What to Do? Sunday Morning Edition

We've gotten in the habit, lately, of Keith taking Eleanor out of the house on Sunday mornings so I can get some work done. In theory, it could be anything from cleaning to working out to actual work-related work. In reality, it's always grading and lesson planning, because I'm always behind. Maybe some day that will change .....

But for now, we've had a really hard time finding kid-friendly activities on Sunday before noon. With budget cutbacks, it seems like most local libraries don't open until 1 o'clock on Sundays, and same with many of the museums. During this long, snowy, cold, snowy, gray, snowy winter, going outside isn't always an option.

In case some others have been having the same problems, here's a few of the local activities that we've found:

• The Cleveland Museum of Art is one of the few big museums that's open early (10:00am) on Sundays. And it's free! The parking does cost a few bucks, but I think that Sunday morning it's easy enough to find street parking. This is definitely a good option, and we love free things because—as all parents of toddlers know—there's no predicting how long you'll be able to spend there. So if you don't have any money invested, it's a lot easier to accept leaving after 15 minutes because the child had decided he/she'd rather play with the Playdoh at home. We're also wary of burning Eleanor out on this option, so we probably only do this once a month or so, if that.
  
• The Children's Museum of Cleveland also opens at 10:00am on Sundays. I've heard good things about their activities and that toddlers really enjoy the hands-on opportunities. If it's so great, why haven't I gone? The downside to this option is that it's one of the most expensive ones. Because it's aimed at children, unlike 99% of places, children under 3 are NOT free, but neither are the adults. It's $7/person for everyone 1 year and older. That's not terrible, but what can I say? We're cheap. I think of this one as a planned-ahead activity that we only do once in a great while.
• In good weather or in bad, the Cleveland Metroparks are also a good option. When it's warm enough, we can go hiking or sledding (like we did the other weekend). But even if it's too cold or rainy, there's lots of nature centers, lodges, etc., that have animals, books, and indoor activities to keep Eleanor entertained. All of their Nature Centers open at 9:30am and are, of course, free!
• It's sort of a sub-category of the Metroparks, but there's also the Cleveland Zoo, which opens at 10:00am daily. As I may have mentioned, however, we're "thrifty," and Cuyahoga County residents get into the Zoo for free on Mondays, so we tend to avoid going on the weekends. (The Zoo is normally $7 for adults and $5 for kids 2-11 in the off-season, aka now, and $11 for adults / $8 for kids from April through November.)
• Another option I was considering, but haven't looking into much yet, was joining the local Rec Center. They are open, but it wasn't clear to me what activities there were for parents and toddlers, if any. There's stern warnings against toddlers coming into the workout area with all of the weight and cardio machines. But if they have babysitting, so Eleanor can hang with some peers, I can get in a workout at the same time, AND Keith can sleep in, I think it's a win-win-win situation!

Of course, the flipside is that I should just get myself out of the house. I could get up and head out to the local coffee shop and let Keith and Eleanor have free reign over the house.

If you have any good, kid-friendly suggestions for Sunday mornings I'd be happy to hear them!

Christmas Ornament 2006

We moved to Cleveland in April 2006 and into our house a few months later, so that year was our first Christmas in our very own home.

I offered to host Christmas, which was an adventure. I even cooked a turkey! (And haven't done it since.) Keith and I spent Christmas morning in our own bed, in our own house, which was heavenly.

Even when we weren't living in Cleveland, my Mom and I have had a long-standing tradition of a museum day around the Christmas holiday. I think it started when I was in college and home for a few weeks. We'd pick a day after Christmas to go out to lunch and visit one of the local museums. Before we left, we'd stop into the museum gift shop and buy a few Christmas ornaments at ridiculously marked-down prices.

In 2006, we went to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. Funnily enough, I've never actually been there when it's warm outside, and have yet to see the outdoor gardens. Ever since that first trip, I've always gone in the winter to see their gingerbread house display. They have a competition and the houses range from fabulosity to monstrosities, built with love and pudgy little toddler fingers. They put me in a Christmas mood, even after the actual day has passed.

