Santiago Day 5 - Museo Bella Arte and Santa Lucia hill

View down from the top of Santa Lucia hill

If you have been following this blog over the past few days, you will have discovered that few things have gone as we would have anticipated. Add the Museo Bellas Arte to the list. I anticipated a national gallery with a permanent collection of lovely paintings and maybe some sculpture. Instead, we found an unbelievably beautiful shell of a building built in 1910, housing very little. All of the exhibits in this part of the museum are temporary. The main theme of the installations was an examination of the concept of gender identity and how it relates to power and submission. My favourite exhibition was Verónica Büttinghausen: El objeto souvenir de mi cotidiano a series of still lives, any one of which I would have been happy to hang in my own home. 

Down a corridor, we discovered the other part of the museum, known as the Museum of Contemporary art. Another beautiful building, in need of some repair, but housing more permanent exhibits of mostly mid 20th century painting. 

After the museums, we wandered and discovered, not far away, Santa Lucia hill. This is one of 2 hills in Santiago (the other being the one with the funicular). It is the site of a famous battle from 1817. After the steep climb all the way up, one is rewarded with a view of the city and some lovely gardens. While we were up there, they fired a cannon, which surprised not just us, but all of the visitors. 

My time in Santiago is up. I board my plane back home in just a few minutes. It has felt like a visit to Europe, but instead of flying east, I flew south.

Santiago Day 4 Vina del Mar

It was a beautiful, sunny day for a trip to the seaside. Vina del Mar is about 1 1/2 hrs away along a good highway. Knowing that, I really wanted to see the ocean! I know I've seen the Pacific from BC, but this is different, and as my son put it, it's the South Pacific (sort of).

The Museum Fonck owns the only Easter Island statue off Easter Island. It was gifted to Chile in 1951. Originally when we were first discussing a longer trip to Chile, we had planned to take the 6 hr flight to Easter Island. Given that my trip is a whole 5 days, finding this guy was a close as I would get, and I'm ok with that!

We wandered the promenade along the seaside, and stopped for lunch at a cafe. Lots of stray dogs. Unlike the Santiago dogs, these ones don't have collars, and most of them don't have coats either.

Then I got to play in the water! I wasn't about to miss the chance to put my feet in the Pacific in Chile! It was cold but not desperate. The waves were huge and the undertow must have been something else too, but 2 men decided they'd swim anyway, in spite of it being winter. Now I say that, but it must have been 20 degrees.


Our dinner reservation was at a place called Tierra del Fuego. The joke is that after watching an episode of british tv show "Top Gear", I want to drive the road to the real Tierra del Fuego, which happens to be in Argentina, I think. The Top Gear guys had a lot of trouble with the Argentinians, and we had our own challenges at this restaurant too. All week, I have travelled with a spanish phrasebook. It has helped us with menus to no end. Today, by mistake, the book stayed home, so we had to rely on Google Translate to decipher the dinner menu. Not good. PP thought he was ordering paella. Waiter told him no it was soup. OK. He'd have the king crab. I was expecting full crab, legs and all. Not so. PP received a large mound of crab meat. The end. My googling led me to believe I was choosing crab cakes. Sounds safe. Guess what - not crab cakes. When mine arrived, it was a bowl of warm melted cheese. With crab in it. Sort of like cheesy crab fondue, but without the stuff to dip. Tasty, but definitely not what I was expecting. I've never eaten a bowl of cheese before. The capirinhas were the saving grace. While not the national drink of Chile (that's a pesco sour), PP likes capirinhas (from Brazil) much better. It's cachaca, lime, and sugar. Very nice.

The whole point of this particular restaurant was the location. One goes to Vina del Mar for the sunsets, and this place gads a fantastic balcony right on the water. Judge the pictures for yourself. The sunset was spectacular, as was the drive home under a full moon and a sky full of stars.
                                      

Santiago Day 3 Underraga Winery

Today, we decided to let someone else to the driving. We signed up to do a tour of Underraga winery with Turistik, the Chilean bus tour company. It was terrific!

Underraga is located about 40km WSW of Santiago in the Maipo valley, near a community called Mélipilla. The Underraga family bought the land the winery is on in the 1870s and planted the first vines in 1885. Today, the company owns small plots of land in many areas. They are known for experimenting with the effects of different soil compositions on grapes and their resulting wines. 

The Camenera is a uniquely Chilean wine. The vines were originally brought over from Europe in the last century, then lost, as in confused with other vines. There were plagues of pests in Europe that wiped out the Carmenera and it wasn't until the 1990s that DNA tests were done on the vines to rediscover them. So, although the vines have been native to Chile for over 100 years, the Carmenera is still considered a new varietal.

We tasted 4 wines - all winners. And they let us keep our glasses - that never happens in Niagara.

This one was the winner.

This one is like an ice wine - very sweet and syrupy, but better than ice wine, I thought.

