Starling Travel

My secret to being able to pack a lot in a small toiletry bag is Bagettes. They are tiny ziplock bags that allow me to pack a wide range of medications in a small container. I also use Bagettes in my purse so I can carry pain reliever. I found these at Michael’s Arts and Crafts because they are also incredibly useful for holding beads, knitting markers or any number of other craft items.

Here are some tips for using these little ziplock bags wisely:

• Label your bags: Using a Sharpie marker, write the contents on the bag. My vitamin bags aren’t labeled. If they weren’t so brightly colored, I might mistake them for a different pill. So many pills look the same that it’s safest to label the bags.

• Label the instructions: If it is a drug you’re not familiar with, it’s essential that you include the dosage and instructions (like I did on the Mylanta bag shown).

• Do not use these for prescription drugs, especially if you travel on airplanes. The TSA is searching bags and if they find prescription drugs that are not in their original prescription bottle, it could delay you or worse, you could end up investigated for drug charges.

• Replace them often: These bags are cheap and come 200 in a tiny box. If you start to have a little bit of wear on the bag, replace it. There’s no point in letting them wear out completely and having loose pills all over your purse or toiletry bag.

Since I have found this package of Bagettes, I haven’t had to buy another. I only used about 15 bags total, so a box of 200 is basically a lifetime’s supply. I think I spent four bucks for that box, so it’s a great deal. I wish Amazon.com sold them so I could link you to them, but I did find them online in a couple of places:

• JoAnn Arts and Crafts – Bagettes Heavy Duty Reclosable Bags

• Guildcraft Arts and Crafts – Bagettes 4″ x 6″

Josh Leo is going to take you to the Grand Haven Salmon Festival:

The best advice came from one of the participants when asked how he chooses:

“I look for the long lines.”

Apparently, the fish and wine people with the longest lines have the best food. That makes sense.

I love Josh’s evaluation:

“Meat on a stick. I don’t think there’s anything better in this world.”

Josh invites us all to come next year:

“Come down next year for yourself and enjoy all the awesome salmon and wine craziness that’s going on here in Grand Haven. Yeah, it’s a great time! Good food, good people, good wine: thumbs up all the way around!”

I just love Josh’s reviews of the events in Grand Haven, Michigan. It shows me that no matter where you live, there is something exciting going on to enjoy.

Lan Bui made an excellent video of the Orange International Street Fair in Orange County, California. You can see it here:

• Video of the Moment: Street Fair 2006

I linked to a group of pictures from the street fair earlier in the year:

• Starling Travel » The Orange County Fair

The video makes it seems far more interesting and exciting! Check it out!

During our trip to San Antonio, Mike and I took a break and went to Michaels Arts and Crafts. We went there to look at arts supplies and just relax. We have Michaels in Salt Lake City, so we thought it would be a familiar reminder of home. Instead, it was a very different store. There were two full aisles of ribbons in bright, primary colors. It was so interesting, I took photos. Michaels announced to the residents of Texas that they were your Homecoming Headquarters, but I had never seen anything like this for Homecoming. What was all this stuff?

While I looked at all the ribbons, flowers and megaphones, I became more and more confused. I asked one guy who worked at service desk what it was all about, but he was unable to explain it to me. I returned to the ribbons. A kindly woman said to me, “Ah, it’s Homecoming Time. They’ve got to get their mums ready.” I pounced on her like a housecat left alone too often. With some coaxing, Joan Anderson was willing to explain it all to me.

Texas sure does love their high school football. Using the artificial mums, ribbons and other decorations, you can create a Homecoming Mum. They are for girls and they wear them to the Homecoming game. It’s not for the dance, just the game (you get real flowers for the dance). This is only for football. Basketball doesn’t get this kind of attention.

I don’t know if this is still the case, but Joan says that the boys’ mothers would make the mums so the boys could give them to the girls they like best. A girl could have many different mums from many boys. The girl with the most mums is the most popular.

“Look there. There’s one over here that has three mums on it. This girl would have to be very special, wouldn’t she?”

Part of me wants to get a whole pile of mums from every boy in town. I want to be the girl with the most mums. I want to be very special. This Texan practice feels very guttural to me. I can feel it in my bones and gut. We had nothing like this in Salt Lake City, Utah. Who knew I would find something so unique and foreign a mere 1800 miles away.

For more information:

• Homecoming – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: A brief mention of the practice is here.

• Michaels Arts and Crafts – Homecoming Mums

• How to Make Homecoming Mums This site also has a brief history about the tradition.

• How to Make Homecoming Mums Elaborate and detailed instructions on how to make them from scratch without the help of Michaels Arts and Crafts.

Sometimes I can film exactly how I see things. I don’t need to edit the footage or anything. The film looks exactly how I remember it. It makes me feel exactly how I did the day I shot the film. That’s what happened this day in September when I filmed the bells at the San Jose Mission.

The bells seemed to tell me that we had to hurry and leave, but I hadn’t even gotten near the church when they rang. I wanted to capture all of it, but my traveling companions were hot and bored. They waited in the car while I hurriedly took photos. I just wanted to relax and listen to the bells.

Where: San Jose Mission
2202 Roosevelt Avenue San Antonio, Texas 78210 – Google Map

Phone: (210) 932-1001
Fax: (210) 534-1106

My absolute favorite moment of the trip to San Antonio was the half hour or so that I sat outside just listening to music and feeding pigeons. I was shocked that they would take the food right out of my hand. The unpalatable brownie suddenly became a treasure of bird attractant. I recorded a brief glimpse of what it was like here:

I felt more at peace and calm here than I did during our pilgrimages to the missions. I find it strange that I can find God at a shopping mall more easily than at a church.

We went to San Antonio for a World War II Reunion of the 303rd Bomb Group. The highlight of the evening for the final banquet was an Andrew Sisters Revue performed by Destination. I went to the banquet expecting a typical faire of WWII era music sung poorly by a local band. They were a local band from Wimberley, Texas, but they sang beautifully. See for yourself here:

Destination performs regularly with a full orchestra in Wimberley, but they are also available if you have an event in Austin, San Marcos, Mustang Island or San Antonio. They’ll do right by you. Can’t say they’ll do the same for their “fellas” overseas…

Where: Destination:

MySpace Page – Destination Trio

She also performs with Gypsy Moon:

MySpace Page – Gypsy Moon Music

For Booking Information: Phone: 512-396-7171

Josh Leo lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Recently, they have renovated an area called Gaslight Village. Here is his video about the rennovation.

I love the different answers from each person he interviewed about the sculpture. Josh didn’t seem to like the way Gaslight Village turned out, but his video has made me want to visit his town more than ever.

Fosta posted a video on YouTube that is a time-lapse look at Tokyo. Fosta placed several cameras around the city and used the photos to create this video. If you have ever visited Tokyo, this video is a fun trip down memory lane. If you haven’t, it will make you want to hop a plane to see the active and exciting city.

Via: Boing Boing: Video: “Tokyo hectic”

This video is almost 25 minutes long. It is a Disney film made about Disneyland and shows Walt Disney’s ideas for his new amusement park, The Epcot Center. It shows Disneyland as it was in the early sixties. If you went to Disneyland as a child and are shocked to see how different it is today, this video is great for reminiscing.