London -- Low Maintenance

Forgive me for being off my blog for the past several days. Claire-Adele and I are on a mother-daughter trip to London before she leaves for college in less than a month. When Claire-Adele was ten, she and I made a trip to London. Now, she is eighteen.

What was she most excited about for this trip?

Drinking.

Every night so far, we've had a glass of wine, beer, prosecco, cider or sangria with dinner. As a very lightweight drinker, I am feeling a little sloshed after a week.

"I don't think I'll have an addictive personality," said Claire-Adele. She's probably right, yet there were nights when she drank more than I did. Which means she finished her drink and I didn't.

"I'm going to be responsible," she said as I bought her a 14 pound glass of champagne, hoping this would be a good investment in her learning to control her alcohol at college. Hoping, because if I am wrong, she cold be screwed.

Why did we come here instead of going someplace new? I wrestled with this, and here are my thoughts:

1. It is London. Seriously, how could it be bad? I love big cities.
2. They speak English and the food is predictable.

Most importantly,

     3.  This is an easy planning trip. London is the perfect low-maintenance destination for high maintenance people.

Compare to our two week trip to New Zealand a few years ago. It took us months to plan the logistics of that trip. We stayed (if I am remembering right) seven different towns on two islands -- Auckland, Pohara, some cute spa town with a hot springs water park, Christchurch, Queenstown, Manapouri, and Hamilton. We took three plane rides within New Zealand.

For this trip, all I had to do was book theater tickets (Ham for me, Harry for Claire-Adele), book airline tickets, and find a place to stay. In that order. Done. I was ready. Need to get from destination to destination? Buy an Oyster card for the Underground. Done. Easy-peasey, lemon squeezy.

Jack and I went to brunch last weekend with Carla and her husband who met in London while they were working there.

"What are you going to do while you are there?" she asked.

"I dunno," I said. Then she told me 300 things we could do, and I wrote down about 150 of them. I didn't open a guide book until the third day of our trip. Why? Because there is so much to do here that in Central London you can walk five minutes in any direction and find a castle, palace, museum or place of cultural or historical significance. With the Internet and a printer, you can find train schedules and print tickets for taking tours of Parliament or Bletchley Park.

Plus, Claire-Adele already had a ton of ideas in her mind of what she wanted to see and do, which made my life much easier.

Can you imagine how little I would write if I had to plan a trip, too?

Egads.

How was New Zealand? Sweet As

Now that I am back, people are asking me about the trip.  "It was great.  It is really nice.  It was good.  It's beautiful.  You should go."  Blah.  I need something better.  You can look at the nice pictures in my previous posts.  Here are the practical, nitty-gritty, tips for getting around NZ with kids.

Traveling There: It is a long trip to travel, but it really isn't that bad.  We have to take connecting flights to Ohio, so my kids are used to long travel days.  When I was a kid, I loved connecting flights because it meant two plane trips.  Now, I loathe them.  A layover in Hawaii, though, it quite special.

Time Change: The time difference between the West Coast and New Zealand is three hours this time of year.  We don't have the flipping of days and nights like when going to Europe or further afield in Asia.

Foreignness: In the "duh" category, people speak English there and the food is fairly western.  The currency is close enough to the value of a dollar (80%) that we didn't have to do too many calculations, like dividing the cost everything we were buying by 5 or 28 or something.

Currency and Cultural Differences:  Food seems more expensive in NZ, but it really isn't.  Tax is included in the cost and you don't have to tip in a restaurant.  In NZ, a hamburger might be $15NZ, which sounds outrageous.  Let's say you buy a $10 hamburger in the US.  The you have 10% tax and 20% tip, for total cost of $13.  The currency rate is about .80 US dollars to 1 NZ dollar, making the $15 hamburger $12.  See?  Not so awful as it first appears.

Total Cost of Trip:  Don't ask.  You don't want to know.  Let's say it would be cheaper sans enfant, but we had to bring the kids.  Will they remember this trip when they are 80 years old?  Yes.  As the MasterCard ad goes...Tickets to see "The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies" in Auckland:  $40.  Tickets to Hobbiton:  $180.  The expression on your son's face when he sees actual Hobbit holes: Priceless.

