Reflections and reunions, November 2018

As I sit here looking out my wide dining room window at my favorite Pacific Dogwood, its autumn leaves now fading to dull pink from flaming red, above, I'm thinking of the folks who've lost everything in the Camp Fire conflagration.  This horrific fire is burning about 50 miles northwest of our house in Nevada City, as the crow flies.  The latest stats are:

• Location: Butte County
• 135,000 acres burned
• 35 percent contained
• 51 fatalities confirmed, 3 firefighters injured
• 8,817 structures destroyed, 7,600 of them homes

With 7,600 homes destroyed, that's a lot of displaced people.  Like most everyone with TV and Internet, I've seen the videos and photos of harrowing escapes.  The burned-out devastation is heartbreaking to see.  So many fatalities.  And the tragedy goes on.  Many of us around the state (which has other hellish wildfires to fight at the same time) are pitching in to do what we can, rounding up supplies and gift cards to distribute to those in need.  Anyone in the world can give -- there are plenty of organizations that are collecting for people who suddenly have nothing but the clothes they were wearing as they fled the flames.

And then, I have to count my blessings.  November is America's Thanksgiving month.  Jimmy and I realize we have much to be thankful for in our lives.  We have a comfortable home, food to eat and clothes to warm us, families who love us, and friends who care.  We have our health, though we're not young by any stretch of the imagination, and we can travel.  We are grateful.

Randy and Sharon

Speaking of travel, most of our international trips have been with Road Scholar, a tour company that combines learning with adventure.  We've never been disappointed with/by them.  Aside from the obvious benefit of seeing new places and faces and cultures, one of the best perks of traveling is making new friends.  In that, we've also been blessed.  This fall, three separate Road Scholar trip friends have visited us.  Last May, Randy and Sharon (from Georgia) were in our awesome Macchu Pichu/Galapagos trip.  In September, they traveled to NorCal and asked to meet up and maybe go hiking.  With pleasure!

On Sept 29th, we met at the Sagehen trailhead.  Jimmy and me, Randy and Sharon, and their friend, Robert, from Montana, enjoyed a beautiful afternoon on the trail, followed by early dinner (or late lunch) at Moody's in Truckee.  It was a lovely day and we all had a great time.  Thanks for coming to California!

Fantastic tree color and wonderfully clear that day in the high country.

On October 18th, we got together with Garrett at Awful Annie's in Auburn for an early lunch.  We three were in the same amazing Australia/New Zealand trip back in Nov/Dec 2016.  Garrett lives in Washington and flew to NorCal to visit a relative.  We appreciated that he wanted to pay us a visit.  Nice playing catch-up, and thanks for lunch, Garrett!

Today, Denise who lives in Massachusetts, came to our place with her sister, Heidi (who lives locally).  We'd planned on going to Lefty's for lunch, but it was much too smoky to go out.  So, we made the best of a last minute lunch of sandwiches and chips and condiments, and mandarin oranges from Newcastle (yummy, thanks, Denise).  Plus, I'd made an apple crisp the night before and a lemon icebox pie this morning for Jimmy's birthday.  You can see we did all right!

A year ago, we "did" a three-week Road Scholar trip to India with Denise and formed a fast friendship.  She is a fun person to be around, with a neat sense of humor.  Who knows why we were laughing, above, but we had a happy day.  We'll stay in touch ....  Meeting Heidi was a plus.  As a group we sang Happy Birthday to Jimmy, then he blew out four candles placed in the meringue on the lemon icebox pie.  Four seemed like a nice round number, never mind how many should really be atop his dessert.  

As I said earlier, we are grateful.

Reminiscing and more ... Sunday, 4/30/17

Jimmy and I maintain contact with several of our fellow Road Scholar travelers.  Nowadays, it's easy to do, via emails and text messages, or even phone calls.  Facebook is another way to keep up with where our friends are today.  Some are visiting exotic places like India and Indonesia right now.  I follow Erin of Two to Travel's blog and she's currently in Dubai.  The world becomes a smaller place when traveling is made so easy -- all ya need is time and money!  Aside from expanding one's horizons, one of the great pluses of traveling is making new friends.  We have met really nice folk as we go Out and About, and one of them paid us a visit this afternoon.  

