Baking Cookies

I like traditions. They are, how shall I put it... traditional! One tradition Sharon and I had was spending Thanksgiving with a good friend of ours and bringing pumpkin cookies. Sharon made the cookies the night before using a recipe she got from her mother and spent the rest of the time until the party trying to keep me away from them. Sharon is gone now, but traditions must go on, so it was my turn to make the cookies.

I knew I had the recipe, I had seen it some time before when reorganizing the kitchen. Now, being me, of course I had no recollection of where  it was exactly! So off I went hunting, looking through her files and folders until I found the recipe in a loose leaf tucked inside a cookbook. Took a look at the recipe and it seemed to e straightforward. Better yet, other than the baking soda and powder I had all the other ingredients already!

A quick trip to the supermarket and 30 minutes later I was breaking eggs, sifting flour, and using the mixer. Usually I have some problems understanding recipes: words like "fold" tend to take on a completely new meaning, leaving me bewildered. This time, however, the instructions were easy to follow and other than measuring, mixing and stirring there was not much else I had to do. So I measured, mixed and stirred and eventually had something in the bowl that looked like cookie batter.

Oven pre-heated, cookie sheet greased, and one hour later I had my cookies. They looked right, but the proof is in the tasting and I have to confess I was a little afraid to try them. I was doing this for Sharon and I had the irrational  fear that if they did not taste right I would have somehow failed her. But they tasted ok, a little less cinnamon-y then hers, but good enough.

So I succeeded in my first ever cookie baking attempt. I was surprised about how uncomplicated it was, dismayed at the mess I created, satisfied with the process and looking forward to doing it again. As for the end result, here is a picture:

Reunion Cruise

I had been looking forward to my 30th high school reunion for some time. It was going to be a small event, with fifteen to twenty fellow students showing up for a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas. It would be an opportunity to reconnect with some friends I hadn't seen in a long time, as well as get to know others better.

I guess the trip for me started on the Tuesday before the cruise. I had to go to the mall to get a new suitcase, as the one I intended to take was broken. And I had only used it  a few times! Well, that's the price you pay for buying cheap stuff. Still, I did find a decent bag, albeit a tad expensive, but it did come with a lifetime guarantee, so I went ahead and bought it.

Packing was done by midnight and by 7 am I was at the airport checking in. An uneventful connection in Dallas, with lunch a the TGI Friday and by 8 pm Luiz, who had come to pick me up, and I were standing at the baggage claim waiting for my suitcase that did not arrive. I was about to go talk to the airline people when Luiz showed up with my suitcase and a big grin on his face: the suitcase had been on the caroussel all along, I just failed to recognize it! After the third trip around Luiz decided to check the tag and we were good to go.

The rest of the evening was a mini-reunion of sorts. I went to Luiz's house and got to see his wife and kids, and eventually was joined by Pedro (who was going on the cruise with me) and his kid, as well as Alberto. We talked, caught up on stories and eventually went out for dinner. I ended up at Pedro's, where I was going to spend the night, and we talked until about two in the morning. Not a problem for me, since I was on vacation, but it was a school night for Pedro.

Next day was a lazy day, which I spent having lunch and then hanging out with Alberto and Alice. Got to see, and be impressed, by some of Alberto's photos and artwork.

That evening the reunion started, with dinner at a restaurant called Boteco Miami. I arrived there at 6 pm, as planned, having forgotten that for Brazilians 6 means 7 if you want to get there early, but really 8 is when you should be there. Still, people started trickling in, not only those who were going on the trip but also several alumni that were now living in the Miami - Fort Lauderdale area. By 8:30 the party was in full swing and everyone seemed to be having fun. By 11 pm we were tired, though, so Luiz and I left for the 40 minute drive back to Pedro's.

Oh, and Boteco Miami had "coracao de galinha", so I was a very happy camper.

The cruise started the next day. Pedro and I drove to the port, parked the car and went to the terminal to check in. Forms were filled out; cards were printed and next thing we know we were walking up the gangplank lugging our suitcases. That was somewhat strange, given that the website had indicated our luggage would be taken from us and would not appear in our cabin until 6 pm or so. No one stopped us, though, so we boarded, found our cabin and went inside. As expected, it had a double bed instead of two singles. Neither Pedro nor I wanted to be that friendly, so I made a small trip to the main desk to have this resolved.

The rest of the first evening was food oriented. We got together  for one hour of Bahama Mamas. I don’t know what was in those drinks but they sure were tasty! I downed a few more of those than I should have, but that was ok, I could blame the “heavy” seas for any instability while walking. After that it was dinner, where we got this huge table in one of the main restaurants.

