My Travel Memories – Page 3 – To Hither and Yon

My Travel Memories, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

This is one of those days that make me wish I had pictures of this trip available to me more than most. This is because Quebec City is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited. I don’t remember seeing much in the way of sightseeing, but my family and I spent all day just walking around. I do remember spending a few hours on the
Île d’Orléans, though I think we just drove Route 368 around the perimeter of the island.

The city is what made the real impression on me (I’m a city girl, after all). We wandered the streets of the Old City, which is like visiting a 17th century European city. There weren’t even any cars there, that I can recall. We also walked the walls of the citadel. We walked at least ten miles that day and I would have been willing to spend more time there, but we were scheduled to go to Montreal and had to leave.

I always intended to return. In fact, I kind of dreamed of having my honeymoon there. Instead of Quebec City, my now-ex and I ended up going to Indianapolis (more on that trip once we get to 1991). We got married in November, so going north was not a good idea, plus he had only been out of college for three months at that point, so he hadn’t earned any vacation time yet. He took two days off without pay, so we had to stay fairly close to home. I may get married again someday, if I ever get to a point where I want to date again (we’re coming up on the sixth anniversary of our divorce and I haven’t felt that desire yet) and, once I do, if I ever find someone I love well enough to marry again and maybe we’ll go to Quebec City for our honeymoon. I’ve heard of people “dating themselves” (in the sense of going out and doing fun things alone and not in the sense of revealing how old they are) so maybe, someday, I’ll take myself on a honeymoon.

My Travel Memories: Portland, Maine

After we left Massachusetts, we drove up through New Hampshire and into Portland. I was, at this point, still 17 or so years away from becoming a lighthouse enthusiast, so I missed out on my chance to see one of the most-photographed (if not the most-photographed) lighthouses in the world, Portland Head Light. If you see a photograph of a white lighthouse and the outbuildings all have pretty steeply pitched red roofs, that’s Portland Head. Before Alex and I started to buy calendars of our upcoming destinations (this year’s calendar is Munich), I usually bought a calendar with lighthouse pictures and my usual goal was to find one without a picture of Portland Head. Some years I was more successful than others (and one year I found one with two pictures of Portland Head, each taken from a different angle). If you’ve ever watched Babylon 5, the episode “Shadow Dancing” ends with Delenn holding a snow globe with a lighthouse in it. That lighthouse is Portland Head. Anyway, I hope to return to Portland someday to actually visit the lighthouse that I’ve seen so many damn times in photographs.

While we didn’t go lighthouse spotting, we did visit yet another famous person’s house and this one did make an impression. We visited the Wadsworth-Longfellow House, home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Among the things we saw was what they refer to as the “Rainy Day desk,” which is where Longfellow wrote his poem, “The Rainy Day.” You know the saying, “Into each life some rain must fall”? That’s from “The Rainy Day.” The poem also references a vine and there is ivy on the exterior wall outside the window above the desk. The tour guide said that the ivy was there during Longfellow’s lifetime and may have been of some inspiration to him in writing the poem. So I went outside and stole a leaf from the ivy. I took care to get it home in one piece and then sealed it in a plastic bag. I used that leaf as a bookmark for most of the following school year. I wonder where it is now. It’s probably still in one of the books I read that year.

I’m pretty sure we also went to the Portland Museum of Art. At least the building it was in at the time, the McLellan-Sweat Mansion looks awfully familiar. It turns out that 1981, the year we were in Portland, was the year they began work on the current building across the street from the mansion. The new building is much more modern and more memorable.

That night we went to a lobster restaurant and had whole steamed lobsters for dinner (my parents have never gone for terribly fancy food). I wouldn’t swear to it, but it looks like it might have been whatever restaurant was in the same building where Street & Co. is today. That is certainly the right area of town. My dad made some joke or other at dinner and I laughed so hard that the screw fell out of my glasses and we couldn’t find it anywhere. We had to go to the Pearle Vision store in downtown Portland on our way out of town to have a new screw put in.

