ROAD TRIP! Up the Creek with a Million Geese

We left from Citrus Heights, a suburb of Sacramento, between the city and Roseville. A dry, typical end-of-summer day for California’s interior – meaning it was pushing 80 degrees by 10AM. Cruising up Rte. 5 through the heartland of California really brings home the fact that CA produces more that 13% of the nation’s total of fruit and vegetables (as of 2015), and why many growers are hollering for more water. Our first stop was for lunch at a place off the highway called, unfortunately, the Olive Pit (who doesn’t want to eat in the pit?). Pretty good burgers, and a wonderful condiment bar, plus a truly awesome array of every style of olive you could imagine (chocolate stuffed, anyone?)

We tooled on to a place I’ve wanted to see for some time: The Sacramento National WildlifeRefuge, 70 miles north of Sacramento. The six-mile drive on the Refuge roads is worth a detour, even if sitting among a gazillion honking geese isn’t on your bucket list. Recent midwinter counts have shown that 5-6 million ducks and geese winter in the Central Valley. This accounts for 60% of wintering waterfowl in the Pacific Flyway: more geese, songbirds, ducks and other birds than you’d see in a lifetime. This is a popular stop for migrations in fall and spring, and we hit it at an ideal time. The refuge supports over 250 species of birds; most notable are the huge wintering concentrations (November - January) of 500,000 to 750,000 ducks and 200,000 geese. Raptor numbers swell as the waterfowl numbers increase, including bald eagles and peregrine falcons (we saw both – first ever sighting of a bald eagle, up close and personal). Waterfowl viewing is good between October and March. Shorebird numbers peak in the spring and fall, while some waterfowl and numerous migratory songbird species nest here during the summer.

A Refuge is NOT a sanctuary. We were alarmed to hear gunshots from across one of the viewing ponds: Hunting is considered an important wildlife management tool (the refuge calls it “a healthy, traditional outdoor pastime, deeply rooted in America’s heritage…. and in some instances…necessary for sound wildlife management”). Hunting on this and other refuges is heavily regulated and there are specific permits, fees, and restrictions in place. Still, an urge to duck among ducks was not out of place.

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1937 with funds from the Emergency Conservation Fund Act of 1933 to provide refuge and breeding habitat for migratory birds, endangered, threatened, or sensitive species and other wildlife (and alleviate crop depredation by those pesky critters). The area of the refuge used to be a vacant, windswept plain; from 1937-1942, men from the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed levees, water control structures, and delivery ditches to create and sustain wetlands across the majority of the refuge.

It’s a great place to visit…but we had miles to go.

ROAD TRIP! Exploring Life in the Northland...

The coast by Heceta Head, Florence, OR

 It was a road trip for fun; it was a research trip for the future. My daughter and her husband lived in Portland for a year a while back, and I’ve had many friends who were nostalgically familiar with Portland, Eugene and southern Oregon. To experience a real Autumn, with deciduous trees in a Trix bowl of colors, a mild winter (maybe even snow!), a cooler summer – it all had appeal, not only as a place to visit, but for a possible migration north. The water situation in northern California is not a good one. Snow in the Sierras seems to get thinner-to-non-existent every year, and our water supply largely stems from snowmelt (we won’t mention here about how LA and points in between are bleeding off what water we have – see the movie Chinatown for that story). California is experiencing its most severe drought in recent history. Lake Shasta is currently at 53% total capacity (more about the current water conditions in California and the Bureau of Reclamation's webpage).

Traffic has reached critical levels; the expense of living in the Bay Area surrounding San Francisco has crept up like a starving tiger thanks to the dotcom super-salary boom, and California is burning.
 It’s a concern for the future. Leaving this gorgeous place for good would require at least a lateral move (same quality of life and beauty, less traffic and expense). The image of wet and green Oregon was more than tempting – so Ms. Nikki (my daughter) and I decided to test the water, so to speak. It was illuminating.

An Amazing Musical Suprise: MIM

What's in a name? I admit, “musical instrument museum” did not inspire me. I pictured a dusty set of cabinets with tarnished saxophones, even though a couple of well-traveled friends raved about the place. How right they were!

I have mentally renamed the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) “The Amazing Museum of World Music” (the acronym isn't as clever but this place is so uplifting, illuminating and inspiring to everyone, not just musicians, it deserves a name that should have people flocking to it.

First, the building itself is elegant and handsome. Second, visitors experience the best of technology with portable headsets that automatically pick up transmissions when they approach any of the hundreds of video/sound screens that explain and demonstrate various musical styles etc. The exhibition rooms of mechanical music machines and play-it-yourself instruments on the first floor are just plain fun, and the “world of music” on the upper floor is nothing short of fantastic. Talk about seductive! As you pass from area to area, country to country, section to section, snatches of songs and sounds call out to you to stop and examine the unique costumes, cultures, musical styles and instruments from, say, Burkina Faso in Africa, or Latvia, or Israel ( the floor is roughly divided by continents - the US has a room of it's own).
Check out this YouTube video from MIM. The white-coated restorers are a little surreal, and this demonstrates only a minor part of their automated collection of tweeting birds, automatons and giant orchestral machines - a tiny part of everything you'll find here.

