Way-Back Wednesday

I have been helping Tutu (my grandma) organize all her photos.  It's great to be able to spend time with her each week and look through photos from the last 60 years of our family's lives.  In doing so, I have come across photos of my dad, which I have never seen.  It's great to see how my dad interacted with my mom's side of the family and how much love every one had for each other.  With my dad no longer here, I am so thankful that Tutu has preserved these pictures and has asked me to help her make sure they live on.  These are some of my favorite pictures we found from way back...

Aunt Janette, Aunt Anne, Papa, Tutu, Dad, Mom & Aunt Linda. 1974

Dad, Aunt Anne & Mom

Aunt Linda, Dad (looking so handsome) & Champagne!

Dad sharing a present he received.  Love his smile here!

Soccer Fever

Soccer is not a sport that I watched or knew much about.   I tried out for soccer at age 5 and remember not liking all the running and ended up crying on the field after 1 lap!   My mom picked me up and carried me to the car; partially to stop my crying, but mostly so I didn’t dirty my cleats that she wanted to return. Wow, the mindset of a single mom!  Looking back, I wish I gave soccer a chance and also wished my mom pushed me to not give up. 

I never gave much thought to soccer until our trip to Costa Rica last year.  After exploring Costa Rica, we ended our trip in the capitol, San Jose, so we could be close to the airport.  On our way to our hotel, we noticed red soccer jersey’s and the country’s flag being sold on every street corner, and locals walking thru traffic, between cars to sell this merchandise.  It wasn’t until our driver told us that a critical soccer game was occurring later that night between Costa Rica and USA.  We got so excited, we started planning where could watch the match to root on USA, and even contemplated looking for tickets to the game.   We decided to go to a restaurant for dinner, suggested by the hotel host, and watch the game while eating.   The restaurant welcomed us “Americans” and offered a free shot for every goal that the USA made.  Sounded fun.  Then we learned how passionate Costa Rica was about soccer.   It’s their livelihood, their everything!  Seeing how much passion they had made me tingle inside.  We decided to eat and leave the restaurant just before the game started…taking shot in front of these grand fans seemed a tad rude, especially since we lacked the same soccer passion.  

Walking a couple blocks back to our hotel to watch the game, we instantly knew when Costa Rica made a goal.  Every car in the town had their radio at full volume, you could hear the announcers yelling “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLL…” as if it were coming thru a public PA system, car horns were honking for minutes on end, and store owners were jumping and high-fiving.  It was like we were at the stadium.  The excitement was infectious.  We knew this country scored against ours, but how could we resist celebrating the joy with the country we were in?!?  It left a lasting impression on us both.  Costa Rica did win the match, advancing them as a qualifier in the World Cup. Here is a video and article recapping the game and showing the Tico's celebrating.

Now, as the World Cup approached, we found ourselves watching many games and really enjoying the sport.  It was great to watch USA play, to see how far Costa Rica made it, and to watch Germany win!  I never watched the World Cup in the past, but really enjoyed the comradery it brings and happy that Costa Rica introduced it to us!

Reminiscing thru Germany trip photos from 2003 - the new World Cup Champs!

Germany celebrating their win

Museum of Jurassic Technology

Roof Top Garden

Wanting to explore Los Angeles more, I was excited to come across a fascinating museum called The Museum of Jurassic Technology, in a tour guide book.  As I looked at reviews, which varied from “absolutely delightful” to “confusing & creepy”, I was instantly convinced that I had to see for myself what the oddity was with this museum that has been around since 1988.  A review on Yelp explains the museum as such: This odd "museum" is worth seeing at least once.  The entire building can best be described as a single modern art installation -- an oddly disturbing rendition of a madman's visualization of a historical museum.  Faux-serious in every aspect, but completely entertaining.  You'll be talking about it for hours afterwards."

The entrance to the museum is so quant and cute.  It’s an old house that kind of reminded us of Amsterdam homes.  It was a lot smaller than I expected, but very cute and invoked curiosity upon entering the front door.   After paying, we walked in the exhibit with anxiousness and were confused right away.  The exhibits were interesting, but one had nothing to do with the next.  The small trailer park models and the movie with no plot made me feel like I was in a twilight zone. It caused our minds to pause and question reality – which is one reason why we go to museums, to stretch our minds.  One of my favorite parts of the museum was an exhibit by Henry Harold Dalton called Micromosiacs.  This artist created microsope slides of beautiful scenes, created entirely with scales of butterfly wings.  It was simply amazing to see his work and learn how he made the slides in 1829.  My other favorite part of the museum is a tea room deck on the top floor.  After completing the museum, you can sit outside in a beautiful rooftop garden and enjoy complimentary hot tea.  It was a peaceful and enjoyable way to end the museum visit.

Entrance to Museum of Jurassic Technoloy

Going to this museum with no perceived ideas allowed us to really enjoy what it had to offer.  We definitely were talking about the oddities of this museum for several hours.  After the museum, we walked a couple blocks to a street lined with restaurants, and found Public School 310, which looked fun and had outdoor seating.   We really enjoyed happy hour here, the pub food, the ambiance and sharing a table with other patrons.  We ended up spending just over three hours at the restaurant chatting and cracking up about the museum.   It was a very fun day in LA with my number one!   It’s bizarre that I found this museum in a guide book intended for people who are visiting Los Angeles for vacation.  As I mentioned in a prior post, I am yearning to explore LA more often.  After this outing I am even more excited to see what “tourist” things are available in our own backyard.

