Monday, February 2, 2004

Not much to talk about today, we are getting a little bit of a daily routine here, after being in Thailand for a week. We usually get up around 7 (you might know by now that I am not naturally an early riser, but I wake up some time between 6 and 7 here, and by 7, when the breakfast buffet opens, I am wide awake, and seriously hungry, so I can't wait to get up), then we have breakfast for a couple of hours (watermelon, papaya and pineapple, bacon and eggs, a croissant once in a while, coffee with Bailey's), while Marshal and Steve sit around, talk politics and smoke, I am going for a swim, then I sit on the terrace and write my “postcard” of the day, when I'm done we all take our bikes to town and hit the internet café (one of the many, I better say), after which it is almost time for lunch, so we linger until it is indeed time for lunch (Steve swears that I have a tape-worm, because food usually doesn't satisfy me for longer than a couple of hours, no matter how much I eat). After lunch we drive around the island on our bikes, stopping here and there for a cold drink, or another dip in the ocean, then we come home late in the afternoon, take a little nap until dinner-time, we drive back to town or to one of the Seafood restaurants along the road, and for desert we stroll the “strip” of Lamai, maybe get a massage, or sit in front of Friendly Market and what the crowds.

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention is the daily “fitting” around 6 o'clock , at King's Fashion , our local tailor shop. Thailand is a famous place to get custom made clothing, and one of my pleasures is to design something, draw it on a piece of paper an explain to our tailor Mr. Singh what I have in mind. A couple of years ago I had him made a long black silk vest with a high collar (something Count Dracula could wear…) – and it turned out to be one of my favorite pieces of clothing ever. So, this year I had him make the same thing in bright purple, with a lime green lining. It can also be worn inside out, and when I tried it on both Marshal and Steve burst out into laughter, because it looks exactly like one of those coats you rent for your college graduation ceremony, just without sleeves. Well, I guess I have to live with that. But enough talk, here is a picture of Mr. Singh, and Mrs. Singh (I tried hard, but I could not get her to smile).

As you can tell from the pictures, and from the name, Mr. and Mrs. Singh are not Thai, they are from India . Like most of the tailors you will find in Thailand . I was curious about that and asked Mr. Singh (who is 42 and came to Thailand at age 20) why there weren't many Thai tailors. His theory was that Thai people are not capable of this type of work, which requires “sense and precision”. No wonder these Indian shop owners treat their Thai workers like dogs…(I wanted to write a different word here, but I am trying to be polite). Still, having clothes made here in Thailand is an interesting adventure – especially when something goes wrong. I brought my favorite “fluffy sleeve” blouse from home and asked him to recreate it in different colors and materials – and one of the silks he recommended just didn't fall right. And the places where the seam was cut to accommodate the curve under the arm was “poking” into my skin. So, I basically told him “No sorry, I don't like the way this looks” – an he squirmed for 10 minutes about what to do (finally he offered that I could pick a different material and only pay for the labor on that one…which is about $ 5.00). It was kind of cute, because I think that we were doing a “dance of cultures”. I was very German at this point (although I am usually a nice and accommodating person, or so I think, but sometimes I realize that I can be most German, stubborn and argumentative, when I feel I am right about something) – and he was (probably) Indian (a culture I know next to nothing about), struggling between saving money and being polite to a good customer. The customer service thought ended up winning.

While I am having fun with my inexpensive silk wardrobe, Steve discovered a new “love”: copied paintings. (Now, THERE is a moral discussion I would not want to get involved in…) There is one gallery in town where a bunch of local artists offer their work, most of which are copies of more or less famous paintings of other artist. They mostly work from art books – and I have to say that you have to be pretty good in order to be able to recreate something from a picture that is 2x3 inches. Steve fell in love with a painting that wasn't even finished when we first saw it – and on top of it being a wonderful painting, there is a cute story about the artist. Remember the little longhaired Chihuahua I fell in love with 2 years ago? Her name was Deedee, and we first discovered her in a travel agency. The next year the same lady who owned Deedee was working in one of the internet cafes, and Deedee was still as cuddly and loving as she had been as a puppy. A couple of days ago, at breakfast, we were talking about Deedee, wondering where her mom would be working this year – and only a few hours later we met her, and Deedee, at the gallery. We thought she was just there selling paintings, and Steve asked her about the particular painting he was interested in. She told us it would be $ 100, and finished in a day or two. She even knew the exact page in the 800 page art catalog on which the painting was printed. When we went back to the gallery to see the progress of the painting, we found HER sitting in front of the easel – she turned out to be the artist. Which makes the painting even nicer for us. Here is a picture of it, almost finished:

And a picture of Deedee and me (oh, she would make a pretty girlfriend for Bonzo…)

And finally, since I mentioned that we were going to pick up our friend Geoff from the airport, here is a picture of Geoff at the Internet Café, so you have an idea who I am talking about in the postcards to come… – time to go and have some more adventure…

Sunday, February 1, 2004

Yesterday I tried to keep my eyes open to be a little more “documentary” for you, and while Marshal, Steve and I were roaming around on our little rented scooters, I tried to take some shots of the “normal” Thai live. Of which the motorbikes play actually a fairly big part, since the average person on the island here (and again, this is just information gained from looking around, not backed up by any serious research or statistics) can't afford driving a car.

Motorcycles often accommodate entire families – the first picture shows a family being out and about on Sunday, the baby has a special little seat up front, while the mother has to take the backseat. No helmets for either one…

Triple biking is not only acceptable for families, but also for friends – like the three young woman who were out to get a little snack for the afternoon.

But what I had my eyes open and the camera around my neck for was Thai houses. I'm not sure that house styles can tell you anything about the culture of a country (or the “essence” of a people, whatever that maybe), but one thing that fascinates me about Thailand is the seeming co-existence of rich and poor. All the pictures below were taken in more or less the same spot, there is no such thing as a “rich quarter” and “barrios” - as far as location is concerned, people on Ko Samui seem to be fairly equal. The size and style of houses they live in are anything but.

The first picture shows a traditional Thai house (anthropologists would scoff at me for saying that, there is probably no such thing as a “Thai style” – one would have to be more specific as to the region of the country and the period of time a building would represent,) but I think it is safe to say that a lot of houses in the Thai countryside look like this one. They are elevated, built on posts, for better ventilation and safety from various critters, and to prevent flooding in case of serious storms. Or so I was told.

And then there are the villas of the really rich (maybe vacation homes for merchant families from Bangkok ?) – surrounded by fences and equipped with a little house for security guards. Well, maybe some people are not so rich after all, when I drove by this house going in the opposite direction I noticed a sign saying that this house was available for weekly rental. Go figure.

Only a few streets closer to the beach, I discovered these little huts, nestled against a rocky hillside.

and yet another “typical” style of houses, which could be called “Thai modernism”. Gulp.

Thai architecture employs several building techniques – from wood construction (mostly in the old houses, which are built with teak, a wood which is no longer available for construction, and most of the other wood types don't withstand the demands of the climate and termites here) to “pillar and post” construction, where the “armature” of the house is built with concrete, and the walls are filled with bricks made from baked clay. Sometimes the outside is decorated with woven bamboo mats, like in this beachfront house:

Driving the little backroads of this island is definitely exciting, and comforting, since there are still a lot of corners that are not touched by tourism, you can almost believe that you are far away from the hustle and bustle of the few areas where most “catalog-tourists” are buried for the duration of their stay. More soon – it's time for some lunch, and time to go to the airport to pick up our biker buddy Geoff (remember him, the cute guy I went to Wyoming with last summer?) is going to join us for a little vacation from the grim island winter….

Saturday, January 31, 2004 (GF - Movie will arrive later...)

I promised my “monkey-story”, but it’s not really a story. Nothing like the dog and the monkey we discovered two years ago, tugging at each others parts, just a cute little movie clip I took, to get some “motion” in my postcards. Someone will probably tell me how horrible the monkey situation in Thailand is (there are always people who know all the bad details of life!), but I still enjoyed watching the trained monkey climb into the palm-tree and pick coconuts. Yeah, I know, nothing spectacular, but the monkey is probably happier than one of those that sit behind bars in a Western zoo. Discussing the happiness of animals held more or less in captivity (whether it’s monkeys and elephants in third world countries, or chicken and cows in our culture) can never lead to anything good, so, what the heck, here are some of the pictures I took. First, the monkey handler, the monkey and me, posing for DH (who, by the way, is very proud to be a “DH”, don’t worry Susan, he is not feeling degraded at all!).

