What's my Super Power? SUPERTASTER!

We celebrated our fifth, sixth or seventh Austin Christmas with the Wilson's (our son-in-law's parents).  I've lost track.  We all decided when Jay and Sarah got together that, as parents, we didn't want them to have to choose which side of the family to spend Christmas with.  Slowly, we've built extended family traditions over the years.  

We just completed this year's Christmas holiday during which we celebrated two birthdays (Jeff and Kit), enjoyed our Christmas surprises, saw the new Star War's movie - didn't that sucker seem REALLY familiar? - as well as ate our way through several of Austin's really great restaurants. (Can anyone say, 'Tacodeli'?) We shopped, drank wine, watched football, and we played our traditional table game, Scatagories, as well as we learned a new one called Hanabi, which is a Japanese game based on cooperation.  Sarah faithfully did her yoga routines - she and Jay begin every work day with a yoga routine. The rest of us just admired her dedication while we drank another cup of coffee.  Poor Jay was slammed with Austin allergies which really caught him off guard; he's had zero symptoms in NYC.  His suffering was the only downer of the holiday.

Kit, Sarah, and I are each responsible for one meal over the holiday, and I think Sarah, and her sou chef, Jay, won this year hands down:  Home made spicy Italian sausage lasagna, Caesar salad with home made Caesar dressing and hot fresh bread.  Kit was the runner-up with this wonderful salmon she baked.  I came in a distant third, as expected.  I threatened beans and cornbread for my meal this year, and everyone (except Drake) thought I should have just plugged in my crock pot and gone to bean town.  Instead I made turkey, gravy, and a bunch of sides with yeast rolls.  Next year, folks, no matter what Drake thinks, I'm making 15 beans and all the cornbread you can eat.

So, we were sitting around one evening after dinner chit chatting when Kit announced she was a supertaster.  We were all intrigued.  Apparently, she and Jeff attended a dinner party during which the 'party' game was laying a slip of paper on your tongue. If you are a supertaster, the strip will taste incredibly bitter.  Naturally, all of us were bouncing up and down on our chairs totally ready to taste our paper slip.

Kit handed them out, and everyone was like, "So, what's the deal, this tastes like a piece of typing paper."  Except for me:  I was making faces and saying, "Gag me, yuck. You can't taste this?  It's so totally bitter.  Water, water, I need water!"  Yep, I'M A SUPERTASTER!

This actually started me understanding why I find most red wines bitter as well as certain coffee brands.  I can tell instantly if Drake is palming Safeway brand coffee off on me because to me it has this perfectly bitter finish.  Sarah postulated the reason I never met a sweet I didn't like is because the sugar in desserts leaveneds bitterness in the other ingredients.  I think it's also why I drink my coffee with both sugar and cream.

Next, I wondered if there was any science behind this supertaster business.   According to Scientific American, supertasters actually have more taste buds and experience flavors more intensely.  We live in a 'neon tasting world' while for the rest of you, taste is pastel.  Approximately 15% of Americans are supertasters.  The Wall Street Journal interviewed a psychology professor, Linda Bartoshuk, at the University of Florida who has pioneered studies in smell and taste.  In her experiments, she discovered a group of people who could perceive bitterness others couldn't.  The professor named these people 'supertasters'.  She also found more women than men, more Asian-Americans and African-Americans than Caucasians are supertasters.  It's sort of a no-brainer a big percentage of professional chefs are supertasters.

On the downside, supertasters have a higher risk of colon cancer because those green, leafy veggies which fight off that disease are often our last food choice.  We also tend to eat too much salt which blocks bitterness.  I'm just glad I still find dark chocolate (up to a point) palatable.  Many supertasters dislike it along with hard liquor, and citrus (too sour).  Never hand me a Starbucks coffee because it's always bitter to me.  On the other hand, Dunkin Donuts or Tim Horton coffee each have a smooth finish on my palate.

You too can take a supertaster test.  The hard way is to dye your tongue blue with food coloring.  Then, lay one of those paper reinforcement rings on it and count the 'pink' bumps - each of those bumps contain hundreds of actual tastebuds.   Ordinary people have around 15 or so 'bumps' inside the ring.  Supertasters have over 30.  Less than 15?  You're the polar opposite of a supertaster - most food is very bland and unexciting to you.  The easy test involves sending off for taster strips you lay on your tongue.  Fortunately, Kit had tester strips, so we didn't have to break out the blue food coloring.

There's some interesting scientific studies happening which seem to indicate that supertasters are able to ward off upper respiratory infections, like sinus infections, more readily.  Another theory is some humans developed this high sensitivity to bitterness as a check against consuming poisonous plants which are often bitter.  I'll bet those pre-historic nomadic tribes which roamed around gathering edible plants all had a supertaster who helped sort out what was safe to eat, and what was not.

With Kit and I both being supertasters, our family is way above average in supertaster numbers.  The jury is still out as to whether of not supertasting is genetic.  However, neither of our children are supertasters, but then, neither are their fathers.  Who knows?  Nobody, apparently.  On the upside, we supertasters don't just perceive bitterness in foods, but we also have a heightened appreciation of the 'good' tastes too.  Armed with my new self knowledge, it explains my love affair with food, and why I like to try new foods.

Finally, Sarah turned to me at the conclusion of our supertaster test and said,  "You're going to be insufferable about this, aren't you?"  I just smiled and said, "You bet.  I'm a supertaster, and you're not!"        

It's Play-Off Time

We are headed into peak football time in America.  A smooth spot of living in Arizona during this time of the year is the timing of the games.  I feel like Goldilocks:  Football on the East coast starts too late, and football on the West coast starts too early.  However, football in Mountain Time Standard is just perfect.  The first pro game starts at 11 am, and you can even watch a college game during the season starting at 9 am!  Coffee and football; that combo is very satisfying.

I love football.  I've thought about that.  On the obvious level, it baffles me. First, it's really a simplistic game, and I'm many things but simple isn't one of them. Yes, I can hear all you football aficionados screaming at me, but what I mean is the basic RULES are pretty easily understood, and HOW the game's objective is accomplished is a no-brainer. (Move the ball down the field by running or throwing it at least 10 yards in four tries until the ball reaches the end area.)

My Dad taught me the game.  When I was thirteen, he insisted I join him for some of those early TV games.  He infected me with his enthusiasm for both college and pro football.  I learned when it was appropriate to talk and to not talk.  I picked up the lingo, so I could talk about the game before, during and after the contest.    Watching football was one of the few ways I had to spend one on one time with my father. Role models were like straight jackets when I was growing up.  Everyone insisted 'girls' could only be interested in certain things and 'boys' in their prescribed set of interests.  Girls really didn't even watch sports back in 1963, so my Dad was going against all the rules.      

He thought Bud Wilkinson, the Oklahoma University coach hung the world, so becoming a Sooner fan was automatic.  His admiration of Wilkinson has a lot to do with college football still being of more interest to me than pro football. The University of Oklahoma football was and still is the state's 'team'. Yes, I'm sure the O-state Cowboy fans will be howling, but truthfully, you all haven't produced.  Sit down and shut up until you do.  OU football began in 1895, and the program has 850+ wins, 154 All-Americans, 5 Heisman Trophy winners, and 45 conference championships.  The 'records' just go on and on.  We are really ready for our NEXT national championship.  I will admit to a wee bit of prejudice since I'm a grad.  Being able to participate as a fan at a big time college football school is quintessential college for me.