P.s - Photos and cell phone were not allowed to be used at the property.  Signs were posted everywhere!  But, I was determined to take some photos since it was just so pretty.  I have to say that all the photos in this blog were by me and my nervously shaking hand...I'm pretty proud :)

  

 I was able to snap a quick photo of the staircase to the rooftop garden

Roof Top Garden Entrance

Peaceful and Tranquil Garden

...more of the garden...

Enjoying my hot tea

Beautiful white doves adorned the garden

I love how peaceful this is. I just wanted to do yoga right there!

Snapping quick photo of us before we get caught.  No photos allowed!

Public School 310 for dinner & drinks after museum

Table bottle water feels so European.  Love this pub feel.

Favorite food at Public School 310. Ahi Tacos. $6. FANTASTIC!

Carlsbad, where it began...

We love spending time with family in Carlsbad.  We just got back from a short 2 day trip there.  Jerry has grown up coming here every summer with his family, and I simply fell in love with the small beach community.  This is why we chose to get married here 5 years ago.  Carlsbad brings out something special in us and we get to re-live our wedding memories.  We were not able to stay for 4th of July this year, but got to spend a lot of time with our favorite people. I am happy that we have the opportunity to return to the place we got married each summer, spend time with family, and enjoy the amenities of Carlsbad Village Inn. 

Dodgers vs Cardinals

We would attend 5 - 6 Dodger games a year when we lived in Long Beach.  Living in Riverside makes it a tad harder to get to games frequently.  But with Kershaw throwing countless scoreless innings, we wanted to go watch the game in person.  Great game, Dodgers won!  After the game, we went to Philippe's....they serve the best french dip sandwiches!!

I love visiting LA.  Although we have our "usual" places we visit, I would love to explore LA a little more...like a tourist.  We usually go into the city for a planned event, then exit the city as fast as possible to avoid the hustle & bustle.  This time, before the game, we found a park to hang out at.  It had a beautiful view of the stadium and the city.  This is when I realized that there is so much going on in that hustle in bustle that I have yet to explore.
Now off to see what LA has to offer.

Missing the Island

My attempt to re-create the island feel at home with a fresh coconut and an inflatable pool!  Oh, how I miss the Caribbean vibe and the St. Martin life. 

Anguilla

Anguilla is a 20 minute ferry ride away from St. Martin, so we decided to take a day trip to the nearby island.  We originally looked at splitting our 2 week vacation between Anguilla and St. Martin, but quickly changed our mind when we saw how expensive Anguilla cost for everything.  It's a very exclusive island, that has no flights from US.  The majority of the tourist come via private jet, yacht, or ferry.  Since it's not frequented by many tourist, a lot of celebrities and TV shows flock to the island for the unbridled island feel. 

We learned a lot about the island from our taxi driver.  Anguilla is a British island, under the queens rule.  The island is basically flat, lending to it's name translation of eel.  The sand is glaring white, which reflects the sun so strongly that you can burn your eyes after 10 minutes without sunglasses.  The most fascinating story to me was about the people of Anguilla who are looking to increase tourism in their country and would like to cater more to the middle class, but needed publicity.  The perfect opportunity arose for them when "offered" to host the Real Housewives of Atlanta.  However, Anguilla does not have tourist funding or financial wherewithal on how to bring large productions to the island.  In an eagerness to bring attention to the small island, the local business owners offered to foot the bill for the cast of Real Housewives of Atlanta, and the entire crew to film and vacation on their island.  A local hotel owner offered up 90 ocean front rooms, local beauticians performed make-up and hair services, local chefs catered the meals, and local boating operators offered their logistics and assisting in transporting the crew, goods and production equipment.  Hearing this blew my mind!  Bravo TV, nor the housewives themselves paid for this awesome trip that was showcased on TV. It says a lot about both Anguilla and The Real Housewives (a show which I love by the way).  Anguilla's eagerness to have publicity at their beautiful island caused the community to come together and offer whatever they could to assist.  They knew that their efforts would lend to the long term prosperity of their people.  I love the sociological aspect this tells of the culture.  Here is a link to a thank you letter written to the people of Anguilla by a parliament member.  Pretty amazing.  I always knew reality TV was far from reality, but I am let down!! The "Housewives" are edited to look like they live a life that affords them vacations to exclusive islands. In reality they vacation off the backs of hard working people. 

We knew we wanted to go to Shoal Bay, which is listed as one of the top 10 beaches in the world, notably for the soft, white sand.  We rented beach lounge chairs right on the water for $10 each for the day.  There were two restaurants in the sand behind us that had reasonable priced food...we felt like we scored!  We later talk with some people who rented lounge chairs at a resort for $80 per person, which they thought was a good deal.  Our budget savvy way of enjoying Anguilla was more than enjoyable.  It was great to see a different island, culture...and get a new country customs stamp in our passport. Here are some photos from our day in Anguilla:

 

On the boat ferry from St Martin to Anguilla

The smallest customs check ever!   

The harbor of Anguilla.  Goods ship mostly from Puerto Rico

Shoal Bay where we spent the day

Lounge chairs at Shoal Beach

This picture makes me smile.  We call it the stone-cold Jerry Duane pose

Understandable why this beach is voted top 10 in the world

Anguilla has an old Caribbean feel - not inundated with tourist yet!

Snorkeling was fun, but not many fish

We welcomed the intermittent cloud cover since it was so hot!

Conche pita - Jerry loved trying different preparations of conch.

Jerry enjoying fresh coconut water. So refreshing in the blazing sun!