Summer Days

It's just the slightest bit less hectic over the summer.  David goes to do his lab work in the morning, and follows it up with his own research and classwork.  Not much rest for him.

It took us about a year to discover a very accessible walking and biking trail just up the street from our home.  This lush trail runs along Decker's Creek and down into town.  You can also weave up between the trees to another neighborhood.  At this time of year, it has the intoxicating smell of honeysuckle blooms. 

A few yards down a utility road, looking back at the main road...

This way into town.  In just about a mile, we'd be on the "Rail Trail," a former rail line turned biking path that runs along the Monogahela River and through the burroughs.

 This way to go away from town...

A glimpse of Decker's Creek where the utility road meets the creek trail. The creek smells slightly sulfuric in the summertime.  It runs through some old coal mining equipment further upstream, and the deposits along the water level are yellow.  Local efforts have attempted to clean the watershed.  It appears as though this house across the river is burning trash by the bank.  This section of the creek always reminds us of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

 

On another day, we visit the USO Dance in nearby Rowlesburg.  Just 45-minutes away from Morgantown, this town of under 600 people has been abandoned by the railroad industry.  People still talk about the big Cheat River flood which destroyed their town in 1986.



Rowlesburg today is much better than it was at the time of the flood, but its now a sleepy town with no new industry to keep people there.  One of the biggest festivals it has all year is a WWII Living History Weekend which draws re-enactors from across state lines.  Veterans and re-enactors are honored at a Saturday night dance with the Bobby Menear's Maestros of Swing Orchestra.  Mr. Menear is a direct descendant of Glenn Miller.

We arrived early to view the town's WWII Museum before attending the dance.  We met some very sweet and charming people who were glad to have new friends come to their town.

No pictures of the dance because it was dark and we were dancing!  But here's a snap of what David did before we changed for the show... He played a little bit of ragtime in the old school gymnasium.

The next day, we enjoying iced tea from our front porch.  Just before dusk, we decide to check out the trail going up through the trees.

Fungi cluster.

The stairs at the top.

With the sun setting, it was time to head back home. 

West Virginia is beautiful, isn't it?  The next day we woke up to so many mosquito bites.

Art, Natural History, and Dancing in Chicago

Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" installed at Millennium Park from David's perspective

"Cloud Gate" from Amy's perspective on a different day.

More Millennium Park statues.

The Art Institute of Chicago is a behemoth.  Amy spent a good portion of the day trying to check off the most important works to her.  She was quite proud that she had criss-crossed the museum map to see them all, then left the museum 5 minutes before closing without having seen the famous "Nighthawks" painting by Edward Hopper.  It will have to be left for the next time.

Bueller!  "A Sunday Afternoon at La Grande Jatte"... quite bigger than anticipated, and so, too, was its admiring crowd.  Not very interesting to stare over shoulders.

 Thankfully no crowds to get in the way of Marcel DuChamp's "Hat Rack"

 Nor in front of this lovely Telechron clock!

At the Field Museum of Natural History, fossils, taxidermy, headhunters, and Pacific island ritual masks are housed in reverent Neo-Classical style - a true cabinet of curiosities. It was an outgrowth of the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893.

At the turn of the century, large fossil discoveries in the Midwest put America on the map as a significant resource for prehistory.  American researchers had fossil fever, rushing papers filled with errors into publication.  The Brontosaurus as we know it is a bit of a misnomer.  In 1877, Othniel Charles Marsh published a paper on his newly discovered species, Apatosaurus ajax. He followed this in 1879 with a description of another, more complete specimen, which he thought represented a new genus and species.  It was named Brontosaurus excelsus. In 1903, Elmer Riggs re-examined the fossils and determined that Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus were the same.  The latter name was dropped in favor of the former, however the public stuck to the convention of calling the new dinosaur Brontosaurus.  Thanks for clearing that up, Field Museum!

Amy also visited the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.  Here's a photo of the staircase and one of the installations on display:

Also on exhibit was "Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void 1949-1962."  The show featured wonderful abstractions in the post-WWII era.

Lee Bontecou (above)

In the evening, David and Amy are reunited as they take the gang to the Green Mill.  In an old hangout of Al Capone's, we spend our last night in town with Fat Babies, an eight-piece 20s-30s jazz band that plays weekly at Green Mill. The lounge's original wooden bar dates back to 1932. We enjoyed hot jazz in a beautiful and authentic space, great dancers, upbeat and crowded dance floor. If Joe's and Cicada Club had a mobster jazz baby, Green Mill would be it!

 

Facts paraphrased from Wi