From Covid California Back To Pandemic Panama - March, 2021

Being Here 

After 4.5 months of quarantining estilo estadounidense in Sacramento (more below) we are now back on Isla Bastimentos (locally: Basti) in Bocas del Toro, Panamá. 

Same Caribbean - Different View

We have found a soft landing spot in a vacation villa at the Red Frog Beach Resort while Bryce and the guys at Bocas Yacht Services finish up a few below-water-line projects on Abracadabra. Importantly, after months of only WhatsApp pictures, Bryce has finally been able to take a first hand look at the work done in his absence, including the dried-out, rebuilt and seriously reinforced rudder. 

This Baby Could Crack Ice

All's well -- though life on the hard has left Abracadabra spectacularly grubby. Cleaning =  project next.

While work on Abracadabra is underway we will enjoy the beautiful view from the back porch of "our" comfortable and very nicely appointed and equipped villa. Which comes with its own front-row seat to the Basti Island wildlife show. 

In only a few days of residence we have observed big birds, little birds, colorful birds, humming birds and Capuchin monkeys - several in the trees, one strolling across the lawn and one old chap who pointedly left his scat at each end of the back porch, gang marker style ("this area is controlled by the Westside Basti Capuchins!"). 

Elderly Capuchin, Refusing To Make Eye Contact
(Picture Cropped To Eliminate Scat)

One afternoon a hawk flew into the house through the open front door and bonked itself against the glass sliding door in the back. Molly flapped and hooted something helpful like "Oh my god! Oh my god!" while Bryce covered the (fortunately only slightly) stunned hawk with a towel and carried it outside. After shaking its head in a WTF was that! sort of way, the hawk flew off to tell a wild story to its compadres. As have we (telling, not flying).

The owners of the villa arranged to have window and door screens installed this week which we originally thought would be helpful to keep the mosquito and random assorted insect populations at bay -- but now we are thinking their primary purpose may be to deter visiting birds and monkeys! 

Junier Wilson and His Assistant -
So Glad To See Them! 

Though we are glad to be back on Basti, and we are looking forward to the reopening of Nacho Mama's (beach bar tacos), it is with great sadness that we report the departure of both of our pizza purveyors; one high-tailed it to Hawaii and the other returned to Colombia. It may be time to learn how to make pizza dough. Hundreds of people around the world have used this pandemic stay-at-home period to perfect the art of baking bread -- surely one of us can figure out pizza dough. 

Getting Here

Our return to Panama was less personally stressful than our trip from Panama to California last October in part because it was our second experience with pandemic travel -- but mostly because we both are fully Pfizer vaccinated (thank you, County of Sacramento). We are as personally protected as one can be at this point in science. And yes, we still wear masks and distance ourselves from others.  

Panama requires everyone entering the country to provide evidence of a negative-result Covid test taken within 48 hours of arrival or to take a test at the airport upon arrival. Travelers who test positive at the airport must quarantine for 14 days in a government-approved hotel in Panama City: two weeks of delivered hotel food and CNN International followed by a whopping credit card bill -- and that's for the lucky ones who aren't terribly sick. We took rapid-result Covid tests in the LA area and, fortunately, tested negative. Also fortunately, our test results were accepted by the authorities at Tocumen airport. 

The comfort of having negative test results and being vaccinated also allowed us to join Molly's brother Rob, our brother-in-law, Tom, and family standard poodle, Bravo, for dinner at an out-door Italian restaurant in Los Angeles. We had not seen them for over a year!   

Being There 

Our time in Sacramento, much of it spent outside, passed pleasantly. We enjoyed watching the seasons change.

Spring Flowers Said Good-bye

Fall Colors Greeted Our Arrival 
(Official Delivery Van Of The Pandemic
Included To Date The Shot)

          The Best Part of Our Stay: 

Seeing our California peeps was wonderful - so much better than Zooms (not that those haven't been a pandemic-sanity-life-line). We primarily socialized outdoors, thankful for the up-side of a dry winter season. Fire Season will undoubtedly be brutal, but we chose to enjoy the moments we were given. A favorite social activity became "walk-chats" with friends through the area's many parks.

