Jax's Shuffle
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Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Larry and I saw this play last week. Since plays are something we do on a semi-regular basis, this didn't seem out of the ordinary. It was a play about the life of Janis Joplin, based on the book by her sister Laura.
But *this* play ... oh man ... there are very few words to describe *this* play. We were totally blown away by the energy and the music. There were only two actresses on stage along with a rock and roll band. One performed the "speaking" Janis, the other, the "singing" Janis, performing with the band, doing all of Janis' hits.
It was two hours of rock-n-roll history as seen through the letters and words of Janis Joplin. And when the band performed... the whole theater became part of what was happening up on the stage. I had never been in a play before where the actress literally got every single person out of their seat to stand and clap and sing.
Larry and I both walked out of there moved by what we had seen. By the time we got back to our hotel, we knew the kids had to see this play. Besides the fact they had all recently taken up rock-n-roll instruments, we just had to share this experience. We had a call into the box office at just about the time they opened the next morning. We ordered tickets for all of us and drive down today to watch it. We had dinner at Olive Garden, as is usually and then over to the theater where we took our seats in the Loge. The play was just as good as the first time ... though I think I might have enjoyed it even more as I got to see it with all the kids.
This trip to Phoenix wasn't even over night. We just drove down to see a play. Larry and I had seen this same play, "Love, Janis" last week and were so blown away by it that we knew we wanted the kids to see it, too. With the live band on stage and two different actresses performing the personality of Janis Joplin (one speaking and one singing) it just might be one of the greatest plays that Larry and I have ever seen ... and we've seen quite a few.
In fact we started out play watching days in London in 1984 when we took a theater class through our school. We've kept up the habit ever since. Now, we have season tickets to the Arizona Theater Company in Phoenix. We saw our showing of "Love, Janis" with our season tickets. The ones we got for the kids were extra. And so worth it. I think they really, really enjoyed it.
So we drove down for the day leaving at about 2:30 in the afternoon, picked up Katy, did a few errands for Larry's work and then had dinner at The Olive Garden before heading downstairs for the theater and our fantastic seats.
After the play, we dropped off Katy (she's staying with her aunts in Phoenix for the summer) and headed home, getting in just a little after one. We slept in the next day, of course, and the coming home part was hard. But it was a great trip and a great play with really, really great company.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Location: Phoenix
Duration: Just over night
Larry and I went down to Phoenix last night to see one of our plays.
It was one of those love and hate them trips. The hotel sucked big time. It was listed on Hotwire as a "four star" but when something is that cheap, you should know it's too good to be true. Dinner last night was fabulous, breakfast this morning was awful. We were almost late for the play, but made it. We got home early from the play, and he wanted to swim, I didn't. I wanted to go to the lounge for some music and a night cap, he didn't. We went back to the room and crashed. Not even the movies on demand in the room looked good.
The good part was the play. It was called "Souvenir". It was a musical comedy based on a real life woman. We didn't know it before hand, but it first appeared on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony. This production reunited the original cast (just two people) so we saw it the way it was meant to be seen. And it was real good. Real, real good.
So, it was good to get away, we did have some fun, but hell if it wasn't an uphill climb to get there.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Location: San Fransisco, California
Duration: Five Days and Four Nights
This is our last day in The City by the Bay. Tomorrow, our plane takes off at 12:18 and we'll have to leave to the airport too early to see any more sites.
Larry really wanted to walk to The Golden Gate Bridge. We could see it from the area where our hotel was and it looked pretty far to me. He assured me that it wasn't and we could pass The Cultural Fine Art Center on the way. Since this was on our list, it sounded like a plan.
Two and a half hours later, as we started up the hill to enter The Presido, I was thinking that maybe I had been right. It was because of this walk, though, this nice, comfortable walk in the gentle rain, that we were able to cover so much ground and see so much of the coastline between The Bridge and Fisherman's Wharf. There were great houses that we don't even want to know the prices of; dogs playing with each other down on the beach. We passed Crissy Field where we walked though a marsh land preserve, seeing a bunch of different water fowl.
At the top of the hill, as we waited for the bus, we took a quick run down the trail that lead us to the magnificent view of The Golden Gate Bridge, where a nice man from Seattle took our photo.
After the walk, we used our cable car pass to hop a bus and head into the heart of the sixties. We visited Haight and Ashbury which is still pretty laid back. It wasn't quite what I expected, I think. I think I saw it as being more open with hippies still hanging out and playing guitar. What it was, was a street corner with a house on one corner and some businesses on the other that just happened to get famous.
Dinner tonight was The Steps of Rome. What House of Nanking does for Chinese food, The Steps of Rome does for Italian. I think I had the greatest Italian food I have ever had and I do eat a lot of Italian up in Flagstaff. But this, what we had in Little Italy with the blasting music and the dancing waiters and the people all trying to be heard over the clang of dishes and happy people, it was like nothing I had ever tasted before. It was another experience in sensory over load that was more pleasant then not. We had a great time here with great food and great wine.
