Joshua Tree National Park

Photos from our day out at Joshua Tree National Park

1. Cholla Grove

2. Joshua trees

3. Daniel now owns two pairs of chinos

4. Sophia & cacti

5. Burritos in the park

Babs does Hollywood (and LACMA)

Image and video courtesy of Julia

Culture

Here’s a brief rundown of the Culture we have participated in since Barbara’s arrival:

- California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco: the city’s newest museum, dedicated to natural history, it features a brilliantly arranged rainforest, aquarium and planetarium. I think it’s worth the hefty $25 entry fee ($15 for kids ages 4-11), which presumably covers the upkeep and large, smiling staff – two of whom are exclusively dedicated to preventing butterflies from escaping the top level of the rainforest (one as you enter the elevator, and one as you leave it – this second part includes a sweep under strollers, a favored butterfly hideout.

- de Young Museum, San Francisco:

- SF MOMA

- National John Steinbeck Center, Salinas: a modern, interactive museum dedicated to the life of John Steinbeck, whose writing heavily featured the people and agriculture of the Salinas Valley, where he grew up. A second part of the museum tells a detailed history of the produce grown in this fertile area. Daniel and I are reading ‘America and Americans’, a series of essays and letters written by Steinbeck. We were interested to learn that Steinbeck himself went on a cross-country USA trip with his dog in an RV – a slide-on cleverly named ‘Rocinante’. His travels are documented in ‘Travels with Charley’, which we plan to read next.

- Getty Villa, Los Angeles: one of the homes of oil magnate J Paul Getty, modeled on the ancient Roman house Villa dei Papiri, and built to house his collection of Etruscan, Roman and Greek antiquities. The staff was keen to point out that Getty’s house was an exact replica, rather than a pastiche of European styles, as favored by contemporaneous mogul William Randolph Hearst. The setting along the Malibu coast was stunning, and the free entry appreciated. Accustomed to the vacant stares of most Greco-roman statues, we were startled by the demonic painted on eyes of the statues here. We can highly recommend the museum’s food, especially the very reasonably priced platter of raisin-walnut toast, three cheeses, almonds, dates, apricots and figs.

- Getty Center, Los Angeles: the jewel in the crown of LA’s museums, whose best quality – for me - is their indoor-outdoor architecture. This all-white Richard Meier masterpiece floats between the mountains and the sea, and includes multi-leveled landscaped gardens.

- LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art): Another indoor-outdoor marvel, this one featuring contemporary art and its own American wing, which Barbara and Daniel particularly enjoyed.
This was also the scene of a near misplacement of Barbara, who wandered off to another museum and left Julia frantic, the co-star in her own surreal thriller.

- El Capitan Theater, Hollywood: Daniel, Barbara and Sophia went to see ‘Dumbo’ at this Disney-owned 1920s movie theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

Pictured: The Getty Center, over and over again

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

The importance of margaritas

Everyone likes margaritas, and these are quickly becoming our house drink. Barbara’s newfound love of the tequila-based drink may even challenge the hegemony of cold white wine.
Her first contact with margaritas took place at dinner with my parents, when she had a sip of my mother’s cocktail. She was not convinced until about three nights later, when we ordered three margaritas at the neon-lit burrito joint Los Coyotes, in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood.

Since then, we’ve had margaritas at a Chinese restaurant in a Danish village, at Soo-Hyun and Joseph’s (guava syrup and Trader Joe’s margarita mix being the key ingredients) and finally, Barbara’s own, served in the trailer.

Please send your recipes – we promise to test them!

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

Our day in the O.C.

Jana, our friend from London, was in San Clemente visiting her parents with her daughter Makenna and baby son Ashton, so we went down for the day. A native Southern Californian herself, Jana, made up a nosh-fest picnic so we could all enjoy an afternoon on the town’s gorgeous beach. Jana’s charming mom joined us, the kids ran around and we all stuffed our faces.