We haven't talked about it yet, but hopefully we get to a museum again this year. And that it's a tradition that Eleanor will want to continue!

Stretching Our Boundaries

When we were in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky a few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of taking Eleanor to the Cincinnati Zoo with Grandma Karen and Grandpa Jim. We've taken Eleanor to the Cleveland Zoo quite a few times, and she always loves it, so we knew it would be a fun trip.

First of all: The Cincinnati Zoo is really nice. Just from our wanderings, I think it's a lot bigger than the Cleveland Zoo. Everything is very attractive and well done, from the landscaping to the animal displays to the playground. The Cleveland Zoo is good, too, but the Cinci one raises it up a notch.

It was, as always, a lesson in how unpredictable children's interests are. We saw giraffes, elephants, monkeys, penguins, and more. We visited the petting zoo and Eleanor pet goats (one of which tried to eat my shirt). Even though Eleanor tired out pretty quickly, we did our best to fit in as much as possible.

So what was Eleanor's favorite part? Petting the snake. She made me go back to the snake lady several times. Snakes are not an animal that she has ever shown an interest in before, but maybe that will change now. And maybe, if she could have petted an elephant, they would have been her favorite. But the tactile experience, and being so close to the snake, definitely won her over.

I watch her openness to new experiences and marvel at how she takes everything in stride. I can't imagine being where she is: Why be intimidated by the new? Practically everything is new, and the majority of new experiences are good ones, so every day is an opportunity for a positive new adventure! Never petted a snake before? Let's do it! Why not?!?

I think about how resistant I am to change. For example, I always go to the same grocery store. I always start at the right end of the store, in the dairy section, and work my way across to the personal care products area. I like to go on Sunday afternoon or Monday—early in the week. When I can't get there by Monday night, it very likely throws off my entire week. For the most part, I buy the same brands, in the same quantities, to make the same recipes. And then I do it all over again the next week.

When did this happen? Will this happen to Eleanor too, or have I always been like this? Why did I look at the snake lady and think about how I'd rather be out of the heat, sipping an iced mocha with a book in my hand?

The Benefits of a Family Photographer

As I mentioned yesterday, we went to the Newport Aquarium with Eleanor a few weeks ago. But it wasn't just the three of us; Keith's parents, and his sister Jessi and brother-in-law Jeremy (aka "Uncle Hot") came, too.

Other than just her being a generally nice, funny person, there's one big advantage to hanging out with Jessi: she likes to take pictures, and lots of them. She has the same camera that we do, but has multiple lenses to get the perfect shot. At first, Keith was also taking pictures. But I think he only took less than 10. Jessi was snapping away, here there and everywhere, and it was easy to put the camera away and relax.

We knew that there would be plenty of beautiful pictures of the trip, so we didn't have to worry about it. We just did our best to keep Eleanor happy and enjoy the moment with her. She flitted from one adult to the other, soaking in all the attention and the fact that there was always a fresh pair of arms, ready to hold her. If anyone got too far away (particularly Jessi), Eleanor would call out for him or her, "Jessi? Are you?" until the wayward relative was located.

Here is just one of the many great shots that Jessi got that day. A talented photographer for a sister-in-law is a wonderful thing! Thanks, Jessi.

Visit to the Aquarium

A few weeks ago, we went to the Newport Aquarium when we were visiting Keith's family in Northern Kentucky. I'm always torn about when to do certain activities with Eleanor. On the one hand, I want her to experience as many things as possible right now. On the other hand, I know the longer we wait, the more she will understand and enjoy it.

I think going to the aquarium at a year and a half was a good midway point. She was old enough to see the fish, turtles, sharks, penguins, etc. and follow them through the water. She wasn't old enough to care about stopping and reading any extraneous material.

Throughout the trip, we got many excited "ooh!"s out of Eleanor. What I really need to do is to get it on video, so you can truly understand just how excited Eleanor gets about, well, everything. Her mouth becomes a big "O," and when she says "oooh," she does it with her entire body. She forces the air out through sheer force of wonderment. You just have to smile.

