Category: Blog

Woo-hoo! This post will officially make me up to date😂Which is good because there should be more good stuff this coming weekend.

Let me begin by saying that I drove. A car. With other people on the road. But I was in need of a sedative by the time I was done. So was my navigator! Roads are very, um, creative, here. I guess when you’re making Roman roads and cart paths into three lanes of traffic you need to be creative. But oh Lordy, was it an adventure. And we thought Google maps was hilarious with French roads. Dana (our Google maps voice) gave up trying to say the names at some point and began spelling out the words. If I hadn’t been so terrified it would have been funny. From here on out we will rely on taxis!

We did arrive in one piece. And, we lucked out because we snagged one of the last places in the free parking lot! There is a lot attendant, so cars are pretty secure. You slip him €5 and he keeps an eye on your car. Glad I had read up on this!!

We were immediately charmed by both Rabat and Mdina. The towns kind of run into each other. Back in Roman times they were one city called Melite. The Phoenicians were here too. Both towns are beautiful and definitely captured our hearts. So much so that we intend to go back for another stay in a few weeks! Or maybe it’s the gelato bringing us back. Because the gelato at Fior di Latte is really, really good. Like, I can’t imagine how it could be better anywhere else.

Once again we were struck by how fortunate we are to be able to travel like this. We have the ability to quarantine when needed because we stay for an extended length of time. So many people want to go places and can’t. As always we try very hard to be as careful as possible – eating outside, avoiding anywhere crowded, having our masks available to put on with a second’s notice. I can imagine that Rabat and Mdina are incredibly crowded and busy under normal circumstances. We have the luxury of no crowds. We also try to do what we can to help the people who are struggling with the lack of tourism. It’s a tricky balance – hopefully we are doing it well.

We did not arrive until early evening. Once we were settled into our hotel we went to find some dinner, then headed out to walk around. I had read about seeing Mdina at night, and how beautiful it is. Wow. It’s magical. The pictures don’t even capture the feeling but here’s a few (of the many many I had to choose from!) –

The next morning we headed back over to Mdina (our hotel was maybe a five minute walk from the gate) to do our actual tour. It’s still a wonderful place in the daylight.

The first thing we did was tour the cathedral museum, which is housed in the old archbishop’s palace.

Then, on to the cathedral 🤩

After touring the museum and Cathedral it was time to go to the site I was incredibly excited to see. In about 60 AD the apostle Paul shipwrecked along the coast of Malta. He was on his way to Rome to be tried by Caesar (for being a political rebel), so was on a Roman ship. After the shipwreck he was brought to Publius, who was the governor of the island. There are many stories surrounding this meeting (aren’t most legends based in some truth?), the end result being that Publius became a Christian and led the entire island to Christianity. Malta is 95% Roman Catholic, but it is written into their laws that the people have freedom of religion. In fact, there is a gorgeous mosque not 5 minutes from our house. I love driving by it (as long as I’m not driving!). Anyway, since Paul was a captive of the Romans he was kept in a large rock grotto during the three months he was here. We were going to the grotto.

Prior to going underground there was a simple museum that held some pretty incredible items!

Within the same underground system, but a little distance away is a Roman catacomb. The Romans buried their dead outside of their city walls. There was no air flow in that area – it was so hot in there! We didn’t stay for long.

Back up at street level there is a church on top of the site. This church is right across the street from the main church of Rabat. I love Malta. However, this church had been rebuilt in the 1800s😕Not my favored era of churches…but it did have this:

Also back on street level was the Parish Church of St Paul too. What if you were meeting someone at St Paul’s? How would you designate which one??????

When you consider that these two towns are small enough that they can be BOTH thoroughly explored in a day (not including going into the sites) there is an astounding number of sites of interest. But wait! There’s one more!

As I mentioned Rabat/Melite was a Roman town. Unfortunately most of the remnants of that time are gone (probably re-used in the local buildings), except for one house. The Domus Romana was the home of an important individual/family. It was quite large but only a portion of it remains. Why? Well, the British put in a railroad and bulldozed anything in their way. Sigh. What is left is a rather fascinating museum.

And to wrap up this very long post, here’s just a few favorite photos/spots:

I guess that title really should be from Caravaggio to fish, as that was the order we did things in! But then you have the prehistoric stuff thrown in there. I’ll just leave it as is.

We will be making a couple of treks back to Valletta. I don’t know how people manage to only spend a day or two there…there is so much to see! For this weekend though, the focus was on St John’s Co-Cathedral. I had been inside the weekend we arrived on Malta, but the Husband had not. Naturally, it was a blisteringly hot day. We were very grateful for the fans that we in operation everywhere…how was it manageable in there before electric fans? It certainly was not designed to allow for air flow. The experience of being inside that building though was worth it.

First off, because this is my blog (😝to the Cousin), let us begin with a brief history. Like, duh. The Knights of St John came to Malta in 1530. At that time the main city was Mdina – and it had been the main town since Roman times. Initially the Knights also settled there, but as these Knights were warriors as well as religious, they chose to relocate to Birgu, the town neighboring us. After the defeat of the Ottomans in 1565 the Knights chose to build an all new city upon the large rock across the harbor from Birgu, naming it Valletta, after their Grandmaster Jean de Vallette, who led them to their victory over the Ottomans.

Construction of the church began in 1572 and continued until 1577. Originally the structure was fairly simple. The interior was not stark, but was not elaborately decorated. And then this Roman painter guy showed up, one Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio. He was asked to do a painting in the oratory of the church. The rest is history. The painting is the Beheading of St John and is one of Caravaggio’s greatest works. The artist was in the last two years of his life when he made this one. I can honestly say it was humbling to stand there and look at it. Especially since we were able to enjoy it without crowds!

In the mid – 1600s another Italian artist named Mattia Preti came to Malta. He was put in charge of renovating the interior in the current Baroque style. Baroque is not one of my favorite artistic styles – it makes me think of a teenager just figuring out how to wear makeup and is wearing way too much. But somehow it works at St John’s. I think it’s because the background color is dark, rather than the white or cream more commonly found in Baroque. Not only did he redo the interior of the church, he also did several notable paintings in it too.

Enough rambling on the history! Here are photos…I had about 300 to choose from 🙄

After all of this artistic glory we hopped the ferry over to Sliema which is where the main shopping mall is on Malta. Sliema is interesting. There’s some old stuff and a whole lot of new. The Husband was very happy to have Thai food for lunch (and it was good!). We did have to laugh: as soon as we walked into the mall we were greeted by the smell of Cinnabon! This area is not worth devoting photos to…it looked like any other mall!

On Sunday we grabbed a taxi to Marsaxlokk (marsa-shlockx, sort of). This is the fishing village of Malta. There are other smaller ones, but this is where the restaurants of the island come to get their fresh seafood every day. On Sundays it’s a big market. We got there a little late in hopes that there wouldn’t be much crowds. It wasn’t too bad and most had masks on.

We found a lovely little restaurant for lunch, run by Filipo. What a joy it was! He even sent us on our way with a shot of limoncello after our lunch.

Monday morning we had one more sight to see before beginning our work day. We were going to the Hypogeum in Tarxien. The Hypogeum is an underground prehistoric temple and burial site. It dates from about 3300-3000BC! It was accidently found (as all good archeological sites are!) while a homeowner was digging a water cistern in 1902. Unfortunately, the archeologist working on the site died while out of the country and his report was lost (why didn’t he do a backup or email it to someone? Huh?), so any information gleaned at the time is lost. There were approximately 7,000 people buried within the structure. A vast majority of them are still there as it is impossible to move the fragments.

It is literally in the middle of a neighborhood!

There are some fabulous (better) photos on the Heritage Malta website www.heritagemalta.org

After the Hypogeum we made our way a few blocks to an above ground prehistoric temple complex, cleverly called the Tarxien Temples. Again accidently discovered after farmers kept complaining about big stones in their fields. Of course, this was after they had dug a big portion of it – oops.

It was a crazy busy few days but so worth it! A few days to work and not do too much, then for the next crazy idea…driving. Gulp.

