Art Lesson #11: Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg Florida

Salvador Dali Museum, Photo by Krenda

Before you even enter the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, you are looking at art.  The 75 foot tall building built in 2011 has a geodesic glass bubble known as the "enigma".  Ask your kids to guess the number of triangles! Answer equals 1,062.  With gardens and a waterfront location on Tampa Bay, it's a nice place to stroll too.  With the long line to enter the museum, I was glad we had architecture and nature to admire.  Entry fee is $25 adults, $10 kids age 6-12.  Time it right for discounted Thursday after 5PM ($12.50 adults, $8 kids).  The evening also gives you a cool interior lighted view.

Go to the third floor for a cool view over the garden and waterfront and admire the helical staircase celebrating spirals too.  While I have a preference from Impressionist art, this museum boasts of having the most Dali masterworks in any one location, 8 of the 18 masterworks.  The museum also impresses you with the breadth of Salvador Dali art with landscapes, portraits, still lifes, and religious paintings.  Totaling over 2,400 works by Dali, you should budget a few hours.  Patricia Schultz's book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die breaks down the articles, "Today the museum's collection encompasses works from every major period of Dali's long career, spanning the years 1917 through 1976 including 95 oil paintings; more than 100 watercolors and drawings, 1,300 sketches, sculptures, photographs and objects d'art: and a large archival library.

The kids surprised me at the amount of attention that they paid to each painting.  I think the Dali app with history stories really helped them understand the significance.  During high school, I studied Dali prior to being an exchange student to Spain.  Dali grew up in Figueras Spain, studied in Barcelona and Madrid, and became the world's best known Surrealist painter.  Surrealists, inspired by Sigmund Freud, explore subconscious images.  They can place common place objects in juxtaposed or deformed positions, use optical illusions, and symbolisms.  Some paintings had big crowds and others had peace.  Many gathered and stared at The Hallucingenic Toreador, inspired by Dali's wife's dislike for bullfighting.

We had the fortune of visiting while the museum also offered the Dali & Schiaparelli Paris special exhibition.  As a friend, Dali influenced fashion designer Elisa Schiaparelli (1890-1973).  Elsa was born in Rome, Italy and lived in the UK, France, and United States and became one of the most prominent figures in fashion between the two World Wars.  Challenging the status quo, she used dream-based designs, imagery, fantasy, vibrant colors, experimental fabrics, and handmade decorations.  Some described her art as elegant, brazen, and unrestrained.  The exhibit featured haute couture gowns and new designs by Bertrand Guyon for Maison Schiaparelli.  

Transportation Lesson #4: Iowa 80 Trucking Museum & 3 Other Truck Museums

Iowa 80 Trucking Museum, Photo by Krenda

If you love to travel within the United States, odds are you have shared the road with a lot of truck drivers and know commercial transportation is big business.  The highway serves as a network, enabling food, clothing, and other items to move from port to store.  In the majority of states, truck driving is the most common profession.  It employs nearly 4 million truck drivers who transport approximately 70% of all freight tonnage and drive approximately 140 billion miles each year.  The average driver will drive over 100,000 miles per year.  The industry consists of mostly small businesses.  Many truck drivers are owner operators.

Living in the Midwest, I've traveled many times on Interstate 80 (I-80) with trucks.  It's the second longest highway covering 2,899 miles.  You can go east-west from New Jersey to San Francisco, California.  US20 take claim for the longest highway, stretching from Boston to Newport, Oregon.  It's fitting that I-80 has the world's largest truck stop and the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum.

While driving from Davenport, Iowa or another of the Quad Cities to Des Moines, take a stop in Walcott, Iowa and admire the truck stop.  While it targets truck drivers with 900 truck parking spaces, there's room for your car too, considering the 200 car parking spaces.  The facility includes 36 fuel pumps, 10 restaurants, 24 private shower rooms, RV wash, and pet wash.

While your kids might like the food and shopping, they'll learn more about the truck industry by visiting the nearby Iowa 80 Trucking Museum.  No admission fee - although we bought souvenirs and gave a donations at the exit.  This museum is highly organized and clean with an impressive amount of trucks - over 100 on display.  Besides trucks, look up and around for antique metal signs, gas pumps, and vintage toys.  I always like to hear personal stories, so stop a moment and take a seat to watch a short film about the industry.

Art & Sculpture #4: International Sculpture Park and 4 More Sculpture Parks in IL

Smithsonian Magazine lists "Six of the World's Most Spectacular Sculpture Parks...from New York to Norway". (Jennifeer Nalewicki, May, 6, 2019) and I've only been to one of them, twice (Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, Washington).

