Mal and Lauren

September 9, 2021

Sedona is a very pretty town, famous for its red sandstone formations. It is named for Sedona Schnebly, the wife of the city’s first postmaster. It has now become a center for natural healing. The following sign pretty much summed up the general feel of the place.

It’s easy to see how Sedona has become a spiritual and natural mecca. The massive red buttes that tower over the town provide a constant reminder of the grandeur and power of nature. The buttes did not spring out of the ground like mountains. Rather they are the result of millions of years of erosion that ate away at the surrounding land, leaving the buttes as a reminder of how high the land once stood in this area.

We drove out along a dusty bumpy road to the Palatki ruins, outside of town. The site has a set of cliff dwellings that were built somewhere between between 1000 to 600 years ago by the ancestors of the Hopi people. In the Hopi language, Palatki means ’red house’, which seems apt. There are still some finger prints left behind by the original builders in the clay of the surviving walls.

There were also some old wall paintings that were described to us by Jim, a ranger who appeared only slightly less weather beaten than the surrounding rocks.

We could see why the villagers chose the location for their home. It was in a beautiful spot and easy to defend, built into a high cliff.

By this stage, it was hotter than we have ever experienced, with the temperature hovering around 106 degrees farenheit (41 degrees celsius). So we headed to Oak Creek for a swim, the only water source in the whole area.

Also enjoying the cool water on a hot day were a couple of English setters.

September 10, 2021

It’s easy to see why the Grand Canyon has been named one of the seven natural wonders of the world. The name doesn’t do it justice. Something like “Awesomely Majestic Canyon” would be more apt. If it’s not on your bucket list then it should be.

In America, everything is usually fenced off to prevent the stupid from doing dangerous things and then suing for millions when things go wrong. So it was astonishing to see how possible it was to walk up to the edge of cliffs that dropped vertically for thousands of feet to the canyon floor. Although they don’t do the place justice, here are some photos from a truly spectacular day.

September 6, 2021

Fifty four years ago on this date, Mal was sailing across the Atlantic on board the RMS Queen Mary from New York to Southampton, England. It was the ship’s second to last voyage. A month later, on October 31, 1967, she would depart on her final voyage, arriving in Long Beach on December 9, 1967, where she has remained ever since. She is now a floating hotel.

September 5, 2021

In the morning we visited the Long Beach Museum of Art where we caught an amazing retrospective of the works of Tristan Eaton. Eaton is an LA native who started life doing street art before turning to toy design. Now he is a much sought after designer doing work for Nike and Universal among others. He is also one of the most prominent international moralists working today with murals as far flung as Paris and Shanghai.

The artist himself was at the exhibit so we said hello and told him how much we admired his work. He was very gracious and friendly, definitely not the pretentious artist type.

We then drove north to LA and spent the late afternoon and early evening at Venice Beach. We don’t think that there can be better place in the world to people watch than Venice. There is just so much going on.

We were surprised to see a synagogue right in the center of all the action.

A great place to hang out is the skate park which attracts big crowds to watch the high flying skateboarders.

There were a lot of other sports going on at the beach, including soccer, handball, volleyball, paddle tennis and surfing. But we were there to watch basketball. Our sons’ company, Dompen, sponsors the Green Lights, one of the teams playing in the Venice Basketball League. As the sun was starting to set we watched our team win both its games, propelling it into the league playoffs.

There was a beautiful sunset over the Pacific.

And the crowd started to thin out.

But for some the party was just beginning

September 3, 2021

Today we walked through Naples, an upscale neighborhood built on three islands, separated by canals which open into Alamitos Bay.

September 2, 2021

We are starting our West Coast trip in Long Beach, just south of Los Angeles. It’s not a city that we have spent time in before but we like what we’ve seen so far. We are staying in Belmont Heights, a quiet neighborhood of Californian bungalows and Spanish style houses.

Down the hill from us and near to the beach is Belmont Shore, where the houses are closer together but just as Spanish.

We saw some beautiful doorways.

And some cool classic cars.

We walked along 4th Street, which appeared to be where Long Beach’s hipsters hang out.

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One store had some topical t-shirts

And a vintage portable turntable that we liked.

There were more small apartment buildings in this part of town.

But plenty more bungalows and casas

This guy creeped us out peaking over the fence.

We finished up the walk, by ambling along the bluff that overlooks the beach.

Just offshore are a number of man made islands that look like some sort of giant movie sets for a futuristic movie. In fact, they were constructed in the 1960s to house oil drilling derricks and equipment that were built to tap into the Wilmington Oil Field just offshore. Architects designed the islands to hide the oil drilling apparatus from those onshore by adding trees, fake buildings and even waterfalls. The islands were named after prominent astronauts of the time. The island in the photo below was named Island White after Ed White who became the first American to walk in space on June 3, 1965. Tragically, he died two years later in a fire during pre-launch testing for Apollo 1.

There are a number of apartment buildings and large houses lining Ocean Boulevard that follows the bluff.

We came across a navy memorial that looked familiar. In fact, it is an exact replica of the sculpture called The Lone Sailor, that was created by Stanley Bleifeld for the United States Navy Memorial in Washington DC. Apparently, there are about a dozen such replicas scattered throughout the country.

August 20, 2021

We walked across the border and into Maryland, ending up in Bethesda, the suburb where Mal spent a number of his childhood years. It takes its name from Jerusalem’s Pool of Bethesda where Jesus miraculously healed a paralyzed man, according to the Gospel of John. Lauren remembers its downtown area from her teenage years as consisting mainly of small buildings containing shops, restaurants and dive bars. Things have certainly changed. Although there are still some of the original storefronts.