The variety is astounding, the depth and breadth of research impressive. But most of all, you will come away entertained, educated, enlightened, and yes, uplifted with the knowledge that wherever a human lives on the the planet, we all speak the language of music.
AND you'll have a new appreciation of the beauty of all sorts of instruments. Tickets run from $10-20, and the museum is open most days, with specially scheduled concerts.

Musical Instrument Museum

4725 E Mayo Blvd.

Phoenix, AZ 85050

(480) 478-6000 

https://mim.org/

Desert Done Right: The Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale

I have a thing for cool light fixtures

If one place could sum up a landscape, a state, an idea, it's the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North. It IS the showcase for the best of Arizona's mountain and desert landscapes. Walking through the doors into the main lobby takes your breath away as all of Phoenix spreads out before you, framed by massive wood beams and floor-to-ceiling windows. 

Lulled by the scent of sandalwood (yes, it's piped in, and one of many sensory delights here), you might make your way to the onyx bar (made from thin sheets of onyx lit from behind), or to the spa for a seasonal light and scent treatment in the steam room (this autumn it's magenta light and lavender steam). 

 OK, this is a five-star resort, and you would expect luxury casitas, multiple swimming pools, tennis courts, the works, and your expectations would be amply met. The sixth star at the four seasons is the setting. Nestled among ancient boulder-strewn mountains, the resort takes advantage of every view, and appreciates the unique flora of the desert - shapely cacti and other native plants - like nowhere else. It's a desert experience par excellence.

Another view of Proof

The casual eatery, Proof, is the kind of place anyone would feel comfortable dropping by for lunch in their hiking shorts. It's a cross between a sports bar and a soda fountain with upscale food (and prices to match). I had a super fresh lobster roll (seafood is flown in daily) that knocked my socks off (if I was wearing socks). The ice cream is made there and is  irresistible. Another indulgence are the pretzel nuts, a cross between a deep-fried donut and pretzel, slightly sweet, with a melty cheese dipping sauce. The salads are also great, and carry a considerably smaller guilt load.

High season tariff for rooms (that would be now) runs around $700, while late summer (it can get up to 120°) hovers around the $250 mark. Shoulder season is in between, literally.

Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North
10600 East Crescent Moon Drive
Scottsdale, Arizona 85262-8342  
(480) 515-5700  

Down Home Wright - Taliesin

Every Frank Lloyd Wright space I've seen prior to this one has been built for someone else: private commissions like Fallingwater and the Kentuck Knob home in Pennsylvania, or public spaces such as the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California. They we're designed and built to please others. Taliesin is all about Wright himself: it was built for and by him and his family as an escape from Wisconsin winters.

Every inch of the site reflects FLW, from the height and narrowness of his doorways and low ceilings (some of which were modified after his death to accommodate those taller than Wright’s 5’8”) to the use of cheap, plentiful building materials: local rock, sand, cement, canvas, and plywood.

Wright is often cited as the father of site-specific architecture; Tallesin is a fine example of that, and also very telling about the man. The impression is of a powerful personality, highly egotistical and self-referential, more interested in form than function. By Wright's own admission, he banged his knees more on his own furniture than anything else. The rooms are showcases for interesting, if somewhat awkward, furniture and seating arrangement angles. Views took precedence over comfort, as did the way the piece looked rather than felt.

Wright admired and used plentiful, available materials, evidenced by his appreciation of simple rocks, turned red by centuries underground or sun-blasted black for an equal amount of time. Apprentices - his students -  labored beside him to hoist boulders into cement and sand forms to create dramatic walls while all, including Wright and his long-suffering wife - lived in tents among the scorpions and sagebrush.

 


All the Wright-designed properties I've visited have significant structural flaws (often water-induced leaks), as does Taliesin. The relentless Arizona sun and dust have combined to weather the property, rendering it a bit shabbier than expected, though Wright's placement of viewing sites and water features remains flawless. His sound design in the small cabaret is nothing short of brilliant.

The school of architecture, which still exists today, was Wright's wife's idea - an income source that utilized the site and gave opportunity to the eager young students who saw the value in Wright's idea of creating human habitations as art that enhanced and blended in with the nature around it.

Don't expect a polished property - this is a desert dwelling in every sense of the word, as eccentric and unique as Wright himself. 

Taliesin
12621 N. Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd.
(if using GPS, the address is 12345 N. Taliesin Dr.)
Scottsdale, AZ 85259

http://franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west/