June and July 2011...Summer vacation in the USA

Richard hasn't lost his skills

Friends from here and there

This blog will be a picture blog....with thoughts about our summer vacation. We traveled far and wide to see all our family and friends. If we missed you, it was not intentional and if we missed your pictures, the same is true. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family and so many friends. We traveled over 2500 miles heading north from NC. Our first stop after NC was to visit good friends of my parents, and ours as well - Herb and Milli Jacobs in NJ. They have also frequented SMA for many more years than we have and we wish Milli best on her travels through the healthcare system. 

Our grand nephew Julian on Long Island.
We love you!

LI friends Joyce and Ralph

Richard's niece Joanna in her store called MINT in Mattituck, LI with
 Richard's cousin Maureen who visited by ferry from CT.

 These are some of my best friends from Walt Whitman HS in Huntington - Nancy Reiss and Joan Green. It was great to catch up and and remember the good ol days. They came to Brewster, MA on Cape Cod to visit us.

You might wonder about all the details....we have many friends in Mexico and Ecuador who are now reading the blog and they like the details of the USA.

Every morning at the Cape we walked along the Cape Cod Rail Trail from Brewster to Orleans to the coffee shop. Here is most of the gang as we took over the place. We had fantastic weather for the whole time as the Vogel family gathered once again. 

I guess we didn't always walk to Orleans - some biked and here we are skating on the trail. That is Andy in the back and me right in front of him. It was great to be back on skates again - especially in such a beautiful place.

Emily and Ricardo at the bay

Richard V.'s sailboat with many of the family getting on.

Andy's birthday - with his whole family....and Eli looking on.

Paul and I - checking emails and ordering shoes!

Jacob and his Auntie Becky - having fun

Ozzy and his Unkle Captain Rich

Noah stretching after a good nap

Noah, Laura and the kids enjoy a little rest from the days activities

I

At the ocean beach - Nausett Beach

Paul waiting for "the big one"

The two Richards getting the boat ready - I love Rich's convertible

 After a great 10 days at the Cape, Richard and I headed to Dan and Sofia's outside of Boston. The first day we took the commuter train into Boston for the day with Dan when he went to work. (His last two weeks before starting his own business - go Dan!)
We were lucky to get to see the Chihuly exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and it was incredible. The big wonder for me is how they ship and pack these gigantic glass pieces.

Here are our friend Ravi and Cindy whom we know from San Miguel de Allende. We had the good fortune to figure a way to meet each other and spent the afternoon together in Boston - makes the world really small.

Kripalu where we went for the day on our way to Nancy's

I loved these sculptures - representing people

With Nancy and Rick we went to the NY City Ballet at Saratoga Springs Performing Arts Center - what a treat.

 It was wonderful to spend a few days with Nancy - seeing the local scenery, shopping together and enjoying the sister love. Rick and Richard had a nice chance to run together on the track. Special treat was going to the ballet (along with a flat tire for fun that night too!)

Then we headed west to Ithaca and Trumansburg. We stayed our first night with Paul and Emily in their beautiful new home and went to a delicious dinner on the Commons. We love going back to Ithaca and seeing the many friends and places that we know from the years we lived there. The family is so connected and supportive - it felt so good to be there. Each time we leave we think that we should go back and spend some time there - in the summer when the weather is perfect. We worked on a quilt for Andy's sister - I spent many hours hand quilting. I am always happy when I have a little project to work on and happily they came along at most of the stops along the way. I look forward to seeing the finished product.

 It might look like we are resting but we were in a little singing class that was put together by Orion. She had us each sing, write our own songs (see the pads she gave us for homework) and I played the drum while Richard played the keyboard - it was fun but we are not ready for Carnegie Hall yet.
Then we traveled two days back to North Carolina and stopped along the way to see Anita, my dad's lady friend. She is getting older and more frail but was still her happy and goofy self. I am sure she enjoyed our visit. It was kind of strange going to Gaithersburg and to Asbury where we had gone so many times to be with Erwin and now he is not there.

Sophie, Amy, me, Rosey and Biz....making breakfast on our first morning back.

Biz, Allen and Ricardo

I made this baby quilt for Katie during the first week in NC.
Great to have a project to work on here too.

Marni, me, Sharon and Nancy

 Many of the "bee" ladies got together last Sunday to work on a quilt project.

Richard and Allan helped too!

Rosey sews away....

We caught up with many of our friends for breakfast, lunch or dinners while here in Chapel Hill/Carrboro. That along with many chores kept us busy - we did all the details of life that would be spread over a year period of time in two weeks - needless to say - it was complicated and I am glad to be organized to do it.  Richard had some work too - one of the departments at UNC that he wrote a database for needed his help so off to work he went to help with the problems.

We also spent many volunteer hours working on the service project for Ecuador that we have mentioned before - Volunteer Med Partners. A group of people from our UU Church here in Chapel Hill are going in August and each volunteer is carrying in a large suitcase full of medical supplies. Richard, Melva and I spent  hours inventorying and packing each suitcase to be ready to go.

So...here are my thoughts as we wind down our time here and begin the next year of vagabond life.