Camellias At Capitol Park**

               ** We did a bit of a U-turn to avoid a small "Recall Newsom" rally, complete with vendors of left-over Stop The Steal stuff, in front of the Capitol's West Door; not much enthusiasm, not much of a crowd.

We joined friends Anne and Perry for a delightful outdoor wine-tasting event at Miraflores. 

One evening, friends Irene and Frank convinced us to join them to view Sandhill Cranes return from their day-time haunts to their night-time resting spot at the Isenberg Crane Reserve near Lodi. Though the helpful docents we remember from our visit years ago weren't there due to pandemic restrictions (reservations required when they are) we were able to see the birds.

Indoor socializing was first limited to our "pod" - friends Ken and Claudia - but once our age-cohort began to be vaccinated we were able to enjoy indoor dinners at a couple of other friends' homes. Jacket-free dining! We wonder how difficult it will be to go back to the noise and discomfort of indoor restaurant dining, particularly for those of us with friends who are excellent cooks. [A few examples: Frank's back-yard tempura was oh-my!-level delicious and Toby and Patricia's ravioli was much better than the tortellini served at the restaurant in LA.]

          The Holiday Part of Our Stay:

(Much of This Is a Sub-Set of The Best Part of Our Stay)

It was fun to decorate our first full-sized Christmas tree in [a lot of / maybe 10?] years. 

A Real Sized Tree! With Long-Forgotten
Ornaments Found In Our Storage Locker

 

And wonderful to join our "pod" - Claudia and Ken - for holiday feasts. Thanksgiving passed without pictures, but we pulled out the phones at Christmas:

Christmas "Pod" Gathering -- Masked

The "Pod" At Table

We even hauled out some of our gazillion nativity scenes from the storage locker and spread them around our rental house. 

Arnold Family Nativity From Palestine

A Favorite From Mexico;
Hand Model To Provide Scale

          The Sanity-Preserving Part of Our Stay:

On our own, we walked and walked and walked along the Sacramento River levees and the greenbelt parkway which links the river and the flood control canals that seem to run on / branch out forever. We enjoyed recognizing and greeting our temporary neighbors (the young woman who talked on her phone while flinging a tennis ball that her dog loved to fetch; the retiree that working on his golf putt most afternoons; the elderly wheelchair-bound lady and her jovial care-taker; etc.) and viewing local birds.

An Honor Guard Flanks A Canal

Suburban Turkeys

We continued our Zoom connections. Friends Toby and Patricia have set up a monthly Italian wine tasting Zoom which has been a lot of fun. Toby chooses a wine, tells the group a little bit about it (the region of Italy, the grapes -- all that wine stuff) and has each viewer weigh in on what they think. We are not only impressed by Toby's knowledge of Italian wines -- but by his ability to gently herd a bunch of wine-drinking cats! We worry we may not be able to continue to weigh in from Panama. Our internet connection may be good enough, but Bocas del Toro is better known for sweet rum drinks than Italian wine.  

          The To-Do List Part of Our Stay:

In addition to Covid vaccinations we were vaccinated against everything on our doctor's list of stuff-old-people-should-get-vaccinated-against (flu, pneumonia, shingles - the works). We figure at this point we are practically invincible - or totally under the control of Bill Gates - or maybe both. Molly's cataract surgeries went well and she is delighted with her good eye-sight and that she no longer has to keep track of glasses, contact lenses and related cleaning liquids while traveling. Bryce had a post-cataract surgery issue taken care of as well.

Bryce purchased a new computer which involved moving documents and pictures from the old computer and to/from the cloud and was accompanied by a great deal of profanity; it's what they taught him during his Microsoft certification courses. All worth it from Molly's standpoint; OUR computer is now HER computer. 

We would mention that we got rid of some things in our storage locker but, well - it doesn't really look that much better. Sigh. Even small progress is progress.

