Carthage to Kingston

We left Memphis and Oxford and headed north.  Waaaay north.  To just shy of the Canadian border in a little burg north of Syracuse, NY called Carthage.  It's near Lawville.  And Watertown.  All of which are meaningless unless you're from upstate New York.  It's an interesting place.  Close to the Thousand Islands region, in the Adirondacks, with lovely scenic byways and great fishing.  Oh and an Army base called Fort Drum.

Not much industry of any kind up here, and they are still bemoaning the advent of air conditioning, which ruined the tourist trade up here.  The NYC rich folks would escape the heat of the summer by migrating up here seasonally.  Was that 50 years ago?  100?  Either way, they are holding a grudge for waaaaaay too long.  Oh, and they vote for Trump up here.  Even though every family seems to have members that are either on disability or unemployment for part of each year.  Fascinating.  And it makes me afraid to drink the water:)

Carthage has an Aldi's grocery store, with it's commitment to value and organic produce.  I love that they are here.  And a unique little lunch place called "Bombay Duck Pickle" that is open most Tuesdays to Fridays with some random exceptions, from 11:30 to 2PM.  They have amazing soups.  Usually about five or six offerings, and one, maybe two, lunch specials.  There was a red coconut curry soup, a lemongrass soup, a clam chowder and a green curry chicken special with asian eggplant  the other day.  The couple that runs it came here from the city (New York City) for the lovely views and cheap housing. (I'm making that up, I don't actually know why they are here.)  They groused about the lack of ethnic food offerings (there are a lot of Italian, sub and wing offerings and that's about it) and decided to open their own little shop.

They have seating at 3 tables for 9 people only.  You will share your table if you eat there.  Otherwise, it has a robust take away service.  And they are cash only.  No worries, the nail store next door has an ATM that works at least 60% of the time and two doors down in the other direction is the bank's drive through ATM.  It just sucks going to both in a blizzard, as I did the other day.  The nail salon ATM delivers only $20 at a time.  It broke after I got my first $20.  I then had to go to the bank ATM for a second $20.  The clam chowder and green curry chicken were worth it though!

We watched the grandson for a week so that the kiddos could have a well deserved late honeymoon following the son in law's return from Afghanistan, or Kuwait, or wherever he was this time.  This grandson is now 3 and soooo smart.  It's night and day from six months ago.  So much nicer when he can verbalize his needs!  And what a negotiator!  When his Kindle runs out of battery he says "how bout phone"? and reaches for your phone to watch train videos.  I tell you, he could become a lawyer.
After they had been gone for four days to Toronto, we met them in Kingston, in the Quebec region of Canada.  A delightful town with a great, walkable downtown, cute shops and the nicest people you have ever met.  We found a German place and had Jaegerschnitzel that was remarkably close to the ones we have had in Germany.  We had no trouble crossing the border with the grandson, with his birth certificate and a note from mommy that we were in charge for the week.   There is a Gap store in Kingston, so the daughter was extremely happy, as the one closest to her in the states is over an hour away.  Note to self, the Gap credit card is not accepted in Canada.  They also do not do "Gap cash".

The note from mommy came in handy on day three of watching little man.  He traversed the obstacle course of toys all day long with a play date friend, running in circles through the living room, kitchen and dining room for hours.  Then, after clean up, he turned from the TV to the coffee table, slipped on the one item he had pulled out (a puzzle box) and cracked the bridge of his nose on the sharp edge of the coffee table.  Head wounds bleed.  A lot.  Poppa and Gammy were a bit upset.  I knew it was important to keep him calm, and we got a wet cloth, some ice and stemmed the flow.  Then we Facetimed the mommy and daddy.  Daddy said "HOOOOLY SHIIIIT".  Mommy went a bit white.  We then got to the ER, and by now the grandson was "in the know" and kept his hands off the wound, he is such a smart boy.

