Skiing Palisades

 Wednesday morning the gang was eager to ski.  Since the condo was a 10 minutes walk to the Olympic Village where skis, boots, poles and helmets (new since my days on the slopes) were to be rented, off they went into the snowy morning towards the mountains.  Bob and I had only one task, besides keeping ourselves happy, and that was to walk to the little market in the Olympic Village.  We set off early to do that and were surprised by the huge high piles of snow everywhere and the treacherous slippery roads.  We needed to get supplies for dinner for 11, since Arne’s family was coming to us.  The store was tiny and I must admit I panicked when I saw the many empty shelves.  Plans for nice saucy chicken with rice fell away and I grabbed what I could:  the last two jars of spaghetti sauce, the last two bags of macaroni, the last two packages of chicken sausages and two bags of salad mix, plus some tomato soup and tortillas and cheese for after ski snacks.  Oh, and one package of Kraft Mac and Cheese for Liam.  It wasn’t much but I was glad to have food at all.  Without a car, there were no other choices.  We felt triumphant just to have made it.  The condo was luxurious and so beautiful, I was happy just being inside it and watching it snow.  We followed the activity of the family on the slopes as we were on the family texts.  They met up with Arne and family and skied all day.  Paul put together the dinner and it was great to sit at the great big table, all 11 of us.  After dinner we played a wonderfully funny game of Apples to Apples.  So good to be altogether having so much fun.  

Thursday dawned sunny and now the gang knew the ropes.  Paula had reserved the condo for 4 days, but we missed the first two and half days because of the snow.  So she drove the gang to the Olympic Village and came back and we cleaned the condo and packed all the baggage into the behemoth Ford Expedition. She dropped Bob and me off at the Hyatt where we spent the day, walking the grounds, scouting out the hot tubs and swimming pools, very beautiful with the backdrop of mounds of high snow.  We had a nice lunch in the only restaurant.  We sat in the lobby people watching and playing with our Iphones while the kids were all having a ball skiing.  At the end of the day, all the girls and Paul went to the hot tubs.  With so many of us based in Karna’s room, it was a chaotic blizzard of ski clothes, boots and people.  Paula drove us to Truckee where we had dinner in Casa Baez, a true rip roaring Wild West restaurant.  There I asked Sonja how her skiing was that day and she told me this story.  She said on one run, she took the wrong turn and ended up going down a Black Diamond run (the extremely most advanced slopes).  Elsa followed her because Elsa didn’t want Sonja skiing it alone.  Elsa knew what it was but it was too late to go back. “ How was it,” I asked.  “Really steep and hard and then a huge wind came up and blew the snow across the slope so you couldn’t see the ground at all.”  “ What did you do, “ I asked?  She answered, “we sat down and waited for the wind to stop, then skied down.”  An amazing story of two pre-teens skiing the hardest of slopes and surviving.  Whew.  After dinner, we checked into our rooms in the Truckee motel where we spent the night.  

The kids all wanted up another day of skiing and so this morning early set off.  Bob and I are here in the motel.  Bob took the bus into town just to get out and walk around.  The skiing looks to be great today and I’m so happy for everyone.  What was especially wonderful is that all the brothers skiing together with their families.  The cousins will remember this trip all their lives.  It has been a grand snowy adventure. 

Getting to Tahoe

 The day after Christmas, we left early to go to Tahoe for all the young-uns to go skiing.  Paula had organized this trip last February, reserving an AirBnB condo and getting the ski passes as soon as they went on sale.  We were aware there was a big snow storm up in the mountains, but took our chances that one of the two highways would be open when we got up there.  When we left, 50 was open with chains, but by the time we got to Sacramento, both highways up into the Sierras (80 and 50) were closed to all traffic.  We pulled off at Sacramento and made our way to Old Town to consider what to do.  Arne and Karna had made it much further and were stopped in Pollock Pines.  They turned around and came back to join us at the Train Museum.  It is an excellent museum and there, among the trains, it was decided to get a hotel and hope that the roads would open by the next morning.  We got into a Hyatt hotel across from the State Capitol and settled into our rooms.  Some amused themselves by going to movies.  I napped.  We gathered for pizza that Arne had brought in.  I can’t remember much of that first day.  The kids went swimming and hot tubbing in the outdoor pools.  Everyone was making the best of the situation.

