D. Pat Thomas

Am fresh back from visits to Greece, Turkey, Spain, Italy and France. It was as unexpected a trip as it was incredible. Our guide in Ephesus was an archeologist who went about the museum pointing to statues and sarcophagi, telling us when and how he found them. Then we went on site. At one point I asked him what was the the oldest artifact he had ever found there. He said it was pottery, carbon dated to 6,000 BC. Can you just imagine? People were making pottery over 8,000 years ago. What were they like? Has humanity made progress since then? Obviously yes, when it comes to medicine and agriculture, for example. But as a species, are we better people? As each civiization replaced the next, it pirated what it considered useful and tossed the rest. Over and over. Do you think our self destructive nature will be our downfall? Or do you believe that the inherent beauty of the human soul will carry us forward? History is just so thought provoking.

My husband is a captain, and recently took a catamaran from Panama to Galapagos, heading out today for French Polynesia. He suggested I join him in the Galapagos, and, well. who could say 'no' to that? My favorite was the sea lions, swimming like torpedoes but so funny on land, wobbling along on flippers. The own the island of San Cristobol, lounging on each and every boat in the harbour, taking up space on the benches meant for the ferry travellers and taking over the beach at sunset for a loud, honking celebration. They have much to teach about attitude.

Another fun animal is the Galapagos tortoise. Get this: when two males fight, they hiss in each other's faces, and the one with the longest neck wins.

It's been super to visit this place. We did some scuba diving, with white tip and black tip and Galapagos sharks, not to mention the hammarheads. The turtles swim right up to you, and the starfish are exotic. Unfortunately, my diving photos just would not upload into the blog here, but you can find them in the Gallery.

Yes, the view from the porch was amazing at my first writers' retreat. The Salt City Genre Writers Chapter of LUW (League of Utah Writers) gathered in an enormous house for a long November weekend, and filled the kitchen with M & Ms, chocolate covered expresso beans, an impressive array of liquor and enough food to stay for weeks. During the days, folks found a corner and madly wrote as much as possible. Many were participating in NaNoWriMo, an annual November effort by participating members to set a writing goal (like 50,000 words) and then work like crazy to meet it. It was wondrous to have a whole cadre of experienced writers to ask questions like, how do I access a Thesaurus with Scriviner, or what is another word for indigestion? At night we played board games, went to the hot tub, or just hung out. It was a magical mix of fun, inspriation and hard work. This will definitely not be my last retreat.