To see the U.S. in one month

Lately I've been poring over train schedules, flights, and things to do in Europe for a month. I keep thinking to myself - what would I tell people to do if they had only one month in the U.S.??

I thought it would be easy to write a blog post with an "itinerary" for what to see, and I just got up to number 15 and got so overwhelmed that I erased it all. There are just too many choices!! Too many amazing things to do and see, which I know is true of Europe as well. And pretty much anywhere around the globe.

Travel is definitely "addictive" in the sense that once you have disconnected from the familiar long enough to know another place, or even just to know what it feels like to be on the road and 100% reliant on whatever you find or whatever finds you, there is always this desire to do it again, to seek another challenge, to go someplace you haven't gone before. At least that's how it feels to me!

The Trimans do Florida Day 2: Everglades

Dan and I woke up on Thursday morning to the sight of palm trees above us and a completely gorgeous day ahead of us.



We began by exploring our campground, and one of the first things we discovered was this spanish moss:





We wandered towards the shore of the Florida Bay at the edge of the campground, and had some really cool early-morning experiences watching the birds in and near the water:





Then we checked out the (very pink) visitor's center, saw a manatee (which was Dan's mission for the trip), and enjoyed some time relaxing under some of the amazing trees in the park:






That afternoon, we took a few short hikes and saw our first gator:



And some scenery that reminded me so much of the muddy flats near Anchorage:



Pardon the shaky videography, but our final exciting find of the day was this Roseate Spoonbill feeding in a pond on the way back to our campground:

The Trimans do Florida Day 1: Miami

Dan and I decided to mix things up this holiday season and take a spontaneous trip to Florida. Our goals: enjoy some warmer (shorts-wearing) weather and see some gators. Not our goals: having an epic struggle at the rental car place and vultures eating the rubber on said rental car. To our joy (and chagrin), both our goals (and non-goals) were met.

We woke early on Wednesday, December 22, but still somehow managed to be racing to get to the airport and board our flight on time. We made it into our seats about 10 minutes before they shut the cabin doors, and we were off on our quick journey from BWI to Miami International.

I wish I had had my camera out as we approached the city, because the view of Miami Beach from our window as we coasted in for the landing was jaw-droppingly gorgeous: BLUE water and white sand and the city sparkling in the mid-afternoon sunlight. Miami wowed me from the very first glimpse!

When we disembarked, the first thing we saw (other than glaringly dazzling airport Christmas decorations) was these crazy people dressed in green and black wrapping everyone's luggage in this green saran-wrap stuff:



We could NOT figure it out until later, after we came back, when Rebecca told us about how people boarding flights to South America want their stuff wrapped so that their luggage won't be susceptible to the wandering hands of customs agents along the way.

We made our way out of the baggage claim area (checked bag full of our double sleeping bag in tow), and headed over to buy our tickets to the Miami-Dade bus. Riding the bus was a neat experience; we always enjoy riding the public transit in different cities because the people you see and the things going on are interesting. We were the only ones on our bus with luggage, which turned out to be a problem because as the bus traveled further and further south, it became PACKED with locals, mostly Spanish-speaking folks and the septua- and octo-generian crowd.

I'll spare you the details of the struggle we endured at Enterprise in Coral Gables, but suffice it to say that 1) they have TERRIBLE customer service and 2) require you to have a credit card that isn't linked to your checking account in order to rent their cars. Dan and I don't use credit cards, and didn't have any on us, so we came pretty close to being out on the curb (or back on the bus) with our bags, but luckily our persistence (and the fact that we were making a scene in the waiting area) paid off.

After that experience, we went to check out the Front Porch Cafe in South Beach at Jackie's recommendation. We had oatmeal pancakes and some amazing omelette dish and thoroughly enjoyed that experience.

Then we went walking on the beach...the only thing better than the aerial view of Miami Beach was getting our toes into the water and experiencing it for ourselves:







After a few moments of awesome beach-walking, we headed to the Fresh Market in Coconut Grove to stock up on some groceries for our camping trip. The market had some of the most amazing fresh fruits and vegetables (although not as amazing as some that were to come later on our trip), and we had a great time shopping for our groceries among the last-minute holiday food shoppers. It's always neat to go to local grocery stores and co-ops and see what types of things are popular (fruits and juices) and what the people are like (laid back and un-rushed).

Once we had our vittles, we figured it would be smooth sailing out of town and down Route 1 towards Everglades National Park...not so. Apparently Miami has a pretty nasty rush hour (or maybe it was just holiday shoppers), and we got stuck in it for an extra hour of driving. We made a requisite stop at Walmart for camp fuel, a tarp, and some other vitals, which unfortunately added yet another hour onto our trek to the Everglades...we thought it was just because of holiday shoppers, but as I made this comment to Dan, the lady in front of us turned around and informed us that it is like that ALL the time there in Homestead, FL. Apparently that particular Walmart is the only game in town - and in the surrounding few towns - and people shopping there always have to add an extra hour for the incredibly long wait for check-out.

