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We’re in Seattle! Or as we like to say ‘Sea-at-el’ just to mess with the locals. We only have tonight and tomorrow here, so we wanted to do as many Sea-at-el things that we possible could do. On our list of things to do was the Space Needle, taking a rowboat out on Lake Washington and then see the aquarium. We made sure that one of the luxury hotels in Seattle was close by to do everything on are itinerary.

The Space Needle, which the Seattle’s tower for viewing the entire cityscape was pretty expensive. Tomorrow, we’ll be in New York where there are taller buildings, so we didn’t bother to pay the high price to go up the Needle, but we did take a photo of ourselves in front of the Needle, that was free. Next to the Space Needle is the Science Center and a children’s playground. We ran all around the playgrounds, which offered us some great photo ops, we acted all crazy and laughed until it hurt. We had to sit down afterwards, we really managed to exhaust ourselves.

We needed to get a move-on in order to complete our itinerary, we made it to the Seattle Aquarium and scratched off the row-boating, didn’t have time. The aquarium was nothing outstanding, but we still managed to have a laugh or two, because there were several interactive things designated for the children to do, but as you can tell, we’re big children. We had fun messing around and taking more photos. After a great wrestling match with an octopus, we posed next to the tank of ‘Nemo and Dory’. Then it was off to the feeding the seals extravaganza. All the seals looked alike to us, so we moved on and we thought we saw Claire Danes by the tropical fish area, we slowly worked our way right up next to her; we were all giddy, and then she turned our way and that’s when we could see it wasn’t her. Dang!

Well, at least Sea-at-el proved to be so much fun even if we only had a day here.

Whenever I’m traveling, I try to seek out the smaller, intriguing offerings of a city, and one that caught my eye was the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette in Louisiana.  This small museum, with a collection of over 800 works of art, was founded in 1909, with the title the Lafayette Art Association, and it’s main goal is to encourage the community’s interest in art, to provide annual exhibitions, and to maintain permanent collections.  For over a hundred years now, the art museum has worked with the community and provides to the public lectures, classes and exhibitions.  On top of all that, it’s free (donations are welcomed, though).

In 2010, there’s a number of upcoming exhibits that showcase new artists.  Here’s a sampling of some of some of them: In May and July, there will be a juried show to display the best work by area high schoolers in over eleven different medium.  The works are submitted by art teachers and a professional art juror will make the final selections.  Each spring, this particular exhibit draws in two thousand five hundred visitors.  From June 4 to October 1st, an exhibit will feature art from local women who hope to gain attention as professional artists.  This year, there will also be an exhibit called Summer and Fall Scenes from the Permanent Collection.  This particular exhibit, in the Weil Gallery, will display paintings of summer and autumn landscapes.  Also promising is an exhibit in August and October titled, A Salute to Saturday Evening Post: America’s Oldest News Magazine.   Thirty art works from the 1950s and early 1960s which made the covers of the famed weekly magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, will make up this display.  It’ll feature artists such as Norman Rockwell, Steven Dohanos, John Falter, John Clymer, as well as Amos Swell and George Hughes.

Once you’ve checked into the hotel of your choice in Lafayette, stop by the museum gallery and shop at any time from Tuesday to Saturday at 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m..  It is closed on the major holidays; and, something that’s particularly special to anyone from the bigger cities, such as Los Angeles, there’s free parking.

Romeo, and yes, that is his name, grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. He was a cute kid, which for him made it even worse. As could be expected he was frequently kidded in school, though luckily for him it was mostly by his friends and was in good nature. He was called lover boy before he even knew what the phrase meant and by the time he was old enough to understand it, it had become one of his common nicknames. He also played baseball from the time he was six years old. And it didn’t take long for the phrase to be heard by opposing teams who taunted him with it every time he was up to bat. This, in part, inspired Romeo to be the best he could be and he practiced hard and was able to knock many balls across the home-run line, which was usually enough to silence some of his more vocal opponents.

Baseball quickly became one of Romeo’s favorite sports and activities. His grandfather had been a huge of the Atlanta Braves every since they first arrived in the city in 1966. In fact, it has his grandfather that first took Romeo to Turner Field. He frequently thought back to that day when he was eight and the cool breeze of the afternoon and the great hot dogs they enjoyed while they watched. Romeo and his grandfather frequently watched the games together and it was a ritual to eat corned beef sandwiches with a pickle and chips on game days. This only occurred when they watched them from Romeo’s grandparents’ house. His grandmother made the best corned beef sandwich in the world and they always had hot dogs at the stadium.

It had been ten years since Romeo had last visited Atlanta. As he flew in with his wife and son he thought about his grandparents and greatly missed them. He was headed there for a business meeting and it was his wife’s idea for the two of them to go with him since that’s where Romeo had grown up. While they were there the Braves happened to have a home game against the Minnesota Twins. Romeo was suddenly struck by a great idea and when he returned to one of the hotels Atlanta to meet his family he presented them with tickets to the game. That ended up being the first baseball game his son had attended in person, and you can be sure that the family enjoyed a hot dog while they were there.

Grand Rapids Michigan is a beautiful city along the Grand River and is only about 30 miles from Lake Michigan. It’s not a large city for the country but it is the second largest city in its state. It started of as that home of a few Native American tribes that inhabited the area for thousands of years. Then of the British came in do do some fur trading which was typical for that time. The first famous person to live in this area was I suppose the first settler to the area Isaac McCoy, Baptist minister, who arrived in 1825. Then there was Joseph and Madeline La Framboise who were the first to establish a trading post in the area.

Madeline La Framboise came from a fur trading family and stayed with the trade with the help of her husband. Joseph was murdered in 1806 so she was left to handle the business on her own. Of all the northwest territory, Madeline was the most successful fur trader. It was a hard and dangerous business to be in during those times. Most women were not subjected to such a difficult business. But Madeline took it on and became the most outstanding business women in the state.

Another modern women to be raised in Grand Rapids was actress Gillian Anderson. She was actually born in Chicago and spent the first part of her life living in different places. As an infant she lived in Puerto Rico and then in London until age eleven. That is when she moved to Grand Rapids with her family. Her father was a film maker and she took to acting a passion she discovered when she got a roll in the community play while in High School. She also had another love which was archeology and marine biology. It is funny or fitting that she ended up on the hit television series the X-Files in 1996. Which then put her on the map as the Sexiest Woman in the World according to FHM. There are plenty of rooms in the hotels Grand Rapids has available to come and see the beautiful area.