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Neither Jeff nor I consider ourselves public dancers. We've never been into the nightclub dancing scene. At friends' weddings, we'd rather sit and chat with people rather than go out on the dance floor. It depends on the crowd, though.
I dance in my office in private sometimes. I know I'm not a good dancer; I'm awkward and chaotic BUT I do find it liberating to sometimes just crank up my favourite privateofficedance tunes and do my flailchaoticdance. I also love to draw people dancing; it's one reason I was so tickled to illustrate the RUBY ROSE picture books written by Rob Sanders. The first one, RUBY ROSE, OFF TO SCHOOL SHE GOES, comes out from HarperCollins Children's on June 21st, 2016!
Anyway, Jeff and I had a wonderful time this past weekend in Chattanooga, TN visiting friends, and during an evening stroll on the way to Clumpies Ice Cream, Jeff stopped me and pointed out the dance steps on the sidewalk and grabbed my hand.
"Come on," he said. "Let's try it!" I was floored. Jeff, WANTING to dance? In PUBLIC?
And a little voice inside my head yelled Go for it, girl!
So there we were, me and my man, dancing the waltz on Frazier Avenue that night beneath the stars in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And I remember thinking: Life could not be finer than this.
Apologies for slacking off in my trip report. I wanted the writing of this report to be something I could linger over and enjoy, not dash off like a hurried shopping list, but life has been getting in the way. Over the years of writing trip reports in my blogs, I've come to realize that these trip reports are as much about helping me remember events and emotions as it is about sharing with others.
Today I am going to talk about our visit to the Charles M. Schulz Museum & Research Center in Santa Clara. Our original plans had not included the visit to this place, and I'm grateful to Jeff for noticing it in a tourist brochure after we had already started the trip.
I have always been a fan of the Peanuts comic by Charles Shultz. It was one of the first comics that I ever read as a child, and I was always a big fan of the animated Charlie Brown cartoons on television as well.
When we first arrived, Jeff and I wondered why the museum signage was so closely associated with the skating rink next door. Why not keep them separate, to be less confusing for tourists? Later in the museum, we discovered Schulz (or "Sparky," as he was nicknamed by friends) loved ice sports.
And DUH, I should have remembered all of the hockey and figure skating references in his comics! Anyway, it turns out that Schulz owned the Redwood Empire Ice Arena; the arena opened in 1969 with a gala event that started in 1968 Olympic gold medalist Peggy Fleming as well as the Vince Guaraldi trio -- I wish I could have been there!!
Anyway, the museum was amazing. I had figured it would just be a small exhibit aimed at children, but there were many displays and a time of information geared toward adults. Or more specifically, grown-ups who are kids at heart as well as long time Peanuts fans.
One of my favorite exhibits was this wall:
Sure, it may not look like much in this photo, but scroll down:
Keep going:
Pretty cool, huh?
This mural was designed by Yoshiteru Otani and is composed of 3588 ceramic tiles, or about 10 years' worth of daily strips.
There were displays of Sparky's early sketches:
As an artist, I was inspired. Charles Schultz clearly sketched from real life a ton, and not in his Peanuts cartoon style.
Another surprising discovery: some of his strips were much larger in real life than I expected, and made it possible for me to peer more closely at Schulz's wonderful line work. MUCH looser and freeform than they appear in the comparatively tiny strips that appeared in newspapers.
Here is a nursery wall that Charles Schultz painted for his daughter Meredith very early on, in oil paints:
After the Schulz family sold their home in 1952, subsequent owners painted over the wall at least different times. Then in 1979, owner Polly Travnicek uncovered the original painting using cotton balls and sanding liquid.The wall was donated to the museum in 2001.
Another of my favorite exhibits was the re-creation of Schultz's studio:
After we left the museum, Jeff and I headed over to The Warm Puppy Café, where Charles Schulz used to eat regularly:
Schulz died in 2000, but the Café keeps his table near the window reserved:
For more information about the Charles M. Schulz Museum, see:
Ten years ago, Jeff and I were in Tokyo, Japan, staying with our friend Alison. We were supposed to fly home on September 11th.
Our friend had happened to call her company's New York office 15 minutes after a plane hit the first Tower. We tuned into the English-speaking news channel just in time to watch the second plane crash as it was filmed live by CNN.
The three of us sat in surreal shock, staring at the tv screen. It didn't feel real at first, especially hearing about this in a foreign country.
Our Air Canada flight home was cancelled when the airline (along with other airlines) suspended all operations. Here's what I posted in Blatherings while Jeff & I were trying to find a way home. Apologies for the broken images; they were victims of one of my Wordpress hacker attacks (& one of the many reasons I switched away from Wordpress to Squarespace).
Just before 9/11, I recall feeling wistful that our wonderful trip had to end. The devastating events of 9/11 and knowing we couldn't go home immediately changed the way we felt. We wanted to be home.
Jeff and I sought out cybercafes (like the one above, which was ironically called Canada Cafe) so we could email family and close friends. We visited a makeshift memorial site in Tokyo:
and signed a condolence book:
Through Nissin Travel, my dad managed to get another flight for us, five days after the original was scheduled. We arrived at the airport many hours earlier than our flight was to leave and discovered that other travellers were also desperate to get home:
Ten years later, I still remember the horror, shock and the disbelief. I remember aching for those who had lost loved ones. I remember being so very grateful for what I have.
My deepest sympathies for those who suffered loss on that day.
Part 3 of my trip report. Other parts posted so far: Part 1 | Part 2
What does a geeknerd couple do for fun on their anniversary trip? Go to Petaluma to visit the TWiT studios, of course!
Jeff's been a longtime fan of Leo Laporte and the TWiT network, and he introduced me to these great tech podcasts.
Leo and his team recently moved to a new location, and the celebratory open house coincided with our trip, yay!
Everyone was super-friendly and welcoming, and we wandered around watching Leo's live podcasts being recorded as well as checking out the new digs.
Here's the chat room moderator crew:
And fun paraphernalia:
Even Robert Scoble made an appearance (the fellow in the glasses below):
I also got to introduce myself to Iyaz Akhtar, the co-host of Tech News Today. Iyaz was in my very first Google+ Hangout (he played guitar!) but I didn't recognize him then.
And we met a very nice / fellow geeknerdy couple, who sat beside us in the studio audience:
If you're at all tech-minded, you should definitely check out TwiT.tv. Leo and others do a ton of tech-related shows, including iPad Today, this WEEK in TECH, MacBreak Weekly, All About Android, Windows Weekly, The Tech Guy, Security Now and This Week In Google.
Next up: Gaige House & the most amazing hotel room bathtub
Just before leaving San Francisco, Jeff and I checked out the Painted Ladies near Alamo Square. I had never heard of this term, but apparently they refer to Victorian and Edwardian houses or buildings painted in three or more colours. The ones in the photo above are part of what is also known as "Postcard Row," and are one of San Francisco's tourist attractions, apparently.
Another Alamo Square attraction: The Shoe Garden, which was created by an SF Recreation & Park Department gardener who began collecting discarded shoes and placing them around his seedlings to protect them from off-leash dogs. Eventually he planted flowering bulbs in the shoes, and also started receiving donations of footwear.
Next, we headed toward Lombard Street to check out its famous tight hairpin turns, but it was WAY crowded with like-minded tourists so we decided to opt out. But wow, lots of hilly and steep roads in San Francisco! I'd hate to be learning how to drive standard in this area. :-)
Thursday, May 12, 2016 at 9:00AM 
