Traverse City, Michigan

After our pitstop, we meandered up the mitten until we reached Lake Michigan and the lovely, lovely Traverse City. We spent the night in a motel (at Dawn's request), went driving, barring and wine tasting. I lived in TC for a summer of camp, and i'm still amazed that I know my way around relatively well. We did get lost a couple of times and almost ran out of petrol near Empire, in the middle of farmland, but hey, it all worked out in the end.

Since it was the offseason, we found accomodation for cheap. Unfortunately lots of shops and touristy bits were still closed for the season, and we had to do the Cliff's Notes tour.


behind all the shops in downtown TC


part of Grand Traverse Bay


Lake Michigan (bloody freezing)


Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore


Dawn and Natasha refused to get out of the car so this is my only photographic evidence


The one new thing we did in TC was head up to the Old Mission Peninsula and go wine tasting. There are seven vineyards on the peninsula, and we only had time to go to two of them. We, unknowingly, picked two very different vineyards, one a huge establishment and another, a small family-run business. Both were good, and I managed to find myself a bottle of vino distilled in a pepper cask. delight!


little family run vineyard where I had many small-world encounters


View from Bowers Harbor Vineyard Porch




mmmm wine



And then we headed back to Rochester...


our last pit stop on I75, Cracker Barrel! Natasha almost had a meltdown due to the amount of choice, and i found it startingly scary how every single seemingly vegetarian dish came decked in pork toppings, crunchy bits or layers of animal fat.

I forget how beautiful Michigan is in the summer. Road trip 2011?

Mt Pleasant, Michigan

On day three or four of the great Michigandering Road Trip, I comandeered the keys to my mom's big car (Suburban? Tahoe?) and drove the girls up to Traverse City via Mt. Pleasant.

I think our three hour pit stop was a bit more exciting to me than anyone else because I got back in touch with Shawna at the Volunteer Center, toured the SAC with Kristen, bought a sweatshirt at the SBX, ate lunch at Max and Emily's and wandered around the AXO house. Here are a very few photos:


Despite its bleakness, I loved every minute here


Warriner Mall, the seal and so many memories


Scoreboard! battlefield!


Bringing back the Chippewa Marching Band days...


yes, I starfished on the C. Dan LeFevour eat your heart out.

In the end, Natasha determined sorority life could've been for her, Dawn opted for not and I wandered around in a nostalgic haze. And ultimately, I am grateful for the people who touched my life in that space, some of whom continue to do so today.

Detroit Rock City

Well, it's the first day of summer holidays 2010 and that can only mean one thing in London: rain. Alas, it's been an incredibly sunny, warm, clear skied May, June and July so I darent complain. Plus, I'm off to Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Spain in less than a week for nearly a month so I'm taking some much needed raintime to practise that thing called relaxing.

It's been one hell of a school year with department reviews, ofsted, marathon training, marathon running and mini travels in and around the northern western hemisphere. These photos are from my hometown wanderings with my English teacher friends Dawn and Natasha in early April.

In a short period of ten days, we managed trips to Houston (well, George Bush Airport), Detroit (including Lafayette's Coney Island and a Tigers Game), Windsor (including a parking ticket), Mt. Pleasant, Traverse City and every shopping mall in a twenty mile radius of Rochester, MI. It all turned out strangely exciting in the end, which I suppose is the good news.


We spent two halfish days (so I suppose that's one whole day?) in Detroit. On the first, my mother drove us around, pointed at things that we then took photos of. We encored this with a wander around the Renaissance Center, a ride on the people mover and lunch at Pegasus where we almost got trapped in the lift. Good times.

I know Detroit's known for it's delightfully disgusting reputation as the city of crime, but I did feel a little bit sorry for it. It's distinctly empty and in decline without a sense of purpose. It peaked too young. The streets were empty, bereft of people, industry or charm.


Downtown Detroit from across the river in Windsor


The people mover (which moved very few people)


Comerica Park and downtown


more comerica park


The Spirit of Detroit


Tribute to Joe Louis


Chili-cheese fries, hot dogs and dodgy men...woo!


this may contribute to high american obesity rates


very ornate, very greek restaurant where the waitresses lit plates of cheese on fire. heaven? indeed.


Go Wings!

I agree with tourbooks that tout Detroit as 'not a place to visit', but it still makes me a bit sad. I don't know what will turn the city of Detroit around, but I hope that the city gets a mayor who won't embezzle money into porn, prostitutes and big cars and turns the little lost land around.