Santiago Day 2: avenuturas para las montanas

Cars waiting to be allowed back down at 3pm
Ad for Banff film festival in the background

Santiago doesn't get snow, but its residents love the stuff. We set off to go up into the Andes to see the ski resorts, Faradelle, La Parva, and Valla Lavado. There is only one road to get there and while it was constructed as a 2 lane road, the police make it a one way road. Each day, drivers are allowed up until 3pm, then down after 3pm. The road has 40 switchbacks to get up to the first resort village and having travelled them, I see the value in only allowing traffic one way. I can't imagine trying to get 2 vehicles around those corners at the same time. 

The road up is pretty. A few shacks. Some green. Lots of cacti. Then comes the snow. Just enough to cover the ground. Fortunately, the pavement is dry. I can't imagine trying to do that road

the road up

in snow. Hence the reason for the mandatory (sort of) tire chain rental. Before you get to the switchbacks, 

there's a piece of road lined on one side by a cliff face, and lined on the other by a wall of I'm not sure what. It's a metal wall and it hides little spaces for the people who eke out a living by corralling drivers into renting their tire chains. One can try to just drive past, but when PP and a friend tried to do that on a recent hiking trip, the police turned them around and they had to go back to get the chains. Today, when we approached the police checkpoint, we were waved through. Oh well, better to have been prepared I suppose. 

They're tobogganing with garbage bags.

The traffic up was fine. Once we got up to Faradelle, the road got stupid. People had parked everywhere and anywhere, not leaving much room for the rest of us to get through. We carried on through toward La Parva, and were doing pretty well until the tires caught on some slush and we slid. Should have put on those chains! Short version of long story, we backed partway into a parking spot, but our nose hung out into the road enough to block all the traffic travelling both ways on this tiny road. First PP drove while I tried to push. Then I "drove" (note: car is standard, and I haven't touched a stick shift since 1989) while PP pushed. No luck either time. Finally, a couple of local men decided to solve things and actually lifted the car back onto the road. Once we were safely stuck in traffic going the other way, PP realized the parking brake had been on the whole time (loops) and without that, either one of us could probably have pushed the car out on our own.

Time to go to Valle Lavado. Or not. Remember my telling you about those families who liked to come up into the mountains to play in the snow? They park on either side of the road. Not a lot of room left for tour busses or regular cars after that. At one point, we inched our way around a family in a blue car who had set up a hibachi on the road so they could have lunch.

We never made it to Valla Lavado. The police turned us around promptly at 3pm, whereby we sat in line until the parade started moving back down. This may all sound like a wasted day, but I don't feel it was. I spent the day up in the Andes. I saw snow in July. I witnessed lots of happy people enjoying winter in beautiful scenery. There are worse ways to spend a day.

Santiago Day 1

It's a long way up.

View from the top

I don't know what I was expecting from South America. I knew Santiago, Chile was a big city. It feels european. It has a lot of green spaces, which are green even though it is the dead of winter (apparently in summer, they're brown because it's so hot and dry). The weather is funny. Dress in spring jacket, gloves, and scarf, your'e too hot in the sun and take it all off. Standing in the shade, you're too cold and put it all back on. The mountains are everywhere. Santiago is in a bowl surrounded by mountains, which is great for pretty scenery but bad for trapping air pollution. Chileans seem to have the same sense of unyielding ownership of sidewalks that Swedes have - they aren't going to get out of your way to let you pass - it's a bit of a game of Uncle.

We started our tour with a walk to the subway, then an easy ride to Bellavista district and another walk to San Cristobel Hill. San Cristobel came to fame in 1923 with the construction of a Funicular. It is now a national monument. The hill is also the site of a zoo. We found it to be significantly busier than PP expected yesterday afternoon. In addition to the requisite stray dogs wandering and sleeping everywhere, the entrance and line up for the Funicular is home to many stuff stands. If you are looking for hats or mitts or masks or kids toys or snack food, there's a vendor happy to sell it to you. After waiting in a very long line for a very long time, it is our turn to get pulled up the side of the cliff. At the top, the view of the mountains and the city is beautiful. The big draw, other than the view, is the enormous statue of the Immaculate Virgin Mary. She watches over the city similar to the Christ the Redeemer statue that watches over Rio in Brazil. 

Time for lunch in Bellavista. There's a square full of restaurants and we found one called House in the Air or Casa en el aire. Here, regardless of the temperature, people eat outside and so did we. Sopapillas and grilled fish - perfect afternoon snack.

Santiago Metropolitain Cathedral

Now back to the subway and on to Place des Armes (de la independencia something something something. This is a very large pedestrian square, surrounded by museums and a magnificent cathedral that dates from the mid 1500s. We toured the Museo National to learn more about the coloured history of Chile. Took some work though - all the captions were in spanish so we had to do some deciphering. Next up, the Fish Market. Housed in a beautiful old building with a beautiful ceiling, the fish market is quite literally stall after stall of fish vendors. I'd like to know what they do with it all if they don't sell it, or for that matter, how old the fish we saw actually was. We saw 3 white cats wandering around inside, having snack, and they didn't seem to be at all bothered by the freshness of the fish. 