You’re reading that title and saying whhhhhaaaaat? Malta = Sun, man. Yeah, most of the time it is sunny (like 300+ days per year), but if this was the week you were spending your holiday time in Malta it would not be on your list of the sunniest vacation you’ve ever had. Good thing we are here way longer than one week, huh? But before the weather went nuts on us we did get something pretty cool done😁

Saturday morning dawned, bright and sunny. We got out first thing and walked over to Birgu. Here you go to get you oriented:

And, because I know you have been waiting for it, here’s your brief history lesson…Pretty much every civilization in the ancient world wanted, and needed, Malta. Something about where it is in the Mediterranean and the current of the water. This mixing of many cultures is reflected in the Maltese language: ancient Arabic (Phoenician, Aramaic), Latin, Italian and a little English! Most Maltese speak English fluently too, with many speaking Italian as well. The three ancient cities of Malta are Birgu, Cospicua and Senglea, with Birgu being the main one. The history of Malta goes even farther back, but I will tackle those time periods as we go to different locations! Anyway, so by the 1500s the islands belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. At this point the Knights of St John were looking for a new home and the emperor gave them Malta. The Knights immediately set about improving the ancient defenses around the island – some of the structures dated back to the Romans, in particular Fort St Angelo at the tip of Birgu. They had made Birgu their base, and knowing how often other entities came along to help themselves to the islands, increasing the defensive abilities would be very important. Okay, trying to keep this short…in 1565 the Ottomans show up, but the Knights were ready. With the assistance of about 400 local people 2,000 knights were able to stave off the Ottoman military force. The siege began on 19 May 1565 and the Ottomans gave up on 8 September 1565, after Spanish and Italian troops arrived to help the Knights. That was super simplified – the cool thing is most of the forts still exist! They were improved over the centuries, but a lot of the medieval parts are still there. Why all this explanation? Because we went to Fort St Angelo.

Like I mentioned before, it was sunny and beautiful when we set out. Funnily enough, we had no problem finding where we were going – it’s rather huge!

And, since this is a fort it wasn’t just a matter of walking into it…we didn’t take a photo of the path to get to the path to get in, if we had known what was coming we would have!

The place is massive. I would imagine that it is another place normally busy on a Saturday but we had it pretty much to ourselves. It was awesome! But rather than boring you with my ramblings, here’s some photos:

All of the fort was fascinating, but the very top was my favorite. This is the portion that was granted to the organization that is the modern day Knights. Parts of the old palace (late medieval period) were damaged in WWII, but most of it is intact.

After touring the fort we headed for some lunch. Like other patrons we were seated in an open air area with umbrellas for shade. About halfway through our lunch we were incredibly grateful for those umbrellas as the skies opened. Rain is not a strong enough word…torrential deluge perhaps? It rained and rained and rained. Water was coming down the road like a river. It was impressive! After about 30 minutes it finally lightened up enough for us to go to our next destination – The Inquisitor’s Palace.

My knowledge of inquisitions extended to the Spanish one of the 1400/1500s. If you don’t believe what we say to believe in you will be tortured, burned, etc. Not a high point in Church history. The Inquisition in Malta was of the Roman variation and occurred late 1500s-1700s. It was more of an educational reform than forced conversion. I felt a little better after knowing that!

There were several surprising exhibits within the Palace – one was nativity scenes from all over the world. Another exhibit was wax figures telling the story of Christ. This was a very interesting place to walk around.

Yeah, I know those were briefer than previous pictorial displays of our places visited. I’m working on not overloading anyone reading with three dozen photos…

I did want to include a few from around Birgu though –

The rain finally stopped. The sun came out again. We thought “well, that’s over”. HA! That night we had thunder so loud it made the teeth rattle. The light and water continued off and on for the next four days. On the plus side, there’s no rubbish anywhere. The minus? It’s all washed into the Med😐 Malta is fairly clean but there was litter here and there. And the plants all look super happy now that they are not drowning.

New things to explore this weekend!! YAY!

Way back – post Dark Ages I believe – I read a book that talked about this little island in the Mediterranean called Malta. I was somewhere between 10 and 12. Unfortunately the book title is lost to the mists of time. This same time period saw me reading another book, The Lost Queen of Egypt, by Lucile Morrison…and that triggered a lifelong passion for ancient Egypt and history in general. Take that passion, add in this memory of the little island and any time I was asked about places I wanted to go I would say Malta. I wanted to go to Malta. The idea of Malta has niggled in my brain for a really long time. Most people’s response is “where is that?”.

When we realized that going to Berlin was not likely to happen (the whole Americans aren’t welcome anywhere because of COVID…even though we had been in Northern Ireland for over a month), we evaluated what the best options were. The house we had already arranged to rent in Malta for the month of October was also available for September! Done! It’s way more house than we needed now that everyone who was planning to visit could not visit (😭), but we were already in love with the place.

Last Friday, our excellent host in Bangor, Colum, drove us and our large number of bags to Belfast City Airport for an evening flight to London. After a comfortable night at a hotel near Heathrow (still not anywhere near where I want to be in London – this is getting painful!) we finally on our way!!!

Now, I would like to refer you back to the post where we arrived in the UK. Remember we scanned our passports, no one even talked to us and we did not get a passport stamp? And the fact that we spent that month in the UK, as they were considered a safe corridor country? Alrighty…so we walked up to passport control in Malta, handed over our passports, answered the question of where we had been in the last 14 days (UK) and watched the guards search for our stamp entering the UK…oh no no no. We explained that we didn’t have stamps and exactly how that happened. They kept responding “that’s not okay. That’s not what they are supposed to do.” We said we know!!! At this point they informed us we had to talk to the medical team. Ugh. Now we are being told we can come in but we have to quarantine for 14 days😖😭😨We politely took the information, tried not to cry and walked through the doors to baggage claim. About 5 steps in I realized that I had a photo of our boarding pass showing the date!!!!! We turned around, got the guard to let us back into passport control, showed the photo, they smiled and we were good to go!!!!! Lesson learned – I don’t care who I have to beat, we will always get a passport stamp. About this point when we thought we could breathe again, my phone rang. The Daughter was in the hospital. So here we are, in the middle of the Mediterranean, a dream come true, and all I could think of was how fast can I get home. After talking to the Daughter, taking a few deep breaths, we realized that there was nothing to be served by rushing home. She was getting the care she needed, her brother, grandparents and many friends were right there. She seems to be recovering well and I can feel like I acted like a mom of an adult, rather than a child. Even if she is my child!!! Welcome to freaking Malta.

I can definitely recommend the hotel we stayed in Valletta – Palazzo Rosario. Not only was it in a wonderful location, the room was huge and so very comfortable. Breakfast the next morning was outstanding too. Two thumbs up. We spent the afternoon wandering around Valletta and dissolving into pools of perspiration. It was so hot! We had come from Northern Ireland, which only hit mid 60s (15-16 degrees Celsius) a few days to 88 (31 Celcius) with high humidity. We were dying! But we soldiered on. We will get back to Valletta to do all the touristy things but for Saturday and Sunday we just enjoyed walking around and taking it in.

Monday morning (after getting moved into our house Sunday evening) we had rented a golf cart with a GPS tour of the three cities. It’s a really cool concept that was made a bit clunky by the proliferation of stone walls. So, now, not only have I driven on the left- again, I’ve driven a golf cart on the left! The rental location was in Birgu, so started our day with a walk to get there. Birgu was the original main city, prior to the construction of Valletta – I’ll delve into the history in another post. Needless to say, Birgu is an old town!

During our drive we saw lots of interesting places that we might not have gotten to otherwise.

There is so much I can write about, but I think this post is long enough! We will definitely be getting out most weekends so I should have plenty to share!

We were free!! I know no one was sitting outside our door, paying attention to whether we went out or not, but I was totally paranoid. Walking outside that door felt so daring once our quarantine period was up. We reacquainted ourselves with this cute town, walking both of the main streets (only one of which is called Main Street) many times. There’s also a fabulous coastal path that I will talk about in a bit. First thing we did though? Planned a weekend in Dublin! We swore to never again go to Dublin in the summer – not after last summer’s experience. That was awful. But…this summer was a completely different matter, you know?

Friday after the husband was done working we made our way to Belfast, Lanyon Place train station to catch the Enterprise train south. I’ve driven the route several times but never taken the train. Go figure. We had splurged on first class tickets (maybe an extra $15 or so) and were thrilled when we realized that we had picked a train car with NO ONE else in it! Best kind of social distancing🤩After completely disinfecting every surface we settled in for the two hour ride. I have to admit to being rather nervous about being on the train, but having no one anywhere near us made it very enjoyable. it was an easy walk from Connelly Station to our hotel too. We elected to stay at the Morrison on Bachelor’s Walk since we knew that was convenient to where we wanted to be – I recommend the place!

