| Social pleasures
rivaled birding pleasures in our caravan. Shared interest in birds
opened us to the diverse life experiences of fellow caravaners -- businessmen,
teachers or professors, pilots, scientists, a Protestant minister, an Olympic
athlete, The idyllic pause at Las Cascabeles fostered bonding, and
three weeks at Paraiso Miramar made us a community, people who really liked
and enjoyed each other.
Much sociability developed around informal meals, whether periodic communal potlucks or going out to eat with others. |
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| Almost anything might occasion a gathering. One enjoyable event was the hot-dog birthday party that Jim and Gwen Woodhouse threw for their much indulged dog Penny. |
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| Twice the whole group repaired to the nearby Casa Manana hotel for the excellent pizza served there on Saturdays. |
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| We all got dressed to the nines (by caravan standards) for our most elegant meal at the Hotel Garza Canela. This San Blas jewel has long been celebrated among birders -- its name is the Spanish name for the Cinnamon or Boat-billed Heron -- and its restaurant is truly distinguished for both cuisine and service. |
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| Our social life at Paraiso Miramar peaked on Super Bowl Sunday, February 1. This memorable day opened with a lavish pancake breakfast laid on by our leaders, the Stouts and Whittens. |
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Jim & Ruth Stout, Duane & June Whitten |
Noel Gravelle, John Powles, Charlie |
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| Breakfast
climaxed with a stirring rendition of the North Carolina state anthem.
The scorned Carolina Panthers, from Charlie's birthplace Charlotte, were
about to play the New England Patriots for the football championship of
the universe. To the five Tar Heels present (one a Tennessee native
of putative North State descent), the words of "Carolina, Carolina" were
telling it like it was. Their state, isolated and impoverished in
its early days by a shoaled-in coastline, had been derided as "the Rip
Van Winkle of the republic," and Tar Heels still think of their homeland
as "a valley of humility between two mountains of conceit," aristocratic
Virginia and South Carolina. Therefore our North Carolina contingent
sang out with feeling the defiant lines composed by Judge William Gaston
in 1835.
Carolina, Carolina, Heaven's blessings attend her.
(chorus)
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| By the time the Super Bowl telecast flickered to life on El Eden's little screen, a betting pool had spread keen anticipation across Paraiso Miramar. Everybody was betting on numbers drawn from a hat to predict the point spread between the teams at the end of each quarter. |
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As usual, even with the best optics, Charlie has trouble identifying the players |
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Joanne Powles, Brenda Wright |
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| For male Tar Heels, the ladies' sweep was a double whammy. Despite our gambling acumen and our Panthers' grit and derring-do, we ended up -- as we knew in our North Carolina hearts we would -- in a valley of humiliation between betting women and battling-back Patriots. |
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