United States – Page 13

ART, Attractions, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Birmingham Museum of Art

March 8, 2017March 5, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: THE JEWEL OF BIRMINGHAM

When the possibility of visiting Birmingham first came up, I checked out the city online. The city seemed to be a foodie haven with a great art museum and a nice botanical garden, but comparing their hours to our flight schedule and the hours of the thing I can’t tell you about, I wasn’t going to have time to do anything about any of that. So, I dutifully went about my business. Still, something in my subconscious kept clanging. I couldn’t exactly recall why, but I knew I really wanted to see the museum.

Perhaps, Maybe, Possibly

One day at lunch, before we took off on the Birmingham adventure, I mentioned to Hannah Beth that I regretted we weren’t going to have time to do the touristy thing. She assured me the museum was well worth seeing and mentioned a couple of possibilities we might have for seeing it. I assured her I had checked for evening hours, so that wouldn’t work, but skipping the final session – that would do.

I just happen to be one of those people who believe God is personally involved in my life. I also believe that if I’m willing to put Him first, He does everything he can to fulfill Psalms 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desire of your heart.” In fact, He’s proved it to me too many time to deny it.

So, while we were keeping an ear to the ground to find out how significant the final session would be, God was arranging to keep things ahead of schedule so that we could get out in plenty of time to make it to the museum. You may call that a coincidence. I don’t believe in coincidences.

An Embarrassment of Wedgwood

If you’ve been hanging around this blog for very long, then you know the Decorative Arts Wing of any museum is my prime objective when I make a visit. I love Decorative Arts better than anything else produced from the artistic mind. I can spend an entire day in a Porcelain gallery – a passion I learned from my mother.

What’s more, Wedgwood,especially their Jasperware, (matte porcelain with relief decorations) is among my most favorite porcelains. Don’t believe me? Take a gander at the photo of the fireplace my husband and I designed for our home. You don’t have one of these unless you love Wedgwood. It was inspired by two I’d seen in Mount Vernon.

Along with representative Wedgwood pieces gracing the mantle piece, there are various Wedgwood and Jasperware pieces spread throughout the house. For good measure, my everyday china is Wedgwood. Not Jasperware but Wedgwood. So imagine my delight when I glanced over the map of the Birmingham Museum and saw three galleries designated by the word “Wedgwood”.

The Dwight and Lucille Beeson Wedgwood Collection

If you love Wedgwood the way I love Wedgwood, then go ahead and book the flight. I’ve been in a lot of museums and so far, I’ve never seen one with so much Wedgwood. I haven’t been to The Wedgwood Museum at Stokes-on-Trent yet, but that’s only because it didn’t exist decades ago when I visited the city. I can assure you, this is the most Wedgwood you are going to see anywhere outside of Britain.

The galleries contain mostly Jasperware in a rainbow of hues, but they have samples of other forms of Wedgwood collected by the couple. I swear I could have visited the museum every day for a week and been perfectly happy studying the exhibits in the three galleries. Here are some samples.

That blue and yellow vase on the jade pedestal would be great in my yellow and blue French decor but the dark blue wine cooler with the white flowers must be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I’d leave it in the museum for others to share.

Giving the Rest of the Art Its Due

Even if you don’t like Wedgwood, the Birmingham Museum of Art is still a good thing to see. Porcelains from other places are prevalent throughout the museum, but there are also paintings and statues and other things to enjoy. I did run through the balance of the galleries at a high speed and then rushed back to gander at the Wedgwood a little more. However, I did get these two postcards to prove the museum has variety.

Buying the Book

In this digital age, when you can find almost any piece of art you’d like to see by searching it online, art books might not seem a good investment to some people. Maybe other people spend their time cruising museums online, but I’ll confess, I want to be there and see it in person. Seeing it online is better than not seeing it at all, but it’s not even on the same continent as first hand observation.

By the same token, while I have broken my habit of buying a book in every museum I go to, sometimes I just have to take a catalog home. This was one of those times. In fact, I anticipated facing down the fury of my husband if the only thing available was some $160 hardback number.

I guess God was doing me another favor, because there was a reasonably priced soft cover edition of the catalog – only it had a large sticker designating it as the display copy. I chatted up the clerk, who was a volunteer. She looked in the stockroom – nothing. She offered to have someone take a gander in the warehouse in the next day or so and call me if they had anymore. I just stood there clasping the display edition as if my life depended on it. “I’m leaving town this afternoon,” I all but wailed. “Oh we can ship it to you,” she assured me.

I put off replying to her suggestion by telling her about my fireplace. Then I mused as to what in the world I would do if there were no more of the books in the warehouse. She decided to sell me the display copy at a discounted price. BINGO! I’m getting a whole lot better at this negotiating thing than I used to be. I’d have paid full price just to have it, but I’m sure the fireplace story did the trick!

