livingdeb | Entries tagged with architecture

I'll tell you a little about four April Fool's jokes that I enjoyed this year.

Employment

This story may not be quite right--it's based on bits and pieces I overheard at the office. But apparently everyone in one unit except the people out on vacation and except for the victim all sent e-mails before work, one by one, to say they weren't going to make it. The victim apparently fell for it until one of her co-workers claimed to be out due to an alligator bite he received. He had been warned not to be too funny, but couldn't resist.

Fashion

Art of Manliness advocates for bringing back the codpiece. "Whatever the reasons for the codpiece's evolution, it is without a doubt one of the most unique and distinctly manly articles of clothing ever seen. ... Now, the codpiece has fallen out of fashion in the last five hundred years or so, but that doesn't mean it has vanished entirely. The Star Wars movies show great examples of codpieces on the armor of Darth Vadar and the Storm Troopers. David Bowie wore a codpiece in The Labyrinth, and Malcolm McDowell sports one in the Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange. You also see them in a lot of heavy metal bands today and in the leather subculture. Also across the world, at Renaissance fairs, men wear them still to this day."

Politics

Crunchy Chicken explained why she's going to vote for Sarah Palin. "I've been more and more disillusioned with President Obama in the last few months. He's not representing any of the things I thought he stood for during the election and his latest stance on environmental issues and energy policy has been egregious. I understand that running a country as complicated as the U.S. is a difficult job, but that's no reason to completely backslide. ... Which is why I'm going to vote for Sarah Palin in the next election."

On reason #3: "Sarah will make Michelle Obama and her lawn garden look like a kindergarten seedling project. Forget raised beds and backyard bees, try some elk, moose and wolf hunting right there on the White House lawn. And let's pop that lawn open and get ourselves a stocked pond for fishing. People would pay out the nose to go hunting and fishing on White House property, especially when their least favorite legislators are visiting."

Architecture and Interior Design

Apartment Therapy hosted a house tour of Thomas' Custom Southern Charmer. "The house is a direct result of improvisation. It became a laboratory of sorts, and a way to reflect Tom's personal theories on how to live. One of his many beliefs is the need to carve out a quiet space in which to work. His study, located adjacent to his bedroom, is filled with items that either inspire him or that he created. Another tenet values bringing the outdoors in as much as possible. You'll see that the entry way floor is painted green, referencing grass. Lastly, energy efficiency was utmost in Tom's mind, and he sought ways to take advantage of natural resources through air flow and thoughtfully placed windows and skylights."

"Proudest DIY: It is a toss up between my self-designed clock and the wine dumbwaiter built into the side of the fireplace of the dining room. I don't even have to leave the room to get a new bottle. That means more time for my guests, and less time fumbling in the dark basement for the right vintage."

(There were plenty of hints, but I fell for this one until the very end of the house tour.)

I like to look at other houses, especially those in my own neighborhood, to see if they have any good ideas I want to use. Today I saw a house for rent with no one living in it and with only one window blocked from view. And for the first time ever, this house had my exact same floor plan (only reversed).

I'm not sure I got any great ideas, but it was interesting to see how it had evolved over time in comparison to mine. As I collected my observations, I began to realize that it wasn't always clear, when things differed, which house had been updated or even whether they had started the same to begin with.

( That might not seem interesting to you, though. )

This weekend I went on a tour of modern homes.

Normally I think these are kind of fun, but it didn't start well. First, I ended up going by myself. Second, instead of a booklet with a page on each home talking about all the cool things and showing how to get there, they just gave us a long page folded in half. The front and back covers were nothing but ads. Inside they did have all the addresses and a blurry map showing the location of each house as a dot several blocks wide. Not helpful. I guess we're all supposed to have GPS. And smart phones so we can look up all the cool information on the website. Third, they made us take our shoes off before entering even when the temperature was still in the low forties and they had (cold and durable) concrete floors.

I did have a map in the car, but I'm not all that comfortable driving my new standard transmission vehicle yet, so I quit after four houses. Then I went out to see just one more.

These days, I like to look for ideas to steal when I renovate my house. However, I was not at all impressed by the design at three of the houses. For example, I want there to be a place to hang a towel within reach of the shower. I don't like a lot of wasted space. Or hard-to-use space, like in that closet they built under the staircase where you open a normal door and the closet extends far to your left getting shorter and shorter. And they had walk-in closets that were only wide enough to hang clothes on one side instead of both. There was a glass landing on the top of a set of stairs over a first floor with high ceilings, so no one who's afraid of heights can ever join you upstairs. (Well, you could get a rug.)

However, I did like this kitchen:

It's a layout I call "party kitchen," meaning it approaches a square shape, and thus is able to hold a bunch of people in it. It has lots of countertop. And it has lots of cabinets. The dishwasher is right next to the sink, as it should be. It's open to the dining room (foreground) and living room (to the right), but you can't see dirty dishes from the living room.

I do think the top cabinets should go all the way to the ceiling so that top shelf can be protected from dust behind the door (and so you wouldn't need so much pea green paint). I'd rather have a proper vent hood than a small cabinet and microwave cubby that holds only certain sizes of microwaves. I think I'd rather scootch the refrigerator over to where the pantry is so so that you aren't stuck having to replace the refrigerator with one the same size next time or with having a big gap. You'd lose a pantry, but you'd get more countertop and cabinets--it seems like there would still be plenty of storage.

I also saw a nice big walk-in closet. Here's just one corner of it:

It's got lots of hanging rods for both long and short things plus lots of shelves and the top shelf lets you store things of any length, which is great. Those vertical walls mean you don't have to worry about the poles sagging, but the walls don't need to go all the way to the floor which wastes wood, makes it hard to vacuum, and would require complete replacement if there were ever any sort of flooding at all.

There's also a kind of shower I think I might like. What you do is you take a space the size of a bathtub and put the shower head at one end and a bench at the other end. Here's one:

You can see the bench on the left, but not the showerhead on the right. I like that tile. I like that there's natural light without it being that easy to watch you shower, though I'm not sure I'd want to try to clean that.

Here's another one (with a regular tub next to it):

You can see the bench at the back and the shower faucet on the side wall. Is all that glass easy to keep clean or are there hidden problems?

I used to like having that kind of bench in dressing room showers, though there was a curtain in between the shower and bench so your clothes would stay dry. But in your own house, you could probably have the bench outside the shower. So, I'm not totally sure what I think of these.

Here's one of the prettiest things I saw:

Pretty clocks! Just decorative, though; not a single one of them had the correct time. I understand that ten minutes after ten o'clock is a pretty time, but this is just another example of form over function. The scrabble letters in the glass jar are pretty, too, but I'm not sure when it would be useful. And three boards? Is there a Robo-Rally version of Scrabble I should know about?

Tropenmuseum

This morning we started out for a local market, but first we noticed the Tropenmuseum, which I'd read that you might be tempted to skip, but you shouldn't.

So we decided to check it out. It turned out to be a culture museum, but it didn't have just artifacts, it also had videos.

However, much of the museum was putting cultural traits in the context of environmental traits, so it was generally quite depressing. For example, in Suriname, people in the south used to farm and those in the north herded animals because it was drier in the north. Then in the dry season, the herders would come south and their animals would eat the farm stubble and fertilize the crops. Now the southerners want to raise their own animals and no longer welcome the herders, and the northerners want to grow their own crops, too, which doesn't work well because of the dryness.

Robin enjoyed seeing jeepneys which are old jeeps which have been converted for use as public transportation, especially in the Philippines. In our country, they might be called art cars. Robin says one of these played a key role in the book Cryptonomicon. We got to see a real one which they let us actually climb into. And we got to see them in action in videos. The decorations are amazing.

Robin also quite liked a car form covered in knitting to look like a red Ferrari Testarossa. (Robin tells me that Testarossa means "redhead" in Italian and the engine heads are painted in a red crackle finish in Testarossas because they just couldn't resist the pun.)

I learned you can make a dome just by making each circular brick layer out of fewer and fewer bricks. This way you can have rooms wider than the longest available tree trunks.

There was an interesting quote about Mexico City I didn't think to write down about how the city was killing everything around it in a horrible tragedy, but those who loved the city just couldn't resist her.

Some of the displays came together to cause me to ask myself: If I left my native culture (of the United States), what would I try to bring with me? Which artifacts? Which cultural norms and practices? I sure love not having to be religious. And I like being considered a real human being even though I'm female (and whatever else). I love ibuprofen, but it would eventually run out.

