A trip well-traveled

At the beginning of August I took a 10 hour flight to Rome, Italy with my friend Barb but the story actually begins years ago when she and I met in Denver, CO as waitresses. She ended up moving back to Chicago and we stayed connected by cards and letters (before the internet!) In one of those notes I said something about when we're older and walking around Italy with a glass of wine! She called me this spring after rereading this message and yelled "we need to go to Italy!" and so we did. Sometimes you need a kickstart to really get going; this was mine. We did some preliminary research, making decisions on where exactly we wanted to go but the rest of it was pretty spur of the moment. And really until I drove into Chicago with my family, went to a Cubs/Cardinals game on my birthday and then dropped off at Barb's I still had feelings of uncertainty.  And the next afternoon we headed to O'Hare and got on an Italia airplane! I remembered my passport and all other relevant things including a suitcase full of clothes and the trip began! 

I've never been on a plane that long and it made me a little antsy - doesn't the pilot get sleepy?- but we settled in with a glass of wine and a plastic container of decent lasagna. Neither of us had working screens so we watched Madame Secretary with Tea Leoni on Barb's phone because that's what she had in her downloads.  We tried to sleep to no avail-personally I was too excited and nervous. 

We landed in Rome, easily made it through customs because they had these great scanners and we only had to stop to get our passports stamped. At baggage claim we hooked up with Barb’s hairdresser who was also traveling to Italy. And we headed out into the Rome sunshine pulling our suitcases behind us.  We paid an Uber driver to tour us around the high points in Rome and with just one day there it was the easiest way to see everything. The Coliseum, St Peter's Square and the Basilica, the Fountain of Trevi, and the Spanish Steps were all amazing to see. Being near such old buildings, statues and monuments was awe-inspiring and it never got old. In Florence I walked through a perfumery that has existed since 1221.  We had.an amazing meal that evening at Trattoria Pommidoro dal 1890 tucked away in a little neighborhood and we sat on the patio and lazily enjoyed our meal and wine. I was still pinching myself that I was eating dinner in Rome.  We discovered a fountain near our hotel that had two cafes for croissants and cappuccinos.  

The next day we headed north by train to the beautiful Cinque Terre region to stay for three days in Monterosso, one of the 5 hill towns on the coast. We had a little AirB&B on the hill and we could walk down to the town but we always caught a ride back up. Because we were on the coast and the seafood was fresh a lot of our meals here were straight from the sea. The second day we took a boat ride around the 5 hill towns to see them from the water. We were there during a heat wave and hiking around the hills (the preferred method to sightseeing here) was just not going to happen. The boat ride was lovely and we loved Lorenzo, our handsome boat guide and that we were able to get in the water and swim in the sparkling water. We had several amazing meals in Monterosso and a delicious meal right off the boat at Ristorante Gambero Rosso in Vernazza. 

On the fourth day we headed back to the train and headed an hour south to Livorno, another coastal town where Barb and I were excited to see a concert that night. We stayed in a cool old hotel right across from the Fort where the Xavier Rudd concert would take place later that night. We cooled off in the hotel and then headed out for dinner and a cold bottle of Prosecco before heading into the concert.  We hadn't finished our bubbly so our server gave us plastic glasses to travel with as we traipsed our way down the cobblestones.  The concert was a very relaxed affair and one that I'm so glad we took the time to see. Nobody looked through our bags or cared that we had cups already in our hands. The sky was beautiful and the crowd was easily like family. It was a great place to people watch as we bopped our bodies to Xavier's music. 

