Conquering Belle Isle

Today, on the second day of Autumn, the weather in Richmond was decidedly summery. With weather.com predicting 88 and sunny, I decided that today was the day that I would finally visit Belle Isle. The fact that I hadn't been yet is a bit puzzling; I live less than a mile away and often walk down canal walk from 14th street until just before the Lee Bridge.

It may have taken me a year to get my act together and visit, but seeing Belle Isle reminded me once again how impressed I am with the James River Park System. The James is truly beautiful, and Richmond has taken full advantage of it with their parks and trails. I found Belle Isle particularly interesting because of its history of habitation. As you walk around the island you see reminders of several economies of the Island's past: a mill, an extensive logjam, the skeleton of the ironworks building, remnants of the civil war prison camp. In each case, Belle Isle has won: no one occupies the island. While in most cases, I would be disturbed by a natural resource like Belle Isle having a highway cross over it, somehow the building remnants make it seem natural. Belle Isle is beautiful but it is also unique in that man has not been able to resist or conquer it.

My walking tour of the isle took about an hour, but I could have stayed much longer. For today's trip, I stuck to the main pathways because I have a terrible sense of direction and needed to ensure that I had some time left in my afternoon to work. After taking my first loop around Belle Isle, I know I'll come back when I have more time to explore -- and when I'm wearing shoes instead of flip flops. However, just from walking the main loop I got a beautiful view of the James and some geese who had claimed a rock, saw Hollywood Cemetery across the river, visited the quarry and explored many decrepit buildings. Best of all, I found a new place to escape my everyday: a small, shady stretch of beach with a great breeze.

You say tomato

I'm pretty sure that a trip to Kroger doesn't count as a tourist activity. However, after all the things that I have done this week, my Kroger check-out experience has been the most interesting.

I stopped into the Kroger on Broad St. this morning to get a few groceries. When I got to the checkout lines, I was frustrated to find that only one was open (this is a Richmond phenomenon, I think - every other place that I have lived actually hires cashiers for their grocery stores). The line was pretty long and every person in front of me had filled their car to the top and then some. I'm not a big fan of the self checkout because I tend to be quite slow, but I decided that today was the day to try again. I put a bag of tomatoes on the scale, clicked 'fruits' and searched, but to no avail. Apparently, Kroger lists tomatoes as a vegetable. Seeing as the fact that a tomato is a fruit is the only thing I can remember from science class, I was a bit taken aback. Do Richmonders really think that tomatoes are vegetables?

Because I get fixated on things like this, I decided to check it out with the help of Google. What I learned makes me even more puzzled:

1. Biologically, a tomato is a fruit (one point for me!)
2. Legally, a tomato is a vegetable (one point for the supreme court!)

I have to say, I find it discouraging that when science tells us one thing, the legal system can turn around and say "nope, you're wrong, and now we're going to pass a law about it."

Thank you Richmond Kroger for teaching me the difference between science and law, fruit and vegetable. For more information, visit the websites listed below.

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutother/tomato?view=uk
http://www.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=question143.htm&url=http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch8.html

I love bocce

When I visited New York this past weekend, I had the opportunity to temporarily join my friends' bocce bar league team, Bocces and Hos. I fell in love with the game, and would love to introduce it to the Adcenter. Bocce may originally be an Italian lawn game, but I can say from experience that it works just as well in a dark bar with a can of Schlitz. And I think that's something we Adcenter folk can all appreciate.

Anyone know where to find bocce courts in Richmond?

A call for cultural explorers

As an assignment for Cultural Exploration and Communications class this semester, we have to update our blogs at least once a week with something cultural. Richmond is full of culture and cultures, so come explore with me. If you have any suggestions of what to see and where to go in Richmond, let me know. If you want to join me, that's even better!

Canoeing the South Anna

After a summer of touring Richmond alone, I was excited that my Adcenter friends would be returning soon. I spent much of my time outside of work outdoors, and found myself hoping that people might want to join me in my tourist activities once we were back together. Thankfully, people like Kelly exist to make my outdoor aspirations come true. A few days ago, Kelly acted as tour guide and hostess when she took Megan and I canoeing down the South Anna river.

I used to love canoeing; I even went to a 7 week overnight camp where that was one of the main activities. But before this trip, I cannot remember the last time I was in a canoe. Camp, family outdoor vacations and duck hunting on Wisconsin's Twin Lakes with my Dad hadn't happened for at least ten years. And so, I was a bit shaky getting into a canoe for the first time. Did I remember how to steer from the stern? The half moon strokes they taught me at Camp Osoha?

Ten minutes later, I found out that it didn't really matter. The South Anna moves so slowly that all steering decisions can be made at the last minute. The water was too low to paddle effectively anyways, and Megan ended up pulling us for much of the second half. And lastly, Kelly's canoe, dubbed the party boat, is so indestructible that bad-steering just resulted in us happily bumping over the rocks with no consequence.

Lessons for the day:
1. Polarized sunglasses really do help in underwater rock spotting
2. Megan is stronger than she looks
3. Half an hour outside of Richmond is a totally different environment
4. Sometimes it only takes a few hours to relax for a few days