First thing Saturday was breakfast at one of our absolute favorite places -The Bakehouse!! We stumbled on it our first trip to Dublin (2014) and it never disappoints. I think the Husband orders the same thing every time, but I try to get something different. This time we had a wonderful server, Sabrina, who only added to our enjoyment of returning. Thank you Sabrina for a fun morning 🥰

After getting properly fueled up we walked over to Trinity College, as we had tickets to see the Book of Kells (again). It was so strange to see the front gates closed and locked. I missed walking through the very old gates and into the quad. We had to go around the side of the campus, as entry was very carefully controlled. There were no lines of people waiting – very strange! When we brought the Daughter and her Best Friend here last year it was unbelievably crowded. There was no enjoyment of the experience. That was part of why we chose to go again. The ability to spend time in the exhibits with no sense of rush, no moving along quickly so you don’t block someone else’s view, no crowd anxiety…it was wonderful! There was maybe ten other people in the exhibit with us and we all took our time.

After enjoying the Book of Kells our plan was to wander the city and enjoy being in Dublin. We wanted to spend minimal time inside. Fortunately the weather mostly cooperated…this is Ireland after all. This was very different from a sight seeing trip as there was no rush to get somewhere else. We took a left on one street if it looked interesting, wandered through parks as we found them, thoroughly enjoying the experience.

After our very long walk we were more than ready for some lunch. There were two options: Zaytoon, Persian food. Super yummy. Or The Queen of Tarts. Ah, the Queen won again! Again, if you find yourself in Dublin you need to go to the Queen of Tarts. Breakfast (if you can tear yourself away from the Bakehouse!), lunch, tea, it doesn’t matter. Everything is good, but this is what you really want to have:

More walking to burn off lunch (I did resist having two pieces of cake)…

We very much enjoyed our time in the south – I miss the Gaelic up here in the north. There are many similarities however…in both areas it is uncommon to find cinnamon in apple products – like apple pie. This is something very wrong as far as I am concerned. Cinnamon belongs in sweet things. Drives me nuts. It does rain a lot. Maybe more the farther north you go though. But don’t come to Ireland for the weather. You need to accept it for what it is and not let the weather dictate your activities! The list goes on – it’s a small island after all.

Last weekend we walked the coastal path. On Saturday we went to the right and on Sunday we went to the left. Saturday’s walk was definitely the shorter one by several miles, however it was the boggier path (path being a loose term for some areas). I want to say that we went north on the first day, but that isn’t correct. It was more east I guess. My internal compass does not function well. What I do know is that between the clear skies and going farther east we seemed to be really close to Scotland. Close enough that we could tell one set of hills was closer than another set. There was a very brisk wind blowing too, brisk enough to give Belfast Bay whitecaps. I felt queasy just looking at it! The path we walked began as a nice, wide, paved trail, then sand, rocks, bogs, through an animal control gate, and eventually we ended at a rocky beach – we were glad the tide was out!

Now that we were all warmed up, we were ready for Sunday’s walk. If we had really thought about what we were setting out to do we might have changed our minds! This time down at the marina we turned to the left and began walking the path back towards Belfast. The day was beautiful, with none of the brisk wind from the day before. Blue skies. And everyone was out! Boats were being prepped down in the marina, Pickie Fun Park was full of children playing in the water (social distancing? Nope. Face masks? Nope. We gave that area a wider berth), and dogs with their people were everywhere. Life this far north dictates that you enjoy every nice day, especially at the end of summer.

On we walked, laughing at the antics of the dogs, admiring sweet babies, greeting everyone and being greeted. We were all in a splendid mood and that made it all the more enjoyable. Miles passed. The skyline of Belfast was not all that far away. But we had a goal – there was a waterfall in Crawfordsburn Park. I like waterfalls and try to seek them out. Unfortunately, this one did not come with directions. We knew it was up at the top of the park and approximately the area. That was it. The park is built on a hillside, so there was a lot of climbing. We knew when we found the train trestle we were close!

Eventually we could hear the rushing water – SUCCESS! We are getting pretty good at finding things with minimal directions.

After a small skirmish regarding photographing the waterfall (sigh…someday he will learn that I am always right), we joyfully headed downhill! Down where the park meets the beach there was a lovely little cafe that we intended to have lunch at. I managed to resist the scones, but they were incredible looking! Have I ever mentioned that scones here are round – as opposed to the triangles or wedges you usually see in the US? They also tend to be more bready than biscuity. Still very yummy but not at all what I expected them to be like.

At the end of Sunday we calculated that we had walked about 17 miles between the two days. And we were tired! Fortunately we have a wonderful bathtub in this flat, as we both took long, hot baths with epsom salts☺

Now we are in the midst of packing, getting dinners from all of our favorite places one last time, and preparing for our next stop…which is unfortunately not Berlin. I can’t begin to tell you how sad we were to cancel that. But we just were not comfortable that the immigration authorities there would let us in, even though we have spent over thirty days outside of the US. But it is on to a place I have dreamed of going since I was young. A place with so much history even I have trouble comprehending it. A place of astounding natural beauty. Malta…here we come.

While we were in Eureka we discussed how to get this adventure back on track. We had places we wanted to go man! We had already missed out on Edinburgh and Florence. We knew we needed to be cautious with regard to COVID and respectful of other country’s rules too. How to do that? The goal was to be able to be in Berlin for September. At the time we made our plans we thought our chances of getting to Germany were pretty iffy – but worst case we could find somewhere else to go, right? Our chances are actually looking pretty good right now, but the next two weeks could bring surprises. We hope not. So, where was the one area we were pretty sure we could get to? The United Kingdom and Ireland! When we left Belfast last October we really didn’t think we would be back for several years. Well, surprise surprise. We looked at several places in Ireland but at that point most people with house reservations hadn’t let go of their dream of going to Ireland, so there was not much available. But the island of Ireland has had good COVID numbers overall (the north and the south coordinate a lot on these things), so we wanted to remain on the island. We also knew we had to quarantine for two weeks (no going out for walks – no nothing!) therefore we wanted to go somewhere it wasn’t going to be torturous for us to be there and not be out exploring, so somewhere we have been before. Answer: Bangor! We really liked the town, we had been there before, it’s close to one of Belfast’s airports and there were flats available. Score! We actually ended up renting from Colum, whom we had rented from last time. Not the same flat though. He had a brand new one that he was in the midst of working on. It’s worked out fabulously – he even picked us up from the airport.

One thing that has proven interesting in this trip was that our flights changed 6 times in 3 weeks. That certainly kept the adventure alive. Lesson learned though…don’t book with miles during uncertain times. While Alaska Airlines was incredibly helpful and always went out of their way to accommodate our needs, it still would have been better if we had booked directly. Ah well, it all worked out.

The other bit was that all the normal flights were not in operation (duh!). Therefore, on the days we wanted to travel we couldn’t do it the simple way. No, of course not. So, here’s how it went…

A little tidbit here. Before we headed over we made very certain that we knew exactly what was expected of us, what the quarantine entailed, and what, if any, paperwork was needed. Two days prior to departure we each filled out an online form for the UK government telling where we were staying and how long we would be in the country. We even talked about what to say if immigration gave us a hard time. We were ready! We entered the immigration hall at Heathrow, followed the arrows to the correct line, walked up to the scanner which scanned our passports and took a photo (got to remember to pull down the mask for that part!). The little gates opened and out we went. We got our bags in baggage claim. WAIT A MINUTE!! Is no one going to talk to us? Verify our details? Nope. I don’t know – maybe it’s because we did do the form and all that? But it sure seemed anticlimactic. And no passport stamp😭

Back to the journey. I like flying. It does not like me. I got through the long flight okay (not all of them has that been the case) but rather than tempting fate or something we elected to stay the night at a hotel at Heathrow. The Sofitel in Terminal 5 reopened the day after we needed it. Right. But there was a Sheraton nearby and we got to meet a wonderful taxi driver. The Husband also got to ride in a proper London taxi – even in his exhaustion he was grinning. Next morning we continued the journey.

Needless to say, we are itching to get out. We won’t get much sightseeing done but that’s okay. This stop means that we should be able to go to Germany…and after that is Malta. A lifelong dream of mine. Can’t wait!!!

During the time we were in Eureka we mostly enjoyed hanging out in town on the weekends. As we were nearing the end of our time there we knew we really had to get out and explore the Redwoods. We had driven through some areas as we headed south to Eureka but there was so much more to see! A rental car was arranged (we were upgraded to a Dodge Challenger – that was fun!) and off we went!

