Starring role in a Russian novel

Our friends from the restaurant, aka the Johnson-Marcils, know no end to kindness. Whether it’s a fervent strain of the fabled Southern hospitality, or a cure for writer’s block, we do not know.

Will says it gives them bragging rights (“ah, yes, our friends from London are in town, I was up with them until eleven”, he must say to classmates), Chris says the Airstream looks cool in front of their house, and Coco likes playing mother to our two daughters, especially if she can hold Lulu. Grandmother promises it’s just fun having extra people around.

Julia, the ringleader, says a full house gives her the sense of living in her very own Russian novel.

Assuming that this – an additional grandmother, two parents, a preschooler and a baby – is a good thing, which Russian novel would this echo?

As we departed LA - having declined to stay another additional day - we went around the car, naming the way the family had been most generous to each of us.

Barbara said it was the time Julia spent showing her sights in LA (the photo at the Hollywood sign, the ride to nearby Larchmont – modeled on the Westchester town, apparently, the visit to the Hollyhock Frank Lloyd Wright house), shopping mall extraordinaire The Grove.

Daniel most appreciated the kids giving up their bedrooms to give us a bed to sleep in: the girls, he and I slept in Coco’s room on her bed and an air mattress; while Barbara had Will’s room. I think he also liked going to Julia’s art class our final evening (see attached illustration of beetroot).

Sophia thought hard and said it was the hand-me-downs (copious amounts of beautiful clothes and jewelry, much of it Not Pink) she most liked.

For me, it was Julia’s maneuvering to get me three hours on my own…and later the same day babysitting so that Daniel and I could go for a drink – our first time out together on our own since Lulu was born – yippee! So of course the cozy wine bar was called Lou, and of course we ended up becoming friends with everyone behind the bar and at it. Oh, and Grandmother’s insistence that I take a nap.

If Lulu could choose her own favorite feature of the Marcil-Johnsons, it would probably be the opportunity to live in a real house, with a cast of characters happily scooping her up and her very own doctor to give her a proper check-up. Julia said Lulu’s welcome to move in with them, something that may become appealing, especially if night feeds continue at the current pace.

Pictured:
Julia, who is photo-shy. This is the best we could do.
Coco and her princess protege, Sophia
Daniel's pen-and-ink rendition of the Johnson-Marcil house

Now we are five

Most people we meet admire our sense of adventure, saying we are brave to take our young daughters on the road for an extended trip. Others go further, calling us wise to take advantage of a window in our lives where such an opportunity to travel presents itself. Still others wholly disapprove, suggesting that we are irresponsible parents, putting our own wanderlust ahead of our children’s needs.

Everyone, though, is intrigued to know that we are adding one more person to the mix: Barbara, Daniel’s mom, who will be traveling with us for 3-4 weeks.

“How is it going with your mother-in-law?”, people whisper to me.

Just fine, actually. Barbara’s incredibly intrepid, for an 82-year old, or for someone of any age, for that matter. “I’m no longer a passive reader of the adventure, I am now IN the adventure”, she exclaimed, upon arrival at San Francisco International.

Provided she’s given a cold glass of white wine in the evening, and regular doses of Culture – preferably in the form of museums – she is game for anything.

Nevertheless, we decided to start out slowly, easing her into life in a seventeen-foot trailer.

So, in San Francisco, we rented an apartment in the Haight. Daniel, Lulu and I had the bedroom, with Barbara and Sophia shared the living room, sleeping on separate pull-out sofas. Sophia decided that this made Barbara her playmate, that they would watch Disney DVDs and play Littlest Pets together.
The apartment provided welcome shelter from the five consecutive storms that assaulted the California coast over the course of a week, and gave us an economical way to feast on the state’s excellent produce and wines.

From there, we moved into hotels.

The Super Eight in Monterey (best décor yet in the budget category), where we enjoyed a Mark West Pinot Noir and a fine dinner of organic salad leaves, sautéed tuna, rice and green beans, leftover from the previous night’s dinner and prepared in the microwave.

Once we worked out a diplomatic resolution to the battle for TV primacy: Barbara’s news vs. Sophia’s cartoons (plus, ideally, a half an hour to watch Jeopardy!), it was smooth sailing.

The next two nights found us at the Kronborg Inn in Solvang, Central California’s only Danish village. This establishment featured our largest room yet AND our own door opening directly onto the heated pool and Jacuzzi.

Having downloaded our first movie ever from iTunes – a huge advance for Luddites - we put the girls to bed and crowded around the laptop to watch ‘Sideways’, a mid-life crisis wine adventure set in the Santa Ynez Valley, where we were staying.

Our final hotel stop took us to the heart of Hollywood – the Best Western on Franklin Avenue, very well appointed with super-comfy beds, a marble shower for two and gelatin print black-and-white photos of Hollywood legends. Through the lobby was the fantastic Café 101, a 70’s décor diner with friendly staff and great food.

