Armed Forces History Museum & Office Christmas Tree

I went on a guided tour of the Armed Forces History Museum with a lineage society. The museum is located off Ulmerton Rd in Largo FL and I found the narration quite moving. Not only was the museum's founder literally the first person to land on the beach at Normandy, we also had the opportunity to speak to a Korea war veteran who was held as a prisoner of war for 31 months. Very moving and worth visiting if you are I the area. They have cool tanks too :)

I went to breakfast with a couple coworkers today and then two of us put up the Christmas tree in the office. Normally I do it during work hours but it is kind of distracting to others and I get interrupted a lot so doing it while the office was closed was perfect. Here's our finished tree for this year:

National Museum of the American Indian

We only visited one of the Smithsonian museum while we were in Washington DC earlier in the month and I chose the National Museum of the American Indian. I have a soft spot for tribal/Native museums after having worked for the Alutiiq Museum & Archeological Repository in Kodiak.

 The exterior of the building.

 Mom with one of the scriptures outside the museum

 A woven boat???

 Paddles made by Jerry Laktonen

 A Yupik mask

 Ceramic made by Pomonkey tribe members - I took this for an old work friend whose father is a member.

I believe this was the outside of the Rasmussen theatre

 

 

The museum was awesome. A nice exhibit of many different cultures. What I found most impressive was that it taught history and then on another floor it was more of a "who we are now" type exhibit. I believe that's an important distinction that Native peoples are current, not past.



Green Thumb Sunday

In honor of Green Thumb Sunday, I worked in my yard. NOT!!! My Kodiak friends Jim & Sandy are in Tampa and had a day away from their business so we went out. It was a BEAUTIFUL day - temperature perfect, very light breeze. You couldn't pay for a better day. We went to the Museum of Fine Arts then ate burgers & fries at Johnny Rocket. A very nice day on Beach Drive in St. Petersburg indeed.

Here we are in front of the Kapok tree in Straub Park. These trees can grow to 150 feet! Sandy commented on the smoothness of the bark. These trees are drought deciduous meaning they shed leaves during the dry season (they are a tropical rainforrest tree) and get these large flower pod on them.

Check out the size of the flowers! Granted, Sandy has a thin wrist and forarm but the flowers are big. They made a bit of a thud when they fell from up high too.

Here's two photos of the tree. It's impossible to get in it's entirety without giving up detail.