Maya: Illusion. Obscuring the spiritual reality of absolute being with an illusory appearance of the sense-world.
Blog: A place to talk about life rather than to live life.
Blogger: A person who talks about life rather than lives it.
(So why am I blogging instead of living life, you ask?....I did a lot of living, now I want to talk about it, so get off my case!)
Driving over the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco.
I’ve fallen behind on my travel updates, but I did want to post some final photos of San Francisco because when you have eleven people (especially from the same family) traveling together and at the end of the the trip, you have eleven people still talking to one another - that’s a feat all on its own!
From 13 years old to 87 years young, we were an eclectic bunch.
Patrick escaping from Alcatraz.
Lombard Street
The weather wasn’t the greatest when we were there, so while some went to visit Alcatraz, others went shopping, and there were those who just wanted to find a Starbuck’s or a Barnes & Noble and get out of the rain!
Hotel lobby.
Patrick, the last one having breakfast. Hmm, or is he the first one waiting for Happy Hour?!
We loved our hotel suites and the big breakfasts that were served. The girls just wandered down in their pajamas. (They weren’t the only ones! Although some of the other guests were wearing pjs, they were more discreet then the panda bears and monkeys the girls were wearing, which screamed, “Let’s have a pajamas party!”) Needless to say, Patrick and I enjoyed Happy Hour in the evening and no matter what everyone did during the day, we always met up for dinner.
Chinatown
Katarina and C.C. in Muir Woods
Mom hopping a cable car!
Final dinner in The City.
Trying to decide what to get for dessert!
Maya Muses: We left the rainy West Coast and flew back to the sunny Southwest (Ahh!) for a final short visit of 70° weather before returning to the freezing Northeast and all that snow! Brrr!
Of course we couldn’t go to San Francisco and not head up to Sonoma and Napa Valley! The weather wasn’t cooperating, but the countryside is so beautiful there. In any case, we had our minds set on drinking wine! Years ago when I was living in Marin County, a friend and I use to head up the valley every weekend stopping at all the vineyards along the way. We never made it past the 8th or 9th winery because by that time we’d be really tipsy, but we’d always come home with bottles of wine.
Well times have changed and the laws are not only stricter on the roads with drunk drivers, but most of the wineries no longer give free samples of their fine wines. A pity really, because now it’s next to impossible to taste more than three or four wines without getting drunk.
Wine tasting use to be just a little sip of wine so you could do just that - taste the wine! Now the vineyards want you to pay for tasting. Robert Mondavi charges $15 per person to taste 3 glasses of their wines, but those three glasses are full size wine glasses. When you finish drinking that, believe me, you’re not going to go to another winery and buy another 3 glasses of wine! (Talk about being tipsy, you’d be downright drunk!)
I can’t imagine this policy not hurting business, but then again, if it had I’m sure they would have very quickly gone back to free wine tasting; not to mention, this eliminates a lot of drunk drivers! (Hmm, or does it?) Business nowadays is done mostly through wine tasting tours and it seems that more and more Americans are drinking wine.
(Mom came barging in. “Okay, now where’s the wine?!”)
Maya Muses: One owner told me that they started charging years ago, because most wineries noticed that people were coming not to buy, but just to drink as much free wine as they could. Too bad, as I told the owner, because being able to taste many different wines allows you that opportunity of discovering a new wine that you don’t know, but you find you really like and will then want to buy. Their new system no longer makes that possible.
If you haven’t heard Plushenko crying like a baby because he didn’t win the gold medal in Men’s Figure Skating in Vancouver, then you probably don’t watch figure-skating. Instead of Plushenko being gracious and admitting that Evan Lysacek had a much better performance in the long program, giving Lysacek the top honors, Plushenko took the low road whining and complaining that he was robbed of the gold medal!
When Plushenko was asked whether he thought he had won after his performance, he said, “I was positive that I won. But I suppose Evan needs the medal more than I do.” (Nope! Apparently for your ego, you need it much, much, more!) “Maybe it’s because I already have one. I have to share with you - two silver and one Olympic gold - that’s not too bad.”
He’s also been quoted as saying:
“Lysacek isn’t a true champion because he didn’t attempt a quadruple jump.”
“Quad is quad. If the Olympic champion doesn’t know how to jump the quad, I don’t know,” Plushenko whined afterward. “Now it’s not men’s figure skating, it’s dancing.”
