China V - Terra Cotta and Haggling

Our flight from Beijing to Xi'an (pronounced shee-ahn) touched down around midday and we were whisked off to the regional museum where we were given a rundown of the days when Xi'an was the imperial capital of China. It was a pretty good museum and gave a good rundown on the Silk Road which was a series of trade routes to the West. In Xi'an's heyday, Chinese silk and other goods actually were traded all the way to the Roman Empire.

The highlight of the museum however, were the artifacts from the Qin tomb. As I mentioned last time Qin was the first emperor of China who built the first "Great Wall". He also was the builder of an enormous tomb guarded by an immense army of life-sized terra cotta soldiers who were presumably to protect him in the afterlife - much in the way Egyptian pharaohs had model boats etc. placed in their tombs for the next world. The museum had a small number of the soldiers which had been brought from the tomb site and could be viewed close up. They also had a couple of bronze scale model chariots from the tomb.

The regional museum in Xi'an

The museum entrance hall with a stone lion on guard

Some of the terra cotta warriors close up. There were life-sized horses, infantry, and archers in the tomb - just as there would have been in an actual battle deployment back then.

Inside a glass case were the bronze model chariots and horses from the Qin tomb.

For our stay in Xi'an, ABC Tours provided a local guide in addition to Mr. Chen. This gentlemen was a college professor in the local university and in addition to speaking excellent English, was extremely knowledgeable about the area's history and culture.

Aside from the historical aspects, modern Xi'an was a sprawling industrial city, actually more a region. We were told that it is a "small" city - only 7 million inhabitants. The original city walls still surround the core downtown area where our hotel was located. Our hotel was a Hyatt Regency and again was excellent.

A coal-fired power plant in Xi'an

The Hyatt Regency in Xi'an

After we settled in at the hotel, we had some free time. Unlike our hotel in Beijing, this place was located on the city's main shopping street. So we decided to take a walk around and look things over. This street, Dong Da Jie, was similar to the main drag in any US or European city. There were large, rather pricey stores selling electronics, fashions, Nike sneakers, etc. The only difference was that the signs were in Chinese with a smattering of English. Actually, it reminded me of a cross between Canal Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City (Canal is in the more modern part of New York's Chinatown). There were, as there had been in Beijing, a KFC and McDonalds in prominent spots on the street. Mr. Chen told us that KFC is very popular in China because unlike Chinese-style chicken which is cut up into small pieces, the KFC offers the novelty of eating whole legs, wings etc.

The street was very crowded - it was a Saturday Night and Chinese workers usually get the weekend off - both with autos and pedestrians. A word of caution to travelers: Chinese drivers do not stop for pedestrians; unless there is a traffic light you cross at your own risk. Another minor fact: while Chinese people are on the whole very polite and courteous, if someone brushes up against you or bumps you in a public place don't expect the Chinese equivalent of "excuse me". It's not discourtesy, but simply the assumption that in a country with 1.3 billion people, people are constantly bumping into one another so live with it.

That night we were treated to a rather forgettable dinner at a local restaurant courtesy of our tour company. Afterward, we took another stroll on the main drag and then turned in for the night.

The following day we were bussed a couple of hours away to the famous Qin tomb. It was pretty amazing. The tomb is basically a national park now and consists of three separate "digs", each with its own huge, hangar-like building. The oldest of the digs stems from an incident in 1974 when a farmer was digging a new well and got hit by a piece of terra cotta warrior. He contacted the government who sent in archaeologists.

A video Michelle made of the original excavation. It gives you some idea of the scope of the excavation. There are two others just as large.

We were told that emperor Qin began the construction of the tomb some time before his death. The construction technique was to dig parallel cuts separated by wide earthen walls as you see in the video. The cuts were covered by wooden logs and woven matting which in turn was covered with earth.

Qin died before the work was finished and was interred in the tomb. The work continued, but then a peasant's revolt took place and the rebels overran the area. During the ensuing chaos, the unfinished tomb apparently caught fire. It's not certain whether the fire was accidental or deliberately set by the revolting peasants. In any case, the wooden beams burned, the tomb caved in, and two thousand years of natural erosion filled the whole thing in until it was forgotten. In the cave-in most of the terra cotta figures were crushed. So, when the tombs were excavated, the figures you see were put back together like giant jigsaw puzzles.