The next day our adventure took us to beautiful Florence where we started our days with cappuccinos on the piazza and watched the fountains spurt out water and eventually made our way to the Uffizi Galleries witnessing masterpieces of art.  We also visited the Gucci museum and store which took us through the history of the artisitic brand. We had more delicious food including a meal at La Tenda Rossa. During our time here we also took a Walk About Tours cooking class in the Tuscan countryside and a vegan dinner in the San Gimignano region at a 600 years old farmhouse. We shopped at tiny boutiques where Barb and I bought matching silky dresses and I bought a beautiful linen dress.  We walked through dozens of leather stores with so many purses. I had a shopkeeper try and sell me very beautiful but expensive earrings, I had to walk away unfortunately. And Barb and I wandered through the Basilica di Santa Croce which is where Galileo and Michelangelo are entombed. We drank quite a few carafes of red wine, Prosecco, Limoncello and Hugo spritzers.  We enjoyed it all. I loved the trains and the sleek Uber cars/drivers. I also enjoyed seeing a world that treasured the old, embraced their history, had access to good food (great little mercados), and did their part for the world with recycling and compost bins everywhere plus everyone we ran into was friendly and happy to help us. In Livorno the front desk woman called her son in the U.S. to translate something for us.  

And then we took a high speed train back to Rome and headed to the airport hotel to spend one last night before flying home. We spent a funny 20 minutes in a gas station/restaurant and I will never forget the Prosecco and freshly made potato chips served to us as we waited for our Uber driver!  It was the trip of a lifetime but I plan to get out there more. I want to go to Spain and Portugal next...

Competition and Politics

We are more than halfway through summer and the Olympics are hot (go Simone!), and so are politics in our country right now. As a young adult my dad told me to try and look at anything from both sides. I’ve tried in our current political climate but full on am going to say we’ve arrived in crazy town. I have to think if my dad were alive today he would feel the same. 

I am most confused by religious people following this man like he is the second coming of Jesus. I could list off all the ways he is the opposite of Jesus except I don’t think it matters to his followers that he speaks about pussy grabbing, misogynistic and racist rants, and is cruel to most everyone except white cisgender men. He lusts after his daughter, he is uneducated, uncouth and most definitely not the person to lead our country. 

It makes me wonder everyday why regular people like him, why women in particular love him. Is it novelty? Is it  because deep down they are also racist and feel men should only be in charge? I used to understand why Republicans would vote for their candidate because they were one issue voters, trying their best to cancel abortion or they were just fiscally conservative. Those expectations are out the window (except for abortion) and DT has so much more up his sleeves like a creepy magician and one of his tricks is that his policies hurt his very base. He is not for the working class and instead will implement more tax cuts for the wealthy. The list is long of how he will dismantle programs that help the common citizen. 

Kamala Harris is not my first choice but there is a very real possibility that if the stars align she could be our first female president and I welcome that because it will open the door for other women like AOC and Gretchen Whitmer. I hope we can change her position on Israel (we should absolutely not be funding them or shaking hands with Netanyahu) and that she walks in the Oval Office with thoughtfulness.  Like ready to be a female president not just mimicking the vast amount of men who've held the position before her. 

I’d like to be able to persuade at least one person to jump sides right now while it still matters. This guy you “love” is a sham, a trickster, a charlatan and nothing good will come of a second term unless you’re a billionaire like Elon Musk or you hate women and consideration for others. Our two party system needs to go, the electoral college is no longer relevant, and we need to dismantle the system from the ground up; start over but for now we just need to make sure he who will not be named does not make it back into office. 

I am having a blast watching the Olympics. The opening ceremony was beautiful and I'm laughing at Americans judging it harshly because they've got to have their hand in everything. I love to watch the athletes compete and hear about their backstories. It's a mind break from politics.  

Fabulous Summer Reading List

When I was growing up I loved reading. My favorite characters were Pippi Longstocking, Ramona, Claudia (Mixed Up Files), Judy Blume books and The Borrowers.  I was constantly reading and spent a lot of time at our local library. I was in a library book club and I remember we read Watership Down and The Hobbit. I read Johnny Tremain as a kid and loved it. These books built empathy for me, made me laugh, and gave me the feeling of comfort and well-being. 

