26 Mar - 2 Apr 2010 RV Yosemite and Desert Trip

After seeing the rainy forecast on Friday, we decided to abandon our plans for a coastal RV trip and instead focus on the best spring has to offer in California, Yosemite Park with falls in full flow and the desert parks awash in spring flowers. We are still traveling, and so far, we have visited Yosemite and Death Valley and arrived back into the urban world at Palm Springs before heading to Joshua tree and then Anza Borrego Park.

From Oxnard we headed north through the San Joaquin valley and the Sierra Nevada mountains arriving at Mariposa, at the gates of Yosemite in late evening. Along the way there were lots of yellow spring flowers lining the sides of the road, but the most spectacular display was what seemed like a gigantic blue lake at the bottom of the Grapevine, which turned out to be huge fields of Lupine as far as the eye can see. Wow, what a sight! Later in the day, once off the freeway the valleys were a lush emerald green with beautiful patches of purple blue and orange flowers.

We spent the night at a KOA campground and the next morning headed into Yosemite Valley along the beautiful meandering Merced River with all sorts of beautiful pink blooming trees until we finally spotted the beautiful view of the Bridal Vale falls in full flow with snow in the high elevations and small patches in the valley floor. After getting a campsite in the Park we took a hike to Mirror Lake, just at the base of Half Dome. The temperature during the day was comfortable, in the 70’s, but down to high 30’s at night (and the heater was not working!)

Sunday morning we had a fancy brunch at the elegant Ahwahnee Hotel and toured the Valley with the RV. We had been to Yosemite Valley twice before, in the summer and fall, but spring certainly provides the most magnificent view when the snow is melting and the streams and waterfalls are near their peak flow. After returning to the camp site Lance spent several hours removing and cleaning the furnace and we had heat again. On Monday we took a long bike ride through the Yosemite Valley to the base of Lower Yosemite Falls. The bike trails in Yosemite are wonderful, separate from the roads, paved and essentially flat. It was hard to keep our eyes on the trail with all the wonderful vistas of the iconic Yosemite cliffs and waterfalls as we rode across the Valley meadows. Rain was forecast for the night and next day, with several inches of snow later in the week so we decided to leave the next morning.

In the morning we had occasional heavy rain and the valley was shrouded in fog. On the way out we stopped at one of only three remaining giant sequoia groves, the Mariposa Grove, and took a short walk in rain on three feet of snow. The trees were huge but since the weather conditions were so bad we decided to see it in detail at another time. As we drove south through the San Joaquin Valley we got away from the rain. We drove over the Tehachapi Pass into the Mojave Desert to the Red Rock Canyon campground where we spent the night before proceeding to Death Valley National Park.

We arrived at Death Valley in early afternoon Wednesday in a huge dust storm. It seemed as though the dunes and the salt flats were in the air racing to find a new location. The winds were practically sand blasting the RV and even managed to unfurl the RV awning while we were driving and we had to stop and secure it better. We managed to get one the last sites at Furnace Creek camp ground and then to Zabriski Point for wonderful views but were almost blown away by the crazy winds. We decided to wait out the storm and continue touring the next day. Later in the evening and actually got a few drops of rain. Thursday morning was a brilliant calm beautiful day with cool temperatures and no wind. We rented a jeep for the day so we can really explore the most interesting places in Death Valley which cannot be done with a 30 foot RV. We went through Titus Canyon which was an awesome drive two hour drive on sometimes very steep and precarious dirt roads, along cliffs and through a very narrow canyon surrounded with incredible rock formations. We then took a long drive to Scotty’s Castle (not worth it), had dinner at the Furnace Creek Ranch, took the Artist’s Drive which has an unbelievable display of rock formations in pink, yellow, green, purple, orange and brown and ended up at Dante’s View at Sunset overlooking the badland salt flats and the Pannamint mountains with their snow capped peaks. It was a fantastic experience.
Early in the morning we returned the jeep and took a one mile hike into Golden Canyon which was also lovely and then took the six hour drive via back roads to Palm Springs.

Click on the picture below to see a slideshow of pictures.

