More trees!

First, a quick update. Rachel just called from Venice (Sunday evening, there), where she's been for several days, and is spending her last evening in Italy. She had a great time with her friends, who have all moved on, by now. Her plane for Barcelona leaves in the morning. It seems she agrees with a widely-held perspective that Venice, indeed, all of Italy, is deeply enchanting and will be back...

I'm just going to post some pictures of the trees, around here. Really, autumn is quite wonderful, just about anywhere, but we're loving the air, the angle of the sun, the colors, and the rain (!), up here, especially, this year. Everything. Well, except that the deer seem way hungrier and are eating all my potted plants. I'm working on that. These pics are of the view from the deck, down the driveway, and the area where the bank, market, drugstore, etc., are located. Generally, I say that winter is my favorite season. I like the cold, and that everything seems to take a breath. But, I'll keep you posted on that...

Catching Up with Rachel!

Last Wednesday, we had a delightful conversation with Rachel from Italy! It had been a week, or so, since we'd last spoken, when she was just finishing up her two-week ceramics course in Certaldo, a small, molto charming Tuscan village near Sienna. She turned out to have been the only beginner in the bunch of 5 or 6 people who came to learn, mostly, about the wood-firing technique they do there. She had a very steep learning curve, learning how to throw pots and use glazes (all in the first four days), then taking her share in the work of the long, complex wood-firing process, which requires constant, 24-hour attention for many days. She and a couple of the other women spent their nights at a quintessentially traditional Tuscan home occupied by a quintessentially traditional older Italian couple (in their 80's, she estimates). At the villa/school down the road, a full-time Tuscan cook prepared them meals during the day. There was also time to explore the town and some of the surrounding countryside, along the way. Pretty much perfect! Here's a picture of her pots. We think they're wonderful, expecially for such a newbie!

But, alas, last Saturday, Rachel had to be moving along. To Rome. Another fabulous experience, apparently! Upon arrival, the place she had booked to stay seemed a little, well, seedy. She went in, anyway, and found a very nice place with lovely people inside (whew!). Then, for a few days, she walked through as much of the city as is possible to walk, in that time, seeing quite a bit, and loving it all! Spectacular! On a friend's recommendation, she headed south to the Amalfi coast, where this friend had a connection with a guy who runs a B 'n' B-kind of thing, overlooking the ocean in a little town called Conca dei Marini. It's near Naples, and the Isle of Capri and Vesuvius, and all that!

So, for the next few days, she was hanging out in an ultra-picturesque village clinging to the cliffs (the village, not Rachel) overlooking the blue Mediterranean. It's the kind of place with the colorful little boats, carelessly, and, of course, artfully tied to the moorings in the bay, the little town rising impossibly above them. It's all about the steps, Rachel says. Steps take you where you want to go (I guess it's important to keep your knees is good shape!). All the better to work off all the amazing food she says she's been consuming, too!

I've mentioned this before, I think, but where ever the kids have traveled, this year, I've pulled up Google Earth, and magged in on their locations. Always, besides getting the lay of the land, there are terrific photos folks have uploaded of that, specific place, and it has helped me get a better sense of what they're seeing. The photos of the Amalfi Coast are breathtaking, of course!

From there, she needed to leave to meet her friend, Sara, and her parents for a couple of days in Venice. By now, she's probably on her way from Venice to meet another friend, Buffy, in Barcelona, on Monday. After that, her plan is to stay in Spain for a month, or so. During that time, she hopes to get to work on her application process for business school. A bit of reality.

That's about it, for now. I'm sure we'll get another update in a few days. So far, it looks like she hasn't had the time or internet access to keep her blog going, but that will probably change soon.

Meanwhile, we can only imagine what's going on with Dylan, these days...

Time to Cool Down, SoCal!!

Another, albeit relatively insignificant, victim of the Southern California Conflagration, was any progress I might have made on my projects, having become completely sucked into the vortex of information-gathering about the disaster! I've been a hopeless addict!!

Monday morning, when we first heard about the fire in Malibu (not again!), we had no idea what else might be burning, because CNN didn't give any clue as to the scope of the situation, being COMPLETELY focused on the, yes, very real danger to the property of a few celebrities--at first. Then, about mid-afternoon, San Diego fires finally began to suck up more and more of the on-air oxygen. By that time, they were well and truly super-sized! Yipes!! Move the cameras!! But the information given was so inadequate! So slow! Show me a MAP (my big complaint about the coverage of the huge fires around us in '03--no maps!)!! A few phone calls and emails provided some comfort and assurance that most of the folks, about whom we were concerned, weren't in harm's way, for the moment, but I couldn't be sure about everyone from 600 miles away!

