Jess' Journeys // Laumeier Sculpture Park - St. Louis, Missouri

What, you've never seen a 12 ft. tall eyeball? You should probably fix that. Luckily, I know the perfect place to see one, Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, MO.

Admittedly, I didn't see the entire park. We just didn't map off enough of my visit to St. Louis to see it. We had to fit it in after pancakes, but before Ikea and the art museum. This was all after being awake since 3 for my flight from Atlanta. I'm sure my friend Kim was ready to see me leave after the whirlwind of a weekend.

My absolute favorite sculpture in the entire sculpture park was "Eye" by Tony Tasset. It really is a gigantic eyeball. When you look up close, you can see the red veins around the entire thing. It was mesmerizing. Of course, I had the song "Somebody's Watching Me" stuck in my head for the rest of the sculpture park. I've got one thing to say about that though, #worthit.

After you park at the main entrance and walk through the"museum circle" visitor center area, "Eye" is the first big sculpture that you'll see, and it definitely sets the tone for the sculpture park. All of the sculptures are so much fun to look at, and most of them are so gigantic that you can fully interact with them.

The one that is on all of the brochures and posters for Laumeier that I've seen is called "The Way", and it's by Alexander Liberman. This sits at the end of a huge, green field. The way I see it, you have two choices with this field. You can either walk around the pathway and look at all of the sculptures, or you can take off your shoes and walk on the soft green grass. I'm not going to tell you which to choose, but I definitely walked to "The Way" differently than I walked away from it.

There are lots of different sculptures here, and they seem to change pretty regularly. So grab a friend, a camera, a picnic, and a good book for a great afternoon.

What's really fun about places like this sculpture park is that they take art out of stuffy, intimidating  museums and put them into the organic, casual world. Once you get art into this kind of environment, it opens up a whole different line of dialogue, which is so much fun.

If you visit Laurmeier Sculpture Park, remember the lesson we learned about Stonehenge. Look, but don't touch and most definitely don't try to write your name on anything or chip off a chunk of it to take home. You don't want to ruin this park for everyone.


My one regret? I didn't bring a kite!

Up-close view of the veins painted on "The Eye"

"The Way"

Everything was just so green & pretty!

I'm not proud of how long it took me to realize that this said "upside" upside-down.

Cheryl's View // Solomon's Castle - Ona, Florida

So, what is the last thing you would ever expect to see in the middle of nowhere in Central Florida? A castle, that's what! Way out in the middle of orange groves, cow pastures and hay fields, there sits a "Medieval Tin Castle". Solomon's Castle is the creation of Howard Solomon.

The tale is that he purchased property to build a home and work on his projects, unfortunately the property he bought ended up being swamp land.  After discovering the truth about his purchase he had to change his building plans. Instead of building out, he decided to build up.

The castle is pretty amazing, a bright and shining masterpiece. It is covered by old aluminum plates discarded from the newspaper, you can still read some of the print on the plates. Guarding the castle doors are two armored knights, known as "Night and Day". The windows are stain glass depicting a medieval dragon, nursery rhymes and the zodiac among many other things. The pathway leading up to the castle is a stamped "Yellow Brick Road". This place is a folk art lovers dream!  He really does amazing work and has a great sense of humor and is quite "punny".

All of Solomon's art is made from everyday discarded and recycled items.  He uses most anything he seems to be able to find. Some of his biggest and most impressive are a lion and an elephant made from old oil drums.



There are so many unique, cute, and funny things to see such as his self portrait, his flower bed, the purple dragon, and cats with hearts on their chests.

 Our tour guide was great! He was very funny.  The tour moved very fast and you got to see many of the rooms in his castle.



                                                                                                                                                                              

 A castle isn't complete without a "Boat in the Moat"!  Solomon has created a boat which serves as a restaurant. He says that the boat is a 60 foot replica of Portuguese galleon.  Most all of the windows on the galleon are stained glass and are unique and beautiful.  The restaurant is ran by other family members and the food was good.  Solomon has also added a lighthouse on the outside dining area for the restaurant because if your going to have a ship you must have a lighthouse.  I think it was definitely worth the trip.  I would like to go back again.

Jess' Journeys // Let's Talk About Stonehenge

Just in case you've been living under a rock for your whole life, Stonehenge is a really huge deal. It's one of the "Seven Wonders of the Medieval World", and it's just outside of the town of Salisbury, England. No one is really 100% sure who built it, or why. They estimate that it was built sometime between 2000 BCE and 3000 BCE. There are tons of theories and a lot of speculation about that. You could read on the subject for years and still not have read everything.

I wanted to visit so badly. The pictures in magazines and online are always so pretty. I was so excited about seeing the stones up close. In 2005, I finally got my chance!...and I was disappointed.

Here's the thing. All of the pictures make it look like a monument in a huge, grassy field. Which technically it is. What they don't show usually is the road that runs nearby, the dirt walkway leading from the visitor center that goes under that road, or the big, dirt, circle walkway that's roped off, maybe 200 feet from the rocks. They also don't show the crowds of people that are standing on the dirt walkways or the security guards that are standing on the dirt walkways watching all of the people. After you're done walking in the circle, you get to exit through the gift shop and buy all sorts of Stonehenge merch. I'm not going to lie. I'm a great consumer, so of course I did my duty and bought all sorts of things in the gift shop. The whole experience felt just like visiting the world's largest ball of yarn.

Here's the thing. As disappointed as I was by the sight itself, the worst part is what led to that. They didn't take these measures just because they could. People used to vandalize Stonehenge all the time. Just look at old pictures of it. Of course people want to leave their mark, and people want to take tiny ships off of the stones to take home as a souvenir. The problem is that when you're talking about such a widely-known landmark, you're not getting one or two people that want to do that, you're getting millions. If someone hadn't taken action, Stonehenge wouldn't exist anymore.

The ropes and walkways aren't the first things that have been done to keep Stonehenge in existence. I would highly recommend looking up the restoration of Stonehenge online. Fair warning though, it will crush your dreams of this magical, ancient landmark in the middle of rolling hills.

 As far as my bucket list goes, I'm really glad that I can check off Stonehenge. I just hope that in the future, they can find a way to make it a more mesmerizing place to visit.

Welcome to me in high school. There are tricks to make it appear that you're a lot closer to the stones than you are, such as cropping above the rope lines. See how far away the people in the background are? They're just on the other side of the circle from us.

Cheryl's View // Panhandle Pioneer Settlement - Bluntstown, Florida

There are many historic buildings on the property such as the Red Oak Methodist Church, blacksmith shop, cobbler shop, Shiloh School, Sexton cabin, and Wells cabin. Each of these buildings offers a unique look into our history.


One of the most interesting buildings on the property is the Altha Calaboose (a small jail). The Calaboose was built in 1927 by Haywood Baggett and Miles Richards. Later that year these two builders of the Calaboose also happened to be the first ones to be tossed into it for selling a horse without a license.


The Pioneer Settlement offers several family friendly events, programs, classes and demonstrations throughout the year. I encourage you to check a few of them out. It is definitely worth the visit if you are a history buff.