So, Next . . .  

We will watch birds and monkeys; work on Abracadabra; contact shipping companies to see what we can find out about shipping Abracadabra to British Columbia; and take care of ourselves and each other. 

To All You-All:

Take care of yourselves. Let us know how everything is going for you and yours. We hope to see you soon -- even if only on Zoom! 

Getting From There To Here In The Time of Covid -- Panama to California

What an idea -- a travel blog with a post about traveling! The Panamanian government announced that its grace period for tourists overstaying their six month welcome-to-Panama-status would end October 31, so we thought it best to go. Here's how that went for us - though, spoiler alert: we have arrived in California in good health. 

Before we go further we want to be clear that this isn't intended to be a "how you can still travel during a pandemic if you ignore public health warnings" post any more than our posts about sheltering in place in Panama were intended to be about "how you can arrange to hide from the plague on a Caribbean island". This blog is about our nomadic life choice -- what we experience and observe. And this pandemic has been part of that. Currently travel is not recommended by anyone, including us.  

Jungle Lodge 1 To The Crowne Plaza, PTY - Day 1  (Oct. 29)

We arranged a private water taxi ride from the Red Frog Resort on Basti to Bocas Town for the crew of Abracadabra and our neighbor (and weekly pizza purveyor) Tatiana. 

Taxi!

We weren't surprised that our "private" taxi's first stop was the nearby Ngobe-Bugle village at Bahia Roja. Even before the tourist economy crashed, water taxis operated more like water buses -- anyone and any thing who could fit was welcomed by the driver. In a pandemic economy we just couldn't say no to either the driver or the Ngobe woman he took on board. Though we would have been more comfortable if she had worn a mask . . . 

The water taxi ride was uneventful as the bay is usually quite smooth on "winter" mornings. 

The Ngobe woman passenger masked up when we arrived in Bocas Town, apparently more concerned about the possible fine than the plague.

On the main street of Bocas Town we were approached by the attendant for a colectivo (a small passenger van operating as a private bus) who agreed to operate the van as a private taxi. A plastic sheet was draped between the passenger seats and the driver, the driver and attendant (the fee collector / ride negotiator) wore masks and it was one of the cleanest colectivos we have ever been in. Hopefully the town's public health campaign will have some lasting effects.

At the little airport's terminal a woman asked us questions and took our temperatures. We were required to use hand sanitizer. Everyone was compliantly standing on decals of feet placed 2 meters apart and sitting in the seats that weren't wrapped in caution tape. Masks everywhere. And then we got on a very full turboprop airplane. 

The seat assignments on our tickets were apparently meant to provide comfort that we would have a seat rather than a particular seat.

Bryce Forward, To Port
Molly Aft, To Starboard

The theme of "one bonus stop" also applied to the flight. As we were taxiing out of Bocas Town it was announced that our next stop would be Changuinola, the commercial town on the mainland - a destination we swear was not part of our original routing. Air Panama seems to have taken a lesson from the Bocas water taxi drivers. 

About half of the passengers disembarked at Changuinola and another crowd came aboard. We took the opportunity to move and sit together. A nearby couple seemed to be either very relaxed or completely exhausted - but just watching them made Molly's back hurt. 

Oh, My Achin' . . . 

We arrived at the small domestic airport at the Albrook area of Panama City an hour later, flying over the Bridge of the Americas at the southern entrance to the Canal. 

Bridge, Landing Gear

We entered the airport, dutifully landing on the feet decals and passing some sort of automatic temperature taking machine that kept announcing "temperature normal! temperature normal!". 

This is our last picture for awhile - unknown to us it is prohibido! to take pictures in the luggage claim area of the Albrook airport. Lo siento, señor!

After we claimed our luggage we had to wait for it to be scanned. We wondered whether scanning at our destination meant that no one cares if passengers are blown up on their way into Panama City from Bocas . . . ? That said, the dog let loose amongst our luggage suggested the real purpose of this post-flight search was to search for drugs. Bocas is a well-known party town.