The next day we were supposed to spend at an island by owned by the cruise line, but the seas were not collaborating: they were unable to lower the tender, so we spent the day at sea, cruising around and enjoying the boat’s amenities. For us this turned out to be congregating around the swimming pool, drinking, eating and catching up, with occasional disappearances to go partake in the ship’s activities.

My first activity that day was line dancing. Now, line dancing is something I like and did for several years after moving to the U.S.  Granted, I hadn’t done it in over 10 years, but it was like writing a bicycle, right? Once you learn you don’t forget! Wrong! I was awkward, I was clumsy, I kept fumbling all my steps. I tried to blame it on my footwear, clunky hiking boots, but truth be told, that was just an excuse. I sucked! It didn’t matter, though, I had fun!

The lesson was inside one of the ship’s bars and we had a nice view of the outside deck. At some point, a man came dancing outside, with ear buds on, lost in his own world. The whole class stopped to look at the dancing man who had no idea he was being observed. At some point a kid in the class ran outside to tell him what was going on. The man stopped, looked at us and we all applauded. He smiled, bowed, put his ear buds back on and resumed dancing.

That evening before dinner I went to the ship’s spa for my first ever hot stone massage (or massage of any type, as a matter of fact). I am not really enamored with massages, but I wanted to do it because of Sharon, who loved them and had them any chance she had. So in I went, undressed and spent a very nice 50 minutes having my muscles kneaded and relaxing. It was pleasant and I enjoyed it and did indeed feel relaxed, until after the session was over the masseuse started trying to sell me some products for my bath. I made up a flimsy excuse, she kept insisting and after a few minutes of saying no I had recovered all the tension that I had lost. Still, I enjoyed the massage enough that I will probably do it again.

The other highlight of the day was the piano bar, where we all congregated to after dinner to hang out and talk. We were talking, drinking, the piano player was playing Elton John and we were all having a good time until he made the mistake of playing “Girl from Ipanema.” Some members of our group demanded that it be sung in its original Portuguese, there was some heckling and next thing I know I am sitting in front of the piano with a couple other members of our group singing the song. I was actually proud of myself for being there, not because of the quality of my singing, but because this was something that the Alex of 20 years ago would not have done.

Sunday we woke up with the ship docked in Nassau and, after breakfast, Pedro and I set out to explore the island. We walked along the beach and at some point Pedro went in for a swim. I was somewhat out of sorts, and probably not the best company for Pedro, but he was patient and we had an ok time. We eventually ended up at some sort or arts and crafts fair where a lot of things were “free,” but a small donation was required. I got tired of saying no to them, so I headed back for the ship. I told you I was grumpy!

That evening we all got together for dinner at Le Bistro, one of really nice restaurants aboard the ship. The food was excellent, the wine adequate and the conversation really nice. One of my schoolmates, who is able to chat anybody up, got one of the ship officers to take us on a tour of the ship’s kitchen. It was huge, busy and a bunch of us rushing through it after a few glasses of wine made it feel a little surreal.

The rest of the evening was spent in salsa lessons, some really awful dancing on my part and eventually we were back at the piano bar and yes, there was another round of “Girl of Ipanema.” Next morning we had breakfast together, said our goodbyes and went back to our lives, promising we will not wait another 30 years until the next reunion.

To recap, I had a blast! It was good to see some old friends again, make new ones and just enjoy hanging out. I was also happy with myself and how I behaved. I did not revert back to my old “wallflower” habits, but was able to let go of that darn self-consciousness (is this even a word?) and enjoy myself. I really hope it will not be 30 years before we do this again.

Yellowstone Day Three

Day three at Yellowstone was actually a day at Grand Tetons national park. Because of how much we had been walking the previous two days, several of our gang decided they wanted to stay at the lodge and get some rest, so it was left to Alan, Pedro and I to venture south to visit the Grand Tetons.

The drive was uneventful, with the usual stops to enjoy the scenery. Alan chose the route less traveled and we ended at some point in an one-lane dirt road, a very busy one-lane dirt road where we had to move to the side occasionally so other cars could go by.

We did run into the usual assortment of stopped cars, which in that part of the world means wildlife so we had to stop and look. This time it was a female moose and her baby, or as I am told, a moose cow and her calf. We had to crawl through the bushes in order to be able to see her, but that wasn't a problem. And with this sighting I had seen elks, bears, deer, moose and bison and felt I was only missing wolves to complete the set.

Eventually we got back in the car and drove on to Teton Village, a small ski town with an impressive mountain. It looked just like what I expect a Swiss village to look like, sunny and picturesque. Alan liked it to and decided that he and his family would stop there again when he travelled South with his family.

Well, there was a mountain and a a cable car so the next thing I knew we were on our way to the top which was still covered in snow. Up there it was cold and windy but that didn't stop us intrepid adventurers from exploring the summit, enjoying the precipitous vistas and wondering if anyone was crazy enough to actually sky down those cliffs.

