Adventures of Rocky and Anni

November 1 and 2
It’s the day before we are scheduled to return and we have one more thing on the list. (well, we have more than one, but logistics limit us to one more thing)We get up really early to catch the 9:10 ferry to Nantucket. It takes about an hour to boat out to the island. The temperature is hovering around 35 degrees…not too welcoming on the choppy deck so we stay inside and eat blueberry muffins and drink warm liquids! I expect to see icebergs floating by! As we get closer to the island interesting seabirds appear…gannets and things I am not used to seeing. The little tiny houses and lighthouses get bigger and pretty soon we are docking. Right away we feel as if we are on Catalina. Nautical style buildings abound on the wharf and tour companies and taxis are there to greet us. We stumble on by and then retrace our steps to ask about an island van tour. We enlist a “native” and proceed to have her tell us about the place in two hours. She is quite full of herself and needs to come down a few notches, but offers great insight and good views we would not have found on our bicycles. (We decided the wind chill factor on bikes would be numbing!) Much history here too but mainly the sights include cute summer cottages that cost about 3 million dollars. We are trying to figure out why or how folks buy something so expensive and only use for 3 months out of the year!!!! Only about 100 live here year round and we can imagine it gets brutal in the middle of winter! We find a place to eat— “Brotherhood of Thieves” an old tavern from the late 1600’s where people met who were opposed to slavery and supported the rights of women! After lunch we cruised around for a couple of hours, sat on benches to soak in the cool sunlight and watch the world go by. Off we went on the 4:35 ferry. As it approached Hyannis, the sun was setting behind the Kennedy compound….looking quite lonely. We were treated to one of the most colorful sunsets I have ever seen. I can only describe it as raspberry layered with steel gray and other shades of pink. Even the crew was shocked by its brilliance! The perfect ending for the perfect trip!
As I write we are laid over in Chicago for two hours and are really looking forward to being home. Now is the time we have set aside to finish our two projects, Rocky’s 57 Chevy and my kitchen!
More later…..and don’t forget to travel near and far……time is a wasting!

October 30 and 31
After 2500 miles of travel we find ourselves back in Massachusetts. We have completed quite a circle in four weeks! Rocky did an incredible job of laying out this trip!. I feel like one of those autumn leaves we have been chasing around. Still hanging on to all the glory of the season…but my color is fading!
We arrived Plymouth in the midday and had a really nice lunch in a second story restaurant. The view overlooked a serene harbor protected by two spits of sandy dunes. Docked in front of us was a replica of the Mayflower ……she looked so small, nothing like what I pictured 104 people sailing across from Holland in 66 days!!!! When we got down to her side she looked even smaller!!!!!!! Nothing like our Star of India…..way too small! What were they thinking???? I guess it sums it up to say they had a lot to gain and a lot to sail away from. Not far from the vessel sits a rock about the size of a large boulder under a giant granite canopy…you guessed it…Plymouth Rock This famous stone has been chinked away for so long it barely can display the date of 1620! Anyway another myth smashed…the Pilgrims actually landed at the tip of Cape Cod (Province Town) stayed one year…then moved over to Plymouth and then celebrated the first Thanksgiving. They probably never really touched a Plymouth Rock and there were not any Indians to greet them or to feast with them. Geez! The truth was good enough…why all the embellishment!!!!!!! Anyway, we spent the day wandering around Plymouth soaking up as much as we could. We learned our friend Nancy’s great grandfather X13 was the first governor of the colony and he and his fellow Pilgrims have many statues, museums and plaques around town. Then there is the cemetery, half of these brave souls died the first winter but as we know, the rest lived on to establish our great nation.
We are staying in a town south called Sandwich, home of a very famous glass factory. We toured that museum and had a wonderful wine glassblowing demonstration by a young gal who had been blowing glass for four years. We have a new respect for hand blown glass vessels…hers came to a sad end!
The following day found us at the tip of Cape Cod which is Provincetown. This is quite a unique place!!!!! Look at a map and find its location….The land spit of the Cape looks like a muscle builder flexing his arm. P-town, as it is affectionately called, was teeming with life. We inched our car down very narrow streets looking for a place to eat and the end of the land to see where the Pilgrims really landed. It was Sunday and Halloween day. There were hundreds of people walking the streets and sitting around the fronts of cafes and hotels. All the people were men! We finally found a restaurant without a wait and were greeted and seated by Alice in Wonderland….. in pink tutu costume-with a beard! P-town is a very gay place!
We returned that night to Plymouth and took a night time lantern tour of the graveyard …looking for ghosts of our forefathers…but were not greeted by anything but the cold! Speaking of cold. brrrrrrrrrrrrrr. It has been 35 degrees when we get going in the morning!
We love Cape Cod and regret we only have three days here. It needs to be explored properly…like for 3 months! Tomorrow we take the ferry to Nantucket!