Garrett was among the RS group who traveled with us for the month we were in New Zealand and Australia -- last Nov/Dec.  We all had a grand time touring these two DownUnder countries.  Garrett lives in Olympia WA and was in Sacramento for a weekend wedding.  Since Jimmy and I are only an hour away, we suggested a meeting at our place (that's where emails and text messages come in handy).  He drove up to Nevada City and we spent a delightful afternoon rehashing last year's trip and talking about upcoming ones.  It's nice to catch up.

Now that Lefty's Grill has reopened after their restaurant flooded in "atmospheric rivers of rain" (both January AND February), we decided on lunch there.  Sitting outdoors on their patio (above and below) listening to Deer Creek rush past on this warm, sunshine-y day was so darned pleasant.  After all those gray, wet, months, sunny and 70ish weather was heavenly!  As you can see, Deer Creek is still splashing along at a pretty smart clip.

After a muy delicioso lunch, we strolled a bit along downtown Nevada City streets (I think we have three) -- gotta walk off some of those calories!  Garrett seemed to like our old western "Mother Lode" town.

I stood in the middle of Broad Street to take this picture; can't do this in very many cities without getting run over!  Jimmy and I planned to return to the Nevada Theater (dark bldg/far right) at 7pm to see the Indie movie, "Chasing Niagara." [terrific flick about kayaking over Niagara Falls]

We turned around at this point in our ambling.

I love these pink Dogwood trees.

Well, okay, here we go.  Butter pecan single, in my hand and soon in my tummy.  Jimmy (left) and Garrett, make their choices at Treats in Nevada City.  Heck, it WAS a warm day ... ripe for ice cream!

Lots o' color in town.

They've finished their cones.  I'm still working on mine!

Still on foot, we stopped to Look at the cool old mining equipment displayed in Calanan Park.  The sign above is enlarged below.  You can enlarge it again to read it easier.  After this, we piled in the red Prius and returned home.  Garrett took his leave of us then, so he could head back to his cousin's house where he was staying.  Thanks for coming to see us, Garrett, we enjoyed your visit very much!

Downunder Finale ... Dec 16/17, 2016

Our original gang of 22 in New Zealand on November 22nd. 

Our Road Scholar group spent an entire month tromping through New Zealand and Australia, both comparatively remote island nations with unique biodiversity.  We did our best to protect and, at the same time, appreciate those special environments.  We learned as we toured, from the Seacoast to Rotarua's geyser to the Outback and the Great Barrier Reef, and including Sydney's one-of-a-kind Opera House, and, speaking for me and Jimmy, it was our great good fortune to be a part of such a dynamic group.  We met a whole lot of nice people on this trip, made new friends.  Jimmy and I owe a huge thank you to Albert Sword, our group leader, who put up with us for that long month. 😉 Honestly, he shepherded us every step of the way -- thank you, Albert.

Meeting before dinner that last night, the group shared its memories and highlights, what stood out, what meant the most to each person.  Uniformly, we agreed that the exchange of ideas (or our enlightenment) was singularly the greatest gift, and realizing how little we really knew was the biggest surprise.  Our in-depth absorption of other political systems and cultures, geology, local flora and fauna, and so much more, propelled us along; the month flew by.  Did I mention fun?  Every day we participated in adventures!  It was all grand fun ... yet it was time for the journey to end, and for us to return to our everyday lives.  We were saddened at the thought.

On our last night in Cairns, had a lovely "Farewell to Australia" dinner at the hotel, (above) with complimentary wine, or, in our case, Bundaberg Ginger Beer. I thought the ginger beer was very tasty (never had it before).  

Here's another new bird for me, and it was on the ground right outside our room before we checked out Thursday morning -- a Masked Lapwing (Vanellus miles), aka Masked Plover, native to Australia. It has an all-white neck and large yellow wattles, and a black hair-do ... makes for a strange face!  Of course you knew I'd post another bird picture!

And a closer-up of the red Schefflera flowers, also just outside our room.

If you enlarge it, you will see they look like berries at this stage.