We finally burst through the exit doors with our loot in tow, and forged the last hour or so to the park. Driving along the park road in the dark was a really neat experience - we came face to face with a huge heron, who looked at us like - um..this is my turf...who are you?? When we made it to the campground, it was pretty dark, but the moon was bright, so we didn't even need our headlamps to set up the tent. There was a nice cool breeze and it smelled good, balmy and salty, and we settled down for a nice rest before the rest of our adventure began...

Wishing we could walk...

When Dan and I lived in our second apartment (on Northwest 23rd Street) in Portland, we could walk to everything: the food store, the post office, the library, the streetcar stop, the bus stop, the park for a hike, the video rental store, a breakfast place, a sushi restaurant, a bar, shopping...you name it, we could walk to it. At the time, I really enjoyed where we lived, but it wasn't until a few years later (now) that I feel like I fully appreciate how valuable it is to be able to walk to satisfy all of your daily needs.

Here is a map of where we lived in Portland, with little pins marking the various amenities we could walk to:



The greatest thing about this little neighborhood was that it had the most wonderful urban convenience with an amazingly local, small-town feel. Looking for a place in the D.C. area is disheartening, because it seems like nothing like what we have experienced exists here! At least not at a price we can afford...

Hoping we can find an alternative to car culture one of these days...

The Wedding Globe

Hi!!!!

One of the neatest wedding gifts we got was tons of travel suggestions from the guests at our wedding. We had a globe and these tiny little red numbered stickers, and people selected places that would be cool to travel to. Here's a pic of the North America part of the globe (the busiest sticker spot):



Then folks wrote down suggestions about why the place they selected is cool in our little map book:



Here are a few of the most interesting suggestions we got; for the full list, just ask!!!

1. Plum Village, France
I spent 10 days here practicing MINDFULNESS in everything: eating, showering, communicating, etc. and thought you'd like to spend a week or two or three. It's a beautiful area of France and on my way to my room every day, I picked cherries from a tree on the side of the road.
-Paulette Waltz

2. Mendecino, Calif
Fantastic night sky! Laid back atmosphere (maybe the old hippies?)
-Butter

3. Lake Gaston, NC
The Crossing in August, Flat water kayaking with Greg and Mary, watch the sun rise every morning.

4. West Coast of Ireland
- Beautiful Scenery
- Hiking trails
- Friendly people
- Celtic music
- Good beer

5. Santa Fe, NM
It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been! You need to see it. Great food, great art, great views!

8. Key West Florida
and all the Keys in between, beautiful, laid back, check out ALL the keys.
-Peg and Mike

12. Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Beautiful coastal city and great experience. Was and may still be a popular French resort. (Nude bathing popular, Dan!)
-Donna and Frank Quirus

13. Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Take a white rafting ride and go to Yellowstone Park - see the Grand Teton
-Gemma Waltz

15. Fly to Cairns, Australia
Snorkle GBR (Great Barrier Reef), then go to the Atherton Tablelands & stay @ hostel called "On the Wallaby."
Love, Dave and Brette

16. Go trekking through the amazing rockpillars in the landscape of Kapadokya (near Göreme, Turkey).
Visit the underground cities, stroll through canyons, and break open the clay pot in which your dinner is cooked.
-Jerzy

18. Guatemala
Must visit Erick's homeland. Plenty of culture and great food.

21. Aruba!
It's one happy little island - perfect temps and out of the hurricane line!
-Susan Schall

23. Iguacu Falls
Brazil - 1st - No one had a sticker on S. America yet AND 2nd - Nicki says its amazing and I saw the pictures. Beautiful.
-Patty Bylsma

24. Oporto & the Douro Valley (Portugal)
A beautiful view with beautiful people :)
-Jackie and Jerry

29. The Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada
Clear waters, beautiful paddling and hiking! *Sticker placement may not be 100% accurate :) I just put it on Ontario. Other places we were debating on:
Barcelona, Spain
Dominican Republic
Acadia National Park, ME
-Jessy and Frank

Baby Weekend!!!

This weekend we had the distinct pleasure of hanging out with Ellis and Amanda and their awesome baby Mac, and tonight, we also got to meet the Corbett's new baby Sarah (and of course play with some of our favorite kids, Laura and Paul.) Here are some pictures of our baby experiences from the weekend...

Here is Dan and Mac getting to know each other better




Mac and I getting ready to read a book



Goodnight Gorilla, second only to the dog party in Go Dog Go



The Johns family, hard at work



Ellis, Amanda, and Mac - I love the personalities here:



My introduction to baby Sarah!



