Our itinerary would take us through the Antelope Valley and Mohave Desert to Las Vegas for one night, then to the Hoover Dam and south through the Arizona desert to the Grand Canyon, spending the night in Williams, then further south with a detour through the red rocks of Sedona on the way to Phoenix, where we would be for the next three nights before the long trip home on Interstate 10.

Read more…

I and many many others hold that TSA inspections at airports are in essence theater, striving to assure the flying public that air travel to and from the US is as safe as, say, driving a car. So limiting your carry-on liquid containers to 3 oz. or less in size makes a substantial difference, right? Or having your shoes inspected? And now maybe your underwear? I think not.

So what are the real risks that a flight in a commercial jetliner will become a suicide mission? Think about these numbers, compiled by Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com and designed by Jesus Diaz of gizmodo.com:

As Mark Frauenfelder at boingboing.net says:

Maybe the new TSA rules will decrease the odds of being a terrorism victim from 1 in 10,408,947 to 1 in 10,408,948. Let’s hope so!

I haven’t posted much in the way of personal stuff this summer, so here’s a little catch-up.

Although we’re still a couple of weeks away from the official autumnal equinox, summer’s done with the end of the long Labor Day weekend and the fall is approaching. Although, as I noted on Facebook earlier today, Southern California is likely to be subject to six to eight more weeks of summer weather – it’ll be in the mid nineties for the rest of the week.

We also have the major portion of fire season to come in the next couple of months. There’s been nothing in my immediate vicinity (yet) but the enormous Station fire on the northeast side of the LA Basin is stubbornly hanging on. The smoke in the bowl of the San Fernando Valley was easily visible yesterday as I came home from a weekend in Santa Barbara and Ventura.

Los Robles Master Chorale starts its 2009-10 season tonight with the first rehearsal of the newly-reauditoned 85-voice group, holiday concerts scheduled for December. This is also the inaugural season for The Consort Singers, a 24-voice group drawn from within the Chorale. This smaller group will be a little nimbler than its larger parent, and thus will be doing more outreach activity. Its first performances will be in November, an all-a capella program.

Also of note  – get it? Chorale, Singers, music, we sing notes? Get it? Ahem – the Chorale will be taking much of the program from its Spring 2009 concerts ‘on the road’ with a long weekend trip of some of the old missions in southern California next summer.

The reunion about which I’d posted several times last spring and summer came off without a hitch the first weekend of August. Some 80 people came together at Merced First Baptist Church to reminisce and worship together, and it was just fantastic. I couldn’t have hoped for a better turnout, and my only regret that we didn’t have more people and more time together. A bunch of us stayed to participate in the Sunday morning worship and that, too, was a glorious time. Several of us ministered with the worship team, I sang a solo, and about 20 of the alumni formed the Reunion Choir and sang a song at the end of the service. The church will be celebrating its 70th anniversary next year, so maybe we’ll see everyone again sooner than we thought we would.

My friend Elaine from Minnesota came out here three times over the summer, once to celebrate our birthdays at the beginning of May during which she also came to hear both Chorale concerts and to squeeze in a birthday visit to Disneyland, again over the Independence Day holiday, and yet again for the reunion in August – an embarrassment of riches after so many years away from one another. I was hoping to return the favor for the Minnesota State Fair last weekend, but unfortunately I couldn’t pull it together this time.

Other highlights include a couple of movies (Star Trek, Julie and Julia), a concert (Liza at the Hollywood Bowl), a trip or two to my favorite beach in Camarillo, the afore-mentioned trip to Santa Barbara. All in all, a fun summer in a lot of ways, and in some ways a bit of regret along the way. So here’s to you, summer – I’m happy to see you retire, and looking forward to the filtered-light days of autumn followed by the chill of winter – at least as chilly as it gets around here.

Recently I watched an episode of Road Trip on our local PBS station that featured the beach town of Encinitas, about 20 minutes north of San Diego. The program spotlighted some very interesting locations, so I and a friend decided to retrace host Huell Howser’s steps last Saturday.

A two-hour drive south put us at the gate of the Quail Botanical Gardens. We had hit a little bit of traffic in the area after leaving the freeway, and we joked that they were all headed where we were going. Sure enough, a lot of the cars we were following were turning into the Gardens. Unbeknown to us, our visit coincided with the 11th annual Herb Fair, Tomatomania and Plant Sale Weekend. We wound our way up the serpentine driveway where we were met by a very chirpy lady who accepted our admission fee. The small parking lot behind her was completely full, and before she pointed us toward the overflow lots, I noted with interest that they had covered a pile of dirt in the middle of one of the parking aisles with a blue tarp, held down in the wind by some garden tools. Then I noticed the two San Diego County sheriff patrol cars parked nearby, with the deputies sort of standing around, keeping watch for errant parkers, I’d guessed. Wrong. I asked the next traffic attendant why the Sheriff Department were there, he said, ‘Oh, someone passed away over there.’ Turns out that wasn’t a pile of dirt under that tarp…well, I guess it would have turned into one had they left it there any longer.