After four nights chez Johnson-Marcil, we moved into the trailer. We picked an upscale RV park, Sam’s Family Resort in Desert Hot Springs. Here, for $44 a night, we bask in views of serrated mountain ranges – stony, grey, blue, snowy – sweepingly brush-stroked pastel desert sunsets and our very own full mooned night sky. Included in the price is a leisure complex, complete with heated pool, four hot spring fed pools, waterfalls, pond and gardens. Nice.

So far, we’ve slept in two configurations: (1) Daniel, Lulu and I on the double bed, with Sophia and Barbara on the top and bottom respective bunks of the new bed designed and built by Daniel, and (2) Lulu, Sophia and I on the double bed, with Barbara and Daniel on the top and bottom bunks.

Updates to follow shortly – wish us luck!

Pictured:
- Daniel, Sophia, Barbara, Lulu and Connie Bruce. Cousins Barbara and Connie were reunited in Mill Valley, CA after about 60 years. Lots to catch up on
- Barbara and fellow octogenarian Grandmother aka Sue
- Claire, Lulu, Sophia and Barbara at the Getty Center, Los Angeles

A quiet day in Southern California

When Lisette texted to say that she and Carolyn wouldn’t be able to go on the Beverly Hills celebrity bus tour, we were quietly thankful.

Our social life had been frenetic since the return to LA on December 29.
We liked living like real LA people, commuting 34 miles between our outpost at the RV park in Anaheim and friends much closer to the center (is there a center?), but desperately needed a Quiet Day – no culture, no socializing, no driving.

Kicking back after a pancake breakfast, we settled into another cup of coffee.

The weather being as fantastic as it was, we went for a dip in the pool (open year-round and heated to 85 degrees) opposite our trailer, and then tested the Jacuzzi. We sat back and admired the lines of palm trees, pausing when we discovered that the really tall one behind the Airstream was a very well disguised phone mast.

Sophia watched ‘Tom & Jerry’ on the computer, and Lulu crawled around, energetically pulling herself up at intervals.

The freeway hummed in the not very far distance.

We ate some more, and then Daniel’s brother Tim’s friend Brian came over for a barbeque and told us how amazing and full of opportunity LA is.

After he left and the girls were in bed, Daniel and I watched the nightly fireworks at Disneyland, just over the fence.

I hadn’t worn shoes all day long, life was good.

Our friends from the restaurant

When you speak to strangers at a restaurant, do you invite them to your house?
We know some people who do just that, and more!

Three years ago, Daniel, Sophia and I went to dinner with my parents, my sister and her husband at the Bridge Café near South Street Seaport in New York. Sophia had just learned to walk, and was toddling all over the place – mostly up to other people’s tables and into the kitchen.

Respite arrived in the form of Will, a nine-year old from LA jauntily dressed in a three-piece pinstriped suit (his mother, Julia, said he never dressed down). He spent the next few hours entertaining Sophia – at and under our table, and that of his family. Daniel and I enjoyed the rare treat of sitting back for a nice meal, a drink and a chat with our family.

At the end of the meal, Julia took down our email address and said that if we were ever in LA, we would have to visit them.

So three years later, we did.

Julia, a writer of magazine articles, screenplays and now a novel, suggested that we park the Airstream outside their house and said we were welcome to use the facilities and have breakfast inside.

I think we initially took up their offer because it was so crazy. We suspect that they invited us to stay for the same reason.

Julia and her husband Chris, who is a comedy writer for TV shows including ‘Frasier’ and ‘Beavis and Butthead’, live in Hollywood. Also residing there are Will, now a more mellow (waistcoat, but no jacket) 12 years old, their ten-year old extrovert daughter Coco. Grandmother, who at 81 is still a practicing doctor, lives there part-time.

The first night, we were invited to a pizza dinner. The second night, to Grandmother’s birthday party. The third night, room was offered in the driveway, and there was talk of sleeping in Coco’s bedroom once Julia’s niece and nephew – in town to support Alabama at the big national college championship football game against Texas at the Rose Bowl – returned to Birmingham, Alabama.

All the while, Julia provided excellent suggestions for things to do in LA, the whole family played with the girls, and Will asked when I would be updating the blog – noting that the last entry was December 17, and printing out pie charts showing readers’ countries of origin.

After two nights, we had to go. We felt too guilty, and were unsure what – if anything – we were providing in return.

We did return, though, on our way out of LA en route to San Francisco. Airstream-less (the trailer is spending the next week at C&G Trailers, a repair shop that has been highly recommended up and down the West Coast), we were upgraded to a specially converted suite in Coco’s room, edging the poor girl out of her own bed, on a school night.

Once we return with Daniel’s mother, Barbara, we are invited to stay with them once more.

We have been adopted.

Promiscuity

Since we got to LA, we have done a terrible job at keeping up with the blog.
The excuse is rather fabulous: we have been leading a very active social life!

One could even say we’ve been promiscuous. We hope we haven’t taken advantage.

Everyone has really gone out of their way to be incredibly kind to us. We hope we can do nice things back to them, and soon.

Because it’s unclear whether our friends in LA know just how much we get around, we had better come clean about our dalliances, right here, in chronological order.

