Blog #36
January 14 – 31
It’s hard to believe but it’s been a year since we started The Long And Weinstein Road. We’ve had so many adventures in our Airstream and I have to do a summary soon. In the meantime, January allowed us to see family at our new digs and to trek to others’ homes/apartments. Traveling without the Airstream is so strange now. Airports, travel arrangements, hotels, looking for bathrooms – these are all so foreign to us now.
Anyway, lots happened in January. You can jump around in this Table of Contents. Click on the heading if you want to go directly to one part.
- Look Who Came for a Visit!
- Airport Baggage
- Waking Up in Japan(town)
- Ooooh Baby Baby!
- SF to LG and back… and forth
- Babysitting!!!
- Happy New Year!
- Natural State
- SKIING
- Words to Live By
Look Who Came for a Visit!
Nancy and Mitchell visited. They have entertained us so many times in Sag Harbor, but really, we’re family so just hanging out is fun. Still, we wanted to show them a good time in our new home and town. The house and property itself – which they’d never really seen before – they loved. The rest of Asheville was kind of a bust in the winter, specifically the week they traveled. We showed them around but lots of restaurants took this lull in the tourist season to close for repairs, renovations or their own vacations. Visiting the town’s famous breweries are not their cup of tea (or beer) but they gamely tried a couple. All that said, they must have had some fun; they are coming back in the spring/summer to enjoy more.
On Thursday, they started heading north which gave us time to pack before our flight later that day.
Airport Baggage
Traveling can be so exciting, especially when you get to the airport and find they won’t allow you to check your baggage to its final destination. We used points and cash to purchase different legs of our journey – which meant we had different record locators for our American Airlines flight. The computer system would NOT let us check our bag through to San Francisco. The supervisor fought with American on the phone for 30 minutes. Still a no-go. We were going to have to buy new tickets for the whole trip, if we even could. Finally, the supervisor got creative and our one piece of luggage made it to SFO. Not going throw her under the bus and tell you how. Just going to say Thank You!!!
Waking Up in Japan(town)
Since we got in late, we checked into the Hotel Kabuki that first night. When we finally crashed at 1am that night, the a/c made a sound like a whining dog. We switched rooms. In the morning they had their version of a Japanese breakfast which brought me back to my 1985 study abroad program.
We rolled our luggage a couple of blocks through Japan Town to Kirsten and Sam’s apartment. Two-month old baby Eloise, one of the reasons for our visit, was ADORABLE. We drove to the bay to stroll the beach in Crissy Park. Turns out Golden Gate Bridge is still red. Recent wind storms created a lot of damage. Did I notice? Not really. I was catching up with Kirsten and Sam and BABY ELOISE. That cutie.
Ooooh Baby Baby!
We went to lunch and David and I took turns holding the baby so Kirsten and Sam could eat uninterrupted. Remember those days? I do and want to provide some relief. Later, we borrowed Kiki’s car and drove to Los Gatos.
SF to LG and back… and forth
Seeing my sister Linda and BIL Johanes is always a joy. We stayed with them for next few nights which gave us some good hang time with them. We took a nice long walk to their town, Los Gatos and stopped for wine and cheese of the highest level. Only in CA. Knowing that we haven’t found good Chinese food in Asheville, they made that part of our weekend plans. Don’t get me wrong; we can get pretty great Thai and Vietnamese but not at the level of the immigrant culture of the coast.
Saturday night, Linda and I drove in to SF to babysit Eloise for the night. First, we stopped to see my niece Nadine in her natural habitat, a super high end chocolate shop where she helps her friend and new business owner Shekoh. We had the most delictable sipping chocolate from a French recipe. If you can’t get to the store and you need an AMAZING gift, look at their website/Insta on ShekoConfections. The chocolates are outrageous and look like shiny marbles of perfection.
https://www.shekohconfections.com
Babysitting!!!
Babysitting Saturday night was so much fun. Niece Nadine came after work to snuggle the baby. Linda and I returned to Los Gatos via Rapid Transit. The trip made me realize there was no way we could struggle our baggage on during rush hour later that week as we had planned. I miss our Airstream!
Happy New Year!
Sunday was Chinese New Year but not really. I’m the age where you have to be reminded that something you said your whole life now has new nomenclature. That’s LUNAR New Year to you!
We did dumplings for brunch, a special nitro ice cream for David and Jo afterwards and then some strolling through in Santana Row, a swanky shopping area near San Jose. Later Johanes’ mom Meilee and Nadine joined us for a celebratory Lunar New Year dinner. More back and forth between our San Fran and San Jose families until we were off to visit kids in Washington State.
Natural State
This is our first visiting Rachel and Madison in their new place which they’ve been in since the end of the summer. Of course we saw them at their wedding, but there’s nothing like seeing our kids in their natural habitat.
And natural it is. You might remember that they are National Park Rangers presently working at Mt. Rainier. The government housing is adequate and Rachel covered all the institutional walls with houseplants. Her green thumb is closer to jade, or maybe emerald, and made it super home-y. We all enjoyed our takeout ramen and had a discussion about the ongoing debate. Should I get sheep or goats? Goat or sheep? They introduced us to my new theme song – and a very funny video from the Canadian National Park system (check). See below for a complete chuckle.
They took us winter hiking on some of the local trails. The drive to the trailhead was steep and snowy, but Madison is a pro, driving the almost off-road conditions that scare Rachel. And scaring Rachel is pretty hard to do. They call me badass for driving a tractor and working with bees. I can tell you NOT THE SAME. They climb literal mountains for the view.
And they can cook. When we ate at home, the girls made nutritious, delicious bowls for dinner, which I guess is the way we eat nowadays. When I returned to NC, the next week’s menu consisted entirely of bowl meals. Try it, you’ll like it!
SKIING
We finally are getting back into one of my favorite sports. Before we left Asheville, I shipped David’s boots (hard to fit feet make skiing uncomfortable in rentals) and our ski togs. Renting everything else from the mountain proved easy – especially because we got there at a leisurely 10am. There is NO line at ski rentals that late in the day. We are on vacation!
White Pass is a beautiful mountain. Like many out West, the trails are wide and snowy. We had great groomed trails and skied intermediate level ones to get our downhill legs back under us. Honestly, even the advanced trails looked do-able to me by days end. We had a great day and no one got hurt.
That night we went to the best Ukrainian restaurant. Okay, admittedly I’ve never had Ukranian food, but it was delicious. Borscht and three types of pierogis. And don’t ask me why they are good at chicken kebobs or sauteed mushrooms and zucchini. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
We got some hang time with Rachel on Saturday and even got to see the administrative headquarters of Mt. Rainier. Since it was so foggy we didn’t bother trying to see the mountain, but we did head to an airport hotel to stay overnight. Rachel had her first official day in EMT Dispatch on Sunday and we wanted her to get a good night’s sleep before the big day.
The most surprising this dawned on me on our uneventful trip home. I felt relaxed. All this visiting seemed like fun, but not exactly vacationing. And yet. Traveling by air is stressful to me, but seeing people we know and love and just spending time is a gift.
Words to Live By
We finally got to see the mountain from the air. In Seattle, the phrase is “Live Like The Mountain Is Out.” It’s actually on billboards & stickers. On the rare non-gray days you can see Mt. Rainier, everyone goes outside and enjoys their activity of choice. I mean the ENTIRE city.
Wise words to live by. We’ve all had too much time cooped up. Seize the Day, travel to your friends and family, Live Like the Mountain is Out. Follow the Long And Weinstein Road wherever it leads. Just go & do.
The Long And Weinstein Road 