We celebrated an early birthday for Steven with a three week trip to Mexico, including La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit, a dusty, cobblestone street fishing village where Sally, Jacob and Lety lived for a year.

We are grateful for family once again making their homes available to us in La Cruz and Guadalajara. Warm weather and tropical breezes, a beautiful pool and garden (above), with large green iguanas climbing up the vines, were welcome after spending the month of February in Seattle (that was one of the coldest and snowiest on record).

Staying a block from the Bay of Banderas meant the company of magnificent Frigate birds (above), that can stay aloft for two weeks at a time. Spanish Paella was fantastic due to that e large variety of fresh seafood available at the local fish market.

We took short jaunts to the local surf towns of Punta Mita and Sayulita, and one day in the Puerto Vallarta tourist zone. Sally got to hang out with her pals, Sunny and Marlene, from her year in La Cruz, and we had a wonderful night with our family in Guadalajara (the second biggest city in Mexico) with competing mariachi bands, and a night tour of the historic center, lit up with neon lights (featured image).

This was part of our one week road trip to visit some beautiful hill towns east of Guadalajara, and La Gruta (below), a gorgeous hot spring and garden. Through the white rock arch at the far end of the pool, we swam up a dark tunnel to the HOTTEST water, found in a dark rock grotto deep in the hillside.

San Miguel de Allende is a tribute to the birth place of one of the country’s leaders during the Mexican War of Independence, Allende’s birthplace, and the first municipality declared independent of Spanish rule. Although there are a lot of expats residing here, local traditions abound. The procession below was led by a pistolero with a huge sombrero, a donkey decorated with ribbons, followed by the newly affianced couple, a very tall paper mache bride and groom, and then a marching band, and celebrants dressed in white embroidered clothing, at the end.

It is now a foodie paradise due to the insurgence of artists, retired Canadians fleeing real Winter, and an international community. Classic Chile Rellenos are typically mild poblano chiles filled with cheese, battered with egg, and fried. So good! These San Miguel ones were filled with meat, nuts, raisins, and camino, and covered with a walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds. Yumm!

We also loved Dolores Hidalgo (below), a small town north of San Miguel, where 50% of the town works in the world-famous Ceramics factories. The blooming Jacaranda trees waving beside the statue of Hidalgo in the town square reminded me of my favorite Mexican holiday, EL GRITO (“The Cry”) or Independence Day in September. Every cantina in Mexico pours free shots of Tequila so that everyone can listen to the Mexican President in D.F. (Distrito Federal/Mexico City) yell out at midnight, “VIVA HIDALGO! VIVA MEXICO!” …just like Hidalgo, calling for the start of the Revolution…and then the fireworks begin!

Our final hill town visit was to the World Heritage Site, Guanajuato (below). To preserve the historic downtown, there is a tortuous and narrow maze of roads cut out of rock under the city for a traffic bypass. That leaves the center city as a large pedestrian area filled with wedding parties, street-side cafes, strolling minstrels, and lots of relaxed people-watching from shady benches in the parks. We stayed near the top of a funicular tram rising from the center up to our hotel’s lofty view below.

Coming to Mexico almost yearly since I was five years old, I so love Mexico, and especially the warmth and generosity of her citizens. As expected, Steven fell in love with Mexico; we vow to return yearly to explore other regions like the Yucatan Peninsula with acres of Mayan ruins and fantastic scuba sites, Oaxaca and its hillside crafts oriented villages and nearby beaches, Baja del Sur and the Sea of Cortez, and San Cristobal de las Casas, with a dominant indiginous population and culture. Every part of Mexico offers colorful markets with beautiful produce, fabulous meals, kind people, and incredible geography and cultural artifacts. Mexico has more World Heritage Sites than any country in the world other than China, which is five times its’ size. Me encanto!

We come to the Pacific Northwest every summer and fall, and fantasize about living year round amid the wet ferns, moss covered boulders, rivers and trees. What’s a little extra rain and cloudiness? We’re from San Francisco after all. We like rain! Our son moved to Seattle last Autumn and warned us how surprisingly COLD it is in winter, and he spend 4 years in Upstate New York. We shoulda listened!

We put the dream to a test: we stayed for the month of February in Seattle. Three big snowstorms, two hail storms (making our neighborhood look like a snowy village), and most days with high temperatures around 39 degrees, were a big dose of icy reality.

Then we foolishly kept trying to bicycle in these conditions, adding wind chill factor and wet gloves to the mix. Brrrr! We stayed bundled up in coffeehouses and bars, trying to warm up.

It took a search on several floors of the very popular 7 story Central Public Library to secure an empty seat inside in the warmth. The cool architecture with neon green escalators is eclipsed by the glow of red walls and lights making you feel warm just walking through.

The Frye Museum is free and showcases their own collection, and contemporary works like this one below made by one huge ink pen almost as tall as the artist,  Jim Woodring.