So, I spent the better part of the next 2 1/2 days looking for, and eventually finding, the best, up-to-the-minute news and maps! MAPS!! I love them!! It was frustrating, for awhile, though! Early Tuesday, on TV, I had seen some satellite images flash by, that automatically registered "hot spots" superimposed on the usual satellite picture. The input was available, but, why was there no way to make it useful to the anxious viewer?? What's so difficult about that? Who knows? The fires kept growing and multiplying, and in areas Tom and I know well, and also know to be near neighborhoods occupied by loved ones! I needed information!! Shut up and show me a map!

It took some time, but I eventually found (because it was eventually provided) some very good sources online. It was almost intoxicating! I used CNN only for "color", basically. But for news, the KPBS and SD Union Tribune websites came through in spades! By Tuesday afternoon, each had its own blog about the fire and decent MAPS (finally!!), mostly self-refreshing, that gave pretty good coverage of the SD County fires, at least. By Wednesday, they were truly things of beauty! The UT's "fireblog" ( http://sosdfireblog.blogspot.com ) would post entries about all aspects of the fires, minute-by-minute. I'm still checking in from time to time (at 3:18, today: All Harris fire evacuations have been lifted, though there are still a few roads still closed). The UT's maps were, in the end, the most useful, though KPBS's were similar. They both really tightened up, yesterday, and included photos and video of specific areas (http://www.signonsandiego.com/firemap/). SDSU, by Wednesday afternoon, provided a huge assortment of maps, all with different purposes and all open for use by whomever. Ahh! The Internet being used at somewhat closer to it's potential!

So, aside from some inconvenience, every one of our friends and family was safe from the unbelievable devastation. We're so grateful! Schools and most other workplaces will slip back into normal schedules, this next week, and there's a lot of clean up to do. But, for quite a few people, there will be a very long road back to normal, if ever. How do we not forget about them, as time goes by?

I, myself, don't, yet, have what one would call a "normal" schedule, but, whatever it should have been last week, is what I'll try to get back to in this next one. That is, unless there's a big flood, or something...

Corkheads!

Another adventure in home improvement! How many projects over how many years, will it take before we find something to do that doesn't have a super-steep learning curve? We finally had all of the materials needed for the studio floor. We thought, "No sweat! We can knock this baby out in a few hours!" Note to self: never think that!

Saturday morning, we saunter down to the studio area, in no big hurry, to lay a little cork floor. We have completed a number of other flooring projects in our time, and this looked to be one of the simpler kind. After all, we've put in a nail-down bamboo floor with compressors, and nail guns and table saws in multiple rooms! Ar-ar-argh!, as Tim-the-too-man Taylor would say! Turned out stunning! This one was just a simple "click-in", glueless, nail-less, throw-it-on-the-floor-and-it-lays-itself-sort of floor in a single square room. Right. Well, putting down the underlayment wasn't too bad. We had the special tape and cut the jigs and jags with scissors.

The cork comes in 3-sq-ft sections, with "click"-type tongue-in-groove engineering on the long sides. We heard they were a piece of cake. The first row goes down easy, looks fabulous. We'll be done by dinner! Time to start clicking. No matter how hard we tried, we could not get the pieces to lock together. We tried pushing it together from all angles. No dice. Big gap-osis! Tom started pounding it with a hammer and woodblock to jam it in, with only modest success, but it looked like we were ruining the edges, that way. What's the deal? I ran upstairs to learn what I could from the internet and found, of course, that the kind we bought got great reviews for looks and wear, but very bad reviews for dyi installation. The comments I read (after expressing frustration) kept mentioning some kind of "bar" that seemed to help, though. So, Tom took off to the two large home improvement centers in town to find one. He came up empty, but they had heard of them, at least.

We decided, as it was late afternoon, by then, to drive an hour to the closest Home Depot, so that, on Sunday, at least, we could start again with the right tools. We found a "pull bar", as it's called--hurray!--and some spacers. This morning, we started again. Turns out, the bar is extremely helpful for the edge work, but not one bit useful for clicking the panels to each other, our biggest problem. After more trial and error, we finally figured out that if one of us stood on the joint while the other smacked it with a hammer-and-block in three different places, they clicked together. Amazing! So, that's what we did.

There was a brief time, later, when we thought we hadn't bought enough flooring (we'd ordered only 9 extra sq ft, having measured the room incorrectly). But, by the end of the day, we not only had gotten much better at the place-stand-and-hammer routine, but figured out a layout that resulted in almost no waste, and even had one uncut board leftover! Ha! We're good!

It looks great and feels good underfoot! The next step is to put baseboard and door trim in. Then, everything, including the floor, has to be varnished. The sink needs to be hooked up. The furniture moved in. I will offer no guesses as to when that will all be finished. But, I can almost feel the pens back in my hand...

THAT Guy!

