FOR ALEXIS: MRS. EVERYTHING

Our daughters don't know -- what it was like growing up female in the 50s and 60s, and just how limited our options were. They think they do, but not really. To tell you the truth, I didn't fully understand myself, until I read this book, just how much things changed between the years when each of my sisters and I graduated from high school, in '64, '67 and '71.

I didn't get why the oldest felt her options were so much more limited than mine ..why all she wanted was to get married and have babies...why my middle sister switched her major from accounting to teaching, because that would be easier when she had kids...why I told my mom midway through college, after taking an abnormal psych class, that I didn't think I even wanted to have any kids, and aimed instead for a glamorous career as a buyer for Neiman Marcus, and to travel the world. Oddly enough, much like the two sisters in this book, we somehow switched paths along the way. They both ended up with the glamorous careers, while I opted to be the stay-at-home mom! But, at least it was by choice.

Our daughters though, they really have no clue why we fought so hard just to have the right to choose, and for equal rights and equal pay, and to have control over our own bodies. They never had the humiliation of walking into a store to purchase a washing machine, only to have the condescending old salesman suggest that I should come back later and bring my husband, to help me make such an important decision. My reply? "Why? It's not like he ever uses one of these things!" Lest you think poorly of him, he does do all his own laundry now, but that was a different day and age.

I used to think we had made great progress and that much had changed. Now, I'm not so sure. Which is why I'm hoping my daughter will read this book, then share it with all her friends -- so they can see for themselves just how far we have come, and just how much they stand to lose, if they don't actively participate in the decision-making process!

LONG TIME NO SEE!

Gee! Guess it's been a while since I posted, huh? Perhaps I should have warned you that we were headed up north to visit Hubby's family in Ohio. However, before we left, he had a little surprise for me. First we drove over to San Antonio and checked into Hotel Valencia -- the same one we stayed in when I won that amazing mega-prize-trip to San Antonio a few years back. They've remodeled since then, and it's even better now! Once we were checked in and spiffed up, we walked a few doors down to a little cafe, midway between our hotel and the infamous Majestic Theater, where John had made dinner reservations. I thought the name sounded familiar, but it wasn't until I headed to the ladies room and saw a framed sketch that I realized this was the same Bella Cafe with the cute little awning that used to be down on the Riverwalk. We tried to go there several times with our best buddies Paula and Tim, but they were always either closed or full. Now they are catering to the theater crowd, and offer a wonderful prix fixe menu on show nights.

From there it was just another block or so down to our ultimate destination, where one of my very favorite bands from our college days happened to be playing. But, even if that band hadn't been playing, it would have been worth the trip just to see the inside of this amazing theater -- a relic of bygone days. One thing we love most about San Antonio is that they seem to lean more towards preserving and protecting their lovely architecture, while Austin has a tendency to raze and replace!

When is the last time you rode in an elevator with an elevator operator in it?

To tell you the truth, when John told me who we were going to see, I was a bit shocked. I didn't even know they were still alive, much less touring!

So, imagine my surprise when the performance was actually so good that it got an audience full of people my age and older (and quite a few young ones too) up out of their seats, singing along and waving their iphone lighters in the air!

Best of all, once the concert was over, we only had a five minute walk back to our hotel, where we got a good night's sleep, a delicious breakfast, then had a very short drive to the airport and our flight out to Ohio!

Does it get any better?

CASTLES IN THE AIR

On our last day in Lisbon, before moving on to Porto, we took a little side trip to the town of Sintra -- "a fairytale romantic city of castles, monuments, and palatial estates." Our first stop was the ruins of a mountaintop fortress built by the Moors in the 9th century.

The gardens were every bit as amazing as the ruins.

Mounds of Bleeding Heart

It was starting to rain by the time we got to this level, and the stone paths had become quite slippery, so I stopped and got a cup of hot tea instead of climbing to the tippy top. But not my crazy hubby! I think he regretted it later, but at least there were no injuries.

From there a bus took us to Pena Palace, a Romanticist summer retreat for the royal family, which King Ferdinand had built on the site of a monastery that was destroyed in the great earthquake. Well, the bus took us as close as it could get to the palace. Which wasn't actually all that close. Then there was quite a long hike, uphill all the way, in the pouring rain.