Back to the subway. It is now 5:30 on a Friday, and the busy-ness indicator says medium. Ha! We had to wait 4 trains just to squish into a car. It was an up close and personal get to know the people kind of ride. By the time we got back out at our stop, it was dark, and it was cold. Time to switch to the ski jacket before heading back out. 

Dinner. Steak and a nice Caminiera. Tomorrow - las montanas.

Inspired

Wow - it has been a while since I posted anything. Not that there haven't been things to post, but somehow the moment passes before I sit down to write. This time, I have decided not to let it. 

Tonight, I had the tremendous pleasure to attend the retirement celebration of one the principals I worked with in recent years. Standing at the back of the room, I soaked in the spirit of the event, laughed at the jokes, and teared up at the songs and the memories. Standing at the back of the room, I was once more inspired by the man who gave me a tremendous gift when he hired me to that particular school some 11 years ago.

He's still wise. He spoke of how he could have retired years ago and chose not to because "I wasn't ready". He counselled about not going if you're not ready. Sitting here, I am 4 years away from making that choice. I don't think I'll be ready. If not, I won't go.

It occurred to me on the drive home that in the 6 years since I left that magical space, I am no longer inspired. The principals I work for, I don't work with. They don't inspire me to do more, try more, or be more. On the drive home, I realized how much I miss that. My work world may be a much calmer place that lacks the crazy highs and desperate lows of the magical space, but it also lacks energy. There is less to look forward to day-to-day, week-to-week, or month-to-month. 

So what to do about it. As this school year draws to a close, it is the time for new year resolutions, a time to look ahead to how next year can be different. What can I do to find that inspiration? What can I do to pass on that excitement and anticipation to my students?  Sitting here right now, I'm not sure, but the answer most likely lies in bringing back some of the magic, of trying to find a small nugget of that inspiration. It won't be easy, but nothing powerful ever is.

Thank you, Mr Clatworthy. Thank you for reminding me that because I knew you, I have been changed for good.

I had a faahm in Ahfrika...

Our long-awaited safari to Africa happened over the Christmas break. We went to Tanzania, and it was nothing like I expected. I thought Africa would be brown, dry, and hot. Instead, it was cold, green, and wet. 

The whole point of the trip was to see elephants. Many, many years ago, I promised A that for his 18th birthday, we would go to Africa and see elephants. Well, we saw loads of them. Big ones. Small ones. Baby ones. Medium sized ones. Our first stop at the Tarangire National Park was filled to the brim with elephants. And wildebeest. And giraffes. I saw a dung beetle which for me was an important beast to check off the list.

Our second stop was the Ngorogoro crater. It is breath-takingly beautiful, and while the weather was cool with intermittant rain, we did see our first lions and 3 of the 10 black rhinos who live in the crater. We danced with Masaii and slept under a canopy of flat-top acacia trees on the rim of the crater, 7500 feet up. Where it was cold and we all wore ski jackets to dinner. 

On the way to the Serengeti,we stopped at the Oldupai Gorge, the site where in the early 1950s, the first humanoid skull was found, and only 45 miles away from where the first humanoid footprints were found. An extraordinary place to visit, especially for my future paleontologist and for the future psycologist whose first assigned reading upon returning to class in January was about the findings at Oldupai. (oh darn - you've been there). 

The Serengeti is massive and unbelievably flat. One million wildebeest migrate through there each year, and the accompaying zebra are almost as numerous. We had rain. We had mud. But we also had incredible views and more animal sightings than we could have imagined. You name it - we saw it.

All our accomodations were off grid. The tents were very nice. The dining and lounge spaces were also very well equipped. Truthfully, it was the most relaxing holiday I have ever had because I didn't have to do any organizing. The men at the camps gave us a daily schedule, all very relaxed, and we followed it. I miss Serengeti beer, which we enjoyed most evenings during cocktail hour.

We fell asleep to the sound of hyenas calling to each other, and often woke in the night to growling or hooves stomping just outside our tents. It was never frightening, just a really neat experience. 

Round 2 - Laurentian

If every day [of this road trip] has been a winding road, it has also been a really soggy road. We awoke this morning to heavy rain in the Soo, and it continued off and on until Sudbury.
We arrived early, and so in an attempt to kill off some time before the university tour, we stopped at the Big Nickel, which is, incidentally, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Neither A nor I could remember how old he was when we all came to Sudbury on a camping trip and went down the mine, but we're thinking it may have been 10 years ago. I seem to remember it being grey and wet then too.
Laurentian University is enormous compared with Lakehead. Our tour guide was better. He started us off by taking us to the roof of the tallest building on campus so that we could have a bird's eye view of everything. Apparently in the winter, the town zambonis a good chunk of the lake and everyone skates for free.
He focused more on student life than on academics, as the tourguide at Lakehead had. Overall, the dorms are bigger, the buildings are older and not as well outfitted, the food services sound better (read: healthier to a mom). When asked his preference / opinion comparing the 2 schools, A said it like this: one's a big SUV with nothing on it and the other is a fully loaded small car (always the automotive metaphors). Laurentian is the SUV.
He's leaning toward Lakehead, but months from now, who knows which way the final decision will go.
Long wet uneventful drive from Sudbury to home, but we did see 4 rainbows as we drove across the 407. We're both kinda road-weary, but ending with rainbows was a nice touch.

