Sedona, AZ 2013

Rick and I took a trip out west for our vacation this year from July 13th to July 23rd.  We flew into Phoenix on the 13th and spent the night at a local flea bag motel but got up early the next morning and drove to Sedona.  Beautiful drive!  Here's the scene that greeted us as we came into town.

Coffeepot Rock

Not sure but these might be called The Sisters

From our hotel.

Our hotel - Sky Ranch Lodge in Sedona, AZ - best rooms in Sedona!

Taken during our Pink Jeep tour on Broken Arrow Trail.

From Broken Arrow Trail.

More from Broken Arrow Trail.

The jeeps go around this.  A little hairy.

Yes, we drove down this.

Taken at Taos Restaurant - our first stop in Sedona on July 14th.  Temps at about 100 degrees. They had the misters going.  See the thunder storm in the distance.

View from Room #235 - Sky Ranch Lodge - Sedona

Nice hike down the West Fork of Oak Creek.

More from the West Fork hike.

Love the way the stream gurgles gently during most of the West Fork hike.  Nice rock overhangs.  

What a ride that was through the red rocks!  Even after braiding my hair it was pretty wild at the end of the ride.

Sunrise at Airport Mesa

More sunrise at Airport Mesa

Sunset from Sky Ranch Lodge

Grand Canyon

Us at the Grand Canyon

Rick at Grand Canyon.

Kate, Rick, and me at Mother Road Brewery in Flagstaff.

During our time in Sedona the temps were mostly in the high 70s to low 90s. Apparently July is their monsoon season - daily thunderstorms and reasonable cloud cover kept temps at reasonable levels allowing us to hike, shop, etc. without oppressive heat.

We spent 5 days in Sedona and left on Friday to drive to Los Angeles to visit with Rick's son Jason and his fiance, Adri.We went to visit the Son's of Anarchy Teller Morrow site and then Venice Beach.

SOA Set in LA

Jason, Adri, and Rick at Venice Beach

Rick giving Jason a banjo lesson.

Jason playing the banjo his dad gave him last fall - one that Jason's mom bought him 30+ years ago.

It was a great trip. We paid the extra $ to get the extra leg room on Jet Blue and it was definitely worth it.  Flights were smooth if not always on time.  Driving was fine - even in LA - though we were glad to let Jason take over the driving around LA once we got to his house.  He's amazing in terms of being able to get anywhere with the least amount of traffic; always knows where he is; can jump from one highway to another  or just avoid highways and take side streets everywhere.  He took us to Rodeo Drive where we saw a commercial being filmed with Malin Ackerman (I had no idea who she was but Jason and Adri knew of her) and The Grove where we saw them filming an episode of Extra with Mario Lopez.

Summer Solstice 2013

Tomatoes, mushrooms, and red peppers prepared for shish kabob; strawberries for dessert.

Woody, Annie, Crystal - 2013 Summer Solstice dinner.

Rosemary, Sage, Lavender, and Thyme to make pouches for our fire ritual.  

We wrote what we'd like to invite into or banish from our lives onto paper and then shredded it and added it to our herb pouch.  After ruminating on it for a while we burned the pouches in the fire.  Lovely aromas!   

An old wicker chair added some interesting shapes to the fire ritual.

This one reminds me of a Dr. Suess character.  

A fun night and a good way to usher Summer 2013 into being.

Camp May 2013

I've always wanted to spend extended periods of time at camp, especially during the spring, but had never done so.  This year I decided it was going to happen.  I think I'm in my third week; I kinda lose track of time out here, even working 4 days a week.  It's an easy commute to work: not a single traffic light instead of the 10 traffic lights I encounter coming from Belgrade.  And it's only 15 minutes from the gym instead of the 45 to Belgrade.  I don't have a tv so I listen to a lot of MPBN (love In Tune By Ten!) but often just find myself listening to the peepers, loons, bullfrogs and other night creatures.

I like the simplicity of it:  Just one big room really so there's no space for a lot of extra "stuff."  I don't have a cook stove or oven so food prep is a little more primitive, using the grill, toaster oven, microwave, or crock pot.  Well not very primitive I guess.  But I make a crock pot chicken on Monday and have it all week on top of a garden salad, or a Greek salad, or cold with some avocados and tomatoes and sprinkled with oregano.  Sometimes I'll take a kayak paddle either before or after dinner, beat on my djembe for a while or just sit on the deck and read a book.

I do like having internet access here through my Samsung Galaxy.  I can do a little Facebook, post a blog and stay in touch through email.  I guess that's not exactly being a hermit but it's nice not hearing another human voice, other than on the radio, for 12+ hours at a time.

It was quite exhilarating coming home tonight after the gym, knowing I had 3 days here and being able to do anything I wanted.  My girlfriend Betty is coming tomorrow for a day or two.  We have tentative plans with a couple of other women to come out and try doing a drum circle.  If that doesn't materialize then we'll probably just go into Hallowell and listen to some music for a while.  Maybe we'll have a campfire but we're pretty low on firewood at the moment.

