Texas Recap: Fort Worth

Well, it's Monday again.  How was your beautiful, autumnal weekend?  Mine was pretty good.  My sister and I went up to visit my parents and grandparents, which was nice.  And I got a chance to see my HLP, Amanda, and her boyfriend which is always nice.  Amanda surprised me with a card and revealed that yesterday was her and my 10 year friend-iversary!  How awesome is that?!  On November 3rd, 2003 we hung out together for the first time outside of class, I was a freshman and she was a second year transfer to Xavier.  We both went to a Mermaid Tavern meeting (an English group), with my crazy roommate at the time.  Mermaid Tavern ended up being incredibly boring, but after that Amanda and I started to hangout and study together.  And once my crazy roommate went full-on nuts, Amanda and I decided to get an apartment together the following year in the building she was living in.  That was the beginning of what has been the best and most fulfilling friendship of my life.  We've been study-buddies, roommates, proof-readers, traveling companions, relationship counselors, and heterosexual life partners.  Love you bunches, Amanda!  Here's to 10 more years of awesomeness!

Alright, enough sappy friend-love (just kidding!), back to Texas.  After our relaxing night in San Antonio, we really weren't looking forward to the 4+ hour drive to Dallas, most of which was under construction.  But I had planned it so that we didn't go straight to Dallas, instead we were planning a little detour to Fort Worth because we wanted to see the cattle drive, which happens every day at 11:30am and 4pm.  So, we had a schedule to keep if we wanted to see the 4pm cattle drive, which is a good thing for us since it keeps us on track and motivated.  Luckily we made it to Fort Worth with time to spare, so we decided to check out the Fort Worth Water Gardens really quick before heading over to the Stock Yards.

I wasn't wearing the best footwear, so we didn't go to the bottom of the water gardens, but it was still cool to see.

After the water gardens we headed over to Exchange Ave to find a parking spot and check out the herd of longhorns.  Nowadays, the twice-daily cattle drive is all for show.  These guys don't have to worry about becoming anyone supper anytime soon.  I know it's kind of touristy, but it's still fun.  And coming from Ohio, where longhorns aren't a common sight, it's pretty cool to see them up close!

We visited their holding pen before the cattle drive and got to see the cowboys get them up off their butts and lead them to Exchange Ave.  (This basically just involved some whooping and once the main longhorn with the bell around his neck got up they all started getting up like old pros.)

See the black and white one with the bell, who's name is Duramax, I guess he's the ringleader of the group.

I couldn't resist a couple of black and white shots.  The longhorns are just so big and majestic and I loved the contrast of their spots and the shadows their giant horns cast on the street.

It was a fun experience and I'm totally glad we went.  I'm not sure if we'd do it again if we went back, once might be enough, but I'd definitely want to check out the Botanic Gardens if we found ourselves in Forth Worth again.  I've still got photos from the Texas State Fair to share, so please stay tuned!

Vent Haven Museum

This year I decided to join the Cincinnati Book Arts Society (aka CBAS, pronounced "sea-bass").  It's something I had thought of doing for sometime, but when my coworker Veronica joined our department and started talking how great CBAS was and all the cool things she got to do and make I was envious.  So far this year timing hasn't been on my side and I've missed a couple of events.  But I was really excited to go on the study group's field trip to Vent Haven Museum last weekend.

As it bills itself, Vent Haven is "the world's only museum dedicated to the art of ventriloquism".  I knew the museum was somewhere in Kentucky, but had no idea it was so close to Cincinnati; just across the river in Fort Mitchell.  Now, I knew nothing about ventriloquism or "vents" (as ventriloquists are referred)...well, besides for watching the Lamb Chop tv series growing up and the very very little I know of Jeff Dunham.
Well, and I was familiar with the creepy connotations that go along with ventriloquist dummies too, from scary movies and the like.  To say my knowledge of ventriloquism was very limited would be putting it nicely.  But I will confess, I was a little worried that the museum would be creepy and maybe a little scary.  Luckily, that was not the case at all.

Vent Haven is situated, oddly enough, on a little residential street.  This is because the museum is based on the personal collection of William S. Berger who lived in the residence that sits in front of the actual museum.  You can read more about Berger on their website, it's a really interesting story.  Berger's collection, along with a variety of donations over the years, has left the museum with approximately 800 dummies in three different buildings.  It's an incredible collection, even if you are like me and you are not a ventriloquist aficionado.

Tours are done by reservation only, for a $10 donation fee ($5 if you have a larger group like ours).  Jennifer, the curator of the museum, will tell you all about Berger, the history of his collection and the museum, as well as demonstrate how the dummies functions and tell you loads of incredible stories about various dummies and ventriloquists.

This is Jennifer demonstrating how the pulls work in this particular dummy.

Cecil Wigglenose is definitely a favorite!  He's so expressive with 8 different actions he can perform; crossing his eyes, raising his eyebrows and wiggling his nose, to name just a few.  As you can see, his inner workings are a bit different from the one above.

As we were going through the museum, I wasn't at all freaked out by the dummies.  Instead I was captivated by them, all so different and interesting in their own way.  Plus, Jennifer's energetic and positive attitude is just infectious and she gives you such an appreciation for ventriloquism and for the dummies themselves!

I found these particularly intriguing (top right and bottom), as did many in our group, because they look so real.

Johnny, the third from the left on the top row, was definitely one of my favorites.  He's just got so much personality to him.

I had the best time at Vent Haven!  In fact, it was probably one of the most interesting museums I've ever been to; I would go again in a heartbeat.  With so many dummies and all the walls lined with old photos, it's one of those places that you can go again and again and not see everything!  I do have more photos that I took but didn't share here...you can find them on my flickr.

Have you ever been to Vent Haven before?  Would you go?  I know a lot of you probably think from the photos that it is creepy, but trust me, it's not!  The combo of the wonderful curator and the refreshing layout of the museum is just leaves you with a sense of amazement!