Category: TRAVEL

Tips and advice offered from my personal experience

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The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: FAVORITE PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS

Friday Favorites

On Friday night I met some of my favorite people at a place which is destined to become one of my favorites, Rosini Vineyards. Friday night usually finds me safely tucked away at home, but this week I was invited to join a group of girls from my real estate world at Rosini’s, a couple of our favorite agents and some folks from the lending and title world. Names and stories will be forever a secret, but I can tell you about Rosini’s.

I have no idea why I haven’t been there before. I have been invited to several occasions hosted there, but I’ve always had more demanding things on my schedule. I added it to my list of things I wanted to do, but hadn’t gotten there, yet. Now I want to go every Friday. The thing is, the space is small and you need to make reservations and making reservations is one of my challenges. Hubby likes spontaneity and doing things by the seat of our pants. In his defense, when we do make plans ahead, something usually comes up and we’re scrambling to get to whatever plans we made.

Do plan on making a visit, however. Get out your phone and make a reservation, because it is so worth it. The ambiance is great, the food is good and so is the wine. They had a musician entertaining and he was smart enough to play in the background so there was good (and hysterical) conversation around the table.

I ordered a Charcuterie Board for us and it was both lovely and tasty. Most of my friends were sharing bottles, but I wanted to taste more than one wine. They don’t show it on the menu, but they also offer tastings. I’d hoped to be served a flight, but instead you have to keep going back to the bar to get the next taste. I didn’t buy up cases of anything to take home, but most of the selections I tried were quite nice.

Favorite Things on Saturday

I woke up early on Saturday (big surprise, right) and hit the scrapbooking studio (another big surprise). I’m doing my travel album for 2022 and the best news there is that there was travel. Covid kept us close to home. We weren’t afraid of the disease. We just didn’t want the hassle or the travel photos with of masks. I’d finished up New York and set out on our Club Med Sandpiper Bay trip and before the weekend was over, I had worked my way to St. Louis for Joyce Meyer.

But that was just the tip of my Memory Keeping iceberg. FOREVER was having their Family History Online Event. I wanted to watch it live, because if I didn’t, where else was I going to find three hours in my schedule. Some friends and customers were planning to come join me, but a variety of things got in the way. Still I hooked my laptop up to the TV and settled down for a wave of ideas.

There was a lot of good information there, but most of it really wasn’t applicable to my own memory keeping journey. I’m not a genealogy enthusiast, I no longer have an older generation to video and I haven’t quite embraced video as my own media. I get it. FOREVER’S Family Research Services are amazing and video freaks need their own streaming service. I’m not those people. At least not yet.

However, there was more. They walked through the digitization process and the advantages of their storage. They also dug deep into the Auto Print products, which are amazing, but just not in my thing. What I did walk away with was a new appreciation for QR codes. I’m always challenged by which photos and words to put on a Christmas Card. With QR codes, I can not only put a QR code which will lead to an entire file of photos (or a video), but I can actually add an audio file which would allow me to say what I wanted to say without having to fit all the words on the card. Watch this space later this year and see if I do it!

My ever faithful bestie did come by after her dance lesson for the final sessions of the Family History Online event and we shared a pizza. The information relit her desire for memory keeping which is the whole purpose of the event in the first place. It would be hard to get my fire to burn any brighter.

Amazing Sunday

Sunday was an orgy of things I love to do. It started with Bill and I visiting my next door neighbor’s church. She is very active at First United Methodist Heath. While attending church is one of my favorite things, church shopping is not, but that’s what we’re doing now – again.

FUMAH is a happening place. I thought their photo-focused Lenten activities were genius and they have an active Women’s Group. There were several other things I really liked about it, but it’s not exactly the right fit for me. It’s a little on the liturgical side of things and the sermon was expository and topical, rather than exegesis. The music was lovely and they mix contemporary with traditional music, but they also broadcast the words on the wall without any music. I hate trying to follow some song I don’t know without being able to look at the music. I know this is the direction most churches are going, both in teaching style and music, but I’m looking for the unicorn.

From there we went for coffee and Bill wanted to try Dunkin Donuts. We both get tired of Starbucks, but Dunkin is not the answer. They don’t have a coffee fixing place. They just add the sugar and cream themselves, but not to Bill’s taste. The hot chocolate was a mix and they don’t have low fat or skim milk. However, the conversation was great and I did love my sausage and cheese kolache.

Next up was a visit to the Dallas Museum of Art and a stroll around Klyde Warren Park. We’d almost gone to the museum last Sunday, but had gotten distracted wandering around Deep Ellum and Uptown. Probably a good thing, because a new exhibition was opening and it might have been crowded.

I’m a member of the museum at the Ambassador level, but I’m not much of an Ambassador, because they’ve gone digital and I never know what’s going on. There was a time when my mailbox was full of all kinds of invitations and magazines from the museum. I loved it – but now everything comes to my email and email is just a lot of noise. They send me too much, so I just delete most of it and then when I want to know something, I have to go looking for it. If a subject line does catch my eye, then I have to print it out and it’s going to be in black and while and then it’s going to get lost on my desk, because it looks like everything else. So, the DMA & I aren’t really friends anymore.

Anyway, I did go and for some reason, they wanted to scan my membership card when I came in. I wonder what they scan if you aren’t a member. Then I had to go stand in line to get my tickets to the new exhibition. That is one good benefit of membership. I can take several people a day to the museum and get them into the exhibition free. You should call me and I’ll take you to this new exhibit, it’s gorgeous.

