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If you wake up and find a flag outside your house, don’t worry. You are probably in America (if unsure check the flag on the CIA website).
Obviously we had seen the specially marked hole for a flag pole when we moved in:
And we knew about the idea of displaying the flag on holiday weekends. So this being President’s Day weekend it was no big surprise to see flags appearing in our neighborhood.
But where did our flag come from? Well it turns out that the local High School offers a service where they put out a flag for you for a small fee. The previous owners must have already paid and hence our flag was delivered and put on display.
It is highly recommended to have someone to set up your flag. The number of rules and regulations is mind-boggling. Take a look here at The Flag Code.
Interestingly the local High School created national news in 2010 when a student, frustrated that the Mexican flag was apparently being displayed higher than the Star Spangled Banner, took it down and tossed it in the trash can. He was suspended for three days for theft (the flag belonged to a fellow student). One year later he was interviewed by local news about the incident:
Flags and National Anthems are a big part of American life. Every event, no matter how small (even the local swim meet), starts with everyone facing the Stars and Stripes and singing the Star Spangled Banner. Like here, at the Aggies game:
In England, there is a proud tradition of flag waving, but for somewhat different reasons:
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Denver, Colorado, is very proud of the fact that it is 5,280ft above sea level; so much so that it has a local magazine called 5280 which tells you about what you can do in this city (Bakersfield has a similar magazine but in Denver it’s much easier to recommend where to go to eat).
Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr liked Colorado so much that he renamed himself after its capital city. Colorado returned the favor and made John Denver, as he is better known, their poet laureate and chose “Rocky Mountain High” as one of their state songs.
Jack Swigert was born in Denver and he is commemorated by a nice statue in the airport (see above). Swigert landed on the moon on the Apollo 15 mission (so is one of only 24 people to visit the moon) but is probably more famous for being the replacement Command Module Pilot in Apollo 13 after for Ken Mattingly had to pull out in case he developed German Measles. He died in 1982 so never got to see Kevin Bacon playing him in the movie “Apollo 13”.
Here are some things to do in Denver:
- Go skiing. This is recommended in Winter only, requires large sums of money even prior to medical bills after accident:
- Go to the Zoo. At $10 per entry this is probably the best value day out in the country (aside from St Louis Zoo which is free):
-Get a cashier’s check from the Alpine Bank in Breckenridge. If you bank with Bank of America you will probably be under the impression that “America” includes Colorado but you would be wrong. But not only is Alpine Bank convenient but they have the most helpful people in the entire world working there.
-Go to Boulder and see some, erm, boulders:
-Have an Indian meal at the India House restaurant in downtown Denver. Having tried Indian food in many places in the US it is safe to say this is by far the best in the country (so far at least).
Colorado is a nice place. No wonder John Denver used to sing:
“Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
Oh baby, I hate to go”
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Is there any date/time (other than September 11 2001 8:45am) in history better know than November 22 1963, 1PM? When President Kennedy died from gun shots sustained about 30 minutes earlier whilst driving in an open top car in Dallas. To quote Biff Byford, who wrote the song Dallas 1PM for Saxon’s classic1980 album Strong Arm of The Law:
“The world was shocked that fateful day
A young man's life was blown away, away, away
In Dallas 1 p.m., 1 p.m.”
And here is the classic line-up playing it live:
Of course if you’re a conspiracy-theorist you won’t believe that the fatal shots were fired from the 6th floor window of the Texas State Book Depository (pictured above) but in fact from the Grassy Knoll. But where is this grassy knoll? Well thankfully someone has signposted it:
Dallas was founded by John Neely Bryan (but note that Bryan, near College Station, home of Texas A&M, is named after William Joel Bryan, no relation). There is a replica of John Neely Bryan’s first house on Dealy Plaza (near the infamous shooting location):
Just as Bryan and College Station are linked as one metropolitan area, so are Dallas and Fort Worth, only they call theirs a Metroplex.
Forth Worth is an old Army outpost from the 1800s and today is the 16th largest city in the US.
As with everything in Texas, Fort Worth is big and full of big things - such as the cattle, which you can see wandering around in the Stockyards:
The Fort Worth Stockyards are the last of their kind in the USA and are now really just a tourist attraction. Although, if you happen to ride into town on a horse they do offer full boarding and facilities (no hitching posts though). This is definitely “Where the West Begins”!
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Homecoming is an annual tradition at this time of year. The idea is to welcome back former students and residents. Most often there is a football game or other sporting event that everyone goes to. There is also often parades and the coronation of a Homecoming Queen and King. A dance commonly follows the game.
Another big part of Homecoming is the giving and wearing of Homecoming Mums. A Homecoming Mum is a large corsage decorated with streamers in school colors as well as bells, charms and furry animals.
