and one more

post before I leave for the airport.  just in case- and just so I can keep myself in the 30 second rule. I got lucky in my 40s.  really lucky.  like lottery lucky in a way a lot of people never do.  first off I found a job I loved (well technically I found that in my late 30s but it really came into its own as a career when I was in my 40s) and then fate brought me Phil- my husband.

as all my friends and colleagues know, I am a very strong willed individual and not always easy going.  actually that might be a sizable understatement.  but I was blessed to meet a man who is so well suited to me and with whom I have shared the last fifteen years of my life.  we are about to celebrate our tenth anniversary and while of course not every moment of every day has been blissful LOL, we have a tremendous life together. 

so just so you know - I know I hit the lottery and I am blessed to love and be loved by this man.

a few photos of us:

on our wedding morning in Denmark - June 26, 2001 

in China in 2002 in the Forbidden City 

Thailand in 2000 at the Chang Mai Elephant Preserve 

In Israel in December 2009 

on our front porch at home - where we do actually spend SOME of our time

"The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind I was...lovers don't finally meet each other , they are in each other all along." 

-   Jalaud 'din Rumi

"Love is a symbol of eternity.  It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end."  

-  Madame De Stael

in the navy

you learn all kinds of things.  or at least my dad did.  the other morning Phil asked me about Able Baker Charlie Dog and I laughed and asked him if he had been reading the "bluejackets" manual?  my father used to let us read his and memorize the semaphore flags and other cool (to us) stuff.

my dad could possibly have been the best dad in the world.  he hasn't gotten much mention here in the blog because he died in September 2001.  he was a tall handsome man whose hair never went gray.  he adored his family and liked to putter around the house.  he wasn't much of one for going places.  my mom dragged him around Europe over the years but he really was a homebody who would have rather been working on his old cars (Mustangs Thunderbirds etc...) or out on the water in a boat.

my father's ashes were scattered at sea - in the Gulf of Mexico by some sailors who do this for men and women who served in the Navy. 

one night this past week I had a dream about the Enterprise and when I woke up I laughed because I had dreamed about the starship Enterprise but had been thinking about the USS Enterprise which had come up in conversation earlier (dreams are funny that way)- my dad was on the New Jersey which is currently in Camden I think.  when Phil made his first trip to Hawaii we visited the Mighty Mo and I really understood then why my dad was so in awe of the ship he served on. it was enormous!  he became a "turtle back" (I think they call it) when he crossed the equator on the NJ. 

anyway, since I hadn't yet written about my dad and since I am heading out for a while I thought this would be a good time to tell you what a first rate guy he was.  he had incredible integrity.  he was always there for me from the day I was born until the day he died.  he was a role model for me as a business person and a manager.  he loved his country and his family and they don't make many of them like that anymore.

so here are a few photos:

he is the tall one in the middle - LOL - and is obviously partly responsible for my height. 

 with us kids in 1960

in front of his parents' house

he never lost his love of being on boats and on the water

I miss him all the time although after almost ten years it doesn't burn a hole in my heart as it did when I first lost him.  and since I am off to the "danger zone" (a country next door to one we have spent the last week bombing) I have been thinking about military related things.  and I wanted to say how much I loved my dad and how much he meant to me and how so much of who I am is attributable to him and his unconditional love for me. 

as I said - I had the best dad in the whole world.

here we come!

for those who might like to follow along with Jennifer and me (and the other six intrepid travelers we will be accompanying) as we head through Tunisia- I have appended our itinerary below:

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Tunisia: From the Mediterranean to the Sahara 

3/24  Depart from the U.S. 
3/25  Arrive in Tunis, Tunisia/Welcome dinner 

3/26  Tunis city tour/Explore ancient Carthage/Visit North Africa American Cemetery/Discover Sidi Bou Said  Today we’ll explore Tunisia’s bustling capital and its surroundings on a full day tour.  Tunis was one of the greatest cities in the world during the reign of the Almohad and Hafsid dynasties from the twelfth to the 16th centuries. We’ll witness the legacy of that era in the hundreds of stunning palaces, mosques, and fountains in the city’s medina, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We also visit the Bardo Museum, Tunisia’s national museum of archaeology. Located in an 18th-century royal palace, it displays a spectacular collection of ancient Roman mosaics along with sarcophagi and statues from the Roman and Carthaginian periods.