The name of the exhibit is Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks. While I loved the art, I thought the first half title was hyperbolic. There are images related to all those nouns in the exhibit, but it is Flemish Masterworks, so there is no scandal. To my disappointment, the information on the wall is fairly sketchy and they have no audio tour or QR codes for more information. So, if you are not a fan of classical artworks, you’re going to have a hard time connecting the title to the artwork. You’ll be strolling through quickly and heading somewhere else.

However, if, like me, you love to see gorgeous figurative art from the past, you’re gonna love this one. Breathtaking altarpieces, intriguing portraits and even some vanitas. We went through it, double back to see it again and then enjoyed the third view also. After a quick stop in the gift shop we headed out to the park.

It seems there have been changes every time I go – probably because I don’t visit it often enough, but they’ve actually added new fountains at one end and upgraded the playground at the other. There are still lots of food trucks, but the restaurant is now Mi Cocina. Our visit was leisurely, but we didn’t really linger very much, because NorthPark was up next.

I love NorthPark. I wish I had a life that allowed me to go every day. I want to shop all the stores, look at all the plants and art and eat at all the places. Bill never wants to go, because it’s impossible to find a parking spot, but this time was different. They have reserved parking for low-e and hybrid cars. Bill has a hybrid. We parked next to a handicapped space and were right in front of an entrance.

I had a birthday gift card to spend and I wanted to go to Pandora. I upgraded my basic bracelet, because the arthritis in my thumbs just didn’t like the one I had. Now, I can get it off and on easy peasy. It will get a lot more wear. Their new thing is rose gold, but thank you, I’ll stick with my silver.

We enjoyed our stroll through NorthPark, especially the kid’s art they had on display in front of Macy’s, but I was dismayed to discover few things are where they used to be. It’s a big game of fruit basket turnover and while I didn’t recognize many of the new players, I fear some of my favorites my be out of the game, because something called Blue Nile is going up in the Brighton spot and I can’t find Brighton on the directory.

I came home from NorthPark very happy with my weekend. Next week we’ll have more New York, more Memory Keeping and another Weekend Report. Please come back to see me!!

ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Museums, Music, Performing Arts, Road Trips, TRAVEL, Travel Planning, United States

Immersive New York

Jane Sadek

Travel There – Looking for the Insta Moment

On a random Wednesday afternoon in Lower Manhattan, when we’d had Fraunces Tavern Museum and Trinity Church virtually to ourselves, people were lined up to have their picture taken with the Bull. Both of the empty attractions were ever so much more interesting and meaningful than the Bull, but the Bull was getting all the attention.

What you can’t see in the picture above is that there are actually two lines. One for the front of the bull and one for the back, where Gen Xer’s, Z’s and Millennials waited in a much longer line to have their photo made with the Bull’s genitals.

This made me sad. With so much to see, it seemed silly to me to wait around to get my picture made with a bull, even if it was THE bull. But as sad as it was for people to spend time waiting to get the picture with the front of the bull, when there was so much else of great interest around them, I thought the genitalia crowd was really missing the point. But that’s me.

Experiential Public Spaces

A few years ago I sat in a lecture at the University of Dallas, my alma mater. An influential lecturer was touting the importance of the new trend towards experiential art and monuments. I thought I knew what she was talking about, because I’ve always been about experiencing art. I will wait in long lines to see a Vincent Van Gogh painting up close, but that’s not it.

She was talking about those little boxes they put on the walls these days so kids can smell or touch something in relation to an exhibit. It’s a table set up so you can color or play a game next to a sculpture. It’s a sheet of paper with pictures on it that you are supposed to match to things you see around a museum. These are all well and good, but to me they are more often a distraction from what’s there, not a help to understand it.

I remember the first time I went to a museum with all these helpful boxes and games. It was the Bullock Texas State History Museum. The place was overrun with squealing kids hanging off various displays and they were having fun. They may remember the experience until today, but I ask you, did they actually learn anything about Texas history they could repeat to you now? Believe me! I’m not against fun. I just think in the big scheme of things it is overrated.

But back to that lecture! One of the things the lecturer presented was a slide taken at an experiential exhibit of Van Gogh’s art, somewhere over in Europe. At the time I thought it looked kind of like an Impressionistic disco. Then the exhibit came to Dallas as Immersive Van Gogh and I couldn’t wait to go, because I thought I must have misunderstood what I was seeing at the lecture.

Only I hadn’t. They played music and projected Van Gogh’s art onto the walls, ceiling and floor. You had the option of standing, utilizing a seating area in one of the rooms or sitting on the floor. It was an Impressionistic disco. You learned nothing about Van Gogh and even the music wasn’t in context.

I confess, I have good friends who loved it, who said they could spend all day there or plan on going back over and over. If you like it, that’s great, but don’t stop there. Find the art on the walls of museums and look at in person. Learn about the artist, his friends, the reasons people hated his work then but love it now, read his letters to his brother, listen to the music popular at the time, the fashions, the homes – know what you are looking at.

To me, whether you are looking at something on a website or being immersed in a audio/visual “experience”, you are being cheated. If these virtual experiences were catalysts for deeper exploration, that would be a good thing, but they aren’t. People are using them as replacements. Why spend the money to go to Paris and explore the Louvre? The Mona Lisa is on the internet. And the people who do go to Paris spend more time taking selfies at the Eiffel Tower than they do in the Louvre!!

