The United Nations at Muir Woods

Last Friday I used a vacation day and drove up to San Francisco to hang out with my girlfriend Laura, who was already up there on a business trip. We spent a night at the excellent, out-of-the-way Marin Headlands Hostel (Laura works for Hosteling International in San Diego), visited my sister Kate, and did quite a bit of hiking, including a nice early evening walk through the redwood grove at Muir Woods.

Muir Woods is well known for its majestic grove of skyscraper redwoods. The path through it is flat, paved, and easy to walk. It is located in Marin County, just a short drive across the Golden Gate from San Francisco. It is, consequently, jam packed with tourists and daytripping locals on a sunny Saturday like the one Laura and I chose for our visit.

There were kids in strollers, kids walking, kids running, kids yelling. People talking in Spanish, Italian, German, English, and (I'm guessing here) at least four or five South Asian languages. Laura and I observed that the cathedral-like splendor of the grove was difficult to enjoy when the din from a group of fourteen Bengali students was competing with a family of six from Tennessee, with kids arguing about whether they could take their gathered redwood sticks home.

After an hour walk, as it was getting dusky and chilly, we were heading out, and happened to pass a brass plaque side of the path.

"Let's read the plaque," Laura said.

Never one to pass a plaque without reading, I walked over and read the inscription.

It indicated that in this spot, on May 19th 1946, representatives of the newly-formed United Nations came together to honor the memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died a month earlier. They chose this spot because it was so beautiful, and calm, and peaceful, the plaque said - a perfect place for reflection.

A kid shouted nearby as the mobs of people passed.

If only FDR could see this so-called "peaceful" spot today, I thought.

But then I looked around and realized that here, 61 years after FDR's death, which occurred before the conclusion of World War II, I could look around and see Germans, Italians, and Japanese, enjoying the California Redwoods side by side with Brits, Americans, Russians, and probably some French people, too. Not to mention the groups of Indians, Chinese, Mexicans, and representatives of who knows what other nations. And then I thought, yeah, if only FDR could see us now.

The Realest of the Real

It is now totally, 100 por ciento official. I have the tickets and they are non-refundable. So I have to either go on this trip or be out a few hundred bucks and have nothing to show for it. Laura and I are flying into Guadalajara on Palm Sunday - March 16th - and out of Oaxaca on April 6th, the day after Laura's birthday.

That means that we will be in Guadalajara, Guanajuato, and Morelia during Semana Santa - Holy Week, leading up to Easter. Parades, fiestas, and all sorts of good stuff.

A couple of months ago, Laura and I took a road trip to San Francisco, and made a stop at the Mission San Antonio de Padua outside Jolon in the area of central California that always makes me think of John Steinbeck. It was large, well preserved, and spartan. The cavernous, gloomy, wood-and-stucco buildings were home to bats, swallows, and suffering saints. A very unhappy looking Christ hung in the chapel, wonder why God had forsaken him. And Laura got more than a little freaked out. Something about austerity of the place combined with the severe iconography, and hit a chord in Laura, who went to Catholic school. We had to go.

I'm just hoping that all the intensity of Semana Santa doesn't hit the same chord.

Guidebooks, Gifts, and the Reality of a Trip

Alright, I can't help myself; I'm going to trot out the tired old junkie metaphor. I need my fix. Pantomime of slapping the vein. I am badly jonesing for travel. I came back from my last real trip just over a year ago - so long, I fear I may start seeing dead babies crawling towards me on the ceiling.

But I have a hookup! My girlfriend Laura and I have been talking about traveling together for a while now, so for X-mas, I gave her plane tickets to Mexico - into Monterrey, out of Oaxaca. A 3-week trip. Actually, I gave her the promise of plane tickets in the future, once we work out firmer dates and itineraries. And I gave here the Lonely Planet Mexico, and bought the Rough Guide for myself. That's the biggest initial step towards turning travel daydreams into reality - the purchase of a guidebook. Then you exit the daydream stage, and enter the planning stage. Then when you buy tickets, you are officially going. Coming soon...