That Saturday we went back north a little bit – still south of Crescent City – to take a better look at the areas we had driven though on our way down. We went off the highway and explored some of the roads heading deeper into the forest. One we really enjoyed was the Newton P. Drury Scenic Parkway. It’s about 12 miles long with loads of trail heads and paths to wonder through. When we saw a place labeled Big Tree, we knew we needed to stop!

As we made our way back to Eureka, Highway 101 makes lots of twists and turns. The state made the game even more fun by posting your current speed as you go into the corners (I think that was intended to make you slow down…but, we had a Challenger!)The Husband and I traded off driving so we both had the opportunity to hit those corners in a um…rapid? manner. Never unsafe though🙄

The following day we turned our attention to the south. It was an easy, freewayish drive for about half an hour, then we cut over to the old Highway 101…also known by the wonderful name: Avenue of the Giants. Love that! We followed that road for many, many miles.

There was one super kitschy, touristy thing that I really wanted to do. I wanted to drive through one of the trees. I know I went to Sequoia National Park when I was a teenager (Redwoods and Sequoias are both Sequoias, but the Giant Sequoias are even bigger in diameter), but I can’t recall if we went through one of the drive through trees then. Several miles down the Avenue of the Giants was a drive through tree. It’s on private property, just off the highway. With how slow tourism has been this year we had no problem with paying them a few dollars – bonus…we were the only car there😁After we paid the entry fee, the Husband walked over to where he could take a photo of me driving through. I rounded a corner and standing near the road was a young man, maybe 10 or 11 years old. He was probably a member of the family that owned the land. He took one look at the black Challenger, smiled and told me my car was nice (I smiled back at him). As I continued driving I could hear him say “that sure is a beaut”. Ah, I do remember my young gear head self! Granted my focus was on the Italian supercars (it all started with a little car called the 308 GTS…thank you Ferrrari). But, still. Anyway, I crept up to the tree, pulled the drivers side mirror in – should have done the same with the passenger side. Oops – and drove ever so slowly through. That car just barely fit. The passenger side mirror did obtain a small injury, but nothing serious!

Now that I could check “driving through a tree” off my life list ( 😎 ) we turned back north towards Eureka. It was lunchtime and I knew where I wanted to go. At least what town I wanted to go to! About 10 minutes off of 101 is the little town of Ferndale. I had heard of the place, and since we were so close it was silly not to go there. Super cute Victorian era town. Humboldt Creamery was just outside it too (yummy stuff!). We settled on a little bistro where I had an amazing blueberry and roasted broccoli salad (don’t say yuck. It worked). And shared a plate of fabulous fries with the Husband. After lunch we walked up and down the main street for a bit. It doesn’t take long – very small town! Ferndale has a few claims to fame: the authentic Victorian buildings that have been beautifully preserved, several excellent eating establishments, a bakery (Erlei’s Bakery) making the best cinnamon rolls I have EVER had – I can’t believe I shared it with the Husband (if we hadn’t already left town before we started eating it we would have gone back for another one. It was that good), and it is the home town of Food Network star Guy Fieri. I’m glad we stopped.

Fabulous weekend! The weather was gorgeous and we saw so much. All in all we have been please with the stop on our COVID inspired itinerary.

One of the final things we did before leaving town was go to the little zoo at the city park. You have to schedule a time to be there as they only allow a limited number of people in. It made for a very pleasant experience. None of the exhibits is large, so it is a very intimate feeling with the animals.

The trip back to Washington was also designed to see some sights. The Husband has flown over the far north of California but never driven I-5 through there. We got our Mazda CX-5 (last time I drove one of these, the steering wheel was on the other side of the car) packed up, had lunch from In and Out Burger – I’m so proud of us! Only time we ate from there – and hit the road. We were taking a small highway between Arcata and Redding that was very scenic. We quickly understood why Google maps said that the 130 mile drive was going to take 3 hours! Here’s some photos of the trek north.

We spent a whirlwind few days at home, balancing the weight on bags, restocking things before we were off again. This next time we went far away…

I’m going to blame technical issues for not posting for a while (the Husband says, yeah, right)…

Many people asked us, when finding out that we were staying in Eureka, Why? Why stay there (of all places – this part unsaid)? We asked ourselves that same question after arriving here. From 101 it’s not much to see. In fact it’s rather divey looking. Sorry to anyone reading this who is from there, but you know it’s true! And even towards the water, where it looks nicer, there’s another issue – the homeless population here is astounding. It does make sense, the weather is very mild – I don’t think it’s been over 70 degrees the entire month of July. It’s so sad to see this. There does seem to be a goodly amount of public involvement in helping this population though, whether places for them to get a decent meal, bathing facilities, or just people who go around and try to help where they can. The big negative – other than for the people themselves – is that they very much congregate along the waterfront. There is a fabulous trail that takes you through parks and marshes, but the homeless population is very heavy all along it. I would never walk that path alone, even in daylight. We generally choose to walk elsewhere. The people that walk around yelling at the top of their lungs is sad, but it’s always a question of what they will yell about today!

We reveled in the long walks we were able to take in the afternoons (it was a novelty to be off exploring yet still in our home time zone). The local co-op was less than a mile away so we used that for our groceries…and right out on highway 101 was a chocolate maker, Dick Taylor, that smelled heavenly every time we walked by. We resisted going in until the final couple of days we were there. Then I did my part to support the local economy.

Eureka was a very prosperous place from the 1850s through about 1940. There are many, many Victorian homes, some of them very grand, still standing. A fair amount of them have become rundown, but a lot have either been maintained through the years or restored to their original elegance. The city is an amazing study in contrasts.

The evidence of Eureka’s prosperity really shows in its public buildings. It’s nice to see that they have been preserved and are still being used to this day.

All in all it was a good experience to be in Eureka. The place really grew on us. We made the walk (twice!) to Sequoia City Park – 3.5 miles each way. The park is full of coastal Sequoias (Redwoods) -such a gorgeous place! It even has the cutest little zoo (which happens to be the oldest zoo in California).

I know I’ve been very remiss in blogging recently – most apologetic! I have another post I’d like to do on the Redwoods and then I can catch you up on where we are now (you might be surprised)!

That’s right peoples. We go.

After all the weeks in Ellensburg we headed back to the Skagit Valley for a little time with the Father/Stepmother and #2 Son/Daughter in law (who is doing an excellent job of growing our new granddaughter) and Grandpuppy. We were sad not to see some friends but that was totally understandable considering everything!

After considering many options, having our top choices be eliminated (Vermont and Maine – but we understood their isolation requirements) and thinking about where we have wanted to go, we were able to come to the conclusion that we wanted to drive down the west coast. There are several places that we have discussed over the years, places we really wanted to see and roads we wanted to drive. Number one: Crater Lake. Number two: Highway 101. Okay, so now we know how we want to get there, and where to stop at, but where were we going to? That became quite the…spirited…conversation. And then it boiled down to we would go to Northern California. Why? Because other than San Francisco neither of us had spent any time there. And then came the even more important question: where could we afford to stay? Of course we would have loved to stay in the wine country! Or in some cute coastal town. But, we needed somewhere that we could walk to places like the grocery store and wasn’t going to cost a fortune for a one month stay. Eureka. No, I mean the town of Eureka. I’ll delve more into Eureka in another post – we have mixed feelings about the place. Let’s talk more about the drive down…

It was finally a warm, sunny day when we left Skagit County. After a cool, rainy June the weather was beautiful. So we left. Sigh. When we headed out for our journey we weren’t certain when we would be back in the valley, therefore we had to bring all of our gear. Just like traveling overseas, except not. We loaded up our rented SUV and off we went – the issue is that we left on a Friday afternoon. We even managed to get about 90 miles in before we came to a slow crawl. What should have been about 45 minutes of driving took almost two hours. Ugh. Our end point for that first day was Albany, OR and we rolled into the hotel at 9PM. We had arranged to have breakfast the next morning with my Sister, Nephew and his Girlfriend. The Husband and I picked up everyone’s food orders, met them at the appointed park, and it began raining. Fortunately the Sister is even smarter than she knew she was as she chose a picnic table under the bridge! Built in cover! It wasn’t cold, so we sat there for a long time chatting and catching up. We could have stayed much longer but it was time to hit the road.

