HOF Gallery: While in New York in June, we were fortunate to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. The museum is phenomenal in many ways and a must see if you are a baseball fan. The Hall of Fame Gallery, shown in the photo, displays plaques honoring the 337 former players, baseball executives and pioneers of the game. This was our first visit to Cooperstown, and we hope to return when we travel to the eastern U.S. again. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
American Falls: Another New York destination we have always wanted to visit is Niagara Falls. This was our first visit, and we were not disappointed. Shown is American Falls as seen from Luna Island, a tiny island that separates American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. American Falls tumbles almost 200 feet. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos
As we approach the end of 2021, I think we are all hoping that 2022 is a year that the world may begin returning to some form of normal. We all feel like we have over-dosed on COVID-19 and the variants of that terrible virus. May your 2022 bring much happiness and joy.
To close out 2021, I would like to share a few of the highlights of our travels during the past year. The highlight of the year for us was a trip to the midwest and eastern U.S. in May and June. This post will feature some stops on that trip. Next weekend, we will feature some of the top spots of the year that were not a part of the eastern journey.
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country, and he shares his photographs, which appear in the “Posts from the Road” series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
Falling Water: We try to visit and tour buildings designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright when we travel near one of his works. While in Pennsylvania, we were able to tour two houses, which Wright designed. Falling Water is Wright’s most famous residential work. The house was designed to sit over a 30-foot-high waterfall. Because of the lay of the land and space, the house is built on a series of cantilevered levels, which were all tied to the rocky landscape with steel and concrete. Shown is an exterior view of this magnificent house taken downstream from the house. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Wall of Names: The Flight 93 Memorial is located near Shanksville, Pa. Flight 93 was the fourth plane involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks on America. It was the only plane which did not hit its intended target. The Flight 93 Memorial is a beautiful tribute to the 40 American heroes aboard the flight. Shown in the photo is the Wall of Names which is made up of 40 white polished granite slabs three inches thick and eight feet tall. The 40 slabs form a wall on the flight path of the plane when it crashed. Each individual slab contains the name of a crew member or passenger who died at the site on 9-11-2001. We visited the site on Memorial Day, 2021 and the flags were placed at the base of each slab for the holiday. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Long Live Rock & Roll: When passing through Ohio on our eastern journey, we visited the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The hall honors the history of rock & roll, the artists, producers, and others who played a role in the history of rock music. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was established in 1983 but did not have a home until this facility was built and dedicated in 1995. Shown is the exterior of the seven-level structure, which sits in the shadow of downtown Cleveland on the shores of Lake Erie. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Hogback Bridge: We left Colorado and visited Iowa for several days before traveling to the eastern U.S. in May. One of the areas visited in Iowa was Madison County. The Bridges of Madison County were made famous in the book by Robert James Waller and adapted into an award-winning movie in 1995. There are six covered bridges left in the county which can be seen on the Covered Bridges Scenic Byway, an 82-mile tour of the county. Shown is the Hogback Bridge located just north of Winterset, Iowa. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
The Day the Music Died: Following a concert in Clear Lake, Iowa Feb. 3, 1959, J.P. Richardson ‘Big Bopper’, Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly boarded a small plane to their next concert in Moorhead, Minn. That flight only lasted about 5 miles in the snowy and windy winter storm before crashing in a farmer’s cornfield. Don McClean’s 1971 hit ‘American Pie’ referenced ‘the Day the Music Died’, which was about the tragic crash that killed the three rock and roll stars in 1959. Today, visitors can travel about 5 miles out a rural highway and another mile down a dirt road to the crash site location. A short hike into the cornfield leads visitors to a small memorial honoring the three stars and the pilot of the plane. Shown is the marker for the trail by the dirt road which is a pair of black eyeglasses similar to the glasses that Buddy Holly wore. It was an honor to visit the Surf Ballroom where the three played and then visit the crash site and memorial in the cornfield. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com