In September 2011 I was given the opportunity to travel to San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico, to meet with the coffee cooperative Maya Vinic and give advice and guidance in the opening of their cafe. This was my first visit to Mexico, and San Cristobal is a wonderful town, full of culture and beauty.
Most of the time was spent in the offices of Maya Vinic, working with the coop on the opening of their cafe. We took a day trip to their production facility, as well as Acteal. In Acteal, we not only got to see a clean water project being worked on, but got to see the vivid details of the Acteal Massacre.
Special thanks to: the Cooperative Coffees crew (Tomas, Janet, Matt, Chris), Mike Mays & Heine Brothers’ Coffee, everyone at Maya Vinic, Alex, the people of Acteal, and everyone else we talked with, shared coffee with, and laughed with.
While in WA for Twin Peaks Fest 2011 we stayed in Seattle for a couple of nights, and spent a day checking out the city.
Grunge is not dead.
Seattle (and Washington in general) is beautiful. Lots of trees, mountains, ocean…
The weather was awesome. We left the 95 degree Louisville for 75 degree Washington. No barely rained, and was never too hot.
There were a lot of vegan restaurants, that were all really great. Special mention goes to Chaco Canyon Organic Cafe – luckily this is not in Louisville, because I’d be totally broke.
Parks – it felt like there were just as many parks as Louisville has, and they ones we visited were all actively used. With their weather, I’d bet that people are enjoying the parks daily.
I’m still having a hard time believing that we went all the way to the west coast for a festival for a television show. This is not the kind of person I see myself as. That being said, it was awesome!
Twin Peaks aired on ABC from 1990-1991, when it was cancelled due to low ratings. David Lynch brought his insane personality in to his first television attempt, and nothing has come close to the quirky, campy, dark mystery since. Lynch really understands small-town America, and the dark under-belly in it. The show opens with the wrapped body of Laura Palmer washing up to the shore, and after the first few episodes there are numerous people that could have been the killer.
While the show has always had a cult following, the last few years have brought a new generation of viewers who appreciate everything it is. It is currently available for streaming on Netflix, which has helped the younger generation find it. The fest had a wide age range – there were people there from the ages of 20 to 50 years old. It was also international – there were several attendees from Europe and Canada, as well as Australia.
The festival took place in and around North Bend WA and included a movie night (watching Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me), Q and A with several of the series stars (Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Lenny von Dohlen, Phoebe Augustine, and Jan D’arcy), a dinner, trivia contest, media library, shooting location tour, and picnic. There are already plans for us to return for 2012 – the 20th anniversary of the festival.
In my world Monday is known as “Manager Monday”, when I slave over spreadsheets and payroll and sales (for about an hour) and then do other stuff that goes in to managing a semi-successful shop. This past Monday was no exception. In between putting away an order updating something on the computer I stepped outside, and, well, that was it. the weather was too nice to be inside doing stuff all day, especially when it was all stuff that I could put off.
So, around 2pm, I got in my car, got Malady from the house, and went back to Charlestown State Park.
This time we went out on Trail 6, which is the newest trail in the park. It starts at the parking lot for the boat dock for the Ohio River, climbs up the bluff, and follows the river to Fourteenmile Creek, where it descends to the Ohio River. From here you follow an old service road back to the parking lot. I really like this trail – it isn’t too long (around 2.5 miles), or too rugged, but there is a lot to see and a lot to do.
I’m able to take Malady on day-long hikes – she enjoys them, doesn’t run out of energy, and we have fun.
Piper, on the other hand, throws up after being in the car for more than 5 minutes. She has short legs, has to take frequent breaks, and falls asleep as soon as we get in to the car to go home. That being said, I feel guilty taking Malady places and leaving Piper at home, so the day after I took Malady to the Charlestown State Park I took Piper for a stroll around the Falls of the Ohio State Park.
The Falls of the Ohio State Park is another newer state park in Indiana (newer as in the last 20 years), though its beginnings are 386-million years old. It sits on the banks of the Ohio River, along with Clarksville’s Ashland Park, directly across from Louisville (99% of the Louisville skyline photos you see are from here).
I woke up this morning with the birds chirping, the day off of work, and the need to get out. It was still in the 20′s outside, but I knew that the high was supposed to be around 50, and the sun was shining, plus I still haven’t really been able to really try out my new camera, so I decided that I was going to spend my day at Charlestown State Park.
Charlestown State Park is special to me. I took a summer school gym class in high school (I didn’t take it during the school year because of scheduling conflicts.) and we went to the park on a field trip. I had an interest in the outdoors as a child, but I lost it in middle + high school. I reconnected with nature that day – the park was so calm, so beautiful. I’ve returned to that park every summer since, probably 20 times a year in the last 7 years even. Last spring they opened 2 new trails, and they have plans for more in the future.
Today I took Malady on Trail 3, which runs down an old service road, descends to the Ohio River and goes along the Fourteenmile Creek valley, and then returns to the service road.
One of my favorite things about Charlestown State Park is it’s past. The land was once part of the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant, where tens of thousands of people made smokeless gunpowder for the military starting in the 1940′s. the plant (over 10,000 acres) continued manufacturing goods until 1992. Some of the land was turned over to the State of Indiana in 1995 & 1996, when they developed it in to a state park.
The main part of the park has 6 trails, a campground, a boat dock, picnic areas, and a playground. There are still several gated areas with roads dating back to it’s former use – many of these areas have “Do Not Enter’ or “No Trespassing” signs, but some don’t. There are several abandoned warehouses scattered throughout the gated areas, as well as railroad tracks & cars.