Dapperstraat Market

As we left, we saw this bike with plenty of carrying capacity.

We did find the market and also three grocery stores, none of which apparently struck me as photogenic. Then we were off to find the Houseboat Museum.

Hausbootmuseum

On the way, I decided to capture the inside of a tram.

Note the single seats on one side, double seats on the other. The accordion-looking part is flexible for when the track turns, but people also leaned against it. The next stop was announced both visually, as shown (actually, this is showing the time and that we are on the #10 line), and verbally, often in both Dutch and Liam-Neesen-accented English.

We did find the museum.

The brochure explains that this is a former commercial sailing ship built in 1914. Here is the entrance.

"The deckhouse, where the skipper's family resided, including the cupboard bed, is still in place."

This is the bigger bed of the two, if you can believe it (the other is across the way on the left). It's both longer and wider. Apparently the taller spouse sleeps on the doorway side.

"The former cargo hold has now been converted into a comfortable living space."

This actually does look quite livable to me. Here's the other side of that room.

This was described as the kitchen.

Here's a passageway with the level of the water outside illustrated inside. So technically the windows don't have to be so high in order not to be underwater or anything.

They also had a slide show with pictures of all kinds of houseboats that was fun. And we got to learn a bit more about the houseboat lifestyle.

Many, but not all, houseboats have been converted from regular boats. This sort of house must, by law, be brought into the shipyard for maintenance every four years. The required maintenance takes about a week to perform, during which time you may continue living in your house, though I assume your commute to work could change quite a bit.

Another kind of "houseboat" is made form concrete which, since it does not rust, is not required to be taken for maintenance. It tends to be more block shaped. Neither kind of houseboat is likely to have a motor and thus must be towed in order to be moved.

Next stop: red light district.

Pannenkoeken

But first, here's another typical Amsterdam view, with one wonky building.

Canal view at night.

Here's another nice bike.

Note the rack in front and the seat in back.

On the way, we found a place with pannenkoeken, which I'd wanted to try. These are Dutch pancakes. I'd heard they are thinner than what I'm used to, but thicker than crepes, and they are served mostly in savory flavors. I ordered one with cheese.

It was the size of a plate, perfectly cooked on one side, then broiled to finish off the other side and to make the cheese a golden brown. (In real life, they are not nuclear yellow--this is just what my camera does in poor lighting.)

It was moist and soft--only the cheese was crispy. It was very tasty, but the pancake part was faintly sweet, so I think I would have preferred a sweet flavor.

This restaurant also sold apple pie. Real Dutch apple pie looks different from how I make mine. The crust looks more like biscuits or cake and it's much taller. I never did taste any. (By this time, I was mostly craving savory things. The Dutch are really, really great at making sweet things that appeal to me, but not so much savory).

Red Light District

As we neared the red light district, the streets became crowded with pedestrians and were full of bars and delicious-looking restaurants and plenty of bright lights. The district itself was also crowded and well-lit, and thin ladies who wore bikini-type outfits and posed, wiggled, smiled (even to me), and motioned people in.

Our guide for the bicycle tour told us that in each room there are at least three buttons that the ladies can hit to get help so that no matter what someone does to them, there should always be one within reach. Some of them are hidden. And police arrive quickly, like one minute.

Adjacent to this district is, apparently, Chinatown. At least there are all kinds of Asian restaurants and markets.

We also saw this narrow church.

And here's a terrible picture, but it shows the hooks at the tops of the buildings.

In real life, these buildings seemed to lean in over us in a threatening way.

We popped out of this area of narrow streets at a building that looks like a castle.

It turns out to be a fancy restaurant...

...built in 1617.

The nearest tram stop was at Central Station, so we bought our tram tickets for the next day.

Going Home

We took a tram and train back to the airport after all, just as we had come, no longer afraid. The train was quite crowded--we were perched near the stairwell.

I couldn't resist getting a snack I found in a snack machine at the train station for a friend. Robin said, "Travis has dreamed all of his life of these gummy apeheads." They turned out to be licorice and banana flavored.

I had decided to exchange any remaining euros for Leonidas chocolates and did in fact have some money left with which to do so.

Due to the actions of a friend of Robin's, we got some fancier seating on the flight from London to Chicago. I liked that you could lean your seat back without affecting the person behind you. And all of a sudden, unlike in coach, they understand that people like to drink a lot of water. Being stuck between two strangers, I tried to time my bathroom trips while one of them was up. But people really set up camp in this section more than in the sardine section, so it's not that easy to get out.

I remember feeling like an impostor. Not even just as a prole riding with royalty, but also like a little kid trying to act grown up. (Only I have a much better disguise for the latter now than in the olden days. Surely.) No jumping up and down on the seat. And oh, yes, I know just what this hot wet washcloth is for.

We got back a little early(!?) and so it was no problem for me to go to work the next day.

While doing my final research for this entry, I found the ingredient list of some hummus that I really liked (except for the salsa on top) from one of the stores. I had no idea what most of it meant, but figured the internet would be my friend (when I got home and it was fast and reliable again).

* gekooktekikkerwten (42%) - cooked chickpeas
* zuurteregelarr (E-500) - apparently sodium carbonate, a base used as an acid regulator and/or anti-caking agent; zuur is acid and E-500 is, specifically, sodium carbonate.
* plantaardige oile - plant oil
* water - water
* sesamzaad-pasta (sesamzaad, zout) - sesame seed paste (sesame seed, salt) (aka tahini)
* tomaten concentraat - tomato puree
* wortelen, - carrots
* zout - salt
* specerijen - spices
* voedingszuur - food acid (?)
* citroenzuur - citric acid
* peterselie - parsley
* gedroogde chilipepper (0.2%) - dried chili pepper (0.2%)
* geconcentreerd citroensap - concentrated lemon juice
* gedroogde koriander - dried coriander

Well, I'm hardly cooking up something with a food additive as the #2 ingredient. I hope that's not what made this magical. I think I already knew to use tahini and lemon juice. Oh, well.

Overall a good trip, but I felt quite touristy in a bad way. Not as good as visiting friends who have a bit of a clue about what's cool and how things work. I may want to look into visiting my next foreign country a different way. Looneymarble has made it clear to me that a group tour is not necessarily the way to go, either, though some groups may attract more fun people than others (would tours for college alumni be better if you liked your college?).

I miss those bike lanes. I don't miss the cold (actually, I've been experiencing the same cold, but with no snow, all week). I liked the trams but they were expensive. I miss the sweets but not the savories. I don't miss spending so many euros.

So, I leave you with this typical tourist shot.

Commuting through Amsterdam

First, an obligatory lichen shot. Some people are bird watchers--I admire plants that can grow on rocks. Though I don't learn their names or have a life list.

Here's an over-the-top light pole.

Here's a broader view of that same bridge.

Because you needed to see a string of those over-the-top lightposts in context with multiple fake ship bows.

Here's a building with a lot of red shutters.

I have a fascination with real shutters. They can be so useful. Even in these windows that are such a silly shape to make real shutters for.

I don't think I'd like lichens on shutters, though. Two great tastes that don't go together.

And here's another fine example of the triple crosses of protection.

Here's a modern building, and I think it's on a street with a street market.

Rembrandt's house

We saw all those things on our way to our first stop of the day: Rembrandt's house. Finally we got to see the inside of one of the tall, skinny houses. And they let us take pictures! (I didn't use a flash, though.)

(I wonder why we call Rembrandt van Rijn "Rembrandt" and Vincent van Gogh "van Gogh.")

Of course I can hardly claim it is a representative Dutch house. Rembrandt bought it at the height of his career, but still couldn't afford it. He never paid the mortgage and ended up in bankruptcy. So, I expect it's a rather finer-than-average place.

At the time of this bankruptcy, many of his things were sold off and records were kept. So they had a clue on how to refurnish the house when it became a museum.

So, shall I show you inside?

Here is the center stairwell.

Robin really liked the hand rail because couldn't fit his whole foot on the step. I think I could have, but I actually walked up it sideways myself. You can see from the wear pattern that no one uses the inside part.

Each floor had two to three rooms. Maybe they all had three rooms, but we were always allowed into the front and rear rooms and only sometimes was there a room sticking out one side room into which we were allowed. On the bottom floor were the kitchen and the living room/bedroom. The notes say that the kitchen was the most comfortable room in the house, I'm guessing because it was warm. It's certainly huge.

The cook slept in a "box bed" in one wall.