Apart from my white legs you might also notice that I am standing on the non-be-monkeyed side of the guy – I was in a “get-away-any-second” pose, those monkeys are extremely aggressive, I mean, you just take one look at their face and you know that they would tear you into pieces if they could only get close enough to you. I am not sure that they have any other purpose than to amuse tourists during scheduled “Monkey shows” or private showings (I paid 50 Baht – a little over a dollar - to have the monkey climb up the tree and throw down a couple of coconuts), or whether they actually pick coconuts for sale. But there is definitely a tradition of monkey as “nut-pickers” in Thailand, you might remember the picture of the monkey riding on the moped, which I took a couple of years ago…You might also notice that I have no idea what KIND of monkey this is, to me it looked a little like a baboon, but Steve and Marshal are convinced that baboons only live in Africa, and this type is a little bigger than the Macaques (however you spell that) that chased me down the temple steps in Krabi two years ago (aren’t you glad now that you are only doing armchair travel with me?

I am always managing to get myself into trouble with monkeys…being chased or assaulted. One of these days they are really going to get me. Having worked in a zoo one summer in my teens, I should KNOW better than to think monkeys are fun adorable creatures, they are some of the most aggressive animals out there!) Anyway, maybe someone with a little more zoological knowledge can tell me what type of monkey this is. Here is a close-up:

And finally, here is the little mini-movie I took, right after the monkey climbed up the palm tree, threw down a couple of coconuts, then ran back to the handler and started “spinning” the stem off. Don’t wonder about the sound of the movie – the little camera I am using right now doesn’t record any.

(movie)

Let’s see, what else did we do yesterday? Steve got a haircut (yes, I also took pictures of that, but mostly to record some personal memories, when I look at my pictures ten years from now I think seeing Steve getting his hair cut will please me a lot more than seeing a stupid monkey spin coconuts…) and the three of us drove up to the little fishing village of Bophut, to take a swim in the ocean (the waves right in front of our hotel finally calmed down this morning, whenever I wanted to go swimming Steve felt compelled to escort me by walking along the beach, just I would get myself into trouble. Last year I almost drowned by sitting right next to a rock, when a huge wave washed over me and pulled me alongside the rock into a little whirlpool…if it hadn’t been for Steve who managed to get a hold of one of my legs and pulled me back, you might have to read the New York Times instead right now…). Bophut (we are going to go back soon, I’ll take some pictures then, it’s really idyllic with its old wooden houses) hasn’t changed much, compared to the construction going on in most other places on the island, but our favorite massage place, the “Starfish & Coffee” has folded it’s operation and turned the little Arabic looking massage stalls into a bar with a pool table. Too bad, I sure enjoyed being walked on, while looking out over the ocean at the gleaming golden Buddha Statue at the end of the bay. But we ran into a few people who talked to last year, like Goi, the manager of “The Lodge”, a quaint little hotel at the beach, who looked at us with a huge smile and said: “Hello, Steve King, and Miss Corina”. Steve is just amazing – he always talks with people, learning everything about their lives and their families – and people remember him. We only stayed at The Lodge, once, for a couple of days, three years ago. And the gal STILL remembers Steve, and my name, because I gave her a bunch of beads. It sure feels good, being remembered. I on the other hand always remember “Gerald”, the owner of a little French hotel right across from The Lodge, we stayed at his place for another couple of nights, when we couldn’t get any room at The Lodge. Him and his wife run a beautiful little hotel with a magnificent lush tropical garden and tastefully designed bungalows with open-air bathrooms, and French breakfast! Now whenever we come to Ko Samui we spend a couple of afternoons in Bophut to make sure all of our acquaintances are still there – a comforting proof of continuity in the ever changing world. And it is nice to just get a glimpse into the life of “dreams” that someone else managed to create for themselves. Running a little hotel across from the beach, where your employees do most of the work, and you just have to be there to make sure the guests are happy, and the rest of the time you can spend on your boat, snorcheling, or putzing around in the garden, that doesn’t sound like too bad of a life.

Maybe when I get tired of living in the Northwest, Steve and I could find a place like that, as long as it has electricity to run a kiln and a torch…we could organize get-aways called “Beads on the Beach”. Just an idea. Speaking of beach, it’s time to burn my CD, drop by one of the numerous internet cafes, pop my head into the taylor shop for a fitting (more about that later), and then go on our daily bike-cruise. See ya later! (oh, one final picture – a little painting I discovered on a wall in one of the restaurants, thought you might enjoy that!)

