Joshua Tree: Day 1

Tom and I are here with Seth, Christian, and Danielle.

We are staying at a ranch near Joshua Tree National Park. This morning, we viewed the vast desert land around the ranch. It has its own beauty, so satisfying. Because of a fair amount of rain here recently, there is more green than usual.

All we need is a few horses for our cowboys.

Breakfast was brunch at 29 Palms Inn. I was expecting a buffet, so I was a little disappointed that it was a regular order from a menu. But it was fun just being together.

Seth wanted to visit Sky Village Swap-Meet, where people bring items to sell at booths. It closes at 2 pm on Sundays, so we were hoping to get there before it shut down for the day. As we headed in that direction it started to rain.

As we entered, it looked like a deserted flea market. Maybe the rain chased away the vendors and buyers?

We walked along viewing old junk that might be someone else's treasure. The ambiance of rustle and bustle and all the bargaining was missing. There was one store open—a store with used cowboy or cowgirl boots, hats, and clothes. Danielle bought a vest and a jacket.

Time to venture into Joshua Tree National Park. The desert is so beautiful.

Each plant, so fine and exquisite.

This national park has preserved over 1200 square miles of desert. Amazing.

We did a little hiking, which included rock climbing.

My boys were shocked that I could climb that quickly. I told them, "Three years of hiking in the woods daily" made this new adventure possible.

Memory Lapse ...Transient Global Amnesia

My memory....

When I woke up from what I thought was my Sunday nap yesterday, Tom was next to me reading to me of Henna's account of her trip in SE Asia. I asked, "Why is Henna in VIetnam? Why are Christian and Danielle in Vietnam?" I looked at my arm and asked Tom why I have cotton with surgical tape over it as in a blood draw. He smiled at me and said my memory was returning. 

Then I got the whole story that I was in the ER for 2 hours or more. I had NO recollection of the whole hospital experience. In fact my memory was cut out from my consciousness from around noon to 10pm. I am told that I had my normal mannerism dealing with nurses and doctors. I am told that I remembered my occupation and where I worked. I asked why I was at Goshen hospital and where Tom was. Why is Tom not with me? I was to ask this question every few minutes because I could not remember the answers given me.

Tom was an hour and half into traveling to Chicago to bring Lizy and our grandkids to Goshen for a week. I drove home by myself from church. As I was driving home, I wondered why I was driving alone on Sunday. We always go home together. When I entered our home, I was wondering where Tom was. I had already forgotten that we both drove so that I could come home and he would go to Chicago to pick up the kids. I called Tom while he was driving. I have no recollection of me calling him or any of our conversation. After many repetitious conversations of answering the same questions--"Why are you going to Chicago? Why are you picking up the grandkids and Lizy?"--Tom realized that someone needed to take me to the ER and he must turn around to come back home to me.  

Tom called Jon Lehman to take me to the ER. Jon and Reni stayed with me until shortly before Tom came to the ER. It's a strange feeling. I am told that when Tom came into my view, I was really happy to see him. Then I started to ask him, "Why am I here? Is something wrong with me?" This question would be answered fully only to be asked again several minutes later, again and again and again... Tom witnessed the doctor asking me who the president of the US is. I thought for some seconds as if the answer was hidden somewhere then shook my head. I did not know. What day is today? It must be Sunday, I am dressed up. What year is this? Again I would search my brain and all I could come up with was, " It's two thousand something." 

Because of this strange occurrence, I have a deeper realization how precious it is to have a husband who loves me and to have friends who care for me. I have a safety net to catch me. Tom made me laugh and have a light hearted interaction. "JaeHi, you impersonated Donald Trump at church for everyone!" "I did not!" Then he would go on to tease me of something else which I knew was not something I would do yet caused me to laugh. It was obvious that my love for him was as strong as his love for me. And that love memory was still intact. He said if this was to be a permanent situation, we still would have a sweet relationship. 