The flight home was not as trouble free as my flight to Birmingham. The flight was delayed for hours and as a result I know more about the food vendors at the Birmingham airport than I should. I’d been on a diet, which had been seriously threatened by the fast food offerings served to us at that thing I can’t tell you about, but what damage had not already been done got done. So much for dieting. And so much for Birmingham. Come back next week and see what I’m up to.

Architecture, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Gardens, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Vulcan Park Tower, Birmingham AL

March 1, 2017February 20, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: A STEEL CITY LANDMARK

So my boss had just arrived back in the States from someplace else that I can’t tell you about to join us at the thing I can’t tell you about. At the end of the second day after a meal provided by the thing I can’t tell you about, there was supposed to be a worship and praise service, but the boss needed a change of scenery. One more large meeting room filled with people and he was a goner, so we escaped.

Hannah Beth Helps Us Play Hooky

Since the meal we’d been provided was lukewarm hot dogs and stale potato chips (no offense intended, but that’s what it was), we wished we’d decided to play hooky about 30 minute previous to our boss’ confession of meeting room fatigue. A nice dinner would have been a treat. Still, we weren’t going to waste an opportunity for some team building activities outside the meeting room. So Hannah Beth took us on a tour.

Now I know young folks to things differently than I do, so this is not meant as criticism, but merely an observation. While Hannah Beth has been to Birmingham several times and has the inside scoop on what to do, she depends on GPS for directions. Her modus operandi is to take off in the direction which she thinks something is and then use voice commands to tell her phone to find the way. This means she has one hand fully on the wheel, while she holds both the wheel and the phone in the other – all the while chatting up everyone in the car.

Yep, I’m a Nervous Nellie, so the entire time we were driving in Birmingham, I’m in the backseat praying we actually get to the place we’re headed. Since I’m here to tell the tale, you know my prayers were answered in the affirmative, but while we were playing hooky from a praise and worship ceremony, I felt a little guilty about praying for protection. Proves God listens all the time, I guess.

Vulcan Tower on Red Mountain

Vulcan Tower via http://birminghamal.org

According to the Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau:

“Vulcan is the largest cast iron statue in the world and Birmingham’s unofficial city symbol. Standing high atop Red Mountain, the 56-foot-high statue has an observation balcony on its pedestal for a panoramic view of the city. Vulcan is patterned after the mythical Roman god of the forge, a nod to the city’s powerful position in the iron and steel industry in the first part of the 20th century. The statue was created as Birmingham’s exhibit in the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis and won the exposition’s grand prize. The museum at Vulcan has interactive exhibits and displays that portray the region’s history and progress. Museum open Monday- Saturday, 10am- 6pm; Sunday, 1pm- 6pm. Observation balcony open Monday- Saturday, 10am- 10pm; Sunday, 1pm- 10pm. Admission.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself, but you can learn more on the actual Vulcan Park website.

Our boss covered the entrance fee which was just a dollar or two and we climbed the stairs to the top of the hill. Someone who will remain nameless desperately needed to visit the rest room. Even though the sign said the museum was open, it wasn’t and that’s where the restroom was. In desperation, the drain in an unlocked utility room sufficed as a toilet. That’s all I’m going to say about it, but as tired as we were, that was just the crowning glory of the day and we got a serious fit of the giggles.

Above It All

Though the tower is lovely and the park is very nice, the real draw to visiting the Vulcan Tower is that you can climb up in it. So we did, still giggling like fools. Now yours truly is has a slight case of acrophobia. OK, so maybe a large case, but as we took the elevator up I was distracted by the giggling. We walked across a steel grate which was a bridge to the steel grate which was the balcony around the tower. There was also a fence, but all the ground around us was visible from our vantage point.

At first I just looked out toward the horizon and enjoyed the scenery (see picture from previous post). Then I looked down. MISTAKE. I tried to be cool. I tried standing away from the rail and looking toward the tower. Didn’t work. I started getting lightheaded and broke out in a cold sweat. It was time to go.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a grocery store, to get some necessities. That list might have included individual bottles of screw top wine, but if it did, I’m not telling. As much fun as this adventure was, the best is yet to come, so make you way back here next week.

Accommodations, DESTINATIONS, Restaurants & Bars, TRAVEL, United States

Steel City Stories

February 22, 2017February 20, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: BIRMINGHAM FOR BUSINESS

My business is ministry and that ministry targets Central Asia and the Middle East, so I can’t always be an open book about where I go and why. However, I can tell you I made a visit to Birmingham, Alabama for business at an unspecified time for an unspecified reason. While I can’t give you those details, I can tell you some of the stories related to the trip.

