In Retrospect

That's another incredible year in the books.  So many wild and crazy and fun times.  Thanks to my family: Mom and Dad; Patrick, Toni, and Chris; Scott and Barb, Mike, Erin and Pete; Brian and Ellen, Heidi, Mario, Nesti, and Natalie, Tom, Margie and Josh; Tim and Julia for making the world smaller, the days brighter.  Thanks to my tribe: Shane; Beth and Ken; Anthony; Doug; Jim; Ray; Tom and Roger for keeping me grounded, fulfilled, sustained.  There are many others that keep me intrigued and enlightened also.  You all make it worth it. Thanks to my kitties Boris, Peanut, Buford, Rocco, and Waffle for companionship, kindness, and purrs. Thanks to all the music, movies, books, TV shows, websites, and other media that provide entertainment, counseling, comfort, and enrichment. Thanks to the cities, towns, states, countries, and continents that fill me with wonder and inspiration.  Here's to the next one.  Happy New.

Love and Light.

Home For The Holidays

The weather has been rather mild up until this past weekend.  It turned quite chilly and it snowed. Shane and I had the gang over for a pre-holiday Thanksgiving and Christmas gathering.  I put up one of the Christmas trees for the festivities, and made turkey, sweet potato, cole slaw, mixed berry cobbler, and pumpkin bread to munch on. Everything turned out wonderful, and it was a perfect way to start the holiday season.  I'm heading home to Milwaukee to see Mom and Dad, and whoever else is there for Thanksgiving Wednesday.  Once I'm back in the Bend, I'll put up the rest of the Christmas decorations, Shane and I will hang the lights outside, and ornaments on the trees in the side yard.  As much as I detest winter, I sure love the holidays.

Christmas Tree

Bourbon Browned Butter Pumpkin Bread

Mixed Berry Cobbler

River Lights

Shane and I went down to the River Lights last night.  It is an art installation in Downtown South Bend on the St Joseph River.  It consists of five elements: The Light Trio, The Light Forest, The Crescent Sculpture, The Keepers of the Fire lighting, and Jefferson Boulevard Bridge Lighting.  They are all interactive, you can change the colors by touch and movement, and send colors across the river.  The lights use LEDs, an energy efficient and long-lasting form of lighting. They are powered by electricity. There is a plan is to eventually use a hydroelectric turbine that exists at the South Bend dam as the source of power.  I completely enjoy going to the River Lights and playing with the lights.

Jefferson Boulevard Bridge Lighting

The Light Forest

We All Scream

for ice cream.  I am always screaming for ice cream, it is an obsession.  So much so that this past Summer Shane and I traveled around Indiana to some of the best ice cream shops in the state. Websites like MSN and Thrillist have had lists of the best ice cream places in each state so I compiled my own list for us to check out.

We drove to Ivanhoe's Drive In located in Upland, Indiana.  It was listed as the best ice cream place in the state.  It was about a two and a half hour drive to get there.  The ice cream was delicious.

We visited Velvet Valpo in Valparaiso, Indiana.  Their ice cream was also very good.  It is about an hour from South Bend.

The Chief in Goshen, Indiana has incredibly delicious ice cream also.  They are regularly chosen as the best ice cream in the Michiana area.  It's about 40 minutes from home.

In Michigan City, Indiana, Bubbles Ice Cream Parlor serves some excellent ice cream as well.  It takes about 45 minutes to get there.  They also serve a version of Dole Whip, a favorite treat at Walt Disney World.

South Bend has a number of great places to get Ice Cream from also, Shane and I have frequented Kilwin's by the Notre Dame campus, South Bend Chocolate Cafe downtown, and Paleteria Y Neveria La Rosita on the west side of town.  They have an incredible tequila ice cream that is creamy and delicious.

One of my favorite places to go is in New Buffalo, Michigan, about 45 minutes away.  Oink's has many different flavors to choose from, and each one is yummy.

I plan on going back to all these places, and finding other ice cream shops to scream about!

 

Ivanhoes

Lemon Custard and Blue Moon from The Chief

Salted Caramel and Moose Tracks from Bubbles

It's like a chemical reaction . . .

Discovering a new band, hearing new music really gets to me.  Songs rattle through my brain for days, I break out into lyrics spontaneously, and I have to buy all available tracks ASAP.

