Travel: High on Halifax

Halifax, Nova Scotia stretches up a hillside overlooking a spacious harbor and capped by the Citadel, the highest point in the city and home to a 19th century fortress.   The city is small enough to be easy navigable on foot, but large enough to host a plethora of restaurants and retail establishments, ranging from international news storefronts to the most elegant of dress shops.

My daughter and I began and ended our August Prince Edward Island trip in Halifax.  The first layover was a disappointment -- we had dinner in a harborfront restaurant where we were encouraged to "get with" the relaxed atmosphere of the Maritimes, which meant that we had a two-hour wait for service after a long day of travel, and then had only the next rainy morning left to see the city.  I hiked up to the Citadel, only to learn that it doesn't open until 10:00, so we decided to go ahead and make the trip across the province to catch the ferry to the Island.   We had better luck on the way home.  We had a great dinner in a  little Italian restaurant and disovered the various passageways that make trekking up and down the steep city somewhat easier as we finished our shopping for family and friends.  We visited the Citadel, checked out its detailed and beautifully presented historical exhibit, and watched the Regimental Association perform. 

Halifax  has always been a significant port for its inhabitants; it was THE port of embarkation and arrival for Canadian troops during World War II.  It was also the site of a devastating World War I explosion when two ships collided in 1917, levelling much of the city, killing over 2,000 people, and injuring 9,000 more.  (New Orleans, take note:  Halifax today is charged with vibrant energy.)  Halifax history is fascinating, especially for us Americans who tend to be oblivious to the stories of our neighbor to the north, and Halifax streets are  definitely hopping at night.

It's a great city -- it's easy to imagine building a life there.  

Hope Springs Eternal . . . or, Crop Circles

Yes, I've been playing around with my journal -- layout, colors, and now content.   I'm going to try something new for the month of September.  I feel so disorganzied, so all-over-the place -- and, by the way, the most recent clarification of my identity (see below, courtesy of Cynthia) indicates that I am right on track here.  Note the flamboyant material success that would surely be mine for the taking were I but more practical and organized.  

Herewith, a Writing Schedule.   

Sundays:              Travel

Mondays:             Education

Tuesdays:            Family

Wednesdays:      Faith

Thursdays:          Reading

Fridays:                Outdoors

Saturdays:          Memories and Dreams  

One never knows -- I might actually stick to it.  After all, it has been revealed to me that my deepest and truest identity is nothing less than:  

Shining Fame!

Energetic and courageous, you stand up for your beliefs and for what you desire. You are independent, strong-willed, and fiercely competitive when needed, although your ambition is tempered with patience. You maintain a positive attitude and, with a more organised or practical approach to life, material success is very likely. Your immensely loving and generous nature brings joy into peoples lives and ensures your happiness. 

In the meantime, while we were all waiting for this paragon of organization and practicality to emerge, aliens were here, right here in northern California:

 

 

 

 

Crescent Moon

Time for a breather  ~

Going to catch up on other journals over the next few days ~

Daughter settling happily into college life in Oregon ~

Older son still recovering from Monday morning departure of his wisdom teeth ~

Younger son down to Ohio State for a week-end of football-related partying (just what I like to think of him  doing ~ NOT) ~

Seem to have sort of accidentally become our church's hurricane relief effort contact person ~ OOPS (but the least I could do after all the kindnesses shown our daughter) ~

Trying to catch up on grading papers after having lost the Labor Day week-end to a trip west ~

Well. . . not entirely LOST:

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

We're OK, But. . .

It's starting to sink in.  With a tragedy the magnitude of Katrina, it's hard -- and wrong -- to think of losses of less than life, health, and livelihood as catastrophes.  But losses are losses and, no matter how resolutely you push it away, grief does accompany them. 