Blog 26 Mar - 2 Apr

Orlando, FL 9-17 Feb 2010

In February Lance joined his daughter Sue and her family in Orlando for a wonderful visit to the Disney parks and the Kennedy Space Center. It was great fun seeing it though the eyes of Grace and Kate. Follow this link to pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=psagk.anderson&target=ALBUM&id=5439350346865677169&authkey=Gv1sRgCK7djNfI07z_bA&feat=email

26 Nov - Dec 12, 2009 Las Vegas, NV and Sedona, AZ

Sedona09best

Dordogne Valley, France 17-31 August, 2009

We arrived at our final summer exchange home at the outskirts of Ste. Foy Le Grand, a cute bastide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastide) town on the Dordogne River established around the 12th century along with many others like it along this fertile river valley. The older of the black cats greeted us in the yard, while the other scared the daylight out of Dahlia when he jumped into the living room through the open window late in the evening. He was equally started by the unfamiliar presence, and rushed back out.

Shelley and Arnold Hersberg, friends of ours from Ventura County, joined us the following day and we spend the afternoon in the beautiful town of St. Emillion, a very quaint old city, surrounded by acres of manicured vineyards. The town has an old, 12th century abbey and tower atop a hill and the views down the steep slopes, on a patchwork of tile roofs, and vineyards is truly spectacular.

We took a trip to Bordeaux, about an hour drive away, and it turned out to be a lovely surprise. It is a beautiful city, with elegant consistent architecture, a lovely river front and quays, pleasant cobble stoned streets with wonderful shopping arcades, restaurants and book stores. The highlight was a visit to the old, restored, Grand Theatre, which hosts opera and theater performances in very elegant setting, as it was in the early 18th century.

We spent a grueling hot day trying to visit Sarlat-la-Caneda (a very quaint town about 70 miles from our exchange house, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarlat-la-Can%C3%A9da) on market day, and decided the only sane way to see that area around it was to book a hotel in the town for a couple of nights and use it as a base for exploration. (It took 3 hours to get there!)…We returned three days later and this time we planned a bit better. Our first stop on this beautiful day, which happened to be Dahlia’s Birthday was at Beaumont-de-Perigord, which was celebrating a market and the summer festival honoring the Occitane local cultured. Every street was decorated with strings of paper flowers hanging overhead, creating a beautiful joyful festive atmosphere. The lovely organ grinder lady played Happy Birthday and Dahlia managed to grind out a whole French song on her own.

From here we went to Cahors, another bastide town with an interesting double towered bridge over the river. After lunch we visited the Pech Merle cavern (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pech_Merle) with cave paintings dating to over 15,000 years ago and some amazing formations of stalagmites and stalactites formed over 2 million years of drop by drop accumulation. It Gives one a different perspective on time. Before heading to Sarlat we stopped at a magnificent medieval village, one of the most beautiful in France, St. Cirque LaPopie, clinging to a cliff overlooking the Dordogne (http://www.quercy-tourisme.com/st-cirq-lapopie/english/saint-cirq_english.html#vues/).
The next day we saw Chateaux de Castelnaud (15th century) beautifully restored and documented, and gorgeous views across the river of Chateaux Beynac and the Dordogne Valley(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Castelnaud-la-Chapelle/) and had a wonderful lunch at the town Beynac (http://www.francethisway.com/mbv-beynac.php/) another gorgeous cliff hanging village, highlighted by an old impressive Chateaux. After that we Spent a relaxing afternoon in Sarlat, shopping and watching street performers, and had dinner in a romantic courtyard setting. Before heading back to Ste Foy La Grande, we visited the bastide towns of Domme and Le Rocques Gageac, both with spectacular views of the river.

I imagine that the text full of superlatives sounds exaggerated but these places literally take your breath away, with their ancient history, old buildings, tiled roofs, along steep sloping, cobblestoned streets leading almost straight to the river below. At La Roque Gageqc we climbed up the cliffs via a new steep stairway to see the inside of the Fort Troglodytique, , which was built high up into the cliff walls, creating a strategic defensive and controlling position above the river. http://www.les-plus-beaux-villages-de-france.org/fr/roque-gageac-la-vue-fort-troglodyte/. Looking down on the river one could see swarms of kayakers navigating the river on this warm beautiful day, floating by these spectacular villages was one of the most exciting things we did on our previous visit here.

In between driving expeditions we took a day to relax and rented kayaks for a 4 km ride down the river in the local area.

Shelley and Arnold left on Monday, and we took a few days to decompress and relax a bit. We spent the next few days exploring the local area and then took an overnight trip to Arcachon, a nice beach town at the seashore and saw the largest dune in Europe, Dune de Pylat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Dune_of_Pyla) . From there, a short boat ride took us to Cap Ferret , a very picturesque sandy point, facing the ocean on one side and Arcachon bay on the other. Unfortunately the weather was wet and windy so we ended up just having lunch in a lovely restaurant by the water and took the next boat back.

