Fremont is an infinitely cool place to be.  It has an amazing history, as one of the California towns that’s seen a lot of influx of people coming to escape adventures in the world at large, and making new adventures here.  The 1960s were a colorful time, but ultimately enormously tumultuous, too.  There are many vestiges of it here, in the buildings, the ephemera, and in the people’s minds.  You don’t have to be interested in the events of 40 years ago, but it might help to make some sense of the place.  There are also plenty of other things to do, with distractions and attractions that will make for a lovely time.

Hotels here are very nice, specializing in comfort and hospitality that are hard to beat anywhere else.  There is always an ambience of relaxation, of a pace of life that’s more natural, along with a remarkably cosmopolitan sensibility.  This is not a place that history passes by, but one where the citizens are dedicated to making a good place to live.  There are plenty of signs that the community is very alive and active, with an arts festival that brings a steady supply of people from San Francisco over.

Then there’s also the ubiquitous presence of Jerry Garcia.  This was one of the Dead’s favorite stomping grounds, and there is a strong sense of history here for the band whose ouvre became a long anthem to a new culture.  Complete with long jams and exceptional solos.  It’s a difficult thing to speak of for some, who still get choked up about his passing, and it’s a bone of contention for others who would rather forget the whole thing, but for the rest of us, it’s a wedge in the consciousness to remind us of a latent possibility to make something better.

It never ceases to amaze me, the ease of the access to information today . I feel like an old timer, saying %22Back in my day… as back in my day is not so far back. But it is far enough back to remember a time when you had to just answer the phone, having no idea who was calling on the other end. I remember the time when you had to buy a road map and find your own way to the restaurant or whichever destination you were headed. Now you can find directions online, and the cars manufactured today talk out loud, telling when to turn left and when to turn right. Back in my day, when it was time to look for college apartments to rent, we had to get out our red pencils, and circle ads in the paper. We had to drive to locations having no idea what the place may even look like or what condition it was going to be in. Now there are rental listings online , which not only present pictures of the properties and the surrounding area, but some now are even utilizing Youtube. This is amazing for a couple of reasons. Youtube is huge. People go on looking for one video, and before you know it your surfing the Tube…while watching one video you check out the list of similar videos, you choose one and so on and so forth. You may have started out looking for a video of your favorite band, but before you know it, a couple of hours have passed and you watching home videos of dreaming dogs and dancing cockatiel birds . It is amazing where you end up, and so for companies to post videos it provides them the means of being discovered. It is good for business. It is also great for consumers, or for prospective rental applicants. Looking for an apartment is a pain, especially when you are new to a city as are many students who travel out of town to attend university. If we had, back in my day, access to this kind of information, to be able to take a virtual walk through an apartment before we drove there to check it out, so much time would have been saved, and so much aggravation would have been avoided. Some things may have been better back in my day, but I’m kind of digging the things that are better in our day.

Property management and customer service go hand in hand. With the TransGlobe Property Management Team of Canada, that is just what you will get…top rate, high quality staff that are there to ensure that all of your rental needs are met. And should you be the owner of a building, you can trust the team to care of your investment. Not only do they have years of experience in the field of property management, but they truly care. They care about the job they do, the tenants they look after, and the properties in which they manage.

Everyone who has ever rented a building, either for use in business or for residential living, has most likely come across bad managers. It makes all of life turn into some sort of wicked nightmare. It really does not take much to be a good property manager, but it does take something special and a bit extra to be a great property manager. It takes more than service, it takes care. It takes organization. It takes keeping track of the things that need to be addressed and attending quickly to any issues that may arise with the properties, whether it be a plumbing catastrophe, or the landscaping. This is what the team at TransGlobe not only promises, but provides.

Studies show that when customers are unhappy, they share that with many people. When customers are satisfied, they perhaps share it with a few people. But, it when you check out what the clients have to say about their relationship with TransGlobe, so many people are telling others about the wonderful experiences they have. People are not only satisfied, they are handled with respect and care. Something that in this day and age, is so rare that people must tell each other about it. When looking for rental property in Canada, or when looking for someone to manage your buildings, your investments…your future will remain protected by the TransGlobe Management team.