He didn't like the dripping sensation, so Gammy patted the drips away as we drove sedately through the small town to the 3 minute away hospital.  Thank goodness for small towns.  We showed our note to the nice ER people, and one hour later, we left with a little boy who had a glued up 1/2" cut on his nose bridge.  Thank goodness, no stitches were needed!  Grandson is a frequent flyer for his respiratory issues this last year and they were super proud of how great he was in the ER.  They said they've had adults who whined more.  Not one tear was shed at the ER.  He got Thomas the Train stickers, so there's that:)

The next day he said his head was all better, no pain at all.  But he cried a bit over something that morning and freaked out from the dripping sensation.  So we patted the tears away and reassured him it was just water this time.

It is beautiful country here, and apparently ice fishing is a thing.  We didn't see any ice fishing until we were past the St. Lawrence waterway though, up in the Thousand Islands region.  Lots of folks out on the ice up there, but near Carthage they were having some unseasonably warm weather.  Most of the snow had melted off or been rained off in the past few days.  We saw kids out in sleeveless shirts and shorts in February.  In upstate New York.  Climate change is real folks.  You usually don't see the ground all winter long.

The kids left again for another four days, this time to Montreal.  They got themselves a night at a spa and daughter had her first massage.  She likes them.  I think they'll go back to Canada whenever they can.  The exchange rate is in our favor right now, and the people were really great, although they said the Toronto people were way friendlier than the Montreal people.

We're going to be heading to NYC in a couple of days, and then onto Paris for our first month of European living, but we have enjoyed this past month with family.

Memphis and Oxford

We left Mexico and spent one bright blue, chilly day in Denver.  It was great to get one more visit in with two of my grown kiddos and we loved seeing Denver's Union Station one final time.  Then it was off to Memphis to help clear out Granny's condo.  Nearly two years after her death, the family had just gotten all the paperwork signed over to allow us access and entry to dispose of her personal belongings.   Another entire book on that matter....

Anyway, we got to see family, celebrate two birthdays and then hang with the grandson for a week.  He has the CUTEST and chubbiest cheeks ever, and is absolutely one of the best and most easy going personalities.  He is a very easy baby.  While we were there, he began taking steps while holding onto the couch, the ottomans, and anyone's fingers.  He turned 9 months old while we were there, and boy what a difference 5 months makes in terms of babies!

We sampled some BBQ, but the real treat was Gus's World Famous fried chicken.  Deliciousness.

Cancun has no snow!

After an epic move, where we literally unloaded our entire lives out into the world and kept only a backpack and a suitcases apiece, we took a much needed beach trip to Cancun.  It's so far east it is in the eastern time zone, and is a mere 3 hours from Havana, Cuba.  They used to run a ferry but it's not currently running.

We had decided to see "how low can we go" as it relates to Airbnb housing.  We found one for $25 nightly, with all fees it was $30/night.  The pictures were spot on, and I realized I had not paid attention to the kitchen area very well.  It had two single, plug in burners, one small refrigerator, one 6" fry pan and one small single quart pot with no lid on it.

The shower had hot water and strong water pressure, unlike the kitchen sink, which had neither:)  However, the foam mattresses, each on it's own twin frame, were comfortable to me, but did not provide enough support for the hubs, who weighs in at just over 300 pounds.  Fortunately there was a third twin mattress propped behind the head of the bed and serving as a kind of headboard.  We discovered it by accident after pulling the blankets off of it.  We were congratulating ourselves about this find and moving it into place when a blur zipped past us on the white wall behind that mattress.  The hubs screamed like a little girl.

It was a small lizard.  "House lizards" we used to call them in Tucson.  It eats the ants.  The hubs claims it was not doing it's job well, because the little ants were everywhere.  We were only 10 minutes from the Walmart, and our first visit there netted us some cinnamon for the ants, two potholders, and a twin air mattress that did not work out very well.  We left it all in the apartment.  We also found another lizard in the kitchen cabinet and again, the hubs did the honors and screamed like a little girl:)

There were no electronics.  Not a wall clock, not an alarm clock, not a single piece of art, and no TV.  There was, however, some decent WiFi.  All we need.  We were able to stream any TV we wanted and to work a diligent four hour work day for the 11 days we were there.  The metro bus terminal was a 10 minute walk.  The bus ride to the beach was 10 to 20 minutes.  And the beaches were amazing.  Beautiful white sandy beaches and turquoise, warm water.  We swam four times and managed to come home without a sunburn.