Although I was loathe to admit it at the time, it was probably worth having to spend the rest of the day in soggy clothes. Especially when we stumbled upon a delightful place near the train station, where we could have lunch before departing. Half of our group went into the more formal restaurant side, and the rest of us went next door to their wine bar.

All ended up pleased as punch with their choices!

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

I guess it's true. Some things never do change, as evidenced by this post I wrote about eight years ago! Same story, different names.

FLASHBACK

 

THIS OLD TRUNK

When we moved back to Dallas for a few years in the late 90s , my sisters got me hooked on "Friday Nights at the Auction House" as a new form of entertainment. The place just happened to be owned by two brothers we went to high school with, and was more of a social event than a serious shopping endeavor. I did, however, manage to snag a few treasures over the years. One of my favorites was this old trunk -- a trunk filled with mystery!

It looked like it had been made long, long ago, by someone who was heading off to a new life in a new land, with all their worldly possessions tucked inside. I was fascinated by the amazing hardware...

and the fact that it had several religious images glued inside the lid -- perhaps something their mother put there, to protect them on their journey?

At first it had pride of place in our living room, as our coffee table, but my hubby has never really shared my passion for rustic beauty. So, with each move and each addition of newer, glossier stuff, it got relegated to ever more obscure locations, until it finally ended up out on the porch, filled with Hubby's gardening stuff. So sad.

Anywho, this week I decided to start on another project from my new Folk Art Fusion book by Heather Galler. This one was to be based on Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Only, her image didn't really look anything like the ones I remembered from our wonderful trips to San Miguel de Allende, so I decided to gather some images and just do my own thing.

I had just spread all of these out on my work table, to ponder over for awhile, when I spotted Hubby opening that old trunk on the porch. Some flash of color grabbed my attention and drew me out there to take a closer look, since I hadn't been inside it for 10 or 15 years. Guess what I found?

Our Lady of Guadalupe, of course!

After doing a little research on Wikipedia, I discovered that the most famous phrase relating to Our Lady of Guadalupe is, "Am I not here, I who am your mother?"

No wonder she was plastered inside this trunk!

MARATHON,TX: POPULATION ALMOST 500

To get to Marathon we took the scenic route down Hwy. 90, through little towns like Del Rio and Langtry -- home of the infamous Judge Roy Bean. (Coming back home we cut over through Ft. Stockton and took I-10 most of the way home, thinking it would be faster. I guess it saved us a little time, but it actually felt longer - probably because it was so monotonous.)

The rooms were all like little igloos, with domed ceilings embedded with colorful glass, to let the sunshine through.

Once we'd had a little rest and got cleaned up, we headed over the historic Gage Hotel, located just across the alley from our B&B.

We heard it was about to be razed some years back, but then a guy who just couldn't bear to see that happen bought it for thirty grand and set about bringing it back to life. Boy, did he ever! We were a bit early for our dinner reservation so we did some exploring and had a drink in the White Buffalo Bar.

Dinner pretty much knocked our socks off. Hubby doesn't happen to share my love of fried oysters, but even he admitted that the oyster nacho appetizer with cracker garlic aioli, habanero salsa and cotija cheese wasn't half bad.

If only our BFF's had been there with us, they would have been moaning right along with me.

Hubby's tenderloin filet, however, got us both goin'. My quail was pretty good, but I just couldn't stop stealing bites of his steak! Everyone we talked to later at our B&B agreed -- it was the best steak they'd ever had. And then there was this.

Mexican Chocolate Brownie, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and Homemade Cajeta Sauce

Needless to say, after that we needed a nice long walk to work it off. Unfortunately, that's kinda hard to do in Marathon, since the main street is only two blocks long.

After a stop at the awesome French Co. Grocer, a modern day general store which stays open until 9:00pm each night, we wandered some of the nearby residential streets -- just the kind of thing Hubby loves to snap photos of.

No idea how they get to their door through all the cacti.

We were most fascinated by this place below, which we could only glimpse through these little peepholes in their adobe wall.

There was a sign calling it the Captain Shephard House, so I googled it when I got home. Turns out it was built by the former sea captain who actually founded this town, naming it Marathon because the rugged terrain in this area reminded him of the area around Marathon, Greece. The main house and carriage house are now part of Gage Hotel, and you can actually stay there, if you're willing to fork over some bucks.