Review: The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

TheWatchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley 

Release Date: July 2015 

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA 

Type: Adult Fiction 

Pages: 318 

Summary: 1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast that destroys Scotland Yard. At last, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori, a kind, lonely immigrant from Japan. Although Mori seems harmless, a chain of unexplainable events soon suggests he must be hiding something. When Grace Carrow, an Oxford physicist, unwittingly interferes, Thaniel is torn between opposing loyalties.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is a sweeping, atmospheric narrative that takes the reader on an unexpected journey through Victorian London, Japan as its civil war crumbles long-standing traditions, and beyond. Blending historical events with dazzling flights of fancy, it opens doors to a strange and magical past.

My Review:

The summary above is vague because to tell the reader what makes this book special is a mild spoiler. That being said, be warned as I don't want to be vague when discussing how great this book is, so mild spoilers ahead.

This is one of those books that I felt a type of pressure to read because I just kept seeing it. At work, at the store, and online! I follow a few bookstagrammers on Instagram and this book kept popping up! I have a collection of photos saved to my account of book recommendations and when I went through this book was saved 3 different times. I'm telling you it was fate when I finally found it at the library!

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is set in Victorian London mostly and a few chapters in Japan. I love this time period and I love clockwork so right away I'm invested. The main characters are primarily Thaniel and Mori, both of whom I absolutely adore. Thaniel is a low key bloke just trying to do what's right and is intriguing in his manner of being. He works for the government as a telegraph clerk and suddenly one day his life is drastically altered because of a watch. A clock that Mori made.

Then there's Mori himself. (Here comes those minor spoilers!) Mori is a little bit magic. This book blends contemporary Victorian with fantasy seamlessly and it is beautiful. Mori can remember what's about to happen. He is sort of clairvoyant as he can see the moment one decides to do something and the possibilities that action opens up. This blew my mind. I've been thinking about it for days. Once his abilities are explained further thinking about it sent me down the rabbit hole. If one could see the various outcomes of what one only intends to do it must become maddeningly endless. And then there is Mori's work. He is the watchmaker on Filigree Street after all. His clockwork is years beyond its time and frankly even our time. Can you imagine a clockwork octopus set to random gears so it appears to think on its own? And moves like it's real?! I'm trying to and it doesn't seem logical without magic. Imagine having a pet octopus or bird that is clockwork? I wish that clockwork would make a come back. This book made me want to take apart my mom's cuckoo clock to see how it works (she would murder me dead twice over). Katsu, by the way, is the octopus and he's a scene stealer. I loved him so much.

The plot of The Watchman of Filigree Street is just as intriguing as its characters are. It's part fantasy, part thriller with some mystery and drama thrown in. There's bombs and fake marriages and domestic life and politics all rolled into one package. There was a bit about three quarters of the way in though where I wasn't sure if anything was actually happening. The plot slowed and I didn't really see how it could all wrap up together and then WHOA it started to go so fast that I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Not a bad fast, just a fast paced mystery unraveling and you're trying to keep up with the revelations. You know what I mean?

There is nothing about this book that I would change. Natasha Pulley is a fantastic author who we are very lucky to have. I read on Goodreads that she is writing a sequel and I dearly hope that it's true because I am itching to read more about Thaniel and Mori. I can see this being an interesting series for many more books to come.

~Laura!

My Favorite Stories to Read in October!

October is one of my favorite months because it gives me an excuse to read scary stories. I decided to make a list of stories that have scared me as well as entertained me in the past. 

Jade Green by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

 Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake 

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

 The Mediator series by Meg Cabot

 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving 

Past Midnight series by Mara Purnhagen

 The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs 

The Scary Stories Treasury by Alvin Schwartz 

Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe 

And finally read some of the ghost stories of your local area, your state, or even your country! 

~Laura!

Launch of Wanderlust Fuel!

wan·der·lust: noun, a strong desire to travel. 

With this post I am launching a new series here on Bookworm Extraordinaire called Wanderlust Fuel! The idea behind it is to round up all the things, be it book or movie or something else, that have inspired me to visit the places that they feature. For example, Wanderlust Fuel will list things such as how The Lord of the Rings has inspired me to plan a future trip to New Zealand and how Harry Potter has inspired my mighty need to go to the UK.

These posts will vary. Some may detail why one particular book inspired me to go to a single city, or how a variety of things set me on a journey across a particular country! Some places like London or New York City may end up having multiple posts because there have been so many things that have fueled my need to visit them.