The entrance to the Qin tomb complex

A closer view of the terra cotta warriors. The faces on all the warriors are different and may have been modeled from actual people.

This is the condition the statues were in when they were first unearthed.

The whole Qin tomb excavation site with its clay army was pretty incredible and is considered by some to be the "Eighth Wonder of the World"

After touring the three tomb sites, we had lunch at the park's restaurant. As one would expect from a national park where the government wants to make a good impression on visitors, the food was pretty decent. There was a chef making hand-pulled noodles, a Chinese speciality, which were served in a hearty beef soup.

Then it was back on the bus and back to Xi'an.

That afternoon, we had some free time, so the six of us decided to catch cabs to an area that Abe read about in his guide book. It was a place near the city wall called "Culture Street" and was what our guide liked to call "Chinatown". By this he meant an old fashioned Chinese shopping district where one bargained for items in small family-run shops as opposed to the trendy stores near our hotel. Think Mott and Pell streets as opposed to Canal Street.

"Culture Street" Xi'an

On this street and the various alleys off of it, we got our first taste of bargaining Chinese-style. Almost no one spoke English, but everyone had a cheap battery calculator with a large readout. You pointed to what you wanted and the shopkeeper (usually female) entered a number and showed you. She then handed you the calculator to enter your counter offer. Of course, you entered some ridiculously low price, and she would give an Academy Award performance in Chinese the gist of which seemed to be that if she sold you that particular Tchotchke for that insultingly low price she would be obliged to sell her children for medical experiments or something to avoid starvation.

Of course, this was all a game, and in the end, a price would be agreed upon somewhere in the middle of the two positions. We would feel like we got a bargain and the shopkeeper would get to keep her children. Abe and Roz even bought some nice Chinese wall hangings for their new home from a shop down a side street that seemed to specialize in art shops.

We took a cab back to the hotel and a little while later boarded our tour bus again; this time to attend a performance of traditional Tang Dynasty music and dance and then have a Dim Sum dinner.

The Tang Dynasty ruled China from Xi'an during what were roughly Western Europe's Dark Ages. In China, however, this was a time of high culture and enlightenment which went along with increased trade both overland and maritime. This included a revival of the Silk Road and contacts with still civilized Western nations such as the Byzantine Empire as well as Persia and India.

Anyway, the performance we saw was based on traditional music and musical instruments from the Tang period along with dance from the Tang Court.

A snapshot of the Tang Dynasty dancers and musicians. Contrary to popular belief, this dynasty did not invent powdered orange drink.

Our jolly group of would-be Marco Polos at the show. Left to Right: Abe, Alex, Monica, a lamp, Roz, Michelle, and me.

The show was enjoyable and afterward we were ushered down some stairs to a restaurant for a Dim Sum dinner. Dim Sum are Chinese dumplings filled with various things: meat, seafood, vegetables. The meal was quite good, with a good variety of dumplings and other dishes.

Then it was back to the Hyatt to pack for the next day's flight to Shanghai.

Next time: we get Shanghaied

China IV - Climbing the Wall

Our second full day in Beijing, we were up bright and early for a breakfast of eggs over easy and steamed dumplings. Then it was off to the Great Wall.

Calling it "The" Great Wall is somewhat of a misnomer, as there were a number of walls built and rebuilt at varying times in China's history. The original "Great Wall" was built by Qin (pronounced "Chin"- hence the name of the country), the first known emperor of China after he conquered the other small kingdoms around his small kingdom and created a united empire in around 500 B.C.E. Supposedly, the other kingdoms already had built defensive walls around themselves so he tore down the internal walls separating the parts of his new empire while strengthening and extending the existing walls in the north - he was worried about barbarians from that direction. That wall was mostly rammed earth and was north of the stone wall we know today from the History Channel etc. and is pretty much gone now after over 2,000 years of weathering and erosion.

The second "Great Wall" - the one tourists visit today - was built in the middle of the 1400's by an outfit called the Ming Dynasty (known also for expensive vases which you probably didn't want to drop off the Wall). Even this one is slowly falling apart except for the parts that tourists visit - those sections are maintained and in some cases restored. The rest of the Wall, like Hadrian's in Britain and the Roman Colisseum, serves as a ready-made stone quarry for the locals.

So, off we went to the restored Ming Great Wall in our trusty tour bus.

