Easter events in the Upstate

There are dozens of egg hunts and spring happenings in the Greenville area this time of year, and including a couple of those in our schedule the past two weeks in addition to continuing our annual traditions has made for a busy month. We kicked off the Easter season with the company Easter egg hunt (and the giant bunny) and then followed that with dying eggs the traditional Latvian way – with onion skins. This year I varied my usual method in that after ‘gluing’ leaves and flowers to the eggs with water and wrapping in onion skins, I tied them off with thread without the cheesecloth or old nylons to hold everything together. A few came undone in the dye bath, but they came out even darker than usual after spending the night in the pot outdoors, to keep everything cool. A splash of vinegar probably also played a role.

We headed north to Travelers Rest for the Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt. Held in conjunction by Greenville County Rec and Three Rivers Baptist Association, the event was advertised as “You haven’t lived until you’ve hunted glowing eggs after dark.” Well then, we still haven’t lived. The ‘egg hunt’ was two areas enclosed with construction fencing littered with plastic eggs and eggshells which the kids were herded into and then timed to see how many they could pick up. There was something about trying to get one of every color, but in the end all the empty eggs were dumped into giant bins and the kids were handed 8 or 9 pieces of candy each after standing in line for about 15 minutes in exchange for their effort. We crossed the street to enjoy a free hot dog and play games, and Lauris did get his face painted (not sure what the church volunteers thought of his request for fire to be painted on his cheek), but the lines were growing longer, Vilis was growing heavier, and the boys were growing tired. When I inquired as to when the glow-in-the-dark/flashlight portion of the event would start I was told last year a bunch of little kids were trampled in the dark, and so “we’re not doing that any more.” The bit of false advertising had me disappointed, and the fact that it’s not so fun hunting eggs when there is no reward – I think both boys would have preferred to take home the empty eggs over the few pieces of candy that were tossed their way.

We headed to Swamp Rabbit Grocery and Cafe for their first annual egg dye party earlier this week. Using only natural dyes, the event was geared towards kids under 7 and quickly sold out. With our experience using natural dyes we were ahead of the game in knowing that these things take time, but the resulting hues ended up being in perfect contrast to the darker onion skin eggs from our home dyes.

A stop at the Greenville Zoo for their Get Out and Play Day proved to be slightly disappointing as well. There were booths set up throughout the zoo by organizations to educate and encourage families to get outdoors, and most of the tables were set up around some sort of passport that could get stamped and stickered – but they ran out of these kits early on and so my boys were completely confused by the education aspect of it. They had fun shooting a hockey puck with the Greenville Road Warriors and trying their hand at some archery and other games, but the high point of the visit was definitely running into their soccer coach and meeting the brand-new gibbon. The baby siamang was born March 14, and is the 1st endangered species born at the zoo in 21 years.

As we’ll be spending Easter with family there is more egg hunting yet to come, along with great food and good company. I’m looking forward to seeing how our red cabbage eggs turn out (they are currently in the dye bath and should be ready soon), and overconsumption of chocolate eggs and jelly beans has yet to reach its peak, but I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all Priecīgas Lieldienas and a Happy Easter – onion skins, bunnies, gibbons and all!

When infill gets ugly

I’ve written before about one of the most pressing issues threatening our Greenville neighborhood these days – irresponsible development. Along with spring comes the roar of construction equipment, those developers knocking on our doors offering us “bargain” prices for our homes in hopes of splitting the properties and putting up five mcmansions in the place of one historic bungalow. Here are five reasons why infill in the North Main neighborhood needs to be closely monitored and regulated.

1. The mature trees are under siege. The perfectly healthy trees that keep our streets shaded and cool in the summer, and insulate us against the cold winds of winter are disappearing at a faster rate than they can be replaced. There is no room for large trees in these new developments; when you subtract the footprint of the house, the garage, the porch, the driveway and the “containment ponds,” there is just enough room left for a lawn. (And who wants shade on their lawn?) You and I moved to this neighborhood partly because of the storybook streets, with the large trees forming a green tunnel in the summer so that we can still go for a midday run or walk without getting heat stroke. Crepe myrtle and redbuds do not replace 150 year old oaks – not aesthetically, not monetarily (in terms of saving you money on energy bills), not in converting oxygen, not in wildlife benefits, not in a million years.

