Haskell Indian Art Market

Lawrence is fortunate to host two universities. In addition to the University of Kansas, our town is home to Haskell Indian Nations University. Haskell was originally opened as a school to assimilate children into the dominant European culture, but it later became an inter-tribal university. We have attended the Haskell Indian Art Market almost every year since our move to Kansas, often bringing along visiting scholars to expose them to the unique North American cultures represented at the event. This year a Fulbright scholar from Ukraine accompanied us as we perused the art, enjoyed music and dance performances, and snacked on fry bread. A video and photos follow.

Oh Canada!

Over the Labor Day weekend, Erik was in Canada attending the American Political Science Association Conference. Yes - the American Political Science Association met in Canada. Many of the participants were also shaking their heads about the venue. To be sure, Canada is a lovely country and Toronto has much to recommend it, but traveling to Canada created some logistical and financial hurdles that other conference sites would not have presented. Erik was also annoyed by some problems with his panels. On one panel where he and his Ukrainian colleague Nazar were presenting their research, the discussant was unable to attend. A discussant reviews and provides commentary on all papers, and plays a critical role in academic conference activities. So, they received no feedback. In addition, his second panel, scheduled for Sunday, was canceled.

Despite these complications, he had a productive visit. Erik met with his colleagues who are working together on a big research project funded by the National Science Foundation, spent several hours working with Nazar on their research projects, networked with other political scientists, and caught up with grad school chums.

Toronto is a great food town, but Erik's conference obligations did not allow him to explore too much. He did a bit of research with the help of Yelp to identify two must-visit roadfood sites. Erik took Nazar, as well as Rob and Frank (from Texas and Texas Tech universities, respectively), to the St. Lawrence Market for the "World Famous" peameal bacon sandwich. As we have noted on previous posts, markets are always key destinations to visit on trips. Lea and Erik cobbled together a lovely picnic lunch from cheese, bread, and other items from the St. Lawrence Market during their visit to Toronto over ten years ago. The peameal bacon sandwich did not disappoint. The freshly baked soft bun offset the tender bacon. Erik added horseradish, hot mustard, and some hot pepper rings to spice things up. Here you can see the sign advertising the sandwich (at the Carousel Bakery stall), and Nazar taking in the sites and smells of the market.

Chinatown was another important food destination, as Erik had identified a Banh Mi shop that he wanted to visit. Here you can see the sandwich that he ate on the road (the shop had no seats). The baguette had a wonderfully crunchy exterior and soft interior. The barbecued pork was sweet and was accompanied by fresh coriander, sliced and marinated carrot and daikon, and hot pepper. The whole filling was coated in a dark sauce that came out of a Sriracha sauce bottle, but its color and viscosity did not match Sriracha. The banh mi was definitely the most delicious sandwich Erik has ever tasted for $2.25 (Canadian, so take off 15 cents or so). It also ranks among his favorite sandwiches of all time.

Toronto has been hosting an air show, and during the day sonic booms regularly blasted eardrums in the city center. It was hard to capture the planes as they moved quickly across the sky, but this photo caught one fighter jet.

Early one morning, Erik took a 7km jog (the hotel provided nice maps for runners, with 2K, 4K, and 7K options) that took him up through the university to the Royal Ontario Museum, past Chinatown, and back to the hotel. He came upon some interesting buildings (the one below is an art school), and also was able to witness Toronto's sizable homeless population in many of their haunts. He passed by a Salvation Army trailer serving breakfast to a large crowd, and passed many people camped out on grates or in doorways. The man in the photo below - along with his dog - found a spot inside the locked yard of a historic home museum.

Erik had some time on Sunday prior to his departure to visit the Hockey Hall of Fame. His first stop was the shrine dedicated to the Stanley Cup. The Hall has been reorganized since his last visit, and unfortunately some of the historic gear was not on display. However, the international component has been expanded. He found alot of gear from his favorite area of the world - below

you can see the Kazakhstan and Ukraine national jerseys. Another great sweater was North Korea's - complete with a Nike swoosh.

While the visit had ups and downs, it was a success overall.

Goooooal!

Carter has now been initiated into a standard weekend ritual across much of the US: the youth soccer league. He enthusiastically took to the field today in his oversized shin guards and t-shirt, ready to score some goals. [Apparently, children are under the mistaken impression that goals are scored during soccer matches.] Despite several bouts of perfectionist anxiety, he did really well and showed substantial improvement over the course of one hour.