Then we explore the site of ancient Carthage, which evokes the romance and tragedy of the legendary era of Queen Dido and Aeneas chronicled in Virgil’s Aeneid. Scattered ruins help us envision where the mighty city of antiquity once stood, sending its fleets for trade and warfare across the Mediterranean, including Hannibal’s famous but doomed campaign against Rome in the Second Punic War. After Carthage was conquered, the Romans destroyed the old city but established a new one of their own on its site, which lasted for almost another 500 years.

Following lunch at a local restaurant, we’ll pay our respects to the American soldiers who liberated Tunisia during World War II with a visit to the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial. This 27-acre memorial is the final resting place of 2,841 American military dead and also honors 3,700 soldiers whose remains were never found.  After lunch, we'll join a discussion on Jewish culture in Tunisia throughout its history, then discover the beautiful blue and white buildings of the seaside town of Sidi Bou Said. 

3/27  Discover ancient Dougga  Today we'll embark on a full-day tour of ancient Dougga, the best-preserved ancient Roman city in North Africa and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here stand the remains of a complete town that once had 5,000 residents, including villas, temples, baths, a paved street, and a forum, making it easy to imagine life in this place in the second century AD. The temple known as "the Capitol" and the Caracalla Baths are particularly well preserved. We'll enjoy lunch at a local restaurant as a break from our discoveries, and return to Tunis this evening.

3/28  Cross Cap Bon/Explore Kerkouan/Travel to Hammamet  After breakfast today, we take a scenic drive along the Cap Bon Peninsula on the Mediterranean coast, stopping en route at Kerkouan. This notable archaeological site features ruins that date to the third and fourth centuries BC, when this was a Punic city in the time of ancient Carthage. While Carthage was destroyed by the Romans at the end of the Punic Wars and subsequently rebuilt in Roman fashion, Kerkouan escaped this ill fate, so the ruins that we’ll find here are an accurate representation of an ancient Punic city, and shed light on what the famed city of Dido originally looked like.   From there, we’ll continue traveling toward Hammamet, stopping along the way to enjoy lunch at a local restaurant. We’ll check into our hotel in Hammamet, a town of whitewashed houses and an old medina and kasbah near some of Tunisia’s finest beaches.

3/29 Travel to Kairouan/Introduction to Islam/Home-hosted lunch  Today we leave Tunisia's seacoast and journey inland, stopping to visit a local farm on our way to Kairouan, a city with a spiritual feel whose domed mosques and minarets we may glimpse from afar as we approach.  This holiest of Tunisian cities was founded in AD 670 by Oqba ibm Nafi who, according to legend, slipped on a golden cup that came from Mecca and was hidden in the sand at the spot where Kairouan is now located. When he picked up the cup, water burst forth from the ground. The ornate Great Mosque here dates from early in the Islamic period and is the fourth-holiest site in Islam after Mecca, Medina, and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. We'll enjoy an exclusive discussion giving us an Introduction to Islam with an Imam at this mosque.  In the 14^th century, Kairouan was home to Ibn Khaldun, whose masterwork the Muqaddimah has been described by noted British historian Arnold Toynbee as "a philosophy of history which is undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind." Ibn Khaldun's work reflects the level of achievement Islamic scholars attained in medieval times—and this same cultural richness shines from the historic architecture that we'll see inside Kairouan's walled medina during our two-night stay.   We enjoy a special glimpse of everyday Tunisian culture during a home-hosted lunch with a local family today, then learn about Kairouan's long history as a carpet-making center during a visit to a carpet workshop, where we'll enjoy a demonstration of this ancient craft.

3/30  El Djem & Monastir tour  Join our excursion to uncover Tunisian antiquity with a visit to El-Djem, home to the third-largest ancient Roman amphitheater in the world, which soars impressively above the low-rise buildings of the town's medina. This is the best-preserved Roman structure in Africa and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built in the third century AD, this still-impressive stadium could seat 30,000 spectators. After an included lunch, we’ll continue to the seaside city of Monastir, to explore its well-preserved ribat (fortress) and visit the mausoleum of Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia’s first president.