I encourage my readers to join me in this series! Feel free to comment below each post with the things that made you want to visit the featured city or country, or even suggest things that can fuel my wanderlust to other places!

I’m really excited to begin Wanderlust Fuel and I hope you enjoy this new series!

~Laura!

Thoughts From Places: My First Solo Trip to NYC

My First Solo Trip to NYC

 A little bit of spring in the concrete jungle.

 A little over a month ago I found myself getting onto a Megabus bound for New York City at 3 in the morning by myself. I had never done anything like this before. I had never gone anywhere by myself and people kept asking me: aren't you scared? Simply, the answer is no. To be honest, nothing had ever felt so right. I needed to get away from my life in Buffalo, even if it was only for a little while. I needed to prove to myself that I could do something, anything, on my own. I needed to do something to forget; to forget my anxiety, my sadness, my recent past, and my unknown future. And throughout my whole trip, which was a little under 48 hours in total, I was only afraid or anxious once. And that was for a brief moment on the way there when I had a horrible vision of the bus that was currently speeding me forward on a dark highway getting into a crash. However, I very quickly pushed that aside and moved on. For I was a girl on a mission. Well, actually, three missions of sorts.

Mission One: see Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night.

            To do this I had to make my way to 53^rd Street. Before I left, I mapped out every route I had to take. Almost obsessively so in that I wrote down which way to turn at corners and things like that. So I knew that when the Megabus dropped me off I also knew that there was a subway station just down the block and that if I got on the 1 train I would be going in the right direction and that I was to get off at 50^th, then walk the rest of the way. Except that when I went down into the station there were five cops and one of them politely said, “Sorry, Miss, there aren’t any trains today,” which probably should have alarmed me. Normally, I would have panicked over why there were cops to begin with, was something going on, what was I supposed to do now that they blocked the only option I had researched and how was I going to get to the Modern Museum of Art now? Here I was in a huge city all by myself with a carefully planned out map and not even three minutes into my journey some cop had thrown a wrench in my plan. But instead of panicking, I just went back up to street level, made my way to 5^th, and just got on a different train. Even a month later I am still startled by how unalarmed I was. I had come a long way.

            Needless to say, I got to the Museum of Modern Art in one piece. I had decided that instead of just aimlessly wandering around the huge museum I would write down which galleries the paintings I wanted to see were in. I love the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists and all their works were on the fifth floor. First, I found Monet’s works which had an entire gallery to themselves. I was astounded to see how LARGE his Water Lilies 1914-26 was. It took up an entire wall of the gallery! And while it was very impressive and beautiful it wasn’t what I came to see. So after wandering around the fifth floor and still hadn’t stumbled upon even one Van Gogh painting I asked a passing guard where to go. I was on the wrong side of the floor.

I went where the guard pointed and found Van Gogh’s Portrait of Joseph Roulin and The Olive Trees. I love Vincent Van Gogh more than any other artist, living or dead. I know that most people say that because he is the only artist they know so saying your favorite artist is Van Gogh has become very cliché. And yet I don’t care. I love Van Gogh for so many reasons. I love his use of color and how thick his paint always was. I love how he saw the world differently and how that made him incredibly lonely. I love that he taught himself how to paint and his relationship with his art dealer brother, Theo. I also know that most people who say that Van Gogh is their favorite only know about him because he cut off his ear because he was “crazy” and that makes me incredibly sad. And with all of that in mind I took in those two paintings and felt an almost overwhelming sense of pride in the fact that Van Gogh was being honored at museums around the world.

Me and Starry Night

I stood and took in those paintings for about 5 minutes, but I knew that the time had come to see the painting I had been dreaming about since the 5^th grade. I turned and walked a few paces to my right and there it was: Starry Night. If saying that Van Gogh is your favorite artist is cliché saying that Starry Night is your favorite painting of his is doubly so, but once again I don’t care. Starry Night has been my favorite painting since my 5^th grade art teacher asked us to draw our own version of it. Ever since that day I have been obsessed with both the painting and the man who seemingly poured his soul into it. And yet I knew that Van Gogh really didn’t even care for this painting, he would probably be astounded and confused as to why it is his most famous work now. I stood there looking at this painting that I had admired for 13 or so years and I cried. I couldn’t believe that I was finally there but while I stood there all I could think about was how I couldn’t believe that I was close enough to finally confirm my suspicion that the oil paint was really, just absurdly thick. I spent 20 minutes near the painting. I think the guards were convinced I was actually casing the joint, Heist Society style. I asked a guy around my age to take a photo of me in front of it, then returned the favor for him. I took zoomed in photos of the stars and the church, the hills and the moon, and I took several shots of other people just looking at the painting. After I tore myself away from Van Gogh I just wandered around for a few minutes, found a quiet place to sit and wrote most of what you just read above.