There is one (okay, there are many) place the Husband and I have wanted to go for practically forever. Sorry to our Children that we didn’t take you – we know you want to go too! Crater Lake. You see photos of the lake and you think it can’t really be that blue color. Must be enhanced. Or the lighting was just so. Nope. It really is that crazy shade of blue! To get to Crater Lake you take I-5 to southern Oregon and then you go sort of southeast on smaller highways for about 1,000 miles – or so it seemed. It was probably 3.5 hours after leaving I-5 (and this is with me driving. I find speed limits to be merely a suggestion) before we got to Crater Lake National Park. Yes, we did verify that the park was open before we went – it had reopened the previous week. The Rim Road (also called the Volcanic Legacy Highway) to the lake is a very easy drive. There are several places to stop between the entrance and Rim Village. Don’t miss stopping at the first lookout point!

Crater Lake was formed when Mount Mazama erupted and then collapsed into itself. Apparently there is still volcanic activity underneath the water so it is considered an active volcano! It is also the deepest lake in the US (just shy of 2,000 feet). There are no rivers running into or out of it which keeps the water crystal clean and clear. You can hike down and swim in it…I’ll pass. Only a polar bear would find the water temperature acceptable!

Rim Village is at about 7,100 foot elevation and the views are incredible. On the trip back down we took the time to look around and see the amazing sights around us.

After spending the night in Roseburg, Oregon we pointed ourselves in a mostly west direction. Next stop: the coast! Our Google Maps (Dana) has a sense of humor. Dana also delights in taking us places very few humans go to. Dana did get us to the coast (at Bandon, Oregon) and she chose a very scenic route. We found it very reminiscent of Ireland. Like, it might be a two way road…but somebody was going to have to squish to make it work. Fortunately we didn’t see any other cars.

And then finally we were at the coast!!

Once you’re south of Crescent City in California you enter the Redwoods National Park. The highway goes right through it – towering coastal Redwoods on either side of you! But those will be a different post. I think we are going back up there in two weeks. In the meantime we have gotten to know Eureka. Enough said for now!

I will start by saying that we super mega appreciate the Cousin (and her Husband) for letting us stay with them for years months (although I’m sure at times it felt like years to them). But, we decided that we needed a few days off exploring somewhere new! Yes, in the middle of the pandemic. The county we were in had very few cases, so we thought about where else wasn’t as deeply affected, and was not too far away. Neither of us has ever been to the Hood River area (although I was closer to being there than I had realized…in my defense, I was 9 years old), so Hood River it was! We have often heard about the beauty of the area – it was all true.

The drive through the Yakima area was…less than thrilling. Scenic in its own stark way, I guess.

As we got closer to the Columbia River there definitely more trees. Just outside the town of Goldendale (which happened to be the main town for this county…and the town is not much!) we came across a Greek Orthodox Monastery! I had heard that there was one (and had a bakery – magic words to me) but I didn’t know exactly where it was. I mean, seriously, out in the middle of nowhere. We stopped there on the way back to Ellensbug, so I’ll talk about it a little more later. Not too far past Goldendale the highway turns to run along side the Columbia. Now, I know the Mississippi River is impressive, and in some places it’s probably beautiful. The places I have seen it weren’t so beautiful (St. Louis comes to mind). And as it nears the Gulf I’m sure it’s really something – but I will put the utter majesty and stunning beauty of the Columbia up against it anytime. What must Lewis and Clark have thought when they saw this incredible site? I should read the account of their travels. Hmmm, add that to the reading list. Really, the river itself is incredible but how it is situated is rather jaw dropping. I don’t know my prehistoric stuff very well but I do know that the gorge that cut out the Columbia was created by the Great Missoula Flood. A Flood all the way from Missoula? Dude. Anyway, this great, crushing torrent of water came through, tearing apart the landscape, and carving a vast riverbed. All along the river you can see how mega massive it one was, and it’s still massive now!

Our destination was a little town on the Washington side called White Salmon. Cute place. Probably a lot more happening when there is not a pandemic going on! We had a house rented for the week that sat up on the hill, looking towards Mount Hood. The mountain chose to remain behind thick clouds most of the week. Of course. We knew the house was good sized but it turned out to be huge! Hot tub on one of the decks and a kitchen that made me want to cook🤗 However, for such a small town, there was an amazing array of restaurant choice (take away only of course). Honestly, one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had was at Pioneer Pizza in White Salmon. Everbody’s Brewing was right up there too -they make a berry crumble that makes me emotional.

Just across the river is the vacation town of Hood River. I’ve always heard of the place, but this was the first either of us had been there. To get there from the Washington side obviously involves a bridge. Bridges are not my favorite thing. I’ve never been super fond of them – and to re-enforce this feeling, on May 23, 2013 a large truck clipped the upper structure of the Skagit River bridge while carrying a load taller than what should have been on the bridge (yes, this is a super simplified explanation. If you want all the details go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-5_Skagit_River_Bridge_collapse ) and caused it to collapse into the Skagit River. I had driven across that bridge about an half hour earlier. It was maybe a mile and a half from our house (…my house 😭). Bridges are not supposed to fall down, so I have minimal faith in bridges. The one to Hood River was about 18 inches wide – okay, not really, but it was super narrow and had this nasty grooved metal bridge deck <shudder>.

The town of Hood River is adorable. Again, I’m sure it’s a much more lively place when we aren’t in the midst of a pandemic. Some shops were just beginning to open, but not all of the wine tasting rooms😐 We did get a few bottles of amazing wine anyway. And hard cider. Oh man, there are soooo many choices on hard cider there! It’s a huge fruit growing area and they certainly make use of it.

Due to circumstances outside of our control, the Husband had to be in Kirkland first thing Monday morning (we arrived in White Salmon on Saturday). So, we packed overnight bags and set out on the 4 hour drive up the west side of Washington. One place I have wanted to see for a long time is Multnomah Falls. The waterfall is about half an hour west of the town of Hood River on the Oregon side – the highway on the Oregon side is much nicer than the road on the Washington side. Unfortunately, the pandemic reared its ugly head again – we couldn’t even get off the highway there! I could see the falls through the car window at 70 mph. That’s it. We’re going to have to go back!! As we drove north we realized this was one of those times where we really grateful for the lighter traffic. The drive through Tacoma can be hellish on a Sunday afternoon. And the aroma of Tacoma (a leftover of the days when the Tacoma waterfront was full of paper mills. It’s a special smell) was in full force. Yuck. Eventually we made our way to Kirkland, had a quiet evening in – had dinner from one of our favorite places in the area – and sent the Husband off to work (now, there was something different!!) in the morning. When I was done working I decided to go for a walk at a really nice park along Lake Washington which certainly helped to stretch out the kinks from the two long car rides.

I realized as we were driving back south that Monday afternoon that it was the 40th anniversary of the eruption of Mount St. Helens and we were going to go right near it! Cool! Was it at all visible? Hahahaha…no. Not a peep.

Once back in White Salmon we just enjoyed being in the area. We both worked during the day, and explored in the afternoon. There is so much to see there! White Salmon and Hood River are considered to be towns in the Cascade Mountains, even though they are pretty much at sea level. This is also the point where the west side of the two states transitions to the east side – the two sides have drastically different topography and weather. There were several drives we did not have an opportunity to do, in particular, one called the Fruit Loop. Love it!

On one of the last days we were in the area we drove out towards Mount Hood, to a beautiful winery, Grateful Vineyard, for dinner. That very day restaurants in the county were finally open for eating in! We got there early, after an amazingly scenic drive, which was a good thing, as the restaurant filled up by the time we left. They had lots of outside tables, but it was still chilly! I have never had a pizza with pear on it before…WOW. Fabulous crust, bacon, pear and gorgonzola, with a little mozzarella. It was amazing. And the view was jaw dropping. If you’re in the area, check out this place!

After dinner, and wandering around for a bit we drove to a nearby park that had a waterfall. I love waterfalls and I was still grumbling about not getting to see Multnomah Falls, so off we went. The place we went to was called Punchbowl Falls. It’s an easy walk from the parking lot to the falls. The park itself it so pretty and the falls were created by what might have been a really old dam of some kind. There was this crazy staircase down the side of the hill…definitely not something you would want to try walking on!

The week was over much too soon. On our drive back to Ellensburg I wanted to stop at a couple of points. About half an hour east of White Salmon, along the river there is a World War I memorial that I remember seeing as a kid. This place had made quite an impression on me then! Why? Because it’s a replica of Stonehenge. But more of how Stonehenge might have looked when it was new – at least the way Sam Hill (the man who built it) thought it should look! It is on this amazing bluff above the river with vineyards below it. I’m so glad we stopped!

