AFTER A BUSY FEW DAYS...

During the last few days, Sweetie and I toured the Nina and Pinta ships that docked on the Ohio River (the Kentucky side), walking through and hearing - to my horror - how some of the volunteer crew had been crew members for years.  Years?  As a volunteer, sailing up and down the U.S. rivers?  I mean, these are TINY ships with just room below deck to eat and stow some things with a few bunks for sleeping but mainly the crew sleeps on deck with the stars for a blanket.  Yeah, sounds romantic and sweet and....cold!!!  

Mostly young men, a couple of older gents and a few young women were crewing this trip.  These replicas of the originals go from place to place all year long with a 2-month break only during the winter months.  During the original voyages, Columbus had a crew of 24 on the Nine and 26 on the Pinta.  Don't know where they put them all.  Today, the Nina has a crew of 7 and the Pinta a crew of 9.  The current crews are volunteers from all over the US and the Caribbean.  You, too, can volunteer, if you have a hankering for such.  

Come on, now, we all learned this... 
"In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue...."

Being of Native American blood, Columbus and his crew were not my favorites due to the treatment of all native peoples wherever they landed.  But I did visit while the ships were here just to see them.  They moved on down the Ohio to Wheeling, WV and then on to their next port of call (they came from Louisville, KY to get to Newport, KY).  You can look up the information if you want to see them when they are near your town by checking here.




And we walked the Purple People Bridge from Newport on the Levee over to Cincinnati, OH...seeing that they now have locks along the bridge (like they had in Paris before the locks became so cumbersome and threatened to tear the bridge down on which they were hanging).  There were just a few dozen here so I think it will be okay for a few years - but a cute idea.  Sweetie said I should set up shop at the bridge and sell the locks and engrave them - I'm surprised someone hasn't done that so I imagine the city of Newport doesn't want that to happen.  But many of these were engraved, some professionally and some privately and some painted with the names of the couple.  

While Sweetie had his photography group meeting, I went to the final Friday Art Walk in Ft. Thomas and found this lovely ceramic "mug" made by a woman who had a booth set up.  I should have purchased more but only had a little cash on me.  This may find itself in a painting someday.

There is a new art co-op which opened months ago in Ft. Thomas and this was the first time it was open for me to walk through.  It offers the opportunity to show your work and sell it, plus gives some classes.  I didn't see my old friend, Joyce Friedeman, who teaches there, but I did meet the owner/operator of the gallery.  Unfortunately, I've forgotten his name.  

Ken Bowman's Framing was having a show by an artist and he told me Thursday (when I picked up a framed painting sent by my friend, Sadami) that they sold 17 of the paintings the artist put out - most of the $ went to Ft. Thomas Education funding so that's great.  

We also spent a day with our grandson, who played Wii games, went to the park to swing and play Grandma and Grandpa a game of basketball, painted a few pieces of paper, had some lunch, watched a cartoon and played with a toy construction set Grandpa had in the garage - a pretty full day!

Include a tough Pilates session from Mistress Kelli (that's what I'm calling her now!), a checkup with my doc, and shoe shopping, and that's why I haven't had time to paint or post...

And what have you been doing??