The NMAAHC

Happy Tuesday! :)

I'm a little bit late, but I wanted to acknowledge something wonderful that happened at the end of September. On September 24th, The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) officially opened in Washington, D.C. I had been reading about it for some time and following the building's progress. I was so excited to see it come to fruition. 

Courtesy NMAAHC

'The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans. To date, the museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts.'

- From the NMAAHC

As I watched the dedication ceremony online on September 24th, I was incredibly proud and moved. I thought of my parents and grandparents who are no longer here and I thought of all of my ancestors who laid the path for me. All of the speakers were wonderful and I especially loved hearing President Obama and Congressman John Lewis speak. I have always admired the many, many sacrifices that Congressman Lewis has made in order to seek racial justice and I felt especially full of emotion in watching him. He has worked so hard and I'm so grateful that he was there to see this day. And having President Obama there to open the museum at this moment in history was amazing!

Courtesy NMAAHC

This museum is a great addition to the National Mall and even though it is The National Museum of African American History and Culture, it is a gift to all Americans. African American history is American history. And I hope that people from all walks of life in our country and from all over the world go to visit, because we all need to try to understand each other's cultures much better and how humanity is woven together strongly by the many contributions of all. There is so much venom and bigotry and misunderstanding that seems to swirl around the world daily, so I think that we really need places like this museum. We have to SEE each other for what makes us unique and beautiful and also see what we have in common as human beings. This isn't about division, it's about celebration of a culture, a beautifully rich culture.

I can't wait to go and visit. I want to see it and I feel deep down like I'll be there to witness it for my parents and ancestors who are no longer here. I've seen glimpses of the exhibitions from social media and I have such recognition of many things. When I finally get to visit, I imagine it'll be like a homecoming of sorts, especially since I'm living abroad right now. I can't wait :)

I particularly love this piece here about the museum's design. It's a beautiful building on top of being such a great place of knowledge.

Dickens and London On A Saturday

Hello all! So as I mentioned in my last post, Brit Boy and I headed to London on this past Saturday, despite not going ahead to see “Sister Act”. We had a good time and it was good to have a day out.

We took the train into Paddington Station. Since we were arriving a bit before lunch-ish, we headed for the tube so we could make our way to Sophie’s, which is one of our favorite places to eat nowadays :-) We had a wonderful waiter. We got seated and served very quickly since we beat the rush. We got a prime spot up front and when I looked out of the window over Brit Boy’s shoulder, I caught sight of this blue plaque.


All around London there are these blue plaques which mark different locations of interest where certain well known people lived or worked or where something occurred. This one marks the building that housed the offices of Charles Dickens’ magazine “All The Year Round” and his private apartments from 1859 to 1870. The magazine was a weekly publication and featured essays, poetry, serialized fiction, and other writings. I just happened to notice the plaque after I noticed that there was a coffee house there that was using his name. Who knew? :-)

We’ve eaten at Sophie’s before, but we are usually there after dark when we’ve gone in the past and everything is so busy, so it’s easy to miss things. That’s why I really loved getting a chance to sit there in the daylight and take a look around. So as a lover of literature, I was truly excited to be around where Dickens once walked. By the way, the light bulbs that you see in the photo are inside the restaurant, but I thought it would be fun for you to see the plaque the way I first saw it.

And here’s a better view of the plaque from outside and a view of the building from down the street…



After we had lunch, we took a walk around Covent Garden. I love strolling around the market there and doing some people watching. Here are a few photos of the sights…



Check out the tasty looking cupcakes above, all lined up and ready to be sold. I wanted to taste all of them ;-)

Below is the entryway of a lovely shop called, Benjamin Pollock’s Toyshop. I thought that this display looked so inviting for a child of any age from 5 to 105. To the right of this display there were stairs that led up to the shop. It seemed all beautifully Willy Wonka-esque to me and I loved it! :-)



We walked along to another section of the market and I told Brit Boy that I wanted to check and see if the palm reader was there that I visited a couple of years ago. The palm reader was very intriguing and it was all in fun, but some things that he said did resonated, so who knows??? :-) Sadly though, he wasn’t there anymore. We did see someone else we remembered from before though. There was an artist that we met before and we bought a print from him. It made me happy to see that he was still there using his creativity and doing great work :-)

After our walk around Covent Garden, we decided to head to a museum. We decided upon the Science Museum. I’m usually one more for the art-filled museums, but this was a very interesting place. It was a good change of pace. There were loads and loads of exhibits. There was a lot about NASA and a bit about everything and I mean everything that has ever been created. I came away with one main thought about the whole experience. Humankind has created so much and it boggles my mind to think of what it must’ve been like to create things that had never existed before. It's something special to have the faith to see it through in bringing new things to the world.

There were day to day items and big things to see, but what also stuck with me was that it made me see our place in the passing of time. One day, some of the things that we use in our homes everyday may be in a display case for others to see. And feeling that connection to the thread of history, even as an everyday person, made me feel a bit in awe. What a glorious feeling that was.

It’s hard to really share representative photos since there was so much, but here are a very few.

Above: Ford Model T - 1916



Above: Panhard & Levassor car - 1895. This is an example of the type of car that won the world's first motor race in France in 1895.

Above: a Royal Mail coach

Above: Apollo 10 Command Module - 1969

As our Saturday in London drew to a close, we strolled back along the edge of Hyde Park and the leafy surroundings. The light was beautiful as the sun was retreating. Take a look…





Below are our feet, you have a Dori foot and a couple of Brit Boy feet ;-) This is a photo I took while we were taking a breather and sitting in Hyde Park.


It was a wonderfully varied day and I enjoyed our trip to London as I always do. We made our way back to Paddington Station and caught our train back to Wiltshire. I hope you enjoyed coming along with us! :-)

Mini Cam Moments Three - The Museum

This past Wednesday, Brit Boy and I went on a day trip to London. It was great to get a day out. We took the train into Paddington Station and then took the tube/subway to the South Kensington Station and arrived to see long queues to get into the Natural History Museum. We thought for a minute that we should maybe give it a pass and just go somewhere else, but then we decided to try for a minute and see how fast things were moving. In the end, it didn’t take much time at all. We got in the shorter of the two queues so it worked out well :-) The museum itself is beautiful to look at. The architecture is extraordinary inside and outside.

Here’s a quick photo of the outside that I took as we shuffled along to get inside.




Here are a few photos from inside too. This is a photo of one of the numerous display cases inside. The collection was really impressive.




Here’s a photo of one of the dinosaurs on display in the main area. It was massive.




And here’s a view of the beautiful inside architecture of the museum. The many arches reminded me of the inside of a church. It was lovely.




We had a really great time. The last thing I want to share is this little video that Brit Boy and I collaborated on. It was filmed with my trusty little retro mini cam. So this is the third in my Mini Cam Moments Series. It’s just a short video showing the view from the train as it speeds along very fast. The video came out kind of weird and atmospheric, so the sound is strange and the video gets wobbly, but I love that it's strange. (smile) I thought that you’d like to see some of what I see when we take the train. It’s been edited together so some of it’s from heading to London and some of it’s from heading away from London. My retro camera made some of the sections with trees pixilated since we were going so fast, but you get the idea of what it looks like during our countryside journey. (smile) There’s also a bit showing what the inside of the museum looks like. So I hope you enjoy it. Have a great weekend! :-)