2. The houses being built are twice the size of all the surrounding homes. This would be fine if they had the larger lot to go with it, but instead they are on smaller lots than the surrounding homes, with more stories, and walls closer to the neighboring homes and streets than any other construction on the block.

3. There is no green space left. Sure, one house/garage that takes up 90% of the lot on a block is one thing, but imagine if 90% of North Main was covered by shingles, asphalt and pavement. Would you still want to live here?

4. Steep slopes and lowlands are being developed. Areas that were previously unsuited for buildings are being bulldozed and filled in, providing enormous runoff problems that will plague the neighborhood for years to come. With large percentages of these sloped lots covered by turf and asphalt, there is no chance of rainwater soaking into the ground. Instead it runs down driveways and spills out from ‘containment ponds,’ tearing up residential streets with great expense to the taxpayer and even greater expense to the Reedy River, where this muddy, polluted water ends up.

5. Properties are being developed with no regard to the neighbors. Take a look at the map below, and tell me you would want 10 homes in the strip behind your home, a right-of-way previously owned by the city that was never realized. Yet this is exactly what is being proposed, and every time the community speaks out against it and shuts it down, the developers lay low until the furor has died down before resubmitting the plan in hopes they can sneak it through before anyone notices.

What can you do? Join the North Main Community Association and learn of new developments being considered in your backyard. But more importantly, contact your District 1 Representative, Amy Ryberg Doyle. (PO Box 2207, Greenville, SC 29602, (864) 232-7179, ADoyle@greenvillesc.gov, @AmyRybergDoyle) and let her know your concerns. Ask her to do her duty as an elected official and represent us in protecting our neighborhood!

We need infill ordinance protecting our historic neighborhood against companies just looking to turn a profit at the expense of the families living here! We need to speak up and support our neighbors, before it is the property next door being subdivided, the trees across the street being cut down, your backyard shaded by a three story home. We need to realize what we have, before it is too late.

Planes, spaceships and missiles at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

Space Shuttle Discovery

Chapel Hill was just the half-way point to our ultimate destination, Washington DC. The reason for our visit is a longer story involving cousin, fraternities and galas, but just as on our North Carolina stop the boys and I were mostly just along for the ride. We had arrived Friday afternoon leaving time to meet family also in town for the weekend, and then headed to Dogfish Head Alehouse in Gaithersburg (MD) for dinner. A brewing company based in Delaware, the restaurant had delicious grub… and the crowds to prove it. With the annual Rock ‘n Roll marathon taking place in DC that weekend among other things, we knew we were in for big crowds, but with a little bit of planning ahead and some consulting with a local DC-er we picked a destination for Saturday morning: the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

If you’ve been to the National Mall in Washington, DC, chances are you’ve visited Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum there. Being located in downtown DC has its advantages; an estimated 6.7 million visitors walk through the doors annually, making it the 5^th most visited museum in the world. However, a drawback to the location is available space, as the 161,145 square feet of exhibition floor space can be restrictive when talking about displays of large airplanes. In order to present a much larger percentage of the missiles, airplanes and spacecraft in the Smithsonian’s custody, the companion facility was opened in 2003. Located in Chantilly, Virginia, the Udvar-Hazy Center is adjacent to Washington Dulles International Airport, and even boasts an observation tower that gives visitors a 360˚ view of the airport. We didn’t brave the lines to take the elevator up; it was Family Day at the museum, and despite the extra pair of hands helping with the three boys, it was still going to be a challenge to give the entire museum a proper tour.