Friday, January 30, 2004

Hello again!

This time my postcards are almost falling victim to Olivia Goldsmith. Who and why is that? It’s the author of a book I took along as “vacation reading” – and I am addicted. It’s like Sex and The City on printed pages, smart, well written, and utterly ridiculous. As far as “real life” stuff is concerned. Although it is not without real life irony, considering that it’s about a woman who changes her life with cosmetic surgery, and the author herself passed away recently, barely 50 years old – due to complications during plastic surgery… Anyway, one of the reasons you are not hearing more (or longer) from me is that I still have 277 of 880 pages left to read. But I guess that’s not what you came here to read about. We got into our final destination on the island of Ko Samui, and right off the bat life taught us one of its inevitable lessons: the world around us changes, and we have to adjust to it, some way or the other. I knew that something was wrong when the little pond with the waterfall at the entrance to Bill Resort was replaced by a building under construction. Ohmy, Bill Resort is going to expand. And it got worse the further we moved inside – our old breakfast area was deserted, only a few stacked plastic chairs were reminders of the comfortable seating area we used to sip our coffee at early in the morning, and the wooden deck with those traditional triangular Thai cushions, the very spot from which I am smiling at you on the top of this page, was gone. Replaced by a brand-new restaurant area, with tile and sandstone floor instead of the shiny worn wood planks that felt so smooth under your bare feet. Our room was unchanged, a small bungalow one row removed from the buildings right on the beach (we learned years ago that the surf is so noisy that the rooms directly facing the water make it almost impossible to sleep). But those three bungalows were now under construction. Bags of concrete are leaning against the walls, through big gaping holes in the siding you can see the inside torn up, waiting for – what? We have been here for three days now, and so far I have not seen anyone enter the construction are. Which is good I guess, because the sounds of construction is not what you want to hear on your vacation. A sign at the lobby is apologizing for the inconvenience, and is announcing that Bill Resort is adding a swimming pool, which is supposed to be completed by April. Somehow our first reaction was that of utter disappointment, we felt cheated out of our expectation at finding everything the same as last year. That’s what we were used to, that’s what we were looking forward to for a whole year. Kind of looking forward to meeting an old friend from high-school, and then you have to find out that this friend is not who he used to be, that he changed, and now you have to learn to look at him with different eyes, and maybe give him a chance to prove that the new him might be even nicer to be around that the old chap. In reality, the old breakfast area was too dark, you could hardly see the ocean from where the tables and chairs were hidden under the roof, and that wooden platform, well, that picture I added to my postcards was taken the very first year we came here – I have never SAT on that platform any of the later years. Usually the techno-music from the bar was so noisy that you couldn’t focus on your book anyway. And having a pool would be a great improvement, since the ocean is often times so choppy that swimming turns into a survival training rather than a relaxing refreshing dip. And there is something nostalgic about the smell of fresh concrete, it reminds me of my childhood, when my parents and I walked through the construction site of the home we were going to move in, away from the confinements of a tiny apartment, into a new life with rooms for each of us kids and a big garden to play in. Concrete is the small of change and of moving forward. So, I guess it’s a good thing, for Mr. Bill. We probably won’t be able to afford the rooms anymore, right now we are paying $ 40 for the bungalow, with aircondition and breakfast. We walked around a little and found a hotel we liked (with a pool) – and their prices started at $ 120, for the rooms farthest away from the beach. Maybe the days of leisurely luxury are over? That's another reality of change. People and places may change because they feel they need to, and it may well be for their best interest. Mr Bill will be able to charge more for his rooms, and maybe he will have to hire more personel, and provide a living for more people. As inconvenient as it maybe for US, we have to accept that things (and people) can't always have OUR best interest in mind, something we can't do anything about but accept it. And who knows - maybe Ko Samui won’t be our spot of choice anyway, since construction is ubiquitous – resorts are shooting up like the proverbial “Takenoko (Bamboo-shoots) after the rain. That is one part that is sad about traveling – the world seems to look more and more like – hmm, like the States maybe? Like civilization as we know it? Still, only one MacDonalds in Lamai Beach, and that one isn’t frequented by tourists, but rather by Thai teenagers who want to get a bite of American culture. But I better show you some pictures, before you wonder whether I am even enjoying myself here. I AM, very much so. It was just the initial disappointment at the world being different than what it used to be, and again, that I guess was supposed to be my life-lesson: go with the flow. This time we’re not only GOING, but we are driving again, our first “action” was to rent the little scooters that allow us to go anywhere on a whim, and get some cool wind on our faces on top.