Our final stop on the road home did not get photos. St John’s Monastery in Goldendale, WA. Out in the middle of nowhere is this beautiful place. Tours of the church were not available when we stopped, which was really too bad. Their little shop was open though! Best hummus I’ve ever had. They are known for their baklava, which I did resist, instead getting a tub of their lentil soup. So, so good! I did my part to help support their organization, closed my eyes for a moment and wished I was in Greece😁

We are so glad we took this little trip and definitely hope to return again in not too long. Besides….there was this great shop in Hood River called the Ruddy Duck…kicking myself for not getting that cardigan!

After time spent with the Cousin and her Husband, plus a few family members, we really wanted a place to go off to by ourselves. With the current situation, staying in another place is not something to do carelessly. We found a fabulous condo at Suncadia that we were comfortable with renting, and the owner felt comfortable with us coming there after we explained our unique situation! Suncadia is on the east side of the Cascade Mountains as you’re coming down off the foothills. It’s still enough elevation that it gets extensive snowfall in the winter, but being on the east side of the mountains it has fabulous spring and summer weather. It’s a large (LARGE!) resort just outside of the town of Roslyn. You may never have heard of Roslyn, but you may have seen it. It was the town of Cicely, Alaska in the show Northern Exposure. One other show that used the town is the The Man in the High Castle (on Amazon) – I did not know this! Apparently, the Roslyn Cafe was featured in Twin Peaks. Quite the filmography for a tiny place!

Back to Suncadia itself. I haven’t had a lot of experience in resort type places, so I was pretty impressed. The Lodge, which is sort of the main building, is run by Hyatt Hotels, but contains a lot of condo-type units, plus a coffee shop (still the PNW!), restaurants, bar, and shops – none of which were open. The Lodge was really beautiful .

Our condo was a spacious one bedroom with a full kitchen and a small patio. I think this place was probably way out of our price range under normal circumstances. The bathroom was nearly as big as the one we had at the Palazzo in Las Vegas! Lovely bath tub 😍 I could have stayed here much longer than a week.

As you can see from the photo of the Lodge, it sits on a hillside. There is a pretty river running down below and a massive field that is ideal for flying kites. The thing is…you have to get down there. It might be possible to drive, but I didn’t readily see way to do that – no, there is a staircase. It’s called 1,000 steps. It wasn’t really 1,000 stairs, but it sure feels like it!

I believe I was prompted to climb down and back up this crazy stairway by having made pancakes for breakfast. We felt quite proud of ourselves when we were back at the top – no tears or whining or anything! It was completely worth it once we were down at the river level. The water was incredibly clear (and cold!).

Of course, being a resort, there are all kinds of activities. There are two golf courses (with a third to be built eventually), a massive aquatic facility, a lake stocked with fish, multiple playgrounds, a winery/restaurant, and many different “neighborhoods” – with anything from condos to incredible single family homes that are probably some Microsoft executive’s weekend cabin. It was obvious that some people did live there year round however.

Setting is beautiful – mountains aren’t far off with evergreens as far as you see, the river, bald eagles flying about…so peaceful. I’m sure in the height of summer, on a weekend (under normal circumstances) this place is crawling with people. But we really enjoyed the peace and solitude. It was no problem keeping your distance from others!

I would have no problem going back to Suncadia anytime! There is so much to do on the properties – you can be as busy or sedate as you choose. There was a really nice distillery that was selling hand sanitizer (along with bourbon) – we did our part to try to support them. We were pleased with the restaurants that we did try. We may just have to plan another stay at Suncadia…

Home. It’s a word most people don’t give much thought to. Home. It’s where you live, right? Or where you’re from. Or where your family is. A lot of people might even have multiple places that they think of as home. But for us, and people like us, who aimlessly (or maybe not aimlessly) wander, home has a whole different concept. There is the temporary home – wherever our suitcases are unpacked. Some of those places can definitely feel more homey than others! And there is the place that is home. Where the majority of my family is. The place that I know where pretty much every thing is. That is where we are now. It feels good.

The Cousin was kind enough to let us take over her house for a month and we soooo appreciate that! And we will be back with her in a couple of weeks (lucky her!). But it was time for the Daughter to fly off on her own. She has been deposited at her Best Friend’s house (who might win the award for Most Tolerant Person Ever) and told to find a job. It’s not the best time for that, but she should be able to find something. Will I worry about her when we are away? Of course. Just as I worry about her brothers and their families.

I’m rather ashamed to say that it is nearly two weeks later now. We have spent time with the Younger Son, his Wife, and the Grandpuppy (after being very careful regarding exposure as I can now happily announce that we will have another precious Grandchild next fall!). We also spent time with the Father and Stepmother. Yes, I know, I know…but it’s hard when you don’t have a home to go to yourself. We handled it as carefully as possible. We are now in a really awesome place that I will address in the next post😊

Yeah, yeah, this post has been short and sweet. But I didn’t want to let down the five people who read the blog! I promise to do another very soon. And we really really hope to be heading to Scotland in late June. Really.

Country as in countryside as opposed to country as in nation. After all of our fun country (nations) exploration we find ourselves in Ellensburg, Washington. Population: 20,000. I suspect they were counting college students when that number was arrived at. We are incredibly grateful for having a place to stay, a comfortable home to isolate in, my awesome Cousin and Her Husband who put up with us, two doggies to give attention to. But, Ellensburg is the place you stop to grab something to eat while driving from the west side to Spokane! People live here? I thought there was just some restaurants on Canyon Road.

Seriously though, it is a nice town. Central Washington University is located here, which means there’s good pizza. Iron Horse Brewery is here – if you like Irish Death or Mocha Death beer this is where it’s from (I could walk to the brewery in about 10 minutes from the house). The town has some cuteness and like many smaller towns there are quirky places! We have been here a couple of other times for which I am glad. Good to know it is normally fairly lively – like everywhere else it’s super quiet these days. On the day that the sale of our house closed we headed here for a few days. We needed to be nowhere near the valley for a little bit. That was a tough time.

The situation facing the entire world is unprecedented. I honestly hope that it’s the only time a situation like this is experienced. And I pray that we all come out the other side with a better understanding and appreciation for ourselves, our families, our jobs (provided you still have one) and the world around us. People are different. Respect that.

Sermon complete.

Last Saturday the Husband and I went for a long walk and on Sunday we went for a drive. Our walk was from the Cousin’s neighborhood, out through the downtown area, past the university and down the Vantage Highway for a little while. Sounds pretty lengthy huh? It was about 4 miles. Yeah.

Ellensburg is just west of the Columbia River. Whenever we crossed the state (and it was fairly often when the younger of our two boys was in Spokane attending Gonzaga for four years) I would always mention that I wanted to explore the Vantage area. Vantage is on the west side of the Columbia, right where the bridge is. So, last Sunday we headed out the Vantage Highway, which runs parallel to I-90 towards Vantage. It took us about 30 seconds to explore Vantage. A) everything is closed, B) it would have taken 45 seconds if anything had been open. The bummer was that the park at the base of the bridge was closed too! WHAAA!! We were able to take a few photos from up above but it wasn’t the same. Bummer. After our foray in Vantage we continued on the highway. It went over I-90 and then headed south along the river. There were a few places where there was no guardrail and the road got a bit curvy…the Husband was driving and informed him that he could drive, or he could sight see, but he could not do both!

Wow. Head spins. Like the rest of the world we are reeling. It’s been an…interesting last six weeks or so as we watched Italy, then Germany and Spain become overrun with the COVID-19 virus. And when our home state of Washington became the headline front runner with the most cases in the US (at that time) we saw that nowhere was immune to this illness.

The first major impact on our travels was when we made the decision (prior to it being made for us) that we weren’t going to go to Italy on March 20th. This made me terribly sad, as this was one of those dream trip segments. As we have watched and read events unfold, and are still unfolding, our hearts go out to the people of Italy. Now, similar levels of catastrophe are occurring all over the globe. We hope and pray that this virus runs its course quickly. I don’t want to appear flippant about any this, but if I don’t try to look at the lighter side of the situation it threatens to overwhelm me.

So…no Italy. What to do? We considered going to Spain, Portugal or the south of France. This virus wasn’t going to spread everywhere, was it? At that point we were concerned that we would be out the money for the flight to Europe – so were trying to find an alternative. After dithering… extensively… on this, we (with influence from others) decided we would stay in Mexico. I won’t bore you with the back and forth discussions on the remainder of this subject, final answer: we would go to San Miguel de Allende. This city fascinates me. We found a house, arranged a car and driver – everything was in place. We had even secured a promise of refunds for our flights to Europe! We were golden.