3/31  Travel to Tozeur/Visit Sbeitla/Gafsa  After breakfast today we depart Kairouan and make a dramatic transition from green landscapes alive with olive groves to great arid expanses of desert dotted with scattered oases.  During our full day transfer we'll make our first stop at Sbeitla, where we visit the impressive ruins of an ancient Roman town.   After lunch at a local restaurant, we'll continue on through the oasis town of Gafsa, to our destination for tonight, Tozeur. This ancient city occupies a four-square-mile oasis of 250,000 date palms whose green lushness stands in stark contrast to the surrounding Sahara.

4/1  Oasis carriage ride/Visit the Eden Palm Museum/Arabian Soirée  This morning we explore the Tozeur oasis by horse-drawn carriages. For two thousand years, this city has thrived in a lush oasis on the edge of the largest salt flat in Northern Africa, and was a remote and fiercely independent enclave for much of that time. In its old section, elaborate designs in yellow brickwork decorate the walls lining narrow alleys and passageways with the same traditional patterns that are found in the local Berber handicrafts. We’ll feel the true oasis atmosphere here as we explore byways where spring-fed canals water date palms, flowers, and crops of plums, grapes, pomegranates, and bananas.  Afterwards, we head to a small private oasis to tour the Eden Palm Museum, which focuses on the role of the date palm in Tunisian society. Here we discover the many uses of this remarkable plant, one of the few that grows in the Sahara, and which is a staple of Tunisian cuisine. As we learn about the irrigation and pollination techniques necessary to sustain an oasis, keep in mind that many of these techniques date back thousands of years and yet are still in use today. We then discover another ancient trade during a visit to a small brick factory, and enjoy another look at Tunisian architecture on a walking tour of Toseur's medina, followed by a visit to a traditional music school, where we get a hands-on introduction to the music of Tunisia. We enjoy lunch at a local restaurant today.  This evening join an Arabian Soiree. We’ll travel to a peaceful private farmhouse for an evening of authentic Tunisian entertainment. We'll dine on home-cooked local specialties while enjoying a sensual Arabian dance performance accompanied by live musicians, and delight in the farmers’ vision, which—along with a lot of hard work—transformed this patch of desert into a luxuriant date palm plantation.

4/2 Mountain Oases tour  Today a full-day Mountain Oases tour to the oasis towns of Chébika, Tameghza, and Midès—set in stunning mountain gorges and boasting histories going back to ancient Roman times.  We board four-wheel-drive vehicles and head first for Chébika, a village of stone and clay houses set on a terrace overlooking an oasis, a river gorge, and a deep ravine. Then we discover the Roman and Byzantine history of Tameghza, strikingly situated on the walls of a huge canyon, where we'll have lunch. We also see Midès, a village perched above a beautiful palm grove at the site of a gushing spring, and visit the Nefta Oasis before our included lunch.

4/3  Travel to Sahara Desert Camp/Discover Bedouin wedding traditions/Bedouin Desert Life discussion  We depart Tozeur this morning, making our first stop at Douz, a town where all roads end at the edge of the Great Eastern Erg. Beyond Douz, this immense expanse of the Sahara extends hundreds of miles to the south.  Here, we’ll discover the rituals of a Tunisian wedding, from the drinking of tea to henna painting and more. We'll join a Bedouin family in their home for a fascinating demonstration and talk and volunteers from our group may model their ceremonial attire. We then share lunch with our gracious hosts.  Afterwards, we board four-wheel-drive vehicles for our journey into the Sahara. Our destination is our tented camp, set amidst gently rolling dunes. Just before sunset, we’ll take advantage of the rich evening light on an exploration of the Great Easter Erg. We’ll pause to admire the dramatic desert sunset before returning to camp by lamp-light beneath the starry sky.  After dinner at our camp, we’ll gather for an informative Bedouin Desert Life discussion with a lifelong resident of the Sahara’s sands.

4/4  Travel to Tataouine via Ksar Ghilhane  This morning, we head back into the Saharan dunes, traveling until we reach the ancient Roman Fort Ghilane, where we leave our four-wheel-drive vehicles behind in favor of the traditional all-terrain transportation of the desert—camels. (aaccckkk did someone say camels?- LOL)  This morning, we travel across the Saharan dunes to Ksar Ghilane, where we'll explore an ancient Roman fort and experience a timeless Bedouin tradition as we embark upon a short camel ride. We enjoy lunch in a local restaurant before continuing on to Tataouine, stopping en route at the Berber town of Matmata to discover its fascinating troglodyte house—manmade caves dug out of large pits in the ground. We arrive in Tataouine early this evening, and dine at our hotel.