It’s not really about Portland, but while we were in Maine, we were driving through the woods somewhere (probably on US 201) and I saw the biggest dog I’d ever seen sitting in the lanes going in the opposite direction. As we passed the dog, it looked up and I realized that no dog has round ears like that. The large dog I saw was actually a bear. My parents didn’t see it at all.

My Travel Memories — Boston, Massachusetts

Boston was the first place I ever traveled where I looked around and said, “I wonder what it would be like to live here.” The place I was standing at the time was Beacon Street right across from Boston Common, so it would probably be fantastic to live there, but unless this blog becomes more really amazingly profitable I will never be able to afford it. But a part of me still wonders what it would be like.

My first memory of Boston was getting lost. In some of our destinations, I can remember the hotel we stayed at, but I can’t remember the hotel from Boston. It was likely a Holiday Inn or something similar. It was near dark by then and we ended up in the North End. The couple who stopped to help us didn’t speak English, but their son (who was probably about eight years old) did, and he translated. I’m sure we would have found our hotel eventually, but that family made it much easier than it would otherwise have been.

We did the usual tourist things in Boston: the Faneuil Hall, Boston Common, I think we took a bus tour, or maybe my memory of seeing Harvard University from a vehicle was in our car. We also went out to Plymouth Rock (even less exciting than it sounds) and I think we visited the Plimoth Plantation living history museum. We also, of course, visited at least one famous house. The house I remember visiting was the Alcott house in Concord. Mostly I remember standing outside waiting for our turn (or maybe for them to open) while my mom told me her opinion about Louisa May Alcott’s father (which was not complimentary, she didn’t like his peripatetic nature and the fact that he was too busy philosophizing to take care of the family financially).

I don’t remember if we went to Walden Pond or not. I would think we would have while we were in Concord, since my mom had a Master’s degree in English. But maybe not.

Once again, I really wish I had some pictures of this trip. Oh, well. Maybe this will be my excuse to go back to Boston someday. “I have to go back to take the pictures that we didn’t take in 1981.” I think I like that idea.

My Travel Memories — Niagara Falls, New York/Ontario

I’m pretty certain that I’m done with my 1980 vacation now, though, really? Who knows? I reserve the right to go back to 1980 if I remember anything else.

Regardless, on to 1981. This trip* was my very first time outside the United States. It was also the most elaborate vacation my family of origin took, possibly ever (the award for most elaborate vacation since my marriage is definitely our trip to England in 2002). My folks and I drove from Chicago through Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and then into New York, where we went to Niagara Falls. I had always wanted to go to New York City and I asked hopefully if we could stop there on our way through. My parents had attended the 1964 World’s Fair in Queens and my mom had not enjoyed the experience, so the answer was a resounding no.

After Niagara Falls, we drove across the rest of New York State into Massachusetts, where we visited Boston and its environs. We then went north along the coast of New Hampshire into Maine, where we visited Portland before heading north to Quebec City, Quebec. From there, we went south to Montreal, then into Ontario where we sat in our hotel room in Toronto the next day, too tired from the rest of the vacation to do much in Toronto. From there, we crossed back into the United States and went home to Chicago.

I would, in time, get my chance to go to New York City, of course, in 1988 and then again in 2015. I also would explore Toronto with Alex and my as-yet-unpseudonymed now-ex-husband, in 2003.

But first, Niagara Falls.

I was actually kind of weirded out by my parents’ suggestion that we go to Niagara Falls. The only thing I really knew about Niagara Falls was that it was a honeymoon destination. I didn’t think it would be particularly family-friendly. Fortunately, while there is a lot to recommend the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area as a vacation spot — nature, history, boat tours, proximity to Canada — it was far less sexy than I was expecting.

Generally, this is where I go into the history of the location in question, but, well, it’s not like Niagara Falls was founded or anything. I seem to recall reading an article about how it was a bustling industrial area early in American history. There were mills and things on the Niagara River beginning in the 1700s. Nowadays, the focus of industry on the river is in hydroelectric power, and the river is so fast that they don’t need to dam the river up to do this, but can produce the power with water diverted from the river without significantly affecting the flow of the river. Now that’s a powerful river.