The Botanical Garden has a warm tropical Greenhouse, and a beautiful Winter Garden, featured above. It specializes in plants that cannot attract pollinators with summer blooms, but instead have to entice with enhanced scents. The Hamamelis x intermedia “Winter Beauty”, seen below, exudes a strong smell of jasmine, even in the snow.

The restaurant, bakery and bar culture is thriving, but so are the high prices. It is so beautiful here, even in winter that over 100 new people move to these inviting Pacific Northwest cities every day…”Californicating” the real estate prices here and the cost of living.

In spite of the cold, there is always a crowd and a party atmosphere at Gas Works Park on Lake Union. There’s something about dogs chasing frisbees, sailboats catching the wind, and seaplanes taking off and landing in front of you, that makes for a warm and festive atmosphere regardless of the weather.

A frigid day on a Puget Sound beach, is more for the dogs, ducks and beavers, but you’ll feel very deserving of your next hot libation…indoors.

POWER TO THE PUSSY!  We saw many of the pink pussy-eared hats that became popular in response to Trump’s continual woman bashing during the Presidential Campaign. My favorite protest signs were, “U.S. OUT OF MY UTERUS!” and “WOULD YOU STILL WANT TO REGULATE MY UTERUS IF IT WAS A CORPORATION?”

The March on Washington to protest Trump’s inauguration is the largest political gathering in the U.S. with over a million participants. 600 marches occurred simultaneously all over the world. Los Angeles was the second largest with over 100,000 participants.

Just getting there meant lots of time chatting with strangers as the trains to Downtown L.A. were packed. It took us two hours to get to the March which we could have driven in twenty minutes….but we would have missed the outstanding camaraderie of the protesters.The protesters were in good humor, call and response chanting, “What do we want?…Trains!”   “When do we want them?…Now!”

Although racism, bigotry, sexism, xenophobia, and misogyny were all decried, the dominant sentiment is best expressed by this Angela Davis quote:

Clearly we all need to come together as a country, even behind a president with a 35% approval rating and one who was not elected by popular vote. But like Obama said multiple times in his final remarks as POTUS, we are strong together and will continue to move our country in the right direction with our will, which has not been diminished. We stood today among Americans of all races and creeds, men and women, old and young, to work toward Justice, no matter who is at the helm or the number of Congressional seats.  Extraordinary times call for extraordinary effort. We felt hopeful and proud to be Americans today standing with so many Americans who made the effort to be heard, in peaceful protest. Below you see police officers protecting protesters blocking a street by the Federal Building by creating a line of cars and officers to block traffic. Power to the people!

I have always respected and revered Hillary Clinton; her loss was devastating to me. We are so proud of President Obama and all he accomplished as our leader, especially the Affordable Care Act. We have felt so angry and depressed as Congress has already begun to dismantle the ACA with18 million Americans on the verge of losing their health care. Instead of this pain diminishing with time, it has increased as we learned that our democratic process was undermined by a foreign power that manipulated our election process, at the invitation of our new POTUS. It was a wonderful and moving day, that reminded us that we still have the ability to influence our legislators on both sides of the aisle, as we continue to work for Justice. Don’t let the bad guys get you down, their in the minority, after all!  Power to the people!

Continue reading →

Heading home on the stretch of Hwy 50 named, “The Loneliest Road in America”, we still got to visit a National Park that was new to us. It is the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service and that is best celebrated with adding some new NP and NM sites to your life list. Because it’s the largest park in Nevada, I always thought that Big Basin National Park was one-of-a-kind in the high desert surrounded by mountains. This Park showcases just one basin…of the 16 that spread from Salt Lake City down to Las Vegas.

This basin is noteworthy for the anomalies in the mountain surround. Bristlecone Pines, the oldest living creatures on earth, are happy atop 12,000 ft. Mt. Wheeler. They are twisted and look desiccated and dead, except for one spindly living thread wending its way up each branch.

This basin is a Dark Sky Reserve, meaning a minimal amount of ambient light interference, usually requiring a distance of at least 200 miles from major urban areas. It is never fully dark, however; the light cast by the stars in the ultra clean air is sufficient for walking around the campground. It is famous as the best viewing of the Milky Way anywhere in the U.S.

The Lehman Caves are many and exceptionally deep. A solutional cave is limestone (here, marble mixed in) creating halactites, stalactites, stalagmites, curtains, and pipes. Some of these rock chambers have formations large enough to contain the organ from the Mormon Tabernacle, and resembling it as well.

I watched mesmerized, waiting for the final drop of water to fall off the stalactite onto the almost touching stalagmite growing from the ground, to finally unite as a column. As it grows slowly due to its’ pace, a drop or two a day, I didn’t catch that final drop.

