Day 155 NBA Basketball/Utah Jazz vs Philadelphia 76ers




Jazz vs 76ers

I have never been much of a sports fan  but my friend continues to introduce me to sports. Like anything, familiarly brings comfort and I guess now I can say that I am merging into a fan! I think basketball might be on the top of the list.   Recently I experienced my first professional NBA basketball game in Salt Lake City Utah-Jazz vs 76ers.

Day 154 Chicago Architecture tours/river, walking & theater



River walk in Chicago

 

Last year I ventured to Chicago for the first time and experienced all things Chicago (see Days 84, 85, 86 and 87).  This year’s visit was all things architectural. We took a walking tour  with the  Chicago Architectural Foundation , a river tour with Sight Seeing Tours, and a back stage tour of the iconic Chicago Theater. You rarely think about a building’s history when you walk to get  from one place to another. An architectural tour brings the stories  of a city to life and  you see beautiful works of art  that you might never have noticed in the absence of a tour.  Architecture is the standing history of the past life of a city and just like  the house tours of  Day 154, these tours give you a sense of  life’s brevity.

Day 153 Trains & House Tours/Allegheny West

Holmes Hall

The  Allegheny West Neighborhood  consists of only eight blocks on the North Side of Pittsburgh but it’s rich in history with several  restored Victorian homes from the 1800’s.  I learned  some new things about   Pittsburgh’s past  and  discovered  a vast private toy train collection when I helped as a guide for  my friend whose home was part of the Old Allegheny Victorian Christmas House Tour. A house tour is  an intimate way to explore architecture  and  lifestyles of the past and present.

Day 152 Ski Utah

Top of the Mountain -Alta, Utah 10,500 feet

My blog inspiration book, Everything I Need To Know I Learned From A Little Golden Book     reminds us to, “be daring” and that is just what you have to do when you are about to ski down a mountain on two long boards. When the cold weather approaches, bear like hibernation tends to occur unless you can find  some kind of outside interest and skiing is a great way to enjoy the winter. I have recently added skiing back into my life( see Day 104-Ski Again). However,  I have not been out west to ski in over 10 years so I was ready to tackle the mountains of Utah for the first time.

Day 151 Temple Square Christmas Lights, Salt Lake City, Utah

The  New Year has arrived! A new year is a time to reflect and a time to start fresh. My entire blog is about change and fresh starts so I don’t need it to be a new year for my “do over.” Every day is a do over for me. I am also not one for New Year’s resolutions because I usually set my goals much too high which inevitably result in failure. Thus, in 2016 I am going to continue to see the silver lining in life, keeping it positive. As the psychologist, Maslow would agree, having a positive attitude in life is a characteristic of a self -actualized individual. I am keeping alive the glass half full philosophy. Therefore, I thought that I would start the new year blog with my recent visit to Salt Lake City’s  Temple  Square, where the Christmas lights filled the night. There were so many lights that I had that breathtaking “Ahh” feeling.