You'll never believe it! One of the star fiends of our Police Blotter came to OUR HOUSE, yesterday, trying to SELL MEAT (see Oct 16 and August 30)!! But Tom used his well-known SUPER POWERS to dispatch the scoundrel even before I knew he had been there! Amazing! I heard the commotion and ran upstairs to see what the fuss was about, and saw only the dust of the retreating BAD GUY, my vegetarian status having been defended!! My HERO!! In fact, it was all over so fast, that I never got a look at the villain and missed my chance to CALL THE POLICE and read about us in the Police Blotter, today!! Well, at least, it's the last we'll see of THAT guy, and today we can breathe a sigh of relief, and safely keep working on our flooring downstairs without FEAR of unauthorized MEAT VENDORS interrupting our progress! If you can call it "progress". Hmm, he ran away before I could ask him if he knew anything about Quik Clik installation...

Blotter gems

I haven't had space for the noteworthy Police Blotter items, for awhile. The cry from the masses has been, well, restrained. But, no worries, here are some entries from the last few weeks, anyway:

"A 1:33 p.m. caller from the 11500 block of Bitney Springs Road said a subject stole her trash can overnight, replaced it and left two rubber gloves on the lid." [seems like a win/win, to me]

"7:41 p.m.--A caller from the 100 block of Ramon court reported feeling he was 'under siege' because his garage door wasn't opening. He told the dispatcher he would use the front door that evening." [common siege tactic, garage-door tampering]

"At 11:07 p.m., a caller from the 300 block of Horizon Circle reported locking herself out of her bedroom. Officers advised her to contact a locksmith." ["I'm calling to report that I'm a doofus"]

"5:50 p.m.--A woman called 911 from the 14000 block of Lodgepole Drive to report she was upset because she wasn't getting any reception on her television. A dispatcher advised the woman to contact the cable company directly." [but cable companies are so unresponsive...]

"10:35 a.m.--A woman called 911 from the 14000 of Lodgepole Drive to ask what the date was. A dispatcher provided the information to the caller." [hmm, compare the address with the last one...]

""At 10 p.m., a caller from the 200 block of Bank Street reported he almost hit a naked, middle-aged man who was standing in the driveway and brushing his teeth when the caller pulled in." [obviously, caller doesn't take good dental hygiene seriously]

""7:39 p.m.--A woman from the 14000 block of Indian Springs Road reported that she heard a moaning sound outsider her house when she returned home. She couldn't find her husband and was checking to see where he was. She believed someone had hurt him. But she found her husband was playing a joke with her." [hilarious]

""At 2:52 p.m., a caller in the Cypress Hill Area reported a suspicious, heavyset man with an earring driving a green pickup with a white camper pulling into driveways in an attempt to sell meat." [not THAT GUY, again! When's he gonna learn to avoid the vegetarian neighborhoods?]

"At 8:04 p.m., a caller from the 10000 block of John Barleycorn Road reported an assault." [just liked the name "John Barleycorn road"]

That's it, for today...

Stuff

So fascinating, the details of our lives! Here is even more of the important, never-a-dull-moment, flotsam and jetsam that I chronicle, without which, YOUR day would be just SO much less fulfilling!

First of all, our Tulip Tree. I've mentioned it, before. It was here when we moved in. Not native (east coast, I think, is where it belongs). I might not have chosen it. And may be planted too close to the house. But, what a wonderful display of yellow leaves, this week! See?

We see deer every day, now. Early morning and early evening, mostly. Different groups, or singles. Yesterday, it was a doe and her two fawns. Today, a young female in the front yard, and a young male in the back. Often, when I open a door to go out, I'm startled by the rustle of one or more of them, bounding away. They hop. It's called "stotting". Only Muledeer do it this way. We love having them around, and drive extra slowly to avoid any tragic consequences. Not everyone does, and one sees the sad results from time to time. We try to coexist carefully with every other species--we're in their territory, really--so we try not to frighten them if at all possible. Planting a garden, or any other landscaping is going to be a challenge, though, and I'm studying about how to make it work. Some plants they don't like as well as others. And, then, there are the...

...bears! Well, we haven't seen any, but a number of them have been reported to be nearby, even closer to town than we are. While I was on my morning walk, last week, I came across what I'm sure are bear tracks on our road, maybe 100 yards away. This morning, I found more, and even bigger ones, just a little farther down. I only took pictures of the first set, though. The first paw prints I saw, were about 4-5 inches wide. The ones I found today are more like 6 inches. They were mud prints on asphalt and, no doubt, will be washed away in the rain that's supposed to come tonight and tomorrow. But, with more mud, maybe more tracks. And, of course, I'll have to write about it, again...

Tomorrow--yes! It's a bit of catch-up on the ol' police blotter! Try to be patient...

Sunday Drivers

So, perhaps it dates us, but we like to drive around just to see stuff. You can hardly throw a rock and not hit a festival of some kind around here, especially this time of year. We like it! It's fun! And, this weekend we had a choice between various and sundry harvest fairs, an open-art-studios tour, an eat-your-heart-out-you-don't-live-here dazzling-homes tour (all-for-a-good-cause, of course!), and so on. We chose Fine Arts Weekend in a tiny town nestled way back in the mountains on highway 49 called Sierra City (yesterday, was their Oktoberfest, but since we had done one, this year, already...). But, it was really just an excuse to drive up there. Though we've lived here six months (!!), there are some fairly near-by locations that we haven't, yet, taken the time or gas to explore. And it's autumn! And a beautiful Sunday!