We took a hike into our beautiful woods today! This is something we do as often as we can, sunshine or rain. Today was different. I realized something. I have a precious treasure in my relationship with my husband. I have gems in my friends. Their love and concern did not rely on what I could do for them or what I could accomplish. In my helpless moments, I saw that I was safe in the net created by them. 

A memory came to me of a baby (myself) who was put outside the door because I cried a lot. I needed my mom, but she was so busy taking care of all of her extended family. My young aunts and uncles who were in middle school or high school did not want to hear me cry. My mother had my grandparents and aunts and uncles to take care of, cook for, wash for, and to do so much other housework for. She counted on the family to watch and play with me while she served them. My father was out working to support this large family. The Korean war had created very difficult situations. Yet this baby grew up always thinking that if she could not be quiet or please others, life can be a dangerous place. No one really cared for her other than how useful she could be to them and, more importantly, not to annoy them. This whole picture and the deeply hidden emotions of fear that accompanied it got shattered. I was released from the bondage of fear by the loving network of people who loved and cared for me unconditionally in my hour of weakness. What a gift from God!

Wednesday January 27, 2016

Today is a windy day. The clouds above are gray and heavy. We need to catch up with our photo logging, and the weather is agreeing with that.

After a quick breakfast, we went off to the beach. The waves are bigger and stronger. Walking along the beach as the waves pounded our legs felt wonderful. As we have moods, so does the weather.

Had delightful take out and ate lunch at home in a quiet and intimate setting.

South Beach at Miami

January 24, 2016

At 10pm we arrived at our lodging. Our last meal was at 1:30pm in Chicago. Being famished, we walked a short distance to eat at Spitfire. Tom ordered pork and I ordered beef döner. We both thought the dinner was oh so mesmerizingly delicious.

We learned that this shop is only two months old and already a five-star sandwich and salad shop!

Travel Day

We packed up to head back home...to another world, another way of life, and to *sigh* winter. I wanted to say goodbye to Shira, our hostess. She rented us a one bedroom guest house with a spectacular view of Coral Bay. She is from Israel. She came to US for personal freedom. Israel was a man’s world, and women had a subservient role there. She wanted more. She studied art history at NYU and then taught in NYC until she realized  life in NY did not full-fill her. She was not experiencing the degree of freedom she sought. Life became suffocating. She accepted a job at the University of St. Thomas USVI about twenty years ago. To this day, she loves it here. She loves being able to raise her boys in a safe environment. She could identify with much of the story of my Korean past, culture, and learning to accept and grow and evolve. She wanted to read about my stories. We found a friend in one another, having both experienced the merging of a culture of the past from another world while merging and colliding with today’s culture. We said goodbye to each other and exchanged our hopes of seeing each other again.

Tom and I drove on to Cruz Bay without having eaten breakfast. We wanted to be sure we got to the car ferry before stopping to eat. We circling Cruz Bay in search of this mysterious ferry. Whenever we stopped to ask for directions, it would go something like this: “buzz buzz...go to the roundabout, don’t do this...buzz, buzz...and make sure you turn...you will see a tennis court and buzz, buzz...you cannot miss it. It takes two minutes.” Well, we did miss it, a few times. Those two minutes were a long, twisted, and confusing two minutes. 

While we drove through the craziness of Cruz Bay, my thoughts went to another place: I hoped that beautiful Coral Bay would be preserved as we found it this week. Residents are very concerned about plans for a monster-sized marina. This will disrupt so much of the natural habitat and the local way of life. 

Cruz Bay, the largest and only town on the island, is a popular vacationer’s destination, but it’s just too much for us. The people lining the already congested roads, the restaurants and bars, boat rentals, car rentals, cruise shop huts, hotels, and more hotels. Eventually we found car ferry and we were transferred to St. Thomas Island from which we flew to the states. 

Last Day on St. John

Today we went to Ram Head on the southeast coast. The trail was about one mile long beginning at Salt Pond Bay Beach. The sign said to expect it to take about one hour each way, which made it sound like a challenging trail.

It started at a beach of stones. The water was amazingly clear—I could see every detail on the rocks underwater.