October 29

We have been enjoying Newport, Rhode Island for the past three days….. REALLY nice to stay longer than one night. What a wonderful town this is in the off season. Everyone we talk to tells us it is a different place in the summer when all the tourists and nautical folks arrive with all their richly rich friends! It certainly is a money based place! We have had the most wonderful meals…the restaurants that are still open are gourmet and the chefs are happy to have us. In the last three places we ate, we have been one of three tables!!!!!
The town has so much history, it is really cool to be walking down the same streets, past the same buildings that were used when Washington and Jefferson and all those other history making dudes were here. Then there is the history of more current events. Mansions were built in the late 1800′s that rival the castles and mansions in Europe. Some of these opulent places are open to the public and are just mind boggling! We toured “The Breakers”…built by Cornelius Vanderbilt. I don’t know how he could have any money left after financing this project! We were told he only lived in it one summer before he died! It was named the Breakers since the surf is really good along the cliffs below the huge lawn that stretches to the ocean.
There is a 3.5 mile walk along the cliffs that is just wonderful!!!!!!! We had the Atlantic on one side and the cliffs and mansions on the other!
We have spent a lot of time just taking long walks around town…we really like this place
Can’t escape the election hype…signs everywhere even in rural areas and ad-nauseum on TV. The main difference in the rural areas …the signs are hand made and either quite artistic or quite elementary…no matter what…the emotion is there! Please vote on Tuesday!—well—-at least all you Democrats!

October 28

I was looking forward to our visit to Mystic for so many reasons, the first one being the name! How could you not be interested in a town called Mystic!? Also, it was good to get back to the salt water, real fresh seafood and old ships! We were not disappointed. There is a maritime museum called Mystic Seaport. It is a working museum covering 17 acres including warehouses, sailmakers, rope makers, real old houses and of course…real old ships. In the mid 19th century, clipper ships were built here. Now they LOVINGLY rebuild those same ships and have live demonstrations so we can see how all that comes together. They currently are rebuilding the last wooden whaling ship…the Morgan. They depend on hurricanes blowing down 600 year old oak trees so they can cut wood to replace timbers in the ship! They have blowdowns from 5 hurricanes and the shipyard is full of huge logs that will be used to replicate the original design and the same kind of original wood. The logs look as if they would be useless since they are misshapen, but that is exactly what is needed for the work.. They match the gnarled shapes to the curves they need on the ship…very strong! So interesting and nice to see young and old working side by side to recreate these relics so they can sail again.
We stayed in a place resembling a ship’s cabin, it was located on the shore by a marina…great location!
Off to Newport…

October 27

When Rocky was 12, his parents took him on a trip across the US from San Diego to New York and back. They were gone 6 weeks. They rode in a 1948 GMC pick up. New York was the goal since both his parents grew up there. He visited relatives on Kinderhook Lake. The place was steeped in history and lore. Ichabod Crane went to a school nearby. Many years passed and when Rocky’s Mom’s brother turned 75, I accompanied her back to Kinderhook Lake to celebrate his milestone. Even though many years had passed, the old lake house was still the same as Rocky’s old photos. Well, we visited the same lake yesterday and sorry to say it has really changed….many more houses and we were not able to find the old place. Of course this is not odd. When I visited 35 years ago, the floors were sagging and the roof leaked. I am sure that old cabin is long gone! The lake looked the same except the lilly pads and turtles were not there as I remembered them…..

One thing about the mountains here in the east…they are rounded, not jagged..they were formed so much longer ago than the Sierras or Rockies! Most of them are not taller than the tree line so they are softened on top by the uneven silhouettes of trees. The geology of the land is evident on the banks of the rivers as they cut through the strata…but there are not any canyons as deep as our Grand and there are no deserts!
We have been shunning freeways so we can taste the land and let me say, if you ever want to find ANYTHING…just travel the back roads of this part of the country. You can find stuff made from wood,glass or metal. There are hundreds of quilts old and new, pottery, farm equipment, old cars rusting away in fields……junk and treasures galore! We haven’t bought a thing however….where would we put it?

Oct 26
Today was one long day! We slept last night in the Catskill Mountains where Rip Van Winkle did in Leeds, New York. He had a better sleep!! Some places are more comfortable than others…..
Our objective du jour was the Norman Rockwell Museum and what a wonderful tribute to this icon of Americana…..The museum is modern, he knew about it before he died and bequeathed his last art studio to the foundation which moved it to the grounds of the museum. One beautiful spot for this beautiful man. He painted over 4,000 works and they have about 600 of them on display at all times. They have four complete collections of his Saturday Evening Post covers (three tour the world) and a great collection of his other works. He is a true American hero and certainly captured the heart and soul of America, painting the positive, whimsical side of our people, and also the social issues of the time without any reservations. He was truly awesome. We spent a couple of hours with our noses poked at his paintings!
Then it was a long drive through three states to get to Mystic, Connecticut. This port lies on the coast of Long Island Sound. It is misty but not cold. In fact, when we finished the Rockwell museum in Stockbridge it was 74 degrees at 12:30!!!!!!
There is grand history here in Mystic…clipper ships were built here and there is a museum in town. More on that tomorrow…..

