Travels with The Rayman

It’s hard to believe that we have been on the road a full week and a day.  Time is an amazing thing.  It seems to slip by slowing only to speed by at the same time.  What is that phenom called?  There must be, in physics, a law that describes it.  However, I never studied physics and so I don’t know.

Much has happened and I’d put falling down at the top of that list.  While visiting our friends in space 35 (guessing on the space number), I engaged with the folks next door.  They had a kitty cat.  Beau saw the cat, dashed toward it with me at the end of the leash.  I feel off balance and did a half gainer into the dirt, hitting my nose, knocking off my glasses, bruising my left breast and narrowly missing the steel box that houses the electrical stuff that we plug in to while camping.  While I whine about my injuries, it is amazing that I did not break my glasses, my head or any bones.  Well, I may have bruised a rib.  Not sure except that it hurts when I swing the club certain ways.  Golf clubs, that is.

So there was that.

Since arriving in Borrego Springs, it has been hot, hot, hot.  You’d think it was a desert.  Unseasonably warm is how one local described it.  But get this.  It rained so much this winter, and it is so warm that every flower in the desert in abloom.  The mountains around us are usually brown.  This year they sport lots of green.  The valley floor is amazing in it’s abundance of flowers.  Super-bloom they are calling it.  And they be right.   And because every major paper (LATimes, NYTimes, Wash Post) have featured articles about the event, the entirety of southern CA hopped in their cars and drov here for the weekend.  We’ve been visiting Borrego Springs for many years and have never seen anything like it.  Bumper to bumper cars, trucks, motorcycles converged in a town of 3,000 people and swelled it to 25,000 petal peepers.

So, on Sunday, we joined some of our oldest friends and others to stand on the corner of a roundabout (how is that even possible?) and held up our protest signs for all the people in all the vehicles to see.  Got flipped off quite a bit but also had lots and lots of people waving, blaring their horns in approval.  It was fun.  There were about 40 of us.  It was hot.  I was relieved when the protest organizer told everyone to go home and hour after we arrived.  It was to go for two hours but the heat was intense.  In the 90s.  High 90s.

Then there was the full moon.  Absolutely stunning as it rose above the desert floor.  And it set as the sun was rising the next morning.  Beautiful place for a full moon.  The other thing is that at home, we don’t sit out at night and the desert nights have been righteous.  Warm and wonderful.  We have eaten outdoors every evening and this helps focus the eyes on the surroundings.  The moon might have been missed in Morro Bay.  Not here.

We’ve played golf three times this week in the heat so we’ve been drinking a lot of water and Gatorade.  I’m puffy but hydrated.  Same with Mr. J.  And Beau.

Jake and K.C. and us standing amongst the flowers.

Most of our bicycles friends came earlier this year and have left.  We miss them.  Besides being bicycle “animals”, they are some of the nicest people on the planet.  And they all enjoy good food and drinks.  Every night is a party.  Not wild so just disabuse yourself of that notion right now!!

lOh, and the big bummer here is that there are so many people in town, we can’t get the internets to work worth a darn.  So, whatever stupid thing Trump is doing, we are being spared.  That said, our DishTV is working great and we plan to watch Bill Maher tonight.  Surely it will be funny.  Wonder if he’ll wear green for St. Paddy’s day?  And is anyone watching Little Big Lies?  My goodness.

One more week here and then it’s off to Santee, near San Diego for a few weeks of frivolity.  The time will seem like it is moving slowly but as soon as we know it, we’ll be in San Diego Zoo.  As visitors, not residents.

Hoping it is cooler there.

Aloha and Wahulameakema,

As I recline in my bed at the Turtle Bay Resort, being the last night of our vacation to the islands of Hawaii, I must write a few things down.

The turtles of Turtle Bay

The Hawaiian language has about 13 letters of the alphabet.  The Hawaiians are a very resourceful lot.  What they lack in letters, they make up in the length of their words.  It reminds me of the old joke, “ Have you read the book, Open Kimono, by Kamonawannalaya?“.  Most words are long with about 28 letters.  And as a novice, I have no idea where the pauses lie.  So, I muddle through.  The words lack hyphens.  I think hyphens would help.  Just saying.