The next morning, the enormity of the snow storm was revealed to us.  All the roads were closed to the mountains were closed.  The news told that this was the biggest snow storm Tahoe had seen in over fifty years and everyone was advised to keep away (not that it was possible to get there in any way).  Snow was being measured in feet, not inches.  Gas was short, food was short as deliveries couldn’t be made.  So we settled into another day in Sacramento.  Erik took me out for a nice walk around the Capitol Mall across the street.  It is a large lovely park space with lots of war memorials and old old trees.  After a late brunch it was decided we go to the zoo.  It was a so-so zoo with lots of cheesy animated dinosaurs but we all found something to enjoy.   I liked seeing a snow leopard and some anteaters.  Back at the hotel, Sonja and Paula went shopping at a nearby mall and the rest of us walked there at sunset to find a place for dinner.  Then we gathered in the big room of Paul and Paula to watch “Encanto” together.

The next morning Highway 50 was opened and after two days in Sacramento, we hit the road early.  I estimated the drive might take us 8 hours.  It took over 11!!!  The traffic was horrendous everywhere, so the going was really slow.  But finally a little after 6, we arrived at our condo and were delighted to find it a very very beautiful place.  It looked Swedish to me, like a Carl Larsson painting.  Bob and I got the master bedroom, while the others were in the snuggly upstairs.  I had packed an emergency spaghetti dinner which Paula put together fast.  The hot food and the bottle of red wine soothed our tired bodies.  We made it!!  Three full days it took to get up to Palisades.  The snow was 4 or 5 feet on the roadsides and roofs.  It was truly a winter wonderland.  

Christmas Day

 Christmas morning comes early for the children.  They’d opened their stockings before Bob and I even got up.  Paula had been up for hours making the traditional fresh hot cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning breakfast.  We, adults, take an inordinately long time getting the breakfast on the table.  We must eat a leisurely breakfast before we can begin opening presents. It drives the kids crazy.   Finally we came to sit around the tree.  The kids distributed the presents one at a time at first.  There must have been 100 presents to open, with presents for 11 of us.  It started slowly and then sped up.  The kids’ handmade presents were opened first.  I was very touched by a beautiful blue flower Elsa made for me.  It is a treasure.  Liam made bookmarks for each of us, laminated and with a special paper cutout on them.  Erika gave Bob and hand forged metal Christmas ornament.  Sonja gave me a bath bomb, which I’d been telling I’d never had one given to me.  Bob made a very special kit for Liam to make a metal insect art piece together in Bob’s workshop.  He spent many hours planning and preparing this. There were shirts for all the guys, purses for the girls,  And lots of books.   After a while the presents speed up and it got hard to focus on each gift.  We all have so much.  Then we lined up for a series of Christmas photos:  first all the kids in the moose plaid pjs, then the parents were added and finally Bob and I got to sit right in the middle.  Arne took the photos and was channeling Bob’s dad who always took many photos of us all at Christmas.  It’s good to see traditions carried on by younger generations.  Arne and Karna soon had to leave to go spend the rest of Christmas with her mother and family.  A new tradition from the past years is that Nancy and Larry come over on Christmas afternoon just to be together with us.  We treasure their friendship and that they make an effort to come to us.  Christmas is about family and friends and love.  I hope in all the chaos, everyone got a piece of love that sustains us and the blessing of our family to be altogether.  Memories were made which I know will warm my heart for many times to come.  We had a very special Christmas dinner and toasted Aunt Jean once again.  After that, we all turned to packing our bags for the ski trip to Tahoe the very next day.  We were somewhat concerned because it was snowing heavily at Tahoe.  Christmas was a lovely day squished between two big adventures.  I hope it stands up as a blessed traditional celebration for our whole family.  We all missed being together last year, so this we, at least for me, was especially important and wonderful.  

