Point Reyes

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Oh my goodness, what a phenomenal day and evening. We spent most of the day on Point Reyes about an hour north of San Francisco. A big thank you to the National Park Service, US Department of the Interior for protecting Point Reyes seashore. This entire area is protected by the National Park Service so there are no beach mansions or hotels here. There are Just miles and miles of wild coastline and some historic ranches (protected by the park service). I've always known about the National Parks but I had no idea about the National Seashore, what great planning all those many years ago. If you want to see unimaginable beauty in this country, the National Parks and Seashore is definitely the way to go. The coastline is simply stunning and today I had my camera aimed charged and ready to shot. We spent most of our time on Drakes Bay walking along the beach and taking in the breath taking scenery. I snapped many pictures but not a single photo captured the honest beauty of this place. We played Frisbee on the beach for at least 30 minutes getting in a little cardio exercise and having some laughs. We hiked through brambles and wildflowers up a sea cliff where we got more amazing views of the sea. After our time at Drakes Bay we drove about 20 minutes to the Point Reyes Lighthouse. The lighthouse is closed on Tuesdays but visitors are still able to get a close look at the lighthouse but cannot enter it and climb up the stairs. Driving through this area you really can't believe you're in the US much less California; it really was like going back in time or traveling in a foreign country. All day John had talked about how much he wanted oysters and we even stopped before we reached Drakes Bay to get some but the place he was thinking of only sells them on the weekends. So after the lighthouse we tried again to get John some oysters. We went to the town of Point Reyes Station to a quaint place where he ordered a dozen oysters and a grape soda. I ordered a beer and tried the oysters but didn't like them and found the beer undrinkable. John was in hog oyster heaven and seemed really happy when I declined a second helping. We got back to the Olema Inn where we caught up on emails and relaxed for couple hours before dinner. I wanted to treat John to a really nice dinner and the Olema Inn has a highly regarded restaurant so it was decided that we would dine here tonight. John ordered hog island oysters, Parmesan Gnocchi with locally grown mushrooms, and asparagus for his main course, and a glass of champagne.I had the roasted beet salad, Beef Short Rib Bourguignon with pearl onions, baby carrots, local mushrooms, Neuske's bacon, pasta. and a glass of merlot. For dessert we shared something called cookies and cream but it was actually an oatmeal cake with vanilla ice cream. The dinner was out of this world amazing and I would rank it among the top 10 meals I've had in my lifetime. We are really ending this leave of absence on a high note. What an amazing day and evening.

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Dinner at High Heskett

We're just back from a wonderful evening with Bob and Lynne, Lynne's friends from WI Ellie and Joanne, John and Bob's friend Loring and his partner of 25 years, Melody, and Bob and Lynne's neighbors Deborah and Greg. The drive to Bob and Lynne's takes about 25 minutes and their house is located at the top of a hill near the science school. Their place is the ultimate Wyoming getaway my favorite features are the enormous stone fireplace and plank floors. We had a blast hanging out with everyone, enjoying a wonderful dinner and lots of laughs. I'm feeling dog tired at nearly 11:00 PM so unfortunately I'll have to come back to this post tomorrow to share more details. I watched Good Hair while John was out skiing in the afternoon. I guess my expectations were a little too high and Good Hair turned out to be a Bad movie. John had a really good day of skiing including a 45 minute hike up a mountain to a remote area carrying his skies all the way up. He called before skiing down to report his exact location in case something went wrong, and about 10 minutes later he called from the bottom of the slope to report that he was safe and sound.

I couldn't resist posting this handsome photo of John posing in front of the cozy fire he built last night.

Snow Day

Today was the first overcast day we’ve had since arriving in WY a week ago today. We lazed around the house for much of the day enjoying the snow falling outside and catching up with friends and family over the phone. I had a nice catch up chat with Judy who brought me up to speed on what’s been happening in her life since she retired at the end of January. I took what I believe was only my second afternoon nap since going on leave in December and it was absolutely fabulous! Today was the perfect day for napping and the only thing that could have made it better would have been a fire in the fireplace. I’m trying to talk John into building a fire for us later but for some reason he’s just not all that big on fire building. The internet installation was pushed back by a day so I’m still “borrowing” wi-fi from one of the neighbors and it should be installed here on Thursday. We went into town for groceries and for a stop at the library. We also made a stop at the video rental where we picked up three movies including two westerns, John’s favorites and I rented Good Hair. It’s been snowing all day so ski conditions should be great tomorrow and John plans to spend most of the day on the slopes. I will be at the cabin watching my movie and reading tomorrow.

We really should be having dinner right about now but John has been "helping" Mary with a paper for well over an hour more like two hours, so I skipped on over to the Swedish cabin to post this entry. Call me old fashioned but in the olden days our parents didn't "edit" our papers or help with homework after say elementary school; apparently things are different now it's common for highly educated parents to "edit" college writing assignments! It seems a very fine line between helping and cheating when a college student gets over 2 hours of help writing a paper it smacks of academic fraud in my opinion and how can someone feel good or right about turning in work they haven't done entirely on their own? Ugh! This is becoming a major source of conflict and might well be the death of our relationship because I can't stomach cheating of any kind! Does this sort of thing happen on college campuses all over the country? Have we really became a culture of "whatever it takes to win"? Am I just so out of touch? Should I just keep my opinions to myself and mind my own damn business, because after all what does this have to do with me? I am struggling with this and could really use some advice and guidance.