No, this is not the Great Wall. It's a pseudo Disney Land that some Chinese entrepreneur partially completed before running out of financing and abandoning it. Apparently, the Chinese don't put too much of an emphasis on other people's copyright laws.

After about an hour or so driving on one of China's excellent expressways, we reached the Wall. If you've seen any photos of the Wall, you know it runs along the crest of a mountain range in the area north of Beijing. I've spoken about the air pollution problem they have previously, but it was really brought home by the fact that we couldn't see the mountains until we were almost on top of them. Contrast this with the Nevada desert where you can see mountains 50 miles away (although admittedly, the City of Las Vegas does win honorable mention in the air pollution contest).

The section of the Great Wall which we were allowed to climb. This is facing roughly westward.

The portion of the Wall which extends eastward from where we were. Note the haze.

A close up of tourists climbing the Wall's many steps. The steps were very worn and very uneven.

The spot on the Wall were we disembarked our bus was extremely popular since it is so close to Beijing. There were huge multiple bus parks and numerous tourist Tchotchke stands. The stands were even on the Wall and they included an expresso bar! It was interesting that even with the large numbers of Western tourists, at all the National Monuments that we visited, they were well outnumbered by Chinese people. They seem to be very keen on their country's history - I get the feeling probably more so than we Americans are on ours.

Michelle on the Great Wall. She thought it was almost as nice as the retaining wall she had built behind our house in New Jersey (The Great Wall of Rockaway?)

Me posing in front of some Jackie Chan-type ancient Chinese weapon replicas. "Round" people like me are referred to as "Happy Buddhas" in China. I told Michelle to rub my tummy for good luck.

A picture only an old ordnance engineer could love: one of the cannons used to defend the Wall from attackers. The Chinese invented cannons but those knob-like thingies on either side of the gun barrel are called "trunnions" (they make aiming easier and more accurate) and were borrowed back from European cannon design.

After about an hour or so on the Wall, it was time to move on. The tour bus took us to a place for lunch (not very good) and a Jade factory and showroom. Then it was back to Beijing with a stop at something called the Ming Tombs along the way. It figures the Mings would want to be buried near their wall.

A carved jade ship model which was being sold for some insane amount of money (in New York it would sell for a psychopathic amount of money)

The Ming Tombs were interesting. They had a small but nice museum as part of the complex. However, I think I probably could have done without seeing them. But, since they were on the way back from the Wall - what the hell.

The museum at the Ming Tombs

A statue of one of the Ming emperors. Don't ask me which one. Probably the guy who had the monopoly on vases. I think antique dealers secretly worship him.

I asked our tour guide how the Mings came to rule the planet Mongo and he just kind of looked at me funny...

That night, back in Beijing, we were taken out to a Peking Duck dinner. It was actually pretty good, though not as good as some I've had. The trouble with being from the New York area is one really gets spoiled foodwise. Well, anyway it was one of the better dinners on the trip. I'll discuss the topic of food on the tour at greater length in another posting. By the way, don't ask why the duck is Peking while the city (at least in this day and age) is called Beijing. It's some complicated hoo-hah involving Chairman Mao, Chiang-Kai-Shek, etc. etc.

The next day, our last in Beijing, we visited a place called the Temple of Heaven. This was where the emperor would conduct ceremonies twice a year to pray for a good harvest. Apparently the run-up to the ceremonies included a temporary conversion to both Catholicism and Judaism since the emperor was required to abstain from sex and pork for some time prior to the ceremony.

Our tour guide Mr. Chen holds his ever-popular red lantern in front of the main building of the Temple of Heaven. He was surprised to hear that there is a replica of this building at Disney World Florida. Our friend Roz is on the right under her umbrella. As far as we know, there is not yet a replica of her at Disney. But there probably will be when they build a pavilion of famous Librarians. By the way, this was the only day it rained.

The interior of the above building

From the Temple of Heaven it was off to the airport for the 90-minute flight to Xi'an.

Next: Terra cotta warriors and marketplace warriors.

China III - Stone Boats and Hutongs

The afternoon of our first full day in China, our tour took us to the emperor's Summer Palace which is located about 10 miles from the center of Beijing. It is a series of buildings, gardens and pavilions surrounding a large artificial lake called Lake KunMing. The lake was dug by hand and once again, the leftover dirt was used to build an artificial mountain (well a hill, anyway). Supposedly the area and the presence of the lake made this a more bearable place to hang during the hot Beijing summers. Unfortunately, one of the things the Chinese didn't invent was air conditioning.