October 24
We woke to rain..no problem…with the incredible moon last night, great sleep and prospect of getting to Lake George…it is a good day!
In the high altitude of Lake Placid the leaves were all gone and we thought we had seen the end of color, but as we made our way down the mountain and headed south, the fall colors lit up the hillsides again! You can’t travel five miles down the road without seeing some body of water…from bog to lake…truly beautiful country. New York always conjures up images of crowded streets and thousands of people …but upstate New York is one of the prettiest parts of the country I have ever seen.
In just three hours we arrived Lake George. This area of the Adirondacks is steeped in history..including French and Indian War &, Revolutionary War sites. There is a fort right in the middle of town on the edge of the lake. It was important for the French to protect Lake George which leads to Lake Champlain, which leads to the Great Lakes. Lake Champlain was declared the sixth Great Lake by Clinton, an act which was repealed in two months!!!! ( I gotta look that up)
Any way…the place we are staying in Lake George is quite posh!!!!!! It is deserted this time of year so they upgraded our room to a suite!! We have a fireplace, two big flat screens, kitchen, bath and a bedroom!!!!! Oh my! AND a lake view…probably would be $500+ a night in the season! Not close to that now……
Travel tip: try to go off season!
…we are watching the Charger game ..they are playing New England..they’re not doing too good!!!!

October 23
We are staying in Lake Placid, site of 1939 &,1980 Winter Olympics…
Our place is on Mirror Lake….just south of Lake Placid….separated by a road way.
Good name for the lake….
Mother Moon was exquisite over the still water!!!
October 22
One highlight of the trip into Vermont besides the incredible scenery was the tour of Ben and Jerry’s! We even got to sample one of the newest flavors, Milk and Cookies. I hate to admit this, but it was the first time Rocky and I have ever had any B & J’s !!!! Just sooooooooooooo many calories and Rocky likes just plain chocolate (which they have) Any ways….back in the 60′s those two guys decided they would make ice cream for profit and lo and behold, they sure did! A few years back they sold to Unilever and now are enjoying life outside the freezer.
One of the things we kick ourselves for NOT doing is visiting the LL Bean starter store in Maine..we were a stone’s throw away from it without realizing it until later……probably could have stocked up on more things we don’t need! (although we both have discovered a few items of clothing we brought to keep us warm….. do not!)
Today we took a ferry to the New York side and drove down the side of Lake Champlain and came back on the Vermont side with a little touring of the islands in the middle. The little villages on the middle islands are just so tidy and quaint!!!!! We think they probably are a summer haven but today were quiet and deserted….The wind is quite gusty and was whipping up wind waves on the lake, making it a dark steel gray color. Good contrast for the eye popping leaves! Getting colder!!!! mid 40′s daytime, mid 30′s nightly.
October 19
Sorry to keep you all in suspense!!!! A few things to keep me from having the time to email…we wake up, get up, eat yogurts real quick, gulp hot drinks and get out the door most mornings in order to see all this part of the world has to offer. Also, the internet sometimes is shaky in rural areas we find ourselves staying.
To catch up….we left the coast of Maine by visiting Lubec. This wee town is on the border of Nova Scotia and is “said” to be the first place the sun shines in the continental USA….however there are a number of spots around the area that claim the same thing. It all boils down to the curve of the earth, the time of year , the altitude, and if you are 6’5″ or 4’3″ where you are standing (get the picture). we then ventured into inland Maine and what a difference! The first thing one notices is the lack of billboards for “The best boiled lobster in the WORLD” I guess I am spoiled with Pacific lobster…but boiled lobster from Maine was not to my liking…just tasted (or didn’t taste) like something that had all the flavor boiled out of it! and it was always expensive! The other cool thing about this part of the country is the tides…Lubec is on the Bay of Fundy…site of the most drastic tides on earth. even the rivers are affected by the tides…..at low tide the river banks are so exposed and high tide finds fresh water lapping at the grass….in rivers! It’s all about water in this land…you can dig down two feet and find it!
Any way. to end our visit to the Maine coast, we went to the Cole Land Transportation Museum. It was fantastic. It traced the vehicular history of Maine and how they improvised and invented machinery to get them into the interior of Maine. One of the best museums of its kind I have ever seen. Google it and see what it says : www.colemuseum.org
Inland Maine actually had herds of cows in pastures, herds of wild turkeys grazing in fields and lots of bald eagles perched over river banks. The leaves were still assaulting our eyes with the color and we even saw mountains….well sort of. It is also getting a lot colder! One morning I walked for an hour and I thought my ears would crack off if I touched them! It is too cold to bother with anything but my long sleeved turtle neck, sweater, long socks, levis and boots!
I keep looking for moose…everything is moose this and moose that….but I have yet to see one! Saw two nice bald eagles today..one on my morning walk, the other eating something dead in the road. Not nice to see our national bird eating a dead raccoon…but then I guess he is an opportunist!
Spent three days in upper New Hampshire. Their motto is “Live free or Die” Only those below the age of 18 are required to wear seat belts…I guess they are serious about not having someone tell them what to do! It is glorious here too….but way different from Maine. There is much more wilderness up here. We could drive for miles before seeing any sign of humans. Even the place we stayed….at Mt. Washington (Tallest mountain in New England at 6,288) is rural compared to what it would look like if it was anywhere else. However back in 1886 some rich dude decided to erect the biggest hotel I have ever seen. It is huge, white, elegant and quite out of place in the surroundings of thousands of acres of National Forest!!!! It was opulent and unbelievable! Rocky was required to wear his sports coat at dinner!!!
We took a ride up the face of Mt. Washington on the second steepest railway in the world (Switzerland has the first) It is the Mt. Wash. cog railway. operating continuously since 1886! Quite a marvel and what a view if we could have gone to the top. (too much snow across the track prevented that) On the top you can see 5 states, the Atlantic, and Quebec. The highest wind ever recorded was on this mountain…273 MPH!!!!!! Whew!!!
We took a three hour hike to a gorgeous waterfall yesterday and are ending our journey into New Hampshire this morning….Off to Vermont today!!!!!