Beth, Shane, and I decided to go see one of our favorite local bands Shiny Shiny Black who were opening for a band out of Nashville, *repeat repeat.  We went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants in Goshen, Venturi, before the show.  Afterward, we walked over to the venue, Ignition Music Garage.  Shiny Shiny Black put on an excellent show, as usual.  *repeat repeat to the stage and just blew the crowd away.  From the first note to the closing song, people were on their feet, clapping their hands, moving their bodies. What a great performance. In the days leading up to the show, the three of us had sought out their music and loved it, so we knew we would like the show.  We didn't like it, we loved it.  For me, it exceeded my expectations.  It was a high energy, raucous performance, exactly what surf rock candy music should be.

poster

Ignition Music Garage

*repeat repeat

Soapbox

I attended a political rally in downtown South Bend Thursday night with Beth and many other citizens.  It was the Moving Indiana Forward bus tour with Democratic Governor candidate John Gregg, Lieutenant Governor candidate Christina Hale,John Gregg, Current Indiana Superintendent of Schools Glenda Ritz, Attorney General candidate Lorenzo Arredondo, US Senator candidate Evan Bayh, Current US Senator Joe Donnelly, US Representative candidate Lynn Coleman and others. The rally started off with an inspired speech by South Bend's Mayor Peter Buttigieg.  One by one each person took to the podium and spoke for about five to ten minutes. The message was about community and collaborative efforts to make things better for everyone.  There's room at the table for all, and there's enough on the table for all.  It was very positive and uplifting.  This election season has been very dour and negative, and I think there is no place in government at any level for anybody who can not recognize the diversity and attributes of each person.  That being said, I'm all for moving Indiana forward, each candidate has earned my respect and vote.  I'm also with her. Stronger Together. Poignant and simply stated. Now go out and vote!

Political Selfie

Tour Bus

Rally

Mayor Pete

Senator Donnelly

Christina Hale

John Gregg

Evan Bayh

Lynn Coleman

Lightning

Wednesday night thunderstorms rolled through the area.   I was lounging on the couch reading, Shane was sitting in the recliner surfing the Internet.  We both were commenting on how much rumbling there was.  Suddenly there was a searing, crackling noise, a bright flash, and a horrendously loud boom simultaneously.  The house shook, windows rattled, art fell from the wall, and the cats took off running.  Shane and I were unnerved, thinking the house had just been struck by lightning.  I looked out the front window and the house across the street was completely dark, the house immediately to the right had it's lights flickering, then plunged into darkness.  Our lights stayed on the entire time. Shane has a lightning tracker app on his phone so he pulled it up and sure enough, there was a lightning strike across the street.  It was eerie, unsettling, and crazy.  It took quite a while afterward for me and Shane to settle down. Eventually the neighbors power came back on as the thunderstorm persisted through the night.

Europa - Epilogue

We woke up at 5:00am (11:00pm EDT) to catch the shuttle to the airport for our flight.  Hard to believe after two weeks of traveling through Poland, Germany, and France, we were heading home.  We were flying SAS on our way back.  The first flight was from Paris to Copenhagen, Denmark.  We had a three hour layover so we browsed the shops, bought a few souvenirs, and had a nice lunch before heading to the gate to catch our flight to Chicago.  We boarded the plane, settled in our seats, and prepared for the journey.  I watched several movies, The Lobster, a bleak futuristic tale where single people have 30 days to find a mate or be transformed into an animal and hunted, and Sing Street, about an Irish boy who forms a band to impress a girl.  I enjoyed both movies immensely. The plane was equipped with external cameras so you could see the outside area, it was very interesting to watch.  We landed in Chicago around 6:00pm and took about 50 minutes to get through customs.  We caught the blue line to downtown and walked to Millennium Station to wait for the 9:00pm South Shore train to South Bend.  We arrived home shortly after 1:00am local time.  What a trip.  I would do it again.  It makes me want to see more of the world, places I have read about in books, magazines, newspapers, seen on TV and movies.

Flight to Denmark

Plane Selfie

Copenhagen Airport

Europa - France Part II: Paris

We took the Paris Metro from Disneyland into the City of Lights.  We visited the Père Lachaise Cemetery, the largest cemetery in the city. Among those interred are Composer Georges Bizet, Composer Frederic Chopin, Mime Marcel Marceau, Cinematographer Georges Melies, Singer Jim Morrison, Singer Edith Piaf, Writer Oscar Wilde, along with other notable persons.  We went to The Musée d'Orsay, a museum on the left bank of the River Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin, and Van Gogh. We visited the Arc de Triomphe, one of the most famous monuments in Paris. It stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. The Arc de Triomphe honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. We walked from the Arc de Triomphe to the Eiffel Tower.  Shane and I decided to go to the top of the tower to take in the view of the city. We arrived on the top level observation deck shortly before sunset.  We both got a flute of champagne to watch the sunset and to toast what a whirlwind two week adventure we had been on.

Paris Metro

Metro Stop

Jim Morrison's Grave

Georges Melies Grave

Art

Monet

Whistler's Mother

Degas - Dancers in Blue

Van Gogh

Musee D'Orsay

Medallion Art

Statuary

Rodin

Lady of Liberty

Statues

River Seine

Arc de Triomphe

View from the Arc de Triomphe

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Park Statue

Eiffel Tower

Under the Tower

Line for the lift

Notre Dame seen from the Eiffel Tower

River Seine from atop the Eiffel Tower

Sunset

Tower Lights

Night Selfie