A statue of a "Kylin" a mythical beast which was supposed to represent good luck: located at the entrance to the Summer Palace.

One of the features we were told we were going to see was to be the "world's longest corridor". Well, it turns out it is really just a covered walkway about 1/2 mile long. It is, however, magnificently decorated.

"World's Longest Corridor"

One of the many, many buildings in the Summer Palace. Notice the workmen - all the Chinese National Monuments, as well as their cities were kept spotlessly clean.

Along one of the pathways we came upon a man practicing his calligraphy skills with a 3 foot long brush which he dipped in plain water and then proceeded to write on the pavement. Calligraphy has the status of an art form in China. Also, red sneakers seemed to be popular among the Summer Palace visitors that day.

A pavilion located on a small peninsula in KunMing lake

The "Tower of Buddhist Fragrance" and the artificial hill built from the material dug from the lake.

A beautiful ornate gateway near the "Buddhist Fragrance". The Chinese are very keen on gateways. The silly-looking red lantern on a stick which will occasionally show up in some of our other pictures was carried by our tour guide to ensure that we could always find him.

The Stone Boat

The Summer Palace was largely destroyed by fire in the 1880's. However, our old friend the Dowager Empress, AKA the Dragon Lady, liked the area so she had it rebuilt and made it her main hangout. The story goes that one day she decided that it would be cool to ride around Lake KunMing on a boat. A suitable craft was procured but when she took her first boat ride she found to her dismay that boats have a habit of moving up and down and side to side. This did not set well with her tummy. Sooo... She commanded her minions to build her a boat that did not move and the result was the stone boat we see above, firmly embedded to the lake bottom. She would often spend hours on this - essentially artificial island - enjoying boating without all the inconvenience. Note the carved paddlewheels on the side.

After seeing and duly photographing the Stone Boat, and buying some souvenirs, it was time to move on.

Next on our agenda was a tour by "rickshaw" (actually pedicabs) of something called a "Hutong". Hutongs were and are the old traditional neighborhoods of Beijing, they have streets which are narrow alleyways, too narrow for automobile traffic (in fact the alleys are also referred to as Hutongs). They are formed of traditional-style one or two story residences which surround an inner courtyard and usually house an extended family. Most of these neighborhoods are long gone, replaced by wide streets and high-rises, but a few of them have been kept in an effort at historic preservation.

Our tour group sets off through the Hutong

Our tour was via pedicab and we were taken to a traditional indoor market which consisted of a series of stalls run by independent vendors selling meat, seafood, produce, spices etc. We also were shown a traditional courtyard home (complete with ghost-proof high thresholds). The funniest thing were the street vendors on bicycles who kept pace with our pedicabs trying to sell us souvenirs. Well, this tour wrapped up after about an hour or so, and it was back to the hotel, a quick dinner, and bed.

Next: Climbing the walls

China Part II - Sex and the Forbidden City

Having discussed the 2008 Olympics and China's air quality problems, I guess I'll get back to our sightseeing.

So, after we walked all the way to the other end of Tianimen Square, we came to the main entrance to the "Forbidden City" this is actually the palace complex of the former Chinese emperors and while it was once forbidden to commoners and non-official people it is now a national monument and tourist attraction. Anyone who has managed to sit through the rather boring but history-laden film "The Last Emperor" has seen the Forbidden City since much of the movie was filmed there.

A short video by Michelle of Tianimen Square seen from the entrance to the Forbidden City. It pans round to the gateway with the ubiquitous picture of Chairman Mao. Apparently Mao is still quite revered in China.

We entered the Forbidden City and spent the rest of the morning there. We probably walked at least 2-3 miles through the palace complex - it was enormous.

The front courtyard of the palace. The building is covered with scaffolding for pre-Olympic renovations.

The palace is actually many buildings which housed thousands of people during the heyday of the emperors. From what I gather they were mostly concubines and eunuchs.

The emperor's bed. Presumably he shared it with one of the many concubines on any given night. The concubines - sort of assistant wives - were chosen from important families throughout the empire and becoming one brought influence and prestige to your family.