Now, here we were close to the Wyoming-Idaho border and I was beginning to think we were the only Brazilians around but man, was I wrong. Not only did I run into two other groups of people speaking Portuguese, but the server at the summit restaurant was also Brazilian. He did make good waffles, though, and that plus hot chocolate is what we had for lunch.

After lunch we made our way back to the bottom, got in the car and started the trek back home. We made a few stops along the way, first to enjoy a scenic view of the Tetons from behind an old barn, and then to stop and take some pictures by the entrance signs to the parks. After all, we had to prove we had been there!

That evening we got together with everybody for one last dinner and said our goodbyes. Alan, Bel and Ian were staying in the park one more day, but Fernando and Gabriel were leaving early next morning on their drive back to North Dakota, and Pedro and I were flying back to Palo Alto. So back to our rooms for a good night's sleep. Next morning Pedro and I woke up at seven, took off by 10 am and, after a stop in Battle Mountain for refueling, were in Palo Alto by 4 pm.

Mischief done.

Yellowstone Day Two

Our second day at Yellowstone started like the previous one, with us getting together for breakfast, deciding on the day's activities, making plans to leave by ten am and actually getting on the road by eleven. Not a problem, though, since vacation is vacation and fun is fun. We got our picnic basket, packed into Alan's and Fernando's cars and off we went.

Our first stop that day was at the Gibbons Falls, the first of many waterfalls we would see that day. It was pretty, it was cold, and some tourists went over the fence and got way too close to the edge.

Next stop was the Norris Geyser basin. Yes, another geothermal place, but possibly even more interesting than Old Faithful.  We walked there for over an hour, mostly on boardwalks but occasionally touching Wyoming ground itself. I liked the colors there, where I saw some vivid green and yellows I had not had a chance to see up close before, really pretty. The geyser and hot pools were impressive, but there is one other thing that wowed me: I counted license plates from 25 different states in the parking lot.

Further North we went, this time in search of the Mammoth Hot Springs Terrace. Now, this place was really different! Apparently there's a lot of calcium in the water which combines with bicarbonates and becomes something called travertine. The end result was that the whole area was covered in this white substance. While the previous geyser basins gave me a feeling of Disneyland, this one made me think of alien planets and Star Trek. An impressive place, but all the going up and down stairs was a little tiring after the first day. Not so for Alan, of course, that man in unstoppable!

By then we had enough and were ready for a break so we stopped for some ice cream and, apparently, elk watching. There were signs all over Mammoth warning us that elks were mean and we should avoid them at all costs, but the elks didn't reciprocate. They had invaded the village and were all over the place, roaming down the streets, grazing in front of the hotel and generally making a nuisance of themselves. We, of course, didn't care. We were tourists, elks in the middle of the village were exotic and we stopped traffic taking snapshot after snapshot. Eventually the rangers chased us away and we decided it was time to go to our next stop, Tower Fall.

So we drove for an hour or so until we got to Tower Fall. No nice view from the road, so we had to walk a little to see it but it was, as everything seems to be in Yellowstone, worth the effort. Beautiful,  tall and impressive, but the best waterfall was still to come.

Back in the car and off to our next destination we had a really nice surprise, we got to see our first bears! A mamma Grizzly was, roaming the fields with her two cubs and we got a good view of them. Well, we got a good view of the mother since the cubs were mostly covered by the bushes, but we got occasional glimpses of them as they frolicked about and it was just exciting.

We stopped for a while at Mount Washburn so Alan could show us the place where he was almost snowed in a couple of days earlier. After admiring the beautiful, scenery, enjoying the sunny afternoon and complete absence of snow we went on to our final destination of the day, Yellowstone Canyon. Unfortunately I do not have the mastery of words required to do this place justice. It was beautiful, it looked like a painting, it was majestic, it was like a work of art; you have to see it with your own eyes to understand how impressive it really is. It also was the only place in the whole park where I got cell phone reception.

Now, Alan was probably feeling frustrated because for the last several hours most of our stops had required very little physical effort, so he decided we needed to hike to the bottom of the Yellowstone falls. Well,not exactly the bottom since we were running out of daylight, but down these iron stairs set along the mountain side for at least a couple hundred of feet so we could get a sense of the waterfall's size. Bel, Fernando and Gabriel were smart enough to decline his invitation, but Pedro, Ian, Alan and I started on our trek down, passing exhausted hikers coming in the opposite direction. With the risk of repeating myself, it was worth the effort. Everything in this darn park is worth the effort!

With the setting sun behind us we completed the loop and went back to Grant Village for a much needed shower and dinner. We went back to the main restaurant at the lodge where we got the same waiter from the previous evening. We ate, we talked, we drank and went to bed exhausted but ready for our final full day of adventures at the park.