We walked back to the hotel again. This time the rain was pouring down. The water was coming off my hat in rivulets in front of my face. I wouldn't realize it until the next day, but I got so wet that the inside of my wool coat was still damp in the morning as was the money in the front pocket of my purse. We didn't care, though. Walking back that night and passing through the rest of Little Italy with our umbrella, was too memorable to miss. There were people all around, everyone of them talking or laughing or having a good time.
It rained the whole time we were in San Fransisco and I don't think it ever bothered us or slowed us down. I think it just added to the charm of what we were doing and we were walking three to five miles a day even with our cable car pass.
Friday, February 9, 2007
Location: San Fransisco ... with a side trip to Napa and Sonoma ...
Duration: Five Days and Four Nights
We were tourists today. Real live tourists who joined a tour and climbed onto a bus with twenty-three other people and drove into the wine country for a nine hour tour of three wineries and The Napa and Sonoma Valleys.
The wineries we visited were:
The Madonna
Viansa
The Cline
At each one we got to get a lesson in wine tasting. They taught us how to hold the wine glass, how to smell the wine, how to taste and "chew" the wine to get the full flavor. Each winery gave us a little bit more of a sample then the last, though never enough to feel a buzz. Some of the wines were real, real good. Some were not so good. I don't think we liked any at The Cline. They mixed all their grapes to get different flavors, ending up with wine that had no flavor.
We had lunch in Sonoma with an hour to spare. We used that hour to go to a cheese shop and buy dinner for tonight. We got three different cheeses, some fruit and crackers and some cheesecake and baklava for dessert. From a bakery around the corner we got a loaf of sourdough bread and then at The Viansa, we picked up a good cabernet to complete the meal. It was all in a brown bag that we carried with us.
Dinner was a picnic while we watched a couple Oscar nominated movies (The Departed, Little Children), neither of which we enjoyed all that much. But we did enjoy the time, we did love the food and the simplicity of it.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Location: San Francisco, California
Duration: Five Days and Four Nights
I don't think we wanted today to end. We were just having so much fun.
After walking the thirty to forty minutes back from The House of Nanking in the rain, we were damp and cold so we stopped off at the hotel bar, Knuckles, for a quick drink.
A quick drink turned into a couple hours when we discovered the pool table and racked the balls up for a quick game. We ended up playing seven, one after the other while Larry drank his German beer and I enjoyed a decadent Baily's Irish Cream (I usually only have these once a year and this was not the time for it).
I must admit that Larry did out-shoot me in the games, though don't get me wrong, I did pretty damn good myself! I did win more games the first half of our playing time, but that wasn't because of my shooting. That was because he likes to sink the Eight Ball in bank shots. He took care of that later, though and beat me Four Games to Three.
Location: San Francisco, California
Duration: Five Days and Four Nights
Did I mention that it's raining? Not your little light showers, either. It is pouring down a lot of the time. But it hasn't deterred us yet. We are still walking most places and seeing everything we wanted to see.
We did picked up our cable car passes this afternoon, though. They'll be good for the whole trip. There is a cable car "turn about" right by the hotel. That's where the line ends and the men jump off and manually turn the cable car around so it can go back the way it came.
We took our first cable car all the way to Chinatown, getting off at Grant Street where "The Gate" signals the beginning of Chinatown. We stopped to have a hot coco at Starbucks right across the street, so we could see "The Gate" from where we sat. It's still pouring rain and we just wanted to warm up a bit.
After wards, we walked through "The Gates" and started up this amazing street with all its sights and sounds. There was so much color and so many people talking in Chinese. When you passed one shop you might smell the incense that was burning inside, only to pass another and smell what they were cooking. You use one sense after another and yet, it's never enough and you just want more.
I don't know what caught Larry's attention when we passed this one little store. He's not much of a shopper, but he had us go in and go to the back where were were presented with a wall of swords. Most were just for show, but they had a whole collection of hand made, full tang gorgeous beauties. After over an hour of looking at this one and that one, we had bought two (Valentine's gift to each other) and had cruised the rest of the store to buy the kids souvenirs.
We had to stop and buy a five dollar San Fransisco tourist bag just to hold all the things we bought for the kids. And we rarely buy souvenirs anywhere.
Now, two years ago, while in San Fransisco for Larry's work we discovered the greatest Chinese food ever at a place called The House of Nanking. We had convinced ourselves that it had to be too good to be true because nothing could taste that amazing. We found the place again, ordered our food and almost died it was so much like we remembered. It's not a fancy place. It's really just another Hole in the Wall. Oh, but the food here ... everyone who visits San Fransisco should eat here.
