Summer Travels

This summer, I was in the car a lot. Between leading a canvassing team for the month of June, and driving around the U.S. in July, it felt like I was on the road more than I was off of it.

Yes, it's taken me a while to post these. That's about 50% no time (busy semester), 30% really really slow computer, and 20% computer not connected to internet. Instead of just processing the photos and posting them from my computer, I have to process them (which takes a long time because my computer freezes every few seconds - or minutes, depending on its mood), then email them to myself (because although my computer can't access the internet, it can still send and receive email) and use a computer in the school's lab to post them. Yay. I feel quite unattached to my computer. It's awesome.

So here are the photos of my family's trip this summer. Actually, they don't show everywhere we went, because we went to Texas too, and didn't take any photos.

The trip was as follows:

Amity, AR - San Antonio, TX - Amity, AR - Cleveland, TN - Somewhere, VA - Washington D.C - Long Island, NY - New Paltz, NY - Somewhere, MA - Cleveland, TN - Amity, AR.

Those are the places we stayed overnight, but the pictures are mainly from places we visited during the day.

A field near my grandparent's house in upstate New York

An important building in Washington D.C. We parked way down under it and got stuck in the elevator trying to get there to leave.

"Bloom where you are planted." - a wise person

Sophie and Teresa were not extremely excited about touring Washington D.C.

But they were happy to have each other

My mom and dad, trying to figure out where to go first

Most of the buildings in Washington D.C. look like this. They are grey, squarish, stony, and carved with interesting quotes.

There's a map for you in case you ever get lost in Washington D.C.

Echinacea? growing in a planter on the sidewalk. You thought I went to the country to take this photo, didn't you?

I think that's possibly the Air and Space Museum? We didn't go in it.

Sophie, posing with the semi-countryish piece of land in Washington D.C.

The Holocaust Museum. We did go in there.

The Department of Agriculture. I kind of wonder how they can be in charge of agriculture when they work in a big stone building in the middle of the concrete jungle.

A window in the Holocaust Museum, showing names of the Jewish people who were killed during the Nazi Holocaust.

The architecture in the building is really impressive and sobering

Inside the main lobby of the Holocaust Museum. If you ever get a chance, it's a really memorable place to see. Going through the exhibits with hundreds of other people, silently reading and watching, learning about human cruelty and resilience is remarkable. It leaves a deep impression on your soul.

We found the Washington Monument!

The family name at my grandparent's old house

A lovely recipe for possum

The iron fence outside the old church my grandparents used to go to

One of the plant places we went to

The tree tunnel

A plant that looks like a person

The outside of the Met

A Stradivarius violin (a real one)

Interesting guitarlike instruments

One of the many halls in the Met, full of people, as usual

The modern art section

And the other end of the room

Is this what you call recursion?

Nice moustache, Napoleon

Looks like a dragon made a crash landing

A well-behaved herd of geese staying inside the fence

Another of the many pillared buildings

George Washington, looking a lot like the Greek god, Zeus. I think they actually patterned this statute after the Greek god.

A sculpture of the American flag in the Museum of American History

A really beautiful tree sculpture in the Sculpture Garden

Sophie and I at a giant fountain in the middle of the Sculpture Garden

A really nice place to sit down when you've been walking on concrete all day

An interesting black sculpture

We also went to the Metropolitan Art Museum in Manhattan. Here Sophie has found a woman who is missing her nose

Artifacts from ancient Polynesian culture, I think

I think that giant person-like thing is actually a drum

Carvings on the underside of a roof-like structure

Teresa, observing the sculptures and painting in the European section

Sophie, observing some of the more appropriately clad sculptures...

...and trying to cheer them up

One of the more entertaining paintings in the modern art section

"Look, we are lost in a snowstorm!"

Not sure of the significance of this circle, but I'm sure it's very important

This whole really long wall was covered in black and white striped contrasting shapes. It was amazing.

A painted cello in the musical instruments section

A piano with two keyboards!! it was apparently created for someone who had really small hands and wanted to play octaves and big chords. I should get me one of these...

Horns made from terra cotta, porcelain, and glass. I would loved to have heard them played.

Fancy that. It's a double-strung harp. This way, you don't have to change keys using foot pedals.

Mom, looking down on the hall of American sculptures and architecture

I tried to take picture of this place without getting any of the statues. They were seriously lacking in the clothing department.

But flowers and pillars are pretty too

As are interesting stairways

And this giant, shiny mosaic pillar

There's the Met from the street

And here's the street from the street

It's a lot busier than Amity, that's for sure.

So after we left the city, we went to a botanical garden place. I don't remember where it was, but it was beautiful. That's my mom, enjoying the indoor jungle.