The Nature of Journeys

I didn't have a lot of opportunity to read as we traveled. Writing this blog and finding the photos to include occupied most of my evening time. One of the books I had with me was Travels with Charlie by Steinbeck. I thought this would be appropriate reading for a journey in the United States.

Steinbeck describes journeys as "things in themselves, each one an individual and no two alike." He postulates "that people don't take trips--trips take people." I can totally relate!

This journey began long before we actually got in the car. As do many of our trips these days, it started with a desire to visit family. Once Yosemite was added to the itinerary, I started doing the research I enjoy to prepare and make the most of the time spent in such a place. I love reading about the places we will visit and often continue my reading long after I am back home (note our shelves full of books on Antarctica, the Arctic, Australia, and Alaska). I also try to look at how photographers have chosen to represent a place. Ansel Adams, Michael Frye, and William Neill provided great Yosemite inspiration.

That journey continues as I have about 2000 photographs to sort and edit. For this blog, I have tried to select photos representative of the places and people we visited along the way, but there are sooooo many more.

And so we are home again. Spring is late...the lilacs are just peaking when usually they are almost done by the long weekend in May.

Most of the early plants in my garden have yet to bloom, so we will be able to enjoy them. Water is roaring in the creeks and the lake is high enough to obliterate the beaches. There is still snow in the mountains, so we haven't reached peak runoff just yet. Behind our house, Wilkens' pond is full to overflowing, but we know it will be totally dry in just a few short weeks.

I started this with a post titled "Why Leave Home?" and as we get back into our everyday routines, we can look around and appreciate that we don't have to venture farther than our own forest for interesting plants and wildlife. We have spectacular waterfalls within easy driving/hiking distances. The mountains rival any we have seen elsewhere. Yet, there is something that pulls us away from time to time.

Writing this blog has been a bit of a journey in itself as I struggle to learn how to make it look the way I want it to. I plan to continue to post, but not on a regular basis, just when I have something to share. Stay tuned...

Floribunda (June 5-6-7)

The New York Botanical Garden just opened a new azalea garden in May. Unfortunately, we were a bit late to catch them in their glory. The hostas were lovely, fresh from their overnight watering.

In June, the rose garden is spectacular. The aroma lets you know that you are approaching, but the amazing array of colors still takes you by surprise as you look down from the top of the stone steps before descending into its splendor.

Wandering among the red, coral, purple, yellow, white, pink, and variegated blooms is a real treat. It was hard to pick a favorite. Becky and I favor the pinky coral and yellow blooms. Jerry likes the deep red of the climbing varieties. One type has clusters of blooms where the center, large bloom is mainly pink, and it is surrounded by smaller blooms that are mainly yellow. Leighton collected fallen petals to bring home to his growing collection of plant life.














Monday meant back to the school routine for one last week before summer vacation. Leighton has been going 4 mornings a week for a 2.5 hour program for 3 year olds. He loves it, and he will miss it over the summer. He has 3 friends in the class that he has known since play group plus lots of new buddies, so there will be lots of playdates to keep them occupied.

In the afternoon we visited the grounds of the Bartow Pell Mansion which is on Pelham Bay (part of Long Island Sound). The museum wasn't open, the the gardeners were hard at work planting and pruning. It was a peaceful place with lots of birds...we even heard an owl. Leighton enjoyed running up and down the grassy hills, seeing the fish in the pond, and watching 2 white butterflies.





We have been diligently watering the vegetables and flowers we planted in containers last week. Much to our utter amazement, the squash and beans poked through yesterday and the carrots are just barely showing today. It will be fun for Leighton to watch the plants grow and to eat his own vegetables in a couple of months.
Tuesday afternoon we all went to Snip Its so Leighton could get a haircut, then to Frank Pepe's, our favorite place for pizza. This outing provided a great opportunity to get a photo of Roy with the kids. He had been working very hard the entire time we were there.

