Beautiful

Beautiful

Away From Everything

Away From Everything

Out Till Saturday.

I am at a conference in Utah.  I'll have something tomorrow and I will be back with regular columns on Monday.

Happy July 4th

8 Of The Best Places To Visit In July

It is now July and many people are heading off on holidays.  Some are going camping out by a lake or river for a week to enjoy nature.  Others make their annual trip to visit relatives while others plan to travel great distances to enjoy places they've never been or want to return to.

As far as traveling, there are several places to go during the month of July.  Some locals are near and some far but they are all considered the best places to visit now.

You could start with Santa Barbara, California with its 1920 Spanish facades, historic waterfront and the Moxi discovery museum where children can make movies and learn more about 3-D printing.  There are many great restaurants and July 19-20 is the California Wine Festival which promotes local wines paired with food.  I seldom remember what a red or white wine traditionally go with.

If you would prefer, head off to Switzerland to enjoy the a UNESCO designated heritage wine area that has produced wines since the eleventh century.  Running from July 18 to August 11, the Fete des Vignerons returns to Lavaux wine region.  If you want to see it, you must go this year because this festival only happens once a generation or no more than five times a century.  This festival began in 1767 to mark the end of wine growers meetings.  Over the years it has grown so now there are parades, cultural activities, and pop-up restaurants.  In addition, there is a musical pageant which shows a young girl and her grandfather going through the vineyard where she learns about the wine making process.

Of course, you could hit Warsaw, Poland instead in July.  This town is experiencing a Vodka revival including the Vodka museum.  The museum includes a tasting room so people can experience vodka made of potatoes, wheat, or rye.  There are tons of restaurants to visit.

If you prefer music, check out Trencin, Slovakia with its annual Pohoda Festival.  The festival runs from July 11 to 13 and features a wide variety of music from Indie, to punk.  In addition, the festival has dance, visual arts,  films, literature, and theatrical productions.  Trencin is also the site of a very old castle and is only about 3 hours from Vienna.

For those who prefer not to leave the United States, one should check out Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown around July 4th.  Yorktown hosts the American Revolution Museum with its interactive displays and large collection of artifacts from that time, while Jamestown is the first English colony established in 1607.  It has a replica of the ship while the town has interpreters to share what life was like for both natives and colonists.  Finally Williamsburg hosts a reading of the Declaration of independence on July 4th.

Do you prefer experiencing the Wild West?  Then check out Cheyenne, Wyoming's Frontier days from July 19 to July 28.  Cheyenne hosts a professional level rodeo, art shows, carnival, and world class entertainers.  In addition, there is a celebration making the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad in the Cheyenne Depot Museum housed in a building donated by the Union Pacific Railroad.  Cheyenne is only about 1.5 hours north of Denver which has an international airport.

Have you wanted to go north? Now is a good time to visit Trondheim, Norway because of its long days and mild temperatures.  Trondheim is Norway's third largest city.  It is close to fjords, and is said to have been founded in 997 AD by Viking King Olaf.  The town is surrounded by hiking trails, and beautiful beaches but be warned, the water is chilly.  Trondheim has several museums, restaurants, cobble stone streets, colorful wooden houses, and coffee houses.  There are cathedrals dating from the 11th century that have beautiful stained glass windows and pipe organs.  Its also possible to take a quick sea trip to see the city from the water.

Want to check out lions  like you see on the Lion King, then look to Tanzania to participate in a Safari.  July is in the middle of the dry season so weather is much nicer and July is considered to be the best month for viewing wildlife.  Book a stay at the Serengeti National Park you can see a wide variety of African animals from wildebeest to lions, to gazelle, to leopards and baboons.  My sister went on a Safari and loved it.  She said I needed to go so maybe in a couple of years.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Kate Warne - Detective Extrodinaire!

I came across a mention of a female Pinkerton agent, the first who was hired long before women could serve in law enforcement.  A women who was more independent than the average woman.

Her name was Kate Warne.  In 1856, just a few years before the Civil War began, she convinced Allan Pinkerton, head of the Pinkerton Detective Agency to take a chance on hiring her.  Before this, female employees worked as secretaries, not as agents.

At the time of her hiring, she was just 23 years old and already widowed.  Faced with trying to make a living, she decided to walk into the agency and the rest is history.

Kate Warne could easily change her looks.  In addition she could be shy, bold, quiet, or loud based on what was needed.  She could sit quietly and pick up all sorts of information.  She could also go under cover as needed.

Just before the Civil War broke out, Pinkerton made her head of all female agents but when It began in 1861, she was promoted to head of the Union Intelligence Service, forerunner to the modern Secret Service.  The job of the Union Intelligence Service was to discover information about the Confederacy's resources and plans and keep that from reaching its destination.

She was best known for sneaking  Abraham Lincoln into Washington DC for his inauguration because a plan had been discovered to assonate Lincoln.  In fact, she was the one who uncovered the plot and she came up with a plan to transport him.  She helped disguise Lincoln as an invalid confined to a wheel chair.  At the same time, they arranged for the telegraph to suffer a fault so those who wished to assonate Lincoln could not do so.    She succeeded and he became president.

After the war, she continued working for Pinkertons as a senior employee where she continued helping to solve cases and to train new female detectives.  All told, she worked at Pinkertons for about 12 years before she died in 1869 from a lung illness possibly pneumonia.  Allan Pinkerton claims Kate Warne was one of his 5 best detectives of all times.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Checks Are Going Away

 It is summer, so I'm catching up on watching various shows.  Its basically binge watching but on one of the period shows from the 19th century, someone wrote a check and handed it over.  I didn't think checks were used because you usually see people paying with money.

Yup, checks were used then.  In fact, the first checks as we know them appeared in 1681 when some men in Boston, mortgaged their land, so they could write checks.

For about 200 years prior to this, there was a system originating in Holland  whereby people would deposit cash with "Cashiers".  The money could then be withdrawn using a note from the account holder.  Of course there was a fee involved but it was safer than hiding it around the house.  Eventually, this system spread across Europe to the United States.  Due to all checks being hand written, many people made counterfeit checks so in response, financial institutions began requiring both parties (the writer and receiver) to appear in person before any check was cashed.

In 1762, Banker Lawerence Childs in Britain issued the first printed checks and the term "check" is said to have developed when they started numbering these pieces of paper as a way of keeping track of them or "checking" them. Unfortunately, a problem developed concerning how these banks were going to collect the monies associated with the piece of paper.

At first, banks sent runners around the the issuing facility to exchange the piece of paper for the money. This could take a lot of time and the runners would be moving cash around under unsecured circumstances.  According to bank lore, a couple of these runners met at a pub where they stopped to get some liquid refreshment.  They noted they had checks from each others bank, so they exchanged the pieces of papers and took them back to their own back.  This supposedly lead to "Clearing Houses" where the checks were sent in to be separated and sent to the issuing bank.

Over the years, more and more people are being paid through the use of direct deposit so a person never actually receives a physical check.  Furthermore, many have quit writing checks due to setting up automatic bill paying for most standard bills via direct payment from a bank account or via credit card.

The last time I wrote a check, the store ran it through a reader of some sort, marked it and then handed it back to me.  In recent years, I've quit using checks due to the connivence of using other payment methods.  I don't think I've seen anyone use a check at the grocery store or any store, except my mother who prefers them.

Will checks every disappear?  I know its been predicted by I don't know.   Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.