Round 1 - Lakehead

This morning, we toured Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. They have a BSc program focusing on geoarchaeology that A is interested in. Given that their open house was originally scheduled for a Tuesday (?!) in December (!!?!) (who comes all the way to Thunder Bay on a Tuesday in December?!!), we decided that summer holiday suited us better. Here's what we found out.
Pros: very community focused - curricular foci seem really current - all lecture halls have been built or modified for laptops and internet - very small class sizes - they have a paleo DNA lab that is foremost in North America
Cons: food service doesn't sound as healthy as at UVic, but maybe that was because our tour guide had a penchant for hamburgers - floors in the dorms are coed (mom's con, not A's) - double rooms are very small
Jury is only just starting to deliberate, but A liked the small class sizes and the dorm set up didn't seem to bother him.
Then, we started the drive back. From Thunder Bay to the Soo where we have stopped for the night, is about 8 hours. Add in my stops for pretty views of Lake Superior (who was not completely fogged in today), stops for bridge repairs, and stops in general, even driving with polite disregard for the speed limit, it did indeed take 8 hours. The sun came out at Agawa Bay in Lake Superior Provincial Park, so the views of the lake for the eastern part of the drive to the Soo were lovely. Boy, she's big.
Tomorrow, we have to get from here to Sudbury for Round 2 - the tour of Laurentian. That's about 4 hours, then from Sudbury to home is another 6. I should be sick of driving by now, but the roads have been clear for the most part, so it hasn't been strenuous. Wait until we reach the GTA...

Thunder in Thunder Bay

We started this morning at kilometre marker 1000. Given that we started yesterday in the high 1600s, that's kinda cool. Shortly after leaving Wawa, we saw a moose mother and baby having breakfast. Animal sightings continued with a turkey vulture, a rabbit, a deer at the Terry Fox memorial, and something black and dog-like that was either a coyote or a young wolf because it didn't make sense that it was a dog.

Not a great drive today. 5 hours from Wawa to Thunder Bay, and at least 3 hours of that was spent either in pea soup fog or inside a cloud - we haven't figured out which. The staff at the Tim Hortons in Nipigon said it was fog off Lake Superior. Needless to say, there weren't any pretty views to be seen. The Terry Fox memorial is still poignant, but it would have been nice to gaze out over the Lake from high up.

Top of the list of things to do once we got to Thunder Bay was touring Fort William. Today was a First Nations festival, Ashinawbe Keeshigun. Not only was admission free, but there were Native dancers, extra exhibits, and they fed us! We had smoked whitefish and wild rice at the wigwams outside the fort walls. We had freshly baked bread and strawberry juice in the kitchen. We had a great time wandering through the buildings and looking at the special exhibits and displays.

They'd been forecasting rain all day, and it arrived JUST as we got to the car. As we drove to Kakabeka Falls (the Niagara Falls of the North), the rain got harder. The thunder got louder. The fork lightning got brighter. By the time we got there, it was raining so hard, we didn't want to get out of the car. But get out we did, and it was wet! But the Falls were beautiful, and a few minutes later, the sun was out again.

Fingers crossed for a drier, clearer day tomorrow.

Lovely Lake Superior

Well, we made it to Wawa. I think I'd have been more surprised if we hadn't. We're staying at the Wawa Motor Inn which is fabulous! Yay me! So, we've ended well. Let's see how we began.

We began early. On the road shortly after 6am. Average speed 70mph. Great roads. Thank you Mike Harris for the terrific job you did spending my tax dollars improving the highway to Parry Sound. Too bad you stopped there. Between Parry Sound and Wawa, the TransCanada is mostly a 3 lane road, with ownership of the 3rd lane alternating regularly between left and right sides of the road. What surprised me most about today was how flat the terrain was once we got past the Soo. I thought it would all be huge rocks, but it isn't. There are large, flat valleys and 'plains'.

Thessalon doesn't look anything like I remember it. We did the math, and it was 30 years ago this summer that I worked at McCreights Junior Ranger camp, near Thessalon, for the summer. I high pruned trees, planted trees, tore down squatters' cabins, coloured maps of Crown land, and reconstructed a bridge. We had one day in the Soo, and after prowling the mall, we saw Ghostbusters. 1984. I remember parts of it really well. I've always liked rocks, and the day we tore down the squatters' cabin, I found a nice (big) piece of conglomerate or puddingstone near a waterfall near the cabin sight, which I brought home. In a box. When my parents picked me up from the Bay street bus terminal, my dad picks up the box and says, "what do you have in here - a rock?" Well, now that you mention it - yes! I still have that rock. It lives in a place of honour in the front hall of our house.

