Fort Ward, VA

Location: Fort Ward, Alexandria, Virginia, USA

I've been to Fort Ward three times now, and I think I've finally finished snarfing the darned thing. It's a lovely park, don't get me wrong, but dang do those historical markers like to hide!

Alexandria, VA

Location: Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Visited: December 2011

Though I'm in Alexandria often, this was a special occasion. A couple friends and I went on the annual Historic Alexandria Candlelight Tour, where we got to actually enter several buildings we'd previously only seen from the outside: Gadsby's Tavern, Carlyle House, Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary and Lee-Fendall House (for which I unfortunately did not pick up a brochure). My favorite was the apothecary; I wish we'd had more time to really look at it all. Everything was decked out to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, but the costumed guides threw in plenty of tidbits from the rest of the buildings' histories. We didn't dally that long at any place (save about ten minutes of sitting with hot cider at Carlyle), and yet it took us the full three hours to see all four sites. They evidently do a different time period each year, so there's a decent chance this could become part of my holiday traditions.

New Page - Places Visited

Now that I'm all caught up on pages, I made a quick reference page of everywhere I've visited (and showcased here, that is). I just used tags, so several of the separate entries lead to the same page, since often I included multiple locations on a single spread. I only narrowed it down to the city level; if I went to individual attractions it'd get silly. Let me know if anything's broken.

In the meantime, here's a little bonus page: the first page of my Japan journal. This is one of the few times I used actual scrapbooking stickers, but I really liked these. The Totoro stamps were purchased at the Ghibli Museum.

Asheville, NC

Location: Asheville, North Carolina, USA
Visited: October 2011

One of the best parts of Asheville was the large number of local shops and restaurants. Links ahoy!

• We spent quite a bit of time at Malaprop's, an independent bookstore and cafe. Tasty food and fun selection of merchandise.
  
• I very much enjoyed shopping at the Mast General Store, the Kress Emporium, Grove Arcade, and ZaPow art gallery.
  
• The Chocolate Fetish had some seriously delicious treats.
  
• Mellow Mushroom gave me flashbacks. (There's one in Charlottesville, VA, where I went to graduate school.)
  
• Awesome noms were, er, nommed at Laurey's, Asheville Brewing Company, and Twisted Crepe.
  
• I stopped by West End Bakery and enjoyed some delicious cookies solely because there was an OBCZ there. This isn't the first time I've eaten somewhere directly because of BookCrossing. I also caught a wild book there that had mysteriously transported some 250 miles from West Virginia to North Carolina.
  
• I walked the entire Asheville Urban Trail, thirty plaques and statues detailing the history of the area. Some truly strange pieces (hello, giant iron?) but some beautiful ones too.

Asheville, NC

Location: Thomas Wolfe Memorial, Asheville, North Carolina, USA
Visited: October 2011

The house tour was all of a dollar, and our guide was simply excellent. Check out the replica of Julia Wolfe's business card in the upper right corner! I've never read any Thomas Wolfe (and, to be perfectly honest, don't intend to either), but the memorial was really great. And if there's a biopic, he should totally be played by Tim Robbins. The end.

Asheville, NC

Location: Asheville, North Carolina, USA
Visited: October 2011

I did not visit Biltmore because it cost $60 to get in, but I did wander nearby Biltmore Village, and hey, the brochures were just chock full of pretty pictures.

Asheville, NC

Location: Asheville, North Carolina, USA
Visited: October 2011

My husband went to Asheville to attend MoogFest. I joined him to explore the town. It's full of art and history and steep hills - in other words, just my cup of tea. Like many places, there was an Occupy Asheville group. I included the Miss Gay Latina Asheville ad because while the flyers were posted around town, I saw exactly no Latin people of either gender the entire time I was there, gay or otherwise. The Asheville Art Museum was pretty underwhelming for the price.

I suppose this would be a lovely time to mention that my husband's remix of "The Rocket Wife" by Tara Busch won third place. It's for sale and all proceeds go toward the Bob Moog Foundation. Go give it a listen!

Gettysburg, PA

Location: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA
Visited: April 2011

Downtown Gettysburg is tourist central. Plenty of markers and souvenir shops. The highlight of the place for me, of course, was the Lincoln and Perry Como statue. Oh yeah, and we didn't actually see Bob Newhart, but he was advertised as the guest of honor at some upcoming festival. It was just so incongruous that I had to include him.

Gettysburg, PA

Location: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA
Visited: April 2011

The folks at the Rupp House were especially friendly, though we did get a bit of a chuckle out of the "Lincoln Slept Here" brochure. You too can buy a brick of a building that once house Lincoln for a night or two! Reminds me of our favorite marker of the trip, a tree with a plaque informing us that Lincoln "passed by" that tree. He didn't stop there, he didn't have any kind of interaction with it: he just walked past it. Excellent.

Gettysburg, PA

Location: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA
Visited: April 2011

This was a rather momentous trip for me. It's pretty much the motherload of snarfs, it was the last time I saw Cookie, and it was the trip when I completely screwed up my ankle, an injury which resulted in five months in a brace and from which I am still recovering. The visitor's center is lovely and the driving tour was a lot of fun. We didn't come anywhere close to hitting all the historical markers in the place; we'll have to spend another weekend mopping up the rest at some point.