Whatever the searchers were looking for they didn't find it in our luggage, so we exited and met Ricardo. If you want marine paint, a Canal line handler or a taxi ride -- Ricardo is your guy in Panama City. We asked for an extra stop (in keeping with the day's theme) for our neighbor Tatiana. Like us, Tatiana had to leave the country and was returning to her passport country, Colombia. She needed to get a quick-turnaround Covid test before she could enter Colombia. Google maps found the clinic and we dropped her off -- thanking her for the weekly pizzas and empanadas she had sold us during our stay at Jungle Lodge 1. 

The Crowne Plaza near Tocumen Airport (PTY) is fully Covid-equipped with plexiglass protectors at the front desk, no-touch check-in procedures and elevators with three sets of feet decals - facing the elevator wall. Everyone we saw was masked. 

The restaurant was open and offered a limited menu for travelers with limited options. Hint: Don't listen to your spouse when she or he asks that you leave your cell phone in the room to encourage dinner conversation - you will need it to bring up the restaurant's no-share menu.  

Scan and Download The Menu Here

We ordered okay dinners and two glasses of perfectly awful Chardonnay to celebrate the completion of Day One.

PTY To The El Segundo DoubleTree - Day 2 (October 30)

As we left the Crowne Plaza for the airport, one of the wheels on Bryce's brand new cheap suitcase broke off. The fact that he had purchased the second-most expensive suitcase in the whole of Bocas del Toro ($59 plus tax) made this a disappointing experience for him. We crab-walked/rolled into the airport terminal wondering how long the $89 suitcase would have lived . . .  

The check-in scrum at PTY was somewhat controlled by feet decals. We began to sense a lost investment opportunity . . .  were these little feet decals used everywhere in the world or only in Panama? Is the feet decal boom over - are they stuck on everywhere? Are the makers of feet decals conflicted about the development of a vaccine? 

Out of the crowd trying to check in to the flight to LAX we were spotted by Tatiana! The rapid-return test clinic she had put her faith in had let her down. She had not gotten her test results as promised and was at the airport trying to rearrange her trip back to Colombia. The universe was reminding us not to complain. It actually could be worse and for someone we knew, was. 

Note: We often spring for Business Class when flying to and from Abracadabra because we haul a lot of heavy baggage to and from our boat home ("we don't travel - we move"). Between Central America and the U.S. an Economy flight + heavy baggage is only marginally less expensive than Business Class. On this trip we didn't haul the usual boat parts and household goods but we figured that if there was ever a time to pay extra for even a small amount of extra distance from fellow travelers, this was it. 

The usual practice for flights to the U.S. from Panama is a double security check. The airport performs the usual check of carryon luggage, shoes, belt buckles and metal orthopedic parts near the departure gate. An additional check is then performed by the airline at the gate. No idea why - it just is. This has not changed in these "no touch times". 

Everyone was masked although we were asked to take off our masks occasionally by people checking to see that we were ourselves. Molly kept expecting to be challenged - her hair had become quite wild over the eight-ish months of hair salon closures.

The plane boarded back to front. We were served a boxed dinner (lots of hygienic and ecologically unsound plastic wrap). The only beverage on board was (ecologically unsound) bottled water. No alcohol and worse, no coffee. 

Oddly we were given plastic-wrapped "travel comfort bags" with socks and eye masks. We haven't seen those for a decade or more! 

Worth Paying For Business Class! 
(No, Not Really)

At LAX we expected some sort of Covid procedure but the only concession to the pandemic was a lack of customs check. No questions, no temperatures, no tracking. We don't know what procedures were applied to those who weren't entering as U.S. citizens or permanent residents.    

LAX has a new taxi procedure involving a crowded bus to a distant taxi stand. This may be an efficiency measure rather than a Covid-era change. 

