Sleep # 16
Just a glimpse of Venice in the rain.
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Our Journey in Thirty-Two Sleeps: Part II
16 Oct 2011 5 Comments
in Uncategorized, USA: Travelling Outside California
Sleep 4 and 5:
Today the Saratoga and North Creek Railway provided us with train 821 which took us into the Adirondacks, along the Hudson River to view the beautiful changing
colors of the foliage, as well as being able to see the towns of Hadley, Luzerne, 1000 acres, Thurman, The Glen, Riparius and a stop to eat and visit in North Creek. We spent our day enthralled with the sights on the trip traveling to North Creek as well as the trip back. How was the weather? It rained on and off, and some of the rain pounded, but did it dampen our spirits and the things we saw? See for yourself some of the treasures of the day. Love, hugs and thanks to our dear lovely, lifelong friends, generous, caring E & D for a our wonderful sleeps in your company. You showed us a little part of Heaven!
Sleep 6:
Skip’s first home in Albany, New York, his school, Public School #1, and his second home on Glendale Avenue.
2
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Our Journey of Thirty-Two Sleeps: Part One
16 Oct 2011 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized, USA: Travelling Outside California
Sleep one 
After having breakfast in Los Angeles in the morning and having dinner at Half Moon diner upstate New York in the evening is not an easy task. There was a lot of work in the traveling mode to achieve our breakfast and dinner with a bunch of little snacks in between. We are sleeping in Bolton Landing, (established in (1799) perched atop Lake George in a mountain home which is more unique than most of the houses we passed on our ride in. In front of this mountain home fly two flags, the American flag and the Marine Corps flag. We were told, “Once a Marine, always as Marine.” 
Sleep was an important rejuvenating necessity and was provided by a private room with luxurious sheets and down comforters. Tired is an understatement. Once rested you are ready to conquer the world once again. We woke to breakfast service in the main dining room with gigantic windows showing off the land leading to Lake George. The wind would rise and fall and with each rise it would blow a rainstorm of leaves falling to the ground below forming a carpet of color beneath the tree. The sight is awe-inspiring and humbling in it’s showing of nature working through the windows. Watching these nature dances through the windows gives you the notion that of course there is a higher power, in fact, but if not a higher power or order, then, what? Next telling mountain event was the delivery of heating oil. They filled the tank making the house ready for winter heating. It was an interesting delivery because we just flip the button and gas comes from somewhere and we have heat. Sleep 2 This morning was spent enjoying the environs of our hosts E & D’s beautiful mountain home in Bolton Landing in the foothills of the Adirondacks. All the while, I keep a watchful eye for humping deer. This is the mating season and the deer love to hump in this spot. They will carry their offspring all winter and then, in the spring they come to this spot as a family. I was told to marvel at the deer as an animal extraordinaire. Why? Think about the phenomenon of an animal that lives and thrives in a habitat that gives them twenty below and over 100 degrees and yet they adapt. Isn’t nature supreme? 
At noon, we picked up a picnic lunch before our boat ride in and around the 35-mile long Lake George finding ourselves guests of P & D at their compound consisting of three small islands connected by Gothic looking bridges. It was thrilling to be escorted and to visit this lovely spot in the middle of the lake. If you are a blood relative you were welcome to build a home and live on the islands, but now that most of the building is done, you have to buy what is there now from a relative. The summer finds many of the Sir clan living and visiting this lovely idyllic paradise at the water’s edge. During the winter months you have only P & D living year round. I asked P how they get to the mainland when the lake is frozen solid and she said they have a Norwegian Sleigh, they have a canoe they use and paddle it along the ice to get over the solid lake; they skate and have their private secrets on getting to and getting what they need during the months of living on the frozen winter water. She said that they close off a good part of the house and live in a small portion of it during the freeze. As we boated our way to the mainland, I turned and saw the beautiful trio of islands and bridges receding and realized that we were very privileged guests and I thank P & D for their generous hospitality, the generous gift of imparting their knowledge and sharing their fortunate life with us for the afternoon. Thank you P & D. 
