Ron and Sally Jo Blog

Twenty-four hours of traveling from Goshen found us finally falling into bed in Papette, Tahiti.  The next morning we saw the beautiful spot where we were—black sand beach, crashing waves, greenery, and flowers.  We took a self-guided walking tour of the town learning a bit of its history and culture.  We ate the traditional lunch of Tahiti–poisson cru.  This is a marinated fresh fish salad with cucumber, onions, and tomato with lime and coconut milk dressing—good.  We ended with corossol ice cream which reminded us of our time in Ivory Coast.  We visited the city market which reminded us of the Iron Market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  In the evening we watched traditional dancing from the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia.

The second morning we took a car tour around the island.  It was good to see something other than urban area. The scenery in a number of places was just as Gauguin had painted. We watched more traditional dancing the second evening.

August 2013 began with packing up Michelle’s apartment, storing her things, and saying good-by as she set off across country in her 1990 Honda Civic.   A few days later we set off in the opposite direction.  We stopped in East Hartford spending an afternoon at the playground with Lucy and setting up our tent.

The next day we went to Boston airport to pick up our good friends from Zwolle, Netherlands.  We first met Pieter and Gerdien exactly 40 years ago in Blantyre, Malawi, Africa.  We lived on the same compound for three years and spent much time together.  Twenty years ago they came to Goshen to see us.  Over the years we have been to their home (and boat) many times.

 We all returned to East Hartford.  We played with Lucy, went to a nearby park, and talked.  Lucy took very little time in warming up to Gerdien and Pieter.  All seven of us then travelled to J & C’s land in Vermont.  We all loved the woods, the water, and generally just “hanging out.”

 The Kamstras and us left Vermont, crossed, Lake Champlain by ferry, wandered through the Adirondacks, and spent the night with a Mennonite-Your-Way family on a farm.  Then on to Scottdale where we reconnected with Jack and Ruth who had also been in Malawi during the same time.  (We forgot to take photos!)  And then to Goshen.

 During the week in Goshen, Erv and Marian came to spend several nights.  We first learned to know them in Kenya; they were in Zambia at the time we all were in Malawi.  Maynard and Hilda even came one evening.  (Another couple from Malawi-Zambia days)  Fun times!  During the week we took a number of bike rides, including riding to Oxbow for a picnic and one time to Shipshewana.  Unfortunately, we didn’t take any photos.  We did a lot of walking, including to the dam and along the Millrace (several times), part of the Pumpkinvine Trail, and in Chain of Lakes.  And of course, there was a lot of talking and laughing.

 All in all, August was filled with much fun and many memories.

We took a “Hop on-Hop off” bus on our free day to see various sites of the city.  We were interested in the Haight & Ashbury section of town because of activities there in the 1960’s.  We hiked around Presidio Park and then walked across the Golden Gate Bridge.  We stopped at Fisherman’s Wharf–among the crowds.  We even visited Musee Mecanique (Mechanical Museum) which is one of the world’s largest privately owned collections of mechanically operated musical instruments and antique arcade machines.   For a quarter we could play an old player piano, race two bicycles around a track or play any number of other arcade games!  Throughout our visit we were fascinated by the steep hills, variety of architecture, fog, and food.  (On one street we determined that from the top of the block to the bottom of that block was a difference of five building floor levels!)

During our time in San Francisco we visited three very different churches.  Several members of our group had read about St. Gregory’s of Nyssa Episcopal Church in Sara Miles’s two books—Take this Bread and Jesus Freak.  The big food pantry food bank movement started with her being served a bit of bread for communion.  The same altar table that is used in the Sunday services is also used on Friday to provide food for the hundreds in need.  Another highlight of the church is the “The Dancing Saints Icon.”  It is a 3,000 square foot painting wrapping around the entire church rotunda, showing ninety larger-than-life saints; four animals; stars, moons, suns, and a twelve foot dancing Christ.  Their idea of sainthood is simply meant as having God’s stamp on you; being marked and set apart as God’s own.  Examples of saints are musicians, workers, missionaries, martyrs, protesters, reformers, judges, builders, scholars, soldiers, couples straight and gay, governors, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Pagan—of many continents, races, classes and eras.  The more we looked, the more inspirational it was.  We attended morning prayers and then had a chance to talk with Sara Miles.

Grace Cathedral descended from the historic Grace Church built in the Gold Rush year of 1849.  The original was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire.  Work began on the present Cathedral in 1928 and was completed in 1964.  Grace Cathedral is famed for its labyrinths—one outside made of terrazzo stone and one inside.  Since the theme of this trip was Mary Magdalene, it was nice to see an icon of her here.  It had been commissioned in celebration of the first woman Episcopal bishop in the U.S. in 1989, Barbara Clementine Harris.

Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church is located in “little Italy” and is known as “The Italian Cathedral of the West.”   It is the home church and cultural center of the Italian-American community and in recent years also the Chinese-American Catholic community.  Services are held in Italian, Mandarin, and English.  During 1926-27 the church was the target of radical anti-catholic anarchists, who attempted five separate bomb attacks against the building.  The church can be seen in several Clint Eastwood movies, Cecil B. DeMilles “Ten Commandments,” and in parts of “Sister Act2.”  Joe DiMaggio married his first wife here.  Since the church considered him still married, he and Marilyn Monroe could not be married in the church but returned to have their pictures taken on the steps of the church after their civil ceremony.  Joe DiMaggio’s funeral was held here in 1999.

