Timeless

If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I adore history. Historical artifacts, historical stories, genealogy, everything! In so many of our exploits seeing so many wonderful old articles from the past, I always walk away awed. HOW can such old, antiquated objects still exist or even still operate after all these hundreds of years? At Fraunces Tavern in New York City and at Fort Ticonderoga in Upstate New York, we gazed at articles owned by George Washington. I loved his old pocket watch, watch fob and watch key. It’s amazing that these things are still preserved! They just don’t make such things like they used to, either. Especially watchpieces. These “time” pieces are truly timeless when made well!

All my kids love wristwatches. A few of them have cell phones, but they still wear their watches. Problem is, the watches they have had are the “discount” watches from the local Wally World. Needless to say, I usually wind up (pun intended!) purchasing a new watch for each kid because the watches are so poorly made. 300 years from now, will museum visitors be treated to the junk from our landfills? Ugh.

It would have been better if I’d paid a little more and just purchased Citizen Eco drive watches for the children. Seriously, I could imagine George Washington wearing one of these watches, especially if it has a barometer or calendar. He and Thomas Jefferson were avid weather watches, I hear. You think this watch with its “perpetual calendar” would go over well?

P.S. My son saw me going through the BlueDial.com website and he came right over. “Wow, watches!” he said. I told you, my kids like watches!

Check out the store for some of the most beautiful watches you’ve ever seen. Truly, these are elegant timepieces. And who knows, maybe someday YOUR elegant timepiece will sit behind a display case in a museum.

Super Deals on Glasses

We’re gearing up for a new travel season! We are all pretty excited since last year was so sparse. But I have no plans to do any major renovations this year (Lord willing). So we have hopes of being out and about frequently this year.

I’m trying very hard to get all the necessaries done before summer, so that we can relax. One of them is eye exams. Three of the four kids wear glasses, and looks like they’ll all need new ones this year. *sigh* We don’t have insurance, so you can imagine how expensive eyeglasses can be for us. BUT I am going to try Zenni Optical prescription eye glasses for them this year. If you haven’t heard about Zenni Optical yet– where have you been?? LOL. Zenni has been hot news for a while. Clark Howard mentioned them, and they were featured on various news shows. Zenni Optical sells eyeglasses for a tiny fraction of the cost of retail glasses. Honestly, I don’t see how people can afford those super-expensive retail eyeglasses. Zenni Optical offers really nice frames and exceptional customer service. I saw these classy red frames and fell in love. I have this *thing* for red glasses.

Zenni Optical eliminates the expensive middle man. You go to their website, browse through the frames (many of them are discounted as low as $6!), and fill in the prescription for lenses. Zenni has an entire help page to assist you with the forms and how to get your prescription. Thank God I have an optician who is a nice guy and will give me the prescription information without a hassle.

If you need some nice eyeglasses, definitely give Zenni a try. The website is very user-friendly and the prices are too irresistible.

The Children’s Museum, Utica, NY

Where do I begin? The Children’s Museum in Utica has over 24,000 square feet of exploration space. It took us three hours to get through the entire building, and I don’t think we even saw everything. Admission is pricey ($9.00 for anyone over the age of 1 year) and this has been the main reason why we haven’t visited in nine years. But the children get their own allowances and they wanted to go, so we split the admission prices 50/50. Great deal, I’d say!

The Children’s Museum is right next to historic Bagg’s Square, of which I wrote here. The Children’s Museum is a testament to the ingenuity of moms. It was a group of women– the Junior League– in 1963 who started out with a lifesize model of an Iroquois longhouse in a library basement, and expanded the project into four stories of displays for children of all ages. This place has EVERYTHING, except maybe Audemars Piguet offshore chronographs, but then like I said, we didn’t see everything. I snapped almost 100 photos, and that was after whittling my choices down. I obviously cannot post all my photos here. If you’d like to see some really cool stuff, check out my Flickr page.

The kids had an absolute blast. My kids are older (youngest is 11) and we still had a blast. There is a cute playroom for toddlers, but everything else is geared for kids ages 5 to 100.

Shall I possibly list off everything we saw? No way! How about everything we saw that interested us? No way! How about the top fifty? Wow… my blog posts can only be so long, you know! The place is filled with old stuff. And it’s all stuff you can touch and experiment with.

Here’s Injane checking out an old telephone operator board. One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy…

Here’s a cool see-through car that you can explore. Has a crash dummy, too.

I, of course, loved the architecture of the building. It used to be an old dry goods store. Can you imagine?! A dry goods store– with an oak staircase, transom windows, tin ceilings, oak flooring, federal-style loft windows?! My house isn’t even built this nicely.

We loved the Iroquois longhouse. History oozed from everything.

I love the replica Hiawatha wampum belt. Looks just like the real thing.