In the living room was Rembrandt's box bed. I expect that this sort of bed was more protected from drafts than beds out in the middle of the floor.

This room does look a tiny bit fancy.

The next floor up has the entry. Here is where he welcomed visitors. In his chair by the window, he could watch the traffic go by (when the shutter was open).

Then he would take them to the ante room (through that door) to do business. Like many other artists, he was also an art dealer, selling both his own works and those of others.

In back room he kept his favorite works (maybe).

In the back room of the next floor, he stored his collections.

He did his painting in the front room. Here's where the paints were mixed (usually by an apprentice) (notice how there are no tubes of paint here).

Here's a side view of a huge easel. You can see that even with the bottom shutters closed, there's still some good light in here.

He didn't just paint, he also did etchings. I haven't been a fan in the past, but this one of Amsterdam I photographed and later, in the Rijksmuseum gift shop, I bought the refrigerator magnet version to take home.

Here's a view of his courtyard.

And another view.

Here's the front.

Mmm. Green shutters.

Commuting through Amsterdam some more

Here's a silly cafe next door to Rembrandt's house.

Here is a view of another modern building taken from a bridge. I remember that a guy was blowing bubbles here, making people smile, but soap on the wet surface was very, very slick.

After this visit, we dropped some stuff off at home and returned to the Rijksmuseum. So I got some more shots from our neighborhood.

The flamingos were out.

Here's my old pal the stegosaurus again.

And here's the other dinosaur looking very fierce.

"Don't think I don't see you there."

Then I tried to capture the way they do their roads.

You can see the tram lane in the middle, then the car lane, then the car parking, then the bike lane (brick color), then the sidewalk (grey color). Notice how you can park your car without entering the bike lane. My city's method of just making the bike lanes extra wide to fit parallel parking in them seems barbarian by comparison.

Here's a shot of some traffic lights.

You can't see the light for cars from here, but I had perfect timing so the other three were all different colors. The small tram light is red, the bicycle light is yellow, and the pedestrian light is green. Cool, eh?

Night Watch

They did let us take a picture of the outside of the Rijksmuseum. This side is not under construction.

Robin really likes Rembrandt's Night Watch, so we went back to look at that for a while. Back in those days it was common to paint a portrait of a company of men, but you generally posed them standing in rows. In this painting, he caught them all in action, much more fun.

The most shocking thing I learned about it was that the edges were cut off so that it could be fitted into the spot made for it in a (different) museum. Unbelievable.

I actually preferred the painting on the other end of the room from Night Watch, Frans Hals and Pieter Codde's The Meagre Company. It is also a painting of a bunch of guys, but these guys, although kind of standing in rows, are gesturing and talking and doing other small things and so it's still interesting and you can see more of their personalities than in a regular painting. The other fascinating thing was that they were so clearly real people. For example, one was Nicolas Cage. Another was Robin Williams.

Etching

We also learned a little about etching. First you cover a sheet of copper with a thin layer of a wax mixture. Then you carve through this (and maybe sometimes through the copper as well, for bolder lines). Then put the whole thing in a mildly acidic solution to etch the copper in all the places where the wax mixture was scraped away. Then wipe off the coating and cover the whole thing with ink (the consistency of oil paint) kind of like silk screening. Then scrape it off the surface (leaving some behind in the etched areas). Then wipe more ink off with gauze. Then wipe even more off by rubbing it with chalk dust with the side of your hand. Then finally put it on one of those big printing press machines, lay a piece of paper over it and roll a weight across it. Ta da!

I learned that I like how Rembrandt etched curly hair (as well as how he etched windmills and tall skinny buildings).

Bye-bye Rijksmuseum.

Canal Cruise

We went on a lovely, romantic evening canal cruise, since taking a canal cruise is a must-do according to all the tour books. The tour guide was rather terrible, though. He sure liked to go on and on about a lot of boring things. And since most of the few people on the boat were ignoring him, he looked to me as his audience, thus pressuring me to not roll my eyes that much.

I now think (based on these two data points, plus one from Jamaica) that the best tour guides are outsiders who love the place and then move there. (Our bike tour guide was from England, and our Jamaica tour guide was an outsider, too.)

He did teach me the name for bell gables (which must be the ones that look like singing sisters to me). And step gables (the most common kind in Belgium). And I noticed for the first time that bell gables are semi-false fronts--the roofs behind them are just regular pointed roofs.

On gables you might find gable hooks for hauling things up to the top floor. And you might find gable stones with address-like things such as the profession of the resident. (There were no house numbers (or family names) until Napoleon.) Many gable stones have gone missing, but it's fashionable to replace them now.

We saw a one-window-wide house (less than two meters wide). But it's not the narrowest house. In one area, regular lots are seven meters wide, but double lots (14 meters) were sold for a while. Those houses were 40 meters deep. So each floor of the regular lot was a little smaller than my house, but there are several floors.

I noticed some houses with parallelogram floorplans. I first noticed this when I saw ceiling beams at a 45-degree angle from what I expected considering they were going from one side of the room to the other. Normally such beams would be parallel to the front wall.

This guide is the one who told us that the vibrations from modern cars (and, fairly recently, trucks) are part of what causes the foundation troubles for buildings these days. Modern foundations are concrete and are 30 - 40 meters high.

He said Holland was the richest of the seven provinces of the Netherlands, and so the only one most foreigners cared about, so that's why people sometimes refer to the Netherlands as Holland.

He also said that the Calvinist rulers required the rich (in guilds) to finance welfare such as almshouses and orphanages. He said the Palace of Justice (to be replaced in two years) used to be an orphan house. And the Hermitage had old ladies living in it as late as three years ago.

He showed us hand-holds (handles) on the under side of some of the bridges. The canals are only three meters deep, so barges can be poled through them except under low bridges. So the hand-holds let them pull their barge through.

We also saw a Mennonite church which looked to me to be straight out of the American West, a white wood church building , right between all the Amsterdam-looking buildings.

Commuting in the dark

On the way back we saw this car.

Robin says it's quite rare, since it was built in the days before rustproofing, so enjoy!

Our neighborhood

Today was museum day. To get to the museumplein, we tried a new tram into town. This required us to turn the other direction when leaving our hotel.

First, here is a picture of a window just like ours. (Remember, I told you it would be smaller than it looked.)

Here's an interesting building just down the street.

And remember how we're in the area with the zoo? It's also the area with the aquarium and quite a few other things we didn't see. But I couldn't resist this stegosaurus, perhaps my favorite dinosaur.

And this apotosaurus (aka brontosaurus). Not usually a favorite, but totally irresistible here.

Lunch

The first thing we did when we got to the Museumplein was to get hot drinks. Yea! They came with cookies!

We almost forgot to pay. We went to several places where you order at a counter and then they don't take your money. Then they serve you. Then you go back to the counter to pay. Disconcerting.

Then Robin couldn't resist this burger stand.

Look at their truck (for catering?)!

Speaking of cute little motorized vehicles, check this out.

There's actually plenty of room inside for two people. And Winnie-the-Pooh.

We spent time time in a gift shop and then headed for the Stedelijk Museum (City Museum), a really big art museum. But it was basically closed. A guy in the security area said no paintings were available for viewing but the Rodins had been moved to the Van Gogh museum.

Van Gogh museum

Vincent Van Gogh and his brother started life working for an art dealer. Vincent had to be let go when a new-found religiousness interfered with his job duties. Then he decided to make art himself.

The museum exhibits were very well done. There were lots of interesting descriptions, plus they included artwork that inspired him (sometimes with quotes from him) and art by people who were inspired by him.

I found out the reason he did a lot of self-portraits was because it was a way to practice doing portraits without having to pay for models. He also practiced by re-doing other paintings and even Japanese prints.

We also got to see an actual vase his sister-in-law saved that was pictured in several of his paintings, and it was displayed next to one of those paintings.

It was during Van Gogh's lifetime that it became reasonably possible to paint outside for the first time. For example, paint became available in tubes. Later, one could paint from photos, adding color back in, and still being able to change the emphasis, exaggerate things, change the time of day, etc.

He thought it would be cool to start an artist commune where the residents would be an inspiration to each other. To lure one of his friends to join, he painted several paintings for his rooms. His friend stayed something like three months before they argued and split up, and that was the end of his commune.

He always tried to really say something special with his paintings and always felt that he had failed, partly because everyone told him so. He was mostly made fun of during his lifetime. At best, he was considered a crude imitation of other, better painters. He attempted a masterpiece with The Potato Eaters (several different people all in one painting), but when it flopped, too, he decided never to do another.