New York, New York!

During the half term in February, I took one of my first 'business trips', as such. When you're a teacher, a business trip entails a paid-for trip somewhere else where you act as the in loco parentis for a group of 26 teenage girls. Heaven or Hell, i'm not quite certain. Regardless, it was my second trip back to NYC since I lived there nearly four years ago. As it goes with business, I didn't get to do all the things I wanted to, but I managed a few on the top of the list.

In the whirlwind that was showing British girls NYC in four days, we made it to the MOMA, Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, wandered across the Brooklyn Bridge for views from the Promenade, pizza at Grimaldi's, NBC studios, top of the Empire State Building, down to Chinatown and then over to do some shopping at various haunts around town. My friend Laura popped down from Boston to hang out with the tour for a couple of days, and I squeezed in a visit to see Aimee and Tobye from summercamp and Leila from my time at Museum School.


a confluence of cabs and our greeting into the big apple


our group in Times Square in the jetlagged snow


Grimaldi's, unarguably the best pizza in the world


view from the Promenade in Brooklyn


better promenade view of manhattan


Manhattan Bridge


Falling on the ice across the Brooklyn Bridge


trippy


i miss the small things


Rockefeller Center


orange coat, new boots, great coffee


views from the top of the Empire State Building




small world situation...saw my favourite chinese opera singing busker, Tao Qi, who used to sing at the 59th Street Station of the E train. second run in of the day...saw one of my former students on the subway earlier in the day


Andy Warhol in the MOMA


part of the special exhibition on pop art


blurry but delightful views from tobye's roof garden in alphabet city


roof garden again

Something about New York makes so much sense to me, something more than any other city has ever been able to provide. Maybe I didn't live there long enough to be sick of it or maybe we're just meant for each other. One day again, maybe. But not just yet.

Venezia (day two)

well, i'm home (meaning london) after another successful trip to michigan, which i saw through tourist eyes, explicitly for blogging purposes.

i'm feeling happy. the sun is shining, a cloud of ash and volcanic dust has grounded all flights in and out of the UK only a day after i've arrived, and i've got two days left of my easter holidays. so it's time to blog the end of Venice/the end of my Easter holidays so I can blog Michigan.

and then blog marathon pictures in six short weeks followed by my impending trip to Portugal a week after that.

So Venice...We broke up our last day into three parts: 1. espresso 2. Piazza de San Marco and 3. pursuit of a Gondola

Part One


if you look closely this tower leans


up the skirt of some gondolas


more Venetian architecture


our beautiful cafe with beautiful espresso in a beautiful square with beautiful music on a beautiful canal

Part Two

When writing these entries, it is often important to consult concise, factual sources such as Wikipedia. Its take on Piazza San Marco: 'As the central landmark and gathering place for Venice, Piazza San Marco is extremely popular with tourists, photographers, and pigeons'. Indeed.

after my brief foray with spanish wildlife i hold scavenging fowllike beasts in high contempt. So imagine my disgust when my second glimpse of Venice's central square happened to be this:


just why?

but i suppose there were some redeeming qualities


St. Mark's sqaure with 80 million tourists and a decidedly leaning tower





The Basilica...which also charges an exorbident fee of 2 euros if you happen to have bare shoulders and therefore need a large piece of cloth which suspiciously resembles a piece of cheesecloth to hide your lustiness


close up


inside, with covered shoulders


Doge's Palace close up (Palazzo Ducale de Venezia)


and a bit farther away

Part Three

Throughout our stay in Venice we were greeted by dashing Venetian men in Stripy tops trying to sell us rides up and down the canal. Until, of course, we actually wanted to get into a gondola and then they were scarce. So with four hours left in Venice we practically sprinted to the first gondolier we found.


view from a very expensive gondola ride


our beautiful, beautiful gondolier (who did sing to us)


gondolier marco: 'can you swim?'
us: 'um. why?'
marco: 'well, i'm not so good with this thing'.
us: 'um'.
marco: 'i just joke'.


we cleared this bridge by about a foot, only after tilting the boat roughly horizontally to the water


on the grand canal, again


the end. worth every penny


last stop: Bellinis near one bridge or another



and that's all she wrote. unless you'd like to hear me wax lyrical about ryanair and all its faults including queueing, queueing and non-european passport discrimination. These final photos may sum it up:


queueing to get on the plane


queueing to queue

we're ready for summer 2010!