The wonderful secret about the northern California coast is that sometimes the best weather is in the fall.

Please excuse the quality of the camera-phone photos … but I think they capture the gorgeousness of this day.



Pillar Point Harbor

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“Lisa, you just lost your hard drive, and your husband just lost his job! What are you going to do?”

“We’re going to Disneyland!!!”



The trip is bought and paid for, so we’re going.

We will frolic.

We will eat Mickey Mouse-ears-shaped food.

We will wait in lines but we won’t mind because we’ll be at the Happiest Place on Earth.

We will wear funny hats and get splashed on wet rides and scream on the rollercoasters.

We will get that song stuck in our heads.

Last time we went to Disneyland, I had been filling in for a co-worker for three months at work, so I was totally stressed out and really looking forward to our vacation. I kept picturing us at that cute little ice cream parlor on Main Street, leisurely enjoying our treats and people-watching while we rested from non-stop stimuli.

Of course, anyone who’s been to Disneyland knows that the eateries are usually packed, and getting a table is hit-or-miss. But I persisted in my vision.

And sure enough, on our second or third day, we stopped at the ice cream parlor very early in the day, before most people were in the mood for frozen stuff. I snapped this photo of an empty parlor, looking for all the world like a Gibson Girl might stroll through at any moment. I sometimes call it up in my mind’s eye when I want to visualize an oasis in the middle of chaos. *

I’m curious to see whether the park will be as crowded as in years past. With so many people in financial straits, I wonder if we will enjoy shorter lines and plenty of free tables in the eateries. While that might be convenient, it will also be disheartening. After all, a place like Disneyland should be bursting with happy families and cozy couples holding hands and grandparents taking grandkids on their first magical vacation. There should be flocks of little girls wanting Ariel’s autograph and little boys crowding around Buzz Lightyear. The army of Disney employees should be kept busy, quietly and invisibly making the experience as wonderful as it has been for over 50 years. No one wants to see a lonely pirate, or a cotton candy maker standing idly by.

If we had known my husband was going to be laid off a few months ago, we would not be heading off for our adventure right now. So I’m glad we didn’t know.

I want one more trip to the Happiest Place on Earth while my son is still a kid.

* You can’t really see the crystal elephant in my photo, so I found one online:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/2831622989_5636896eec.jpg?v=0

There are so many cool things to do in Astoria.

You can climb the 164 steps of the Astoria Column and enjoy the view from the top. Or you can visit the Columbia River Maritime Museum (more fun than it sounds!) or the Fort Clatsop National Memorial (also way cooler than it sounds).

You can enjoy highway signs listing place names like Dismal Nitch and Cape Disappointment.

So much culture and education!

This is what my husband and I did on our weekend getaway, to belatedly celebrate our 20th anniversary.

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Now you know it's going to be a good trip when you sight the Wiener Mobile at the start!

(The license plate says "YUMMY.")


Every Oregonian should visit Crater Lake at least once. And anyone else who can manage it, too! It's soooo beautiful. It's the deepest lake in the United States, and the seventh deepest in the world.

My photos can't do it justice, so try to imagine it even more cobalt blue:

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Yes!

But this is the last travelogue post, and it’s filled with castle-y goodness. (Not to mention the traditional exotic bathroom photo.)

We hadn’t even made it Scotland yet in my previous Britain ’07 entry. So buckle up because today we’re going to cover a lot of ground before we board the plane back to the Colonies.

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If not for friends living in Norwich, we would have had no reason to go there.

It’s not really near any of the other “must-see” spots, like London, Stratford, York, or Edinburgh. It’s off to the right side, in a bulge of the country, about twenty-five miles from the east coast.

But Norwich has everything! (That is apparently the city’s motto … but it’s true.)

Not only does it have plenty of ancient history – which you want when you’re visiting Britain – it’s full of modern shops and restaurants and museums. You can visit the 900-year-old Norman castle and the gorgeous cathedral, then spend a couple of hours in the fantastic new children’s museum, Origins, where you can lift flaps and push buttons and learn all kinds of cool things about the region’s history.

Norwich has everything … except the crowds and traffic and tourists that you will find in more heavily-touristed towns. I don’t know about you, but when I’m an American tourist … I prefer not to be awash in other American tourists. Too many of us in one place is overpowering.

The broad Norfolk accent accompanies you like a friendly guide as you navigate the city. It’s a writer’s delight, puzzling and intricate. (See my attempt at the vernacular and its accompanying translation at the end of this entry.)

But what made Norwich a must-see stop for us was the presence of my old friends R & M, and their two daughters.

