CHASING MARTINIS

This week's Friday Martini is from Larry's, Venice Beach, California.

Very Bohemian with a side of fries...

QUOTE #5 - Linda Ellerbee

A week of quotes, ending with journalist Linda Ellerbee. Her career and life were exemplars of hope, achievement and courage in the face of truly daunting odds.

One of my personal heroes.

“People are pretty much alike. It's only that our differences are more susceptible to definition than our similarities." – Linda Ellerbee

QUOTE #4 - Brian Blessed

"You can't call it an adventure unless it's tinged with danger. The greatest danger in life, though, is not taking the adventure at all. To have the objective of a life of ease is death. I think we've all got to go after our own Everest." 

- Actor/Adventurer Brian Blessed

QUOTE #3 - Terry Pratchett

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” 

 From Terry Pratchett's book A HAT FULL OF SKY (an evocative title in and of itself). We return from our journeys different than we were when we left. No one can venture forth to experience the world and come back unchanged.

QUOTE #2 - Ray Bradbury

“We travel for romance, we travel for architecture, and we travel to be lost.” – Ray Bradbury

QUOTE #1 - Anthony Hopkins

(This week we're featuring some of my favorite quotes about life, travel or whatever strikes my fancy.)

"You're going to be dead one day. Enjoy life."

Anthony Hopkins

BEACHES - POSITANO, ITALY

Unlike the quiet and solitary destinations featured so far in this week's review of our favorite beaches, this one's all about the social scene. Positano, Italy, along the Amalfi Coast is a vibrant town facing into the Tyrrhenian Sea. 

From certain angles you can spy the far off Isle of Capri.

Positano's restaurant and hotel-lined beach is a sunny stretch at the base of steep cliffs, creating an energetic and spectacular setting. Painters, boat people and throngs of tourists and locals descend upon the water in busy groups, and the activity is constant.

The beach isn't sandy, but instead full of small pebbles which makes it necessary to invest in a pair of flip-flops for your visit - I would have said "thongs", which is what we called them when I was a boy, but that's a completely different things these days. And while you may choose to invest in one while wandering the boutique-lined streets of Positano, it wouldn't protect your feet much.

Dipping my feet into the Mediterranean required I remove my shoes, a mistake while holding the Nikons. I bobbled and very nearly lost the shoe as it flipped into the water and began the long trek to Capri. I retrieved it, doubtless becoming a bit of a spectacle as a tourist retrieving the shoe with cameras jangling, but now have a short story to tell of my brief stay in Positano.

Just a wonderful destination and one which cries for deep exploration as well as an active day on the very busy beach.