With Fall in the Air

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My life, My Travels

Ever since I was a kid, I always thought of fall as the beginning of the year. Fall was when school started, a new beginning after a summer of long sunny days and freedom. When we were supposed to draw a circular calendar with the different holidays around the year, I draw mine upside down according to my teacher because I placed mid-summer at the top of the circle and Christmas at the bottom. But I still see the year like that. It is after the summer that I have new energy to make plans and that I’m inspired to learn and sign up for new courses. This is probably partially because I grew up in Sweden, where the dark winters can be quite exhausting and where especially our mental energy starts running on reserves in late December. But regardless of country, the habit is still in me.

Inspired by the rain and shifting colors of the trees in DC, last weekend was therefore been one of planning and scheduling. It might sound boring but in my experience, it is the best way of doing fun things around the year. Once work gets into its normal rythm (and especially now when I am also doing grad-school studies at the same time), I know that I will not make big plans or initiate projects. No, it is better to schedule now already to make sure I do it. Hence, the plans for this fall includes a couple of weekends visits to different places on the East Coast, one bigger trip somewhere in the Latin American/Caribbean region later this fall, a photography workshop (I’m hoping it will result in better photos here on the blog in the future), and of course dance classes and the Swedish Song Group. But first a month’s stay in Europe for both vacation and work. After a few hour connection stop in Copenhagen where I had coffee with Camilla, I arrived in Stockholm yesterday afternoon and will continue to Moldova tomorrow for my friend’s wedding. But more on that later. Also, there will probably be more work-related travel for me in December again. So a quite few things to look forward to this fall, despite the summer person that I am!

Stockholm, my first and last stop on this six-country trip

California Dreaming

Posted on August 19, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My life

The rain is poring today and I put on my slippers this morning when I got out of bed this morning. The air has been chillier these past few days and I have turned off my ceiling fans now and then. Does this mean that fall is here? This song has been in my head since I came back from California, I think it will be my soundtrack for this winter!

Los Angeles at Last!

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My Travels

Spending the day at the beach in Santa Barbara was perfect. The California beaches are something special and I hadn’t been to one since I lived in Orange County 17 years ago! In the afternoon, we drove the last stretch of our planned trip and spent our last day in Los Angeles. Since Jonas had not been to LA before, we did the usual touristy stuff and drove around Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Bel Air (I didn’t see any famous people), before we went to visit my friend Anthony in Venice Beach. Venice Beach was of course cool already when I was there in the 1990s, but had now developed into some kind of West Coast version of Williamsburg (NY) and was definitely my favorite area along the California coast this time. I have to admit that I could have stayed another week in Southern CA…

Santa Barbara

Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills

Hollywood Blvd.

The canals behind Venice Beach and Anthony with his beautiful dog Piglet

Sunny California

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My Travels

The day after our camping adventure in Yosemite, we finally reached the coast in California! We stayed for one night in a chilly Monterey (i.e. no beach), and had a lovely seafood dinner out on the pier. Even though we missed the famous aquarium, we did have a chance to walk around in the marina and in the city center, and Monterey seemed like a very nice city. I wouldn’t mind coming back!

The next day, we drove down the breathtakingly beautiful part of the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH, or Highway 1) between Monterey and Morro Bay, and then continued south on the 101 freeway. Our goal was to spend the next day at the beach in Santa Barbara. However, last minute deals on hotels proved to be scares, so we decided to stay a bit outside instead, in Santa Ynez Valley. We booked a room on hotel.com, at a Holliday Inn Solvang. On our way up from the garage, we shared the lift with two other Swedes and one of them pointed out that running into other Swedes wasn’t so strange given where we were. I thought he meant California, since we Swedes always go where the sun is, but when Jonas and I left the hotel in search of dinner, we realized that we had ended up in Little Denmark. Solvang is apparently the Danish Capital in the U.S. The town was cute and weird at the same time, a little like Disneyland but with people actually living there. As always with immigrant communities, it was a positively skewed replica of the reality in the country a century ago. It didn’t exactly look like today’s Denmark, but Solvang did have its own brewery, which I can highly recommend a visit to!

The Monterey marina and people fishing from the pier

Along PCH

Jonas in Solvang, CA

An Almost Adventure in Yosemite

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My Travels

Again, we didn’t plan our road trip very well and at one point we almost paid for it. The lack of planning meant that we didn’t make hotel reservations in advance, but instead had the idea that we would stop for the night where we wanted to. Which turned out to be a mistake around Yosemite National Park. We drove from town to town only to be met by the message that every hotel, motell, and inn in town were fully booked. We drove deeper and deeper into the forest without finding anything, and eventually we decided to just sleep in the car. The jeep the rental care dealer had convinced us to upgrade to a few days earlier was all of a sudden very useful. Sleeping bags and some food could have been nice, but it was wonderful to look up at the stars through the windows and to smell the forest while falling asleep in complete silence. So camping out in the woods turned out to be a lot better than staying at a hotel! In the morning, we watched the sun rise over the treetops before we found a place (The River Restaurant and Lounge) that served breakfast on a terrace right next to a mountain stream. We did, however, book all our hotels in advance after that.