Just 4 days old



My favorite face that she makes:

The Fair 2010

If you have read this post, you already know that one thing I look forward to every year is volunteering in the Home Arts building at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair. This year I was a bit more bold with my picture-taking, so I have a few to share!

First up, a little insight into a day-in-the-life of a Home Arts Registrar. We sit at long tables covered in brown Kraft paper, with our clipboards and supplies at the ready. As each entrant gets their paperwork in order, they come to us to log each of their entries and affix an identifying tag to their piece(s). I love the tags, and we hand-write each one (note my number in the upper right corner here, that is critical for when the chair people of each department (hand knitting, baked goods, quilting, etc.) inevitably come out and fix something entered in err):



So we fill out the little tag, coding it with the (hopefully) right department, division, and class number, then the runners come and carefully transport each piece to the proper destination. There were loads of runners this year, and they are absolutely adorable. So enthusiastic about their jobs. They hover, hoping that the next item might be theirs to carry back.

Of course we get to see the entries as they come through - here are a few that stood out for me this time around:

Knit veggies



Multi-color knit scarf



Other entries of note (not pictured) were this really cool carved-looking coconut pound cake baked by a Marine in his toaster oven (because his oven broke), an 88" cross stitch of a giraffe and her calf that this gentleman worked on from Labor Day 2002-July 2010, a southwest-style armadillo, and a tiny purple marzipan hippo.

These turtles were my favorite entry from last year:



Finally, no trip to the fair is complete without a visit to the Cheese Barn ("Big Cheese") for a grilled cheese sandwich:



I'm already looking forward to next year :)

Wedding Planning

Since Dan and I became engaged April 30, 2009, we have slowly week-by-week, month-by-month been discussing, sketching, clipping, arguing about, and finalizing all sorts of ideas related to our upcoming wedding. Although there have been a few difficult moments (deciding which day of the week we will get married, trying to find a dress (blech), and wrestling with Kinkos and their ever-broken printing and cutting machines to get our RSVP cards printed), on the whole, we have had a really great time planning this special event together.

This is a picture of the bulletin board in our apartment:



And we have exactly 10 weeks left to figure out the rest of the details. Should be a fun time :)

Pussy, Dan's Bike Gear, and Baby Sara

One of our favorite pastimes at our apartment is hanging out with our landlords' cat, Edina, who Dan affectionately calls "Pussy." Here she is enjoying the view from our front step:



Dan really enjoys biking to work, and the other day I coaxed him into a quick picture of him in his bike gear:



Finally, here is a pic of our friends Jenny and Dave's new baby girl Sara, in the arms of her Aunt Jackie:

Mr. Tinkles, Peaches, and Baby Paul!

This is our Saturday in pictures...

First we drove out to Westminster to visit with Dan's sister Marisa and her husband Jason and his new baby kitten, Bentley (who Dan affectionately named "Mr. Tinkles"). Here is Dan's first embrace with him:



Then we drove to a "pick-your own" farm called Baugher's, and had our first experience picking peaches. I have picked berries before, which is tons of fun, but I can honestly say that no picking experience can compare to peaches. They were SO warm and delicious (of course we had to sneak a few bites) and the fuzz was very soft and seemed so much more alive and edible than the usual fuzz on peaches from the grocery store.

Here is the first peach I picked:



Here is our bounty:



And a close up:



We finished off the day at a housewarming pool party for some of our good friends, Mike and Ashley, who recently bought a place in Eldersburg, MD. We had a ton of fun, and one of the highlights for me was getting a chance to hang out with one of my favorite babies, Paul:

Baby Terrapins

These are the baby terrapins at the Howard County Conservancy where we will get married this October !



We first saw them when they were baby hatchlings, and now they have gotten so big! By the time we get married, they will probably be returned to the wilderness.

Fun in the snow

Practicing new signature...

It used to be that when women got married and changed their names, they would enthusiastically fill pages of paper practicing their new signature. While this is still fun, and I have been doing this, one thing I recently thought of is how the majority of signatures I do are electronic - all day long I "sign" my e-mail messages "Julia Golden."

So today I decided to start practicing for my new "e-mail signature." Just to try it on for size. My fingers are so used to writing Golden, that it will take a while to get the new one together. And I look at my new "signature" and wonder - who is that person? Is that me? It will be soon!

Please indulge me while I practice.

Julia Triman
Julia Triman
Julia Triman

Its getting better every time !

:)

Books!

