Battle Sloth

Do you have a "repeat visit" photo? We have the "Battle of the Sloth", as of you who have come to visit and have gone to La Brea Tarpits with us know the battle. Each person must fight the sloth which of course we photograph!

Let me know if you have goofy photos and can I post a few of yours--yes it will embarrassment of your family and friends.

2009 Ladies trip Tankah Bay, Mexico

This may be  a bit long and a few things are "under the dome" and bear not repeating..OK, actually nothing that exciting, lots of laughing, eating , walking, mucho tequila and vino.

Saturday Arrival, perfect flights arrive to cooked meal, Jackie, Pam ,stocked kitchen, and a cook!. The house is great sleeps 16 but we were only 9 .

Sunday was Superbowl so we went between sunbathing, swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, television, walking to eating and drinking.

Monday was all about "Sue's Birthday", her and her best-est friend(s).  We all decided to go to Tulum. Now many took the 'tour' but myself, Roz, Pam and Jackie decided to do our own tour.  Two of our group found their ADD kick in and then things went south.  The laughter was so tear jerking that as we passed  our peers on  the 'tour' Carolina wished to jump ship but feared the wrath of her fellow tourist.  We found our interpretation of the  piles of rocks(Pam) to be very imaginative and the book we purchased gave us all the information on the history. IE Yum Kaac is the god of corn, it was a commercial trading town and no live virgins (or dead) were sacrificed to the gods . We ended the day in Tulum at a great Thai restaurant on the beach- Sue had more birthday shots!

Tuesday was Massage Day. Daniel the local massage/shaman came to bless us and we all agreed he was a blessing. The massages were great and while never crossing the line being conservative folks from the USA made each of us nervous.BUT not that nervous we scheduled him to come back a second day. Relax-Go Daniel. Oh yeah speaking of conservative ladies on our beach walk we came upon a small hotel with naked people, two men, one woman lay naked on beach chairs. Yes, they could get away with it, yes, we looked, and YES he was well endowed.

(Now my view is if you lie naked on a public beach you want to be looked at, so I looked)

Wednesday is Cenote and Gary's bar. For those from New England this is a deep mixed fresh water and seawater, all right its a clear water marsh and you all know what a bar is!

A note on Gary, He is a middle age guy who I thought was the waiter but found out he is the "owner and owns 5 Million dollars worth of beach front, lives in the adjoining shack,needs dental work, has blue eyes" which was 6 things more than we needed to know, on the positive it was the only place with a glass of decent wine.

Thursday off to Coba. This time Jayne, Sherry and I took 'the tour" while the other ladies jumped on bikes and rode off into the jungle.  Coba (yes Pam, more pile of rocks) is the largest city, we got to walk up to the top  of the largest pyramid and biking through the woods was fun.

Shopping and Local beer while we waited ride. It was hot!

Friday MORE massage(s), more Gary's bar, more kayaking---I don't know who won but is wasn't Jackie and Roz, they just laughed until they floated back to civilization.

Every day we had a delicious breakfast and terrific dinner prepared by Lily and Serena. Each beautiful sunrise and sunset made this location absolutely beautiful.  We found the house on VRBO.com.

If you have a group and want a relaxing fun place this would be it!

Imperial Valley-Ok not a destination but 1 year!

El Centro-The Center of what? 

Yes "the Valley" as I can now call it because we resided for a little over a year, that is something.  It a farm area which produces 1/3 of all the food produced in the USA, so you will smell manure...a lot of manure. It is located 120 miles from San Diego. It is a watered dessert and hot as Hades, sometimes it may be hotter. Now even if that sounds bad there are some good and fun things.  

Number One the people. We immediately meet wonderful folks who welcomed us into there homes and hearts.  Everyone says hello and will help you out.  [I miss you all]

If you go to the area(like stop on your way across to Phoenix). Here are 3 good stops. 

Burgers n Beer, it sounds like a yahoo cowboy bar but is more like a Chili's only with the best burgers I have found in California. Exit 14 about 2 miles up the road.

