Here and There Blog

Took a quick trip to Salt Lake City to visit family this weekend. We had a good visit and ended up with a stop at Desert Edge Brewery to sample. Cheers to Spring!

A few more from the art gardens. On top of an outdoor chapel. Even the food is art!  Nature's Art  And waving you good-bye!

Mosaic Wall - the mural went down the length of a long building    Entry way into a courtyard  What a view! Also I didn't expect to see pine trees in Guatemala.

My favorite stop in the area around Antigua. This is an open air park that's full of local art. I only saw 50% of what was there and would have gladly skipped lunch to see more. Give yourself two hours and then you can eat also. El Tenedor del Cerro is the restaurant where we ate. It specializes in pasta. I didn't come all the way here to eat spaghetti so it was chicken for me. The one person who did order pasta scraped the bowl clean so it must have been good!

Main pedestrian street where you take pictures, shop, and eat.   Currently is a religious institute. They were working on Easter parade exhibits.  If you're going to shop, skip the other places where it's the same stuff as everywhere else in the world. The Nim Po'T Arts and Crafts Market makes you realize that you haven't seen it all.  Church in use. Not the old historic run down building.  City Hall and a Museum

Taken as we were driving around    

Antigua is a UNESCO World Heritages site. Founds in the 16th century it was the original capital and several ruins from that time still exist. The capital moved to Guatemala City following bad geographical placement in earthquake territory and volcanic eruptions. Today it's more of an artists colony and the narrow, cobblestone streets provide a colorful drive.

 Driving around the greater Guatemala City area - the mix of home/shop combos along the roads.  Shops for metal art and knick-knacks and below a basic soda, water, snack food shop.  And driving up the hillside to the art colony the housing switches to upscale.

Taking a detour from the regularly scheduled post about fun in Guatemala, today we had the reality of the city.  We went to work with a fully functional radio in the car and a well running car. We returned to the car after work to find a smooth break-in, no radio, and a not so running well car. It was a stock radio, nothing special. Everything was pulled out. Could there possibly any more room to pull the console apart?  This was in a "safe" parking lot. Not so safe after all! Oh and Happy St. Patrick's Day! Seems like it should be April Fools!

A bit more traditional than a quesadilla! Local beer - typical yellow fizzy that ended up giving me a headache even though it was low alcohol. It had to be tried though! Cerveza BBQ glazed chicken, with avocado tomato and hearts of palm salad, corn, and fried potato strings.

From the top of a hill in Antigua - the three volcanoes stand out from the valley below.  Of the three most visible, one is still active and spews out steam to remind people that while the last eruption was in 2010, there could be another.  In this picture, all is well and postcard perfect.   Less than two hours later we were in town and sure enough, the volcano decided to give us a show and shot up ash and steam into the air.

And where do we end up? Mexican restaurant! Shrimp Quesadilla! It was good but not what I expected.

There's a high rise office building right across from my window. The sun was shining on the reflective glass and my view was my hotel against sky.

In transit in Houston. Took the red-eye from LAX and Im keeping my fingers crossed for early check-in upon arrival in Guatamala!

The DMV. One of the most dreaded places to go. After a decade of auto-renewals on my DL, I finally received the notice that it was time to appear in person for a new eye test and photo. A quick online check showed no appointment times in San Marco until May but Oceanside/Vista had an opening the next day at 10:15 am. Check! I'll take it. I showed up early only to see a line out the door of people who came without an appointment. Who does that? How does one have hours to spend in line at the DMV? It was a relief to walk on by and get my ticket to wait a shorter time. 15 minutes later I was up and at the front. The best news? Since I had never gone in and retested my eyes after getting Lasik I was able to pass (barely) the eye exam and for the first time in my life have the glasses restriction come off! Yay! A few minutes after that awesome moment it was off for a new photo (for the DMV it's great, for everywhere else, it would be a retake) and I'm out of there while peo...

Winds and pollen died down so Today was great! Able to hit the beach for exercise and then pull weeds from the yard. Spared this one for a short time since it's the only flower in bloom.

Today's a great, gorgeous SoCal day. The day that makes the rest of the world envious. Now I'm onboard with this except for freaking allergies! Every plant is broadcasting "Spring is almost here!" All the bees are out and life is good. Except for the allergies. Enjoy the day!

On this rainy Sunday where everyone is staying inside, here's a reminder of sunny days!