The Crack of Dawn

My traveling companion for this particular trip was my work buddy and good friend, Hannah Beth. I’m old enough to be her mother and she’s gracious enough to treat me as if I’m her age, and I love it. Our flight to Birmingham was ridiculously early and we had to bring along some signage, so both of us were concerned about getting there, getting checked in and getting on the flight. In our eagerness we got to the airport hours before we needed to. We were there so early I had plenty of time to walk around and take pictures of the mosaics on the floor.

An Over Easy Arrival

We arrived in Birmingham in time for breakfast. While I’m used to being the tour guide pretty much anywhere I go, I was happy to turn the reins over to Hannah Beth on this trip. Her sister goes to school there, so she has the inside track. She proved that when she took us to Over Easy. She had a breakfast-something and I had lunch-something. Both were delicious.

The decor and atmosphere was very California: modernesque furniture and semi-hippie waitstaff. Because it was a late morning on a weekday, most of the clientele were students who didn’t have early classes and a few moms who’d dropped the older kids off at school.

We arrived at the restaurant via her sister’s campus. We Uber-ed there from the airport. I’m not a natural Uber-er, but Hannah Beth treats it like it’s her second car. We may work together like two peas in a pod, but we do come from opposite sides of the generation gap. At the campus, we picked up her sister’s car – another evidence of working in ministry. No rental cars or swanky hotels.

Speaking of the lack of swanky hotels, we stayed in a La Quinta. Don’t get me wrong. There was nothing wrong with the place. It was clean and convenient. The breakfast was good. It was a fine place to stay, but let’s face it two stars is not exactly plush.

So that’s the basics – an early morning flight, a little transportational shuffle, a hearty breakfast and an economy hotel. The rest of the meals were either breakfast at the hotel or something served to us at the thing I can’t tell you about. However, this was me and I had Hannah Beth with me. Adventures are in store. By the way, Birmingham is called the Steel City, because it used to be the home of most of the world’s steel mills. More about that next week, so please come back to visit.

DESTINATIONS, Road Trips, Shopping, TRAVEL, United States

San Marcos Premium Outlets

February 1, 2017January 12, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: MY KIND OF SHOPPING AND MORE

I love shopping. Actually, it would be more correct to say I love buying. I’m perfectly capable of wandering through a bazaar or market in a faraway place, just to get a feel for the place, but for me, it’s a lot more fun if there’s buying involved.

My husband has finally cured me of that – at least when he’s around. I used to come home from trips with a souvenir from every stop. I collected trinket boxes and Christmas ornaments. I loved to find handmade clothing and jewelry. I gathered up souvenir booklets like some people collect baseball cards. In the early years of our marriage, this practice created great discomfort for Bill. He followed me around with his eyes full of pain and flinched at every purchase. I didn’t pay close enough attention, so he started helping me understand his point of view.

Collecting just doesn’t make any sense to him. To Bill, all my gorgeous trinket boxes seemed like clutter. He’s suggested I store most of them and only put out a few at a time. What once held pride of place, on the fireplace mantle of my apartment, is now hidden away upstairs on a shelf in my office – along with all my framed family photos, my large collection of books and … well you get the picture. I don’t have to allow much room for souvenirs in my return luggage, anymore.

From time to time, I’ll have a lapse of judgement. We’ll be traveling and I’ll pick up an item with that look in my eye. Bill goes into panic mode. Trinket boxes and Christmas ornaments are strictly taboo. If I’ve picked up an item for the house, Bill wants to know exactly where I plan to display it and of course, he really loves what’s there and doesn’t want to replace it. Whatever it is, it won’t be coming home with me. Clothing and jewelry? Forget about it. He asks what I’m going to throw away or donate to make space for the new item. My only hope of making a purchase is when I find a gift for someone else. It takes some of the fun out of it.

The Exceptions to the Rule

While he can’t see the value in that cute straw purse on the beach or an embroidered sweater in the Alps, Bill does understand I know my way around an outlet mall. He fully endorses my outlet shopping. Mind you, he rarely goes with me, but he also doesn’t need resuscitation when I come home with armloads of shopping bags. See, he knows that cute straw purse on the beach has a mark-up somewhere in the range of 100%, but if I buy a top at an outlet mall, they’ve almost had to pay me to get me to carry it out.

I’m also allowed to buy shoes at DSW. I never look at anything unless it’s on the clearance rack and even then, I’ll only look at things that are 50% or more off. What I love is the yellow stickers, because that means they are marked down 80% or more.

San Marcos Premium Outlet

For some reason I cannot fathom, I never shopped at the San Marcos Premium Outlet – at least not in the last 20-30 years. It seems as if long ago I might have gone with Mom and Aunt Edie, but I think the stores may have been on the other side of the road – and none of the stores I loved this time were there.

