The Glue Stick Tourist

Rockville, MD

2012-02-24T11:05:00.000-05:00

Location: Rockville, Maryland, USA
Visited: January 2012

A friend invited me to this amazing 12-hour life drawing session at VisArts in Rockville, MD. There were six models, but I only got on of their cards. That's all right. I don't usually include my own art in my gluebooks, but since this was actually a drawing event, it seemed appropriate. This is one of my 5-minute sketches that turned out looking more human than alien (unlike most of the others). Looks like the white sketchpad paper against the yellowish journal page caused the scanner to freak out a bit and over-expose the former. Oh well. In the middle of the day my friend and I had lunch at Lebanese Taverna, which is absolutely delicious. I'm so spoiled living in a major metropolitan area: we have so much ethnic cuisine that we even have a chain of Lebanese places. Yum!

P.S. - A longer write-up and my better drawings from that day are here, but as all the models were nude, it's probably NSFW.

Washington, DC

2012-02-23T11:00:00.002-05:00

Location: Washington, DC, USA
Visited: January 2012

I had expected the stuff from this particular night to take up more space on the page, but that's okay. This was from our journey into DC to see The Dreamscapes Project at the newly-opened Hamilton Live.

The Hamilton is quite lovely. The upstairs dinner portion is extremely posh, but the concert venue was comfortable with good sound and tasty (somewhat overpriced) vittles. Taylor Carson opened for TDP, and we liked him enough to purchase his CD. I also got a free hug later. He's a cutie.

TDP was, as always, excellent. They just keep raising the bar for themselves, and I am impressed anew every single time we see them play. They've been spreading out, musically, incorporating blues and Celtic and bluegrass and other styles into their set. At one point Keith (vocals), Gordon (drums), and Jeremy (bass) all shifted one to the right - and did one hell of a performance. I hadn't even know Keith and Gordon could play those instruments! Of course, I hadn't known Jeremy could play trumpet either, so I was just learning new TDP facts left and right.

They brought Ted from Ted Hovis and the Stolen Camaros up on stage for the last two songs. For a band already consisting of 12-string acoustic guitar, cello, electric bass, drums, and a whole range of percussion, I was pleasantly surprised at how much Ted's electric guitar added to the performance. He should join them again sometime. In short, it was an excellent night.

Chicago, IL

2012-01-01T19:15:00.000-05:00

Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Visited: December 2011

I grew up in Central Illinois, so I am no stranger to Chicago, but I hadn't visited the Windy City in several years. After spending Christmas in Iowa with my family, we decided to spend a night in Chicago rather than making the cross-state commute at the crack of dawn to make our 9am flight out of O'Hare. My husband suggested we see a play, and we settled on La Cage Aux Folles at the Bank of American Theatre. We were both familiar with (and fond of) the movie The Birdcage, which is based on the same play, and we were certainly not disappointed. My husband suggested we do this any time we fly into Chicago, and I think it's a marvelous idea.

Oh yeah, before the play we dined at the Italian Village restaurants - specifically, La Cantina. So delicious! We were stuffed by the end of it and definitely satisfied. Hooray for real Chicago Italian food!

Fort Ward, VA

2011-12-31T19:06:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-30T19:03:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-08T11:00:00.002-05:00

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

2011-12-07T13:02:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-06T14:57:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-05T13:53:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-04T14:37:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-03T14:26:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-02T13:21:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-01T14:12:00.000-05:00

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.

Brandy Station, VA

2011-11-30T21:07:00.003-05:00

Location: Graffiti House, Brandy Station, Virginia, USA
Visited: June 2011

Brandy Station is easy to miss while traveling south on VA-28, but the Graffiti House is pretty nifty: lots of signatures and doodles from Civil War troops, both Union and Confederate. Had I not been on my way to Culpeper that day, I probably would have stayed longer.