After our little ‘OMG’ moment, we parked and walked into the back part of the Gardens. It’s set up in sort of a geographic-centric arrangement, with signs pointing out, for instance, that we were entering the South Africa area, or the Mexico area, each with flora native to that particular region. There were quite a few waterways throughout the Gardens, some nice lawn areas for picniking, a small gift and plant shop, and of course, lots of booths selling herb stuff. We were hungry after three or so hours of wandering around, but we already had a spot in mind for lunch.

We didn’t even have to get back on the freeway – we used the business highway to enter the downtown area, turned right on D Street and found our destination: Raul’s Taco Shack. It’s a little tiny place tucked in behind a flower shop, family-owned and operated for many years. Huell had sworn by the house-specialty taquitos, and he was right on the money – crispy on the outside, moist and greasy (in the good way, if you know what I mean) on the inside. We even saw Mama, featured on the show, in the kitchen in back, chopping up some beef for their tacos and burritos. Limited seating outside, but we found a table in the small dining room. When my order was ready, I went to the window and told the young lady: ‘Huell Howser sent me.’ She sort of took a beat, looked at me and said, ‘Good, great!’ She obviously had not a clue as to what I was talking about. I slanked off (slunked, slinked?) to enjoy my lunch.

Our last stop was the most fascinating – a visit to the Self Realization Fellowship’s Hermitage and Meditation Gardens, again just a few blocks farther south. The SRF was started by Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography Of A Yogi. Back in the 1920′s one of the yogi’s followers gifted him with this huge estate overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and the yogi in turn made it a place that was open to the public for meditation and education. Now it’s a conference center retreat center, monastic community (see comments) and a most beautiful garden, our second of the day. The pathways lead right out to the cliffs that plunge straight down to one of the best surfing spots in the area, lovingly referred to at Swami’s Beach. The gardens are meticulously tended to by the nuns and monks of the order, and everything is perfect – even the handrails were freshly painted, the pathways cleared of anything that didn’t belong, the koi in the ponds were fat and happy. People were wandering around, enjoying the peace and quiet, some were sitting on benches with panoramic views of the setting sun. It really did feel tranquil and meditative, like a truly holy place.

After leaving the Gardens we stopped in at the book store which was selling Sri Yogananda’s books, as well as the other things you’d expect – incense, East Indian clothing, music CDs, pictures, etc. I bought myself a copy of the Autobiography, which will be added to the to-be-read stack.

I was thinking about posting this on the first of April, intent on saying that I was so impressed with the organization that I had decided to convert, shave my head, and start dressing in a saffron robe and sandals.

Got the haircut right, anyway!

Guess where we are today?

Originally uploaded by RandyP.

Yes, for the first time in 33 years and 5 months, I’m at Disneyland!

Well, probably not much gayer than anywhere else in the world, but here we are! The train left right on time, but about an hour into the trip the French conductor said that due to a ‘technical fault’ that we would have to change trains where we were not supposed to change trains. So we clambered off, and found a crowd waiting to clamber on to our train to go back to London while we then clambered on their train back to Paris – does that make sense?
The room at the hotel is almost the same one I’ve stayed in twice before – a lovely view of the street below, and an aural ‘view’ of Notre Dame’s bells.

Ah, Paris!

Beautiful weather continues to bless on the second day in the UK. Breakfast at McDonalds (only because of the promise of wireless internet access, which went unfulfilled) followed by a sightseeing bus tour of London. Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, House of Parliament, BBC, etc. We did stop at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum; kinda expensive but a lot of fun.

A fish and chips dinner at Sherlock Holmes Restaurant, followed by a stroll down the Victoria Embankment of the Thames, and an hour cruise of the sights and sounds of the river from a glass boat, then a short ride on the Underground to Charing Cross station and our hotel.

Tomorrow promises some museum tours (National Gallery, British Museum, evensong at Westminster Abbey, and another play to end the day.

Hello! It’s about 10:00 on Saturday night, London time (about 2:15 in the afternoon on the West Coast) and we’ve been here just about 12 hours. The weather is beautiful, and London is very crowded on Saturday afternoon. The cab ride cost about 60 pounds, which is just under $120!! Traffic was HORRIBLE once we got to the area where our hotel is. Ouch!

The hotel, though is great. The A/C is icy, the bed felt great when we napped after arrival. We walked around the neighborhood, picked up the tickets for the play, then had dinner at a restaurant across the street from the theater calles Stockpot, which one of the guidebooks described as a ‘mashed peas” kind of place. It was…okay, not bad, but not great, typical bland English fare. The play was very good, and we were ready to hit the hay by the time it was over.

More tomorrow.

Now it’s all about the waiting – We’re awaiting the arrival of the Super Shuttle that will whisk us away to LAX. You can see I have the webcam in my laptop going, so hopefully there will be a bit more variety in the picture for several days. See you at LAX!

Well, time to start thinking seriously about jet lag and sleep schedules. I stayed up late last night and got up at about a quarter to five this morning. I have a couple of errands to do on the way home from work this afternoon, after which I’m gonna sleep as long as I can, then stay up for the rest of the night. Carol and I fly at 1 on Friday to Washington DC, and then I hope to sleep on the flight to London, and be ready to go when we land at 10 AM Saturday morning. Sure hope it works.