Inspire Me ThursdaySelf help blog to improve day to day living

Having a few days to relax in San Antonio while my partner conducts the second half of our business transactions, I thought I’d check into the Flea Markets around the city. I just love seeing what unique items are being sold, and I really like just strolling around the Flea Markets and listening to people bargaining with the vendors trying to get the best deal.

Fortunately, the hotel where we are staying offers free wi-fi, so I went online and found that San Antonio has several Flea Markets. Since is was Saturday, the first place I visited was Flea-Mart . This was definitely one of the biggest flea markets I’ve been to, it’s on about 50 acres of land. At noon there was live music provided by Los Dorados and the flea market provides a dance floor. I was amazed to actually see people dancing and really enjoying themselves. The band was really lively, which really added to the atmosphere at the market, keeping it upbeat and fun. Continuing the fun, there was a Merry-go-Round for the kids, and plenty of kid friendly food, like hot dogs, ice cream and sodas. There was also adult friendly food like tacos and beer. I had a delightful time there, I spent money only on food and drink and I stayed there for almost 3 hours!

The next day, I visited the Eisenhauer Road Flea Market. It was an indoor affair with well over 100 vendors. The building was an entire strip-mall and I found this place had more to offer in the way of the unique or more interesting items, like computer repairs, martial arts supplies, a web hosting business, a billiards and darts supply, and my favorite unique vendor, the house of magic, which also gives magic classes. Sunday is the only days there is live music, but I didn’t see any band playing.

I managed to fit in one more flea market on Sunday, Mission Open Air Flea Market , this was right off the I-410. It is your typical flea-market that prevails in most cities, selling the usual fare. There’s no alcohol or music, but the place was bustling with people and vendors hawking their wares. I’m glad I made this the last on my list, because if this was the first flea market I visited, I probably wouldn’t have gone to the other two, thinking they might just be the same. I do have to admit, though, that it was here, at Missions, that I finally had to purchase an item: hair product – The price was to good to pass up.

Most Italian restaurants today serve dishes heavily influenced by southern Italy from the early 20th century. Italian foods as we think of them are typically a pasta with a tomato based sauce over them maybe a pizza. but those were heavily influenced by Sicilian immigrants of the time moving into New York and Boston and incorporating what food they could find on hand into something similar to the cuisine of their home country. Southern Italian influenced foods tended to be based on ingredients such as dry pasta, tomato sauce, and olive oil while Northern Italian families brought dishes crafted from ingredients such as rice, fresh (or wet) pasta and butter.

Many of these foods and recipes evolved into new favorites and then later spread nationwide; for example, the muffuletta sandwich from New Orleans which is covered with a marinated olive salad, then layers of capicola, salami, mortadella, emmentaler, and provolone; and the “toasted ravioli” from St. Louis, which is actually deep fried. Recently American’s have been moving away from the generic dishes and embracing more of Italy’s traditional foods. This can be seen by taking a look at any of your favorite Italian restaurants ‘ menus and noticing that one can get risotto, a rice dish popular in Northern Italy along side classics like spaghetti and ravioli. Many other ingredients popular in Italian dishes recently growing in popularity are calamari, eggplant, and various other foods the less adventurous pallet might find off the wall.

Many chain like Bucca di Beppo still lean on the classic image of the “mom and pop” Italian- American restaurant using the popular aesthetic of Chianti bottles candle holders and tables decorated with red checked tablecloths. Others like Olive Garden try to instill a sense of being in Italy through architecture and grape vine accents.

California is a fantastic blend of everything in the world, all the good and the bad, in one very large and immense place. It’s a perfect place to go to get lost, to reinvent oneself, and to make dents in the brick walls of culture, if there’s enough passion and tenacity. There are large and diverse Native populations that make up the original core of California, and because of its history there is a local Mexican population, then a lot of European-descended Americans came to settle during the various booms, and it’s still a story that’s being written, and written by all the people that come here to visit or to stay.

It has everything anyone could want, with beaches and forests and deserts, small towns and vibrant urban centers, along with vineyards and wharves and the thousands of subcultures making communities all over the state. For that reason alone, tourism is very high, as evidenced by its excellent hotels , and it’s a rather welcoming place for visitors. Almost everyone here feels like a tourist, and even the locals sometimes feel like they’re only visiting a version of California. The multiple versions are tweaked and shifted daily by the media, and it appears in various manifestations in film, commercials, songs, and music videos.

In the 80s, it was given another life by the wildly popular song and video, I Want Candy, by Bow Wow Wow. The teenage lead singer, Annabella Lwin captured the hearts of thousands of teenagers with her sophisticated vocals and energetic dance on the sand. This is a kind of tribute to what California is, and what it can be, because the group is not from here, and came, instead, from London. And Lwin ‘s time with the band was actually rather short, even though she’s gone on to do more with her career, giving her talents the space they need to grow and thrive. This is where California myth meets the real world, and, finding the real world to be a bit of a bore, decides to print the legend instead.