So, we Sooners are all atwitter because we are in our rightful place this year.  We are one of the four best teams in the nation and are in the nascent college football play-offs.  Yes, we fully expect to kick Clemson butt on New Year's Eve.  Then, hopefully, we'll get to humiliate the Crimson Tide in the 'big game'. If we have our druthers, that's exactly how it will go.

I do know all the play-off games will be a fun since college football is always zany.  Unlike the pro version of the game, you never know what might happen. Now is the time to have fun.  Very important not to jinx the team - don't wear any of that Tiger orange this week.  Time to complete the 'revenge' games sequence by flaming out that Clemson team who made the mistake of humiliating us in last year's bowl game.  Time for our quarterback to make his lack of Heisman invitation embarrassing for that committee.  Time for our backs to run and run and run, and time for our defense to have the Clemson quarterback hearing footsteps.    

There will be no tears shed, or stuff thrown around in our household whether we win or lose because ultimately, this is only a game. There will be a re-set, and the games will start again next year when it will be thrilling all over again.  This year, however, we're in the play-offs!  Look for the sea of Crimson in the stadium because Oklahoma fans 'travel' to see their team.  There will also be an army of us in front of the TV sets of America wearing their Sooner gear.  I, in fact, have a new Oklahoma shirt just for this occasion.   

So, as a lifelong Sooner, I have only one thing left to say...

    

 

More Than You EVER Wanted to Know about the Remodel!

     The biggest happening of this week is my granite got installed.  I looked and looked for the right granite.  We visited many, many, many granite yards and walked up and down aisle after aisle of granite slabs.  Naturally, all the yards are all the way across town.  And Phoenix definitely believes in sprawl, so it was usually anywhere from a 30 minute to one hour trip between our house and a granite yard.  

     Actually, it was very helpful I had granite installed in one of my Texas houses.  I learned then if you have dark wood cabinets, you need light colored granite; otherwise, your kitchen becomes a dark cave.  I also learned if you are going to the expense of granite, you should have ‘movement’ in it.  Movement is the natural variations in the stone.  Otherwise, just buy quartz, or Formica which are all uniform in pattern since they are man made.

   So, I tentatively picked out a few slabs which were ‘OK’. I was able to eliminate 90% of what I’d saw because the slabs were too dark, or the wrong color palette.  What I mean is I didn’t want white/gray granite because I have caramel colored cabinets.  Keep in mind, all granite slabs are stored in giant warehouses on concrete floors.  Oh, how tired my feet were at the end of a 'granite' day.  

Then, late in the game, we decided to add one more stricture:  Our granite slab needed to be three centimeters in width instead of two centimeters.  With a three centimeter piece of granite, you don’t have to glue (the fabricators call it laminate) an edge to the final counter top, you can just work the stone itself into whatever edge you want.  Well, as you can imagine, there’s slab after slab of two centimeter granite, but very few three centimeter slabs.  It’s all about cost.  Two centimeter granite slabs cost less than three centimeter slabs.

Back we go to places we’ve already been to check out any three centimeter slabs we might have missed.  Finally, almost on a whim, we went to one last granite yard which our fabricators recommended, and naturally, my granite slab was there just waiting for me.  I knew it was the one at once. 

It’s got a cream background with veins of caramel just the color of my cabinets with blotches of black, tying in my black appliances, as well as blotches of gray quartz tying in my new stainless steel sink.  An added bonus is at night when the light shines on some parts of the granite, there are some iridescent gold blotches at certain angles.  I love that the most – so unexpected, and subtle enough to be just a wonderful surprise.

Here is my granite in the warehouse

Another thing I learned from my Texas granite purchase, is the entire slab is yours no matter what percentage you use. Thus, we were determined to use every possible inch we could.  Drake actually cut out the counter tops in graph paper, and we manipulated the pieces on our graph paper slab of granite.  We had just enough.  

If you pick someone who can really work stone, then once you get the slab to the fabricator, you're home free. My fabricator even made me a 12” x 12” cutting board out of the cut out piece the sink drops into. Fortunately he carved handles because it weighs about 20 pounds.

Occasionally, there are accidents at granite yards.  Slabs are moved using a forklift equipped with what I think of as a fishing pole.  The chain dangling off the end of the pole has a rubber squeezer on the end, and slabs are fit into the squeezer and lifted dangling.  Then the fork lift moves the slab to wherever it's wanted.  It's how clients seen different slabs when they are stacked on top of one another.  Sometimes when moving slabs, they are dropped!  And when they are dropped, they break.  

Sometimes, fabricators sell back client leftovers to the granite yards, single slabs left over from a sold bundle, called orphans, wind up in the remnant section of a yard as well as the broken pieces from dropped slabs.  When I was looking for my granite, I ran across this fabulous slab which had green, navy blue and pink in it.  It was beautiful, but it was only two centimeters and, I thought pink and chartreuse green were not really my kitchen colors.  I did stop and admire this slab because it was really striking.  The young woman who was helping us mentioned she had a remnant of this granite since one of the slabs was dropped when they were moving it. 

Immediately, I realized what a great opportunity it was to have my built in bedroom vanity top out of this wild looking granite.  Drake negotiated a pittance price for the remnant, and again, realizing we would own the entire piece, I had the fabricator cut and polish the edges of the leftover section to exactly fit the top of another piece of my furniture.

This second piece I had fabricated out of the remnant is portable meaning not screwed down to the top of the furniture.  I glued some felt on the bottom of the granite piece, so it now just sits on the furniture piece, and believe me, it won’t move because it is HEAVY.

Well, now you’ve learned more about buying granite than you ever wanted to know.  It just shows you how consumed we’ve been with this house remodel.  I’m really very pleased with how it’s been going.  Driving today towards Texas, we were congratulating ourselves on meeting all our pre-Christmas deadlines.  

There have been only a few glitches during the process, and when you do this, that’s to be expected.  Fortunately, Drake was a project manager in his former life, so the glitches have been minor, and of someone else’s making.  An example would be the electrician got hung up on another job, was a day late coming to us, and set everything back coming behind him. Luckily, the sheet rock guy worked the weekend, and that got us back on track.

We've been working awfully hard for having hired others to do the bulk of the work.  I'm a 'silver' member of one of the largest on-line sales companies of materials because of my numerous purchases.  Packages have just been streaming into the garage including faucets, rough in valves, light fixtures, shower heads, grab bars and towel racks.  Naturally, one of the bulkiest things we ordered (the kitchen sink) was damaged. To the credit of Build.com, they replaced it immediately.  The fly in the ointment is after a month, the damaged sink is still in my garage since they are fighting with the shipper about who's going to pay for it.  

Yesterday, one day before we left for our Texas Christmas trip, I was in the bathroom finding places I needed to touch up with the new gray paint.  I know myself:  I would just go crazy standing in the new shower seeing some spot I missed painting. Take it from me, it really is much easier to paint a bathroom when there's no toilet, vanity, floor, or shower.  You can drip paint with impunity.  Drake painted the kitchen ceiling, and it was still a drag even though there was no floor to cover.  

When we return from the holidays, you can hear about the trials and tribulations of bathroom remodeling. Won’t that be fun?    