Even with travel restrictions, if you live in Illinois, you can share the joy of sculpture art with your kids.  For our staycation, we planned visits to places that felt connected to other countries.  We chose the International Sculpture Park in Schaumburg, IL.  A partnership between The Chicago Anthenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the Village of Schumburg turned this 20 acres of meadow, forest, and prairies into a park for art lovers.  Then we connect to Greece.  Ioannis Karalias, a Greek architect, planned the garden.

Here's good news for moms - no admission fee, no parking fee, open from sunset to sunrise, and the open space makes it easy to socially distance.

You'll enter the grounds of the Robert O. Atcher Municipal Center with free parking at the Prairie Center for the Arts.  You likely won't see the sculpture garden entry sign from the lot.  Take the prairie trail back towards the entrance.  You will see the entrance sign and "Together", an 18 foot sculpture by Jerry S. Kenar.

You can connect back to Greece with "Chairs" sculpture by Argyro Konstantinidou showcasing Greek themes and images from the history of Mexico, Egypt, and Greece.  "Athys" by Charles de Montaigu provides another connection to Europe since it represents contemporary art in Switzerland.  "Touch Heaven" connects you to Israel designed by Oded Italahmy and inspired by Judaic culture and iconography.  "Vinland" intrigued us so much that we looked up more about the sculpture by Jarle Rosseland of Oslo, Norway.  The sculpture commemorates the 1,000 year anniversary of the Viking explorer, Leif Eriksson and his discoveries of the Americas.  With that background, we could see the ship form.  Another favorite was "Thought Rise in Vacuum" by Hans-Christian Berg, combining the numbers "zero" and "ones" in a cloud-like pattern.

Fortunately we researched the park ahead.  My daughter knew we missed sculptures, even though the path seemed to end near a road.  Trace back to the parking lot and walk across the street for other sculptures.  We had a picnic lunch near the prairie and now we found lots of other picnics near the small lake.

My daughter particularly wanted to see "Awaking Muse" by Don Lawler.  It takes a lot of horizontal space at 40 feet across.  The female figure inspired by Greek mythology appears to awaken from her sleep.  Keep walking and you'll find the colorful "Ecceltora" meaning "Behold the Hour".  May you enjoy your hour at the sculpture park.

Here's four additional sculpture parks to consider visiting in Illinois:

1) West Street Sculpture Park, Galena, IL, 2 acres

2) Goldman-Kuenz Sculpture Park at Cedarhurst in Mount Vernon, IL (Southern IL)

3) Scovill Sculpture Park in Decatur, IL near zoo and museum

4) Koehnline Sculpture Park, part of Koehnline Museum of Art on Oakton Community College campus- Des Plaines, IL (north of O'Hare airport), 25 sculptures

For more sculpture parks in the Midwest, visit my article "Pyramid Hill and 4 More Sculpture Parks in the Midwest".

Agriculture Lesson #7: From France to US, Lavender Farms and 4 Festivals

Photo by Krenda

A friend of mine visited Provence, France and raved about the lavender fields.  The Mediterranean mountains and Africa are known as lavender locations.  I imagined her strolling through the fields and visiting cute gift shops.  She brought me back lavender soap which I treasured.  The perennial flowering shrub smells so fragrant.  It's often found in beauty care items, sometimes with a claim to help relaxation and sleep.  This began my research in how to visit a lavender farm a little closer to home.

Born in the south of France, Martine Anderson became the founder of the Fragrant Isle Lavender Farm in Washington Island, Wisconsin.  Martine
began growing lavender gardens with her husband Edgar.  In 2013, the farm staff planted 9,000 plants and now there's 30,000 lavender plants.  So I scheduled our Door County Wisconsin vacation around the July timing of the Lavender Festival at the Fragrant Isle Lavender Farm.  It took all of us boarding a ferry to Washington Island.  We strolled through the fields, saw freshly harvested lavender hanging in the working barn, watched demonstrations, listened to live music, and tasted samples of food containing lavender.  The festival offered painting classes near the fields too.  While lavender for culinary and aromatic purposes, I prefer the scent versus the taste.  My sister doesn't appreciate the scent as much as me, so she gladly gave me her lavender organza sachet.

France inspired other growers.  In 1999, Rob Kendrick and his wife Jeannie Ralston shot a story for national Geographic about lavender farming and perfume-making in Provence.  In 1999, they planted 2,000 plants and now you can visit their farm Hill Country Farm in Texas, near San Antonio and Austin.  Visit the farm May to July or you can buy their lavender-lemon tea cookies online.

