Museum of Glass in Tacoma

While we were in the area, we went to Tacoma to visit with my friend, Caroline Owen, aka Brad. Since we have driven many times by the Museum of Glass on the way to visit my parents but had never stopped there, we decided it was time to go and combined it with seeing Brad and having lunch together. The picture below is from the glass bridge or pedestrian overpass between the Museum of Glass and the art museum on the other side of the highway. The light passing through highlights the Dale Chihuly glass art.

 

Elaine and Brad

Tizz Ausome Land Shark Ausomeness

 

The Museum of Glass also features artists on site making various glass creations. They encourage children who visit the museum to draw pictures and write short descriptions of their pictures as above. The artists take the pictures and recreate them as glass objects as below.

Very ausome!

Giant glass marbles

 

For those of you who have seen the movie, "Men in Black", you might recognize the picture above as being similar to the closing scene of the movie where some giant aliens are playing marbles with galaxies. Maybe that is what is really happening.

 

Has it been a month already?

I just realized that we have been in the U.S. for a month so far. We have been doing a lot of visiting and plan much more before we return to Ecuador. If you want to get together, please call or send us an email.

In between we have been working on 'The List', (cue Rich rolling his eyes). Even though we have had much more Internet access while in Central America, there are some tasks that are much easier to perform in the US and in person. This includes doctor appointments, checking the safety deposit box,  talking to the Force10 engineer directly, and shopping. 

Shopping is much easier here in the land of plenty. It is easy to take this for granted. One reason is we know where to go to get what we want. Sometimes this is part of the adventure in a new country like Costa Rica or Panama or Ecuador. It may also be frustrating as my Spanish skills are very rudimentary and some items are just not available. We understand that having boat parts shipped to us in Ecuador would be expensive, up to 100% duty and delivery is not guaranteed. We hope to get all of our boat parts here and take them back with us on the plane to avoid any duty. Rich and I have been shopping at various places, picking up the items on 'The List'. So far the pile is stuff is not as big as last year but we are not finished yet. We have at least two bottle of General Tsao's Stir Fry sauce from Trader Joes. This is definitely something that the local tienda does not carry. Other items include a replacement US ensign as our has been quite weather beaten,  business card holders that fit into a three ring binder to hold the boat cards we get from other cruisers, wet/dry bags from REI to transport laundry to/from shore in the dingy and ordering holding tank filters. 'The List' goes on but I think we are adding less to the list than we are crossing off, which is a good thing. 

We are also enjoying the summer weather here in the Pacific Northwest. It has been beautiful, sunny and not too hot. It seems funny to us to watch the weather reports on the local television stations warning about hot weather. Compared to the 90 plus temperatures and 90 plus humidity levels we experienced in Central America, this is weather is so much more comfortable. Even the few days of rain was nothing compared to the downpours of rainy season of Costa Rica and Panama. I have to admit I am not missing the winters of Seattle but I am sure we will experience cooler weather in Peru and Chile as well as inland Ecuador.

Cheers,

Elaine and Rich

Now what it the next item on the list?

Back to Seattle

We are currently on the train from Vancouver, BC, back to Seattle. We had a great time visiting with my cousin, Bari, and husband, Bob. They picked us up at the train station late on Wednesday and despite it being an arrival late in the evening we talked to the wee hours in the morning. During our time in Vancouver we waked around Yaletown and stopped for 'small bites' at a restaurant with tables on the sidewalk and visited the market at Granville Island for fresh ingredients for dinner.

Bari and Bob checking out the tomatoes

 

On Friday, Bob and Bari drove us out to Port Coquilam to the Force10 distributor. We have a Force10, 3 burner Gimbaled stove with oven on Windarra that we installed during our refit in 2000. It has served us well but we have been having problems with broiler and the oven temperature control. Rich had talked to them on the phone in the past but the answer of just replace the entire unit is not practical for us, especially sine the boat is now in Ecuador. Rich was able to talk to someone knowledgable about our unit and our experience /problem face to face. We learned what size thumb drills to use to clean the orifcies to maximize the flow of gas, to use some WD40 to help with the temperature control and how to remove the broiler to clean it. Unfortunately the oven/broiler temperature control is not a replaceable unit so if it fails we may indeed have to replace the entire stove. We hope this doesn't happen but now we are more knowledgeable at least. This itself made the drive worth the time for us.

In 2010, Rich and I sailed to Haida Gwaii on Windarra. You may look back through the blog and see our entrees. We enjoy the visit and learning about the Haida. Many of the artifacts such as totem poles, lodge poles, bent wood boxes and other items at housed at the Museum of Anthropology on the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver. The four of us went to the museum on Saturday. We saw carvings and jewelry by Bill Reid, a famous and talented Haida artist. One feels a little mixed about seeing all the items at the museum. Yes, they are being preserved and enjoyed by a larger audience here in Vancouver but I also thought that some of the items belong in Haida Gwaii.

 

The museum also had artifacts from another indigenous people's from Canada and around the world. There was an exhibit of Iranian and Iraqi art that was very thought provoking, as well as an exhibit of ceramics from Europe, including stove tiles, delfware, and porcelain. I learned that Bellamine jugs from Germany engraved with the face of an old man with a beard, was a derogatory reference to a Cardinal Bellarmine, who was strongly opposed to the reformation in Germany by Martin Luther and others. In Tacoma, where I grew up there was a Catholic boys school, named Bellarmine. It has since gone Co-Ed.

We want to thank Bob and Bari for their hospitality and for being such great hosts.