Restaurants:  Except for fancy restaurants, you get your own water.  NZ has a labor shortage, so they don't have extra folks to bus tables and pour water at your regular bar and grill.  Also, in many cases you go to the cashier, order your food, they give you a number and bring your food out.  This is at reasonably nice restaurants, not just fast food places.

Ownership:  People who own places also work there.  We went to the Kiwi Birdlife Refuge, and the woman who co-owned the place was working the cash register.  Her husband was helping people in the gift shop.  He might have also been feeding and tending to the birds.  You will see a middle aged woman working in a cafe or gift shop, acting like she owns the place.  She probably does.  She will also be taking orders, delivering food, making sure everything is okay.  Division of labor seems to be less than in the US, where people have defined roles and rarely cross the boundaries.  The woman taking the orders and running the cash register will help bus tables while someone else has shifted into those other roles.

Leftovers:  In the US, I usually have leftovers when I go to a restaurant.  In NZ, the portion sizes are reasonable.  I didn't overeat nor was I starving.  The downside of taking an eleven year old and a fourteen year old is that they both eat like regular adults.  One day at lunch, the Boy finished his adult size plate of chicken wings (roasted, not fried), and then finished half of my fish and chips.  No leftovers.

Activities:  This is an outdoor, hiking and camping type of place.  My friend Carla warned me that people will appear in public (i.e., at a movie theater, in the grocery store) in their bare feet.  The style of dress is pretty casual as people are outside so much.  This is not a shopping, visit art museums or learn about history vacation.  I've been to France and learned about the French Revolution.  I've been to Virginia and learned about the Civil War.  This is a learn about nature and natural history vacation: When did the Maori move to NZ?  How were fiords formed?  (They were formed during ice age.) What is a Haast's eagle?  (A very scary bird.  Read this.  I have a link to it in my previous past, but in case you missed it, here it is again.  Hilarious.  Jack was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe.)

Transportation:  This was in some ways a road trip.  The roads between NZ towns are winding, not direct and two lane.  They are not fast roads, and it time it can take to be between Point A and Point B on any given day might vary by 100%.  This isn't so bad because the scenery is usually amazing.  If you get someplace early, there is more time to look at the sheep, get coffee, take pictures or chill.  Given New Zealand is about the length of California divided between two islands, we decided to fly between Auckland and Nelson, Christchurch and Queenstown, and Queenstown and Auckland.  Flying domestically in NZ is a piece of cake.  In some airports, there was no security.  In Queenstown you could see the tarmac through terminal from the parking lot with nothing between the tarmac and the parking lot.  I am not trying to violate any security secrets, but the point here is flying within NZ is not a hassle from our experience.  I got off the plane in Nelson, and I went to the bathroom while Jack talked to the rental car people.  When I was out of the bathroom, I walked over and got our luggage.  As I was picking up the luggage, Jack got the keys to the car.  We walked maybe 100 feet to the car, and drove off.  The time between getting off the plan and driving away in the car was ten minutes.  It might have been closer to seven minutes.  Easy-peasy.

Seattle-ness:  Yes, it is like Seattle in some ways.  Yes, we have mountains and lakes and lots of green all over the place.  As the Boy said, "This place feels familiar."  Yeah, it is like Cascades and the Puget Sound.  But there are other ways it is not.  There are warm, San Diego/Hawaii like beaches.  There are rolling hills and sheep grazing.  Seattle does not have fiords or caves, or Hobbiton, which is very cool.  But parts of the Pacific Northwest are amazing, so going to NZ is like seeing even more amazing stuff.  Let's say Seattle is Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  New Zealand is like Gabriel Garcia-Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera.  Both are good.  Different, but good.

Laid Backness:  You are on vacation.  Chill.  The signs at the Auckland airport will tell you the same.  "Flight 469 to Honolulu: Gate 6.  Status:  Relax."

Natural Beauty:  Sweet As.  Sweet As.

The Eighth Day

On the eighth day, God created New Zealand.  After resting on the seventh, she decided to have fun and make a place using all of her favorite things: mountains, lakes, rolling plains, beaches, fjords, islands, trees and birds.

"I like people and all," she thought, "but it think it would be nice to leave this place unpopulated and unspoiled for a long time.  I'll make it far away from the larger continents.  When things get a bit messed up everywhere else, people can escape there.