A Day at the Zoo

One of my favorite Golden Books is A Day at the Zoo illustrated by Tibor Gergely. My copy is tattered, and evidently it is out of print, but I have found them for sale on eBay. It takes place at a city zoo that always makes me think of New York.

When Becky and Roy lived in Manhattan, we took Leighton to the Central Park Zoo, and now that they live in the Bronx, we love to go to the larger Bronx Zoo where they have a membership and go as often as they can.


We all rode the Bug Carousel twice before meeting Uncle Nick for the rest of our excursion which included visits to the Butterfly Garden, Mouse House, giraffes, and lions. There is an abundance of peacocks throughout the zoo, and we saw a mother pea hen with 6 chicks. It must have been baby day as we also saw baby ducks and a month old Mongolian horse. After lunch, we rode the monorail and saw elephants and rhinoceros (in their mud wallow) as well as a variety of deer-type animals. The snow leopards were sleeping, but the sea lions were very active in their pool.

We ended our visit with the Children's Zoo where Leighton loves to visit the prairie dogs, slide down the big "tree," and feed the goats.



A tired bunch piled into the car for the ride home!

Take Us Out to the Ballgame

We are having a wonderful time here in the Bronx which is the home of the New York Yankees. They are not in town this week, so Jerry and I took the 5 train to Grand Central Station where we changed to the 7 that took us to the new Mets ballpark, Citi Field, in Queens. We met my brother and purchased $15 tickets in the upper deck. When we got inside the gate, a man asked to help us locate our seats and said, "Here you can sit in the club level courtesy of the Mets." These seats were in row 16 behind the first base dugout and included "at your seat" food/beverage service (we got our own though) and access to the dining room that is reserved for season ticket holders (didn't go there either).

It was a beautiful afternoon, but then any afternoon at the ballpark is great! The weather has cooled from the previous 4 days, and here was a stiff breeze blowing toward right field. In fact, it was blowing hard enough that I had to buy a hat to keep my hair out of my eyes.

This was a great game. The Mets were down 7-0 by the time they came up to bat in the 3rd inning. They ended up winning 9-8 so there was lots of scoring. I have been to hundreds of baseball games and never before have I seen something that occurred in this game. The game was tied in the 8th inning, and the Mets had a runner on first. The manager put in the team's best bunter as a pinch hitter to sacrifice the baserunner to second. He fouled the first pitch, then took a ball, then fouled another for what we thought was a 1-2 count. The umpire had called a balk, so the second strike was negated. But that wasn't the unusual part...the manager changed batters to a different pinch hitter which is allowed, but very rarely happens. He inherited the 1-1 count with the runner on second due to the balk. A wild pitch moved him to third, then a sacrifice scored what ended up to be the winning run. My scorecard is a mess...it is much harder to score a National League game with lots of pitching changes, pinch hitters, and double switches that change the pitcher's spot in the line up to somewhere other than last.

After the game, we reversed our route and took the 7 train back to Grand Central Station. We walked a few blocks to have dinner at an Irish pub, then found our way to the 5 train headed uptown in Manhattan and into the Bronx.


In the morning before we left for the game, a tree specialist crew had arrived to cut down a large oak tree across the street from Becky's house. We are talking about a very tall tree on a very narrow street with lots of houses, fences, cars, wires to be concerned about. By the time we got back from the game, there was a pile of leafy branches and small limbs in the street, but the main part of the tree was still standing. Becky said Con Ed (utility company) had come in the afternoon, so perhaps work was stopped due to some sort of problem.
The crew returned this morning and finished the job. It kept us entertained for hours. Their skillful precision at roping up the limbs and dropping them only on the existing pile was impressive. Evidently they have a large chipper in Queens that makes mulch, but they didn't finish hauling everything away before work stopped for today. In the evening, a small car pulled up and two guys loaded up the trunk, drove off, and returned twice more to take away firewood. There is never a dull moment in this city!


