SWCAMBORNE

The food in the
UK has gotten much
better (mostly because
of Immigration) The
crown jewels have
stayed the same.
Jolly Good!

Roots at N1 (one of our best meals in London)

Simon and his lovely aunts

Our trip to England for Bethany and Jame’s wedding was great.

It was fun visiting the family and the weather was terrific in London.

We visited some museums and gardens, went to Billy Elliot and visited Chislehurst Caves.  I might post more details later.

There are 50 photos on Flickr here with pithy comments.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42316886@N00/sets/72157629711936847/

It is Spring in London and we were lucky enough to be in Kew Gardens

For the daffodils.

And the Magnolias in bloom with a perfect guide.

We were in the Derby area in the north on England over the weekend for the wedding of Bethany, my niece and James Atherton. It was a lovely affair with lots of dancing and good fun. Here are a few unedited and badly uploaded pictures.

James and Bethany cut the cake. Delicious

Nicholas and his grandfather

Simon with Auntie Florence and Auntie Janet

Rebecca, Bethany Burrow Atherton and Lilli

The Burrow “boys” in attendance. James, Simon, Matthew and Thomas

Nurit and Lynne

After a lot of procrastinating here finally are an album of photos from our trip to Cancun last month with Howard and Aty.

Full Album Here

Teaser Photos here:

Tourists

History

Action sports

Sun

Life is Good!

Link to my other brilliant Cancun stories

A few hours drive south of Cancun on an excellent highway are the ruins of Tulum a Mayan site that has been very well restored.

After our visit to Tulum we drove north a few miles to Akumal and had a sunset dinner at La Buena Vida. We had the best ceviche in memory sitting at a table right on the sand on beautiful Half Moon Bay. Life truly is good!

My recommendation, if you are staying on the Mayan Riviera and have one day for tourism skip the snorkel parks. Go to Tulum and hire a guide for the history stuff and then head to the beach at Akumal for free swimming and snorkeling. Finally eat at La Buena Vida.

You know you’re getting old when you get on a crowded bus and a young person offers you a seat….

And you take it.

I have been to Cancun three times. The first was about thirty years ago with Nurit. The second was about fifteen years ago with Lillian and this year with Howard and Aty.

The changes have been remarkable. Both physically and in the nature of the experience. The first time we came there were just a few hotels on the beautiful beach. Now all ten miles of beach are lined with hotels, condos and private homes and it is still beautiful.

But the biggest and most encouraging change has been in the nature of the service. The workers here have changed from acting like wage slaves resentful of the rich outsiders to really helpful, caring, friendly people. All of them seem to be focused on quaking sure that the tourist economy keeps working. For example they have hundreds of busses that allow you to go anywhere from town to the end of the tourist zone for about a dollar. The drivers happily take any kind of money and make change. In LA or London if the driver had cash like that around he would be robbed hourly. In the flea market the hustlers tell lies and hawk crap just like before but they no longer physically confront you. And in the “all inclusive” hotel where we are staying everybody from the pool waiter to the room cleaner is trying really hard to speak English and make you happy.

It appear that an entire people have had a change of attitude. They are working communally to keep the tourism business going and it happened in a little more than a generation. This is really good news for the world. Angry, distrustful people don’t have to stay angry and distrustful.

It is roughly 660 miles from Ashland, Oregon to Pasadena, California and I am proof that you can easily drive it in a day. Even on an overcast day driving pretty hard there is plenty to see.

Mt Shasta

Sunset over the San Joaquin Valley

and plenty of Starbucks

See more photos on Flickr

A special shout out to Miles one of the brilliant staff at Valley View Auto Repair in Ashland, Oregon who against all odds replaced the clutch in Rebecca’s car and made my drive both possible and necessary.  Well done.

On the drive the mini went over 90,000 miles and this was its first new clutch.  I took a picture.

We are going to the UK in March and Lillian and Rebecca got in a few practice calls:

Life is Good

Happy New Year to one and all