The Random View of Thursday at Disneyland

Here's a collection of photos from Thursday, November 5th. Let's start with the mountains.

This is the view from the Mickey ferris wheel. The real mountains are in the distance with the fake mountains from the Cars Land ride in the foreground. The fake mountains don't look all that out of place from the real ones due to the realism of the fake ones. I also like the clouds in the sky. Just needs a couple of vertical lines and you'd have a tic tac toe game in the sky.

How about a fountain?

This one is in Downtown Disney. It's a stylized flower. I like the undulating shapes and the gradation of color from center outward. There aren't a lot of fountains around. It wasn't until I was looking through my photos that I realized this isn't a part of the decoration in either park. Fountains take space and they tend to break up a path. Disney is about funneling large amounts of people from one point to another. A fountain is just in the way. Oh you could tuck it off the the side. This one was alongside a thoroughfare, but that seems to defeat the purpose of a fountain as a focal point. This one is quite pretty. The color change was achieved with small tiles. Wonder how long it took people to apply the tiles?

Speaking of tiling, here is the floor in the pseudo French Quarter of Disneyland.

Attention to design is paramount at Disney. Liz pointed out, on many occasions, where you could find the outline of Mickey in the architecture and design of both California Adventure and Disneyland. While Mickey's not here, on the floor of the Pandora Jewelers, I like the use of tile to create a mosaic which fit with the surroundings. I see things like this and I remember working in mosaics in an art class in college. We worked with heavy paper and the section on mosaics was to help us understand color. If I wasn't so busy with other craft projects...

Color and design on the ground is not limited to mosaics. Witness what they did with colored cement.

"Cement" is a bit of a misnomer for this ground covering. It's an aggregate which can be tinted in a large number of colors. I've seen this in a lot of places. One of the problems with it in cold climates is that the colors are usually separated by thin pieces of metal. The surface is sealed so you never feel the change from one piece to another. But, the ground freezes in the upper Midwest, so spring heave is a big concern. I've had to inspect designs such as these and you find all sorts of cracks at corners and uneven heave can produce a large crack in, say, the middle of one of the yellow triangles. Ground issues are probably not a problem in Southern California, so they are free to be inventive with the design and color. It was quite impressive.

I would do this in a heartbeat if I could figure out how.

This was outside the Starbucks where we had breakfast. It's a mesh in which a variety of plants have been planted in what appeared to be a peat-like potting soil. This would be a wonderful way to shade a patio. I could see it planted with flowering plants to provide color. It appeared to have a design to the plantings but was in the midst of a change of seasons so some plants were new and not completely filled out. I also loved that, unlike Disneyland, there were birds nesting in the mesh. That, alone, appealed to me. I'm all about providing habitat for nesting birds. I'm sure, if I looked, there are plans online for something like this. You'd need it to be fairly high to block out the sun, but you could make it merely 6-7 feet tall to act as a screen.

Could it get any better than this?

Part of the design of California Adventure is the recreation of an early American amusement park. Witness the roller coaster and the ferris wheel. LOOK! SWINGS! Liz and I walked toward the ferris wheel and she pointed out this ride. I love this ride! I am at the edge of fitting into the chairs but it was an absolute hoot. I have so many, many warm memories of county fairs with a swing ride. I wouldn't go up in a ferris wheel, but I'll let a ride fling me almost sideways with nothing but a chain to hold me to the top. You are never too old to have your feet dangling in front of you, the wind in your face, giggling for all your worth, while your 9 year-old self comes bubbling to the top for a ride. That's Disneyland, for you. It's okay to be on the backside of your middle ages yet riding swing rides.

Beverage:  Raspberry Seltzer

Deb

Richmond

Richmond, Virginia is an old city. Living in the Midwest, we can often overlook the fact that when we consider "old", say early 19th century, the east coast has places 200 years older than that. The locality we know as Richmond is a case in point. There was a settlement in the vicinity in 1609. The present city was founded in 1737.The James River runs just south of the downtown. Carole lives in a suburb and commutes about 15 minutes into downtown Richmond.

It's rather ironic that, in 2001, we visited Richmond for her post-high school graduation Civil War battlefields vacation. We stayed at a luxury hotel right off capitol square in downtown. (The hotel is still there. I forgot to photograph it when I was there.) This was the view from our hotel window in the morning.

The white speckles on the tree in the foreground are magnolia blossoms. The actual capitol building is in the upper center.

We were in Richmond to visit the Museum of the Confederacy. At the time, they were mounting the biggest exhibit assembled to date, of Robert E. Lee memorabilia. We knew nothing of this museum, in fact, the article where we noticed the exhibit called it an "unknown gem". Given the feelings provoked by the Civil War, a museum dedicated to the Confederacy could be a lightning rod for all sorts of ideas. As 'Northerners', we have our own feelings about this time in US history. Carole had done some research on the war and felt that Robert E. Lee's personal conflict was not as examined as it should be. She really wanted to see this exhibit, so we amended our travel route and added Richmond to the itinerary.

The exhibit was incredible. Lee was a much decorated and respected general when the war broke out. It's well-known that he chose to go with the Confederacy because Virginia, his home state, seceded from the union. It did not make him happy. He fought against people he considered friends. I remember seeing letters from Lee to friends where he talked about his anguish. I believe there were uniforms, weapons, paintings and Lee's death mask. We came away from the exhibit with a new-found appreciation of just how much the war took a toll on Lee personally. And we found the museum to be simply a repository for items from that conflict. They don't really get into the whys or the ramifications of the war. They present what they have as 'this is what this is'. It really is a gem of a museum and I would urge you to go visit if you're close by.

