Search results for 'Copala Tour'

In the heart of Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville is one of the largest Gingko trees in the state of Kentucky. On a recent visit, we wandered into its presence. All the leaves were a bright yellow. It was 2:00 in the afternoon on November 8^th so the light was hitting the tree at a sharp angle. The reflections off the surface of these usual shaped leaves filtered throughout the giant tree. This tree is the volume of a two-story house with about 3000 square feet. I was told that all Gingko trees shed their leaves on the same day. The gingko is a living fossil dating back 270 million years. The word Gingko is derived from the Japanese word ginkyo meaning “silver apricot”. The realization that this tree was 150 years old reminds us to think about all the history it had witnessed and that we are standing in a sacred place. 

Any time you are traveling in or around Nashville, TN, a visit to Andrew Jackson’s home, The Hermitage, is well worth it.  His home is a great window into Jackson’s tumultuous life and presidency.  The house tour is one of the best we’ve experienced.  Our tour guides were in period clothing and were excellent storytellers.  The house is filled with original family artifacts, giving a real idea of what day to day life was like for the wealthy in the 1830’s.  The French landscape wallpaper in the curved center atrium was hand painted in dark shades of blue indigo dating to the period. 

San Antonio, Texas is the happiest large urban city we have ever visited. People looked you in the eye, said hello, and helped you out. The unemployment rate is virtually zero. Everyone has a job. It is booming. It is a great place to go downtown, find a place to park, and just head out for a walk. 

When we decided to go on our first trip to Europe, Italy was the destination. Being a coin collector, I wanted to look at examples from the large cities we were going to visit- Rome, Florence, and Venice. I asked a fellow collector I had met the previous summer while taking classes at the American Numismatic Association’s Summer Seminar (another story) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, if he had any suggestions. He told me about the Il Mio Hobby Coin Shop in Venice. As a total rookie in world travel, I found it hard to believe I could really find that spot in a land that seemed so far away.  

It is difficult to find a true intergenerational family experience that entertains, educates, and inspires, but on our recent road trip to SanAntonio, Texas, we found one. We went to Enchanted Springs Ranch with aunt, uncle, niece, twin 5-year olds, and a fifth grader and we all loved it!!

We love Chicago.  It’s a city of big ideas with great public art in large open spaces.  One of the best way’s we have found to truly understand the remarkable vision Chicago’s builders had is to take the Chicago Architecture Foundation Cruise.

Let’s get off the interstate and “Go on Patrol!!” Today we are traveling on 31W, one of the original north south routes that run parallel to I-65 from Michigan to Alabama. On a car lot in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, we found Swope’s Cars of Yesteryear Museum. It is without a doubt the best free Car Museum in the U.S. Owner, Bill Swope, has collected and put on display 60 cars built between 1900 and 1970. They have been lovingly restored in every detail. I am a collector (not of cars) so I’m in total awe at what Mr. Swope has accomplished. He has found many totally original cars that are in “like new” condition. 

Mark Twain called the sunrise on Haleakala Volcano, “The sublimest spectacle I’ve ever witnessed.” Hawaiians have been trekking up Haleakala to honor and celebrate the gods for hundreds of years. It was considered a sacred place, called wao akua, wilderness of the gods. Its eerie and otherworldly feel as the sun peaks over the rim and lights the crater below is an experience that you will always treasure.

Although I never get tired of facing off with Sue, the 67 million old, 42 foot long, and 13 feet high, Tyrannosaurus rex, we went back to the Field Museum to see its special exhibit called “Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World’s Fair”. This exhibit is special because The Field Museum was primarily an outgrowth of The Columbian Exposition. Many of the artifacts and specimens on display have not been seen since the World’s Fair in 1893.

When I’m looking for a summer retreat for rest and relaxation, I head for the Wax Marina in Wax, Kentucky on Nolin Lake. The Wax Marina provides a beautiful view of a 100-foot limestone cliff and safe haven for boaters and fishermen. It is home sweet home for our pontoon boat “Buttercup”. 

As a child, when we were watching Johnny Weissmuller swing through the jungle and swim at lightning speed in Tarzan’s Secret Treasures we really were experiencing Wakulla Springs State Park in Florida up close and personal.  While traveling to visit family in Gainesville we discovered this jungle gem 14 miles south of Tallahassee.  If you want the best family boat ride through an exotically diverse natural habitat, this is your spot. 

On our way to San Antonio to visit our family, we decided to venture off The Beaten Path onto the Natchez Trace between Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee. The 444-mile two-lane highway is a National Scenic Byway, All-American Road and Designated Bike route. We drove 17 miles southwest of Nashville on I-40W and took Exit 192 onto McCrary Lane. We went five miles to the entrance of the Park. We put on two of our “travel” CD’s consisting of the Grammy Songs from the last two years and headed out to find harmony in midst of a sometimes-troubled world. 

In the heart of Old Louisville overlooking Central Park is the Conrad-Caldwell House Museum, known as Louisville’s Castle. In the 1890’s, Theophile Conrad commissioned local architect Arthur Loomis of Clarke & Loomis to design this stone masterpiece. It is one of the finest examples of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in the world.  

Our trip to Mount Ida, The Quartz Crystal Capital of the World, left us dazzled, amazed, and in awe of what beauty Mother Nature can create. We saw quartz crystals with points, clarity and clusters of every shape, size, and color imaginable. 

In August of 1950, two curious teenagers were hunting for Native American artifacts after they had finished their chores and noticed cold air rushing out of a tiny opening, which was causing leaves to rustle on a tree 15 feet away.  They dug their way in and discovered a magical world within, what is now Cub Run Cave.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has a huge collection of the personal artifacts from almost all the Rock and Rollers you know and love. This includes the musical instruments, cars, vans, clothes, advertising, handwritten song lyrics, gold records, jewelry, and much, much more. 

Last year was the 150th Anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. If you want your understanding broadened, your senses dazzled, and your collector gene completely awed, The Civil War Museum in Bardstown, Kentucky is a must see. It has one of the largest collections of rare and authentic artifacts of any Civil War Museum in the country. Prominent Civil War magazine, The North and South, named it the 4th best in the U.S. out of 500. This is quite a surprise for this great small Central Kentucky town.

On the historical marker by the replica of his cabin, it says that George Rogers Clark (1753-1818) was “A pioneer, soldier, patriot, conqueror of the Northeast territory…” His brilliant Revolutionary War campaign captured Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes and brought the states northwest of the Ohio River into the Union.  He brought 150 men and 15 families down the Ohio River in 1778 and built a fort on Corn Island to plan and implement this conquest. This fort was the beginning of Louisville, Kentucky. 

Route 66 took us off the beaten path to discover the amazing Acoma Indians. Members of the Acoma tribe have continuously lived atop a 70-acre plateau called Sky City since 1000 A.D. That’s right- 500 years before Columbus hit our shores in 1492. Sky City is nearly 370 feet above the canyon floor in the desert of Western New Mexico. About 50 Acoma Indians now inhabit the once thriving Pueblo.