The Roman Baths – Bath, England

The Roman Baths in Bath, England is both the town’s namesake and the main attraction in the city. There is archaeological evidence that the Celts used the area as a natural hot springs even before the Roman invasion. The Romans built the temple between 60-70AD and the baths you can see today were built over a period of 300 years after the original temple was built. The original baths are below the current street level, so what you see when walking around the city are dated from the 19th century.
I haven’t managed to find much about the bath complex during WW2, but over a weekend in April 1942 80 Luftwaffe flew over the city of Bath and bombed it. It is said that most people who saw them coming didn’t duck for cover thinking the planes were headed for near by Bristol. The bombing was the start of the Baedeker Blitz which was a reaction to the RAF bombing and destruction of the city of Lubeck. This resulted in 19,000 building being bombed in Bath alone, 1,100 being seriously damaged or entirely destroyed of which 218 were of architectural significance. St. Andrews church was entirely destroyed and is now a park. St. Johns was nearly destroyed but efforts to restore were completed in the 90s. The names of those lost to the bombing can be found at the War Memorial outside the gates of Victoria Park. 
Visiting the Roman Baths
The bath complex is a open air square with the Sacred Spring, Roman Temple, Roman Bath House and museum as well as the Pump Room which is a restaurant and tea room. There is also a gift shop that exits visitors on the main pedestrian street and can be accessed by non museum goers. We didn’t visit the baths themselves. I think had we been in town longer we would have, they look quite impressive. And I love a good historic site. But even being there off season the lines to get in were wrapped around the building and we wanted to see more of the town rather than spend half the day standing in line. If you wanted to go I would try getting there early and midweek if it can be helped.
You can visit the Pump Room without visiting the rest of the buildings and the restrooms in the building are open to the public, one of the only ones I found in the city. The Pump room offers a variety of tea services, which we were considering but we wound up choosing a different location due to price and crowds. But the building is gorgeous and if you want fancy tea in a fancy building with a great view you should really go here.
The other main attraction in this area and perhaps the most obvious is Bath Abbey. Early kings built on the religious site in the 700s. The site was fought over during the Norman Conquest. It was reorganized in the 10th century, rebuilt in the 12th century, dissolved from the Catholic church by Henry the 8th and restored in the 1860s. When I visited they were digging up the floors in sections for more restoration work to improve the in floor heating from the thermal waters in the area. Rumor has it they unearthed 8,000 bodies from the church floors, it should be noted it is an entirely normal practice historically for parishioners to be buried under church floors.
The building of the Bath Abbey that stands today is known for it’s historic significance and architecture, specifically the fan vaulting on the ceiling which was designed by Robert and William Vertue. The brothers designed a number of well know buildings including a similar ceiling in Westminster Abbey for Henry the 7th. Additionally the entire church is made of a butter yellow limestone that is unique to the area, most of the city of Bath and buildings in near by towns are built with the same stone.
If visiting the church is on your bucket list be sure to plan around religious holidays and check for hours. The church is still holding regular services and tourists are only allowed in during specific touring times. Obviously you could attend a service to get in, but the lines for the services are long and you wouldn’t have the freedom to wander the building or take pictures.

Secret Things To Do Near the Baths
Behind the Bath Abbey is the Parade Gardens a walled park on the river front. The parks were rebuilt in the 1930s on the grounds of 17th century pleasure gardens.  It costs to get in and it is cash only, but if its a nice day I would say the charge is well worth it. There are also food stands at the top of the gates before you go in so you could always buy a picnic and settle in for an afternoon rest.

To the left of the Parade Gardens over the River Avon is the Pultney Bridge which was built in 1774. It like the bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice has shops built into it and was a very popular shopping district in its day. Though it was still pretty crowded when we were there. There are both restaurants and shops on it now, one of which a quaint little map shop selling original historic maps. If I had enough money to afford such a think I would have bought one, they were gorgeous.
If you walk over the bridge you will notice a small stairway on the right hand-side after you pass over, this stairwell goes into and under the bridge depositing you on the other-side of the river where another lovely park sits along with restaurants with outdoor seating. This stairway is significantly harder to see coming from this side of the river, which is what we did. I thought we were walking into a restaurant kitchen rather than the bridge, though it wouldn’t be the first nor the last time I have accidentally wandered into a busy not public kitchen.

If you continue to walk away from the bridge along the river you see a wonderful view of the city that you wouldn’t get otherwise. This side of the river also hosts a small riverfront park, but rather than streets and cars there are a good number of restaurants offering outdoor seating. Continuing down river from the bridge you get an excellent view of down town Bath and a quite little restaurant on a long boat.