We only stopped to gaze at Lake Superior once. It was at a 'view', and we climbed down from the parking to some rocks nearer the shore. Even under grey and threatening skies, she's still magnificent.

Wawa is a player in our historical trip because it was here, on September 17th, 1960, that the TransCanada highway was completed. It took over 40 years of pleading to get a road to link the 228km from Wawa to the Soo. Initially, it took 8 hours because the road wasn't very good. Today, it took us 3 hours. There are Wawa Canada Geese all over town, including in the parking lot of the general store across the street and over the entrance to the restaurant attached to our hotel. It's been 25 years since P&I stopped at that general store to gas up on our drive across Canada. Then, there was a chipmunk who liked to run into the store to grab peanuts. We didn't see any peanuts today, but we did see a well fed squirrel outside.

Tomorrow, we have 5+ hours to get to Thunder Bay. Included in that stretch will be more views of the Lake and the Terry Fox memorial. But for now, it's time to sleep. Early start again tomorrow.

Road Trip

It's rather an iconic summer thing to do, isn't it, the road trip? Tomorrow, Sprout and I depart in the wee smalls toward Thunder Bay. If you don't know Ontario, our province is huge! It easily takes 3 full days of driving to get from one end of it to the other. GoogleMaps says Thunder Bay is only (!?) 18 hours away, and while we are road warriors and easily able to do 13 hours in a car without blinking, that is usually because P is doing the driving. This trip is just mother and son. I've never done a road trip on my own before and while Sprout can do some of the driving, this is as much a personal challenge for me, as a way of getting to Lakehead and Laurentian universities for tours.

Let's talk about the vehicle of choice for the adventure. (I'm about to sound like a Top Gear episode - move over Jeremy Clarkson). Cruising across a sunny summertime northern Ontario in a Mercedes Benz convertible sounds divine. She would be a great little car except for a few things, and that's why we have chosen instead to take the VW Jetta.
Reason 1: gas mileage - the SLK requires high octane premium gas, and she guzzles it. The Jetta is a diesel. 'Nuff said.
Reason 2: Mod cons - the SLK is a 2002. She was made before blue tooth, GPS, or satellite radio. The Jetta, on the other hand, has sat nav should we need it, and Sirius.
Reason 3: rain. Hard to drive with the top down when it's pouring. And according to the Weather Network, not only are we in for wet, we're also in for cold. The Jetta's sunroof will have to do, should the rain stop long enough to open it.

I have been told that a uniquely Canadian thing is measuring distance in time (see length of Ontario example above). Don't ask me how many miles or kilometres we'll be covering, but I can tell you estimated drive times. Tomorrow, we have 10 hours to Wawa homeoftheGoose. Sunday, there's 5-6 hours to Thunder Bay. Monday, after our morning tour of Lakehead, we have 8 hours back east to Sault Ste. Marie. Tuesday morning early, we leave the Sault for the beautiful drive alongside Lake Superior. We have to make it to Sudbury for noon, because the Laurentian tour is at 1pm. After that, we continue on home, which is another 5 hours.

All told, that looks like 34 hours of driving over 4 days, broken up by lakes, rocks, trees, the Terry Fox memorial, scenic lookouts over Lake Superior and Sleeping Giant, a trip to Fort William (I hope), and a picture in front of the Wawa Goose. And likely, lots of stops at Tim Hortons.

Look out Gitchigoomie
- here we come!

Art Deco in South Beach

Traffic in Miami is the perfect storm of awful. While our drive up from the Keys this morning was faster than it had been on the way down last Saturday, we still hit stop and stop traffic once we got to Key Largo (no Obama this time - no idea what the problem was). Making our way to the Ritz Carleton Biscayne Bay where we are enjoying the lap of luxury before heading home tomorrow night, was also relatively easy. So, in the spirit of die-hard tourists, we decided to cross the last thing off the list and head into South Beach to the famed Art Deco district in Miami.

Traffic. Stop and Stop. at 3pm. Was nothing compared to the stop and really stop traffic we experienced trying to get back to Key Biscayne at 5:30. It took an hour to go 6 blocks. Not exaggerating. It was mind-blowingly bad traffic. Again, no idea why other than lots of people not moving. Green lights and no one moves. Glad that's done.

