Z is for the David Traylor Zoo: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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Z is for the David Traylor Zoo

I'm a long time enthusiast of zoos. I grew up near Cincinnati, Ohio, which has a large and famous zoo and I've sought out the zoos in all the places I have been and lived in over the years. Zoos are special to me for the opportunities they afford us to see live animals from around the world and learn about them, as well as for the role they play in rescuing animals and helping bring them back from endangerment and risk of extinction. 

When I moved to Kansas, I found that it was a state with many small zoos rather than one grand one. Every medium sized town seemed to have one. The city I lived in was Emporia, in an area known as the Flint Hills ("hills" being a relative thing in such a flat state). I really loved Emporia for a lot of reasons: the people at the forefront, followed by local landmarks like the Granada (movie theater turned coffeehouse) in the charming downtown, Peter Pan Park, and the David Traylor Zoo. 

The David Traylor Zoo is very small. You can see every inch of it in an hour or so long visit. My oldest daughter was two when we moved to Kansas and five when we left, and she and I whiled away many pleasant hours at the zoo. We'd walk there (or I'd walk, and she'd ride in her stroller) and visit our rheas, peacocks, lemurs, tamarins, and elk. Then get an ice cream on our way home, or stop by the playground (or maybe both!). 

We felt like we had a personal relationship with each of the animals there. We knew their names, and talked with the zookeepers regularly about their health and histories. In some ways, I loved that zoo more than big impressive ones like Cincinnati and San Diego. I'd love to go back and see it again someday. 

Y is for Yellowstone National Park: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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Y is for Yellowstone National Park

One of the last travel experiences I had before I became a mother was Yellowstone National Park. I went there with my mother as part of a cross country trip down the Alcan and across the United States back to Kentucky. I remember the freedom of that trip almost as fondly as I remember the park itself. 

If you look back at my other A to Z entries, you're going to see that I am quite the fan of National Parks, but Yellowstone is the grand-daddy of them all. 

There are so many different kinds of beauty within the one park. I mostly explored the part in Wyoming. Whether you are into animals, rocks, mountains, water, hot springs, sands, falls, forests, rivers, flowers or skies, you're going to find something to rock your socks off in this most amazing of American National Parks. If you go, I recommend planning for several days of exploration to get to see it properly. 

In our current political climate, I have worried for the protection of our national park lands. I pray these special landscapes will continue to be protected so that generations of Americans and visitors from other lands can be awed and amazed by the glory and creativity of nature. 

X is for Xavier's School for Gifts Youngsters: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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X is for Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters

It's kind of funny that I got this far down into the list before I admitted that some of the Places in my Heart are imaginary places. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters is found in comic books (and TV shows, cartoons, and movies that spun off from those).  It's where the X-men trained and formed as a group. 

Like the Bat Cave or Stark Tower or the Fortress of Solitude, heroes need a hangout, a home base, and this is it for the mutant crowd.  Generally, it's portrayed as the inherited home of Charles Xavier, who besides being a talented mutant with wide ranging psychic powers, is also a rich English boy from the gentry. (It avoids a lot of problems in superhero stories if you write your characters rich, yet without family to object to the way they use those riches). 

Like any good superhero facility, it has large spaces for practice fighting and building specialized rooms to deal with the problems that arise while newly powered folk are figuring out how to use and control their gifts.  

I, unfortunately, did not develop superpowers during puberty, so I am apparently not a mutant. I'm still holding out hope that the second wave of hormones in menopause will give me something special, though. In fact, I'm writing a whole book series based on that :-).  But in the meantime, maybe I'll find out if they need a Spanish tutor at Xavier's. Some of their missions are bound to take them to Mexico or something, wouldn't you think? 

W is for Weaver Street Market: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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W is for Weaver Street Market

I've been fortunate enough to live in some places with food co-ops before, but none were as lovely as Weaver Street Market. When we moved to Chapel Hill back in 2006, there was only one Weaver Street, in Carrboro. It was a real community hub as well as a G-dsend to people who want organic and local foodstuffs. 

Just as we moved to Hillsborough, they opened a Weaver Street Market in Hillsborough. We like to joke that it was just for us. The Hillsborough store is smaller than the original in Carrboro, but I like it better, maybe just because it's mine. I'm such a frequent flyer there that several of the cashiers have my owner number memorized and most of the baristas know my order already. 

(Later, they added a third in another Chapel Hill neighborhood, so my sister has a Weaver Street, too). 

Weaver Street, besides stocking milk from the local dairy, fruits and vegetables grown at local farms, and a variety of locally made, organic products, also has their own bakery and makes some of the yummiest breads, cookies, and desserts I have ever enjoyed. Since our family lives by our stomachs, we appreciate delicious things made of good ingredients that don't leave us feeling bad. 

There are other venues to get some of the things Weaver Street sells in our area. We have a Trader Joes and Whole Paycheck (our nickname for Whole Foods), but I always try Weaver Street first. It may be cliche to say, but it really is about the people. I so rarely see anyone grumpy or mean at Weaver. And while it's a haven for gluten free, natural sugars only, vegetarian and vegan, or other dietary strictures, there's no snobbery or rudeness surrounding that. Carnivores and sugarhounds are welcome, too. 

If you ever come visit me in Hillsborough, I'll take you to Weaver for coffee and a pastry. You won't regret it. 

V is for Vermont: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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V is for Vermont

Ah, Vermont. That liberal little pocket of up East that the rest of the United States envisions as full of Robert Frost worthy scenery, curmudgeons, hippies, and well-educated lesbians. 