Today’s world of kids lit is like an explosion of variety! So many many choices! While we did have Cleary, L’Engle, Blume, and Konigsburg we didn’t yet have the brilliance of Kate DiCamillo, Allan Gratz, Katherine Applegate, Stuart Gibbs, Dan Geminhart, Jacqueline Woodson, or Jason Reynolds. That’s just a handful that come to mind and my library is filled with many other great authors. And furthermore we didn’t have graphic novels! Sure we had comics but that style was not my jam. I love graphic novels! 

The last few summers I've donated a lot of my reading time to reading elementary fiction books that are on our state award list. I love being on the committee to choose the next round of books because I have a good amount of young readers who love to read and challenge themselves to read the books on the list.  I get to read a whole batch of really excellent stories. I'm not going to tell you about each one of these stories but know they are excellent. 

I start off the list with Tom Lake by Ann Patchett which is adult fiction that I decided to listen to using the Libby app because I read that Meryl Streep narrated the story and she was amazing! This story focuses on summer stock theatre and the play Our Town.  The rest of the list is all elementary fiction with a few graphic novels thrown in.  Just Keep Walking was an adventure to read as the mother/daughter team hike The North Shore of Lake Superior. First State of Being is interesting science fiction tale about friendship. Half Moon Summer deals with a young boy watching his dad deal with an illness. 

Even amidst all this reading I am having a great summer. I've done a far amount of traveling starting back in the spring with a weekend trip to Cleveland to watch my nephew, Jasper, graduate from Case Western. And we just arrived home from a family trip to Asheville, NC. Road trips are the best; I like to drive as much as I like to sit in the passenger seat and read page after page. I'm headed to Minneapolis in a week to hear some live music with my brother and sister-in-law. And in August I am taking a very exciting trip with my friend Barb.  Summer is the BEST!

Whether you read the new stories or the classic stories be sure to keep reading...

Summer is here!!

 I’ve always loved summer. When I was young it meant spending many afternoons out on the lake in our boat or along the shore splashing and playing with siblings and friends. My dad was a big boat person which is amazing because he grew up in landlocked Iowa. He did fish in several rivers near here as a young man but where did he fathom the idea of becoming a boating man? It’s a wonder. 

We left Iowa for Fairmount, MN the summer before I started kindergarten and we bought a big old stucco house on a hill straight up from Budd Lake. This is where I remember splashing and playing in the water. We learned to water ski here starting off from shore with an adult holding on to us to keep us straight, skis up, arms out. In the beginning we were often dragged for a bit, faces full of water before dropping off. Eventually we got the hang of it and went round and round the lake pulled behind our red boat. We spent Sundays after church out on the lake where we would read in the boat with snacks in between skiing and racing around. 

There was a sense of freedom on the boat and the lake. It seemed charmed even though the boat was small-ish. Eventually my dad did buy a bigger boat but my mom was mad at him for weeks. Once we moved to New Ulm we started to travel with the boat. We found lakes and rivers  around that region to enjoy including the St Croix and Mississippi River and Lake Superior which was crazy with all the large cargo ships, three times our size. 

Eventually we moved to the Okoboji area in the NW corner of Iowa and that was a spectacular chain of lakes to enjoy. I spent many days on that lake skiing, learning to slalom, and racing around on our blue boat. 

I miss those days of adventure and joy. The sun strong on your body, the water cool and refreshing, and the laughter. Happy times. 

Now my happy times are traveling with my children. Three years ago we traveled to the Finger Lakes region of NY and Tristan’s choice was for us to rent a boat! We found a marina and did just that with both he and I driving the boat around. We jumped in and enjoyed the fresh water and enjoyed checking out the waterfalls around the south part of the lake. It made me happy that he was drawn to boating. 

I also love heading north to boat on Minnetonka with my brother and his family. He loves to race around the lake just like our dad did. We used to beg my dad to go fast which would make my mom yell as things (including us) would fly up in the boat. Such joy. 