One of these women in the late 19th century, who was beautiful, intelligent and apparently quite ruthless, became not only empress (i.e. #1 wife) but for the next forty years or so ruled China as the power behind the throne for a series of puppet emperors, some of whom met mysterious and untimely deaths. She was officially known as the Dowager Empress but behind her back she was called the "Dragon Lady".

This is a huge lump of crystalline quartz which was quarried and carted to the palace at the orders of the Dowager Empress. I think it's supposed to show her power or bring good luck or something - the Chinese people have traditionally been very superstitious about certain objects and symbols bringing good fortune.

One interesting thing we were told concerned the entranceways into traditional Chinese buildings. On palaces, temples etc. the entrance doors always had thresholds on the order of around six inches high. You literally have to step over them to get inside. The purpose of these is to keep out "ghosts" or evil spirits which can bring bad luck, sickness etc. The theory went that the "ghosts" did not have knee joints, so they could not step over the thresholds!

Eventually, we made our way through the Forbidden City and into the gardens at the rear of the complex.

The gardens of the Forbidden City. The rocks with lots of holes in them were brought from some distant part of China where they occur naturally - except for the ones that that area's local peasants drilled holes in when they found out there was a market for them.

A Tea-House in the Gardens

Finally, we made our way out through the rear gate of the Forbidden City and joined up once more with our tour bus which took us to lunch and thence to the Summer Palace.

The exit gate from the Forbidden City. The hill beyond with the pagoda is artificial. It was made centuries ago by hundreds of workmen with wheelbarrows (a Chinese invention). I think the dirt came from the moat around the Forbidden City.

We had a fairly decent lunch that day - all meals were served family style with Lazy Susans on the table to swivel the food around- and I'm proud to say that Michelle and I used chopsticks throughout the trip. Having got to this point in our trip with this posting, I think I will save the Summer Palace and the stone boat for the next posting.

Later.

Slow Boat to China

O.K. Some months ago, our friends Abe and Roz asked us if we wanted to join them on a nine-day tour of China. We signed up on the tour - run by Club ABC Tours - and became the third couple in our little group. The others were Abe and Roz and their friends Alex and Monica. Time to blog about the trip.

The first thing is that it's a 13-hour flight to Beijing China. We flew Air China which still uses Boeing 747's (haven't been on one of those in a while!). Now, if you've been, say, to Hawaii, you know that that's about a 10-hour flight. So how come China's only 13? They fly the shortest route possible - straight north over the Pole. It turns out that Beijing is at about the same latitude as New York and almost directly on the opposite side of the earth. So the quickest way to get there... (And I thought that Fairbanks Alaska was the furthest north I was ever going to get...)

Nevertheless, it was still about three hours longer than I ever want to be on a plane.

We left around 5 P.M. on a Monday and got to Beijing at 6 P.M. on Tuesday, their time. The time difference is exactly 12 hours so at least we didn't have to reset our analog watches. Oh well.

I will say that Club ABC did a decent job of running the tour. Their guide, Mr. Chen, met us at the airport as we cleared customs, led us to a nice modern tour bus, and saw to our luggage and hotel check-in. The tour group consisted of about 30 people, all Americans. Over the next few days we were happy to find that on the whole, our fellow tourists were fairly nice and easygoing people. This is always a plus. In an interesting reminder of China's non-democratic status, on our way to our hotel, our tour guide very politely requested that we not discuss or ask questions about political matters on the tour. Of course he was referring to the unrest currently ongoing in Tibet and the connection to the upcoming Beijing Olympics. The 2008 Olympics are really huge in Beijing - they are practically rebuilding the city for them.

Well, totally exhausted since we had had no sleep for some 24 hours, we arrived at our hotel. It was called the "Capital Hotel" and, like the other two hotels we were to stay at on our tour, it has a 5-star rating. The only problem we found was that the beds were extremely hard. Unfortunately, this is the custom in China. Chinese people prefer very hard beds, so the best hotels have hard mattresses. Otherwise, the place was great.

The Capital Hotel, Beijing

After a quick bite to eat, we collapsed onto our hard bed and passed out til' morning.

The tour included a free buffet breakfast every morning. So the next morning, before boarding our tour bus for the day's adventures, we charged downstairs to stuff our faces. The breakfast spread in the Capital Hotel (and indeed in the other two hotels they put us up in) was excellent. It included among a vast array of things, the makings of a reasonably decent American-style breakfast and always some fresh fruit. It was interesting looking at the Chinese breakfast selections - apparently the Chinese people eat soup for breakfast. After being sufficiently fortified with food and caffeine, we boarded our bus and off we went.

