For those of you who came to visit us in the past, you might be surprised next time: we have gotten rid of the front lawn and replaced it with gravel and drought-resistant plants. Maintenance will be easier, and we're doing something good for the environment by using considerably less water. It's just too hard to keep a green lawn in the desert, especially in the summer!

Today Emmanuel came home to learn to cook. He wanted to make spaghetti sauce, so that's what we did. The result turned out delicious. And I got a surprise visit from Stéphanie, whom I had not seen for two years. She only spent 10 mn with me on the patio in front of the house, but I was very, very happy to be able to talk to her and hug her.

May 21st: that's the date of our 2nd wedding anniversary! We had to go home... We had stayed in Williams three nights. Williams is located on old Route 66 and Interstate 40. We felt very safe there because there were police everywhere at all times. We took a few more pictures of Williams and headed for home in Cathedral City. We were lucky: there was no traffic, and we didn't take as long as we thought to get to the Arizona-California border. Consequently we had some time to spare and decided to visit Lake Havasu and have lunch there before getting home. We didn't regret it. The weather was great, and we got the opportunity to walk on London Bridge. We even had fish & chips, but Jorge was not impressed, and I admit I had had better. The part of the city near the bridge had a British look, but there was only American, not English beer to accompany the fish & chips... But we enjoyed our little walk around London Bridge, very much indeed!

After the Grand Canyon we went to Sedona. We had to drive on a long and winding road along which there were a little creek and lots of colorful rocks. The town of Sedona is very nice,and, of course, touristic. People go there to see the rock formations and take a lot of pictures. However, if you want to eat well, you have to go to expensive restaurants. The reasonably-priced ones all serve basically the same kind of boring food. But we didn't go there to satisfy our gourmet taste buds; we wanted to satisfy our eyes, and we succeeded!

Jorge and I decided to take a long weekend trip to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversay. So we drove to Williams, AZ on May 18 and arrived there in the afternoon. We stayed at a Motel 6, and planned to see the Grand Canyon on Saturday, Sedona on Sunday, and head back home on Monday because I had to teach an evening class.
On our way to the Grand Canyon, we stopped at Bedrock City to pay a visit to our good friends Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty. Dino was there too. We visited the Bedrock school, medical facility, police station, etc. It was quite impressing. After a little nap on Fed & Wilma's bed, we hurried out to see the Canyon because we knew we would need the whole day for that.
After we got into the Grand Canyon park, we left the car on a parking lot and took the free and very practical bus to go along the rim and stop at all the good vantage points to take numerous pictures. Of course, we can't put them all here, but needless to say, this whole experience was breathtaking. Now Jorge wants to go back and hike all the way down to the Colorado River... That's not really my cup of tea, especially with a weak ankle, so I hope one or two friends will want to accompany him on his future adventure.

We spent a few days in Montevideo and took pictures every time, but I'm grouping them all here under the same date to make things easier.
Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay. It is also a big port on the Rio de la Plata. Jorge used to live in Montevideo and work there as a welder in naval construction and repair. There are also numerous beaches. We did not have ideal weather there, but it was not bad either. A little more sun would have made some of the pictures nicer...
Montevideo is a city of contrasts: you find beautiful and ugly, wealthy and poor, modern and historical, big and small juxtaposed within a few blocks of each other. Traffic is a real experience: nobody seems to understand why there are lines on the streets (supposedly to mark each lane, like in other countries), bicycles and horse-drawn carriages can be found on major freeway-looking roads, and you share the road with nice cars as well as bizarre-looking vehicles about 30 to 40 years old that are barely able to move and belong either in a museum or a junkyard... It's both funny and dangerous. Jorge managed to keep us alive during the whole trip, but I have to admit there were times when I just closed my eyes, held on tight, and prayed! I love to drive, but I don't think I could do it safely in Montevideo!
We went to eat at the Mercado del Puerto where they have "parrilladas." Uruguayans are big meat eaters, and that's not surprising because the meat there is not expensive and it is incredibly delicious and tender. I enjoyed it, even though I don't usually eat red meat willfully. A parrilla is a kind of wood burning barbecue with a special shape so that the wood burns on the side and the embers fall on the bottom. The meat is never flamed because it cooks over the embers. The result is out of this world!
We also walked on the Avenida del 18 de Julio, which is the most well-known. We also walked all over the place, and I can't remember all the street names, but those of you who know the city will recognize them. I was very impressed by the Palacio Legislativo which we were able to visit with a guide (all free - it's a service offered by the government).
There are still lots of places in Montevideo that we did not have time to see, so that will be for another trip in the future!

