Two Peak Experiences

Paul and I drove up to Mammoth, leaving Peter (who hates the 300-mile drive) with the cats, who also wisely prefer to remain home. We stayed at our favorite condo, and then at the May Lake back country High Sierra Camp with our old hiking friend Mike. Then on Thursday we drove back down for the Saturday performance of my play "You are Passionate, Jane" in Pasadena - pretty fast turnaround time!   Here are pictures from both experiences, peak moments, wildly contrasting...

 

Two literary Angels:  Me as Charlotte Bronte and Syrie James as Jane Austen in my play, "You are Passionate, Jane"

Another peak...on the Saddlebag Lakes trail in Tioga Pass, 10,000 feet, very exalting

 

 

Our first hike was to Gardisky Lake in Tioga Pass, 10,000 feet with a 1,000 foot elevation gain in a little over a mile - gorgeous, but rather a misery to my knee, which objected!

 

Paul and Mike at the lake. Not an easy hike, even for people without knees!

 

 

Me at the lake.  Well, it was worth it. 

 

I really just went up there to see the purple gentians.

 

And white striped gentians, too.

 

Next hike was to May Lake, which is inside Yosemite.  We climbed above the lake.

 

We climbed to lovely Hoffman meadow, but did not scale the peak of Mt. Hoffman, above.  That'll be the day!

 

 

Descending back down to May Lake, we could see the High Sierra Camp.

 

 

Paul at May Lake...the most peaceful place.

 

 

The dinner cabin at May Lake.  There's unfortunately a hantavirus outbreak in Yosemite, apparently from mice at Camp Curry, so they're taking precautions at the High Sierra Camps too, spraying the tent cabins with antiseptics and pesticides daily.

 

 

Me relaxing at May Lake

 

 

Campfire at night

 

 

Morning sunshine on the lake 

 

 

Morning reflections

 

 

After the 350-mile drive back from Yosemite - emoting onstage!

 

 

Syrie and me after the play - relaxed and relieved!

 

 

A sunflower at Lee Vining, near Mammoth

 

 

Acting Up in Seattle

I've written about the experience of writing and acting in one's own play and the exhilarating feeling that comes when the audience laughs (not at you, but well, you know what I mean).  That post is on the Austen Authors blog, www.austenauthors.com  But I thought that here I'd give a picture of the whole visit, when Syrie James and I flew up to Seattle to play Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte in my playlet, "You are Passionate, Jane."

Me and Syrie as Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen in "You are Passionate, Jane"

(photo by Sallie Tierney)

The play takes place in Heaven, where Jane is the Literary Gatekeeper, and I cast the divine Syrie who keeps my Charlotte writhing in suspense to see if she "ascends" or not.  It was enormous fun: the performance, the relief that it went so well, and the royal way we were entertained by our JASNA Puget Sound region friends!  So, here is my diary...

Friday, Aug 10 2012

Trip started on a fraught note, as I didn't finish my work manuscript till 3 AM and I had to get up at 5 to make the 7:20 AM (yes, AM) flight.  So, with an hour and a half of sleep, and hating flying at the best of times, I felt pretty ragged.  Luckily kind neighbor Pam drove me to the airport, and the flight was a smooth two hours over pretty mountains.  On arrival, I waited listening to awful Princess Cruises greeters herd their victims, but my hostess Laurel Ann Nattress (of premier Jane Austen blog Austenprose fame) met me and we collected Syrie.  Then we drove straight to the Queen Mary Teahouse, which is just what it sounds like and what it ought to be:  a cunningly English enclave bursting with pretty china, scones, cakes, sandwiches, and flowing with tea.  We were joined by two other Austen Authors, Shannon Winslow and Susan Mason-Milks, whom I knew online but now happily know in person.