This has been a concern of mine for a long time. Almost thirty years ago Bill and I went to Six Flags. Instead of one of the Broadway-quality shows I had seen in past, they showed me a video in the Southern Palace theater. It was sad to me. I thought of the DFW area talent that was going to waste and regretted I had spent my time watching a video. I just looked at their current entertainment schedule and it’s Looney Tunes. REALLY?

As we stare into our phones and post pictures with the newest filter we are loosing touch with the value of reality. When we are looking reality in the face (or the genitalia) we’re more interested in the entertainment factor than we are exploration. As soon as we post our selfie, we move on to the next experience. We are losing the ability to store up information we can reflect on over time and the opportunity to apply what we observe to our lives to make them better. We just get entertained and then we get bored.

OK, now I will step away from my hobby horse, climb off my soap box, quit my rant – whichever phrase you prefer. Come back next week and I will tell you about a bar around the corner where we went next and had fun. I will not mention experiential public spaces.

ART, DFW Metroplex, Performing Arts, Photography, Real Estate Photography, Restaurants & Bars, Scrapbooking

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: GADABOUTING

Eat, Shower and a Show

After a hard week in the networking trenches, I decided to give myself a morning off. The first thing I did, bright and early, was to hit the scrapbooking table. Recently, most of my memory keeping business has been digital. I have some traditional albums on the books in March, but for now, I have the opportunity to work on my own albums – but I really can’t call it work.

The current album is my 2022 Travel Album and I’m putting together the pages for my NYC trip, which you’re reading about on my Wednesday Travel There posts. Have you ever been having so much fun that you forget to take pictures? Raising my hand as the guilty party. What was one of the best trips of my life will have less pages than some day trips I’ve been on. I got in a couple of hours, but then the phone intruded and I had a shower gift to wrap. After having coffee hour with Mr. Bill, I got ready for the day.

First up, lunch with bestie at Casa Mama. Deb loves their brisket and spinach quesadillas. I’m still looking for my dish. Because I just pointed at an item with Tex-Mex in the title I ended up with sour cream on my entree. Not what I wanted, but not their fault. It wasn’t like the frittata I had ordered once, drizzled with sour cream which wasn’t mention on the menu. So I ate the sour cream enchilada, begrudgingly and promised myself I wouldn’t order it next time, because as much as Deb loves those quesadillas there will be a next time.

Next stop, a baby shower for a soon-to-be mama from church. She’s a delight and it was a joy to see how happy she was with every gift which was offered. My hand-made card got more mileage than anything else I had for her, so I was grateful for my scrapbooking skills. After the shower, I had a little more time for my NYC album before we headed off to the theater.

As a Christmas Eve treat, Bill and I went to SIX at the Winspear. It was a great show and we didn’t fall off the balcony, but the ticket price and parking cost did take a bite out of our budget. Still we’d decided we wanted to see more live theater in 2023, so we bought tickets to a show at the Mesquite Arts Theatre (MAT) – Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite.

Now, MAT, is community theatre, so the actors and actresses are all amateurs, as are many of the tech folks. Hence our tickets were $18 a piece. Quite a reduction from the triple digit nosebleed seats at the Winspear. Of course, Plaza Suite is a much scaled down type of performance – no music and no fancy costumes, even when the pros are doing it.

The play was presented in the Mesquite Arts Center Black Box Theater. Other black box theaters have offered theater in the round, but this is just a ground level stage with tiers of seating and we sat on the front row. No complaints. We certainly got our $18 money’s worth. Some of the comic timing was a little off and the costumes look as if they came from the thrift store, but we were entertained.

The second act had a little faux pas that made it a little funnier. The characters were supposed to be getting sloppy drunk, but as the water/drinks sloshed all over the actors and the stage, it was apparent they’d gotten a little sloppier than they intended.

There was also a little costuming mishap in the third act. I’d noticed the strappy pumps on the actress didn’t fit very well and being a shoe freak, I was distracted by how she was handling her blocking with misfit shoes. Then it got worse, one of the straps broke. The blocking required her to fling herself from one end of the stage to the other with great drama and I anticipated her shoe tripping her up somewhere along the way. She stayed upright and the shoe stayed on. She has my undying admiration. I’d have had to find someway to kick those offending sandals off my feet or I’d have been glued to one spot.

All in all, it had been a great Saturday. I spent time with people I love and enjoyed some of my favorite activities. That’s what a weekend is about – even if you do have to field a few business calls and texts.

A Sunday Adventure

The first thing on Sunday is usually the same old thing – church. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my pastor is leaving, so I am thinking about changing churches. Nothing against my old church, sometimes God just has some place else He wants you to be. I’d been feeling some restlessness before I found out the pastor was leaving, so it made sense to follow my instincts, especially since this church had never felt like home to my hubby.

So, this Sunday, unlike it has been for several years, Mr. Bill and I headed out to church. Bill and I come from very different religious backgrounds. He grew up in an orthodox liturgical church with all the incense and ritual. I grew up in no frills evangelical churches. It beats me how people from really diverse religious associations ever make it through marriage – say a Catholic and a Jew or a Muslim and a Baptist. We just have a difference in worship, not beliefs, and after 28 years we still haven’t gotten it all figured out.

We visited Christ Church, an Anglican Church almost around the corner from us. We’d belonged to another Anglican Church at one time, but Bill had gotten tired of the rector’s preaching style – a little too much on the personal sharing side for him. When he quit going, I did, too, because it was way off on the liturgical end of things for me to sit through by myself. It was one thing when he was with me, but by myself it was all stand-up-sit-down-fight-fight-fight. However, we thought there had been enough commonality there, that a different teaching style might make it work.