In and around Grass Valley/Nevada City, there are trees turning amazing colors! Most of them, of course, have been brought in from somewhere else, like New Hampshire. Nevertheless, they love it here (who doesn't?) and show it by decorating the landscape with bright reds, oranges and yellows. So pretty! Out a bit farther, though, in the natural Sierra Nevada forests, reds and oranges aren't quite as common, but the yellows are breathtaking! Cottonwoods, Aspens and Big-Leaf Maples are the main species, standing out against the dark evergreens. We made a big circle, starting out on Hwy 49, ate lunch in Sierra City (the "Fine Arts Weekend" consisted of a few buildings, each with a few photographs, pots or jewelry--but, hey! not bad for pop.250!), caught Hwy 89 on the other side of Yuba Pass, which got us to Truckee (ice cream) and I-80 west to Hwy 20 and home. We basically just sauntered, stopping frequently, enjoying the air. I'm pretty sure it dates us. Too bad.

We love that it's all so close! I have gotten into the spirit of the townies, though. I went out, this week, and bought a sugar maple and a Japanese maple. Also a dogwood, for spring. Just a few touches in amongst the oaks and pines...

The pictures are: the courthouse in Downieville (on 49 on the way to Sierra City--mountain biking Mecca), the garden cafe where we ate lunch in SC, Tom reading about the Sierra Valley (largest valley in the Sierras), shots of the aspens along the road.

With the Vajnas in Weinheim

On a very rainy Tuesday morning, Sandor Vajna (sounds like Shawn-door Vie-nah) picked us up from our hotel in Heidelberg in his van. He and Tom met 25 years ago through business connections (the company he worked for was buying software from the company Tom worked for) and the friendship just kept growing. Tom visited him and his wife, Susanne, and their children, Christina, Felicitas, and Michael at their home, once, in Weinheim, Germany, when he was in Europe on business in the early 90's. Eventually, I met them all when the whole family came to visit the US in 1995. They stayed in San Diego for several days and we thoroughly enjoyed showing them around and hanging out with them, a bit. Rachel was home, that summer, from college, and it happened that the Vajnas graciously offered her a place to stay at their home in Weinheim, Germany, the following summer. Sandor even found her a job nearby. It all worked out quite nicely!! They have, since, invited us many times to come for a visit. This was the year we finally managed it!

So, Heidelberg is only about 10-12 miles from Weinheim, and Sandor had planned to show us around that lovely and very historic town before driving us back to his house, but the rain made that option less attractive. There has been settlement in that place for at least 2500 years. There's a very cool castle(15th century, though there were others before) and Heidelberg University (14th century) along the beautiful Neckar River. Rachel and Tom had visited them, before, and Rachel and I had hiked up to the castle grounds on the hill behind the hotel the afternoon, before. So, most of us got the gist, anyway. The castle lights up so pretty in the evening, I think you'll agree.

We drove on to Weinheim, where Sandor got us settled into their beautiful home! Lovely and spacious! The Amazing Susanne came home from work a bit later. She teaches German, English and French. Sandor, quite the overachiever, himself, speaks about 6 languages and, among other endeavors, is a professor of engineering at the university in Magdeburg. Their youngest, the delightful Michael, 22, is a professional musician and lives at home, though he travels from time to time. The Vajnas proceeded to stuff us full of wonderful food, provide us with laundry facilities and haul us around to interesting places nearby. Weinheim, itself, is a perfectly charming town! The Altstadt (Old Town) is full of 600-year-old buildings, old city walls, churches, crooked, cobbled streets, half-timbered houses, outdoor cafes, fascinating history, and dense forests with a castle on top! Picture perfect! We traveled across the Rhein, into the Palatinate region through vineyards to a castle that has been somewhat restored to show how a medieval fortress really looked. Schloss Trifels is from the 11th and 12 centuries (and forward) and it's known that Richard 1 (Lionheart) was imprisoned there for a time in 1193. Fascinating place! And there are countless other castles and palaces we didn't see, of course. So old and so interesting!

We had walks through misty, enchanted forests and trips to the supermarket and local mall! Fabulous home-cooked meals and terrific restaurants! Sandor assisted Dylan and Rachel to set up their next set of travel plans, and, when it was time, they were so helpful to put us all on the right trains/buses (from Mannheim) to our respective airports to meet our respective flights. We all had to say goodbye to each other at nearly the same time! A gut-wrencher! We're so grateful for the Vajna's grand hospitality and hope it's a much shorter interval to our seeing them next time, than there was before this visit!

Traveling Heavy

From Munich, we hauled our considerable tonnage off to Heidelberg!

