Point Reyes with Jay

I took Rin to the beach for the first time last weekend. My buddy Jay came along for the ride.
It was beautiful, if foggy the whole time. We both got sunburned.

Rin loved the sand, but want so sure about the waves.

Washington DC

We had a CESRI reunion this weekend. Though it was more of a show and tell to NSF to prove to them that the program was worth while. Honestly, for me, the coolest part was being in the NSF building and giving a talk behind an NSF podium. Not that any NSF people came to see the talk... but still!
I was amused at the DC metro, very distinctive decorations, made you feel that at any minute some scifi creature was going to come jumping out of one of the ceiling squares.
It was my first time to DC, so I was pretty excited to see the sites. Doesn't look much like summer here does it?
It cleared up later though, and looky looky, here is the white house.
The Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial
CESRI put us up in a super fancy hotel again, though I didn't take a picture. After, I stayed in this place. I was thoroughly amused. It looks rather grand here in front
But from the inside, it looks just like an admittedly nice version of a desert motel. It was a pretty nice place in spite of everything, and in easy walking distance from the mall, so...
I managed to fit in quite a few museums, with varying degrees of thoroughness. I was quite amused that they had a totora boat in the American Indian Museum (where we didn't actually see the exhibits, we just ate there - choices on that side of the mall are pretty limited to hot dog stands or museum cafes). This pic is just a bit different from previous pics of me near these boats. I'm not dirty!
So, I'd never want to live there, but I have to admit it was pretty darn cool to visit. We even saw a motorcade one time, that really set it home that I was in the capital. weeee

Visitors!

I had house guests this weekend. Poor guys had to sleep on my floor, but I was so very happy to finally be able to host someone in my home after so many people have taken me into theirs. (plus, I have to admit, I enjoyed having two beautiful boys around. Even if my house smells very strongly of men now) Honza and Jaroslav are two guys that I met in Czech that came to visit at the end of a whirlwind tour of California.

They've been slightly overwhelmed by the crowds as they tried to see all the beauties of this state, so I decided to take them to a nice secluded beauty. This lovely spot is on the Cosumnes River, and is an amazing jumble of granite slabs and boulders and crazy water.

Emily and Jenise joined us and we spent the day relaxing in the sun.

This is Jaroslav, to remind you...

Jenise looking wonderfully leggy

Honza, looking a bit like he is posing for a Michelangelo painting.

There were some definite girly giggles over this, but he took it in good humor, so all's well.

There was this fun little waterfall and hidden pool in the jumble of rocks. Unfortunately, I was a bit limited due to my stupid arm, but alas...

Jenise looks a bit like a laughing mermaid here, at least to me...

More Honza poses

It was a wonderfully relaxing day

In a very beautiful place

Sometimes, just sometimes, I can be convinced that life in California is grand.

Auschwitz

One of the not so happy parts of this trip, though interesting in spite of things, was the visit to Auschwitz. I didn't realize it was so close to Krakow. We sort of felt obliged to see it, considering the history and closeness.

One of the things that got me is how we much have echoed the past a little. Unknowing of what lies ahead, being herded through the 'work makes you free' gate... and later into the gas chambers. Obviously our visit was much less tragic, but there were moments that gave me chills.It was also amazingly small, much smaller than I had imagined. Hence the construction of Auschwitz II.
Auschwitz II, Birkenau
The second camp built close by. This was the place where so very many people died. It was so big, with the potential to cram so many people, that it was truly flabbergasting to hear that 90something percent of people arriving were immediately sent to the gas.People were housed in these wooden barns, sooooo very cold in the winter.
Sanitary arrangements, if you can call them that.
All in all, not what you would call a pleasant day. But I'm still glad I witnessed it. Never forget and all that. Wish we could though, erase it from our memory along with all the possibility of anything like it ever happening again. I'm not so naive though. sigh....

Wieliczka Salt Mine

On the outskirts of Krakow there is an old salt mine that was once a major source of wealth for the country. While much of the rock salt has been removed and production is entirely from evaporation now, they still milk it for all it's worth and have made it a pretty darn spectacular tourist attraction.

You first start out going down something like 200 flights of stairs. Dizzy!

The tunnels and walls were all carved originally by the miners and everything seeped salt. The tour guide offered up the walls, free of charge, for tasting. Greg, of course, took her up on it and tasted every new type he could find. Licking the walls, crazy guy!