The Hawakalamakalayama Highway.  A parody, I admit.  But really.  How in the world did an artist survive in this culture with a name of Don Ho?  It just goes against the grain.  Firstly, there is no D in the language.  I think it consists of about 13 letters.  K,W,H,U,O,A,I,N,M and a few others.  I’m guessing here because I’m too tired to Wikipedia it.  But I’m quite certain that I am close.  This renders the language very melodic.  And unlike French, they pronounce every letter as near as I can tell.

Our vacation had it moments.  Rayman got sick for his 70th.  Could it have been too stressful?  Turning the big 70 with a face that looks slightly younger?  Who knows?  Who cares?  He got sick and this rendered him pretty much useless after his birthday.  Poor guy was in the doldrums.  He lost his voice.  He coughed and coughed.  He went just about nowhere and did just about nothing but rest.  However, rest was a good thing.  With the waves crashing, and me at his side, what could go wrong?  ha ha.

Ryan and his gal, Tamara had a great time.  They took a trip where they were in a cage under the water and sharks were swarming.  They took a night paddle board extravaganza where they laid on the boards and looked to the heavens (it was night and a full moon).  They toured the pineapple place, took paddle board lessons, drove around the island.  They snorkeled.  Actually, I snorkeled with them and the strangest thing happened.  When I dragged myself out of the water onto the beach by the hotel, water ran out of my nose…everytime I leaned over.  What was that?  Never happened before.  I think my head is empty.  The water came into my ears and out my nose.

But I digress.

They had a great time.  And they had colds too.  But they are a lot younger.  Rayman wasn’t having any of that.  And by extension, neither was I except for the snorkeling which was done “on campus” at the resort.  No golf.  No.  We bought new golf club carriers for the trip.  We paid extra baggage fees.  And we never used our clubs.  A big bummer.

Our day consisted of meeting the kids for breakfast and dinner.  Does the term living vicariously have any meaning to you?

And did I mention the rain?  Two full days of rain.  The most recent was today.  Today was the last day of vacation for Ry and Tam.  They flew out today.  We fly out tomorrow.  So, I went with them to the airport.  Ray was still feeling horrible.  It rained so hard that when we got there, I spent about an hour at the Alamo car rental lot talking to Apple Support in order to figure out why my Apps feature wasn’t working.  I couldn’t drive anywhere.  It was a blinding rain.  So, I got creative and called Apple.  It helped me pass the time.  When the rain let us a bit, I decided to go to the mall and shop.  Only as I approached the mall, I decided that I did not want to shop.  Every mall has every store that every other mall has.  And I was in Hawaii.  Why did I want to shop?  It did not compute.  So, I asked Siri to give me directions back to Turtle Bay Resort.  She was somewhat uncooperative.  We argued.  She finally relented.  But the voice (audio) didn’t work.  She is such a bitch sometimes.  Actually, I avoid her mostly.  She’s not what she’s cracked up to be in my opinion.  We just don’t see eye to eye.  And because of that I had to constantly look at the phone to make sure I wasn’t getting lost.

So, I headed north and much to my chagrin, I needed gas.  Don’t ask.  So, I finally got off the freeway to look for gas.  In Hawaii, they do not have helpful signs indicating food, hotels, gas so my guess was as good as any.  And I did find gas though I had to go way out of my way.  And then, I couldn’t figure out how to open the gas tank compartment.  Couldn’t find a lever.  Didn’t open by a spring loaded mechanism.  What the hell?  Looked for the instruction booklet for the car.  It was not in the glove box.  So, I googled it.  Still couldn’t figure it out because I did not know the year of my Pathfinder.  So, I hopped out of the car into the rain and clicked the buttons on the remote.  And guess what?  I got it open but for the life of me, I don’t know how.

I filled up the tank and needed to relieve myself.  The gas station had a sign posted, No Restrooms.  Great.  So, I bought a sleeve of dry roasted peanuts, ripped them open with my teeth and inhaled them.  It was after 2 p.m. and I was hungry.

So, here I am now.  Lying in bed blogging.  Rayman feels better.  We leave in the morning.  Had pupus and wine for dinner and Cherry Garcia from the shop down by the pool for dessert.  Oh, and some dark chocolate by Dove.  And did I mention the red wine that washed that down?  Best part of the day, really.

So, that’s the story of our vacation in Hawaii.  But, hey, it could have been worse.  No one got typhoid.  I wore just about everything I brought, except my golf outfits.  Rayman is getting better.  The sun is going to shine tomorrow.  And we are returning to an equally fabulous place.  Home.  

Ryan and Tam preparing to take a dive.