The name Mum comes from Chrysanthemum, the traditional Fall flower used in many corsages. They say that Texas has a tradition of making bigger and more elaborate Mums than anywhere else and who can argue, given the size of these ones:
The cheerful chap on the left is probably thinking about how the money he blew on the Mum could have gone on some quality weed. However his girlfriend is happy and so he has learned one of life’s most important lessons.
[with thanks to Eileen Bergen for her knowledge of Mums, which can’t be found in Wikipedia!]
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If you are looking for something to do in Bakersfield my top recommendation is to drive somewhere else.
Bakersfield is a city of 350,000 people in the San Joaquin Valley, right in the middle of California. Two hours from LA, three from San Francisco and 4 from Las Vegas and with none of the benefits of any of these places this really is a place in the middle of nowhere.
One of the biggest problems in Bakersfield is finding somewhere to eat that does not make you ill or will give you decent service. In fact in Bakersfield it is not uncommon to find somewhere that will make you ill whilst giving you bad service.
Obviously you can ask the locals where they recommend. Top recommendations have included BJs (a basic chain restaurant), Olive Garden (the recommender thinks this may be a national chain but wasn’t sure!) and some pretty shoddy examples of Mexican and Italian restaurants.
One other option is to look at your airline’s recommendations (United print theirs on your ticket). Here’s the current examples and some highlights of their online reviews:
- Don Perico - “My wife’s order came out with raw meat and the food also smelt really bad. The staff didn't even care. I had to complain to the manager myself. There drinks are just horrible.”
- John’s Incredible Pizza Co - “The food was awful. The pizzas were undercooked and the flavourings dull and tasteless. The peanut pizza in particular was very peculiar. The bread sticks bins were mostly empty.”
El Adobe - “No Bueno!”
The only place on this small list worth a mention is Wool Growers. This is one of a number of Basque restaurants in Bakersfield. In fact Bakersfield has the biggest collection of Basque restaurants in the USA. Thank heavens for the Basque people, as this does give a viable eating option for those doomed to be in Bakersfield.
A traditional Basque meal involves many courses served family style so one option is to go Basque on a Monday and try and last the rest of the week on that one meal.
Another possible venue is the McKittrick Hotel, not because the food or service is good (but it doesn’t make you ill, so that’s one up on most places in Bakersfield), but so you can see the Penny Bar.
McKittrick is a town of 115 (yes, 115!) outside of Bakersfield. If Bakersfield is in the middle of nowhere then it’s hard to describe where McKittrick fits. Here’s the hotel:
And just behind that you can see the Convenience Store. Over the road there’s another building and as far as I can tell that’s it for Main Street McKittrick.
Anyway, although the outside of the McKittrick Hotel looks like something off a slasher movie, the inside is worth seeing. Over one million pennies are glued to everything -- the floor, the walls, the pool table, the TV:
I hear that Rib-eye Thursday is worth trying. Given the quality of the food in Bakersfield I think I’ll give it a go.
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What trip to Boston could be complete without a visit to the place where everybody knows your name - Cheers?
Talking of knowing your name, the bar above was actually originally known as the Bull & Finch but was renamed in 2002 (only 9 years after the TV show ended!). Although used for the external shots in the show, the interior was never used and in fact looks nothing like the bar in the show. However in order to capitalize on the fame of the show there is a replica Cheers bar in nearby Faneuil Hall.
The Bull & Finch is in Beacon Hill, a fancy area of Boston. On Beacon Hill some of the houses have panes of purple glass in their windows like this:
Apparently when the fine houses of Beacon Hill were being built the glass that was used (which came from England) contained something which, over the course of time and due the action of the sunlight, turned purple. This, it seems, is a major status symbol in Boston although why it is desirable to be unable to see out of your windows is anyone’s guess.
Near Beacon Hill is the Boston Public Garden, the oldest public park in the USA (dating back to 1634). Amongst the attractions in the park are the Swan Boats, a fleet of pleasure boats available to rent:
The boats are not quite as old as the park but have been operating since 1877 when Robert Paget created them. It is said that Paget was influenced by Wagner’s Lohengrin, an opera based on the Knight of the Swan story (where a rescuer comes in a swan-drawn boat to defend a damsel in distress).
Also in Boston Public Garden, this statue is of Mrs Mallard and her 8 ducklings:
Mr and Mrs Mallard are the stars of “Make Way For Ducklings”, a children’s book by Robert McCloskey which was originally published in 1941. The book is set in the park and the Swan Boats are featured in it.
Actually it’s hard to tell if this is Mrs or Mr Mallard given the color of the material used but I’ve assumed Mr Mallard is mostly to be found in Cheers Bar wondering how to put 8 kids through college.