Tuesday's Orts--April 19, 2011

Orts of a different kind, the random thought assortment (hey, that word has ort in it!) that I release on Tuesdays...

• I spent a great deal of time in an airport last Tuesday.  My mom and I missed our plane back to L.A. due to some very heavy morning traffic in and around Cincinnati.  My sister tried her darnedest (way to speed safely, Kath!) but the plane was on time and we weren't.  Our two choices for alternate flights were a trip around the country--flying first to Atlanta, catch a connector, fly to Las Vegas with a layover, then catch a connector to L.A.  Or wait 6 hours until the next nonstop to L.A.  We chose the latter.  Good thing the Delta terminal in Cincinnati airport has lots of shops, restaurants, and places to sit.  We ate breakfast, we walked around, we perused the shops, we sat.  We walked around, we shopped, we sat, and yawned.  We walked around, we shopped, we ate lunch.  Finally it was boarding time.  Whew.  It was a very long day. 
• Cincinnati had lots of great museums and sites to see.  We visited the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Taft Museum of Art, both of which had fantastic permanent and temporary collections.  Being a small city girl, I loved the tall buildings downtown and was all tourist, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to look up and take photos.
• My sister and I visited just one quilt shop, called Stitches, in the charming historic town of Glendale, Ohio.  I looked at books, cross-stitch stuff, and pre-cuts while my sister dived into the batiks.  I found a copy of Word Play Quilts with my SOAR block on the cover of the book and my sister said, "Now I have to introduce you as a celebrity", and proceeded to tell the lady working there all about it.  She was nice about it and said she was impressed.  So funny!
• Traffic rant:  Airport traffic is notoriously bad.  In L.A., I was glared at and got a head shake for throwing the luggage into my dad's trunk while my mom got in the front seat at the curb.  The other driver's party was waiting at the curb some feet away and he let his Mercedes continue to creep up behind me.  My mom and I took all of 30 seconds to load in the car.  I gave him what for and a glare of my own.  Sheesh. 
• Now for some photos from Cincinnati:

Cousin Florence told me this downtown building complex is known locally as the Dolly Parton.  Hmm.

I love the juxtaposition of the old historic brick buildings and the new skyscrapers.  The Bradford pears were all in bloom everywhere and were just gorgeous.

These funny squirrel statues were all over Glendale.  This one is a boy scout squirrel in a park next to a community center set in a gorgeous old Victorian house.  We also saw a squirrel with a jackhammer and wearing hard hat outside the public works building, and numerous other themed squirrels around the town.  They were quite large, about 3-4 feet tall.  We wondered what that was all about.  I just loved all the flowering trees.  Other trees were just starting to leaf out when we were there.  Great trip!