Centreville, VA

2011-11-29T20:40:00.002-05:00

Location: Centreville, Virginia, USA

Despite living here for over four years, 2011 was my very first visit to Centreville Day. The very notion of "historic downtown Centreville" was somewhat amusing to me, since we don't really have a downtown area, but there are a handful of structures still standing in the tiny area that has been known as Centreville since the 1720s. It was really great to tour the historic structures around the area and the fascinating Spindle Sears House - a house bought from the Sears catalog in the 1930s. I also got to talk to some lovely folks from Patch, the Bull Run Civil War Round Table, and the NoVa Chapter of the Archaeological Society of Virginia. I was amused when the lady from Shen Yu was absolutely convinced she'd met me two weeks before at a wine festival I hadn't attended, and the treats I enjoyed from Mindy's Cupcakes and Gotta Have Chocolate were simply fabulous.

I'll definitely be stopping by again next year.

Elkridge, MD

2011-11-28T20:35:00.003-05:00

Location: Elkridge, Maryland, USA
Visited: July 2011

I stopped by the Elkridge Furnace Inn because it's on the National Register of Historic Places, and while I was snooping around the grounds, looking for any additional snarfs, the head chef saw me and brought me inside for a tour. Super nice guy, as I noted. I have to go back and eat there sometime.

The "brief history" that takes up the bulk of the page is actually a single fold pamphlet that opens up to reveal - what else? - a brief history of the inn.

Wisconsin

2011-11-27T20:26:00.002-05:00

Location: Wisconsin Dells and Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Visited: June 2011

I separated the H.H. Bennett Studio from the rest of the Dells pages because it was by far my favorite stop of the entire trip. The photo in the upper left corner also folds out to reveal another photo of Bennett in a boat, but I like the jumping dude better. It was one of the first pictures created with "high speed" photography, to the point where many people at the time believed it was faked.

The Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison was an impulse stop, but very interesting nonetheless. It is made up mostly of life-sized dioramas of every American military conflict, including the most recent.

Osaka, Japan

2011-11-26T20:14:00.002-05:00

Location: Osaka, Japan
Visited: March 2010

We spent our one night in Osaka in a capsule hotel. It wasn't nearly as claustrophobic as I'd feared, though the fact that the bathroom (showers), lavatory (sinks), and toilets (commodes) were three separate rooms kind of confused me at first. BookOff is a chain of largish bookstores, and the white page of Japanese writing to the right of that is my fortune I got at one of the shrines. The (American) friend we were with said it was just okay, not great and not bad either - but she didn't actually translate it word for word, unfortunately. That's okay. It's still pretty.

Warrenton, VA

2011-11-25T20:09:00.003-05:00

Location: Warrenton, Virginia, USA
Visited: October 2011

Warrenton was another "pick a place and go" sort of day. It's a pretty quiet and not so very interesting town, but I really enjoyed the Old Jail Museum. That was definitely worth visiting.

Washington, D.C.

2011-11-21T13:30:00.002-05:00

Location: Washington, DC, USA

Okay, this post is a bit of a cop-out, as these pages are from three different spreads in two different journals. The first is from a trip with a couple of good friends to the house where Lincoln died (across the street from Ford's Theatre) and the National Building Museum. The second is from one of my favorite spots, the Old Post Office. The third is a generic catch-all page from my 2011 BookCrossing Convention journal. All the same, I do drop by DC from time to time, and I often pick up pamphlets of the places I visit, even if I've visited them a hundred times before. It's all part of being a tourist everywhere you go.

Japanese Noms

2011-11-20T13:23:00.000-05:00

Location: Japan
Visited: March 2010

Foods! One of the best parts of our trip to Japan was the constant availability of interesting snack foods. From amazing ramen to fresh taiyaki to bento boxes to a zillion flavors of Kit Kats, our palettes were never bored. So tasty!

Bethlehem, PA

2011-11-19T22:08:00.003-05:00

Location: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
Visited: September 2010

I've attended the Celtic Classic numerous times, but these pages are from 2010, when we went with my in-laws. They had a great time, as did we. All the old stand-bys were there, such as Seamus Kennedy, plus we watched some great new-to-us bands, like Blackwater and McPeake. If you're ever in Bethlehem, be sure to stop by the Moravian Book Shop, because it's awesome.