Last Wednesday morning we were in communication with our host in San Miguel. We were very much looking forward to our trip to there! I had an appointment that afternoon. When I got home the Husband requested that I read an article featuring an interview with the President of Mexico. Dude…I am very concerned for the people of Mexico. Between his attitude towards COVID-19 and the lack of preparedness within the medical system (probably due to funding) we realized that waiting out the situation in Mexico might not be such a good plan. Our instincts were screaming GO. Fortunately (as this was prior to the US President announcing border restrictions with Mexico) we were able to secure tickets for the three of us on the afternoon flight for Sunday. We still aren’t certain why we thought Sunday was the best plan…because Friday morning we were feeling antsy again. I believe it was also on Friday morning that the border restrictions were announced. To our good fortune, there was still a few seats on the Saturday flight out of Guadalajara. We were then in a whirlwind of activity because we now had less than a day to pack and prepare! Crazy times. We did make certain to have one last meal at Gosha’s though! Our wonderful server, Pancho, who we have become very fond of, let us know that the restaurant was closing the following Monday – if the Mexican federal government wasn’t going to take action, the local governments would! We find ourselves very concerned about the people we got to know down there. Many do no have the funds to stock up and many, many business exist in tiny storefronts or along the side of the road. And Mexico has no unemployment program.

Saturday morning arrived and we were off to the airport. We had managed to get all of our bags under 23kg – they were 22.4, 22.6, 22.6, and…22.6 😝 Not surprisingly the international terminal at GDL was busy. There were Canadians still trying to get home and hordes of US citizens and residents hurrying to get back. There was no such thing as social distancing in the check in line. Once checked in we made our way over to security – where we did undergo a thermal temperature scan. This was not in place the week before – I was glad to see it happening. We passed the temperature check, got through security, found something to eat…note to self: stop trying to do this at GDL! It invariably takes wwaaaaay too long. Once again we were among the last to board. We have never encountered this at any other airport.

It was an uneventful flight, with one exception. The Daughter asked me to set her dragonfruit-mango drink from Starbucks in the corner of my beloved (purple fortunately) Kate Spade tote. She wanted to let the ice melt. It seemed pretty secure there. Except that I must have knocked it over with my foot at some point. Yeah…dark purple drink soaked my bag and everything in it. Funnily enough now that it’s dry you can’t even tell!

As we were coming in over San Jose, CA it was downright eerie to see the mostly empty roads and freeways on a Saturday afternoon. And the San Jose airport was so quiet. It was understandable that almost nothing was open too.

As you can see we had a very scenic flight north. It was a nice next to the last leg of our trek. SeaTac was moderately quiet (considering what it is usually like) and we got our bags in record time. Cool! For the first time ever we rented a car at home (never needed to you know?) and headed…east. That was very strange as home is a straight shot north up I-5. We were not going home though, we were going to Ellensburg in central Washington.

The Cousin (who often travels to where we are) very generously offered (probably in a weak moment, never thinking that we would take her up on it) to let us isolate at her house. So, here we are, fingers crossed that we didn’t pick up the nasties in our travels, trying to be good house guests and not give our hosts anything! Once we are certain that we are healthy we will make our way to the valley. We are both very busy with COVID-19 work for our employers!

Now to leave you with some of the humor that has cropped up. Other people are so clever!

Take care of yourselves and each other. Hopefully this terrible virus runs it’s course quickly. And praying that we all take some of the positive lessons from this experience. It’s not all for one. It can’t be.

In early March, the Cousin (who has visited us now in three countries!) came down to see Ajijic and visit us. A few days after her arrival my Very Good Friend also arrived for a visit. These two did not know each other, but they had agreed to share a house just around the corner from us. The Husband and I had a serious case of house envy after seeing their place though! It was so nice…and it had a water purification system. This alone is enough to make us weep. The thought of being able to brush your teeth with water from the tap…more than words can express. We were very excited to show these two a little of this area of Mexico. First lesson – ALWAYS watch where you are walking. Wonky sidewalks, dog poop, loose stones, random weirdness – you get the picture.

Our first morning was spent with a walk along the lake, showing off some of the most scenic spots. It was fun to hear “oh, I saw that on your blog”! And, of course, we could not resist taking them to our very favorite restaurant here, Teocintle!

When we were here a couple of years ago we went to the thermal spas in a neighboring town. It was such a nice experience I really wanted to go there again. My Very Good Friend and I went there the morning after she arrived. I had a car arranged to take us there (we will never drive in Mexico if we can help it). I’m sure she was really wondering were I was taking her…we bypassed the nicer looking place and stopped in front of this seriously divey looking hotel. I wish I had taken a photo. It’s really sketchy (it is called Hotel Balneario). Then you get to the back…massive pools, all kinds of slides and fun stuff for kids! Again, bad blogger, I didn’t take a photo! Make your way through the pools, towards the lake and you arrive at this beautiful, peaceful area…

I apologize for the lack of photos of…everywhere…but the thermal bath area especially. It is an awkward place to try to take pictures – you’re wet, it’s not like your phone is out and handy – you know?

The area of San Juan Cosala has been known for the thermal waters since ancient times. The springs are warmed by volcanic magma and are full of all kinds of good minerals. There are six different tubs. You sit in each one for about 30 minutes and go through the tubs in a prescribed order. You are served various herbal teas while soaking to even more improve the health benefits.

The tubs available the day we were there were, in order: apple cider vinegar (to bring you to an alkaline state), floral (mainly hibiscus and rose), sea salt and magnesium, coffee – seriously, it was full of ground coffee, oat – not only in the tub, but there were additional bowls of it to smear on your face and body, and MUD! You smear your body (and each other!)with mineral mud, then stand out in the sun (since we arrived in the morning we were a bit chilled unfortunately) until dry and hard. After you are dry you hop into the muddy water and rinse off for a while. I was amazed at how good I felt. Once we were done in the tubs we spent a little time in the two steam rooms (neither was overly hot) and inhaling herbs. If we had chosen to we could have had massages or many other treatments. What a fabulous time!

Since I had done this before I knew what to expect when I took a shower afterwards…coffee grounds and flower petals all over inside my swim suit!

The following day we had a cooking class to attend 😍I have always wanted to know how to make tamales, so when we had the opportunity to choose a class to learn that skill I was all over it! In Ajijic there is this wonderful lady named Linda. She is Venezuelan by birth and has been a chef all over the Americas. In Spanish grandmother is abuela, so Linda is called Abuelinda. It’s so cute! Our class was not held at Abuelinda’s kitchen, but at the home of her assistant Fatima, who is reputed to be the best tamale maker in the area…oh yummo! She taught us how to make poblano and cheese tamales, and also chicken tamales. Fatima has a couple of special tricks with her masa that make them light and a little fluffy, not dense and heavy. Heavenly!! The best part about making them? Eating the tamales! We sat down and had lunch together – there may have been some ugly tamales in there but they certainly tasted good. For dessert Fatima made pineapple tamales…I had never had a sweet tamale before – delicious!

We had lots of other fun activities throughout the time they were here, and way too many good meals. One other thing we did…and I’m kind of ashamed to say that this was the first we did this…we went to Guadalajara itself. Yeah, I know, pathetic. We only spent a few hours in one area but it was good to see something of the city!

Besides going in the cathedral we also went to the Mercado Libertad. This was an interesting place. Not somewhere I feel the need to ever go back to. We had discussed whether to go to the Mercado or to Tlaquepaque (just outside of Guadalajara). We chose to go to the Mercado so that we could go into the city. I’m glad we went there, but I am sorry we won’t get to Tlaquepaque. The Mercado had some unique items, but it felt like most of it was mass produced junk, rather than handcrafts.

We hope the two ladies had a good time while they were here. I’ve never been to any of the Mexican beach towns, but I’m guessing this is a bit of a different experience!

Here’s a couple of random about town photos –

This post took a bit for me to get done. It’s been hard to focus this last week as the world has changed dramatically. I’m so glad our guests came when they did!

