16 DAYS IN MOROCCO, Part 2: Guest Post by Tom and Susan Weisner

Fez, Morocco.

Our friends Tom and Susan Weisner went on a tour of Morocco last year and have kindly agreed to share a few of their wonderful photos and memories of the trip. Part 1 posted last week. This is Part 2.

Our guide.

Our trip to Morocco was  part of a group tour organized by Reed College, where Tom was a student in the 1960s. There were 15 in our group, including Paul Silverstein, an anthropologist who teaches at Reed and who does fieldwork in Morocco. We had a great Moroccan guide too!

Fes

Rug merchants, Fes.

Susan dressed up inside a weaving store somewhere in the souk.

Fes is the second largest city in Morocco, 1.4 million, historic cultural center, former capital until 1912. Souk (market) and Medina (old quarter) of Fez is a World Heritage site –a huge, endless twisting world inside!
Want some rugs, slippers, shoes, jewelry, DATES, weaving and cloth - or about any other thing you could think of? It’s in some alley somewhere. But just  try and find your way back out!

Berber Villages (Meknes-Tafilalet)

Our group had lunch in a Berber village.

Two friends in our small tour group playing dress-up inside the Berber village.

Paul Silverstein, Reed anthropologist, did field research in this Berber area in the South near the Atlas Mountains. This led to side events such as Paul taking Tom to meet Moroccan informants of his, journalists, etc. He took our group into enclosed walled villages (Meknes-Tafilalet) and we had lunch inside – tea in a field basically. Awesome. There was a small “museum" inside as well.

 Ouarzazate

Ouarzazate, nicknamed the "door of the desert"

Our “rock” hotel was like a fort!

Ouarzazate is a historic city in the Southern Berber area in Morocco, in the High Atlas Mountains. Gateway to the Sahara desert to the South. Famous “Kasbah” there. It was also turned into a location site for making movies with an exotic, middle east/desert setting (Gladiator; Game of Thrones, etc.).

Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou outside Ouarzazate in the walled Berber communities of the South of Morocco.

Then driving over the Atlas Mountains – steep, curvy. Susan loved it. (Not really.)

Marrakech

Marrakech market square

The VAST main market square famous in Marrakech; we spent several hours there. There is a huge souk (bazaar or marketplace) surrounding it.

Susan bought some green plates here.

Susan and Tom with camel.

Yes; there are camels but this is just at a tourist rest stop where you could take a picture with one. We never got near any actual desert oasis with camels. There are stray cats EVERYWHERE.
We all got various stomach problems in Morocco. There was a Burger King near our hotel in Marrakech. An exotic one, of course, but just what we needed. We got dinner there. Mmmmmmm.

Essaouira
Essaouira is on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. It is a beautiful city – historic French and colonial. 

One of the many shops in the Essaouira medina. (Medina is an old Arab word for the non-European part of a North African city.)

Viagra for men and women available in the Medina..

Susan sees a totally torn up violin in a case at a museum in Essaouira.

And yes, there are goats that climb in the trees and eat stuff along the roads….

 For Part 1 of 16 DAYS IN MOROCCO, see the post for 9/14/20..

16 DAYS IN MOROCCO, Part 1: Guest Post by Tom and Susan Weisner

Chechaouen, "The Blue City", Morocco

Our friends Tom and Susan Weisner went on a 16 day tour of Morocco in June 2019 and have kindly agreed to share a few of their wonderful photos and memories of the trip. This is Part 1. Part 2 will post next week.

Our trip to Morocco was part of a group tour organized by Reed College, where Tom was a student in the 1960s. There were fifteen in our group, including Paul Silverstein, an anthropologist who teaches at Reed and who does fieldwork in Morocco. We had a great Moroccan guide too!

Rabat, Capital of Morocco

Palace near Rabat.

Morocco is a kingdom with some parliamentary government. This is the palace near Rabat. There are other palaces as well.

Rabat fort and inner city at night.

The tomb of Mohammad VI (former king) is in Rabat. Rabat has a huge market in old city walls with narrow streets.

Casablanca, the largest city in Morocco

Susan and Tom at the mosque in Casablanca.

King Hassan II built the second largest mosque in the world in Casablanca (Mecca is #1). It is marble, vast, on the Atlantic coast. Non-Muslims can only enter as part of an official tour.

Typical Moroccan dish.

A beautiful restaurant.

We enjoyed wonderful food! Tajines! (Tajine dishes are slow-cooked savory stews, typically made with sliced meat, poultry or fish together with vegetables or fruit.)

Synagogue

Hundreds of thousands of Jews once lived in Morocco, but most left during and after WWII, going to Israel, Europe and elsewhere. Morocco does not recognize Israel, but the Israeli passport is recognized since so many from the diaspora do sometimes return. We saw a number of museums and synagogues that are protected. Morocco is about the only Muslim Middle East country that has religious pluralism in the constitution.

Catholic church in Casablanca

There are thousands of black sub-Saharan African immigrants arriving in Morocco, trying to get to Europe. Many are Christian. This is a Catholic Church in Casablanca for them. A very rare sight.

Romans in Morocco: Volubilis, Ancient Roman City near Meknes

Roman ruin with mosaic floor.

The Romans, of course, settled all of North Africa including Morocco. We visited Volubilis near the city of Meknes, for example, an entire former Roman city with over 40K inhabitants.Volubilis is a World Heritage site.

Ancient Roman Empire included northern portions of Morocco.

Morocco is in the lower left corner of this map in red.

Tangiers

American National Historic Landmark in Tangiers.