I always get a lot of e-mails from my Library Science program (the ischool!), but one stuck out for me today: Robert Darnton, a history professor from Harvard, was giving a lecture at the National Gallery of Art on the History of Books and the Future of Digitization. When I got to the lecture hall, it was packed!! The lecture was interesting, and Dr. Darnton told lots of detailed stories about the book pirates in France in the 18th century, and he described the electronic book he's working on now. His main point was that "old books and e-books are not enemies. they are allies." His talk gave me a lot to think about and got me pumped up for more scholarly work - and also convinced me to put his book A Case for Books on hold at the D.C. Library. Overall, a neat experience!

some recent photos of us

here are two recent photos of dan and i:

here we are when we first got engaged on april 30 2009:










and here we are when we arrived back from alaska on june 23, 2009:

Why I love the Fair.

I was talking to Dan tonight about how excited I am that the fair is this week, and I was going on and on about reasons why I love the fair, so I decided to share it in a blog entry.

We started volunteering at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair at a young age- I think I was 9. Lindsey and Devon's Aunt Bea was in charge of the Home Arts department, and we were the gophers. I remember feeling that our job was so important because we got to carry the really delicate and important items from the registration tables to their destinations inside. We also volunteered at least one summer at Joe's Place, the burger joint.

Fast forward a few years and here we are - only now Lindsey is the head honcho (for all intents and purposes) and we are registrars instead of gophers. I look forward to it all year. The people come with their quilts, their baked goods, their crochet, their needlepoint, their cross-stitch (I still don't know how to tell those apart...are they the same thing?), their dolls, their canned goods...the list goes on and on. We sit and faithfully document each item they bring us, then pass it to the gophers who gingerly carry it inside, just like we used to do.

Here are a few of my favorite things about it:

The people who come with two boxes of stuff, then just when you think you're done with them, call out to their spouse: "Ok honey, bring the next boxes!"

The little kids who genuinely enter stuff (not the ones whose moms make them) The hope in their eyes and the things they come up with are SO CUTE.

The dolls people make

The smells (freshly baked pie, fabric smell, other smells of the fair wafting under the tent on the breeze)

The decorated cakes with moving parts

All the personalities (especially the ones who take it VERY SERIOUSLY)

The canned goods people who are very particular

The little tags we put on the items

Seeing everything put together when it's all finished.

Julie and Julia

"A Julia is brave and Junoesque and slightly forbidding; a Julie is a seventies-era cheerleader in pigtails and hot pants."

-Julie Powell, in Julie & Julia

Inauguration Video Clips!

here is a 1 minute video compiled from the excitement we shared on the weekend prior to Inauguration--the quality is pretty fuzzy so that I could upload it onto my blog, but I think you'll get the idea...

teaching

talking to a friend tonight about her experiences as an elementary school teacher made me start to think about teaching. I wouldn't want to teach in the traditional public school setting--more like a Waldorf/Sidwell Friends/experiential/outdoor education/creative dramatics-style setting. Just thinking about the possibilities of teaching if you were creating things to do that inspired the students to want to learn and explore and grow as people is really exciting.

Publishing!

Through about 6 months of working at GU Press, I have come to the conclusion that working as an editorial/publishing assistant is one kind of work I might like to pursue after I graduate from Gallaudet next may. One issue with this (as with many fields at this time) is that it is very competitive and a lot of the Presses and Publishing houses I have researched are very small and unlikely to actively advertise or seek for people to fill positions; if anything, they will be cutting positions, not growing. But there is also opportunity to work as an editor/proofreader freelance or as part of other job duties in a number of different capacities, so I will not give up on it before I even explore the possibilities!

It's just so exciting being a part of the process of making books! I've always loved to read and my passion in life is derived from being a student. Working at the Press is the most "student-like"/"scholarly" job I've ever had~!

So the other night I was doing some research and I came across a few interesting tidbits...recording them here mostly for my own benefit so that I can look back to them later, but who knows..others may be interested in these as well!

The first (and number one on my mind) is a summer publishing immersion/intensive at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC, Canada: Simon Fraser Program
Not only do i LOVE the idea of the program and the schedule and the intense experience and meeting hundreds of other people who have similar interests/curiosity about the publishing world, Vancouver is probably my favorite city in the world! It is like New York but more fresh and clean and outdoorsy. I doubt I will have the money or resources to attend, but it's fun to dream :) (not to mention that I think it would be super cool to go from Alaska to Vancouver before coming home to D.C.)

Second, when I told my boss about that program, she directed my attention to a similar program in Denver: Denver Program The program is twice as long, and also twice as expensive, and it seems there may be less opportunity for financial assistance...I certainly do not plan to take out any more loans, as I'm already nervous about paying back the debt I have accrued as a Masters student.

Third, looking at publishing internships, there is one in India that looks really neat! India Program As you probably know if you are reading this, it is one of my life-long goals to go to India, but I have always felt like I do not want to go as "just a tourist." I think it is important to have a reason behind going, not feel like I am just adding another person to an already crowded country for no good reason.

So these are the directions my mind takes when I have time off from my grad school responsibilities. Who knows what I'll come up with next week??