….Without the quad, men’s skating is actually women’s skating.
Everyone knows that Plushenko accomplished his quadruple jump (and not very well if I may add), but is that enough to give someone a gold medal? According to Plushenko it is!
Still, are quads all that matter in determining a winner? His short program put him in first place and the gold was his to win, but his long program was not as difficult overall as Lysacek’s was, nor was it executed as well. If Plushenko thinks that quad jumps are the most important, then someone should have told him that it takes more than that to be a winner! As Evan Lysacek said so well, “If it was about doing one jump, they would give you 10 seconds and no music. But it’s about every step from the time you take the ice until the time you finish.
Lysacek’s win shows that a gold medal doesn’t go to the person who spins around four times in a few seconds and then performs the rest of his program with mistakes and no style. Plushenko struggled with his triple axel and his combinations, his spins were heavy and slow, and the artistry was lacking in a performance that didn’t excite anyone.
On the other hand, Lysacek performed beautifully, both technically and artistically, and although he didn’t try a quadruple jump, he deserved to win. His jumps were clean, his lines and footwork were impeccable, his spins were fast and exciting and it was an emotional performance that merited a gold!
(Just a side note: If anyone has reason to complain about how the skaters were judged, it would be Johnny Weir. His long program was beautiful to watch and was so full of emotion. For him to place behind Canada’s Chan, whose skating was nowhere near as good as Weir, has left many in the skating community scratching their heads!)
No one is scratching their head, however, as to why Plushenko came in second, but more than a few made a collective gasp when during the medal ceremony, Plushenko skated out on the rink, shook hands with the bronze medalist Takahashi of Japan, and then purposely jumped onto the podium and stood on the gold medal platform before stepping down to the silver level position letting everyone in the arena know just who he thought should have won! The audience in the arena were not pleased with his antics.
Maya Muses: Poor Plushenko has created his own narcissistic fantasy that only he and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin believe he should have won. The above photo on his website displays his silver, gold, and now platinum medal that he’s awarded himself!
It’s a pity that Evgeni Plushenko could have left the world stage as one of the great figure skaters of his time and he could have been remembered as such. Instead his poor sportsmanship and his negative comments and behavior have revealed what a poor loser he is, and this, unfortunately, is what he will be remembered as.
Maya Muses: For all you Geraldine Larrosa fans who have been asking about her new album and/or concert dates, Geraldine sent me a clip from her new album that will be out at the beginning of March.
If you’re in Paris you can see her in Zorro le Musical at the Folies Bergère until June. She’ll be back in Madrid afterwards to promote her album, Amor de Ángel.
6 of us went to New York City.
8 of us flew to Texas.
10 of us traveled to Phoenix.
6 of us continued on to Las Vegas.
So when the decision was made to fly to San Francisco, you know it wasn’t going to be just Patrick and I getting on that plane! Nope, there were eleven of us!!!
As any well seasoned traveler knows, just getting two people to agree on where to go and what to do is already a chore; imagine getting eleven people wanting to do the same thing, especially when the ages range from 13 years-old to 87 years-young!!!
Once again we rented a mini bus to take us up and down the coast. Everyone wanted to see the Redwoods so up to Eureka we headed where there had recently been a 6.5 earthquake that still had many of the locals on edge! The people in Eureka are as hospitable as one could ever hope to meet, especially when the eleven of us invaded restaurants, shops, and hotels just by entering their establishments.
Someone suggested going to a fast-food chain for a milkshake. It was a great idea! It’s something that just doesn’t come to mind when you’ve spent years living in France and never snack in between meals. I couldn’t wait to have a vanilla milkshake! The first in over 25 years! (No kidding!) I was already imagining how good it would taste, so I didn’t notice the young girls and ladies looking our way.
As several of them made their way over to us, they stopped to ask if it was really him, Johnny Depp….. “Where, where?” I wanted to know or was the thick, creamy, milkshake too much for me and making me drunk?!!!
Young girl: “Are you really Johnny Depp?”
My Nephew: (Small chuckle) “No, I get that a lot.”
Lady: “You look just like him!” (She was actually swooning!)
Another girl: “Are you here for a movie?”
My Nephew: “No, we’re just visiting the area.”
Young girl: “Can I take a picture with you?”
My Nephew: “Sure, no problem.”
