My Winter Vacation - Part 2: The American Spirit

Sometimes you have to leave the country and spend time at the crossroads where cultures intersect to appreciate what is uniquely American. In Barbados I was reminded that Americans have always traveled the trade routes to remain in touch with the finer sensibilities of cultures with longer histories. In turn, Europeans have always traveled to America to enjoy the sensation of freedom and wide open space.

Like a pound dog, the space shuttle Endeavor waits for a new home

We were touched when a German woman full of emotion ran up to us on the Royal Clipper sundeck one evening and pointed to sky. “Look, the American space station Is going over!” As the brilliantly lit constellation zipped by overhead, she would not acknowledge my correction: “It’s the international space station.”  I gave up and we marveled together at this feat of science and technology.

A week later we were at the Kennedy Space Center having a look at the history and present reality of this endeavor. First a word from our sponsor: NASA wants you to know that they are alive and well and working on the next generation of space craft. Back to our regular programming: The vision and courage of our scientists and astronauts is truly something to marvel at. To push our boundaries into outer space is to entertain innovations in medicine and ecology that are mind bending. I did not know.

Cyrstal Bridges Musuem of American Art

From the space center, we took ourselves off to the Ozarks to kidnap grandma and take her to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Named the top 2012 attraction in the U.S. by the Today Show (on the very day we were there) it is a marvel as well.  I recommend starting in Rogers, Arkansas at the Walton 5 and 10 where Sam Walton got his start with a Franklin variety store franchise. Forty five years later, we know how that story progressed. There’s always a dark side--ugly box stores, low wage jobs—but you can’t argue with the man’s vision. He wanted to lower the cost of goods for the common people (the 99%) so they could have more money to spend on products that would raise their standard of living.

Shuffle off to Bentonville and see what his daughter Alice did with the money he made. She made fine art accessible to mid-America in the most beautiful setting imaginable.  She blended art, architecture and nature into a modern cathedral.

View the "bridges" from Eleven Restaurant

 Spend a day in the 12 galleries and you will have an education in all the art movements that expressed our history and culture from inception to present day.

Now you know.