Mission Two: see Patience and Fortitude, the NYCPL's stone lion ambassadors.

Me and Patience

            Next I walked down 5^th Ave to 42^nd Street to the Main Branch of the New York Public Library, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. The first time I went to New York, 5 years ago with my High School’s Italian Club (which you can read about here) we drove past the library and I would have killed for them to stop the bus and let me out to see those infamous marble Lions up close. I vowed then that the next time I went to the City nothing would stop me from seeing them and from going inside the building they had guarded for so many years. And, oh! The treasures inside that building! Once I got there I took photos in front of Patience and Fortitude.

 I went in and wandered around until I found the Children’s section. There I saw huge Lego versions of the lions and more importantly Winnie the Pooh. NYPL has in their collection the actual stuffed toys of Pooh, Piglet, Kanga, Eeyore, and Tigger that the real Christopher Robin played with that inspired A.A. Milne to write his classic tales. As I looked at these love worn toys, I thought about how society’s view of those characters have changed, especially, when it came to Piglet. E.H. Shepard’s illustrations basically captured the essence of the other characters, but he changed the way Piglet was seen. Why? Because the real Piglet toy was terrifying! And while I am grateful he changed his look it also made me sad that he was changed due to looks. I realize that these thoughts are probably too in depth to be made about stuffed animals, but I kept coming back to that idea of society’s ideals and how they even extended to a children’s book character.

Christopher Robin's Toys

After seeing Pooh and his gang of stuffed buddies I decided to just wander around. The building was huge and absolutely astoundingly majestic, nothing like the Central Library back home with its purposefully nondescript design. The fountains at the NYPL’s were even majestic in that they were lion’s heads! The famous Rose Reading Room was closed for renovation and it being Sunday many of the other rooms were closed as well, but that did not stop me from getting lost! However, while I wandered I noticed something: the only books I had seen up to that point where the books in children’s section that could be checked out. Where were the books? This was a public library for Heaven’s sake and not a single adult book to be found! I was just about to pull out my map to see if there was some kind of special room that I had missed,

A Gutenberg Bible

when out of the corner of my eye I saw a rather large book in a glass case. I went over and gasped when I realized what I had stumbled upon. I was standing there gazing at a Gutenberg Bible. Then I laughed. I found a freakin’ copy of the first book to be printed via the press, the book that changed the course of book history, and yet I couldn’t find the mystery novels. The irony was overwhelming. I never did find any other books, either. I heard another girl ask a guard where the books where and he seemed genuinely confused by her question! Like why would there be books in a library?! He sent her to room four hundred something and I looked it up on my map and it seemed like a very tiny closet of some sort. I decided not to follow her because it all seemed a bit sketchy. After the Bible I didn’t think I would find anything to top it so I left that amazing building with all its treasure and caught the next bus to my hotel.

As for Mission Three? The mission that started this whole affair to begin with? Well, you'll have to read the next blog post to find out.

(It should be posted on BWE tomorrow and will be linked here as soon as it is available.)

~Laura!

Thoughts From Places: Baltimore, Part Two (2013)

My Trip to Baltimore!

The view of the Aquarium and the WTC

After the taxi brought us back from Fort McHenry we were walking around the Inner Harbor. There we saw this huge piece of seemingly scrap metal on display in front of a museum. It was twisted and burnt, just before I walked up to the sign I realized what building I was in front of: Baltimore’s World Trade Center. So that piece of metal in front of it was a piece of New York’s WTC, a bit that survived the 9/11 attack. I thought it was so strange to see it outside in the elements in the middle of Baltimore’s harbor instead of in a museum (like the other bits I had seen at the American History Smithsonian).