All in all, a really great museum, even though I'm not much of a Van Gogh fan.

(Note: we could find only one Rodin in the Van Gogh museum.)

Lunch

Next, we hunted for Wagamama, recommended highly by Robin's friend, J.O., as his favorite noodle house ever.

On the way, there was an unexpected lizard.

And this building has very interesting windows, both in the corner and on the side.

The one we were looking for was said to be near the Hard Rock Cafe. We were getting warmer.

Score!

I tried a potsticker thing and a fried noodle thing. They were whole grain, tasty, and interesting, and probably the healthiest thing I'd eaten so far, but not a favorite of mine. So sad. (Though the nearest one to me now is in Boston, so maybe it's just as well.)

Here is a nice bicycle. Check out the basket, leather handle grips, leather seat with spring, reinforcements. This one also has a mesh reinforcement for the rear fender.

Rijksmuseum

We spent an hour at the Rijksmuseum (State Museum) (pronounced sort of like RIKES-museum) before it closed.

(Robin liked this next building better--you'll hear more about this company later because we signed up here for a canal tour the next evening.)

The Rijksmuseum was full of fabulous paintings from the Dutch masters. We also saw two dollhouses that were each so big that we were provided step ladders so we could see into all the floors. And we saw a huge model ship.

Dinner

We wandered around a bit more, then ate groceries from yesterday's trip to the store. I learned that I quite like Swiss cheese at room temperature. Who knew?

I leave you with this image of neon mammals from somewhere in Leidseplein.

The Hermitage

After a lovely breakfast of cheesy pastries, we started the day with a trip to the Amsterdam branch of the Hermitage. On the way, we saw this cool houseboat.

The Hermitage is huge. However, it's pretty new and still fairly empty. They have only a couple of permanent exhibits. One is on the Hermitage (greatly expanded by Catherine the Great who, when she heard of the death of a collector, would send someone to buy the entire collection). The other permanent collection has things like a copy of a kitchen from the 1700s, only Robin felt there were clear anachronisms.

And there was one exhibit on loan, however, on Alexander the Great. (Had I known, I might have read up a bit on him first.) When he was my age, he'd been dead for 14 years. We didn't stay long--Robin had no interest. It occurred to me, though, that whenever Alexander the Great wanted to visit an interesting new place, he would conquer it. And there I was whining about how my money wouldn't work.

Buildings and food

So then we wandered around a couple of squares that were recommended for tourists. We saw this over-the-top gothic post office I'd read about in the tour books.

Then we saw this building:

I thought it was pretty and didn't even notice the words. They probably mean "Cleve Port" (the port of Cleve), not, "Die! Port van Cleve."

Here's a torture museum. I've been in too many torture museums already--I don't need any more horrible pictures etched into my brain forever. But the outside is cool looking.

You can walk through this building:

(Something tells me this was not all original--there may have been some adding on.)

Here's an example of one of those buildings that's not quite as upright as it once was.

No one will notice it's leaning over if we just fill in the extra part with bricks. And push the sign over so that it's leaning even more.

Here's some interesting building decoration:

Walking down one interesting narrow street, I noticed the Van Dobben, which is where I'd read that you should go for croquets. (And it says right on the sign, "Prima Croquetten"!) So we did.

I'd forgotten what croquets were, though, other than some kind of fried something. After getting one, I still didn't know. Here's what one looks like:

The goo inside tasted like chicken soup. Dipping it in mustard is a pretty good idea.

Turns out it's fried mashed potatoes (with flavorings). We decided we could totally sell this at the State Fair as Fried Chicken Soup, though.

Look at this very interesting building. I really like all the real shutters.

But some of them don't really open all the way. And some of the windows don't let in as much light as one might hope. Oops. (I assume the building on the right is the newer building. Surely.)

Then we came back to the hotel. As you can see, we had the sign of the triple X keeping us safe at night over our bed.

Also on our wardrobe. So our clothes (and groceries) were safe, too.

See how it looks like two beds pushed together?

Really it's two half-comforters. Turns out we like that. Also, that window, which looks like a perfectly reasonable size, is actually quite small (picture later).

We went in search of the local grocery store, which we eventually found. On the way, we saw this pretty bird:

And some pretty modern buildings:

We saw this thingy that lets you decide which year had the cooler-looking trains:

We didn't find any fabulous bargains (you never know what's going to be cheap in another place), but we found plenty of tasty things. I got very delicious bread. And a soft garlic-flavored cheese. And a nutpack with cashews on one side and chocolate-covered peanuts on the other.

Library

I'd read and heard in lots of places that, bizarre as it seems, one simply must visit the new library. And so we did. There was a lot of construction, and I didn't know exactly where it was, but by this point, I was pretty sure we were going to be able to find it:

Notice that oddly boat-looking thing near it? Turns out that's the science museum. And it has a real boat in front of it.

(Sadly, that real boat reminds me of the boats in front of Treasure Island in Las Vegas.)

Here's what the library looks like from the front:

There are computers with internet access everywhere.

Here's an interesting staircase:

That counter on the left has a bunch of brochures on current happenings. (Too bad I forgot to go back and take a closer look; got distracted.)

There are all kinds of seating.

Here's a private area:

I decided this might be Di's favorite:

And this might be my favorite:

There's a whole floor for kids.

I like these characters on the children's floor:

There are art and video displays and what looks to me like a dance floor.

This display of yellow and orange thingies really grabbed my eye.

The escalators are well-labeled.

And there's a practice piano--no uptightness about not making noise, but they do want you to actually already know how to play the piano.

(Reflected in the piano is a guy who is just about to sit down at the piano. I snapped that picture in the nick of time!)

In summary, I'd have to agree. Cool library.

Another houseboat

We started with a houseboat, and we'll end with a striking houseboat we saw on the way back.

I think they might not enjoy solicitors. Or maybe they just don't like ordinary doorbells.

Robin wanted to rent bikes and ride them everywhere. I didn't like how it would be so easy to get lost and so hard to talk to each other, plus being in a foreign country I didn't feel comfortable, plus I don't like riding bikes. So we decided to start with a bike tour. This was my favorite part of the whole trip.

We picked a place that was easy to get to. Just leave the hotel, turn left, go two blocks, turn left, and keep going until we get there. Turns out it was not so easy to stay on that street and we ended up way off course. We saw some nice things, though.

At one point, we knew we wouldn't make it in time for the tour, but then we decided to try anyway, and we made it after all.

History of the Netherlands

First we got a brief history lesson. The following is how I interpreted the tour guide and has not been confirmed and thus should be taken with a grain of salt.

The whole area is naturally boggy. If people stopped trying to keep the water out, all of Amsterdam would be under water.

Originally people came for the fishing and the bog peat (which makes a good fuel). It's always been a center for trade. And it's always been a shipping center. The people tend to be daring. They made bigger ships than the others, and this led to their hey day.

The Dutch are not creative with naming things. You have the Amstel River, the Amstel Dam, and the town, Amsterdam. You have the Old Church and the New Church, the East Church and the West Church. You can tell where they colonized by the names: South Africa. East Indies.

Britain and Spain cut them off, so they lost power, but they stayed out of World War I (though reputed to have started it). They helped move food around and got rich.

They tried to stay out of World War II, but Hitler bombed one city to the ground over five days. They learned the lesson and didn't resist. They were occupied many years and, being a haven to weirdos (like Jews) (remember all that bit in history class about people escaping to Holland back when America was a colony because of the open mindedness?), they suffered huge losses (1/4 to 1/3 of the population). The Canadians finally came to their rescue, but when the Nazis left, they took all the bicycles with them. You'll still hear creative cheers at sporting events against the Germans such as "Bring back my grandmother's bicycle!"

Hippies were big in the Netherlands, taking over all the parks. In the 1970s, real estate was down, so speculators bought it up, but they let it get run down. Meanwhile, there were lots of homeless hippies. So a law was made that if your property was vacant for over a year (as pointed out by a potential squatter and confirmed by neighbors), squatters could move in. After that it became difficult, though possible, to get your property back. It would take 1 1/2 to 2 years to get through all the paperwork.

Without these squatters rights, Amsterdam would not be what it is today. The squatters moved in, had the plumbing and gas turned on, and would start businesses. Being not being very entrepreneurial, they would have art galleries. Or collect things and become museums. Amsterdam still has a lot of art galleries and museums.