Swing that Hammer While Singing 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town'

Now I remember what the lead up to Christmas used to feel like:  A freight train bearing down upon me while I, running full tilt, tried to stay ahead of it.  Women are responsible for Christmas.  We are the logistical managers of this yearly project.  Most adult women have these lists, tangible and intangible, in our heads and on paper, filled with bullet points which say: 

• Get out the Advent Calendar
• Get family photo for Christmas Card/ecard taken
• Write chatty annual Christmas letter
• Address Christmas Cards (old school), or
• Send e-cards with kids' photos (new school)
• Plan charity gifts
• Find Christmas decorations
• Nag husband to get decorations down from attic/garage shelves/spare room closet
• Unpack and recondition Christmas decorations.
• Test the lights BEFORE stringing this year  
• Decorate house/office/school/church
• Buy tree/wreath/garland
• Decorate tree/wreath/hang garland
• What do I get the teacher, paper boy,  post man, co-workers, building super, or doorman?
• Figure out what the people in the family want
• Buy all the gifts
• Try not to get into buying frenzy this year
• Remember the reason for the season while taking deep breaths as you drive between holiday activities.
• Buy gift wrap and ribbons
• Wrap all the gifts
• Remember to TAG all the gifts while wrapping this year
• Get out special dishes
• Find Christmas table linens
• Figure out seating arrangements Christmas Day (Who's too old for the kid table?)
• Juggle Christmas party invitations.
• Figure out what to wear to all the parties
• RSVP Christmas party invitations.

And we haven't even talked about FOOD yet.  Let's just not go there.

Women in my age group who haven't 'let go' yet are basically comatose for the first two weeks of January because they are so tired from decorating, buying, gift wrapping, food shopping, babysitting, and cooking.  Young women are juggling the toddler/early elementary school set while working full time.  (They go from, 'Kid afraid of Santa. to Kid asking five times a day, When is Santa coming!)  I know there are women out there who would like to drive an ice pick through the heart of the composer of 'Jingle Bells'.  (This is the first song memorized by four to six year olds who love to then sing it at the tops of their tiny little lungs again, and again and again.) Women with older children don't have to work to preserve the Santa myth, but their cross to bear is reigning in pre-teen and teen Christmas greed and unrealistic expectations.  (No, I don't think a nine year old needs a make-up kit.  Are you kidding?  Do you know what the insurance cost is for a 16 year old boy driving a Corvette?  Plus, if your Dad can't have one, what makes you think you can?)

And we haven't even talked about FOOD yet.  Oh, Lord, so many special ingredients to buy.

Sprinkle all this with an unforeseen event like a house remodel, or an illness, or an unexpected trip,and Bob's Your Uncle, recipe for Hari Kari.  But, hey, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Holidays, Joyous Kwanza or Bah, Humbug as you please.  And, as I'm sure you're asking, why, why do we do all this?

• For the joy of posting something each day of Advent
• Loving the growth progression of the children in each Christmas photo
• Sharing the joys and heartaches of the year with close friends
• Experiencing the joy of giving to the less fortunate
• Basking in the beauty of the twinkly lights
• Loving the face of the gift receiver when you've 'nailed it'
• Remembering the woman who bequeathed you that special bowl or table cloth or utensil
• Knowing that showing appreciation to those who work for you and with you forge bonds of community
• Enjoying making the special foods which seems so time consuming until it becomes a family sharing event
• Taking the opportunity to thank your creator for the 'new beginning' Christmas represents each year.

May your Holiday be as wonderful as mine is going to be.

Enjoying Christmas is all about attitude.  

 

  

The First Thirty Things Before a Single Hammer is Swung or Tile Laid

1)  Check out nine books on bathrooms/kitchens/remodeling

2)  Speed read nine books on bathrooms/kitchens/remodeling

3)  Use three pages out of nine books on bathrooms/kitchens/remodeling

4)  Buy four new magazines on kitchen/bathroom design for a $35.00

5)  Buy eight old magazines (circa 1995) on kitchen/bathroom design for $2.00

6)  Discover the old magazines have identical ideas to new magazines

7)  Eureka!  $100 dual flush, small footprint, ADA toilet

8)  Look at 300 kitchen sinks - buy one which includes freebies.

9)  Look at 25 kitchen faucets - buy one with handle I can figure out how to use

10) Go to retail plumbing supply store - use smelling salts upon hearing price quote

11) Become a 'silver' member of an on-line building supply company due to large number of
       purchases

12) Learn to control eye rolling when Drake screams, "STOP CHANGING YOUR MIND"
       four times a day.

13) Convince Drake we need to remodel the second bathroom NOW

14) Look at 2000 pieces of porcelain tile

15) Buy 20 pieces of porcelain tile

16) Return 20 pieces of porcelain tile

17) Agree to postpone tile decision on 2nd bathroom until after Thanksgiving to save marriage

17) Investigate the reputations of fabricators, carpenters, plumbers, tile layers, and bathroom
       remodelers.

18) Interview fabricators, carpenters, plumbers, tile layers, and bathroom remodelers

19) Discover a stone company which can cut slabs of marble to 1/4th inch

20) Drake does the happy dance for a 'no grout' shower.  Remodeler does happy dance for sale of
       marble shower

21) Look at 500 pieces of slab granite in four places, all of which are at least 35 minutes away from
      Sun City.

22) Go back to four places to look at more granite.  Gasoline rewards are robust this month.

23) Learn to ignore Drake when he yells, 'CAN'T YOU JUST MAKE UP YOUR MIND!"

24) Buy kitchen granite slab in the very last place we looked for granite - HA, VINDICATED!

25) Do slab lay-out the old fashioned way - with graph paper cutouts - thanks to Drake

26) Look at 1000 bathroom vanities

27) Remember remnant granite at granite supplier - will get for bedroom vanity

28) Buy the 1001st bathroom vanity

29) Find glass cutter who comes to house to cut down mirrors

30) Find hall sconce which matches living room lamps

Let Us All Bow Down to the Master Clock

One smooth spot of Arizona living is the LACK of monkeying with the clock.  Because of the climate and the perverseness of people who choose to live in the desert, we do not observe daylight savings time.  As the human race, we've gone from clocks, as our ultimate luxury possession to being our slave masters.  Just because we've shed our wrist watches in favor of our mobile phones doesn't mean we've broken our bonds of servitude to the time keeper.

One of the joys of retirement is the sliver of freedom I enjoy from the tyranny of the clock.  A true luxury is being able to lay in bed when I wake up, and even better, to be able to simply lay there contemplating the ceiling rather than cataloging all my chores of the day, and what time they have to be done. 

Time management is something we practice whenever we have a project, but it's not a relentless daily necessity as it is in the non-geezer world.  A friend sent me a picture of her childrens' Halloween costumes, and my first thought was, "I wonder when she had time to make those?"  No wonder so many women step back or down in the working world when they are responsible for small children. In my day (a true geezer phrase is there ever was one), I didn't know a single father who took on the responsibility of Halloween beyond following kids around during the actual event eating their candy, or if you lived in NOLA,  drinking a Dixie long neck.

