Mexico City

Note: My apologies for being away from blogging for some time.  A few changes life and work wise have taken up time away from this.  All good stuff.  The post below about Mexico City is a trip I took in early September.

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When I was younger and didn't have kids, I didn't need to be asked twice to go someplace on a whim.  As a mom even when I know my kids will be safe staying with relatives, it's hard for me to commit to go someplace without kids.  

My husband had some airline credit, and was itching to use it.  So Mexico City it was.

It was a short, 4 day trip, but enough to see a few 'must see attractions'.

We rented a car and set to go to Teotihuacan on the second day, only to get very lost.  So we ended up going on these 'embarcaderos', where you can buy such things as beer and food from other boats, and even get a whole mariachi bend to come aboard and sing you a song.  We were happy to just observe others doing that.  I already had a bottle of  Dos X before I even boarded the 'embarcadero'.  

The third day we got up early, before the sun came out.  We set our GPS and drove up to Teotihuacan.  The gates were closed when we got there, so we waited.  We were the first ones to get in, and the pyramid was glowing in the morning sun.  

As soon as we got in, we climbed up the Pyramid of the Sun.  There were only a handful of people that early.  When we reached the top, I stood there feeling big and small all at once.  The quietness of the morning and the absence of hoards of people was bringing the place alive thousand years back.  

We stayed at the top for almost an hour.  David was taking pictures.  I just sat, meditating, feeling the air, listening to the quietness.  Then people started coming, and we started climbing down.  We walked the avenue down to the other pyramid and by then there were hundreds of people.  And a handful of hot air balloons.

We drove back to the hotel that afternoon, rested and went exploring the neighborhood.  The hotel was in an old part of town, and only a few blocks down we stumbled across a park stretching an entire block.  At one end there was a big tent, loud music, people in their finest clothes dancing away.  The other end of the park, under big trees, an older generation of people, also in their finest, and dancing.  I've never seen so many good dancers in one place.  The event had an air of casualness as couples joined in for a dance or two, and then walked away going about their business.

A few noticed my curiousness and excitement and let me take their picture with my cell phone.  No one else was walking around taking pictures with their phone.  

Just on the other side of the park there was a public library.  It had several courtyards and a few art exhibits.  I was intrigued by a few statues that were inside one of the library buildings.  I couldn't understand their significance.  I was wishing that I spoke better Spanish.  Maybe...one day when my life slows down a little bit, I can make art and study foreign languages.  

Bird Rescue

What can I say, I have a thing for birds.  This little guy was in the neighbor's front yard after a monsoon.  This was several weeks ago.  I found a local bird rescue and we ended up taking this little bird there.  Maggie name it Luis.  

100 Days of Letter Writing

It's been a while since I've blogged.  In April I started a 100 day project.  I heard about it from Elle Luna, so I though I'd give it a try.  You  had to pick something and do i

t every day for 100 days.  I chose to write a letter to someone every day.  

At first it was fun, because it reminded me of the mid 90's when I first came in the U.S, where I constantly wrote letters to my friends and family overseas.  Then the writing letters started to get more difficult as I struggled to find what to write, and to whom.  I wrote more than once to some, and then I solicited on Facebook if anyone would like to receive a letter or a card.

I managed to keep up for the most part.  There were times when I was several days behind, but I'd catch up.

Bellow is a picture of almost all of my 100 letters.

Sparrow

I think I have a special connection with birds.  Why or how I can't explain yet.  I am drawn to them, and I think they are drawn to me.  As a child and throughout my life I've almost always had a pet bird, a parakeet.
Last year a raven came in our back yard.  I am sure that it was someone's pet because it was so friendly and stood on my arm.  We spent a whole afternoon together.
A few days ago our cat brought in a baby sparrow.  So OK this bird didn't willingly come to me, but I was there to rescue it.  It was after midnight when the cat brought in the bird.  I had just gone to bed after working till midnight.  I heard my husband calling me and chasing the cat.  I ran downstairs and the little bird fluttered, trying to hide.  I picked it up and nested it in my hands.  It calmed down quickly.  I checked it out to see if it was hurt.  There were no visible wounds or blood.
I decided to keep it overnight and placed it in a box, with a little towel to keep it warm and cozy.  I kept the box in my craft room with the door closed, away from harm.
In the morning it was still alive.  I knew I couldn't keep it and raise it.  I try to feed it, it wouldn't eat. So I placed it in a little bird house I've had for a long time.  It was made of a small gourd and the baby sparrow fit in just right.  I took it out and tied it up to a tree where I have another bird feeder.  It took several hours for the baby sparrow to get the courage to get out of the nest, but it did.  It perched itself on a near by branch.  It sat there silently for another couple hours and then it was gone.  I hope it found its flock.
This picture my husband took of the sparrow in my hands.