Let me say, in passing, that we all had packed very responsibly--lightly, even, given our various journeys. Dylan shouldered a mountain pack the size of a St. Bernard , plus another, only somewhat lighter, daypack (say, a Border Collie?), which he carried in front. I would only embarrass myself by calling him "Pack-Man". So, I won't. But, he did look like luggage with legs, walking around the train stations. He was carrying, however, all his needs for five months travel in places as diverse as Finland and Tanzania, cold rain or snow, and tropical heat, dinner out and camping out. He took camera equipment and art supplies. All in all, I think he packed rather light.

Rachel is also traveling long-term, but for only about 3 1/2 months. Her journey carries her through a range of climate zones, as well, and it's not clear how easily she'll be able to access the rest of her stuff once she returns to the States. And she's a girl. So, "Big Green", her large roll-y suitcase, took a bit of muscle to lift into the luggage racks, and "bag o' stones", her so-called carry-on--well, 'nuff said. Tom and I each took a small suitcase and a daypack, plus one large, nearly emptly case, where we carried gifts for the Vajnas and random stuff, like coats. The plan was for us to take any of their surplus, or henceforth unnecessary items back home with us, to lighten their loads for the rest of their travels.

And that's what we did. Dylan got to where he could stuff his daypack into the larger one (so he is down one dog). Rachel swapped one of our smaller cases for Big Green, and replaced Bag o' Stones with a smaller, more streamlined, Stylish Tote o' Stones. This being a zero-sum game, Tom and I had a much heavier load coming back, but we have super-human strength--and also took full advantage of the FREE luggage carts in the Frankfurt Train Station/Airport.

So, it remains to be seen how accurately Dylan and Rachel guessed about their needs in the coming months. We'll be curious...

Austria/Bavaria

Innsbruck! Cool and rainy, for us. Too bad we couldn't really appreciate the setting--green valley surrounded by dramatic Alpine peaks. The Inn River runs through it, an unusual, milky teal color from the glacier melt. The Olympics were held here twice, in '64 and '76, and there's a huge ski jump/observation tower left over that we didn't get over to. We did take a room-sized cable car up to the top of the mountain ridge, where it was cold and foggy--no view, today!. Tom and Rachel rode back down, but Dylan and I scampered down on foot, mostly on steepish, muddy mountain bike runs. Through a bit of old snow, even. Rachel took a run along the river, instead. The big attraction downtown was supposedly the "Golden Roof"--gold-covered copper tiles put there by some bigwig or other a hundreds of years since. Turns out, it's more of a balcony cover. It is gold. And we took a picture. But don't fly over the Atlantic just to see it, let me just say. Ski season must be crazy busy in that town! We didn't see it at its best and would like to go again, sometime.

We hopped another train and rode over the mountains, past so many quaint villages and forests and pasture land. Just over the border into Germany, we got off at a town with the unwieldy name of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Another Winter Olympics site. 1936. Prior to that year, they were two, neighboring towns, but decided to pool their resources and syllables into a better, but harder to pronounce, Olympics venue. It's the German thing to do. There's another ski jump/stadium left, and they are currently building a way bigger jump next to the, now, rather wimpy-looking, first one. We saw it up close because it's on the trail to a river gorge that we wanted to explore called the Partnachklamm. Again, with the gloomy weather, but it didn't matter. We weren't prepared for the dramatic, narrow, deep, rocky slice-into-the-mountain made by the river, Partnach. Wow! There's a path alongside, partly a tunnel, that follows the fast-running water as it rushes over the rocks and through the slot canyon. Loud and wet and amazing! Little rivulets also fall from high above along the way. It's possible to see the forest way up above us from below, to which Dylan, Rachel, and I eventually hiked, so that we could look down on the river from bridges about 80 meters above the water. So beautiful! There was a lovely lodge up there, as well. We all loved GP (as everyone calls it, for obvious reasons) and would love to go back, sometime! There's lots more to explore!

A word about the Bavarian aesthetic. There really ARE boxes in the windows, overflowing with flowers! So pretty! But, the thing I can't quite understand,is the apparent compulsive urge to paint pictures on every available surface of all the buildings, houses included. Artists must have a very sweet deal in Bavaria. Most of the architectural detail is just painted on, instead of built. And very elaborate detail, it often is! And then, there are angels, saints, scenes from history, folktales and legends, or Biblical stories. Fancy lettering on swirling banners! Sometimes, not. Occasionally it's just plain trim around the windows and doors--painted on, complete with shadows, but painted. Not built on. Curious custom. Not my favorite look, but interesting.

I

More From Dylan...