It was immediately obvious I wouldn’t have gotten far without the company of our friend who has called the DC area home for 16 years, Dziesma, to help manage the boys + stroller in this enormous space with the weekend crowds. To give you an idea of the massive scale of this 760,000 square feet museum, there are two main hangers open to the public, the Boeing Aviation Hangar and the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar, housing 170 aircraft, 152 large space artifacts and thousands of aviation and space artifacts. Udvar-Hazy Center is also home to the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar, where the preservation of the National Air and Space Museum's collections takes place. Visitors can watch the restoration of projects through a window overlooking the hangar, although it being a Saturday there wasn’t any work in progress. Finally, the museum is home to the Airbus IMAX Theater, the Emil Buehler Conservation Laboratory and the Archives – arguably the foremost collection of documentary records of the history, science and technology of aeronautics and space flight in the world.

The Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar

One of the most impressive displays is that of the orbital spacecraft, Space Shuttle Discovery. The third of five shuttles built for NASA’s Space Shuttle program, its first mission was from August 30 to September 5, 1984. Over 27 years it launched and landed 39 times, more than any other spacecraft to date, and it was finally retired upon returning from its final mission on March 9^th, 2012, arriving at Udvar-Hazy on April 19, 2012. Discovery performed both research and International Space Station assembly missions, but might be best known for carrying the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.

Also on display is the Enola Gay, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. After the war, the bomber operated from Roswell Army Air Field in New Mexico, and although it was flown to Kwajalein for the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in the Pacific, it did not make the test drop at Bikini Atoll. It was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution and spent many years parked at air bases exposed to the weather and souvenir hunters before being disassembled and transported to the Smithsonian's storage facility at Suitland, Maryland, in 1961. The cockpit and nose section of the aircraft were exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum for the bombing's 50th anniversary in 1995 amid a storm of controversy, and once restored has been on exhibit at Udvar-Hazy since 2003. The last survivor of its crew, Theodore Van Kirk, died on July 28, 2014, at the age of 93.

The Enola Gay on the right, with the R on its tail

We spent hours admiring the helicopters, airplanes, space ships and historic artifacts on display, and then what felt like hours standing in line for lunch at the McDonalds. Despite that frustration it was an incredible experience, and I hope we have the opportunity to return once the boys are a little older. There is so much history on display, from the first days of flight to modern space expeditions, and it is mind-blowing to think of the distances traveled by these aircraft. Where else in the world can you hold a meteorite in your hand one minute, and admire the fastest jet-propelled aircraft (the Blackbird) in the world the next?!

Dziesma looking out over the hangar, with the Blackbird lower center 

The Smithsonian lists all the objects on display on the museum webpage along with detailed descriptions and other facts. There is no admission, but parking is $15 and the only food available the previously-mentioned McDonalds. The museum is stroller-friendly, although crowds can make navigating more difficult. Thank you very much to Dziesma, our extra set of hands and tour-guide extraordinaire for the idea to visit, the assistance with the boys, and the company! (You can read her version of the day’s events here, although I don’t know if it is to be trusted – she calls the boys ‘well behaved’…) 

My French-born son with the first supersonic airliner to enter service, the Concorde, the boys admiring the helicopters, and Vilis getting a better view

An Easter Five on Friday

Easter is a little more than a week away, but we’ve just barely started our preparations! Here are the five things I’m thinking about as the holiday approaches;

1. Traditionally dyed Easter eggs. Latvians use onion skins and red cabbage to color their eggs, using natural ingredients before it was en vogue. If you would like to give au natural a try this year, my post Œufs blancs covers the onion skin method and Natural Easter eggs instructs on the red cabbage method. Either we’ve eaten fewer onions this previous year or I’ve been slacking on saving the skins, as my bag was far too empty for the deep brown color I strive to get. Yesterday was the day I rummaged through all the onions in the produce department earning strange looks from other customers and the cashier, but after I buy white eggs we’ll be all set to color our eggs next week.

2. Last year I couldn’t procure the necessary farmer’s cheese to make my grandmother’s paska (we were in Ohio and we must have called thirty stores in our search!), and so this year I’ll be driving to Spartanburg’s European Market to pick up the stuff; harder to find than morels in these here parts.