Long story short, we like Christ Church Rockwall (which happens to be in McLendon Chisholm). The sermon was really good. The music would do. It wasn’t all the chants I’d hated in the Episcopal Church, but it wasn’t traditional hymns either, which is what I like best. While it was contemporary worship music, it wasn’t the flavor that drives me mad – rock and roll music with hours of repetitious choruses focused on how wretched I am, instead of how wonderful God is. I’m also not big on hand-waving and thumping drum beats.

So, it stays on the list of potential churches. We’d have like to see more diversity in the congregation, but that’s not a deal killer. We are working on what our next target will be. He’s thinking Methodist, which I usually call ‘church light,’ but I’m keeping my mind open.

After church we went on one of out rambling adventures. First we tried Downtown Rockwall forcoffee, but Fire & Fable was closed and Book Club Cafe was too crowded. After coffee at yet another Starbuck’s (Don’t you get tired of Starbuck’s?), we headed towards the Dallas Museum of Art, but never made it. We hit a couple of Deep Ellum spots, thinking to get lunch, but the volume killed our appetite. (Does this mean we are old?)

Then we happened on Uptown, looking for sustenance. We stopped in West Village and took a stroll. We decided we were definitely old, because the trendy gluten-free, veggie heavy venues didn’t sound at all like what we wanted and Thai is just not a fave with us. Thank goodness for the Village Burger Bar. Home again, home a gain jiggedy jig, to follow up on calls we’d gotten during the day and I did a little more scrapbooking.

That’s it for the week. Next week, there will be more NYC, more Memory Keeping and another Weekend Report. Please come and keep me company on my adventures.

Architecture, ART, Attractions, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, Museums, Presidential, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL, Travel Planning, United States

Down in Downtown Manhattan

Jane Sadek

Travel There – Fraunces Travern & Trinity Church

These two books were were my bibles for NYC. I always like the Top 10 guides. They cover virtually everything, but they organize it into neat little lists of 10 items and they have fantastic laminated maps in a back pocket which fit in my handbag. The Top 10 guides have shown me a good time in a lot of cities.

The Knoff Mapguide was a new one for this trip. I’d never seen one before, but it was a perfect companion to my Top 10 guide and I will be looking for them in the future. It broke New York into 10 sections and then had a detailed map of each section with suggestions. No GPS to go off network. No touching the map and creating a new destination. No losing the screen to a call or a text. Just a map and a good one.

This is my idea of planning a route. For the rest of our time in NYC we’d be up in Mid-Town, so I wanted to see the best of what Downtown offered while I was in the neighborhood. Am I the only one who is confused by Downtown Manhattan being down? Usually, when I talk about downtown anywhere else, I mean down in the center of things, but in Manhattan, that’s actually Mid-Town!

On to Fraunces Tavern

Fraunces Tavern Today

Here’s another site I might have missed completely if it weren’t for my traveling companion and her co-workers. Someone who made a recent visit to NYC told Deb about the Tavern, its ties to Washington and its museum. What’s not to love and it was within walking distance of Battery Park, where we disembarked from the ferry.

So, Fraunces Tavern has been a part of Downtown NYC since the Revolutionary War, such a big part, as a matter of fact, when George Washington had a farewell dinner for his officers, this was where they had it. The tables and chairs from that party no longer exist, but the room where it happened is still there and they have furnished it as it would have been back in the day. That in itself is worth a visit, but there’s more.

Upstairs is museum of artifacts from the Revolutionary War, from Washington, from the Tavern, etc. It’s very interesting and just costs a few dollars to enter. It’s not very big, but well worth the time spent. I was especially interested in everything, because it was founded and still supported by the Sons of the American Revolution.

My dad was a member of SAR and they do an amazing job of protecting our heritage. I spent the whole time of the verge of tears, because I thought about how much my father would have loved to see it and how proud he would have been of his organization. Without actually intending to do so, we visited Deborah’s heritage on Ellis Island and mine at the tavern. All on the same day and both so close to one another. On a day like that, I’m proud to be an American.

A Few Other Stops in the Neighborhood

I’d known that the day’s timing would be iffy. In a perfect world we’d have arrived at the tavern at meal time, but things weren’t perfect. After seeing the museum, we decided to make a dinner reservation for a little later and in the meantime see a few other sites.

Our first stop was Trinity Church. Unfortunately, choir practice was going on and we were not allowed into the church. That was a shame. One of my favorite memories ever is being at Salisbury Cathedral when the organist started practicing. I thought I’d fallen through some hole into the past – perhaps inspired by the visit to Stonehenge which I also did on that day.

Still, the exterior of the church was beautiful and it was haunting to think how many great men and women had walked where we were walking. This had been the church of our founding fathers, long before Washington D.C was a thing.

Our walk through downtown was not through, but things took a slightly different turn at our next site. So come back next week for a bit more irreverent look at Downtown Manhattan.

ART, DFW Metroplex, Gardens, Restaurants & Bars, Scrapbooking, Shopping

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: NOT MUCH TO REPORT

Busy Saturday and Sunday, But Boring

It all started Friday morning when the photos arrived from the editors. I don’t want to go back there, but suffice to say, it did not go well and Saturday morning I was still chasing various shots. Granted, this sort of thing very rarely happens and everyone is granted the opportunity to make a mistake, but we had several humans making several mistakes all on the same day. How lucky can you get?