The final page is a random pamphlet I picked up about the ice house, which was one of the venues at the Celtic Classic. It's a favorite due to the mere fact that it has air conditioning and slightly more comfortable seating, but the history of the place is pretty cool too.

Germany and Switzerland

2011-11-14T08:23:00.004-05:00

Location: Landstuhl, Trier, and Freiburg, Germany; and Biel, Switzerland
Visited: April 2010

Due to a certain volcano, we ended up stuck in Europe for an extra week. So we rented a car and drove to Switzerland (as you do). These were some of our stops along the way. The Metropol was kind of ridiculous, what with the motion-sensitive lights in the bathroom and lengthy labyrinth leading to breakfast. My favorite part by far was Nanstein Castle in Landstuhl. I love me some gorgeous ruins, let me tell you.

Wisconsin Dells, WI

2011-11-13T08:16:00.003-05:00

Location: Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, USA
Visited: June 2011

Remember how I said how pleased I am with myself when I make fold-out pages? Well, here's another one. The other side is just a generic photo of the Dells. I had a marvelous time here in the land of kitsch. And let me tell you: the doughnuts at Paul Bunyan's are not to be missed. Yum!

Osaka, Japan

2011-11-12T08:11:00.003-05:00

Location: Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, Osaka, Japan
Visited: March 2010

This is one of several pages devoted to the aquarium in my journal. I kept nearly the entire pamphlet due to the awkwardly translated English, such as "Please enjoy playful sea otters being popular among children." Maybe it makes me a bad person to laugh, since I can speak all of about three words of Japanese, but it still entertains me.

Harpers Ferry, WV

2011-11-11T08:07:00.003-05:00

Location: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, USA
Visited: numerous times

I am totally in love with Harpers Ferry, and return a few times a year. The first page here was completed when I was still quite new to the gluebooking game and hadn't quite decided how to deal with sideways objects. Now I rotate everything to the left no matter what page it's on. For a while I rotated so that the bottom of the image was pointed toward the center of the book, and evidently here I decided that everything needed to be pointing every which way. It's still kind of a neat spread, for all that. The second page is from a later trip when I went hiking with my dear friend Flora. This time around we only hiked the overlook trail, but a few months later we went back out and hiked the entire Maryland Heights/Stone Fort Trail, which on this map goes off the edge of the page. Good times.

Alexandria, VA

2011-11-10T08:02:00.002-05:00

Location: Woodlawn and the Pope-Leighey House, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Visited: March 2010

I didn't go inside the Pope-Leighey House, which is famous for being designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I did, however, stroll inside Woodlawn, where they were having an embroidery/cross-stitch display and contest. I went here on the same day as Mount Vernon, and I see that I'd actually intended to make this page part of that spread. Heh. Shows what happens when you're scanning faster than you can think. ;)

Front Royal, VA

2011-11-09T07:53:00.002-05:00

Location: Front Royal, Virginia, USA
Visited: Winter 2010

I hate it when I forget to date these places, because heaven knows I'll never remember months on. Anyway, I just remember it was winter because by about midafternoon I was losing my light - the sun was at such an extreme angle that the mountains started blocking it out very early in the day.

This is mostly from the walking tour pamphlet, and I only included the places I actually visited. Mosby's Rangers were a large part of the history here, as this was where they were executed. I'd never even heard of Mosby before moving to Virginia (back in Illinois we didn't get quite the in-depth Civil War coverage), but now I've developed a sort of fascination with him. One day I might even get around to reading a biography or something similarly more detailed than the dozens of historic markers mentioning him.

Solomons, MD

2011-11-08T07:47:00.002-05:00

Location: Solomons, Maryland, USA
Visited: August 2010

The Calvert Marine Museum with its associated lighthouses at Drum Point and Cove Point, respectively, made for a lovely afternoon excursion. The Drum Point stamp is upside-down because the woman at the desk didn't realize I'd already turned my journal to face her. But that's okay. It's all part of the experience.

