Last month while we were visiting the New York City area, we made a special trip to the well-known Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is the nation’s largest museum and contains a half a million specimens.
We spent a considerable amount of time perusing the huge collection of Egyptian art. Here are some of the exhibits.
A couple of years ago while visiting friends in Belgium we drove a short distance from Brussels to the nearby port city of Antwerp.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| After our sightseeing excursion, we explored the streets of Antwerp and stumbled upon the Red Star Line Museum.
The Red Star Line was a shipping company that operated between Antwerp and the eastern seaboard of the USA and Canada. Throughout Europe they advertised their routes and from 1873 to 1934 – sixty years – Antwerp was a center for emigration from the continent. Emigrants from Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, France, Italy and other countries traveled to Antwerp to board the ships bound for North America. |
|
 |
 |
| More than two million Europeans were passengers on the Red Star Line steamships from Antwerp to America’s large metropolitan centers – New York, Philadelphia, Boston. Paintings and displays in the museum depict the many travelers in Antwerp’s streets preparing for the long and challenging journey across the ocean to a destination that promised them a new, brighter future.
|
|
 |
 |
| On display are curated personal belongings – clothing, suitcases, diaries, photographs, jewelry, toys – that punctuate the stories of individuals and families who decided to leave their homeland hoping for a better life.
For me, the Red Star Line Museum highlighted the overwhelming struggle that millions of individuals experienced reaching for a better future by having to brave the unknowns of emigrating to America. |
|
If you’re interested in learning more, here’s the link to the Red Star Line Museum in Antwerp.
Northern Arizona is part of the Navajo Nation.
I’ve been lucky enough to visit and photograph the immensely scenic Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. This iconic area is located on the Arizona-Utah so we stay overnight in the nearby town of Kayenta. Next door to the hotel is a Burger King restaurant where we can catch breakfast before going to the park.
But this Burger King is unlike any other that we’ve been to. Inside is an extensive display – a mini-museum if you will – of the Code Talkers. The Code Talkers were U.S. servicemen recruited from among the Native Americans (mostly Navajo) during World War II. Some 500 of these Navajo speakers used their language skills to code and transmit secret messages among the various military units. Dozens of volunteers were from the Kayenta area.
I’ve visited this Burger King multiple times over the years and each time the display has been enlarged and enhanced.
 |
 |
> |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
It’s believed that our enemies were never able to decode any of the Code Talker messages.
The Burger King in Kayenta is a great place to stop to learn about these brave men who served and fought during World War II and the Korean War.