And speaking of being human, I had planned to crock pot a meal on Friday, which did not happen, so while I was madly emailing and texting on Saturday morning to solve all the problems, I loaded up my crockpot. As a start, I added the orzo at the beginning, rather than holding it until the last 30 minutes. So what do you do at that point? It had already sucked up much of my liquids and I wasn’t going to waste food, so I just cranked it up.

Then it was back upstairs to do battle with the editors and when I came down a little later, the crockpot had decided it wasn’t in the mood to cook. Thankfully, with a little technological encouragement – unplug/plug, off/on, try another setting – it decided it would cook my meal.

And speaking of On and Off – Bill had expressed a desire to go to a nursery and start shopping for spring planting. Between Snowmaggedon and the recent Ice Storm, we barely have anything alive in our beds. So, I totally understood the need, but visiting the nursery when the temperature is hovering between the high 40’s and low 50’s didn’t sound like much fun. He agreed it was probably too chilly, so I touched base with my bestie and planned on connecting for lunch.

But then he decided he wanted to run some other errands, which sounded OK. Except that he lollygagged around so long that my bestie finished up her dance lesson. That was not such a big deal, because we all just met for lunch, at Ephesus Bistro & Grill in Rowlett.

My second visit by the way. Ephesus is a great little local place to get Mediterranean food. The hummus has great chunks of chickpea in it, so you know it’s fresh. Bill and I shared a Beef Kabob and she had Chicken Roulade. Both were great. The only thing I warn against is the falafel. When I got it, the inside of the ball was not as done as I like – but that’s me. I prefer the patties over the balls for that reason.

After a morning of dancing and a big lunch, Deb was ready to go home and take a nap. Bill and I headed out to do our errands, but somehow ended up at Covington’s Nursery. It wasn’t quite as chilly as I thought it was going to be, but chilly enough. I think it should be nice and warm when I hang out at the nursery.

We try to shop at Covington’s whenever we can afford to, but they are a little proud of their merchandise. They are without a doubt the most knowledgeable in the area, so we do buy a lot there and we always go to them first for advice.

Sunday was not much better. After I did my greeting job at church, I did get a few pages of scrapbooking done. We also went out and bought each other the Valentine’s Gifts of our choices. We hit another nursery – less expensive, but also less stock and not much in the advice department. After that we hit Red Lobster for dinner.

Yawn, yawn and yawn! Come back next week for more travel, more memory keeping and another weekend report!

Architecture, ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Museums, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Coming to America Via Ellis Island

Jane Sadek

Travel There – Share the Immigrant Experience

My family, on both sides, got here before the 1890’s, so they did not go through Ellis Island or get dumped into the great melting pot of NYC. Some came when America was more wilderness than civilization. Some fought in the Revolutionary War. Others served as indentured servants to pay off their debts. Two brothers married Cherokee women in Georgia about the time of the Civil War. We didn’t come with the Conquistadors or sail to Plymouth Rock, but we did not sail past Lady Liberty as we entered New York Harbor, either.

However, Deborah’s family did. Hence, the whole experience was more profound for her than it was for me. She really identified with the challenges faced by those shuffling through the halls of Ellis Island with everything they owned in a satchel. She was disappointed the records center was closed on the day we were there, because she wanted to go and find her relatives listed on the logs they kept. To her, this was her family’s history and heritage.

A Shadow of Their Experience

Whether they intended it or not, there was a feeling of lostness as we arrived on Ellis Island. There were arrows and people pointing you in what was the right direction, but you had no way of knowing whether it was the direction you really wanted to go or not. What’s going to happen? Will there be someone to explain the process to me? Will I get a chance to sit down? What about food? Will there be any?

What they had for us were signs, but they were informative and told you what you were seeing and where to go next. You entered through the Baggage Room. Were you an immigrant, you would have had to let go of your luggage here. Imagine that everything you own in the world, the only things you could bring with you from your home, is in a carpet-covered satchel and first thing that happens to you in America is that someone takes it away.

In our modern day of mobile phones, apps and GPS, it is hard for us to imagine what it would have been like to arrive here. Some people had family or friends to connect with, but there would be no contact until they were through Ellis Island. How could they tell anyone they had actually arrived or had run into issues with immigration? And if you didn’t have anyone here, where were you going to eat and sleep? How would you protect your family and provide for them? It had to be so overwhelming.

Next you climbed the stairs to enter the Registry Room or what’s called The Great Hall. For most of the immigrants this was a crowded, potentially embarrassing and inconvenient experience, but soon enough they were on their way. Not everyone was so lucky. Some people were sent back where they came from. Others were held in dormitories on the island. The third floor has many exhibits that demonstrate the hardships of the less fortunate people who came to America through Ellis Island.

The Ellis Island Café

Deb and I had a big breakfast at the hotel, so we were able to last until the afternoon without thinking about food, but towards the end of our tour we were feeling the need for sustenance. I’d brought along a Meal Replacement Bar, but I desperately needed caffeine. Deb was looking for lunch. Our only option was The Ellis Island Café.

The café is not some cozy little getaway with lace curtains. It is a very efficient little snack bar, but everything offered is prepackaged. You can get wraps and sandwiches, chips and candy bars. There’s plenty of bottled water and a variety of soft drinks. There is, however, no Diet Dr Pepper. I knew that going in, but if you’re me, it’s worth mentioning. A certain portion of my life is spent identifying places where I can score my favorite beverage. Just for the record, there’s no beer or wine either.

