Dreams, Moments, Travels
We are at Gammage Theater on ASU’s campus for another Origins talk hosted by Lawrence Krauss. On the bill are Diane Ackerman (naturalist), Ian Tattersall (paleoanthropologist), Michael Crow (president of ASU), Lindy Elkins-Tanton (planetary scientist), Neil Gershenfeld (computer scientist), and the star of the evening Svante Pääbo who deciphered the Neanderthal genome.
Started the year with a photo of snowy mountains and here I am with another rare weather phenomenon in the desert: it’s called fog.
We are moving out of our first office here on Greenway-Hayden Loop in Scottsdale to a new location in South Scottsdale. It is the extraordinary amount of time I’m giving to this virtual reality development environment that stops me from posting here on my own blog more frequently. The woman on the right is Ariana Alexander who might be one of the happiest people I’ve ever met; she’s a 3D artist.
Sure, it’s a poor-quality photo taken from my phone but it’s the rarity of seeing the McDowell Mountains covered in snow that was worth remembering. Happy New Year from sunny Arizona.
Well, this is embarrassing. Nine years after the events of this day, Caroline had a reminder from Facebook about a drink she had on Christmas Day at a posh Koreatown restaurant called Pot. Searching for other details about the trip, she discovered that we were in Los Angeles on a fourth day, but those details never made it to the blog. Searching my old posts, she learned that we ate at the Huckleberry Bakery & Cafe in Santa Monica. Green eggs and ham for the win. From there, with no other details on Facebook and no itinerary to back anything up, we must have headed home.
The image was taken from Facebook as we no longer have a copy of it. This post was added on 25 December 2023.
From our 2023 update, explained below. Caroline and I dipped into Guelaguetza Oaxacan restaurant for brunch today which included a michelada.
Famous for their moles (pronounced Mo-lay), I was able to snag a sampler even though Guelaguetza was still serving breakfast.
Before we headed back to Phoenix, we had to get in one more walk at the beach. How we ended up at Leo Cabrillo State Beach, which is near Thousand Oaks and decidedly not on our way home, I can’t say. Sadly, no other photos exist of this day, and so what else we did today will remain a mystery.
Update: the above is false, though the name of the beach is likely correct. Here, on 25 December 2023, when I’m updating this, due to some circumstances surrounding Facebook reminding us of things, we discovered details of this trip we thought were lost. The photos above this one of the Pacific were taken from Facebook, as the originals are lost.
This is the elixir for the eyes of those who live in arid spaces.
With feet in the sand and head in the clouds, Caroline was about to step forward…
…into the sea so her feet would carry memories of the ocean for the best Xmas ever.
Update: in the original post, I thought that this was the end of the day and that from here we must have gone home, wrong. We had dinner reservations at Tar & Roses in Santa Monica. What follows was found on Facebook.
We are at Zuma Beach.
I don’t normally like sharing food photos, especially ones that are this poor, but considering that we thought we’d lost so many details about this Christmas trip, I’m including my yummy lamb belly in chutney with mint. Don’t forget people; blog while you can, as sooner or later, too much is easily forgotten.
The night ended in Santa Monica with a late-night walk down the pier. And to think that I thought we were on the way home.