tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70141492714295010912024-09-01T09:52:35.741-04:00Today, America...thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.comBlogger122125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-31140146575077643982010-10-20T11:06:00.000-04:002010-10-20T11:07:21.796-04:00

Hey, everyone. I'm coming back soon, I promise.  Just not yet.

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-9762425542819976012010-09-30T12:40:00.002-04:002010-09-30T12:45:44.637-04:00

The thing of it is, I'm moving.And between the packing, and the purging, and watching everyone around me slowly lose their minds over how much stuff we still have, there's just no time for this.I promise, for the handful of you who read regularly, that I'll be back when I'm settled.  It shouldn't take too long.Until then, enjoy your own adventures.

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-36508273652010188632010-09-28T15:58:00.001-04:002010-09-28T15:58:24.670-04:00

I'm afraid I'm at a bit of a loss today.Sorry.

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-24337776128221657552010-09-27T10:34:00.003-04:002010-09-27T10:43:12.064-04:00

Statues and sculptures captured in downtown Indianapolis

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-80849303685216953992010-09-23T10:33:00.003-04:002010-09-23T11:14:05.871-04:00

Gosh.  Anyone looking at these photos is going to think Indianapolis is some kind of creepy ghost town.I should say that there were plenty of people walking the streets of downtown Indianapolis.  But Sunday was Manning-Bowl, and the blue and white be-jerseyed denizens of Indy were too busy migrating to the Lucas Oil Stadium to stop and get their pictures taken.No Colts fans in the capitol

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-14565718109319459272010-09-22T10:36:00.002-04:002010-09-22T10:43:15.126-04:00

Just a few things picked up from our walk along the Indiana Central Canal.

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-85735490449426149822010-09-21T10:39:00.003-04:002010-09-21T11:45:13.320-04:00

When I was in fourth grade, our class took a field trip to Indianapolis.  We spent the morning at the Indiana State Museum, and grossed ourselves out peering into the display buckets in the Civil War medical exhibit.  The afternoon we had to ourselves, two hours to do whatever we wished (with our chaperones) before the buses came to pick us up.  My group had already spent much of the after lunch

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-4182982696978635122010-09-16T10:14:00.003-04:002010-09-16T10:40:37.646-04:00

I don't get many opportunities to see peacocks, but at the Cincinnati Zoo, they roam the grounds at their own leisure.  I'd never seen a peacock show his feathers, so I had hoped that, before we left for the day, we might see one shake what his peacock mama gave him. After plenty who had no interest in showing off...  And one poor fella who tried so hard but didn't have much to show...As we were

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-75936039893342947542010-09-15T10:12:00.002-04:002010-09-15T11:09:17.260-04:00

I don't keep plants.  I like them, I like taking pictures of them, and I even like going to see them in the wild.  But I don't keep them.  Not anymore. A couple of years ago my mother gave me a venus flytrap.  It was so cute with its tiny little flytraps in a tiny little pot - I loved it instantly.  It was bright green, had three little traps, and came with a handy booklet that described all the

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-39967813129694353422010-09-14T02:00:00.005-04:002010-09-14T12:04:34.309-04:00

This is the Hugag.  It is a Fearsome Critter.This is a moose.  It is also a Fearsome Critter.There are few animals that, when I go to the zoo, I can look at from the outside and still truly know their awesome might.  One is elephants.  Another is bears.  And the moose.  Obviously.I don't know what I'd do if I ever saw a moose in real life.  Lie down and wait for death, I suppose.  They can run up

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-36886982767942845672010-09-10T10:26:00.006-04:002010-09-13T12:26:06.840-04:00

Well, as long as we're here...The famous fountain outside the Bellaggio Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas strip.  When I visited several years ago, we passed the hotel in the afternoon, and stopped to watch the water dance to a Frank Sinatra tune.  The guide book back in our room promised that the music played half hour in the afternoon, so there were plenty of opportunities to watch the

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-49401674724736800392010-09-09T11:48:00.003-04:002010-09-09T12:28:36.447-04:00

And it was delicious!If you can't tell, that's tiramisu in a giant chocolate egg cup, made a little less fancy for the paper plates and Pepsi machine hanging out in the background.This may make me sound like a giant nerd, but my favorite thing to do in Vegas is walk through the casinos.  "Ooh-ing" at the Chihuly glass at the Bellagio, "Aah-ing" at the pirate ship outside Treasure Island, hunting

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-11267817291657694682010-09-01T11:11:00.003-04:002010-09-01T11:57:04.808-04:00

I've written before about playing dress up at Yumekoubou Studio, and was delighted this week when, in the process of packing and purging some of the junk I've accumulated over the years, I found this series of photos documenting the change from "Tourist" to "Tourist in a Kimono."It's a bit liberating to have all that make-up on your face, ghosting over your features like a mask.  I'm a bit camera

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-88402976941509550822010-08-31T11:35:00.004-04:002010-08-31T12:12:01.322-04:00