Refreshed and refueled, we discussed our options for the afternoon. Had the Records Room been open, we would have spent some time there, but now it was time to start our exploration of Manhattan in earnest. We headed for the ferry and were treated to a much easier cruise than we’d had that morning. The first picture in last week’s post is Deb and I on our way back to the mainland.

Come back next week and join us in Downtown New York City. We’ll be following in the footsteps of some of our Founding Fathers.

ART, Decorative Arts, DFW Metroplex, Shopping

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: OUT WITH THE GIRLS AT SNIDER PLAZA

An Icebox Sort of Week

The week linking January to February was lost to the weather. It was supposed to be one networking event after another, but it turned into a very productive buttocks-in-chair week, instead. Every day on my calendar has events marked off and the notation ‘weather.” It was great for catching up on a number of things I really don’t like to do, but by Friday I was so glad to have a Zoom call to get on. By the afternoon, the weather had broken and the big melt was on. I took advantage of the break and jumped into my car, running one errand after another.

East Hampton Sandwich Company

On Saturday, I had a lunch date with my friend, Lisa. Our friendship dates from 2006, when I returned to Dallas from the California sojourn. I met Lisa at Northwest Bible Church Women’s Ministry and we just clicked. She was a great support while Mr. Bill was in Iraq and she’s continued to be a good friend until this day, even though our lives have gone in different directions, we make the effort to meet for lunch every couple of months.

Lisa lives just a couple of blocks off Snider Plaza and I’m over here in Heath, so we sort of take turns wandering to one another’s neck of the woods or connect at NorthPark, which is one of my favorite places on earth. It was time to meet somewhere near her, so she suggested the Snider Plaza East Hampton Sandwich Company.

We camped out at one of their tables and caught up on all the news. I had a burger with sweet potato fries, which was delicious and she had the Green Goddess Gluten-Free Wrap. She brought me a housewarming gift to celebrate our new sunroom and bought my lunch, because she said she wouldn’t be in town for my birthday. (She spoils me rotten.) The atmosphere at East Hampton is very laid back and no one seemed to mind us becoming a fixture. So, I drug out my latest scrapbook for her to peruse. My albums don’t seem finished until Deb and Lisa see them!

Penne Pomodoro

Most of my Saturdays are spent with my bestie, but Deb had a dance lesson and had another errand or two to run, so we weren’t connecting until after lunch. When Deb texted, Lisa and I were still chatting, so Deb came and joined us.

East Hampton had been great for grabbing a sammie with a friend, but it had one serious fault – no adult beverages. Deb was starving after her dance lesson, but it was time to move on. So, we vacated the space we’d been filling at East Hampton and crossed the street to Penne Pomodoro.

I am very fortunate in my friends. Deb and Lisa are both fixtures in my life and very dear to me. We’ve been sharing lives for a long time. While they haven’t spent a lot of time around each other, they both know all about each other from me and they’ve both been there for me through some pretty serious times. We all just picked up like we’d just seen each other the weekend before.

Deb chose to be healthy and eat a salad, while we bonded over wine. Like East Hampton, Penne Pomodoro was laid back about us taking up their table on a Saturday afternoon, so Deb and I ordered a second round. What a blessing those girls are to me.

Shopping Therapy

What’s a girls’ day without a little shopping therapy? Lisa led us through some of her favorite stores. First, stop was Logos, a great Christian book store that’s been around ever since I can remember. They’ve moved around the center a few times, it seems, but I know the spot they are in is new to them. Lisa is a regular and the owner greeted her by name. Lisa introduced us and I noticed when we left, she called Deb and me by name as she bid us farewell.

Logos does have books, lots of them, but it is also an extraordinary haven for gifts. I saw dozens of things I’d love to give or get. Since Valentine’s is coming soon, I picked up a card for my sweetheart and found something else for him I couldn’t resist, but I can’t tell you, because he does read my posts.

Across the way, we wandered into the Christy M Boutique and I made the mistake of admiring a necklace. It was a mistake, because Lisa was soon handing me a bag, saying Happy Birthday. I told you she spoils me!

Our final stop, before heading over to Lisa’s was Suzanne Roberts. Like Logos, it made me want to buy a little of everything. It’s gifts and home décor, featuring a lot of MacKensie Phillips merchandise. I somehow managed to get out without buying anything.

Then we walked over to Lisa’s. Deb had never seen her home and Lisa had a photo album she wanted to show me. She was a little concerned it might not be photo-safe, but her mother-in-law had been a good little Memory Keeper. The photos were in a Webway album. Webway was the company which became Creative Memories, so I knew her mother-in-law’s hard work would be safe for generations to come.

All good things must come to an end and it was time to head back to Heath. It had been a lovely day. Sunday was uneventful. I went to church, did some scrapbooking and read some. Come back next week. On Wednesday we’ll be in NYC. Thursday is Memory Keeping 101. And of course, Fridays have The Weekend Report.

ART, DESTINATIONS, DFW Metroplex, International, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Shopping, United States

Forever Events

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: DIG IN WITH ONLINE EVENTS

Dive Deep for FREE

Forever has two free online events coming soon and you’ll want to know about them. If you don’t already belong to Forever now is a good time to join. It doesn’t cost a penny and there’s no obligation, but you will get a $20 off welcome coupon for your first purchase and you can enjoy these seminars live and/or at your leisure. Just be sure to use my link, https://www.forever.com/ambassador/jane-sadek or you might end up with a stranger as your Ambassador!! Once you belong, hover over the “Products” link in the top bar and choose “Forever Events” from the menu.