As a kid, I had a great affinity for trains, no matter what the size.  I loved especially the miniature railroads that are designed with children in mind, and one of the best of these is located in another favorite of mine, the city of Austin, Texas.  You’ll find on that city’s southwest side, just east of the Mopac Expressway, and off Barton Spring Road, the Zilker Zephyr Miniature Train.  A part of the concessions at Zilker Park, the train is a pleasant diversion for parents and their kids, running on a narrow-gauge, light rail track, which leisurely takes you and your family along scenic Barton Creek and Austin Town Lake.  The train departs every hour at the top of the hour on weekdays and every half-hour on weekends, as long as the weather allows, and only costs a few dollars.

You can bring food and drink onboard, which you can purchase at a nearby concession stand.  The train itself circles a large field in the park, comes round the river and then back again.  There’s a number of ducks and geese and plants native to central Texas, which you can point out to kids as you go.   You may want to note that parking can be hard to find on a weekend, and that part of the ride may be in the sun.  Definitely bring a hat.  If you’re traveling, check into one of the fine Austin hotels and come have one of the best miniature train rides in Texas.

If you’ve never been to Austin before, you should have a great time, just exploring the city’s natural environment, from Zilker Park and the Barton Springs Pool, to Austin Town Lake.  At dusk, you can watch over a million bats fly from under the Congress Avenue Bridge.  Depending on the age of your kids, this can be a fascinating and thrilling experience.  Take your time, though, and get to know this wonderful city.

A window opening always sounds the same in any city, and it doesn’t seem to matter much if the time of year makes it cold or hot, it still opens in the same direction.  We speak of things that are important here, and our lives sometimes intertwine in unexpected ways, but the mornings are always the best times for seeing ghosts.  In the night, we are too worn and hungry to be able to ask the really necessary questions, and we let doubts slide, even when we are pretending to be strong and know everything there is to know.  Mornings are the times when the ghosts who are not afraid to be seen come out, or stay out from the night before.

There are places to stay, where hotels in DC can open up a kind of window, a metaphorical window, onto a morning that is simply understood with scents of hospitality and graceful touches.  There are places we stay when we are visiting to get to know the city in all of its inside outs, and to begin to open up other notions of living with unsettled spirits.  These spirits are not as worn out as we may have once thought.  They come back to life when they are recalled, and this is why we sometimes bring flowers to the cemetery, so that we might recall, and help turn an autumn back to spring.

These eyes are windows on a world, these moments are windows on a moment in a day, and this hand is learning how to close.  It is the first season for learning how to close, and it was not easy until someone advised using a little salt, and a little bit of the water from under the bed.  When my throat begins to close, I think I may have pushed too hard, but I always wake up with more than I started with.  This morning was stamped with a trail of salt by our bed, that lead toward something we could not see.  When we were younger and not so smart, we would have followed the trail, but this morning, there are too many spirits that are up in arms to be so reckless.

On a recent trip to San Diego, California I had more than a great time. In fact, you might even say the trip changed my life. And that’s a bit of a laughable dramatic statement I also believe that it might be true. Might isn’t the word, it is true and here’s say. I went with my good friend Carl who had agreed to teach me how to surf. His cousin owns a great condo on the beach and Carl house-sits for him every summer while his cousin is on vacation. Well, he was recently asked to fly out for a weekend because his Cousin had a business trip to go on and wanted to Carl to take care of his new puppy. Carl invited me to go with him, and while that’s not something I would normally pass up I was scheduled to work that weekend and it took some major negotiation to get it off. Meanwhile, to kind of up that anti, as if a free trip and great accommodations, after all I couldn’t find a cheaper San Diego hotel Carl promised to teach me how to surf while we were there.