The licorice Harry and I

Next we went to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum, which was amazing. There was so much to see. The unbelievable sights began before we walked in the door. The museum is covered in a 2 story serpent, there’s a 10,000 lbs. granite ball balanced on 1/8 inches of water and a mini cooper covered in over a million Swarovski crystals. We saw exhibits on the royal jewels, an enormous penny made of pennies, and a phoenix made of old cds and dvds. There was a portrait of Heath Ledger as the Joker comprised completely of different colored “such a shame” phrases, a junk mail portrait, a clockwork fish, a t-rex made of pop-tart foil, and a brick from the St. Valentine’s massacre wall. We walked a tightrope a foot from the ground (I got about 25% across), through a kaleidoscope hallway and a room full of famous buildings made of toothpicks.

Matchstick Hogwarts and the Hagrid Shawl

But the very best things were about Harry Potter. They had an optical illusion knitted shawl with Rubeus Hagrid, look at it from the front and you will see nothing, but from the side the Keeper of the Keys smiles back. There was a portrait of young Harry Potter made of licorice. But the most impressive of the entire museum and worth the $18 admission price alone was the to scale “miniature” matchstick marvel by Patrick Acton: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry made of over 500,000 matchsticks. It was immaculate. It had literally everything, the towers, the windows, the Great Hall, the Boathouse. I took a picture of every single inch of the thing. It was massive and perfect. The attention to detail still astounds me a year later. I marvel at the extent people will use their talents for things they are passionate about.

For me the main point of this trip was to see as much of Edgar Allan Poe as possible. While planning it was also pointed out to me that there was a pub devoted to James Joyce too. I like to think of these two things as what got me started as a Literary Tourist and as such each of these adventures will have their own blog posts! (They should be posted on BWE in November and will be linked here and here as soon as it is available.)

The stubborn eel and in the upper right corner you can
see it's feeder desperately trying to catch him

On the third day of our trip we went to the National Aquarium. That place was a labyrinth of wildlife. I can’t even say of fish because they had a rainforest exhibit filled with birds, reptiles and even a monkey or two. The building itself is amazing. They had so many different sections that we actually missed the Australian bit (which still saddens me because I didn’t get to see a puffin). Connecting floors and areas they had conveyor belts like in the cartoon the Jetsons, except these didn’t just go horizontal across the floor but slanted up like flat escalators. They had a whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling in between the floors and walkways with windows to see the harbor. If you adore turtles like I do then this was the place for you they had several different kinds. 

A dolphin looking smug because
he just did a pose for a fish

If jellyfish are more your thing look no further they have a room full. If you are a shark fanatic they had an entire multi-story room full of them for you. In that tank they also had a mischievous eel that kept swimming away from the diver trying to feed it from the bucket. That eel wanted nothing to do with food, he was more interested in her chasing him, and he put on quite the show. They also have a dolphin show. We didn’t go to the show but caught a bit of the handlers playing with the dolphins while also trying to teach them tricks (honestly, the dolphins were more interested in playing which was fun to watch).

That small orange and green figure is me.

After we left the Aquarium after a few hours wandering around happily watching fish, we walked down the road a bit to the Star-Spangled Banner house, the home of Mary Young Pickersgill, the woman whose gigantic flag inspired Key to write our anthem at Fort McHenry. The house was cool, but self guided with cellphone calls so it wasn’t all that interesting. I should have did more research. If I had known more about her I might have been more interested in her home. They did have a scale façade of the flag though covering the stairs of the information center next door. That thing was insanely, mind bogglingly big.

Me inside the steampunk B&N

Anne loves visiting the Hard Rock Cafes wherever she travels so we checked out the Baltimore one and as I went to the restroom I saw Chris Daughtry's pants and Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz’s bass which was so cool and unexpected that I had to take a picture with it.

The last thing we did on our trip was visit the Barnes and Noble near the Hard Rock. My B&N in our mall is pathetic compared to that thing. It is housed in a converted power plant and the escalators were clear so the gears inside were visible giving it a very steampunk feel. It was so cool that it had two floors and an aquarium in the Starbucks. I would have never left, given the chance.

I loved Baltimore and would love to visit the city again. It gave me a wanderlust that I cannot seem to satisfy. 

To read more of the first half of my Baltimore Adventure, click here!

~Laura!

Thoughts From Places: Baltimore, Part One (2013)

My Trip to Baltimore!

Baltimore Skyline seen from our water taxi

In May 2011 and 2012 my friend Anne and I travelled to Rochester to go to the Teen Book Festival (see pictures here) but in 2013 we weren’t able to go because of school. We still wanted to go somewhere to celebrate being done with our junior year of college. After a while of deliberation we chose Baltimore. We planned and planned. It was the first trip I had ever taken without my parents or a school group and I was beyond excited.