Shannon Winslow, Laurel Ann Nattress, Syrie James, Diana, Susan Mason-Milks

Then we drove to Laurel Ann's lovely country cottage in Snohomish.  Lovely sunny day, green countryside farmland, her cottage so English and pretty, with the exquisite English garden she made... lobelias, hollyhocks, foxgloves, roses to perfection.  After enjoying rapturous breathfuls we repaired to an English pub to dine with members of the JASNA-Puget Sound group, Marian, Ken, Charlene and Julie.  Lovely folks, delicious steak pasty and spinach salad - but I was falling asleep at the table, so they drove me to Julie's pretty condo in Redmond where I was to sleep, er, crash.  Delighted to make the acquaintance of her handsome boy cat Byron, an English shorthair in a trim cat suit of grey with orange eyes. 

Syrie and Laurel Ann at the cottage

In the garden

Saturday.  Slept like the dead, then woke up and had a cappuccino at a coffeehouse across the way called Tully's like my cat. Then we drove to Laurel Ann's, and all four of us went to Snohomish, a veritable village of antiques stores, never seen anything like it outside England and went a little bit crazy! We had lunch in a pretty place with especially good scones and homemade raspberry jam; also a Dungeness crab omelette.  Then shopping until dropping:  I bought a Venetian bag, Limoges earrings, a Carnival glass bowl and Shawnee porcelain gold vase.  Syrie bought a lace shawl and beaded reticle, and Julie got the most amazing vintage shoes like a cyclamen flame.

Scones and crab with Syrie, Laurel Ann, Julie

Serious Shopping in Snohomish

Painting "Naughty Kitties" by Licinio Barzanti (1857-1944). 

They want $8250 for it, which I thought nuts until I looked him up online.  It's cheap!

On the way back we stopped at a fruit stand and picked up fresh corn and blackberries. Laurel Ann and Julie then proceeded to bake the most gorgeous blackberry pie! Dinner was salmon, corn, quinoa, salad, pie and ice cream. First course enjoyed outdoors, but finished the rest inside. Then back to Julie's to sleep.

Dinner outdoors...

...and in

Beautiful Blackberry Pie

Sunday.  Day of the play.  We drove to the venue on Mercer Island, and I changed into my costume. Syrie and I primped and prepared, while mixing a bit with the arriving group members.  Then we were introduced and went up to the "set" of chairs and our props on a little table, and launched into it.  Didn't use microphones, but it all went well:  audience laughed a lot!  Syrie was magnificent, the very airy, grand, whimsical, authoritative and tart Jane Austen in Heaven; all I had to do as Charlotte Bronte was to react against her with tears, rage and resentment, until...well, I won't give it away, but it was fun to be crowned!  Afterwards a short Q & A, and then we sort of collapsed and ate sandwiches and chatted with fellow Janeites.  Susan from the Piffle group came to see me, and so did Sallie the Byronist, and we chatted happily. Then dinner at an excellent Chinese restaurant with Syrie, Laurel Ann, Julie and Susan. 

Charlotte and Jane

Syrie and me after the play

Monday.  Our hike.  We drove to the cottage, and then went on a walk to the Snohomish River, three miles round trip.  Rather a sultry day, so we were glad to sit on the turfy green grass under trees and have a picnic.

Hikers:  Syrie, Laurel Ann, Julie and me

By the Snohomish River

 Later we went back to Laurel Ann's and had a repeat of our first dinner there, which was perfect, as it could not be surpassed!  The only variation to the salmon and fresh corn was that there was fresh asparagus too, and as we'd finished the pie we had fresh Rainier cherries and chocolate digestives instead.  Syrie and I then fast-forwarded through the Emma Thompson Sense and Sensibility to get a bead on "our" characters in "Austen Assizes," the play we've co-authored for the Brooklyn JASNA AGM in October.  Imogen Stubbs played Lucy (we really noticed the expressive usage of her sly eyes), and Harriet Walter was Fanny Dashwood (made me realize I really am going to have to dress up more...). Then back to Julie's house and a final frolic with my darling new friend Byron before bed, and flying home Tuesday morning...
 

The Boy Byron.  A very fine cat indeed, though possibly the poet is sunk in the athlete.

Coming home with me in my suitcase, Byron?