If you follow the river down to the next bridge and then turn east and wander up the hill you run into the most charming waterway and greenspace. It goes on for quite a ways in both directions but along this canal is a series of locks. I couldn’t find an exact date on the lock system. But they are a part of the larger system of locks connected to the Bristol Floating Harbor which was built in the 1800s and the Bath Locks have two bridges that date to the same time period.
They fell into disuse and then were restored in 1968 and are run today manually by volunteer labor via the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust. This was probably one of the highlights of the trip. Watching the long boats come and go, and watching them manually (when I say manually I mean two young men physically move the winches that open and close the locks) manned was very impressive. The volunteers are all very nice and were happy to answer all of our questions.
The long boats that run up and down the canals can be rented for day use or overnight. We almost stayed on one, I think it would have been a hoot, but having seen them in person there wouldn’t have been a ton of privacy sitting up here on the canal. There is also a small restaurant and ice cream stand up near the top which would make a nice little rest stop should you need it.

Crossing the river at the last of the locks brings you back to the Bath Train Station and right near the aforementioned St. John’s church. The church  is near the bath complex sitting along the river, in fact if you walked the opposite side of the river you probably saw the back side of it just down river from the Pulteney Bridge. It isn’t as impressive as the Bath Abbey but it is still very impressive, especially compared to modern American churches.
My favorite thing about this location was the are stations around the inside walls describing the history of the church. I don’t see this a lot and was happy to read about the history in the location rather than later after I had toured it.  This church like most in England was originally Catholic but dissolved during Henry the 8ths reign. St. Johns was also nearly destroyed during the blitz and the signs do a nice job discussing the damage and restoration efforts which were extensive.

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Maryhill Museam, Maryhill, Oregon

Sitting atop a cliff overlooking the Columbia River Gorge sits a house that is fairly easy to miss. Often mistaken for a private house or a winery building it is in fact an art museum. The Maryhill Museum of Art is open to the public and one of the best things to visit in the area.
It was built starting in 1914 by Samuel Hill a local business man and lawyer who had quite a bit of money and quite a bit of influence in early 20th Century Oregon and Washington. He was a very well educated man, who once took classes from Henry Cabot Lodge (who was an American Senator who staunchly apposed the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the inspiration for Veronica Lodges father in the Archie Comic series). And was very well traveled and well connected overseas having made good friends with the likes of Albert I of Belguim and Queen Marie of Romania.

The house had originally been intended to be lived in by the Hill family in order to entertain Hill’s wealthy friends however due to the entrance of the United States into WWI the building of the house was put on hold. The unfinished house was dedicated by Queen Marie in 1926 but not opened to the public until 1940 which was 9 years after Sam Hill’s passing.

Due to Hill’s friendships and connections the museum now houses quite a few personal effects of Queen Marie herself as well as a large collection of Rodin’s sculptures (another friend of Hill’s). It also houses a very nice collection of Pacific Northwest Native artifacts and history as well as the puppets and sets from Theatre de la Mode a mostly forgotten WWII French haute couture collection which was created by the great fashion houses of the time which premiered in the Louvre’s Museum of Decorative Arts in 1945.

Aside from an astounding amount of history the location itself is stunning. Complete with a cafe and well manicured grounds it is the perfect place to stop off on your way to somewhere or to adventure out to from Portland just for the day.

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LACMA – Los Angeles, California

As far back as I can remember visiting art museums has been a tradition between my dad and I. No matter where it was that we were at, there was always a museum, or gallery or store full of art to be visited. He is an artist and I have always wanted to be just like him. Real life happened  and I didn’t go into the arts, but I do appreciate them as well as paint from time to time.

There is nothing like one of the best art museums on the west coast to light the artistic fire in you. After visiting the LACMA I spent the rest of my summer afternoons painting in our backyard.

The LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) opened in 1965 and has expanded in both its collection and physical size ever since. The museum is huge, far too much to see in a single day but worth every minuet if you enjoy the arts.

We wandered around for a few hours, had lunch in their cafe which is actually pretty good and then wandered around for a few more hours. Our taste in art differs a lot but mostly in the type that we create. In many cases we do tend to like the same things in other people’s work. Which means spending a lot of time standing around a few pieces and then breezing through entire exhibits that don’t interest us as much.

Aside for the exhibits, the museum itself, like most museums has some pretty impressive architecture as well as exterior installations.  The museum shares a campus with the La Brea Tar Pits, so even if you don’t have time or the energy to go through the museum itself just walking around and taking it all in is an experience. All in all it was a really great visit!

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Museum of Death – Los Angeles, California 

I am going to start out my Los Angeles series on a bit of a downer, well at least a downer if you aren’t at all interested in the macabre. Last year my husband had a work trip in Los Angeles so I tagged a long and we co-opted the week as a partial vacation. The first day we were there was one that he was working and I was on my own. But as you probably know Los Angeles is huge, I couldn’t figure out the bus system, and I don’t use hired cars unless I have to.
My ride (my husband) was going to be around Hollywood Blvd for the day, so I looked up interesting things to do, made my choices and off we went. I should preface my choice by saying I have been the LA a lot and seen just about everything there is to see there. So while I thoroughly enjoyed the Museum of Death and think it is one of the most notable and important things in the area, it is okay if that isn’t your cup of tea. There is plenty of other things to do there. I am just not going to write about them here, just yet at any rate.

