Contemporary Norman Conquest

After returning from Turkey, Chuck got to have his own pilgrimage - his version of Mecca is Stockbridge, MA - home of the Norman Rockwell Museum. However, the "Mountain came to Mohammed" on November 9. The"American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell" is at the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento through Feb 3, 2013 and well worth seeing, seeing and seeing again. ALL of his Saturday Evening Post covers, self-portraits and many controversial works that did not meet the editorial guidelines of the then ultra-conservative art directors. Chuck has had the opportunity to do two SEP covers this year and it's definitely a different publication than Ben Franklin and Norman Rockwell created.

Bed, Roman Baths and Beyond

Before we left people raved about Turkish cuisine and our last lunch was the acropolis of Culinary arts. A family owned restaurant, far off the tourist path was nestled in a lush garden surrounded by an orchard of olives, pomegranates, oranges and vegetables. From the kitchen came a laughter that produced a groaning table of piping hot stews, mint and cucumber yogurts, three kinds of fried peppers, four eggplant, stuffed dolmas of cabbages or grape leaves, cheeses, fresh squeezed sherbet (orange and pomegranate) and home made dessert of semolina and pistachio. Of course, I bought her cookbook.
We fly out tomorrow as the sun rises on the Agean Ocean. We'll go to sleep tonight, wake up in Turkey, fly and then go to bed in California. What a marvelous, but confusing, magic carpet!!

Our lives in ruins

We arrived in Ephesus (Efes in Turkish -just like the ubiquitous beer) along with four 4,000 passenger cruise ships. We managed an early morning walk in amongst the ruins before the tourists were overwhelming. We'd been observing that everything (sights, people, food) here is a combination of hot, dry or old. In the case of this largest archeological site in the Mediterranean, we added the word WOW!!
And then the unexpected: millions of friendly, healthy cats. Linda was in heaven.

Turkey's Magical Hideaways

We were four nights on a 90 foot gullet cruising the Turquoise Coast: stopping at Cleopatra's Baths, hiking to a "ghost town" abandoned by the Turks in 1920 when they exchanged populations with Greece, swimming in the Mediterranean and trekking through nomads pastures or up river to see ancient burial sites. Fabulous fresh food, rough open water, bees and good company all round.