CM #54: HAPPY NEW YEAR! I didn’t forget you guys
Hi Friends!
I know I said I was taking a couple of weeks off, but I couldn’t end the New Year without bringing in the New Year with a couple of stories.
Here’s to 2024. We wish you the best!
Mark & Patti
For a Friend Traveling! M.G. This one’s for you
Tío Pepe Sign
PUERTA DEL SOL IS THE beating heart of Madrid, containing several of the city’s most important symbols. There’s the King Charles III statue, the clock which marks the New Year with 12 strikes (prompting the ritual eating of the twelve grapes), and—towering over all of them like a beacon of booze—a neon advertisement for Tío Pepe sherry. “Sol de Andalucia Embotellado!” (“Andalusian sun in a bottle!” ) declares the red and green sign, next to a red-hatted wine bottle with hands on its hips.
Mushroom Beach House
A UNIQUE MUSHROOM-SHAPED BUILDING HIDES at the bottom of the cliffs at Blacks Beach in San Diego. The architect Dal Nagle designed and built it in 1968 for Sam Bell, owner of Bell Brand Snack Foods. He wanted a futuristic-looking house that could withstand naturally occurring rock slides, earthquakes, and waves.