A Mother's Day plant from Rick

Efficient

camp from the stream

A grey November morning

Flames dancing

Slightly unseasoned wood snaps, pops and hisses

Steam rolls from my coffee mug wafting seductively toward the updraft of the fireplace

A cozy last rain before winter snows lay siege to the landscape

I cried at diagnosis; death was a gift

who are these people who claim to operate on brains

all I could think of was Jethro Bodine

driving his hillbilly truck and crowing

about how he was studying to be a brain surgeon

There’s a big old house in Gardiner, Maine

Fourteen rooms and twenty five years

of births, deaths, holidays, and daily life

and one perfect moment

I pull out from time to time

Home reclaimed from tenants

Working in my freshly painted kitchen

Midway between two weeks vacation from work

The abundance of Christmas just days past

Endless rooms upstairs filled with kids and chaos and love

Aroma of turkey and fresh baked rolls wafting throughout the heating system

Brings the kids running down the stairs in unison

At just the right time

A flurry of table setting as everyone exalts over the smells and sights

With no grumbles about a moment for grace and gratitude for this life,

                This day, this moment

Happy faces, chatter chatter chatter

Not a thought about work, school, cancer, legs that don’t run, responsibilities

                Between us

A smile spreads through my whole body

                For that moment

                                Even now.

San Francisco 2013

We had a wonderful trip to San Francisco despite having some kind of crud most of the time we were there.  Lots of Afrin and Advil got us through.   We left home at 3 am to catch a 6 am flight out of PWM and arrived in San Francisco around noontime.  Took a van to the hotel, dropped off our bags and went walking around Fisherman's Wharf until our room was ready.  Stopped for some delicious spicy shrimp and ate outside in our shirtsleeves listening to some live music across the street and drinking in all the local flavor.  Freshened up in the room briefly and then took a town car over to Sweetwater Music Hall (owned by Bob Weir) in Mill Valley for a night of beat poetry.  And what a night it was!  Jerry Nicosia hosted the night with poets and story tellers from near and far including Al Hinkle (aka Ed Dunkel from On The Road), Ramblin Jack Elliot, Joanna McClure, Wavy Gravy, and many, many more.

Wavy Gravy getting down 

Al Hinkle telling great Kerouac and Dean Cassady stories.

Joanna McClure reading her poetry

Jerry Nicosia reading poetry

Jerry Nicosia

We stayed the night at Jerry's house and he took us back to the city around noontime on Wednesday.  We took quick showers and met up with Jason and Adri and went walking.  Unfortunately, having been up about 24 hours the previous day kind of caught up to us and we ended up back in our room by 5, and asleep by 7.  I woke up about 3 am drenched in feverish sweat and I felt like a new woman when I woke up at 9 am.  We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel with Jason and then took showers and headed down Columbus Street to the North Beach area.  Stopped en route at a sweet little Italian coffee shop and split a cannoli and iced mocha with Rick and then continued until we reached The Beat Museum.  Rick introduced himself to the owner, Jerry Cimino, who knew Rick from his book and blog, and he gave us all free tickets.  We took photos of ourselves in the 49 Hudson that was used in filming the recent On The Road movie.

After an hour touring the museum and talking with Jerry we headed across the street to Vesuvio's for a beverage.  

Janet, the bartender and one of the owners of Vesuvio's recommended Coppola's for lunch so that's where we headed.  

Owned by Francis Ford Coppola, the place is loaded with great movie photos and the pizza was quite delicious.  

We hailed a cab for a quick trip back to the hotel to get ready for the big event - Rick's participation on a panel at the San Francisco Public Library to talk about the beats in anticipation of the San Francisco release of the On The Road movie.  Unfortunately, the powers that be decided not to fully release the movie yet but that didn't put a damper on things.  Every seat in the house was taken and there were crowds standing in the back.

Actor Peter Coyote, a dapper dresser, and poet Joanna McClure. 

About 275 people in attendance

..., Actor Peter Coyote, Joanna McClure, Jerry Nicosia, Brad Parker, and Rick Dale.

Dinner at The First Italian or something like that: Adri, Penney, Brad, Jerry, Rick, Me, Allie, and Jason.

Friday morning we walked down Columbus a little way and found a sweet little place for breakfast before catching buses over to Haight Ashbury.  We browsed the stores, watched the local flavor, and had a delicious lunch at Cha Cha Cha's.  Nice people all around.  And some rather unique ones, as you'd expect at the Haight.

We were up early the next morning to share a taxi to the airport with Jason and Adri for the long trip home.  Flights were stuffy and crowded but all on time and without incident.  Overall a fabulous time.   Hope for an opportunity to return soon.