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| Los Losada- My grandparents with their 4 kids |
(Para leer en español opriman ente enlace)
I always comment on how lucky both my grandmothers were, who often had their grown-up children within an hour from where they lived. We enjoyed birthdays and random get-togethers often. My experience as a young person was that all the family lived in the same area.
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| Los Couttenye- My grandparents with 17 grandchildren |
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| Los Couttenye 1998- Second generation in Venezuela |
When I raised my own family, I had the suspicion that neither San Francisco nor I would tie them down. Avery, Skylr and Renie Joie all left home, and I have a triangle of sorts-
- Henley-on-Thames in the UK;
- Gardnerville in Nevada; and
- an unspecified spot on the map, a van that keeps moving with my daughter inside to wherever there is something interesting to see or a friend to visit.
As you may imagine, getting together is hard.
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| 2006 UK- Avery and matt's wedding |
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| Margarita 2008- baptism |
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| Caracas 2008 - Five Generations |
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| 2104 San Francisco- my wedding to Maurizio |
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| 2019 Tulum, Skylr & Maura's wedding |
We have been trying to organize some time together for a couple of years, all four of us, with no luck.
When we part- Ok, see you soon!- we know it will be months (or years) before it happens again.
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| Ok, see you soon!- we know it will be months (or years) before it happens again. |
We said "goodbye" in January 2019 after we all celebrated Skylr and Maura's wedding in Mexico, and little did we know that it would take over three years to be together again. But here is what I discovered: when joy happens, it permeates everything, so much so, that even one hour of this bliss is enough!
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| One Hour = Bliss |
In January 2022, after Avery got tickets to come to California, the wheels started turning. Travel from the UK is a feat only possible through the generosity of family and friends. To transport three adults across the globe is impossible on a Kindergarten teacher's salary. There is a lot of love surrounding Avery that got her, Felix and Didi the means to cross the pond. So now, what will we do? and where will we go? I spent an afternoon making a general plan. Here it is:
Then reality checks in: How would we deal with more events than the time we have?
- I had two gigs,
- Renie had a wedding in Mexico,
- Maura, Skylr, and the kids had planned a trip to Disneyland,
- Felix wanted an early departure to be with friends and prepare for a rowing race,
- and then there was the eternal variable, the weather: heavy snowfall had been predicted.
All of this needed to happen in the same two weeks? Yes!
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| Just arriving and ready for adventure |
Avery arrived on Saturday 9 for a Sunday 10 departure.
We delayed it because, as it happens with climate, there is no understanding all of its moods: one day is super hot, and the next is snowing! We knew snow wasn't happy-camping weather : ) so we postponed.
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| Coming back from Alcatraz |
We spent a day shopping and went on an impromptu visit to Alcatraz during a windy afternoon.
Didi and I shopped at Nordstroms Rack and Old Navy, and she modeled for us her new outfits.
Felix got happily splashed by the waves even as he stood on the third level of the boat.
Yes, it was that "splashy" of a ride.
We visited and inspected the jail cells while learning stories of life in Alcatraz.
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| We listened to the whole tour- It's amazing! |
Random divergence: Do you know that the US has the most incarcerated people per capita in the world? We have over 1.5 million people behind bars! This visit has given me a lot to think around justice, judges and judgment. A particular phrase gave me some context: "A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones," Nelson Mandela said.
The next day at 4 am, Renie Joie was departing to Mexico via driving to San Diego, crossing the border, flying from Tijuana to DF. Our Yosemite trip was scheduled for 6 am but it got delayed with me having a stomach ache; yikes! But we finally made it, out by 9 am. I love being on the road, car packed to the brim!
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| Our Sunrise Studio- Didi and I took the top and Avery and Felix the bottom. |
We drove up Hells Hollow Road to Marioulomne, Mountain Man's kingdom by the park. We slept at the Sunrise Studio for two nights- glamping in a Swiss Family Robinson-type accommodation. On these frigid nights in which our noses would freeze if left outside of our mummy bags, we could see the stars through the transparent roof of this very special cabin. We kept hot water bottles in our sleeping bags and cooked in Mountain Man's kitchen, where a wood stove kept us toasty.
During our leisurely mornings at the top of the mountain, we sat down on the sunny bench and drank our coffee, eating Belgian Waffle cookies and chit-chatting about theater and music and everything it occurred to us. Didi and Avery sang Encanto songs with several voices and parts, and Felix played guitar tunes.
No rush, no intensity, super chill!
Yosemite with Mountain Man were two days of hiking, climber-watching and climbing,
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| Arriving in Yosemite Valley- the land of the Ahwahnee |
Avery, Didi and Coral successfully inched their way up a wall next to the waterfall you pass on the way down to the park... a perfect taste of granite face and crack climbing. Then Mountain Man went up as comfortable as a squirrel, doob doob dee dub. Perfect day, perfect weather. Felix read.
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| Spotting Mami on the climb |
During our picnic lunch, we explored El Capitán with binoculars: all its courageous climbers looked smaller than microbes on that massive expansive wall. Later we hiked to the base to see what it was like to start climbing it. The girls (except me) tried some moves!
