Seattle and Victoria

Over the July 4th weekend we visited our friends in Seattle, Washington and took the ferry to Victoria, B.C. to visit our Canadian pals.

Being the 4th, there were beautiful fireworks we watched from under the Fremont Bridge and signs along the way reminded us that Independance Day celebrates our fight to (or is that right to) vote!

If you want big juicy Cuban sandwiches then Paseo is for you - the pink straws make everything taste better I think. Curtis Steiner's Souvenir in Ballard was hosting a show in their windows featuring these beautiful glasine dresses by Albuquerque artist Ann Dunbar.



Pink hollyhocks and pink elephants and my host Rudy who walked me past tree ladders and pretty houses with pink doors.

Dale Chihuly's glass at the Tacoma Glass Museum reminded me of fireworks too!

Speaking of Dale, his boathouse studio is next to this bench overlooking the water where bike trails meander and white barked trees offer shade.

After visiting the boathouse we hung out in the locks where boats hang out too - I love the mossy green walls and the salmon ladders.



One morning we got up and took the ferry to Victoria to see old friends and have tea at Murchies because tea at The Empress Hotel was $58 a person! The Canadian economy really must be improving. A great bargain is Red Fish Blue Fish where they serve fish & chips on the waterfront and it's delicious. Last stop was a walk on the beach before we took the ferry back to Seattle - so good to see old friends and celebrate summer.

New Zealand - Once were Warriors

Once Were Warriors

I've been thinking about New Zealand a lot lately where my father was born & raised. This is Milford Sound - possibly one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Of course one thinks of the funny looking flightless bird and the proud warriors rowing their canoes out to meet Captain Cook - my dad used to tell me and my brothers Maori folktales and spoke quite a bit of the soulful vowel-laden language.

My grandmother would send me tikis made from green jade like the one above and paua shell pins made from abalone that lives in the waters off the coast.

My dad grew up on a sheep station and went to Timaru Boy's School on the South Island.

He often compared Northern California when I moved here to New Zealand as their growing seasons are very similar and I love kiwi fruit!

Check out Flight of the Conchords

Sandcastles

This weekend I had the good fortune to follow the coastline to Stinson Beach where friends invited us to play in the sand - even in the fog there's a magic to playing by the sea.

Last weekend in celebration of summer we found ourselves in the company of old friends (and new) hiking & biking along the trails of Sea Ranch in Mendocino. It was great to hang out with a family who cook together, play music together and take great "Risk" together - thank you everyone!

wings of desire, libraries, nick cave & angels

One of my favorite films from the 80s is Wim Wender's Wings of Desire (for many reasons), but one of them is because part of the movie takes place in the Staatsbiblioteck (State Library) in Berlin. I loved the premise of angels in black & white wandering around listening to our thoughts.









Another reason I love this movie is that Nick Cave performs "Eternity" in it and did you know that while he was in Berlin he was inspired to write his own novel that he stayed in germany for three years to complete and that it too has angels in it's title...

when in rome...drive to ravello (just above amalfi)

When in Italy last month (for the first time) I had the pleasure of driving the Autostrade to Naples and points beyond Pompei along the chaotically curved roads that follow the sea like a drunk lover - the Amalfi Coast. From Amalfi, which is a charming seaside town where we sampled Limoncello and bought beautiful hand-made papers and ceramics, we drove straight up the road leading us past terraced lemon groves to the town of Ravello where Gore Vidal bought his beautiful Villa Rondinaia in 1972 and lived a good deal of the time till 2006 when he sold it to hotelier Vincenzo Palumbo. We had the good fortune to meet Mr. Palumbo who also owns the nearby Villa Eva, Villa Maria and Giardano restaurant where we had lunch looking over the sea.

When lunch was finished Mr. Palumbo's charming son very graciously gave us a private tour of Villa Rondinaia which means swallow's nest in Italian.

While much of the home is being renovated to soon re-open as a luxury destination for travellers, the office where Gore Vidal once wrote is still relatively unchanged. His desk is still center-stage with an old Underwood typewriter and personal photographs. Dozens of his books translated into a Babel of languages line the shelves and an old fireplace still has ashes in it.
Here we are on the balcony outside the master bedroom - you can see why it was named after a swallow's nest!


Now I really must read his memoir Palimpsest or even better his biography by Ed Kaplan.