So now that I've shared the worst of today, let's dwell on the best of today. After last night's rain and thunderstorms, today was windy but sunny. We were able to drive with the top down again. The Ritz Carleton is obscene. Clearly designed for fancier folks than us, but we're doing our best to play the part. Lunch today was at the beach side Mexican restaurant. To go with our requisite lunchtime beers (that will be hard to give up when we get home), we ordered fish tacos. Sounds pedestrian - was quite the opposite. We were each served a grilled half snapper, complete with taco fixings like jicama and pickled onion, salsa and mango puree. It was amazing. For dinner tonight, we settled in to a leather couch in the Rum Bar off the lobby where they serve many types of mojitos. While the Black and Blue which contains muddles blackberries and blueberries along with the usual mojito stuff, was good, the runaway winner was the coconut mojito. We know what I'm having tomorrow by the pool. We had sandwiches, which were pleasant enough, but, another runaway winner - their version of sticky toffee pudding, was out of this world. Homemade butterscotch sauce. There aren't words to describe!

So, South Beach. I didn't watch Miami Vice. Can't even name the main characters. I don't watch CSI Miami, but now I will just to see if I recognize anywhere. I will need to rewatch Robin Williams' The BirdCage because I think the club was on Ocean Blvd. It reminded me a lot of Nice, with the beach on one side of the street and the sidewalks on the other side taken over by bars and restaurants. Nice also has a number of Art Deco buildings. The ones here have been nicely done up (restored). We wandered into a few lobbies of the hotels on Collins Avenue, and they have done a wonderful job of restoring the time period. I was really hoping to see Esther Williams' pool at the Raleigh, but a commercial was being filmed, so no entry and so much for that. The National Hotel even had its lobby furniture copied and rebuilt to replicate the time period. 

I'm glad I had the chance to see Miami and Key West. We have had a wonderful holiday. The one challenge with going away is that there is so much tv to watch when I get home. Now, in addition to CSI Miami, I need to watch a really bad Bond movie that was set in Key West (even had a fight scene on 7 mile bridge!) As my gran used to say, it's nice to get away, but nothing tastes as good as bread and butter at the kitchen table when you get home. Here's to bread and butter.

Fort Zachary Taylor State Park

We found the best beach today - at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. The fort itself dates from the 1850s, and the army actually buried it when they were done with it after WWII. Although it was never fired upon, it was very well armed. During WWII, it was used for target practice, as the air force practised bombing by dropping bags of flour on it.

Elsewhere on the property is a lovely beach and campground. There are trees for shade, and a cafe if you want snacks. You can even come and do yoga in the morning. The cruise ship lane is immediately off shore. I looked up from my book and was VERY SURPRISED to see that large a ship so close to shore!

We've had a lovely time in Key West. Apart from this beach, I love the houses. Ships carpenters built them with mortice joints, not nails, so the original houses give a little in hurricane winds the way ships do. The chickens and roosters everywhere add to the lazy Caribbean feel. Our favourite restaurants were Sarabeths, Kelly's, Blue Heaven, and Only Wood. P's favourite part of town is the Truman Annex. I like that part of town too, but I think I prefer Caroline street. 

Tomorrow, we head back to the mainland to drive up to Miami for about 36 hrs. Hopefully Obama is back in Washington so the traffic will move at the speed limit. I'm also hoping the rain ends overnight so we can drive with the top down.

We saw 2 minivans from Ontario today. We'd like to come back, although I don't think I have the wherewithall to drive all 28hrs to get here. Flying is much simpler.

History Lessons

Key West is not a big island. It's 1 1/2 miles wide and about 4 1/2 miles long. It used to be smaller. Until about 1940, the island was 1.5 X 2.5 sq miles. They expanded it when they dredged to allow better passage to the Panama Canal. We have easily walked every inch of the original island. Today's wanderings took us purposely down narrow residential streets and laneways to give us a chance to see more of the 'real' Key West.

Not all of today was quiet and calm. I thought it would be a great idea to pay the tourist bucks and do the tour on the Conch train (conk with a k, not conch with a ch). The company was very disorganized, and what should have been an easy thing (buy your ticket, get on board), was more of an ordeal. But once we were (FINALLY) aboard, we learned some new stuff about the island. Like:
• that great restaurant called Kelly's from our first night is owned by Kelly McGillis of Top Gun fame
• I knew that Ponce de Leon discovered Florida when he was looking for the fountain of youth (there are jokes in there somewhere). What I didn't know is that he didn't hit the mainland, which is what I thought - he actually hit a smaller key off Key West
• Robert Frost the poet spent time down here
• Jimmy Buffet's original Margaritaville bar is here - he financed it here too
• The last big hurricane to hit Key West was in the late 1800s. A nun built a grotto to ask God for protection from hurricanes thereafter, and you know what - Key West hasn't been hit by a major hurricane since
• the only fresh water on the island was collected rain water until the navy built a pipeline in the 1940s
• in the mid 1970s, once the military closed the base, the island went essentially bankrupt. Properties on Duval street could be bought for $1 on the condition that the property was refurbished in time for bicentennial celebrations in 1976

Today's eating wasn't noteworthy, except for the tiramisu at dinner which was honestly the best we've tasted since Alla Rampa in Rome. The beach was just as nice today as it was yesterday, though we were there in the late afternoon, so it was busier (and more the temperature of bath water).