A landmark to the American legation is inside the Medina, or interior market in Tangiers. It was the first American government office outside the US. It is also the site of a Paul Bowles museum.

View of Tangiers

Morocco gained independence from France in 1956 and Rabat became the new capital. replacing Tangiers as the capital city. You can see Tangiers city in white in the distance from our beautiful hotel on the Mediterranean. Spain is faintly visible on the far horizon just a few miles away across the Strait of Gibralter.

Chechaouen

Chefchaouen is a city in Morocco that's famous for its blue hue. While it was founded in 1471, it didn't get its distinctive color until 1492, when it received an influx of Jews escaping the Spanish inquisition, who brought a tradition of painting buildings blue.

Chechaouen, the Blue City, is between Tangiers and Meknes.  Beautiful! We saw many stalls and shops as we walked through the narrow alleys everywhere. Lunch and tea there.

Market stall in Chechaouen.

Purses, shoes and more!

Part 2 of 16 DAYS IN MOROCCO will post next week.

TEMESCAL CANYON HIKE: Nature at the Edge of the City, Los Angeles, CA

Trail to waterfall from Temescal Gateway Park, Pacific Palisades, CA

On a recent weekday afternoon, we set off for Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles for a hike in Temescal Gateway Park and from there into Topanga State Park (part of the Santa Monica Mountains.)

A kiosk at the entrance of the park displays a helpful diagram of the park on one side and a map with hiking trails on the other. Temescal Gateway Park encompasses a large grassy area and a wooded complex used as a conference center. (Due to the pandemic, the conference center is closed and few people were around.)

A map provides a guide to several trails that branch off from the park.

After parking in the large lot just off Sunset Boulevard, we followed the road through the conference center to the Temescal Waterfall trail head. (A parallel path follows the creek bed.)

Nasturtiums have gone wild along the shady forest floor.

The park was first developed in the early 20th century and has been preserved as a natural area ever since. The trees are enormous, growing tall to reach the light from the bottom of the canyon. They also provided shade for most of our walk, making this a pleasant excursion on a warm summer day.

Giant pines, oaks, and eucalyptus tower over the path.

Elderberries and other plants along the path. Chapparal covers the upper slopes of the canyon.

After walking along under an archway of ancient trees and  passing a shaded picnic area, the path narrowed and began to climb, opening up to provide a view of the top of the canyon. A variety of summer flowers were in bloom and elderberries were ripening in the sun. A red-tail hawk soared overhead.

The history of Temescal Canyon goes back to the early days of Pacific Palisades.

We were running out of time so stopped just short of the waterfall–which in summer is barely a trickle–and retraced our steps back to the parking lot. Had we continued, we would have crossed a small bridge and returned to the beginning of the trail on the other side of the creek. Next time we’ll start earlier, and do the full loop! Or, perhaps, try one of the other trails into the park.

The branches of a California live oak are thick with age.

For directions and a description of the hiking options in Temescal Canyon click HERE.

WALKING IN ALTON BAKER PARK IN EUGENE, OREGON, Guest Post by Caroline Hatton

Walkers, runners, and cyclists share this path along the Willamette River

in Alton Baker Park, Eugene, Oregon

My friend and fellow children’s book author Caroline Hatton took all the photos in this post in recent years when she enjoyed this free outdoor activity on her visits to Eugene, Oregon.

Canada geese. Alton Baker Park is a good place for family activities.

When in Eugene in the Spring and Summer, my days often start with a walk in Alton Baker Park in the heart of the city. The park’s 400 acres (~162 hectares) stretch along the Willamette River. The park is named after Alton F. Baker, Sr, who was a local newspaper owner and philanthropist.

Swan Goose (Anser cygnoides) on a pond.

I love the wild river banks and natural forest, and the abundance and variety of birds. On many days in the same spot, a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) flew over as if in slow motion. A Swan Goose (Anser cygnoides) on a pond was my first sighting of its species. But the most fun were the rare geese that didn’t match any bird website photo, probably because their parents didn’t look alike, but they fell in love anyway.

No crowd, early in the morning.

At 6 a.m. I rarely encounter other humans. When I did on the wide paths I chose, physical distancing was easy.

On this Kalapuya Talking Stone, the word “camafeema” means “ferns on the ground” in the local indigenous language.

To honor the Kalapuya, the indigenous people who once called this area home, trailside Kalapuya Talking Stones display words in their language along with the English equivalent. I stopped by each stone to honor those who walked there before.

Alton Baker Park is bejeweled with art works.

The park showcases art works, and contains venues for cultural and sports events. Until I came upon a disc golf target (like a basket made of chains, mounted at chest level), I had never heard of this game, played with a flying disc reminiscent of a frisbee.

A bucolic spot.

My idea of fun with water is to stay out of it and look for interesting photos to take. The park’s varied bodies of water offered endless possibilities to me. Those who don’t mind getting wet can launch a boat on the river or, for calmer water, on the man made  Canoe Canal, stocked with trout for better fishing luck.

Vast open fields add to the diversity of environments in the park.

I have explored miles of paths through forest and prairie in the park. Runners passed me on Pre’s Trail, designed by the late Steve Prefontaine, the long-distance running legend who lived in Eugene. 

Other outdoor attractions in Alton Baker Park include the dog park, the scaled models of the sun and its planets on the Eugene Solar System Trail, and the Nobel Peace Park area, which honors American laureates. But what I want to see next is the Hays Tree Garden, filled with trees chosen for their foliage and donated in honor of loved ones.