One after another, photos were taken. Uh, but when did this turn from looking like Johnny to being Johnny??? I thought, as I slurped my delicious milkshake. We teased Anthony about it later, but he’s use to it. If it’s not Johnny Depp, then they mistake him for Benjamin Bratt. Which reminded me of the time I had come back to the States after an absence of about ten years. My mother, brother and I were walking into a store when a sales clerk came running up to me all excited….
Sales Clerk: “Is it you, is it really you?!!!”
Me: “Yes! It’s me!” I answered somewhat surprised. Do I know this girl? I wondered.
Sales Clerk: “Oh I just love you!” she stared at me with adoring eyes.
Me: “Uh, wait….who do you think I am?”
Sales Clerk: “Why….Maria Conchita Alonso.”
Me: “Maria….Con….Who???”
My brother started laughing. “You don’t know who Maria Conchita Alonso is?” Uh, no….she wasn’t big in France so I had no idea who she was, but the poor sales girl was so disappointed that I wasn’t her - I should have played along.
Maya Muses: We spent the night in Eureka before heading back down the Avenue of the Giants the next day back to San Francisco. Dinner was at a cozy, but busy, seafood restaurant. It was Johnny Depp and his entourage! They opened up their banquet room to accommodate us. Really friendly service, but the chef was way too heavy on the salt. From the Clam Chowder to the Seafood Fettuccine it was just too salty to appreciate.
Okay, so here’s the scenario when we got to Phoenix! Ten of us in a rented mini bus arrived for Isabella’s 3rd birthday (my brother’s grand-daughter). His youngest daughter C.C. was celebrating her 18th birthday as well,….. so we were ready to party and party we did!
A few days later, we were around the breakfast table, preparing to return to Texas when someone realized that Patrick had never been to Las Vegas.
“Well you’ve got to go to Las Vegas, Patrick, it’s only 5 hours away!” Rose said.
“What?!!! You haven’t been to Vegas?!!!” my brother “Bam” chimed in.
“You really should go with Lynn to Vegas!” someone else said.
“Yeah, just rent a car and drive up there while the rest of us drive home.”
This went on for about ten minutes. So….Patrick and I decided to go to Las Vegas! I went online to see about renting a car and started searching for a hotel room.
“Hey Bob, why don’t you go with Lynn and Patrick?”
“Uh, maybe I should….” my brother Bob started thinking. “What about you, Mom?”
“You know me! Don’t ask me to go anywhere cause I’m always ready!” my 87 year-old mom started perking up at the idea of playing the slot machines. (Her favorite past-time!)
“Well, if all of you are going, then maybe I should go with you??? What do you think, Babe?” Bam asked his wife.
“Forget it Anthony! Who’s going to drive the kids home? I’m not driving that big bus back to El Paso with just the kids!”
“I’ll help you Cec.” Rose volunteered. “That is unless you think you can do it yourself. In that case, I may just tag along to Vegas myself.”
Needless to say, the compact car and one room at one of the casinos that I was getting ready to book online was increasing by the second, but if you know my family then you know that if someone is going somewhere - before long you have a small army tagging right along with you!
“Okay, Lynn, book two rooms at the Mandalay or the Monte Carlo and get a full size car instead,” Bam said, looking at his wife Ceci. “You and I will go to Vegas, just the two of us, in the spring. Okay Babe?”
“Yeah, right,” Ceci looked at him with a skeptical eye. “You know darn well if we go to Vegas in the spring, we’ll end up taking the kids and grand-kids.”
“Nope, just you and me!”
“Yeah, whatever!”
Final tally: Only four returned to Texas in the rented mini bus! Six of us ended up going to Las Vegas. Rooms were at the Excalibur and the car we rented was a large SUV!
Maya Muses: So who hit the jackpot in Vegas, you ask? Well, I guess you could say that my mom was the big winner. She played the penny machines. (Yes, one penny!) She put in two dollars and played all night! We were all tired after playing and losing, and wanted to go to bed, but mom was having none of that! She sat there perky as ever and ended up winning over $65 on 1¢! That’s my mom!!!
Maya Muses: Just a little update! We’re still in the Southwest, 70° weather, sunny blue skies. The type of weather where you just go out with a light jacket on. My brother Bob just e-mailed us photos of the latest snowfall in Pittsburgh! Over 30 inches and you can’t even see our cars buried underneath it all! Hmm! It’s making us think twice about returning to the Northeast!!!
