Joanie's Road Trip L.A, to Portland, May 13-19, 2012

I visited with Ezra, my son, in L.A. for Mother's Day Weekend.  We biked, brainstormed, went to see 2 plays: "Late: A Cowboy Song" by Sarah Ruhl at Cal State U Long Beach (where Ezra teaches) and "Lunatics and Actors" by Ezra's colleague and mentor David Bridel.  Both were excellent.

































Also met Debbie Ames, new cousin, and explored Huntington Gardens with her.

Then I headed north in Ezra (and Micah's) old Subaru station wagon (which I just inherited) to visit friends and relatives plus some scenery.

 Day #1: Long drive to Big Sur!!!  Stayed at the home of a friend of a friend who was just so generous in opening up his home to me.
Day #2: Big Sur!
Morning: walked through meadow strewn with orange California poppies down to the ocean! Exquisite: saw: brush rabbit, scrub jay, hummingbird, western fence lizard, western terrestrial garter snake OR western rattlesnake (whew!), merrium chipmunk, tree poppies, Santa Lucia sticky monkey flowers, yerba santa, chaparral, Ca. fuchsia and heard the sound of a sea lion or harbor seal.
Read that Ohlone Rumsen, Esselen & Salinan were local tribes. The Esselen occupied the heart of Big Sur. "tribelets"

Explored Lime Kiln Campground and stopped at scenic spots. Drive to Oakland, CA: visit with Cousins David, Marguerite, Leah & Benjie in their House for Giants! - High ceilings in all rooms - large, tall doors, windows, etc. Great food!

Day #3: Pamela & Murray in Sebastopol - wonderful sharing with my very dear, old friends
Day #4: Breakfast with Pamela & Murray; Lunch in Davis with Michael Smith & his new family on their farm (1st hay fever attack of the season); Dinner with Michael Hays & family in Chico
Day #5: up early; thank you Michael for checking the oil in the car; Ashland & plays: saw Troilius & Cressida; stayed with new friends Carol & Jim Young; evening play: Seagull
Day #6: Judith Hankin in Eugene, OR.  Stayed with Judith and her Mom Bess.
Day #7: Hendricks Park with Judith & Bess; plant exchange.....

                                                                                           

emerging giant poppy!

and home!

Bamboo anyone?

Post-Trip Tidbits

Since home, I have read: Rabinal Achi & The Popol Vu (Mayan Book of Creation)  - moving into the mythology of the Mayan world.  I feel inspir

ed and connected back into our trip......I have also been working obsessively on creating a slide show of our journey.  It's almost done.  We have shown it a few times already, but need to put in a few final touches with our housemate Phil's help.

Hummingbird in Mayan is Tz'unum.  Note similarity to Hebrew: Tz'vuv.  Hummingbirds are thought to be the souls of dead warriors.  So before captives were put to death they were given a Hummingbird drink - not sure what it was.
Atole is the corn gruel we drank in Rabenal.
Jan. 25 is the Fiesta of the Conversion of St. Paul and the confraternity is of St. Sebastian.

What else?  Let us know if you want to see the slide show!

Yehudah is already gotten books about Southeast Asia out of the library while I am still working on the slideshow from this past trip.  Opposite ends of the spectrum, but I suppose December 2012 is only 9 months from now!

I am also working on the slide show for a presentation about Aso-Fenix & El Jocote with the Havurah group April 20th.  Lots of great photos from everyone.

2/5-6/12: Guatemala City and home!

Guate! Guate!

 the bus helper calls as the bus drives rapidly through Antigua.  We caught the bus three blocks from Dona Olga's Place after making plans with a taxi driver to meet us at Tikal Futura in Guatemala City.  The young fellow stashed my pack in the front of the bus right by the driver.  Yehudah headed on with his pack and we swung his bag full of bought items, including a hammock, on the top rack.  The driver drove faster than one might think safe, but once everyone was packed in like sardines, three to a seat, he slowed down, as he had to stop often to let people on and off.  The taxi driver met us right at the bus stop but had some trouble finding the place we were staying as there are 2 Calle 15s in Area 13, but we finally got there, stashed our packs in our unmade-up room and walked over to the Art Museum:

plus a Handicraft Exhibit that wound up being set up with stuff from Lago Atitlan:

We saw a group of young folk in traditional attire perform some traditional dances, saw a mock presentation of a healing ceremony in the presence of a figure of Mashimon and perused the shops, in search of some earrings I hadn't bought in Antigua to no avail.

Yehudah took a short video of the dances:

 Then we went back to the Museums to the Archeology Museum and saw lots of stuff like in Copan:

 

Yehudah was happy we didn't see this wrecked bus at the beginning of our travels!

Back at the hotel we set ourselves up, then went in search of dinner, and wound up at the bottom part of the airport three blocks away.  After a not-very-good dinner we got back.  Yehudah went to bed ill and I watched TV for hours, flipping channels.  We got up at 5:40 a.m. and headed off to the airport.

We are currently in the Dallas airport, have passed through customs and are using these free 20 minute timed computers.  We both are so happy to be coming home!  It's been a long, amazing trip.

It has been frustrating not being able to post pictures effectively, since we don't have any personal means to do so.  My efforts to post large numbers of photos has failed several times, whether at an internet place or a friend's home.  So my task in the next few days is to post all the photos here and on Facebook, then to create a condensed slideshow.  The last piece will take several weeks of effort.  We also have short videos Yehudah took occasionally, which will take time to upload.

Thanks to those of you who have been following our journey!