LISTO DEL RIO-ANDALE!

Saturday, August 22, 2015

ASBURY PARK, N.J.

Cool glass lighting in a shopping area. We walked part of Asbury Park but also drove over to the beach area and walked the boardwalk etc.

At Restaurant Porta...it means "doors" in Italian...get it? This building used to be a place called Student Prince and Bruce Springsteen met Clarence Clemons there. It's a block back from the ocean.

Porta is famous for it's Neopolitan pizza and here's their oven firewood all ready to go. We got pizza but also ate lots of other yummy stuff: pasta, meatballs, tuna tartar & crab balls.

Porta makes their mozzarella cheese in house daily.

Where the magic happens.

Yes, I ate some octopus...and yes, I liked it. Kay and Jamey are excellent, adventurous eating companions. This Del Rio girl doesn't know anything.

This is the outdoor stage for the Stone Pony...ya know...where Bruce used to play alot. The stage is only up and rockin' in the summer. There was a show going on when I took this picture.

I found this story fascinating...and sad. That building on the stone marker is the same one in my next few pictures.

This building is right on the beach. It's huge. It has stores and 2 show/music venues.

A ship on top.

The boardwalk goes right into it and out the other side.

Meet Tillie. This is a Tillie painting on the side of The Wonder Bar. I'm attaching Wikipedia info. Tillie is freaky. Tillie is on EVERYTHING: T-shirts, stickers, tote bags etc.etc.etc. You can look at other links on at the bottom if you are interested.

For other uses, see Tillie (disambiguation).

Tillie as painted on the Palace Amusements building

Tillie is the nickname of two murals of a grinning figure that were painted on the side of the Palace Amusements building in Asbury Park, New Jersey, United States. Tillie is an amusement park "fun face", painted over the winter of 1955-1956. The name Tillie is likely a nod to George C. Tilyou, the owner of Steeplechase Park in Coney Island, New York, which features similar grinning face signage.^{[citation needed]}

In popular culture

Tillie has inspired multiple merchandise based on it.^{[citation needed]} Additionally, the mural has been featured in movies, Weird NJ magazine,^[1] TV shows such as The Sopranos, and a famous photo of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band early in their career.^[2]^[3]

Tribute to Tillie on the Wonder Bar, Asbury Park, New Jersey

Demolition

Like many other boardwalk areas in the United States, such as Coney Island, New York, Asbury Park had fallen on hard times. Palace Amusements, built in 1888, closed in 1988, and the historic building fell into disrepair. When the Palace site was targeted for demolition and redevelopment, Asbury Park residents, Tillie fans, and Springsteen fans formed a grassroots effort to save Tillie, lobbying the state to block the demolition or at least remove the mural beforehand. The group was partially successful, as the left-side Tillie, as well as the "bumper girl" murals, were successfully removed. The right-side Tillie was demolished. From June 8 to June 11, 2004, Save Tillie volunteers removed the mural from the Palace building. The building was demolished in July 2004.^[4]^[5] Tillie and other murals from the Palace building were to be incorporated into a new building on the site. The two wall sections with the Tillie mural are presently stored in Asbury Park on city property.^{[citation needed]}

References

"index.weirdnj.com".

"Weird NJ remembers forgotten faces of Palace Amusements, Asbury Park". Asbury Park Press. 2014-03-09.

External links

Palace Amusements and other Abandoned Asbury Park Landmarks as Featured in Weird NJ
Photos of Tillie's home- Palace Amusements
Backstreets.com: Save Tillie - on the Springsteen news site Backstreets

MaryAnn Spoto (2009-05-16). "Asbury Park grinning icon needs better storage place, preservationists say". NJ.com.

"Beyond the Palace". Save Tillie. Retrieved 2014-03-15.

Karen DeMasters (2004-04-02). "Asbury Park Building Will Vanish, but Its Grin Will Remain". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-03-15.

IT'S "YAPPY HOUR" AT THE WONDER BAR! This was "small dog day". Jamey takes Rusty James there on "big dog day". They have little swimming pools for the dogs to play in....

FUN!