Location: San Francisco, California
Duration: Five Days and Four Nights
It's the first day in San Francisco and Larry and I sat in a little hole in the wall breakfast joint just up the street from our hotel ("Pat's") with our maps and our tourist books and planned out everything we wanted to do and everything we wanted to see.
We're basing our criteria on the same elements we use to plan family vacations. There are five things that must be included in a trip to make it fun:
1. A semi-formal activity
2. Something Educational
3. Some Extravagant Fun
4. Something Romantic for Mom and Dad
5. A cemetery or two; maybe a grave site visit
We learned a long time ago that this is what we need to make sure there is something for everyone in the family. Usually, if we can get four of these into a trip, we know we will have an extraordinary time.
So Larry and I sat at Pat's with all our research material and came up with a plan.
Thursday: A walk up Lombard Street in the morning and Chinatown in the afternoon
Friday: A tour of the wine country by bus
Saturday: a walk to the Golden Gate Bridge; a visit to the Palace of Fine Arts; a formal dinner out.
Sunday: Home
So far this morning we climbed Lombard Street which is, of course, the crookedest street in America. And man, is that sucker steep!! After wards, we walked along the Fisherman's Wharf, saw the sea lions at Pier 39 and stopped to get some lunch. Larry had to have the calm chowder in the sourdough bowl because, as everyone knows, when you come to Fisherman's Wharf, that is the meal of choice.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Duration: Friday through Sunday
Larry got a smokin' deal through the Internet on an awesome room at a resort in Phoenix. This "room" was actually bigger than some of the houses we had lived in over the years and came with a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. Okay, so I'm not doing laundry on this trip, but we did decide that we didn't want to eat out anymore. Larry went to the store with a list and did all the shopping and I did all the cooking.
Larry and Brittany had to take off to do a one day job down in Tucson on Saturday while Bridgette and I held down the fort. We watched a movie together (Apollo 13), she took a swim in the jacuzzi tub in the bathroom and then we took a walk around the grounds. The walk route did take us through all the golf courses around the place and we did have to watch the golfers as it did seem as if some of them were aiming at us, but it was fun to duck and run!!
And then it was time to entertain! Larry's dad, his wife and Larry's sister, Laura, all came over for a spaghetti dinner that I cooked. It looked a lot more fancy then it was with a nice bottle of wine and the vegetable platter that Larry had bought that morning. It looked like real dinner party in this great location. The windows were open and the desert air was blowing in. Larry said the smell of Italian on the stove after driving all that way was just wonderful.
We shared travel stories and Eldridge told us about his experience in Germany after World War II. W told them a few things about our recent trip. We tried for a movie, but it just got too late.
It really was just a fun family time with a lot of great memories.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Have decided to keep up on the journal. As a travel journal!! I'm going to keep notes on all of our travels whether it as exciting as Paris, France; or as mortifying as Wilcox, Arizona!!
I think it will be interesting to see after a year of this, just how many days we spend on the road or how much fun we really have. I mean, come on, yes, Wilcox was a little horrific to live through but it sure is fun to get laughing about it when we look back on it.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Today we did everything that we had put off to the last minute. We went to a castle, played around the fountain there. Did some last minute shopping in Bonn (bought our Beethoven statue for our piano at home from the Beethovenhaus) and returned our faithful rental car. Dietmar was with us the whole day, helping us wrap up all the loose ends before we head back stateside.
It is really hard to believe that it's time to go home. We got here do long ago with so much time stretched out before us. Now we are at the end of the trip with 1000 photos, four hours of video and more memories that even this journal can hold.
Each day we woke up with a list of what we wanted to see and accomplish and I think we hit most of them. There were so many people traveling with us and yet there was never a fight, never a problem. Everything just seemed to go perfect and it was fun all the way.
It really was a once in a lifetime trip.
Kids finally decided to take advantage of the drinking age in Germany. After Larry and I went to bed, they walked to the gas station to buy a bottle of Johnny Walker (Bridgette had a Coke!!) to share as they played poker all night using my calcium tablets as chips.
Yes, they should have been asleep. But it was their last night and they didn't want it to end. Who could blame them? This trip has been amazing.
Monday, January 1, 2007
We spent today at a German history museum with Dietmar giving us or own private tour. He really is an expert on the history following World War II and he was able to explain all the exhibits. Which was good since all the little name plates were written in German and we would not have known what was what without him.
Then it was dinner at a Chinese place that didn't have English Menus and home for Der Herr der Ringe: Die Ruckkehr des Konigs while we started to pack up and clean the apartment.
Nick is with us!! We thought we had said good-bye to him when we left the party the other night, but his uncle was driving out our way and dropped him off tonight to spend the last two nights with us. This is really a special treat!!