Friends who had won an award trip were staying for four days at the Ritz Carlton.  Going from our small studio apartment into the extravagant and outrageously decorated Ritz was startling.  The wealth management folks who were there for a conference were 95% Trump fans.  We had a lively conversation with the four of us about the election, the financial markets and Trump in general.  It was interesting to review our friend's notes on why they (wealth management folks) all liked Trump even though there were many who professed concerns about him as well.

Our favorite day was when we found a patio on the beach with a big canopy overhead, so we could sit near the sand and listen to the waves and not worry about the on again, off again spritzes of rain that fell that day.  It was close enough to the Hard Rock that we could hear the wonderful music playing without being blasted away by it.  It actually was a nice background sound for working.  I actually had my computer out, was using my hot spot for WiFi, and I did a full candidate interview with that gorgeous view.  "Rent" for the day was to order food and drinks for the four hours we sat there, which was not a problem.

There was a small hotel frequented by Mexican vacationers near our apartment in downtown Cancun.  We booked a Chichen Itza Mayan tour through them and went to see the Mayan pyramid and learn about their culture from a wonderful tour guide.  They still speak the language down there in the Yucatan and the connection to the cosmos and spirituality are still practiced, at least in front of the paying tourists.  On solstice days more than 25,000 people pack the square to view the "snake" that lowers and climbs the edge of the pyramid.  The bus had horrible seats and it was a 3.5 hour drive each way.  Next time, we will drive ourselves, or just do the temple.  You can no longer climb the 92 steps up, and it can get to 120 degrees there in the summer.  It was hot enough in late January for me at a balmy 84 degrees.

We loved the neighborhood we were in, and it was a very nice, quiet residential area.  Once a day, though, some bleating animal would go off.  The first few days I would question, is it a goat?  A sheep, a bird of some kind?  As it turned out, it was two legged.  A water boy would come by daily to offer AAAAGGGGUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAHHHH.  Agua.  Water.  In Mexico the house water is treated to a particular cleanliness.  Drinking water served separately unless you have a house water filter.  We made it a point to pick up liters of water each time we passed the small convenience store three minutes from our house.  The ATM was across the street from that, and we were again, in a really great little neighborhood.  Now that we had identified the animal noise, we felt like locals.  Three days in.

One day we took an adventure, riding the bus that passed our street until we reached the heart of downtown.  We were pros already at getting to the R1 to the Hotel Zone and beaches.  This was a new route.  Hubs referred to the area we landed in as "Cancun's Times Square".  There were hundreds of walking folks, shops and food stalls and within a minute, I smelled Tamales!  Tamales!  I love them.  So we found the woman selling them and bought four of them.  Two were enough for dinner, we saved the others until the morning we left, then had them again for breakfast.  So delicious.  We were far enough south that they were using banana leaves to wrap them, not corn husks.  The masa was wonderful and the tomato based sauce on the side had a searing yellow blast of habeñero.

Walking to the main highway that the R1 bus used, we discovered Parque Las Palapas.  It was a permanent fixture, with cement stools and round tables with umbrellas, all brightly colored.  Those were surrounded by food stalls, small shops and kiosks.  There were also about 30 different Power Wheel cars for kids to ride on the cement of what could also be used for seating in front of the main outdoor stage.  Each night had live music as well.  One night there were ten or so small art easels set up and a bunch of children were painting their favorite cartoon characters.  There was a jumping castle for the kids and a small playground.  We wish we'd eaten there earlier, the food was marvelous and so, so cheap!  Our first night at the Parque we got dinner for $3.  For BOTH OF US!  And it was tasty and delicious.

Next to that we found a small patio lounge that had beers 2/50 pesos.  About the cheapest we saw for beer ever was 35 pesos, or about 1.75 apiece.  So this was about $1 per beer.  Having our laundry done for us was about $3.50 a load.  Washed and folded.  The internet went down on day three, and our host had a tech out the next day.  It went down again on day 10 at the end of the day and we left the following morning.  That's something that happens regularly there we hear, but other than that, all the comforts of home at 1/10th of the price.

We loved the local ambience, the beautiful beaches, the terrific Ceviche and seafood and the friendly locals.  We will definitely visit again.