All is well here in WY with nothing too exciting to report. However, our dance cards are booking up for the weekend with plans for dinner with Bob and Lynne and some of their friends on Friday night, and dinner here at the cabin with Peter and his mom Ingar long time friends of John’s Saturday night. Peter built John’s original cabin in 1987. We ran into Peter this afternoon at the grocery store and I think it was the first time they’ve seen each other in several years. Peter is battling cancer and has been for over a year, but John thought he looked pretty good considering his prognosis and said he seemed in good spirits. I met his mom last summer when she came to the cabin for dinner. She’s in her nineties and still drives herself all over the place and is quite active in the Jackson community. She has an interesting story so I’ll tell you more about her in a future post.

Solitude

I'm coming to you from the new cabin where I managed to tap into a neighbor's wi-fi just as I was about to drive to town to pickup wireless at the library. I stopped over here to get my computer and discovered I had very little battery life so I plugged in the PC and low and behold a wireless connection! I'm still planning to drive to town but now there's no rush. John, Gretchen, Dan, and Ross left early this morning for a day of skiing. I didn't mention that Dan brought along his 6 month old rottweiler puppy named Faust (we're all renamed her Fausta) she's a sweetie pie and it's been kind of fun having a puppy around the house. Butch got an early start on the road leaving here around 5:00 AM. Last night John took Butch and me out to dinner at the Wort Hotel in Jackson, the food was excellent and they had a really good blues band performing. Gretchen and her friends hit the hot nightspots and took a taxi home around midnight.

I'm on my own today making the most of the time to catch up on my blog and maybe finish my latest travel book The Member of the Wedding. So in catching up on my blog I'd like to write about the Solitude subdivision and also about an experience I had here on Thursday. Solitude is the subdivision where John's cabin is located and I think from this point on I will refer to the two cabins as 1. the Western Cabin (W) and 2. the Swedish cabin (SW) for kicks and simplicity. The subdivision came into being about 20 years ago, and John's cabin was one of the first. The subdivision allows building on 5 or 10 acres lots so nothing less than a 5 acre lot is ever available for purchase and the cabins on these 5 and 10 acre lots range from quaint log cabins like John's to mansions; there's plenty of open space and great views of the Grand Tetons (you can see the Grand Tetons from both living rooms) and Sleeping Indian is easily seen from the Western Cabin's kitchen window. The road through the subdivision is private so there's no thru traffic because the road doesn't connect to any other road. Thursday I was walking from W to SW about a 2 minute walk, but I needed to walk along the road because the snow is too deep to cut across the yard. So Thursday as I was walking to SW a passing car slowed down alongside me... I thought "oh no someone's going to ask for directions and I'll be of no help whatsoever." I guessed wrong. It was a man in his late 30s or early 40s wondering if I wanted a ride. I laughed out loud because the question seemed so utterly ridiculous. After the 5 second interaction with the man in the Lexus SUV my amusement turned to irritation, then to anger, and now I'm blogging about it because more than anything it was confusing to me; so I'd like to use this post to sort it out. Did the man in the SUV really believe I was hitchhiking through a subdivision on a road leading to nowhere? Was he concerned for my safety and well-being in a subdivision overrun with multimillion dollar homes at 2:30 in the afternoon? Was he trying to pick me up? I've probably seen a few too many episodes of Cops and Law and Order but isn't the, "you want a ride" line one used by guys cruising for hookers?! Was he just a well-meaning guy who had no idea how far I was planning to walk simply offering to give me a lift if I was in need of one? I don't know the answer so I'm trying to sort out my feelings about this confusing encounter with the man in the fancy SUV. It clearly raised questions for me about race, class, and to a lesser extent gender. I have to believe this guy passes people walking in the subdivision every single day but doesn't offer to chauffeur them around the neighborhood, maybe that's because they look like they belong here, and I don't look like I belong or at least mine isn't exactly the face most expect to see walking around snow covered Solitude. Okay, now that I've blogged about this I'm starting to get over it;-) Oh solitude.

On a lighter note... internet service will be up and running at the cabin Wednesday afternoon:-)

Friday, February 19 John and I were just trying to piece together what happened on Friday since I wasn't able to blog that day. I have no idea what we did all day but in the evening John, Butch and I went into town for dinner at the Wort Hotel and listened to some music at the Silver Dollar Bar, the music was really good soul/blues. I think we were still dog tired from the long drive so after dinner we posed for a picture in the square still decorated in bluish lights for the holiday season, and then headed home. Gretchen and her friends went to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar for an evening on the town. John had wanted to stop by there but was too tired, fortunately.