Sleep 3 Today we rode an amphibian (Hydra-Terra vehicle) tour bus/boat to experience and delight ourselves with the sights of New York’s capital city of Albany. Not only is it New York’s capital city but also, it is the city of Skip’s birth. Even though Skip is a historic sight himself, we took the tour with experienced guides to enlighten us about the other historic sites of this 402-year-old city. We passed by the Albany City Hall, the Ten Broeck Mansion, Washington Park, New York State Museum, the Palace, which was the flagship theater of RKO, many years ago and the D & H (Delaware and Hudson) railroad building. 
After an hour ride through Albany a beautiful city we rolled and splashed into the Hudson River. There are many interesting sights along the river and one that put some puzzle pieces together for me was the replica of Henry Hudson’s ship of discovery, The Half Moon. Remember I mentioned we had dinner at the Half Moon Diner. Now I fully understand the origin of this diner’s name.
Tell Me This is Not the Dreaded “It” Disease: Brain Freeze on Downers. Tell Me
01 Oct 2011 3 Comments
in Letters, Reflections, Trials and Tribulations, Uncategorized
When I realized that there were four jars of Best Foods Real Mayonnaise in my cupboard, I thought to myself, well this is how IT starts. By IT, I mean the gentle demise of your brain and all of the functions it controls, literally Brain Freeze on Downers. You see, I still cannot mention the name of the disease that does this to basically elderly people because I am terrified. I’ll bet you thought this is a commercial for Best Foods Real mayonnaise; well it is not. It is a discussion on a disease I must continue to call IT. My doctors would like to know if I would like to be tested to see if I have the marker for IT. Since my mother and father both had IT, I don’t need a damn test to tell me I will get IT, someday. In the meantime, the health care specialists say, let us explore some ways to best help older adults lead happier, healthier lives. I say this a crock for sure, because as I see it, it is more like let us see how little we can spend on health care for the aging and how to best use them as guinea pigs for new testing to gather results on the future of aging.
The UCLA Division of Geriatrics sends out a newsletter titled: Healthy/Years stating they are helping older adults lead happier, healthier lives. I say this is nonsense because everything I read in their letter and experiences as well about seniors leads to a brick wall.
This newsletter and the articles prepare you to fear for your life and the shoddy scary treatment yet to come. First of all, it states that 45% of all new breast cancer diagnoses is in women over the age of 65. Also stated that the risk of breast cancer does not start to decline until after the age of 85. Yet, they are promoting less mammograms for older women.
Healthy /Years, says what we all know that, the cure rate is early detection and the best way to do that is to have regular mammograms. Yes, I agree, but they have suggested that providing mammograms for women over the age of 70 is something of a debate among the experts. They also state that mammography for older women depends on life expectancy and whether you would undergo treatment if a tumor were found. Really? This is disgusting. The UCLA Division of Geriatrics is cutting you off so to speak at 70 and if you want to live longer, you should make that known. How does anyone predict true life expectancy? Maybe a mother, father, or grandparents died younger, but the way modern medicine is contributing to longevity, I expect to be way over 100, don’t you? So, if I know I have the marker for the dreaded brain freeze on downers (IT), then I should not get mammograms, or should I or should I not try to increase my life expectancy with or without the disease? I really do not like to think of these things, but we cannot sit with blinders on our eyes as well as our conscience.
The article in the UCLA Healthy/ Years, also states that in fact being older is actually beneficial when it comes to mammography because they are more sensitive as women get older, because their breast tissue becomes less glandular and more fatty, which makes it easier to detect cancer. Plus it takes less radiation to get excellent quality mammograms in older women, and I know all mammography has not been adjusted to this stated fact. So now that in older women it takes less radiation, is easier to detect, and is important in ladies until they are 85, you, the medical profession has suggested that we actually stop giving mammograms to women over the age of 70 because they might not live very much longer and may not want to receive the cure opportunities. I say, what a crock.
