vacation

QOTD

All from Papa Hemingway – 1899 – 1961

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.

A writer’s problem does not change. It is always how to write
truly and having found out what is true to project it in such
a way that it becomes part of the experience of the person who reads it.

I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how
justified, is not a crime.

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

About morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel
good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.

—————–

This made me think of my friend Azahar of  Casa Az and Azahar’s Sevilla fame.    She took and blogged about that little quiz “I Write Like” that’s so popular right now.  Apparently she writes like Stephen King.  I’ve always loved the way SK puts words together and the tone he achieves even if I don’t like the subject matter – and with Az I feel the same way except I generally like her subject matter.  I’m all about food and cats.    And technology.

Anyway, she’s good and always interesting to read.   So much so that she was invited to do a guest piece about tapas for Travel Intelligence which I quite enjoyed.  People who are going to Spain should read it and then call Azahar as soon as they step out of the plane.  Or sooner.   I’m plugging this because she is an undiscovered foreign food guide GEM whom I would look up and use the entire time I was in Seville if we ever go.  Her services are EXACTLY what I would want to use when absorbing a foreign culture via my taste buds.   I hope she builds a network of people who do what she does, and then I will travel around the world with the best food guides and experiences available.

Now that I’ve posted that, I hope she gives me a discount when we’re in Spain.   🙂

Color coordination and a little vacation

I’m a poet and I don’t know it but my feet show it cuz they’re LONGFELLERS.  OMFG I have regressed back to second grade.   Onward and upward from here.  Hopefully.

We’re trying to buy a new bedspread, and are looking for one that is the same color as all of our cats because it’s spring and they’re all shedding like crazy.  And it needs to be washable. Very important to be washable, as we have at least one cat barfer. I guess gray would be the base color, with some brown and orange thrown in. Needs to be Cal-King. And inexpensive. With shams and a skirt.  As it turns out, I’m asking for a LOT here.
Any good ideas for online shopping places would be welcome.

Bedding color 1, Grumpy Gray Cheetah

Bedding Color 2, Not Quite Sharing Gray, or Could I Get Any Farther Away Gray.   The current bedspread weighs about a hundred pounds (definitely not summer weight) and has to go to the laundromat for washing in the giant machine.  Not my favorite place to regularly spend 3 hours.  Also, I should have made the bed better before taking this picture, but then the animals would never have obliged.  Amirite?

We went to Ft. Bragg for my birthday last weekend. Got to celebrate being able to take a bath again with a jacuzzi tub. That was really nice and also cemented the knowledge that I don’t like jacuzzi jets, just like the bath part.  Good to know for future renovations.

Nice view from the tub.  What this shot doesn’t show is the giant construction mudhole right under the window.  Still, this was very nice.  And it smelled like bleach, a serious plus in a hotel tub if you’re planning to plant your arse in it.

I didn’t have enough energy to do much yet but that worked out as it rained like a motherfucker the majority of the time we were there. Got some “good” rain and rainbow shots, a few of which I have shared below.  The term “good” is used loosely here, as a) I was the photographer sometimes and b)when I wasn’t Bob was shooting from the moving vehicle.

For reference: Captions are mostly below the pictures.

We’re almost home here, looks like the rainbow ends at our house.  Yes, we live in the sticks.

I think these are cool pictures because they have a rainbow, rain on one side, and blue sky on the other.  Try not to look at the truck.

Rain and also not rain across Clear Lake.   This was beautiful.  The picture doesn’t do it justice or capture the sheer drama.

Bob took lots of wave pictures which I’ll spare you from, and a lot of animals.  We saw MANY vultures hanging out, and two wild turkeys standing by the road in two different places trying to decide whether or not they should step in front of a speeding car.   These two animal sightings may be related.   Also, geese on the bluff.

Duck duck GOOSE.  This was probably a nesting pair.  Below, Bob scares them away.

Okay, ONE wave picture.  The surf was very high from the storms rolling through.  I may have to use this one as my desktop picture for a while.

Warning, scary road ahead.

Said scary road, where the road had been washed away and repaired/repaved very recently.  There were two spots like this.   The ocean is right there on the left, you can’t quite see that but trust me, it was close.  Made me a tiny bit nervous going over it with the surf so high and the clouds rolling in.

The trees were so dense over this road that they blocked the satellite radio.  I thought that was amazing, but it probably wasn’t.

