From Times Square to Cabo

I love Times Square. Over the past ten years that I have gone to New York to visit Alexis, I have gone to Times Square on nearly every trip, even though Alexis hates Times Square. She was gracious enough, however, to take a slight detour through Times Square on our way back from New Jersey to her upper east side apartment over the Labor Day weekend. She knew her mother would so enjoy all the lights and the millions of people trying not to trample each other flat. (Plus, all three of us needed a little fresh -- well, sort of fresh -- air after the nightmare bus ride of a lifetime we took back into the city.) Harry is not so keen on Times Square either, and the two of them tried their best to keep me moving along as I kept stopping and twirling around in place. It is so different every time you go. Scores of lighted billboards stretching up into the sky, changing as you blink your eyes. It's like no place on earth, .... for me anyway.

New York did get the best of me this trip however. I got really tired racing around at my usual clip. I guess I am getting old (who knew?). I now think New York is a city for the young, like my daughter who can leap onto buses and bound up subway stairs and speed-walk down the street. Or, New York is a great city for the very rich who can order take-out, eat out and take cabs whenever they wish. Rich, poor, young, old, it remains the city that never sleeps and I did a lot of sleeping when I got home to my boring but beloved city of Minneapolis.

Next week, we are headed back to Mexico, where the pace will be more tranquil than in New York. Nature, not the bright lights, will be the wow factor. The Baja peninsula is geographically amazing, mountains, desert, ocean all in such close proximity. We had planned to drive our little blue Subaru up this amazing peninsula last July after our two years in Mexico, but, with Harry's accident, we and our plans were tossed like waves into the beautiful Sea of Cortes. We bobbed up, still afloat, and flew home. Sirius, as Harry calls our Subaru ("the brightest car on the roads"), remains waiting for us in San Jose. Our friend Mel has had all his scratches and dents removed so he will look like new again. Life was tough for Sirius in Mexico: like Harry, he took some hard knocks. We leave here Sept. 25th, and are very excited to see again all the wonderful people who became our friends in Cabo. Mexico truly became like home for us because of all the people we got to know and love there.

Once in San Jose, we will spend a week and then fly to the mainland for a five day trip to Oaxaca, the largest city in the southern part of Mexico, not too far from the Guatemalan border. Our native Mexican friends encouraged us to see this unique city with its wonderful foods, arts and crafts, and history. We had planned to take the trip in early April over spring break on the school calendar, but we came home late March so Harry could have a second surgery. My plan in Oaxaca is to find a dress for my granddaughter, eat lots of their famous mole, see the ruins of Monte Alban, put on weight, and buy some art for the condo. Just where I will put another piece of something "arty" is the question. Those who have been to our condo know it is chock full of tchatchkis and pictures which I have bought on our travels the last ten years. Clutter sure doesn't bother me!

We will begin our 3,500-mile drive back to Minnesota sometime in October. Harry has been diligently mapping the trip using Triple A maps and guides. Driving up the Baja alone is one thousand miles. We now think we will sight-see our way to the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Santa Fe, and Mesa Verde. Harry loves the Grand Canyon and I have never seen it. (These foreigners sure do travel nowadays.) I have had a love affair with Georgia O'Keeffe for most of my life and I want to go to her home and museum in Santa Fe. I have saved the last remaining piece of bare wall space in the condo, over the bathtub, for a Georgia print.

After these stops we will head to St. Louis to stay a few days with our kids, Ivan and Joanna and grandchild, Eva Juliet. Our family eagerly awaits a new member due in March. Then we will be on the road back to the cold and snowy tundra. I plan to take my computer and camera and will blah-blah-blog about the adventures as they happen ... the ones planned and the ones not so planned. Stay tuned..............

Postscript:

My Spin instructor today at LAFitness, who is about my age and thus very wise, told us she begins all her spinning classes with a quotation for the day. Today's quotation seemed to hit a meaningful note for me, sort of like what a good fortune cookie fortune can sometimes do for you after you finish eating too much Chinese take-out. Her words were:

If you don't change your direction, you will end up where you were going.

We are changing direction again in life and I have learned that when you do that, you can never be sure where the road will lead. The road less traveled is always beckoning you to travel its way, without a map. I guess that is better than thinking you know exactly what you are doing and where you are going. I used to be like that. It doesn't work for me anymore. I hadn't planned on seeing Times Square on this trip to New York, but as we reached the subway station Monday night, I looked up and there it was. Lexi's eyes met mine, she smiled and said, "We can walk through Times Square if you want to, Mom."