There were several pianos and musical instruments in the museum. Several uprights, and some baby grands, an old organ, and assorted xylophones. What blast!

The place also had toys, clothing, dioramas, reptiles, bugs, life-sized displays to play make-believe, a stage with assorted pianos (all out of tune), Legos, displays of community events (like a kayaking group, and the Ride for Missing Children’s Group), puppets, fossils, everything!

I really liked the radio station display. I worked in radio for several years, and seeing this brought back such memories!

I will add that it is rather disconcerting to see equipment that I used in my younger years labeled as “nostalgic.” :S

As seems to happen wherever we go, a photographer from the local newspaper shows up on the day as we do. For some reason, my kids usually have their pictures taken by photographers. They’ve been in the newspaper a few times now. I took a photo of the photographer photographing my kids.

The kids didn’t make it in the papers this time around.

Here’s a photo of a pacu, a fish native to the Amazon river. He’s a big one.

They also had a big turtle, a gerbil, and a tarantula! Several years back, there was a clear plastic display filled with honeybees making honeycomb, but the bees are gone. I saw a sticker that said there was a mite infestation (which I’d been hearing is responsible for our honeybees dying off), so I guess the bees were removed. Too bad; that was one of my favorite exhibits.

Last time we visited, the fourth floor was undeveloped. It was a treat to see new exhibits. They have a small (genuine) airplane the kids can hop in and work the controls.

There’s also the world-renowned Hot Wheels collection. The toys went way back to- what?- the 50s? Quite a big collection.

There is just too much to mention, really. The nice thing about this Children’s Museum is that it is a little beat up. It’s old and creaky and some of the stuff is obviously very worn. But that’s part of its charm. You can handle and play with things and not worry about breaking them. You can relax and not have to watch your p’s and q’s that you might drop something. It’s truly a kids’ place.

Outside, there’s a small park around Bagg’s Tavern, and a few train cars to explore. The trains were locked up, so we couldn’t go inside, but we could peer through the windows. And the kids had no problem having fun on the train decks.

What started out as an after-school project by community moms and the Oneida Indians has grown to become a wonderful glimpse into our community’s past. I don’t think we’ll ever be too old not to visit the Children’s Museum!

Gearing up for Late Summer

July is just about over, here comes August! I cannot believe how quickly the summer is passing. Didn’t we just start it, two weeks ago?! It seems that way, anyway.

Well, the bright side is that Back-to-School time is imminent. Which also means Back-to-School shopping is imminent! I like the autumn– the weather, the more laid back style, and the schedule of school time. Usually the only big things we need to purchase for the kids are shoes and trousers. We use a lot of hand-me-downs, but I avoid hand-me-down shoes because every child has a unique foot shape. Shoe shopping can be puzzling. I used to just go to the store’s bargain bin and yank out the cheapest pairs, but after two of the kids began having foot problems, I am much, much more selective with their shoes. And since we do a lot of hiking, walking, touring, and such, the shoes must be durable and comfortable.

How about you? If you need some tips on shoes, especially shoes for children, there’s a new web forum open. It’s StartRiteShoes.com/community. There’s a special section of parenting advice there. It’s not only about shoes, although I found the advice on choosing supportive shoes for kids helpful. There are forum topics that cover everything that concern parents: bedtime hours, eating vegetables, and teaching your child how to tie laces. It’s a community just getting “on its feet,” so to speak (ha!), so the more people that join, the better. I encourage you to take a look– I know you will discover something helpful there. Or maybe you can lend your sage advice to all the questions that are being asked by concerned moms and dads. And there’s a raffle drawing contest currently underway– win a free shoes for a year! Check it out: StartRiteShoes.com/community.

SeaWorld Dolphin Blog

Ever been to SeaWorld? I have always so wanted to go! Never been, though, even when I had the chance when I went to Florida. Some time, I hope to take the kids. We love aquatic places– we have seen seals at the zoos, and go to aquariums in the cities we visit. SeaWorld would be the zenith of a trip!

SeaWorld has started up a blog, specifically, a blog devoted to the many amazing things dolphins can do. It’s called Dolphin Bubbles, and it’s very cute, with lots of photos and stories. There’s a neat video showcasing the latest trick that SeaWorld has taught the dolphins to do- blow bubbles. Amazing! You have to see the video. I cannot BELIEVE they taught these dolphins to do it– I can barely get my dog to “sit.” :-p Maybe I should just get a dolphin for a pet, eh?

The dolphins are so elegant. I think they’ve done a really great job with it– and with those amazing dolphins! Check out the blog for more stuff. There are articles, photos, videos, information about aquatic training and SeaWorld, and some testimonies from SeaWorld visitors. It’s a great place to send the kids to learn about these amazing creatures! (uh, the dolphins, not the trainers!).

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