On Our Way!

(under construction)

It's hard to believe we are finally on our way!

We are lucky - the plane is supposed to be fully booked, but there are two empty seats (the only two in the entire plane) in the row directly in front of us and the woman seated in the middle between us grabs one. Bliss! A whole row to ourselves.

Conveniently, the scenery doesn't get interesting until we have finished writing our Christmas cards. (If you don't have yours in the next few days, you are not getting one - I ran out of printer ink and never had time to do a second run after that, so the mailing list got shortened by about 50 this year.)

The Mega Trees Are Out (The Day After Thanksgiving in Saint Paul)

You can't tell here, but each of these trees is at least three stories high. Very impressive - especially in front of someone's house.

More Vertical Landscapes

The vertical gardens at the Musée du quai Branly were high on my list of things to see while we were in Paris.

I loved the way the gardens softened the sharp edges and bright colors of the building, although the gardens themselves appeared to be only marginally healthy at the time.

Still, they were really cool.

I'd like to see more of these and, apparently, there are more of them to see. Earlier this fall Wired Magazine featured more of Patrick Blanc's vertical gardens, including these beauties at the new Athenaeum hotel in London and covering a bridge in Pont Juvénal, in Aix-en-Provence.

http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1709/pl_design_f.jpg

http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1709/pl_design6_f.jpg

(Now THAT'S a green highway!)

Madagascar's Limestone Needles

National Geographic has a feature on a strange and stunning part of Madagascar that I know I will never see. (There doesn't seem to be a way to bring a sample here, so you'll have to go to their site to check it out.)

The world is just a weird and beautiful place.

More Vintage Posters

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum also has a collection of travel posters, a few of which are highlighted below.

Created by Helge, circa 1935-40

Created for Pan American Airways by Jean Carlu, circa 1957

Created for Transbrasil

Created for Pan American World Airways by Al Moore, circa 1957

(I love the pole - complete with insulators - intended, I assume, to assure you that you can enjoy the beauty of the Middle Ages, but with all the conveniences a modern travel might want.)

Feeling inspired yet?