Arizona...part 2

Wanted:  a small cabin in Northern Arizona.  Must come with electricity, Internet and indoor plumbing and must be pet friendly.  A home base for an artist(wanna-be)/explorer, so that she may spend her days roaming, photographing and painting the scenery.
Sigh.

I really only saw a small section...from Flagstaff west to Williams, then north to the Grand Canyon, then the scenic route back to Flagstaff.  And there was so much more to see!  There are Indian Reservations and meteor craters and a petrified forest.  (And then in Winslow, AZ, there is a mural of a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford....)

What I saw, I loved.  I loved every inch of it.  I need a thesaurus to describe the area, because the only words I am coming up with are spectacular, beautiful, amazing, breathtaking...you get the idea.  And those words don't do it justice. 
Well, first of all, there is the Grand Canyon.  I think all the people who were in Sedona followed me up there, but as you might imagine, it is Grand enough for everyone.

 

Pretty darn amazing. 
Even the drives coming and going were beautiful.  Dark mountains, golden grassy fields, BIG skies with swirling clouds.  A train running parallel to the interstate at an elevation of 8000 feet!  A bright blue sign in the middle of nowhere that read " Free to Be Me!".   

I visited Wupakti and Sunset Crater National Monuments.  Driving down the road between them, looking to one side I saw the San Francisco Peaks (which, by the way, are a volcanic mountain range) covered in snow; the other side of the road had the painted desert off in the distance.  There were beautiful trees and golden grasses and views, views and more views.
In Sunset Crater, I hiked up the Lenox Crater Trail (oh yes I did), which was almost vertical, I might add...I was huffing and puffing, but I passed some teenagers!  And the view was totally worth it. 

 

The landscape here was magnificent.  I was completely overwhelmed by the beauty and the diversity, and I know I only saw a small portion of it.  I would seriously love to find that cabin and become the Artist/Explorer in Residence.  Who'd a-thunk it?

 

 

 

Arizona...part 1

I flew out to Arizona, heading for Sedona.  I had been there a while back with my sister and loved it, but I had been in a whole "other place" in my life then and wanted to re-experience it now.
I will admit, my first day in the state was less than stellar...
I spent more time waiting in line at the rental car counter (there is no advantage to renting with Advantage!) than I did on my flight from San Diego!  Finally on the road.  After getting out of the Phoenix traffic, the Arizona scenery starts to work its magic.  It is beautiful...green and brown...hilly and craggy, cactus and bushes.  Then up the road a bit, the red rocks of Sedona first come into view!  They are breath-taking....THIS is what I came for.

Suddenly, my awe and wonder come to a screeching halt....along with the Sedona traffic!  Oh good lord, where did all these cars come from! And these people!  Someone said "spring break" to me...spring break??  I thought all the spring break-ers went to Florida!  HellOOO...Fort Lauderdale?  Disney?  Why are you in Arizona??  OY!

Dinner was less than stellar (the kitchen and wait staff were mad at each other and took it out on lucky diners such as myself), but at least it came with a view, and a lovely one at that:

 





OK, I'm better now....
And my hotel, marginal as it was, also offered its own perspective at breakfast:

The remainder of my time was better, mostly because I decided it WOULD be.  Some casual shopping and vortex visiting...all done early before the masses had awakened...some hiking, lunch dining alfresco... 
My stay in Sedona was not what I had hoped...the views, of course, were spectacular, and most of the people were great - I met a woman in an art gallery who pretty much did the same thing I am doing now and is happier than ever living in Sedona...I met 2 others in particular who loved my story and offered me inspiring stories of their own.
The town was very touristy this time, BUT...it was good to revisit and remember...
No matter what, being surrounded by those red rocks ain't half bad.  And next time, I'll visit OFF season (whenever that is) WITH my fabulous Seester once again!
AND...it was a great jumping off place for more northern points, as yet unexplored by this intrepid adventurer...

Muy Bonita! (Bonita, California, that is)

From the desert to the beautiful California coast again....
I headed southwest from Joshua Tree to Bonita, in San Diego County, to once again connect with family I hadn't seen in forever (my Mom's side this time):  the very fabulous Uncle Bob, Aunt Nancy and Cousin Bobby!  The last time I saw them was 1988, when my sister and I tore up the California coast with Bobby in tow.  I wish I had some old pics from that trip to include here...we were oh so young and required oh so much less sleep!
The San Diego area is so familiar and so foreign to me.  What I recognized felt a little disjointed, like puzzle pieces out of place, because the area is so much bigger than I remember.  We toured Coronado and drove by my sweet little Nana's old house - the house is still there and looks pretty much the same, but the town has grown up so much around it.  Bobby and I hit Old Town San Diego, where the ladies still make the tortillas fresh in the front of the Old Town Cafe.  I remembered the place, remembered having dinner there, and knew where we were headed, but I didn't recognize it until there was a parting of the sea of tourists crowding the streets!
The area is so much bigger and more congested than I remember. Cars and people everywhere...I have decided on this journey that I much prefer wide open spaces to big cities... 
But the gift in this stopover was spending time with my family - catching up, sharing old stories and new, comparing memories (and deciding whose was more accurate).  The humor and the love may be older, but they are as familiar and fresh and wonderful as ever.