The dots of Northumberland in case you
thought I was kidding

On the several hour drive to Baltimore, Anne and I amused ourselves by singing loudly to Disney songs, finding silly road and town names, and counting how many different state/foreign licenses plates we could find (about 25 including Guam, Quebec and Ontario).  While still in New York we passed windmills, hills, so many trees and a sign advertising a sea serpent (which we will visit one day I hope). When we crossed into Pennsylvania though Jane, our GPS couldn’t find us. I learned then that tom toms hate the hills of PA and just kept telling us to turn around as soon as possible. It was then that I should have realized that Pennsylvania was strange place. We passed signs that said “beware aggressive drivers” and one with an Amish horse and buggy crossing and low and behold I looked to my right where there was an actual horse drawn carriage with an Amish man at its wheel. We passed through a town called Northumberland where they take tailgating so seriously that they painted giant white dots on the street with signs demanding that each car is two dots apart. And it seemed like the state went on forever. It was between us and our adventure. It was almost as if it knew that so it S T R E T C H E D to make sure we would seemingly never reach Maryland.

Baltimore's train

We finally did reach Maryland and our hotel at about 3:13 pm. Originally, we hadn’t planned doing anything that day but since we arrived earlier than expected we used the rest of that day to go on a custom tour of Poe’s Baltimore. Driving through Baltimore was kind of insane. I think the whole city is made of “Left Turns Only.” It took forever to get anywhere because one wrong turn meant a half hour or more trying to make our way back through the sea of left turns when one RIGHT turn would have solved our problem. It was also weird to see their train that goes parallel with traffic.

For me the main point of this trip was to see as much of Edgar Allan Poe as possible. While planning it was also pointed out to me that there was a pub devoted to James Joyce too. I like to think of these two things as what got me started as a Literary Tourist and as such each of these adventures will have their own blog posts! (They should be posted on BWE in November and will be linked here as soon as it is available.)

Fell's Point as seen from the water taxi

For dinner that first night we tried to find the James Joyce Pub and after that failed we ended up at this place called Potbelly’s Sandwich Works. They were only open for another half hour or so but that was enough time to eat. They had a “Buffalo” chicken sandwich with “real” Frank’s hot sauce and blue cheese so being from Buffalo I decided to get that; a little piece of home in Baltimore. I found it hilarious that the advertisement for the sandwich had the phrase “real Frank’s hot sauce” duh what other sauce would you use? When I ordered it the girl behind the counter said she had tried it once and said that “it actually wasn’t good at all.” She was floored when I told her that I was from Buffalo which is why I wanted to try it. She went on to apologize and ask if we really put blue cheese on our sandwiches, which to my knowledge no one here actually does but we do dip our wings in blue cheese so it makes sense that if a shop is trying to recreate the famous Buffalo dish in sandwich form that they would, I just told her yeah though. I’m proud of being weird (the sandwich was great by the way).

Fell's Point sign

According to the original plan for the second day we were going to go to the zoo, but the night before we axed that idea because they didn't have any animals that we don't in Buffalo and decided to go to Fort McHenry instead. This was mainly because we felt it was imperative to make use of Baltimore’s water taxi system. We woke up early the next day and headed to the free continental breakfast in our pajamas, we were the only ones in them though. Oops.

We got to the Aquarium’s water taxi stop on the harbor at about 10am and rode to Historic Fell’s Point. We were only able to go for 15 minutes in between taxis but it was worth it. The shops were like row houses and the signs were vintage, so it was if we had stepped back in time. The roads were still uneven cobblestones as well (so of course I got my foot caught in between some) which lead to the authenticity of the whole place. I was disappointed that we could only stay for those 15 minutes I could have spent the whole day there. I was most upset that we couldn't go find the "The Horse You Came In On" Saloon which was the last place Edgar Allan Poe had been seen drinking before his death. I'll just have to go back one day.

Hobbit Hole like shelter!

Next we rode to Fort McHenry, the famous fort where during the War of 1812 Francis Scott Key wrote the US’s National Anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner. When we went there was just a normal flag flying which was okay because the fort itself was amazing. It was so large. There were these huge cannons everywhere and shelters that looked for all the world like hobbit holes. Anne and I went into a bomb shelter and a storage area. Everything seemed to be on a massive scale there. It was also shaped like a giant star and the view of the harborside factories was pretty cool. I wish I had studied up on more of the history though so I could really understand the historic significance of the place other than the anthem.  