But letting all the hippies come in led to drug problems. The Dutch once had the highest rates for hard drug addiction. But the main drug was cannabis. Cannabis was decriminalized so you could consume it without being exposed to hard drugs. The Dutch had the first free needle exchange program, methadone clinics, and drug counseling. Fifteen years later, the Dutch were at the bottom of the list for hard drug addiction.

Cannabis is not legal, though, and is imported, so who knows what the money supports. The West (especially the US) is pressuring them not to make it legal. So in the future, tourists will not be allowed. You'll have to become a member, and to do that, you'll have to be a resident.

Canals

After the history lesson, we got lessons on how to use our bikes and then we rode all over the place. It was a three-hour tour with one pub stop.

Our first stop was on a bridge over a canal. All the canals have locks and these are managed to create flow. So although there is no tidal flow, there is very little smell, even in summer (unlike in Venice where the canals cannot be controlled).

Architecture

Salt water is part of the canals and is needed to preserve the building foundations which start, on the bottom, with wood (from the tall, straight poplar) and clay. Then layers of leather 1 meter thick and of sand 2 meters thick are added. The sand traps the water water as it rises and falls to keep the moisture balance needed to preserve the foundations. Of the 400-year-old foundations, 30% are still in good shape, 20% need fixing, and 50% have been repaired. There weren't really any problems with foundations until cars started tooling around the city--those vibrations were more than the foundations could tolerate.

When a foundation fails, the building on top of it may lean on its neighbor.

The houses are small and tall because they are taxed yearly based on their footprint. This leads people to politely save land for their neighbors. Small bricks are used because they have more flexibility; big bricks are more likely to crack.

Brackets are also used to help hold buildings together. (I first noticed these brackets, which look like giants staples, in Belgium. It's cool to finally know what they are for.) (I also learned that Belgium used to be part of the Netherlands.)

Hooks near the top of the building let you winch your things up and put them through a window so you won't have to bring them up the stairs. Having the top of the building lean out gives you more leeway on windy days.

Houseboats were introduced to house the people who helped with rebuilding after the war. They were made cool by hippies. They have no footprint tax but there is a limit of 2,600 houseboats allowed in Amsterdam. That limit has now been reached so, due to the laws of supply and demand, houseboats now cost as much as regular houses. They are just as comfortable (if not more so because there are no steps inside).

Zoo

Our hotel is on the old Jewish side with the tax-free docks. A lot of ships would arrive from distant lands with pets or mascot animals that they dropped off in Amsterdam. So the area became known for the mystical creatures that roamed it. And this led to what is now the oldest zoo.

Windmills

There were once 800 windmills at the harbor. Why windmills? They couldn't build water mills because the land was so flat that the water flow was too slow. But flat land is good for wind and thus windmills.

These were used to pump water. First, you build some high ground. Then start the perimeter walls. The top section of the windmill turns--the wheel does not make contact with the deck. Set up the sails so they cover the trellis. (These are rolled up at the edge of the trellis in the pictured windmill.)

The wind turns it which turns a vertical cog which turns a horizontal cog which powers an Archimedes screw which pumps water up when suction is created. Once the islands were formed, some windmills might continue to pump water, but the others were converted to other uses. The one pictured above is a brewery. Maintaining a historical windmill reduces your tax, so you can charge less for your beer.

Old Entry Harbor

We also saw an armory/naval headquarters, at the old entry to Amsterdam. If you attack, they will defend.

Now there's a science museum that looks like a sinking ship. Cruise ships dock here. And there's a library that's considered one of the top five libraries in the world even though it's only five years old. It has great technology, the space is fantastic, and it's basically everything a library should be.

St. Andrew's Crosses

We saw a church with a St. Andrew's cross on it, which is tilted so it forms an X (see the top window below).

We've been seeing X's everywhere, usually in groups of three. It turns out that the three X's are for protection from the three scariest things. Want to guess what the three scariest things were to the Dutch in the olden days? Remember, it's at sea level or below. Also, the houses used to be made of wood.

One of the things was fire. The entire town has burned down. Twice. You used to have to pull your house down when it caught fire by using a hook to pull on loops in our walls to hopefully save your neighbor's houses.

The second thing was flood. Other Dutch cities have been completely flooded in the past.

The third thing was disease. This was quite prevalent before they learned not to throw their waste into the canals.

Calvinist churches like the one shown above were traditionally round so the preacher wouldn't be in front of and above everyone.

Brown Bars

Brown bars are green but full of wood panels inside. To impress the locals, order a jenever (the Dutch word for juniper).

Tram Tickets

At the end of the tour, Robin got our tour guide to tell us how to deal with trams. He said you can buy tickets, for cash, at any news agent. Such as the one just up the street. Which we easily found. And we bought five-day passes which turned out to be a fabulous idea (except 7-day passes would have been better). Our maps showed the trams, and we never really got lost again the way we would have with bikes or with only walking.

Spui

After getting tram tickets, we went back to our favorite part from the tour: Spui (pronounced sort of like "Spow"). I really wanted to check out the almshouse courtyard. Anyone can just walk right through that arched wooden door.

Then you are here.

Check out the floor.

And all this is inside.

Did you know that some people have a hobby of touring almshouses?

We spent the rest of the evening just wandering around town.

We had some street food. Robin had the famous raw herring ("haring" in Dutch).

We also had pastries. (Sorry about the terrible lighting--these were actually good.)

I don't know why everyone is bent over (except the kids) in this mural.

This was very sparkly, all done up for Christmas.

I really liked the ceiling in this shop.

Then we took the tram back to the hotel and collapsed.

On Biking

If we lived in Amsterdam, we would be bicycling everywhere. They have more bikes than people. They have bikes lanes everywhere, separate from the sidewalks, the streets, and the parking. Bicyclists have their own traffic signals--so if they have a green light, cars will have a red light and won't turn right in front of you. Most of the lanes are wide enough to pass people on. The only confusing thing is that the bike lanes look sort of like sidewalks, though a different color. If you do accidentally walk in a bike lane, an approaching cyclist will ring a bell (natives only once, tourists, perhaps more). (I'll show you some pictures later.)

I had no trouble biking during this tour because things were so flat (except the bridges). For a while I was panting and having real trouble keeping up, but it turned out it was because my tire was going flat. After that was fixed, it was easy again.

In the US, avid cyclists say it's safest to ride in the street with the cars (at least at the intersections where drivers tend not to notice anything in bike lanes or on sidewalks). I think people in Amsterdam would be just as horrified by that idea as I am.

But while we were in Amsterdam, we went with trams. We were still clueless tourists, after all.

My second day in Phoenix I decided to start my day with a little hike. There was a huge park right near our hotel. I had done a little research but decided to drive to the visitor's center before deciding which trail to take and to get a map.

The visitor's center was closed.

So I tried to find the trail on my own, but that didn't happen. I saw almost no other motorized vehicles but many, many bicyclists.

Even though the road looks like this.

Finally I decided to stop at the next place with some cars parked and see if I could find a trailhead. This plan totally worked, and I began to hike up Ranger Trail.

Just like with the trail I had originally wanted to take, I got a view of Phoenix.

I saw four people on the trail on my way up. First, a boy and his father. The boy was complaining about the heat as I passed, and I hoped he would make it to the top, but I never saw him again, and their car was gone when I returned.

Then I saw an old guy jogging down the mountain. Then I saw a middle aged person jogging down the trail. Can that be wise? Isn't that hard on your knees? These guys were wise enough to be finishing up before it got crazy hot.

Check out this interesting saguaro.

And this little beauty.

The trail I had picked out was described as a three-hour trip that led to a peak. Likewise, the trail I actually found took me 1.5 hours to climb and led me to a peak. Here's what was on the other side (from Phoenix).

I also saw this relatively dense collection of succulents at the top.

Most of the tiny life covering the rocks was black, but I did find yellow lichens.

On the way down the trail, I saw two more humans. One was sitting at the side of the trail in rare shade, panting. The other was jogging up the trail shirtless. As if running up the trail weren't enough, he first had to bicycle to the trail (either that, or the tired guy did)--I saw this further down the trail.

It only took me 30 minutes to get back down the trail.

Closer to the entrance of the park is this lovely building.