Sitting here, thinking back to New Years Eve, I don't think it will be possible to put into words just how amazing the entire night was. With friends around and all of them using their English with us, we felt warm and welcomed into Steffi and Marcus's house.
We sat around for hours talking and sharing, waiting for the stroke of midnight to come. We had a belated Christmas gift exchange with Nick's whole family ... one of the highlights being the Etch-A-Sketch we brought from America for Nick's little sister, Felina. All of the adults got into it, each one trying to write out their name.
For us, they gave us a drawn poster of Bonn that everyone at the party sighed. We signed two, actually. One for us, one for the Metz's (Nick's family)
There was wine and German beer and lots of glühwein, along with the good German food that Steffi had made. Her brother was their with his wife and daughter. And so was Ela and Dietmar. And all of us and all of Nick's family.
At 11:30 we had to watch a short movie on TV as is the German tradition. It's an old black and white British film from maybe the 50's or 60's called Dinner for One. It was explained to us that every German watches this and has watched it every New Years of their whole life. No one knows how the tradition got started, but it is for the whole country and not just the group we were with.
Now, in Germany, the New Years is taken very seriously and from 11:30p.m. until 4:30a.m. that night, fireworks are legal. We had a huge stash that we started to set off at ten before midnight. And the people down the street did the same. And the people on the next block over. And the people all over the city. We could hear the shouts as people celebrated January 1st and we saw the rockets blasting into the air. The whole city came alive as one year turned into the next.
Champagne was flowing as the rockets went off and the fireworks we threw exploded just down the street from us. The neighbors came over and kissed us, pouring more champagne into our glasses and wishing us a Happy New Year in German.
Our own personal fire work show last for just over an hour and no one lost any fingers.
We had never seen such an exciting and warm New Years Eve. It just is so hard to put into words how amazing this night was.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
11:52PM
Quote from Bryce:
"NICK ... THROW IT!!!!
Apparently Nick forgot he was holding a lit fire work in his hand when Bryce looked up and noticed the fuse disappearing into the cherry bomb.
Lazy day with walks and naps ... until we went to Marcus and Steffi's house for a New Years Celebration.
Current mood:  lazy
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Nothing exciting to report today. We drove back from Paris to Germany, passing through Belgium. We were still so hoping for a Belgium Waffle, but all we managed in that country was another Pizza Hut. I swear, we've eaten more Pizza Hut here in Europe than we do back home.
Current mood:  tired
Friday, December 29, 2006
We've been back to the Eiffel Tower three times now. The first time, on the first day the wait was a hour to get to the top. On the second try, it was an hour and a half. And tonight, on our last night in Paris, it was an easy two hours. We had to, though. It was either now or never. And the way the kids wanted to get to the top so bad, it was not going to be never.
So Gr'ma Sue went back to the hotel (we did a lot of walking today and she was tired) and the rest of us set off in the dark to get to the top.
Oh, it was cold. It was so very cold and not even the hot chocolate we bought made a difference. It took two hours to get to the the ticket office. Another thirty minutes to get to the elevator (stairs were closed by now ... it was night) and then another thirty minutes to get to the second elevator to the top. In all, it was four hours round trip from the time we arrived at the tower to the time we got back to the bottom.
Oh, but it was worth. It was so worth it to get to the top of the world like that. Where the wind was blowing so hard it knocked my hat right off my head. To where the city lights stretched out in all directions and we could see some of the land marks we had visited or read about.
Current mood:  cold
Did the cemetery today as planned. We set out to see Jim Morrison and the kids got excited about seeing Chopin. We even went to a florist on the way so that they could each pick up a rose to leave at his grave.
Once we got there, though, the place was a little weird. It looked like a little city with these cobblestone streets and little houses along the side. Only these little houses were actually tombs and they looked pretty damn creepy.
The whole place screamed old. Even though we saw a few more recent graves, it did scream old and creepy. Maybe one of the most unusual things we ran into was a crazed Frenchman who picked us up at Chopin's grave and gave us a private tour ... for a fee to be named later (we got off with an easy twenty-five Euro). He had wild, long hair that hung to his shoulders and a Jim Morrison t-shirt with a Doors denim shirt over that.
He drug us all over the place telling us the cemetery's history and telling us to "Come on baby light my fire ...". He would turn left suddenly and if we asked where to now, he would spout off in broken English "Short cut, short cut ..." He showed us "Mr. Fertility" and Sarah Bernhardt and Maria Callas. He took us to Oscar Wilde and made us girls put on lipstick and kiss the grave. We found out later this was a really bad thing that the family hates and now wish we hadn't done it.
We were supposed to go to the Catacombs, but by the time we got there, it was closed and a big sign that said that if you suffered from claustrophobia or respiratory problems, you shouldn't go in so maybe it was a good thing we missed out on it. Instead we had snacks at a street side vendor and played a little in a nearby park.
Current mood:  happy
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