Evacuation 2025

Here is the story of our evacuation during the Vista Grande Fire on June 2, 2025 and here is the layout. 

Evacuation 2025 (affiliate link)

I can't believe this was only 9 months ago. It feels like so much more time has passed. Our hills are no longer black, but instead a lush green. Our roads and houses aren't pink, although it's not difficult to find pink if you look for it, especially on the stucco. The smell of smoke, indoors and out, is long gone. I'm so grateful for the hardworking firefighters who kept us and our homes safe. 

Results: US Today Readers' Choice 10 Best - Art

US Today has announced the results of the Readers' Choice 10 Best in the Art categories. Let's see if my favorites did any better than in the Museum categories!

Best Art Museum

After much debate, I picked the Joslyn as the best art museum. It placed 6th. Top honors go to the Toledo Museum of Art. I'm happy with that result - we absolutely loved our visit to TMA. 

Best City for Street Art

I voted for Denver as the best city for Street Art and it ended up ranking at #7. The winner is Philadelphia. It's not street art, but don't miss Philadelphia's Magic Gardens the next time you're there. (Fun fact: We'll be visiting two of the cities on the 10Best List next month! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of street art.)

Best Sculpture Park

My pick for Best Sculpture Park is Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey. It is ranked at #7. The top vote getter is Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park. We missed it during our trip to North Carolina; I'm adding it the list for the next time we visit the Tar Heel State. 

Best Small Town Arts Scene

Healdsburg was my pick for Best Small Town Arts Scene, but it did not place in the Top 10, despite being home to the largest moss wall in the US (which really should count for something). Top honors went to Vermillion in southeastern South Dakota, a stone's throw from Nebraska. 

 

I enjoyed seeing how the rankings came out in each of the art categories, but more importantly, I've added some destinations to my must-visit list!

Results: US Today Readers' Choice 10 Best Museums

US Today has announced the results of the Readers' Choice 10 Best in the Museums categories. Let's see what the results were and if any of my picks were the winners!

Best Children's Museum

I picked the Strong National Museum of Play. It placed #7. The winner is the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. I've never been there, but if anyone thinks it's better than the Strong, I need to add it to my must-visit list. 

Best Free Museum

I voted for the National Museum of American History, but it didn't even place in the top 10. The winner is the Toledo Museum of Art. I loved our visit there. It's hard to believe such an outstanding museum is free. 

Best History Museum

I voted for the Legacy Museum, but it did not place in the top 10. This doesn't surprise me, for two main reasons: 1) It is much newer than the other nominees, meaning fewer people have been there. 2) It covers a very unpleasant subject. My honorable mention, the Mill City Museum, placed #8. The winner is the Heinz History Museum. Another reason to visit Pittsburgh someday!

Best Maritime Museum

My vote, the National Museum of the Great Lakes, came in at #2! The winner is the Maine Maritime Museum, located in Bath (population 8,817), a city I've neither visited nor heard of until I just looked it up. It's not far from Augusta, which is one of the few capital cities we still need to visit, so we'll definitely add a stop in Bath to that trip. 

Best Music Museum

I voted for the National Museum of African American Music, but it didn't place in the top 10. The winner is the Johnny Cash Museum, also in Nashville. 

Best Open Air Museum

I'm really surprised that Colonial Williamsburg didn't place in the top 10. The winner is Plimoth Patuxet Museums.

Best Pop Culture Museum

My vote, Museum of Pop Culture, did not place in the top 10. The winner is the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, NY. 

Best Science Museum

I voted for the Exploratorium and it didn't make the top 10. The winner is the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio. 

On Monday, I'll share the winners for the Art categories. 

CityQuiz

Have you heard of CityQuiz? The concept is simple: name as many cities as you can. It sounds easy, but it is surprisingly challenging. And quite addictive! There are several versions, but I focused on the US quiz. The interface looks like this: 

You think of a city, type it in the box, and then it appears on the map. Big cities have big dots and small cities have small dots. It keeps a running total of how many cities you've named and what percentage of the urban population that represents. You can save your progress and work on it for as long as you want. I chose a different strategy: I gave myself 24 hours, refrained from looking at anything (maps, old blog posts, etc) that would remind me of cities, and tried to name as many as I could. They came fast and furious at first, then I would think of a few more here and there. Looking at my map, you it's pretty obvious where I've traveled and where I haven't. 

As you can see, I named 550 cities, representing 32% of the national urban population. I'm pleased with that. Of course, as soon as my 24 hours were up, I thought of dozens more cities! More on that later. 

The vast majority of the cities I named are in California. That makes sense; I've lived here all my life. My second best state was Washington, where my parents grew up. We visited often. 

It would have been pretty embarrassing if I'd missed any states entirely since I've been to them all. I've been to almost all of the state capitals (not to mention I spent 11 years drilling them into the heads of my 5th graders) so there's no way I would have forgotten those. I'm pleased that I remembered all of the US cities over 500,000 and more than half of those over 100,000. 

If you're going to try CityQuiz, this is where you should stop reading. Or keep reading if you want. Consider the cities I mention to be a free gift toward your total. 

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Here are the smallest cities and the rarest cities that I named. 

So what did I miss? 

The largest city I missed is Virginia Beach, Virginia. The largest city I missed that I've actually visited is Santa Ana, California. The most annoying city that I missed is San Bernadino. I KNOW that I added it, but I must have had a typo or forgotten to toggle the state to California or something like that. The largest city I missed that's on my list of Future Travels is Cincinnati, Ohio. That's pretty annoying too. 

Now check out this blog post by the creator of CityQuiz, Ian Fisher. 

'One Little Word' Tag Display (16 Years and Counting)

For 14 years, I displayed my One Little Word tags from cords, hanging directly on my wall. In 2025 when I made my 15th tag, I ran out of space with my current set up and moved the tags to a wood panel. I was really happy with how they looked, but it was only a one-year solution. There was no space for any additional tags. 2025 Cindy decided that was a problem for 2026 Cindy. 

2026 Cindy had been thinking about it for awhile (and occasionally shaking an angry fist at 2025 Cindy) before coming up with a solution that will last for 14 more years. I started with this 24x12" frame, then used Folk Art's Licorice (affiliate links) to paint the base black. I arranged my tags and stuck them in place with loops of washi tape. I still need to fix some little spacing issues and then put in the plexiglass, but this is how it looks now:  

I love seeing all my tags together and am excited to have so much more space for future years. I really hope I'm still making One Little Word tags 14 years from now.