You know I love San Antonio and get there every time I can, but for some reason, we’d just drive right past this outlet mall or stop in Salado. It pains me to think of all the bargains I’ve missed.

Deb and I started at Off 5th, the Saks outlet. I’d been looking at white pique dresses all summer long, but could not tolerate spending $150-200 for one dress. At Saks, I took several reasonably priced options to the dressing room and found one for about$20 that I loved. (I didn’t even know I was headed to Egypt on my next trip. Imagine how cute I will be, going out to dinner in Sharm!) Then off to the shoe department. Score!! Ellen Tracy brown crocodile pumps with a leather stack heel for $16.99! $16.99!!

After that auspicious beginning, my purchasing slowed down, but I did pick up a few items here and there. Then we wandered in to Dream Land. I pride myself on looking designer without paying designer prices, but I confess, there are designers I love and if money were no object, as my spouse if fond of saying, I’d load my closet up with them. My new favorite is Carolina Herrera. To my utter delight, she has an outlet store in San Marcos. The prices are still a little out of my reach, but they are closer than the ones at Northpark. Armani, Brahmin, Coach, Ferragamo – all these and more grace the sidewalks of the San Marcos outlet mall.

But let me tell you my favorite. I love St. John. I can pick out someone wearing it a mile away. There’s a sleek elegance I aspire to that exudes from each St. John creation. Their store is not exactly on the main drag, so we had to wander a bit to find it, but I adored the few moments I spent there. No reason to spend any more, because nothing was in my price range.

At a final stop, we found a handbag for my bestie. She’d been willing to pay $100 for something adequate at the Saks outlet, but we agreed to keep looking. She got a Brahmin for about $120. I was giddy. She hoped I was spending her money wisely and now I think she agrees I did.

Then it was time to head back to join the women who had spend the day in Gruene, because we were headed out to dinner. See you next week!

DESTINATIONS, Restaurants & Bars, TRAVEL, United States

Palmer’s is Perfect – Almost!

January 25, 2017January 10, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: PARTYING ON PALMER’S PATIO

Armed with a recommendation and an address, Deb and I headed towards San Marcos. We wanted to grab a bite before we headed to the outlet mall. We found a lot more than a bite at Palmer’s!

An Awkward Beginning

From the street Palmer’s doesn’t look like much. In fact, coming from Gruene, the first thing you see is a wall with a large mural. Nothing about the mural let us know we’d made a good decision, but when we found the parking lot we realized we’d found the nirvana which had evaded me during an earlier yoga session.

A large shaded patio with a splashing fountain promised we were about to have a good time, but we had to work for it. As we passed the patio entering the restaurant there were scads of empty tables, but when we asked to sit out there, the hostess hesitated. She had to go check something and she asked us to sit down. When she came back she said we’d need to wait a little and that sounded OK, until a little turned into a lot.

There was a time in my life when I would have meekly sat there until called, but that time has passed. The hostess busied herself sorting through menus and made a career of ignoring us. Since the patio was virtually empty, we wondered what was up. Finally, I asked exactly what we were waiting on since there were so many tables available. She stammered around about the wait staff having just taken orders and not being quite ready to serve us. I didn’t stammer when I said we’d rather do our waiting outside.

She reluctantly seated us on the patio and soon we’d made our drink orders. It was never quite clear why the hostess expected us to wait docilely in the slightly dank and very dark vestibule, but with the breeze blowing, a jazz trio playing and the water playing in the fountain, we didn’t care for very long.

A Little Bit of Heaven

So, the service was lacking before we ever got a chance to sit down, but I didn’t really care. The food took forever to get there and when I got it, I didn’t like it very much. (Nothing on the menu suggested the fritatta came heavily drizzled with sour cream. There are only three things in the whole world that I won’t eat and sour cream is one of them.) But that’s alright. I was happy and didn’t want to get unhappy!

Sitting on the patio at Palmer’s is the closest thing I’ve found to sitting on the patio at Joe T’s; and sitting on the patio at Joe T’s is the closest thing I’ve found to heaven – only the food at Joe T’s is good, really good.

The food might have been mediocre, but they had something called a Poinsettia to drink. For the uninitiated, a Poinsettia is the same thing as a Mimosa, except that you use cranberry juice instead of orange juice. Orange juice is not one of the three things I refuse to partake of, but I do avoid it if I can. Now that I know about Poinsettias, I will never have to regret that I don’t particularly like Mimosas, ever again in my life.