Family History Virtual Event

If you’re the Family Historian building your family tree one ancestor at a time, I applaud you! You might be interested to know Forever could be you best tool ever. That’s why you’ll want to participate in this event. After a welcome from our Founder, one of our Ambassadors, who is an expert on genealogical exploration, is going to talk about how she’s used Forever to collect and share her documentation. Then another Ambassador will talk about her experience with Forever Family Research. Yep, Forever has a whole division devoted to helping you with your research and you’re gonna love hearing about it. There’s more, but that should be enough to reel you in. Sign up here!

If you’re not the Family Historian – I’m certainly not – you’re still going to learn lots from this event. During the Family History session, they’ll go step-by-step through the digitization process and though they’ll be talking about genealogical materials specifically, most of those materials are the same ones you have: photos, video, slides, negatives, movies, audio and memorabilia. Then, while you may never dig into your ancestry, you have to admit those family tree people do discover some interesting things and learning how they do it might just inspire you to get busy on your limb, because someday you may have the leaves someone needs for their tree. Sign up here!

Family Historians and Non-Historians both will benefit from the balance of the program. The first session after a short break is “Using Forever.” This company was founded to make memory keeping easier. With us you don’t have to have a series of services and apps to do what you need to do. This session will walk you through the perfect integration of your memory keeping tools.

Perhaps the best part of memory keeping is sharing, so after learning how to use Forever, you’ll drill down into all the various ways you can share with “Auto Print” and “Design and Print.” Want to make a photobook in minutes? AUTO PRINT! You’ll go wild! And other print options will also be discussed. Then they’ll talk about the Friends & Family program for sharing and how you can keep your legacy alive long after you’re not here to do it.

Forever’s Family History Virtual Event will be February 25, starting at 11 AM,CST. Want more info, click here.

Milestones Virtual Event – PETS

Several times a year Forever has Milestones Virtual Events. Much like the Family History event in February, Milestones walks you through ways to use your Forever account and products to capture your memories and share them for generations to come. Past Milestone events have focused on everything from babies to weddings and lots of other things in between. March 11, the subject will be Pets.

The information shared during the event is good, even if you aren’t a pet lover, but pet lovers will enjoy it, even if they aren’t memory keepers!! It will be full of ways to capture and save memories of your pets, as well as how to use Forever in the process. You can sisgn up here.

More Information Than You Can Shake a Stick At

Online Events are just one of the ways Forever supports you in your memory keeping. On virtually every page of their site there are links to videos, FAQs and other content to help you with whatever you are doing. You’ll find them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. They have a blog. With your Forever Club Membership, you can even be on a quarterly call with the founder to find out what’s going on. If digital scrapbooking is your thing, there’s the Pixels2Pages community. It really is almost endless. And yet, I was preserving memories seconds after I signed up, so it is also very intuitive.

So, that’s the memory keeping scoop for this week. Of course I will be sharing the weekend report tomorrow and next week I’ll be sharing more from the trip to NYC. Don’t miss it!!

ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Gardens, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL, Travel Planning, United States

Blown Away by Lady Liberty

Jane Sadek

Travel There – A Morning with Battery Park Monuments and the Statue of Liberty

Yes, the Statue of Liberty is pretty mind blowing, but I’m what I’m talking about is that we were by the Statue of Liberty and were nearly blown elsewhere! The weather man had warned it might rain the whole time we were in NYC, but he didn’t tell us that we’d need grappling hooks to stay on the sidewalk.

On our second day in NYC, the threat of rain was melting away, but it was still very chilly. We bundled ourselves in all the cold weather gear we’d brought along and headed to the subway. With visions of huge crowds in our minds, we’d imagined both New Yorkers headed to work and tourists like us headed to the Statue Cruises, we were up and out early – but, in fact, it was too early.

I am still blown away by the efficiency of the New York Transit system. I wish we had something similar here in Dallas. We went all over Manhattan with the greatest of ease and even popped over to New Jersey for a christening. Clueless as to how good it actually was, we allowed entirely too much time for our trip to Battery Park, especially since it wasn’t exactly walking around weather.

Still Deb is the easiest person in the world to travel with, so we just made the best of it. Chilled to the bone, we walked around and looked at all the statuary one is supposed to view when one visits Battery Park. As I did my travel homework I had imagined Battery Park and an immense expanse of green, much like Central Park, but it’s actually quite manageable. If you have half an hour, you’ve got more than enough time for it. Here are some of the pictures we took as we tried very hard to enjoy the chilly morning.

Eventually, we saw some folks forming a line at the Statue City Cruises dock, so we joined them. A word of warning the Staten Island Ferry does not go to Liberty Island, neither do all the rest of the tours that say you’ll see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Some of theses tours and ferries also leave from this area, but if you take them, you may see the islands, but it will be from the deck of the boat. Only the Statue City Cruises will take you to Liberty and Ellis Islands.

Thankfully, the line was in the sun or we might have gotten frostbite, but the wind was deadly. It’s a darned good thing we are such fashionistas. The colorful scarves we wore to dress up our outfits ended up tied around our heads in desperation. Here is the line, the boat and some of the scenery on the way to the islands.

All the wind made the ride pretty choppy, but neither of us is prone to seasickness and it was a very short ride. We were also so excited about our destination there really wasn’t much room in us for anything else.

