Sunday, December 27, 2009

Tucson Holiday

Happy Holidays everyone! Chris and I are enjoying our Christmas trip to Tucson, AZ to visit my Mom and her hubby Bob this Christmas. We are here for a week and thus far have been really enjoying hanging out, hiking, and being in completely different surroundings.

Moon rise over saguaro cactus at Kings Canyon, Saguaro National Park

Christmas morning found us drinking coffee and opening stockings near the fire. Stockings are a tradition with my family and even though we promised no presents this year, due to pricey airline tickets, Mom surprised us with stockings anyway. My stocking contained a nice mix of old and new, some ornaments from my childhood, a locket belonging to our family being passed on, and some new decorations for our tree. A very thoughtful and reminiscent way to celebrate the holiday. Then we moved on to a yummy breakfast, then a long hike at Kings Canyon at Saguaro National Park.

Petroglyphs at Kings Canyon, Saguaro National Park

We walked up the wash, looking at cactus, ferns from the recent rain that had greened up, rocks, and even Petroglyphs. It was such a neat way to spend time with one another, pointing things out, talking, joking, and marveling at our surroundings.

Mom and I hiking the wash at Kings Canyon, Saguaro National Park

We Scrambled up rocks, took in the sweeping views, spotted birds, and checked out the old mine along the trail. Then we headed home and, orchestrated by mom, cooked up a wonderful evening meal (it was mostly mom though).

Yummy Christmas Dinner, Tucson, AZ

Grilled pork tenderloin, roasted butternut squash, acorn squash, and sweet potato, stuffing, grilled green beans, and yummy sauteed red cabbage. The table setting included, Christmas Crackers, a throwback to when I was growing up in the British Virgin Islands. Chris had never seen these before, so it was really neat to cross hands and 'pop' the Christmas Crackers open with him, discovering paper crowns, jokes, and prizes. We had a wonderful Christmas day, and are looking forward to more visiting, talking, and laughing in the days to come. Merry Christmas everyone!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Solstice

Happy Solstice everyone! On Sunday our friends L&M invited us over to their house for a Solstice party. We had a lovely dinner, wine, and lots of good music, talk, and laughter. L and her family have a tradition of writing wishes and goals for the coming year, or notes of thanks on pieces of paper and tucking them into the Yule Log, then burning the Log in the fire.


Then your thanks, goals, and wishes are heard, and will come to fruition. We had a warning to be sure about what we were wishing for, and all of us filled out a few pieces of origami paper and tucked them into the Log.

Then L&M placed the Log on the fire and we all sat and watched it burn. Presents and more wine followed. Stories were told. Games were played. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the arrival of lengthening daylight; the promise of sun, spring, and hopefully, a few of those wishes.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Trickery

Mid week last week my husband requested a spelunking day in San Francisco for this Saturday. Spelunking is our term for an un-formulated day of adventure, in which you spend the day using public transportation, hopping off at spots that look good to you, which you proceed to explore. We had not done this for a while so I jumped at the chance, and we set the day aside for exploring. On Saturday we slept as late as we wanted (oooohhh 7:45 so very late), sat about drinking coffee, then agreed to walk the one mile up to the train station picking up breakfast along the way.
We stopped in at a greek dinner and had omelets, then boarded the train to the city. We switched to the BART line, and decided to ride to the Embarcadero station and visit the Ferry Building. Climbing up the stairs to street level we remembered that it was farmer's market day at the Ferry Building. Though things were wrapping up at the market, we spent a little time winding around the stalls in the rain, eyeing cheeses, bread, fruit, and meats. We went and stood looking at the Bay for a while then meandered into the Ferry Building to look at the vendors and scout out a light lunch. We ended up with two superb Acme bread company Salami, butter, and cornichon pickle sandwiches on lovely still-warm french bread and found a table overlooking the ferries to eat.
Chris then proclaimed that he knew what he wanted to do next and we walked over to the Cable Car stop and rode up to Grace Cathedral. Chris had sung there in High School for choir and said he wanted to go see it again. When we arrived there were some signs about a concert happening that afternoon, but we figured we had about 30 min to go inside and check out the cathedral. When we stepped inside Chris headed over to the will call table, and I thought he was going to inquire about possibly buying tickets. But instead he asked for the tickets under our name, that stinker! He totally pulled one over on me! I had no idea that he had pre-planned the whole thing. He didn't let on at all! He even tricked me into eating lunch so I wouldn't be hungry for the concert. It was very tricky, and a lovely surprise. The Men and Boy's choir put on a concert, which was amazing. The space was filled with their incredible voices singing a mix of old and new christmas hymns. I actually had to breath in hard a few times to keep myself from crying, it was so beautiful. Though I am not particularly religious, I came away completely understanding how people could be inspired to fully believe. I was filled with awe from the whole event, and have probably said thank-you to Chris about 30 times in the past 24 hours.
After the concert we walked the Labyrinth outside the Cathedral, then made our way over to North Beach for a visit to the City Lights Bookstore. We browsed for a while and came away with couple of books, then went to a nearby cafe for a beer. We then went to the Stinking Rose for dinner, somewhere I have always wanted to go. This place is a serious garlic lover's dream. they claim to serve over 30,000 pounds of garlic per month. We sat at the window there, people watched, and ate probably about a pound of garlic between the two of us. Then it was off to watch A Christmas Carol in I-Max 3-D at the Metreon Theater. We arrived early got our 3-D glasses and were the first in the Theater. The movie was very, very good and was very true to the book. The 3-D was great, and I can see how 3-D might save the modern movie theater. Then it was off to the last train out of San Francisco of the night, a rainy walk home, and bed. All in all one of the best days ever.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

cold snap

The Bay Area has been visited by cold snap, just in time to get us all in the mood for the impending holidays. Monday morning I stepped out the door and was greeted by a definite chill in the air. I hopped onto the highway and looked up to the surrounding hills and was greeted by heavy layer of SNOW(!) glowing white from the tops halfway down the slopes. Amazing and rare. Tuesday morning I spent 5 minutes scraping ice of the car windshield. I stole Chris's covered parking spot last night and avoided ice again today. Working outdoors for 3-5 hours a day in the chilly air (33 degrees this morning) has been a fun difference, though my nose may beg to differ. My goal is to stay warm for the next few days and then zoom off to the desert with Chris on the 19th to visit my Mom and her husband Bob for Christmas. It still gets cold in Tucson, but hopefully we will be able to eat lunch on the porch and hike in the afternoon without bundling up.