It's really just sinking in -- the year of questions, research, visits, interviews, essay writing, forms, tests, recommendations, apprehension, disappointment, relief, excitement, anticipation, planning, scheduling, choosing, shopping -- all that goes into a college choice, into what is, in our culture, a hugely significant rite of passage  -- all upended in a matter of hours by a force completely beyond human control.  While her high school friends are hanging out in the dorms and studying in the libraries and walking across the campuses they chose last spring, my daughter is accomodating herself to the demands of a completely unexpected turn of events.  And even she if she is able to return to her college of choice in the spring, it won't be the same college and it definitely won't be the same city that she first visited more than six months ago.

She has actually weathered worse, and I have every confidence that her natural resiliency and formidable strength of character will enable her to pull through triumphantly, but still.  Tough, tough times.

Hope in the Desert ~ Sacramento Valley From The Air

Grand Canyon Sunset 09/06/05

I'll have more to say later, but I wanted to share this image as a reminder of some of the magnificence to be found on the North American continent.  During this time of terrible loss and devastation, we need to focus on our treasures as well as the work ahead.

I've never visited the Grand Canyon and I don't think I've ever flown over it before, either.  But yesterday, en route from delivering my daughter to her second try at college in less than a week, I finally landed a spot in a Southwest Airlines "A" line, which enabled me to choose a perfect seat for photographing my journey from Portland to Sacramento, and then from Sacramento to Colorado before the clouds created an inpenetrable blanket over the Rockies. I've had to work on the photograph a bit to eliminate the effect of airplane window fog and glare, but what you see now is pretty much what I saw last night.

Multiple gifts yesterday: my daughter is happily settled and I've seen vistas I never expected to encounter. 

Welcome to College -- and Get Outta Town!

We've finally come to understand that the reason the Tulane President held out hope of salvaging a college semester for so long was that he was hunkered down in an athletic center until Thursday.  The campus remained unflooded and in pretty good shape so, without television or internet, he was unaware of the story of devastation unfolding in his city.  I had heard a report that the people "sheltered" in the Superdome were desperate for news -- 1000 miles away, we knew far more than they did about their homes and streets.

My daughter is off to college for the second time tomorrow -- to Willamette in Salem, Oregon.  We visited it last year on our trip to the Pacific Northwest and both loved it.  While she's terribly disappointed and somewhat stunned by this turn of events, she's most likely going to have a great semester in a magnificent part of the country.  She and her new roommate have communicated and it sounds like they're a good match, and the school has cut through all the red tape in record time to welcome her and settle her in classes which have been ongoing for a week.

My last few days have been filled with phone calls and emails to and from colleges, airline reservations (the rising price of oil has had an immediate effect on ticket prices), and replenishing my daughter's wardrobe.  I actually found a pair of size 5 shoes today! -- still too big, but close enough.  I hope to turn my attention to some form of assistance to the Gulf Coast once my own little family crisis is in hand.

A Brief Update

Baton Rouge, Louisiana *** 9/2/05

My husband and sons took my daughter to New Orleans for her Saturday Tulane University orientation.  They moved up to Baton Rouge (a 90-mile (?) drive that took six hours) that night and spent three days with family friends they had never met.  (The photo came today, courtesy of same family.)  They got home Wednesday night and by this afternoon my daughter was enrolled at a college in Oregon -- yes, even further from home than NOLA.  She and I will fly out there on Sunday.  My boys turned 21 yesterday and I'm sorry to say that that landmark was barely registered by their mother.  They went out and bought pizza and champagne and we celebrated very quietly.

Our little saga barely merits a mention.  Neither does the plight of comfortable and dry college students.  But I have to use this space to give credit to the dozens and dozens of colleges and universities that have come forward to offer space to the students displaced from their schools by the hurricane.  In many, if not most, cases, tuition is being waived with the expectation that it has been paid and will stay with the home institution to support the recovery effort.  We have been the beneficiaries of such speedy work, financial generosity, and kindness that tears come to my eyes every time I start to think about it.  My daughter has heard from her new roommate and there are sheets on her bed in Oregon-- a good thing, since her new ones are no doubt mildewing rapidly in Louisiana.

I know that people are doing what they can for those whose lives have been so radically altered by Katrina.  Now we just need to do more.