Rayman has his birthday and he has a cold which rendered him inaudible for most of the dinner party last night.  A squeak here.  A squeak there.

Most of us have encountered a cold or flu while traveling.  It is a shame it came to this but shit happens.  The few days before we flew to Oahu, we spent 4 days with our good friends, Ruth and Tom.  Ruth had a cold but had been suffering for a month.   We hold her harmless.

When we flew from San Luis Obispo to San Francisco (SFO), we met up with the kids (read adult children), Ryan (number one son and his romantic interest, Tamara).  She had a cold she was getting over.  Ryan was beginning a cold.  Ray was getting chills.  No matter.  We walked around the airport killing time and looking at the display of gaming machines from the 1800s forward to the one arm bandit.  Really works of art in their own way.  And there were pictures of saloons from the West and I only saw one with a woman pictured and she was not a lady of the night.  Women did not frequent saloons as customers.  The women were used upstairs for sexual relief, as I’ve been told.  Funny that Matt Dillion did business with a woman saloon keeper, Kitty.  Too funny in this political era since I have a teeshirt that says, “Pussy Strikes Back”.

Perhaps not much has changed, really.  Women were also kept out of politics and voting until Wyoming finally allowed women the vote in the early 20th century.  Wyoming of all places.  Now Wyoming is firmly in the red column and home to Darth Vader, Dubya;s VP.

But I digress.

Well, actually, I do want to make another political observation.  Elizabeth Warren is really under their skin, isn’t she?  And I think it instructive that two women Republican Senators voted against DeVos for Education.  Do you think women have bigger balls than men?  Do you think they are more fair-minded?  more hardworking and sincere?  I don’t know but perhaps so.  But for every Susan Collins, we have a Joni Earnst in the halls of power so there is that.  And who can leave out the air-head Sarah Palin.

Back to the North Shore of Oahu.

We upgraded our room because they put us in a room overlooking the grand ballroom which sat on the shoreline.  Bummer.  We moved up to room where the waves were more tame, the view unobstructed.  Quite lovely.  And it’s probably a good thing because we have spent a great deal of time in it.  Rayman is in no mood to do much.  He sounds like a frog.  Energy has left his body.  So instead of swimming with sharks, floating with turtles, snorkeling with schools of fish, we spend time in our room or on the beach, or by the pool (for small snippets of time).  The rest of the time, we’re up in our Ivory Tower.
  It is becoming clear to us at this point that golf is probably not going to happen.  We’ve already missed 2 golf dates.  We have one more scheduled for tomorrow and I think it is history.  So, we bought new golf travel bags, we paid $140 (round trip) to fly them over here.  And we will not use them.  Drats.

Having said that, as I sit here blogging, I feel like Earnest Hemingway.  Remember the pictures of him, his old typewriter sitting near a window on a tropical island, with the gauzy linen curtain waifing in the breeze.  That’s me!!  Except, I’m not Earnest.  I have wood shutters, and I’m on a computer.  But, hey, nobody’s perfect.

Which brings me back to the Rayman.  He ain’t perfect.  Catching a cold for his birthday is not a good plan.  So, to make everyone else but himself feel better, we drove to Honolulu and visited the USS Arizona Memorial yesterday.  Sobering.  Sad.  Much brought on because Japan needed to trade with us.  But Japan sided with Germany and we were not going to trade with them.  Boiled down to oil, rubber, tin, iron.  Natural resources.  Makes what is going on now with our “child wannabe Dictator” all the more frightening.  Embargos lead to wars.  Man child at the tiller.  What will become of us al  And the most terrifying of all is that Ivanka’s shoes have been pulled from Nordy’s.  Now our boy dictator is using government accounts to rail against Nordys.  That is so wrong, I don’t know what to say.  Oh, yes, I do.  Does the term conflict of interest mean anything to you?  Impropriety?  Emoluments Clause?  As previously announced, I going shoe shopping at Nordys.  A perfect political strategy….send a message and buy a pair of shoes!!

In the meantime, we are up in our Ivory Tower carrying on as though all is normal except the cold that the Rayman has.

KP in the sub. Well outfitted, I’d say.

Fauna along the road. Perhaps the Navy fried their ancestors up in the galley?

After visiting the USS Arizona, we toured a submarine from WWII.  Tight quarters.
Can’t imagine living in one of those tin cans, 300 feet down.  And when they go silent, all power is cut and sit there roasting and taking a war sauna.  I was glad to reemerge at the aft of the sub after the tour.  Fresh air.  Sub parked and deck above water.  All good.