"I'll make it relatively small compared to other places.  North America has so many of these things like mountains, beaches and rolling countryside, but they are so spread apart.  New Zealand will be small and cozy and everything will be close together.  I don't have room for mesas and deserts like the southwest, but oh well.  Australia has plenty of that type of geography.  (Sorry about, Aussies.  I went a wee bit overboard on the deserts.  My bad.)

"Let's make it safe for all kinds of birds," she thought.  "I love birds.  This place will need some music and there won't be any people here for 80 million years.  Penguins are adorable, and those kiwis need a place to rest.  Parrots?  Of course!  I wonder how big a bird could get without any predators...  Emus and moas.  Hmmm.  What about that Haast's eagle with a 2.5 meter wingspan?  It might be overkill, but hey.  It really isn't an eagle as much as a underdeveloped velociraptor.  Yes, it is a badass.  That is why I didn't put people on NZ to start.  That would have been mean to have them live with the Haast's eagle flying overhead.  Too bad the Haast's eagle and the moas went extinct in the 1600s.

Moa bones found in a cave.

"Lakes, rivers and waterfalls, those are all good.  I like those fiords in Scandinavia.  I'll add some of those.  Beaches are always good, too.  I did a nice job with Maui.

"I don't have room for Mammoth Cave, but I've give them small caves with glowworms for an extra treat.

(Caves are really hard to photograph.)

"I like some plains and rolling hills, but I also love mountains.  Green and blue are a great color combo -- white fluffy clouds are a nice accent.

"And for those creationists out there, I'll leave them the missing link between dinosaurs and reptiles, the tuatara.  By time they find it, the tuatara will be 235 million years old.  They were around during the late Triassic period along with the early tyrannosaurus, allosaurus, and velociraptor.  Man, I loved those dinosaurs.  I did such a great job on them.  Fucking meteorite.

Isn't it cute?

"And what is up with people thinking I created the world in seven days?  That is a metaphor, people.  Do they really think I can work that fast?  Seriously.  Do you know how long it takes to make a dinosaur, and then to have to start over with mammals, moving the continents around, ice ages, climate change and whatnot?  Really.

"Okay, maybe I was really hoping to get my dinosaurs to come back, re-evolve, you know?  They needed a quiet, faraway place.  Oh well.  Maybe next time.

"In the meantime, New Zealand is a nice place for people to visit."

More Things I didn't Photograph in New Zealand

• The Southern Cross constellation.  I saw it in Hanmer Springs.  Most nights, we went to bed before the sun went down.  Other nights were cloudy.  I got out my cell phone and looked up a star chart, which is the worst way to look up constellations, by the way.  My eyes had a hard time adjusting from the light of the screen to the darkness of the sky.  I remember going to the Adler Planetarium as a kid in Chicago.  We saw a presentation in the dome about the night sky in the southern hemisphere.  They said that very few of us would ever get to see this.  The twelve year old in me was very excited.  I know I am lucky to get to travel like this.  My inner twelve year old is grateful.

• The roar of waterfalls in the fiords and near the caves.  

• The South Islander newspaper in Manapouri near the fiords.   New Zealand has four million people spread out over the distance of California.  You wouldn't imagine Los Angeles having the same newspaper as San Francisco.  Likewise, this town in the south has its own newspaper, with few subscribers.  I read an article about some guy who was retiring from the government after 30 years.  The article covered half a page and discussed how he went to the US in the 1970s and fell in love with spareribs.  He wanted to bring them to New Zealand, and he told one of his chef friends.  The chef said there was no f--- way he was going to put pork ribs on the menu.  A few years later, ribs were on the menu.  I really enjoyed reading about this man.  The paper also had a nice spread about a star high school student.  Good stuff.

• A flock of what looked like reindeer on Dec. 26.  Perhaps they were starting vacation after they finished delivering the last round of presents to the West Coast of the U.S. 

• Birds of prey.  Gotta love watching these creatures soar, floating, looking for rats, mice and other pests.

• A small bird caught in a wind swirl at the top of Time Walk trail in Queenstown Hill.  This sparrow sized bird, try as he might, could not get over the hill.  It was flapping its wings hard, but it is looked like it was flying in place.  It lost the battle, and had to come down.

Here are some pictures from Queenstown Hill.

City Mice on the Farm

Note:  Now that I am back from New Zealand, I am reflecting on the trip. 