Here’s what’s funny. A Poinsettia was $5, but according to the waitress, “for $8 you can get twice as much.” I planned to be there for a while so I went for the large. Forget twice as much! I could have gotten everyone on the patio severely drunk with the huge bottle of Poinsettias I was served. Deb had started with a make-your-own Bloody Mary Bar, with which she had been underwhelmed, but if we would have known, we would have just ordered the large Poinsettia and two glasses. We both drank as much as we dared over several hours and still couldn’t make a dent. See why the fritatta didn’t matter!!

I could go on, but the bottom line is this, the shady patio, the jazz band and the Poinsettias were so good, nothing else mattered – not the lousy service, not the mediocre food, nothing. I will return to Palmer’s but it was time to head to the outlet mall. Look out credit cards!!

DESTINATIONS, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Heading Out to the West Texas Town of El Paso

April 29, 2016April 28, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL BUG TALES: OUR FIRST REAL VACATION

As promised, it’s time to get back to our family trip to El Paso and New Mexico. The year was 1967 and we’d recently moved back to Texas. I call it our first real vacation, because the only vacation our family took before then was coming to Texas from wherever my dad’s job had him stationed at the time.

Going Batty

Our primary destination for this family vacation was Carlsbad Cavern. We planned on taking the tour into the caverns, but Mom was insistent that we must first experience the flight of the cavern’s bats on the evening before. Somehow El Paso and White Sands National Park worked themselves into the mix.

I’m sure the inclusion of El Paso had something to do with I-20. This was back in the days before the Middle East Oil Crisis (the first one, not the recent one), so you could legally drive 80 miles an hour on I-20 in West Texas. In reality you could drive as fast as your car would go.

I can tell you this. If the speed limit was 80, you can rest assured my dad stayed two or three clicks below, so he could be sure he wasn’t breaking the law. George was a stickler for that sort of thing. Mom was a little more interested in making good time and there were usually “discussions” about Dad’s slow poke methodology.

Getting an Early Start

My dad was a Canteen Officer for Veterans Administration Hospitals, which meant he got up early on workdays to oversee the preparation of breakfast in the cafeteria. Since Dad woke at 4:45 every weekday morning, he didn’t see any harm in waking the rest of us at 4:45 on the first day of vacation.

For many years, Mom would wake us up at the start of a vacation and give us a good breakfast – make that a very heavy breakfast with eggs, bacon, toast and who knows what else. On any other day of the year a bowl of cereal, hot or cold, was considered a perfectly good breakfast, but for some reason, when we left on vacation, I was supposed to want the full monty.

The only problem was that once we got on the road, I would yell out, “Mom, my throat hurts!” This was family code for, “I’m car sick and am about to throw up.” Dad would pull over to the side of the road where I’d wrench open the door and deposit all of that good breakfast into the gravel, only it didn’t look quite as good by then. Within a few miles I’d be hungry again and would stay that way for the rest of the morning until my parents decided it was time for lunch.

Eventually, I permanently associated that “good breakfast” my father was so fond of with motion sickness. To this day I will not eat scrambled eggs or omelettes under any circumstance. Only during the last few years have I reluctantly succumbed to my husband’s desire to share a meal of eggs from time to time. He loves the things and whips up a late breakfast for us occasionally. I explained over and over why I didn’t eat eggs, but my husband doesn’t really know how to take no for an answer. So he fries up an egg to the point where the yolk will not run under any circumstances and the whole thing could be bounced on the floor. Then I will eat the egg, but I don’t want to get in the car for awhile.

By the time we went on this particular trip, I was 12 years old and was no longer subjected to having the “good breakfast.” I was able to toast up the blueberry Pop-Tart I usually had for breakfast. I didn’t like icing, but I would toast it with a pat of butter – a feat possible only because we used a Vintage Munsey Toaster rather than toasters which would actually pop-up the Pop Tart.

Our family had adopted another travel modification to avoid my “sore throat.” Though our 1966 baby blue Pontiac Catalina had seat belts, I was not required to wear them when I was feeling iffy. Instead I was allowed to sit on the edge of the backseat and hang my elbows over into the front. From this privileged position between my parents I could see out the windshield and the family avoided any unpleasantness. I learned I could pretty much sit like that whenever I desired, because no one wanted to take any chances.

Next week I’ll tell you how I failed my first assignment of responsibility as a traveler. I hope you’ll join me then.

ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Keeper of the Plains in Wichita KS

January 6, 2016January 8, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: THE RING OF FIRE CEREMONY FOR THE KEEPER OF THE PLAINS

I’d just like to complain a little bit. This particular attraction was the sum total of things available to me in Wichita KS. It’s not that they don’t have museums and gardens. It’s that the museums and gardens were all against me. They closed about the time I got there Friday. They opened back up when I went into the Ministry Event, but closed when I got out. Then they waited until I left town to open up again. Thank you Keeper of the Plains for lighting your firepots for me.