4/5  Discover the Ksar Route/Farewell dinner  After breakfast, we head out to discover the Ksar Route, along which lie more of the castle-like fortified villages known as ksars, centuries-old redoubts whose exotic architecture was featured in the Star Wars movies.  We visit one especially fine example at Ksar Hedada. Particularly striking are the beehive-live ghorfas, vaulted granaries once used by Berber tribes for storing their grain and protecting it from their enemies. Located on easily defended hilltops or hidden away in palm-dotted oases, some ksars blend in with their surroundings to be virtually invisible to any enemy.   We visit the villages of Chenini and Tataouine, and enjoy lunch at a local restaurant before continuing on to Ksar Hadada—a maze of courtyards, stairways, and doorways built atop a small hill. Tonight we'll enjoy a farewell dinner in Ksar Ouled Dabbeb.

4/6  Overland to Djerba/Fly to Tunis  We return to Tunisia’s seacoast today to explore the island of Djerba, which can be reached from to the mainland by a causeway or via ferry. Djerba is a historic city of whitewashed mosques and groves of olive and citrus trees. Upon arrival here, we'll visit a souk (market) and have lunch at a local restaurant. Later in the afternoon, we fly to Tunis, where we'll have a final dinner together in Tunisia.

4/7  Return to U.S. 
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I will try to continue posting during the trip and get some photos up as well but meanwhile this should whet your appetite. 

River Cottage 2011

hope you enjoy the book of photos from our stay at River Cottage in January and February this year.  I promised my self I would get this done before I left for Tunisia!

Click here to view this photo book larger

racing

around like a mad woman... although I am not really sure they race but maybe they do since Charlie Sheen is clearly mad and he has epitomized "racing" of late.  this coming week is so incredibly full that I have already begun to pack for my Thursday departure.  two days of board meetings, a planning session/dinner and then dinner Wednesday with a friend from London (met through business but segued into personal friend.) then Thursday- at last- off to Tunisia.

why do I say "at last" ?  well I actually booked this trip in very early 2008 for departure in March of 2009. so it has really been about three years in the making.  the payment for the spring 2009 trip was due in late fall 2008.  remember the late fall 2008? I certainly do.  we were in the Dordogne with our Danish friend Aase having a wonderful vacation except that whenever we got on the Internet the stock market was in free fall... absolute free fall- in the span of the week we rented our lovely apartment in Sarlat the market dropped precipitously and in the month of October 2008 lost about 4000 points on the DJIA. 

so I called the travel company and told them I had to cancel the trip as it made no sense whatsoever to sell anything when the market had tanked (of course it only got worse finally seeing the most recent bottom in March 2009 - the month I had planned on being in Tunisia) anyway- back to the point.  it took a long time for my schedule to open up again since my sister got sick in March 2009 and my mother got sicker in April 2009 and I spent the last week of April 2009 shuttling between hospitals 35 miles apart where they each were being cared for.

we got my mom stabilized and into a nursing home and my sister out of ICU and into rehab and then my mom into assisted living and my sister to home health care and we thought we had passed the crises.  but I was spending a lot of time traveling back and forth between my then full time job and home in Chicago and my families' homes in Cincinnati. 

it was around this time that my mom and I made the deal about scattering her ashes.  she was so very close to dying and somehow pulled through. I think she did it for my sister, to see her through her illness. I thought perhaps my mother was going to "go to Israel" with us in December of 2009 but she soldiered on.

the day we were headed off to Paris for my birthday trip - in late February 2010 I learned of my sister's diagnosis.  no need to revisit the same territory over again that I have delved into in earlier posts - she only made it to mid June 2010 and my mom until December 2010.  and that is pretty much the same time I changed my plans to go to Tunisia. 

along the way I had re-booked the trip for December 2011 but after my mom died I knew my travel schedule would be lighter during the spring of the year when Phil was most busy so I rescheduled for departure March 24th.  and then, when Jennifer came in December to visit, I mentioned to her that I was finally going, she asked the date.