...But it will be the last we hear, for awhile, sounds like.

made it one more time into the internet cafe, we decided to head out again since we had a break for a few hours, heading out into the town is an experience in itself, as we have spent most of our time in this little compound type thing, but when we go out, sometimes guided and sometimes not, you really feel as though you are in the middle of africa and its a bit of sensory overload, but very cool... I am learning yet another language, maasai, and it's pretty interesting, the tribal culture is so, well, tribal...cows are currency and women can be bought and sold using them, no joke... tomorrow we go on a canoe safari in arusha national park outside the city and friday we head to maasai camp WAY out there and start our survey work and maasai tribal life...apparently it's in an "elephant corridor", unprotected land in between national parks, where the animals, all kinds but especially elephants I guess, travel back and forth and thats where the camps, are to keep the in between areas protected, too...gonna be cool, the group is solid, basically 18-23 year old british kids plus a few other randoms... so far so good, this will surely be the last update for a month but expect another one in november... take care - love, dylan

Arusha, which is the main town nearest where Dylan is working, is a major base for safaris to the Serengeti and elsewhere. It's also the regional capital, located near the Kenyan border, and about half way between Lake Victoria and the Indian Ocean. The International Conference Centre, there, is the political meeting place of East Africa and was the site of the recent Rwandan tribunals. Arusha is situated at the base of Mt. Meru, a semi-active volcano, and about 30 miles from Mt. Kilamanjaro, which Dylan hopes to climb in December. There are several national parks, nearby. Arusha, Serengeti, Kilamanjaro, Manyara, and Tarangire. Here is a site with some pictures of the area. http://www.overlandafrica.com/overlanding-destinations/tanzania/gallery_parks_sml.asp
Here's a map of the parks: http://www.tanzaniaparks.com/

It's quite an interesting area and so fun to think of Dylan in the middle of it. More as it comes in...
--Sandy

Other Observations

Wa-a-ah! I want trains like those over there! So fast and comfortable! Easy, convenient! They connect with the airports, subways and buses! The stations are full of useful stuff, like information and bread! Add bikes or scooters, and the car stays at home! While we were struggling home for 3 hours in our own car after arriving, exhausted, at SFO, a nice train to SAC would have been SUCH a help! But it's almost a cliche to praise the train system in Europe. What to do?

Bedding! Always the same! Once again, not news to other travelers, but each individual, even on a bed for two, has a pillow and a comforter, folded neatly in thirds, laid out. Simple, comfortable.

I didn't keep track, but I encountered quite a few different flushing mechanisms. Not one lever, though. I got the gist after examining the first toilet I needed for about 20 seconds before I realized that I had to push the big, flat, unmarked panel on the wall (looked like just a pipe cover or trash receptacle). After that, I pushed many shapes and kinds of panels, and buttons on tanks, walls and floors--it became quite a curiosity. We haven't been nearly as creative or interesting when it comes to commode flushing.

Cemeteries are interesting everywhere, but these are especially curious to us for a couple of reasons. First of all, in the village where our friends, the Vajnas live, a person's plot keeps its place for only 20 years. Then, it's dug up, the contents cremated, and stored elsewhere, and someone else is buried in that spot. For another thing, the plots are meticulously planted and maintained by the family like a little garden. So, the graveyard is a beautiful patchwork of tiny landscapes, some with candles or lanterns. We were there in as it was getting dark, so the pictures are not so easy to see.

We saw, usually from the train, so many charming towns and villages, nestled into green valleys. The houses are mostly white; the roofs mostly terra cotta colored and pitched at a steeper angle than most homes here. So there's a lovely uniformity, exotic to me, viewing from a distance. Steeples or towers poke up above most little towns. Castles, or the ruins of them, are perched on the surrounding hilltops. Usually a nice river flowing by. Just every day scenery, there.

That's all for the moment.
--Sandy

Food!

In a cuisine where a vegetarian can feel a little lonely, I found several spots amongst the wursts and wienerschnitzel.

I'd heard that German food is a tad on the heavy side. Confirmed. Heavy on the meat and potatoes, anyway. But heavy (as in having plenty) in taste, too! Who knew there were infinite ways to stuff a sausage casing ? All shades, including truly black (a favorite of our friend, Susanne), and truly white (Rachel and Tom, who'd tried it on previous trips, shared the "avoid-at-all-costs" verdict). Tom and Dylan once ordered a meal-for-two (translation: "Mountain o' Mystery Meat") and we couldn't even identify all the different kinds of animal represented. 'Possum, maybe, or bat (could have used a dictionary). All tasty, but more than most humans should consume in one sitting (or whole week). However, we also had lots of wonderful soups (really good!) and SALADS, even. Spaetzle (German noodles, sort of) with cheese tastes just like, uh, macaroni and cheese, but better!

It turns out, eating in Germany is a full-time job. People linger over meals. No waiter in a restaurant will come to hand you a check, after a meal. You can (and should) sit there all day or night, digesting and chatting, digesting and drinking, digesting and digesting. At the drop of a Bavarian Trenker, people sit down for a coffee and kuchen. Breakfast is a table full of cold cuts, sausages, cheeses, breads, muesli, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, yogurt, eggs, juices, nutella. Well, not every day, probably, but I don't have actual evidence of that. Yes, I saw boxes of the German equivalent of Cocoa Puffs, but didn't seen anyone actually eat any. Our hosts, Susanne and Sandor, and all of their three, adult children, are a thin as supermodels! The only reason I can figure that the German-speaking world isn't the fattest culture on the planet, is that they walk and bike everywhere. They have to. It must be required for citizenship. All that beer and wine. All that bread...

