Sea (See) Change on a Sea Cruise

Filed Under All Posts, Melissa Howden, Travel | 9 Comments

When Melissa Howden embarks on a lesbian cruise, a tropical storm is not the only occurrence that stirs things up.

Prologue
A couple of years ago I started to learn how to surf. At the time my greatest challenge was learning to read the water.
How many waves in a set?
Which set might have a wave I can possibly catch?
Are they breaking to the right or to the left?

The combination of matter—the water, the board, the bottom and me—had the potential for magic or mayhem. And so it is with so many things in life.

——–
My girlfriend is a fan of the group lesbian get-a-away. The only group I’m a fan of is the small dinner party. Nevertheless, for the last week I have been on a lesbian cruise.

Lesbian cruises are not a new phenom. OLIVIA Travel has been doing them for 20 years. This voyage however is the first for a new company called SWEET: The Future of Lesbian Travel.

A week ago we hauled out of New Orleans in a mad attempt to skirt Hurricane Ida as she hurtled into the Gulf. Some were saying that the hurricane had been downgraded to a tropical storm. Weather distinctions make no difference to me. A boat in any storm worthy of Weather Channel note is NOT fun. A subtle reading of the water becomes very simple: THOSE ARE BIG FREAKIN’ MY FREAK WAVES BREAKING ON MY ELEVENTH DECK BALCONY! Read more

A Bird in the Hand

Filed Under All Posts, Connie Stetson, Media, Pop Culture, Travel | 12 Comments

For Connie Stetson, accompanying her actor husband to New York City was all glitz, glamour and excitement, but coming home was a true revelation.

Hi all—the lovely Mrs. Stetson here.

Lee and I had a perfectly wonderful trip to New York City enjoying the many sights (our hotel was right in the shadow of the Empire State Building) and sounds (does the horn honking never stop?) and smells (ahhh, the smell of falafel in the air….) We hit the ground running our first night there and had a great Turkish dinner with my dear old friends, Barbara and Jim. Day two we set off walking, did some shopping, and then readied for our black-tie gala celebrating the premiere of Ken Burns’ The National Parks—America’s Best Idea on Ellis Island.

I showed up quite glamorous in my black satin trousers, white tuxedo shirt, stiletto strappy sandals, Cathy’s fabulous black and white embroidered shawl and oodles of pretty great looking faux pearls, and except for the satin, the shawl, pearls and stiletto’s that’s what Lee wore too (the lucky, cuz’ my feet were killing me!!). He looked mah-velous, darlings. We sat at the muckymuck table with Ken Burns, Dayton Dalton, Shelton Johnson, Gerard Baker and their lovely Missesses, Roxann and Mary Kay. We enjoyed our desserts to a live performance of Alison Krauss and Union Station. Pretty darn good. Read more

Roadside Table

Filed Under All Posts, Melissa Howden, Reinvention, Travel | 8 Comments

If you’ve been following my recent exploits, you might recall that I was planning to relocate for love. The move complete, I find myself in new country, learning a new language, even though I reside in the 47th U.S. State of New Mexico.

I’m no stranger to New Mexico, my parents and grandparents were born and raised here. I spent most of my childhood summers here, and graduated from high school here. But even so, after 39 years, I’ve moved from the cosmopolitan, urban San Francisco Bay Area (7,000 square miles and approximately 7 million people) to a rural county (2,200 square miles and about 50,000 people) where the main town of Taos (meaning Place of Red Willows) has a population officials estimate as between 5,000 and 7,000 people within 5.4 square miles. Having also moved from sea level to 7,000 feet, the adjustment is not only cultural but also physical—I am simultaneously gasping for breath and learning the local language. One might be best served with a set of regional flash cards to help the transition.

Roadside Table: To some such a sign might signify something poetic, but in my new neck of the woods it means just what it says: table by the road, nothing more, nothing less.   Read more

“Won’t You Let Me Take You on a Sea Cruise?”

Filed Under All Posts, Connie Stetson, Travel | 6 Comments

“Won’t You Let Me Take You on a Sea Cruise?” or Woo-ee, Baby (Frankie Ford, 1959)

Pa and I just got back from our first sea cruise aboard the Celebrity Mercury and, in fact, 1959 seems to have been a banner year for most of the folks on board. I’m guessing that out of 1800 people, maybe 100 were my age or younger, and I’m 57. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The geriatric set out-partied my young ass, and I’m no slouch in the party-hearty department.

Two weeks before we left, I got a call from our great travel pals, Joe and Ingrid, telling us to go online right now, where we found a $699 two-week trip leaving from Ft Lauderdale through the Panama Canal, taking in Cartagena, Columbia, Punta Arenas, Costa Rica, and then up the Pacific coast of Mexico to San Diego. An hour later we were booked. Read more

Long May You Dance

Filed Under All Posts, Christie Healey, Travel | 4 Comments

Matt Harding’s videos of himself dancing all over the world make you want to jump up and dance… in your office, in the street, in your home, anywhere. Matt started doing these videos in 2005, but my favourite is the 2008 video, which has people everywhere wildly joining in with him. It’s priceless and so very happy-making. Thanks, Matt, you are one big goofy fab trip, long may you dance. The website www.wherethehellismatt.com tells you all about it.

Your Tax Dollars at Work: Beware of Hippie-Toothpaste-Squeezing Terrorists

Filed Under All Posts, Environment, Prudence Baird, Travel | 6 Comments

The middle aged mom and her long-haired teenaged son snaked their way through the security line at Bob Hope International.  A short, dark haired woman stuffed into her TSA uniform bellowed, “Gels and liquids to the left!  Everyone else, straight!”

The mom heaved their overnight bag onto the examination table, unzipped it, and presented the regulation zip-locked baggie to TSA II, a grizzled man with spectacles flecked with bits of skin and lint.  He gripped it between latexed finger and thumb and examined the tiny shampoo bottle from a long-forgotten hotel and the almost empty tube of Tom’s of Maine Silly Strawberry Toothpaste for Kids, crumpled and rolled within an inch of its life.  Read more

Have Praise House Will Travel

Filed Under All Posts, Melissa Howden, Travel | 8 Comments

I am not entirely sure that this is true but I would wager a guess that any doctor would say that it is physically impossible for the heart to expand at the same time you are gasping for breath. But I am here to tell you it is possible, not an entirely comfortable or peaceful state, but telling in its own way.

Not that long ago I went to the 60th birthday celebration of my beloved Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir. Specializing in the soul survival music of the African diaspora in the Americas—I’ve seen the choir perform many, many times in their 18 years (most memorably at my 50th birthday celebration last year—one of the greatest nights of my life). A “riff whisperer” with an encyclopedic knowledge of her material, Linda and the CHC always have the effect of expanding the collective heart in the room, raising it up and leaving you gasping for breath at the same time. Read more

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