about a week later she told me she had been able to book for the same trip.  now we are about ready to head to Tunisia where in December and January the Jasmine Revolution started an amazing process in the middle east of citizens banding together to create (mostly) peaceful transitions to more open government in Tunisia and Egypt.  the process is - of course - ongoing.  the world watches to see what "democracy" will bring these nations - both under the thumb of long standing regimes that were dictatorships in all but name.

so I have charged all my camera batteries and wiped all my memory cards of old photos and readied my travel meds for "in case, in case" and started my packing.  in my bag is a jar containing my "mom" for the first of her foreign trips to new countries!  some people have found this weird but I get joy in just typing those words.  finally, after her long battle and restricted life of the last few years she is "back on the road"!

so I thought a few Dordogne photos would be a good choice for today because it was my mother's favorite segment of our 1996 trip to France and also because as I mentioned, we were in the Dordogne when I had to cancel my first scheduling of the Tunisia trip. 

Rocamadour - a stop on the Route de Santiago de Compostela

 Moulin de L'Abbaye in Brantome (the room my mother and I shared is the blue shuttered corner room)

a view of the Dordogne River from the village of Domme

a stunning village tucked under the rocks along the Dordogne- La Roque Gageac (my best guess)

 a beautiful doorway in Sarlat the town where we stayed on both trips

the Dordogne has the distinction of being the one trip I have taken a second time and liked just as much as the first time.  I worried that in the 12 years between visits it would have been over-run with tourists and franchises but it remained lovely, charming and unspoiled.

the quiet times

are when I find myself drawn to picking up the phone and calling my mom.  usually that would be sometime before or after dinner.  tonight as I was preparing our meal - the spaghetti sauce simmering and I was thinking about making a salad  when I had the urge to call her.  I have been reading my Tunisia book and information from the travel company and getting excited about what our group of ten will be seeing there.

earlier today I dragged out my old disk from one of the travelers on the Morocco trip.  after the main group of us left Morocco, three of the group went on to Tunisia for four or five days.  they were generous enough to share their photos on a disk in a little slide show.  the photographer, Judit, was the first person I knew who traveled with a digital camera. 

she was quite adept at technology and upon their return asked us to send her photos which she incorporated into her slide shows on the disk.  at the time I was a dyed-in-the-wool film photographer, and these photos didn't really sway me to digital as they were low resolution and in reproducing them they had things like bands of shades of blue in the sky rather than the gradient one would get with film.

of course later I came to understand the concept of pixelation and the size of the file producing the spectrum of resolution but I was completely unsold on digital then- she was always charging the camera battery and in the desert when we were camped in the Sahara for several nights she completely lost juice and had to rely on her friend's film camera. 

however, I did like the slide shows and saved them for all these years.  (the morocco trip was in April 2000)

later when Phil and I went to China and Tibet in 2002 (exactly two years after the Morocco trip) I again ran into a traveler with digital.  her name was Phyllis and she was fully equipped - even traveling with a laptop to burn CDs of the photos along the way.  she was quite an avid picture taker- shot anything and everything and I knew some of these photos just were never going to be of value.  for instance she took lots and lots of photos from moving vehicles and in 2002 there was no range finder camera without shutter lag that could handle high speed exposures in motion.

Phyllis had the latest equipment for amateurs and even bought a new camera at the end of the trip when we got to Hong  Kong.  why I recite this tale is because Phyllis was also generous with her fellow travelers and she made a full set of photos for each couple or single traveler on the trip to take home with us. 

I had of course thought Phyllis must be quite an excellent photographer because she certainly was enthusiastic in her shooting.  but when I got home and opened the photos I found her technique seriously lacking when it came to composition.  my computer at the time had rudimentary photo editing software, so I decided to give it a try using Phyllis's images.  I made a set of really wonderful photographs of the trip that I then consolidated into one disk and sent to each of the group members - noting these were Phyllis's photos that I had edited in order to learn the software. 

that was the turning point for me- I bought my first digital camera in the summer of 2002 right before my mother and aunt and I took off for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.  the rest as they say.... was history.  but that does remind me of a story about traveling that comes from that trip to the Baltic countries.  many folks at my office followed my travels pretty closely but sometimes seemed at a loss to clearly understand where I was.  when on the trip to the Baltics, there was some really bad flooding in the southern part of eastern Europe.  when I returned someone in the office said to me: "I hope you trip wasn't ruined by all the flooding."  to which I replied that I wasn't exactly sure but that I would bet that the Baltic's were about a thousand miles from the Balkan countries which had been inundated with the floods. 

as it turned out I was wrong - it is only 850 miles or so. 

anyway- that is the story of how I became a fan of digital photography and now for some images that will hopefully make fans of any readers as well. 