We had talked about going to the aquarium when it first opened over 10 years ago. But it was rather pricey, and it never seemed worth it when we were just as happy with less expensive activities. Now I'm glad that we waited, and I got to see it for the first time with Eleanor.

Possibly for the last time, as well; as I mentioned, it's overpriced. And there were So. Many. People. It was so crowded and difficult to maneuver through the pathways. Oh, and everything was a pathway. There were very few large open areas where one could just back away from the flow of visitors and just take a breather. No matter where I was, I was always in someone else's way.

Where was I? Oh yes. Eleanor loved it, and it was all worth it.

How Surreal

In the James Cameron interview on "Fresh Air," when talking about dreams he also said that surrealists directly translated their dreams onto canvas. That was their goal.

This makes me want to go back and give surrealism another try. I've never been a big fan, really. I'm not one of those people that argues surrealists paint such wacky images because they can't paint realistically. It's just that, generally, that style of painting has never appealed to me.

Who sees clocks melting in the sun in their dreams? For me, the reason dreams are so strange is because of the elements only I know are out of place. That whole, "Okay, so it started out in our house. But actually, it wasn't anything like our real house. It was bigger and the furniture was all different and we lived in California. But in the dream I just knew it was our house." But if I tried to paint that (putting aside the issue that I have no talent for painting whatsoever), it would just look like a big house in California. Out of my personal context, the weirdness just wouldn't be there.

On the other hand, I do really like Magritte's work, and he is also considered a surrealist. To me, his work does a better job of emphasizing the surrealist aspect of dreams. The fact that, in a dream, everything seems perfectly logical. It's only after one wakes up and tries to describe the dream that one realizes how odd it is to have an eye in the middle of one's crepe.

Image credit: Wikipedia

A Day at the Zoo

Last Wednesday, Eleanor and I had a lovely day at the zoo with Grandma Karen.

This is the third time Eleanor has been to the zoo, and she still doesn't have much interest in the animals yet. This time, I spent much of our excursion pointing out all the milestones for the 5k fiasco, which I'm sure was terribly fascinating for Karen. She did nod politely and "ooh" and "aah" appropriately, which I thought was nice of her.

We also went in the primate house for the first time. Eleanor enjoyed it thoroughly for a couple reasons:

1. She could walk anywhere and everywhere,
2. So many other children around!

Eleanor lurked in wait near entertaining monkeys or giant apes, until other toddlers innocently came up to the glass to watch them. She then pounced, grasping my finger and lurching her way, excited, panting, over to the other child. She grinned and screeched and wanted to hold hands and interact with them. At one point, I even thought she was going to go home with a little girl's mother—she walked up to the girl and then grabbed the mother's shirt and started cooing at her. I felt like I had been replaced! But of course, she's not fully mobile yet, so I just snatched her back and distracted her by pointing out a baby across the room.

I'm so glad that we have the zoo passes and can go back all throughout the year. The first few times, she was enthralled with the shrubbery immediately in view from the stroller. This time, she branched out to walking around the inside exhibits and making friends with other children. Maybe by December, she'll start to notice the animals!

It's a Date

Keith and I actually went out for Valentine's Day. It's pretty amazing, considering we didn't even really go on our first post-baby "date" until early December, when Eleanor was more than 5 months old. Then we went again at the end of January, when Keith's parents were visiting. And somehow we went out again 2 weeks later?!? If we're not careful, we might get used to hanging out, sans Eleanor, once a month or so.

When my older sister first offered to babysit for us in February, the possibilities seemed endless. Once we realized it would be on Valentine's Day, however, we immediately crossed dinner and a movie off our list. Or any other activity that could be construed as romantic in nature.

But in actuality, it took me a really long time to think of a few activities we might enjoy. It's so hard to think of regular, adult activities. I can't help myself from wondering, "How will I cart around a baby there? Will I have a place to change diapers? What about when it's naptime?"