The primary reason for a recent short trip to San Francisco was to see the world premier opera “Gospel of Mary Magdalene” with a group.  While there we had time to do a few other things.

The opera was written by Mark Adamo and was performed at the War Memorial Opera House.  We had a backstage tour of the opera house in the afternoon.  It was interesting visiting the dressing rooms, wig and makeup department, costume shop, prompter’s box and other areas.  The opera house is performing three operas in rotation so they were setting up the stage as we were there.  The opera opens in current times with an archeological dig which leads into the story.  Of course, no pictures were allowed backstage or during performance.  It was a great 48^th anniversary celebration!

In contrast to the opera, another night the two of us also attended a performance of “Abigail’s Party” by Mike Leigh at the San Francisco Playhouse adjoining our hotel.  It was a comedy/tragedy and performed well.

We spent a week with Lucy and Jessica in Burlington,VT as Jessica had been asked to do the costumes for a show (“Fiddler on the Roof”) at St Michaels Stage.  We took Lucy to Sheldon Farms, ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, Burlington’s Farmer’s Market, and the Burlington lake shore.  We played games, did art projects, and quietly read—sometimes.

Sheldon Farms:  “In 1886, Dr. William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb began acquiring farmland on the shores of Lake Champlain to create a model agricultural estate. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. created conceptual designs for the landscape. Prominent architect Robert H. Robertson designed four major buildings.  …  By the early 1900s, the Webb’s 3,800-acre farm was renowned for its innovative practices, hackney horse breeding enterprise, and grand family residence. … The heyday was short-lived. Beginning around 1910, farming operations and other activities began to shrink. …  Shelburne Farms began a rebirth in 1972 when family descendants founded a nonprofit organization of the same name, dedicated to conservation education.  For 40 years the organization has offered education opportunities for children of all ages to learn abut sustainability and their connections to the natural and agricultural world … In 2001 the property became a National Historical Landmark.”

“ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center is a [large] …facility.  Founded in 2003 ECHO welcomes more than 150,000 visitors annually [and has] interactive exhibits and science education programs that include over 70 species of fish, amphibians, invertebrates, and reptiles.”  Lucy enjoyed the fish and the dinosaurs but REALLY enjoyed the interactive play area.”

We spent close to a week at a resort in St Hippolyte.  We did a number of hikes, canoed, played games, visited a nearby town, and generally relaxed.  (Our last day and half were misty and cold.)

We took a day tour to Montreal.  We began at  St Joseph’s Oratory one of the world’s largest basilicas and an important shrine.  In 1904, Saint Andre Bessette began the construction of St. Joseph’s, a small chapel on the slopes of Mont Royal.  The small chapel was soon too small and a larger church was built in 1917.  The Basilica was soon begun and completed in 1967.  Many miracles have been attributed to St Andre.  In the Basilica there is a wall covered with thousands of crutches from those who were allegedly healed.  We were impressed with how simple the Basilica was in comparison to many other cathedrals which we have seen.

We drove up Mont-Royal, the highest point on the island of Montreal.  We stopped only briefly because of the cold and wind!  (No photos!)  We took an hour cruise on the St Lawrence River, giving us a good view of the city skyline, Expo 1967 buildings, Olympic Park (1976), and other sites.  One interesting site was Habitat67 — designed by an architectural student and built as lodging for Expo 1967.  It is composed of “box-like” structures where no windows of any apartment look into another apartment.

We went to the Botanical Gardens where we spent most of our time in the Chinese Garden, Japanese Garden, and admiring the in-process exhibits which opens June 22.  See Mosaicultures Internationales Montreal “Mosaïcultures Internationales® is … an exhibition of horticultural art and a chance for the representatives from parks, gardens and green spaces around the world to exchange ideas. All works presented must represent something of the participant’s culture …[and comply] with the principles of sustainable development.”

In the evening we attended a “Sound and Light” show at the Notre-Dame Basilica which highlighted the history of Montreal.  This church is intertwined with Montreal’s history and the first church built in 1659.  Afterwards we had time to explore the Basilica briefly.  The present building was begun in 1841.

From Algonquin we wandered our way through Pembroke, Ontario, across the Ottawa River to Quebec, south to Mont Tremblant and to St Hippolyte.  We traveled through wilderness, passed farms, and went through small towns. We discovered a 230 km linear rail trail and wished we had our bikes.  We ate wonderful food.

We spent time in Mont-Tremblant National Park which is the oldest of Quebec’s national parks being established in 1895 and is one of its largest.  As we entered the park we finally saw a deer.  We hiked to a lookout and did another short hike to some falls.  We drove about one and half hour on a dirt, back road as we exited the park.  We had been told there would be lots of deer, including many fawns, and possibly bear.  However, all we saw was one squirrel on the road and a loon in the water—and that was the extent of the wildlife.  From the Park we drove small hilly, winding roads to our resort—like a roller coaster.

Algonquin became the first provincial park in Canada in 1893. As you can see from the map, there are many rivers and lakes in the park. It does allow logging within it borders.  Our one day in the park turned out to be a very drippy day for us so we weren’t able to hike much.  We did hike up to Lookout Mountain.  We also spent time at the Logging Museum which traces the history of logging in the Park.