Late in January I left Felix for the first time since I got
him at the Atlanta Airport last May and early the morning of the 28th
Josh took me to the airport for a long flight to California. Leaving wasn’t easy. 8 months of Felix and my being inseparable
was very hard to break. I got a little
teary that early morning when I had to leave. . .I suspect he sensed that
something was wrong.
We had done a dinner about 3 weeks in advance of my
departure so Layla, who hadn’t seen Felix since he was only a few months old
and a lot closer in size to her than he is now, could get used to being around
him. She is 8+ years old and is a mature
female who knows how things are supposed to be in her world so dealing with a
very large 10-month-old puppy who wants to play all the time and now dwarfs her
was a bit unnerving. The night of the
dinner she pretty much hid under furniture the whole time.
When Josh and Alanna showed up at my house the night before
I left we had something of a repeat performance. She really didn’t know what to do about him
other than to try to avoid him and Felix doesn’t really recognize that as an
option.
Anyway, on that Wednesday morning I flew to Sacramento via
Chicago and Denver on United and I have to say that other than a small luggage
snafu the trip was not nearly as bad as I have come to expect. Over the years I have become one of those
people who fundamentally loathes air travel so when things are truly horrific
it comes as a surprise.
I arrived in Sacramento at 5:00 in very balmy weather and
with both of my suitcases present and accounted for. Robyn picked me up, as she usually does on
these trips, only this time we headed out to Carmichael to John’s new place on
the bluffs of the American River. John
bought a house last fall with a detached guesthouse on 2.5 acres of land on a
steep cliff above the river. The house
was very modern when it was originally built in 1962, designed by a then young
architect named Carter Sparks. Roughly
15 years later Carter would take me to lunch and do his best to convince me
that I should go out on my own to practice architecture rather than endure
another unsatisfying employment experience.
The house was remodeled in 2005 but in a somewhat ham-fisted
manner so a lot of the modifications John is hoping to accomplish involve
removing elements of that redo. Because
he doesn’t want to move in until the work is finished, I found myself at his guesthouse
in what I can only describe as splendid isolation.
Each morning I would get up, make myself coffee and walk out
to the deck that overhangs the bluff and gaze at the fog hovering low over the
river and the parkland across the water from John’s house. As the sun would come up over the Sierras the
ducks, geese, egrets and great blue herons that habituated the shallows on the
bank opposite the house became very active and raucous in an oddly pleasing
morning cacophony. It seems odd but the
noise was soothing.
I spent a little time each day just enjoying the
surroundings as well as attending to a few tasks I had locally. In the days in Sacramento I saw comparatively
few of my old friends. Part of the
reason for this trip was to scope out the property to see if it would work as a
base of operations for what I hope will be a 4-month visit to California this
summer. It has been more than 10 years
since I moved away and if there is one thing that has become very clear it is
that there is simply no way to keep up with all the people I still consider
friends if my trips are limited to 10-14 days as they generally have been. I think by spending an entire season there I
will feel like I can see everyone I want to see and do a lot without it feeling
hurried or forced.
I was concerned about whether I would be able to stay at
John’s place safely with Felix but am pretty sure it won’t be a problem. The property is fenced on three sides and the
bluff on the river side is so steep and high that I cannot imagine the big boy
would try to escape via that route. The
biggest risk would be if someone arrived while he was roaming the yard and he
were to get out the gate while it is open.
After my stay in Sacramento, I borrowed one of John’s cars
and headed to the Bay Area for a quick lunch with Ingrid, which was, as usual,
delightful. After all these years she
and I still never run out of topics of conversation.
Then I drove down to Aptos to spend a few days with my
friends Faye and Jay. In a fit of
nostalgia the three of us drove down to Big Sur one day for a fashionably late
lunch at Nepenthe. I had not been there
since I used to go with my old and dear friend Bernice Slater back in the late
80s and early 90s. Bernice died in 1994
and had sold her place in Carmel well before that so I believe this visit was
probably 23 years or so after the previous one.
Not much has changed.
We had drinks while waiting for a table and had a great time
talking about and trying different whiskeys with the terrific bartender who was
working that day. Lunch was pretty much
as I remembered it. They do make a
really great burger and the room is almost all glass. You are perched on a hilltop high above the
Pacific Ocean and on a day like the one we chose, with a fog bank hanging just
a short distance out from the cliffs on which the restaurant is built, you are
treated to some of the most ethereal views that stretch of the California coast
offers.
After lunch we walked down to the somewhat hippy-dippy gift
shop that is down at the level of the parking lot, shopped around for about 20
minutes and then headed back to the car.