One of our stops was in Cambridge, NZ, a small town on the North Island.  Cambridge is famous for breeding horses, but we stopped there because it is close to Hobbiton.  We stayed at a B&B called Earthstead.  The Earthstead's claim to fame is they hosted Ian McKellen when he was in town filming the Shire scenes for The Hobbit.  If this place was good enough for Gandalf, it was good enough for us.  

As we were driving to Cambridge, we were kind of bummed that we didn't get to do a farm stay on our trip.  Jack looked into staying on a farm, but given we were going to NZ during the busiest travel time of year there, everything he looked at was booked.  Claire Adele was really hoping to get a selfie with a sheep.  Oh well.  My friend Carla had stayed at a place that where a baby lamb had been born. Her sons fed the baby farm animal with a bottle.  Is there anything cuter than a lamb?  No.

Imagine our surprise when we got to Earthstead and our host asked if our kids would mind helping him milk the cows.  I don't think our City Mice have ever touched a cow.  Ridden public transportation?  Check.  Run to the coffee shop/grocery store around the corner on their own?  Check.    been to opening night productions at the theater?  Check.  Milk a cow?  Nope.  I was really exited we were getting a mini-farm stay.  The owner described himself as a hobby farmer versus a real one.  The families down the road had hundreds of cows.  He had about ten: three dairy, the rest for the freezer.

Paris and Harriet, if I recall correctly.

Kids following the farmer.  Yes, the sky is that blue.

Alistair shows Clair Adele how to milk a cow.  The Boy watches.  He wanted to shower after touching a cow.

We were offered a fresh glass of milk right after it came out of the cow.  That was probably the first and last time this will ever happen to me.  The city rat in me prefers skim milk (not whole) served at approximately 37 degrees F.  Straight out of the cow was something else.  First, it was warm.  Second, it was super rich.  Third, it tasted like whatever the cow had for breakfast that morning, which was grass.  I felt so out of touch with the earth, like I was few steps shy of becoming one of those people on the starship Axiom in the movie Wall-E who eat and drink only processed food.  I know I am not that bad.  I shop at the Farmer's Market and eat unsweetened yogurt, but I still felt like a philistine to the art of living close to the earth.  Milk this fresh?  I'll mark this one off as a new experience.  

Our host makes cheese out of the milk, and gave us a large plate of it on the first day with some homemade bread along with with some homemade marmalade and homemade butter.  

Me drinking milk straight out of a cow.  You can tell I am excited, right?  Would be be rude not to drink all of it? 
I tried, but couldn't.

They had pigs, too.  These are headed for the freezer.

Cob Cottage was built by the owner using and method from back in the day in England where they mix hay into the walls.

Getting to the Doubtful Sound

No, the Doubtful Sound is not a new rock band, though it would be a good name for a music group.  The Doubtful Sound is part of the Fiordland in southern New Zealand.  We booked a one day boat tour of the sound back in October.  It was going to be one of the highlights of the trip.  Part of traveling to another part of the world is to see things that are unique to an area, and we can't see fiords in the U.S.

The tricky part of this adventure would be getting to the Doubtful Sound in time to catch the boat.  For the whole trip, this set of logistics scared me the most.  We had to leave Queenstown and drive 165 km down to Manapouri.  The tricky part of traveling in New Zealand is figuring out how long it will take to get places.  "Leave plenty of time to get places," Carla's husband, a native New Zealander, told us.  "You don't want to get stuck behind a caravan."

The time to get some place on Googles maps could be off by a lot.  On the way to Pohara, we had to drive through the mountains.  The posted speed limit was 100 km/h, but the road was so twisty we were lucky to go faster than 50 km/h.  Traveling during the holidays could add time to a trip, as everyone else is leaving town at the same time.  The roads from town to town are often two lanes, and it is hard to pass because they are hilly and curvy.  On the way from Hanmer Springs to Christchurch, we saw miles of back out town.  We were glad to be traveling in the opposite direction.

The boat was supposed to leave Manapouri at 10:30 a.m., and we had to be there twenty minutes early.  According to google maps, it was supposed to take two hours and fifteen minutes to get there from Queenstown.  According to the books, it was apposed to take two hours and forty-five minutes.  We were traveling on New Year's Eve day.  We later found out that Queenstown got an extra 100,000 visitors on the night of New Year's Eve.  It was the Times Square of New Zealand.  We were lucky to be leaving, not driving in.

