Page 151 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL EATING IBERIA
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those budding teens, many on their first big trip
            without family. During that shopping stop, the stu-
            dents paid Amish children $26 for painted horse-
            shoes – at $1 apiece. They were really buying time
            and conversation with their Amish counterparts.
               Only a few of the trinkets on my tree were ac-
            tually designed to be holiday ornaments: There's
            the intricately painted porcelain globe from
            Bratislava, the small wire Eiffel Tower, a miniature
            ceramic flower-filled watering can from Butchart
            Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia – and the
            palm-sized David from the gift shop at the Ac-
            cademia in Florence. There’s the hot-pink and iri-
            descent-blue hammered-tin church from Santa Fe
            – and the tiny lobster boat I found in Maine, after
            spending a long weekend carousing with Linda
            Greenlaw on Isle au Haut, where she skippers a
            lobster boat and wrote two books: "The Lobster
            Chronicles" and "All Fishermen Are Liars".
               A pair of tiny fur Eskimo-style boots trans-
            ports me back to Alaska where I went halibut fish-
            ing with Sue Hobart, former travel editor at the
            Portland Oregonian. We were skunked. Twice. But
            we were determined. We canceled our flights
            home – and found a skipper in Seward who'd never
            been skunked. Her record still holds; Sue and I lim-
            ited out. No, not all fishers are liars.
               And finally, there are the ornaments that slow
            me   down,  prompt   languid,  sleep-till-noon
            thoughts: Starfish and sand dollars from the cen-
            tral coast of Oregon where my husband and I es-
            cape each winter to walk deserted beaches, read
            novels, snuggle by a fireplace. We’ll do it again this
            winter.
               But first, our family will gather by the fireplace
            at home on Christmas Eve. We’ll exchange gifts
            fromunderthetree.Forme,thetreeitselfwillcount
            as a gift: Among its twinkling lights, I’ll savor again
            treasured remembrances of people and places
            aroundtheworldthathaveenrichedmylifebeyond
            measure.













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