As we approached it a man dressed mostly in black and his rather
stunning young blonde companion were getting out of their serious looking black
BMW next to Jay’s car and walked past us on their way to the gift shop. Faye, who it turns out, is something of a
celebrity junkie immediately became very agitated and said to Jay and me “Ooh
that’s that famous movie star”. Her
delivery wasn’t exactly quiet so when Jay and I turned to see to whom she was
referring the man in question turned to look at us. He smiled and then headed into the store.
Faye was beside herself with excitement but couldn’t
remember who he was. Almost immediately
she decided that she had to return to the store in pursuit of her quarry. Jay and I shrugged and hung out by the cars
for a couple minutes and soon Faye returned all aflutter. The story was that she walked up to him, told
him how much she loved his performances and how thrilled she was to meet him to
which he replied “You don’t know who I am do you?” Sheepishly she admitted that she couldn’t
remember his name and asked it. Clearly
this guy was having fun and told her he wouldn’t tell her who he was but he
asked her to come over to him and give him a hug. According to Faye she was rewarded with a
major bear hug from the unnamed movie star and realized it was time to retreat.
10 minutes later as we were driving up the Pacific Coast
Highway back toward Aptos Jay and I were interrogated the still very excited
Faye to see if we could figure out who the hell this guy was. Once she settled down a bit she told me that
he was “with Johnny Depp”. I am pretty
sure Johnny Depp is not gay so I questioned this and she said, “No he acts with
Johnny Depp”. “What films were they in”
I inquired and after a moment of frustration she said “Pirates of Penzance”. I pointed out that Johnny Depp was probably
pre-adolescent when that movie came out but because I am experienced in
conversations with Faye, I realized that she meant Pirates of the Caribbean and
said “Orlando Bloom”? “Yes!” she
exploded from the back seat. “Orlando
Bloom hugged me”. There was a very brief
discussion about turning around and heading back but we all decided that would
be a tad stalker-ish so instead Faye spent the rest of the drive either calling
friends who would be equally agog over this encounter or texting the ones she
couldn’t raise on her phone. It was all
pretty funny.
That Friday Faye and Jay had to drive to Los Angeles for a
visit with Jay’s almost 102-year-old mother and I was headed up to El Portal
and Yosemite for a weekend visit with Rob and Carolyn. The weather service had forecast a storm the
likes of which California hadn’t seen in more than a century but luckily for me
(not so lucky for the drought stricken State) it didn’t materialize so I had a
very pleasant uneventful drive up into the Sierras.
Rob and Carolyn are now working for a company called Nature
Bridge for whom they are environmental educators. They and their colleagues teach wilderness
educational programs in Yosemite to groups of school kids from all over
California. Rob had been working that
afternoon but was off and back at the house where he and Carolyn are living in
El Portal by 4:00 in the afternoon so once he was cleaned up and changed I
drove over to their place for our reunion and dinner. It was great, as always, to see them. Both seem happy and fulfilled with this work
and they are living in true splendor and are surrounded by a bunch of like
minded nice young people.
We chatted for most of the evening and when I left the plan
was for me to return at 9:00 in the morning for coffee and to determine what we
could do on Saturday. Since the storm
was still being predicted we made no real plans. Carolyn had been hit with a virus a week
before and while she was feeling better she had decided to lay low for most of
the weekend and leave Rob and me to entertain ourselves.
Saturday morning I got up and the weather was actually
pretty nice. It was very mild and while
it clearly had rained a little overnight there were just a few patchy clouds and
a bit of overcast in the morning, so I headed to their house and had coffee and
a little breakfast with Rob and Carolyn.
We then set out to take advantage of the weather break and get in a
hike.
I have spent many wonderful days in Yosemite over the years. I suspect I averaged one visit per year in
the 33 years I spent in California but Rob suggested trying a hike that I had
never heard of and that he hadn’t done.
There is an abandoned and partially destroyed old road called Old Big
Oak Flat Road that used to be the route out of the Yosemite Valley to the town
of Big Oak Flat. Several decades ago a
new road was put in. . . California Hwy 120, so the old road was
abandoned. Parts of it are still sort of
intact and the grading done makes it pretty easy to walk, but over the years
there have been rockslides that have taken out sections of it. We mostly did easy hiking although there were
a couple spots where it was necessary to scramble over boulders. I was glad I had brought my hiking boots.
