Maggie's Farm

Among other cool places, I am headed for Carthage in a week or two. 

It's called Tunisia now. Phoenician imperialists colonized the place. It was once the bread-basket of the Roman Empire. Wheat.

Today, the people there are mostly Berbers. St. Augustine was a Berber as was, of course, his Mom, Saint Monica.

I am studying up, as I always do before I go somewhere. The way I approach every subject is to begin with the big picture, and then to work my way into the details as time and interest permit. For me, the history Big Picture is my 5000 BC to 1900 AD time line.

Will bring cameras, fully charged. With the strange DC currents and strange plugs over yonder, you cannot expect to recharge the batteries. I guess I do need a third camera or spare batteries for a trip like this, but it seems like a waste of money.

Maybe I can find one of my old ones somewhere but who knows if I can find the chargers for them?

Here's St. Vincent de Paul Cathedral in Tunis. St. Vincent de Paul was sold into slavery, and ministered to other Christian slaves in north Africa. The country is now 98% Moslem, but they have a tradition of tolerance to their Christians and Jews, and their Islam is not of the hateful sort at all.

Plus I just learned we are stopping by Capri too. I haven't been there, but my kids have. What next? She has constructed this trip to be a surprise for me, and gives me one detail at a time so I can learn.

We'll recycle things from the archives, but nothing new during vacation break.

Here's my final big batch of Wellfleet architecture photos. Our prayer is that Wellfleet be never yuppified, and that it remain ramshackle, weather-beaten, weedy, and perfectly imperfect. Like Nantucket, before the Beautiful People discovered it in the 1980s as an alternative to the Hamptons.

Hatch's has been there since before I was a little kid, with the same sign with a Striper eating a lobster. If you ask them to keep some Toro (Bluefin tuna belly), they will have it for you the next day, if not sooner. It's the best food in the world (flash-grilled over charcoal, not as sushi).

This grand old boathouse on the harbor is a great place to rent for the summer, but it's booked years in advance, and it ain't cheap. Yes, that is�low tide. There is water against the pilings at high tide:

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Back by popular demand!

This funny but handsome hodge-podge of a place�is called Morning Glory, now undergoing long-delayed major renovation and necessary graffiti:

�I like this simple�look very much. It could use a garden, though. Or maybe not.

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Back from my annual trip to family-friendly, glitz-free�Wellfleet on Cape Cod, whence no opportunities for fresh posting. You talk about Obama stickers - good grief. Never saw so many of 'em. Just a solitary NOBAMA bumper sticker, and�one Ron Paul sticker on a plumber's old F-150: the self-employed are an independent lot.

Only regret: no time to stop by and visit with our friend�Sipp on the way. With the vacation traffic, the drive took us 7 migraine-inducing stop-and-go traffic�hours.

Despite the drive, the Cape is where I need to go to clean my brain with (all-organic)�cold salt water and to refresh my innards with fresh Wellfleet oysters.�Here's where we stay:

�Here's the view of the harbor and our�home beach�from our deck, with its tiny boardwalk across the little�salt marsh:

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A re-post from last spring:

Mohonk. My Gramp's favorite place, and one of my Pa's favorites, if you don't include Tuscany or Norway. When you arrive, your first view of the place in the woods�is astonishing. Great rock-climbing in the Gunks.

Tanglewood. Stay in Lenox, or at the 200 year-old �Red Lion in Stockbridge, not too far from Maggie's Farm.

Chatauqua.�Yes, it still exists and is going strong, with mental stimulation.

The Mount Washington Hotel. A grand year-round place, if you ski or snowshoe.

Chatham Bars Inn.�Mostly summer, on the elbow of the Cape. My preference for the Cape is early September: water is warm, the crowds thin out, and the migratory birds are everywhere.

Monhegan Island. Get away from it all, even more so than Cuttyhunk.

Wellfleet. The real old regular-folks Cape, without the nouveau riche of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard and their Hummers.

Photo: Monhegan Island, from this guy's photo site