Night 2 was spent at the El Segundo DoubleTree, chosen for its proximity to an Enterprise car rental lot. Plastic shields, no-touch check in, feet decals in the elevators (one can put four in an elevator in the U.S.) and very reassuring little stickers about deep cleaning connecting the door jam and the door (See! No one has been in this room since it was cleaned!). Remember when motels used to put that paper band around toilet seats?

The DoubleTree introduced us to a Covid protection practice that we actually like. Rather than the usual scrum around the "included breakfast" buffet we were directed to a line (more feet decals) where we ordered our plastic-encased breakfast items to take to our room; no crying children, no fellow travelers still in their pajamas. Not tasty mind you, but much calmer.  

El Segundo to Sacramento - Days 3 - 5 (Oct. 31 - Nov. 2)

We had planned our commute to Sacramento as a three day drive up Highway 1 and then up Highway 33 in an attempt to make this potentially awful trip more of a vacation. Anyone who has ever driven I-5 between Sacramento and Los Angeles (only about 8 hours if you concentrate and don't need coffee as often a we do) will know why we try to avoid that route like - well, the plague.

The first stop along Highway 1 was to purchase items for a beach picnic at a Bristol Farms grocery store. Here we insert the requisite "we're back in the land of amaaaazing grocery stores" picture for any of our readers still in Central America. Lisa and Michael - we see your Whole Foods picture and raise you one!

Produce! Piles and Piles of Produce!

Next picture -- it's been a long time since we have been in California.

CBD At The Grocery Store . . . 
Is It Everywhere Now?

We picnicked at Santa Monica until the fog rolled in; it seemed really crowded to those of us used to having the Red Frog Beaches to ourselves. 

Lunch

From Santa Monica through Malibu, Highway 1 offers some spectacular views of beach-dwellers' garage doors - but once we reached Oxnard we had great views of the Pacific. We made a coffee and boat-peeping stop at Ventura.

Look: Tourists!

We observed two Trump Caravans along Highway 1; very high school football rally-like.  

Our motel that night was - fine. Bryce was very proud of the fact that it was paid for with points. Dinner was take-out from a nearby Mexican restaurant. Ah, the taste of home.

 

In the morning we checked the latest CalFire map and confirmed our plan to find Highway 33 - a route we had never taken before. After an outdoor patio breakfast at Bonnie Lu's in Ojai we walked through the town's little (but beautiful) farmer's market. 

We picked up Highway 33 and started up into the Los Padres National Forest. There are better sites on the Internet to see pictures of the route, but we offer this one to (a) prove we were there and (b) entice readers to search out this drive. 

After the beautiful hills Highway 33 descends into Oil Country - miles of sad, dry land, Mexican restaurants (thank heavens!), rusty trailers and pump jacks. As we passed signs for the Petroleum Club in Taft, Ca., Bryce suggested we see if they offered some sort of reciprocal membership. Molly's grandfather was a charter member of the Petroleum Club in Tulsa, which has since closed. We took out from some place less grand.

Signs along the highway in Oil Country: Trump. Pray For Rain. 

We stopped for the night in the second largest town in Kern Country - Delano. Think grapes, Cesar Chavez and two State prisons. Pronounced "DehLAYno", Molly kept reminding Bryce whose lingering Canadian accent turned it into "DELLahno". Dinner was take-out from a pizza restaurant. Should have stuck with our Mexican food theme.

And from there it was a relatively well known route up Highway 99. Done. 

Here We Are

We are living in a little 2-bedroom duplex, "our" half of which has been turned into an Airbnb. Our clean, pleasant enough little digs are in an area of Sacramento called "The Pocket" -- a pocket of land created by a bend in the Sacramento River that was developed in the 1960's and 70's. There are green belt spaces for walking and though the residents get nervous every flood season we think we will be out of here before snowmelt in the mountains.