On Saturday we really enjoyed the market day in Ste Foy La Grande. Today is Sunday and tomorrow will be our last day here before heading to Paris to catch our flights to Israel and Baltimore. It’s been another great experience, shared with many friends, but we’re ready to be home again and back to our projects and friends.

2009-08-31 Dordogne Blog

Paris, France, 2-16 August 2009

Our lovely exchange home was located in Saint Maur-De-Fosse, a southeast suburb of Paris, on the Marne River and about a 20 minute train ride to Paris. The house was very pleasant and comfortable, with a nice big patio where we ate most of our meals and a garden with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of the sweetest fresh tomatoes.
We never used the car as the public transportation system was terrific. The train station was literally 3 minutes away with an excellent fast connection to the center of Paris.

Since it was August, many businesses in Paris were closed for the summer vacation, and the city is filled with tourists. The weather was quite warm, but generally not too uncomfortable except for a few scorchers.

The best part of home exchanging is being able to spend time with friends. This time we were joined by our friends Peter and Irene Zimmerman from Germany for a few days and Sandy Amber from London for a brief visit. We spent much time catching up with each others lives and explored this magnificent city. Despite the crowds, the heat, the noise and endless tour buses, it is impossible to remain unmoved by the majestic grand boulevards, by the beautiful buildings with their elaborate balcony railings, the palaces, the monuments the museums and the iconic images one encounters every few blocks and how they all line up so neatly.

When we got tired of museums and walking we took a boat ride on the Seine, once in the late evening and once at dusk. Seeing the Eiffel tower glittering at night, the Notre Dame illuminated and all the beautiful bridges crossing the Seine, linking the various monuments is a thrill even on the seventh time.

The highlights were the Musee D'Orsay (twice), the Rodin museum, The Marmottan museum which is dedicated to Monet and some of his contemporaries, the Paris Pinacotheque (Suzanne Valadon and Utrillo-- what an interesting life story here..), walks in the Marais, the Left Bank and Montmartre, walking along the Rue de Rivoli, San Germain de Pres, and Rue Montaigne.

Another highlight was visiting two magnificent palaces outside Paris, the Vaux-le-Vicomte which with its spectacular gardens and impressive interior, and the Fontainbleu Palace with one room more unbelievable than the next. Started around the 12th century and served as vacation home for the French kings queens qnd emperors, each making it a little grander till the last Napoleon. Each room stuns you with the wealth of art, the gorgeous tapestries, gigantic beautiful rugs, painted and sculpted ceilings and fireplaces, furnishings...and they go on and on... 1500 rooms in all (luckily only a fraction were open for visit). It boggles the mind to think anyone could have actually occupied these spaces..

Another, unexpectedly cool place was the Clignacourt flea market. In addition to the ususal schlock and clothes, there is a huge section with all sorts of antiques, old paintings, furnishings, books etc. We went there a second time with Shelley and Arnold who just arrived in Paris and will join us in the Dordogne.

From here it's off to St Fois le Grand, in the Dordogne region, with temperatures promising to be in the 90s!!!!

CLICK ON THE IMAKE BELOW TO SEE MORE PHOTOS!

2009-08-18 Paris, France 2-16, 2009 Blog

Alsace, France, 19 July - 3 August 2009

After leaving the Drome-Provencal,France, we drove our rental car to our next house exchange destination in the Alsace Region or France. Alsace is located on the eastern side of France along Rhine River and the German border. With us on this part of the trip were our friends the Furmanski’s from Ventura who participated in the art workshop as well. On the way we detoured to visit with Betsy and Kent Quinn (also from Ventura) at their farmhouse near Grenoble. The farmhouse is located in a tiny hamlet of Les Arneaux, high atop a mountain with breathtaking views of the snow caped Alps and gorgeous green meadows. Kent led us on a beautiful hike to a peak with a 360 degree view of the area, and then had a fabulous dinner along with some of their local friends and neighbors. The old house has been abandoned for decades before they purchased it, and they have done miracles making it livable and cozy, yet maintaining the basic feel of an old primitive farm house of its period. It was an incredible experience! Thanks Betsy, Kent and Glenda for all of that.

The next morning we drove on a wonderful route suggested by Kent through narrow canyons to the French Alps and the ski town Chamonix. We spent a several hours hear and took a train up the “Mer de Glace” (Sea of Ice) glacier and a cable car down to explored ice cave in the glacier. After this adventure we headed north by Lake Geneva, through Switzerland and up the Rhine River Valley to the small town of Soultzmatt, France, for our house exchange.