100 Day Project

So I decided to participate.  A challenge is the best way to force yourself to do something that you have been meaning to do more of, but you've always found excuses.

I recently learned of an artist who is an inspiration to me.  Her name is Elle Luna, and I read a post for a 100 day project.  In other words, what will happen if you did something every day for 100 days.  Choose a project and do it.  I chose 100 days of letter writing.  So if somehow your address has ended up in my address book, you may be receiving something from me in the next 100 days.

Here is the first one, a postcard I made.  This one left today and it's going locally here in Phoenix.

Hawaii

It has been over two weeks since we came back from Hawaii, and finally tonight I found some time to sit down on the computer and document our impressions and our adventures.

It was the first time for all of us to Hawaii.  We went to Kona, the Big Island, the island of Hawaii.  And it was perfect all around: not to crowded, beautiful nature, and beautiful weather.

We went whale watching and ocean kayaking.  I couldn't get any good pictures of the whales, and I couldn't take my phone along when we went kayaking.

We didn't spend too much time laying on the beach.  We all love the beach, but we are not really beach vacationers.  We like to play for a little bit, but you won't find us laying on the beach all day.  When we did go to the beach, we went outside of town, where there were few or no people.  Here are some corals that I really wanted to take, but couldn't.

And we went to a beach with black sand.  Psst...I did take a little bit of sand back with me.

Although the island of Hawaii is the biggest one of all you can drive around it in one day.  The bio diversity is amazing.  You can see beach, fog, rain and snow in one day on the same island.

One day we drove to the southern most point of the island, which is also the southern most place of the USA.  It was very windy, but not cold.  The cliffs were high, and there were people jumping off them down in the ocean.  In the short hour or so that we spent there exploring and enjoying the scenery, I must have had a hundred anxiety attacks trying to keep track of two little kids running and jumping.  I got them to sit still, only feet from an abyss, ha ha ha.  Here they are:

And this is the southern most tip of the USA.

The day we drove up to the volcano, Mauna Loa, my son got sick.  He mostly stayed in the car, while we took turns going out and experiencing steam vents and rain and marveling at a real volcano.  

The east side of the island, the side where Hilo is is mostly covered in lava.  The first time we drove through it was dark.  It was also foggy, and rainy, and it felt eerie.  We had just left Hilo, and the weather was nice.  So the sudden fog, and darkness were not expected.  And then out of no where there was the military base.  

The next time we were on that side of the island it was the opposite, it was rainy in Hilo, but once we left it, the 'scary' area we saw only a couple of days earlier was bright.  Except for the lava...and nothing but lava.

And the sunset was beautiful illuminating the lava.

The clouds were epic almost every day.  One thing that I didn't expect to see was scenes like this one below, with small hills and yellow grass.  This is what I expect to see in Nebraska, not in Kona.

On the east side of the island, near Hilo there were two waterfalls.  The picture below is of Akaka waterfalls.  It's a beautiful 30 min walk if you take the long walk, only 5 min if you take the short walk.  We took the long walk.  We also saw another waterfall. Rainbow Falls.  But that time my phone was dead.  However, the experience there was even more interesting because you can walk up (very carefully) on almost the top of it.  There too trying to enjoy the views and the experience while trying to watch two very energetic kids was a lot of work.  

I saw this plant during our waterfall hike.  At first I thought it was some kind of stake because it was just on the side of a paved trail.  I thought it was some kind of marker, a stick, a stake....until I noticed it's alive and real.  And I don't know what it is.  Do you?

Aloha!

Post cards

Post card practice from a month ago.

Ghost town near Jerome

The sun was still up high when we left Sedona, so we decided to make a quick stop in Jerome.  This time a year the town was full of tourists, so we drove right past all of them, all of the small shops and attractions, all of the art galleries and we stopped at the end of the road at the ghost town.  

There we saw junk, rust, gears, chickens, goats and a donkey.

Sedona

I have done a lot of traveling this year, and it's only two months in.  The photos below are from a day trip we took about a couple of weeks ago in Sedona and a quick stop in Jerome.  Sedona is about 2hrs from Phoenix, and then you can make a loop following Hwy 89, stop in Jerome and wind back down to the valley.

These trips are good, the fill me in with experiences, ideas, feelings and sometime that is what I need to keep on going.  

We stopped at Slide Rock State Park and explored.

These marks were on a rock, a sort of stepping rock and the markings were on the vertical wall.  They looked interesting so I took a picture of it.

And then I noticed several wood trunks where the bark was gone and all that was left were these markings that bugs had made.  A sort of designer bugs.

These greenish/gray marks on rock are lichen.  I really love the grunge like look.

Before we left the sun was high up and was illuminating these weeds that probably otherwise I would  have not noticed.

I will catch you up to our quick stop in Jerome on my next post.  I am quite a bit behind I know.  And I have a trip coming up tomorrow.  Hawaii!!  Yes, I know....I will be even more behind.