Rusty James was tuckered out at the end of each day. He gets hot and tired easily. He LOVES the beach! Sometimes we left him in the cottage to nap. OCEAN GROVE/ASBURY PARK=DINE, SHOP, STAY, LOVE!!!!!

OCEAN GROVE, N.J.

Ocean Grove is a little community on the Atlantic Ocean where Jamey had rented a tiny cottage for 2 weeks. We stayed here 3 nights. I think it's about 90 minutes from Manhattan. Kay and I flew into Newark and Jamey picked us up. Ocean Grove is SO quaint and charming and full of flowers and plants and window boxes etc...lovely landscaping at almost every single house.

Somebody tell Gene to build this for me for Christmas. This little village is very walkable and lots of fun to just randomly head out and cruise the neighborhood. Lots of folks walking dogs, biking and skateboarding.

This house is on the canal. It was for sale a few years back and Jamey told her boss to buy it...so he did! He doesn't own it any more. The canal is lined with big gorgeous houses like this.

Swan paddle boats! The canal separates Asbury Park from Ocean Grove so they kinda run together. There are bridges where you walk across.

Jamey walkin' Rusty James. He's a great dog and very friendly and very spoiled. Strangers come up to meet him all the time. Seems like everywhere we traveled were big "dog places". On the left side of this picture (you can barely see it) is a church kind of place and on the other side you see tents. Yes...VERY cool tents and they encircle this church. There must be over 100 of them and Jamey said you can't rent or buy them. They're handed down from generation to generation as vacation places. Cool huh?

Jamey & Kay relaxing on the porch of her little cottage. The owners live next door to the left. Very nice & welcoming ladies! You can take a train from Manhattan to Ocean Grove/Asbury Park. It was very quiet...sat around listening to the church bells.

Kay & Jamey making a snack at the cottage. Jamey rented it for 2 weeks and had it last year for 1 week. All her various friends usually make it out there for a night or two...so she was busy entertaining most of her time there. The bedroom is behind the kitchen and there's a pull out couch in the living area.

The beach was about a 15 minute walk from the cottage. It wasn't too crowded because we were there during the week. The sea was chilly and delightful...especially after schlepping our beach chairs, umbrellas, tote bags etc. Those folks w/ the big canopy had a veritable living room set up under there.

The lifeguards had the green flag up...which means swimming is good and easy. The waves were just right for playing in...not too big and not too small. Alot of kids had their boogie boards out. There were little planes pulling advertisements, little kids burying each other in the sand, surfers etc. Lots of fun people watching.

Houses & hotels lining the street in front of the beach. There's a neat, loooong boardwalk. We guessed those boxes were rental storage thingies for folks who spend the whole summer and can leave all their beach stuff there. Great idea!

Kay & Jamey. I was sorry not get a picture of them jumping the waves....but I was scared to take my camera out in the water.

Haha....Jamey's place was so small...it's address is a "half".

These are the houses directly across from where we stayed. There are all kinds of places...big and small and ALL are so cute and pretty.

Thursday, July 30, 2015

BOB BULLOCK MUSEUM- AUSTIN, TX JULY 2015

This is the skeleton of the ship La Belle. It was one of La Salle's ships that explored the Gulf of Mexico in 1685. It was discovered in 1995 and over the next year over 1 million artifacts were brought up. This shipwreck discovery is considered the most important archaeological find of the century. Read more on wikipedia...it's REALLY interesting how they brought it to the surface.

This is the original Goddess of Liberty that used to be on top of the capital building in Austin. The features are exaggerated so as to be viewed from far away. She was put on the capital in 1888 and removed in 1985 due to deterioration. A new one is there now and they made it look as close to the original as possible. Google Goddess of Liberty in Austin, TX to read more about her.

An old flag...didn't read about it.

Didn't read about this either. There's a wonderful, permanent exhibit all about the Texas Revolution.

I like it.

This is the floor of the lobby/foyer at the museum. This mosiac is made of chips of stones and glass. Forty feet in diameter...it shows the people and landscape of Texas. "Born around the campfires of our past....."

I was pretty damn excited to discover this Roller Girls exhibit on the 3rd floor. Gene and I were big roller derby fans in 2004 & 2005. The big, blown up pictures on the wall are so cool.