Eventually, I settled on a winter sporting theme. The finalists were: a toboggan run, ice skating, or cross-country skiing. It all depended on the weather (lots of snow? cross-country skiing; pretty warm and sunny? tobogganing; frigid? indoor ice skating rink) and our mood that day.

It turned out to be a pretty nice day. Not too much snow, but a light dusting, some sun, and a temperature in the 30s. So we ended up ..... at the Western Reserve Historical Society Museum. Of course! Keith had run 18 miles that morning, and wasn't exactly feeling up to ice skating. Cross-country skiing was out due to the lack of snow (for the first time in over a month). And I had neglected to check out directions to the toboggan place—it was a 40-minute drive away. A little too far for our time frame.

So I learned that it's always good to have a back-up of your back-up of your back-up plan. After the museum, we stopped by a local coffee shop for hot drinks and enormous peanut butter cookies. It was a really nice afternoon filled with adult conversation and companionable silence. All the same .... there were diaper-changing stations, and Eleanor would have loved it. We might just have to take her along next time.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Yesterday afternoon, I was talking to a co-worker about the events of the day. He said he'd been in late that day because he spent most of the morning with his daughter's elementary school class, on a field trip to the planetarium.

He waxed enthusiastic about this trip—how this newer planetarium had so many capabilities, the "guide" was so knowledgeable and interesting, the kids really enjoyed it ...

"Have you been to the planetarium?" He asked.

I answered in the negative, only remembering a few minutes later that I had, indeed, been to that planetarium. I just wasn't awake for it.

I love planetariums. I have an enthusiastic, amateur's interest in nearly all scientific topics. I love hearing about the history and advances of science, and learning a little bit more about our world. Unfortunately, I retain very little of it afterwards. But I still find it exciting.

And I feel the same intellectual excitement about planetariums. The bad thing is that the dim lights and soothing ambient music overrides my mental fervor, and I find myself slowly slipping into a light sleep. The "sky" fades from twilight into darkest night, and my eyelids become heavier and heavier.

Just a few days ago, Keith and I were commenting on how well we could see the stars on early morning runs. We both could clearly pick out Orion's belt—something I've never been able to identify before. I was strictly Big Dipper/Little Dipper, and any other constellations were beyond me.

So hopefully, even though I've slept through the majority of the presentations, I've managed to retain a few kernels of knowledge from my many trips to the planetarium. And I'll keep going, with eternal hope that one day I'll actually stay wide awake for the entire thing. At least I'm catching up on my sleep in the meantime.

A Christmas House

There's been some buzz around here lately about the opening of a new museum. Apparently, a fan of the movie A Christmas Story has bought the house where the movie was filmed and is turning it into a museum.

My first reaction was somewhat skeptical. There's an added layer of ludicrosity (I think I just made that word up, by the way) to having a museum dedicated to a fake event. As I understand it, the original short story was actually set in rural Indiana. Because my facts were sketchy, I just read the wikipedia entry on A Christmas Story and discovered:

The house, on the west side of Cleveland Ohio, where the movie was filmed, was only used for exterior shots. The "fudge" flat tire was filmed down the street from the house. An entrepreneur later bought the house on eBay for $150,000.^[6] He spent another $240,000 to renovate the house and back yard to look like the movie, and opened it to the public in November 25, 2006 as a museum, with original cast members attending the grand opening. The restored house contains some of the props from the movie, including Randy's snow suit and the leg lamp.

Firstly: damn, those wikipedia people are fast!

Secondly, let's recap: the house and surrounding streets were used for some exterior shots. That's it. But this guy has had contractors come in and completely gut the house to rebuild the interior so it matches the movie.

I like museums. Quite a bit. Especially oddball tributes to strange facets of life like the Mutter Museum of Medical Oddities and Sir John Soane's Museum. At first, I tried to convince myself it would be neat because it would be like reliving the movie and it would be a look into 1930s-era culture.

But I think this may be too much for even me. A house is used for a few shots in a movie, which is based on a fictional short story. And now this prop has become a museum?!? The connection between the interior of this house and any actual events is just too tenuous for me to take it seriously as a museum

Of course, having said that, it doesn't mean I won't go. I love that movie!