Alaskan Adventure, Part Two: Kayaks, Birds, and Otters

Have you ever been kayaking?  This was my second time (first was on our 2006 Alaska trip) and I adore it.  I feared I might have grown too old or creaky in the intervening six years, but no such thing!  So here I share the experience, so you can enjoy an armchair kayak (guaranteed dry).

Peter slept in, enjoying the peace at the Good Karma, but Denise and I went.  You book a kayak (or halibut boat, or bear flight) excursion on the Homer Spit, that finger of land that juts out from Homer into Kachemak Bay.  It's the tourist center of town, and very attractive (below).  At the appointed time you show up at the charter office, and they take you on a fast boat across Kachemak Bay, where you get rigged up with kayak gear and insert yourself into the kayak.

Homer Spit

Our guide was a young woman named Kim, in her own kayak, and there were three other young women in their 20s, one in a single kayak, two in a double.  Denise and I were the elders in a double kayak, but we actually were pretty darn fast kayakers - Denise is a whiz!  So it was a group of all women, and there was something very enjoyable about that.  Now, here we go:  the paddling begins!

We paddled past lots of little islands.

Then we approached Gull Island, bird central.

Every few minutes an eagle alights on Gull Island, and thousands of birds lift into the sky, all screaming in alarm!  It's bedlam.  Killewakes, guillemots, murre, and more.

These are murre, a kind of Alaskan small penguin.

One of us taking pictures.

Here's an eagle, that which all the other birds fear.  And with reason.  We saw one lift a murre into his talons and fly off!  Even the guide said she'd never seen that before.  Of course it happened too fast to get a picture, but it's engraved grandly and horrifically in my mind's eye.

Denise and me, the Music and Art kayak girls

It's fun!

Landing on an island beach for a break and some beachcombing.  Kim was a naturalist and could tell us the names of shells and flowers, which was lovely.

Me and a piece of driftwood.  The life jacket and kayaking skirt aren't flattering!

A sea flower - don't know the name, but Kim said the middle bit is all mites.

A personable, though possibly dead, crab

After the kayaking adventure, we returned to Homer, parted with Denise, and left the Good Karma, to continue on our journey.  A few miles outside Homer is the little Russian village of Ninilchik.  I stopped to take a picture of the church, and the lovely Inuit Russian Orthodox minister was just coming out.

Here's the inside of the church.

A couple of hours later we reached Seward.  We stayed at the yummily named Salmon Bake, where there are cabins and the lovely old-fashioned Exit Glacier Lodge right by the restaurant.  Our room was in the lodge, and of course we had a delicious salmon dinner.

We decided to stay another night in Seward and moved to the Seward Hotel, another wonderful old-fashioned place that we liked very much, near the waterfront.  We booked a nine hour wildlife and glacier cruise in the Kenai Fjords for the next day.

The weather, however, though it produced some spectacular effects, was not conducive!

But the boat set out nevertheless, and we saw a good deal of wildlife...birds, sea lions, whales, and otters. 

Took quite a few shots of this funny little fellow, whom we thought resembled our weirdest cat, Catullus.

This is my one whale picture, of a whale tail (above).  Pathetic, I know.  But the things do not hold still.

Peter on the deck of The Explorer.

Peter and me.  The long and winding road, and what our travels are all about.

We would love to have this cabin!  The rain is evident in the picture, and it was more than rain, it was choppy seas that were making people sick.  The captain made the call to turn back, so the 9 hour cruise was only 4 hours.  We did not repine; he made the right decision, and we'd seen a lot.  The Kenai Fjords company gave us a good refund, too.

We'd done this same cruise six years ago, so we've seen the glaciers, but we decided to finish the day by getting up close to one.  So we climbed the Exit Glacier Trail, outside Seward, to the edge of this glacier, doing about a 4-mile round trip hike.  Peter hiked like a champion, outpacing me; he hasn't been able to hike this well in at least ten years!  So we ended the trip on a joyful note.

Peter says goodbye to his familiar, a musk ox in the lobby of the Seward Hotel.

Then we drove back to Anchorage, for a fine seafood dinner and to buy halibut to take home.  Which we did.