Your Travel Coach is now in North Carolina; a first-time for this Californian. I love the beautiful, green-leafed trees surrounding my friend's spacious, welcoming home in the woods. Alice, my brilliant, loving, lovable friend is a psychologist, opening my life to a whole new spectrum of problems endured by this New Age. But that's another story for another time.
Now, to tell you about experiencing the flavor of this part of the country. To begin with, there was a delightful Passover-Easter gathering at Alice's home. Delicious were lemon martinis served along with matzo ball soup and Easter Bunny chocolates. The next day I was treated to NC's famous bar-b-q pork, not exactly kosher, but delighting my taste buds with new sensations. Visiting several little surrounding towns, I was made aware of the Latinos that live here and the many tiendas and Mexican restaurants in town. Also, refreshing, is a Black American population in numbers not usually seen in White American, middle class neighborhoods on the West Coast. I was reminded that this is The South.
To back up I want to tell you how I got here in the first place..
This part of the story is to remind us that one can have the most detailed plans made and yet it's easy for something unexpected to drop in and change everything. My mantra: always make Plan B. And it's a good thing I did because, while visiting family in the mall-filled desert of Arizona, I suddenly found myself with a health problem that prompted me to leave Phoenix immediately. ER docs there caused me to hurridly shift travel plans and fly to my HMO in San Francisco. To make this happen, I went to the computer, made a reservation online, and took off the next morning. Once in San Francisco, there was no more desert, but lots of fog and a chilly wind, wrapped around its famous hills, all warmed by a welcoming friend. I got settled in and with a quick cup of coffee the next morning, I took the bus to my appointments to begin a week of medical testing...and more testing with lots of anxious waiting for results. Fortunately, all test results had no answers to my medical problem. Naturally, my decision was then to forget about what was thought a medical problem and to continue on with my traveling. What else is a 79 year old to do? .
But before going on, I decided to make the most of being in The City. Loving everything Asian, I got myself on a city bus and made my way to Chinatown. The streets, as always, were crowded with shoppers, but this time I saw something new; upscale tea tasting shops. Serious, professional- looking tea pourers offered and explained the uniqueness of each of the hundreds of teas being sold, while customers paid handsome prices for "the sell." I bought tea in the same old shop where I have always bought it, in little normal tea boxes, for half the price. In the same shop I saw barrels full of traumatized fat green frogs piled one on top of another, their eyes popped open, pleading for rescue,. Alongside them were fish swimming in large fish tanks, and others, very dead, stacked high on wooden planks. I heard lots of Cantonese spoken by older folks while young ones spoke English and when asked, didn't know Chinese.
After enjoying some delicious dim sum and buying my tofu and bok choy, I wandered through nearby, Italian North Beach to my old haunts; the City Lights Book Store and Visuvio's Cafe where I once posed as a cocktail waitress for an afternoon. That was in the pre-sixties, Beatnik Days. Had an Expresso at a sidewalk cafe and overheard The Young talk about their long, very stressful days at work, anxiety over getting into universities, paying off universities, and general anxt endured when living a life.
I later visited old, dear friends in Petaluma where I grew up and other friends further north in Sonoma wine country. Meanwhile, out-of-the-blue, my dear friend in NC offered me an unused airline ticket. It all worked perfectly as all my medical tests were done and there was only one day left to take advantage of her very generous ticket offer. So I grabbed the chance, bussed back to San Francisco, got the early morning Airport Shuttle, and took off. Now you know how I got here. I wonder where will be next.
The lesson to be learned: Never make plans too tight. Leave space for the unexpected and enjoy it!
.
Now, to tell you about experiencing the flavor of this part of the country. To begin with, there was a delightful Passover-Easter gathering at Alice's home. Delicious were lemon martinis served along with matzo ball soup and Easter Bunny chocolates. The next day I was treated to NC's famous bar-b-q pork, not exactly kosher, but delighting my taste buds with new sensations. Visiting several little surrounding towns, I was made aware of the Latinos that live here and the many tiendas and Mexican restaurants in town. Also, refreshing, is a Black American population in numbers not usually seen in White American, middle class neighborhoods on the West Coast. I was reminded that this is The South.
To back up I want to tell you how I got here in the first place..
This part of the story is to remind us that one can have the most detailed plans made and yet it's easy for something unexpected to drop in and change everything. My mantra: always make Plan B. And it's a good thing I did because, while visiting family in the mall-filled desert of Arizona, I suddenly found myself with a health problem that prompted me to leave Phoenix immediately. ER docs there caused me to hurridly shift travel plans and fly to my HMO in San Francisco. To make this happen, I went to the computer, made a reservation online, and took off the next morning. Once in San Francisco, there was no more desert, but lots of fog and a chilly wind, wrapped around its famous hills, all warmed by a welcoming friend. I got settled in and with a quick cup of coffee the next morning, I took the bus to my appointments to begin a week of medical testing...and more testing with lots of anxious waiting for results. Fortunately, all test results had no answers to my medical problem. Naturally, my decision was then to forget about what was thought a medical problem and to continue on with my traveling. What else is a 79 year old to do? .
But before going on, I decided to make the most of being in The City. Loving everything Asian, I got myself on a city bus and made my way to Chinatown. The streets, as always, were crowded with shoppers, but this time I saw something new; upscale tea tasting shops. Serious, professional- looking tea pourers offered and explained the uniqueness of each of the hundreds of teas being sold, while customers paid handsome prices for "the sell." I bought tea in the same old shop where I have always bought it, in little normal tea boxes, for half the price. In the same shop I saw barrels full of traumatized fat green frogs piled one on top of another, their eyes popped open, pleading for rescue,. Alongside them were fish swimming in large fish tanks, and others, very dead, stacked high on wooden planks. I heard lots of Cantonese spoken by older folks while young ones spoke English and when asked, didn't know Chinese.
After enjoying some delicious dim sum and buying my tofu and bok choy, I wandered through nearby, Italian North Beach to my old haunts; the City Lights Book Store and Visuvio's Cafe where I once posed as a cocktail waitress for an afternoon. That was in the pre-sixties, Beatnik Days. Had an Expresso at a sidewalk cafe and overheard The Young talk about their long, very stressful days at work, anxiety over getting into universities, paying off universities, and general anxt endured when living a life.
I later visited old, dear friends in Petaluma where I grew up and other friends further north in Sonoma wine country. Meanwhile, out-of-the-blue, my dear friend in NC offered me an unused airline ticket. It all worked perfectly as all my medical tests were done and there was only one day left to take advantage of her very generous ticket offer. So I grabbed the chance, bussed back to San Francisco, got the early morning Airport Shuttle, and took off. Now you know how I got here. I wonder where will be next.
The lesson to be learned: Never make plans too tight. Leave space for the unexpected and enjoy it!
.
Dear Travel Coach! I am wondering how one can travel to faraway places and remain fluid for a return date, when we normally book the more economical round trip ticket with fixed dates? (sometimes way in advance because we are so excited!) Or is there no way out of this without paying hefty fees and the difference of what might then be a higher priced ticket?
ReplyDeleteAs we know, how can one plan so far ahead when one would want to come back from a trip? Did Alice really know where she was going when she fell down the rabbit hole?
And.....What are your favorite airlines, websites, etc?