From the top- Cambodia, Russia, France, Amsterdam and Hawaii.

circle back

after a busy week of work at my now two jobs (how did that happen?) I have some personal time.   I have been reading and preparing for the Tunisia trip which is now less than two weeks away.  the more I read the more the anticipation grows.  this is the first new place my mother will go in her spirit form.  my friend Helene thought some place in Carthage would be perfect but there are some amazing things on our itinerary so I am not as sure. 

I have been thinking about how there are all these circles in life - call them cycles or spirals or any other name but the whole idea has been with me the last day or so.  this morning I awoke thinking about The Kin of Ata Are Waiting For You a book I read more than twenty years ago now, but which- in spirit- has stuck with me. circular patterns play a big part in the book. and of course my mother's circle of life has been ever present in my thoughts.  we are nearing the three month mark of her leaving her physical body and being released from the restrictions her failing health had put upon her.  not a day goes by that I don't miss her but I also celebrate her each day as well. 

and more circles/cycles: today is the day I start yard work again.  not much right now, but time to do a little clean up and make an assessment of what will need to be done when I return in April. as I was sitting in front of the computer this morning working on financial stuff before the trip, my screen saver came on with several of my favorite photos and - oddly enough- (not) - they featured circles. 

here are the ones that showed up this morning:

these were all from central Vietnam (from the top: Dalat, Hue, Hoi An)

the morning light has come and the day is breezy and cool but we have dodged the worst of winter and are settling back into life at home for a bit, before circling around again and heading off....

jack's big weekend

we barely got the laundry done after the return two days trip when we were off again just 1.5 days later to Portland OR.  home of the now famous Jack Friedman- who had his bar mitzvah on Saturday March 5th.

we landed late (got off late- what else is new) and rushed to get to dinner before the place stopped serving.  we went to Jake's and I can completely recommend the almond crusted Idaho trout.  brother Larry (see previous posts) joined us but had already eaten.  Friday we got up and had a lovely breakfast at Urban Farmer in the Nines hotel.  Phil was in melt down mode as his phone had stopped working so he spent the afternoon on the phone with tech support and thankfully they got him back up and running.

we joined the out of towners at Kenny & Zuke's for some super pastrami sandwiches and after the ones attending services on Friday left we returned to the hotel for a while before going back to Steve & Suzanne's for some family time.  Phil is one of four brothers and the oldest.  next is Larry - then Steve and then Sandy.  Suzanne is married to Steve and our favorite family member.  Steve and Suzanne are Jack Friedman's parents and as noted above Jack Friedman was last weekend's bar mitzvah "man" of the weekend.

the services on Saturday morning were very nice - virtually every family member got a special part and even Sue, Phil's mom, got a special part - the first time she was ever on the bima in 82 years (the congregation she belongs to isn't all that progressive- and that is being diplomatic.)

Jack knew his part and appeared to be calm cool and collected - he must have used Secret deodorant (as anyone from my generation knows- that is how you get CCC) LOL  however, I was anything but- I understand not one word of the services but I complete "got" the mourner's kaddish that Phil recited for my mother and a wave of grief hit.  the loss-which seems controllable most of the time sometimes breaks through and it did last Saturday morning.

the luncheon following included a fabulous mac and cheese (two helpings to ensure the review was accurate- LOL) and then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the next phase of the festivities. family photos in various groupings and then on to the big social event.  done in a Trailblazers theme  (Jack follows them "religiously") the party was really fun. 

the kids enjoyed a DJ with games and dancing and an "mile long" candy bar with tons of "penny candy" type candy to bag up and take home.  there was also a photo station where anyone could dress up and mug for the camera and then the shots were collected in a scrapbook with greetings for Jack. (I thought this was really a great idea and hadn't seen it before - not that I have vast bar mitzvah experience- LOL)

then Sunday morning the family who hadn't already headed out gathered for the morning after breakfast and shortly thereafter headed to the concert Jack was playing in on Sunday. even though he was clearly exhausted, he was a real trooper and lugged his stand up bass and played with the Vivaldi Strings group, performing a Brandenburg Concerto  and a Vivaldi concerto.  an excellent recital, enjoyed by eleven family members who then headed back home once again to S&S house.