Dramatic Positioning

Our waitress at Taste and See gave us great directions to the site of the Keeper of the Plains. We found parking and saw the pedestrian bridge before we could see the Keeper. Once the Keeper came into sight, it was clear he’s in a very dramatic position. He stands at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers and looks down towards the modern city.

The Keeper himself is a work of modern art, but he makes me think of the popular Kokopelli figure. While Kokopelli is hunched forward, the Keeper stands erect with his face lifted to the Great Spirit.

As we approached the pedestrian bridge, with its bow and arrow motif, the arch of the bridge framed the Keeper. Each perspective seems to add to the mystery of the great figure atop a stone outcropping.

Once across the bridge, we entered an open-air interpretive center explaining the spiritual significance of the Keeper to Native Americans. From this position you are below the stone out-cropping, looking up at the Keeper. Soft tribal music fills the air in the interpretive area making it feel like a sacred place.

There are paths below the outcropping that allow you to walk all the way around the statue. The area is dark, so it was quite popular with couples. Deb and I were a little out of place.

Having seen the statue up close, we decided to wander back across the bridge and enjoy the Ring of Fire ceremony from afar.

I Anticipated the Wrong Ring

Across the river along the esplanade was several tiers of seating and a different type of tribal music was playing, “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. Deb and I climbed to one of the upper tiers and watched a couple of little boys dance to the trippy little tune. As we enjoyed the boys I tried out the panoramic feature on my phone I had discovered at Myriad Botanical Gardens. The light wasn’t right, but I will share the results anyway.

Finally the moment came and flames erupted in the firepots at the Keeper’s feet, but that wasn’t what I was expecting. I wanted fire to blaze between the hands of the Keeper. Careful reading of the information I found revealed they’d had all the prepositions right, I’d just decided I didn’t want it that way, so I ignored them. My purposeful ignorance did not change a thing. The magic light did not appear for me.

I grabbed a final shot for you and we went back to the car. This was Friday night. We spent Saturday in the arena and enjoyed the seafood buffet at the hotel that evening. The next morning we headed home. We experienced the worst service I’d ever had at a McDonald’s somewhere along the way in Oklahoma. Then we were home.

I took this trip in mid-September. When I got home there were still several articles about the San Antonio Stroll on my blog waiting for posting. I went ahead and wrote all the items on the Wichita trip as soon as I got home, knowing the series would not start until late October, but not wanting to miss the details. You are reading this in the new year, but I am writing them on a beautiful September afternoon in Dallas. I wonder what will be going on in the New Year of 2016.

Accommodations, DESTINATIONS, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Legends at DoubleTree Wichita KS

December 30, 2015October 15, 2015 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: LEGENDS RESTAURANT AT DOUBLETREE BY HILTON IN WICHITA KS SERVES TASTY AND CONVENIENT FOOD

When you stay at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Wichita KS, you’re out at the airport and away from everything else. The hotel is lovely and once inside you can forget you’re even at an airport. At mealtime Legends Restaurant & Bar, in the lobby of the Hilton is a safe bet for a good meal.

Breakfast As You Like It

The Executive Level of this hotel is a sweet deal during the week, because you have a breakfast buffet and an evening social hour right there on your floor. If you are up on the Executive Level on the weekend, breakfast is still a sweet deal, because it’s comped. Everybody else has to either pay $12.95 for the breakfast buffet or order a la carte. Since it was comped, we opted for the breakfast buffet.

The breakfast buffet has pretty much anything your heart desires. There’s all the cereals, fruit, yogurt, pastries and such. There’s a do-it-yourself waffle maker with all the trimmings. They also have omelettes, Eggs Benedict, breakfast potatoes, sausage and bacon. You know, the usual. Well, maybe not so usual. Eggs Benedict are kind of a treat.

On Saturday, I tried the Eggs Benedict. Everything about them was fine, except for the fact that I’m funny about eggs. I don’t like scrambled eggs or omelettes, and any other egg should be well done. Well, a properly cooked Eggs Benedict should be over easy, but I’m not fond of the runny yellow goo. The sauce was good, the muffin fine and I ate my egg white. I left a lot of yellow goo behind.

The next day was Sunday and after 10 there is a Champagne Brunch with an elevated price tag. They had an extra buffet table all ready to fill up with additional goodies, but we got there before 10 so we could get on the road and to avoid having to pay extra. On that morning I went for some cereal and a biscuit. OMG, that biscuit was good. There can be some pretty sorry excuses for biscuits on a buffet, but these were amazing. I only ate one and since I’m not fond of gravy had no problem avoiding it, but I really, really wanted another biscuit.