Once we reached the point where traversing a large slide
might have been a bit more challenging we stopped. The reward was the single most spectacular
view of Bridal Veil Falls I have ever seen, as well as a pretty great view of
El Cap and Half Dome beyond. Suffice it
to say, pictures were taken.
We then retreated back to the car and headed to the Ahwahnee
for a late lunch. Rob had never been in
the dining room and we lucked out getting one of the three window tables in the
“apse” at the very end of the dining room.
Lunch was great. After that we
wandered around various locations in the Valley. Rob showed me a few points of interest I had
not seen before and in the late afternoon we headed back to the house.
Apparently Saturday night is poker night at their house. Rob and Carolyn are the only ones living in
the house but occupants of two rooms in an adjacent structure share the kitchen
and living room so they suggested that dinner out might be a good idea for that
night.
We drove down to Mariposa about a half hour away and went to
Happy Burger for a fun and funky dinner.
When Rob suggested it I thought it might be a peculiar choice but the
food was good (I had chili and the salad bar which seemed appropriate for a drizzly
mountain night) and the people who run the place could not have been
nicer. This meal was followed by a quick
stop at the local beer pub and then we drove back up the hill to El
Portal. After briefly checking in with
the assembled poker players I called it a night and headed back to the hotel.
Amazingly enough, Sunday was almost as good a day as
Saturday had been. Rob and I managed a
hike along the Valley Loop Trail for a bit until we reached a point that would
have required walking through flowing water.
At that point we headed overland and walked up to the base of Bridal
Veil for a quick look and then continued on a bit until the rain began in
earnest.
At that point it was time for lunch anyway so we walked back
to the car and got more than a tad wet in the process. I stripped of the outer layer of my gear and
drove into Yosemite Village where we had a deli lunch, sat around and talked a
bit, and then called it a day.
Rob and Carolyn made a nice farewell dinner and I hit the
road back to Sacramento by about 6:30, getting back to Carmichael and the guesthouse
by 10:00. All in all it was a very
civilized and delightful 5 days of gallivanting around with Ingrid, Faye, Jay,
Rob, Carolyn, and of course, Orlando.
I had one more day in Sacramento to do laundry, tie up some
loose ends with my friend Mark who is doing the work on John’s house, and have
one last dinner at John’s current digs before an early night and the long
flight home the following day.
All in all, a great trip.
It was made easier by occasional Facebook posts from Josh and Lanny with
pictures of Felix apparently having a good time, including one I will post of
him curled up on his bed with Layla. She
apparently got over her aversion to puppy behavior.
On the flight from Chicago to Asheville a couple of old
friends from way back in the 70s were present.
Ken and Dede, whom I probably hadn’t seen in 15-20 years, were on their
way to visit their son Nathan and his wife Julia. Three weeks before their first child was born
and Ken and Dede were understandably eager to meet their granddaughter. They were here for 6 days and it was really
great. Each morning we had coffee
together before they headed over to Nathan and Julia’s house. Each evening around 9:00 they returned and we
sat around for a couple of hours having a drink or two and catching up on what
had happened to us all in the last 2 decades.
It was, as it turns out, a great way to catch up without overwhelming
each other. I think they will be
frequent visitors as long as Nathan and Julia and baby Juniper are living here.
I continue to try to solve the persistent problems with neck
pain with physical therapy but I am starting to think something might be going
on that remains undiagnosed. When I
returned to PT a year ago I was hopeful that whatever the source of my pain was
could be resolved in a reasonably short period of time but it is starting to
seem chronic. When I had an MRI a bit
more than a year ago nothing showed up to explain it so my guess is that after
the spinal fusion, I am carrying myself in a different posture than I used to
and somehow that is resulting in this persistent neck pain. Too bad North Carolina doesn’t have legal
medical marijuana.
Felix will be a year old on March 11th. I had planned to have a birthday cake made
for him at Three Dog Bakery as I always did for Abner on his birthday, but
Felix is going to be neutered two days before so I am thinking that he might
not be ready to fully enjoy the day. He
is turning into a big love and is slowly outgrowing his puppy behaviors. He finally will take the stairs up and down
in the house and has consequently discovered the pleasures of downstairs as
Abner did before him. They both love it
on the lower level due to relatively sparse furnishings (room to run indoors)
and cooler temperatures. He also hasn’t
eaten any woodwork in more than a month so I am cautiously optimistic that we
have finally passed that phase.
All in all, things are fine around here. I am really looking forward to my planned
summer in California. 8 months here and
4 there may turn out to be the perfect balance for us. But of course, all of you who read this will
know one way or the other.
I hope you are all well.
More later.