Camacho's, now this is just regular tacos and beer. The catch is the locals and location as a city dweller when I drive through nothing but farms and pull into a gravel small restaurant in the middle of n where and finds lots of locals plus  a friendly family staff ,the casual mix match tables, people all talking to each other, make it a fun experience. (get directions on website)

Taste of Thai is a find, fresh veggies in tasty Thai dished at reasonable prices, exit 4 pass up on the fast food head east about 1 mile on right.

Any comments from dessert folks are welcome, Smiles.

Nashville to Knoxville ...I see Green

OK the green is not money but lots of green trees, grass and hillside once you get out of Nashville's downtown. When you visit Nashville, so my sister told me, you go to the "Honktonk bars".  So off me and sis go at 9ish  at night on a weekday and yes lots of people are out and partying. The live music in each bar is a great taste of  different styles in country music, beers abound but expect jug wine. It is a fun, interesting, eclectic group.   Give it a try.

A definite stop should be Margot Cafe and Bar  in Nashville. We had an outstanding meal and excellent service(smiles).  Oh yeah...Leann Rimes was at the next table, no we didn't bother her and she didn't bother us....

Off to Knoxville, the folks are friendly and fun to be around.... if you can understand them.. as a Bostonian/Californian,  I find it easier to understand a thick Irish brogue.  Ever feel like your in a Charlie Brown comic  "waah wah waah wa" with a twang! (you know who you are..) Also, they all talk at once and seem to love a good fun argument which fits right in with my Devlin upbringing.  This is a friendly people town which  I 'll return. Thanks Alison for letting us keep her awake by the pool when she needed to get up at "oh dam dark thirty' for her Alison and Andy talk show which I listened to regularly, "understood"-see above sentence, and found it fun and let me know what was up in the city.

We visited Southern Market, an interesting group of local artisans lots of selection nice to stop in and shop.

We hiked Laurel falls in the Smokey Mountains and visited the Tuckaleechee Caverns. The hike was easy and nice for a day I'd sat a trip great for families.  The Tuckaleechhe Caverns are nice but the interpretative guide was poor. He was more interested in telling his life story than the geologic or interesting facts about the caves.  Even if he made up some exaggerated crazy story about large mountain men, aka Tennessee Bigfoot, living in the caves for 2 years eating possum, small people and large mammals it would have been better that his life's travel (which had nothing to do with the caves).  But what made it fun was the laughs we had making up how to better the "guided tour". P.S. Ladders and walking seem to be an issue for a lot of the "not in good shape" for a lack of better term, this was a moderate to easy caves tour.

Lastly, I had a great facial and massage from Beth Poore of Dermatology Association of Knoxville A nice way to relax while in Knoxville. She is knowledgable of facial needs and product.  Give her a try if your in town.

Thanks for listening!  Oh yeah wear Orange if you go they seem to love the color(hee-hee).

Plymouth, Massachusetts "the Rock"

Family bear with me, since it seems the entire clan in lives in the the vicinity of "the Rock" but for me last August was a vacation or a trip back in time.  

Plymouth, a great place for seafood, clams, lobster rolls and a lot of fried stuff. 

As a Californian for 25+ years, the land of fruits and nuts(yes, both figurative and literatally)- Do you guys always eat a lot of fried stuff?

I and a sister stayed in "a cottage", New England small beach house.  Plymouth is a trip back in time to the days when  a few family members would go to the beach---6 Coffey's, 12 Murphy's, 4-8 Devlin's all descended on  the 5 Mullen's  2 room cottage for a few days. It was always fun but a blur as you are overwhelmed with cousins.  Things never change!

The warm summer ,Plymouth beach or White Horse are beautiful not just in my memory but as I walked along as an adult I see the true beauty of this area. 

Places to see include Plymouth Rock, which is a bit disappointing as it is so small and no one really knows if this is "the exact rock" but commemorate it all the same.  I like the cemeteries walk through and see all the "original" settlers.  Food which is always a top on my list, go to the Lobster hut. Also, try steamers or steamed mussels in any of the small local restaurants.