Oct 12
We exited Boston alive and well after three subways stops with all our gear headed to the airport to get the rental car, our carriage for the next three weeks! Our first stop merely 40 minutes north of Boston was Salem!!!! (home of the infamous witch hysteria) We knew we were approaching Salem because #1 it is October…The most important time of year for witches and #2 as Halloween approaches almost every one in and around Salem decorates their houses , businesses, street corners and alleyways for Halloween!!! We are not talking just the run of the mill decorations folks…this is the most serious of times! I saw so many far out displays I had to stop hollering “look at that!” Photos did not even occur to me and often would not have captured the moment, I only will include one….you just have to come see for yourselves! We had to pick one thing to see in the actual town and I chose the Witch Museum….one would surmise it would be THE thing to give some insight to this grave time in history….WRONG thing to do…was very hokey….it was a historical story..but not what I expected . There are hundreds of shops and physic readers and grandiose decorations for Halloween throughout the town. There are memorials to the people who died at the hands of the terror crazed Puritans…luckily this witch scare did not last too long…..
October 12
We are having a grand road trip!!! We truly are leaf peepers…we came-we saw-we are amazed with the blaze of colors!! . The trees have not disappointed us although there are a few that have not dressed for Fall yet..but we still are low on the latitude scale.Every shade and hue of yellows, reds, and oranges…throw in some maroons and purples…We have heard upper Maine and inland Vermont have reached the peak…but no matter if we never saw another leaf we still would have seen enough!!!! We are staying in Kennebunkport at the most classic hotel! The main house looks like the house in the movie “According to Garp” and we are staying in one of the numerous outbuildings. Ours is the “Gallant House” We are pure New England!!!! We are located at the mouth of the Kennebunk River and are surrounded by quaint houses, lobster shacks, boats and the most beautiful bay. The sunset last night was magnificent and set over the water of the bay which made it feel as if we were on the West coast. The colors were unreal!…maybe a reflection of the fall leaves!!!
We dined at breakfast in a classic Victorian dining room….First sit down breakfast we have had in two weeks since we were on a ‘dine and dash’ regime in Boston…yogurt and tea and dash to the subway!. These next three weeks will be a lot more relaxed!

Sunday 10/10/10

We actually slept in to 7 AM this morning!!!! Yeah! (Still got that hour of exercise in!)
We took the guided Freedom Trail Tour with an intimate group of 50(!) fellow tourists.  After all, it is Sunday of a three day weekend and there are a lot of visitors in town! One of the main things we learned is to not trust all the lyrical poems, tall tales and songs we have heard all our lives concerning Paul Revere and others, the early years, how battles were fought, or what constituted a “massacre”.  It is really good to get this history stuff straight…now many things begin to make sense…(I think I have already said that!) Poets and story tellers took great license and kinda stretched the truth or downright lied!!!!
It was a glorious day and after the tour we enjoyed the warm weather a bit before making our way to the Museum of Science.  This behemoth building houses 4 to 5 floors of the most amazing things…we were overwhelmed with the displays and only experienced a small section out of 300!! This is one of those places you would need about 6 months to explore…which we do not!
We opted to take a river boat tour of the Charles River.  We sailed past MIT, numerous bridges with lots of history…grand parks, and many folks out on the river in power boats, sail boats, canoes, kayaks, and sculls. Fishing from the banks and  boats…but no one IN the water.  The water is tea brown from the leaves that fall into the river (not pollution) and so it is not conducive to a good swim….
We had a great dinner at Faneuil Hall’s Durgin Park Pub….a very old restaurant serving food pub style at long tables with checkered tablecloths…It was comfort food…pot roast, mashed tatters, mashed squash and of course, Boston Baked Beans! (I had haddock) It was in the top 3 of our trips to dinner…
Our trip is winding down here in Boston… one full day left…We’ll be touring Harvard and MIT tomorrow. After Boston we rent a car for three weeks and see if we can chase the turning leaves around New England!

Oct 9—–My mom has been gone 20 years today, tried to find a Catholic Church with votive lights so I could light a candle in her memory…no votives in the two churches I visited!!! What’s up with that????

