San Antonio Rock n Roll Half Marathon

I recently ran the  San Antonio Rock n Roll Half Marathon. The race wasn't that great (it was super HOT & HUMID & CROWDED!), but my mom, daughter & I had a great time in San Antonio!

 

We ate at an outdoor Italian restaurant on the Riverwalk and this pigeon walked right over to Alex!

 

We took a boat ride on the river and enjoyed hearing some of the history of the area. (Photo of building from boat.)



 

We visited The Alama (our 2nd time). I'm wearing my "Run. Rock. Roll. Repeat." t-shirt the day before my race.

 

We visited the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum and kept score on all of the questions. My mom KILLED us! And, she beat us on this drum game, too, where you have to beat as many times as you can in one minute. Way to go, Mom!

Marie Antoinette's Poufs

I have started to prepare for a trip to France this summer by reading a book about Marie Antoinette. The book, To the Scaffold: The Life of Marie Antoinette by Carolly Erickson, is quite fascinating.

Yesterday, I read about Marie's incredible poufs. In 1774, the women of the court were wearing elaborate hats. But, they started styling their hair in elaborate ways instead. The pouf a la circonstance featured "a cypress and black marigolds, a wheat sheaf, and a cornucopia filled with every sort of fruit and white feathers. The allegorical meaning of the Circumstance Pouf was that while mourning Louis XV, France welcomed the bounty certain to be enjoyed under the new King. A medical coiffure came next, the pouf a l'inoculation. Louis had submitted to being inoculated against smallpox about a month after becoming King, and the new hairstyle commermorated this with a rising sun, an olive tree and a serpent entwined around the trunk, a flower club near him." (quote from the above book)

Another amazing pouf was coiffure a 'Independance ou le Triomphe de la Liberte (shown above) which celebrated a naval victory in the American War for independence.

I particularly enjoyed a post I found on the subject at a blog entitled "Dressed in Time: Historical costuming with a special love for the 18th century." The post is called "Wiggery and poufs!"  The author tells all about the poufs: how they were powdered, how they scratched their itchy heads (with a tool called a grattoir), how they slept (with their hair wrapped in a triple bandage), how they protected their hair from the elements, and much, much more! I found it absolutely fascinating!

Arlington Cemetery

We were on a tight schedule this day and our biggest mistake was not eating before we went to the cemetery! It was a long ride and we thought we'd get something at the cemetery. Well, food is not allowed at the cemetery. And, we were there for hours even though we 'hurried.' One of the girls in our group had her blood sugar crashing and her mom talked one of the employees into getting some food (from his own stash). But, the rest of us went HUNGRY.

I loved that we visited DC in fall. It was beautiful!

The Kennedy's.

We got to the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers fairly early and sat and waited for quite awhile. But, it was a beautiful day and we had nice seats on the stairs. We didn't realize this was a day they would change the flowers so we got up and left our seats. It was disappointing that we didn't see it, but we were tired and still had a long walk ahead of us. And, one of the moms had a grave she wanted to find. We ended up going on without them. Everyone was tired & hungry.

My favorite photo of the day.

I read that the rocks on the tombstones are a Jewish way of paying respect. And, when I looked at the stones I'd taken photos of, they do have the Star of David on them, though I also saw one with a cross.