Enjoy some local club with live music on a Friday to get the local flair(most likely there will be someone related to me).

Plymouth is summer fun, bbq's, beach bonfires,pleasant seafood meals, lite shopping, ice cream and of course mosquito's!

Now as far as actual names of places to eat I need my family to post there "best of" in the plymouth, cape cod area . Please tell me the name of the thai place, it looks like a small coffee shop?

New, New,New Orleans!

Our third visit back since Hurricane Karena was in March 2008 not only is New Orleans back but better than ever.  We decided to stay (a first) in a Bed and Breakfast-HH Whitney House on Esplanade.  Now we drove up and saw an interesting old house,  a big  home like Aunt Mary's for all of you who knew her friendly big home in Boston. I must admit -I thought Holy S*it, I don't know if this will work- the front of the white house had  graffiti  OK --- on closer look it was the  familiar Hurricane rescue symbol, a large diamond  of who went through and  how many people are in it (dead or alive)=marine arrived, "0" at home and thankfully "0" dead!

We decided at least lets go in  and we didn't regret a second of our time spent in this lovely home.

Our host Glenn and Randy are great. You will love how friendly and helpful they are. I love that Glenn has a rich southern history and shared it freely. The inside of the house is decorated in

antique southern style, each bedroom decorated differently.  We arrived on a week with only a few guest so we had the house frequently to ourselves.  Randy's pick of  food and restaurants is excellent, a man who thinks like me not only where to eat but what to order to make it terrific.

Now as we are ( in my case I sometimes think  forced marchers) walkers the HH Whitney is just outside the loud french quarter. Our host Glenn tells us the best BBQ oysters are at Drago's Seafood Restaurant, so off we go, they were the best! Even better than Acme Oyster House which are delicious too.  Upon return Glenn was amazed we walked all the way as it is on the far side of French Quarter on the river, later we discovered over 5 miles round trip, a bit much for an appetizer.

So I want you all to go to New Orleans, here are the places I want you to go. First stay with Glenn and Randy at HH Whitney House, if your a walker, take a cab to the house , skip the rental car and then even if you are out late in the quarter a cab is only about $5.00 to get home. I would not walk home late at night in New Orleans, remember we are still tourist and we look like it, don't do dump crap!  Otherwise we walked back until about 8-ish, like any one watch where you are going and who is around the entire time you are anywhere in New Orleans. 

New Orleans =Jazz and food.  Well, so some for folks it is also drinks. Me, It was wine with one notable  killer drink at Port of Call which kicked me into la la land by 8 pm and I only drank half of it!. God these New Orleans folks and lots of visitors are tough! But back to Port of call, great burgers and local folks, we sat at the bar. Oh yeah, My husband, Paul is my designated driver, walker, cab getter and greatest friend, enjoyed the bar he talked to strangers sitting all around.  I  know ....those of you who know Mr. Silent find this hard to believe but on vacation he must become Dr Hyde.

Another really great spot which is off the beaten path was Lola's on Esplanade, which had wonderful paella and overall a relatively inexpensive great meal.

Lunch at Commanders Palace, garden district,is not to be missed. This is in the garden district  take a cab or trolley and arrive 1-1 1/2 hours early to walk through the neighborhood. Work up an appetite for a great (expensive) meal, BUT  do get a few .25 Martini's to decorate your table. You will need reservations and get there on time.  (If you stay at HH Whitney ask to borrow book(s) which shows walking tours or other tours or just ask for directions).

Now we hike all over and ate muffelettas, oysters and lots of other good food. We went to museums, took the ferry over to the other side of river and walked around even did the dumb Mardi Gras manufacturer tour!  Lots of shopping with antiques  We will go back, this is a fun 3-4 day trip for any of you folks that want a quick get away.

Let  me know if you go and what you like, tell us interesting finds and of course more great food locations or jazz!!!