And while I'm showing you plants, here is an interesting one from near our hotel:

I really enjoyed starting my day with a nice hike. But then my buttocks were aching for a couple of days after that. (Then, after an hour of hustle dance lessons, doing only two steps over and over the whole time, my right calf was aching for a couple of days. Today, after jogging 30 minutes yesterday, my thighs are aching (though not as badly as the buttock and calf incidents--I had post-exercise peanut butter). Exercise is supposed to make me healthier and make me feel better, but limping every day for over a week isn't my favorite.)

Related news article of the day - Can Running Actually Help Your Knees? by Gretchen Reynolds. A study "followed middle-aged, longtime distance runners (not necessarily marathoners) for nearly 20 years, beginning in 1984, when most were in their 50s or 60s. At that time, 6.7 percent of the runners had creaky, mildly arthritic knees, while none of an age-matched control group did. After 20 years, however, the runners' knees were healthier; only 20 percent showed arthritic changes, versus 32 percent of the control group's knees. Barely 2 percent of the runners' knees were severely arthritic, while almost 10 percent of the control group's were."

A long-term study! With a control group! (My favorite.) These guys were running only 90 minutes a week on average, and there was no mention of them running down mountainsides. (Note that other sports are associated with increasing your odds for bad knee problems.)

In Phoenix, we got to tour Taliesin West, a complex designed by and built for Frank Lloyd Wright.

The walls were built with local stone. Just build a form, set in the stone so that the flat side faces out, and fill with concrete.

Here is a pathway.

Here is another view of that same pathway.

Here's a very interesting exterior wall.

Here is a view.

Rumor has it that one day Wright saw a light on Camelback Mountain (you can probably guess which one that is) and decided it was time to move. The neighbors were getting too close. But his wife said it's one thing to pull up stakes and start over in your seventies, and quite another in your eighties. And so she talked him into staying, but he closed up all the windows facing this direction. (I don't actually believe this story is true, but it's a fun story.)

Here's where that view is from.

Here's another nice little spot.

Here's a dining room. At that time, metal-framed chairs were rare.

Here is a gift.

Originally this is said to have been designed to spit water. But no self-respecting dragon would ever do such a thing. So it was retrofitted with gas so it could spew fire instead.

Here is an admired petroglyph moved to the site of Taliesin West.

The spiral-looking one was particularly admired. Our tour guide said he thought it looked like two hands clasping. He said this was the inspiration for the Taliesin West symbol, which you can see here.

Here is an entry way.

And the theatre inside, the last building here designed in Wright's lifetime.

And here is a sculpture.

Quote of the Day - One person read from the label on a bottle of fruit punch: "Contains 0% juice." Other person responds, "It's made of nothing but science."

Vacation agrees with me.

The biggest difference I noticed when I got back this time was the sleeping. On vacation, I stayed awake until I was yawning a lot. Then I went to bed. Then I slept as long as I wanted. When I woke up, I wasn't late for anything and I hadn't missed anything.

At home, I often don't go to bed when I'm sleepy because I feel I haven't had enough fun yet. I'll stay up way too late reading. Then get up with the alarm. Or not. And hope I get to work on time. And try to think at work with sleepy brain.

Denver had perfect walking weather the entire weekend (except for the parts when it was raining). It smelled good--like pine needles, not like exhaust or grackle poop. (Actually, Austin is smelling nice lately, too--like flowers). I saw worms. And ducks. And mushrooms. And really big houses, one of which was for sale and came with a $15,000 credit to build a garage if you wanted.

We visited the Denver Art Museum. First we checked out some modern art. One thing I remember from that section was a painting of three teenagers. It was larger than life and had pretty bright colors. It was three dudes wearing baggy clothes, cell phones, etc., but in an odd pose involving a wedding ring among other things. The story is that this guy would paint regular modern people in the pose of people in a famous painting and the kids got to pick the painting. These guys chose "The Marriage of [somebody or other from medieval times probably]" even though one of them was clearly going to end up posing as the wife.

We also checked out the Psychedelic Experience. The accompanying exhibit was mostly hundreds of posters for bands from the sixties. It was interesting to read that they were not designed to be read but to be interpreted. Unlike most ads, they didn't make it easy to find the information-you almost had to decode the poster, even the font, to get the scoop on what was happening, when, and where.

Then they had another room with the "experience" part. You could watch the TV show "Laugh-in" or make your own poster, for example. My favorite part was basically a documentary showing on the TV in a sixties-era hippie living room that you could sit in. (The coffee table was made of a door lying across two stacks of concrete bricks, for example.)

From that I learned that the summer when Haight-Ashbury was getting a lot of news about cool events, young people around the country got the idea that they could get away from their troubles by running away from home and going to Haight-Ashbury where someone would give them a place to sleep and they could hang out. It reminded me of things I'd read in history books about people running away to "the new land" or during the gold rush. Scary. And this is even though no one was trumping up lies to get their money.

By the following year, there were just too many people and there were too many drugs and it was no fun anymore and not safe.

That night we watched "The Girlfriend Experience." This was a good contrast to the Psychedelic Experience where people wanted to be true to themselves and not have to work. The movie was about people who did want to work even though it sometimes or often meant being untrue, at least to their clients.

It was a good movie for talking about afterwards because then you can help each other figure out what happened in what order. Once you figure out the order things happened, it's easier to see why they happened and thus what actually happened. Ideally you want to be awake and paying attention during the movie.

Unlike most movies, it is about both work life and personal life and how the two are related even when you do your best to keep them apart. And the work part really shows the dog-eat-dog aspect, especially for people who are self-employed, always hustling for more clients. And it's about what it might be like to be one of the dolls from "Dollhouse" if the dolls were doing things voluntarily using their own personalities.

We saw this movie in the Mayan theatre, which reminds me of the Paramount in that it's highly decorated, only this one is in the Mayan Revival style of architecture. Who knew there was such a thing? Definitely cool. Although it was filled with the "cloying stench" of popcorn. Actually, E had a much longer phrase for this aroma that I love, but I remember only those two words.

The next day we visited the Denver Botanic Garden and their totally awesome Jurassic Gardens Exhibit. What that means is that nestled between the plants like garden gnomes or pink flamingos they have dinosaurs. It's like an Easter egg hunt only better because (most of) the eggs had hatched and because when someone else finds a dinosaur, that makes it more likely that you'll find it, too rather than that you won't find it. We met E's grampa there: the edmontosuarus.

We did also look at some plants. T noticed that the new bright green leaves on evergreens feel all rubbery like a koosh ball. This was true of all the different pine species we tried.

Later we saw "Monsters versus Aliens" in 3-D. I barely noticed the 3-D, but I still recommend the movie. It has plot problems but is fun.

Still later we saw "Logan's Run" which R had never seen and which I hadn't seen since it came out. I had forgotten pretty much everything except that the women wore short skirts. The plot was pleasingly more complex than I remembered. However, prepare yourself for huge plot problems, especially the idea that the ending is happy.

We also ate out at a bunch of interesting restaurants. Blue Sky Cafe and Yoga has a sky painted on the ceiling over a wooden floor. Breakfast and lunch are served in the cafe, then the place turns into a yoga studio in the evening. I couldn't resist the hot chocolate onto which they added not only whipped cream but also chocolate syrup and cocoa powder.

We also saw for ourselves Vita versus Lola. Vita is the elegant, affordable, delicious, totally empty restaurant we went to. Lala next door was the totally crowded slightly more expensive Mexican food place next door. We never could figure out why Lala was so much more popular than Vita. We felt that we had made the obvious best choice.

I also had yummy Tex Mex in a café, shockingly good ravioli in a bakery, egg salad on extremely thick but delicious bread in another bakery, noodles at T's favorite Vietnamese place, and other things I'm forgetting now.

We also saw a multi-use area sort of like our old airport and the Triangle and the Domain, only it had evil parking meters that would take your money even if parking was supposed to be free because it's Sunday. (At least we assume it took T's money-she paid with a credit card.) They had a big tourist-destination-type Whole Foods like the one we have on 6th street.

It was great having T drive us around and almost magically know where things were all over town. If one plan got knocked down, she would know something cool to do in a more convenient location.

On the plane home we had a plan to deal with the annoying TV screens on the backs of the airplane seats, which E and T taught us with their eyes rolling: change the contrast to nothing. Unfortunately this didn't work. They said it might not work at first, but would work once the plane was up. It didn't work then either. Or after the seatbelt light went off either. The contrast bar would claim it was reducing the contrast, but wouldn't actually do it. I had one giant sticky note sheet I had been using to keep track of characters that I used to cover up my screen because it was so annoying. Then I realized that R's screen might be broken and tried the controls for mine, which worked, so I let Robin block his screen with the paper for the rest of the flight. FYI, Frontier has more leg room than any other airline I've been on in years except Midwest (which I like even better because they also have chocolate chip cookies). It's the same amount of room as planes used to have.

