Anita by her Balinese-flavored bathhouse in McKenzie Bridge, Oregon
Somehow the idea of a trip to Bali insinuated itself into our thoughts this year. While visiting Anita and Steve in the summer, I discussed their trip of the previous year. They had gone over with a friend of theirs who lives part time on the island, loved so much of what they saw, they shipped a container full of stuff back for their house, probably about half of which was to sell. I got a lot of good shopping advice from Anita who’s been doing such things for years in the bead and jewelry trade. I also spoke to Bill and Frankie about their trip to Bali— they’ve been twice—and get some of the scoop on shopping. Frankie has an eye for quality and beauty and also gave me some good pointers.
My trips to the mainland have taken on a pattern: I go in time for the Oregon Country Fair, stay at Nicki’s to provide the catering for her annual Alchemical Healing Retreat, and take some kind of side trip to visit folks I don’t see so much now that I am so far away.
Culver City
This year I visited my brother Paul and his family in Culver City. Quite an enjoyable visit it was, Gerta, his wife is a very colorful personality, and their kids (my neice and nephew) are in their teens and are both quite vivacious and fun to do stuff with. We enjoyed a memorable trip to the Getty Center, what a fabulous museum! I took a famous panorama from the prow of the ship-like building overlooking the LA basin. I did a little sightseeing with my friend Lisa Ashook, one of Nicki’s students, who took me to some delightfully seamy and colorful Chinese and Mexican areas…and the train station, which is some kind of architectural wonder. No camera for that one, unfortunately!
This panorama of L.A. was taken from the Getty Center and is my most popular image on Panoramio. (Click to see full-size)I returned to the island refreshed and ready to be home. It’s always that way; I love seeing the Mainland, it’s kind of nostalgic by now—also slightly horrifying—and seem to always come back to being even more grateful to live where I do.
When I returned to Kauai, the Bali trip was something we knew we wanted to do, and thought it might be possible to make a business trip out of it. We decided to go without committing to buying a container or anything, but lined up our finances should it be something we decided to do. We just wanted to go and see what we thought; we had a couple of places to stay lined up: both through Anita and her friend in Bali.
Actually, there’s no way I can do a full acount of our trip right now; besides, this site is about our home on Kauai and the trip had a much bigger impact on it later; not so much when we went and while we were there. I do have an image or two to share from the trip.
See my “Ambient Bali” blog for more images and wonderful sound recordings…