Also, this little cruise on the water was fairly expensive, even though it seemed like a good value.  We each could have ridden on a Hydroshark for 20 minutes in Queenstown for the same price.  This was going to be an eight hour trip with a boat ride across a lake, a drive through a rain forest, and then another boat ride through the fjords.

Jack wanted wheels on the road by 7:00 a.m.  I figured we should be out of the door by 6:45.  We would wake up and 6:00, eat and then leave.  Jack wasn't worried -- he said he wakes up at 6:00 a.m. anyway.  We left the curtains open, as the sun rises early in the summer here.  At 5:40 a.m., I heard the birds singing and I could see the sun.  Jack was snoring.  I drifted back asleep.  He was still snoring when the alarms on our phones went off at 6:00.

The kids were slow to move.  We had packed 90% of our stuff the night before, but we still had to eat, get dressed and brush teeth.  They were dragging.  At 6:55, we were ready to leave, but the Boy did not have his shoes on.  Jack's cell phone rings.  It was the hospital, and we all paused, worried why they were calling him.  It was a robocall about the hospital that is sent to all physicians.  Jack didn't answer the phone the second time they called.  He moved forward.

We got to the car in the garage.  When I got there, I thought I had forgotten our phone chargers, so I ran back to the room while Jack packed.  When I got back, Jack went to check out.  The reception area was full with a tour group checking out at the same time.  He made it back to the car, and we left.  As soon as we pulled out of the garage at 7:04, it started to pour.  There was a steep hill to get out of the garage.  (This hill is steeper than many hills in Seattle, which is saying a lot.)  Cars were parked along the edges, making it a one lane road.  Another car was coming down the hill, and we had to pull over.  When we got past that car, we had to wait for an elderly woman to climb the hill.  We pulled out of the hotel at 7:08.

When we were on the main road, I turned on the GPS.  In NZ, there are lots of roundabouts.  At the first roundabout, Jack made a wrong turn and we had to double back.  Once we were on the main road, we were following a tractor with a large lawn mower on the back.  I looked at the GPS: 165 km to go, and it was 7:12. After a few minutes, the tractor pulled off.  I figured it wouldn't be heading to Manapouri.

All through the trip, I was doing the math:  how fast did we need to go to make it in time?  I looked at the speedometer.  Jack was going about 85 km/h.  The maximum speed limit in NZ is 100 km/h.  I looked at him.  "The road is straight and flat here.  I would recommend going the sped limit."

"I thought you'd be worried I was going too fast," Jack said as he sped up.

The rain continued, and the road got curvier.  Once we passed the tractor, we didn't have a car in front of or behind us for miles.  Jack decided to take a bathroom break after an hour.  Before we left, he has been debating between drinking coffee and not, but decided he'd rather be awake for the drive.  I agreed with his decision and we pulled over.  (Small towns in NZ have public restrooms, which are very convenient for travelers.)

We got back on the main road, only to follow a tour bus and a gasoline tanker.  Argh!!!! We had been on the road for an hour, and still had 100 km left to go!  We had gone about 65 km in the past hour, and who knew what the road and traffic ahead would look like in the rain behind a tanker.  Would we make it in time?

The tanker kept up with the speed limit, thankfully.  It stayed on the main road, while we took another route.  We made it to Manapouri by 9:20, plenty of time.

The boat ride was stunning, the highlight of the trip so far.  I'll post pictures of the fiords and waterfalls when I get home.

Hospice

(Note:  This was written December 28.  We did not have internet access in paradise.  Oh well.  Tells you something about the internet, eh?)

My friend Eleanor had a nephew who was dying of cancer or leukemia.  He has made quite a bit of money in his life, and wanted to die comfortably, but not in a hospital.  Eleanor emailed her friends and asked for nice hotels in Seattle.  One of the things about living in a town is that you never stay in the hotels.  I did a google search, and recommended the Fairmont, amoung other places.  He went there, looked out over the Puget Sound for a few days, and then died.  Hospice nurses came in and out.  Both the hospice nurses and the Fairmont staff were familiar with the process.  I guess her nephew wasn't the first person to decide to skip the ICU and got to a luxury hotel.

If I am ever diagnosed with a terminal illness and I have a short time left, I want to spend it here.  This is the nicest hotel room I have ever stayed in.  This place is so nice, I don’t feel staying in the room.  The view is better here than other places.  This is an apartment with a kitchen, so we are going to cook diner in tonight.  Nothing fancy – some noodles with red sauce, bread and salad.