Punta del Este is the part of Uruguay that is the most to the east, hence its name. It is a touristic resort full of hotels, rental apartments and houses. Of course, there are beaches: on one side Playa Mansa and on the other side, Playa Brava. One is on the side of the Rio de la Plata, so it's calmer and not as windy (manso/a means calm, tranquil in Spanish). That explains why the marina is on that side. The other side faces the Atlantic ocean and is therefore windier. it's the side where the big waves are when it's windy, which explains why it's called brava (stormy, full of waves). That's where an artist built a sculpture which represents a hand buried in the sand showing only the fingertips. Unfortunately, the day we went there, there was graffiti on the fingers. Of course there is also a main street called Avenida Gorlero, which we cruised up and down a couple of times on a windy day. It's full of shops of all kinds and "locutorios" which are the local cybercafes that offer computer and internet access and also provide phone booths to place calls to foreign countries at reasonable rates. There is also an area similar to what we call street fair in the U.S. where merchants set up booths to sell their arts and crafts. There one can find souvenirs of all kinds and local rocks such as amethysts as well as "mates and bombillas." Uruguayans , as well as Argentinians and Brazilians from the south of Brazil drink "mate" which is basically "yerba", a loose herb served in a kind of cured gourd over which they pour hot water from a thermos to sip the tea-like drink with a "bombilla", which is basically a re-usable metallic straw designed to filter the leaves out as one drinks. Most people drink mate at home, and you can't find it in cafes, for instance, but Uruguayans are known for carrying their mate and thermos everywhere they go, so it's not uncommon to see people walking down the street with a mate in one hand and a thermos under one arm.
Punta del Este also has a lighthouse at the very end of the "point." There are also individual houses in little streets in that area. The rest of Punta del Este includes tall apartment buildings. It is a very modern-looking city. On the Playa Mansa side, there is also a big, beautiful blue building, the Hotel Conrad. We did not even try to find out how much it would cost to spend one night there! We also found one central shopping center conveniently named "Punta Shopping." In that shopping center we found a Tienda Inglesa supermarket that provided full-size and half-size shopping carts. My guess is that the tourists who are staying in hotels (like us) only buy a few basic things; therefore there is no point (no pun intended) in bothering them with a big shopping cart!!! There was also a restaurant called La Pasiva, which is part of a chain. Jorge likes it a lot. It basically serves Uruguayan hot dogs including some with something very similar to a "merguez" called "húngara," as well as Uruguayan pizza, pasta, and a bunch of other things. You can even drink wine with your food, and they have a good selection. The one in Punta del Este has murals painted by Carlos Paez Vilaró, the Uruguayan painter/cineast/architect who created Casa Pueblo.
We stayed at the Hotel Bravamar, which was absolutely great. We got the best, friendliest service and very reasonable rates. In Uruguay, hotel bathrooms are equipped with a bidet that springs water in the nicest way. Make sure you sit on it before turning on the little fountain, otherwise the spray will reach your face! Quite a discovery, I have to admit.

Jorge and I wanted to see Casa Pueblo, so we went to Punta Ballena near Punta del Este. The building is exciting because it is quite unusual. Originally designed by Uruguayan painter/cineast/architect Carlos Paez Vilaró to be his home and workshop, it was later extended as a much bigger building (following the same style). The original part still belongs to the artist and can be visited for a very modest entry fee. There it is possible to admire the artist's paintings and sculptures, buy some, purchase books, reproductions or original canvases, and even enjoy a drink in a little cafe with indoor and terrace seats. The bigger part is a luxury hotel. Normally one has to be a paying hotel guest to be able to see the hotel part, but we just went to the restaurant on floor "minus 9," and, because the touristic season had not started yet and noone was in the pool area, we were given permission to walk down to an area normally reserved to hotel guests from which it is possible to see nearly the whole building. Of course, that was a great opportunity to take a lot of pictures. We don't think we'll get another chance to see the building from these angles in the future because hotel rooms are way beyond our budget! We were very impressed by the uncommon architecture which is, according to its creator, a "challenge to the straight line."
Carlos Paez Vilaró is also the author of a mural that all airline travelers to Montevideo can see because it is in the arrival area of the airport. Tourists and other passengers can enjoy looking at the mural while waiting for their luggage to appear on the carousel. Two of his main themes are the sun and the moon with faces.
Here is a selection of pictures of the building and of some of the artist's works of art.

We love San Diego so much that we had to go back. This time Jorge and I concentrated on the Old Town. Finding a parking space was a nightmare because we arrived a little late... It's hard to get up early in the morning on a Saturday! Anyway we walked around, ate a nice lunch at the Casa de Reyes Restaurant while listening to music and watching Mexican folkloric dances. The dancers had beautiful costumes, but I was too far to take pictures, and by the time we finished eating and get closer to the stage, the show was over. We walked a lot, saw an old cemetery, visited a litle museum, saw an old dentist office (I'm glad I wasn't born during the 1800"s), and, of course, the visit wouldn't have been complete without the candle shop and the tea shop (no photos there, but Nini will know what I mean). The weather was great again.

This weekend Jorge and I went to San Diego. On Saturday we visited the zoo, and on Sunday we spent our time walking along the harbor and visiting the Maritime Museum (there were even pirates!) and walking up Broadway to Horton Plaza. We were very lucky because the weather was absolutely gorgeous, that means warm with a little breeze, but not hot like in the desert... At the zoo we got to see the pandas, a mother, father and baby, but they were hard to photograph because they like to sleep showing their butt to the public. But there was a baby giraffe who was born only 3 days before our visit, still wobbly, incredibly cute, and not named yet. On Sunday we bought the museum package that included a boat tour of the harbor, which was a great way to see the San Diego skyline, and after that we ended up eating at Nini's favorite fish place: the Fish Market. We had lunch on the terrace and enjoyed shrimp cocktail, charbroiled seabass and Hawaiian ono with a nice light white wine recommended by our waitress who really knew her stuff, and we finished our meal with a super Belgian chocolate mousse for me and a key lime pie for Jorge. Needless to say, we really needed to walk after all that, that's why we set out on Booadway to Horton Plaza. It's really not as far as it looks on the map. Well, we definitely want to go back to San Diego as soon as possible. That city has a great effect on us, and Jorge doesn't really know it, so there is still a lot to see. We would have liked to get together with Tina, but it didn't work out because it was getting too late after our long walk... We're taking a raincheck.