Saturday Night Seafood Buffet

After breakfast on Saturday morning, I noticed on the way out of the restaurant that they had a $34.95 Seafood Buffet in the evening. That sounded pretty darned good to me. We’d be at the Living Proof Event all day long and I just bet we’d love to come back to the hotel and veg. I was right. What I didn’t know was everyone else in the general vicinity was also going to realize this was a good deal. I’m guessing that most of the people we saw hanging off the rafters in the restaurant lived in Wichita and came out on a regular basis. They all seemed to have the drill down pat.

There really was all the seafood you could eat. From broiled cod to shrimp cocktail and mussels to crablegs, you could eat yourself into a stupor. I love crab legs and they were sweet enough that they didn’t need butter as far as I’m concerned.

Oh and dessert. There was a chocolate pie good enough for someone’s mother to claim. It had a denser meringue than my own mother made, but the chocolate and the crust tasted just like home. There were other delicious looking choices, like a chocolate cake, but that wasn’t as amazing as the pie. After dinner we were glad to waddle back to our room and call it a night.

The New Year is upon us. I hope itis going to be a good year for you and yours. Party hardy, but get home safe. And come back in 2016 for a little Wichita KS sightseeing.

Accommodations, DESTINATIONS, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

The DoubleTree, Wichita KS

December 23, 2015December 23, 2015 Jane Sadek

It's all about the cookir! — It’s all about the cookie!

TRAVEL THERE: THE DOUBLETREE BY HILTON AT THE WICHITA AIRPORT

If you ever go to a Beth Moore Living Proof Event, book your hotel early. I assumed we’d stay in downtown Wichita, close to the Intrust Bank Arena where the event was being held. I even sat down to make my reservations a month in advance. We had a lovely stay at the Wichita DoubleTree, but it wasn’t our first choice.

Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk

OK, so fine. Our first choices for accommodations in Wichita weren’t available – at least not at the convention pricing – so we couldn’t stay there. Next?

Hilton’s Doubletree Hotels are lovely places. After I booked our bargain room they emailed me and told me I qualified for a standby upgrade. It would cost $15 a day, but I would be on the Executive Level. The Executive Level offers amenities like free breakfast and daily hors d’oeuvres in the evening, but those breakfasts and hors d’oeuvres weren’t available on the weekend. I wasn’t sure whether it was worth it or not, but I took it anyway. I’d leave it to chance. If there were no upgrades available when we got there, I would be perfectly happy with a regular room. If the upgrade was available, then we’d see if it was worth it for the next opportunity. When we got there we got the upgrade and it was worth it.

Check-in and Unloading

Checking-in was not as easy breezy as it had been in OKC. Apparently whoever had our room during the week had gotten a late check-out and the registration desk wasn’t sure whether or not the maids had gotten to it. Still, the Doubletree always greets you with a seriously amazing cookie, so you can’t get too upset by anything as you enter chocolate chip nirvana.

Should you ever stay here, please note that their complimentary shuttle will deliver you to locations within the airport, but otherwise, you better have a car. The registration desk couldn’t answer that question, so we found the bellman. He said he could take us to the airports taxi stand where we could get a $30 round-tip taxi. No thank you. I was trying to avoid parking fees, so a $15 taxi wasn’t the answer, since it also came with other hassles.

So we headed to the room. I’m sure the nice bellman would have been happy to see to our luggage, but we’re independent sorts. We pulled around to entrance closest to our room and gathered up our bags. Deb led the way into the building, pulling her bag behind her. There was a pair of exterior doors and a pair of interior doors. I negotiated the exterior doors with no trouble, but as I held them open to wheel in my bag, I backed into the vestibule and fell into Deborah’s luggage. We found this very amusing, but a pair of maids who stood nearby looked as if they suspected we were drunk. Then Deb asked them where the elevator was. They pointed to our right. We were standing right next to it, which we also thought was hilarious. The pair of maids were then firmly convinced we were bonkers.

Up on the Executive Level

The Executive Level requires your room key to let you in. No riff raff allowed. There’s all kinds of amenities up there for the business traveler. A computer with wifi, a printer, comfy chairs and a TV. There’s a coffee bar and buffet, as well as tables for eating. It’s all tastefully decorated in rich woods and dark upholstery.

When we got there a couple was hogging the area in front of the TV with an attitude that suggested they belonged there and we didn’t, so we didn’t try to make friends. I’m thinking they were booted out of their room, had a late flight and needed a place to hang out.

You’ll need your room card again to get into your room. And it’s just a room. More luxurious and spacious than the space in OKC, but no door separating the sleeping area, so we gave a little and got a little. The room was beautifully appointed and quite chic, but it was still just a hotel room. Nothing about it to get very excited about. We did have comfy robes and house shoes to use and there was a safe, but the bottles of water were strictly for Hilton Honors members.