Oh, the bread! Beautiful to look at, there's an endless array! All sizes, shapes, plain or covered with pumpkin or poppy seeds, or cheese. I'm sure we saw several bakeries on every block! And more in each train/subway station, no matter how small. There are also lovely cakes and pastries, but the breads steal the show! How did I not get a good picture of the breads? It would seem to be statistically impossible to take 10 shots from anywhere in Germany (I took 600!) and not get a mountain of bread in the picture, somehow! One, amazing subset of the bread category...

Pretzels! They’re called “Brezen” (the “z” is pronounced like a “ts”), and they can be as big as a catcher’s mitt! But way tastier! If you’ve had a soft pretzel here, in the US, you still have no idea how lovely these are. All brown and fat and shiny on the outside and so soft and white on the inside! And they also come in different forms, like round or long dinner rolls. Rachel told me about them after her summer in Germany 11 years ago, and I’ve been waiting ever since to check them out. Worth the wait! Especially smothered with lots of melted cheese, but the pumpkin seeds add a nice crunch!

Rachel and I are cheeseheads. While Tom and Dylan take a class or two, we major in cheese. And Germany has wonderful cheeses! I did get a good shot of some cheese! So, while everyone else is eating schnitzel and bratwurst, there was always some lovely cheese dish to save the day!

Tom and the kids could tell you more about how much they enjoyed the wine and the beer. I'm too inexperienced to report. I can say, however, that it all must have been very, very good, judging by the amounts consumed! A well-earned reputation for excellent alcoholic beverages, apparently!

Tom and I also indulged our ice cream habit. Especially in Munich! The ice cream, there (“eis”), is really what we call gelato. Intensely-flavored! One day, whilst walking through the city, we bought ice cream cones for ourselves three times--twice in one hour! And interesting flavors! One I chose was "chocolate chili". It was exactly as labeled--spicy chocolate! Yummy!

I could go on and on (I think I already did!). On the whole, the only reason we didn't all gain several kilos, was that we did as they do--we walked it all off! And it took a LOT of walking, I must say!

--Sandy

Oktoberfest!

Sometimes, I guess, a country just has to let it all hang out. Germany, a comparitively orderly, sensible sort of a culture, lets off some serious steam in Munich, once a year! We didn't see any other signs of celebration (little Oktoberfests) in other towns (like the one we had in La Mesa, for example). Just Munich.

Oktoberfest is CRAZY big! Huge grounds (the “Wies’n”)! It’s an open area in the middle of Munich that accommodates a fun zone the size of Delaware (well, almost). Rollercoasters, ferris wheels, other rides that throw humans around like so many socks in a dryer! CRAMMED with people—at least 1/3 of whom are wearing traditional Bavarian dirndl dresses or lederhosen outfits—really! Little kids to old people! Food everywhere! Beer, even more places than food! Humungous barns (“tents”), each sponsored by a brewery (we were inside the Paulaner tent), stuffed with thousands of singing, drinking, dancing party heads, giant band high in the center, leading the festivities, nonstop! Everybody seems to know all the words to all the songs, no matter what language (the first song we heard was “YMCA”). Total sensory overload, whether one is inside or outside the barns! We were there on a weekend (especially wild) and the middle weekend, at that (out of 16 days—Sept.22 through Oct.7), when, apparently, about half of Italy comes to the party.

We loved Munich! First of all, Oktoberfest happens all over the city. Big, beautiful squares and miles of pedestrian-only streets and malls, all with magnificent old buildings and outdoor restaurants (“cafes”, but huge!) and all teeming with humanity (again, with the dirndls and lederhosen)! Street musicians that knock your socks off, plus other informal performers (lots of those perfectly still statue-type people—all gold or all silver). And oompah bands, one of which marched around playing on kazoos, some the size and shape of tubas and other horns! There’s a big river (Iser) running through it all (that's me, helpfully pointing to it), and, along side, the biggest city park in Europe—the “Englische Garten”, of all things. Whilst strolling through the trees in relative bucolic peace, one can come upon, without warning, another few thousand people in a beer garden, singing at the top of their lungs to a big band, a jazz group grooving away under a tree, or just a naked guy or two, basking along the creek, sunny side up, so to speak. In just a couple of days, there’s no way to see it all (Munich, that is)!

To be continued...

News from Dylan and Rachel!

Just a quickie! Yesterday, we received an email from Rachel, indicating that she'd gotten in to Florence on Saturday, and was getting ready to move on to the town where her ceramics course will take place, starting Sunday.

Hey guys, just wanted you to know i made it safe and sound to Florence, here. Staying in cute little place right on the Arno (which smells and is kind of gross!). Great looking town but i am zonked and head to certaldo tomorrow noonish so will have to try to see the sights after the pottery. Hope your long travel days went ok. i miss you already. so much fun! will write more when i can...