Remarkable Mountains in the background.  Lake Wakatipu in the front.

They filmed parts of Isengard from Lord of the Rings out here.

Things I Did Not Photograph on my Vacation to New Zealand

I've taken a lot pictures on this trip.  Many times I’ll take pictures of the same thing from a different angle or different location.  And yet, there are things I have not photographed.  Here is a list so far.

• The expression on the Boy's face as he watched The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies while we were in Auckland.  He was riveted and delighted.
• The taste of New Zealand butter.  It is wonderful.  I guess the difference is the cows here are grass fed instead of grain fed like in the US.  The butter is yellow.
• The expression on my face as Jack nearly hits things while driving on the left side of the road.  I noted our rental car here has a scraped up front left wheel rim.  Jack probably isn't the only driver clipping the curb on the left side of the road.
• The Boy and Jack walking down a forest path.  I wonder what they were talking about.
• The sound of birds waking me up at 5:40 a.m. in Pohara.  The first bird screeched, and they all chimed in.  It was like the oboe starting to tune an orchestra.  Except they never got in tune.
• A cow mooing.
• A sheep bleeting.
• A real kiwi bird!  We saw them at the Kiwi Bird Refuge Center in Queenstown.  It is a nocturnal bird that lives in the forest, so they are almost impossible to see in the wild.
• The best BLT I've ever had was at a cafe in Glenorchy.
• My and Jack's summer allergies kicking in around Christmas.
• The sun shining at 10:10 p.m., or tin tin, as the Kiwis say.
• The ugliest corner in Queenstown.  There was a KFC, a Starbucks, and a McDonalds all within sight, plus an overripe, uncollected garbage can.  Even on this hideous corner, there were impressive mountains in the background and a great busker singing Use Somebody by Kings of Leon and I Will Wait by Mumford and Sons.
• A herd of sheep in a field (or paddock) all facing the same direction.  It was raining, and our guess was they were facing out of the direction of the rain.  
• Roasted lamb and an NZ pinot noir for dinner and pavlova for dessert on New Year's Eve.
• Dozens of snuggly young couples on vacations.
• The "Most Epic Safety Video of All Time" on Air New Zealand.

Christchurch: What Fell, What Stayed

We visited Christchurch today.  We are staying at my friend Carla's house for one night before we head off to Queenstown tomorrow.  We saw Carla and her family for a few days in Pohara.  I've known Carla for years in Seattle and her husband took a job down here.  It was good seeing her, as I imagined it would be.  It has been about a year since I've seen her.  It seemed as if almost no time had passed since I saw her last.  The hard part was thinking about when I might see her again.

Back to Christchurch.  They had a massive earthquake in 2011.  Carla's husband said it was one of the most violent earthquakes ever, even though it was only 6 on the Ritcher scale.  It was a shallow earthquake, near the surface, and caused a lot of damage.  Much has been cleaned up in the past few years, but I did see a few lots covered in rubble from broken down buildings.  One thing we did miss was watching the rebuilding.  We met a woman in Hanmer Springs who told us the tradesmen have two weeks off around Christmas and New Year's.  It was relatively easy for us to get around.

Carla told us about the container mall downtown.  Almost all of downtown was destroyed, including the shopping.  Several retailers created shops out of shipping containers, like the ones that come in on ships going back and forth from China.

After we visited the Container Mall, we went to the Christchurch Botanic Garden.  I love botanical gardens, from the Missouri Botanic Gardens in St. Louis, to Kew Gardens outside of London.  In Christchurch, the gardens are adjacent to downtown.  It was interesting to see and compared what stayed and what fell.

It struck me that so many trees and plants survived such a horrible earthquake.  I am sure some might have fallen, but many didn't.  Maybe they were lucky to be in the other side of the fault line, or maybe their roots kept them safe.  These trees have likely survived many previous earthquakes. Maybe like when a broken bone heals, trees might also get stronger after an injury.

As they are rebuilding, there is a sense of hope.  I was surprised and happy to see some energy into this devastated part of a town.  And this wasn't the outlying areas -- this was the heart of downtown.  Centers of business, hotels, restaurants, shopping--all gone.  Art brightens the disaster zone.  Like a bud on a flower, these works tell the world the city will bloom again.