2014 Virginia - Swannanoa

Swannanoa is an Italian Renaissance Revival villa built in 1912 by millionaire and philanthropist James H. Dooley (1841–1922) above Rockfish Gap on the border of northern Nelson County and Augusta County, Virginia, in the USA. It is partially based on buildings in the Villa Medici, Rome.

Rockfish Gap is the southern end of the Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park and the northern terminus of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

It is located on the crest of the Blue Ridge mountains, overlooking both Shenandoah and Rockfish valleys. It is located on a jurisdictional border, so it is in both Augusta and Nelson counties.^[

(Wikipedia)

Intended to be a "summer place" for Richmond, Virginia, millionaire and philanthropist James H. Dooley and his wife Sally May, it reportedly took over 300 artisans eight years to build the structure, complete with Georgian marble, Tiffany windows, gold plumbing fixtures, and terraced gardens. Built as a token of love from husband to wife, the depth of James and Sally May’s relationship was represented in the 4,000 piece Tiffany stained-glass window and a domed ceiling bearing the likeness of Mrs. Dooley ^[4] Despite the lavish expenditure, it was occupied only for a few years following completion in 1912.^[5]

(Wikipedia)

Major Dooley died in 1924 at the age of 82. He left Swannanoa entirely to his wife, Sally Mae, along with several million dollars. Sally Mae Dooley died in 1926 at the age of 79. She left the estate to Major Dooley's two sisters.

When the property was built it had state-of-the-art fixtures for the time. Electricity and plumbing were installed in the house. It was the first house to have electricity in Nelson Countyand to accomplish this it had its own power plant on the property. There also was a built in elevator. Like Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house 27 miles away, it had a dumbwaiterto bring food up from the basement kitchen to the dining room on the first floor.

This marvelous mantle piece greets guests  as they  enter the house.

The rugs in the front of the house display this design.

There are not a lot of stained glass windows in the house but this one grabs your attention as you first enter. I later learned the figure in the glass is James Dooley's wife  -  Sally May.

Medi stands at the back of the house,  already impressed by her tour of the residence.

I loved the geometric shape the roof tiles displayed.

Here again, the pattern caught my eye.

T
There was  a lot of attention paid to beauty in this enclosed garden path.

The shadows played on the pillars.

The walkway even had  a picture of nature at the end.

This staircase like a good part of the house shows the disrepair that came to the mansion.

Medi climbed up to get a better view of the gardens and trees surrounding the house.

It was worth the climb. Can you see the observation tower behind her?

A splash of Fall .

Utah - The National Parks

We had the trip of a lifetime traveling to national parks in Utah and discovering the beauty of the West and wonders in the USA.

This is the arch rock you see in many brochures - " Delicate Arch".  It will always amaze me how the wind and rain could sculpt such magnificent creations of many different shapes and sizes out of the cliffs.

To get to the Donut Arch, we climbed straight up for two hours and then walked the last 500 yards along a ridge (on the right) that had no barrier - a very long way down.

Nature created these rocks.

For variation, nature created this scene .

And just for good old fun, nature created a hole through the center of the mountain.

My favorite park was Bryce Canyon. The formation of the rocks were unbelievable .Some parts looked like a medieval castle and some parts looked like mosques, like this one.

We went to Bryce twice, once in the afternoon and then the following morning because it was so beautiful .  This was in the afternoon.

This was in the morning.

The Grand Canyon was our last stop on our national parks trip. Truly magnificent.

The park authorities here also made a point to keep the area "natural" : very few railings which meant a very long way down if you fell.

We traveled to the parks with our dear friends Paul and Gertrud Carpenter. They live in Utah and love showing the Utah National parks to their friends.

One last look.

Our Alaska Cruise

The Alaska Cruise

Our cruise to Alaska,  aboard the Amsterdam, was magnificent. We had great accommodations, excellent food and best of all calm seas.  Actually, "best of all" was going with our friends Sara and Doug Sheldon who we met in Amman Jordan where I worked for State and Doug worked for US AID. Our last trip together was in 1984 when we went to Egypt and traveled to the Pyramids.

