THE THREE M'S MINUS ONE.

Life is so condensed and exciting. My friend Michal Houston still has a house in Murphys but lives in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. She loves it there. She came to visit old friends for a whirlwind week. Michal, Madelaine Krska,  and I, Mary, Maddie and Michal once called ourselves the Three M's. Maddie is retired and living in Arizona. For lunch, we went to our favorite old haunt, Camps in Angels Camp, and toasted our missing friend. I expect someday, the three of us will find ourselves together once again.
Michal and I had a great time looking over pictures of a trip we took to China. It was such a refresher course to read over my old journal and remember fun things we did, and stuff we saw.


Michal and I with a Chinese woman in a roadside village. What would happen if a bus load of tourists pulled up to your house in Murphys and asked if the people could come in and talk to you and see inside your house, and ask you personal questions about your life and how you live?
She lives in the country and is allowed two children, instead of one. Her boys both graduated college. She lives in her family home where she and her husband grow cotton. They have a hog to butcher, and a pond filled with edible plants shared with neighbors. The tiny house had two rooms a large gas wok in the kitchen with a table;  one bedroom where the bed was in a corner with little room to walk around it.


Michal with the ladies of a small Naxi (Nah-shee) village, all dressed for town to meet with a government official. Everyone friendly and accommodating.


I looked for a picture I had of Michal watching a talented cryptographer showing how to paint Chinese script on a papyrus, but I couldn't find it. Here, in the lobby of one hotel, we are both fastened by an ancient, intricate, carving in jade.
We talked about the places on our bucket list, favorite or memorable experiences on the road. I love what famous travel host Rick Steves said about travel:  "You cannot be a bigot when you understand other cultures." He is so right.

OH FOR YESTERDAY ONCE MORE

Yesterday, I started on my mail.  Here it is stacked in neat little piles. Paring it down by doing much of my correspondence on-line, subscribing to less magazines and periodicals has resulted in a huge reduction from last year at this time. That said, when it all came out of the packaging and envelopes, I had two sacks of paper for the recycling and a mess on the table.

On the sideboard, my taxes started. Emptying out the old files from last year, and discarding what isn't needed. Oh, for yesteryear!

Instead of chugging away at home, I was at the visitors center in Lafayette, LA. enjoying this beautiful pond,

from a mosaic bench, one of several  to sit on in the shade..

Near the driveway is this attractive sculpture of Rosie's Bar.

Then, later in the day, we went to a museum where we viewed the faces of cajun life in the area. These are all pictures of pictures from the museum about Cajun Culture.

Such a beautiful face.

Simpler times.

Full of belly laughs.

And joy as they "let the good times roll."

The groom does look a little nervous.
Its wonderful to have my pictures to look back on and remember the fun of yesterday in Southern Louisiana. Many people ask me what was my favorite place to visit on the road. Southern Louisiana was high on the list.We blogged  that area at this time in 2010.