The Museum of Death in Los Angeles is one of two museums owned by JD Healy and Cathee Shultz. The second is located, appropriately in New Orleans.The mission of the founders was not to scared the be-jebus out of people, but to help people better explore and understand the mechanisms of death, the history of funerary practices, grief, taxidermy and all kinds of other random things that go along with death. It is educational, with a good intent behind it and if I am being quite honest, at times a little hard to swallow.
I love all things true crime and was really excited to explore their exhibits on the Manson Family, the Black Daliah and other  incidents of infamous murder. They also have a vast collection of art work done by serial killers during their incarceration. I loved all of this, but then there was a hall way of nothing but photos of gruesome car crashes and that was it for me. I quickly walked through the hall and moved on to other exhibits continuing to enjoy the remainder of the museum.
Museum Visiting Info:

6031 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood California
Opens at 10am 7 days a week, closes at 8 (Sunday – Thursday), 9 (Friday) and 10 (Saturday)
Admission is 15 dollars.
There are no pictures inside the museum, hence the lack of pictures on the post.

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24 hours in Minneapolis – Minneapolis, Minnesota

The final post in this edition of Minneapolis is a whirl wind and that is because the last leg of this trip was that as well. I only had 24 hours after my last meeting to experience more of the city than the skyway and my office building. And luckily for me the weather was incredible!

Shop: I Like You
It is a little like the Made in Oregon store but for a younger or perhaps just more kitsch. T shirts, cards, candles, jewelry, art, you name it they have it all handmade in Minnesota  and in some way touting the Minnesota theme. It was lovely and had I had a larger suitcase with me more people would have received Minnesota themed gifts that year.

Do: Minneapolis River-walk
The Twin Cities is built around the Mississippi river and as such there is a very impressive expanse of walking trains around the area. I had a friend as a tour guide so we just took off and start taking pictures of the lovely scenery but if you are looking some sort of guidance this walking guide is quite nice.  It is about a 3 mile loop in all, it took us a few hours because we stumbled on a farmers market.

Eat: Mill City Farmers Market
The market is only only open on Saturdays BUT if you happen to find yourself in the area on a Saturday it is a must eat. Tons of vendors from snacks to sweets to full meals. Everything smelled amazing, we couldn’t decide so we just ate a lot of samples.

Tour: Mill City Museum
Sadly I did not have time to go in, but the lobby of the Mill City Museum is impressive enough on it’s own for a stop through. The museum sits inside the ruins of what was once the largest flour mill in the world. Destroyed by a fire (did you know flour is explosive? I had no idea) the building was shored up and converted to a lovely history and art museum.

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Evergreen Aviation Museam – McMinville, Oregon

The Evergreen Aviation Museum is the second aviation museum my husband and I have been to. The first being the Palm Spring Flight Museum which I have not yet managed to write up even though it was two years ago that we visited. I will get there, eventually.

The Evergreen Aviation Museum is in McMinville Oregon. It is famous for currently housing the Hughes H-4 Hercules also know as Howard Hughes’ The Spruce Goose. The wooden plane built in 1947 famously only took one flight, which was mostly a 70foot hover above the Cabrillo Beach channel in California. After a not so successful test flight the plane was housed at Aero Club of Southern California next to the Queen Mary as a tourist attraction (both of which I visited as a kid) until 1993 when the plans for Port Disney were abandoned at which time the plane was bought and moved to Oregon.

The Spruce Goose which is quite impressive, however is not the only impressive thing about the museum. The museum as a whole is two large hangars and a theater which screens a variety of flight themed movies. One hanger includes the Spruce Goose as well as other planes starting with models from the very first attempts at human flight up through modern day military and private jets. My personal favorite was this gorgeous antique prop plane. I had visions of boarding with perfectly coiffed victory rolls and a ridiculously expensive mink jacket.

I think my husbands favorite was the Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird”  which I have to admit was pretty impressive. The Blackbird is incredibly advanced and modern looking especially considering it was  a stealth spy plane that was flown in the 1960s.

The Blackbird was housed in the second hanger across the parking lot along with the the space flight displays. Which included model replicas of the moon lander, Russian space crafts and model sections of the ISS.

They also had this Russian re-entry pod on display which still has the scorch marks from when it entered back into the earth atmosphere. The space display was my favorite overall, it had displays that covered the beginnings of man’s dreams to travel off planet, information about the Russian and American space race as well as the extensive collection of artifacts, information and models.

For anyone who is interested in vintage planes, modern, military or space travel I would highly suggest the trip down to McMinnville, it is a great way to spend the day especially in Oregon in the winter. It gives you a great way to get out of the house and walk around without getting soaked to the bone.
Addition Information:

It is located in McMinnville Oregon, a short drive south of Portland.
500 Northeast Captain Michael King Smith Way McMinnville, OR 97128
Tickets are 19-27 dollars depending on the age of the visitor, which is well worth it as you can make a whole day of the visit.
They also have an extensive array of special events, so make sure to check the calendar and plan accordingly.

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