What made the upgrade to the Executive Level worthwhile, in spite of the absence of breakfast and social hour, was that in lieu of these amenities the hotel comped our breakfasts down in the hotel’s restaurant. The breakfast buffet was $12.95 each, so were were about one breakfast ahead each day. We also had dinner there on Saturday night, not comped, but I’ll tell you about Legends Restaurant next week.

DESTINATIONS, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Jason Febres’ Taste and See In Wichita KS

December 16, 2015November 21, 2015 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: A VISIT TO OLD TOWN IN WICHITA KS WITH DINNER AT JASON FEBRES’ TASTE AND SEE:GLOBAL CUISINE

The drive from OKC to Wichita has to be one of the most boring in the world. About the only excitement we had was gathering up change for the toll road. Things got more fun in Wichita. We found Old Town and then ate at a restaurant owned by a famous TV Chef, Taste and See.

Rolling Into Town

The first thing we had to do when we got to Wichita was find our hotel. Then we had to figure out how to get to the Intrust Bank Arena at 9 AM the next morning. I was hoping the hotel would be taking a vanload or two, but no such luck. We chatted with the bellman, but didn’t like any of his suggestions. It looked as if I’d have to drive down there and park. So as soon as we dumped our stuff in the room, we went back out.

Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita is not the American Airlines Center in Dallas, but I was paranoid about it all. (Am I the only one who hates having arenas named after businesses?) I didn’t want to be stuck outside trying to park while Beth Moore was inside the arena blessing the socks off everyone. I programmed Nancy the Navigator to find the arena and headed downtown. Deb tried to help Nancy and kept urging me to go ahead and turn left, but for once I ignored her. Come to find out, Deb had been trying to get me to the Convention Center rather than the Intrust Bank Arena. Nancy had it right.

I drove around a little more to convince myself that parking was not going to be an issue. Then we decided to explore Wichita a little bit. This time we turned Nancy off and I followed Deb’s instructions. She found a gas station and then got me to a parking lot in Old Town.

Discovering Old Town

Like Bricktown in OKC, Old Town in Wichita is an entertainment area. While much of Bricktown is new, most of Old Town is old. The first place we happened upon was Mort’s, which is a happening sort of a place, but it’s also a cigar-smoking place and my eyes wanted no part of that.

So we followed the map around to an area with several restaurants and landed at Taste and See: Global Fusion. Confession: We had no idea we had arrived at THE hot foodie spot of Wichita. For that matter, we had no idea Wichita was supposed to be a foodie destination. We just got lucky.

Taste and See

The hot foodie spot was not much into decor. Bare tables, concrete floors – a sort of diner vibe. At the back of the restaurant was an open kitchen with a lot of chefs. I’ve heard of too many chefs in the kitchen, but watching these guys seemed like a demonstration of just that phenomena.

Deb was in the mood for a steak and I just wanted to nibble a little bit, but first we wanted drinks. I chose Sangria. Deb ordered a glass of wine, but the waitress didn’t like her choice. After a bit of tasting Deb decided the waitress was right about the pinot being sub-par. I think she ended up with a merlot. My sangria was great.

Then there was the ordering. The tasting menu sounded amazing, but it was $35 and to get the paired drinks was another $45. I’m into a little splurging, but that was beyond my keen. So instead I picked out a couple of tapas. Deb chose a steak and she ordered it rare. The waitress took her order, but then a chef came and discussed the wisdom of rare and suggested medium rare.

The Famous Chef we didn't know — The Famous Chef we didn’t know

The conference was a success and Deb loved her steak. I loved one of my tapas, the Cornucopia, but the Pizzettes had too much dough – as in the toppings were just about right, but sat in the middle of too much bread.

All the while we kept our eyes opened for Jason Febres, the famous chef we knew nothing about. Lo and behold, he showed up, but after chatting up a few other tables he landed at a large group about two tables away. He stayed there for the rest of the time we were there, so I never got the chance to help him out with his Pizzettes.

Of course we had dessert. It was some Oreo Cookie thing, which was delicious, but didn’t begin to compete with the not-so-trendy Lava Cake we’d tackled in OKC.

Time to Call It a Night

I’m glad we happened upon the ultimate Wichita foodie experience, but I have to confess that it was not my favorite meal of the trip. In fact, if we were handing out foodie awards, we’d have to give it to OKC, not Wichita.

We took another route back to our car. For a Friday night the area was actually pretty tame. Mort’s was rocking, but we could smell the cigar smoke long before we heard the live band on the patio, so I’m not sorry we missed that hot spot. Nancy the Navigator took us back to the Doubletree and we tucked ourselves in for the night.

Here’s a few more pictures from our foodie experience. Come back next week and I’ll tell you about the hotel.

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