**

It's weird remembering that my audience includes at least one of the hosts (no, it did not take me this long to think of nice things to say--I just was hoping to get some pictures but then decided to write something anyway). It includes a host's best friend. It includes the people whose recital party we accidentally scheduled this trip during. And whose next party I think we will be able to make it to unless our flight home from our next trip is very late. It includes other people who went to that recital or who stayed away from the recital. And it includes some people who don't know any of the people I have mentioned so far.

Robin took me to the Overholser Mansion in Oklahoma City, a Victorian style mansion built after Victorian houses had gone out of style. His friends made fun of him. Also they wondered why he built his house out in the middle of nowhere. Turns out that meant there was plenty of room for other rich people to build their houses nearby.

Here is the family entry way. (That figure is a little racy for company, we're thinking.)

This is from the guest entry.

They hired a guy to do some stenciling. I've heard that stenciling is the poor man's wallpaper. Not this stenciling. If I'm remembering correctly, it took three years for the person they hired to do the entire house. I think he earned his money, too.

No need for a stairwell to be boring.

Can't quite decide how to decorate? You can have it all. You can have drapes, sheers, and stained glass in the windows. You can have moldings and painted frames. You can have stenciling and a chandelier. Still looking a little empty? Just add an imported rug, large solid furniture, and a table runner. And wall lamps.

This room is over-the-top, too, but still I want to go in there and write some letters or something at that table.

This is probably my favorite room, though. Just a little pantry between the kitchen and dining room.

The other side of the pantry has the portable food warmer.

People make fun of Robin for his wagon-wheel table. This guy has a wagon-wheel ceiling over the table. Maybe no one will notice.

Of course they still had the modern conveniences.

Even a new stove. Of course sometimes the modern versions aren't as good as the versions being replaced. In this case the cook would not allow them to get rid of the old stove, or else she said she would leave.

Oklahoma City has a riverwalk. Unlike the one in San Antonio, it is completely man-made. Like the one in San Antonio, it is located in what used to be a run-down part of town, in this case, the factory area where all the buildings were made of red brick. Now this area is called Bricktown. The canal is drained and cleaned every few years (compared to every year for the San Antonio Riverwalk).

We took a cruise along this one-mile-long canal.

The most shocking thing I learned is that in 1993, the mayor imposed a 1-cent sales tax for five years specifically for the purpose of carrying out several building projects. Then after the five years were up, they actually stopped collecting the tax and did the projects. The projects included building the canal, a convention center, and a ball park, among other things.

Can you believe that? Saving up ahead of time? In my town, we call this sort of thing "bond issues." And then stopping collecting the tax? And still having all the money? In my town, the mayor would be crying about inflation and needing more money. And then it actually got done? In a reasonable amount of time? And people like it? And the stuff actually works (for example, the canal was full of water, the ball park was voted best minor league facility by someone).

It's sad that I feel this way.

The canal opened in 1993. They dug out where a street used to be to make it.

My favorite of the river guide's suggestions was about swimming. There's a hotel with a pool on the canal that charges $240 a night, which is a lot of money in Oklahoma City. And there is a $250 fine for swimming in the canal. So, if you want to go swimming, you can save $10 by staying at the hotel.

My favorite of the guide's puns is about the painted buffalo that popped up all over town for their centennial celebration. Their bison-tennial celebration.

Besides buffalo, there are a lot of nice murals around town.

And I couldn't quite stop staring at this downtown building.

Sonic headquarters is located on the canal.

My favorite canal site was the land run statues. Oklahoma City was one of the starting points where people were offered free land if they would just come and claim it. The term "Sooners" originally referred to the people who cheated by coming out early.

At the start of the local land run, there were 7 residents in the area. At the end of the day, there were 10,000. Oklahoma City had become the sixtieth-largest American city in a single day. Our guide said, "Maybe Rome wasn't built in a day, but Oklahoma sure was." (Now there are 1.3 million residents.)

Here's another work of art, commemorating the black man's struggle with the white world. Apparently there were lots of sit-ins in Oklahoma City during the civil rights era.

We ate at Chilinos, the only place to eat when the canal was first opened. (Hey, it was still in business. That has to be a good sign, right?) The best things there were the tortillas. And they knew it, too. Not only do they bring out chips and salsa to start with, they also bring out flour tortillas and queso. (The queso was more like a thick cheese soup than what I'm used to, but the tortillas were awesome.) Their enchiladas (made with corn tortillas) were quite good, too, which is why I'm making a blanket statement about the tortillas. So, if you're ever in Bricktown, I recommend getting visiting Chilinos and ordering something involving tortillas.

Tulsa has the third most art deco buildings of any city in the US (beaten by New York and Miami), so we went on a walking tour. The ones we saw were mostly skyscrapers, which I found to be not as much fun as the little two- and three-story hotels we saw in Miami.

For example, here's the Oklahoma Natural Gas Company Building (Noble) (1928) - a zig-zag building "constructed of reinforced concrete, enclosed with buff tapestry brick and Indiana limestone," according to my walking tour description. Zig-zag is the earliest, most ornamented style of art deco, the style popular in the 1920s.

Here's the Public Service Company of Oklahoma (TransOK) Building (1928) constructed as a zig-zag art deco style building; Robin prefers the addition on the right.

If you know what a Bell building looks like, you can recognize this one, even if the tower is camouflaged. Here's the Southwestern Bell Main Dial Building (1924), a zig-zag art deco building.

There are other styles of frou-frou, too. This is my favorite:

If you prefer the classical style, you might like this "MVNICIPAL BVILDING."

My favorite thing was probably the doorway on the gothic revival Trinity Episcopal Church.

This "Auto Hotel" also amused me. (Yes, I do think it's a parking garage.)

We took a day trip north to Bartlesville to see the tallest (of two) skyscrapers designed by Frank Lloyd Wright that was actually built, the Price Tower.

Price Tower Building, Bartlesville, Oklahoma

This was built to give everyone good views and yet to keep the sun at bay. That picket-fence-looking thing on the top floor is actually made of louvers that at least used to be adjustable. You can see a few of them here.

Do you want to see a close-up of the triangular lights over those cute little balconies in the first picture? There are some just like it in the little cafe.

Oh, too bad, I thought I heard you say yes. (The rest of that room is not original.)

Here is a close-up of my favorite windows. There are some like these in the kitchens of the little apartments inside.

Wright wanted plants to be all over the place, inside and out. But now, there are virtually no plants remaining. Here is a picture of a cool one.

I wish I could show you the apartments. They were very unusual, but probably quite livable except perhaps for the extremely narrow staircase. For example, he was not into 90-degree angles at all. Here are some pictures from the Fall 2005 Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly.

(You wouldn't think there could be a quarterly on a dead guy, but there is, and it's totally cool.)

Most things are closed on both Sunday and Monday in Tulsa, but we did find one super-cool thing: the Harweldon mansion. We wanted to see this because it supposedly has gargoyles, but we never found any.

Still, it is my dream house. (Remember, I don't want to actually own my dream house--it's too expensive and otherwise impractical. But that doesn't mean I don't have a dream house.) I never realized it before, but my dream house is gothic.

I'm a sucker for red brick. But check out that slate roof. And the pointy bits. And the totally awesome door. Here's another view:

Look how shapely, and how shaded. Check out the entry way:

Plenty of space, wood and stone walls, nice door opening, fancy lighting. And of course there's a library:

A bit too small, but the books are protected, and even the ceiling is fun, but not too crazy. And now check out the awesome breakfast nook (now apparently used as a bar):

Lots of space, lots of dappled light coming through pretty windows, brick walls. It's sort of fussy like Victorian stuff, but much more roomy. Big and stately and solid like a castle, but more homey.

I didn't see any sign of spiral staircases, revolving bookcases, or trap doors, but those could definitely fit in.

I've been humming these lyrics to an old song all week:

I want you.
I want you so bad.
I want you.
I want you so bad, it's driving me mad.
It's driving me mad.

I don't even know what this is about. I assume the "you" is some person of the exciting sex. But this week for me, the "you" is a job opening.

I finished applying for the job opening I mentioned earlier. I walked my application over, which took 30 minutes, each way. The building is located on the other side of the freeway from the rest of campus in this building:

I like to drop off applications in person. Then I'll know for sure how to get to the place if I have an interview. Then I can also get an idea for what the work environment is like.

