SWCAMBORNE

We stayed for three nights at the Tabacon Resort near the Arenal Volcano. It was cloudy when we were there except for when it was cloudy and raining.

What Arenal looks like when it is not raining

Tabacon is a super nice hotel with the most phenomenal hot spring resort just down the road.

We spent one day at the pools, getting massages and in the waterfalls.  The water everywhere is about 105 degrees F.  Magnificent!

Lots of places have swim up bars.  This one is in a pool of 100 degree F water.  The perfect temperature it turns out for enjoying a Mai Tai.

Did I mention the flowers?

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When you are in Las Vegas visit the Lotus of Siam It is a wonderful Thai Restaurant off the beaten path (the Strip) good prices and a very good wine list.

We had a bottle of Coho Cabernet which was excellent.

While much writing and almost all journalism is an attempt to make a subject less complex Gustavo Arellano in Orange County accepts the complexity and relishes it.

“Orange County” is a wonderfully complex story of his family, its migration, the towns where they settled, the history of the towns and the strange paradox that is Orange County, California. There are very funny repetitions of lists of Aunts (I think he’s mocking Leviticus) the story of his being a nerd among the macho and constant jibes at the gabachos. My favorite part was the restaurant recommendations , one for each town except Leisure World.

In Pasadena we are blessed with a few excellent museums.  The Norton Simon is one of them.

Norton Simon was an oil man who collected art.  He financed the then Pasadena Art Museum in the late 1960’s, renamed it after himself and housed his collection there.  They museum has a very nice collection of sculptures including this the most famous of all Rodins:

The Thinker

After my trip to Van Wert, OH I was hurrying back to Chicago for dinner with an associate from the Immigration Reform movement when I got a text cancelling the dinner.  I suddenly had some time so I went to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore National Park. It was excellent.

They even have a Mt Baldy.

It is about 100 feet tall and is a walking dune

More pictures here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/42316886@N00/sets/72157622638572537/

The park was pioneered by a Senator in the 1960’s to stop the spread of the power plants and steel mills that have taken over most of the shore of Lake Michigan.  Finding it was seriously good serendipity.  It is in balance a good idea.  Still as a libertarian I have to ask “National Lakeshore?”  What’s next “National Dump”or “National Dutch Elm Disease Museum?”