Now 'being at work' is being redefined by constant connectivity, and I initially thought the redefinition would actually mean more flexibility for working parents, but it really means EXTENSION of work time.  "Honey, I just need 20 minutes to clear my email."  "If I can work uninterrupted here in the bedroom for an hour without the kids banging into the room every 10 minutes, I can really free up tomorrow when I'll  be slammed."  "Hello, you're working NOW?"  "Just 15 more minutes."  See, how the clock has become even more controlling than when we started work at 8 and left at 5?  The tag line from some commercial says it best, "When did it become a luxury to leave work on time?"  The operative words in that sentence being 'leave' and 'time'.

So, today, you are being offered the carrot - an extra hour.  Isn't that swell?  I can remember being thrilled and waiting to change the clocks until the next morning.  Forget 2:00 am.  It was as if I got to stick it to those relentlessly marching numbers by turning them back.   Well, the piper is just around the corner.  First, it's going to arrive tonight when you realize it's already dark!  Second, next spring the clock has jet lag in your own home planned just for you....  You're just a slave.  Clocks rule!  And not always in a good way.     

High Country Musings

Abbie Greenleaf Library, Franconia

I'd put my library card collection up against anyone's.  OK, I really do know no one collects library cards, but it is quite fascinating to see the differences in libraries across the country.  I've seen more than a dozen libraries in the past five years.  My soft spot library is Franconia, New Hampshire.  Colonel Greenleaf built the Franconia Library to honor his wife Abbie in 1912.  It's a Jacobethan cottage made out of Indiana yellow brick, with stained glass window flags, and African mahogany woodwork inside.  It's like a dollhouse when you walk in.  The new addition is completely concealed from street view so as not to detract from the historically significant building.  It's on the National Register of Historic Buildings.

Each library has all the regular stuff - books, mags, computer terminals, newspapers, CDs, DVDS, and librarians, but each one has its little quirks. The Newport, Oregon Library was open more than ten hours a day, seven days a week. One (unnamed) library had to close and fumigate for bedbugs. The Austin Library has security to rival airports.  The

I'm pretty sure this is 'Fortitude' because I find Patience annoying.

NYC Public Library lions have NAMES (Patience and Fortitude) given to them by Fiorello LaGuardia, the Mayor of New York during the depression to stand for the qualities he figured New Yorkers needed to get through the tough times.  The Lake Tahoe Library was set smack dab in the middle of a city run RV park.  I've also discovered libraries are enamored with bronze statues.  They run largely to 19th century children seated reading books.  Those statues attract white haired ladies but not 21st century children.

A surprising number of libraries in really small towns have new library buildings.  The library in Fraser is one of these.  The Fraser Library is also doing a quilt raffle ( keep your fingers crossed for moi).  Fraser is unique in that it offers  a 'free basket'.  Every library sells stuff - usually their purged material or donated items.  In Fraser's free basket there are usually outdated periodicals and children's books.  Ruffling through the basket each trip has garnered some great reads.

The last time I found High Country News.  (Considering Colorado is the first state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, don't you just love the name?)  Actually, the subtitle is 'For people who love the West'.   It's a nonprofit news magazine covering environmental, natural resource, social and political issues affecting the American West - their words outlining who they are.  After having read two issues, it seems to be all about mountain living with a conservation twist.  Their advertisers are lots of small colleges touting their environmental/sustainability degrees, contractors outlining their 'green' residential construction, and travel opportunities for the adventurous.    In the second issue I read, they sprinkled the entire edition with famous quotes by conservationists beginning with Thoreau.  ("Simplify, Simplify.")  This publication is well written with thoughtful articles,  and essays.  If it hadn't been for the library, I'd never have heard of this magazine.

I loved the Marketplace portion of the magazine.  I've never seen help wanted ads like these:  Smith River Field Coordinator for Trout Unlimited.  Or, how about applying to be an Associate Director of Philanthropy for the Wyoming Outdoor Council.  I just wish they'd included the salaries being offered.  You can also buy stuff:  cast iron cookware scrubber,  ten floral varieties of raw honey, aromatic cultivated skin care, and my favorite:  Sign up for the 'green' dating website.

The point is libraries are still phenomenal resources of information and entertainment even in the age of hand held technology.  I've always been amazed by the vast majority of people who don't patronize their local library.  Are you still paying for downloading ebooks and audiobooks?  Why?  With a library card, you can access thousands of titles absolutely free.  Want to sample more than a hundred magazines and newspapers?  Check out your library.  They also offer classes tailored to the community they serve.  I've seen literacy classes and citizenship classes. Sun City offers a class to share your memories.  (OK, a little weird, but lots of people live alone in uber elderly land.)  Every library has story time for toddlers.  There's also homework help, writing classes, book clubs, tax help, technology help, and just a whole bunch more stuff.

My library card collection is in double digits; however, all you really need is one.      

      

The Post Season is Here!

In my baseball household, October is either a month to rejoice, or a month to absorb and reflect on the successes and disappointments of our team's 162 game season.  Fortunately, we are rejoicing since Drake's beloved Rangers are in the play-offs as the American League West Division Champs.  This is a double delight post season for us since the lowly Houston Astros are now RESPECTABLE, and without a doubt the Cinderella baseball team this year.  They've already kicked butt in Yankee Stadium, and took one game in KC.  The Astros were 'our team' the 20 years we were in Houston and New Orleans.  We had season tickets to the Astros when we were doing the DINK thing in Houston. 

Drake is a big believer in rooting for the home team, so when we moved to Hurst, Texas in 1990, a stone's throw from the Ballpark at Arlington, overnight we became Texas Ranger fans.  Drake is one of the faithful who believes in supporting his team whether they are last in the division at 67 and 95 (last year) or first at 88 and 74 (this year).  He knows more about baseball than any of the talking heads on TV.  He's also not a dyed in the wool, hidebound traditionalist.  Those idiots pretty much believe baseball should be played as it was in 1920 when the 'lively ball' was introduced. 

For the people who don't live with Drake Smith, let me explain.  The term 'lively ball' is a misnomer.  Ball manufacture was exactly the same before and after 1920.  What was different was a set of new rules.  In short, prior to 1920, one ball was used during the entire game (even foul balls were thrown back), and pitchers liberally 'doctored' the ball.  It became dirtier and dirtier.  A ball was only replaced when the yarn under the hide cover started to unravel!  As a game progressed, the ball became harder to see, harder to hit, and had less pop off the bat because of the deterioration of the ball. 

What prompted a whole bunch of new rules being adopted was the death of a player in the 1920 season. The poor guy couldn't see the ball well enough to get out of the way of a beanball, a ball that hits a batter in the head.  In the wake of the 1919 Black Sox gambling scandal, and Ray Chapman's beaning death, the traditionalists had to give way to the newly appointed baseball commissioner,  Kenesaw Mountain Landis.  He instituted numerous rule changes to the game.  One was the introduction of discarding balls and substituting new ones during the game when they showed any wear or tear.  Oh, and even though Gaylord Perry would disagree, spitballs became illegal.  So....after 1920, hitters could see the ball better, the clean, new balls had more pop off the bat, and the result was the start of the 'lively ball' era.

Now, it's the 21st century and Major League Baseball (yes, they capitalize all three words) is dragging its feet in adopting technology into the game.  They were dragged kicking and screaming into allowing umpires to be overruled by video replay.  What hasn't been corrected is allowing the umpires to affect the outcome of almost every single game played.  They are not neutral arbitrators. 