UCLA Healthy/Years further states in another article titled: Vaccination is Crucial to Ensure a Healthy Winter for seniors. It is stated that in December 2009 the FDA licensed a high-dose influenza vaccine Fluzone High-Dose, which has four times the amount of each of the three influenza antigens that standard vaccine contains for seniors because producing an antibody response has shown to be diminished in older adults. Nothing was said about receiving four times the amount of preservatives and other particles in this vaccine. Now, seniors it is time to step up to the plate and become a human guinea pig and receive four times the amount of influenza. Gosh almighty, will it stop? No it will not, and I have it on good authority that it will not stop for a long, long time or even ever. Where money and expenditures are in the equation, you will get seniors chopped off first and foremost because as stated above, life expectancy. It does not take into consideration the time, money and service you have put into the system. I have always known this fact and here it is quite evident here. It is not what you have done for me in the past; it is what you can do for the future and us now.
#11 Barcelona, the capital city of Catalonia: Part I
27 Jul 2011 Leave a comment
Barcelona is a huge architecturally outstanding and marvelously dazzling city. It is richly complicated and there is so much to report. I have to be honest; I have hidden from writing this Blog of Barcelona because of the city’s richness and my fear of not reporting to you its real exquisiteness and splendor.
The fact that there are so many tourists was not a surprise because they have a magnificent harbor that alone brings in millions of people per year on ships that dock, two and three times a day. Cruisers begin in Barcelona, or end here or have a stop on their cruise itineraries. If the tourist industry in this lovely city should slow down, I do believe the city would crack and dry up. Surely the entrepreneurs would not be able to swindle as much. Locals would tear them from limb to limb. I say this because nearly every dining bill had to be corrected, as much as 5 Euros each time. I bought four pairs of earrings and received only three in the bag. I blame myself for not checking. I do not wish to sound too critical here so I will say that this could all have been an individual coincidence.
Barcelona is a city with many monuments and many tourist sights. They are proud to show you the buildings for the 1992 Summer Olympics.
Barcelona is a city of dense apartment buildings. Everywhere they can build an apartment building they are and they did. Many have balconies with cascading plants creating lovely street views.
This is the city of the kiss. Not just a little peck, or the obligatory kiss on one cheek and then the other, I mean the mad passionate embrace kind of kiss. You see many couples on the streets, in stores, having a drink or a bite to eat and then as if by magic, they land in an impromptu embrace.
Barcelona is the city of bags. Everyone who is walking whether in the tourist sections or the local sections is carrying a bag, or bags. Some bags contain elegant items bought in the Placas; I can tell by the names imprinted on the front, sides and back of the bags, some contain necessities or curios of one nature or another, and many, many bags are full of groceries. This is bag city.
This is the city of Tapas. I finally put the Tapa thing together. We walked all day today and went in and out of many Tapas bars. To me, Tapas are little delicacies that are more colorful and more beautiful than pastries lining the bar; people take their little plates and pick and choose, as they like. I tried to pick several things, but each Tapa had a number of things piled upon it I found not appetizing to me. Sorry folks, I love food, so I am sure I will come round, but I will need a Tapas Tutor when I come back.
Barcelona is a city of Taxi’s. Our hotel was located so far out from wherever you want to go; it is nearly in another country. Due to our distant hotel locations from this tour company, we will not use them again. One day after returning home we canceled our trip to Croatia with them. We will have to find another way to see that part of the world. Now back to Taxi drivers becoming your momentary best friend. Some of your momentary best friends drive around a bit, to up the price I noticed and each one comes and goes a different way to the hotel. Round about rides jack up prices. We could have had a very nice city center hotel for the Euros we spent on taxis each day. Now let us just leave it at that
Barcelona is a city of art. You have the beautiful architecture of Antoni Gaudi, which I will share in Part 2. Let us remember that Pablo Picasso lived in Barcelona for many years and the Picasso Museum is a wonder, full of paintings, drawings and sculptures housed in five buildings. It takes all day to see just some of it. Let us remember Joan Miro who was born in Catalonia and has many paintings and sculptures in Barcelona. I re-learned that he is a surrealist painter and realized I like surrealism, always have. There is Dali to explore as well and many, many more artists who have added their gifts and capabilities to Barcelona’s abundance. My goodness, I think perhaps art vitamins must have been in the water supply of Barcelona in the late 1800’s and 1900’s. Maybe those art vitamins are still there, but for the tourist their water also carries possibilities of intestinal infections, which can be quite daunting. Stick to the bottled water all the way.