Sent from SV Windarra iPad

New Jersey to Portland

Rich and I traveled in Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador without getting sick or having problems with the food or water. We return to the United States and in less than a week we get sick. Granted we were visiting Jesse and he had a cold but it is interesting. Jesse had just started a new in Connecticut and a whole new germ pool. Anyway, we have sniffles and a hacking cough but we seem to be close to the end of it.

Before we left New Jersey, we had dinner with Rich's cousin, Alyce, her husband, Michael, and their daughter, Megan. Last year we had spent time with Alyce in Ocean City.  We also visited with Wilda and Jim Conor in Ocean City and had dinner with Jim and Jeanne. Due to our colds we did not visit anyone less that we had planned to.

Saturday we flew to Portland, via Minneapolis. We tried hard not to infect the rest of the passengers. Both flights were full but we lucked out and had an empty seat next to us on the flight from Minneapolis. Sarah picked us up at the airport and delivered us to our hotel. She has been kind enough to schlep us around Portland so we may do some shopping. There are just something that you can't buy very easily in Central America.

Tomorrow we will take the train to Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Newport, Rhode Island, Mystic Connecticut and Runnemede, New Jersey

On Monday morning, Jesse got up early to drive to his job in Groton. Rich and I left at the same time and after a stop for coffee at Starbuck's we drove east to Newport, Rhode Island. While the America's Cup races are just starting in San Francisco, on the other side of the United States, Newport was once the home of the America's Cup. One of the main streets is called America's Cup Avenue. It has a long tradition of sailing and boating. Rich and I walked along the waterfront and stopped for lunch.

I am posing in front of one of the classic boats that take tourists out for tours

Power boaters have creative names for their crafts.

One of the small homes in the area.

 

After lunch we drove around the area and followed the sign that said, "Mansions". These homes are gorgeous. The styles range from Victorian to Georgian to French Chateau. Most have manicured gardens and lawns and could sleep a small family of 20 or more. They were fun to look at but I am glad I don't have to maintain them!

 

 On our way back to New Haven we also stopped at Mystic, Connecticut. This was a ship building center and also the home of the Mystic Pizza shop that was the inspiration for the movie of the same name.. It professes that its pizza is a slice of heaven. We will take their word for it as we did not stop for a slice.

 

Today we drove south to Runnemede, New Jersey to visit with friends and family before flying to the west coast. Rich and I stopped by Marino's for a cheese steak sandwich and a hoagie. Rich and the owner exchanged names of friends from high school looking for common aquaintances. I think this is an east coast thing.

 

As I type this, Rich is napping. Since Jesse is in a new job he is also in a new germ pool and got a cold. During our visit, Rich caught his cold. We were able to travel in central America and not get sick but returning to the US is different matter. I hope he recovers soon.



Philadelphia, Wyckoff and New Haven

On Thursday we visited with Rich's mother, Mary, brother, Jim and Jim's wife, Jeanne. Mary is almost 92 and is getting frail. In the evening we went out to dinner with Jim and Jeaane.

On Friday morning we visited with Mary and Jeanne before driving up to Wyckoff to visit with my cousin, Steph and her husband, Bill. Their daughter, Anneliese, is now living in New York City, so we missed seeing her, but my aunt Bert, Steph's mother joined us for dinner. We had a great time catching up on each other's lived since we saw them last year before returning to Mexico in October 2012. They told us about Hurricane Sandy and how they were affected.

Steph and Bill Mayo

This morning after a leisurely breakfast with Steph and Bill we drove up to New Haven, CT. Jesse and Rae just moved here from Portland. Rae will be starting graduate school at Yale in September. Jesse just started a new job in Groton. They bought a Prius to replace the old Taurus that they sold to Jesse's friend, Ryan, before they left Portland. They live in a building that was once Yale faculty housing, so it has plenty of old world charm. We helped Jesse put together their dining room table.

Their apartment is on the second floor to the left of the blue door

 

 

Jesse and Rich

 

Tomorrow we might do some exploring of the area. This is my first time in Connecticut, being a West coast girl.

More Guayaquil

Last night we had dinner with Emma. She has been living in Ecuador for about 6 years and the last 3 in Guayaquil. She met us at our hotel and we walked to the Malecon, about 3 blocks from our hotel. The Malecon was developed in 2000 and it is a great addition to the city. It borders the river and stretches about a mile. It has shops, restaurants, places to sit, ponds, statues, fountains, playgrounds, etc. It is a vibrant place with lots of activity and plenty of security to keep it that we.

We walked to a restaurant called Resaca, which is Spanish for hangover and even though it was two for one happy hour when we arrived, we all escaped a hangover the next morning. We had a great meal and wonderful conversation with Emma about Ecuador. She gave us suggestions for what to do and what to see. Thank you, Emma.

In the morning after breakfast we went to the park across the street to see the large iguanas. They are land iguanas and they have the run of the park. Opposite the hotel across the park is a cathedral. Originally built of wood in 1547, it later burned down and was rebuilt in 1948 and has been renovated since.

The Cathedral across the park from the hotel

One of the downtown land iguanas

 

As we walked towards the Malecon we passed the government building that is an example of European architecture. Looking at it you could imagine you were in Europe, not South America. Rich and I walked from one end of the Malecon to the other and then down to the Mercado de Artisans to buy a few souvenirs before heading back to our hotel.

Rich on the Malecon

We had a late night flight to Miami so we got a bite to eat before getting a taxi to the airport, for $4. We had to wait until 8pm before the American Airlines ticket counter opened and we could check our baggage and go through security. There was a large duty free shop but we passed on that, including the alpaca ponchos. It was too hot for that.

Our flight to Miami was uneventful but not very restful. Despite having to cart our bags clear to the other end of the airport to check them in for our flight to Philadelphia and the 3 hour delay due to a bird strike issue with the plane, we did make it, but tired.