Category Archives: Travel

Sep21

Airship Over Wine Country

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Airship Over Wine Country
Airship Over Wine Country

I was so excited to hear about a zeppelin at Sonoma County airport that I went for a ride on it before 24 hours went by. Howard saw the zeppelin at the airport on Thursday and the next morning I signed up for the 3 p.m. cruise to Guerneville and back. Buoyant flight feels more like scuba diving than flying in a plane. The lift-off feels more like rising to the surface of the water using a buoyancy compensator. Landing is so gentle that there is hardly any sensation — so different from the loud and pressured landing of an airplane. The airship never actually touches down — it just hovers as new passengers board and departing ones disembark simultaneously so that the weight load stays constant. For more, see this article in the Press Democrat.
ext-airship-sonoma

Jul10

Traveling With Others Is Challenging

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Traveling With Others Is Challenging

Paris Bus 69I was talking with some French classmates and Russ recently returned from a 3 week trip with his partner, Claire, and her brother and his wife from Des Moines. Claire is fluent in French and plans carefully, as do I. Russ said, “I just drive. She tells me where. It works out.” So my hypothesis is that planners typically pair with spontaneous people because, as Russ said, it works out.

I am lucky that my first trip to Paris was 50 years ago. It was a gift from my very devout Godmother who took me to every church in Paris. And London. And Rome. And then we went to Lourdes for the Feast of the Assumption on August 15. Along with every other devout Catholic on five continents. But I was 15 and I learned a lot.

My second trip was when I was 21 and I spent my time shopping. Spent every penny I had. It was great but just a few days because I didn’t have many pennies.

Nine years ago I went back to Paris with my sister Peggy who is an artist. We spent all our time in the museums. Four days. Louvre, d’Orsay, Pompidou, Rodin. plus another four days in London just seeing art (Peggy used to live in London). I was finally satisfied with Impressionism. It is fun going to museums with someone who loves and understands art and is enthusiastic about hiking to one more gallery.

It is a drag going to museums with someone who wants to be “on vacation.” Because the art in the Louvre is mostly naked ladies, I made sure my husband saw Venus deMilo and the ancient Roman and Greek (naked) statues and the magnificence of the palace. But he was brain dead after six hours. The crowds and jet-lag were hammering us.

Paris Musee de l' ArmeeI kept it down to one museum a day and made sure he got plenty of good food (easy). He got one “free” day while I went shopping so he went to the Army Museum. He just paid the day rate because it was cheaper than getting a Museum Pass that spanned our whole visit. The lines are not long at the Army Museum. Where the pass really comes in handy is skipping the lines at the Louvre, Pompidou, etc. He really liked the Army museum, especially learning that “Detail” is the name of the artist who painted battle scenes in what we now call “great detail.” [Or maybe that’s what the museum put under the images and he misinterpreted it as the artist’s name. You never know.]

I guess Russ and Claire were guiding her brother and his wife on their “big trip” and Russ was exasperated by their Des Moines attitude. He said, “They didn’t understand why everyone didn’t speak English!”

Frankly, I was afraid my husband would be the same way, but he plunged in with enthusiasm, buying “billets” at the metro as soon as we arrived. So I will plan a longer trip that includes Versailles and the Dordogne. Russ went to the Dordogne and saw the caves. I have not seen any of his pictures and I am eager to hear the details of his trip. He loved Bruges.

People who have been subjected to the Devout Catholic stuff may be less enthusiastic about the religious grandeur of some sites. Howard climbed the steps at Notre Dame. His photos of the gargoyles and the roofs of Paris are breathtaking. I skipped it because I thought the climb would be breathtaking. [huff-huff]

My idea of “spontaneous fun” in Paris is getting on a bus and seeing where it goes, especially at rush hour when you get to see what people wear to work. You have time to look in all the shop windows when traffic is slow. If you have a Pass Navigo, you can hop off and hop back on. Do lots of window shopping from the comfort of your bus seat.

Jun15

Was French Class Worth It?