Some typical coast scenery, foggy trees in the background.  Lot of cloud drama going on here.  If you want to see these pictures in a bigger, clearer format either click on them (pretty slow) or they’re on the picasa site here.

Home again

Oh, what a lovely trip that was! We saw lots of beautiful places and ate lots of beautiful food.

Beth and the birthday girl

This is me and Margie, the Birthday Girl, in front of a very old fountain in Heraklion/Iraklion/Iraklio

Things I learned in Greece:

  • There are at least three ways to spell anything in Greek.  Heraklion, Iraklion, and Iraklio are all the same thing.  Road signs are no exception.
  • Yogurt, cheese, bread, tomatoes and olive oil are all better there than here.  Way. Like, no comparison. Who knew?  Must be the soil, because the ingredients are all the same.  Their restaurant tomatoes were all better than my homegrown.  I didn’t know that was even possible.
  • Goats and sheep can climb trees.
  • Locals like to play chicken on the one lane roads with the tourists.
  • The Mediterranean Sea is not bathtub warm but it’s so beautiful it doesn’t matter.
  • Greeks always drink a shot of Raki after dinner.  It’s AWFUL.  Made of grape leavings, reminds me of grocery store vodka.  If you eat a lot of rich Greek food and then have MORE than one shot of raki, you will probably be hurling/yakking/spewing at 3 a.m.  Bob can personally verify this.
  • The spiders on Crete make the largest of spiders here seem small and slow.  Eeeek!
  • Rock walls can be works of art.  That was, I think, my favorite part of the trip.  All the beautiful stone walls, old and new.  The really great ones look like they are fitted together with no mortar.  Seriously, they were works of art.
  • Greek people don’t seem to care too much about coffee.  We couldn’t find a coffee maker.  The restaurants and stores all featured NesCafe like it was something good.  Bleah.  I missed my Seattle’s Best for sure.
  • Greek restaurants overcook just about everything but it doesn’t seem to really matter.  Rare meat is not an option there.  Crisp tender vegetables do not exist.

rockwall3

Gorgeous rock walls.  One side of the island has this red colored rock, the other has a gray color.  Two tectonic plates met up here.

Here are some of the eight gazillion pics.  Bob took the bulk of them – if it’s scenery and beautiful, he took it:

Beaches  http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/BeachesCrete#
Samarian Gorge Hike http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/SamarianGorgeHikeCrete2009#
Heraklion  http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/IraklionFountainAndPort#
Knossos  (birthplace of the Minoan labyrinth myth) http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/KnossosPalaceCrete2009#
People http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/PeopleShotsCrete2009#
Sailboat trip  http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/SailboatTripSoudaBayCrete#
Glass factory in our village http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/GlassFactoryKokkinoChorio#
Various architectural shots  http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/OldBuildingsWallsInterestingArchitectureCrete#
Flora and Fauna http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/FloraAndFaunaCrete#
A few villa shots   http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/Villas#

PR Part 2

Does this ocean make my ass look fat?

oceanbehind

Behold, new pictures below via the links to Picasa.

They are of the Aricebo Lighthouse, which is kind of a weird place with pirates and an aquarium, and the Hacienda Siesta Alegre work party which is pretty much the coolest place I’ve ever been to a party, and our catamaran trip to Icacos Island.   And pics of the caves we toured. Rio Del Camuy.  That was interesting.  It took so long, though, that we ended up missing the Aricebo Observatory which was my main goal during the stay.  I am heartbroken.  OTOH, it gives me a great reason to come back.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/HaciendaSiestaAlegraMay2009#

http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/IcacosIslandTripMay17#

http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/CevernasRioDeCamuyAriceboLighthouse#

http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/CavernasDelRioCamuyAriceboBob#

I have a few observations about Puerto Rico, mainly why I liked it.  I will write them up on the heinous trip home and hopefully post post haste.

Pretty in pink

pretty rhododendren

Click the pic to see it larger. The Rhododendrons were in bloom at the Botanical Gardens in Ft. Bragg on the coast. They were magnificent. What an awesome place that is! If you’re ever in the area (Mendocino coast) take a tour of the gardens. It’s at least an hour, and you easily could spend all day there. I’ll try to upload a batch of the pictures soon.

One more while I’m here:

Rhododendren 2