You can find lavender farms coast to coast in the United States.  Here's three more lavender festivals for you and your family to consider:
1.  Sequim Lavender Festival, Sequim, Washington; June-Labor Day
Considered the "Lavender Capital" of North America, Sequim celebrates with a street fair of craft booths, LavenderStock music stage, free self-guided farm tours at eight farms
Kids can stay active in the KidsZone including a dance party, quick golf, obstacle course, and minute to win it challenges
2.  Michigan Lavender Festival; Imlay City, MI; Eastern Michigan Fairgrounds (North of Detroit); July
Admission includes shuttle, educational classes and demos, 5-minute mini massage, daily yoga sessions at 11AM and 2PM, and many demos (knitting, pottery, broom making, spinning & weaving), pamper yourself with an express lavender facial for $20 or listen to live music
Kid's activity barn includes crafts such as DIY lavender play dough demo for age 12 and under
3.  Ojai Valley Lavender Festival; Ojai, California; June
Ojai declared June as Lavender Month.  Take advantage of free parking and shuttle; learn from talks such as "growing lavender" and "cooking with lavender" at Lavender Inn, listen to live music and expect a crowd as the festival has attracted over 4,500 attendees
 4.  Blanco Lavender Festival, Blanco, TX; June
Free admission to the festival and farm, live music, listen to speakers at the courthouse on horticulture and bee keeping

If you can't time your visit just right for a festival, visit a farm in the summer:
1.  Ali' Kula Lavender Farm; Maui, Hawaii; June to Aug.
2.  Mt. Shasta Lavender Farms; Montague, California
3.  Pelindaba Lavender Farm; Washington State's San Juan Island; April to Oct.
4.  Hood River Lavender Farm; Oregon; May to Oct.
5.  Red Rock Randeh & Farm Growers of High Altitude Lavender; Concho, Arizona
6.  Los Poblanos Lavender Farm; Albuquerque, New Mexico
7.  Sprigs and Sprouts; Palisade, Colorado
8.  White Oak Lavender Farm; Harrisburg, Virginia; open year-round
9.  Lavender by the Bay; East Marion, NY; June - Oct.
10.  Peace Valley Lavender Farms; Bucks County, PA;  open year-round

History Lesson #10: Fort Mackinac in Michigan

Cannons ready at Fort Mackinac

If you want to visit one of the best-preserved military forts in the country, you need to take a ferry to an island and walk, bike, or hike to the fort.  You can't drive a car on Mackinac Island.  Every aspect will take you back in time.  It sounds like a travel challenge, but the nature, views, and history make it worth the effort.  Besides learning history at Fort Mackinac, you can't beat the views.  Located on 150 foot bluffs, you look over the idyllic island and beautiful blue water.  I don't often repeat vacation spots, but this one I've visited three times - as a child, a couple, and a parent.  Each time I learn more.

If you read my article on Fort Michilmackinac, this article moves you forward in history.  You also know that you can buy a season pass that covers admission to both sites.  As a recap, the British felt threatened by having a vulnerable fort location in Mackinac along the shore, so they dismantled their buildings and reassembled the buildings on Mackinac Island.  Although the location change, the name remained the same.  

The British only relinquished the fort 15 years after Americans won the Revolutionary War.  The British captured the fort during the War of 1812.  The Americans tried to regain the fort during the 1814 Battle of Mackinac Island, but the British defeated them.  The Americans successfully occupied the fort in 1815 aft the Treaty of Ghent.

Kids enjoy view 

In the move from the fur trading to tourist island, the military changed duties and became park rangers of the second U.S. National Park after Yellowstone.  In 1895, ownership transferred from the U.S. government to Michigan State property and it became part of Mackinac Island State Park.

When you arrive, make sure to check out the schedule and give yourself a couple hours.  It's some of the interactive demonstrations and interpreter stories that make it most interesting for kids.  Take the tour.  You'll stroll along and hear new stories.  For example, internet stories tell you the government built the canteen to make the fort desirable.  Our guide told us the soldiers caused too much trouble drinking in town and the canteen kept the loud entertainment within the walls.  Besides watching riffles fire and music play, interpreters taught our entire family old fashioned games in the lawn.

I also recommend eating at the Tea Room within the fort for added historical experience and possibly the best views on the island.  The Tea Room utilizes the Officers Stone Quarters, the oldest public building in Michigan, which workers restored as part of the WPA program.  While you'll likely pay more than normal for a sandwich, part of the profit supports the Mackinac State Historic Parks.  Since the restaurant was operated by the Grand Hotel, we also gained admission to the Grand Hotel.  Grand Hotel entrance prices rose, so this deal may not still hold - check when entering.