Herndon, VA

2011-11-07T07:44:00.002-05:00

Location: Herndon, Virginia, USA

I work in Herndon, so you might say I visit here every day, but that's not entirely true: I don't work in the historic section of town, and thus don't see the caboose and museum on a regular basis. I don't recall off the top of my head when I collected these particular pamphlets. All the same, it's a charming area.

Tokyo, Japan

2011-11-06T07:42:00.001-05:00

Location: Sanrio Puroland, Tama City, Tokyo, Japan
Visited: March 2010

Sanrio Puroland was absolutely hilarious. I felt like I was five years old again. My husband was more than a little bit creeped out, but he enjoyed watching me have fun. As an added bonus, since it was my birth month, I got a birthday card from Hello Kitty. It folds out, and let me tell you, I am always ridiculously pleased with myself when I have a fold-out on a page.

Allentown, PA

2011-11-05T07:34:00.000-04:00

Location: Buca di Beppo, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA
Visited: September 2010

We went out for dinner with my in-laws and my good friend Laura and her husband. This is some seriously delicious pasta, man. And I still snicker every time I read 'hooray for giant meatballs'.

Boyce, VA

2011-11-04T07:32:00.003-04:00

Location: Boyce, Virginia, USA
Visited: August 2011

I didn't actually spend much time here at the Arboretum, but I just could not resist that gateway photo.

By the way, once I finish my backlog of pages and start posting about more recent trips, I'll include more information/anecdotes about the places I go.

Alexandria, VA

2011-11-03T17:11:00.003-04:00

Location: Mount Vernon, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Visited: March 2010

I like timelines. And stamps. And ticket stubs. And old photographs. Thus, these spreads of Mount Vernon make me very happy.

The Netherlands

2011-11-02T17:05:00.000-04:00

Location: The Netherlands: Amsterdam, Delft, The Hague, Madurodam
Visited: April 2010

Cookie and I had the better part of a day to kill so we decided to take a bus tour to visit Delft, The Hague, and Madurodam. I actually filled multiple pages with Madurodam. The guide includes photos of every single display inside the park, so after a while I ended up just pasting in the sites we actually visited. All in all, a great idea, and one I never would have thought of. Cookie rocks!

Amsterdam, Netherlands

2011-11-01T16:48:00.001-04:00

Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Visited: April 2010

Like any good tourist, I made sure to visit as many touristy spots as I could. The Rijksmuseum filled me with true awe for several of the old masters, most especially Vermeer and Rembrandt. It's amazing how different those paintings are in person as opposed to in a photograph. The Artis Royal Zoo was nice but, well, it was just a zoo. What made it fun was being with a New Zealander who'd never seen many of the beasts on display in person. I also visited the Van Gogh Museum, which was likewise incredible, but didn't scan in all my journal pages because, well, I might have kinda glued in Vincent's entire biography. :)

The Anne Frank House ended up being very sparse, but appropriately so. We weren't allowed to take photos inside, and I didn't want to paste in the postcards I'd purchased, so I ended up with nothing more than the ticket, gift bag, and a lone image of the hidden staircase.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

2011-10-31T17:00:00.002-04:00

Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Visited: April 2010

For the Amsterdam trip I was traveling with my good friend Cookie. Now, Cookie is a scrapbooker extraordinaire, who creates gorgeous pages. As such, she understands the need for paper matter and two copies of each (so you have both sides to work with). It got to the point where we just grabbed it all and divvied it up that evening once we got back to the hotel room. This is a somewhat random selection of journal pages from that trip covering restaurants, trains, hotels (we were in two hotels and a hostel over the course of our stay), and assorted miscellaneous stuff. The colorful image of the houses was actually something I cut out of a magazine long after I returned home, but I liked it and it's of Amsterdam, so I used it.

Tokyo, Japan

2011-10-30T09:24:00.002-04:00

Location: Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan
Visited: March 2010

I cannot say enough good things about the Ghibli Museum. You weren't allowed to take photographs inside, so these pages (and the postcards we purchased) are literally the only images I have of the place. As longtime fans of animation in general and Miyazaki in particular, my husband and I knew we absolutely could not skip this one. And it ended up being quite probably our favorite stop on the entire trip.