You get off the boat and stand in line to show someone in a box your ticket. They give you a brochure with a map and then you are on your own. We had timed access to the crown, which means you actually get to go up in the statue. so we headed off immediately to the Lady herself.

I can confess here, that going up in the crown was not the highlight of our day. I am glad we did it, because they have some amazing exhibits inside the pedestal. Deb and I wandered around for a very long time looking at it all. So, my travel tip to you is that even if you don’t want to climb up the stairs and go into the crown, get the crown access anyway, because the museum there is very good.

With our newly discovered knowledge about the Statue of Liberty, we made our way back to the entry area and almost by serendipity went into the Information Center. It felt backwards, because we felt we’d already attended the main event, so what were we going to get information about?

Hello Park Service! It is not an Information Center! You need to find a more compelling name for it. An Information Center has brochures, a nice person to answer questions and perhaps a diorama of the area.

The Information Center on Liberty Island is more a celebration of all things Lady Liberty. It was in no way a repeat of what we’d seen in the exhibits inside the statue. We spent at least another hour enjoying the exhibits in the “Information Center”.

Inside the Lady, the exhibits shared the struggle to make the monument a reality. Though a gift from our friends in France, she wasn’t exactly free. It took a concerted effort by many, many people to get her standing in New York Harbor. It’s a story of a man with a vision and cooperation between nations, but also a tribute to the can-do determination of Americans.

The Information Center focuses more on the fabrication of the statue and what it has become since she climbed a top her pedestal. You get a sort of virtual peek at what it took to build her and then the role she has played standing watch in New York Harbor.

One of the challenges of being a tourist is deciding how to spend your time. If I were a New Yorker, a more frequent visitor to the Big Apple or someone with more than a week to see everything, I would have extended our tour of Liberty Island. There was certainly more to see.

Had it been a less windy and chilly day, we certainly would have spent more time on the pedestal of the statue, admiring the vistas of Manhattan and filling up our phones with photos. This really wasn’t an option in the powerful winds we experienced.

As it was, we’d passed mid-day and we wanted plenty of time on Ellis Island, so we headed to the Ferry Dock. From there it is a short hop to the second feature of the day. come back next week and experience Ellis Island with us. Please come back next week for the immigrant experience.

ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, DFW Metroplex, Performing Arts, Restaurants & Bars, TRAVEL

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: A BIG WEEKEND

A Good Excuse for Fun!

So last weekend was my husband’s birthday. It was sort of a milestone for him and he decided to live large! In fact, he started looking forward to it a day early, when usually he does his best to ignore it. So, Thursday afternoon he pulled out one of the good bottles of wine and enjoyed smoking his hookah in our sunroom.

Friday Night Date

The celebration, which started on Thursday, kept going on Friday night. You have to know that Friday nights are pretty quiet around here, usually. We don’t like to fight the big crowds, but we researched several Dallas restaurants, trying to find something new. We finally gave it up and went to Fire and Fable, something in Rockwall I’d tried out for coffee the week before. I found out they had a bar and stayed open 10 to 10, so we gave it a shot.

Warning it’s a little confusing. They bill themselves as a bookshop bistro, but when you walk in, the first thing you see is a pastry counter. In truth, the ladies at the counter were a tad bit more interested in whatever they were doing than they were about seeing if we were taken care of. We told them we were going to the bar, but then decided maybe we’d prefer to eat, but having already talked to us, they weren’t going to give us their attention again.

So, we walked through the next bit, which is actually bookshopish and found ourselves in a line, but we weren’t sure what we were waiting for. Chatting up the group ahead of us, we found out they’d just been called to their table, and we were in the right place to put our name on the list. They were seated and after a bit of a wait, the hostess asked us what we wanted.

She put us on the list for a table, but then found us a place to sit in the bar. We ordered drinks and an appetizer. Then we sat back to enjoy the show. All the cool kids were there being cool, so it was quiet entertaining. The service was slow, but I can only imagine what kind of chaos going on back in the kitchen, because the place was jamming.

Our appetizer was fried artichoke hearts and I cannot heartily endorse them, but in spite of that, I think you should go check it out – just maybe not on a Friday evening. We managed to wrench our check from the waiter and get it paid. Then we escaped out the back door. The hostess texted us our table was ready, just about the time we got home.

Saturday Night Date

You know it’s a big weekend if we go out twice!! Bill joined my bestie and I on our Saturday afternoon adventure, which happened to be a movie. We saw A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks. It was really heartwarming, but you have to sit through a lot of sadness to get to the good part. All three of us gave it a thumbs up!

But that’s not all. On a walk around The Harbor earlier in the week, I suggested to Bill the new Sear Steakhouse might be a good place to celebrate his birthday. He allowed that it might be, but he hadn’t worn his glasses and couldn’t see the menu posted outside the restaurant. He checked out their website once he got home, which didn’t have pricing and decided it would not be a good place to go.

Well, Deb decided to take him to 360° for a drink. 360° is the circular bar outside Sear Steakhouse – perfect for a sunset drink, since it overlooks Lake Ray Hubbard, but it worked fine for a drink (or two) in the dark, too. I must say we thoroughly enjoyed our time there and after a look at the menu (he had his glasses) we decided we could even afford to eat there!

Sunday Night Date

Nah! We didn’t go out again. After church, we both went to our offices to catch up on things which needed our attention. When dinner rolled around, however, Mr. Bill did cook up some falafel sandwiches and it was very good.

It was a really good weekend and we had a lot of fun. Thanks for dropping by. I hope you’ll come to visit again next week.