That little purple dot is me! That cannon was HUGE.

Honestly though the whole time there I really just wanted my dad to be there. He would have had something to say about every single bit of it. He would have been giving a running history of everything. To honor my dad being at home and not with me I stuck my head in a cannon because that’s what he does every single time he sees one.

Read part two of my adventure in Baltimore here!

~Laura!

Thoughts From Places Spotlight: Mount Vernon, VA (2010)

My Trip to Mount Vernon!

Mount Vernon

I don’t remember when or why we decided to go to Mount Vernon, home to our first President George Washington, but I’m glad we did (and not just because it was in National Treasure 2).

The Statues of the Washingtons and grandkids.

When you first go into the grounds of Mount Vernon there is this beautiful archway with what I’m assuming was probably a guard house or something of that nature. Above this arch is a painting of the mansion. I stood there looking at the painting and wondering how much the actual mansion today would look like the bright portrait. To my delight when the mansion came into view I realized that the painting could have been completed the day before for that was how close the actual physical house looked still to this day.

A staircase on the grounds.

Before we went into the mansion we went into the information center. Here they had life size statues of George (age 53), Martha (54), and their grandkids “Washy” (4), and Nelly (6). I don’t know why, but I adored those statues, they were very domesticated. And then there was this practically to scale doll house version of Mount Vernon. That thing was amazing and it MOVED. When we first went over there we circled the (huge) doll house and saw the house’s outside walls and then the back wall just came DOWN. It showed the perfect to scale miniature of the house we were about to see. My mom loves doll houses, and my grandma used to make them so this was an unexpected delight for my mom and we stayed there for a while looking at it. I actually remember the doll house more than the actual mansion. It was worth going there just for that doll house.

One of the paths on the grounds

We then went on the tour of the actual mansion then. We couldn’t take any photos inside though and I think that’s why I don’t remember much of the tour or anything. I am very visual when it comes to trips. When I go on a tour I tend to remember the story of the thing if I take a picture of it while it’s being explained but because I was prohibited from doing so almost everything has left my head. I do remember that the rooms were very brightly painted, that they were quite small for a mansion so big and that the beds were tiny because people were smaller then.

A breezeway connecting the new
 and old parts of the mansion.

I do remember a lot of the grounds though because not only was I allowed to take pictures, they were also extraordinary. Everything was very symmetrical, planned out, and just absolutely astounding. The landscaping was very ordered. According to one of the signs Washington took the symmetrical organization of English gardens and applied it to the America’s natural wilderness. He really liked designs to be balanced and I particularly appreciated this because so do it. But it’s not all straight either there are winding, curving paths that guide visitors to these ordered places (and of course they are balanced as well). We didn’t see all the grounds though because there are like 8,000 acres or something like that. To do Mount Vernon properly one must take a full day or maybe even two. I mean, this place even has its own forest!

The Lower Garden

The top of the tomb.

We did what we thought was most interesting and close. We saw the out buildings like the stables, paint cellar, his carriage house and the necessary. There were a lot of animals there as well because it is still a farm. We also saw his tomb which I liked. It was a large brick enclosure with a iron, gated door. It was in a very peaceful place and there was an air of elegance to it. I wish I would have thought to take a picture in front of it but alas I did not. I guess that just gives me a reason to go back again. 

The view from the porch of the river.

One of the best bits of the grounds was the view from the mansion’s back porch. It overlooked the Potomac River. There were chairs lined up on the porch for the visitors and as my parents, G., and Daisy were sitting up there I ran down the lawn a bit to take a picture of them sitting there. It sums up my trip. My mom was on her phone (probably sending a picture of the view with a “haha I’m here, you’re not” to facebook), dad and Daisy were looking very confused at what I was doing, and poor G. looked exhausted and amused.

One of Martha's exhibits in the museum.

There was a fabulous museum about Washington as well on the grounds. Washington was such an amazing man, not just as the first President, which in itself took a heck of a lot of guts (he set the precedent for every single person who takes the job after him). He also had a good sense of humor and humility. I am pleased that his home has remained for future generations to see it. The museum was quite complete too, with wax figures of him doing the most memorable things such as being the General of the Continental Army and being sworn in as President. They had a lot of paintings and artifacts. They also had a good collection of Martha Washington’s things as well because, of course, Mount Vernon was her home, too, including one of her dresses.

