Our recent trip
Our recent trip was in three distinct parts. First we flew to San Francisco and stayed with our son Simon and his wife Sharon and our beautiful granddaughter Shoshana (photo) at their home in Livermore. We spent a few days recovering from the 15 hr flight and lazing in the pool and then went out to a few places, one where we played Bacche, the Italian ball game, while munching on some Italian delicacies.
We spent a few days in San Francisco seeing some new things. We visited the Contemporary Jewish Museum (photo; that I wrote about separately) and a wonderful exhibit of Chihuli's glass sculptures (photo) at the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Then we went back to Livermore for a special barmitzvah in a new hall in a vinyard.
We then flew to Vancouver and before joining our group going on the Rocky Mountaineer train, we toured the city and visited Stanley Park, where we went to the Aquarium and saw the new baby beluga whale. The next morning we were picked up by a coach and taken to the train. It was a great experience to be in the "bubble car," the transparent topped coach that allowed a 360 degree view of the scenery (photo). We also had the experience of dining in the dining room on the floor below, where the gourmet food was delicious. This train is the only one I've ever been on that slows down for scenic views such as water falls.
At first the train followed the Fraser River through lush green hills and canyons of British Columbia. At Kamloops the scenery changed to a desert since the rain from the coast does not reach that far. From Kamloops some people went by train to Banff, but we continued north to Jasper, Alberta. As we proceeded the scenery became more dramatic and eventually was Alpine, with high, stark mountain peaks with ice and snow and tall fir trees. Unfortunately a small insect has attacked many of the trees and when they have died they become red. In some cases whole mountain sides were covered with these red trees, an amazing sight.
From Jasper we detrained and went by coach down the magnificent Icefields Parkway that runs in the valley thru mountain peaks (photo) to the Athabasca glacier near the Columbia ice field. This was discovered about 120 years ago and water from this ice field feeds rivers that run in each direction, north to the Arctic Ocean, west to the Pacific and east to the Atlantic. We went up on the glacier in specially built buses with huge deflated tires to avoid causing damage to the ice (photo). It was very cold there even in August.
We spent a night at the chateau at Lake Louise, one of the most beautiful lakes we saw on the trip. We then stopped in Banff and on the second morning there it snowed 6 inches (12 cm), what a surprise. And it was cold and snowy when we went on the cable car 2000 ft up the mountain. Couldn't see anything, but the trees were beautiful (photo).
Then we flew from Calgary to Washington DC and with a rental car drove to Bethesda, along a route that is engraved in my memory. We stayed in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the center of Bethesda on a special deal thru the internet that was nearly half price. We had a wonderful time visiting with old friends and former students. We also visited the Museum of the American Indian that is on the Mall in Washington (photo). It is about 2 years old, and is quite impressive architecturally, and has a very unique restaurant serving native American-style cuisine. However we were disappointed in this museum because it avoids completely a historical approach (perhaps too conventional), but focuses instead on the particular social practices and beliefs of the myriad of distinct Indian tribes (by the way if they can use "Indian" so can I). We had a beautiful Apache woman guide who was very adept at avoiding any controversial questions.
The highlight of this part of the visit was my 70th birthday party in a nice restaurant in Bethesda (photos). It was festooned with blue and white ballons and we had a wonderful meal with great wine and even a champagne toast. We are grateful to my friend Frank Portugal for helping to organize this party, and to Ilene Jacobowitz who invited us to a lovely Firday night dinner as well as other get-togethers. We were also surprised by our friends the Isaacson's driving 500 miles from Vermont to be with us. What a great visit!
We spent a few days in San Francisco seeing some new things. We visited the Contemporary Jewish Museum (photo; that I wrote about separately) and a wonderful exhibit of Chihuli's glass sculptures (photo) at the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Then we went back to Livermore for a special barmitzvah in a new hall in a vinyard.
We then flew to Vancouver and before joining our group going on the Rocky Mountaineer train, we toured the city and visited Stanley Park, where we went to the Aquarium and saw the new baby beluga whale. The next morning we were picked up by a coach and taken to the train. It was a great experience to be in the "bubble car," the transparent topped coach that allowed a 360 degree view of the scenery (photo). We also had the experience of dining in the dining room on the floor below, where the gourmet food was delicious. This train is the only one I've ever been on that slows down for scenic views such as water falls.
At first the train followed the Fraser River through lush green hills and canyons of British Columbia. At Kamloops the scenery changed to a desert since the rain from the coast does not reach that far. From Kamloops some people went by train to Banff, but we continued north to Jasper, Alberta. As we proceeded the scenery became more dramatic and eventually was Alpine, with high, stark mountain peaks with ice and snow and tall fir trees. Unfortunately a small insect has attacked many of the trees and when they have died they become red. In some cases whole mountain sides were covered with these red trees, an amazing sight.
From Jasper we detrained and went by coach down the magnificent Icefields Parkway that runs in the valley thru mountain peaks (photo) to the Athabasca glacier near the Columbia ice field. This was discovered about 120 years ago and water from this ice field feeds rivers that run in each direction, north to the Arctic Ocean, west to the Pacific and east to the Atlantic. We went up on the glacier in specially built buses with huge deflated tires to avoid causing damage to the ice (photo). It was very cold there even in August.
We spent a night at the chateau at Lake Louise, one of the most beautiful lakes we saw on the trip. We then stopped in Banff and on the second morning there it snowed 6 inches (12 cm), what a surprise. And it was cold and snowy when we went on the cable car 2000 ft up the mountain. Couldn't see anything, but the trees were beautiful (photo).
Then we flew from Calgary to Washington DC and with a rental car drove to Bethesda, along a route that is engraved in my memory. We stayed in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the center of Bethesda on a special deal thru the internet that was nearly half price. We had a wonderful time visiting with old friends and former students. We also visited the Museum of the American Indian that is on the Mall in Washington (photo). It is about 2 years old, and is quite impressive architecturally, and has a very unique restaurant serving native American-style cuisine. However we were disappointed in this museum because it avoids completely a historical approach (perhaps too conventional), but focuses instead on the particular social practices and beliefs of the myriad of distinct Indian tribes (by the way if they can use "Indian" so can I). We had a beautiful Apache woman guide who was very adept at avoiding any controversial questions.
The highlight of this part of the visit was my 70th birthday party in a nice restaurant in Bethesda (photos). It was festooned with blue and white ballons and we had a wonderful meal with great wine and even a champagne toast. We are grateful to my friend Frank Portugal for helping to organize this party, and to Ilene Jacobowitz who invited us to a lovely Firday night dinner as well as other get-togethers. We were also surprised by our friends the Isaacson's driving 500 miles from Vermont to be with us. What a great visit!
posted by Jack Cohen at 12:13 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home