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| Spot the girls up the climb? |
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| Felix's picture of Merced River |
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| Merced River, Bridalveil Falls, Avery and Didi |
At the end of the day, we stopped to admire the view from the Merced River, looking through the valley with the towering Half Dome. I can never tire of admiring with awe this gorgeous park, the falls, the sun on the river, the monumental rocks.
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| The mother of all clouds! |
On our last day in Groveland, we were concerned about the impending snowstorm, but it just didn't happen. We skipped buying chains, although the weather warnings were grotesque. We drove squiggly forested roads under very grey skies until we arrived at Hope Valley. You see these green high-altitude meadows in which the landscape opens into an open blue sky with immense white clouds. These cumulonimbi were very heavy with grey bottoms that never precipitated. At times like this, I feel the landscape so moving that it gives me goosebumps. So glorious!
And then we kept driving and meandering down into the desert.
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| Rydr draws Felix's height-line on the wall for posterity |
We arrived at Skylr and Maura's home for the happiest of encounters. The cousins recognized each other. Indiana was only months old the last time they met, so this was a new chance to realize that they are family. Immediately the little ones invited the tall Felix and Didi to take their socks off and go jump on the trampoline where they spent hours! The fun continued through the evening and ended in the hot tub right before sleeping. What fun! They played musical beds until somehow they fell asleep.
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| And the winner is.... Indiana Jones Penna |
We drove up to Tahoe the next day and did a couple of hikes along the lake. Indiana discovered that he could get "uppy" any time he wanted because he is so cute and had several willing horses (us) to do this. He was carried the whole time up the hill. And probably that's why we never reached Monkey Rock. It was cold, so we ran downhill racing Indy, who always won. Rydr was at school that day.
On Saturday, we came back to San Francisco, this time under heavy snow. Beautiful and scary!
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| Treacherous Driving! |
We were slipping and sliding on a white highway 89 through a white-covered forest for a while. Later on highway 50, we rode behind the snowplow until the snow became rain. In Placerville, we had our obligatory sandwich at Tommy's Brown Bag. Their menu never disappoints!
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| Everyone helping to get ready for stage II of our trip |
That same afternoon we sent Felix on his first solo flight; Indiana and Avery washed my car before that. Indiana used a toothbrush to clean the leather seats; Avery power-washed the exterior, vacuumed the interior and left it spic-and-span. Clean car ready for part two of the journey.
Sunday, we all drove to Montaña de Oro, a beautiful campsite close to the ocean in Morro Bay. We built our tents, cooked sausages, asparagus and corn and Maura told us spooky stories around the campfire.
Monday was going to be a long day, so we started with pancakes and eggs, and just before we drove off, we walked out to the beach and explored its caves and tide pools filled with sea life, swallows nesting in the rocks and anemones that retracted as Didi gently touched them with a piece of kelp. This beach deserves more time, the next time : )
Maura and Skylr took all the kids to their hotel with a super fun pool for the kids and prepared for two days in Disneyland. Didi went with them, so they had a big sister helping out with possible escapee children. Six eyes on two little boys is a good thing!
Avery and I went children-free towards Joshua Tree, meeting up with Renie Joie with her appropriate Pocahontas hair near Morongo, an indigenous reservation with the cheapest gas around. We ate at one of the million In And Out's that we saw along the highways. We proceeded to buy way too much food at Walmart and arrived at our super cool campsite in the shadow of rock outcrops of Indian Cove.
After all, that shopping, chips, salsa and beer was our dinner as no one felt like cooking- which is perfectly fine for us.
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| Our campsite in India Cove |
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| Lost in the desert- scrambling is the name of the route? |
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| Renie taking refuge from the hot hot sun |
The next day we went to a "hiking trail," which was more like a "scrambling off-trail," and we laughed a lot as nothing seemed to make sense with the trail guide in the app. No matter, we had fun scrambling in the dessert. We had food, water and special gummies to keep us happy.
As we drove into our campground #58, we saw the results of the wind- #54 flipped tent, #56 flipped tent, #58 NO TENT! Where was our tent?
My predictions that a rock wouldn't hold my tent were accurate. It had flown over and was held by a knot that Avery had practiced for years without knowing if she would ever use it, and it became the anchor to my erratic shelter. Held by a cord, it didn't fly away but hid behind a boulder.
That afternoon, yes, it was super windy. We plopped an extra preventive weight into the tent, two tired bodies, and took a nap waiting for the wind to subside or be blown to outer space in one gust. Later we'd go on an evening stroll.
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| Girls trying to imitate life. |
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| At the highest point in Joshua Tree a few seconds to take the picture and run into a warm car. |
We drove up the hill through the Joshua tree forest towards the high vista point and did photo shoots with the Joshua trees, the shadows and the sun setting. We had crackers, cheese and wine under the gaze of a face-like rock and again, why eat? Another dinner-less night, no dishes to wash.
The temperature was great, and the moon was almost full, which made the rock formations of Joshua Tree like a lunar landscape. Beautiful!
We stopped at a gift shop and bought more knick-knacks. We got more ice. How about a few shirts, books, string, etc.? No matter what you plan, the scheduled time never matches the actual travel time, so by the time we got to Running Springs trailhead, it was late.