Tomorrow is our last day in Key West before we return to the mainland. On the list of things to do is a tour of Fort Zachary Taylor, lunch back at Blue Heaven, key lime pie on a stick (they treat it like ice cream and dunk it in dark chocolate before freezing it), a Hurricane at Speakeasy rum bar. Dinner for our last night is still under negotiation, but it needs to be in one of the lovely outdoor terrace gardens that are everywhere, and it should include Key West pinks, which are the loveliest, sweetest shrimp you've ever tasted.

Sand, Sunset, Swedes, and Blue Heaven

I wasn't hallucinating.
I did hear Swedish at breakfast. In fact, the borrow-a-book shelf in the hotel lobby has 3 swedish novels on it! When P&I were at the beach, a swedish family came and settled in in front of us. (They didn't stay long, but they did think the beach was härligt)

I'm not much for just sitting on a beach anymore. Unless I have something to do, read, or am wearing a hat, I have a hard time staying put on the sand. So, I went for an explore. At the bottom of White Street, there is a very large pier, large like 4 lanes of traffic large. Looking over the side into the water, I saw little yellow and black striped fish, little pale blue fish, something iridescent that might have been a parrot fish, and a shark. Good size - 3 1/2 feet. Probably a nurse shark. 

Where we chose to set up, seemed like a great spot. Near enough to the water but out of the traffic. What we didn't factor in was the nearby tree that was shedding, and quietly divebombed us with seed pods and pineneedle-like things.

Sunset is big business here in Key West. Every day at Mallory Square, there is a sunset festival. Street entertainers set up shop, as do food and craft vendors. We had heard there was a cat show, where cats actually jumped through a flaming hoop. If it was there, we didn't find it. Closest we came was a tightrope-walking golden retriever wearing red plaid boxers (poor dear). Nice sunset. Worth the wait.

Dinner tonight was at Blue Heaven. In my research, this was the place not to miss. It's in Bahama town, near Southernmost Point, at the corner of Petronia and Thomas. It's amazing. The setting is like something out of a movie set. The drinks are really good, and the food is outstanding. Their version of key lime pie comes with meringue. Essentially, 1 1/2 inches of pie and 6 inches of meringue. 

Key West is a beautiful place to wander around. Most of the houses in Old Town date from the mid- late- 1800s. They are 2 story houses with white clapboard siding, and porches decorated with ornate gingerbreading. You hear about people who travel to places and come home with a house. For a while yesterday, I thought I could be one of those people. We found a real fixer upper, a Property Brothers special (616 Caroline street). Problem - even for a renovator's special, they are asking $1.5 million. (Mind you, it's on a large lot). The other Old Town houses on the market that have already been renovated go from $2.5 million - close to $10 million. Guess I'm not coming home with a house.

Harry Truman and Hemingway

Today's wandering led us first to the Little White House. Originally the commandant's house at the naval base in Key West, Harry S Truman was a regular guest during his presidency. He reportedly came 11 times over a 6 year period. He liked the relaxed atmosphere. The house itself is furnished with the same furniture Truman used in the 1940s. It all looked just a little too much like the stuff in my grandparents' house, but fun to see and interesting to learn all the same.

Incidentally, one of the women on our tour said that Barack Obama was in Key Largo yesterday. Whether that was the cause of our traffic delays, I sincerely doubt, but who knows?

After the Little White House, we continued south to the Southernmost Point in the USA. There is a large monument, and, like in Lands End England, people line up to have their picture standing next to it. We decided that seeing it was enough. From that point, all you can see is ocean. Cuba is only 90 miles away.

Hemingway's House was a treat. Originally built in the late 1890s, it is the only house in Key West with an actual basement. This is because the original owner, an Asa Tift, brought his slaves down from his home in Georgia so they could dig coral blocks out of the ground. The house is set upon the quarry they dug. Hemingway and Mrs #2 were given the house as a wedding present. They lived there for 11 years, during which time, he wrote all but 2 of his books. He spent his afternoons fishing and happy hours at the bar down the street. When he divorced Mrs. #2, she kept the house, and it is decorated much as she left it. For the 1930s, it had a lot of mod cons (modern conveniences) including a swimming pool, which was a very expensive novelty given that there was no running water on the island at that time.

USAir magazine did a feature on Key West dining in May 2013, and today for lunch, we tried one of their recommendations: Onlywood. Like many restaurants in Key West, it has a small indoor space, but  most of their patrons enjoy the large outdoor courtyard. (Reminds me of Revelstoke BC). The pizza was terrific. The imported Italian beer (Moretti Rosso) hit the spot. Dinner tonight was at Sarabeth's. This one I found on my own. Sarabeth's is a chain of traditional American stuff. There are 4 or 5 of them, all located in NYC (except this one of course). We had fried chicken. Neither of us had had it before, and we weren't disappointed. 