Political moves

Over the last few years I’ve had the odd political call asking me if I believe so and so is doing a good job and I never gave it much thought as to who was making the phone calls or where they came from. Then my foster son Anton called me from the great state of Georgia telling me he and his cousin had been recruited to "canvas" through Marietta, GA with flyers against Biden. In fact he called it "Bidenomics" as in we can't take 4 more years of Bidenomics!  I said... whaaaaat? And he read from the flyer (as if he believed it telling me about the high cost of living, the price of gasoline, etc. I proceeded to explain how oil prices were not set by the president, that oil companies are making record profits right now and that prices were still high due to the pandemic not Biden. He listened and then we talked about how he came to have the job.  

They were recruited with posters in their neighborhood promising good wages for walking around Georgia. They were given plane tickets and housing in an AirBB with three other recruits from Florida; all immigrants from either Haiti or Cuba. All of them just looking for money, of course. They were told to look for houses with the American flag waving out front, to avoid confrontations, and to leave a flyer if no one was home. The Bidenomics flyer, that is. I know I live in LaLa Land in my head and that my brother will tell me that this is the way the world works but for me I'm just disgusted with an organization that recruits in economically-challenged neighborhoods to gather young people of color to push back against the exact president that stands for them. 

Right now I'm no fan of Bidens' myself but for deeper reasons like the genocide happening in Palestine and also he's really much too old for another 4 years. I don't know what to do about that except we need young people to keep moving through the ranks, willing to be involved. People like Maxwell Frost-who I donate to on the regular. 

Every single time I see a Trump sign posted or waving in someone's yard I see "crazy rapist" spray painted across it in bright cherry red letters. Can't help it. I cannot see the other side on this one; a man with so many transgressions, horrible character flaws, and now, 34 felony counts against him. We are truly living in some kind of wacky upside down world. We absolutely cannot have a convicted man run for the highest office. Imagine just for a minute if this were the other side. They would never stand for it except when it’s their rundown cheater. They plan to stand by their man. 

We can all do our part to make sure Trump is not re-elected. Vote blue, talk about it with your friends, and find a young politician to support. 

April Gifts

 She’s home! Our traveler returned a week ago and she’s happy to be home. She missed cooking in the kitchen so she’s made several fantastic dinners. It is so appreciated to have someone else making food to eat. That is an unexpected treat. She is very creative with her recipes. 

I love listening to her traveler tales and am grateful she had a positive experience each step of the way. She’s grown up a bit and seems to be more confidant because she’s had to be out there making her own decisions, figuring things out in a different country. I am very happy to have the next few months with her here before she steps in a new direction. 

It is finally feeling like spring out there and my tulips are showing their colors. My daffodils didn’t have much of a chance after blooming early right before a cold snap. The weather is very up/down, topsy turvy but I’m grateful for warmer weather. I love spring weather and it means summer is around the corner. 

My last three books made for great reading! 

1. The Maid by Nita Prose-fun little cozy mystery, I’m ready to read the second one.

2. Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson-interesting family story, with alternating narratives, time periods, and countries.

3. Her Last Affair by John Searles - a creepy mystery with a set of bizarre characters!

Enjoy whatever gifts come your way…be it sunshine, a good book, or family time. 

Let's take a trip!

March weather was very up and down, freezing cold days mixed with sunshine, and snow. Tristan and I headed south for spring break-a rare treat for us-to visit Japhy in Mexico! In February she finished her yoga training and after a little extra travel there she headed north to Bacalar, Mexico to work at a resort. We decided this was a great opportunity to visit her. 

There are always multiple steps to travel for us because we don’t live near a major airport. We drove to Minneapolis, stayed in a park & ride hotel, took the shuttle early early in the morning and then waited for the airport personnel to arrive. Note to self: do NOT arrive before 3:30am for your flight as the airport will be empty. But once we made it through ticketing we were ready to board for our 6am flight and we made it to Cancun by 11:30am. Air travel is an amazing thing. 