This morning, we got an email from Dylan about his arrival and first impressions in Tanzania...

Hello!, Supai! Keya Toi! I am in Tanzania, at an internet cafe in Arusha currently, getting these emails out of the way so I can go to the market and pick up a few supplies I might need for the upcoming months... I made it here no sweat..well, there was perspiration involved, but it went mostly smooth, I spent 10 or so hours on various buses traversing the cities and countryside before I finally found the airport, but I found it...classic bus scenes, too, 50 people on a bus made for 30 and me with my luggage, only white dude for miles... very fun...I met my group and began my masaii language lessons this morning...everyone is cool and it seems we'll have a good time...its going to be a stretch though, no frills down here...I get 10 liters of water a week, period, do do with what I want, bathe, wash clothes, etc...so that means no showers or anything, now power, running water, or anything starting thursday... this is truly an african country as you might imagine, women in flowing robes balancing huge baskets on their heads, incerdibly chaotic city scenes with cars, carts, cows, and people going in all directions...its wild... the weather is near perfect and quite a nice change...I have a maasai warrior friend who I have been chatting with the whole time, he personally has encountered and killed 2 lions in self defense with only a shield and spear... he drinks blood and speaks english so we're cool... the work is going to be cool, we get science lessons tomorrow as well, going to be an experience... probably wont write for a month but I may get a cell chip if I can find one...they do work here... the maasai have robes, jewelry, shoes made from tires, and cell phone necklaces, pretty cool... I am out, just wanted to let you know I made it safe... talk soon -

Obviously, we're so glad to have the news, even though it boggles the mind, a bit, since we were so recently all together, and I'm still unpacking (well, I am a slow unpacker).

More, later...
--Sandy

Trains, Planes and Automobiles! (groan)

We're back! Obviously, I didn't blog a word during the whole trip (except during our layover in Chicago on day one). And won't write too much, right now, since I've got some catching up to do around the homestead, first. But we made it home, using all of the methods of transportation in the title (I know it's corny, but I couldn't resist). A few quick impressions:
Great time with our kids!
Wonderful visit with the Vajnas!
We love trains!
Cheese!
Charming villages nestled in green valleys!
Steep red-tiled roofs on white houses
Bavarians paint pictures on every single blank wall!
More cheese!
Amazing bread!
Beer!
Mind-boggling sausage variety!
Old (!) churches, castles
Walking through enchanting forests!
Flower boxes
Cobblestones, narrow streets
Who knew there were so many different toilet-flushing mechanisms?
Gigantic Oktoberfest beer tent!
Rachel's red dirndl, Dylan's green Bavarian-guy hat
And more cheese!
Deep river gorge hike
HUGE slugs!
Clouds, light rain
Excellent soups!
Outdoor cafes, markets
Biggest fun zone in the cosmos!
Different (and cozy) sort of bedding
More cheese and bread
Lots of laughing

I could go on and on, of course. I'll expand on some things, later. At the beginning of the trip, we avoided any significant jet lag by just staying up until bedtime the first day in Germany. I don't sleep on planes (Tom's out before lift-off), but the excitement of being in a new place and reconnecting with the kids carried us through the extra fourteen hours, or so. Next day, no problem (though I'm pretty sure I couldn't have responsibly operated heavy machinery, say). On the way home, we were less rested, having stayed up late helping Dylan and Rachel reorganize for the next stages in their journeys. I got an hour or two. Then, it was up at 5:30 in Weinheim, to be driven (by the Amazing Vajnas) to the train and bus (us and kids, respectively). We traveled with the sun, arriving in San Francisco around 5:30pm, same day (one near-glitch--we almost missed our connection in Dallas, needing to clear immigration and customs in a too-short lay over. The gate was closed, but they saw us wandering around and reopened). So, having been awake for, oh, 21 hours, or so, we DID have to operate heavy machinery and drive home another 3 hours-worth. I was thrashed and had caught a nasty cold, but Tom thought he could manage. And he did--for two hours. After that, it was touch-and-go. About 45 minutes from home, I took over and, clenching my teeth, blinking a lot and shaking my head to stay conscious, we made it home a bit before 10pm. Alive. A good night's sleep, and we're good, today. But no driving for us.

Rachel and Dylan should both be at their destinations, by now. Rachel begins her ceramics study in Tuscany today; Dylan, his orientation with Greenforce in Tanzania. We'll see them, next, at Christmas. In the meantime, communication, especially with Dylan, will probably be sporadic. But we're so grateful for the amazing two weeks we just spent with them. Such fabulous human beings! Tomorrow, we'll get back to work, but I'll fill out a bit of trip-detail in the next entry or two. We're glad to be home, and looking forward to a beautiful autumn up here. It's already a crispy 38, at night, warming up to mid-sixties, today. Perfect.

--Sandy