Don't Have a Vegemite Sandwich

All is well but this post is late because I couldn't keep my eyes open after a long hike followed by a heavy Italian dinner. Before we left Te Anau I noticed some Vegemite in the refrigerator at our cottage and decided to have a taste. Quadruple Yuck! Vegemite taste like rotten fish paste mixed with motor oil! It is truly disgusting, no I've never tasted rotten fish paste and motor oil but I imagine it would taste just like Vegemite. We said good bye to the Murphy's and the farm around 10:00 and began our drive West. I drove for the first two hours and felt amazingly comfortable behind the right side wheel. The drive west was pretty easy but boring and the scenery looks very much like the American west with rolling hills and farmland. John drove for the last 3 hours because he was pretty bored. Once we checked into our motor inn like motel in Tekapo we decided to get some exercise after being couped up in the car all day. We hiked to the summit of a mountain over looking Lake Tekapo. The hike was steeper and more difficult than I imagined and 2/3 of the the way up my legs felt like cement blocks. We reached the summit and the view of the turquoise colored lake was magnificent even on a cloudy day. We trekked back down in search of dinner around 6:30. Tekapo is believed to have the cleanest air in the world and the turquoise lake is another big draw to the area so the town attracts loads of hikers and campers and there's a youth hostel just down the road so lots of young people. We decided on Pepe's Italian restaurant. For some reason the restaurant has a ski theme with poster and ski memorabilia decorating the walls. The place was packed so the waitress asked if we would be okay sharing a table with other guests. We joined Anne and Barie for a very enjoyable dinner. Barie and Anne and sisters in-law from the US. Anne is a librarian from Massachusetts and Barie makes custom sails for sailboats on Maryland's eastern shore and she sails. They are staying at the youth hostel despite being in their 60s and that's how they've managed to see so much of NZ on a budget, they seem to be having a blast and talked about their most interesting night when they stayed in a jail converted to a hostel in Christchurch!

Today is our final day in New Zealand. We will leave Tekapo and drive to Christchurch where we plan to visit the Botanical Gardens and have dinner before our 7:00 PM flight to Auckland. From Auckland we will fly to Los Angeles (12 hours). We are departing NZ at 7:00 PM Thursday night and arriving into Minneapolis at 11:00 PM Thursday night. We're on Air New Zealand until LAX to MSP when we switch to Delta/Northwest.

Tauono's

So sorry "followers" that I didn't get a post up yesterday. The internet wasn't working for us here at the hotel and we just figured out that we were supposed to buy minutes from the hotel rather than from an online source. So now we're connected again and while I didn't post about yesterday's activities I did take notes so I will bring you up to date. Yesterday was a beautiful day here in the Cook Islands warm (hot/humid) and sunny. We went into town to try again to get credit for the phone cards but the woman at the telecom was out sick. We will have to try from NZ because everything is closed here on Sundays and she is out sick again today. After going into town we went over to Tauono's for the lunch we'd been anticipating with Sonja since Monday and it was well worth the wait! We had two tuna dishes one yellow fin and the other albacore(sp), fresh fruits, salad, cole slaw and lemonade and passion fruit to drink! It was an awesome lunch enjoyed on picnic tables in Sonya's yard. Sonja showed us pictures of her husband Tauono who passed away on December 30, he was a very handsome man, a cross between Anthony Quinn and Bob Marley! Sonja referred to him as "her handsome dude." I think the best food here isn't found in traditional restaurants but private residences with "open" signs in the front yard. While we were having lunch we could hear beautiful island music in the distance. It turns out it was live music coming from house across the street from Sonja's. Islands musicians practicing for a couple of upcoming gigs on the island including one at our hotel, a birthday party on Monday. So John and I sat on a picnic table by the road facing the neighbors front yard and enjoyed the live music. Speaking of front yards here in the Cook Islands. Cook Islanders often bury their loved ones in the front yard so practically every home you pass will have a grave site in the front yard some are just headstones others have shelters built over the headstones, some keep artificial flowers on the grave sites others place potted plants on the graves and we even spotted a few with laundry drying over the graves. Many Cook Islanders have chickens, pigs, and goats so in addition to the graves in the front yard it's not uncommon to see farm animals in the front yards as well. Most homes have daybeds on the front porch with beautifully colored linens although I was told yesterday that some of the beds I saw outside yesterday are probably regular "night" beds put out to dry following the cyclone a couple days ago because practically every home has a leaky roof. Later in afternoon we went to the coconut show here at the hotel. We learned an awful lot about the coconut (world's largest nut) from David (the coconut guy), we learned how to make shoes from the bark of a tree to make climbing the coconut tree possible. We learned how to crack a coconut (sharp stone, sharp stick, sharp teeth) yep, David was actually able to crack the coconut using his teeth but he stated before the demonstration "don't try this at home." The coolest thing I learned about the coconut is that every coconut has a face;-) Today is cooler and rainy but John just took a bike into town to shop for dinner so I'm going to check out the news back home on the internet and read. We had planned to go back out with Teking today for another day of snorkeling but with the rain we decided to skip it. We were also supposed to leave Aitutaki today and spend a day on Rarotonga but decided to extend our stay at Etu Moana because it's so nice here. Unfortunately, we're out of the money we paid for the hotel tonight in Rarotonga. At the end of the night I helped out the orthodox Jewish couple from Toronto by turning out their lights.