#10 Granada and The Alhambra
21 Jul 2011 2 Comments
in International Travels, Uncategorized
Granada and The Alhambra
View of Granada from The Alhambra
Granada is a lovely city. I thought it would be a stopping point to see the Alhambra. It was much more to me. It is built on three hills; I assume the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range. It is quite hot in the town, but you can still see remnants of snow on the mountaintops. My personal experience in Granada was very comfortable, probably the most comfortable I have been thus far. There is a wholesome quality and an honest representation of life happening here. It was a Sunday when we had our free time, so most everything was closed. Imagine walking to nowhere; imagine just being in a place because you are there, nothing snapping at your heels. It was nice. They had dinner for us a hotel. Let me just say a word about a hotel, that gives free Wi-Fi and allows you to use your calling card purchased on the streets of Spain giving you 300 minutes for six Euros and a lovely dinner. This hotel also had a beautiful pool area, which became an oasis in the heat and a meeting place for sharing the day’s events with other travelers.. This kind of guest relations is a 10 star for me. Enough already, I just wanted you to know I liked Granada and the guest relations at our hotel very much.
Another view of Granada with the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background
Granada was real, authentic, a place you wanted to be.
The Alhambra:
Garden and view of water jets forming arches
When you visit Spain, of course, you must put on your itinerary, The Alhambra. The Alhambra is a 13th Century Palace for the Sultan and his Sultana. The viewpoint of all of Granada and the mountains makes this setting a privileged point of view. First, we were taken into the gardens in which you see many beautiful varieties of plants and arches formed by using plants, plus a special row of water jets that form graceful arches. Another pathway formed arches using the oleander plant, one that I do not admire, but have a new and elevated opinion of its uses.
After viewing the gardens one is treated to the inside of the palace. The Arabian architecture uses the concept of plain and simple on the outside with all of the beauty on the inside. True to form with the beautiful compartments of the Alhambra. The sultans meeting room was most impressive and you had the opportunity of picturing the Sultan sitting at the back of the room in an alcove, meeting with guests and conducting his business. The most striking room for me was the room of the Sultana. It is beautiful. When I walked to the back, I saw an area of colored lighting. How does this happen? Manuel told me that the ceiling of that room was made of stained glass. How truly unique to have stained glass on the ceiling to make mystical and magical forms of light on various spots and at various times of days they would change size, shape and locations.
See the magical colors on the left?
A photo is provided here of the lights that intrigued me. I would have enjoyed staying the day and watching how the sun played its part in this moving painting as time passed. Alas, a guided tour waits for no one.
We were told that sometimes there were up to a thousand workers each working day on the Alhambra buildings and gardens for nearly one hundred years. They are renovating it now as I write, and will be renovating for years to come. Those who have conceived, worked on and continued to work on the Alhambra I want to thank them for their gift, the symbolic power, the spell they cast and the charm they sought as it continues and will continue for as long as the world turns.