(Oh yeah, and another snow storm is forecast for tomorrow! Hmm! Maybe we should head down to Mexico!?!!!)
Probably a lot of young people have never even heard of the song, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, but for any Baby Boomer, this was a big Glen Campbell hit back in the 60s! Well, we got to Phoenix (ten of us!) and after the snow in New York and Pittsburgh, a balmy, sunny 70° (21°C) was somewhat of a shock to our system!
The shock didn’t last long, however, as we took off coats, sweaters, scarves, gloves, and wool caps for lighter clothes.
From skyscrapers to mountains, from streets filled with cars and people, to open plains filled with brush and cactus, we marveled at how beautiful and vast our country truly is.
Maya Muses: It was a feast for the eyes, where the sky meets the earth and clouds caress the tips of the mountains, on sacred ground and it was nurturing to the soul for us to see such beauty passing by.
I’ve always heard that New York City during the Holiday Season takes on an entirely different atmosphere as New Yorkers get caught up in the holiday spirit. People slow down and the snow not only covers the streets with a blanket of white and everything seems more hush-hush, but there’s also a blanket of goodwill that comes over New Yorkers.
Of course I wanted to see this for myself! Afterall, when you go to NYC at any other time of the year it’s a dog eat dog, survival of the fittest, jungle out there! Everyone rushing about, stressed out in what can only be described as the Rat Race and even though you go there as a tourist, you end up as stressed out as everyone else.
Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Christmas Season really does change New Yorkers. People weren’t as fixated on getting from one place to another, where time is money and the goal is the almighty dollar. People in the streets actually stopped and took time to give directions. Everyone seemed friendly and helpful.
The memo to be nice, however, stopped there; they forgot to tell those working underground in the subways that it was Christmastime. Whenever one of us asked for directions, this was the usual exchange:
Me: “Excuse me, is that the direction toward Greenwich Village?” I said, pointing toward the southbound train. Subway Worker: “Humph.” she mumbled, waving her hand in the direction I was pointing toward. Me: “Sorry?” Subway Worker: Still not saying a word, but waving her hand more vigorously in the same direction. (Words were just too much work to ask of her.)
Again we needed directions down in the subway.
Me: “Excuse me, can you tell me which train to take to catch the ferry for the Statue of Liberty?” Subway Worker: “Mummph, muummble muumble mummble.” she said through the glass window, but with her microphone off. Me: “I’m sorry, but I can’t hear you.” Subway Worker: Grabbing her mike so I could hear her, and then thinking better of it, she pushed her microphone away from her once more and said, “Mummph, muummble muumble mummble.” Me: “Sorry, but I still can’t hear you.” Subway Worker: Out came her hand in a “Heil Hitler” salute, pointing in the direction I was suppose to take.
Over and over it was the same old story!
I looked at Patrick and Rose and shook my head thinking, ……And they say that Parisians are rude! At least in Paris if you ask someone politely for help, they will very politely help you as much as they can.
Maya Muses: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Parisians get a bum rap. In 39 years, I can only think of 3 rude encounters with Parisians. Instead they are as polite and as helpful as anyone can hope for, many times going out of their way to assist you.
Like Parisians, however, I really shouldn’t generalize about New Yorkers, I’m sure there are many of them who are just as helpful, and as I’ve said, people on the streets seemed quite friendly, but it was systematic down in the subways that any assistance you may need is seen as an intrusion on their naptime!
Still, it doesn’t take long to encounter a rude New Yorker; from waiters in a restaurant to public transportation, you won’t be disappointed…..not even during the Holiday Season!
Maya Muses: For all you Geraldine Larrosa fans who have been asking about her new album and/or concert dates, Geraldine sent me a clip from her new album that will be out at the beginning of March.
Someone suggested going to a fast-food chain for a milkshake. It was a great idea! It’s something that just doesn’t come to mind when you’ve spent years living in France and never snack in between meals. I couldn’t wait to have a vanilla milkshake! The first in over 25 years! (No kidding!) I was already imagining how good it would taste, so I didn’t notice the young girls and ladies looking our way.
, but for any Baby Boomer, this was a big Glen Campbell hit back in the 60s! Well, we got to Phoenix (ten of us!) and after the snow in New York and Pittsburgh, a balmy, sunny 70° (21°C) was somewhat of a shock to our system!