Wild Kingdom

Several years ago, we were told that Omaha was a nice city to visit, especially with children. After putting off the trip several times, we decided to take a long weekend and travel north as our summer was coming to an end.

We spent quite a bit of our trip walking around town. On our first day in Omaha, we strolled through the Old Market, to the Heartland of America Park (located alongside the mysterious and sinister ConAgra Headquarters), and along the Missouri River to the Bob Kerrey Bridge, linking Nebraska and Iowa. Most of our intense walks were confined to the morning hours as the heat was searing during our stay.

Omaha is a difficulty city to describe. Its downtown is spotless and well maintained, yet many pockets have a decidedly seedy feeling about them. It has an old urban vibe with many contemporary accents: pristine early twentieth century buildings sit alongside modern glass towers and newly-constructed parks, statues, and fountains. The real gem is the zoo.

We have visited several zoos in the US and abroad. While the San Diego Zoo is still tops in terms of the diversity of animals and layout, Omaha is a close second. Its special features - the indoor desert, jungle, aquarium, and butterfly exhibit were outstanding. The zoo's literature touts the desert pavilion as the largest indoor desert environment. It encompasses several above-ground and below-ground displays featuring flora and fauna from the major desert areas of the world. The underground space is dedicated to nocturnal animals and has a particularly extensive bat area. Other highlights included the aquarium's shark reef area - like a long glass tube with glass walls and ceiling - where visitors could view sharks, rays, and other creatures on all sides.

The Children's Museum was another highlight. Carter spent most of his time in the special Sesame Street body exhibit (apparently, muppet anatomy closely matches human) and in a room teaching children about gravity, propulsion, and other concepts with small plastic balls. Carter was particularly obsessed with a machine that collected balls from air-propelled, hydraulic, and pneumatic tubes and dispensed them from the ceiling like rain. He was convinced that if he could organize all of the kids, they could "beat the machine" and clean up all of the balls before it could drop them from the sky. Undeterred by his parents' suggestion that this might be a quixotic venture, Carter ran around the room, collecting balls, and yelling "we can do it!" As in many science fiction treatments of robot apocalypse, the machines won.

As with all of our trips, we researched interesting places to dine while in town. We particularly enjoyed ice cream at Ted and Wally's, breakfast treats from Pettit's, traditional Ethiopian food at the modest Ethiopian Restaurant, and a massive East European meal at the Bohemian Cafe (be sure to check out the Bohemian Cafe theme song). We were fortunate to catch up with relatives at the 11 Worth Cafe on our last day in town. We spent an all too short breakfast exchanging stories with Erik's cousin Paula and her husband Ken.

Following are some photo highlights with brief commentary.

Carter has always loved ramps. This one above near the ConAgra headquarters was a particular treat - a kind of pedestrian Lombard Street. He yelled "squiggly ramp" while running up and down.

Straddling the border between Iowa and Nebraska on the pedestrian bridge.

Learning about human and muppet digestion.

"We can do it!" Carter tries in vain to organize the children against the machine. The machine wins, though Carter claims to have twice beaten it.

While visiting the zoo, Carter enjoyed playing with some of the animal statues situated all over the grounds.

The carousel was a quest objective for Carter. He was unable to ride the carousel at the recent Douglas County Fair, and was looking forward to the zoo trip so that he could finally take a spin. As soon as he mounted his lapine steed, he told Lea that he was scared. Immediately after the carousel started, he was hooked and wanted to keep going.

Lea and Carter decided to cross the rather slimy rope bridge in the Omaha zoo's "jungle."

Lea and Carter soon tired of Erik's efforts at photography (evidenced by Lea's expression). Below are some especially photogenic residents of the zoo.

Bottlecap Earth

What do you do with hundreds of bottlecaps? We have been asking that question since Carter began his collection when we lived in L'viv. He recently decided to make them his artistic medium, creating pseudo-mosaics (with the help of his father). His first effort is above - a rainbow and his school. Below is his current masterpiece, still sitting on our living room floor. The bottlecap earth not only includes major landmasses, but also his favorite geographic landmarks of the moment. You can clearly see South Georgia Island off of the coast of South America, as well as Kerguelen Island in the Indian Ocean. A spot more difficult to see is the Ilemi Triangle in Africa - denoted by a small red bottlecap.