Renie informed us that she really didn't have any clue about how long the hike was nor the time it had taken her to hike it. It was 3 pm, and it didn't make sense to start. We hadn't had anything to eat since our amazing eggs, spinach and goat cheese with toast breakfast, so we decided a 6 am departure time the following day would be best.
We finally had one dinner that evening: lentil soup, toast and butter- in a park at the mountain's rim. Before hiding inside our cars for the night, we adventured to another odd trail that didn't take us anywhere but caused a miracle to happen.
Ta ta ta taaaaan!
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| The start-the-trail fashion- layers, masks, beanies, coats. |
The Miracle
It was very cold and windy, so Renie Joie layered up with most of her clothes, including her long coat. As she digs into her pockets looking for warmth, she feels some keys and innocently asks: Mami, why do I have your keys in my pocket? Yes, miracles do happen.
The keys had been lost for weeks, and we put the whole house upside down trying to find them. I began wondering if Alzheimer's had crept into my brain, remembering this was one of the typical disappearances that occurred when my grandfather started losing his faculties. I'm a person of strong habits that will not know where to look unless it is where I usually place things, so it was a "trauma" to have lost my keys. In the meantime, Avery would tell her kids this was a regular occurrence during her childhood. Even if you change them, some things will stay fixed in history, period. Mami loses her keys! I'm doomed forever and ever!
We continue the story...
We caravanned to our "campsite" with newfound happiness. The barren dirt parking lot was NOT a campsite but a perfect place for van-lifers to park. We did not pitch a tent and slept two in the van and one in the car.
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| Early morning- 5:30 am temperatures below freezing |
The next morning at 5:30 am, Renie Joie's nemesis (Super Cold) surrounded us, it was freezing. In our pajamas, we drove to the trailhead to give a try to this uncharted trail (not found in the apps), no-info-hike that Renie swore was the hardest she's ever done in her life! Would we be in trouble? I even considered staying in the car.
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| Let's use the slide-on-your-butt technique! |
Going down to Deep Creek Hot Springs ended up being just 1.25 hrs, and if I had to describe it, I'd say, "Bring a piece of cardboard so you can slide down on your butt" - Yes, it was steep! But not impossible.
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| Our reward for the 2 mi hike |
We absolutely LOVED IT! 3 pools of different warmth. We only dipped into the cooler pool, which had the river right next to it. From it we were able to plunge into the cold water and swim. I did the exchange of hot-cold water about four times. I just loved swimming by the rocks on that frigid stream and climb into a super warm pool to then do it all over again.
We met a bunch of Pacific Coast Trail (PCT) trekkers and learned many details about being on that four to five months trail. It sounds like there is great camaraderie among hikers who start at the Mexican border, each carrying all their stuff. Then, little by little, they shed unnecessary things arriving with just the essentials by the time they reach Canada. I'm curious about this.
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| Renie's hiking back fashion- Glut tanning and toning at the same time. |
We got quite distracted with our new friends, and when we realized the time, we hiked in a hurry huffing and puffing up the sandy nightmarish slide, jumped in the car and drove off to Glen Hellen Park, a random spot on the map that avoided that Skylr and Maura would have to inflict on the kids a drive up San Bernardino mountains on very curvy roads. Who wants barfing children? No one!
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| Woo hoo! we made it! |
They arrived at the park a little earlier than us, and finally, there we were: Mama Bear and her three cubs, the three kids and me, a dream come true! Yay!
I may sound exaggerated and overly dramatic, but there is something I cannot explain that really gives me that happy feeling of completeness when I have my three "babies" together with me. Yes... they are not babies, but I feel happy, like a reminiscence of good ol' times, in nature, on the road, us together.
In the end, everything had gotten squeezed and sorted. Like plasticine, we massaged all the parts until everyone did what they wanted. I had the joy of having three children together in the strangest park- a grassy patch among super highways, train tracks and truck depots at the foot of the mountains-.
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| Skylr sporting Renie Joie's Mexican hat |
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| Indy with tia Renie |
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| The English girls |
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| Fantastic Six! |
I truly enjoyed our time, and they enjoyed the reunion too!
We all played and ran around the kid's park structure. Indy told me I was to be the Black Panther, and he constantly fired at me, killing me more than once. Rydr is an excellent climber and enacted Spiderman poses that tia Avery couldn't copy. Maura took a deserved nap after their Disney adventure, and very quickly, three pm rolled along, and we had to say goodbye again.
We had about, one hour? two hours max?
I could have cried.
You know I like to be Miss Chill, I strive for easy and relaxed, playful and unencumbered with we-need-to-go pressure, but this time, somehow I let all this go. I was not bothered by the hurry, the shortness, the tiredness, the prospect of a long drive. I WAS HAPPY!
It was a perfect hour!
I felt great having played a little, taken a few pictures and seeing them happy too!
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| Hasta la vista, Baby! - ciao- au revoir - ci vediamo- see you later alligator! |
Ok, see you soon!- (we know it will be months or years before it happens again)
With a seven-hour drive home ahead, we got into the car and took off.
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