We spent one or two days in Niagara Falls, and did a few things there. We went on the Maid of the Mist tour. These are the boats that take you right up to the falls. Back in 1981, they had reusable things that had a terrible mildew smell. Apparently they now give out disposable ponchos that provide less coverage than the reusable ones did, but presumably smell less like an uncleaned locker room shower. Remembering the Maid of the Mist is one of the things that makes me wish we’d taken some pictures on that trip. The Maid of the Mist boats are wheelchair accessible.

We also walked across the Rainbow Bridge into Canada one night. My dad and I argued about when we went to Niagara Falls. He insisted that I had to have been older than I was, but I distinctly remembered that crossing as my first time out of the country, which would put it before we went to Quebec and Montreal. Later we would figure out that it was the same trip. I remember having dreams about crossing a bridge into Canada that had a side tunnel to France. I think that my subconscious was remembering that Niagara Falls and Quebec were the same trip. Or maybe my subconscious is just weird. I don’t think we stayed in Niagara Falls, Ontario very long though. I have a memory of a lot of neon. I think my parents were underwhelmed and so we pretty much turned around and went right back.

One thing to be aware of when planning a trip to Niagara Falls is the humidity. If you have any physical ailments that can be exacerbated by humidity, you might want to take any necessary precautions when visiting Niagara Falls. For example, as I write this (January 23, 2016), the prediction for the daytime hours tomorrow is a 0% chance of precipitation, but 82% (on average) humidity. So the air is basically water that close to the falls. On the plus side, if your hair responds well to humidity (as mine does), you will look fantastic.

*This stop, as a matter of fact.

My Travel Memories: Detroit, Michigan

I’ve been to Detroit twice — once in 1980 and then again in 1987. The city declined sharply in the seven intervening years. My impression of Detroit in 1980 was of a nice little city and in 1987, my impression was of an empty little city. As with Cincinnati, my only pictures of Detroit were from our 1987 trip, so you’ll just have to trust me that in 1980 Detroit was pretty nice.

The one thing I remember about Detroit wasn’t in Detroit proper, it was Deerfield Village in Dearborn.

Greenfield Village is an open-air museum that is part of a complex known as “The Henry Ford.” .he Henry Ford what is unclear. I get the impression that it’s a ford (as in low-water crossing of a river) named “Henry.” Greenfield Village was dedicated in 1929 at a ceremony that was attended by historical figures including Marie Curie, Orville Wright, and Will Rogers.

Greenfield Village is now home to a large number or historic buildings, including the home of Noah Webster and the bicycle shop of the Wright Brothers. There is also a reconstruction of Thomas Edison’s laboratory from Menlo Park, New Jersey. The original laboratory had been destroyed and so the people who created Greenfield Village moved the two remaining buildings and measured the foundations on the site so that they could recreate the other buildings as closely as possible.

I am not under any kind of misapprehension that the 1880s were anything like a “golden age.” Too many of my relatives and ancestors were living in tenements for me to do that. As a result, some of the “let’s go back to a simpler time” stuff is lost on me. It wasn’t actually simpler. However, as an educational destination, Greenfield Village is fun, particularly as a way to look at the work of the innovators of the past and looking forward to the innovators of the future. At 90 acres, it’s also a nice place to get some fresh air.

I went to Google Maps to see if it would look like I remember, and I discovered that they let the Google Street View car into the museum. This is another one of those situations where the amount of time it’s been since my last visit has come back to me. This coming August will be 29 years since my last visit, which I remember was a nice temperature, but was very sunny. It’s not nearly as sunny as I remember, because the trees are nearly 30 years older than they were my last visit.

The sidewalks of Greenfield Village were designed with accessibility in mind, but some of the historic buildings have steps and the people of The Henry Ford, perhaps to preserve the landmark nature of the building, have not installed ramps. On some of the buildings, however, the presenter can come outside to do his or her presentation so that wheelchair users can get the information even if they cannot come into the buildings.