Shortly after we arrived we arranged to take a Covid test to determine if we were importing any Covid virus as a result of our journey. Once we got negative results we felt better -- at least that we were not adding to The Situation in Sacramento. We began seeing friends -- at a distance, outdoors, with masks. So good to say hello in the flesh after months of e-mails and zoom calls. Molly's latest realization is that though she has never considered herself to be "a hugger" -- she misses that connection with friends. You don't know what you've got till it's gone, as the song says. 

Not much is open in Sacramento but after months at Jungle Lodge 1 we don't find that constraining. Our one try at indoor restaurant dining was a little uncomfortable and restaurants were closed again a few days later. That's fine with us - we're good with take-out. We have also  mastered the skills of ordering groceries (e-cart pick-up) and communicating with our doctors and their schedulers via the internet when possible. 

So - between our deferred maintenance medical stuff (all just maintenance, gracias a dios!) we might have time to catch up on some pre-pandemic travel posts. Or maybe we will spend our time watching streamed content on the big tv in this rental. 

A final amusing note: On November 7, five days after our arrival in Sacramento we learned that the Panamanian government had extended its grace period for tourists through January 31. Go figure.

Hope all is well with you and your family. Have a safe Thanksgiving. We look forward to saner times. 

July - August - September Adventures, 2015

As we write, we are in El Salvador and will soon post about life in the estuary and a recent "vacation" away from working on Abracadabra. But THIS post is about time we spent this summer/fall in California and Canada. We hope you enjoy traveling along and that we convince you to travel to a couple of places we have enjoyed!

Right Back Where We Started From

In mid-July we arrived back in Sacramento where we: 

• house-sat for friends, Ken & Claudia Carlson; 
• ate in favorite restaurants (including Hot Italian - Molly's current favorite pizza); 
• stopped in at our favorite coffee shops (a shout out to the morning crowd at Espresso Metro and our neighbors at The Coffee Garden);
• made a few repairs (all minor, fortunately) to our house;
• enjoyed a show at the B-Street Theater; 
• engaged in personal maintenance (updating contact lens prescriptions, getting teeth cleaned, etc.); 
• visited our storage lockers (sadly, to see the mess created by what we expect were some very disappointed young thieves) [Side note: our losses were fairly minimal because the first layer of stuff the thieves found was boxes of Christmas decorations. We can imagine them rooting through those boxes and saying "who the f*%# has this many nativity scenes? - where are their electronics?"]; and, best, we
• checked in with friends. 

Wine Maker's Lunch at Miraflores (Placerville, Ca, USA)
Thanks Perry & Anne!

Among our "housekeeping" items while in Sacramento was the sale of our trusty little SUV, "The Truck" which we had purchased in October, 2014.  

The Truck

Other nomadic types might be interested in the following: We did a rough calculation of our "ownership cost" [(purchase + licensing/registration + repairs) less sale receipt] to determine whether it was more cost effective to buy-and-sell or to rent. We figured we would have had to pay insurance and fuel for a rental vehicle. Roughly, our ownership cost for The Truck was about $400 a month, which is certainly less than the cost of renting an SUV (which, granted would have been a new SUV, but we didn't need a new car, only a safe one). 

Of course there were non-financial aspects to our decision. We wanted to drive The Truck to and from Mexico and would not have been able to take a U.S. rental car into Mexico. Our "ownership cost" calculation benefited from the lower labor rates for car repairs, but then we had some cosmetic or "non-safety" items taken care of in Mexico because of the lower labor costs (a small dent removed and a terrific cleaning job on some soiled upholstery). So - it's not a straight line calculation, but we are glad we did it this way. Next time, who knows?

Our house-sitting gig was, as always, restful and restorative. Not only did we get to stay in Ken and Claudia's lovely house in Sacramento and enjoy breakfasts in their back yard, but they were kind enough to invite us to visit them at their summer rental in Pacific Grove. The view from their Pacific Grove living room was spectacular - we didn't even need to move off the couch to see whales! But we were a little disappointed that our couch whale pictures were even better than those taken from Abracadabra!

Whale Out The Window!

