The contrast in theaters was amazing from Saturday to today. The stadium seating is awesome and I don't know how the world rotated without it. The sound was so much better. Even the bathrooms were much cleaner at the West Chester theater.
I decided to go to the Steven Soderberg movie Contagion. I had heard that it was really good and I always love a Soderberg movie. I did realize that it was about a pandemic disease, but I didn't realize what it all entailed. I knew it was a thriller and it certainly lived up to that. I've always appreciated the movie Outbreak and in many ways Contagion is much better. However, it is also much more dark. I was also reminded of the first part of Stephen King's The Stand in which much of the population is wiped out by a super flu.
The cast of characters is great and almost too numerous to keep track of. Gweneth Paltrow is the first one who gets the disease and dies. Spreading from Gweneth, the virus begins spreading all around the world. We get to see how it impacts her family including her husband Matt Damon who seems to be immune but struggles to exist in a world turned upside down in the wake of the epidemic.
The part I hated about the movie was the part that played on my natural tendency to fear germs of all kinds. I'm the one at my office with a huge bottle of hand sanitizer and I often want to quarantine myself whenever my co-workers start coughing. In fact, when I used the restroom at the theater after the movie, there was a little boy coughing in men's room who I was sure was going to give me some horrid disease because he didn't wash his hands properly. I even cringed when I had to grab the men's room door handle to leave and it was all wet and slimy. Thank heavens I had hand sanitizer in my car.
So I'm not sure my movie choices this weekend were the best for me. Driver was depressing and violent. Contagion didn't do much to lift my spirits with its depiction of a deadly disease and a reminder of how really paranoid I am about germs. I had thought about going to see the Lion King in 3-D but talk about a movie that would have played on my fears of disease and germs. I know the theater would have been full of children with colds and who knows what else. I hope the theater employees are hosing those theaters down with bleach and scraping all the boogers off the arm rests. Yuck!
After the movie, I decided to go for a little drive. After my weekend with my friend Mari in which we saw some historic sites along the Ohio River, I have decided that I am going to get out and explore the region more. I also have been inspired by a blog that I follow in which the blogger is doing a thirty day photo challenge. So, I dusted off my digital camera and hit the road this afternoon.
I had read on the Internet that President William Henry Harrison was buried in North Bend, Ohio along the Ohio River. So, I got directions and decided to go and check in on President Harrison.
I have particular interest in President Harrison because he was the first Governor of the the Indiana Territory. Indiana being my home state, I always like to learn about its history and the people who led it. I also have a huge fascination with learning about the Presidents of the United States. I learn much about the history of our country and about evolving American culture by studying the presidents.
Visiting Harrison's tomb was interesting. I missed one of the signs and got a little lost. My GPS was really confused. I had to back track a little bit but finally found it. When I looked at the map, I thought Harrison's tomb on Mount Nebo was right along the banks of the Ohio River, but that's not quite accurate. There's a nice vista of the River (it would be better if they would remove the power lines and cell phone towers) but it's not right on the river. In fact, it's kind of hidden. There's not really too much to see. A few years ago the state of Ohio put in an interpretive kiosk pavilion. This includes a biography of President Harrison and also information about his times and achievements.
In case you want to know more about President Harrison, here's a brief bio from Wikipedia:
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was the ninth President of the United States (1841), an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. The oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the United States Declaration of Independence, Harrison died on his 32nd day in office[1] of complications from pneumonia, serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history. His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis, but that crisis ultimately resolved many questions about presidential succession left unanswered by the Constitution until passage of the 25th Amendment.
Before election as president, Harrison served as the first territorial congressional delegate from the Northwest Territory, governor of the Indiana Territory and later as a U.S. representative and senator from Ohio. He originally gained national fame for leading U.S. forces against American Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, where he earned the nickname "Tippecanoe" (or "Old Tippecanoe"). As a general in the subsequent War of 1812, his most notable contribution was a victory at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, which brought an end to hostilities in his region.
After the war, Harrison moved to Ohio, where he was elected to the United States Congress, and in 1824 he became a member of the Senate. There he served a truncated term before being appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary to Colombia in May 1828. In Colombia, he spoke with Simon Bolivar about the finer points of democracy before returning to his farm in Ohio, where he lived in relative retirement until he was nominated for the presidency in 1836. Defeated, he retired again to his farm before being elected president in 1840.
I think I was most impressed by the entrance limestone carvings at the bottom of the hill that define the beginning of the path that leads up to the tomb. There are two curved limestone benches that look like no one has ever sat on. There are two columns also made of limestone. On top of each column is an eagle. I think they were the most beautiful part of the entire of the tomb complex. I got some good photos of the eagles. I even got some with the big American flag and Ohio flag in the background. (see one below)
I've included some photos along with this post of President Harrison's tomb. I hope you enjoy them.
Thanks for being a part of my journey!