# 1 Traveling is a Boo Boo, a Bam Bam and a Blast.
12 Jul 2011 Leave a comment
You have all had your horror travel stories. I know you don’t want to hear ours so skip this paragraph and pick it up later, or perhaps just look at he photos. There are six of us in the travel party and we all arrived at the airport within minutes of each other. I don’t attribute our mishaps to anything other than overworked and some incompetence. We waited in the line to check into Iberian Airlines for our flight to Madrid and on to Lisbon. One by one we were sent over to British Airways to have our flights rebooked because we would not have been able to arrive in Madrid in time for our connecting flights to Lisbon. I can hear you, ok, ok, I know never have a connecting flight if possible and that is true, but sometimes not possible from your location. We were all rebooked onto a BA flight connecting now in London to a flight for Lisbon, well, not exactly, Karen and Rachel’s boarding passes once in London say Madrid. No one noticed this until we got to London. We all accompanied Karen to rebook her on our flight to Lisbon. Whew. Oh, but what about the car that will be picking us up on Lisbon. He needs to be contacted for the later arrival. Email the company. Try this email feat and calls to the company on a weekend in an airport full of forlorn looking people. We accomplished rerouting our pick up time. That’s done, but now we realized that Karen and Rachel’s luggage is tagged and will be sent to Madrid and they will be in Lisbon. Another frantic dash was made to correct this issue. We have been in lovely, ever changing Lisbon for two days and the luggage is still missing.
A Gift Day in Lisbon
Today was a gift of the entire day to play in Lisbon. We planned to arrive a day early to acclimate ourselves to the new time zone. The individuals with missing luggage are off to find some apparel and Andy, Manuel, Skip and I head out on foot. We walked for several hours and decided to follow my suggestion and board a bus heading for anywhere. We got on the bus a few blocks before the end. We rode free for the few blocks and then paid our fare for an unexpected sensational ride through Lisbon. I suggest for you the next time you find yourself in a new city to take a long bus ride as a way to connect with the locals; loads of people were coming and going on their everyday rounds. We rode all the way through the tourist sections, the shopping sections, the parks, amusement area, the green belts, and through the residential sections of all categories, some I called “Home Sweet Homes,” which clearly were not! The bus driver recognized us for the joy-riding tourists we are and realized we could not possibly navigate the end of the bus line, so he told us to stay on as he wound down and back towards reality. Each one of us only paid 1.5 Euros for that 1 ½ hour ride. Very economical wouldn’t you say? We exited the bus finally in a lovely area with restaurants and a flea market, my favorite things to enjoy anywhere, anytime.
Photos I promised. These are some of our first impressions of Lisbon.
SEE THIS MOVIE
06 Jun 2011 Leave a comment
See this movie, The First Grader. It is just simply wonderful. The First Grader is based on a true story and is set in a remote primary school in Kenya. A free education is promised to everyone by the new Kenyan government. The story revolves around the the newest applicant which causes quite a stir. Take some time and go to the movies!!
Spinola Bay, St Julians, Malta
03 Apr 2011 3 Comments
Spinola Bay, Malta is part of St. Julian’s and is a lovely spot for a walk down by the water’s edge. There are some interesting apartment-style developments, as well as some traditional Maltese houses along its quayside. What I found in this bay as a most special treasure are the traditional boats of the Maltese fishermen with exquisite bright colors and beautiful craftsmanship. I think often about the images I photographed that day on the bay. I want you to enjoy some of the photos because they glow in my brain and I keep thinking how lucky I was to spend an afternoon at Spinola Bay on a bright, sunny winter’s day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yVp3Yc5IW0&feature=watch_response
Highlights of Malta
03 Mar 2011 3 Comments
MALTA
A view from the top of Valletta, Malta
Renee, Stan, Skip and I arrived in Malta several hours before the ferry from Libya.To date many thousands of people have come through Malta fleeing Libya. It is amazing that we are in the hub of the world right now. All the world’s attention is on Malta and we are here. I will not dwell on the problem, because the people entering Malta for relocation are being cared for and treated with great expertise and compassion. My congratulations to Malta! The Maltese speak English as their second language. It is compulsory during their school years. They speak French, German and Italian as well. There is a gentility here that is from the British influence. The food has been the best! The other day for lunch a chicken breast was served and I made a big deal about ordering an extra dish of rabbit. The people in the restaurant were so happy we wanted to try it, they added it to our lunch on the house. You know the tip at the end was rather large. Rabbit is good, really good, just like a skinny no fat chicken. Does it taste like chicken? I think so, but the sauce was so outstanding I forgot to rate the rabbit. Everyone liked it. I wanted to try the horse meat dish, but time road away. Anyone know where I can get horse meat in Los Angeles?