One of the most memorable bits of this visit had nothing to do with Washington. At lunch (which was kind of cafeteria style) we had picked our food and then we went to pay for it. Dad went to pay for the bill for all of us (me, dad, mom, G., and Daisy’s) but G. was 3 steps ahead and had already bought ours. I think that’s when dad decided that a) G. was not an ax murderer and b) he started a war of paying for things. For the rest of my trip, dad and G. were trying to race each other to cash registers. It was pretty hilarious for us girls to watch.

Needless to say I could probably talk about just the grounds of Mount Vernon for a long time. There was so much to see in just the tiny bit we did. I would love to spend a week there and just explore. Maybe one day I will.

~Laura!

Llama George in Downtown Buffalo (Part 1)

Llama George in Downtown Buffalo!

One day on a lunch break Llama George and I explored Downtown Buffalo. 

I'm sure we'll do it again one day because there is so much to see which is why I labelled this part one!

Llama George visits the Central Library

Llama George visits the outside of City Hall

Llama George taunts one of the lions on the McKinley Monument

Llama George and the Soldiers & Sailors Monument in Lafayette Square 

~Laura (and Llama George)!

Thoughts From Places Spotlight: Manassas, VA (2010)

My Trip to the Manassas Battlefield!

Plaque that marks the site of the First Battle of Manassas or Bull Run.

Monument to the fallen Union soldiers.

One of the main things you must know to understand my dad is that he is a Civil War buff. He knows everything about the Civil War, his favorite battle is Gettysburg, and I think he was secretly very pleased that I was born on July 1st, the first day of that Pennsylvanian battle that changed the course of the war (even if me being born that day meant that I was over a month early).  He’s been to Gettysburg twice already so this time he wanted to see a different field of battle.

Here’s a little history for you who don’t know about the Manassas Battlefield (commonly known as the Battle of Bull Run to us Northerners): Technically, there were two battles, the first which took place on July 21^st, 1861 and the second which happened a year or so later between August 28 and 30^th, 1862! It is most memorable for being the place that Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson received his famous nickname “Stonewall.”

Jackson's Statue.

The stars sort of aligned to get us to the Manassas Battlefield. As luck would have it some friends of my mom’s lived in Manassas and offered to take us sightseeing while we were there! We had never met them before because mom had met them via facebook but it didn’t matter as soon as we met G. and Daisy (nicknames) it felt as if we’d known them forever. We were worried about dad though because he doesn’t get the internet and for a little while was convinced we’d be going to our deaths (which is reasonable of course) but as it turned out Daisy was just as big of a history nut as dad so they had plenty to talk about.

The Battlefield is part of the National Park Service and obviously because it is a battlefield it is rather huge so we only saw the most exciting bits. Because let’s face it battlefields are really just a lot of grass. No matter what happened there they aren’t EXTREMELY exciting (unless you’re my dad or someone similar that is). We went to the visitor center and then to the Henry House near Matthews Hill, which served as the opening phase of the first battle. This was a very large, you guessed it, field of grass with a scattering of monuments, plaques and a tiny graveyard with only a few stones. 

The Stone House

Despite how boring I make it sound, it was pretty cool and slightly strange. There were several plaques that said would mark the spot of some famous person or another who had been wounded or died there. There was a monument to the fallen Union soldiers and the statue of “Stonewall” Jackson that marked the spot he got his nickname when someone famously said “There stands Jackson like a stone wall.” I think what Dad and I liked the most about the battlefield actually. I think it’s incredibly cool that they put up a giant statue of him on his horse to mark that. His nickname is literally set in stone!

The cannonball in the side of the
Stone House.

Next we went to the Stone House which served as a hospital during the battles. Which like the battlefield is exactly what it sounds like. We, as a country, suck at naming things, I’ve come to notice. Most things are very obvious. The Stone House was important not just because it was a hospital but because it served as a landmark for the soldiers. Everyone knew where that house was because it was the only thing at a very important intersection. It was a cool house. A lot of it was still original and the NPS restored the rest of it and added historically accurate items to the house such as a maps and newspapers. 

I took this while sitting on the steps outside looking in.
The camera is on the floor and with both doors open you
can see the worn path to the battlefield.

My favorite part was the cannonball that is still stuck in the bricks of the house near the door and that if both front and back doors were open I could see straight through the small house out onto the battlefield.

If you want to read more about my week long trip to Washington, DC in 2010 click here!

~Laura!