Every single major league park has 'pitch track' technology - in 3D!  In short, a high speed computer can look at a computer generated cube on every play and tell you exactly whether the pitched ball is a ball or strike in real time.  These calls are crucial.  A hitter and a pitcher adjust after every single pitch.  There are 'hitter counts' and 'pitcher counts'.  An entire ballgame can be compromised by an umpire who calls strikes which are actually balls and vice versa.  In fairness, the umpires do their very best, but what human eye can see exactly where a 100 mile fast ball as it crosses a 17" by 12.5" pentagon  and at what height?  Add in balls that literally wiggle around side to side or up and down as they cross home plate.  The problem is further compounded by the umpires' subconscious bias favoring seasoned star pitchers and batters.  

As you watch ANY baseball game this postseason, notice some of the media (TBS, ESPN) shows you the location of every single pitch using the pitch tracker, while other media (FOX) refuses to show the tracker at all.  Ever wonder why?  Well, it's an easy answer:  The tracker shows how inaccurate the umpires are at calling balls and strikes.  If you are lucky enough to watch a game showing the tracker, start thinking about how many calls are missed, and how different game outcomes could be if every pitch was accurately called.  In Drake's opinion, it's going to take a glaring, game changing outcome in the World Series involving balls and strikes before there's going to be any actual movement for technology adoption of the umpires 'announcing' the balls and strikes rather than deciding them.  He's just hoping to live long enough to see it.  That's a reflection of the stranglehold the traditionalists have on baseball.

One baseball tradition I can really get behind is the amount of superstition pervading the game.  Even Drake succumbs.  He's wearing his 'lucky sweatshirt' for every Ranger game now.  After all, they've won all three games when he has been wearing it.  I love to look for the superstitious aspects of the game.  They are often hilarious. 

Every wonder why there's so much weird hair in baseball?  It's all about superstition.  On the Ranger team, Derek Holland, who was sporting the "Wild Thing" haircut, abruptly got rid of it after a three game slump.  I would wager there's at least one member on each team in the play-offs who hasn't changed his underwear because everyone knows lucky underwear figures in any win streak.  Hats are notoriously lucky for pitchers.  Some of those toppers are so sweat stained and filthy, you know they haven't been swapped out since Spring Training began.  Notice the ritualistic hand movements from a hitter on base after a hit directed toward the dug-out.  The Rangers started this particular superstition by doing 'antler hands' in 2011.  Now, most teams have their 'I got a hit'signal' which usually changes from year to year.  Players follow strict pre and post game superstitious rituals.  Look for the elaborate hand and body movements between players in the dugout before a game starts.  Now, during the play-offs all the superstitions go into hyper drive. 

There are so many aspects to a baseball game, yes, even the ones which end 1 to 0, it's hard to be bored because this game is so complex.  It helps immensely to have Mr. Baseball doing commentary for me while watching.  Every part of the game is ramped up during the play-offs, so pick a team and get behind them.  Oh, and if you have any questions, they can be answered by Mr. Baseball himself.  Just let me know, and I'll pass them on.

GO RANGERS!   

       

      

Upcoming Lunar Show

There's a website I just love.  It's called 'Earth and Sky', and it sends me a newsletter everyday.  Yes, everyday seems like overkill, and I normally wouldn't put up with that.  I mean who has time (yes, even when you're retired) to read something which pops up in your mail box each day.  However, unlike gossip sites, or sell you something sites, this is all about geology and astronomy, hence, Earth and Sky.  (I've always wanted to use 'hence' in a sentence, so cross THAT off my bucket list.)

Anywho, E & S has about five stories everyday.  It also has fabulous pictures from all over the world as well as from space.  Another feature is a picture of the night sky with constellations, planets, comets and other see-able stuff plotted, so if inclined, you could actually FIND them.  Typical stories could be about something going on in the ocean, or following NASA satellites,  the happenings in outer space, or perhaps covering a large earthquake and the possible resulting tsunami.

It's always exciting when a lunar eclipse appears in the website.  This has been the year of lunar eclipses.  There's another one coming up on Sunday evening the 27th.  It's a full eclipse of the 'Harvest Moon', or Blood Moon which is the full moon closest to an equinox.  (That last sentence should convince you that I've really been reading this stuff, and it's sticking to me like bullhead burrs.) This full eclipse of a reddish tinged, seemingly over sized moon,  is going to be visible to all of North America.  Keep your fingers crossed for a cloudless evening because there's going to be a lunar event to which you're all invited.  The beauty of this one is it's going to start about 7pm MDT and finish up about 9pm.  You don't need any funny glasses or pinpricks in a sheet of cardboard to enjoy watching.  READER ALERT:  Figure out what time YOU can see the eclipse based on your time zone. This eclipse is so great because it's going to be in prime time.  We actually had to get up in the middle of the night in April to see the last one.  Standing outdoors in the middle of the night where coyotes regularly roam was a bit of a nervous experience not to mention the old people with weapons who could have mistaken us for prowlers.  

So, snap open the lawn chairs and pop the popcorn 'cause the universe is going to be putting on a Sunday night show. Just to whet your appetite, here's a pix of the moon I took from our balcony in Colorado.  Looks like we could have a front row seat for the upcoming elliptical event.     

Welcome to Fraser, Colorado, Home of Nothing.

There are two questions asked whenever we give the 'vagabonding' spiel to strangers.  The first is always, and I mean always,  "Do you have an RV?".  Then, we have to explain how we manage to travel around with all our stuff without having a recreational vehicle to live in.  I find this question ridiculous, actually, because I've been in RV's, and I've yet to see one which has more than a teaspoon of storage.  I mean, let's just talk clothes:   The closet in a typical travel trailer  is 20" wide, and the drawer space is about the size of two small bedside table drawers.  On this trip ALONE we took three seasons of clothes! I'm not even going to talk about RV kitchen storage.  The second question is, "How do you pick the places you go?" and the third is, "What's your favorite place?".  It never varies. 

Our initial pick for our six month vagabonding is always about what is there to see.  The second and sometimes third place in our six month travels all flow from the initial pick.  So....  This year we picked the odyssey trip across Canada from Newfoundland to Banff.  Our second destination, Colorado, was based on the end place, Banff.  If you unfurl your low tech paper map, or check your hi tech Google Map, you'll discover  Colorado is almost directly south of Banff.  We've drifted slightly southeastward, but absolutely directly south of Banff is Utah, and we've been there.  It was easy to settle on Colorado; we've talked about it as a primary destination before. 

Picking an actual place to rent is much more difficult.  It is a combination process of looking at places which will have short term rentals combined with things to do and see.  We also have to decide furnished or unfurnished.  (This trip was all about furnished rentals.)  For instance, I didn't really ever look at Denver, even though I knew there would be short term furnished rentals, because we live in a big city for half the year already.  When we are out of Phoenix, it's all about scenery, scenery, scenery unless we are headed for the Big Apple or a family event.  Colorado was also a natural for one of my big go to rentals:  ski condos.  I discovered when we went to New Hampshire in 2011 people line up to rent you their ski condo between Labor Day and before the heavy snow flies.  Nobody rents one of these places once the kiddos go back to school, and the skiers are certainly not interested.  Thus, when this ski condo popped up in Fraser, Colorado, with a great price as well as a heated pool and a fitness facility as part of the package, it was a no-brainer.  The added attraction was the closeness to Rocky Mountain National Park.