This was what greeted us when we arrived at R & M’s house in Norwich:

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“Now pulling into the station … the Post-Vacation Blues Train, terminating at Slumpington, with stops in Daily Grind, Messy House, and Seething. (Heh. There really is a Seething in Norwich.) All aboard!”

It took more than a week to show up, but the P-V Blues Train arrived today with a vengeance.

Am I really not on vacation anymore? I’m back to cooking and cleaning and going to work like I was never gone?!

Is that really all the time I got to spend with my friends? Writing about Wendy really drove home how little time I had with her. And I haven’t even told you about R and M, and their two girls yet. But I miss them desperately, too!

Two Mondays ago I woke up in Scarborough. It’s on the eastern coast of England. Yes, I think it’s the one in “Scarborough Fair.”

I woke up really cranky that day, because I didn’t ever get to sleep.

I exaggerate.

I got about four hours of sleep.

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:-D

Wendy had the dorm room next to me when I lived in England for a year.

She had spiky blonde hair, wore short black boots with lots of buckles, and had posters of people I’d never heard of on her bedroom walls –Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. She was little but cool.

I had big hair, wore colored leggings, and had posters of Sting and U2 on my walls.

Yeah.

That’s how I rolled.

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Thunderstorms in Newark sent our plane to Cleveland.

dotificus! I was in your state for a couple of hours! And onegrapeshy! And sbennetwealer! And … is anyone else an Ohioan?

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(Three points to anyone who gets the title reference.)

One sorely-needed stretch of family time.

One-way plane tickets to San Francisco, where we picked up one rental car.

One baby turning ONE year old. Happy birthday, darling nephew!

One brilliant sun hiding all weekend behind the clouds, which decided to burst through and beam down on our birthday beach party. Brightly.

One sunburn on DH’s legs so bad that his ankles turned into cankles.

One visit to the Charles M. Schulz Museum. Thanks, beachalatte, for blogging about it. I got the idea from you! The whole bathroom is tiled in comic strips, cynthialord, even in the stalls. Hee! ( Read more... )

A few days ago my muse woke up, her hair sticking out in all directions, and said, “Hey! That would make a great story!”

I know that some of the writers on my friends’ list - d_michiko_f comes to mind - finish a WIP and are able to start a new WIP without too much time away from the writing process.

I do not seem able to re-focus that nimbly. I finished my big 68,000-word YA in December (thanks in part to jbknowles’s challenge) and spent the next month tightening and polishing. That manuscript is now tiptoeing out into the world.

My muse fell asleep once the revision process was finished – she has not roused herself since, except for the occasional writing exercise. She was spent. I call upon the muse of … um … essay-writing, I suppose, for my LJ entries. Perhaps my weekday-single-parent gig keeps my creative muse drained.

God bless vacations!

Spring break showed up, ushering in my tired husband – ready for his week with the family. We packed, we patted the pups goodbye, and we put our trust in Alaska Airlines.

Our week was divided between Half Moon Bay



and Hangtown.

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From now on, every time I hear the song “Wake Up” by Arcade Fire … my heart will lift.

It will always mean “U2 is coming!”

As soon as that song came on the loudspeakers at the MGM Grand Arena, the veteran U2 concert-goers leaped to their feet. They knew that “Wake Up” is the last song played before the band comes onstage.

As the lights went down, we swayed and sang … waiting for our boys.

The “boys” are all in their early forties now. They belong to me … my generation. We grew up together.

I don’t understand people who want to bash Bono. All the man wants to do is make music and try to save lives. Literally. Why is that worthy of contempt? Even if you don’t like his music, why disparage his desire to help the poor?

As we ate dinner tonight, my son heard me joking to my husband about Bono trying to save the world. “Bono’s trying to save the world? What does that mean?”

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Top 5 Reasons I Will Never Go to Vegas Again Unless U2 is Playing:

1) I hate cigarette smoke.*

2) I'm a lightweight drinker. (Count for the weekend: one margarita and about one-tenth of a huuuge pink slushy drink.)

3) I don't "get" the whole gambling thing. I like my money! (Count for the weekend: after half an hour of 3-card poker (where the dealer helps the ignorant newbies, I had won $30 on top of the $40 I started with.)

4) I dislike artifice in almost all forms.

5) Hookers make me sad.


*Note that I said I hate cigarette smoke ... not smokers. Because if I hated smokers, I would have to hate some people I love, and I can't do that.

But I have buried the lead:

My girls and I got to see U2 both nights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will squee obnoxiously about that later.