3. Our local Bi-Lo supermarket had pussy willow branches for sale on my last shopping trip, saving me from a mad last-minute search across the Upstate to be prepared this Sunday. I fully intend to be the first one up, earning the privilege to give all the boys a good apaļš kā pūpols, vesels kā rutks wake-up call! (Read my post Pūpolsvētdiena or Palm Sunday here if you're wondering what I'm talking about.)

4. The giant Easter bunny at the company Easter party doesn’t get any more normal-looking as the years go by; every year I think how different this human-size rabbit is from the more rabbit-sized one I imagined hiding all the eggs of my childhood. Eventually won over with the promise of securing bubble wands, the boys still had their doubts; good thing they were too busy admiring one another’s haul from the morning’s egg hunt to give it too much thought.

5. Easter egg baskets. Three favorite things to find in yours on Easter morning?

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill is home to University of North Carolina, forming the “Research Triangle” along with Durham (Duke University) and Raleigh (North Carolina State). Although we’ve been in/around Chapel Hill a few times while living in Greenville, I had never seen the campus. We explored the North Carolina Botanical Gardens one morning a couple weeks ago (operated by the University of North Carolina), and when Roberts was liberated from his work obligations we picked him up and headed to downtown Chapel Hill, a town founded specifically to serve the University.

Coincidentally we picked up a NC jersey at a consignment sale last month

Kenan Memorial Stadium is home to the North Carolina Tar Heels. There has been an unwritten rule since the Stadium opened in 1927; the stadium can never be taller than the surrounding pine trees. With a current capacity of 63,000, the largest number to ever fill the stadium for a game was (before the 2011 expansion) a standing-room-only crowd of 62,000, when the Tar Heels hosted the Florida State Seminoles in 1997.

Specifically chose this picture because you can't see Mikus isn't wearing pants

Adjacent to the stadium is the 172 foot tall bell tower. Dedicated to John Motley Morehead (class of 1891) and Rufus Lenoir Patterson II who funded the bell tower’s construction, the tower was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day, 1931. Up in the belfry are fourteen mechanized bells, which replaced the carillon of twelve manually operated ones some time ago. Traditionally a few days before commencement, seniors get the chance to climb the tower, but on our visit the door was securely locked and we could only imagine the view of campus afforded from the top. Dr. William C. Coker, the first Professor of Botany at the University, designed the hedge and lawn surrounding the tower, with peeks of the stadium down the southeast hedge row.

Continuing north we came to Professor Coker’s legacy, the 5.3 acre Coker Arboretum. The boggy pasture was originally developed as an outdoor classroom for the study of trees, shrubs and vines native to the State, until the 1920’s and following decades when Dr. Coker added many East Asian trees and shrubs. Today the collection ranges from flowering trees and shrubs to bulb and perennial displays, featuring a 300 foot native vine arbor and a Metasequoia (dawn redwood).

After an ice cream stop for the boys we finished our UNC tour at Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery. The pub opened in 1994 and was one of the first microbreweries in the state, and these days is possibly one of the best places to be after a UNC win due to the view of Franklin Street. The infamous “bonfire” celebrations occur when students and fans spill into the street from the bars, restaurants and dorms along Franklin, resulting in occurrences such as after a 1982 game when the street was literally painted blue. In 2009 after winning the men's NCAA championship over 45,000 people crowded Franklin Street.

Top: view from Top of the Hill, bottom: a Franklin Street bonfire (source here)

All three Research Triangle teams are in the tournament this year, and all have fared well so far. Tomorrow UNC (seeded 4^th) will face off against  Wisconsin, while Duke (1^st seed) plays Utah and NC State (8^th seed) upset Villanova for a game against Louisville on Friday. Maybe we’ll see them meet up in the semifinals or finals!

Top of the Hill mascot wearing #23

* A small part of me is cheering on University of North Carolina, just because that’s where my childhood home-town hero played three seasons of basketball. A couple years after his Tar Heels won the national championship in 1982, Michael Jordan joined the Chicago Bulls.