Ever since we arrived in Ajijic I have taken notice of little (and big) religious shrines along the roads (and as part of houses). They have been present in other countries, but here, they are all over! I think they are sweet and beautiful. I love how the faith of the Mexican people is part of their fabric of life (the Irish are very similar in this). Over the last two months that we have been here I have been accumulating photos from all over town. In interest of honesty and transparency – this post has been saved for when I didn’t have a lot of other things to say. Not that I don’t always have a lot to say, you know? But I’m saving for another post! 🙄 Just follow along and say yes.

And now….for roads not taken. The current situation facing the entire planet, COVID-19, regardless of religion or political ideology is reminding people (hopefully all people) that we are in this together. Nations can’t just say that they are independent of everyone else and will do whatever they wish regardless of the consequences. It only takes one person to bring the virus to a new country before it is spreading rampantly. The Husband happens to work for the hospital at the center of the outbreak in the Northwest. The way in which that hospital has handled the situation is admirable and hopefully other medical centers can replicate their processes, if not improve upon them. How has this affected us in Mexico? Other than people taking about it and being cognizant of precautions, it hasn’t affected us at this point – except that we will not be going to Florence next week. We waited until the last moment to make the decision – I really did not want to give up on that dream. As soon as we made that decision Italy made the announcement that they were closing borders, so I think we made the right choice. There’s a lot of pieces to our moves (hotels, cars, houses, airplanes) that we have to cancel or change! Fortunately, we are spreadsheet makers (and Trip It! users), so we keep track of what has to be addressed. All of this means that we will remain in Ajijic for another 2 weeks, then we are on to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. This is a town I have wanted to visit for a long time and I look forward to sharing this new place with everyone. Even if it isn’t Florence.

Sometimes you get to be in the right place, on the right date. We honestly did not even think about local events when we set the dates we would be here. Our household has followed Ash Wednesday traditions and no meat on Friday during Lent, but we didn’t live in an area where much happened on Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras/Carnaval- carne val, or farewell to meat), let alone the whole month leading up to Fat Tuesday. We knew of it happening in other areas, and it seemed pretty fun, but it was a distant event. Not so anymore!! I posted a few weeks ago about the first of the parades, where guys dressed up as (exaggerated) females, threw flour at spectators, bands played and people danced in the streets. This type of parade has occurred each Sunday since then. Today was the grand finale🎉I’m not certain if it’s an official holiday (we didn’t look to see if banks were open), but kids were out of school and there were a whole lot of people involved in the parade, plus lining the sidewalks! I had a brief conversation with the news photographer from the Guadalajara paper and she said it was the best parade around, that ‘s why they covered it. Who knew? The official timeline was for the parade to start at 10:00AM. Later in the week it was changed to 11:00AM…and it started right on time! Mexican time, that is. 11:40AM. Yeah…no worries.

Once the parade began it was controlled pandemonium. We were at the very beginning of the route, so we had a chance to watch everything coming together. And a chance to note that the cabelleros (cowboys) often had a bottle of tequila with them! LOL. In fact, one offered us a swig from his bottle. Other interesting factoid…they like tequila and Squirt. Huh.

So, the parade. The noise. The chaos. The dogs everywhere. Confetti being planted on the top of my head. Big, honkin’ handful of confetti. It was a blast!

I could have posted another 100 photos at least, but I didn’t want to put anyone into a coma out of boredness. It was a wonderful, unexpected event that demonstrates exactly why we are on this adventure. There is so much life and living to experience!!

It’s been a pretty quiet week here in Ajijic. We did walk in a new area – kind of a duh moment, “why haven’t we gone this direction before” type thing. Found the high rent district! It’s been in the low 80s temperature wise (27 degrees for the rest of the world). That’s a tad bit warmer than ideal but manageable. Our house does have ceiling fans which helps…mostly. We still haven’t ventured out of the immediate area. Isn’t that pathetic? I think we are enjoying the lull before the storm…I don’t intend to be still for a moment while we are in Florence!! – well, other than when I’m working I guess. If I must.

Since we have been staying in one place we will continue the artistic exploration of Ajijic. Last week it was the walls, today let us look at doors. First of all, I have to admit that most of the cool doors are on fixed up houses/buildings. A lot of the working class neighborhoods are a mixture of very simple buildings with some more elaborate structures. The expat population has been a real boon to this area…and a curse. The money brought in has provided good paying jobs, lots of business opportunities, and extensive fundraising for the community. On the negative side, housing prices have gone way up. While still crazy affordable by US standards, it is not as affordable for the locals. It is a difficult balance. I think some neighborhoods try hard to remain local, thereby more affordable. That being said, the fixed up houses (and some of the newer ones) are gorgeous! In my oh so humble opinion, a beautiful house should have a great door.

And then a couple random photos from around town:

Have I mentioned I love this place? Because I really do. It’s not glamorous or fancy. The sidewalks are an adventure. The streets are…creative. It’s noisy. All. The. Time. The butcher down the road hangs pig skins in the back of his truck to dry before frying them to make chicharrones. I chose not take a photo of that one. Shudder. The donkey down the road is psychotic. The people say buenos dias with a true smile. The thing is, it’s not dirty. At first glance you might think it is, but it isn’t. Every morning people are out sweeping their sidewalks, even sweeping the street. Garbage pickup is pretty much every day. Recycling is another matter entirely though. Sigh.

The walls of Ajijic. Right. The walls…that’s what I was going to talk about today. You know, this blog thing is pretty cool. I get to talk at length, about whatever I want, and no one interrupts me or rolls their eyes (I’m looking at you #1, #2 and #3). And if you stop listening – or reading, as the case may be – I don’t know about it! Works for me. So, the walls. I’m sure it’s similar in other Mexican towns, but the walls of the houses and buildings are the main decoration. People seem to take great pride in their walls. The vast majority of the structures are walls, with the building behind. Most of the time you have no idea what is behind the walls. It’s kind of a thrill when you walk past somewhere and the door or gate is open so you can see inside! Very few businesses have signs, their name and sometimes the hours are painted right onto the building. Anyway, they will explain themselves😎

There you go. Some of the artistic views around town. One of these days we might even venture out of this town. But for now we are content🥰

I think what we appreciate about Ajijic is that the Mexican people seem to love life. As it is. Whether they are selling fresh juice along the highway, working in a shop, or in the park with their families – the joy is apparent. Some may be more affluent than others, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Life is joy. It’s a good lesson for the gringos. I could spend some time evaluating the various reasons the gringos are down here – some good, some more…selfish – but, I think most of them are here because it’s a good place with wonderful people. The weather is pretty awesome too. However, earlier this week we had an unusual few days in the mid 50s (13 degrees celsius) with rain. And when it rains here, it doesn’t mess around!

Last weekend was loads of fun with lots going on here. Saturday was a kite festival. Unfortunately, both times that we wandered down to the Malecon (the raised walk along the lake) no one was flying kites.😕 But the people watching and all the other activities were certainly enjoyable too!

Sunday was the first of the Carnaval parades. There will be a parade every Sunday (until Lent begins) with the major parade on the Tuesday before Lent begins (Mardi Gras). This particular parade had a large band (the Husband was highly impressed by their trumpet playing skills. Band Geek) and a large number of males (of various ages) dressed as females, wearing masks and throwing flour at the bystanders. This tradition is not very old (1960s) and no one is entirely certain why it started other than to maybe blow off steam before Lent begins. Highly entertaining to watch…from a distance. I had no desire to be wearing flour.

The Plaza is very much the place to be on Sundays. There are several restaurants, a couple of ice cream places and a couple of coffee shops along the edges, plus many vendors set up stalls selling everything from jewelry to creamy, fruity mezcal. The town of Ajijic (Axixic in Aztec) was founded in 1523. Apparently there are a couple of buildings from the 1500’s still standing – I will have to hunt them down! The church of the town is beautiful. It was built in the 1700’s to replace one damaged by an earthquake. There is also a smaller, older chapel on the edge of the Plaza, but I can’t seem to find out the age of it. There are restorations under way on it.

With all the ex-pats here, it is not surprising that many places have Super Bowl parties. We debated about several locations, then settled on the French restaurant, Oui Oui. They have the most amazing bakery too. The husband-wife team that owns and runs both places are wonderful people who we have had the opportunity to chat with a few times. Their pain au chocolat puts a smile on my face! It was a fantastic set up with a super large screen showing the game. I was thrilled that it was being broadcast from a US station so we were able to watch the best part of the game…the commercials.😁

Now that we are wrapping up our second week in Ajijic, we are finding our groove. We have revisited a few old favorite restaurants, found some new favorites and figured out when to say buenos dias and when to say buenas tardes.😀Here are some fun photos from around the area.