Returning back yesterday, the ocean was really putting on a show at the Bonsai beach.  We stopped to film and snap pictures.  That lead to buying an ice cold coconut, having it split open so we could drink fresh coconut juice.  I hate coconut.  However, it was good.  Guess my issue is with the dried, processed stuff that is sold.  So, my mind opened up a bit yesterday and that is always good.

At dinner, we ate at Roy’s.  Started with MaiTais. 

Ended with upside down pineapple cake with caramel syrup.  Appetizers and mahimahi in-between.  Wine flowed.  Cards came out.  Gift bottle of wine was opened with no corkage fee.  A Pinot all the way from Porlland, OR.  The kids are great!!

Everyone in the restaurant made Rayman feel really special for his birthday.  Lovely service.  When we left, we were feeling no pain.  That came later in the middle of the night when the rich food took its revenge.  I think Rayman might have been more sick when the bill came but I intereceded.  $340 without the tip.  Lord help us all.  However, in defense of the price, we were sitting at the edge of the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii.  We were with family.  We were extremely happy albeit with a snotty nose or two.  Life was good.

Rayman at the Portland Art Museum

So, I’m currently cruising at 30,000 feel looking down on Mt. Shasta.  Quite a sight, that lady.  Are mountains men or women?  Montana.  Mont.  Not sure.  However, this mount seems like a lady to me.

A few thoughts have flitted through my mind the last day or so.  We flew to Portland for the holidays.  This is my first Xmas with no one from mom’s side of the family.  With all my relations having “moved on”, as it were, we decided to head north to spend the holiday with our son and cousin, Susie, and her family.  Her international family.  With in-laws from Istanbul and Barcelona, it is a wonderful change up for us.  And the trip did not disappoint.

As always, funny things happen when you are away from home.  The funniest of the bunch was Rayman using his phone app to get us lost.  Now, for regular readers, this is nothing new.  We specialize in losing ourselves.  However, this involved a new twist.  We were walking.  Hoofing it.  In the cold gray air of downtown Portland.  “Turn right”, he said and we dutifully obeyed.  We being myself and Larry, my cousin’s husband.  We were in search of the Portland Art Museum and we had parked our car at a shopping center and we bought tickets to ride the rail across the river and into downtown thereby avoiding high car park prices and the aggravation of finding a place to park the car in the city.   We did that part without a problem because the train knew where it was going.  And a man with more jewelry on his face, than I had on my entire body told us what station to disembark on (bad syntax, but I can only do so much).  The  jewel-faced man was actually quite nice which makes one wonder…why did he decorate himself so?  Maybe he wanted to draw attention away from his very short legs?  One can only speculate.

But I digress.

After we turned right, we were walking up a hill and all I could see was freeway signs.  I inquired, “Are you sure we were suppose to turn right?”, knowing that Rayman is dyslexic and prone to error in certain areas of life.  When we were in the financial services industry, Rayman would often times elicit great gasps from our clients when he would misspeak.  An example.  He would be advising someone with an account balance of, say, $560,000 and he would spurt out, “Well, you have a balance of $560.”  Some would be polite and pretend they did not notice.  Others, choked.  Still others cried out, “$560?”  Oops.  Anyway, we stopped mid-block to check the app on his phone and he said, he was sure we were headed in the right direction.  So we soldiered on.  But I could not see a Museum.  Only signs announcing streets to the motorists below (the road crossed over the freeway).  By this time, even the Rayman was wondering if he was right.  So, another stop in the sidewalk.

As you may have guessed by now, we should have turned left.  So, we turned around and headed back to where we started.  The walk was invigorating especially as I ribbed him (he would describe it as harrassment) as we galloped down the hill.  We were to meet up with the kids and now we were late.

I had to hand it to him.  He has expanded his abilities to get lost.  Or perhaps I just forget that we have been lost on foot before.  In fact, I’m sure we have been lost on foot before but as I age, I have more to forget.

The reason we were looking for the Museum is that an Andy Warhol exhibit was featured and Ali and Bernat (eldest daughter of Susie and Larry and her husband from Barcelona) had invited us to join them to view it.  And then Ryan (number one son) and his girlfriend, Tamara, joined in the fun too.  And we were all meeting there.  What a show.  Here’s some pictures.

Endangered species. Totally awesome and horribly sad at the same time.