Our delicious rabbit dish!
We spent the day walking lovely Valletta, a gorgeous city surrounded by beautiful harbors and side streets that slope down to the water.
Street sloping to the water in Valletta, Malta
We experienced St. John’s Co-Cathedral, a dazzling, dizzying explosion of carved stone walls and arches gilded with gold. This magnificent beauty was not expected because the outside of the cathedral does not give any indication to the breathtaking experience on the inside. A special gift of our visit to St. John’s Cathedral was the Caravaggio Painting of the beheading of St. John, the Baptist.
Inside view of St. John's Co-Cathedral
We walked to the top of Valletta and saw this view.
Next we drove to the town of Mosta and another church called Santa Marija and yet another miracle. During World War II a bomb went through the dome of this beautiful domed church. The miracle is that while three hundred parishioners were giving thanks to God when the bomb came through the dome and rolled around on the floor resting on the side of the wall, it did not explode. The miracle is that not one person was injured that day, miraculous.
I have to tell you that on this trip, Skip and I have seen the insides and heard the miracles performed inside the walls of seventeen churches and we may be off by a few more. Usually you hear, oh no not another church; is that all they have to show us is the church? No, but each church holds a special mystery a special miracle, a special message, and no two are alike. They have some architectural similarities, but that is where it ends. A number of churches have inlaid marble inscribed tombstones of famous Grand Master’s, knights, priests and well established families. The floors are so beautiful and in some cases they have carpeted a walk way for the churches most visited by tourists to insure everlasting enjoyment by all who want to come and see these works of art ages and ages from now.
17th church in the beautiful honey colored town of Mdina
At the 17th church in the beautiful honey colored town of Mdina, I said, “No, I just can’t go in.” I asked our guide if this church had any special miracles attached to it and she said, “ No, but it is raining and I thought you would like to get in out of the rain.” The church did not look special in any way, except that it is beautiful as churches are to me and it is true, we were out of the rain. So I said to God, “How about stopping the rain until we get out of Mdina.” It stopped raining until we left Mdina and another special story to tell. By the way, Mdina is an awesome looking hill top city called “The Silent City.” Very few people are still living there, so it is inhabited by tourists during the day and is nearly empty at night. I tried to get a T-shirt there for daughter Dina, but sorry, honey, they do not make T-shirts with their city name Mdina on them.
We enjoyed a walk up to Dingli cliffs. The view is lovely and you can see another little uninhabited island in the distance. I know the movie and the myth of the Maltese Falcon, and while I did not see a falconer, we did see a hawk trainer.
Hawk and trainer
Lovely pose
Oops, I think St. Paul’s Church and Grotto in Rabat was very interesting and number 18 as far as churches go. The church is modest in comparison with some of the others, red and gold, but as far as miracles, being the 18th church visitation is the miracle for me. The grotto is very much what I would consider a cave. St. Paul is said to have lived there for three months while he lived in Malta. It was very cold that day, but in the grotto it was a moderate, nearly warm in temperature. We offered a few coins to help with the upkeep of this site.
A lovely little surprise and gem is the Palace of the Grand Master’s in the middle of Valletta. It was once the home of the Grand Master, who was/is the supreme head of the knights. Originally it was St. John. The gems here never quit, but the room that held my attention for a long time and really I did not want to leave was the tapestry chamber. If I say the name Gobelin Tapestries, you may know this famous French company still in existence. Gobelin was commissioned, measurements taken and tapestries made especially for this room. They were donated by Grand Master Perellos in the early 1700’s.
No photos were allowed of the tapestry so I have included a web site.
Corridor of the knights
The Maltese Cross is an eight sided cross and is the symbol of the Knights of Malta.
The Maltese Cross
Each of the eight sides represent one of the nations that were part of the original chapters of the order. The four arms of the cross are supposed to represent the four cardinal virtues: Fortitude, Justice, Temperance and Perseverance.
We LOVE Malta!
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