The Cultural Landscape Foundation®: connecting people to places™ - Tuesday, November 13, 2018

My mind is bursting with blogs because I've been so busy I haven't had time to write! Even though I have many travel blogs to complete, the first piece on my agenda is to let you all know about The Cultural Landscape Foundation®: connecting people to places™. It's an organization I found out about last week through the serendipitous posting by our AVA (American Volkssport Club) president. Ellen casually remarked in her email that the What's Out There Weekend San Antonio sounded interesting. By the time I looked up the events on EventBrite, the reservations for most of the tours were booked.

Let me back up and tell you about the foundation...According to their website, this is what they represent:

"A non-profit established in 1998, The Cultural Landscape Foundation® (TCLF) connects people to places. TCLF 
educates and engages the public to make our shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards. TCLF achieves this mission through the ongoing development of its three core programs:

• What's Out There®, North America's largest and most exhaustive database of cultural landscapes;

• Pioneers of American Landscape Design®, an in-depth multimedia library, inclusive of video oral histories, chronicling the lives of significant landscape architects and educators;

• Landslide®, an ongoing collection of important landscapes and landscape features that are threatened and at-risk."

What we were able to sign up for together were the Opening Reception and a tour of Woodlawn Lake Park. On Saturday, when Bob did a 20-mile training run for the marathon, I toured Trinity University and CHRISpark. 

The Opening Reception last Friday night was a delightful surprise. We thought it would be refreshments and someone speaking. 

My handsome man-about-town, Bob.

However, when we arrived at The San Pedro Playhouse (recently renamed The Public Theater San Antonio), we were directed into the theater to hear MOJO-rimba, a young marimba band from Universal City, Texas, play. They were enthusiastic, passionate, and fun. We guessed they were middle-school aged. Not only did they play rock cover and other songs, their concert was choreographed as well. AND, they could switch instruments and play a different-toned marimba (xylophone-like instrument).

MOJO-rimba.

Yummy refreshments.

We wandered out and snagged food from the tapas bar: wild mushroom and onion quesadillas, chicken molé empanadas, chips and salsa, and Mexican hot chocolate to drink. After eating, we went back into the auditorium to listen to speakers explain about the foundation and what to expect this weekend. 

Then Charles Birnbaum, CEO of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, talked with us about the expert-led free tours we would be experiencing. Twenty-four tours were offered and it is the goal to let people see what landscape architects do. Oftentimes, we are not aware that landscaping has many purposes. Kudos and applause were given to the people who made the events possible.

After the speakers, a dessert spread had magically appeared out in the foyer. It included a table with pastries and cookies. In addition, a whole table and wall were loaded with doughnuts of all varieties. Sweet tooth heaven! 

Decadent doughnuts for dessert (with
Mexican hot chocolate).

There was a place with props for selfie photo ops. Bob and I aren't very good at taking selfies, so we dressed up and had a volunteer standing nearby take our photo. A mariachi band played for our entertainment. 

Silly selfies with props for photo ops.

Mariachi music to set the mood.

About 7:30 p.m. we headed for home. All the way home, we kept talking about how wonderful the foundation is and we couldn't believe our good fortune to have gone to the Opening Reception. And the reception and all the tours are FREE. Can't beat that. 

Next up, I'll give you the low-down on the Trinity University tour that was Saturday morning. So. Much. Information!