This day was really different in that we traveled quite a long way to our destination.  This was the  Lexington /Concord day! Talk about immersion in history!!!! This is THE PLACE!!!!
The trees along the way were just starting to turn colors at their tops as the transit bus bumped along the road.  We alighted in Lexington and felt the crispy air hit our faces.  We had been transported back into time….the houses haven’t changed much since the early settlers built them.  There were folks walking around in period clothing.  The park service has been acquiring land and returning it back to the way it was when Puritans met Algonquins! On to Concord a few miles down the road….over to the bridge where one can almost hear “the shot heard around the world”  I can tell you I REALLY learned more history in one day by just being here than a whole school year’s course! It all made sense to me by being here. Talk about feeling spirits! Take your kids here….come here yourselves……These pioneers fought hard to give us our freedom!

October 8^th

I am trying to keep my new “look” so every morning I wake really early (6) and make my way to the hotel basement to their fitness center…It consists of two tread machines, one bike and one elliptical! This does not fit in too good with MR. R’s preplanned schedule but so far I have managed to work off a few calories, get back to the room and still get out to the subway on time!!!!   Friday was no exception…we took the subway (at rush hour no less) and then the bus to JF Kennedy’s Library RIGHT ON TIME!!!!
We woke to bright blue skies  and it was warm by the time we got there!!!! JFK’s library is perched on the edge of the Bay and what a sight with the sparkling water reflecting off the glass front.  I have never been to any of the Pres. Libraries so didn’t know what to expect….This one seems to be a depository for ALL the gifts, documents, films, photos and other memorabilia of his term….Boy! A Pres. sure does receive some impressive gifts!  Of course we all know the end of the story so the last room was not too pleasant.
After, we found ourselves very close to Quincy, a small Mass. town down the subway line.  My ex-Boston friends told us of a local place to eat so off we went to find it.  The place was located in a picturesque  inlet with lots of nice sail boats and fishing boats moored at the docks.  We had a splendid lunch of scrod, ribs and fried scallops! I feel like I am  going to turn into a dolphin after consuming so much fish in Maui and now Boston! Yum!!!!
We took a ferry back to Boston!  From our docking wharf we had time to cruise the skinny, cobbled streets near the water and found the country’s oldest restaurant (Union  Oyster House) before walking a couple of miles to our hotel through the really old part of Boston.(1600′s)  It was as if we were back in the old English towns we visited four years ago!  (Go figure!) So cool!!! We ended the day with delicious Thai food and after pleasant dreams we started…

Oct 7

Thursday dawned gusty, rain free, bright and sunny at times, with lingering gray clouds  on the fringe!
9;00 AM found us at Fenway Park…the oldest baseball field in the nation and home to the “Green Monster” which-for those of you who do not know…is the big green wooden wall behind home plate! The Red Sox play here!!!! We got the first tour of the day…(couldn’t go yesterday since ole Brad Pitt was filming his next movie on site.) The guide was all baseball and talked as if ALL of us knew what the heck he was talking about. To watch most of our group bright eyed and in awe,nodding and smiling…. I guess I was the odd one out!!!! Fenway is the mecca for any one who knows one byte about baseball. In 2012 it celebrates birthday #100. We sat on wooden seats that replaced the original wooden benches…The seats have been there for close to that 100 years!!!! It had an aura about it….I really did feel some sort of a presence of souls who once played there, managed teams there, or just sat and cheered for their beloved Sox….Honest!
To balance out the morning we visited the Museum of Fine Art.  We got lost in viewing the treasures encased within and almost left without turning left near the exit. There was an entire wing devoted to Egyptian artifacts “burglarized” from beneath the pyramid at  Giza in the late 1800′s.  I just couldn’t believe the extent of their collection and was really surprised to view multiple ornate royal mummies and priceless artifacts.  I would think Egypt would want them returned!
We lunched at “Elephant Walk”, a fantastic Cambodian/French place…best food so far!
Then it was off to Isabelle Garderner’s museum /home…a can’t miss collection of art work, tapestries and artifacts from around the world collected by an art obsessed early 1900 woman.  Her four story house was built around an inner courtyard protected by glass in which some tropical plants from around the world have survived for years! Awesome!
Today is gorgeous, we visit JF Kennedy’s museum and take the Freedom Walk! No trees are turning yet in Boston but in Maine the foliage is almost finished!

Boston Oct 6

We arrived Boston late last night after an hour delay on the runway in Denver.  It is always disconcerting when they hold the plane due to “technical difficulties”! Makes you hope the “technician” knows what he/she is doing!!!!!
Boston was stormy last night and today it got worse.  The winds were gusting to 39 knots and it rained an inch! I counted at least 5-6 twisted, gnarled umbrellas discarded in places from trash cans to flooded gutters. This did not prevent us from following Rocky’s carefully planned itinerary!!!! We became instant pros at the subway system and our first adventure was the Beantown trolley.  It takes you all over the city, you can get off and on and the narration is always interesting.  There is one hangup however…they talk funny here!  Lucky for me I have had Bostonian “lessons” from my friends, the Jordan’s, but Rocky was lost a few times.. and they think we talk funny! We jumped on a tour of the Boston Harbor and saw where the the Tea Party was orchestrated and not too far away floats the US Constitution…Old Ironsides.  She sails once a year on the 4th of July so she is still a commissioned ship of the US Navy!!! Later we were able to jump on board her and I was truly amazed we are allowed  to stride along the deck and go below!  What a beautiful old piece of our history!!!!!!!! We ate at Legal Seafood’s and had gelato at famous Mike’s Bakery.  Rocky slept in a pew at the Old North Church, same pew box Teddy Roosevelt sat in in 1912!!!! Wonder if he slept through the sermon? How Paul Revere raised 16 kids in his little two story house is really something and now we hear he wasn’t the one who raced through the streets warning others of the Coming of the British! (?) All this in the first day!!!
Just thought you might be interested to know the wind and rain have not stopped us!!!!Luckily they are saying the storm is on its way out and good weather will return soon….no matter….. we have things to do and see no matter what!
Stay tuned!

