Checking Out

Ok- I knew this day would come-- has anybody else had this feeling? You know, that feeling of now you're floating around on your own with no place to call home? No anchor to help you feel secure?

It's that time between checking out of your hotel room and the hours and hours before your flight departs. What do you do in the meantime? Where do you hangout?

For me, I guess it means taking up residence in the hotel lobby....finding a seat to call my own and settling in with some reading. Hmmmm...there's a lot more to this concept called home... amazing how a few hours of displacement can be so unsettling for me!

Conference Routine

 My favorite annual conference by far is attending ASA. It's always held in an interesting place where there is so much to see and do, but it's also so stimulating to attend sessions and learn what other sociologists are researching...

Each year the conference has a theme, but that theme is not the only topic of discussion. For example, this afternoon I attended a marvelous session on Collective Memory in which Aaron Cicourel presented a paper on the cognitive domain of memory making.

He discussed how medical interviews are paraphrased by doctors in doctors' notes and this becomes part of the archival record. However, the archival record only tells a small part of the story-- so in essence, doctors' notes are an example of sharpening and levelling-- a trick used by the advertising industry to market a product. Interesting stuff... maybe nerdy to others, but fascinating to me!!!

Saturday Morning in San Francisco

My wonderful new Sony H400 camera battery died right at the end of the winery tours yesterday, and when I got back to the hotel I found out I didn't have the right charger to recharge the battery! Sigh... So it was up early this morning and headed for the City Target store who directed me to RadioShack who directed me to the Discount Camera store around the corner--

Success!!! Turns out that this camera's battery charges in the camera but I needed a cable to fit so it could be plugged into an ordinary wall plug. The bonus was a lovely and interesting conversation with the camera man- who explained why Sony cameras were such good cameras and how Sony came to build their camera business. Sony acquired Konica Minolta on the 1990s when electronics companies became so diversified that some of the, including Konica Minolta wanted out of the digital camera business. According to Allan, the salesman who helped me, Sony management visited all Konica Minolta factories, shut down several and reorganized the digital camera business-- all without laying off anyone!

Then I also found out that the camera that's a level above mine, although it has lesser zoom, does have a German Carl Zeiss lens!!! Sigh and doublesigh.... for now, I'll do with mine-- it's not shabby-- 63x zoom and 20+ megapixels-- makes for clear photos when your style of shooting is on the go!

After a few hours of charging during which I took a much-needed nap, I'm now back in business! Yay!

Wine Growing Sustainability Tour

One of the perks offered by ASA is a specialized pre-conference tour emphasizing some topics relevant to sociology. And so it was that I spent yesterday traipsing through 3 vineyards in Sonoma County-- each known for using biodynamic agricultural farming practices. What is biodynamic wine farming, you ask? It's farming without using pesticides or herbicides or fertilizer. In other words, it's organic and sustainable. The vineyard owners use nothing that can change the soil or otherwise change the ecosystem it farms on.

Our first tour and tasting was at Benziger Winery where I fell in love with sustainable wine farming and immediately ordered 6 bottles to be shipped home! It was fun to taste the grapes right from the vine and note things like the color of the grape and the texture of its skin...

That's why we could pick grapes straight from the vine and taste them!

Next it was a stop at Hamel Wineries- a relatively new endeavor and a small winery. I fell in love with their Rose which had a Grenache grape (it's so fun to name drop with a little bit of knowledge !) and a beautiful color! Had several bottles of it shipped home also.

Last, we stopped at GunlachBundschau and after I tasted two of their whites, even while sloshing and spitting all day-- I was done tasting wines! Hard to believe but true!

Most of these wineries are about 30-40 acres, and as we were told on the tour, it takes a large fortune to make a small fortune in this business. Most of these wineries are family owned, and don't make much money but do this truly for the love of it. It also helps to keep the land in the family. 