And when discussing the exhibit afterwards we discovered we all had our favorite works and they were as divergent as we all were.  Totally fun.

Georgia O’Keefe by Andy Warhol.

We grabbed a bite at the Elephant cafe and then went to see La La Land at the movie house just a short block away.  A very pretty movie with an O’Henry ending, in a way.  Rayman and I could not remember the last time we saw a musical.  But it was fun trying.  Grease?  West Side Story (just kidding).  But we could not remember.

Emerging from the theatre, it was raining and oh, so cold.  We walked briskly to Ryan’s car.  He gave us a lift to our car.  And from there we all congregated at a pizza joint that Susie found in a magazine.  It was raining and cold but warm and inviting in the Firehouse Pizza restaurant.  After a wonderful time with everyone but Kristen and Cenk (Kristen was home with the kids and Cenk was working at Costco).  We missed them sorely.   A good time was had by all in attendance.

And to go back to the beginning, we made it home with a stop off at the Lund’s in San Jose to pick up our car (we Ubered to the airport and back) where we had lunch and were back at the house at dusk.

Our dinner the first night back. Barbecued lamb chops, roasted potatoes and asparagus.

My fabulous pumpkin pie from scratch. Gingersnap crust kicks it up a notch!!

The Columbia River and the Gorge.

Again from the bridge.

The bridge crossing over to Washington state.

So much time has passed since we last chatted.

Here’s a quick synopsis.  We have driven most of the neighborhoods of Portland.  It’s quite a place.

We have family and friends here and have been busy doing all things around the wedding which takes place TODAY!!  How fortunate both the bride and groom are to have found each other.  He from Barcelona.  She from Portland.  Now his family is here from Spain.  Family is here from Chicago, Boston, Alaska. Turkey.  OMG.  Paris.  The list goes on and on.  Such a fabulous international event and this makes it super fun.

Three nights ago, we went to the home of Ali and Bernat, the bride to be and groom to be and had soup and pumpkin carving.  At that point the Turk and the Spaniards were all there.  Language was a problem but not as much as you might imagine.  A good time was had by all.

The next night we went to a pub and had fish and chips and Guiness.  All the family filled two huge tables and one booth too.

Last night the bride and groom hosted a party at a local McMinnimus hotel, Edgewood.  The food, the wine was only surpassed by the attendees.  After eating and drinking and working the room, a treasure hunt transpired.  We were given two sheets of paper that asked us to locate things on the property.  Here’s a link to the place so you can see what a daunting daring task this was.

http://www.mcmenamins.com/54-edgefield-home

Click on on sight attractions to view the artwork.  It is fab.

“Located the picture of the woman with the original beehive hairdo.  What is the room across the from the picture.”

“Where is the picture of the rabbit that doesn’t like loud music.”  That sort of thing.

Our team came in last.  However, there were only 3 of us.  Many teams had 5 or 6 members.  We did great considering and it was a hoot racing up and down the halls of this enormous hotel looking for pictures and the color of lightbulbs and all things you might not otherwise notice.  A great ice breaker too.  Not that this un-shy group needed to break ice.

And there you have it.  We are on the way to the wedding.  It has been raining all day but the sun just came out for nice respite.  Rayman is heading out the door with Beau while it’s not raining.

Oh, one other thing.  I went with my cousin and her husband and their real estate agent to look at homes.  Sue, my cousin, fell in love with the second house she saw and plans to make an offer on Monday.  Gee.  That was quick.  But when you know it, you know it.  And Sue is not one to be wishy washy.  She knows her mind.  And it’s on that house.  Beautiful old house built long ago )1930s?  I don’t know but it is quite old and completely up to date.  Congrats to her and Larry.

Ali and Bernat. Also on the left is her sister, Kristen with husband Cenk, their twins, Emre and Ezgi and to the far left is the groom’s mother.

The wedding was yesterday and it was a blast.  People from all over the world.  Bermat, the groom, hales from Barcelona and much of his family came over.  Some spoke english, some didn’t.  Then there was the Turkish family members.  Cenk, the father of Leyla and the twins and husband to Kristen (my cousin’s other daughter) flew in his mom and grandma for the month.  There were young friends from Paris, family from Alaska, Boston, Chicago.  More friends from London and Barcelona.  Just so much fun to meet all these folks and celebrate.  It was a joyous occasion.  All of my cousin’s husband (Larry) family showed up.  His brother from S.F., his sister from Boston.  Very smart people with excellent educations.  I also got to meet Forrest Dunbar who is a cousin one or twice removed on Larry’s side is an assemblyman in Alaska.  Harvard and Yale educated.  He may be headed places.  Fun talking politics with him and his mom and dad (also in Alaska).

