Halperin & Christ

we had a wonderful last day even though we got kicked out of our house (those darn michiganders again) because of a misunderstanding of timing….oh well.

a big “clean out the refrigerator” breakfast was enjoyed by all. we all packed and left at about the same time…ned and rose to new orleans, ruben, beth and kids to the gulfport airport and us to a last minute detail at shirleys and lunch with the gang at the gccds. they made us a fabulous meal with salads, bruschetta, chicken, galette, fresh fruit and sorbet and we discussed the gulf coast, volunteer groups, planning issues, millenials, not having work, the slower pace, hot weather, etc.  we had a great time and have definitely been enticed to come again….perhaps in the spring next time.

after lunch eric golfed and fran hung out at judy’s with the cousins. we had our first rain and thunder storm. short but intense. it turned out to be a good thing getting kicked out of the house, more time with the cousins.

we are back now, at least fran is, eric is off on the next building adventure in bloomington indiana.

until next blog………………….goodbye and thanks for reading!

we decided to make use out of all those pesky surface bullnose tiles we had previously been trimming. baseboard!

the new baseboard gives the bathrooms a much more finished look.

much was achieved today: all the windows are jambed and most are trimmed, both bathroom floors are glued down, the blue one is grouted, all bathroom baseboard has been glued and eric started on the kitchen paneling trim.

the green accent tiles for the kitchen floor have been delayed until tomorrow morning.

laura left last night and barb left this morning. we miss them!!!!!

nelda and jane arrived this afternoon. they will join us at the job site with the cousins tomorrow to start painting trim.

it was still very hot!

after a slow frustrating start to the day where we were introduced to non-profit bureaucracy and idiotic red tape we perservered, found the key to the back door of the supply warehouse and got us some tiles to begin our day.

fran  propositioned a guy (Guy) in the lowes parking lot and the guy (Guy) had a truck and delivered our 5 sheets of hardi backer to the job site. way to go guy (Guy), way to go Fran.

hardi backer down, (thanks eric) the tile babes (barb, laura, fran, francie, juliet, steph and rachel) ruled and layed the floor on down……it is………….a thing of beauty, which of course as we all know, is a joy forever. 

lunch today was provided by shirley…..mississippi style gumbo and rice….yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (it seems as though shirley is happy with the floor)

eric and greg continued jamming on the jambs and started trimming the windows.

it was, as you weather watchers may know, record heat today, 95 but it felt like 110!

we bid adieu to jeannie and mike, steph, jeff and rachel and welcomed into our midst ned and rose, ruben, beth, abby, emilio, avi and colton.

ned and rose shopped but didn’t drop and are fixing us a fabulous dinner.

we are plum tuckered out!

yesterday somebody had a birthday….she’s now 30!

the event was celebrated at world famous commander’s palace where a good time was had by all.

fran propositioned a guy (lorenzo our waiter) but he didn’t jump to the bait.

we ate shrimps bbq’d louisiana style, a great salad and pecan pie with caramel sauce and chocolate ganache…..and serenaded by a dixieland trio……

denise’s luggage arrived after traveling through, atlanta, new orleans, salt lake city, anchorage, los angeles, san francisco………well traveled luggage.

we all enjoyed the 95 degree weather and grocery store prices today.

juliet snacked on tomatoes at the farmer’s market while we selected fresh watermelons, squash, corn, hicama, honey and all sorts of other fabulous goodies.  at the farmer’s market it was noted that we weren’t from biloxi.

denise and mac fished for four hours….no fish but over 20 bites and a good time was had by all.

the tile floor was partially laid out, shirley came, approved the design and was very grateful and touched that we were helping her. she brought pictures to show us what the katrina damage looked like. rather sobering.

we had a wonderful gulfport dinner, peel and eat shrimp, corn on the cob and jambolaya style rice.

we visited patty at the end of the day. she has had all her concrete columns painted and they look fabulous!

two groups of guests arrived today, jeannie and mike in the afternoon and francie and denise in the evening. francie and denise came with their kids juliet and mac. it’s starting to feel like an event here. we had our first big dinner, ratatouille, made from all the wonderful vegetables we bought at the biloxi farmer’s market.

we purchased tiles for shirley’s house in biloxi today and procured a tilesaw from two young men with hopeforce who have been in biloxi working for free for the last several years. tomorrow we should be ready to start on the mosaic project. shirley seemed to like the design and was very happy that the colors matched some of the fabrics she already has.

it’s very hot……hot and humid. the weather announcement says 92 degrees but it feels like 97. something to do with that unrelenting humidity. it does do wonders to the skin though. quite a different temperature than when we were here last. the beach is lovely though and the balmy breezes at night are a pleasure.

we made it to biloxi….gulfport that is. actually, the two are joined into one big long city that runs parallel to the gulf coast.

all very uneventful….we were pretty bleary from waking up at 4 am to take a 6 am flight.  the plane from houston to gulfport is tiny. you would feel rather claustrophobic if you were much taller than 6′.

our house is fabulous, one block from the beach and we have been serenaded all evening by the marriott hotel rock band! a major step up from the shrimp shack!

it’s definitely not marin. the grocery clerk at rouses supermarket decimated a forest of plastic trees just to bag our cart of groceries. there was no stopping her, she was on autopilot. not a consumer provided bag in site………….and the beach…….litter strewn along the gorgeous sugar sands. hard to believe people leave trash behind at a spot they obviously enjoy.  evening at the beach was still really lovely, long expanses of sand, very shallow water and a balmy evening breeze. the day on the other hand was hot! 90 plus degrees!  we’ll definitely be working early.