We embarked on Sunday July 20 at 4 pm and disembarked Sunday July 27 at 8 AM. There were 1450 passengers and 650 staff and crew. It seemed like the right proportion.

Medi just arrived on board. She thinks the Holland American Line is the best.

A four course meal was served every night. The choices each night  sometimes made final selection difficult.

Doug and Sara Sheldon. Doug met Sara when he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia.

As we reached the glacier area,it suddenly got very very cold. Don't we look it?

The snow covered mountains seen from the boat.

First sight of the glacier.

The passage inwards

At the Glacier

Waterfall by the glacier

Today the real gold mined is from selling artifacts and tours to the tourists.

Given the tourist season is 5 months, the dark winter days last six months , it is not hard to believe that bars and liquor stores are popular. One town was said to have 31 bars and 18 churches.

The funny thing is this group had not even entered the bar yet.

Like all the towns we went to, Juneau has seen better times.  Juneau,the state capital, has a population of 31,000. The other towns we went to Sitka and Ketchikan have populations of 8,000 each. The next largest town is Wasilla where Sarah Palin started her political career as mayor.

Downtown Juneau

Medi charms the bear.

The Japanese restaurant charms Medi

Sitka was the second place we visited. It was like Juneau but smaller. The tour there focused more on the native Indian culture, its dances and its totem poles.

The group wanted to adopt Medi into their tribe but she told them her ship was about to sail.

This Russian Orthodox church is a reminder of the Russian involvement in Alaska

 The cafe was started in 1925 by a Japanese couple who arrived from New York.

One way to get through the long, long dark winter months.

This statue called the Pioneer stands in front of the local government building. Most of the 70,000 gold miners who headed for the gold fields did not make it. Saddest of all was the fate of the 35,000 miners who hauled 1,000 pounds of supplies up a 35 degree mountain pass only to find upon arrival all the land been staked out by the very first miners.

This is totem pole park. We learned the totem pole was carved mainly to record tribal history or tribal values. They were never meant to be "worshipped"  There were two other purposes: one was to honor someone and the other was to shame someone. We saw one honoring Lincoln and the crew of the USS Lincoln which helped bring peace to the area. We saw another shaming Secretary of State Seward who was feasted by the local tribe for five days of non stop eating and drinking. Before he could reciprocate, as local custom demanded, Seward was called away.

The "Inside Passage" made our trip smooth as can be.

How beautiful ! Our last stop was in Victoria , British Colombia  in the beautiful Butchart  Gardens which sees a million visitors a year. . We did not get off the boat until 7 30PM so there was not much light. Medi had always wanted to visit the gardens  because her mother had visited the gardens many years before and said it was one of the prettiest places she had ever been to.


Here is a short précis on Alaska

Alaska is a U.S. state situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent. Bordering the state to the east is Yukon, a Canadian territory, and the Canadian province of British Columbia, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and thePacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia  further west across the Bering Strait. Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area, the 4th least populous and the least densely populated of the 50 United States. Approximately half of Alaska's 731,449 residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. Alaska's economy is dominated by the oil, natural gas, and fishing industries, resources which it has in abundance.Tourism is also a significant part of the economy.

Although it had been occupied for thousands of years by indigenous peoples, from the 18th century onward, European powers considered the territory of Alaska ripe for exploitation. The United States purchased Alaska from Russia on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million ($121 million adjusted for inflation) at approximately two cents per acre . The area went through several administrative changes before becoming organized as a territory on May 11, 1912. It was admitted as the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959.^[6]

The name "Alaska" (Аляска) had been introduced in the Russian colonial period, when it was used to refer to the peninsula. It was derived from an Aleut idiom, which figuratively refers to the mainland of Alaska. Literally, it means object to which the action of the sea is directed. It is also known as Alyeska, the "great land", an Aleut word derived from the same root.

You can learn more about Alaska on www.Wikipedia.com