It's a three block walk from the Virginia capitol building. The park surrounding the capitol is very nice. In 2001, I took this photo as we walked from our hotel to the museum.

The steps lead to a statue of George Washington. In 2013, the fountain is still there.

The steps still lead to a statue of George Washington.

There's a small statue of Poe sitting off to the side. I don't remember seeing this before.

We did not take the capitol tour in 2001 as we were there for one specific reason. There is a new entry to the capitol building and it advertised tours. I didn't take the tour either as I was in downtown for two specific reasons; to see where Carole works and to visit the museum again.

I'm a big one on maps and certainly appreciate when an area is presented visually.

I entered the area of the capitol from the upper right of the map and walked to the lower left. Carole can see the building from her office area.

There is so much history here. I encountered this memorial plaque as I was walking to Carole's office.

This talks about the fires set by Confederate soldiers in April of 1865 as the Union army closed in on the city. Carole mentioned that several of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, were meeting in Richmond at a time when the British army was approaching the city. Thanks to some fast thinking, the army was delayed just enough to get those men out of Richmond and to Charlottesville, 70 miles west of Richmond. Had they not been warned to leave, the Revolutionary War might have been a mere skirmish. It's easy to forget that part of Richmond's history as so much was tied up in the Civil War. To rectify that, Richmond developed the Richmond Liberty Trail.

This is painted on the sidewalk. This is self-guided and goes all over downtown Richmond. There is no real beginning to the trail. I must have seen a half-dozen of these on the sidewalk in my walk. Further research indicates this trail overlaps with two other walking trails, both self-guided. It's so easy to forget that the US history here predates items with which I'm familiar.

I wanted to visit Cold Harbor Battlefield while I was there. In 2001, we visited Tredegar Iron Works, which is the 'official' starting location for Civil War tours in Richmond.

But, on Wednesday, when I set out, I copied one direction wrong and ended up in an area that didn't seem right. After driving around for an hour, I never did find the battlefield and felt that I could get myself horribly lost so, when I found I-95, I headed back to Carole's. It was only when I was looking through our 2001 trip that I found the battlefield map we'd picked up. I should have brought it along.

When you combine the history from Revolutionary War days with Civil War days, there is a lot to see. It appears Carole is going to be settled in this area for the foreseeable future, perhaps this is now her home. With enough visits, I can maybe get around to all these places. And the walking is good for me.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

America's Garden

It's Carole's favorite place to visit in Washington DC.

This is the view of the United States Botanic Garden from Bartholdi Square across the street to the south. Normally, the square is a meeting place with food vendors but on the day we visited DC, the warm summer rain had prohibited the vendors from showing up.

The garden consists of two parts, an interior and and exterior area. Within these areas are different sections which show off the varied climate of the United States.

Sculpture abounds around the outside. We were greeted by a giant earwig.

While I understand the earwig's part in maintaining a good garden habitat, I squish them every chance I get. Sorry Mother Nature. There are just some insects; June Bugs, Mayflies, mosquitoes and earwigs come to mind; that I really wonder why we can't just exterminate them all as they don't seem to serve a useful purpose.

The garden outside has a rose garden and it's the first place you encounter if you enter via Independence Avenue. There are more than just roses in this garden.

I don't remember the name of this striking Asiatic lily.

There is a regional garden which was marked by an explanation of bees.

The plaque at the lower right in the photo, didn't explain, as well as it could have, the hugely important role of bees in pollinating the nation's food supply. Colony collapse disorder is a major problem, leading to a lack of bees. Butterflies, moths and bats simply can't step up and fill in. It's probably not the place of the national garden to point out how habitat destruction and the use of pesticides could make it exceedingly difficult, in years ahead, to supply food without pollinators.

There is a stream that runs through this outdoor garden.

The murmur of the water made this an exceptionally peaceful place. As the garden is free admission, if I worked in the hecticness of nearby office buildings, I could see this as being a place of refuge from that breakneck pace.

There is also a small pond.

Benches are strategically placed to allow one to better enjoy what is crafted here within walking distance of Congress. In the background is a small amphitheater where presentations about gardens are given.

From here, we walked to the main building past this interesting fountain.

You go up the steps and to the left, walking under an arbor. In this area, we found a butterfly.

This area has been developed as a butterfly garden. Due to the rain, there were no butterflies around. There was a very ornate sundial. I really like the addition of the hours in Roman numerals. I wonder if someone adjusts the dial for daylight savings time or if they just leave it.

Scattered about this section were these benches. I would love to have one on my deck.

What do you think? $200 for this?

We went inside the building. It contains two courtyards and 10 separate rooms under glass. When you walk into the front area, you see this intricate compass on the floor.

You are surrounded by trees, two stories tall.

You can go right, left or straight and be assured of seeing everything within 45 minutes.

There's a room for orchids and medicinal plants. There's a room illustrating desert ecology.

The children's garden, one of the two courtyard areas, contained a lovely hummingbird sculpture.

This is where the "typical" garden plants were found.

In the room showing off Hawaii's unique ecology, misters were everywhere.

It was a humid day in DC to begin with but it's not enough to help these plants thrive.

The main building, the large structure seen in the very first photo, is the jungle room.

There were palms and all sorts of flowering plants native to a jungle environment. There is a second floor walkway. We didn't go up there as it seemed to be where most people were going and was quite crowded.

This is a lovely place, not too big and not too small. A great deal of care has been given to creating gardens exemplifying unique climates. This is a place where spending a day with a camera is not out of the question. I'll bet it's incredibly beautiful at Christmas.

Beverage:  Lady Grey Tea

Deb