The area is becoming more and more dominated by modern high rise buildings.

One Bethesda institution that has remained is the Farm Woman’s Market which was established in 1932 and still has a thriving market on weekends.

The market appeared to be closed as we passed by so we headed across the street to the newly opened Tatte for a lemonade, a coffee and some cooling air conditioning.

We then walked up Wisconsin Avenue toward the older part of Bethesda, passing the old post office, which in a sign of the times had become a fitness center at one stage. We don’t know if the center has survived Covid but there didn’t seem to be anything going on inside.

Next to the Post Office building is what appeared to be a random memorial for downtown Bethesda, until we did some post-walk googling. The Memorial to the Pioneer Mothers of the Covered Wagon Days is a recurring piece of public statuary that stands in twelve locations from Maryland to California, tracing a historic travel route from covered wagon days. The statue is of the Madonna of the Trail, clutching a rifle with one hand, and infant with the other, with another child grasping at her skirt. The statues were erected in 1928-29 and are strung along the National Old Trails Road (now mostly US 40). The sites were chosen with the help of the president of the National Old Trails Road Association, a then-little-known Missouri Justice of the Peace named Harry S. Truman. The Bethesda statue is the first in the line with the others strung westward through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Walking through the older section of Bethesda we noticed a number of restaurants had closed their doors, including one of Lauren’s grandfather’s favorites, Positano. We were sad to see it go, having eaten many enjoyable dinners there with Oscar. Particularly memorable was the time when Ben, who was about four at the time, pulled the fire alarm, much to the dismay of the restaurant’s staff and patrons.

One dining establishment that continues to go strong is the Tastee Diner which has been serving breakfast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, since 1935.

We then walked over to the Bethesda Row development. It is an excellent example of a new development that actually works, creating a a mixed-use walkable district. Even on a hot weekday afternoon, the area was bustling, far different than the virtually empty old part of town where we had just walked.

August 19, 2021

About fifteen miles outside Washington DC in Potomac, Maryland is the Glenstone art museum. With a collection of around 1,300 works from post-World War II artists, it is the largest private contemporary art museum in the United States. On a muggy late afternoon we strolled the extensive grounds with our friends Kelly and Kevin. Unfortunately, the new museum complex, called the Pavilions, was not open, so we could enter what looked to be an incredible architectural space.

However, we did manage to escape the heat for a while inside the Gallery, the museum’s first building. Designed by Charles Gwathmey and opened in 2006, it is constructed of zinc, granite, and stainless steel and has beautiful teak doors and windows.

Inside, we saw an amazing retrospective of the works of African-American artist, Faith Ringgold. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited of the exhibit so we can’t show you any of Ringgold’s stunning works here, but we encourage you to check out her art online. Or better still, if you live nearby, visit the exhibit. But be quick, we think that it ends some time in October. Outside the gallery were two beautiful water filled marble sculptures by Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

We went for a walk through the museum’s extensive wooded grounds.

Along the way we saw some incredible sculpture, including a couple of Richard Serra sculptures, easily identifiable in his trademark rust red iron.

And three stone cottages built by Andy Goldsworthy that had surprising clay interiors.

We also liked this sculpture by Charles Ray

And looked down into this installation by Michael Heizer, called Compression Line, supposedly because the weight of the soil surrounding the trench compresses it into a narrow gash.

We passed a large piece by Tony Smith that was shining black in the rain that had started to fall.

Last, but definitely not least we passed by this large whimsical statue by Jeff Koons. It’s made of living flowers that are changed regularly.

With the rain getting heavier, we headed back to the car.

As we headed back we caught a last glimpse of the Pavilions, and made a note to return when they are open.

August 8-11, 2021

We just spent four days visiting Lauren’s sister, Marion, and brother-in-law, Jeff, at their beach home on the Jersey Shore. This isn’t the shore of Guidos and Guidettes made famous in the MTV reality series. In fact, Ocean City, put us more in mind of the pristine seaside town of the 1988 movie, The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey. We have never seen such immaculate houses and gardens. Here are a few examples.

Ocean City is famous for its boardwalk which extends for two and a half miles along the beach. On a hot afternoon we walked its complete length there and back. The southern end of the boardwalk is lined with impressively large ornate beach homes.

After half a mile or so we passed by one of the only high rise buildings in the town and started walking by scores of fast food joints, tourist shops and entertainment arcades.

Not surprisingly, during such a hot day, the boardwalk was pretty quiet with most people preferring to enjoy the adjacent beach, as evidenced by the hundreds of umbrellas that we could see in the distance.

After a long hot walk, it was nice to enjoy a cool drink and the view from Marion and Jeff’s deck.

In the evening, the boardwalk is a much more crowded and much more magical place.

Adding to the excitement was a parade by a Mummers club marching band. These clubs are a Philadelphia institution, competing for glory in the Mummers Parade held each year on New Year’s Day. The clubs make their own elaborate costumes and perform routines while playing music guaranteed to make you smile and tap your feet. The parade traces back to the mid-17th century and blends elements of European and African heritages. The first official parade was held on January 1, 1901.

On the next day, we decided to join the beach crowd.

This gentleman found himself a quiet spot to watch the surfing.

Speaking of surfing, this is the first time that we’ve seen a police vehicle carrying a surfboard.

July 3, 2021

On an absolutely perfect evening we walked out from our house and across the nearby border into Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is an idyllic neighborhood with large stately houses on quiet tree lined streets. It being the day before Independence Day, there were also more than the normal amount of American flags on display.