Death Valley

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My Travels

The next stop on our itinerary was Death Valley. As I wrote in an earlier post, we didn’t plan this road trip very well and to be honest, the itinerary was more according to recognizable names on the map between the Grand Canyon and California than actually research on national parks and sites along the way. Thus, I had absolutely no idea what to expect and it wasn’t until we reached Death Valley that I learned that it is one of the hotest places in the world and partially below sea level. Again, the landscape and the environment there were almost unreal! I have never experienced a place that hot outside a sauna and I am glad our car didn’t break down on the way (and that we even had a car!), but it was well worth the detour we made. Below are some pics. When looking at them, try to immagine it being 48 C (118 F) in the air, with hot winds blowing and even the slightest sand dust burning your skin! It wasn’t exactly the season for hiking around there, but Native Americans have actually lived there in a quite complicated symbiosis with the surrounding environment. Their traditional land and water management methods are now again being applied by the National Park Service in cooperation with the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe.

From Wiliams to Vegas

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My Travels

The next few days of our road trip took us from one extreme to the other. What can I say, the U.S. is a diverse country! Our first stop on after Grand Canyon was Williams, a small, pittoresque town about an hour south of Grand Canyon National Park. Since it was so close to the Grand Canyon, and thereby a stop on for more tourists than Jonas and me, I thought that the town’s main street, which looked like a set from a Western movie, deliberately had been kept that way for the tourists. After passing numerous similar small towns over the next days, I realized, however, that Williams was quite representative for this part of rural America. After spending the night at a motell in the middle of the town (my first night at a motell ever!), our stay in Williams ended with pancake breakfast at Cafe 66, which that morning served an equal number of locals and tourists. There was quite a contrast between the middle-aged local couple that came in to chitchat with the waitress about the past week’s events in Williams and the group of Italian tourists that were trying to get their morning cappuccinos!.

After breakfast, we continued our road trip towards Las Vegas. Although I knew we would drive through the desert, I didn’t anticipate the landscape of the Black Canyon. After driving through dry hills with light-colored soils hills and spares vegetation for miles and miles in Arizona, we were all of a sudden surrounded by black, uneven rocks with no sign of anything living. It was like being on another planet somewhere out in space! And then, just after crossing over to the state of Nevada, was the enormous and very blue Hoover Dam that supplies water to Arizona, Nevada, and California. Apparently, it was the largest concrete construction ever built when works started in 1931, and it is still impressive. I can really recommend a visit to the Black Canyon, it was truly a unique experience!

Las Vegas was the same as always: artificial and tacky, with lots of people that are not used to the social norms of densely populated cities, but with small highlights here and there. We ate well and relaxed a bit at the hotel pool, but I don’t gamble so I am not interested in the casinos (especially since they are more like arcades than the glamorous roulette and blackjack rooms shown in Hollywood movies). Even the first time I went there over a weekend in 1993, I said that “been there, done that – no need to visit again!”, and, yet, this was my third time in Las Vegas. The second time was for the wedding of one of Mr. M’s childhood friends (pics is in the archive from October 2009), and this time because Jonas (rightly so) thought it a “must-see” if in the region. And even though I say that this really was the last time I go there, I am sure that if I ever get married, it will probably be in Las Vegas!

Williams along the legendary Route 66 and driving through Arizona

The Hoover Dam and the rocks in Black Canyon

Over The Strip in Las Vegas

Grand Canyon

Posted on August 4, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My Travels

After spending a night in Phoenix, the first stop on our road trip was Grand Canyon. Like I wrote in one of my previous posts, it was a dream of mine to see it, but never ever had I imagined the overwhelming grandeur of the canyon. I was speechless. I just wanted to stay there and be surrounded by this Nature’s wonder. We walked down a bit in the canyon and towards the end of the day, we saw the sun set over plateau. If I had to recommend one place of all the places I’ve seen all over the world, this would probably be it. No photo can ever depict the feeling of standing at the edge of the cliff, watching out over the Grand Canyon. Truly amazing!

Finally Off (Though Not Very Organized)

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My Travels

So Jonas and I are finally at BWI (the low-cost flight airport outside Baltimore), waiting for our flight to Phoenix. This trip is not my most organized. The more I travel, the more lax I get about my travel plans. I got these flight tickets Sunday, and today, we got the train tickets for the airport, the rental car in Phoenix, and a hotel room for tonight. We haven’t even gotten the tickets for our return flight from LA yet, mainly because we haven’t decided exactly what day we will fly back. Past traveling has taught me that things normally work out, even without booked tickets and accommodation, and the U.S. is not exactly the most challenging country I have traveled in. Besides, it’s a very nice feeling not to have everything planned when on vacation, especially not on a road trip. Am very excited about these next days – can’t believe I will finally get to see the Grand Canyon tomorrow!!

Ballet Abstinence

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under Uncategorized

One of the many great things with my stay up in New York was that I had the opportunity to take ballet classes for Finis Jhung at the Ailey Extension. I came across his instruction DVDs about two years ago and even though I’ve danced for so many years and for so many different teachers in different countries, I learned a lot from his methods. Taking classes for him was fantastic: a little intimidating at first but it quickly gave results. I did, however, also manage to catch a cold while up in New York, so I haven’t been able to dance in over a week and am by now suffering from serious ballet abstinence! In The Happiness Project, Gretchen Ruben writes that it is good to do things that we enjoyed doing as children and I think she is right. Given how much energy I get from dancing, I just can’t believe I stayed away from ballet for over ten years! Sadly enough, I don’t think I’m the only adult who has given up things I really love only to do things that I don’t enjoy at all, just because it is expected.

Newly acquired point shoes ready to be broken in.