dunes was more our style.

A stop in Traverse City yielded a belly full of the best cherry pie ever at the Traverse City Pie Company.  And the lineman in Wayne admired the transmission tower done up like a lighthouse.

In Brimley we toured the Point Iroquois Lighthouse which has been around since 1857 and had a relaxing stay at Brimley State Park where most of the campers hailed from Ontario.

We visited the Soo Locks where freighters, barges, tugboats and more traverse the 21-foot drop between Lake Superior and Lake Huron every day and night.

The first State Lock was built in 1855. Up until then, explorers, fur traders, and Native Americans portaged their canoes and cargoes around the rapids. Everything would change when a 21-foot drop in water levels was rendered less important with the construction of a Lock. The Soo Locks Visitors Center is open from Mid-May through Mid-October from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and contains a lot of information about the history and how it all works.  Street parking is what is available unless things have changed since we were there so leave your camper back at the campground!

Soo Locks Visitor Center

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish was interesting and the area was gorgeous.  Whitefish Point is known as the Graveyard of Ships as more vessels have been lost here than in any other part of the lake.

Shipwreck Museum

But Wayne's favorite maritime museum is the Ship Valley Camp in Sault Ste. Marie

Housed inside the massive cargo of this lake freighter is a 20,000 square foot museum with over 100 exhibits.

The exhibit for the Edmund Fitzgerald included the 2 lifeboats that washed ashore. The damage spoke volumes. The other boat was only half a boat.

We saw Canada from the deck of the ship but didn't have time to cross.  Always have to leave something to come back for!

PostOp Update

Things have been mostly quiet since I got my carpal tunnel surgery on my left hand three weeks ago.

Katrina and I find Pikachu on the UW Parkside campus in Kenosha

Besides going to work and playing a lot of Pokemon Go I've been preparing for our small family Christmas.

Thanks to Pokemon Go I've discovered some new things in neighborhoods I haven't visited before in Lake Geneva and Kenosha since I've had to stick closer to home while I heal.

And when I went for my postop at Aurora St. Luke's in Milwaukee I found a great mural that took the sting away from getting my stitches removed.

While looking for unique gifts for Christmas I came across this pillow that I might try to replicate since I didn't want to pay $50 for it.  But I have to finish my first attempt at pillow making which has Katrina's Girl Scout badges on it.  I procrastinated and now it's on hold because yesterday I got the surgery on my right hand done.

All the gifts are wrapped and our family gets together tomorrow to open them. I have Cory and the cats to help me get the housework done while Wayne goes out to work in the frigid weather.

But mostly I will be resting on the couch watching Netflix and watching the snow come down. Have a great weekend everybody!

Gifts

The Christmas season is upon, so here is a look back at some gifts that I got as a child.

Don't you dare laugh at my disco ball decked out record player!  My friends and I played everything from disco to Styx on that thing.  Probably the best gift I ever got for Christmas!

Me and Grandad Griffin in Newfoudland

When I was 7 years old we flew from San Diego up to Newfoundland for Christmas.  I probably got a lot of things that year from all the relatives, but what I remember is the Karen Magnussen doll.  Karen was the Olympic silver medalist in 1972 from Canada.  I got her from my Great Grandfather and dragged her on those ice skates on every patch of ice I could find while we were visiting.

Me and my seal pup, age 5

I don't remember if the seal was a Christmas gift or not, but it made an impression as well.  Of course I didn't know anything about the realities of how that stuffed baby seal got into my arms, I only thought it was cute and was delighted my Grandad thought of me. Originally seals were killed for their oil for lamps and machine lubricant, but eventually they were being killed for their fur, and they only have that lovely white fur for their first few weeks of life.  Between 1950 and 1982 an average of a quarter million harp seal were killed EACH YEAR in Canada.  American and European outcry over the slaughtering cincluding a British boycott on seafood products curtailed the practice for awhile.  New markets were found in the 1990's and the numbers rose again though recently bans in Asia have resulted in numbers dropping to only 67,000 a year again.  Go to this link for images and more details...if you have the stomach for it.

So I guess my gift to you this holiday season is the gift of knowledge and the hope that like me you will read the article at the link above and sign the petition and give the gift of life to the seals of Canada.

Chicago Cultural Center

This is a flashback post from when I took the train down to Chicago last winter.