My Travel Memories: Cincinnati, Ohio

Finally, we get to Cincinnati. Cincinnati is not a perfect city by any stretch of the imagination. It’s in the “rust belt,” which (for those not in the United States) is a reference to the region that used to rely heavily upon industrial jobs but where the industrial jobs have disappeared, sending the economy and population of the region into something of a tailspin. Cincinnati also has, from what I have read, a great deal of racial tension. Chicago is not free of racial tension, but I grew up in an area that had had been dragged kicking and screaming into racial diversity and now I live in San Antonio, which is more diverse than not (the 2010 census reports that the population of white non-Latino residents in the city proper is 26.6%).

So, Cincinnati is not exactly heaven on Earth or anything like that (despite being the place where a family friend had a conversion experience). What Cincinnati has that makes it worth the trip? Is Cincinnati Union Terminal (now home to the Cincinnati Museum Center).

I have actually been to Cincinnati twice. The first time was in 1980, when Union Terminal was a shopping mall. My mom and I visited the mall while my dad was working and we had a wonderful time. The mall was, well, a mall. But the building? Is beautiful. The rotunda, the tiny details. Even the pay phones were gorgeous. This was, of course, back in the days before everyone had a cell phone and we had to call my dad to arrange where he was going to pick us up, so we had to find a pay phone and the phone booths were very Art Deco. I half-expected Superman to emerge from one.

Speaking of Superman, Cincinnati Union Terminal is also the inspiration for the Hall of Justice from the old 1970s Super Friends cartoon show. So if train stations aren’t your thing, and neither is Art Deco architecture or museums, perhaps it would be worth the visit for the comics/Saturday-morning-cartoon fan in your traveling group.

When my folks and I returned to Cincinnati in 1987, Union Terminal sat empty. This was distressing for both my mom and me, since it’s such a lovely building and we’d had such a good time there. Little did we know (since the Internet wasn’t widely available yet) that plans were under way to turn Union Terminal into the Cincinnati Museum Center.

I only discovered this information around three or four years ago, when a friend was planning a trip to Cincinnati and asked what there was to do there. I was sad that the station had been empty and looked it up, dreading to find that the building was razed. Lo and behold, the building had been given new life. Since 1990, the Museum Center has been home to the Cincinnati History Museum, the Duke Energy Children’s Museum, the Museum of Natural History and Science, and an Omnimax theater.

Of course, I have not returned to Cincinnati since the opening of the Museum Center, but I am planning another trip to Cincinnati in 2017. My hope is that when Alex and I go to Kentucky for the eclipse we will drive there (stopping in Nashville to see the Parthenon on the way). Perhaps we will visit Graceland as well; I don’t know what kind of time we’ll have available. But Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the town closest to the point of greatest eclipse, is only four hours from Cincinnati. I’ve been in Texas for nearly 23 years now. A four-hour drive really is “only” to me. So I figure that we’ll start a day earlier, overshoot Hopkinsville by four hours, visit Union Terminal (and take lots of pictures!), spend the night in Cincinnati or in Louisville, and then get up extra early to make it back to Hopkinsville in time for the eclipse. At least, that’s the plan. Let’s see how it works out in practice.

My Travel Memories, Lexington (and probably Louisville), Kentucky

This is going to be a short one, because I don’t remember much. I’m not even sure that Lexington was our next stop after Springfield. At this point in our 1980 vacation, we took one of my dad’s road trips with him. The cities he needed to visit and thus we covered were Lexington, Louisville, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Detroit. Lexington might have been the day that my mom and I sat in the car outside the building where my dad was working. Or was that Louisville? Literally all I remember of those two cities was dinner. In Louisville, we went to an Italian restaurant, I think.

