The Newseum

Location: Newseum, Washington, DC, USA
Visited: December 2012

Though extremely well done, I found this museum far more depressing than I'd expected. Of course, I should have known: what makes the news, after all? Crime, tragedy, and politics. I loved the section with the old newspapers, and the 9/11 and Oklahoma City Bombing exhibits were interesting and heartbreaking at the same time, and the assorted homages to fake news (The Daily Show, SNL, et al) were fun. I'm not sure I'd go back, but I'm certainly glad I went.

Youngstown, OH

Location: Youngstown, Ohio, USA
Visited: November 2012

While visiting my in-laws, we had brunch at Mill Creek Park. The food was good, and the scenery was nice, though it was far too cold to truly enjoy. I'll have to go back sometime when everything's in bloom.

The Kennedy Center

Location: The Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, USA
Visited: November 2012

This was my first visit to The Kennedy Center and my second time seeing the musical Jekyll and Hyde. I had loved it the first time around and my husband had enjoyed listening to the soundtrack, but this version was kind of flat. The show itself had changed a little bit, with some songs replaced and others rewritten. A few of the changes made sense, making the story a bit clearer (I can recall, for example, not quite getting that the people killed were the board of governors when I first saw it, for example), but all in all there were far too many ballads. "Murder Murder" was slowed down and the new song "Bring on the Men" just didn't fit at all. The two leads were pop stars - Constantine Maroulis and Deborah Cox - and while the singing was excellent, the blocking left a lot to be desired. There was a lot of standing still with arms hanging at one's sides while singing. The lighting was also rather dark, making it quite difficult to discern details. I was especially disappointed with the song "Confrontation", which had so impressed me the first time around. It's a "duet" between Jekyll and Hyde, played by the same man, but for this production they chose to prerecord Hyde's part and project it onto a screen while Jekyll sang live. Oh well. We still had a great time, as we always do at the theater.

Hanover, NH

Location: Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
Visited: October 2012

We visited the Hood Art Museum mostly to see the amazing Night Hunter House by Stacey Steers, but we also browsed a bit around the Australian Aboriginal art exhibit. And I got to use more gorgeous leaf pictures to fill out the page, so that makes me happy.

Bennington, VT

Location: Bennington, Vermont, USA
Visited: October 2012

This is one of the many places I never would have visited were it not for Markeroni. The sun came out just in time for my stop at the Bennington Battle Monument. The view from the top was simply gorgeous, as the leaves had almost all turned. And only $2 to get in!

Kinderhook, NY

Location: Kinderhook, New York, USA
Visited: October 2012

I was with a friend who decided to enable my Markeroni habit, so we stopped by Martin van Buren's Lindenwald for a little bit. It's a cute little place, but what really tickled me was the timeline in the brochure titled "A Master Politician's Magical Career". What, did he attend Hogwarts? "Yer a wizard, Martin!"

Ashland, PA

Location: Ashland and Centralia, Pennsylvania, USA
Visited: October 2012

I took a solo road trip a few weeks ago and my first stop was The Pioneer Tunnel in Ashland, PA. The first part was a steam train ride, where the scenery was gorgeous, if a touch chilly. It was a little weird, as the train started out by going backwards to the end of the line, then coming back forward again. Afterward, I took the coal mine tour. I'd never been in a real mine before, and it was pretty fascinating. The headlamps they used to use had an open flame, which was a bit of an early warning if you hit "heavy air" (air without enough oxygen), as it would go out and you might have time to escape before suffocating. On the other hand, if you hit a pocket of methane, your day was pretty much ruined. At one point the tour guide turned out the lights without warning. I'm not sure some of the other folks in our group appreciated that too much. He also commented that, back when this was an operating mine, the "wishing well" we'd just passed had no grate over it, and in fact descended some thousand feet straight down. Safety first!

My next stop was Centralia, famous largely for its inspiration of Silent Hill.

Centralia, like much of this part of Pennsylvania, was a mining town. About fifty years ago, the government decided to make use of the empty mine shafts as landfills, and filled them up with trash. When they got full, they had this brilliant idea to set the trash on fire in order to make more room. The fire caught a vein of coal, and then things got really bad. The fire has continued to burn all this time, and they expect it to continue for another couple centuries at least. There isn't much to see today: mostly weeds and cement slabs where buildings used to be. There aren't even any street signs. The only truly interesting part is Graffiti Highway, the closed-off section of 61 where the fire caused it to collapse. The entire length of it is covered in graffiti of varying quality.

This isn't the sort of place I'd expect most people to feel is worth the hours one would have to drive to get there (it's pretty much as far into the middle of nowhere you can get in that part of the country), but I had a good time and am glad to be able to say I was there.

One Year Already

We here at the Glue Stick Tourist are celebrating our first birthday! It's been a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoy this random collage I made from stuff I picked up while at an apple orchard in rural New York. It's not really site-specific (and the lovely fall images are actually from Vermont) so I decided it'd make a nice mid-October anniversary piece. I should have other spreads from my road trip posted soon. Here's to another year of adventure! :)

Luray, VA

Location: Luray, Virginia, USA
Visited: October 2012

Because we'd never been, my husband and I visited Luray Caverns. It was beautiful, though a touch overpriced. While there we also visited a small car and carriage museum, which was reasonably entertaining if a bit small. Be sure to check out my husband's photos. Very neat to look at, but probably not worth visiting multiple times.

We also drank Dr. Wham. The end.

Fairfax, VA

Location: George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
Visited: September 2012

As part of the annual Fall for the Book event, we got to see one of my favorite authors and readers, Neil Gaiman. He was receiving an award, but before that he read an excerpt from his upcoming novel, answered audience questions, and then read an entire short story from an upcoming anthology. And I had a stupid grin on my face the entire time. If you haven't listened to Gaiman read, you are missing out.