• Our friends from New York: Soo-Hyun and Joseph, who I met ten years or so ago - through Stephanie, who singlehandedly spins huge networks of smart, talented, fun friends – moved to LA from New York about a year and a half ago. They felt like a change, plus it made sense for work – Soo-Hyun had won a place at a screenwriting lab in LA, and Joseph’s photography often took him to the West Coast. Plus, the chance to swap an apartment for a house and garden would give their son Nomi plenty of space to play.

The night we rolled into LA, they greeted us not only with a dinner party but a spot in their driveway to park our Airstream for three weeks. Plus, they put us up at their house (see photo 1), and then at Soo-Hyun’s sister Chi-Yoon’s, where we did some light cat-sitting.

Throughout our time in LA, they’ve welcomed us into their Atwater Village home/clubhouse/workspace, sharing many a meal, drink and essential LA tip (such as using one’s GPS to avoid getting hopelessly lost).

Nomi and Sophia have become BFFs, playing for hours at a time without fighting. They even manage to merge his-and-her games into something that works….for example, Mommy and Baby Spock.

It must be serious: Sophia is considering marrying Nomi.

• My former Brooklyn flatmate: Lisette “Lisi” Linares – another point in Stephanie’s magical web - was one of my flatmates in Williamsburg 13 years ago. She is – of course – the one person we know who has starred in reality TV (‘Survivor: Fiji’) and had an electropunk hit in France.

She and her girlfriend Carolyn, who moved to West Hollywood from Miami seven years ago, are so much fun and pick out the best kids’ gifts. Like the British accented phonics game Sophia calls the “punch-button-er”, a Hannah Montana doll and Lulu’s glow in-the-dark, spinny-roundy, smiley-faced rattle/teething ring. We have a Beverly Hills celebrity bus tour pending.

• My former Michigan flatmate: Laura, who’s been mentioned before on this blog – she’s the ONE person so far to join us for a spot of camping!

Laura, who moved to LA to study Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica - has hosted us in not one but two houses in LA – the first in Mid City and the second in Los Feliz – all while starting a new job, moving and having her mom to visit. As if that weren’t enough, she also drove us to LAX at 5 in the morning and looked after our car for two weeks.

• My childhood friend: Elisa doesn’t live in LA, but was in town with her boyfriend Eric en route to New Zealand (their hobby is spending all their time and money going to weddings all around the world). Their friend Elizabeth threw a very elegant New Year’s Eve Eve party for them, so we all (Spring-Landons, Soo-Hyun, Joseph and Nomi) got to tag along.

• Our friends from the restaurant: This one probably merits its own posting, so maybe it will become one. See below.

• Daniel’s brother’s friend: Brian Parsons, Tim Spring’s good friend from a long time ago – we’re still not sure where – moved to LA a year or so ago to head up the theatre department at USC.

He is loving life in Marina del Rey, dating a beautiful German and has no intention of ever leaving. He joined us for a barbeque at our RV park in Anaheim, it was great fun.

• Our friend from the campground: Kristyn, who we met on our extended stay-cation at Santa Margarita Lake – she spent a weekend staying in the cabins with her university friends – totally hooked us up with Disneyland tickets. Her friend Ramona works for Disney and signed us into the park.

We went to some galleries with her as well, and hope to see her again.

A compelling case for LA

LA is nothing like we had imagined.

I had always assumed it was a vacant city, full of isolation, fake boobs and broken dreams.
Daniel had foreseen an endless sprawl of suburbs/ex-urbs, connected by a tangle of freeways. Well, he is right about that.

But the City of Angels is, in fact, a fantastic place to live. And a malleable one. Our friends Olivia and David, who've been there for nine years or so, described it as being so immense and so varied that it becomes whatever you make it - as opposed to a city with a character so overwhelming that one has no choice but to conform. To build your own bespoke LA, though, they say you must employ both time and effort.

Like London, LA is a conglomerate of neighborhoods, each with its own distinct character. But unlike London, it boasts
a-m-a-z-i-n-g weather all year round…and palm trees, everywhere!

Most people get to live in a house – usually a single-floor bungalow – with a backyard and trees bearing more fruit than you could ever realistically eat. This seems to be true in good areas as well as less desirable ones. Accommodation, especially if it’s rented, sounds like it’s reasonably priced.

It's easy to find great food from many nations and cultures, as long as you avoid Burrito King in Silverlake. Daniel, who never complains, suffered for three days.

Generally speaking, the population appears pretty happy – everyone likes to say “hi” on the street. It’s fun, and catchy. We like to say “hi” back. People talk a lot about movies and TV shows, referencing actors and famous lines - something unfortunately lost on us, most times.

The major drawback, of course, is all the driving. Most people seem to drive one to a car, guided by GPS, which could certainly lead to a feeling of isolation. We don’t know if it’s this sense of isolation that makes the vast majority of the population fail to signal when driving, and think that texting/emailing/talking on the phone while on the freeway is a good idea.

For more information on driving in LA, please see Julia Johnson's proposed book 'Free Parking and Treacherous Highways'.

But apart from that, the people are pretty cool.