March, 2010

Family / Health / Seattle — No Comments
29
Mar 10

My Lovely Young Granddaughter, the Star Wars Scout Trooper

Sarah With Teaser, the Space-y Cat

Beautiful Sarah, Unmasked

At the Top! They Rock!

She did it! My love ly young granddaughter, and members of Garrison Titan, climbed 69 stories, 1311 steps, at the Columbia Tower, Seattle’s tallest building, to participate in THE BIG CLIMB on March 21, 2010. Here’s what she said: “We provided moral support and water to the climbers at the start of the troop, and eventually it was our turn to do the climbing! 1311 steps in just under 45 minutes.”

It was not just for fun. The climbers raised funds for research for Leukemia and Lymphoma. My granddaughter’s group raised over $700. I pledged one dollar per floor.

Backpacking / Camping With Kids / Camping and Hiking Tips / Health — No Comments
28
Mar 10

National Parks Week–April 17 to 25

This came to me from the National Park Foundation Newsletter:

“Each year we take time in April to celebrate what we all have inherited as Americans: 84 million acres of the world’s most spectacular scenery, historic landmarks and cultural treasures.

“This National Park Week, we invite you to celebrate your ownership. Visit the parks, volunteer in them, and–most importantly–pass them on to our youngest generation. Bring a young person to one of our nearly 400 national parks. See their eyes light up when you tell them they’re part owners of the spectacular mountains, waterfalls and canyons before them. Entrance fees will be waived at all national parks all through the week – so it’s a great time to get outside and enjoy the parks!

“So, want to get involved? It’s easy. This National Park Week, which also coincides with Earth Day, help guarantee the future of our environment and the legacy of our American history—share a park and shape a life.

“Learn more at www.nationalparkweek.org.”

This is a great opportunity for families to visit the National Parks near their homes without having to pay entrance fees. You’ll learn about the parks so you can plan for future visits, and the parks benefit too–the more people know about them, the more they are protected! The theme for National Parks Week is Share a park, and shape a life. It’s a win-win situation.

Backpacking / Camping With Kids / Camping and Hiking Equipment / Camping and Hiking Tips — No Comments
12
Mar 10

A Camping Necessity: Blue (or any other color) Tarp

A blue tarp in place

It won’t take up a lot of room in your camping gear, but a big tarp, a lot of rope, and a couple of extra tent poles can come in handy or possibly save the day on your next camping trip. The tarp in the picture covered our picnic table and the camp kitchen (stove, water  jug, ice chest, sealed food containers, dishpan, etc.) that we leave out on the table all day and night. We tied the tarp to trees, shrubs, two tent poles and the back hatch of our car.

A long rope across the center created a peak high enough to stand under while we cooked and cleaned up. As the dew began to fall, we (and all our kitchen gear) stayed dry. If it had started to rain, we would have appreciated our blue tarp  even more. At night, when we closed up the  car, the tarp came down and covered the picnic table. We weighed it down with two or three full water bottles so it wouldn’t blow away. In the morning, we carefully lifted up the tarp, let the dew run off, and raised it up again.Walking around the campground, we saw lots of blue tarps in use. Some were shading card players and readers in the middle of  the afternoon, and some were sheltering active babies in play pens from the intense sun. And they were all blue! Do tarps come in any other color? If so, we didn’t see any.

Africa / Travel — 1 Comment
8
Mar 10

More About My Favorite Namibian

Goldie modeling Priscilla's sarong

It was the last morning of our stay in Namibia, the second stop in Overseas Adventure Travel‘s fabulous five-week tour, Out of Africa. We gathered in the lodge after breakfast for a lecture on women’s lives. Priscilla talked to us about education, marriage, childbirth, work. She called me forward to demonstrate the woman’s traditional garment, a sarong that she could wrap around her waist like a skirt , or drape around her shoulders as a shawl, or wrap around her body as a baby carrier. Her sarong was black and white, with a print of giraffes. Then it was time to leave. The staff of the Lianshulu Bush Lodge sang a farewell, and we boarded the passenger boat that would take us down the Kwando River to our landing in Botswana. At the same time, the staff loaded our bags on a much faster boat, Priscilla at the helm with the giraffe sarong wrapped around her shoulders. Their boat raced ahead of us to get our bags unloaded before we arrived. When we reached the Botswana checkpoint, Priscilla told me that the wind had blown her shawl away, and it was lost in the river. I asked her how much it had cost, and she said $7. I thought at the time, I wish I could buy her a new length of cotton, but of course there was no place to shop on that isolated river bank.

Botswana’s Okavango Delta was our next stop, and then Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. No place anywhere to buy a new sarong. Our last stop in this first half of the trip was the city of Victoria Falls. We stayed in a real hotel, not a camp, but around the corner was an enormous crafts market. There is little work in Zimbabwe beyond tourism; very hungry  people begged us to buy their wood carvings, their beadwork, their baskets, but I was already loaded down with crafts of three countries. Finally I saw what I was looking for: on a raised platform I saw heaps and piles of fabric. As I approached the women unfolded their wares and held them up for me, bright prints in every color you can imagine, but I was firm. “I want giraffes,” I kept repeating, “I want giraffes.” I didn’t hope to find black and white giraffes, I thought any giraffe print would do, but then I saw it! The very same black and white print that Priscilla and I had worn in Namibia. The negotiations began. This kind of back-and-forth bargaining is customary in many countries, but I hate it. Still I know it is expected. The seller started with an exorbitant price, $12. (Zimbabwe’s money system is non-existent. All commerce is done in US dollars or South African rand.) I countered with $4. She came down and I went up. We were at $7 and I thought she would come down to $6, but then I remembered what Priscilla had told me and I decided that $7 was the right price to pay.

Goldie modeling new sarong for Priscilla

The new sarong for Priscilla

Back at the hotel, I had Don take a picture of me modeling the new sarong. I asked our guide, Abiot, if he would take a new sarong to Priscilla if I bought one, and he said he would be going back to Lianshulu Bush Lodge on his next trip and would be happy to take it. “I knew you would say that!” I told him. “I already bought it!” That was on October 30. On December 2 I had an email from Nadja, the other manager of the lodge. “Priscilla has asked me to reply on her behalf. She has just received the letter and Sarong you sent for her with Abiot. Thank you so much for your kind thoughts and she cannot begin to express how much she appreciates it!”

Africa / Travel — No Comments
1
Mar 10

My Best Photo from Africa: A Rainbow in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

My Best Photo from Africa: Ngorongoro Crater

It was raining when we reached our hotel on the edge of Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. The crater was full of mist. Everyone in our group went off to their rooms to read, rest, write in their journals or do laundry. Only Don and I remained in the mist on the big deck overlooking the crater. I had never carried a camera on our previous trips, but I was tired of always having to poke Don and say, “Take that one! Take that one!” For this trip I asked for a camera easy to use, and Don chose for me a Nikon coolpix L20. My grandson set it up for easy auto mode, and one of the guides in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe showed me how to access sixteen other modes, including landscape. That’s how I had it set that afternoon on the edge of the crater, waiting for the mist to clear. Finally we began to see the bottom of the crater, where there was a small pond. The sun came out, and there was this rainbow, cutting through the mist and reflected in the pond. This was my best picture in traveling for five weeks in the fall of 2009 on the Out of Africa trip with Overseas Adventure Travel.