Yuma, AZ

2011-10-29T09:18:00.001-04:00

Location: Yuma, Arizona, USA
Visited: February 2008

This is where it all started. As I mentioned in the intro post, I started pasting stuff into a journal during a long business trip to southwestern Arizona. I didn't have a whole lot of time off, but one Sunday my coworker and I had a good time visiting the Yuma Territorial Prison, the Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge nearby, and the Castle Dome Mines Museum, and went for a scenic drive through Kofa Wildlife Refuge. The terrain was absolutely gorgeous, though the road wasn't exactly meant for vehicular traffic. We had a blast.

Upper Valley, VT/NH

2011-10-28T09:08:00.000-04:00

Location: Vermont and New Hampshire, USA
Visited: January 2009

I was still rather new to the whole glue stick tourism game when I visited my sister up in the wilds of New England in January. This page was made mostly from a single pamphlet, but I tried to include all the various places we visited during that short trip. I hope to go again in the spring.

Fort Marcy, VA

2011-10-27T09:02:00.000-04:00

Location: Fort Marcy, McLean, Virginia

I don't remember when I visited Fort Marcy, only that it took me forever to find the friggin' entrance, which is only accessible (and indeed, only even visible) from one direction on the George Washington Parkway. Good thing U-turns are legal in this state.

MDRF

2011-10-26T08:55:00.001-04:00

Location: Maryland Renaissance Festival, Crownsville, Maryland, USA
Visited: annually

This particular page is from the 2010 MDRF but we try to put in an appearance at least once a year. Many of our friends are performers, cast members, and Rennies, so there's always someone to gab with. And, most importantly, a large selection of fried foods on sticks. Mustn't forget that.

Tokyo, Japan

2011-10-25T08:40:00.000-04:00

Location: Meguro Parasitological Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Date: April 2010

Because he is a deeply disturbed man, my darling husband was quite interested to visit the only parasite museum in the world during our trip to Japan. He was especially keen to see the 28-foot tapeworm (the white thing with the blue background). The place turned out to be quite tiny - the interior photos shown here, including the gift shop, are all in one moderately size room - but completely unforgettable. The stamp in the upper right corner was one of many collectible stamps we came across at assorted attractions and train stations.

Leesburg, VA

2011-10-24T08:34:00.003-04:00

Location: Ball's Bluff Battlefield, Leesburg, Virginia, USA
Visited: September 2009

After a long day of snarfing all around Harpers Ferry and northwestern Virginia, I decided to stop by Ball's Bluff Battlefield Regional Park in Leesburg. My original intent was to walk the short Battlefield Interpretive Trail Loop, which was basically out to the cemetery and back. Somehow, upon leaving the cemetery, I ended up on the wrong path. The map said all the paths looped back to the parking lot eventually, so I just kept walking. As you can see from my Sharpie dots, I managed to get on the only path that was not a loop: the Potomac Heritage Trail. By the time I finally emerged from the woods, I was in Edwards Landing Park. The parking lot dumped me out into a generic suburban housing development, where luckily I happened upon a lovely couple out walking their dog who explained how to get back to my car - an additional 2-mile walk. Not an adventure I'm soon to forget!

Utrecht, Netherlands

2011-10-23T08:25:00.000-04:00

Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands
Visited: April 2010

I cannot say enough nice things about the beautiful town of Utrecht and the lovely local BookCrossers who showed us around. I actually made multiple spreads of Utrecht but only scanned in this one because it had the most variety to it.

Grand Canyon

2011-10-22T09:52:00.002-04:00

Location: Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Visited: February 2008

While on a business trip to Flagstaff, we made a side trip up to the Grand Canyon. So gorgeous! We didn't stay long, so I starred the locations we actually visited. These days I always have a notebook of some sort with me for the Passport stamps. As it was, I used the park brochure they gave us at the visitor center, which I cut up later.