Tomorrow, we're going to check out the beach.

p.s. a note about chickens and cats - they're everywhere! Roosters and chickens wandering in the streets, cats lounging on sidewalks or fences. It's all very picturesque.

Mile 128 to Mile 0

In spite of this morning's kafuffle over airplane seats, we made it to Key West. We had a very nice pizza lunch at Miami airport before heading out in our arrest-me-red mustang convertible. 

It takes a bit to get to highway 1, but when you do, you join it at about mile 128. The drive took longer than anticipated. We were expecting 3 1/2 hours, but given that we were stuck in stop and go traffic (actually more stop than go) until mile 80 on the south end of Isla Morada (south of Key Largo), well, you can imagine the rest. 

Dinner tonight was a triumph after a day of travel (which started at 4am). We went to old town to Kelly's Caribbean bar, grill, and brewery. It is housed in the building where the original Pan Am airlines office was situated. (Pan Am started in 1927 with a flight from Key West to Havana). We sat outside in their very large courtyard, surrounded by picturesque houses and very tall trees covered in fairy lights. The beer was fabulous, the food was very good, and the setting was perfect.

Tomorrow's forecast is calling for lots of sunscreen with a chance of bathing suit. Smiles, everyone!

Déja vu all over again?

This time last year, E was in Ghana, and A,P, and I were en route to France. Our plan was to spend March Break touring the WWi and WWII sites in Normandy. There was a freak blizzard that paralyzed northern France. The main highway north from Paris to the Belgian border was clogged with cars and transport trucks for 4 days. Many people were stranded in their cars for more than 72 hours. We weathered the storm in Cruelly, where we were snowed in for 3 days. Other than watching the weather forecasts, the only other notable thing on tv was the colour of the smoke at the Vatican as they selected a new pope.

This year, E is at school in BC, A has gone to Ecuador, and P&I are supposed to be en route to Florida. I say supposed to be because when we arrived to check in, we were told that our seats had been given away. (!!!) I get very upset when someone changes my schedule without telling me first. Is this to be this year's March Break blizzard? I would really rather not spend the entire day sitting around Toronto Pearson, waiting for Air Canada to figure out that all paying ticket holders are, in fact, created equal, even on March Break, and wondering if I'll ever find my suitcase again (did it go on without us? Is it lost in Pearson purgatory?) 

Only time will tell. Shortly, we will head to the gate and see what the pretending-to-be-able-to-do-something-but-actually-not-able desk attendant will have to say. One thing I have learned through all of our travelling, is that crossing fingers is useless. The airplanes will continue to go, whether or not you're on board.

Vegan / Vegetarian

Over a year ago, my daughter decided to go vegetarian. For her, it was an animal rights thing. If it has 4 feet and a tail (or 2 feet and wings), it does not belong on your dinner plate. She's not fanatical about it. It's about ethics.

My take on health and eating is more about weight management and a healthy body. I don't buy all this 'gluten is bad for you', 'cow's milk is bad for you' stuff. Humans have survived for centuries by including both in their diets, and I'm not planning to quit now. I do, however, see wisdom in 'clean' eating - avoiding overly processed stuff in favour of 'whole' foods. Which brings me to Gwyneth's book.

It's a fun read. The recipes make sense. While the men in my house put their noses up over the Kale and Almond Smoothie (pg 207), it's taste was ok, even if the grainy texture took some getting used to. Many of the ingredients in the book are not things I already have in my cupboards. Yesterday, E & I journeyed to Whole Foods to hunt for obscure ingredients (like Miso paste which I still haven't found). Today, I discovered that we could have saved ourselves the trip because No Frills carries at least half of them at lower prices. Regardless, we will be celebrating Canada Day with Cauliflower and Chick Peas with Mustard and Parsley (pg 173). Tuesday will be Vegan Shepherd's Pie (pg 240). Not all the recipes in the book are vegan. They're just all about unprocessed tasty food, and my plan for July is to cook my way through as many of them as I can.

So where is my stream-of-consciousness going? Back to the idea of healthy eating. Going Vegan doesn't appear (to me anyway) to be at all related to weight loss. In fact, I think it could be quite the opposite. Tonight, we ate dinner at a super place in Toronto called the Hogtown Vegan. We'd seen it profiled on "You Gotta Eat Here" and I thought it would be a treat for our vegetarian. The flavours were good, the portions were good, the prices were good. I would go back. But if a vegan is trading high-in-iron-low-in-fat beef for wheat-meat seitan (a bread-like product which mimics the flavour and texture of beef), he's gaining calories, but not necessarily an equal complement of vitamins and minerals. I think I'll stick with beef.

So here's to my summer project: avoiding overly processed stuff (just say no to iced caps and choc chip frapps) and choosing instead fruit and veg and lean protein. I'll experiment with the no gluten thing and see if my body notices a positive difference. It already knows it doesn't like McDs or hotdogs or chips anymore. And if anyone knows where I can find miso paste, please point me in the right direction - I'd be grateful.