September 7, 2010

As many of you know, right after the big birthday bash we headed to Maui. We had plans to spend one week with cousins Margaret and Jeff, one week with friends Rick and Puddie, and one week at their hana (house) on the Big Island.  Before we left we had trouble getting in touch with Rick, but since he lives and breathes Hawaiian, a lack of communication is “no problem” as things go in his life.  We arrived to breathe in the breath of Maui, warm, fragrant and moist. Our first evening was spent eating and visiting with Jeff and Margaret something we have never had the opportunity to do.   M& J had the most fantastic luck in finding a place to realize their dream of living in Maui for a spell. They live in a two story yellow house which stands alone in a loop of land.  The hana is surrounded by a white picket fence enclosing a green lawn and tropical plants in the planters. The story goes more homes were supposed to be built but the money ran dry and only the model stands….J&M called right after the “for rent” sign went up and signed the papers post haste! To say the décor is minimalist would be right on. There are no unnecessary items in any room.  Our bedroom/bath is the biggest in the house and we immediately felt welcome and at home.

The next morning, we got right into the business at hand, which is to say, the next morning found us on my favorite beach in the world, Napili. I cannot tell you why this beach is so magical to me, but the first time I ever slipped my feet into the golden sand of that bay I was riveted by the beauty before me.  The warm water is crystal clear and every varied color of green and blue you can or can’t possibly imagine. The wind is always warm and moist. It can be soft and playful or harsh and stinging especially if it carries bits of sand into my skin.  The bay is perfectly aligned to view the Island of Molokai to the west and if you cock your head to the southwest you see Lanai’i. The most glorious sunsets display their glory right out front!  The bay is surrounded by lava becoming rocks flowing into the ocean forming great banquet reefs for the thousands of fishes that thrive in this sea.  Swells play over the reef and only hint they might become waves. Sometimes when the tide is right and the swell is big enough a lucky surfer or body surfer rides a curl into the shore. Mostly however the waves hit the little shelf of sand at the shore and disperse their energy into a soft swoosh upon the sand. In this shore break, young and old floaters ride back and forth into the bay. Before you get a picture of a remote beach in paradise I must tell you to turn around and imagine the entire shore lined with old/new resorts, hotels, condos and a few lucky homes.  They are tastefully built into the landscape, but nary a square inch of the shore is not claimed by someone.  The beach remains public. There is a wonderful restaurant called the Sea House situated in the north section of the bay. We frequent this spot a lot!  Great pupus!!! This day finds us sharing the second of many fine Sea House repasts with J&M. The most notable thing happened today.  We made contact with friend Rick and found out he was not feeling well and we would not be able to stay with him.  We had a long discussion with J&M and they urged us to stay with them for the whole 23 days!   We have long had a slogan, “Fish and guests smell after three days” so it was with great trepidation we agreed to stay.

September 22- Autumnal Equinox AND Full Moon

Now 16 days have passed since I last had time to sit and write of our Maui adventure. Yes, I can say we have been so busy there hasn’t been a minute to sit, collect thoughts and write them down!  (Luckily we have jotted brief notes on a calendar page so we know what we did the day before) All thoughts of being unwelcome guests have long been dashed as waves upon lava cliffs. The four of us have settled into a nice routine. J&M continue to work their assigned schedules at their jobs and we just weave our time around that. We have a rental car so we are never at their mercy.  Even if we didn’t, the public bus system is very accommodating. Today is chore day and the opportunity to catch up on my blog. It is the very least I can do for the opportunity to stay almost a month with a cousin who until now, I had not spent a full day with!!!!!Yes, even in paradise there is laundry and vacuuming to do…not much of either but the machines don’t operate themselves so I sit and write while Rocky reads and naps (more napping).

One of our favorite past times is to get J&M to all the restaurants they have been wanting to try but have never ventured through the doors.  We have accomplished this in grand style!   Even found our way to the “other side of the island” to the most expensive, albeit charming, restaurant in all of Maui….the famous Mamma’s Fish House.  I can honestly say I almost choked when I saw the price of a Mahi-Mahi plate lunch ($48.00) and the place was PACKED! Jeff and I ordered the Opah special and Rocky had the most amazing macadamian encrusted kaluha pork loin I have ever tasted.  Could be one of the top three meals of his entire life!  Margaret didn’t see anything on the menu she would die for so she had a coke…even soda refills weren’t free so that’s all she had ….one coke! The setting is tropical paradise personified…..it couldn’t have been staged any better;  swaying coco palms, tropical flowers blooming in the garden and set on the tables, tropical birds, succulents in every color and exquisite inlaid shell and stone walkways and walls. The deep blue ocean was inviting right beyond the white sand beach. You get what you pay for here…well almost.