A pretty rich place in the middle of a massive desert. We just hope that this cave and others can be protected as a home for native bat populations. White Nose Syndrome, caused by the fungus Geomyces destructans, has killed more than 6.7 million hibernating bats since 2006. Bat bones and piles of dead bats with white fuzz around their muzzles litter the floor of many now empty caves; it kills 70-100% of bats in an affected hibernaculum. The fungus wakes them repeatedly during hibernation depleting their fat reserves, and thins and destroys their wings leading to dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. It threatens even the most abundant bat species with extinction; it is considered the worst wildlife disease outbreak in North American history. Because European and Chinese hibernating bats are not affected by the fungus, and bats do not migrate between the continents, it is a spelunker induced phenomenon. At Lehman Caves, there is no evidence yet of WNS, but one’s clothing and shoes are treated for contamination for cave visitors who have entered caves anywhere in the last 5 years.

As the nights get icier and trees drop their Autumn leaves, the providers of free camping (National Forest Service, BLM, local Parks Districts) turn off water and close sewage disposal sites to avoid frozen pipes. Like bats and bears, it is time for us to hibernate at home in Albany CA…until sufficient snow accumulation sends us out in search of new areas to snowshoe. In the meantime, we wish our nation and our world, fair elections (GET OUT THERE AND VOTE…for a woman!), clean water, and peaceful holidays with family and friends. Abrazos, amigos!

It takes six months lead time to get a campsite here…as though these “boondockers” decide where to sleep more than a few hours in advance. We decided that a great day trip exploring Arches was better than missing it completely. We arrived early, parked near the longest and steepest trail and set off with lots of water.

It is amazing that the National Park Service lets you loose to “friction climb” these very steep surfaces. Where are the liability lawyers screaming about the risk? Once again, we are happily allowed to assume the risks, like downclimbing the wall below (yes, that IS the trail) without ropes and Royal Robbin climbing shoes.

Signs of earlier cable rails on exposed, sheer walls are now just sawed off bolts. Because the sandstone rock is so “sticky”, it is safest to scramble up and down with your full weight on your soft soles…unless you get scared and elect to sit on your butt, which is more dangerous, per less friction!

The washes, walls, hoodoos, arches and towers are so sculptural. There is no trail, just rock cairns piled within view to lead you on.

Hunting is illegal in the National Parks so the Mule Deer own the place…

What a great holiday! Candy skulls, costumes, running around in the dark collecting loot, and maybe getting scared (without really being in any jeopardy), and often on a school night!

The Denver Botanical Garden invited citizens to create alters in the gardens. One artist explained that she had spent every summer on the beach in the South at her grandmother’s so she filled hers with seashells, marine life images, and sand art.

There was embroidered, welded, inlaid, tiled, and lots of paper cut out works of folk art around every corner. We appreciated the coke bottle cap art most of all…

Through the ghoulish expression, comes an outpouring of love, vibrancy, and community. During our year residing in the State of Nayarit, Mexico in 2009-2010, Jacob and I observed families in the graveyards during the week before the holiday, cleaning up, planting flowers and decorating gravestones in preparation for the day when the families would come with picnics, boom boxes and joyous hearts to celebrate all day. Children were dressed up in their Sunday Finest, playing chase among the gravestones.

Embracing death…what could be more natural? What better way to remove our existential fear of death? Give a party and dance to it!

We especially liked the mixture of Madonna imagery with the ghoulish. Even Frida Kahlo, another Madonna Icon, was featured with cats in this crochet art. Happy Halloween! Go score some candy from your neighbors…in costume, of course!

Location:SAN JUAN SCENIC BYWAY

After a summer as Campground Hosts on the Oregon Coast, we were hungry for MOUNTAINS! We fled 103 degree temps during a two week visit with Sally’s mom in Los Angeles for…early winter in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The National Park Service struggles mightily to keep Trail Ridge Rd. open over a 12,000 foot pass at the base of Long’s Peak (14,000 ft) for as long as possible in the Autumn. Unfortunately we didn’t time it right as winter conditions kept shutting down the road. We camped on the West side of the pass where the elk were still in rut, and on the East side for two great hikes in the Park….with a long drive around the outside of the park to string them together.

We fled Boulder after enjoying a long walk by their central creek, as the growth, traffic, and expense was surprising; it is the effect of Boulder’s identity as a high tech corridor…and Google building a new campus there for 1200 new employees. Instead we stayed downtown in Denver to visit the fabulous Denver Art Museum and the Botanic Garden.

Wow! The Botanic Garden is like a visit to Butchart Gardens in Victoria, B.C! No wonder so many Californians are moving here for the bike lanes and sophisticated city combined with easy access to the mountains.

We headed southwest to tackle three 10,000-12,000 ft. passes that close soon for winter. On the way over Independence Pass, we stayed for free at a Forest Service area that had a potty with a fabulous view…

We cleared the Pass and hustled on to the next one, with a free hot spring soak on the Crystal River…

Will we make it over our next two passes before the snow falls in earnest? We are hustling to get to those with  muddy dirt/gravel roads first. Even if the roads are technically still open, without AWD, they just are not going to be available to us.