My cousin, Marilyn, came.  She is the Mormon.  Got her up dancing!!  It was just a blast.  Dancing to Prince with a Mormon.  Doesn’t get much better than that!!!!

Plan now to avoid the coast going home.  Too much rain and wind for our RV and for us.  We leave on Tuesday.  Depending on weather, we will be back home around the 24th or 25th.  Yippee.  I miss my house.  It’s past time for a reunion!!

As we sit here watching the hurricane coverage, I have to say we had a great day today.

Let me recap by starting with yesterday.  The highlight of the day was our visit to Costco in Kennewick, WA.  We went there to buy wine and lamb.  But then I got this idea that we also needed some dates.  Dates are a great way to boost your energy and satisfy your sweet tooth at the same time.

We could not find the dates.  Could it be that Costco doesn’t stock dates here?  We searched high and we searched low.  No dates.  So, I sauntered up to a young man, well, actually, two young men.  They may have been gay.  Both guys were very good looking.  Not that I noticed.  And so it went something like this:

“Do you have dates?”

“What’s the difference between a date and a prune?”

“Well, a date is a date.”  Pregnant pause.

“That’s funny.”  Dripping in almost sarcasm, but not quite.

“And a prune…”  Pregnant pause.  “Have you ever had a date?”

With a certain amount of blushing, “Well, yes, but no, I guess not.”  Side glance to the other young man.

“Well, you should make sure to have a date.  They have pits.  You take the pit out and stuff it with goat cheese and an almond.  You would really like it.”

At this point the other guy starts talking under his breath to my nice young man.  I ignored it and stood my ground.

“You would really like dates.”  I said this just because I enjoyed the fact that he did not know what in the world to do with me.  Crazy old woman, he might have been thinking.

At this point, Rayman comes up and says one of the employees told him the dates were in the produce section and off he ran toward the produce.  That left me still there with my prey.

I just stood there and waited.  But the pause started feeling awkward so I started in again.  He kept flipping the paper on his clipboard.  “Really, you should eat a date.  You would really like it!!”

“Yeah.”

The other young man went back to work, helping the cashier by loading up the merchandise the people purchased.

About that time Rayman came back with the dates.  He found the DATES!!

With that, I one more time encouraged the young man to try dates and told him again that I thought he would enjoy them.

When last seen the young man was flipping his papers.  Lord knows what he was thinking.

And so today, we went golfing on a course that was way over our pay grade.  OMG.  It was so hard.  However, we went, we played, we did not conquer.  Had a great time though.   See the water feature off in the distance?  They have lots of water here.

We went out to dinner and it was a hoot.  After looking at Yelp, we decided on Carmine’s Italian restaurante.  We actually just looked for Italian restaurants.  Hungry for something that would go with our Tobin James Fat Boy red wine.

Rayman listening to Perry Como.

Our leftover lasagne.

The place was a bit of a turnoff outside.  An old house.  Then we entered through the front door and Carmine greeted us.  He showed us to the table.  Plastic plates adorned the table with plastic glasses too.  We lifted our eyebrows but decided, what the heck.  The place was a blast.  Carmine haled from New Jersey.  He had been a boxer as a young man.  There were pictures all over the walls.  Him in high school, him in boxer shorts.  Pictures of his wife.  Pictures of the Rat Pack, Pavarotti.  Amazing and fun.  There was not a space on the walls that did not have a personal picture.  And Carmine was very friendly.  He visited us often.  His granddaughter served us our meal.  It was very unique.

While we were eating our lasagne which easily could have served, say, six adults, Carmine ran out the front door and yelled out, “Did you pay your bill?”  We have eaten in lots of restaurants all over the world and have never, ever, ever seen that before.  So Rayman asked him, “Do all of your customers leave without paying?”.  Carmine reported that the customers were from New Jersey and so he always kept an eye on them!!!

He came back with the bill and insisted that we take a loaf of bread with us to eat our leftovers.  Kind and sincere and generous.   Great experience inspite of the oil cloth table cloths and drinking our wine from canning jars.

And those were two of the more interesting things that took place in this part of the world the past two days.