Here is a shot of Steve and our travel-companion Marshal, with the proper “gear” for touring the island. Since I am the one with the camera, you won’t see much of ME in this travelogue, but luckily the camera is made in Japan and comes with all kinds of interesting functions, one of my favorites being the “coupling shot”. The camera only takes the picture of HALF the screen, so you can take a picture of someone, and then hand the camera to that person, sit in the same spot – and in the final picture it looks as if you both were there at the same time.

Like in this picture of Steve, Marshal and me having lunch in one of the smaller resorts along the beach. If you look really closely, you can see a “break” in the railing behind me, that’s where Steve didn’t quite get the alignment of the background right. Pretty nifty, don’t you think (but I think I already mentioned that in my travel report from Japan, just after I bought the camera…).

Since I promised you a few beach pictures today, here is the view we were looking at while having lunch: There is more that I wanted to show you, but Steve and Marshal are eager to get into town after just finishing breakfast, so I better burn this postcard onto a CD and take it with me to the Internet Café. Ah, one got to love modern technology! I'll tell you my little monkey story in the afternoon!

Thursday, Jan. 29, 2004

Hello again! This is my first “real” postcard from Thailand, typed at the airport in Bangkok, while waiting for our flight to Ko Samui, a small island in the Gulf of Thailand, where we spend the majority of our vacation. Of course, chances are that you know this already, since this is our 4th year of travel to the same spot. While it is fun to have adventures and discover new places in the world, there is also something comforting in seeing the same faces and “landmarks” year after year, it gives you a sense of “belonging”, almost like having a second home. So, even for the few days we spend in Bangkok, recovering from the 20 hours of flight and transit via Japan, we stay at the same hotel, eat at the same restaurant in China town, and walk the same early morning market, year after year. I almost wouldn’t have to take my camera, since I could just recycle my pictures, and maybe just show you those that you didn’t get to see last year. But, that wouldn’t be too much fun, I would feel like cheating you. Today I am not in a very wordy mood, so I try to take some pictures that speak for themselves.

First, there is a view from the front door of our hotel – there is nothing particularly interesting about the scenery, but it gives you an idea how visually “busy” this city is. Wherever you look, there is an abundance of colors and textures, just like there is a different smell around each corner, either from a pot of boiling coconut soup with shrimp, or a flower vendor, or a bunch of garbage that is attracting rats during the cover of the night (I kid you not, Asian cities are nothing for the faint at heart, unless you go to Singapore, where you would get a $2000 fine for spitting out a chewing gum…). What I like about this picture is that it is very “Thai” colored – the Thai flag is red and blue and white. So, I called this picture “Thai colors” – maybe I can use it as inspiration for a set of beads around the 4th of July.

Interesting color combinations can be found everywhere – like in the next picture, which shows a public phone. Cellular phones are pretty wide-spread now in Bangkok, so I am sure that the days of this phone will be numbered. At least it will live on in my collection of photographs…

One more photograph that I like, just for the colors, and I just like close-up photography. No particular reason beyond that (other than I think my little Casio travel camera does a good job with colors and detail).

Reviewing the pictures I have taken so far, I realize HOW much I am my father’s daughter. I think if you would go through all the pictures of vacations my dad has taken over the years, you would find 100 pictures of people (like my mom or people they met along the way) – and 10 000 pictures of doorknobs, windows and strange still lives that he “discovered” in foreign countries. My own pictures are mostly that way, they are usually of colors that I find inspiring, or little bizarre “sights”, that have no particular relationship to the country I am finding myself in, but could have been taken almost anywhere in the world. My pictures don’t necessarily tell a story, they just “show”, whatever.

Like this picture of a Thai cat we ran into a few steps out of the hotel. Of course I could use this picture to tell you something about the spiritual significance of cats in the Thai culture (here I am at a loss, my guidebook doesn’t mention anything about cats, apart from that, I forgot it at home), or at least I could give you some minor statistic on how many stray or non-stray cats there are roaming around in the streets of Bangkok, or point out the difference in appearance of the Thai cat (slim body and huge eyes) – which is very similar to that of the common Egyptian cat, and might just stem from the lack of nutrition…but again, I don’t know a single significant fact about the cats in this area, other than that they are just about anywhere, and though they are on the slender side, they look quite happy and overall healthy.