Having spent a few summers there, I have to say there's some truth in that. 

I earned my Master's Degree from the Bread Loaf School of English arm of Middlebury College. That meant I got to spend four summers on Bread Loaf's campuses (I spent three in Vermont, and one at Oxford). Vermont in summer really is idyllic. The weather is lovely. The land is lush. It's the home of farmer's markets full of artisan craftspeople and organic foods, restaurants that pioneered the whole "buy local" mentality, and more bookstores than you can shake a stick at. 

If you have liberal leaning sensibilities politically, and want to limit development and growth to protect the green spaces around you, Vermont might be for you. Almost every place I went in the state (and since it's small, geographically speaking, I saw a lot of the state in three summers' studies) is just really really nice. Well kept, cared for, with a feeling that it will endure for generations. 

In fact, I often felt clumsy and a little dirty, like a Greaser at a Soc party. I worried I might knock over a cup. 

That's not to say the people weren't welcoming. They really were. I'd love to get back and spend a summer afternoon in the shade in a small city square, trying a new flavor of Ben and Jerry's. 

U is for Ouzinkie: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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U is for Ouzinkie

I know that Ouzinkie technically begins with an O. But it does begin with a U sound . . .and I was having trouble coming up with place I love that starts with U. So, yeah, I cheated a little. 

Ouzinkie though is a wonderful place. Monk's Lagoon on Spruce Island was the home of Saint Herman of Alaska, a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church. 

It is still a retreat space, but also a pilgrimage stop and tourist attraction, an easy skiff ride over from Kodiak and a great place to spend a peaceful afternoon. 

Herman came there as a hermit, but others were drawn to the man and the place, and a chapel, guest house, and school for orphans were soon added.  

I only visited a couple of times. I myself am not Russian Orthodox, though I am, like many, an admirer or the architecture and iconography. The chapel there, by late morning light, definitely felt like a holy place to me. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I see the diffuse rays of light shining through the windows in the simple space, and it always brings me peace. 

I guess part of me is always seeking retreat, though I'm not quite a hermit or a saint myself. 

T is for Tom's Book Nook: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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T is for Tom's Book Nook

Sadly, not all the places in my heart are places that can be revisited. Tom's Book Nook no longer exists, but it was a mainstay of my childhood in Bellevue, Kentucky, a small town on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, with a view of Cincinnati. 

Bellevue is now pretty gentrified, with a lot of chi-chi shops and condos and annoying new people with expensive cars and attitudes. But when I was growing up there, Bellevue was much more blue collar. Lots of us walked everywhere because we couldn't afford cars. But there was a lot you could walk to. 

When I was little, my family didn't have much money. My mom and dad rented a little apartment in on the avenue, and mostly my Mom and I walked and strollered everywhere we went, enjoying life in the $1-$5 at a time expense rate. 

There was Schneider's Ice Cream shop (still there!) where we could share a cone or get an iceball for my Dad. There was the public library and the bookmobile (no bookmobile anymore, and the library moved to a newer but less charming building). The Marianne with $1 second run movies (closed). There were playgrounds. There was Footlong's (no longer there), where you could get hotdogs, soft serve ice cream, and slushies. And maybe most importantly of all, there was Tom's Book Nook.

Tom, the guy who owned the shop, was kind of a jerk. Looking at it with adult eyes, I'm betting he really struggled to make a living with his little used book shop on the avenue, and was maybe a little bitter about that. But Tom was definitely an odd one among the people Mom and I encountered in our walks around Bellevue. Most everyone else was super friendly to us, telling me I was cute and talking with my mother. I was always a little afraid of Tom. 

But, still we'd go. Tom's shop was jammed to the rafters with badly stacked, beat-up paperbacks and Mom would trade in the stack she'd read last week and buy another stack. In a good month, I was granted a dollar to spend in the 10¢ comic books boxes, picking up random issues traded in by the teenagers who had originally bought them. I got a little bit of everything that way: Archie, Red Sonja, Spiderman, Tales from the Crypt, Amazing Stories, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc. Enough to warp my mind and guarantee a lifelong interest in superheroics. 

I'm sad that Tom's is gone. Bellevue still doesn't have a bookstore of its own, even in the new chi-chi downtown with a vinyl record shop and several options for coffee. It's weird watching the little city change so much. I hope it's good for the town in the long run, but for now, it leaves me feeling like the place I grew up really doesn't exist anymore. 

S is for Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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S is for Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen

I like to eat. 

Whenever I go someplace, I want to try the food they are known for. I want something different than the every day, delicious and memorable. I like to try and find the places the locals know about, but that don't attract the tourists. 

Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen in Chapel Hill, NC is a place like that. It's doesn't look like much. In fact, I lived in the area for a couple of years before I found out about it. I drove past hundreds of time, but it didn't catch my eye, with its unassuming structure and little drive-through sign. 

Then I happened to hear about it on a cooking podcast I like (Splendid Table) as part of a feature on road food they used to do. I told my husband about it, and our stomachs both fell in love. In fact, we have to limit ourselves to only eating there once a month for the sake of our waistlines and cardio-vascular health. 

Biscuits and fried chicken are both quintessentially Southern food items. And they can be *wonderful* or "meh" depending on who makes them. Sunrise makes perfect chicken biscuits. The biscuits are soft and fluffy and buttery. The chicken is crisp and juicy inside, that perfect combination that is difficult to achieve. 

They don't make many things. The menu is brief. But what they make, they make VERY well. You can't go sit down in a charming café area while you eat--this is really JUST a drive-through restaurant. But what's a few crumbs on your bosom in exchange for nirvana in your mouth?