The house was large and comfortable, surrounded by manicured vineyards. The Alsace region is famous for its white wines such as Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Muscat and Pinot Blanc. Soultzmatt is about 15 miles from Colmar, a very picturesque town with ancient medieval half timbered colorful buildings, museums, shopping and many nice shops and restaurants. We interspersed our visits of quaint local villages with day trips further away: we saw a wonderful Van Gogh exhibit in Basel, Switzerland; drove north to the beautiful town of Strasbourg, France; east across the German border to the Freiburg and Titisee, Germany, in the Black Forest; and northwest to Verdun to explore the World War I battlefields.

Soulzmatt is an adorable mile long street village on the famous “Alsace Route De Vin” (Wine Route). The Route De Vin is a small road through vineyards that meanders through dozens of villages, one cuter than the next, through vineyards and endless roundabouts. Staying here for two weeks you could easily forget what the outside world looks like and feel that you are in some enchanted time warp. Seeing a modern town with bill boards and stoplights was almost jarring! Many villages are a thousand of years old or more. Some are medieval, many with watch towers, city gates, ruined castles on hill tops and some still having the old city wall and moats surrounding them. Most of the buildings in these villages are colorfully painted with half timbered construction with colorful pots of geraniums, hydrangeas and other flowers were everywhere. It makes us want to circulate a petition to paint homes in Ventura County in rainbow color, see the pictures if you don’t agree. The most notable of the villages we visited were Eguisheim, Riquewilher, Kayserberg. Rouffach and Ribeauville. We spent hours walking around the charming narrow streets, sampling the wonderful chocolate macaroons and pain du chocolat (chocolate croissants) and dined on wonderful lunches which lasted generally over two hours. After lunch with wine, a nap became mandatory.

But it wasn’t all eating and napping, we also explored some interesting chateaux (castles). The first was Haut Koenigsbourg, a huge restored castle located high on a hill and built one thousand years ago restored about 100 years ago when Alsace was German territory. It was furnished as a museum, with old furniture, weapons and suits of armor and ancient crossbows, guns and cannons. We hiked to two other castle ruins (Chateau d’Eguisheim and Girsberg), the Girsberg chateau was particularly wonderful and involved an hour long hike along an ancient road, through walls and gates finally getting the large ruined chateau. It was fascinating and we felt a little like Indiana Jones.

We also took an overnight trip to Verdun, France the scene of horrible fighting during World War in which over 250,000 solders lost their lives between 1914 and 1916. The visit to the battle fields was particularly important to Martin Furmanski since he had a great uncle who died there and we visited the American cemetery where he is buried and the scene of the battle in which he died. The areas of the battlefield in the woods are still littered with huge pits from the cannon blasts almost 100 years ago. Lance and Martin took a bus tour of the battlefield and visited the remains of forts, a museum with equipment used during the War and memorials to the dead. It was a very interesting trip. On the way back to Alsace we stopped in the town of Metz beautifully situated on the River Moselle and with its beautiful Cathedral of St Etienne

Our last evening was particularily memorable. We were invited to the house of the neighbors, Raymonde and Guy Schimur and their son Nichola. Nichola had been acting as our translator during the two week stay and was very helpful. The served us wine from their vinyard and Guy showed his his collection of World War II equipment (Alsace was occupied by the Germans), including a beautifully restored Jeep and Raymonde showed us her Ascasian costume worn in the old days. We went to dinner with them in the nearby town of Rouffach in the Jeep and drove home by moonlight through the vinyards. It was wonderful!

Out visit to Alsace was varied and very interesting and we would recommend this as a lovely place to visit. We next take the TGV (Very High Speed) train to Paris for a two week house exchange.

To see pictures click on the picture below and click on "Slideshow".

2009-08-03 Alsace, France, 19 July - 3 August 2009

Art Workshop in Provence

We attended a wonderful plein aire art work shop in the countryside in Drome-Provencial from 7-17 July, 2009. The workshop was held in association with the Ventura Community College and organized by Beverly Decker and Betsy Quinn. The location was in the over 200 year old farmhouse of Claude and Monique Largot at Moise-Trunias, France. The workshop was attended by approximately 14 people, not all painters. On the final day of workshop a reception was held, attended by neighbors and local artists. To see downloadable pictures of paintings by the artists and pictures of the particapants go to http://picasaweb.google.com/PleinairVCC.