San Francisco Arrival & Sausalito

What better way to arrive at a far away destination than to be picked up by your son? Michael was waiting for me when I landed with USAir (more about that flight in an upcoming post) and the timing was great because Annie arrived a few minutes later. We headed across the bridge to Sausalito, and had lunch at a cute little fish market on the waterfront. We then walked around in the heart of Sausalito, poor Annie tenderly nursing her foot since she'd had foot surgery. The weather was great and the view of the bay phenomenal ! Sausalito attracts lots of foreign tourists, so all sorts of languages can be heard- a feast for the ears!

Circling around the SF airport to pick up Annie...

Crossing the Golden Gate...

Lunch in Sausalito at the Fish restaurant...

Michael and Annie...

Behind me is the San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz...

Siblings on Mt Olympus Hike

Remember a few posts ago there were pictures of my 3 youngest children? Well, here they are all grown up and hiking Mt. Olympus this summer. 

I am just amazed by their hiking prowess!

They walk miles and miles, carrying everything they need to survive on their backs. 

Luckily, they find this satisfying and rewarding. I am so proud of them!

Myrtle Beach Vacation

 Most of the time our vacations consisted of going to Myrtle Beach and staying at Uncle Max's cabin. 

 Uncle Max is the handsome man on the far right. He and Ed go back many years... Ed first got to know Max when he was in grad school. 

 Adorable Lili on the beach.

 Phillip enjoying floating in his tube....

 And, of course, here is Sophia...happy with her progress on building a sandcastle!

 South Carolina's Grand Strand is fabulous! Wide beaches with blond sand.....

 Even Uncle Max joined us for a day on the beach!

Herring Point at Cape Henlopen State Park

It was time for a day trip out of town. A change of scenery is always good for the mind. While I have been busy with work and dissertation stuff, and entertaining our little visitor earlier this summer, Ed has been at home holding down the fort. We simply needed a quick day-trip getaway to cleanse our brains! One of my colleagues (thank you, Andrew!) told me about Herring Point and the new bike and walking trails opened this year. So with the kids all gone to hike the mountains out West, Ed and I took Fawn and headed down to Cape Henlopen State Park to explore Herring Point. It was also a chance for me to use play around with the zoom on my point-and-shoot camera. (More about my fixation with point-and-shoot cameras in a later post).

 Playing around with the "zoomer"...

 Getting closer and closer...

It was a gorgeous day and perfect location-- definitely will be coming back here to enjoy a day on the beach.

 These were shot from my position high up on the hill as shown in the first few shots- so yes, this camera has an amazing 62x zoom! Love it!

 Such a roomy beach and not too many people-- everyone had room to enjoy a front row seat near the water. 

I didn't know that Herring Point existed, until this little trip. It's a beautiful, pet-friendly beach. It is remote so you do need to carry in everything you need for a day of sand and sun. 

 I've also seen this area referred to as the naval jetty, probably because during WWII this area was all part of Fort Miles.

In the distance, you can see Rehoboth Beach.

We then decided to explore the trails a bit. But it was getting hotter and so after a while turned around to sit on a bench and enjoy watching all the bikers go by. 

 The trails are clearly indicated on this map...

 Fawnie was getting hot and welcomed the shade...

A family of bicyclists taking a break... can't wait to come back and do this myself!

 On our way out of the park we stopped at this Fort Miles observation tower, and while Ed and Fawn waited below, I climbed up to the top. 

I love these diagrams of the tower- this is a great history lesson for the younger generation. 

 The inside was not at all creepy...

The steps do get narrower the further up you go...

 Here is the view from one of the levels near the top...

 ...and here is the view from the top. It was a hazy sort of day, so the view was not crystal clear, but you get the idea...

 ...that's the Lewes-Cape May ferry departing from Lewes and on it's way across the Delaware Bay. It's a 45 minute crossing. 

A good view of Fort Miles. 

And that's a wrap for our day at Cape Henlopen!