The first stop was Tianimen Square of fame and infamy. They walked us along the edge of the square and pointed out various sights to us. The public was not allowed to actually walk in the square, ostensibly because there was a Communist Party congress going on at the time, but I rather suspect it had more to do with government paranoia about the Tibet situation.

The Great Hall of the People in Tianimen Square - where the Party congresses are held

A little further along the same sidewalk from the view above, we came to an electronic countdown sign to the 2008 Olympics:

Olympic Countdown Clock

The 2008 Olympics are the biggest thing to hit Beijing since Ghengis Khan. They are literally rebuilding the city, including major skyscrapers and other projects. People are being moved out of surrounding villages to make way for Olympic construction work. Although, in fairness, the government's not just dumping people on the street - they're being given apartments and reimbursement. We were shown two massive constructs for the Olympic venues: a stadium nicknamed "the bird's nest" for its innovative design and a huge aquatic swimming pool building for the water sport competitions.

The "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium - the picture was taken through the bus window causing the streakiness in the fore ground. However, note the general haziness in the distance. Beijing has a serious air pollution problem.

The Olympic water sports venue - note the exterior is painted to look like water

Apparently, the Chinese government is counting on the 2008 Summer Olympics to signal to the world that they "have arrived" as a serious and civilized member of the world community. Needless to say, anything which could tarnish this impression makes them very paranoid. Thus the concern over image issues with the Tibet crisis.

Personally, I think they have an issue closer to home which will not make them look very appealing to their Olympic visitors. China, and especially Beijing, has a severe air pollution problem. Our tour guide (being beholden to the government for his job - I don't blame him) gave us a song and dance about the haziness being due to "all the construction for the Olympics". The truth is more problematic. China has very little oil but lots of coal - so their basic industry runs on coal (they even still use steam railway locomotives in some areas). Homes are heated with coal. In addition, the number of automobiles and trucks in China has grown massively and added a mix of hydrocarbons to the coal smoke. Finally, in a peculiarity of Beijing, just over the mountains to the northwest (maybe 200 miles or less) lies the constantly encroaching Gobi desert. So, on top of everything else, Beijing is subject to sandstorms.

Now, I'm not an athlete, but if, after three days in the city, the air quality was beginning to bother me, what will it do to somebody, say, running a marathon?

The Chinese government are supposedly working like crazy to improve the air quality for the games, but I have my doubts.

Next: The Forbidden City and the Summer Palace

Road Trip III

When last we left you dear reader, Michelle and I were on our way back North from her sister's winter pied-a-terre in sunny Florida. As I had mentioned earlier, in a quick drive-through of Savannah GA on the way down, we determined that this lovely little city deserved a closer look. Since we were to make a stop at the home of our friends Marsha and Atlas in North Carolina, we figured out we could do an overnight and about half a day in Savannah.

Michelle booked us a room in a brand-new Holiday Inn Express on Bay Street, right near the historic riverfront and we ended up with a room that actually looked out over the river and had one of the best views in town. We checked in that evening and went out to find someplace to eat.

It turned out that across Bay street and down some steps was River Street with the actual water-level river front and docks along with lots of bars and restaurants. There we found a place called the "River Street Oyster Bar and Restaurant." Good food at decent prices.

River Street Oyster Bar

The next day, we booked a half-day tour on one of those buses that's tricked out to look like an old time trolley car. It was a good way to get a flavor of Savannah and the tour guide/driver was very knowledgeable.

A tour trolley makes its way along River Street

Savannah is a very pretty town. Its founders laid it out with over twenty squares that are really mini parks (think Grammercy Park in NYC). Most of these still exist and add a lot of charm to the city.

One of the Savannah "squares". This particular one is where they filmed Forrest Gump sitting on his bench eating chocolates.

The tour was over too soon and it was time to head for North Carolina.

That evening we arrived in the tiny town of Mount Pleasant North Carolina to spend the night with our friends Marsha and Atlas. They live way out in the country on a corner of what was once his family farm. We spent a pleasant evening there at their beautiful newly-built log home and after dinner we visited "Kitty City" a feline rescue operation at which Marsha volunteers in the nearby town of Concord.

The next day we drove 13 hours straight home to good old New Jersey.