What I didn't exactly understand is how isolated this town is and how high it is.  We sit at 8550 feet in elevation.  That's enough to have you panting after you climb 14 steps.  Drake is still not able to do his typical eliptical workout.  This is a high, high mountain valley surrounded by mountains that are even higher.  To get back to Arizona the direct way, we have to climb over an 11,000 foot pass.  You'd better believe we'll be watching the weather like hawks from mid October.  Oh, it's gorgeous.

I'm looking at golden aspens and mountains right outside my deck patio door.  There's wonderful hiking within easy drives, and we've certainly taken advantage of several of them.  There's actually a 'movie theater' which offers two or three first run films each week.  It's actually a combo facility of movie theater and bowling alley, but it's here.  There are a surprising number of really wonderful restaurants because of the upscale Winterpark ski resort four miles down the road.  I made sure there was a real grocery store easily accessible before I even considered renting this place. 

What I didn't think about were box stores within a 30 mile radius.  There are none.  There's no drugstore beyond the Safeway pharmacy.  There's no Target, Walmart, K-Mart, Kohl's, Family Dollar, or Dollar General much less a 'mall' with Dillards, Sears, Penny's, etc.  There are a few boutique stores in Winterpark selling ski apparel or souvenir t-shirts, but there's no place to buy underwear.  The closest box stores are on the western side of the Denver metroplex, and that's a minimum of an hour away because of the mountain driving.

Initially, I thought, "Oh, no problem.  I shop on the Internet anyway."  What I didn't anticipate is there's no mail delivery in all of Fraser.  Everybody has to go to the post office and get their mail either via a post office box or 'General Delivery'.  Since post office box rental is a six month minimum, we get our mail here General Delivery.  Drew, the Postmaster of Fraser, Colorado, and I are now on a first name basis since I get a stream of letters and packages. Still, not really a deal breaker.  Everything in this town is within a 2 mile radius.  There are 1170 residents receiving mail counting Drake and I.

I didn't anticipate going to war with UPS.  Here's a little known fact:  Savy internet sellers sell you the item, then pick the shipper without notifying you before you buy.  Depending on where an item is being shipped, and what it is, dictates whether the item goes USPS, UPS or FedEx.  No problem, right?  Wrong.  Did you know UPS will not deliver to your local post office EVEN when there's no mail delivery in the town?  Then, when the UPS package is 'undeliverable', according to them, their system will not let you correct to your physical address for delivery.  A UPS help desk clerk hung up on me last week when I refused to accept their system and kept pressing as to why they wouldn't deliver my package to an obvious address (Fraser Post Office), and no, I didn't use a single word of profanity.  UPS lost one package, and only after our local driver intervened was it found, and he also managed to snag a second package out of their system and deliver it too.  Way, way too much drama.

I've come to the conclusion the due diligence of my selection criteria has to improve.  That's business speak for I have to be wary about living, even temporarily, in towns which are too small.  Our society is so urban now I expect to have access to certain levels of service.  We all do.  I don't think it's the weather which drives people away from a town or area; it's the isolation from services.  I'm not talking just about stores.  It's about health care, dental services, vision services, car repair, pharmacy services,  internet availability, appliance repair, and a myriad of other things we take for granted. Since my UPS tiff, I've begun to query people I run into about why they live here.  Of course, one of the answers is, "I've always lived here."  Another is, "I like to ski, (hike) (bike) (camp)", but another answer which keeps popping up is, "I like the solitude."  OK.  Yes, theoretically, I get that, but practically?  Nope.

I'll be in Fraser for  six more weeks.  Feel free to send me anything (like my birthday cards) to Jan Smith, General Delivery, Fraser, Colorado 80442.  Just don't try to use UPS; they don't admit the post office building exists.  While here, though, I'm concentrating on staying healthy and enjoying the natural beauty.

Jan on the top of one of the ski mountains

 If you want to enjoy more of my pix of the golden aspens, click on the link:

https://goo.gl/photos/jLNf6PdotJ7LQVKg6      

          

$448 and Counting

When you're a teacher, you count down with anticipation to the start of the new school year.  Internally you speculate about the upcoming crop of kids you'll be dealing with. You reminisce in your mind about the 'best years' and the 'worst years', even aren't above praying you won't have one of those 'worst' ones this time around.  Mentally, you think about the gaps in your supplies and begin to marshal resources.  Now, that I'm retired, I know as sure as Labor Day rolls around and the country settles into another school year, Shannon Sansom, Librarian Extraordinaire, will post a Donor's Choose project for us to support.

This year we are buying biographies for her high poverty, rural area, elementary school library.  And, no, the State of Texas does not provide enough funds for her school to buy very many new books.  And, when a school is located in a high poverty area, there are very few bake sales and fund raisers run by the PTA as in high and middle income suburban schools to raise money for school library books.

This Donor's Choose Project started me thinking about biographies I've read.  First, this is not my favorite genre, and I actually have only one period in my life when I read them almost non-stop.  I was in elementary school and somehow got on a biography reading binge. The first bio I remember was one of Clara Barton.  I suppose I was about ten years old, and while the idea of being a nurse didn't appeal at all, the idea a woman, a 'girl' in my terminology of the time, could achieve something so great as forming the Red Cross resonated with me.  I quickly combed the school library for every other woman's bio I could find.  Of course, in 1960 there weren't many, but there were enough to make me realize there could be other avenues in life than the one modeled by my housewife/part time working mother.  Children today still need to receive that revelation:  "There might be something different out there for me."

I dislike shilling for money, and I never use this blog to fund raise EXCEPT for this one donation I ask my readers for each year.  As always my request is easy to ignore, but if you do, at least wince at little when you complain about your school taxes or how 'bad the public schools are' this coming year when YOU could have done something positive to make a difference.  Your donation can be anonymous as well as tiny - $5 will do. More is graciously appreciated.  So, click on the link already and check it out.  Vetted, verified, and you can be certain your money goes where it says.

http://www.donorschoose.org/project/were-looking-for-a-hero/1652021/?utm_source=dc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=teacher_favorite_new_project&rf=email-system-2015-08-teacher_favorite_new_project_readmore&utm_content=project_read_more

Life is a Love/Hate Relationship

I love being old.

I hate being old.

I will be on Medicare in a few days.

I just scored on my first senior airfare.

I started lifting weights again after a three month lay-off; all muscles in my body hurt.

I don't care how old you are...it's hard to breathe at 8,555' of elevation.

I love having the time to actually visit with new people.

I love Drake's optimism - he thinks we are going to do a hike at 12,000' elevation.

I love being able to center my day around when the Texas Rangers play ball.

I hate centering my day around when the Texas Rangers play ball.

I love being able to indulge my travelin' feet for months at a time.

I love being done with child rearing.

I hate everyone is a grandmother except me.

I hate how pain has become incorporated into our lives.

I love having a self-disciplined husband.

I hate having a self-disciplined husband.

I love having two handfuls of library cards.

I love taking thousands of pictures of new places.

I hate having to learn new grocery store lay-outs CONSTANTLY!

I love learning what people in different parts of the country like to eat.

I love being back in Mexican food territory.

I hate being out of lobster country.

I love cool air in the summer.

I love warm air in the winter.

I love this life we lead.

The Best Canadian Pictures

I realized my last post was all 'words', and I know certain readers (you know who you are) never read a word I write and head only for the pictures.  So, thinking of you, I went back through the pictures I've taken this trip and picked out the best.  I probably added too many "words", but you can just ignore them.