driving through gulfport it is once again shocking to notice what is not there: concrete slabs with no houses sitting on them, big gaps between homes in what used to be a dense suburban setting, crumbled downtown buildings, bits and pieces of what once must have been a lovely town.

we’re looking forward to meeeting up once again with our friends from the Gulf Coast Community Design Center to see what they have in store for us. we’ll keep you posted.

home sweet home. we are back….hard to believe but here we are. hank was greeted by another cream colored vw parked right in front of our house! made him happy.

those stalkers, barb and david are with us again! we can’t seem to shake them. every time we want to go wine tasting there they are.

seriously speaking, we thought it would be a poetic or at least a symmetrical end to travels with hank if we went wine tasting with barb and david at the end of our trip just like we started. they kindly obliged. (actually it was their idea and we jumped on it.)

so here we are in paso robles drowning our return from sabbatical sorrows with zinfandel, tempranillo, syrah, and any other potable local product.

the wine country here is absolute gorgeous, in fact our whole drive up the coast (starting in baja) has been lined with all colors of wildflowers. the last day was dominated by yellow mustard, purple lupen and orange poppies. the wineries are tucked into rolling hills covered with old oaks and linked by beautiful vistas of greenery in all directions.

we left fran’s mom after a relaxing stay of about 10 days. eric finished up a very short “honey do” list, while fran caught up with old family friends.  a quick one night stop over at the state beach in carpinteria ($35/night, yikes!!) for old times sake.  we did eat at the palms, with many remembrences of amor, even took the baked potato for breakfast the next day. we observed the seals for quite awhile, all they do is bask in the sun, swim and flop about. what a life!

after carpinteria we drove up to pismo beach and walked along the water enjoying the sunny weather and watching the world go by. many people were out and about, walking, surfing, skimboarding, making out and engaging in other beach activities.

we ate the obligatory fried clams, cruised the down town and headed further north to join our friends. we found them in a downtown winetasting store. (quel surprise!)

that evening we had tasty thai food and spent the later hours playing pool, singing karaoke (wide open spaces by the dixie chicks) and blending into the local flora and fauna. (we didn’t blend that well but eric’s excellent pool playing made up for any discrepancies.)

today we made the winery rounds till we could drink no more. we topped the day off with a fabulous dinner at artisan restaurant.  still on sabbatical……

For the last two mornings we were awakened by an incredible racket of bird calls. First at punta arena, a deserted beach on bahia conception and then this morning on  a lovely lagoon, right near the city of san Ignacio. We have turned into major bird watchers but unfortunately we don’t have our friend laura here to identify what we are looking at.

Today we know it is mostly coots, some egrets and some other kind of diving bird that swims so low and goes so far underwater that everytime he (she?) has to come up he takes about 10 minutes to air and dry off his wings. It is a regular nature channel here. We have sat mesmerized for hours this morning watching the activity.

At punta arena it was mostly gulls. They swooped and dove and fished and seemed to be having a grand old time. The beach was beautiful, quiet and still, just a row of palapa houses with a small community of gringos and nothing else. We would have stayed longer if there was water to be had, unfortunately we were ill equipped and had only enough to cook and do our dishes.

We were visited in the morning though by the vegetable salesman from mulege and then another trio who were not only selling veggies but eggs, tortillas, empanadas and tamales. We availed ourselves of all of the above and munched on pineapple empanadas for breakfast and chicken tamales, fresh carrots and radishes for lunch. Last night we used the fabulous chard for a frittata as well as a bunch of vegetables for a crunchy salad. The vegetables here taste so sweet and fresh, nothing like what you buy at whole foods or any other market for that matter. Certainly not what we purchased at the mega in cabo!

We drove through some very barren, curvy and steep roads to get to san Ignacio which is a small oasis in the middle of a dry desert. There is a lagoon here with date palms and a lovely mission and zocolo in town. We had planned to stop over the night but like it so much we are staying another evening particularly because there is some kind of fair in town tonight.

2.25.08 Playa tesoro, la paz

we finally found it! the perfect beach, a quiet cove, a group of palapas with tables and chairs to protect you from the sun, a lovely restaurant that serves fabulous drinks and seafood, and no behemoths! not a single one. in fact we are the only campers and they are charging us $50 pesos a night (+/-$5.00 usd). it’s not really a campground but there are flush toilets, a sink and plenty of parking. this is what we imagined baja to be. we had shrimp cocktail, guacamole and chips (not as good as barb’s) and fruity drinks (margarita for eric, pina colada for fran) as we watched the sun go down. the last of the tourists had left so we were the only ones in the open air restaurant besides the waiters and cooks. right now their children are playing soccer by the light of the car beams. we can finally hear the lap of the water as the parade of trucks coming from the nearby port has ceased.¬† we are so happy to be away from the r.v.er’s. not that they aren’t friendly, but somehow that was not how we imagined camping to be. something about microwaving your premade frozen dinners takes the romance out of the whole camping experience. maybe we are old fashioned. apparently we are un-american.

2.26.08¬† el tesoro, la paz: not as restful as we might have imagined. ferrel dogs kept up a constant cacophonious concerto of bothersome barking all night long. let’s just say the intermissions lasted not more than 15 minutes and there were damned few of those. when they finally called a halt to the concert (just after dawn) a busload of local middleschoolers jubilantly arrived. it was time for us to move on.¬†

2.27.08 cabo san lucas: after a luscious night of delicious slumber at our friend coleen’s lovely abode. she prepared a typically wonderful coleen meal last night and presented us with latte’s this morning. we had a relaxing day at the beach, watching for whales (of which we saw many) and lazing in the sun. more of the same tomorrow….