We set out one day to find long lost friends. We have three in mind, Daniel, Sam and Puddie. We found Sam by phone and will probably hook up with him soon. Daniel, we sadly learned, passed away 1.5 years ago of a quick acting cancer. Remnants of his junk car collection still remained in his front yard. We did have good luck in finding Rick’s wife Puddie who we have not seen in 30 years.  She hadn’t changed except her hair was short!  She is the brains behind their Jurassic Stone yard. She, Rick and son Mike run a granite slab yard complete with working stonecutting saws and an inventory of incredible granite slabs from around the world.  We lunched half way up the volcano Haleakala which afforded us an incredible view west across the fertile plains that stretch between Haleakala and the West Maui Mountains.  If you use your geologic imagination you can see just how this plain was formed as the two volcanoes filled the gap between themselves in times long past.  The mountain side here is lush and grows the veggies that feed the entire island.  Small plots of vegetables, greens and tropical fruits are everywhere.  The temperature cooled by 3.5 degrees for every 1,000 feet we climbed.  The top of the mountain is 10,000 feet so it truly can be a freezing arctic tip above!  On the way home we visited the Iao Valley and its famed Iao Needle.  This needle is the core of an ancient volcano that now protrudes above the cliffs and is covered with clouds most of the time.  It was visible this day and we hiked the short hike up 166 steps to get a good view.  Unfortunately this valley was the sight of the bloodiest conquest of the Maui king by Kamehameha. Sure looks peaceful now.

The days we spend at the beaches are the most exciting to me.  There is always something different going on……water temp has changed (maybe moved from 79 to 77) or the tide is high or low, or there are waves. We visit two, Flemings and Napili. Flemings is raw beach without being in a protected bay and no resorts or houses. Lava rocks on the north end for snorkeling in calm seas and usually at least a little surf break for body whomping . Occasionally there are waves to surf. It is shaded above the sand line by towering ironwood trees that drop little pods that look like pineapples.  The holes in them fill with individual grains of sand and look quite arsty/craftsy . It is a very good beach but my favorite is Napili.

There is a bay right around the corner from Napili the cousins have named Turtle Bay for very good reason……There are NUMEROUS green sea turtles residing there.  One day Rocky and I watched from the cliff above. We probably saw at least 20 turtles surfacing for air. Right next to where we were sitting there were two GIANTS playing together (or doing SOMETHING together) for the whole time we were there.  Not too many snorkelers know about this place so the turtles are not bothered by the occasional lookey-loo hale. I found a dive shop with prescription diving masks and plan to spend a few hours gawking at them.  I can normally see when I use a regular mask on the reefs, but the turtle’s hanas are so deep I want to see to the bottom.

Margaret has another past time that is very intriguing. She has managed to “borrow” towels from almost every resort on the western shore. She merely decides the “towel du jour” and proceeds to the corresponding resort pool.  I’m telling you, these are not your run of the mill motel pools! There are guys in shirts and shorts (matching the towel colors) who wander by and ask if we want anything to eat or drink. There are coolers of iced water with cucumbers floating in them. There are small pools, Jacuzzi pools, waterfalls to hang out under……and most of the time NO ONE else is there!!!! She stayed in/by a Marriot pool yesterday for hours, read an entire book and never saw a soul! No harm, no foul. She takes only towels and leaves only footprints.

Today we all remember we are only here for one more week.  I realize many people only get one week to spend here and often I wonder…. why am I so lucky to be here this long? So now the countdown starts and lists come out to check to see if we have seen it all. Stay tuned I am sure the week will be filled with wondrous things!

July 9 (One year ago today we returned from our round the world trip!)

We only stayed at Bill’s Casablanca house for two nights because we had the opportunity to travel to the mountain region to the village of Chefchaouen. His son Chad (who lives in Casablanca with his wife and daughter) was able to find us a place to stay. We were told there would be a large music festival in the town and lots of people would be there. We piled into his wee, small, dinky Fiat (not another water bottle could squeeze in) and off we went for a six hour drive to the mountains. It was a fantastic way to see the country. The scenery was so cool! It was hot and time to harvest hay and summer vegetables. There were fields of sunflowers, corn, hay and many other food crops. Giant storks nested in anything that was tall and high; mosque towers, high voltage towers and/or cell phone towers. They were huge white birds with black wings and their nests were twice the size of an eagle’s nest. Colorful pottery stands selling tajine pots and clay dishes decorated the road side. Lots of people were riding donkeys laden with things to sell at market. Buses were slow and fully loaded and the hay trucks looked as if they would topple any minute. Drivers did nutty things….passing on curves, not yielding, but we survived. There was a very active police department keeping track of speeders by radar. One cop would clock a car with a radar gun and the other crazy cop would jump out in front of the speeding bullet! Bill had witnessed some prone officers who were hit by cars unable to stop! We were pulled over four times but each time the cop was so excited we were American we were excused with lots of smiles, nice nods and handshakes. They even helped us stay on course and gave us good information in faltering English. (They speak French and Arabic) We arrived in Chefchaouen’s beautiful town circle in late afternoon and gave the owner of the “guesthouse” a call. He and his wife were from Scotland and he came right down to find us and led us back to our home for the 3 next days. They were fantastic hosts and we really scored staying there. The “Rif for Everyone” was way up on top of the hill overlooking the village. We had a really hard time finding our way back home the first night! Luckily I took photos of landmarks and we were able to follow the crumbs home! The views from the top of the house were just magnificent. They really had the best place of all. The Music Festival was mainly Moroccan music but there was a smattering of rap and rock and roll. It was packed with locals and a few Europeans and us three gringos. Our host’s son’s band played but we chose to go exploring the old city instead.