We took a day trip to the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo at Carmel-By-The Sea, famous as the burial place of Father Junipero Serra:

Yes, We Were There

And Yes, It's a Mission

We also walked from their apartment to the fabulous Monterrey Bay Aquarium, where we spent several hours - some of it entranced by the beautiful (but icky) Jelly exhibit: 

Beautiful . . . But Icky

And just FYI, if you can't visit Monterrey, you can watch the jellies on the aquarium's Jelly-Cam! 

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

In mid-August we visited Ontario, Canada to see friends and family. Our trip included a long-weekend in Toronto where we were joined by our friend Jean Ross, who came in from Brooklyn to engage in Acts of Photo Tourism with us. [Photography Tip: Jean's photography is in a class above - take a look at her work on: her website or her travel blog. We're happy to have a couple of her quick-snap shots here.]

We spent most of our time in TO following a free walking tour map around the central part of the city:

There Were Even Sign Posts

We were very impressed by the modern buildings that have been popping up all over the city:

Buildings Taking Pictures of Buildings
Taking Pictures of Buildings . . . 

And enjoyed the many "secret gardens" to be found around town:

Of course there were statues, some of them honoring Canadians' Sacrifices To Empire:

The Brave Fallen In The Boer War -
Now That Was Something To Die For

We photographed the "iconic" (a rare occasion that over-used term is actually the right one) CN Tower:

We Must Be In Toronto!

There were even places to rest while on tour.

Foreign Tourists (Bryce & Jean) Cooling Their Heels

Because it's Canada, there were visual jokes:

Blue Jay Fans

We also photographed some things not on the official tour, but quintessentially Toronto:

Toronto The Good

And of course we saw many buildings from Toronto's past - some put to excellent use:

The Center of Canadian Culture

We met friends David and Karin Milne for dinner one night to hear all about their new condo purchase on the waterfront. We're looking forward to visiting them there - the view promises to be spectacular.

One afternoon we traveled to the islands in Toronto Harbor. [Travel tip: Order tickets for the Toronto Ferry in advance via the internet - otherwise you will spend at least an hour in one of the lines for the ferry. We were saved by our friend Jim Thompson who, as a member of a yacht club on the island, was able to get us tickets on the yacht club's tender.]

Jim and Bryce had planned an afternoon sailing on Jim's O'Day 19. When Jean and Molly said they were just going to walk around the island, Jim kindly offered up his kayaks for the day. Jean hesitated for a moment, as she was dressed in jeans. (Molly's quick-dry skort was more kayak friendly.) But Jim gallantly offered up a pair of retro style shorts (aged on his boat for several years . . . ) complete with a piece of rope to hold them up! As a woman of substance over style, Jean thanked him, borrowed the shorts and went kayaking! Molly's only regret was that she failed to get a blackmail picture of Jean in those shorts.

Molly Kayaking With A View
Photographer: Jean Ross

Our cultural outing was to the newly opened Aga Khan Museum, a museum of Islamic art named for the hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims. It turned out to be a jewel box of a museum - an attractive building housing a relatively small, focused collection of beautiful things. Anyone who is interested in learning about and/or appreciating Islamic art will enjoy a visit.

The building and grounds are lovely:

The Entrance To The Museum

Jean Contemplating The Reflecting Pool

And the collection is laid out in historical context - particularly helpful for non-Muslim visitors.

Architectural Pieces -
Mother of Pearl Door Panels From India

Porcelain Basin - 16th Century China

That weekend the nearby Ismaili Center was holding an event, "Chai In The Park". We bought lunch from very enthusiastic Ismaili vendors in West African dress (fried casava - quite tasty) and watched members of the community enjoying the day. Many of the visitors were dressed in the style of one of the over 25 different countries in which Ismaili live. This community has a very well done and interesting website if you're interesting in learning about them.

We also visited the St. Lawrence Market which, in addition to being a major tourist destination is also a real food market! We bought a bottle of wine and some snacks to share at the hotel. [Travel Tip: Despite being a tourist destination this market is not open on Sunday! We made the mistake of trying to provision a Sunday picnic there . . . and were very disappointed.]