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Was French Class Worth It?

A friend from New York asked about the French lessons I was taking to prepare for our trip to Paris. There is a myth in the US (I heard it again while we waited to board the plane) that all French people speak English, they just won’t because they are stubborn.

Sarkozy Election PosterThat’s as nuts as saying all Texans speak Spanish. According to Wikipedia, about 35% of French people speak English but the statistic is misleading. International business people (like Christine LaGarde, head of the IMF) speak English, so do upper class intellectuals in France (just as the upper class in the US speaks French). Nicholas Sarkozy could not speak English well when he was elected President of France. I don’t know if the newly elected president does either. He only spoke French when I saw him on TV exulting in his victory over Sarkozy. Oh, wait! I was watching TV in Paris… on their Election Day 6 Mai.

It is important to remember that the French HATE the English. Remember the Hundred Years War? It lasted 300 years — that’s how long they were fighting. Napoleon was planning to invade England until the battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

I didn’t meet Christine LaGarde (though I would love to — I copy her hairdo) I mainly spoke to waiters, passers-by on the street and security guards. I needed to ask directions and understand the answers like how to find the correct bus stop, or where Howard would exit Notre Dame after he visited the towers. I could get a recommendation at the wine shop and buy delicacies. For example:

Rue Cler is lined with cafes, bakeries, chocolate confectioneries, ice cream parlors and what New Yorkers call “appetizing shops.” Each has a different specialty such as pâté or thousand-leaf pastries filled with delicate ham and cheese. They are bustling in the late afternoon and filled with the local people.

One we visited had an aisle down the middle with the cashier at the end. The prepared food was in a case on the left and ingredients were over a counter on the right. I asked for a slice of cheese, a couple of thick slices of country bacon and some olives from a big French guy rapidly serving people over the counter on the right. My hands full, I was propelled by the press of people to the cashier at the back, a well groomed woman in her fifties. She asked in French if this was everything I wanted.

I looked longingly at the little quiche in the case on the left. She said “La quiche?” I nodded. She was already out of her chair and heading for it when she said, “Combien?” “Une,” I squeaked.

She wrapped it up and returned to her chair as the line pressed behind me and I churned through my mental rolodex. “Je suis desolee de votre derangement,” I stammered, knowing it wasn’t quite right. “Je vous en prie!” she scoffed and rang up the purchase. I was so relieved that she thought it was natural to help people get what they wanted. I realized that is was probably her family store and the men slicing ham and cheese were her sons.

The food was sensational and it was really nice to have something to eat in the apartment when we came home wet and tired.

Knowing some French really makes a difference. In Paris, yes, and even more in the countryside. And the difference it makes is the quality of your experience. You will have SO much more fun if you can understand the waiter when he says, “Oh, don’t have that. Everyone has this.” Just know that he will say it in French.

Dec8

Grrr Mercury Retrograde

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Grrr Mercury Retrograde

Mercury goes retrograde Thanksgiving Day 11/24 and stays there through 12/14. Not so good for signing contracts or initiating new plans, but great for reviewing and learning from your past. Just take extra care.

Yesterday I drove to San Francisco to attend the Bay Area Bloggers Society meeting, skipping a jQuery class, because the BABS topic was “Focused Creativity for Compelling Content.” Doyle Drive has been revised but the sign has not. It says “right lane must exit to 19th Ave.” but actually TWO right lanes must exit with the recent roadway changes. Well, I was forced down 19th Ave when I wanted to go to Lombard St. But it got worse.

I found a parking spot, but it was one cliff below where the meeting was, so I got back in my car at 5:45 p.m. to find the 6 p.m. meeting. No headlights, and it was almost dark. Checked the fuses, they looked good. Called Howard, he drove from Santa Rosa with more fuses. Not the problem. I locked up the car and left it in San Francisco because I could not drive home in the dark with no lights. At 5 a.m. today, Howard drove me back to SF. I waited for the streetlights to go off indicating that it was safe to drive without lights. Got back to Santa Rosa by 8 a.m., just as the auto repair shop opened.