Fort Worth, TX

2011-10-21T09:47:00.002-04:00

Location: Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Visited: July 2008

I had a free day during a business trip to Dallas, so I stopped by the famous Stockyards. Lunch was at Riscky's, where I ate calf fries before I knew what they were (and I can't really say whether I would have eaten them had I known). But I have no regrets! The weather was beautiful and my waitress was totally awesome. One day I'll go back when I have a little more time to plan ahead.

Philadelphia, PA

2011-10-20T09:37:00.002-04:00

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Visited: September 2009

One Labor Day weekend my husband and I decided to visit Philly. We saw the famous stuff (Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell), ate the traditional stuff (Pat's; next time we'll try Geno's), saw the creepy stuff (the Insectarium - not recommended), did the touristy stuff (a Star Trek exhibit at The Franklin Institute - a little disappointing for the price), and experienced the truly unforgettable stuff (Eastern State Penitentiary and the Mutter Museum). All in all, a great trip.

P.S. - I'm pretty sure you can't snarf my journal page. :P

Osaka, Japan

2011-10-19T21:48:00.005-04:00

Location: Osaka Castle, Osaka, Japan
Visited: March 2010

Some trips will require multiple posts. When my husband and I vacationed in Japan last year, I brought a special journal just for that trip, which I started my writing in, then pasted my trip recap into, then used as a gluebook for the tons and tons of paper material we picked up. These pages are from that journal, but only from a single day of the trip: our visit to Osaka Castle. Though originally built in the 1580s, these days it is entirely a modern museum, with the exterior completely rebuilt to look like it did back in the day. Despite being what some might view as artificial, the castle is stunning and the exhibits are memorable. Too bad it was pouring rain the day we visited.

Washington, D.C.

2011-10-18T21:41:00.004-04:00

Location: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., USA
Visited: April 2009

The Library of Congress is one of the largest libraries in the entire world. Though I've lived in the DC area since 2003, I'd never actually been inside until the spring of 2009. And it's absolutely beautiful. This is one of my rare spreads where I pasted just about zero text from the pamphlet, instead letting the photographs do all the talking.

Cumberland, MD

2011-10-17T21:34:00.002-04:00

Location: Cumberland, Maryland, USA
Visited: August, 2011

This is a good example of picking a place at random and just going. Cumberland is a gorgeous mountain town between two and three hours from me. In addition to the lovely scenery, I also stopped by the Western Maryland Railroad Station and the surprisingly varied Allegany Museum. I unfortunately did not find enough paper matter to fill more than a single page, but it's definitely a town I hope to visit again someday.

Hello and Welcome!

2011-10-16T21:10:00.004-04:00

Welcome to my brand new blog, The Glue Stick Tourist, devoted to my somewhat strange hobby of gluebooking my travels. Be sure to check out the FAQ if you're curious.

It all started in 2008 with a longish trip to Yuma, Arizona. I purchased a cheap blank book for drawing, but soon found that I would come nowhere near to filling it before I headed home. So I picked up some scissors and glue at the local dollar store and started pasting down assorted paper matter I picked up on my wanderings. It became a habit, and now I do it every place I visit.

And I do like to visit places. My wanderlust has gained a little bit of direction thanks to Markeroni and the eternal hunt for historical landmarks, but that doesn't change the fact that I will often just pick a place on the map and go. Not all of these places are somewhere someone might consider exciting; often I have no other reason for going somewhere than the fact that I'd never been. But I've found that many places have their own local attractions, and attractions come with tickets and pamphlets and maps.

I take photographs, of course, and keep a thorough diary, but gluebooks hold a different sort of interest for me. I'm going to pick up the pamphlets regardless (half the time they're shoved into your hands as you walk in, after all), and when I get home I can either throw them away or put them in a drawer, neither of which means I'm likely to ever look at them ever again. But my gluebooks, on the other hand, those I do look at. They evoke memories in ways that photographs and journal entries don't.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy looking at these. I've decided to post my existing backlog of pages in somewhat random order, starting with tomorrow. Once I've exhausted those there will be some silent times until I take my next trip. But, for my own sanity's sake, I do hope to be able to post at least once a month.

Happy travels!