Baltimore, MD

Location: Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Visited: September 2012

Through the One Maryland, One Book website I heard about the Literary Mount Vernon guided walking tour. My friends and I had a great time exploring Mount Vernon (the Baltimore neighborhood, not Georgie's house), followed by a delicious lunch at The Owl Bar. I admit I'm not such a fan of Baltimore most days - especially if I have to drive anywhere - but this was a lovely outing.

Brick Fair

Location: Brick Fair, Chantilly, Virginia, USA
Visited: August 2011 and 2012

A few weeks ago I happened upon a little Ziplock baggie of clippings from the 2011 Brick Fair, a celebration of all things LEGO held every summer at the Dulles Expo Center not far from my house. It's great fun to look at all the amazing creations everyone puts together each year. Definitely recommended if you're a LEGO fan.

Yes, yes, I know the scan isn't very good. The book is getting full and it's getting harder to lie flat.

Midland and Culpeper, VA

Location: Midland and Culpeper, Virginia, USA
Visited: August, 2012

On the morning of the day I was supposed to meet a friend of mine for lunch in Culpeper (which is more or less midway between us), I woke up early and decided to leave early. On the way there I stopped at C.M. Crockett Park in Midland to do some geocaching. It was hot and sweaty but the park itself was quite nice.

Once I got to Culpeper I still had a fair amount of time to kill, so I stopped at Full Circle Thrift. I wasn't going to buy any books (really I wasn't) but when I learned that paperbacks were all of 10 cents, I went ahead. I mean, at that price it practically costs more not to buy them!

Anyway, while the food at Thai Culpeper was decent, the rest of the town was pretty boring. But I got to hang out with one of my favorite people in all the world, so it was still a pretty good day.

Manassas, VA

Location: Manassas, Virginia, USA
Visited: August, 2012

While filming some stuff for an upcoming Markeroni video, my friends and I decided we needed to get pictures of our mascots in canons (as you do), so we headed out to Manassas Battlefield Park, aka Bull Run. On the way we stopped by the Stone House, which I'd seen many times before but which had never been open. Sure, we didn't get to see the second floor or the basement, but it was nifty to be able to go in there and get the stamp. Plus, they had Stone House trading cards! Awesome!

Washington, DC, and Colesville, MD

Location: Washington, DC, and Colesville, Maryland, USA
Visited: June 2012

Though they're not actually all that near to each other, I put these two trips on the same spread because I visited them on the same day.  We started the morning with a muggy tour of Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, ate a delicious pizza lunch, then wandered up to Maryland to ride the trolley at the National Capital Trolley Museum.  I had a grand time, but I think I'll wait to visit Kenilworth again until it's a little bit cooler out.

Champaign, IL

Location: Champaign, Illinois, USAVisited: June-July 2012
Sometimes it feels like my hometown was holding out on me, because I've certainly discovered a lot more new awesome things about it since I left than I ever knew about when I was living there full time. The top page is mostly dedicated to food - I try to eat at places we don't have in Virginia whenever I visit - while the second spread is all about The I.D.E.A. Store, which is one of the most amazing stores ever.  If you're ever in the area, be sure to take a gander. You never know what you'll find there.

Artomatic

Location: Artomatic, Crystal City, Virginia, USA
Visited: June 2012

Though I'd heard of it numerous times in the past, this was my first time visiting Artomatic, which is arguably the biggest art show in the area. I say arguably because with 1500 artists you're bound to have a whole bunch of crap, but the awesome thing is that there is enough great stuff that it's totally worth visiting. I found it insanely inspiring, and while I didn't manage to join in on the sketchcrawl (which was the main reason I went, actually), I am so glad I went and I will definitely have to block off a few days next year to go again. There's simply no way to see it all in a single day, much less a single afternoon. On this page is only a very small sampling of the many amazing things I saw. If you're in the area, you simply must check it out.

St. Mary's County, MD

Location: Colton Point, California, Piney Point, St. Mary's City, and Scotland, Maryland, USA

Visited: May 2012 

This was one of those "pick a place and go" sort of days. I started at Colton Point to visit the St. Clement's Island Museum (but didn't visit the island itself, as it's only accessible by boat), then had a delightful guided tour of the Piney Point Lighthouse and Museum. After a brief detour through the Cecil's Mill historic district, I wandered down to Point Lookout Park where I saw the lighthouse and took a stroll through Fort Lincoln. Finally, I enjoyed an evening walking tour of St. Mary's City. I was completely exhausted and soaked with sweat by the end of it, but it was loads of fun.

International Spy Museum

Location: Washington, DC, USA

Visited: May 2012 

 When my in-laws visited a few weeks ago, we decided to visit the International Spy Museum for the first time. It was interesting but not worth the $20 admission fee. Still, it's nice to have done. Afterward we stopped by the American Art Museum where we visited the Art of Video Games exhibit and I finally found the DC Art-o-mat machine. Good times!

Washington, DC - and beyond!

Location: The embassies of Indonesia, Dominican Republic, Chad, Haiti, Peru, Bahamas, Australia, Kazakhstan, Guatemala, Trinidad & Tobago, and Japan in Washington, DC, USA

Visited: May 2012

When a friend invited me to the Around the World Embassy Tour, I knew I couldn't resist. The best one, in terms of scenery, was Indonesia, but the best in terms of free stuff was Kazakhstan. I learned a lot and had a really great time. Highly recommended, but don't expect to be able to visit every embassy in a single day - there's way too much to see. Maybe I'll check out the EU embassy tour next year.