Tristan was thrilled to take on the adventure of driving in Mexico- I was nervous but it turned out to be an interesting challenge with no problemas. It was like driving through a video game with lots of roundabouts, big speed bumps, and cars passing on both sides. Crazy and we made it. He and I stopped in Playa del Carmen and picked a place for lunch. First language mistake: I ordered a shrimp ceviche without realizing it-it said cucumber!  All I can say is we loved the cucumbers and I did eat a few shrimp. Luckily we had guacamole and chips as well. We both wondered about vegan options for the rest of the week. 

No need to worry as it turned into what Tristan coined our “Mexican Anthony Bourdain trip”! We feasted and ate almost exclusively vegan in Bacalar and our return two days in Cancun. The food was amazing and I’m dreaming of it still. We had vegan burgers at Mango Y Chili our first night and they were delicious. Here’s an overall list in case you need to go just for the food:

Madre Masa- Tristan and I had lunch here, we had yummy veggie sandwiches 

Mi Burrito- a hippie food truck with amazing food and great outdoor atmosphere

La Playita- dinner one night with Japhy and her friend Klara. I had fried avocado tacos- amazing and we sat by the lagoon. 

Salon OP69- went for an appetizer while we waited for our dinner place to open- this is the only place we sat inside, it was cool and Arturo, our wonderful waiter took good care of us. I had a fiery margarita. See picture below.

Nixtamal- Japhy and I split a delicious tuna with grilled pineapple and Tristan had a pasta dish. We each received a refreshing shot glass of house kombucha. 

El Manatí- last meal in Bacalar and it was a delicious vegan brunch. I had chilaquiles which were amazing and I hope to recreate these at home. 

It was very difficult to say goodbye to Japhy but onward we went back up the coast to Cancun. We ran into a major traffic jam that held us up for about an hour. After getting into Cancun, finding our Airbnb, Tristan located Las Cepages, a French restaurant that was walkable. This was our least exciting meal but the atmosphere was lovely and I enjoyed a good glass of red with my house special fish dinner. The next day we discovered Bao Vegan and we were so excited by the menu that we each ordered two entrees. I had a mashed potato enchilada with mole sauce. The waiter was adorable and laughed at us ordering such a lot of food. I would love to have several restaurants like this at home-why are we not able to support healthy and delicious food like this? 

Tristan and I made it home by nightfall and had a great time talking about our adventures. We did take a sailing adventure around the lagoon which was a lovely afternoon. Make sure to wear a hat as you are not allowed to wear sunscreen in the water due to its delicate eco system.  Japhy is still traveling around in the Oaxaca region of Mexico with friends and will be back mid-April. I am really ready for spring weather and flowers. Unfortunately because of the weird weather my daffodils are so confused. 

 

 

Goodbye February

 It’s been a crazy month and I’m not sad to see the calendar page turn. It’s been a weird work month with students. I think the recent snow moon factored into lots of behavior issues. Or that it’s a leap year…The weather has fluctuated rapidly. Bitter cold one day and the next 65 degrees. My daffodils and tulips are popping up and I worry for the little green shoots because we could possibly have more snowfall. 

And now March begins with a Scholastic Book fair where we try to get books into the hands of as many students as we can. Then Spring Break begins and I’m taking a trip to Bacalar, Mexico with Tristan to meet up with Japhy. I’m very excited to be in the sunshine but I’m also just a tad nervous for Mexico. I don’t speak Spanish fluently and I know there’s a lot of unrest in the country. I just hope all goes smoothly. I’m very excited to hug Japhy as she’s been gone since January. Her journey with yoga training and traveling through Guatemala and now Mexico have gone well. She will return home to us in mid-April. She says she’ll be ready for a real long hot shower. 

I’ve read one great book this month - We Were The Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter. It tells the story of one Polish Jewish family through WWII. I’ve leaned quite a bit more about how the war affected this country. Many historical fiction stories about the war focus on Germany and the concentration camps or spies. My fifth grade students are researching WWII because we are reading Rescue by Jennifer A. Nielsen. There are so many layers to understand and my hope is they can see Hitler’s actions of dehumanizing a group of people and see how that can happen today as well. It’s always my plan to tie it into today’s world. Peace and love to you…

(Snow Moon resource)