FIRST WEEKEND:
Dennis and Karletta picked us up on a Saturday morning in late-May and we all drove up to Mendocino for the weekend. Dennis scored a vacation house up there and except for trying to break into a house we thought was the right one but wasn't, everything went smoothly. (The damp jeans we saw from the window, drying over the handlebars of a funky old exercise bike, and the general unkempt look of the place might have tipped us off, doncha think?!)
Ahhh! We found our "real" vacation house surrounded by huuuuuuge flowering rhododendrons, and redwoods conspiring in the ocean air. Like children, Karletta and I explored the woods and strange locked sheds that had us imagining all sorts of eerie madness inside. Dennis and Ted cooked a beautiful sausage pasta with salad and we had my new favorite cake, Semolina Orange Cake (so much fun to say out loud) for dessert.
Next day we met up with The Rose Lady.
This darling little gnome of a person walked us all over town to introduce us to her wonderful friends, the Heritage Rose Bushes of Mendocino. (http://www.mendocinoheritage.org/MHD-Sponsor-Gardens.html) And really, she talked to those bushes very personally, complimenting them on how well they came through the winter, or how they were or weren't being properly treated by their current owners (some of her rose bush "friends" were over 100 years old). And of course, since Karletta is of Portuguese heritage, we had to secretly poach a cutting or two from an old Belle of Portugal Rose with the hopes of rooting them at home. (Sadly mine didn't make it ... how are yours Karletta?)
We'd been told along the way that "Mendocino is all about Wine and Weed" and although we passed on the latter, we fully enjoyed the former. Stopping at Roederer Estates on the way into Mendocino, and Goldeneye on the way back, Anderson Valley consists primarily of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer and White Riesling. There are also small acreages of other varietals such as Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. And no, we didn't try them all, but did get a good "giddy" on from the ones we had. Love that Roederer champagne!
Thank you D & K, for another fine (and completely overindulgent) adventure!
SECOND WEEKEND:
Our second stellar weekend was spent in San Francisco with long-time friends Bob & Marni, Wally & Shauna and let me tell you that having deep history with people you adore is the best soul food ever.
Bob & Marni and Wally & Shauna travel periodically together and they have this running game about who will get the best room. This trip, Wally was in SF for a convention and booked the rooms. When Bob and Marni showed up they'd been booked into a handicap room, so asked if there were any other options. Ohh yehhh ... their option was a full suite with master bedroom & bathroom, full living room, kitchenette and guest bath. And ... it was right next to Wally & Shauna's single bedroom. I think Bob and Marni won this round, right?
A huge benefit for us was that there was a pull-out bed in the living room, so Ted and I were able to stay overnight without having to drive to Santa Rosa and back each day (about an hour drive, traffic permitting.) And oh yeh ... did we have FUN! It was the basketball playoffs that weekend and I can't even tell you how exciting that was, even on TV. The Celtics vs The Lakers had us yelling and jumping around like headbangers in a mosh pit (do they have mosh pits anymore?). And when the Lakers won ... GET OUT!
Oh yeh ... and we ate really great food (of course) and walked around The City and shopped and clowned around (Bob's a natural comedian and funny as hell) and laughed and told stories and packed in two days of intense enjoying-each-other-to-the-max time. We just love these people.
THIRD WEEKEND:
The following weekend, friends Chris & Bart From Seattle came to visit. Bart was just rebounding from a victorious heavyweight bout with throat cancer (whew) and ready for adventure, and Chris is looking to change homebase because after spending years in the mostly-grey Seattle weather it's beginning to wear on her. They love Healdsburg, so they came down to check out the area as a possible re-settling place.
Healdsburg is a few miles up the road from Santa Rosa. It's toney, charming and unfortunately one of the pricier places to live up here. A shopkeeper once told us that people who were born and raised in Healdsburg can't really afford to live there anymore. I think Chris & Bart's hopes for that particular spot were wrung out a little, but we took them around to as many other places we could to show them other options. Oh yeh, and ... "we ate really great food (of course) and drove all over wine country and drank great wine (Bart shared a bottle of bio-dynamic Benzinger Pinot Noir - my current favorite - http://www.benziger.com/Our-Story) and laughed and told stories and packed in two days of intense enjoying-each-other-to-the-max time" (sound familiar?).
FOURTH WEEKEND:
My brother Larry & sister-in-law Puna, and my Mom and Dad moved up to Coos Bay, Oregon over twenty years ago. Larry and Puna raised their family (3 daughters, 1 son) there and in June their youngest, Talo, graduated from high school. Since my sister Jo and I missed the other three's graduations, we wanted to be at this one so she, and Samantha, Rudy and Nayla (our niece, nephew, and grand niece) and Ted and I packed up and drove north. (Ray stayed back to be with his brother who was settling out some personal issues.)
Larry & Puna's kids are just phenomenal people. Half Caucasian, half Samoan, they're all gorgeous ... inside and out. In birth order, Tifa's a Spitfire & a Beauty, Bonni's a Brain & a Beauty, Leslie's an Artist & a Beauty and Talo's an Athlete & handsome as all get-out. They were all athletes really, but Talo thinks he may make Sports Medicine his career. Anyway, these kids ROCK!
So the graduation was the BEST ever. There were about 200 kids in the graduating class and they all sat in chairs, in rows on the gymnasium floor. There was an amazing feeling of history and comradery in that gym. At one point people who had previously graduated from Marshall High were asked to stand up and nearly half the audience did. There's a lineage at that school that is often missing in the transient populations of larger cities, and that lineage translated to a strong sense of community pride that was palpable.
Talo got his share of accolades (one of 6 valedictorians and other honors) and it was heartwarming to see how well liked he was by his friends and teachers. At the end of the ceremony, the choir came down from the bleachers, held hands in a circle around the entire class, and sang them an Irish prayer to send them out into the world. Yeh ... we were all pullin' out the Kleenex-es on that one!
Aside from the graduation, it was a tonic to see my Dad. Mom died last November and since she was a huge focus for his life, we'd all been worried about how well he'd do without her. He does miss her, but I think the stress he felt with her over the years has lifted, and he's able to just relax and "Be". Gratefully, my brother lives with Dad and takes good care of him, and Dad's got a new dog, Billy Boy. Mom's ashes are in a box on the mantel, and Dad and Billy Boy sit on the couch across from it and talk to her throughout the day. So Dad's good, and he told me he plans to be around for a while longer ... at least for the next day or two ... so his sense of humor has returned too. Love you Dad ...