Friday morning, we packed our bags one more time, and at 10:30am, we boarded our coach to the airport and the 3-hour flight to Sydney, the staging area for our return to the states. Cairns, below, was a wonderful area to visit.  That's the Barron River running through it.

Our flight took us over the Coral Sea and the Great Barrier Reef, which was a real delight.

The aqua color below?  They're reefs.

We overnighted in Sydney, breaking bread at dinner in our hotel one final time with our trip buddies. Saturday morning, the 17th, Day 31 of our trip, we closed those suitcases a final time, checked out of the hotel, and boarded the coach for the Sydney airport.  There were hugs all around at the airport, and we said our bittersweet farewell to Albert.

I know we were onboard the Qantas Airbus 380 (double decker) and ready to roll down the runway at 11:10am when I took the photo below.  Technically, we took off Saturday morning at 11:30, and we landed at LAX (Los Angeles) on Saturday morning at 6:30, crossing the International Date Line and the Equator.  Back to the future?  Nope, back into yesterday!  We landed before we took off?  Talk about screwing up your inner time clock!

Because we left in daytime when the body is normally awake, it was difficult to sleep on the 14-hour flight to Los Angeles.  Eventually we "ran into" darkness, and I guess I dozed (Jimmy slept), but I promise you that it took us (me, especially) a full week to return to Pacific Standard Time and "normal."  Truth be told, we were worn out.  Oh well, we managed.

Don't know if you can read this, but they fed us well and often aboard Qantas.

From Los Angeles, Jimmy and I boarded our LAST flight of this trip (the 13th flight) to Sacramento. It was delayed, which was good because that meant Matt could (and did) pick us up at the airport around 1pm.

We had another trip scheduled in our motor home (Tergel) beginning Wednesday, Dec 28th, for a week in Pasadena at the Rose Parade.  And Christmas was mixed in there, too!  With jet lag, and Christmas, and topsy-turvey weather (from warm Southern Hemisphere summer to cold Northern Hemisphere winter), it didn't take us long to realize we'd overextended ourselves (to put it mildly). Hey, we survived!  But, we learned a lesson ... let a little grass grow under our feet between trips!

"An Odyssey Down Under" -- Rewarding, enjoyable, worthwhile, a bucket list fantasy come true, yes; the best of the best.  Thank you, Road Scholar.  (If you would like to read the entire trip, click on "Road Scholar 2016" under Labels at left, or if you prefer a certain section, click on it; i.e., Australia, New Zealand, or even individual cities, such as Auckland or Sydney.  Some of the posts might seem long, but those adventurous, full days equal long posts!  Enjoy!)

Ohhhhh, I wonder what 2017 will bring?

Oh, what a day ... Thursday, 12/15/16

This was our last full day in Australia; in fact, today was the last day of our month-long journey Downunder.  So, we made the most of it, you know, make hay while the sun shines! In the tropical rainforest, the sun will shine!

When we left our room for breakfast, I automatically walked around the corner to the end of our fourth floor hotel balcony, just to look around, and came face-to-face with the cutest, uh, teddy-bear like, bat, snugly wrapped in its own cape and lookin' me right in the eye.  If you needed a jolt to get you awake, that'd do it!

Good morning!

After breakfast and a lecture from Brian, an expert who was (among other pursuits) one of the last professional crocodile hunters and who lives in the rainforest, we boarded our coach for a short trip up to the Village of Kuranda, a mountain retreat in the rainforest.  I say "up," because the village is about 1,000' above Cairns, though only 15+ miles away.  It's a beautiful place to visit, filled with flowers and ferns and trees and critters unlike we've yet seen.

First thing I saw?  This pair of Stone Curlews.

We walked about the town, poking into shops, agog over the "landscape."  The trees are unique and massive; in fact, everything we saw growing was over-the-top!  A couple of examples below:

One huge Ficus (Curtain fig), and me.

Heliconia or false bird of paradise of some kind.  