The Fabulous Family





Nana's house

Sunset Cliffs



Joshua Tree

The Mojave Desert....why in the world would a southern girl with a penchant for shoes, wine and spas decide to go there?

Heading east from L.A., the air gets very brown for a while...and so thick that I had to close the vents in the car because my eyes were burning! Eventually, the city disappears in the rear view and acres and acres of giant windmills come into view.  They eventually give way to a rocky, brown (earth, not air) and yes, rocky landscape.
Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms have a small town, everyone knows everyone, hippy, pierced and tattooed kind of vibe, with a military base influence...and I mean all of that in a really good way.  When I first drove through I could swear I heard the theme music from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly playing (in case you need a reminder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFa1-kciCb4 ); but somehow it quickly transitioned to Elvis Costello  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuYPCP2RSXA
Don't ask me why....
(First time using links in this blog...hope they work!)
I met really nice people, ate really good food and bought some meals anonymously for some young Marines.  I saw some really amazing sights, including the San Andreas Fault, a desert sunset, and giant rocks.  I saw lots of rocks.  Lots and lots of rocks.


See?  I really was in the desert
 

THIS is a Joshua Tree

 

I was there because I wanted to see the desert. I wanted to understand the appeal and the whole "yes, but it's a DRY heat" concept. I wanted to see a Joshua Tree.
And I wanted to go to the Integratron...
So what the heck is the Integratron, you ask?  Well, go here for the full scoop:
http://www.integratron.com
It is a place of really, really good energy that you can feel the moment you get there.  It is an acoustically perfect dome where you are bathed in music played on quartz bowls that you can feel in the very center of your being.  It is a place I really didn't want to leave and will definitely go back to given the chance.


The Integratron

 

When you leave the Integratron, you leave with a warm and fuzzy, very peaceful feeling.  If you've ever had Reiki, it's the same feeling (and if you haven't, you should try it sometime!).  It was the perfect way to close out my desert experience. 

I drove back to town down the dry, dusty roads and saw how beautiful the desert really is.  I "got" the appeal of the landscape that was at first so foreign to me and I felt the peace in the place.   

 











Coasting...

If you have never driven CA1 from San Francisco to Santa Barbara...you need to.  To say that it is mind-boggling gorgeous is a paltry little understatement.  It is especially helpful if you are as fortunate as I am to have a chauffeur so that you can oooh and ahhh over the scenery while someone else worries about the precarious precipices on the way.  It helps even more if your chauffeur is your dearest friend who is ready and willing to stop at every overlook so that you can get out to take yet another picture or stick your toes in the Pacific Ocean, or get out at a state park so you can take a hike to the amazing rock-hanging coastline, or stop at a recommended restaurant with a view even though it means she will be driving after dark on the unlit, cliff-hugging, winding, curvy road.  Amazing friend, amazing views, amazing journey.

 

 

And about half way down we stopped at the teeny tiny little Hearst Castle, another place you really ought to see. Only 70,000 square feet on 250,000 acres of land....gorgeous gardens, 400 year old ceilings, 24 karat gold pool tiles...and zebras grazing on the grounds....

 

 

Sadly, after all of this fabulocity, we had a brief but unimpressive stay in Santa Barbara then Gail had to fly out of LAX...and I ventured eastward through the smog toward clear, clean and oh so rocky Joshua Tree, solo.

Our journeys are blessed when amazing friends join us along the way.  They encourage us, support us, remind us and accept us for who we are...and they allow us to become our best selves...and coast when we need to.



There are a Million Stories in the Big City

San Francisco, with a good pair of walking shoes, is fabulous in so many ways...the views, the food, people watching, shops and museums.  St Patrick's Day weekend makes it all the more interesting!  Ever heard of the Brides of March?  THAT was something I wasn't prepared for!  Dozens of men and women in some form of wedding gown-type attire marching through San Francisco...accompanied by a 5' tall pope...I'm sorry to say no pics of any of those festivities, but a tall gentleman wearing a white tulle skirt with nothing underneath and a bustier thanked us for coming to his wedding....what could we say besides thanks for inviting us!
The bar next to the fabulously funky hotel where we stayed (Hotel Triton) had 160 kegs of Guinness delivered the day before.  Hundreds of green painted revelers, an old fashioned fire truck filled with fire fighters in their dress uniforms and a couple of cops made it a pretty festive Saturday night until whatever time the noise ordinance kicked in...then it was amazingly quiet.
We had great food everywhere we went, from dining alfresco in North Beach to a little cafe in Belden Alley.  We saw the Bay Bridge and all of the city in lights from a place atop a Marriott called "The View"...beautiful!  We had a drink at the Fairmont to see how the other half lives.  And on Sunday, we went to Sausalito for more fabulous views and a wonderful visit with family, whom I haven't seen in almost 15 years!
The part of San Francisco that I didn't like is the part people either really don't see, pretend they don't see, or look away from so they won't see...but it is out in the open in your face if you look:  the people sleeping in doorways, the men who clearly haven't bathed or had medical care in many months, the lady talking very animatedly to her invisible friend.  The dirty, the grimy, the wild-eyed and the passed out.  There were panhandlers who seemed to me to be con artists; there were those who appeared to have been on the streets a long time but were still good natured.  There were some pretty scary looking people and then there were those who truly looked "lost", dirty and vacant-eyed, as they asked for spare change.  It's hard to look them in the eye, but when you do...it's hard to look away.

