A Great Day Off

I took a day of vacation today to volunteer at the Bolsa Chica Wetlands first kayak clean-up of the season. I used to do the clean-ups and the educational tours when I was unemployed, and I really miss everyone there. It is a great group of people who both work at the conservancy and volunteer there. So today was a good excuse to get out of the office, see everybody, get some exercise, and do good for the environment. And it was a flawlessly perfect Southern California morning: clear blue skies, high tide on glassy waters, and temperatures in the high 50s. We had eight volunteers who had never kayaked before, so I taught them the basics and set them on their way with plenty of trash bags -- and life jackets! I got to take off by myself in a 2-person kayak. That gave me a lot of extra room in the boat to load up trash. I gave myself the prize for the best thing fished out of the water: a 4-foot long traffic pylon thingy (technical term) probably used to mark a race route or block traffic from tree-cutting, along with the yellow caution tape that was wrapped around it. It was full of water and really heavy, and after a few tries, I finally hauled it into my kayak, without tipping over! WooHoo!! The really weird thing was tennis balls--tons of them! I must have picked up at least thirty balls. I'd see one floating in the middle of the bay, and I was hell-bent on getting it. I was kayaking in circles chasing after these damn balls. Another kayaker told me he picked up at least 25 tennis balls. I wondered where the tennis tourney was--and who dumped all the balls. Other than the trash, it was beautiful out there. There were lots of ducks, a great egret who made a sliding water landing right in front of me, and a bunch of jumping fish. I love being out there on these clean-up days--the only time humans can be in the restricted waters of these protected nesting grounds. It was so much better than being in the office!!

An Evening in Minneapolis

I arrived in Minneapolis with zero airline issues—which is a miracle for me! And both my flights were arrived early. My $17 shared-shuttle ride into the city only took 20 minutes and I was ready to explore a new destination. Minneapolis is a great city, friendly, walkable, international, and small enough to easily get around. I strolled down Nicollett Mall from my hotel—basically to get some exercise after sitting on a plane all day. Love the art and sculptures in this city—took a picture of the Mary Tyler Moore statue and figured out the route to the sculpture garden for tomorrow morning. Didn’t find the Brownsbackers bar, but that was because I didn’t take the name of it with me on my stroll, although I did find the street, so it should be easy to find after my river cruise tomorrow afternoon. After my walk, I stopped into a British Pub and got a Guinness. The best way to make friends when you are alone in an Irish or British Pub is to drink a Guinness. I’d only taken one sip when a gentleman came up to me and said “Are you drinking a Guinness?” I said “I am—it’s good for you”. He said “It’s the drink of champions!” I agreed. Then I met another ‘on a business trip’ person and chatted with him for a while. My Guinness was finished and the bartenders steered me toward the French restaurant next door for dinner. Steak au Poivre was the special, and I even ate the roasted brussel sprouts! The entertaining part was that my window seat afforded me a view of the Rolls Royce parked on the street, and the guy who was checking it out. He peered into the window, walked to the corner, then came back and circled the car. At first I thought he was casing it, then I came to realize, he was guarding it. He stayed within 20 feet of that car the entire time I was eating my dinner. Nice work if you can get it, I guess!! More to follow later on the rest of my time in the city.

Reflections on The Moving Wall

The Moving Wall, the half-size replica of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC, was in Orange County this weekend. Having only been in DC before the monument was built, it was a great opportunity for me to see it so close to home. Set up in a quiet corner of a large park, it had the somber reverence appropriate for a memorial. I appreciate the double meaning of the name itself, The Moving Wall: not only is it a traveling exhibit, but is also a touching, emotional work of art. The wall itself is an architectural beauty. The shiny black facade, which completely resists fingerprints (I tried), is as clear as a mirror. As you are reading the names of those lost at war, you can see yourself reflected there. There were many personal tributes left at the base of the wall: flowers, pictures, flags, a teddy bear wearing a military uniform, and a few red, white and blue cans of Budweiser.

Volunteers manned computers to assist visitors in finding their loved ones amongst the 58,267 names etched on the wall. Volunteers also roamed around the memorial ready to answer any questions about it. One gentleman explained to me how it starts at the center, the apex, with those killed starting in 1959, and expands out to the right from there until 1968. Then, it starts again at the opposite side, with those killed from 1968 on, and ends back at the apex, in 1975, so everything returns to the center. There are 74 panels, some listing only a handful of names, and some listing thousands, grouped by the dates they died, showing the ebb and flow of war. The symbolism of it is amazing.

There was also an exhibit of items donated by veterans and their families. It included a few jeeps, lots of uniforms, and tons of pictures, medals, and letters. A poem, written by a soldier who came home alone as most of his friends died there, was especially heartbreaking. The city, which has a large Vietnamese population, created a committee in 2009 to build a permanent Vietnam War Museum. With everything on display this past weekend, they are on their way to creating a great museum. I hope they are successful. It is something people need to see. We should never forget how horrible war is, and never stop working to make it something we only read about in history books.