One tourist outing that turned out to be a bit "eh" for us was the much touted Brewery District. It's nice to see some older buildings renovated and put to use - but it's really just a shopping and restaurant mall (and wedding center - based on the number of bridal shots taking place that weekend). That said, we enjoyed a beer at one of the many brew-pubs and Molly found a very nice Toronto t-towel (tourist tchotchke for we who live on Abracadabra must be small and unbreakable). 

Our last tourist activity turned out to be the most disappointing - except that we are now armed with something to hold over Jean's head for future trips. Jean had read about Islington - purported to be a charming neighborhood (conveniently on the way to the airport) WITH shopping, dining and interesting public art wall murals. So - why not? 

Well, we found the shopping to be somewhat limited:

Main Drag, Islington

The murals were technically fine, but a bit on the "too cute" plan:

An Islington Mural

And the lunch we had at a store-front Italian deli would have been more appropriate as a quick work-day lunch. 

So, we can check Islington off our list . . . except as blackmail material.  

[Travel Tip: Internet travel comments are just that -- random comments.] 

Kawartha Lakes Area, Ontario

The rest of our three weeks was spent in Lakefield, Bryce's home town, visiting family and taking day trips to some of the resorts in the surrounding Kawartha Lakes area. We've written a couple of posts about this area -- enough to have a "label" for Ontario - so we will try not to repeat ourselves. But we will repeat that it's a very nice place to visit.

We have the luxury of staying in a lovely old house right on the main street of the village (Lakefield's Queen Street) with Bryce's sister, Brenda.

A Rose-of-Sharon, far right.
Brenda, middle. Friend Glenda, left. 

  
We enjoyed long walks along the river and canal system that runs behind Brenda's home almost every morning. During our rambles we passed:

Kayaks For Rent

The Local Beach,
Where Teen-aged Triathletes Were In Training

RV-ers With (Apparently) Long-Term Leases

Kayakers

Any calorie expenditure was often offset by a stop at the Nuttshell Next Door Cafe.  What's a reviving coffee without a reviving scone?

During each visit to Lakefield we try to build in a trip to one or more local tourist attractions. This time we took the Stoney Lake Cruise - a pleasant motor around the alleged 1,000 islands in Stoney Lake. While we listened to the tour guide's description of the history of the lake and the cottages around it, including which were owned by famous hockey stars or had been used as a soap opera set, much of our personal tour could perhaps be called "A Tour of Bryce's Youthful Boating Misadventures". Listening made Molly very happy that he'd gotten all of that out of his system before she met him!

Cottage Country

Enjoying Being A Passenger

We also visited with family - which was by times great fun (Kyle's steak dinner for the gang in Brenda's back yard; dinner out with Kacey's clan; lunch with cousin Ken Andrews) and friends (lunch with David and Lynn McCracken; dinner at Glenda's with George and Marie). 

But, because life is like that, our visit had some more somber moments. Bryce's Aunt Jessie, age 99, died within a few days of our arrival. Her departure was very sad for us not only because we will miss her presence, but also because she was the last remaining member of that generation of Bryce's family. 

We're thankful that we got to visit her when we first arrived. We had been told she was failing, so we were surprised to find that she was, for a short period of time, very lively. We had a nice visit - and came away with one particularly fun memory: Molly was holding Jessie's hand and talking about what had become Jessie's favorite topic - her childhood on the family farm. "Now, Jessie, I know there were cows and horses on the farm, but were there other animals? Did you have pigs?" Jessie's mischievous face lit up and she leaned in as if for a confidence. "Oh, yes, pigs. . . . . Nasty smelly things!" And then she laughed. Yes, we will miss Aunt Jessie.

In closing, in honor of Aunt Jessie's long life, we wish for you: A life with more cows and horses than pigs, and a chance to find your own little charming village. And for us, that you let us know about your visit when you do!

Next post: Finally one about El Salvador!