And then there was dinner in Lexington. We had dinner at a dinner theater in Lexington. I was a young teenager and had been to the theater, by my count, around four times before, but this may have been my first dinner theater experience. As we left the theater, I saw a sort of receiving line for the actors and, figuring that this was the thing to do, I got in line. I told them that I had had a good time and that they had done a good job. My mom was pretty surprised by this, since I was kind of a shy kid. But I figured “when in Rome,” and the Romans seemed to be doing this, so why not?

Since I don’t remember the order we actually visited the cities in, I threw them into Google Maps and will be doing them in that order. So, next up (January 12?) will be Cincinnati, followed by Columbus and then Detroit.

ETA: I had the worst time scheduling this post. First I forgot to schedule it at all, so it appeared for a minute as a new post, and then I accidentally scheduled it for January 4, 2015. It should be okay now.

I Am So Confused

So, I just recently wrote up my My Travel Memories for Lexington (and maybe Louisville) Kentucky. My photo album has us going through Springfield in 1980 and then has some things from Lexington. In the process of scanning in postcards, I found one that my mom mailed to me, postmarked 1983, that references our first trip to Cincinnati.

But all of the photos of Cincinnati that I can find are from 1987. Our 1980 photo album abruptly jumps to my first date, in 1982, after Lexington.

So, after discussing possibilities with my dad, we have come to the conclusion that the trip to Cincinnati referenced in that postcard must have been in 1980. If I eventually find some evidence that it was in some other year (despite Cincinnati being out of the way for any of our other destinations) I will change it, but the way things stand now, it sure looks like we were there in 1980, so I will write it that way. I think we also went to Detroit that year, and perhaps Cleveland, as well.

My Travel Memories: Springfield, Illinois

I don’t think we stayed in Springfield very long. I remember going to Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site, which is another historical town recreation, similar to Williamsburg. This one made more of an impression, I think, because a television miniseries had been filmed here just prior to our visit. I cannot for the life of me remember what miniseries it had been, but at least I had some frame of reference for the buildings, aside from “these are recreations of buildings that were here when Abraham Lincoln lived here in the mid-1800s.”

We also toured the house that Abraham Lincoln had lived in when he and Mary Todd Lincoln lived in Springfield. It was, as they all are, really, a house.

Illinois State Capitol in the late 1970s — The Illinois State Capitol (not from our 1980 vacation, but from an earlier business trip that my dad took)

I don’t remember going into either the Illinois State Capitol building or the Old State Capitol Historic Site, but I do remember seeing the outside of both. I think we may have just driven through Springfield on our way to our next destination, Lexington, Kentucky.

My Travel Memories: Hannibal, Missouri

My mom was an English major, so while we were near the Mississippi, we visited Hannibal, Missouri, childhood home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain (and I will be using the name Mark Twain for the rest of this post). Twain’s book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is more than slightly autobiographical, and a number of locations in town are labeled as if the fictional characters and events of Tom Sawyer really happened. The house that Twain’s childhood sweetheart, Laura Hawkins, lived in, for example, is labeled as Becky Thatcher’s House, and is a tourist attraction. Similarly, there is a cave on which the cave from Tom Sawyer is based has been named the Mark Twain Cave and is also a (very touristy) tourist attraction.

Overall, my mom was unimpressed; the town was a lot touristier than she had been expecting. I wasn’t sure what to expect — I was barely a teenager and hadn’t traveled much yet. I did buy a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in the bookstore there and I know I still have that book. I was, at this point, just going into high school, so I read the book for a book report I think it was my freshman year.

For some unknown reason, there is a picture of what certainly looks to be the Blount Mansion in Knoxville, Tennessee in this part of the photo album. There is a sign that says “Blount Mansion” and has an arrow pointing to the left in the foreground and the only Blount Mansion I could find is in Knoxville. There is also an unreadable historical marker in the front yard, so I thought that maybe this was a house near the Blount Mansion. But the more I look at the picture and at the mansion in Google Street View, the more I think that this is a picture of the mansion itself. I don’t think we went to Knoxville on this vacation, and even if we had, why would it have been on this page? We’re still in Missouri. So that’s a mystery.