I just returned from a week-long trip with my church choir. Every year we put on a performance and during February Break we take it to a different part of the U.S. or occasionally, out of the country. This year we did Fiddler on the Roof and traveled on a bus to Carlisle, PA, Gibsonia, PA, Chicago, IL, Anderson, IN and finally Pittsburgh, PA. About fifty-five of us, students and the adult advisors, traveled from town to town performing in a total of five churches. Luckily between all that work and driving we had some time for a little sightseeing! Our main destination was Chicago. We stayed two nights right in the city and visited the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), the Museum of Science and Industry, volunteered with Chicago City Year and went to a show at Second City, a comedy club where many comedians from SNL got their start.

The Museum of Science and Industry was amazing. I wasn’t expecting much but it turned out to be similar to the Newseum in Washington DC that I wrote about a few blogs ago. It is the largest museum in the Western Hemisphere with more than 35,000 artifacts and over 14 acres of exhibits. We also had tickets to the Omnimax Theater to see “Mysteries of the Great Lakes” which was really interesting and quite an experience. My favorite part had to be Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle. Colleen Moore was an actress who created the dollhouse of her dreams by the suggestion of her father. It is a beautiful piece of art. Everything inside symbolizes something and some miniature statues are close to 2,000 years old. It also contains the tiniest bible ever written. It cost about $500,000.00 to create! Some other exhibits we visited were the U-505 submarine and a coal mine. There was so much to see, I’ll definitely go back if I ever find myself in Chicago again! Visit www.msichicago.org if you’re going to be in the area!

Next time: Willis Tower and Second City

My snowy backyard

Well, northern New Jersey has been hit! After a false alarm this past weekend and seeing pictures of Washington DC and Virginia being overwhelmed with snow, it is now coming down hard in NJ. I love snow days. Curling up with a good book and sipping hot chocolate is my idea of a perfect day. I’m not a fan of shoveling out the car or having to brave the dirty, slushy after-effects of a big snow fall, though. I used to go sledding when I was little, ice skating on the pond in my back yard and I even gave skiing a try when I signed up with my town, taking a trip to Shawnee Ski Resort in Pennsylvania every Friday. I don’t like to be cold. I don’t mind the idea of snow and cold weather but if I am not fully equipped with a sweater, coat, gloves, scarf and a hat, I am not a happy camper!

Every time I tell someone that my plan for next year is to go to Queen’s University in Canada, they seem shocked and say, “You know it’s cold up there, right?” My response is always the same, “It’s cold here too!” No, I will not be living in an igloo come next September. I think what misleads people is that after it snows it doesn’t melt right away like it does here on the east coast. It stays consistently cold up there so every time there is another snowfall it just piles up on the last week’s precipitation.

Yes, I do realize it will be colder for longer next winter for me, but I will just have to find winter activities that I do enjoy. I can ice skate on Lake Ontario and maybe even take a trip to Wolfe Island where if it freezes one can skate from one side of the island to the other on a canal that runs right through. I’ll have to relearn how to ski, but I don’t think that will be too difficult. Moving to a whole new place will be an adventure, I’ll just adapt to the new daily routines of having to bundle up from November until April!

With winter breaks coming up, what do you all have planned? Ski trips? Staycations? Maybe a trip to warmer weather?! Any ideas of fun winter activities are welcome!

Stay tuned for my next adventure: Westminster Choir Tour 2010!

Destination: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Anderson, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois!

Berlin Wall

What better way to start off the new year and celebrate my birthday than a trip to Washington DC?! Just when I thought I had experienced everything worthwhile seeing in DC, I found several more “must sees!” After an invigorating yoga class on Saturday morning at Yoga Chai my sister brought me to her favorite café, Tryst,  located in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC. My waffle with strawberries was delicious and everyone else seemed to enjoy their various choices as well. The cool thing about Tryst though, is that it transitions from a coffeehouse to a lounge and finally to a bar as the evening goes on. You also have the choice of sitting at a table by yourself, or share one of the larger community tables or couches with other Tryst customers. It’s a great place to meet new people and has three different environments to suit everyone’s taste. Definitely make Tryst one of your stops if you’re in the DC area!

On Sunday, I was able to experience two more DC museums, the Newseum and the National Building Museum. I had walked past the Newseum many times but never went in mostly due to the fact that it is not part of the Smithsonians so it isn’t free. Thank goodness my sister found 3 free tickets on her community board in her apartment complex or I never would have gotten to see how worth a trip to the Newseum was! Out front they have the front pages of newspapers from all 50 states and many other countries around the world which are changed everyday. We were there shortly after the earthquake in Haiti occurred so many, if not all, of the front pages had to do with that. It was very interesting to see the amount of censoring each country did. All of the U.S. papers had mostly photos of the relief effort and the survivors but other countries had some very graphic, emotionally moving photographs would never be seen in a U.S. newspaper. Inside the Newseum was even more spectacular with its 14 galleries and 15 theaters, it wouldn’t be possible to see everything in one day. A few highlights we saw were a movie on the history of the first amendment, actual pieces of the Berlin wall and an old news truck complete with a huge satellite on the back of it. There was also an exhibit of Sports Illustrated photographs and a 4-D Time Travel Adventure movie. Check out this short video clip for an overview of what else the Newseum has to offer. Even though the Newseum is not among the free museums in DC, I highly recommend going to check it out, I would definitely go back again!

I didn’t get to see many of the Building Museums exhibits but we had lunch in the Great Hall and that was enough fun for me to want to go back! The Building Museum, originally the U.S. Pension Bureau, is a national museum so it was free admission. The Great Hall is a huge room with beautiful architecture containing a café, the gift shop and a large area for kids of all ages to run around and play with jumbo sized blocks and legos. If you have younger siblings the National Building Museum would be a good stop.

Georgetown Cupcakes

The last stop of the weekend, and quite possibly my favorite(!), was Georgetown Cupcake. I had heard a lot about these decedent little cupcakes and had even seen people line up down the street waiting to get one on a 90 degree day but I had yet to try one for myself. We got a nice variety consisting of mint chocolate, toasted marshmallow, red velvet, coconut and classic vanilla to name a few. My favorite was the mint chocolate, it never occurred to me to make that a cupcake flavor! I would definitely say this was my best birthday yet, and the first time I spent a birthday away from home.

Have you ever celebrated a birthday on vacation?