Phil and I later went on to meet friends Craig & Terry to have dinner at the Park Kitchen.  we left town on the Sunday red-eye so I could be at my Monday 7:30 AM board meeting while Phil went home to sleep.  my bed felt SOOOOO good when I finally landed there Monday around 4 PM for a nap during the next round of laundry.... even if life doesn't always go on- laundry does....

this was my favorite of our mug shots:



we had a really nice weekend - if somewhat hectic coming right on the return from two months away.  both Phil and I agreed that we thought the whole S&S Friedman family handled everything perfectly and with such apparent ease - and we also both commented on how lucky we are to have Suzanne as our sister in law.  with my own sister no longer being around I especially am happy that she has just as wicked a sense of humor as my sister Janna did, because it is always nice when someone gets my jokes.

long day's journey

kitties and Phil and I returned home last night.  again the girls did fine in the car for the long journey home. 

we left Monday - quite wistful about our time at River Cottage and grateful for the idea of returning next year.  Friday night we spent with Al and Carol - our new friends and neighbors who also happen to own River Cottage.  the hours again flew by and we hope to entice them to Chicago in the summer by promising Al space on the deck and some decent scotch.  meanwhile on Sunday we went to spring training to "play ball" at McKechnie field in Bradenton. the day was warm and sunny - a perfect day for baseball.  

 after we returned home we attempted to eat the food left in the frig - mostly successfully but did leave some behind- just ran out of time and space in the car. 

so here are a few photos of the River Cottage to bring back memories.

our comfy home away from home-

this next one is a photo of one of the two alligators I finally found - that is him to the right side swimming towards the cottage but never getting close for a really good shot-

so we are home and back at work and repacking for the bar mitzvah weekend in PDX.  things don't slow down and perhaps that is one more reason our time at River Cottage was so special to us.  it was a moment out of time - when we could just "be" instead of "do"



the long goodbye

the farewell tour continues-  with Moore's tonight.  we had the favorites of stone crab and soft shell crab.  soon we will have to begin packing in earnest and figure out how to get more stuff into the car than we came with... how did that happen? 

I did finally spot the real alligator this week but his lair is out of camera range.  maybe next year... LOL

and we have new ducks on the river who seem to have appeared in the last week- so things continue to change all the time.

we'll be going back to cold and somewhat snowy weather but it will be time limited and already the rest of the year is so busy (yes you read that correctly- the year)

I completed the final arrangements for our safari and South Africa trip today with the final hotel booking.  that trip falls over our tenth anniversary and will be 28 days by the time we added time in wine country and the garden route and Capetown etc.. but now we are ready to go.  one of the things Phil added to his stuff while down here were some clothes from Columbia Sportswear for the safari part of our trip.  our friend Helen is coming from France to house-sit and cat-sit and also visit with her soon to be born grand daughter (nick-named Baby Chambol) the baby is due to Laure & Arno the end of April.

meanwhile my friend Jen (see back at the Danger Zone post) has been keeping abreast of the Tunisia situation via twitter posts (how does one even do that? LOL) as we get closer to our departure date (four weeks away.)  so - as I always seem to be saying - time marches on.

endings beginning

today I was reading back over some of the blog entries and I see I neglected to follow up on the planned memorial lunch we had for my mom.  the lunch was attended by all but one of her local friends and everyone had lovely things to say about my mother.  I was touched by their stories and the emotions they each shared about losing her.

after the lunch Phil and I took some of my mom's ashes over to the beach and scattered them in the Gulf of Mexico.  I was thinking tonight at dinner about how much she would have loved to hear about what we were doing.  as I have mentioned before she loved the Anna Maria Oyster Bar on Cortez and that is where we had the first one of our "farewell tour" dinners. 