Turn of the century granite and limestone neo-classical gem

A building that was new to me when I wandered around downtown Chicago last winter was the Chicago Cultural Center.  Open to the public it hosts a variety of free musical events for kids and for kids from symphony to jazz and they also have art exhibits on display as well as screenings of films.  But I was there for the free building tour.

Preston Bradley Hall

Completed in 1897 as Chicago’s first central public library, the building was designed to impress and to prove that Chicago had grown into a sophisticated metropolis. It is home to the world’s largest stained glass Tiffany dome ― 38 feet in diameter with some 30,000 pieces of glass ― which was restored to its original splendor in 2008.  Photographs do not do it justice, you just have to see it.

Chicago Public Library monogram in mosaic

It's hard to imagine that room a hundred years ago.  It used to be the delivery room where I imagine you would pick up your book before going off to the gallery full of large windows to read.

During the renovation they removed the concrete and copper exterior dome, and replaced it with one that is translucent and energy-efficient. The reintroduction of natural light into Preston Bradley Hall reduces the need for artificial lighting, which reduces electrical costs.

Also onsite is the 45-foot by 50-foot Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Rotunda dedicated to the soldiers who fought in the Civil War. The ceiling is embossed with plaster carvings of swords, shields, helmets, and flags. The 40-foot-diameter stained-glass dome in shades of tan, beige, and ochre is now lighted electrically and the stained glass was made was by Healy & Millet of Chicago.   The room is currently undergoing renovation and we got a preview of what it will look like cleaned up!

It's not just the domed areas that amaze, even the white marble stairways and hallways are glamorous.

Bet you are thinking about how heavy all that marble is, right?   It took nearly a year for 70 men to drive 2,357 wooden piles 75 feet to the hardpan clay below Michigan Avenue’s sandy soil. The design is so stable that there has been no noticeable settlement of the building in more than 100 years.

Stairway added during Holabird and Root renovation work

From their website:  The white marble is Italian Carrara, from the same source as the marble used by Michelangelo for his sculpture. The Cosmati work throughout the interior is a technique in which marble is inlaid with a variety of materials, including lustrous Favrile glass, colored stone, mother-of-pearl, gold leaf, and mosaic. This technique makes walls appear jewel-like. Due to Chicago’s sooty air, the choice of glass and marble was practical as well as aesthetic because these materials last indefinitely and can be easily cleaned.  Besides having to be modernized during the 1970's by the firm of Holabird and Root it has stood the test of time.

Maybe someday I'll be there during a music event, wouldn't that be fine?

Visiting Missouri State Parks in 2010

As I tend to do in winter, expect a series of flashback posts to pop up here on the blog!

Back in February of 2010 Wayne broke his tibia and his fibula slipping on some black ice in our driveway .  While still wearing the boot that May we took a trip down to Missouri.

Navigating the one mile paved Braille trail at Elephant Rocks State Park was definitely an uphill  challenge in his condition, but the 1.5 billion year old granite boulders were pretty neat.

Also of interest was the history of granite quarrying in the area.  Quarrying in the area goes back to 1869 and provided a lot of employment both in the quarry and the railroad needed to transport the rock.

In addition to the engine house built in the early 1900's of the rock quarried there, a water filled quarry made a pleasant place to stop and enjoy the mild weather.

All "booted up"

The state park website had a link to a 3 minute video showing quarrying technique from 1935.

We stayed at Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park which had a recently rebuilt campground that was pretty amazing but we left a few days early due to ticks falling from the sky.

A dam upriver had a retaining wall that broke in 2005 flooding the area and luckily no one was killed.  You can read the really well written news story here.

The "shut-ins" are a place where the river's breadth is limited by hard rock resistant to erosion. Apparently this park is used mostly as a natural "waterpark" in the summer. We had it all to ourselves that morning but swimming was not on our agenda, but I certainly enjoyed climbing around on the rocks.

Since we decided to leave early we headed up along the Mississippi River, enjoying the migrating birds.

We ended up at the Thomson Causeway COE campground which I highly recommend to anyone looking to get away for a few days.  It's not close to any services, but right on the Mississippi River with wildlife viewing opportunities everywhere including wading birds, turtles, muskrats, beavers and even some nesting eagles at one of the lock and dams.

Originally we thought we would stay at the Illinois state park in Savannah but it is bare bones and nowhere near as nice.  Since it is Illinois this is a nice flat area for bike riding, and bring your kayak and you can paddle right from your campsite.  Wish I had taken a picture of our site, but they are all large and quite a few are right on the water.  Don't head there now though, they closed in late October and won't re-open until the first of May!