Our initial trip fervor was to get to Connecticut and watch our daughter graduate with advanced degrees from Yale.  (Yes, I'm bragging.)  Here's perhaps not the best picture, but certainly my favorite picture.

Drake and Sarah at Yale Graduation - Oh, and I made the hat!
The hat thing is a Yale Forestry School tradition.  Her Environmental Master's Degree is from this school

I was so happy that day.  One of the best pictures taken of me in years was in the Forestry School graduation tent.

I decided if Sarah could have a hat, I could
take the leftover materials and make a
corsage.  I wish I'd had enough to make one for Kit,
Jay's mom.  We were all so very happy that day.

I expected moving on to Boston after graduation would be a let down, but it wasn't in the least.  Here's my favorite Boston picture

Fenway Park was a 'bucket list' attraction for Drake.
We had a great time; the ball park was everything everyone
always says about it.  The Rangers won 2 out of 3 - guess which one we saw?  

I had mixed feelings about Maine.  We initially expected to summer there, but I couldn't find anyone who would rent me a house when I tried for one in February.  In a way that's how the trip to Canada came about.  There are two pictures from Maine. The first is from Vinalhaven, Maine.  That's an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. You have to want to live there badly since it's a 1 hour 20 minute ferry ride from shore.  I'd be stark raving crazy in a week.  To visit however is wonderful.

Vinalhaven is all about lobstering or 'hauling' as they call it.  If you ate
a lobster this summer, most likely it came from here.

Bar Harbor is the bookend to Banff, completely a tourist town.  We spent time in Acadia National Park which was lovely.  I'd like to see it in the fall.  Here's Acadia.

The balanced rock is an 'erratic' - a random rock
different geologically than the area where it was
deposited as a glacier receded.

New Brunswick, our first Canadian province, and the most bilingual, was also the least photographic.  The most interesting 'attraction' we saw there was the Hopewell Rocks. These are towers of stone which are located in the path of the Bay of Fundy Tides which rise and fall about 35 feet on a normal day.  Low tide:  Walk around the base of the Hopewell Rocks.  High tide:  Kayak around the top of the Hopewell Rocks.  These are called 'flowerpots' since they have vegetation growing on their tops.

These are about the size of a four story building.

Nova Scotia was wonderful vacation with a teen aged Sarah 15 years ago.  We were eager to return to the part we didn't see then.

Bonus!  This is the first place we saw rhododendrons in bloom.
Breathtakingly beautiful.  We actually saw four, yes four 'springtimes'.  What a treat!

The real attraction in Nova Scotia was in Halifax:  The Citadel, a British Fort built in the 19th century, was so impregnable, it was never attacked.

This is one half of The Citadel which sits on the highest hill in Nova Scotia overlooking the water access
to the city of Halifax.  I'm on top of on of the three foot thick walls looking down on the courtyard.

I would be remiss if I didn't include a picture of the Wile Carding Mill, a peek into the

early Industrial Revolution.  As a person with an American History degree, this was thrilling!

Most of these mills burned down, often killing workers.
 All these mills, and there were about 50 in the hey day, is a tinder box.

We caught the ferry to Newfoundland at Sydney, Nova Scotia.  I was really dreading the 10 hour crossing.  There was a lot of hand wringing on my part and ginger chomping since I was completely positive I was going to be sea sick for the entire crossing.  Of course, all worrying is so useless.  The sea was like glass; I slept the night away  People who worked the boat told me it was the smoothest crossing they could remember this year.  Newfoundland was fabulous and would have been worth even a rough crossing.

Here's the Western Brook Pond.  It's an enclosed fjord.
This is one  of the ten boat trips we've taken on this journey.

Gros Morne is a UNESCO National Heritage Site because of it's unique geology.

This is Bonne Bay, formed by glaciers, and in the background is the brown tablelands rock from the earth's mantle right beside the remains of an ancient ocean.  This juxtaposition helped prove the tectonic plate theory.  

When in parks we are always on the look-out for animals.  This sighting was one for the books.  Park workers told us the small herd of caribou in the park have learned the cars stop for them, and treat the highway as the easy way to move from meadow to meadow.

He walked right beside the car!

We hated leaving Gros Morne, but we actually changed our itinerary to loop up to Twillingate on the north shore of central Newfoundland to see icebergs.

Now, this was a boat outing!  It was also the roughest sea by far.  I had to wedge myself on deck to take this picture in 40 degree temps with threatening rain.  Glad I brought my long underwear.

The other fascinating thing about Twillingate was the local museum.  Here's the centerpiece of their little historical museum

This polar bear arrived in town via ice floes about ten years ago.  He ambled around town for hours.  The bear finally had to be put down.  Now, he lives on in the town's museum.

If I had to name the most unexpected attractions we encountered in Canada, it would be the churches, notably, the Catholic churches.  Here's the St. John's Basilica in St. John's, Newfoundland.

I chose the long shot to give you the grandeur of this church.

The one boat ride I've been thinking about since February was the Puffin Boat.  Well, the puffins didn't disappoint.  How could they?

Aren't puffins great?  The adolescents spend 3 years at sea before they return to land to mate.  That's your puffin fact for the day.

A feature of St. John's was brightly painted houses.  In fact, most of Newfoundland is filled with houses painted every color in your imagination.  Surprisingly, in other cities and provinces this is a recent phenomenon, but it's really caught on.

Typical street in St. John's.  This kind of whimsy makes this city very livable, and I can imagine how cheering it would be in a winter I can't even imagine.

Coming back from Newfoundland, we entered what I thought of as rural France.  Actually, it was the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec, our fourth and the most difficult province of the trip.  French, French, French everywhere.

You are looking at where the St. Lawrence River flows into the Atlantic Ocean

Because of the preponderance of French, Quebec was frustration at every turn. However, it was lovely. I loved the Halte Municipals - public washrooms.  (After Canada, I don't think I'll ever think of public conveniences as anything except 'washrooms'.)

Every town on the Gaspe peninsula had an immaculate public washroom.  The USA could take a hint.

I can't leave the Gaspe Peninsula without sharing my picture of our first moose.

I guess these animals are real after all.  We've seen two so far standing in water and eating water plants.

Finally, the major tourist attraction of the Gaspesie (Gaspe Peninsula) is the Perce Rock

We were sitting on a patio drinking a bottle of Pinot Noir when I shot this photo.

We took ANOTHER ferry in Matane, Quebec to cross the St. Lawrence.  Matane was an industrial town, but I ferreted out the Jardin de Doris

Say hello to lupines.  Another flower that was unexpected.  

I knew there would be flowers in Canada, but I wasn't prepared for the devotion to their flower beds and gardens especially the French Canadiens.  Some yards in extremely modest homes were breathtaking.  I also loved these flowers

We actually stayed in Levis across the St. Lawrence River from Old Quebec City.  There were excellent pictures to take of the city from the ferry.  Old Quebec City place filled with architectural wonders as well as a magnificent mural

Here is the history of Quebec City in picture form.

What was the most fun thing about Quebec City?  The funicular, of course.

This device, in service since 1879, is the connector between Upper and Lower Quebec City

The Notre Dame Church in Upper Old Quebec was breathtaking

I could put up a zillion pictures from Quebec, but I'll leave you with one more.  Here's the most photographed hotel in the world

What a monstrosity!  I took this picture from the ferry.