The problem? A loose relay. The repair shop guy pushed it back into place and sent me on my way, no charge. Howard smashed his side view mirror on a pillar a few hours later.

Mercury. Bah!

Dec7

Doctorow – How to Change Future

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Doctorow – How to Change Future

I guess the way you change the future is to change people’s narrative.  Change the story people have imagined the future will be.  Change that and you change the future.  Everything else is far too complicated and out of a single person’s control — but just change the story we tell ourselves about the future and you change the future itself.

The Tomorrow Project Anthology

Apr15

Ghost Orchid Fakahatchee Strand

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Ghost Orchid Fakahatchee Strand
Ghost Orchid Fakahatchee Strand

I’ll never look at orchids the same way after hunting for the elusive Ghost Orchid with John Kalafarski, a brilliant botanist and all around genius. Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park is a strip of land between Alligator Alley (Interstate 75) at the North and the Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41) to the South. It encompasses much of Florida’s most spectacular swamp. More native orchid species grow in this 75,000 acre wilderness than in any other place on the continent. There is an 11 mile park road, but the park is a wilderness and the goal is to preserve its natural character. We hiked the “mud tram” which is a rickety wooden boardwalk made of two boards precariously balanced on 4×4’s driven into the black swamp muck underfoot.

Fakahatchee ghost orchidWe were seeking the elusive Ghost Orchid which blooms at the start of the summer rainy season. After a long dry winter, this leafless orchid appears briefly in just a few rare locations where the conditions are just right. John, our guide, visits this area often and has a botanist’s eye for the details that lead to the tiny but dramatic wild orchids that flower in the Fakahatchee. John was hoping that we would find the Ghost Orchid on our hike in the middle of April. There had been a brief rain a few days before and the ground was damp, but conditions were not yet perfect and we did not see one despite the Photshoped photo to the left. John wanted to stake out where the orchid was going to bloom so that he could return in a few days’ time to see the bloom, but because the Ghost Orchid does not have any leaves, there is no indicator where it will appear. Botanists have to haunt the territory looking for the blooms. The lucky ones are hiking in tropical rain, swatting mosquitoes as big as the orchids themselves.

The most exciting part was hearing the rumble of an alligator as a jet plane went overhead. John explained that alligators are not afraid of humans, but they don’t understand the sound of the jets overhead and it agitates them. A few steps further and we could smell the alligator who had created a Gator Hole in the black swamp muck. The muck itself was actually clean smelling, just decaying leaves mostly, John dug up a handful for us to sniff. It looked muddy but was actually rather crumbly. We circled around the gator hole so we upwind of the gator and Howard got a pretty good photo.

John explained that the early Spanish visitors called this critter a lizard “legato” so The Lizard is El Legato. Ellygato. Corrupted to ellygotta, then alligator.


 

 

 

 


Anet’s 27 second walk through Everglades ferns. iframe embed plays in iPad2


Howard’s Video as Anet and John discuss finding time to read and the classic Twilight Zone episode that ends with Burgess Meredith’s glasses being broken.

Apr14

Everglades Area Tours

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Everglades Area Tours

The Everglades are beautiful.  We kayaked in a mangrove tunnel with a bird guide and watched a little gator flee.  The next day, an ex-Marine power boated us out to the 10,000 islands so we could kayak in salt water to see manatees and turtles and to visit a small island with a sandy beach, hardwoods at the center and a portapotty.  While we were on the island, some canoe campers landed, planning to spend the night. They were touring and camping in the islands (that looks like a fun trip!).  The following day we spent several hours in the Fakahatchee strip, a botanists paradise, with a Ph.D. naturalist looking for Ghost orchids.  Didn’t find any, but heard, smelled and saw a gator at his hole.   Very gushy hike.

It is fun and absorbing to be in an environment so different from home.  Their rainy season is the summer.  The Glades come alive when the water arrives.  They told us if we could tolerate the heat, humidity and mosquitoes, the Glades were at their best in the summer.