In the afternoon we walked to a great playground where Leighton had a great time. Riley loved the swing and the slide.

I keep thinking of the Gyo Fujikawa book Oh What a Busy Day!

The Big Apple (or close to it)

We have changed timezones and climate zones and are now in the Bronx with Becky, Roy, Leighton, and Riley. It is hot, hot, hot which is quite a change from our time in the snow at Mt St Helen's. I definitely didn't bring enough short sleeved shirts.

Of course we love being here. In the seven months since our last visit, Leighton (3 1/2)and Riley (8 mos) have both grown so much. Riley loves her big brother and laughs at his silliness. He is sweet with her until she wants to have the same toy he is playing with, but that is the nature of siblings.

There is a wonderful playground across the street from Leighton's pre-school. We spent over an hour there after meeting him at the end of the morning (he is there 8:30-11:00, M-Th). The waterplay sprinkler was on, and he and his friends had a wonderful time filling buckets and pouring them out.



This afternoon Papa (Jerry) drove us to Home Depot to buy pots, soil, plants, and seeds so we could do some gardening. Leighton gave Mommy a purple petunia for Mother's Day, so we bought some orange and pink flowering plants to tuck in with it. Leighton loved helping put the soil into the pot and add the water. We both got quite dirty in the process, but that's part of the fun. Tomorrow we will tackle a few carrot, bean, and zucchini seeds. His big question has been "what do the seeds look like?" We had green beans for dinner, so he got a sneak peak!

We are planning to go to a Mets game on Thursday with my brother Nick. The Yankees aren't in town this week, so we will take a long subway ride to and from Citi Field in Queens.

On the Move

This will be a short note about our time in Seattle and Spokane.

We visited my mother at Horizon House on Friday morning (no photos, sorry). While she was having lunch in the dining room, Jerry and I walked downtown. When we returned, the aide said, “Your cousin was here.” I couldn't imagine who she was referring to, but she gave me a note from my oldest cousin Bill Waldman saying he was in Seattle briefly and stopped by to see Mom. He left a phone number, but we didn't connect. His daughter, Laura, used to live in Seattle, but my sister doesn't think that is the case anymore.

The four of us (Jerry, me, Susan and Alan) went out for dinner, then watched the Mariners beat the Yankees on TV.

The next morning Susan and Alan were packing and getting ready to leave for 2 weeks in England and Ireland. They weren't leaving for the airport until late afternoon, so we enjoyed more visiting time before we left to drive to Spokane. We stopped at a rest area near Vantage (on the Columbia River) and used the wide-angle lens to capture the sky full of clouds along with the many wind generators in the area. The day we drove from Lakeview, OR, to Yosemite, we had passed flatbed trailer trucks carrying the “arms” for a new wind generator. They are much larger than they look when they are put together and working.

After checking in at our motel, we returned to the Elk Public House for a delicious dinner. That has become our new favorite Spokane eatery.

This morning we were up very early for our flight to New York. Amazingly, both legs of the trip arrived ahead of schedule which made our short connection time in Minneapolis a lot easier. Becky, Roy, Leighton, and Riley were at Laguardia to meet us. What a difference a few days and a few thousand miles makes...it is hot here! Hard to believe we were bundled up in the snow at Mt St Helen's just a few days ago.

Having a blast (May 26)

Breakfast...the most important meal of the day (or some would have you believe). And where do you find the best breakfasts? At truck stops. And the Truck 'n' Travel is the real thing complete with phones at the tables, a game room, short term hotel, and a parking lot full of big rigs. The plates are loaded with home style cooking with specials on the menu that are only served in the wee hours of the morning (we were either too early or too late for those).

We headed north and managed to make it through Portland with only a short delay for the drawbridge over the Columbia River. Jerry has bad memories of Portland from our last trip to California five years ago, so were happy to escape unscathed.

Since we had some extra time, we decided to take a side trip to Mount St Helen's. We drove 50 miles up to the Johnson Ridge visitor center, taking note of the tree planting blocks which are all marked with the dates (Noble Fir, planted 1983, future harvest 2028).