being here for this time away from our "real lives" even while still working - has been healing.  it has given us a clear break from the "before" of the illness and death of my sister and mother and the "after"- the next part of our lives, especially mine.  speaking of my next phase, I applied today for the fast track passport clearance upon returning to the US.  with the trips I currently have planned this could be a big time saver.  I am hoping they will call me for my interview and that I will get approved before I leave for Tunisia. 

tomorrow night we will have dinner with CBGB and then Friday with the wonderful owners of River Cottage.  Sunday we have a spring training game.  so Saturday we have to pack and ready for our return to city life.  it is amazing how quickly the time has gone by. 

when we last saw CBGB they had come over for dinner and as a "hostess gift" GA brought some of the most beautiful chocolates I have ever seen (AND they were great tasting as well as good looking) - I took a photo so we could keep the beauty even after they were gone- which I think qualifies for "having your cake and eating it too."

these thoughts seem pretty random - and lacking in a focus- it is as if I am drawing ends together in preparation for leaving - regrouping - moving on.   like forwarding mail back to Chicago after we are gone and ending the Chicago forward to River Cottage... life marching on.

three good meals

in Miami - which is definitely a new record for us.  we went to visit Phil's brother Larry this past weekend and since my cousin Michele lives there too now we got to see here as well.  She has moved into a beautiful new apartment overlooking the river. 

so we drove down on Friday and arrived late afternoon - checked into our hotel and called Larry who came over after work to head out for dinner at Pascal's on Ponce.  we each ordered the tasting menu and it was wonderful.  luckily we were not horribly full so we could order the extra dessert of baked alaska to share between the three of us. 

on Saturday we went to the Coconut Grove arts fair (Larry lives in the Grove) where I fell in love with a painting I didn't buy (the 24K asking price seemed a bit steep) - and bought a cute little wall hanging for waaaaay waaaay less. we had messy gyros for lunch and some empanada snacks and ran into a couple of couples who were friends of Larry's.  after we had had enough (read after I had had enough) we went to a bar in the grove and had some drinks and relaxed and cooled off.  it had hit the mid eighties that day and so I wilted long before the boys.

we dropped Larry off and went back to the hotel and then later he came by and picked us up to go to Michele's to see her new apartment- it is very very chic.  white marble floors and stainless kitchen with washer dryer in the unit- extremely nice!  we got to talking and before we knew it we were a tad late heading out to dinner at the traditional Spanish Casa Juancho. 

Phil had the suckling pig and Larry the goat and Michele and I chose fish/seafood- these after a round of appetizers that were very satisfying.  we shared two desserts (boys mostly ate them) and called it a nice evening.

we made plans to check out in the morning and go to Larry's before heading out for lunch outside someplace.  our choices were somewhat restricted because of the art fair and also the boat show in town over at Miami Beach.  after getting to Larry's we went to visit his friend Brian and his family for a little bit.  long enough to walk out with a bag of star fruit from a tree in Brian's back yard.

then we headed for Garcia's which Phil was suspicious of (I am sure thinking uh-oh Mexican food) which was outside on the river near downtown.  it was fabulous - fresh fresh fresh fish and seafood- just what we were looking for in a really relaxed atmosphere. 

we took the long way back to Larry's, hung out for a while and then drove to Ft. Lauderdale to see friends Neil and Elizabeth who are renting for a while over there.  Neil's friend Frank was visiting from Chicago and so we five went out to dinner before we headed back to or River Cottage and Penny & Lucy. 

when we got home Phil commented on - something I was also feeling- how much the River Cottage now feels like our "home."  you know how somehow you just breathe easier when you are home?  I think that is it- really we both feel like this is "home" now.  even as our time here comes to a close and we start planning our final week and begin thinking of packing and being homeward bound, we have felt so completely comfortable here that it has become our home for these two months.

tonight we heard what we take to be the alligator sounds on the river and we are hoping for a sighting in our last week here.  then we can bring home a gator picture for Lynn to show her grandson a photo of the one she wrestled- LOL

and I will end with a photo of our cow buddy who lives across the street- he a lone animal apparently a tax dodge - which gets the property owners an agriculture tax rate for their acreage here "out east" - we stop by every day to say hello...LOL