The Long and Wine-ing Road

My best bud Gail joined me for my next adventure.  We met up at the San Francisco airport, rented our car, then sat in traffic for a crazy-long time, watching motorcyclists ride down the white lines between cars, creating their own mini-lanes to get ahead of the masses.  And amazingly, they all did it successfully!  (Dearest Daniel...please don't ever do that!) Finally made it to Wine Country!
We spent the next couple of days based in Napa.  Loved Napa!  Cute town, beautiful drives...oh, and they have wine there!  We had some great food (Carpe Diem Wine Bar for a fabulous dinner; Gott's Roadside for great breakfasts; Oxbow Public Market for bread and chocolate!), saw some amazing views and sampled some great wine.  We loved Sterling, Raymond, Sonoma-Cutrer and Jacuzzi wineries (so much wine, so little time!).

After wine-ing as much as we could, we headed west to Muir Woods National Monument.  This forest of giant redwoods is breathtaking, peaceful and humbling.  I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it is, so hopefully you can get an idea from some iphone pics.  One thing this trip has confirmed for me...I need to live around trees!

 

From giant redwoods to giant buildings...on to San Francisco!

Wonders of Washington

Ok, I am only visiting a wee, small part of this state...this time...but it is wonderful.  My friend Winifred told me that it would be very different than anything I knew, and she was so right. So much to see, and every new thing makes me want to see more.
Seattle was a bit grungy but...a wonderful lunch with a water view, lots of city walking, the Pike Place Market with fish flying through the air and an amazing museum of Chihuly Glass, just below the Space Needle.  Oh, and did I mention it was sunny?? 

On to Bainbridge Island via ferry.  Winifred lives a short walk from the ferry, shopping, restaurants, AND she has a view of Mt. Rainier from her balcony!
This island is amazing.  Beautiful trees and water, friendly earthy-crunchy-hippie and other people, a strong "think global, act local" vibe, lots of beautiful parks and trails...surrounded by glassy water.
We drove up to Port Townsend and found this wonderful local artist's co-op, and yes, I spent money. Oh and a bakery with the most wonderful organic Fig & Anise bread!  Gotta find this stuff again. 
Another day spent at the Bloedel Reserve...someplace everyone should see.  Amazing trees and greenery, all ready for spring.

The sun has been out, or almost out, every day I have been here and so far...no rain!  The colors are cool and deep; the air is so clean; the pace is relaxed.  Winifred is gracious, generous and fun, and has made me so welcome.  She may have trouble getting rid of me!

My visit in Iowa was cut short by a robo-call from Delta cancelling my Monday flight - winter storm Saturn (when did we start naming winter storms??) was headed that way.  My brilliant daughter-in-law found me an earlier flight on United, so I booked my ticket, hugged my kids, and hit the road.  Off to Colorado!  So much to see...including...

Beautiful scenery

My cousin Tina

And things that go bump in the night!

 

(that's the very haunted Stanley Hotel!)

Colorado, if you didn't know, is beautiful.  A very foreign terrain to a longer-time-than-I-intended Florida resident, complete with snow, mountains, and spruce trees.  And I hadn't seen my cousin Tina in nearly 40 years, but we hit it off like we did as teenagers.  And that was the coolest part of this stop...even better than deer grazing in her front yard, seeing the Rocky Mountains and the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, or ghost hunting at the Stanley Hotel, which, if you know anything about me, you know that was a total blast for me.  And we did, by the way, find orbs in our pictures and hear ghost boys running down the hall!  But connecting with my cousin and her family, spending time laughing together, getting to know each other and sharing old family stories was by far my favorite part of this stop.

 

 

Now, on to Washington State!

 

Baby it's cold outside

Ok...I remember now...this is what cold feels like.  Actually, I am not sure I have ever been this cold.  My first steps into the Iowa air took my breath away and stopped me in my tracks...where are those gloves?  Why didn't I put them on BEFORE I came outside?  And it was snowing!  What was I thinking?  Iowa?  In March? 

But here is what Iowa in March is...I mean, besides really, really, really cold:  huge, wide open spaces covered with snow that is almost blindingly white in the sun.  Faded turquoise blue and deep red barns, side by side in fields with horses trotting around in the snow (probably trying to keep warm!).  Rivers and lakes, partially fozen, ranging in color from deep blue to frosty silver.  Parks with craggy trees and rolling hills (and a raptor center!), full of runners and cross-country skiers.  Lots of history, from the very cool Fossil Gorge to the museums on campus.  Crazy people...I mean hardy Iowans, sledding down hills in jackets and shorts, or walking across the street in a t-shirt and gloves.  And best of all, my fabulous son and my fabulous daughter-in-law, whose love warms my heart.