Londontown

And finally, we arrived in London. We took our suitcases to the last hotel, knowing that the next time we packed them, it would be to go home. We arrived late Friday morning, and set out to explore after a quick perusal of the room.

Firstly, in honor of Keith's sole previous experience in London, we went to Euston Station. When I was living in England, Keith came to visit for a week after Christmas. It's a long, entertaining story full of crazy antics and strange coincidences, but the short version is that Keith was only in London for a little over a day (we were supposed to be there for two). In those roughly 36 hours, he probably spent 16 at Euston train station, 10 sleeping, 5 traveling around, and possibly 5 hours in the city. On a Sunday afternoon when everything's closed anyway. It was not a good trip.

Ever since then, we've sworn that the next time we were in the UK, we would go back to London so Keith could actually see more of it than the inside of Euston. And yet, it seemed fitting to start by traipsing to Euston. Keith showed me where he sat on the ground waiting for me, and a security guard thought he was a homeless guy and tried to kick him out. And the food court where he ate all his meals the first day, and the courtesy phone when I called from Birmingham to tell him I was stranded .... it was a great trip down memory lane.

Even better was leaving the train station and actually walking around the city! I think we had a nice mix of standard touristy destinations (London Eye, the Tower, Trafalgar Square), and things off the beaten path (wagamama, Greenwich, Sir John Soane's Museum). I'm not exactly sure whether to consider Greenwich off the beaten path, though. It felt far from London, but it was filled with pushy Asian tourists. NOT that I'm making a broad statement about Asian people in general. I'm just saying that if I'm standing in the middle of a room and reading an exhibit, I prefer not to be elbow-to-elbow with a complete stranger.

For me, London is a different experience from the rest of the UK because I feel like I have very little personal connection there. I mean, that is where I started and ended my volunteer year, and we went there several times for retreats ... I don't know why. I don't know if it's because it's so big, or maybe because I didn't do much touring of the city until the very end of my time in the UK, it still feels impersonal to me.

Some people like the facelessness of London. Faceless in that there's so many different nationalities and cultures meeting in the city, it's difficult to talk about London without getting into pluralities and exceptions to any rule. This is not a bad thing. But I guess I prefer a city that's a little smaller. That offers plenty of arts and culture, but also feels like it has a local identity and roots.

Just the Facts

Right. So, I decided to be wild and crazy and not write my descriptions of the trip in chronological order. It just felt too constricting. And I'm glad I'm doing it that way; it makes each day a little more exciting. (Yes, I know. I need to get out more.)

But I thought that, as we're about midway through the trip blog entries, you might like a refresher on exactly what happened when. So below is a brief itinerary with a ton of links, so you can learn as much (or as little) as you'd like about the places we visited.

Saturday, October 14: Arrived in Glasgow
Sunday, October 15: Visited Tenement House and Willow Tea Rooms, shopped at Primark
Monday, October 16: Elaine and David's wedding
Tuesday, October 17: Went to St. Vincent's School in Liverpool
Wednesday, October 18: Visited York Minster in York
Thursday, October 19: Visited Jacqui and Adam in Doncaster; shopped in Primark (again)
Friday, October 20: Headed to London. Checked into our hotel, went to the London Eye, Middle Temple Hall, wandered through Sir John Soane's Museum, and on the Sinister London tour
Saturday, October 21: Lunch at wagamama, Cabinet War Rooms, stopped by the Tower of London, saw a show in the evening
Sunday, October 22: Went to the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, wandered past Buckingham Palace and got soaked in the rain; Thought about going to the National Gallery, but went back to the hotel to dry out and watch "Trust Me ... I'm a Beauty Therapist" instead; headed back to Leicester Square for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Delicious! (And you can only have Yorkshire pudding and fish and chips so many times in 10 days)
Monday, October 23: Flew home

Lazy Day in Glasgow

We arrived in Glasgow on Saturday morning. We managed to stay awake all day Saturday and then slept 13 hours Saturday night. Waking up around 11 o'clock Sunday morning, I would hesitate to call us "refreshed" but at least we were close to adapted to the time zone.