Trip to Monterey

 Last Wednesday, we managed to leave by 9 am to go south to Monterey to get to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for an 11:30 entry.  We’d been warned by Karna that there was likely to be an 1 1/2 hour wait in a line to enter the Aquarium.  I’d seen an email from the Aquarium telling us we could enter in an express line if we had the Clear Pass for vaccine status.  We all got it and amazingly we entered with no wait.  We felt like VIPs.  It couldn’t have been easier which made me especially happy because it was raining.  Once inside we began touring the great spots—- the kelp forest aquarium, the aviary and the Auditorium where we saw a wonderful program about Luna the sea otter and the jellyfish exhibit.  It was crowded but not impossibly so.  The Aquarium, where I’ve been a member since it opened in 1984, was even better than I remembered. I was incredibly impressed with the high level of the exhibits.  I loved seeing the nudibranchs and the new tentacles exhibit.  

I love the Aquarium for it’s research, for its saving of sea otters, for it’s educational effort for children of the area.  I am proud to have supported it for so long.  Erika remembered being here in 2009 and loving the Mac and Cheese, it was still as good as she remembered.  I remembered all the times I brought my Marine Biology classes to the Aquarium.  Once everyone had had enough of the Aquarium, we left to drive on to Asilomar, a short drive away.  We registered and got our rooms and went as soon as we could mange down to the beach to see the sun set.  The kids loved the beach, the freedom, the waves, the  ambiance of the golden light of sunset.  Every one was snapping photos of each other.  It was a wonderful time, all of us totally enjoyed.  When the light dimmed we went back to our rooms and Paula and Karna went to the first rate fish restaurant, FishWife, just across the street to order and bring our food to us.  It was delicious and fun to sit and enjoy it together in the room.  

In the morning, Erik came by with hot coffee for us.  We enjoyed that and the conversation. It was a great start to our day.  Some of us went to the Monterey Butterfly Trees where we saw clumps of Monarch butterflies hanging in the trees looking like brown clumps of cones.  I found it very exciting to see the folded wings.  I am amazed by butterfly migrations and honored to see it.  We went back to the shore where we were entertained by Erik playing bull kelp like a horn.  The two notes he got reminded me of fog horns but mostly I was amazed he could make music at all.  There was a fierce on-shore cold wind so on time was short at the beach.  We returned home without event.  It didn’t seem like Christmas Eve being away, but good to be home and get into the spirit.  Arne and family arrived and so the whole gang was here for dinner.  We watched “Home Alone” together.  All the kids and parents were dressed in new green plaid pjs Karna got for them.  It’s a tradition!  We are happy to be together.  It is a blessing.  And we all went to bed eagerly awaiting the dawning of Christmas morning.  

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Waiting for Christmas

 Erik has been here a week and the family from Michigan since Saturday. The first thing Erik got was an early Christmas present from Bob, a soldering gun with which he got to fix my broken oven!   He did it and so the Christmas cooking can go on as planned.  We have our house full.  We’re all squished in and it is so fun.  There is activity everywhere, though one can always find a quiet place on one of our long sofas.  Now, Tuesday afternoon, Bob is wrapping Christmas presents, Paul and Erik are playing Boggle (Erik just scored their best ever word-analgesic), the cookie dough is chilling for ease of rolling, Paula is finishing up some piece of work and Sonja is bouncing around.  The record player (yes that very ancient of music devices) is playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.  Paul searched my cupboard for out-dated ingredients and had a laugh my pesto which I am embarrassed to say expired in 2004.  A can of ground cloves which expired in 1981 had it beat by far to be the oldest ingredient in my kitchen.  Actually the oldest ingredient is some rock salt I brought back from Denmark in 1968.  Salt lasts thousands of years, so no worry there. 

We’ve had a lovely walk in the Botanical Garden Sunday mourning.   Sunday late afternoon, Arne and family came to have dinner and let the cousins be together and gather as the whole family for the first time since Christmas 2019.  Monday, Paul and Paula went out to lunch on 4th Street, a gourmet fancy shopping area in W. Berkeley.   Tuesday, we went to Palo Alto for Liam’s birthday party.  Karna ordered delicious pizza.  Paul said, “better than homemade, better than the Cheese Board’s pizza.”  The cake had sparklers, a first for me.  The girls have outgrown our local science museums, so we’ve spent more time around here.  We’ve had numerous games.  And there is always music.  Erika has taken an interest in a long neglected Kalimba.  It a small wooden box with narrow strips of metal you pluck with your thumbs.  With the help of internet instructions, she’s got quite a few tunes she can play.  Last night after we got home, Erika began to play her clarinet and Paul got up and accompanied her on the piano for a mini-concert that brought tears to my eyes, I was so happy to hear it.  Tomorrow we go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and spend the night at Asilomar.  And meanwhile the Omicron virus is lurking nearby.  We are careful, wearing masks whenever we go inside anywhere, but we refuse to let fear of it paralyze us.  Christmas is only two and half days away!  We all can’t wait.  It is so good to have the family here!  