I've written about walking the grounds of Mauthausen already - that story is here, if you're interested.  I think I mention somewhere that there isn't an inch of the building that hasn't been turned into a memorial.  What I forgot to mention is that just beyond the central camp buildings, out where the grass is green in a way that belies its sordid history, is a statue garden.  Built by the

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-18307674367458365522010-08-30T11:47:00.004-04:002010-08-30T11:59:26.146-04:00

Last time, I swear.  I'd have stopped after the first one, but there's just too much.    One last look at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-41095315594945682222010-08-27T09:48:00.004-04:002010-08-27T11:11:15.493-04:00

[*A correction to something I said yesterday: those pick-up trucks?  The ones backed up against the fence?  Those might as well be V.I.P. seats.  You have to reserve one of those spots (though they usually go to the parents of the teens in The Scramble - no better place to cheer on your kid than at ground level, where they might be able to hear you under their helmets).][*And my apologies for the

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-22352528861217196872010-08-26T10:52:00.005-04:002010-08-26T11:54:45.887-04:00

I almost forgot about the fair.That's no small feat, let me tell you.  Springfield, Ohio is the birthplace of 4-H (there's a plaque on the sidewalk and everything, so you know it's real), so the Clark County Fair is quite the event 'round these parts.  We've gone every year that we've been here, though it's sometimes been out of duty instead of desire.So we'll go, and do the fair things: walk the

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-28053065810288429412010-08-25T10:30:00.004-04:002010-08-25T10:44:36.924-04:00

And here, still more, from the Atlanta Botanical Garden.If you've never been, you ought to go.  Atlanta's worth seeing anyway, as it's a big city with lots of things in it.  Go in the morning, before the air gets too hot, and wear a little bug spray, should the mosquitos grace you with their presence, and enjoy your time among the flowers.(And if you get too hot, just duck into the Highlands Room

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-38564900573052298372010-08-24T10:52:00.003-04:002010-08-24T11:35:17.775-04:00

That is an unbaked apple strudel.  Or, as they say in Austria, "apfelstrudel."It's a traditional Viennese dessert, though we were in Innsbruck at the time, stopped at a pastry school that sat on top of a hill.  (Years later, I'd find out that Friend Ashley had gone to school to become a pastry chef.  I didn't ask if the two were related, but I like to think that they were.)Our big group of forty

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-77344433152813020152010-08-23T10:11:00.004-04:002010-08-23T10:28:26.737-04:00

No fancy words today, but I don't think they were needed.  Instead, enjoy this sorry attempt at fancy photography, all taken at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-38599554310164150292010-08-19T10:09:00.003-04:002010-08-19T11:28:26.870-04:00

I love Las Vegas, for many reasons.  I love that it exists, I love that it celebrates excess in the tackiest way possible, I love that, unless you've gone in with the silly idea that you're actually going to win money, it's a place where low expectations keep spirits high.And I love Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden, located behind the Mirage Hotel and Casino, just a line of trees away from the "

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-29388089325977898362010-08-18T09:54:00.003-04:002010-08-18T11:17:03.713-04:00

I must have zoo on the brain this week.  I haven't been to the Cincinnati Zoo in over a year, but all of my favorite Zoo Facts are about this particular zoo, so here we are.The Cincinnati Zoo is the second oldest zoo in America, opening just 14 months after the Philadelphia Zoo, in 1875.  (If you were curious, the oldest zoo in the world is the Teirgarten Schönbrunn of Vienna, built in 1752.)  

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-68658173128434045392010-08-17T10:26:00.004-04:002010-08-17T11:16:49.643-04:00

Hey, remember when I said I went to the zoo, ages and ages ago?  What ever happened to that?I'd been to the Columbus Zoo before, but there's a polar bear exhibit there now that wasn't there before.  So we brush past Jack Hannah's face on posters and follow the big footprints up the hill to the place where white giants roam.The remarkable thing about this exhibit is that it used to be a church.  

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-57142342032138394872010-08-16T08:55:00.004-04:002010-08-16T10:44:24.582-04:00

Cooooooca-Cola.Call the Cheese Brigade, folks.  It might get a little maudlin in here.The truth is, my family's been a Coke family for as long as I can remember.  The only carbonated beverage my mother ever let into the house was Diet Coke.  She hated the taste of Pepsi, and regular Coke, she said, was just "too syrupy."  So if it wasn't water or juice, the only thing we'd drink growing up was

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7014149271429501091.post-74265292075668388182010-08-13T10:32:00.003-04:002010-08-13T11:29:52.928-04:00

A first look at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.I've been to parks and gardens before, but none of them have been quite this big.  The Atlanta garden sprawls.  I could (and probably will) feature it for days.  There's simply too much to put into one post.  There's almost too much to see in one day.  And somehow we managed zip through it in one morning.The first big feature is the Canopy Walk.  It

thisamericantouristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10459006904470913983noreply@blogger.com0