The higher up we drove, the colder and wetter the air. I was happy to have my hat and gloves. There is still a considerable amount of snow, and the mountain itself was covered in clouds, so our view was limited. We had a quick look around the displays, then headed back down, stopping along the way for a few photos. As we left the “gateway” town of Castle Rock, a sign said, “Thanks for coming...hope you had a blast.”

When we reached Olympia, the traffic slowed to a crawl. We were not looking forward to hitting Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle during rush hour, but in this case, the delay was caused by an accident, and once we passed it, the traffic flowed smoothly. Consulting the map, I redirected our route to bypass Tacoma and Seattle, and we had no difficulty at all zipping to Kirkland where we enjoyed dinner and visiting with Alan, Susan, and Heather.

Note: All photos are from Mt St Helen's. Apologies for the raindrops on the lens!

Detours (May 24, 25)

Google Maps provides excellent directions, but it doesn't necessarily know about construction, delays, detours, traffic, or road closures. Heading north from San Luis Obispo, we intended to drive up Highway 1 along the coast. We got as far as Cambria (about 30 miles?) only to see a flashing sign that the road was closed ahead. We didn't know where or why, but after verifying at a gas station, we backtracked a few miles and headed west to Highway 101. The interesting part of that route is the acres and acres and acres of grape vines. Wine is definitely big business in California!! We also saw vegetables growing and being shipped on the trucks we passed along the way.

We stopped in Gilroy which claims to be the Garlic Capital of the World, but we all know that Hills holds that title. Jerry's Hills Garlic Festival hat sparked some interest; I think he was hoping to trade it for one from Gilroy's Festival that takes place at the end of July, but no one offered. We did get to sample a variety of products, and brought home some barbecue sauce and jelly as well as some hot Mexican garlic that we will give to our neighbors to grow. Our immediate gratification purchase was a bag of garlic pistachios. They are in the back of the car, and we have a handful each time we stop at a rest area.

Our Google Maps directions competently led us to Frank's (Jerry's brother's) house in San Anselmo via Oakland/Berkley/Richmond. This route avoids the city of San Francisco, but also skips the opportunity for photos of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I had never been to Frank's before, but Jerry stayed there on one of his solo trips to California a few years ago. Frank is a musician as well as a buyer, seller, collector of stuff. His passion is native American art and artifacts, and his house is filled with Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo, and other tribes' pottery, rugs, baskets, silver work, and carvings.

After a great Indian (east not American) dinner with Frank, we continued our journey north. We only made it as far as Ukiah for our overnight stop, then another long day of driving through wine country and the redwoods on our way to Oregon.



Sequoias are older and bigger around than redwoods, but the redwoods are taller and far more abundant. We followed the Avenue of Giants, a scenic alternative to 101, for 30 miles that took us through some beautiful groves with a variety of wildflowers, ferns, and trees.

We did finally get some views of the Pacific Ocean, but no stops for photos before we headed inland. The weather had been rainy in the morning, then showers off and on late in the day. The ocean and sky were almost the same color grey rather than blue, so not really as beautiful as they can be.

Alongside the winding roads were many different plants, flowers, and shrubs. We passed through many small towns that had all manner of weird things to attract tourists, but we easily skipped those, and finally at Grants Pass, OR, we joined Interstate 5. I had wanted to drive along the Oregon coast, but we are starting to feel pressed for time to get to Seattle by Thursday night, so opted for the zoom, zoom, zoom of the Interstate. We stopped for the night in Springfield, OR, which is part of Eugene in the same way Burnaby is part of Vancouver.



Detours make life interesting. They can take you off the beaten path, to the road not taken, somewhere unexpected. We have detoured, revamped our itinerary, found interesting byways, and eaten up a lot of miles in the last two days. Now it's straight on 'til we reach Seattle (well, Kirkland).