There are so many things to see and do while in London one could visit for years and not see it all. There is always the must sees in the city like the Parliament Building with the Big Ben Clock. The London Bridge and all of the life that flows on and around it. Catching a ride on the London Eye to get a view of the whole city and beyond.

How about a great cruise in the Thames River that will give you an unique view of all these sites from the water as you flow by each landmark. There are many stories to be heard about the history of the river itself. This river, after all, is responsible for the settlement that currently resides there as London.

Other places to see include the many palaces and castles. In America, there are mansions but in Europe there are castles and palaces. There is more than likely tours set up specifically to see all the homes of the royal family. The easiest ones to get to in London is the Buckingham Palace and the Kensington Palace both of which will send you reeling and swooning with romance and charm. There are endless ways to find out more about the royal family before you visit so you can feel the real connection to these royal homes and the family that resides in them. These two are rather close to the elegant London hotel that you checked into but there are a few that take a little more time to get to such as the Winsor Castle. Once visitors have arrived at the castle they will get to walk many areas of the castle as well as the grounds around it. It only takes about 2 hours to see it all which is so short considering the intense life that castle has held for over 900 years.

The Tampa Museum of Science and Industry, MOSI as it’s typical known, is one of the premiere establishments in the city that is both educational and entertaining as well as fascinating. People of all ages are attracted to the museum and it is one of the popular tourist destinations for people who are visiting the city. In addition to its great permanent exhibits, the museum also hosts numerous traveling exhibits and special engagements. This continues to entice the repeated guests who frequently make this one of their standard cultural excursions.

The museum has an IMAX Dome theater, which is a one of a kind film viewing opportunity. The clarity and size of the images has been unsurpassed in technology and creates an amazing encounter, frequently contributing to a completely different experience than what occurs when viewed in a regular movie theater. In addition, the sound system for this theater was specially designed and includes a six-channel multi-speaker outlet system. There are many people who after having seen a film in an IMAX theater state that they will never be able to enjoy a movie in a standard theater ever again.

Some of the films featured at the museum in Tampa include their standard options such as Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag and Ultimate Wave: Tahiti. In addition, the theater will present special engagement films and currently being shown in this category is AVATAR . These major motion pictures that are presented as special engagements are extremely popular with all audiences. And some loyal patrons of the MOSI IMAX Dome will wait for the opportunity to see the film at the museum rather than see it in a standard movie theater when it is first released. The museum makes a consistent effort to present films that are appropriate for children and adults alike. If you plan to visit Tampa, this is always an excellent option for enjoying an afternoon.

Like London and Paris, Washington, D.C. is an earthly paradise for both art museum geeks and casual visitors alike. The overwhelming challenge is deciding which treasure trove to visit. You must decide among such wonderful gallery possibilities as the Hirschhorn, Freer, Sackler, Corcoran and numerous other public and private collections within the compact 60 square miles that is Washington . To quench a thirst for incomparable expressions of beauty, culture and history and to satisfy international tastes, starting a D.C. art tour at the National Gallery of Art is a must.

The National Gallery is housed on the National Mall in two buildings of strikingly different architectural styles –works of art by themselves. The open-air Sculpture Garden was added in 1999 to provide a venue for larger works and temporary exhibitions. The original, neo-classical West Building, dedicated in 1941, was joined by the modern, I.M. Pei-designed East Building in 1978. The complex offers paintings and sculpture dating from the Middle Ages to the present. Both venues offer collections owned by the National Gallery as well as exhibitions loaned from other collections around the world. In planning your trip, check ahead for available rooms at the best washington hotels and to see what special treasures await you.

Current exhibitions in the East Building include Spanish paintings and sculptures from 1600-1700 (through May 31) and the abstract expressionism of Mark Rothko (until January 2011). The Sculpture Garden, surrounding a central fountain that serves as a skating rink in winter, includes 17 works from the national collection as well as loaned works.

Beginning with the Mellon collection and his endowment of a new building, the National Gallery has been the beneficiary of numerous gifts from collectors. Paintings and sculptures in the permanent collections include the works of Botticelli, da Vinci, Durer, Rembrandt, Goya, Delacroix, Rodin, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh and many more familiar to anyone who has enjoyed exposure to art history. Works from the Chester Dale collection, bequeathed in 1962 and covering impressionism to modernism, are on exhibit until July 31, 2011 in the West Building.

Cafes and comfort stations are generously available in the museum complex along with free cultural enrichment. This is your National Gallery. Enjoy!