Quebec to Ottawa was a short hop.  Ottawa is the capital city of all of Canada.  Here's what Drake wanted to do most of all

The Changing of the Guard  happens at 10 am every morning, rain or shine, since 1954.  I really like  I captured their feet in the air.  They are actually doing parade marching as part of the ceremony.

We really liked the museum scene here since most of the National Museums (think Junior Smithsonian) reside in Ottawa.  Here's part of the most striking exhibit at The Civilization Museum

He's going on the road with his dog, his frog, his raven, his whale, his wolf, his child and his wife.

 The funniest thing about Ottawa?  It was the gargoyles scattered all over the Parliament Buildings.  Here's my favorite

I guess he's praying for honest legislators and just laws.

Our favorite city was Toronto.  We are considering spending next summer in upstate New York because we didn't get enough of this place.

This picture may look a little funky - but we were on the other side of an arm of Lake Ontario on our bikes
when we spotted the Toronto skyline.

We are definitely fans of the Canadian Seven.  They were a group of seven painters who decided to paint Canadian landscapes beginning right after WWI.  My favorite painter in that group is Lawren Harris, and here's my favorite picture from the exhibit

Lawren Harris, 'Grounded Icebergs'  After seeing the real McCoy, how could I not like this picture?

Harris decided to rent a railroad car about 1920 and have the Transcontinental Canadian Pacific haul the car to Agawa Canyon, a scenic spot, an hour and a half outside of Saulk Sainte Marie, Canada, and he painted in isolation for the summer.  We took a relaxing train ride to the spot.

Agawa Canyon - weather didn't cooperate, but this was one beautiful place.

We went to Sudbury, Ontario to do laundry, and we found

The 'Big Nickel' - couldn't resist including this - it was so over the top.  That nickel is 30 feet in diameter

Drake dreaded the drive around the north side of Lake Superior.  It turned out to be an outstanding scenic drive which we both enjoyed immensely.  One section if famous for its amethyst mines - guess who got a new necklace?

Here's a Lake Superior roadside attraction:  the second largest waterfall in Canada.

The largest waterfall in Canada was so enormous 'waterfall' is too small a name for it.  Niagara exceeded both our expectations.  I'll never forget the sound of the falls.

Maid of the Mist at Horseshoe Falls.  That's American Falls in the distance.

Winnipeg, Manitoba is the type of place you have to ask yourself, "Why would anyone want to live here?"  It's a lively city, but even in the summer, the wind was blowing constantly.  Can't imagine winter and the wind chill here.

This is the National Museum of Human Rights.  It's the first national museum in Canada to be
 opened in 40 years.  It was beautiful with that terrific observation tower on top.

Winnipeg is also known for Folklarama - a celebration of all the ethnicities the railroad dropped off here at the turn of the century.  You go to pavilions, eat ethnic food and watch entertainment.  Lots of fun.  We timed our visit for this event.

All the hosts, performers, cook and servers are volunteers.  There are about 30 pavilions you can visit
in the two week festival period 

So, we are driving, I'm embroidering, and had my head down.  I looked up and we had popped out onto the prairies.  Actually, as soon as you drive down off the Canadian Shield (a big rock shelf that covers almost one-third of Canada) the prairies begin - abruptly.

We came down off the Canadian Shield, and I swore I had landed in West Texas.  I felt just like a reverse Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.

This prairies were comforting.  Familiar, yet a little unfamiliar.  The drive was not boring.  The amount of agriculture we zipped past was like a combination of West Texas cattle county and the flat rich black soil of the Midwest. Here's a crop growing I'd never seen

Say hello to canola.  I took lots of pictures out of the car windows - have to when you're driving 11,000 miles in a trip.  

As we headed further west, the landscape changed again

These rolling hills held a surprise - the badlands.

We headed for the dinosaurs in Brooks, Alberta.  What I didn't expect was the super-sized form of Palo Duro Canyon.  These are the Canadian badlands.  They don't rise above the land, the sink down into it just like Palo Duro does in West Texas.

This place was a photographic dream.  I could put up 20 pix.  This as a fun place to hike.  It is also paleontologist heaven because of the major dinosaur bone finds.

And the dinosaurs they dig up in Dinosaur Provincial Park wind up in an internationally famous dinosaur museum called the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

The mineral content turned this complete skeleton black, thus the nickname.  The entire museum was really
impressive, but this guy is the jewel of their collection.  If you have any little kiddos, I have a complete dinosaur photo album designed just for kids.  Email me, and I'll send it to you. 

After Brooks, we headed for Jasper, Alberta, and the home of Jasper National Park.  We maximized our time there with our 10th boat outing on Maligne Lake

You can't beat these glacier lakes fed by snow melt.  These peaks are about 8 - 10 thousand feet.
Definitely in the Canadian Rockies now.

The boat ride was out to 'Spirit Island' which is just this tiny spit of land.  Hey, it gives a reason and destination for a boat ride.

And here is 'Spirit Island' in all its glory - actually, this reminds me of St. Mary's Island in
Glacier National Park.  You should have seen the people with tripods and foot long lens, some even getting wet to take this picture.

The bonus of this boat trip was this mother moose and her two calves.  Of course, there were people creeping too close.  We were on the boat, and our boat commentator was getting quite worried as people kept edging up and actually got BETWEEN the mother in the water and the calves on shore.  How stupid can people be?  Pretty stupid.

Then we headed down another famous scenic drive, Icefield Parkway, which was pretty much compromised by smoke which has drifted in from the wildfires in Washington state and Idaho.

Here's a glacier - thus, the name Icefield Parkway

The other major attraction of the Parkway is Lake Louise; however, we were at the peak of tourist time and we couldn't even find a parking spot to be able to get even a glimpst, so we settled for Peyto Lake recommended by a Canada Ranger we ran into in Newfoundland!

This is Peyto Lake; you can see the smoke in the picture (to the right), and we contended with growing smoke from wildfires in Washington and Idaho from this point forward

We landed in Banff, the bookend to Bar Harbor both being uber tourist towns.  To be fair, Banff (like Bar Harbor) has done a good job at being a town whose sole purpose is to live off the tourist trade.  Banff especially has devised an entire system of bike and hiking trails that leave from town to a number of their 'attractions'.  Good thing for us - we lost the car for 3 days having the car towed to the next town over and repaired.  Here's one of those 'bike to' attractions.

Riding our bikes here was a much fun as the attractions.

Surprisingly, there was even some thermal activity near Banff.

Now, the thermal pools are closed to people because of an endangered snail.  It would have been a stinky soak; the pools are sulfurous

The real beauty of Banff is not the attractions so much as the locale.

On our last day in Canada, the smoke from wildfires abated, and here's the reason people have been coming to Banff since the transcontinental railroad arrived in 1880's.

Canada was one wonderful site after another with several UNESCO Heritage Sites as well as one of the world's great natural wonders.  This trip was a joy and at the same time exhausting.  Drake and I both are glad we did this, but we both agreed our normal travel style of settling into one spot for two or three months works better for us.  I leave you with my favorite Canada picture

Even my photographer friends have to admire this one.

If I had to pick one place for a Canadian vacation, it would be Newfoundland.  It's hard to get to, has terrible roads, and is vast.  That said, they have the best scenery and the most delightful people.