Month: August 2018

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Birthday Celebration at Peddlers Fair in Benicia

IMG_5043The plan was to give Mom options for her birthday celebration. We’d go to lunch and mooch around in either Rio Vista, Sonoma, St Helena or Benicia. We met up with my sister Donna at her house in Suisun City and discussed our options. Mom picked Benicia. Little did we know it was the day for the annual Peddlers Fair. Donna was over the moon when we discovered the happy coincidence.

We were lucky to find a parking space down by the water. It was a 12:30 so we were looking for lunch. The Salty Dog had a line of people waiting and no hostess in sight. We walked up the street and stopped at the Union Hotel. The food was terrific but the service was slow as molasses.  IMG_5044

Then we shopped till we felt like melting on the pavement. We stopped at the First Street Cafe for an ice tea. Then we headed back toward Suisun City on back roads. On the way we saw a sign that read “gravenstein apples for sale” and we did a hard brake to stop and buy enough for pies. We enjoyed a perfect day of celebrating my Mom’s birthday together.

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Black Penguin: Antarctic Travel Memoir Inspires

Evans bookIf you read my blog you know I have a fascination with penguins. I was looking for books on the Satellite Sisters summer reading list whilst in a Washington DC bookshop and The Black Penguin by Andrew Evans caught my eye. On his first assignment with National Geographic, he fulfills many of his geeky childhood dreams on this grand adventure.

It is a hybrid book–part personal memoir, part travelogue. Evans is an accomplished writer so every chapter kept my attention. I was particularly empathetic to the chapters about his experience growing up Mormon and gay. I have a few friends in my life from a similar background, but anyone who has felt like an outsider–and if you travel then you know this feeling–can relate to his pain of feeling completely misunderstood and alone.

He also decides to travel by bus from Washington, DC to Ushuaia, Argentina to board the National Geographic vessel to Antarctica. I enjoyed living vicariously through him and decided that I’d rather never travel by bus anywhere if I can avoid it. Lesson learned.

Use this link to watch the now famous black penguin video: https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/b2a_blackpenguin

The first 258 pages are all building to the last couple of chapters of penguins! and stories from his month on National Geographic Explorer. Sheer bliss. I wanted to go to Antarctica before and now I want to go even more!