As Jimmy and I meandered, we came across this vintage 1942 C-47, manufactured in Long Beach, CA, destined for Australian shores as part of the USA 5th Air Force, and nicknamed, "GERONIMO." After the war, it became a work horse in various venues and places.  In 1983, it was repainted and renamed "Miss Fortune" for a movie called "Sky Pirates," and -- long story shortened -- ended up, in pieces, right here, where you see Jimmy.  And apparently being swallowed by the jungle.

Good food, and lots of iced tea and water, perfect ... we were all thirsty.  Sitting under shade on the deck, listening to birds and admiring the lush plant diversity, plus the entertainment (below) made for a nice lunch.

Eastern Water Dragon  -- three of them roamed the deck at Frog's, at our feet!  And these dudes aren't dinky little lizards!  The biggest one was approx 18" long.  I guess they're the rainforest's version of a beggar dog!  Someone dropped a piece of bread near one of them, but that wasn't the ticket.  They're vegetarians ... he should've dropped a piece of lettuce!

Papaya tree with fruit and a windmill (?) just off Frog's deck.

I used to have a Schefflera houseplant, many years ago when I lived in SoCal, easy to grow, not too big.  Then there's the rainforest kind, called Umbrella Trees (Schefflera actinophylla), 50' tall, with bright red flowers on long spikes that radiate out of the end of each branch, rich nectar food source for Honeyeaters and Rainbow Lorikeets.  I nearly fell over when learned they were in the Schefflera family ... we saw quite a few.

Australian Bush turkey, just scratching around, like chickens and turkeys do.

Not very pretty.  Again, we saw more than one.

Following lunch, the group had an easy walk to the Skyrail Cableway.  There we boarded cable cars for a stunning cableway excursion, sweeping above the rainforest canopy, that left us breathless, at least for me and Jimmy, Bernice and Ibby.  The entire trip lasted about 90 minutes, including a stop at Red Peak Station for a guided tour (via boardwalk) of the forest floor.  Wonder how many towers from to beginning to end?  33 towers in 7.5km, wow!  

We crossed Barron River at least once, and somewhere between Towers 18-25, our cable car seemed close enough to the canopy, that leaves looked almost within reach!  Bernice and I braced ourselves approaching each tower, usually accompanied by a "whoa" as we passed beneath it.

With the approach of the rainy season, Barron Falls wasn't a spectacular show, but it looked good to us.  We also liked the guys in the photo below. 💕 Ibby on the left, Jimmy on the right.  Cool guys in their hats.

From the cable car, I saw a lot of something that had me wondering, and when I asked later, I found out the yellow/ish whip-like "cords" I saw were part of a plant called Golden Lawyer Cane, a type of palm (Calamus australis).  It really stood out amongst all the green.  Don't know if you can spot it in the photo above.  Maybe enlarge the pic.

Returning to Cairns.  Really enjoyed this ride!

All day, we saw an array of Epiphytes -- staghorn, elkhorn, basket and bird's nest ferns.  

Even an orchid or two.

Back to Cairns, we regrouped and walked to the Tjapukai Aboriginal Park, which was quite an eye-opener.  We learned so much about the lifestyle of these northern coastal Aborigines. 

First we "got painted."  Lightly on me, please.

Playing the Didgeridoo.  What a sound!

This is a fierce warrior (from New Zealand?) 😀

Dancing a traditional corroboree.  You can tell the Americans from the native Australians ... they're the ones in western clothes.  Linda in blue shorts, then Ron, Ibby, Mary partially hidden, and Bob toward the right-hand side.  They managed to "do" a pretty good dance, while the rest of the audience joined in by singing and clapping.

Indoors, the gathering and cooking of bush foods, and medicinal values of native foods, was an interesting, hands-on presentation.  We watched a fire-making ceremony ... starting a fire like they did in ancient times, before matches, and then we trooped out to a field for boomerang and traditional "milay" spear throwing.  My first try at pitching the boomerang nearly lopped off someone's head (kidding), but on the THIRD try, my boomerang did a bat-turn and came back to me.  Jimmy did great on the spear throwing.  We'll probably never do these activities again, but it was fun giving it a try.

Finally, we posed one last time for a group photo, and I think we look as happy as a group of people who have successfully completed a fantastic one-month journey "on the other side of the planet," enjoying almost every moment.  Look at those smiles!  Life is good.