It was our only day for sightseeing in Glasgow, but we didn't really see too many sights. Firstly, I'd failed to take into account that many things are closed of a Sunday in the UK, so some of the things we'd planned on seeing were closed or had reduced hours.

Mostly we just wandered around town. We took the train in, which made us feel somewhat self-sufficient since we'd been personally escorted from one place to the next since our arrival. From the train station, we wandered down the main shopping streets (Buchanan and Sauciehall) and up toward the Glasgow School of Art.

Or at least, that's where we were meant to be headed. At George Square I got turned around and somehow we started walking Southeast, when we needed to be going Northeast. Keith didn't let this state of affairs continue for long, however, before he sneaked a furtive glance at a map in our tourist book, righted our direction, and piloted us safely to the Tenement House.

In the guide book, the Tenement House is described as a step back in time, to the WWII era in which this apartment was kept by its owner until she passed away in the 70s. It appealed to me for both historical reasons and for the voyeurism aspect—that someone had left their earlier life intact, and we could view it. I thought it would be something like those shows of OCD people who have 20 years of newspaper stacked ceiling-high with only narrow aisles between.

But it was actually just an old apartment. It was small—a bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom. And pretty simple. We wandered around for maybe 15 minutes, shrugged our shoulders, and left. The accompanying museum on the ground floor of the building did give a little bit more of the voyeurism I was seeking, displaying letters and rent books and the like. It was alright, but I came away a bit underwhelmed. Maybe it was just the remnants of jet lag.

Actually, I was a bit underwhelmed at our next stop, too: the Willow Tea Rooms. I knew they'd been designed by Rennie Mackintosh, whose work I greatly admire. And I had never gotten to eat there during other visits, so I was really looking forward to it. But once there we found out that the original ones had been knocked down and this new version was created in the 1990s. And, like the Tenement House, the restaurant was much smaller than I expected.

I know, I know—you'll say it's because I'm an American used to Biggie-sized meals and McMansions. But really, it wasn't even the whole upstairs of a shop! Just sort of a walkway around the walls, with the middle part being open to look down into the shop. Small tables, small menu, and we sat waiting for ages for the bill, because we couldn't remember if the waitress brings the bill to you or if you go to the counter and pay.

Eventually Keith sorted it out and we wandered back to the train station, with me popping into shops here and there. We made it back on the train and into Cleland in time for a lovely Yorkshire pudding dinner.

I'm trying to decide if I regret not doing more in Glasgow. But I think it was probably just the lazy kind of day that we needed. To get our bearings at the beginning of the trip, rest up after the flight and before the wedding.

A Prime Place for a Meridian

Every day during the trip was different. A wonderful, exciting adventure, if you will. But even so, our trip to Greenwich stands out in my mind as a particularly unique, memorable day.

Although just south of the Thames and accessible with a Zone 2 Underground pass, Greenwich felt miles away from London. When we arrived on Sunday morning, the air was cool and humid. Behind the National Maritime Museum was an expansive, grassy lawn. A trail through the lawn led up the side of a hill, to the Royal Observatory. All across the lawn, people were walking with babies or dogs or both. The entire scene felt very serene.

The Observatory was somehow quaint and modern all at the same time. Just a museum now, due to the horrific light pollution that is the London metropolis, the displays ranged from the first clock to keep correct time on the high seas to the most modern timepieces. I had never truly considered how difficult it was to get everyone on the same time schedule. Back in the day, "local time" meant the church clock in your village, which may be running slower or faster than that in the next village over. Usually I rail against the tyranny of time and my lack of it. But this gave me an appreciation for the development of time-telling technology.

I think what struck me the most about the creation of the Prime Meridian was the arbitrariness of it. Hey! We need a way to define longitude in a concrete way for the entire world. So we need a starting point, like the equivalent of the equator. How .... about ... here! And the Prime Meridian was born. Ah, the joys of a vast and dominating empire! To bend time and geography to your iron will and inimitable spirit.