Out of boredom, or pride, or something, a bunch of the miners started carving statues out of the rock salt. Some of them were pretty darn cool.
This water was so salty that even Greg stopped tasting things after that.
The most impressive thing by far was the cathedral underground. This picture in no way does it justice. You come out into this open space after wandering through tunnels and small caves. There are chandeliers and carvings and simply an amazing open space that blows your mind.

Everything was made of salt, even this monster.
With the soft lighting and the warm stone, it was one of the most simple, reverent places.
I couldn't get over that it was just a bunch of miners that did these carvings, in their time off after putting a full day of work in none the less!Daniel and Eric, half asleep 300 meters below ground. One of the underground lakes.
I like this picture, even though it is out of focus.
Since the whole place is made of salt, and salt attracts water of course, there is a pretty big danger of saturation and subsequent cave-ins. Didn't bother to do anything about it until tourism became the major source of income, but you cant smash a bunch of tourists now, can you? So now the biggest rooms are held up by impressive wood scaffolding.
This little tunnel lake used to be open for tourists, but some Russian solders drowned there one year and they shut it down. The story is they capsized the boat partying so hard. Many of them were trapped underneath, because they couldn't dive under due to their buoyancy in the salty water. So, they didn't drown, but suffocated... hard to believe, but it make a fun horror story.
The elevator ride back up was amazingly sketchy. It was a metal cage that whizzed through pitch blackness for what seemed like ages. Ears popping and feet rattling, we did eventually make it to the top and the blessed sunshine.

Here we are, unaware of what lies ahead.

Krakow

We got to Krakow at 6 am after very little sleep. The city was pretty still, not too many people out and moving. This was the quietest I ever saw the market square, normally a very lively place.
Breakfast was disturbed by these lovely men, ooooh my aching head! (and I didn't even really drink! I really felt for the other Prague kids)

There were a few other CESRI people hanging around, waiting till we could check into the hotel at 2. We banded together and took off to explore the town. Only slightly sleepy.

It is a city of something like 200 churches. This was one of my favorites.

I was amused by this sign

The hotel itself was amazingly nice. A 4 star modern extravaganza. They spoiled the hell out of us on this trip! This was the reception area. The entrance to our rooms was strait out of a Bond flick. Almost, almost, made me feel like a Bond girl lounging around there.

It was little strange to be there since we were such a wild group. I doubt they ever had people playing volleyball or Frisbee in the lobby before!Dinner with the CESRI crew, back together again. It was odd how little time seemed to have passed.Pyrogies for lunch the next dayWe went on a tour of the city, officially this time. Saw lots that I was too glazed to notice before.

This is part of the old city wall.
And this crazy thing sat in front of that gate. I thought this shadow was interesting. The road we took every time we walked towards Market Square. Which was a lot.

One of my favorite things about the city was how all the walls leaned out at the base. Like a Cyprus tree in a southern swamp only made of stone.

This is the big church in Market square, I guess two brothers were each put in charge of building one of the towers, and as boys will do, made it a contest to see who's 'tower' was bigger. When he found out his was shorter, the one brother got so mad that he stabbed the other, and the knife still hangs in the market. odd stuff.

There is also a story of how the Tartars came to conquer the city and were spotted on approach by the valiant watchman in the church tower (the tall one, of course). He raised the alarm on the trumpet but was sadly shot in the throat by an arrow. To this day, on the hour, they play the same tune, cutting it off just as the arrow did. It's a little hokey, but I loved hearing it as I wandered around. I guess this square used to be famous for the amazing flower market, even in Communist times. There wasn't so much when I was there, but it still...

I loved this stained glass, and I guess it is pretty famous.

Much of the tour was of religious stuff. Walked where the pope walked, all that sort of thing. This is a copy of the shroud (I'm so out of the loop on the Catholic thing, but that is supposed to be Jesus's face)

Oh, and since it was a city of churches, it also was quite a city of weddings on Sunday.

Every corner we turned, we ran into another one.This is just a small taste. And we ended at the oldest University in the area. The street life of Krakow was amazing. Every corner had someone playing music or dancing, and the squares were never empty of something crazy. These guys drove around in a flaming fire truck, ramming burning barrels towards the crowd, filling the cab (with them inside) with brilliant flames... it was pretty scary actually. Had my Kielbasa And where else in this world will you run into more monks and nuns on the streets than tourists?