Every town or city of any size had a medina. They were ancient walled cities, built in the days when any village had to be protected from marauders. The stone/brick/mud walls were very high, had turrets at the corners and small windows around the top. The gateways always were in the shape of a stylized keyhole. Chefchaouen is known for its white walls and beautiful blue doors, a shade of blue that is just heavenly. The lanes were narrow and winding and very intriguing; lots of different levels and mysterious pathways and stairwells. We found great places to eat and many shops with gorgeous woven carpets, slippers with pointy toes, fossils, hookahs, fez’s, scarves, incense, jewelry, trinkets, veggies and piles of brightly colored spices….. lovely smells and sights. We still are in the mode of buying no souvenirs so it was a “just looking” excursion. In the center of the medina grew a giant star pine, probably a couple of hundred years old. The moon was full so it was doubly awesome walking through the medina with the moonlight reflecting off the white walls. Positively one of the best places we have ever been.

Bill and I spent some time on the computer and found a place for our next destination…..Tangier. Soon we took off for a three hour drive to one of the oldest cities in the world.

July 7-full moon

Morocco turned out to be the surprise of all the countries we have visited. The best thing about our visit was having such a great host.  (It always is best to have a friend show you around no matter where you go!) The second best thing was exotic, magical Morocco. The huge city of Casablanca was as modern and bustling as any big city. The one outstanding feature was the driving habits of the Moroccans. Not much regard for etiquette or stop signs. It took Bill a whole year to learn how to drive here! He kept right up with them! Luckily he lived outside of the city. Bill’s house was right on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. High tide washed against the patio wall! The coastline here resembled the tide pool rocks of Point Loma or La Jolla with the exception of the lack of anything alive on the rocks. The rocks had been combed for hundreds of years by the people living off anything the water washed in. In the summer, when the inland heat is unbearable, the poorer local residents swarm to the beaches and pitch tents or erect lean-tos and live on the beach until it cools down. Most beachside roads were built with cubby holes constructed into their lower structure allowing folks to create living space under the road. These pop up villages and the lack of any noticeable sea life curtailed my beachcombing immediately. I felt I would be invading their life sustaining food search when all I would be seeking was shells! We did see the local fishing fleet leave every morning and watched them fishing just outside of the reef. We ventured over to their moorings in the afternoon and walked through their displays of daily catch. There were lots of fish we had never seen before. Just choose your fish and they were cleaned and cooked it right there for you. As we left, we were “serenaded” by the local mosque’s chanter calling the faithful to prayer…..something most people seemed to ignore.

We definitely were in the minority, there are 34.3 million people living in Morocco, 500 of them Americans. Only 5 Americans have businesses in Morocco and Bill is one of them with his Harley-Davidson dealership! The people were very friendly, there weren’t any thieves hiding around the corner ready to slit throats. Very few black Africans live here, the population consists of people from Arabic descent. They were light skinned, dark eyed and had dark brown hair. Everywhere was clean and since we are the same latitude as San Diego, they had the same climate and all the same plants we had in our parks, yards and countryside. The big difference was the age of the old structures. Some mosques and the structures inside the ancient walled cities were thousands of years old. The old architecture was Islamic/Arabic and quite exotic and decorated with lots of colorful tile in the most elegant ornate patterns. Most people dressed very moderately, the majority of women were in full dress from head to toe but there were many exceptions with some ladies in modern clothes. On the beaches, there were women fully dressed playing paddle ball with gals in bikinis. No one went as far as wearing a thong or going topless! The food was really good! I found something besides Mexican food that I could eat at all three meals…..tajine. The secret was in the clay vessel it was cooked in. The pot resembled a volcano-topped cooking pot. Broth, veggies and sometimes meat was simmered over a wood fire to produce the most delicious complete meal. The broth was flavored with special spices purchased from the spice merchants, each one had a special secret blend. The spices were incredibly flavorful but never hot. We had a couple of days to acclimate to our new surroundings and made plans to drive to another region, in the mountains.

Sorry folks…having trouble with the blog site. They changed it since I started.  I plan on re-creating our Morocco/Spain trip from my written log  and soon there will be details of our trip posted.  We are now home safe and sound and may I just take this opportunity to suggest if there is any other time you can travel..do so….summer sucks for travelers.