Musical Offerings

 We’ve been back in Berkeley two weeks.  I’m back to my old routines at the Botanical Garden, back to my old routines of shopping at Trader Joe’s,  back to walking the Berkeley Hills and back to hanging out with my friends.  This past weekend we’ve been to two, not one, but two, incredible live musical performances right here in Berkeley. Saturday night we went to the Philharmonia Baroque’s performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.  It was at the Berkeley church where we used to be members.  To sit in the pews and look around brought forth memories of Christmas’s past.  Hearing the Philharmonia Baroque was a new thing and it was a wonderful performance, 3 hours long!  I naively thought it would be about an hour.  The 24 member chorus was wonderful, the 8-12 piece orchestra using period instruments was excellent and the soloists were outstanding.  To have such first rate music right here a mile from our house is a blessing.  The performance touched my heart in places and delighted me.  Sunday we went to the Crowden School performance of the Delphi Trio.  How wonderful to hear first rate chamber music right here in Berkeley, a couple of miles from our house.  I loved the Beethoven “Archduke”  Piano Trio they played.  The pianist was superb.  They all were.  The violin and cello parts were sublime at times.  It was wonderful to experience the joy of live music in these pandemic times.  Wearing a mask and showing my proof of vaccinations was a small price to pay for the joy of live music!   It was sweeter because of our deprivation in the past two years.  The virus might still be around, but we are learning to live with it and get on with our lives.

Back in Berkeley

A week ago, Bob and I left cold snowy East Lansing to fly back to the Bay Area for the winter.  The 12 hour trip was uneventful, but tiring as there were so many people flying.  It is very good to be back home.  The Berkeley weather the next two days after our return was a spectacular 70 degrees.  It felt like a welcome home present.  My winter blooming Salvias are bright with Christmas color in my garden.  The hills and meadows have all turned green.  It has been good to reconnect with friends on long walks and to go to lunch to a fabulous Berkeley Japanese restaurant and catch up with another friend.  It made me happy to see Arne who stopped by for dinner.  I felt guilty being gone from my volunteer job at the Botanical Garden, nevertheless it was good to be back and get back on board there.  Now I’m busy with preparation for Christmas.

Reflecting on our time in Michigan, this time was different.  Everyone, but us, was very busy.  The girls are growing up and naturally have less free time.  What’s happening is natural and normal and as it should be.  But for me, there were no more trips to the library with the girls to check out more books than they could carry.  No more walks to Tasty Twist after dinner.  No more afternoons to play games or do crafts together.  Homework and tennis filled their afternoon and evening time.  Quality time with the family was at dinners and weekend activities in which we were included.  And Bob and I found new ways to fill our time.  Bob very much enjoyed playing pickleball, especially when he and Paul played together which they did often.  He also enjoyed becoming involved in The Makers, a communal space for tools and teaching of industrial arts and crafts populated by a staff of volunteers.  Erik is getting involved there too.  They share a passion for fixing things.  What stands out in my memory are so wonderful weekend activities for all of us organized by Paula.  We all went apple picking and I made gallons of applesauce.  We all squeezed into one large car and had a wonderful Halloween trip to Greenfield Village.  Even though we’d been there before, there were new delights and the comfort of returning pleasures.  It was fun to wear costumes.  The Girls’ weekend in Chicago the weekend after Thanksgiving, was a highlight.  It was wonderful to spend 60 hours together with Paula, Erika and Sonja making memories and having adventures.  Bob and I also had some nice trips exploring beautiful places in Michigan.  

Things are as they should be as time rolls on.  The girls have developed new interests and are no longer children.  The adults (our children) are in prime time of their careers and busy as they should be.  And we, the old folks, are still fit and finding new pleasures and delights to fill our time.