So, that’s actually not the most interesting part, though it is certainly associated with it. It turns out that I really didn’t catch on well to surfing, well maybe it’s because I didn’t end up getting much of a chance. While Carl was giving me a demonstration, a quite impressive one by the way, I sat on the beach and watched. As I was sitting there on my towel a little brown dog came running up to me with a leash dangling behind. I talked to the dog and petted it so that it would stay with me until I saw some sign of a leash less hand and worried face. That didn’t take long and not only was the approaching face worried it was also beautiful.

The owner of the dog and beautiful face is named Paul and he and I started talking while he thanked me for grabbing Pooch, if you can believe that’s what he named his dog. We seemed to hit it off immediately and then he mentioned that he had an extra ticket for The Old Globe’s production of a new musical called Whisper House. Well, I didn’t whisper my response though I also tried not to sound too eager. Meanwhile I forgot all about Carl and walked off to get some coffee and pastry with Paul and Pooch. We had a great conversation and I had wonderful time at the theatre. It turns out that Paul has a time-share in San Diego and visits frequently. Thanks to Carl’s cousin I can visit whenever I want as well. Paul and I talk on the phone regularly and of course email everyday. I don’t know where it will lead but I’m certainly willing to follow the possibilities.

Anyone who’s ever seen in a movie set in New York City knows the sights to see once they arrive: The Empire State Building, Central Park, Broadway, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty.  How often, though, have you seen the Seaport District pop up onto film?  How often do movie characters wind up outside the South Street Seaport Museum?

The short history of the area is as follows: The Schermerhorn family purchased what’s known today as the Seaport District in the 18th Century.  In the early 19th Century, the family built a series of buildings known as Schermerhorn Row.  This brought together a number of merchants, providing a thriving business.  Once the 20th Century arrived, however, the area fell into neglect and much of these buildings were about to be demolished in the 1960s.  Concerned citizens came together and fought to preserve the Seaport; they purchased a number of the buildings and thus kept the Seaport District alive.  The South Street Seaport Museum now helps to provide necessary funds to maintain and gentrify the area.   They succeeded.  Today, this waterfront location has attracted a community, while the Museum reaches out with various exhibits and programs.

Once you arrive in New York and check into the hotels, big or small, come visit the Seaport District, where you’ll find in the museum an exhibit titled, DecoDence: Legendary Interiors and Illustrioius Travelers Aboard the SS Normandie, where you’ll see the interiors of this 83,000 ton and 1,028 foot long French ocean liner, one of the floating palaces of the mid-20th Century.  You’ll see how this ship was made with the best of French decorations, Dupas glass panels, Aubusson carpets, as well as Lalique towers of light.  The first class restaurant alone sat 700 guests and contained Lalique chandeliers.  It’s a look at luxury from a vanished age.

I came to Seattle on the Empire Builder, I had to travel across 5 States where the scenery changed wildly from desert wastelands to farmlands, to cold snow covered mountains to verdant green valleys. It was an incredible journey on the train, especially being able to sit on the observation car to witness the dramatic land changes.

Seattle is so much better than what I expected, so much so, I extended my stay here. Initially, I was only going to spend the day here checking out Pike Street Market, but I ended up staying the night. It was easy to find a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi here in Seattle, yes just a little humor, and I found this hotel on line at this site http://www.hotelseattle.net, and was able to book a room that day! It was great!

My arrival here was so easy, so much better than my arrival in Chicago. As I said, my journey here was fascinating, plus I got in a little bit of reading and did some blog postings and generally chill. Speaking of chill, as I stepped off the train, I could see my breath, which is a good sign that it’s cold, and I wasn’t looking forward to putting on my winter clothes, but by the time I checked into my hotel, it began to warm up, so much so, I got to shed one layer of clothing before I headed out the the Market.

Pike Place Public Market is wondrous, strange and a treasure. I really enjoyed the fish market next to the entrance; fishmongers throw their fish over the heads of all the shoppers, a  great display of flying fish. What was interesting were the other fishmongers who don’t toss their fish around, they just sit around in hopes someone will come by to buy fish, but personally, I’d rather buy fish being tossed about in the air over my head, nothing like eating flying fish.

Well, on to Los Angeles, then to New Orleans!

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