In this case, I also got to see what's inside that faded orange tubular part of the building.

Stairs. I might have guessed that. But the staircase is big. There's room for the stairs to spiral around something. I wouldn't have guessed there was also a Foucault pendulum in there.

It's hard to photograph. That's a dark view from the top.

Here's a view closer to the bottom.

It's such a relief to have that job application off my shoulders. I was definitely worrying too much about those writing samples. They're really just for them to be sure my writing wouldn't be a complete embarrassment. Yes, ideally, they make them think, "Oh my! We must have this writer!" Maybe next time.

Today we walked along Collins Street on Miami Beach for a little self-guided art deco tour. Robin loves, loves, loves this stuff, and I now have decided that I, too, think that a vacation around these parts could be fun, too.

I really like the glass tile on the fronts of these steps:

Here's some fruit in a tree, with building:

A lovely modern house, with garden and flag:

Here's an interesting architectural detail:

One of the most beautiful parking garages ever, mostly because it's well decorated with plants:

Another fabulous building. I love the circular cutouts for the trees to grow through.

Oval windows and other fancy decor:

And a very ornate chair on a modern porch:

**

Back in Houston, Robin finally took to me to Star Pizza, which I've been hearing about for years and years, and we got the Joe's pizza, which is the spinach and garlic flavor. I liked it.

And I think I figured out the secret of the fabulous whole wheat crust. I think it's biscuit dough. Biscuit dough is made with baking soda rather than yeast, so it's even easier to make than regular pizza dough. And using biscuit dough for pizza has been recommended to me by my brother, though my brother's fabulous biscuit dough recipe is so full of butter that I never let myself make it.

**

The HOV lane out of Houston was less exciting because we weren't hoping to get off at any point. The drive home was just fine. We went to bed exhausted. The end!

We went to church where I kind of liked the dim sum communion. Each person could get their own matzoh piece and tiny cup of wine from a metal tray.

Afterwards there was a picnic, sponsored by a group M and D were part of, so they brought all kinds of food. My favorite thing was from someone else: key lime cake. It tastes like that very lemony cake people sometimes make, covered in lemony glaze. Way too sugary, but somehow that was okay.

We also got to see extreme swinging:

And some very creative protective covers for use at picnics.

Then we dropped by an open house of a "waterfront fishing village" selling "matchbox houses" for a million bucks. (Obviously, one of the phrases in quotes was from the property company and the other was from one of us.)

Well, the view from inside was quite nice:

I was amused that the property company representative wouldn't use the M word. She said they cost "from six hundred thousand to one point six."

The view from the outside was nice, but less awe-inspiring.

My favorite part is that they are right next to a trailer park. In fact, the land they were built on was previously a trailer park itself.

**

We went for another neighborhood walk. Here is another interesting kind of shutter.

Here is part of an artists' village we found. It was a place for showing and selling art, not for living. Still, it had an interesting look.

Today we went to Key West. On the way we stopped for lunch at Mangrove Mama's where “dinner is a little bit more fancier.” I just love quoting our waitress there. “Don't eat the food here.” “Don't take any pictures.” As you might guess, we disobeyed her at every opportunity.

We liked the ceiling decor.

**

In Key West we started at the Museum of Art and Art History where we saw works by a guy who thought we should experience some of the classics from a different perspective. I really kind of liked this one.

Rita MacNelly and Beezy Bogan made characters, named them, and gave them little descriptions in the American Trophies exhibit. (Oops, no pictures yet.)

There's Arby Gladwell who “has not picked out a single item of clothing for himself since his second marriage.”

I've actually heard of someone who has never bought his own underwear. First his mom did, then his wife.

“Polly is game for anything. She's more than a woman, she's an experience.”

“Herbie has always felt his hair is his best feature.”

“Martha Jean was Miss Hopewell 1987 where she triumphed over an eager field of four, winning with her spectacular flaming baton act.”

“Horace H. Grubbs reads two obits daily with the glee of a man who has won a bet."

There was also a display on Ernest Hemingway who lived in Key West for a bit. (No, we did not tour his house.) I've read The Old Man and the Sea, which I remember liking, though it was depressing. Well here, I got to read a long letter he wrote back home after becoming injured in the war and, wow, he's a really good writer.

Duh. I know.

I may look into some of his other works.

We also learned that for a while the biggest part of the economy came from shipwrecks. When a new shipwreck was discovered, an alarm was sounded and whoever arrived first was put in charge and got the biggest share of the profits.

First the people were rescued, then the goods were recovered after having been sold for something like ten cents on the dollar.

**

Then we stopped by a cart where Robin tried conch fritters, more fritter than conch. By the way, conch is pronounced KONK. Don't embarrass yourselves.

**

We saw a mural by a guy who decided to create 100 murals around the world to educate people about sea life.

**

Then we stopped at a shop where I got key lime pie. Key limes are a special kind of lime which are grown in the keys.

My mom makes key lime pie and I wanted to compare. I think the one I tasted was more tart than my mom's.

The place had one kind with whipped cream and one kind with meringue. I asked which she recommended. She recommended the meringue, with rolling eyes, as if everyone should know that key lime pies are made with meringue. Score one for my mom! The pie was also made with regular pie crust rather than a graham cracker crust, just like my mom's.

So, now you also know how not to embarrass yourself when talking about key lime pie.

I love the bicycle rack out front, shaped like a bicycle itself:

**

Then we went on the Conch Tour Train (remember to pronounce it “konk”--I have trouble doing that, so I'll keep reminding you, too).

First we learned that the banyan tree is a type of ficus from India.

We learned about zigzag houses, where the roof has a zigzag shape. Every time you add a new section, you can add a new roof. They used tin roofs so that at the valleys, you can collect the rain water and store it in a cistern. People are no longer collecting all their water like this, or much at all; a pipe has been run from the Everglades in Florida to deliver drinking water to the keys. Still, collecting your own water sounds like a good idea.

I'd always heard that roofs with valleys like this were more likely to leak than those without.

I've also become fascinated with shutters (look again at the zigzag house above for many examples). Real shutters can close and actually protect the windows during a hurricane. And protecting the windows means you're protecting the contents of the house. And, if no windows break, your roof is less likely to fly away, too. We don't get hurricanes, and even if global warming raises sea level, we are still unlikely to get them here during my lifetime. But we can get tornadoes, so shutters still seem like a good idea to me.

I saw shutters on both windows and doors. And I saw many different kinds.

There's also such a thing as an “eyebrow house,” a Key West invention. This is where the roof eaves hang down beyond the windows on the top floor. Good for shade!

We learned that the land mass of Key West has doubled by dredging. When you dredge the ocean to make a deep place for boats to come through, you may as well take that dirt and add it to the edge of the land. “New Town” used to be the Gulf.

The beaches on the Atlantic side are made of imported sand.

The tour guide said that people in Key West were quite rich during the shipwreck era. But then by the Great Depression, the government wanted to evacuate everyone to someplace it was easier to deliver aid to.

The next big industry was tourism (I think). Then there was the hurricane with the 200-mile-an-hour winds. After that the railroad and then a highway were built. Then World War II brought the Navy. And now it looks like we're back to tourism.

**

Here's a stained glass window I like in a shop we dropped by with an ice cream parlour.

**

There are a lot of chickens running around Key West. I heard it's for bug control. I also heard they are considered a pest. They were much nicer than the rooster Robin grew to hate when he had to feed chickens and the rooster would always try to peck his shins to pieces. I liked them.

Back at the ranch, I remarked on how there were so many wooden houses that had obviously survived hurricanes in Key West. It was explained to me that the wood pieces were bigger than those used nowadays and carefully fitted together in ways we don't do anymore.

I also learned that Habitat for Humanity houses tend to withstand strong winds better than regular wood houses because the volunteers use "too many" nails.

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Note of the Living Deb

Entries tagged with architecture

April Fools Day 2011

Sister House

House Tour

Amsterdam, Day 6

Amsterdam, Day 5 - Rembrandt and Canal Tour

Amsterdam, Day 4

Amsterdam, Day 3

Amsterdam, Bike Tour

South Mountain

Taliesin West

Trip to Denver

Overholser Mansion

Bricktown Canal

Skyscrapers: Art Deco

Skyscrapers: Frank Lloyd Wright

Dream House

I Want You

Art Deco

Picnic and Open House

Key West