As we climbed, the scenery got more and more beautiful until it became absolutely spectacular!

There were parts of the trail where you could look over the precipice. Tom went closer to the edge than I was comfortable with so he could take some pictures. My thought was, “Don’t go near the edge! I would not be able to save you if you are hanging from the edge!” When I verbalized this, Tom just looked at me with an “Of course!” expression. It took less than an hour to get up to the top—an invigorating climb, but not so very strenuous.

And the scenic view from the top was GORGEOUS. These photos do not do it justice.

Whenever I would lead on the trail, I would sometimes turn to look back, only to find that Tom had disappeared. I’d find him stooping down to take a photo of a pretty flower or an interesting small animal. When Tom took the lead on trail, I talked the whole time so that Tom would know I was right behind him.

While we were hiking back down from Ram Head, I was thinking that I’d love to just sit on the white sands of Salt Pond Bay beach and soak my feet in the water. But once we got back down to the beach, the white sand area was too hot. We settled under the shade of the Mangrove trees and sat on the rocks with our feet immersed in the water. Ah! so wonderfully refreshing.

We decided to check out Drunk Bay, since it was close by. In my mind, since we had already seen so many bays with their beaches, I wondered if this one could be any different. We went on the trail that leads to this bay. We came to a large brownish pond with white foam along its edges. Tom thought maybe this was Drunk Bay, with white foam representing beer froth. But then Tom checked the map and realized this was Salt Pond and Drunk Bay is beyond it.

When we came to the bay, we knew this was it! It was a very dramatic change. The water color was deep, deep blue, so deep and dark blue it was almost scary. I was used to colors so warm and inviting, aqua blue-green! There were large boulders, and as the full strength of the waves hit these boulders, it created a giant spray of angry white foam.

The beach was filled with larger whitish rocks and coral of all shapes and sizes. The huge boulders were deep grey. Visitors have created art formations of white rocks and coral on dark boulders.

We decided to go to Miss Lucy’s Restaurant again for lunch--great food and beautiful setting at this place! We were there for two hours over our leisurely lunch. Our live entertainment today did not include the diving pelicans we saw on Thursday, but the chicken cleanup crew was out in force, grabbing any leftovers from the tables as people left.

Today, the chickens were joined by a goat which came up to tables to grab food whether anyone was at the table or not. This goat came to our table as we were eating and pushed us, trying to reach our food. When we pushed her head away, she pressed against our hands, trying to get to our plates. She only managed to grab a napkin and a packet of sugar—and ate them both! She walked away when someone from another table threw her a french fry. She is on mission to get herself fed, since she’s a nursing mama.

Tomorrow we head back home!

Cinnamon Bay

Today was a bit of a lazy day. We didn't have anything planned. We packed a lunch, using up most of what we accumulated in our little home. We like taking long walks on the beach, walking close enough to the waves that we are sometimes in and sometimes out of the water. I heard that Cinnamon Bay is big, which means it should have a beach long enough for a good walk. The downside is that I also heard it's crowded. No way of really knowing without going there, so that's where we headed.

As we turned into the entry to Cinnamon Bay, there was a restaurant, one or two snack shops, a boat and canoe rental shop, and probably snorkel rental. Also showers and modern bathrooms. Oh my! we could stay the whole day here.

Cinnamon Bay is grander in scale compared to all the other beaches we have been to this week. Also, at least today, there weren't so many people at the beach in the morning, though it started to get more crowded as the day wore on. It certainly has a long stretch of beach with beautiful white sand for Tom and me to walk in the wet sand. We got that and more. Another great thing about beaches here is that you generally have a choice of sitting in the sun or in the shade, because there are usually mangrove trees growing along the beaches, and they provide a shelter-like shade area.

We were not looking for much more than hiking in nature and walking along the beach in barefeet, and also sitting where the waves can caress us. I am not sure if it is our age, but boating, canoeing, and snorkeling somehow do not have the same attraction for us that they once had.

I am learning to take pictures, although it's just with my iPhone. This beautiful backdrop of nature was our photo studio today.