• I do not like driving in a car all the time vs. never using one and walking everywhere. 
• I did not enjoy the last two weeks of hot weather - near 100 every day with high humidity - not good for walking or any exercise for that matter. 
• I loved seeing all our family and friends and realize that the connections are deep. 
• I did miss our friends in SMA and Ecuador also and look forward to going back. 
• I was consumed the last two weeks in minutia details of life but kept reminding myself that it is going to be a free and easy year coming up without these details to tend to. 
• We had many of our body parts checked out and all is well - feels good to be so healthy and be able to live the life that we do. Many days and nights we were confused as to where we were going or coming from but we figure this life style will help to stave off dementia as we have so much to remember. 
• I enjoyed going to our garage and seeing our "stuff" as well as giving some away. I don't miss any of it when I am not around it.
• I see that the USA is a consumer society and I too fall victim to shopping more than I do south of the border. Of course there is no "Tiangus" (Tuesday Market) where the same things I buy here would be $1-2 dollars vs. much more.
• I am grateful for Ricardo in my life, my health, wealth and connections and love that so many of you have enjoyed our lives and are supportive of us coming and going....WE LOVE YOU ALL.

Semana Santa - 2 weeks of Easter events

This is an attempt to capture some of the incredible celebrations that took place over the last two weeks here in San Miguel de Allende. Semana Santa is the one week before Easter but in this town it started the Sunday before with bringing "El Senor" from the nearby town of Atontonolco in a procession through the night which arrives in SMA at daybreak. We went with our friends Barbara and David at 6am to watch.

Bienvenidos Senor de la Columna

Decorations two weeks before Easter

The street is decorated for about one mile with many beautiful pieces of art made of seeds, flowers, grains representative of the many religious events happening. They are made during the night and as the procession passes, they are swept away. Many families are responsible for these works of art - somewhat like mandalas - impermanent.

Made on the street of flowers, seeds, grain, chamomile and more

"El Senor" and other statues are carried into one of the local churches - San Juan de Dios and there he remains until Holy Wednesday when he is taken out and taken through that particular section of town to visit families.

Mary following Senor de la Columna

The Palm Sunday procession begins

Palm Sunday - many beautiful items made from palm

The following Sunday is Palm Sunday - another holy day. Many pieces of art are made from palms and are sold again for this one special day. A procession through the main streets of town with many townspeople carrying their crosses of palm.

Solemn procession on Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday procession

Special decorations for Palm Sunday - taken down after the procession

At Las Monjas - Holy Thursday procession -
one of many at different churches in town

Holy Thursday marked the night of the Last Supper and there were also events related to this tradition which we did not see. We saw, however, the Monjas (Nuns) from the church as they walked into their chapel.

Then, after all that you have just read and seen pictures of ...came the day of TWO processions - Good Friday. First, during midday and early afternoon was the first procession "The Sacred Encounter" representing the meeting of Jesus with his mother on the way to Calvary. All the statues were decorated with flowers and the representation of Jesus being flogged and walking through the streets was very real during this procession (thank goodness it was paint instead of blood!)

Good Friday - first procession "The Sacred Encounter"
representing the meeting of Jesus with
 his mother on the way to Calvary.

For the evening, Barbara and I arrived at 4pm as we thought it would begin at 5pm and we wanted to be in the front for this special event. Needless to say as many other events this past year - it was listed wrong in the paper. It began at 6pm so we had already waited two hours - but we were right in the front in the lower right hand corner though you cannot see us. The procession lasted 1 1/2 hours and silent except for a band and the people quietly and reverently watched  the "Holy Burial" - complete with a glass coffin with Jesus visible inside. There were over 2000 people in this procession.

Getting ready for the second procession on Good Friday.

amazing to see the high heels walking on the cobblestones for several hours

The Holy Burial - the long procession on Good Friday - Silent and very solemn. 

For me, a non-religious person, this was still a very moving event especially watching the reverence and dedication of the many people and families gathered in town to watch. We tried to leave after seeing the whole procession and as we walked along one street we were locked in by the procession in front and the streets were blocked so that we got a second chance to see the end - along with singing of the Ava Maria which was beautiful.

And now it was Easter Sunday - the one day we all celebrate in the US and here it is just the end of these festivities and a day to stay home with the family. However, on the Jardin was the traditional "Destruction of Judas" - celebrated with many crepe paper dolls with signs representing local shops or people and they are lit and blow up. The last picture in this blog is a short video to end this long blog!

And finally, on Easter Sunday - Destruction of Judases

April - Rosey and Allan visiting from NC

Shadows at the Botanical Garden

Springtime...childrens parade

April "flew by" as do all the months here in San Miguel. The month began with a parade through town of all the primary school children dressed as different flowers and animals - too cute! Also a big fundraising event which included a concert IN the botanical gardens. For all our previous visitors - picture thousands of people sitting everywhere in the canyon - no water running at this time of the year! It was an 80 piece orchestra and depending where you where - great or terrible sound effects. For us it was great.

Symphony in the Botanical Garden

We also went to visit the local San Miguel Ruins which have recently been opened to the public. They are only one half hour away and very interesting as there are not many uncovered ruins this far north in Mexico.

Canada de la Virgen - ruins near San Miguel de Allende

Ricardo teaching "ingles"

 Saturday mornings finds us at a local restaurant where we both teach English to the employees (and a few of their friends). Ricardo entertains the beginners and I work with the more advanced - replicating the learning that I do with my spanish by reading stories and having conversations. We are also playing bananagrams (thanks Nancy!). They have fun making words and trying to make a few up at the same time!! I played in spanish and had a hard time.

 Then we had a wonderful week with Rosey and Allan from Chapel Hill. First a few days in San Miguel doing all the "regular" activities - yoga, meals in and out, walking, shopping, etc. Then off to Mexico City for a few days. We packed in all the things we could fit into the 48 hours before they left for return to NC.

Voladores outside Anthropological Museum in Mexico City

Dinner at "Tacuba"

Teotichaucan - outside Mexico City