Just like the majority of dogs in Bangkok, though you will run into one or the other mangy canine, most of the dogs in the city seem to belong to someone, they all wear collars and they get if not loving attention, so at least some left-overs from the local business owners.

So, while we have established that I am certainly not a “photo-reporter” (and not much of a “reporter” in any other way either, let me show you one more picture I took this morning that I like just for it’s visual quality, not that it will give you any information about life in Bangkok (other than that the air in Bangkok is very similar to what you would find in LA in mid-summer).

Now, what could I tell you about that might be of interest? (I sure hope that I will get a postcard someday from someone who got so inspired by my reports from Thailand that he or she HAD to travel over here to see and experience for him/herself. Maybe my massage experience will do the trick! Remember how reluctant I was to get a massage, when I came here for the first time 4 years ago? I received quite a few emails urging me to overcome my girlish shyness of having my body both looked at and manipulated, and after finally giving in to giving myself over to able hands, I am now officially a massage-junkie. If there is such a thing. Well, if there wasn’t, there is now – I am addicted to Thai massage. We went to our “regular” massage parlor, just a few houses down from our hotel, and while Steve booked himself an hour of Swedish massage (oil massage, more what you are likely to get in the States), I signed up for an hour of Thai-massage. After 10 minutes I was in such a state of bliss that I lifted my head and help up two fingers in the air: “Can we make that two hours?!” Even two hours didn’t seem enough – for the first time I had a male massage-therapist (if we may call them that), and I don’t know whether it was just more physical strength, or a hidden interest of the Thai male in the pale western female physiognomy – it was a lot better than anything I had experienced before. Often times Thai woman (who probably offer 90% of the massages in Bangkok, and don’t ask me how much of that is solely in the interest of making your muscles feel better…) chat to their buddies on the mattress next door, and you can tell that while their fingers are embedded deeply into your muscle tissue, their mind is somewhere completely different. This guy was 100 % into me, or, in other words, all over me. Which is nice, in a way, to have a cute guy in his mid-twenties, with smooth skin and nimble fingers, devote his full attention to you. Or at least to your muscles and bones. I have described the doubtful pleasure of Thai massage at length last year, but just for those of you who haven’t been around for that long: Thai massage is kind of like an assisted form of yoga. While most of the time you are lying down, the position in which you are lying constantly changes – and sometimes you are lying on top of the person who is “doing you’ – with his knees in your back, and the only parts of you touching the ground are your feet… Before I definitely experienced pleasure and pain, but this guy managed to make moves that would combine the two feelings into one bizarre “ohmygoddon’tstop!” sensation. He even massaged my eyebrows, which is really nice, let me tell you! Speaking of eyebrows, after a little nap and our obligatory steamed fish dinner in China-town, we continued our pampering session with a facial (yes, even DH Steve is enjoying the pleasures of having your body taken care of in Thailand). I have never had a facial in the States, some people swear by it, but I guess I am just too cheap, and it never seems important enough to spend 70 or a 100 dollars on. A full facial in Bangkok can be had for 5 bucks, and that includes all the bells and whistles, like ultra-sonic pore cleansing, steam treatment and a mask of fresh cucumber. You emerge feeling clean like a turkey before going into the freezer, looking at least 10 years younger… and that was about all the adventure we had in Bangkok this year, as I have mentioned before, after coming here for many times we are not really into sight-seeing anymore – so, if you want to see pictures of the “sights”, like the Grand palace, the Golden Buddha or the floating market, you might have to look at a guide book. Or, if you want to get a feel for the country, you might go and rent a couple of videos, I would recommend “Anna and the King” (call me weird, but my favorite scene in this movie is the beheading, I think that is a masterpiece of editing, and the music is just incredible) – and then maybe “The Beach”, with Leonardo DiCaprio, which is a stupid movie, but the beaches pretty much do look like that. And if after you have gotten into the mood for beach, come back here, in a couple of days I will have some beach pictures for you!!! (Hope you are not reading this in any part of the country that is hit with a major cold front, that might not be too uplifting for you!)