Photo by Krenda

Teaching games in the lawn

History Lesson #9: Archaeology and Colonial Michilmackinac in Michigan

Gun demonstration at the fort

 When you think of archaeology sites, you might think of Egypt, Cambodia, or Peru.  In the United States, you'd likely think of sites in the West.  Did you know that the longest-running archaeological dig is actually in the Midwest?  It's Colonial Michilmackinac in Mackinac, Michigan and it's open to tour. 

I had visited the Mackinac historical sites as a child and recall the place as loud and exciting.  I realize now that my parents timed the visit to a special event with a reenactment.  This time we took our kids to Colonial Michilmackinac and heard a few loud bangs from gun demonstrations, but not the flurry of costumed soldiers running.  Costumed interpreters showed off their gardens and talked about crafts and trade.  The site not only has stories of fighting, it served as a transhipment center and refueling post for upper great lakes fur trade.

Photo by Krenda

The National Historic Landmark acts as a reconstructed 18th-century fort and fur trading village, taking visitors back in time to 1779 during the American Revolution.  Since my spouse has an ancestor who fought in the American Revolution with George Washington, it makes the stories even more interesting.  French soldiers constructed the fort in 1715 and they fought the Fox and later Chicksaw.  The American Indian later attack the French at he fort.  British take control of the fort in 1761, but they moved the buildings to Mackinac Island.  The British feared an attack by American rebels and the island was more secure.  They burnt remaining buildings, but archaeologists discovered well preserved walls of the underground ammunition building called the Powder Magazine.  Archaeologists have found over 1 million artifacts such as ceramics, silver, and gun parts in the past 60 years.  The dig continues and you may see archaeologists working in the summer.

Dogs on leash allowed

You can see from my photos that we had no crowd at the site.  Possibly our late afternoon/evening timing helped.  The fort stays open later during the summer, until 7PM.  You still need to arrive by 6PM.  You'll want to arrive earlier anyway.  With 16 buildings to tour and interpreter talks, you could easily spend two hours at the fort.

16 buildings to tour

Costumed Interpreters

You can follow the history tour by next visiting the reconstructed fort on the island.  We bought the Mackinac Family Heritage Pass, approximately $85 family season pass, even though we only had a week vacation in Michigan.  The pass is worth the price because it gives you admission to multiple sites and we visited 5 of them:  1) Fort Mackinac (island), 2) Colonial Michilmackinac, 3) Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park, 4) Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse, and 5) Mackinac Art Museum (island).  Search my blog for stories about the other sites.

The Kings Garden

State Park #7: Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park - Mackinaw City, Michigan

Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park

Demonstration

Timber can help build and rebuild.  For history and adventure, visit the Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park in Mackinaw City Michigan.  Formerly called the Historic Mill Creek State Park, this park has rebuilt historical buildings and more.  Knowing that the rest of my Michigan itinerary listed multiple Mackinac State Historic Parks, my first task was to buy the Mackinac Family Heritage Pass for $85 at the visitor center.  The pass covers entrance fees for the entire family for one season.  I also paid the extra $9.50 per person for the Adventure Tour.  It includes zipline and if you compare prices vs. commercial ziplines, the park offers quite the deal.  If you don't buy the season pass, you'll also need to pay a $9 admission fee for the park per person.  The visitor center also provides a gift shop and short film "The Power of Water."

We arrived at the right time and season.  From May to September, you may see costumed interpreters who tell the history lessons.  Mill Creek established in 1790 to provide timber.  It operated as a farm and orchard too.  In 1984, the creek dam and sawmill was rebuilt and the park opened to the public.  The British workshop was rebuilt in 1994.  The Millwrights house was rebuilt in 2005.  We also timed the visit to see the pit saw method of cutting timber.  The speaker's enthusiasm and engagement of his audience made everyone want to listen and follow him.  We followed him right into the reconstructed sawmill and watched timber cutting using the power of water.

Educational Talk

The "more" refers to the adventure component of the park.  We all suited up for the bridge and zipline.  You'll see nature from up high as you walk across the Forest Canopy Bridge.  The bridge gives you a good view of others on the zipline too.  At 425 foot high, the Eagle Flight Zip Line provides a good thrill for teens and big kids too.  If your kids have not experienced a zip line, this provides a good introduction too.  You can watch your kids fly over the water from a viewing deck.  We heard a lot of laughter over the water too.

Zipline Survivor

The bridge to Zipline fun

The kids also wanted to climb the climbing wall.  The five-story Treetop Discovery Tower stands close to the zipline.  The kids raced to the top.  Before promising a climb up the wall, note the minimum 4 feet tall requirement and 50-250 pound requirement.

Don't stop walking once at the tower.  Hit the trails and you will gain the reward of an amazing view of Mackinac Bridge and Mackinac Island.  You can even see the Grand Hotel from the wooden deck.